Section 241

I can’t wait to share my next book from Marvel with you! It’s…

DARK REIGN FILES
Written by MICHAEL HOSKIN
64 PGS./Rated T+ …$4.99

Classified?! Dangit, just enjoy the cover for now. More info to come.

In unclassified news:

OFFICIAL INDEX TO THE MARVEL UNIVERSE #2
Written by VARIOUS
Continuing the chronicle of the Marvel Universe, starting with Spider-Man (from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #53), Iron Man (from TALES OF SUSPENSE #72 on) and the X-Men (from 1963’s X-MEN #52 on).Follow the history of the Marvel Universe as it unfolds month by month with the All-New Official Index to the Marvel Universe. Each issue provides synopses for dozens of individual comics, including back-up strips, introducing you to the characters, teams, places and equipment that appeared within, providing vital information about first appearances, where they last showed up and where they appeared next!
64 PGS./Rated A …$3.99

Add them to your pull list today!

A little while ago I posted a diatribe against the television program Heroes. Along the way, I managed to insult the very medium of television. This was of some concern to my friend Olav, the individual who had loaned me Heroes (despite my repeated insistence that I didn’t want to watch it).

Evidently of the belief that no man’s life is complete without television, Olav hunted down a program which he felt offered real merit, genuine storytelling, compelling drama. All the things Heroes isn’t. The program he loaned me next was the first season of Mad Men, a series which is still being produced.

I’m going to proceed on the assumption that no one reading my blog knows what Mad Men is. I didn’t, but then I don’t pay attention to tv. The series opens in 1960 and concerns members of a (fictional) advertising agency as they market (real) prodcuts and the various bitter, devious, back-stabbing tactics they employ. Heading the cast is Don Draper, head of accounts and a man with a mysterious past. He also has a wife and two children, but his favorite pasttimes are extra-marital affairs and staring blankly at walls.

The program lingers on the differences bewteen then and now (assuming that your cultural background can differentiate between the two). Cigarettes and alcohol are consumed in massive quantities; virtually every character is involved in an affair; women are treated like second-class citizens, with inneundo and put-downs all over the office without reproach; and people think that Dick Nixon would make a swell President.

The show trades on several familiar ideas for Hollywood period pieces of the late 50s early 60s like extra-marital affairs and closeted gay men. There’s also the program’s love affair with cigarettes, appropriate because one of the agency’s clients is Lucky Strike, a major plot point in the first episode. Unfortunately, this is one area where the show misses the mark on historical accuracy: the discussions about using testimonials from doctors who smoke “5 years ago” is actually about 5 years off (more like 10 years ago); also, Draper’s “brilliant” solution to advertise Lucky Strike with the slogan “It’s toasted” should have gone over like a lead balloon - Lucky Strike was using that slogan around 1950, not 1960 (I blissfully imagined the Lucky Strike representative replying “Good effort, trying to sell our own slogan back to us. We didn’t fall for it.”).

It’s interesting that the program avoids melodrama, for the most part. Situations on the program (like the mental status of Draper’s wife) seldom reach a boiling point, instead quietly simmering in the background. I also happened to figure out which character was gay about 7 episodes before it came up and predicted a pregnancy 12 episodes before it happened; either I’ve watched too much tv or these points were made deliberately obvious, which is interesting to consider and a nice reversal from programs which try too hard to be clever (also good to know my gaydar works).

Kudos to the producers for bringing in a pair of Whedon-affiliated actors: Vincent Kartheiser (Connor from Angel) and Christina Hendricks (Saffron from Firefly). I have to imagine that someone in casting caught an episode of Angel and remarked “Wow, this character Kartheiser plays is an utterly unlikeable whiner! He’d be the perfect Pete Campbell!”

Overall, this is probably as good an antidote to Heroes as anything; unlike Heroes, Mad Men is full of story, packing more in a single episode than the former does in four. In fact, I’m often startled when I reflect on just how much happens from the start to the finish of one Mad Men episode. Although both programs have large casts, Mad Men has a sense of direction and perspective on who its players are and where they need to be. It’s a pretty mean non-Forrest Gumpized look at the USA’s past, but I at least admire that the program wears its cynicism on its sleeve (whereas Heroes is ultimately cynical, but keeps it to the vest). There are obviously worse programs you could watch than Mad Men.

I’ve been an old-time radio hobbyist for a long time now - maybe 17 years, ever since I discovered that local station QR77 played OTR every evening of the week. Although QR77’s library was not initially vast (I suspect they’ve switched from tape recordings to internet downloads in recent years), it introduced me to a variety of programs from the past.

However, initially I was only interested in the thriller anthology programs such as Suspense, Escape, Inner Sanctum and so forth. I also enjoyed a few detective programs (notably the Shadow), but I really didn’t care for the old comedy programs at first. It took a long time for me to discover the Jack Benny Program, which gradually wore down my resistance to old comedy. Part of what I disliked about the comedy shows were the “humourous” voices, usually characters with voices that cracked (notably Portland on Fred Allen, Ezra Stone on the Aldrich Family, Walter Tetley on the Great Gildersleeve) or embarrassing dialects (Amos ‘N Andy). Eventually I was able to get past the voices and appreciate the writing, which still holds up.

So, while comedy was my least favorite genre when I started out as a fan, my choice for all-time worst program is not a comedy. It’s a detective program.

Over the past year, QR77 has taken to playing one detective show more than any other. I can only assume that whoever is responsible for selecting the programs does not actually listen to them. The show is called Barrie Craig, Confidential Investigator and it originally ran from 1951-55. It starred William Gargan as a typical private eye involved in typical private stories, with additional roles filled out by many of the professional supporting actors of the time (Parley Baer, Herb Ellis, Howard mcNear, Vriginia Gregg, etc.). If only they had been the stars.

Gargan had previously been the star of an early tv detective show called Martin Kane, Private Eye, but he quit the program because he thought the scripts were low quality and that his female co-stars were pretty but “empty-headed.”

Well, he was a fine one to talk when it came to scripts or acting ability. Perhaps Gargan was dynamic on television (I wouldn’t know), but he made for very poor radio. Other detective programs of the day had leads with supreme talent and personality like Howard Duff (Sam Spade), Gerald Mohr (Philip Marlowe), Jeff Chandler (Michael Shayne)…heck, even the syndicated Box 13 had the dynamic Alan Ladd in the lead to keep the listener interested. Gargan’s approach to radio drama was simply too laconic; he mumbled his dialogue without wit, force or character.

Another huge problem with Barrie Craig is that it arrived late in the day for radio at a time when most programs were transcribed. Fans of OTR will know what I mean when I say that early 50s transcriptions are some of the most difficult shows to sit through. There is no original music on Barrie Craig, just recycled scores from other transcribed shows like Rocky Fortune and That Hammer Guy (again, Box 13 was pre-recorded but had its own score). Like so many transcribed shows of the time, music is used primarily in bridges rather than in the background. Consequently, there is no music to bolster Gargan’s laid-back performance.

Continuing on sound, there’s the effects which are few and far between. Programs on tight budgets had to work hard to get around limited sound effects (Quiet Please was brilliant on that number). Barrie Craig had only whatever sounds NBC kept in its library, meaning that fake crowds sound like fake crowds; recorded gunshots sound like recorded gunshots; the illusion of radio is lost.

This is the one OTR program which I would advise anyone with an interest in the format to keep far, far away from. I’m no longer willing to suffer through it on QR77 and neither should you; when Barrie Craig comes on, that’s your cue to switch off.

I often feel the need to comment on developments in the comic book industry, but seldom do I remark upon developments at Marvel Comics. That is probably because as a Marvel freelancer I don’t wish to offer my opinion on projects I have either no involvement with or possess too much insider knowledge to be unbiased. I think I’ve used this blog to reflect more on the wheelings and dealings of Marvel’s biggest rival, DC Comics.

Well, it helps that DC gives me plenty of ammunition. Although DC was my favorite publisher up to the age of 10 (because they published Superman and the Justice League, mainly) I fell out of reading them for ages. That started to change at the start of this century and around 2004 I was actually buying a lot of DC titles (including their Vertigo & Wildstorm imprints), so much that I began to wonder if DC would displace Marvel as my favorite publisher.

I purchase maybe two DC titles a month now. Although I keep track of which creators and what new titles are coming from the publisher, I seldom see anything that interests me. DC’s fortunes have shifted quite a bit since 2004 as well - they went from running neck-and-neck with Marvel to falling nearly 50% behind. They’re obviously still the number two publisher and still have several immensely popular titles (JLA, the All-Star line) and creators (Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, Frank Miller), but it’s a little sad to see them so low.

So. News has come in that DC is cancelling three decently-selling mid-tier titles: Robin, Nightwing & Birds of Prey. What do these three books have in common? They have all run for more than 100 issues; they were each launched by writer Chuck Dixon (who is presently on the outs with DC); they each star a character from Batman’s universe (Robin is obviously Batman’s sidekick, Nightwing is the grown-up Robin, Birds of Prey features Barbara Gordon the former Batgirl).

This is apparently tied into Grant Morrison’s “R.I.P.” storyline which has been running through Batman and suggesting that Batman will die and stay dead. Hence, the cancellation of these three books reflects whatever shake-ups are afoot post-R.I.P. As with the “Death of Superman,” I think it’s safe to assume that if Batman dies, it will be a temporary measure; further, that if Batman is replaced by another hero, this too shall pass (especially when 2008’s highest-grossing film starred Bruce Wayne as Batman).

Because DC has not got in front of this story, there’s only speculation at this time. No doubt all three books will be replaced with new titles & new creators and the leads will find new homes (Robin & Nightwing already participate in team boooks but I suspect they’ll have solo books as well). DC is probably hoping that the lure of a brand-new “#1″ will entice readers to join the characters’ audience.

The thing is, I don’t expect DC can make this plan work. I foresee a short-term sales spike followed by a long-term decline. Put bluntly, they have dropped the ball so many times over the past few years that I don’t think they can successfully relaunch these titles; recent relaunches like the Flash, Wonder Woman and the Outsiders shed a considerable amount of readers; Green Arrow was recently relaunched as Green Arrow & Black Canary with very little difference in sales. I think it’s unwise to derail three perfectly respectable mid-tier books just to bolster a book which is doing rather well on its own (Morrison’s Batman is the best-selling Batman title other than Frank Miller’s non-continuity All-Star book).

When I heard of these cancellations I was strangely reminded of “One Year Later,” the attempt to invite new readers to their DC Universe books following the popular crossover Infinite Crisis. I was one of many who tried out the new directions on several books, only to drop them quickly because they were not, in fact, new reader friendly. Ultimately, One Year Later drove away more readers than it brought in and I think that misstep is part of DC’s present woes.

My last thought: I hope that current Birds of Prey scribe Tony Bedard lands on his feet; he’s had the rug pulled out from under him too many times since coming to DC; he deserves a steady gig.

You did good.

This has been an interesting election year…so long as you mean the USA election. The election in Canada went by with barely a comment, probably the outcome was so obvious.

But as a comic book fan, it’s been extremely fascinating to see how taken with the election many of the publishers are. IDW & Antarctic Press have each published biographies on McCain and Obama; Palin made the cover of Tales From the Crypt; Bluewater brought in late-to-the-party biographies of Hillary Clinton and Palin.

Then you look to the mainstream publishers and find very little. It’s almost as though the major companies wanted to sidestep controversy for once, rather than court it. Over at DC there was DC Universe: Decisions, a four-issue limited series that dealt with the matter of celebrities endorsing political candidates, but otherwise had nothing substantial to share. Over at Marvel they endorsed Stephen Colbert’s humourous presidential campaign but only got on that boat long after Colbert had stopped running the joke on his own program.

However, there was almost a significant comic book on the US Presidency at Marvel; back in 2006, Joe Casey began pitching a series called Executive Power which he intended to launch 2 weeks after the election. The star of Executive Power would have been whoever won the election and the series would deal with the politics of super heroes in the Marvel Universe. While DC Comics has avoided using real life Presidents since before George W. Bush came to power, Marvel has always used the real life Presidents in their comics, whoever it happened to be. I think Casey really had something with the concept; maybe someone at Marvel will change their minds and rush it out for next spring. You can read all about Executive Power here.

I sincerely hope you make a wise decision today.

That is all.

From Variety: Jeph Loeb and Jesse Alexander have been fired from the tv show Heroes.

Obviously there is nothing amusing about two men losing one of their many sources of income, especially in these tough economic times.

Anyone can grab the brass ring; or, the brass ring can grab anybody.

Yes, I am one of the “various.”

OFFICIAL INDEX TO THE MARVEL UNIVERSE #1
Written by VARIOUS
Follow the history of the Marvel Universe as it unfolds month by month with the All-New Official Index to the Marvel Universe. Each issue provides synopses for dozens of individual comics, including back-up strips, introducing you to the characters, teams, places and equipment that appeared within, providing vital information about first appearances, where they last showed up and where they appeared next! Join us as we chronicle the Marvel Universe, starting with Spider-Man (from Amazing Fantasy #15 on), Iron Man (from Tales of Suspense #39 on) and the X-Men (from 1963’s X-Men #1 on).
64 PGS./Rated A …$3.99

The filmstrip. Wielded in the hands of a teacher, it is a virtual admission of surrender - that through either fatigue or desperation, the activities of the classroom will be guided by recorded images and voices instead of a living person.

As a student, I liked filmstrips just fine. I understood that a filmstrip was bound to be more entertaining than anything taught on the blackboard. Often, the filmstrip had nothing to do with the class itself, it was plainly just a means of using up classroom time.

In junior high I was still nursing myself in the belief that I could create professional comic books one day. The school offered art classes - which I took - but there was nothing for a would-be comic book artist there, just lessons about perspective and anatomy. Who needs those? As a youth who purchased the occasional Rob Liefeld comic, I knew that such knowledge was optional at best.

At some point in in those classes, there came a time when my teacher ran a set of filmstrips rather than teach the class. The films he presented had nothing in particular to do with art, but no one complained.

Now, when I say these were “filmstrips,” what I mean is the type where a still image is run on a slideshow while a tape recorder plays the narrative track. Perhaps the still art in these filmstrips was supposed to educate us. I didn’t make the connection at the time.

It’s likely that the reason we watched these filmstrips was that they were adaptations of famous tales of the supernatural and it was the Halloween season at the time. One of the filmstrips featured Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.” It would be another year before I read the original story for myself, but at the time I was interested to note that the original tale was rather different - and more frightening, it seemed - than the 1931 film I had seen. An early moment in the story when Hyde tramples over a girl in the street made him seem much more terrifying than the prostitute-murderer portrayed by Frederic March.

Another filmstrip in the series featured Amelia Edwards’ “Phantom Coach.” You probably aren’t familiar with the tale. It concerns a man wandering in the snow who boards a mysterious coach and realizes - in the nick of time - that his fellow passengers are ghosts. The moment of reveal, as depicted in the filmstrip, seared itself into my brain. Even now I can recall the faces of the ghosts aboard the coach, their faces glowing but lifeless, the suggestion of something unbearably sinister behind their grimaces.

The next filmstrip was M.R. James’ “The Treasure of Abbot Thomas.” A typically Jamesian scholarly hero happens upon the age-old mystery of Abbot Thomas, whispered to have hidden away a great treasure. With uncanny detective work, the scholar traces the location of the treasure - and instantly regrets it. Something is there to guard the treasure and now the poor narrator-hero cannot evade it. Even now it rests outside his study, waiting, a damp pool collecting beneath the door…

Again, I was really scared. These latter two filmstrips remained on the fringes of my memory from then on, although I had taken no note of the respective titles or authors at the time. It was only years later that I thought to use the internet to find them, but had no luck. I turned to indexes of supernatural fiction, but could not seem to locate them.

It was entirely by chance that I ran across “the Phantom Coach” in a short story collection called Victorian & Edwardian Ghost Stories. Later still, I found “the Treasure of Abbot Thomas” in M.R. James’ Ghost Stories and recognized it instantly.

The interesting thing about having positively identified these tales is that it lessened my adolescent fear of them. It’s almost as though I was subconsciously seeking out their names in order to take away their power. Or at least face up to my fears.