Over the past week all the Star Clipper writers have been posting what they would like to see happen in comics in 2011. After reading Fleet, Paul, and Brent’s wish list, I realized my list is just a little different. I don’t think any of us like the constant string of deaths between the big two companies, Marvel and DC, but my problem is less with the death and more with the subsequent rebirth issue. Also, unlike the other writers, I don’t really care if the comic industry keeps doing crossover stories. I guess I’ve just accepted they’re not going to stop anytime soon. Still two of my favorite comics of 2010, “Siege” and “Shadowland,” were both small-scale crossovers events. I’ve got no complaints as long as the main story is self-contained in one book. It’s the tie-ins that drive me crazy.

Here are five things I’d like to see happen in the comic industry in 2010.

5. No more pre-production limbo.

There are some comic properties that have been in constant state of television/ film pre-production since the mid-90s. The two big ones that come to my mind are Peter Bagge’s “Hate” and Garth Ennis’ “Preacher.” I say in 2011 either make them or abandoned the project. I would love to see Bagge’s character Buddy Bradley become a sitcom next to “The Simpsons,” or maybe it’s better suited for Adult Swim. Yet, there’s been talk of adapting “Hate” since MTV’s animation heyday in the 90s and it’s still never materialized. It’s the same story with “Preacher.” At least once a month someone comes into Star Clipper and ask about the rumor of “Preacher” becoming a television series. I would love to tell them it’s happening but the “Preacher” series has been in a constant state of limbo since the television writers strike in 2007. I want to see these projects get made or have a substantial step forward in 2011. I’ll only write about them again under those criteria. If it’s not going to happen let their legacy be known for the greatness of the comic not the television series that was never made. Also, please no “Preacher” movie. Anyone who’s read it should know you can’t fit that magnitude of the story into just one movie.

4. No Kamikaze for the Manga industry.

2010 was a tough year for the Manga industry. America’s largest Manga publisher Viz Media laid off 40% of it’s staff and shut down it’s New York City office. Popular series like “Naruto” and “Inu Yasha” veered into over 40 volumes and alienated new readers overwhelmed by the sheer size of the series. The last huge hit the Manga industry had was “Death Note” and that was in 2006. My hope for 2011 is that the Manga industry can last until 2012, at least so I can finish two of my favorite new series “Ikigami” and “Biomega.”

3. Video game movies are the new comic movies.

I’m glad comic book movies have been taken seriously and are well made in the last decade, but 2010 had more comic movies bomb (Losers, Jonah Hex, Scott Pilgrim) then blockbuster (Iron Man 2, Kick Ass). Let’s move the gravy train over to video game adaptations and give comics a rest for a year. In the history of video game movies there has been few successes (I can think of maybe one: “Mortal Kombat”), but 2011 is the year to blow your 8-bit mind. In many ways, video game movies have everything comic movies have: A full storyboard, character design, completed script, track record of popularity, and a built in fan base. This year I want to hear “The Legend of Zelda” and “Metroid” are going to be made into films. After that we can go back to the next horrible X-Men spin-off film.

2. Repeat what works.

This might be obvious, but why stray from a successful formula. That’s exactly what Marvel did in 2010 with “X-Men: Second Coming,” which copied verbatim the formula of “X-Men: Messiah Complex,” and it was my favorite comic of the year. Marvel is doing it again in 2011 with “Age of X,” which sounds like an exact copy of “Age of Apocalypse,” minus Apocalypse. That was one of my favorite stories 15 years ago and still is one of my favorite stories now. I hope they can repeat the same success.

1. No more Death, Replacement, Rebirth, Confusion.

Much like the Godfathers song, “Birth, School, Work, Death,” Marvel and DC has created the similar motto “Death, Replacement, Rebirth, Confusion.” I don’t mind if either company wants to kill one of their popular characters, I just don’t what to see the next three steps. Recently that’s happened with both Captain America and Batman. Both characters died. They are replaced by their protégées (Bucky Barnes and Dick Grayson). Then Cap and Bat come back to life in some overwrought time-travel storyline and there are two of the same characters running around to everyone’s confusion, fictional and real world readers. This has to stop in 2011! I’m fine with death but leave the characters dead. DC brought Flash Barry Allen back to life and what’s happened to Flash Wally West in 2010? Nothing! DC mine as well kill Wally now. Moving forward comics need to respect the dead… and if Marvel ever tries to bring Nightcrawler back to life after replacing him with some second-rate version called “teleport-elf” and attempt to get me to read it by saying he wasn’t really dead but trapped in an alternate teleport dimension that he was only able to leave once all the X-Men gave up a little part of there soul to bring him back, I promise I’ll never read another X-title again. Even if it is “Age of X.”

-Jon

I have no power within the comic industry to enact any change whatsoever. But if the people in charge of the companies answered to me, this is what I’d tell them I want to see this year.

More All-Ages Books: I’m not just buying comics for me, I’m buying them for several nephews aged 5 to 12. They like comic books, but they don’t quite love them yet (one of them is veering awfully close to that point, however). I think the only barrier to a lifelong relationship between each of them and comics is that there are limited choices for them. The DC Kids line has a lot going for it, but it can’t carry the whole load. Marvel has spun off a few A-rated titles from their mainstream books (Iron Man, Thor — no wait, that’s cancelled — Avengers) and Amazing Spider-Man is always All Ages, Dark Horse has those Star Wars/Clone Wars collected issues every few months, and Mouse Guard comes out a couple times a year. That’s a good start, but when I was their age everything DC and Marvel put out was suitable for children. I’m not suggesting everything needs to be rated A, but if another ten titles were available, it would help me out.
And no, Fraggle Rock doesn’t count. My boys don’t know what that is and they don’t care; they want action-oriented superhero stuff, not cutesy and quirky. That’ll interest them when they get to high school.

Think Long and Hard Before Dragging Yet Another Title Into Your Big Crossover Event: I am resigned to the fact that the Crises and Sieges and Eclipsos and Brightest Days are going to happen, despite my hatred of them. I can’t stop it at this point, but I also don’t have to buy it. However, if you could maybe not drag every title you publish into the storyline “just for an issue or two,” that would be great. I’m speaking of developments like the current Green Arrow book, which I picked up because I’m OK with Ollie. But when I discovered every issue was going to be a re-hash of something that happened to the guest star three months ago in Blackest Night, I feel like you’re ripping me off. I didn’t buy that crap because I don’t care, so don’t bleed it into the other books. The current “Batman Inc.” load of hogwash is the same thing — 18 Batbooks each month, and the only one I pick up at this point is Batman/Superman, because it’s exempt from that continuity-fest garbage.

Take It Easy On the Computer-Generated Effects: It is an amazing technological development that allows artists to add realistic blur effects to speeding objects, and the “shakey-cam” tool is great for adding some drama to a heavyweight fistfight between the Thing and the Hulk. But when characters not named “The Flash” are blurred when they suddenly turn their heads, it’s time to practice some restraint — forcibly, if necessary. The less you go to that well, the more impact it carries when you hit us with a little “earthquake action” during a big fracas.

Death: Is It Really the Answer?: Ultimately, yes, death is the answer for all living things. But in comics it’s become a punch line. Batman dies, Superman dies, Captain America dies, Bucky actually died in WW II and came back in the past few years (was there a huge “Bring Back Bucky” groundswell I missed? I’ll never understand why he was returned from beyond the grave), Hawkman has died so many times he actually has four completed punch cards — one more and he gets to come back as Phoenix. How about this year you don’t kill anybody, and if you do kill someone, the rights to that character transfer to a competing company? I’d love to see what a company like Dark Horse could do with Batman, and I’d also love to see the game of hot potato that erupts when the rights to Jason Todd are handed around and around — that useless conker could be the first character to die twelve times in one year in twelve different titles.

Corollary to Death: If All These Heroes Are Anti-Heroes, Who Are the Good Guys?: Once upon a time, the only anti-hero in the Marvel Universe was Wolverine and DC responded (eventually) with Lobo. These guys are like hot peppers — throw a dash into a title and things immediately become spicier, but dole ‘em out with a heavy hand and any book becomes unbearable. Earlier this year we performed a little exercise on this here blog where we ID’d the pure, untrammeled good guys in comics, and we were barely able to come up with three each. When everybody is a renegade bad-ass doing whatever it takes to win, the acts one must commit in the name of remaining a renegade bad-ass become ever-coarser. And now the dominant flavor in comics is flaming bad-ass, and it tastes terrible. Let’s dial down the angst, the grit and the mania for homicidal maniacs and try — please, *try* — to remember that the operative element in “superhero” is the “hero” part. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the modern superhero comic book without resorting to easy-killing grizzly bears in spandex who ain’t afraid o’ nothin’. The books these two created featured fallible characters who believed in doing the right thing; Kirby and Lee worked solely in the key of hero, and their books sang as a result. Most of today’s comics merely grunt. And we’re all the worse for that.

-Paul

Remember last week when I was all “Viking viking viking barbarian sword in the guts?” Yeah, guess what fell into my lap this week.

BA-DA-BOOM-DOOM (sound effects provided by Walter Simonson). That’s uru, son. Mjolnir upside your head, you dead. I bought two, one for a nephew’s birthday and one for me because no home is complete without the hammer of Thor.

I also bought comics, because comics are awesome. Let us delve into the inner workings of this week’s titles, because there are some delights in this week’s batch. SMASH OPEN A NEW PARAGRAPH, MJOLNIR.

Hey, Fantastic Four 586. Next month is the death of you-know-who, and despite my hunches and gut feelings, this issue does not appear to drop hints who’s behind the eight ball. OK, actually it drops two huge hints — ahem, *SPOILER ALERT* — it appears to be that Susan is doomed (what?), or else Reed is (huh?). I don’t know that I buy either ruse. Another “clue:” Jonathan Hickman answers letters on the letters page in his own voice again this month, and he reminds several readers that he can make no promises about who will live, mentioning Ben, Sue and Johnny by name, but not Reed. Hmmmm. Oh, and Johnny and Ben are up against it re: Annihilus’ minions, and Reed is racing against time vs. Galactus. So, it could be anybody who gets deadified next month. Place your bets, you have a 25% chance of winning. This issue sure doesn’t feel like the cough before the end of the world, but can you ever hear that coming? I have convinced myself/scared myself into believing it’s Ben who dies. The fact that I use the word “scared” is important; Hickman has rekindled my love for these characters, and I’m legitimately a little sick over the potential death of Benjy. But will I shrug it off if it’s Reed? Heck, no. Same goes for Sue.

Johnny, eh … OK, I’ll feel a little bad, mostly for Franklin; remember a few months back when future-Val asks future-Franklin who his favorite superhero is and he responds immediately with “the Human Torch.” That’s stuck in with me all this time, as if that’s the key moment in this ever-expanding arc. Is that a nephew honoring the ultimate sacrifice of a favorite uncle, or is it just another brilliant and humanizing moment in a great story? Four more weeks and we all know for sure…

Superman/Batman 79 is less world-shaking, but Chris Roberson and Jesus Merino have the beginnings of a pretty good story. Set in the “DC One Million” era, we get a future Batman and future Superman fighting Epoch, the time traveling villain from the past. It’s all new to me, but I love the idea of a robot Robin serving alongside Bats — it’s the ultimate solution to his perpetual “death of everyone close to me” problem. I like the script and the art, especially the vaguely Silver Age feeling of the story. This is a plot that asks no previous knowledge of the reader, other than knowing that Bats is in grey and blue and Supes is in red and blue. It’s a radical idea in this day and age, but I’m down with it. Titling the arc “World’s Finest” is a nice touch, too.

Scratch9 number 3 continues the heroic journey of a cat (Scratch) who is tangled up with an evil scientist and some rescued lab animals while trying to find his missing person, the little girl, Penelope. Scratch manifests three new past lives in this issue: the lazy French cat (D’Argent), the master thespian (Beeslebohm) and the voodoo cat (Writh), and Beeslebohm is the best of them. What can I say, a showboating grandee of a cat who craves attention and applause makes sense to me — I have two cats. Rob Worley and Jason T. Kruse are making a great all-ages book, full of action, heroism and humor, and Scratch himself is lovable because he’s a goofball and he doesn’t have all the answers. There are a couple moments that feel rushed, but I think that sort of rapid-fire storytelling doesn’t seem as jarring to kids as it does adults; they’re used to the world abruptly changing. Also, I’m genuinely interested in finding out who the ninth cat is — we’ve had everything from saber tooth tigers to cyborg cats from the future. If I had to guess, I’d say … cowboy? Maybe. We’ll find out next issue.

Hey, just out of curiosity, do you remember about four weeks ago when I wondered how Dynamite’s Warlord of Mars was going to handle the full-frontal nudity that was in the offing? Issue 3 features 20+ pages of John Carter wearing nothing but an arm band and a strategically-placed leg. It looks awkward sometimes, but it’s not distracting. Lui Antonio makes it work, although John Carter looks a little prettier than I would like — not that there’s anything wrong with that. Antonio’s rendering of a Martian city is excellent, very exotic and dreamlike, and the key scene when Carter kills a Thark (the eight-foot all, four-armed green guys) with one punch is one of those panels that works well because the very next panel reassures you that, yes, that dude is totally dead and not just unconscious. I don’t know if Antonio is a permanent replacement for Stephen Sadowski, but I’d have no complaints if he is. I also have no complaints about how Arvid Nelson is moving things along — in fact, everything I like about the original story is present — but I’m eager for us to get to the point in this tale when Carter is slaying dudes and rescuing ladies. Also, for the record, I feel I must state that once again J. Scott Campbell’s cover is absolutely ridiculous; Deejah Thoris looks awful, uh, aroused about crawling through a desert.

Speaking of awful aroused, Savage Sword 1 came out this week. This is a book I’ve been anticipating for months, and for the most part I’m very happy with how it turned out. Let’s quibble first, praise second. I harbored hope that this would be oversized, like Marvel’s Savage Sword. Also, Mark Finn writes an essay about Robert E. Howard’s adventurer in the East, El Borak, by way of introduction to this lesser-known character. It’s a fine piece of writing illustrated by Tim Bradstreet (who has only gotten better over the years), but why not just start the story? Admittedly, I’ve paid a lot of money over the years to acquire the El Borak stories, so I know who he is, but it’s cruel to tease us with single-panel Bradstreet like this. Especially since these illos are in the new El Borak anthology, which I bought months ago.

Now, the good stuff. We get the first chapter of a Conan story and another for Dark Agnes, REH’s red-haired swordswoman not named Sonja that’s quite good. I have these stories too, and Agnes is pulpy and not as, ah, complex a character as a Conan or a Kull, but highly entertaining. Vengeful women kicking ass — that’s the stuff. The best thing in the book is Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith’s adaptation of the Bran Mak Morn yarn, Worms of the Earth. This is a colorized version of a story that ran in the original Savage Sword more than 30 years ago, and it’s so very, very good that it overshadows everything that comes before it. Windsor-Smith was firing on all cylinders for this tale, showing a mastery of anatomy that’s rarely been equaled. People are lumpy, hairy, misshapen and savage — this is great stuff. $8 for 80 pages may seem a bit steep on first glance, but to my mind it’s worth it. Next month, Finn and Bradstreet begin their story, so I have a feeling this is a book that’s going to move from strength to strength, with some interesting wrinkles along the way.

Lots of great stuff this week, but I think it’s obvious how fond I am of Savage Sword. It was indeed the best thing I read this week from a sheer excitement level point-of-view, but Fantastic Four is quite the thrill ride; I’m just a little sad about where that one’s going. Just an FYI, according to Comic Shop News, Marvel is NOT printing a ton of extra copies of next month’s death-issue. If you want it, you should tell your friendly Star Clipper employee to add it to your pull list now so the shop orders enough copies — you can just order that specific issue, so you don’t need to make a long-term commitment to the book. Of course, the second printing is already scheduled for the following week, so it’s not like you’ll never know who gets whacked. Why, you’ll probably be able to hear my screams of horror moments after it hits the shelves, no matter where you live.

-Paul

Now that we’ve gotten those Top 10 lists out of the way, it’s time to figure out what we want to see out of comics during the year of 2011. Unlike my last list, this one is relatively short. I’m not that hard of a guy to please when it comes to comics, so I’m not asking for much. In fact, I just want one thing. More horror.

1. Horror Manga.

I want to see newly translated horror manga. Earlier in the year, I mentioned that I took a plunge down Junji Ito lane. I need more of that. And not just the scanlations that you can find online. I mean, actual books in my hand. His stuff is creepy, and I want to see more of it. But it’s not just more of Ito that I want to read. Let’s be honest for a moment. Manga is and has been slowly dying here in the United States for a long while now. And the way I see it, if it’s going to die, it may as well live up to it’s dastardly misunderstood reputation of being graphic filth. I mean, why not? Let it go out with a bang. (Interpret that sentence anyway you’d like.) But I figure, what’s the worst that could happen? Boosted manga sales?

2. 80s Icon Horror.

In 2009, Wildstorm released a comic sequel to the comic sequel to Freddy Vs Jason. This particular book was called, Freddy Vs Jason Vs Ash: Nightmare Warriors. It followed the events of the previous story, Freddy Vs Jason Vs Ash, and involved all the survivors of the various 80s and 90s films that Freddy and Jason participated in. And guess what? It was awesome. So I want to see more of that. But not just those guys. Bring on the rest? I know Micheal Myers (Halloween) and Leatherface (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) have stared in a few comics in the past, but that was the past. In the future, I’d like to see a return. Hell, I’ll even settle for the comics using the various “remake” versions of these characters. Just so long as I can see them. But hey, it looks like someone’s heard my wish already. Next March, expect to see a new Hellraiser comic, one that actually involves Clive Barker. I’ll tell you more about that one in my next blog.

3. Tentacles.

I just want to see more. Whether it’s Lovecraft inspired or not. I just want to see them.

4. Inventive New Horror Concepts.

2009 and 2010 were good for new concepts. Or at the very least, new spins on old stories. And sure, I just said up above that I want more 80s stuff, but that doesn’t mean that that’s all I want. No. New stories are bold and risky gambles. Sometimes that don’t pay off, but at the very least, enough people were brave enough to try. That in itself is beautiful. Have you checked out, The Light, yet? I just talked about it last week. Do yourself a favor and crack the book open. Even if you don’t like it, you’ll have at the very least, tried something that was new. New. Let that simmer for a moment.
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Moment’s up.

So in conclusion, I just want more horror comics. That’s all. See ya next week.

Oh yeah. If the mainstream hero books could maybe move their characters forward a bit, that would be nice too. Thumbs up to Spider-Man, thumbs down to Wolverine. These aren’t statements on the characters, but observations. Spider-Man is finally moving forward, in terms of character growth. in the last comic I read with Wolverine, he was trying to kill teenager… Just to be safe. Come on guys. People like Wolverine because he’s supposed to be the best there is at what he does, not because he doesn’t care about the consequences of killing a good-natured homosexual teenager.

-Fleet