Hey Tom, I'd actually agree that if you look just at sites that get posted on Comicbookroundup, the content of the reviews are mostly terrible. I do think there are some EXCELLENT folks writing about comics, they just don't get linked back there because they don't give scores.
Off the top of my head there's: 3x Eisner winners WOMEN WRITE ABOUT COMICS, the online magazine PANEL X PANEL, GUTTER REVIEW, SHELFDUST, COMIC BOOK HERALD, and COMICSXF (who I'm associated with). All of whom do the kind of analysis you're describing. There's also sites like SKTCHD that do fantastic work in on long form articles outside of reviews. There's truly a glut of great work out there!
The Cartoonist Kayfabe channel on youtube is a fave of mine - granted they mostly analyze older work but do so in an entertaining and informative way as both fans and creators.
Tom - I am loving the Punisher and Savage Avengers books! Keep them coming!
The Byrne posts made me think of my relationship with the Claremont X-Men run - having grown up in the 80s that was the best comic of my youth - edgy and exciting. Managed to read the entire run via new issues, back issues and trades. I find that I cannot revisit it as much anymore - mainly because i have read it 500 times but also due to the enormous amount of interviews and anecdotes from Claremont, Byrne and others since then.
Makes me ask - are there comics you cannot enjoy due to being 'behind the curtain'? I read X-men now and can only think how they wanted Jean to survive, how Sabretooth was to be Logan's father, the original Mr Sinister plans, etc...the books are still great but my relationship to them has changed (my fault of course but also an indirect result of the wonderful access we have know to comic creators and history). Has this happened to you? Common for editors or can you escape into the books?
PS: it is funny how this has not really happened to me on many other runs - i guess i was really attached to the Claremont X-men and it was such a long and seminal run.
Hi! Thanks once again for the weekly dosis. As always, I enjoy it.
Regarding questions, I feel like if I ask too much myself I end up putting a spotlight that shouldn't be there on my own person. I love asking questions, but I don't wanna overdo it. If more people feel like me, maybe that's why there has been less this week.
But, anyway, I'm going to ask a question. One that I actually asked you back in 2018 on Twitter and that you answered saying "Immortal Hulk". Here it is: One book you feel people should be paying more attention to?
And lastly, about Doctor Who. The Power of the Doctor was good, but lacking. I mostly agree with what you say on your blog. It saddens me because at first I liked it, but the more I thought about the episode, the more it fell apart for me. I think Jodie deserved a better run with the character, she is great! And clearly everybody involved loves the show. But something didn't click and I'm just ready for RTD coming back. Under other circumstances I wouldn't like the reprise, but I'm all-in right now.
"Regarding questions, I feel like if I ask too much myself I end up putting a spotlight that shouldn't be there on my own person. I love asking questions, but I don't wanna overdo it. If more people feel like me, maybe that's why there has been less this week."
Hey Nacho, I considered this exact same thing, but I figured I'd just do it anyway for a couple reasons: 1. No one knows who I am, so it doesn't really matter, 2. Tom is always free to ignore whichever questions he likes and 3. This is a rare opportunity to keep asking questions to someone who's very influential in comic books! Why let self-consciousness get in the way :-) So I say go for it!
I've been obsessed with the Claremont/Byrne/Austin X-Men for decades, and it's always a pleasure to see another bit of artwork that I hadn't seen before. Wolverine waving to the X-Men there reminds me of X-Men 109, which, upon reflection gives me an insight I hadn't pieced together about the second issue Byrne worked on, largely on Wolverine. If I had to hazard a guess, perhaps Chris and John keyed in off of that image to start working together. It didn't even really occur to me why Wolverine and Vindicator appeared in 109, but now I'm like "Duh! Of course!"
The Wolverine I knew from that run was a "Spoiler" character, kinda like a "Jason" from Battle of the Planets/Gatchaman, so it's always been a struggle for me to adjust to his leading-man status. It's a testament to Chris' work on the character over 17 years that he made Logan so well-developed and broad, and it was clearly egged on by John's initial focus, and then developed further by Frank Miller's 4 issues (and I guess the Shogun book and teevee miniseries). Sometimes you see angles available to you when collaborating that you hadn't seen when collaborating with someone else, even if it's on the same property. I think even Cockrum came around to the possibilities of the character once he was shown what could be done - Wolverine fighting the Brood alone is a great example of picking up a previously ignored baton and running with it. I like gaining insight to the run, even after all these years.
Yet another question from me! Another thing that's been bugging me-- DC heroes are always doing stuff for charity (it's practically a full-time job for Bruce Wayne alone!), even Flash spends a lot of his super-speed time doing little things to help people. At Marvel however, even those heroes that aren't Hated And Feared, like Spidey and the X-Men, don't really seem to do anything for the average man, aside from saving the world annually. Even Tony Stark and Reed Richards, whose technology could ostensibly change the world, aren't really allowed to do that, because a changed world would be too different for the readers to identify with. So, without going into an Alan Moore "Superheroes are fascists!" rant, the question becomes, What good are Marvel heroes to the average person? They cause destruction to whole city blocks on a weekly basis, regular people can't contact them to help with their problems, so really, what good do they do?
Hey Tom, I'd actually agree that if you look just at sites that get posted on Comicbookroundup, the content of the reviews are mostly terrible. I do think there are some EXCELLENT folks writing about comics, they just don't get linked back there because they don't give scores.
Off the top of my head there's: 3x Eisner winners WOMEN WRITE ABOUT COMICS, the online magazine PANEL X PANEL, GUTTER REVIEW, SHELFDUST, COMIC BOOK HERALD, and COMICSXF (who I'm associated with). All of whom do the kind of analysis you're describing. There's also sites like SKTCHD that do fantastic work in on long form articles outside of reviews. There's truly a glut of great work out there!
The Cartoonist Kayfabe channel on youtube is a fave of mine - granted they mostly analyze older work but do so in an entertaining and informative way as both fans and creators.
I'd also recommend the Comic Tropes youtube channel, the guy behind it, Chris, is a wonderfully nice and thoughtful guy.
Thanks for your suggestions! I will try to take a look at those sites.
Tom - I am loving the Punisher and Savage Avengers books! Keep them coming!
The Byrne posts made me think of my relationship with the Claremont X-Men run - having grown up in the 80s that was the best comic of my youth - edgy and exciting. Managed to read the entire run via new issues, back issues and trades. I find that I cannot revisit it as much anymore - mainly because i have read it 500 times but also due to the enormous amount of interviews and anecdotes from Claremont, Byrne and others since then.
Makes me ask - are there comics you cannot enjoy due to being 'behind the curtain'? I read X-men now and can only think how they wanted Jean to survive, how Sabretooth was to be Logan's father, the original Mr Sinister plans, etc...the books are still great but my relationship to them has changed (my fault of course but also an indirect result of the wonderful access we have know to comic creators and history). Has this happened to you? Common for editors or can you escape into the books?
PS: it is funny how this has not really happened to me on many other runs - i guess i was really attached to the Claremont X-men and it was such a long and seminal run.
Hi! Thanks once again for the weekly dosis. As always, I enjoy it.
Regarding questions, I feel like if I ask too much myself I end up putting a spotlight that shouldn't be there on my own person. I love asking questions, but I don't wanna overdo it. If more people feel like me, maybe that's why there has been less this week.
But, anyway, I'm going to ask a question. One that I actually asked you back in 2018 on Twitter and that you answered saying "Immortal Hulk". Here it is: One book you feel people should be paying more attention to?
And lastly, about Doctor Who. The Power of the Doctor was good, but lacking. I mostly agree with what you say on your blog. It saddens me because at first I liked it, but the more I thought about the episode, the more it fell apart for me. I think Jodie deserved a better run with the character, she is great! And clearly everybody involved loves the show. But something didn't click and I'm just ready for RTD coming back. Under other circumstances I wouldn't like the reprise, but I'm all-in right now.
"Regarding questions, I feel like if I ask too much myself I end up putting a spotlight that shouldn't be there on my own person. I love asking questions, but I don't wanna overdo it. If more people feel like me, maybe that's why there has been less this week."
Hey Nacho, I considered this exact same thing, but I figured I'd just do it anyway for a couple reasons: 1. No one knows who I am, so it doesn't really matter, 2. Tom is always free to ignore whichever questions he likes and 3. This is a rare opportunity to keep asking questions to someone who's very influential in comic books! Why let self-consciousness get in the way :-) So I say go for it!
That's one nice way to look at it. I like it. I'll remember it for when I'm doubtful, thanks!
I've been obsessed with the Claremont/Byrne/Austin X-Men for decades, and it's always a pleasure to see another bit of artwork that I hadn't seen before. Wolverine waving to the X-Men there reminds me of X-Men 109, which, upon reflection gives me an insight I hadn't pieced together about the second issue Byrne worked on, largely on Wolverine. If I had to hazard a guess, perhaps Chris and John keyed in off of that image to start working together. It didn't even really occur to me why Wolverine and Vindicator appeared in 109, but now I'm like "Duh! Of course!"
The Wolverine I knew from that run was a "Spoiler" character, kinda like a "Jason" from Battle of the Planets/Gatchaman, so it's always been a struggle for me to adjust to his leading-man status. It's a testament to Chris' work on the character over 17 years that he made Logan so well-developed and broad, and it was clearly egged on by John's initial focus, and then developed further by Frank Miller's 4 issues (and I guess the Shogun book and teevee miniseries). Sometimes you see angles available to you when collaborating that you hadn't seen when collaborating with someone else, even if it's on the same property. I think even Cockrum came around to the possibilities of the character once he was shown what could be done - Wolverine fighting the Brood alone is a great example of picking up a previously ignored baton and running with it. I like gaining insight to the run, even after all these years.
Re: Adventures in Reading and me taking a vacation
That which does not kill you makes you stronger.
You’re welcome.
Yet another question from me! Another thing that's been bugging me-- DC heroes are always doing stuff for charity (it's practically a full-time job for Bruce Wayne alone!), even Flash spends a lot of his super-speed time doing little things to help people. At Marvel however, even those heroes that aren't Hated And Feared, like Spidey and the X-Men, don't really seem to do anything for the average man, aside from saving the world annually. Even Tony Stark and Reed Richards, whose technology could ostensibly change the world, aren't really allowed to do that, because a changed world would be too different for the readers to identify with. So, without going into an Alan Moore "Superheroes are fascists!" rant, the question becomes, What good are Marvel heroes to the average person? They cause destruction to whole city blocks on a weekly basis, regular people can't contact them to help with their problems, so really, what good do they do?
Wow. You're right! Maus is the scariest comic. Wouldn't have thought of that but in hindsight it seems obvious.
I hope it's not too late, but here is my question for this week!
I'm sure a lot of comic fans imagine having your job. Which parts of it would be a dream for them, and which parts would they probably hate?
Thanks!