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Saturday, July 11, 2009

Books Less Geeky Comics News

Posted by Chicago Fan on Sat, Jul 11, 2009 at 9:54 AM

Something worth checking out for any comics lovers looking for a slightly different kind of thing to read this summer. DC is putting out Wednesday Comics, a weekly published in broadsheet newspaper format. This hearkens back to the origins of the comics in the Sunday funnies (the first comic books were just re-packaged Sunday strips). Wednesday Comics has fifteen ongoing stories featuring different DCU characters, from the A-list (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman) to the obscure (Metamorpho, Kamandi, Adam Strange). I picked up the first issue, and each story has a nice cliffhanger ending—it's like the old serials, and it strikes me as a great summer pastime.

The creative teams are top-rate, including Neil Gaiman writing Metamorpho, Joe Kubert drawing Sgt. Rock, and Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso doing Batman (and the final trade paperback collection of their multiple-Eisner award winning crime series 100 Bullets just hit the stands too). The visual aesthetics of the stories vary from grim noir to classic '60s and '70s styles to manga (I might have to skip the Supergirl story, as diabetes runs in my family and it looks like it's going to be very sweet. . . ). A good summer read, with updates weekly instead of monthly. The first issue came out last week, so if you want in at the beginning, head to the local comics store now. . .

Comments (5) RSS

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This is amazingly good news. I would love to see this country re-learn the art of producing comics!

I've been preaching to everyone I can find that the comic-store economy has ruined comics as a viable way for artists and writers to sell stories to the general public. That's the reason why Japanese comics have taken over. If you look at any Barnes and Noble, the Japanese have as much or more comics shelf space than the domestic product. It's because there are no comic book stores in Japan. There are no comic book collectors. There is no whacked out subculture that will gobble up superhero-porn which has no chance of making sense to anyone outside the cult.

Comics in Japan survive entirely off their cover prices and are sold everywhere to all kinds of people. They are like HBO shows. They're not respected as literature, so the hope of winning that kind of respect is not clouding the writer's or publisher's mind (until just recently). They are money makers first. That's why they kick the American product in the ass even after the expense of translating them.

The latest 200+ page issue of Weekly morning cost me 280 yen 5 years ago in a Tokyo subway. This is in a country famous for everything being insanely expensive! When an American publisher figures out how to put out that much quantity of storytelling that cheaply and gets even a decent amount of quality in there, we could have a comics industry again.

Posted by Luke Baggins

on July 11, 2009 at 11:43 AM

It would be better news if you didn't have to go to a comics shop to buy it. As long as it's limited to the comics store "nerd ghetto" it's not likely to draw in many new readers.

Posted by litlnemo