Category Archives: Musings

What, Me Continuity?

by Jesse

Continuity.

If there’s anything more divisive in the comic community (aside from organic vs mechanical web shooters) I can’t think of what it is.  With as many creators as it takes to create a line of comics nothing can stay 100% consistent.  That’s
okay, we’re all human.  Stan Lee invented the No-Prize as a way of poking fun at just that thing and we’ve all found our own ways to adapt with the ever-shifting reality of our favorite fictional worlds.  But the real problem with continuity  is that all of us have different burdens of acceptability for variation.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen someone ask how Spider-Man can be fighting the Scorpion in Amazing at the same time he’s fighting Doc Ock in Web or Spectacular.  I’ve never really had this problem: comics don’t operate in real time.  One issue is probably several hours to a few days (out of 30 in a month) so there’s plenty of time for Spidey to be somewhere else.  Yes, it is an insanely nerdy solution to a nonexistent problem, but that’s how it works in my head.  I didn’t ask for it, that’s how it happens.  But even that example shows I buy in to the very idea of continuity.  There must be a place and order for everything that happens.

Even with my (eminently reasonable and sensible) rationalization* I’ve been struggling with continuity lately.  I’ve set up what I consider a relatively low bar for continuity: I just want to know where everything fits in.  Normally this isn’t a problem.  We have the DCU and the 616 Marvel U.  The Ultimate line is its own consistent universe.  The Adventures line (along with DC Kids/Johnny DC) is the all-ages line that focuses on done-in-one stories and doesn’t worry about continuity.  No problem there.  But then there are books like Thor: The Mighty Avenger, anything involving the Legion of
Superheroes, or umpteen one-shots and mini-series (like the recent glut of Captain America titles) that feel like they should have a place in core continuity but don’t.

While some of these are very good stories, I want them to fit in. Somewhere.  Anywhere!  And that they don’t fit into a certain established chronology is frustrating me to no end.  Marvel launched their Ultimate line as a means to escape the burden of continuity and start from scratch without making the same mistakes. But now, 10 years in, Ultimate comics are in the exact same predicament.  It’s just by the nature of serial storytelling that a backstory gets built up.  The Adventures line is great, and you can miss any issue without missing a critical piece of story, but then again none of the stories in the have as much weight, because everything has to be reset by the end of the issue.  There’s no character arc.  In addition, these stories cheat in a sense, because we already know the characters from years of their primary stories already established. As much as I love Jeff Parker’s MA Avengers, they wouldn’t work as well with brand-new characters.  To some extent it is by piggybacking on established continuity that he is able to skips the characterization and focus on the adventures.

It’s not just comics in this dilemma.  Less than a decade after Spider-Man finally made it to the big screen, relaunched Batman and Superman movies are looking to get rebooted, too.  Where does X-Men: First Class fit in?  Good luck figuring it out!  Imagine if comics worked like the movies, where three stories represented a burden of backstory and required a reset!

It looks like I’ve been picking on Marvel, but stay tuned for Part Two next week, where I finally share my thoughts on DCNu and explain why I’m so befuddled by the whole thing. 


*Your reasonable and sensible rationalization is neither reasonable nor sensible because it’s different than mine.  That’s just how it works for us comic nerds, sorry.

Dy-no-mite!

by Jesse

I love old sci-fi movies.  Matt and I both do.  The cheesier, the better, as exemplified by my Ed Wood DVD collection.  I’ve never tried to quantify why, but there’s something about the sincerity despite limited resources (and occasionally talent) that draws me to them. Strange effects, bizarre costumes, incomprehensible movie logic, irrelevant stock footage…Individually they might make a project weaker but in the right combination what would be  otherwise constitute weakness contributes to a strange irresistible charm.

One of my favorite films of the last few years is The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra, not a B-grade sci-fi movie in itself, but rather a loving homage to the 50′s sci-fi flick.  At the very start, the first thing you notice is that the dialog is slightly off.  And repetitive.  And then it slowly dawns on you that you’re in for something special.  The Lost Skeleton is not a parody of the 50′s sci-fi film, it highlights the subtle things that make the genre so special and charming.

Creating such a clever movie takes a love of the genre and a keen eye for detail.  It’s not as easy as picking up a camera and cracking a bunch of jokes because if it were, 2009′s Alien Trespass — a similar attempt — would have been successful.  No, there is a craft involved more subtle than pointing a finger and saying “isn’t this ridiculous?”

I digress about The Lost Skeleton to make this point: when I call Black Dynamite the “Lost Skeleton of Cadavra of blaxploitation flicks” it is the highest compliment I can possibly give.

Shot on Super 16 film, with a score created using period instruments and recording equipment, everything about Black Dynamite screams authenticity.  The opening scene, a meeting between drug kingpins, is dark and grainy, and utilizes a common split screen technique.  If there’s a blaxploitation cliche that didn’t make it into the film, I don’t know what it is, and if you’re a fan of the genre you’ll recognize exactly how much care went into replicating the style and peculiarities without stooping to condescension or derision.  There’s car chases (and crashes), boom mikes, actors replaced mid-scene, and even a musical number that gives the Black Dynamite Sound Orchestra time to shine.  I won’t rehash the plot because if you’ve read this far you’ve seen enough of these movies to know it already, but much like The Lost Skeleton it is a loving pastiche of the films that came before it.

On a recent Nerdist podcast, it became especially clear exactly how much effort and thought went into recreating this world.  The actors truly studied their source material.  It’s not just the dialogue that gets copied, it’s also the acting style and delivery. In particular Byron Minns as Bullhorn mimics Rudy Ray Moore to an uncanny degree.  (Seriously Byron, the world needs you in a Dolemite movie.  We can make it happen!)

Last weekend I was fortunate to be able to attend a screening of the film here in Denver.  Also there for a Q&A afterward were Adrian Younge and Loren Oden of the Black Dynamite Sound Orchestra.  If that’s not enough for you, (and it should be, the score is an integral part of what makes the film work), Younge was the movie’s editor and Oden played Leon St. James  (of the Anaconda Malt Liquor ad). They provided some exceptional insight into what it takes to put together such a spot-on homage.  The key?  If it isn’t obvious, it’s study.  Know your sources inside and out, and then don’t go to copy it, but build something new and try to make it better.  (See also: Jeff Parker, Jason Aaron)

Younge and Oden were both amazingly gracious in talking with us afterward, everything from how hard it is to rewatch your film over and over again (not as much as you’d think) to the musical score’s influences (Al Green, Marvin Gaye, and Italian cinema).  One of the most interesting things I learned from them is that Black Dynamite was originally supposed to be an action film with comedy, but as Younge was cutting the movie he discovered that it was a comedy with action, which changed up how the pacing had to work.  This was very telling because Black Dynamite: Escape From Slave Island hit comic shops this week.  I have my copy ordered and will hopefully be picking it up today (expect that review next week!), but based on the 12-page preview I picked up, the comic will follow in those original roots: action-based, with elements of comedy.  And I can’t wait, because BD is obviously a labor of love for everyone involved.

The preview looks solid: funny, and with an art style reminiscent of 70′s Marvel books.  As the Black Dynamite media empire expands into comics, cartoons, and I’m sure a sequel, I hope the creators embrace each medium.  For example, have the comic reference the cliches and stereotypes of black comic book characters, rather than continuing on exclusively with movie references.

If you’re interested in catching a Black Dynamite screening in your town, hit up the Black Dynamite page on Facebook, where announcements are regularly released.  And if you happen to live in the Denver area, Paul Matthews of ASR Innertainment will be putting on a blaxploitation film series, so stay tuned.

And now I hope my comic shop is finally open.  Because I have to know what happens on Slave Island.

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Program For Some Breaking News

by Jesse

This Week’s Comics will be postponed until tomorrow to bring you an important announcement.

For as long as we’ve been writing the blog I’ve been railing against escalating cover prices and saying how comic values are depreciating to the point at which it’s cheaper to wait two months and pick up issues in discount bins.  Well, I’ve decided to put that theory to the test and as of January 1st I’ve taken all Marvel and DC books* off my pull list, and for 2011 I will be buying them exclusively through back issue boxes or discount bins.

I’ll still be looking at new releases every week, though.  Rather than focusing solely on the comics I’ll be buying I’ll look at anything I have a more-than-passing interest in, then add it to my pull list.  I’ve also set up a new page (formatting still to be finalized) that will track every comic I’m looking for, how long it takes me to find it, and cover price vs what I pay for it.  Hopefully, if all goes as planned, I’ll be picking up more comics (and thereby keeping more current with the Marvel and DC Universes) but also spending much less on them.  Will I succeed? Fail?  Quit after 3 weeks?  Well, we’ll find out together.

Deciding to go through with this ignoble experiment has made me stop and take a look at the books I regularly get in order to give myself a little time to mourn.  Now that Grant Morrison’s Batman has priced itself out of my range, the only thing I think I’ll especially miss at the moment is Jonathan Hickman’s Fantastic Four.  Especially with all the speculation around the end of the “Three” storyline, I predict that issue will be hard to find, highly priced, or (most likely) both. Other than that…there’s not much of a sense of loss yet.

Stay tuned, we’ll see how long this experiment lasts.  This Week’s Comics will be up tomorrow.


*Indies get a pass because of how hard it is to find back issues after they’re released and because they sell a relatively low volume and need the continual support.

The All-New, All-Different, 12 Days of Christmas (DC Edition)

by Jesse
Christmas is here!  Time for friends, family, food, and many other things that start with the letter “F”.  But it’s also a time for song, and we here at the L.E.M.U.R. Comics Blog would like to share a new adaptation of an old classic as we present to you the DCU’s 12 Days of Christmas.


12 – Guardians of the Universe


11 – Super Friends

10 – Chinese Superheroes

9 –  Lantern Corps

8 – Shining Starmen

7 – Soldiers of Victory

6 – Forms of Kryptonite

5 – Red-breasted Robins

4 – Green Lanterns of Earth

3 – Blue Beetles

2 – Batmen

1 – Last Son of Krypton

The To-Read List

by Jesse

The other day I was talking to friend of the blog Andrew about how I finally started to read Scalped after meaning to for so long, and he suggested that we do a post about books we haven’t quite gotten around to yet.  This is a little different from our discussion on grails, because they’re not necessarily hard to find, it’s just  something we’ve been meaning to get to but haven’t.

I know I’ve been begging for suggestions a lot lately; I think with cover prices going up the way they are it’s harder to randomly sample.

  • Action Philosophers - This one is a bit of a cheat because I just snagged the first trade from the library, but only  barely.  After discovering how much I love Fred Van Lente’s work on Incredible Hercules and hearing him on the War Rocket Ajax podcast I’ve been pretty fired up to read this one.  Comedy and philosophy go together like beer and back bacon.  Just ask Monty Python.
  • Aztek: The UItimate Man - Okay, for this one there is some overlap with our column on grails, as #8 is one of the hardest books I’ve ever tried to find.  Back when Grant Morrison and Mark Millar were BFF’s they created Aztek, had him join the JLA, and uh…killed him.  I’ve read a couple issues, but I’m holding off on reading  anything new until I find this one.  last.  issue.
  • Avengers and Captain Marvel - Ever since the Infinity Gauntlet I’ve been a fan of the big purple guy.  I’m in the process of rounding up all of his original appearances from The Avengers and Captain Marvel.   And Marvel Two-In-One, and…
  • Grendel - Matt Wagner’s 80′s book Grendel has been built up into something of a legend.  Though trying out early-80′s indie books has never really worked out too well for me, this one has built up enough of a  mythology (and two Batman team-ups) that I feel obligated to give it a go.
  • Garth Ennis’ Punisher run – I loved Ennis’ first arc on The Punisher, “Welcome Back, Frank,” which got back to the core of the character and brought an all-new depth to the character.  I’ve never been a huge Punisher fan, though, so when he graduated to an ongoing series I couldn’t make the commitment. However, now that his work on the title has been complete for a while and collected in trades, I feel like the time has come to give it a real shot.  (The numerous accolades don’t hurt, either.)
  • Spawn (yes, Spawn) - I think I’ve mentioned before that I would pop in on Spawn from time to time just to check in, and got completely disenfranchised when #100 rolled around with no real change or direction.  I was able to stick with that for several years, until Todd McFarlane came to the same conclusion and brought things to a conclusion with the “Armageddon” storyline, and I just had to see how things wrapped up.  I’ve also picked up (and really enjoyed) a few of the recent “Endgame” issues, and that coupled with guest art by The Rob and Erik Larsen have put these arcs on my search list.  I just recently finished filling in all of the holes, so expect a review soon.
  • The Proteus Saga - I think this was only two issues, but the  characters always refer back to it in such horrified tones that I need to know what set them off.  Add in Claremont and Byrne at the top of their game, and you’ve (potentially) got a must-read.

Is there something you haven’t made it around to yet?  Got a question about something you’ve been meaning to try?  Hit us up in the comments section.

In Which I Solve the Digital Comics “Problem”

by Jesse

Digital comics aren’t really for me.  At least, they haven’t been. There are numerous reasons for this: although I read every comic I buy, I the collectibility of comics is part of the appeal for me and a digital comic will never appreciate in value. There’s no Mean Time Between Failure for comics, though there are for the hard drives we store them on. You can’t resell them, especially if you hate an issue.  And I’ve never much liked being chained to my desktop (or even a laptop) in order to read or watch anything.

However, with tablets, slates, iPads, and phones of all types making digital comics more convenient, I’m starting to come around.  There are still obstacles, though.  I don’t want to pay for a digital comic that I’ve already bought in a physical form.  In addition, because there’s no printing costs and I don’t really own a physical thing, I don’t want to pay as much as I would with a floppy.  Also, retailers are understandably skittish that digital comics will poach their sales, and without them I’m up a creek.

Fortunately for the comics industry, I’m a man of solutions.

Let’s get the easy one out of the way first: cost.  Digital comics should cost a fraction of what a print comic costs.  There will always be back-end costs (the creative team, hosting, bandwidth, etc) but as long as we’re digitizing print comics (ie: this is a secondary distribution model, not the primary one,) we can consider the creative expenses covered by the print side.  Therefore, digital comics can cost less and still make a profit.  Obviously everyone wants to pay as little as possible, but 50% of cover price seems like a realistic price to pay for a virtual copy of a physical object.

Keeping print lovers and retailers happy is a trickier proposition but I think I’ve stumbled upon a novel solution.  If  publishers put a code in each of their comics that allows the buyer to download one copy of that comic for free every six months it allows print customers to receive the benefits of digital comics without having to buy the same book twice or being forced to decide on one format.

There’s no cost to the publishers because the infrastructure is already in place for folks who want digital-only.  For the negligible cost of several megabytes worth of bandwidth they keep all parties happy.

Customers are happy because they’re getting a bonus for the ever-increasing cost of their comics and not having to choose between print and digital.  Retailers are happy because digital comics aren’t taking as much of their business, and because the code resets every six months the secondary market stays intact.  Granted, publishers don’t care about that because they make no money off of the secondary market, but it’s important to realize that retailers are  their customers, not comic readers.  By allowing the code to reset, even if you buy a back issue the code is valid in perpetuity. Piracy isn’t a large concern because anyone wanting to illegally download comics has plenty of other avenues to do the wrong thing, so publishers can focus on the honest and their lawyers (or superheroes) can focus on the dishonest.

Okay, maybe this is a little overly-simplistic.  Comixology takes their cut.  Marvel has their own subscription model.  But I think my key points are sound.  What did I get right?  Wrong?  Hit us up in the comments section.

Edit – Marvel’s just announced a deal to for offline comics at $1.49 each.  Hey, that’s half of $3, isn’t it?

Robin has two Batmen, Pt II

by Jesse

Matt had a great post the other day on the Two Batmen news.  I agree with everything he says but draw the opposite conclusion.  He links to Chris Sims’ article, which proves Sims really is the world’s foremost Batmanologist.  His article was well-reasoned and made me reconsider my point of view, but my first instinct is still to resist the idea.

A few caveats first.  Obviously, nobody has read anything, so this is all speculation and opinion based on our own biased interpretations and preferences for the character.  Second, Grant Morrison hasn’t steered us wrong yet, so I’m still going to give him the benefit of the doubt.
With that out of the way, I’m against the concept.  Sure, there are a million Green Lanterns (okay, only 3600) and 17 Flashes (okay, only 14), but here we’re talking about characters that were already reimagined in the 60′s, so the legacy aspect has already been with us for almost 50 years.  Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, even <ahem> Aquaman have stayed singular through the years, infinite Crises aside.

Yes, Batman is all about destroying crime, but he is also based on the idea of what one man can achieve.  By branching out as far as he is the concept changes to become about what one man can project manage. Morrison worked the concept well with the X-Corporation, but it’s not the same here.  Bruce Wayne managing  superheroes around the world?  Why bother?  Why not just put them all on the Wayne Foundation payroll, retire Batman, and let Bruce Wayne manage everything and live a normal life?

I’m eager to see how this all plays out, and Grant Morrison is right: this is just a fictional character we’re talking about.  But characterization is still critical and it’s crucial that the core of the character stay the same.

I’ve never really been a fan of the expanding Bat-Universe, what with the Sidekicks, Batgirls, Avenging Angels, and Cat People, but those folks come and go.  Institutionalizing the concept makes me nervous.