Smorgasbord #42:
The 99% Strikes Back
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After a week off, Shawn & Tom are back to deal with the fallout from Shelly Bond’s firing from Vertigo, Oni’s new imprint, the release of Captain America: Civil War, movie announcements for both Sexcastle and Irredeemable, the changes to the comics-inspired TV landscape, and the desert landscape that is the July 2016 previews.
After that we still the time to review the first issues of Renato Jones – the One%, Weavers, Penny Dreadful, and the first arc of the crime / wrestling hybrid Ringside.
Note: this episode was recorded before the death of Darwyn Cooke.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tom Shapira is a carbon-based life from the planet earth. He was formed in the year 1985 AD by two loving parents. He is also an MA student of English Lit. at Tel-Aviv University, Israel, where he feels proud to be the first student to graduate with a BA by writing a paper about the works of Grant Morison. In his native tongue, Tom is a staff writer for Israel's leading comics blog Alilon.net and an occasional participant in the blog's bi-weekly podcast. He spends too much time, money and thought on Comics (especially the works of Grant Morison, Alan Moore, Warren Ellis and Garth Ennis) and his friends and family wish he would stop. He is not going to.
See more, including free online content, on Tom Shapira's author page.
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Unfortunately the Sienkiewicz New Mutants book is actually an Artist’s SELECT collection, not an original-art-sized Artist’s Edition. I have the Sal Buscema Hulk book from this line and the production values make it a worthwhile way to present his brilliantly drawn issues, it’s not comparable to the process insight one gets from studying scans of the art boards.
And, damn, while I 100% agree with Shawn’s asking why DC readers should have faith that the more inspired creative teams and concepts announced for Rebirth will stick around long enough to earn their investment, I wonder if he should give up reading Big Two comics altogether.
It’s OK to accept the diminishing returns of IP recycling. Everyone on this site does so well advocating the artistic merits of classic mainstream and superhero comics, I feel like the anger mustered toward the current crop could be constructively re-directed toward analyzing and, by proxy, promoting more independent comics on the podcast. And no, I don’t mean switching to indulgent autobio opuses, but at least delve a little further left than Image titles by people like Kaare Andrews, who would be writing for Marvel and DC if they treated them better creatively and financially.
Apart from irresistibly charming titles like Bandette or Sexcastle, which you mentioned on this episode, I feel like you guys unconsciously restrict yourselves to just the edge of the mainstream in hopes one of these high-concept genre titles will reach the same level as Vertigo in its heyday. I’m not sure if that’s even attainable given how much of that thrill came from how groundbreaking they were in their time. I like my fair share of “creator-owned” ongoings, but none of them challenge the comics form itself the way Olivier Schrauwen, Sammy Harkham, Kerascoët or even old guardsmen like Gilbert Hernandez have with their recent works.
I’m not trying to be too harsh, as yours is one very few comics podcasts I keep up with. It’s largely because I’m of the same mindset on many of the topics you cover that I want to pass on the optimistic message that the medium is still growing and thriving despite the Big Two’s alienating shenanigans.