Remembering Gene Colan

Unfortunately, I have some sad news to relay today. It's been reported that legendary comics illustrator Gene Colan has passed away.

Mr. Colan is best known for his lush, moody pencils and his work on Daredevil and on one of comics' most memorable runs--the classic 70-issue Marvel title, Tomb of Dracula.

My favorite work of his is probably in Tomb of Dracula, but I have a real soft spot for his and Steve Gerber's incredible Howard the Duck series.

He also had a long stint at DC wherein he worked on--what else?--the Batman books. I'm fortunate enough to own a page from his Detective Comics run, and it's one that I never plan on parting with.
When I got into comics, I was well past the prime output of Colan's work, but I still remember seeing interiors from Tomb of Dracula on an original art dealer's website. I was so taken aback by the creepy, atmospheric art that I went out and bought as many of the collections as I could get my hands on.

I was lucky enough to meet Mr. Colan way back at the first New York Comic Con, and I am so glad that I had the opportunity to say hi, and to thank him for all he's done.

He was so nice, so polite. And even though I only spoke with him a few minutes, I could just tell that he was a nice man. Friendly, happy, and gracious.

After talking with him for a bit, he signed my sketchbook. I was sad to hear the news that he'd passed away, and I'm very glad I was able to say thank you when he was still with us.

Digging In to Alan Moore's Swamp Thing

I tend to get on certain kicks in my reading habits. For instance, I'll sit down with volume one of, say, House of Mystery from Vertigo, and I won't stop until I've finished the most recent trade.

Sometimes I get on creator kicks, jumping from, say, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale's Daredevil: Yellow to their Batman: The Long Halloween, and continuing through their entire bibliography.

Typically, I don't do that with creators like Neil Gaiman or Alan Moore; creators whose work tends to be dense and filled with plenty to think about. If I decide to re-read Watchmen, I'll do so over the course of a couple of nights, put the book away, and move on to something that requires less immersion into the material.

Maybe something featuring Spider-Ham, for example.

Also, with Alan Moore especially, I need to have the entire story all collected--I don't like reading his books issue to issue. Years ago, I'd read Moore's first arc in his now-legendary run on Swamp Thing, from DC.

It was excellent and terrifying and right up my alley. But there was a problem--I couldn't find the next volume.

Those early DC/Vertigo (actually, it was right before Vertigo became an official thing) titles can be tough to find in trade, and even if you do, sometimes the order of the books is confusing.
Beautiful as the covers may have been, the editors at DC were, remember, creating the market for collected editions at the time, and they were making it up as they went along.

So, long story short, after reading and enjoying the first arc, I was unable to locate the second volume, and after a while I simply gave up.

Fast forward to a couple of years ago, when DC/Vertigo announced that they would re-collect Moore's run on the character in its entirety, in nice hardcover editions.

Well, I was sold.

But, as I mentioned, I prefer to read Alan Moore's work as a whole, so I started buying the hardcovers as they were released. And then I proceeded to stack them up on my bookcase, waiting to finish off the series.

Well, when I got to Book Four last week (there are six total, with that last volume shipping this October), I decided that I couldn't wait any longer, and I cracked open the first volume and threw myself into the world of Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, and our hero, the Swamp Thing.

Now, this is a run that's often heralded as one of the top five, ever, in the history of the graphic medium. So, yeah, lofty expectations going in.

And, of course, Moore and co. did not disappoint. As each cover of the series boldly (and proudly) pronounces, this is "Sophisticated Suspense."

Indeed.

The interesting thing about Moore's writing here is that this run takes place before his seminal Watchmen series, which, as we know, would forever change the industry. In Swamp Thing, there's a joy in writing these characters--not only the main muck man, but the book's supporting cast, as well.

White-haired Abby Cable. The rhyming demon, Etrigan. (Who, by the way, is handled better here than in any other incarnation of that character.) The Phantom Stranger. And, of course, in Book Three, the introduction of John Constantine.

I'm just starting Book Four now, so I'll hold off on an official review until I finish off the series. But what I've read is captivating, and smart, and at times, the most frightening comic book I've encountered.

Had Alan Moore never written Watchmen, I think his Swamp Thing run would be held in very much the same regard--as a watershed moment for an industry. As it stands now, it's certainly an acclaimed series, but to think that this is what came before he wrote the best graphic story of all time?

Amazing.

Waiting for Wednesday, Volume 3, Issue 25

Here we go again, Exfanders. It's Wednesday (finally!), and that means more Waiting for! I know you're all just thrilled. Because, honestly, who wouldn't want to put up with my nonsense this early in the morning?

Certainly not you. Certainly not.

I have one book on the ol' Check 'Em Out List for today, and a bit of a preamble wherein I get a mite...annoyed...at a certain company's marketing strategy.

(Here's a hint: it's the one owned by the Mouse.)

If you'd like to forego the rant-y preamble, please just skip ahead a few paragraphs to that first picture down there. It gets considerably less rant-y from that point. (Mostly because the post ends almost immediately after the image.)

But, yeah. In the meantime, it's rant-y preamble time.

Today, a pretty big event takes place in the (Ultimate) Marvel Universe. The conclusion of the excellent--though drawn out for far too long--"Death of Spider-Man" hits in today's Ultimate Comics Spider-Man, issue 160.

Ridiculous series names and confusing numbering aside, this book has consistently been one of the best super hero comics on the stands over the past decade. Brian Bendis has crafted Spidey stories that seem classic in nature, but are modern and fresh.

So my problems certainly don't lie with the creative team--Bendis and artist Mark Bagley are two of my all-time favorites, and I've happily read every single issue of this book.

My problem, I guess, is with Marvel's decision to completely spoil today's issue in yesterday's news. By the way, if you have any intention of not having the story spoiled...don't click that link.

I copy-pasted it with eyes closed because, well, let's just say the mainstream press doesn't know the meaning of "spoiler warning."

Now, I get why they did it. In order to get people in the store on Wednesday, they need to know about what's going on on Tuesday. Fine. Makes sense.

Only, it doesn't.

Sure, it'll mean some big sales today, and a bunch of new faces in comics shops, hoping to buy a book that will help them pay off their debts in a few years time.

However, I just can't understand why the comics industry is so concerned with one-day sales spikes. It's so unbelievably shortsighted. We should be more concerned with getting new readers in--and keeping them in.

By only promoting a "death of" issue all the time in the mainstream press, it makes it look like all we do is kill off characters.

The one day sales bonanza is nice, but the focus should be on having people stick around for a while. By, y'know, promoting the stories as opposed to one-off event issues.

Sure, that's not as sexy, but that's what TV, movies, and prose books do. They promote the stories and the creators.

Right.

So. After all that, I do wish you'd go out and read this series--and you don't have to start with today's issue. Go back and read it in trades. Ultimate Spidey really is a wonderful book, and it deserves attention.
But it deserves attention for being a wonderful book, and not for doing whatever it'll do in today's issue.

Exfanding Radar: Wizard World Digital

Well, after yesterday's full out attack on Eddie Murphy, I figured today I'd bring the positive with a post about the all-new, (kind of) different Wizard Magazine.

Or, y'know, whatever the heck it is you call a magazine that's all digital and only offered online.

Wizard has relaunched, officially, and they've been delivering shortened versions of their magazine each week, at their site.

The downloads are absolutely free, and all you need to do to access the content is give an email address and your Zip code.

You can then download the mag in either a PDF that can be read on any computer, or you can download their iPad app (again, for free) and read Wizard that way.

I wish they'd make an app for the iPhone, as I can't access the content from my phone. So I've been reading it, week to week, on my desktop. Which is fine, but because these are typically 25 pages in length, they make perfect reading for sitting in a waiting room or just checking out during lunch.

Content-wise, I think the new material they're delivering is some of their best ever, and because they can post new content every week (as opposed to monthly), the topics covered are relevant and fresh, whereas the print magazine was out of date the moment it hit stands.

We get articles on the latest films, interviews with creators, and much to my delight, quite a bit of coverage of smaller press titles--something that the print version overlooked all too often in favor of catering to (mostly) Marvel.

The other thing that annoyed me about the print version was its propensity towards covering seemingly everything but comics. They had an identity crisis when sites like Newsarama and CBR were beating them at the comics reporting game, and all of a sudden, Wizard wanted to be more like People or US Weekly.

Thankfully, that seems to be in the past, as this new incarnation of Wizard is much more comics-centric.

They've also figured out how to deliver a solid price guide in an age where eBay and auction sales change a book's value literally overnight. Instead of listing everything that's out there, Wizard (E)publishes small, dedicated chunks each week.

So, for example, one week the guide focused on Bronze Age books, and another week it focused on books with appearances by Green Lantern. A good idea, and it makes it fun to see what will be covered each week.

Plus, the potty humor, though still there, occasionally, seems to have died down. Check out the link above to give the new magazine a try. It's certainly worth taking a look, and I'm willing to bet that some of you, like me, will be reading weekly.