Time passes...

Okay. A lot of water has run down the river since my last post. But that is absolutely okay. Maybe you wondered: "Is it all over now? All this will to communicate about comics has vanished?" And honestly I must confess: yes. To face the truth there hasn't ever been a great amount of communication around this blog or interaction with readers. I lied to myself about the part of writing a blog and meet people who share my interests. No offence. There has been nice people writing comments and reading my blog. But I was really focused on this "readership", watching stats of my blog so I lost the point of it all. I had to find it again:

It's about comics. And it's about my view on comics.

So I reduced the design in order to simplify the reading and writing. It spares your and my time and supports a distraction free reading. But that is just a visual aspect of simplification. I will break down the routines of "New comic book - new review ... new week - new "Panel of the Week"" and so on. There is now need for pressure. So I will try to write and post more liberal without any frames or restrictions I inflict on my posts.

So? What have I done all the time? I've read comics. And books. A good friend of mine lend me a lot of TPB of "The Walking Dead". Now I have arrived at No. 15 and my high regards for this series has obtain some cracks. Here and there I've spotted some indications of a TV-soap-stile behaviour between the characters. That is really worrying and I hope it will become again a little more entertaining on a sophisticated level which was so awesome all the time.

And there was the "Death of the Family" event in the Batman series. All good and fine, but what the heck suddenly meant Requiem for Robin? When did Damian died? And why? I was really upset, when I finally read in the web, that Damian died in Batman Inc. Just a millisecond I thought of buying the issue but than my anger on this totally wrong placed death (right when the Death of the Family event takes place) it should have been part of the event. To continue the Batman title this way isn't satisfactory. Nevertheless the event itself was really good and I enjoyed it.

But all along there has been too much events and crossovers for my taste in the last couple month. Please give me one book with a storyline without buying all the other sideseries just to get rid of the feeling to miss something. Thats really annoying.

Hey, but there is a light at the end of this consumedriven industrytunnel: the new "Man of Steel" Movie. ;) Okay, it will end up (like all the Hollywood works) in a big merchandise explosion but nevertheless I am totally looking forward for this film. Everything I've seen to this date looked very appealing to me and to point something right out of the third trailer: the "S" isn't a "S". It's a symbol and means "Hope". And I really hope that this film brings Superman back to his former glory.

So, it is time to focus again on the main aspect: Comics. Dear reader, maybe there will pass some time till the next post, but be sure of that, I will write again. And don't forget: there are much more important things than to read one comic blog of thousands. Quit surfing the web, grab a good comicbook or book. There is nothing more important than you own experience.

Andy

Panel of the week #12

Hello comic friends,

it's time for another panel of the week.The last two weeks i've reread the 52 crossover. These four books are quite good, but inhabits a lot of rush artwork. The focus lies on the sometimes twisted story and with the big task to produce an issue every week the quality in the art suffers. But there are still some gems hidden.

One of my favorites is the panel of the week displaying Black Adam holding dead Isis in his arms looking in the rainy sky. Black Adam is one of the most important characters in this series and I love his cold blooded nature. His slowly social recovery forced by the black marvel family works very well and you're really feeling lucky for this guy. But it just makes the fall higher. This picture defines the last moment of goodness in him. It's the unspoken prayer to higher forces for justice just to realize that he is at the mercy of fortune. In the next panel Black Adam is trapped deep down in his inner rage with the cruel desire to see the whole world burning. This also is a great sequence. Just a little gap represents the entire fall of one of the mightiest characters in the DCU.

What is your favorite panel or sequence in 52?

Modern comic book culture

Hello comic friends,

nowadays comic books are a high invest and wide spread pop cultural media. The big movie production in the last years, and the popularization of the "nerd-culture" have reignited the market. It seems that now it is getting "in" to read comics and nothing to be ashamed about. Even for adults. So I asked myself: is it really cool to read comics without all those influences and marketing tactics of the industry? Is it the art I appreciate or am I swimming with the tide?

First I have to confess that about three years ago in 2009 I also saw "The Big Bang Theory". In this Sit-Com the comic-culture is directly connected to those real intelligent characters. It is a charter for all readers of comics to say "Hey! Those dudes are like me! They're just high-flyer scientists but we have something in common." So it gives all of them a push to their self-esteem. Around this time I met people who shared my long forgotten passion for comics. They brought me Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Jim Lee and all those other great artists and writers and a dozen stories with an intelligent plot. In this time I focused once more on this media and started again to read. At work we build up a kind of reader circle and spoke at lunch about Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns. It was really great and I explored new titles, writers and artist.

So there were the upcoming Nerd-culture, big film adaptions of comic books and a history of good works in this media which waited for a new generation of readers. And a really big bunch of crap. In all those surprisingly good titles there were bad periods of uninspired and ugly art and stories. All of it was worn out and there was nothing worth to be deeper explored. After reading those stories I nearly lost hope to find other good stories in the mainstream. But going backwards in comic history I found "Man of Steel", "A   Death in the family" or "Secret Wars" and was surprised that every era has good comics stories. A new hope. And I learned that you must carry this hope with you, when you want to read good superhero stories in the mainstream.

Today we've got a much better quality of mainstream comic books. A good example is the big DC reboot and the following Marvel Now! revision. Bad titles were canceled short after start or the creative team was recasted. We've got a very good Batman run and Morrison revived the Man of Steel right in time for the next movie in 2013. The Avengers and X-Men titles are on top positions in sales stats. The pressure on the "big two" publishers in the market is high. Readers are expecting complex and deep writing of those leaders of the market and not only of the independent publishers. That's good for both fractions and builds up a win-win situation. Also the independent publishers are gaining more ground like Image proved with the outstanding "The Walking Dead" title. Too the other media support those trends.

So comics works. But please don't misunderstand me here. Not every title out there is the next Watchmen. And it doesn't need to be! The spectrum is very wide and goes from dumb action titles to lyric and visual stunning peaces of art. Like in every other media too. And in my comeback to comics I realized the first time, that comic books are a way more than meets the eye. So I finally came to the conclusion that all this buzz about comics in other media shouldn't be worried about. Maybe without it I never would have rejoined the hobby and when you really like comics you can focus on them and ignore the rest. Like listening to the music you like without caring about the charts, gossip and films around the artist. What counts is the art.

So what do you think? Is the comic media going to change a lot under the influence of other media and the intensive marketing about it? Is the comic community changing in a hip-nerd culture with a fable for childish retrodreams on the wave of a soon fading hype?

Comments are very welcome.

Greetings Andy

Panel of the week #11

Hello comic friends,

this panel of the week is from Batman #13. The beginning of the "Death of the Family" event. Given that I'm running behind the actual issues this could be a little vintage for some readers. But so I still have some issues to be excited about ;).

After the "Night of the Owl" story line everybody has been waiting for the next major Joker appearance. And here it is. The hole cinematic introduction with the rain in the night and a broody grim Gordon are perfectly staged. The first panel of this issue, just the dropping rain on concrete, said to me: there's something bad to happen. It was very close to end up as my panel of the week but the foot of the Joker into the rainy street exceeded it. I love Capullos style to draw and the use of digital blur and light effects work very well in this hole issue. Especially in this panel. It sets a perfect dark mood for the upcoming story. By now I think this could become one of the best Batman tales ever told.