Comic books

[Kim Kelly]

On the other hand, I just bought the stupidest Obama shirt I could find.  It's got puffy silver lettering and has Obama in a Superman costume doing a slam dunk.  I think a tiny John McCain was photoshopped into the crowd.  The back has the accidental Obama-goatse pic designed by Alex Ross (cartoonist not music journalist), which I think has been photoshopped too, plus his signature.

Not this one, Grote? (FFWD to ~2:30 min in)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfvttJ1hXf4

My big brother has that shirt. Oh, UNDRCRWN. Why do you hate vowels?

I'll confess, I've been rocking the Alex Ross tee shirt since it first came out and wore it on Inauguration Day. It is now my favorite workout tee shirt.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

No, mine is much, much tackier.  I saw it on a table on my way to work (via Penn Station/The Garden) and had to have it.

[JonFromMaplewood]

Thanks for responding, Jason.  I feel slightly less like a jackass now.  If you are not of the world of comic books, then nothing seems at all wrong with the Obama comic books. I just loved how odd the pairing was.

[citizenlewis]

I think it is sad that the Obama/Spider-Man comic seemed so slapped together. 
The art, other than the cover, was really sub-par and the story was just dumb. I think if Marvel had put a lot more money and talent into they may have gained some new readers.  Sadly, I don't think any of the non-comic fan people who bought will be turned onto comics by this crass cashgrab.

[Kim Kelly]

Yeah, Quesada is kind of a whore.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

Part of the problem -- and here is where you all get to see what a fucking dork I truly am -- is that the rest of the Marvel Universe is currently involved in a storyline wherein the erstwhile Green Goblin has taken over the national security apparatus and replaced the Avengers with supervillians in disguise.  Evidently this is being addressed in at least one upcoming book, with Obama chewing out the Goblin*, but still it just smacks of opportunism.

Though at least Marvel at least slouches towards continuity these days, unlike DC.  I normally couldn't care less, but it's a little anticlimactic having the entire universe end in the big crossover and not even having it reflected at all in any other comic.

Both are still better than having Dr. fucking Doom cry at the WTC site, though.









*I really hope someone Googles this phrase

[erechoveraker]

Yeah, Quesada is kind of a whore.

Ha, "kind of".

[Kim Kelly]

Yeah, Quesada is kind of a whore.

Ha, "kind of".

Okay, okay, he's a total whore.

[redsplitwig]

Don't go all "Newsarama" on me, FOTs.  You're better than that and you know it.   Joe Quesada rarely, if ever, sells his body on the street.  He just makes unpleasant editorial decisions that make comic book fans angry.

Well, fine. 
He's a whore.

[JonFromMaplewood]

Oh the Quesada one was short and terrible.

But the other one - the one that is a straightforward biography of Obama - was decent. Not saying the art was great (I do some cartooning, and can discern good from bad there), but it was pretty good about not just worshipping him.

[erechoveraker]

Thanks for responding, Jason.  I feel slightly less like a jackass now.  If you are not of the world of comic books, then nothing seems at all wrong with the Obama comic books. I just loved how odd the pairing was.

I didn't respond because I've not only never read either comic, nor even seen them. You're totally welcome in the nerd treefort though Jon.

[snogrog]

Part of the problem -- and here is where you all get to see what a fucking dork I truly am -- is that the rest of the Marvel Universe is currently involved in a storyline wherein the erstwhile Green Goblin has taken over the national security apparatus and replaced the Avengers with supervillians in disguise.  Evidently this is being addressed in at least one upcoming book, with Obama chewing out the Goblin*, but still it just smacks of opportunism.

Though at least Marvel at least slouches towards continuity these days, unlike DC.  I normally couldn't care less, but it's a little anticlimactic having the entire universe end in the big crossover and not even having it reflected at all in any other comic.

Both are still better than having Dr. fucking Doom cry at the WTC site, though.

I may be biased towards Marvel (I was pretty much exclusively a Marvel fan from the age of 6-16) but I don't really mind if Obama is the president in the comics. Yeah, the Spidey thing was GREAT for press, sales, and more, but they are hardly the only comic to do it (Savage Dragon, Youngblood, and a couple others I think...). And yes, Marvel at least TRIES for continuity. As much as I like Final Crisis and such, the tie ins REALLY don't flow together at all. At least most of the time in Marvel there is a pretty universal idea of what is going on in other titles.

And I really am not a fan of the debate about Dr. Doom shedding a tear. It's a single issue right after 9/11 and you could EASILY say it's not even in continuity as that issue has never ever been referenced and it was symbolism to show how tragic 9/11 was (even though, honestly, I don't anybody DIDN'T realize that) but it's was just a symbolic image to, in my opinion, say "we're evil, but we can't do this to anybody in real life". That issue of Amazing was and still is one of my favorite issues of Amazing because for somebody kind of far removed from New York when 9/11 happened, it was one of the first times I really just felt terrible about it. But i understand why some don't like it but...c'mon. Dr. Doom isn't real, let him show an ounce of humanity for once.

So on that note....who else is excited for the return of "The Spot?"

[JonFromMaplewood]

Thanks for responding, Jason.  I feel slightly less like a jackass now.  If you are not of the world of comic books, then nothing seems at all wrong with the Obama comic books. I just loved how odd the pairing was.

I didn't respond because I've not only never read either comic, nor even seen them. You're totally welcome in the nerd treefort though Jon.

Thanks erechoveraker. But I will listen quietly in the corner of the treefort for a while.

[franks.]

Dunno if I posted this here, apologies if I did - but I really liked Morrison's Batman run. It fell apart at the end, and was plagued by some bad art here and there. But for the most part, it was lots of fun, and felt very much like good Batman stories were before we got the franchise of Batman, you know? Pre-Burton movie era Batman even.

And yeah, tying in all the stuff he did, pretty slick.

I think he's the kind of writer though who needs an editor to reign him back in sometimes, and a lot of the time doesn't have that. He certainly is capable of writing really great stuff, that's for sure.

Agreed. But I would be curious to know how much of an editorial decision it was to fold the RIP stuff into Final Crisis. That seemed like a clear editorial decision to move the conclusion of that storyline into the larger, off-schedule Final Crisis. In the end, I liked what happened with Batman in FC, but it definitely did make the RIP story unravel towards the end.

Aaand, I also didn't read the Obama, Spidey comic because the AP's writeup gave away the ending: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090108/ap_en_ot/obama_spider_man

They could have at least put SPOILER in the headline.

[redsplitwig]

I just finished reading the Five Fists of Science by Matt Fraction and Steven Sanders.  It's a great book about Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain teaming up to rid the world of war and doing battle with Thomas Edison and his cult.  Really imaginative and hilarious book. 
Then, I finished listening to the Best Show podcast to hear Matt Fraction calling the show again.  It kind of freaked me out.  Also,I really wish he would have done his Orson Welles impression that he did on the Wordballoon podcast a while back, but it was great to hear from him anyhow.

Do you think this was a strange coincidence or a sign that I should buy the Casanova trade?