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[ReturnoftheMack]

I'm no big JMS fan, but this was a stupid comparison:

(This is the rough equivalent of having Z-movie director Uwe Boll film a studio-funded prequel to Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver.")

[******]

I enjoyed it when he referred to JMS as a former He-Man scripter.

[BlueStreak]

I enjoyed it when he referred to JMS as a former He-Man scripter.

The guy REALLY hates JMS and OMD.

[bkthomson]

I enjoyed it when he referred to JMS as a former He-Man scripter.

It was nice to see JMS get slapped.

[ReturnoftheMack]

He has some good points. He has some bad points.

He also managed to write a douchey article trashing people for no reason while he was supposed to be writing a book review. It wouldn't surprise me if he posted here already because that is exactly what would happen.

"Hey Herald, write a book review about this new book about comics."
"Ok. This book was terrible. It's because Dan and the Gang raped the childhoods of every young boy in history. Dan and the Gang love having orgies with raped childhoods. Something something tropes something tropes Dan and the Gang tropes."

I really would like to hear more about the book than this guy's views on comics.

And to see what a douche he is, take a look at his fight with JMS on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/straczynski

What a douchebag this guy is.

[ReturnoftheMack]

Tim Marchman ‏@TimMarchman
@MixedTapeFilm If I were described as a former smoothie maker I'd laugh and shrug. I guarantee you're more worked up about this than he is.

JMichael Straczynski ‏@straczynski
@TimMarchman @MixedTapeFilm I guess if you'd said BAFTA nominee or Hugo winner or Eisner winner that wouldn't have helped your thesis, huh?

Tim Marchman ‏@TimMarchman
@straczynski @mixedtapefilm I could have mentioned awards or She-Ra, and the comics would remain bad.

Tim Marchman ‏@TimMarchman
@straczynski @mixedtapefilm I could have mentioned awards or She-Ra, and the comics would remain bad.

JMichael Straczynski ‏@straczynski
@TimMarchman @mixedtapefilm Bad in your opinion. Not in the opinion of others. You assume yourself the center of the universe. Not true.

Tim Marchman ‏@TimMarchman
@straczynski @mixedtapefilm Along with works of Ellington, Keaton, the US put the comic where Green Goblin boned Gwen Stacy in time capsule

JMichael Straczynski ‏@straczynski
@TimMarchman @mixedtapefilm My final word: your behavior was dickish. I became a better writer after He-Man. You will always be a dick

[BlueStreak]

Along with works of Ellington, Keaton, the US put the comic where Green Goblin boned Gwen Stacy in time capsule.

Bendis is an okay genre dude at his best who has written a ton of utterly unreadable 'event' stuff

Cape comics are in dire shape bc they pander to fetishists and bc sleazy biz practices have driven off top talent.

This is hilarious.

[******]

Tim Marchman ‏@TimMarchman
@straczynski @mixedtapefilm Along with works of Ellington, Keaton, the US put the comic where Green Goblin boned Gwen Stacy in time capsule

[Lord Ice]

Regardless of whether I agree to the article, how far has the Journal fallen to devote any time and space on something like this?

[Ntikrst]

I'm no big JMS fan, but this was a stupid comparison:

(This is the rough equivalent of having Z-movie director Uwe Boll film a studio-funded prequel to Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver.")

I love to disagree, because that's a brilliant comparison.

Tim Marchman ‏@TimMarchman
@MixedTapeFilm If I were described as a former smoothie maker I'd laugh and shrug. I guarantee you're more worked up about this than he is.

JMichael Straczynski ‏@straczynski
@TimMarchman @MixedTapeFilm I guess if you'd said BAFTA nominee or Hugo winner or Eisner winner that wouldn't have helped your thesis, huh?

Tim Marchman ‏@TimMarchman
@straczynski @mixedtapefilm I could have mentioned awards or She-Ra, and the comics would remain bad.

Tim Marchman ‏@TimMarchman
@straczynski @mixedtapefilm I could have mentioned awards or She-Ra, and the comics would remain bad.

JMichael Straczynski ‏@straczynski
@TimMarchman @mixedtapefilm Bad in your opinion. Not in the opinion of others. You assume yourself the center of the universe. Not true.

Tim Marchman ‏@TimMarchman
@straczynski @mixedtapefilm Along with works of Ellington, Keaton, the US put the comic where Green Goblin boned Gwen Stacy in time capsule

JMichael Straczynski ‏@straczynski
@TimMarchman @mixedtapefilm My final word: your behavior was dickish. I became a better writer after He-Man. You will always be a dick

That's hilarious, good for Marchman and Fuck JMS! He deserves it all and more, scabs like him are ruining the comic book industry.

Great article, it makes me think there's hope yet that the industry can be purged of the corporate mindset and their sycophant flunkies that plague the editorial cluster fuck of the big Two.

[Cat-Scratch]

The venerable newspaper points out a number of flaws in today's comics.


In last Friday's edition of The Wall Street Journal, Tim Marchman reviewed Leaping Tall Buildings, a history of the American comic book industry which profiled a number of influential creators ranging from Joe Simon to Alex Ross.  Rather than focus on the book, Marchman instead chose to rip into the comic book industry, pointing out the various flaws of modern comics and placing the blame for the decline of the industry on prominent comic powers such as Brian Michael Bendis, Joe Quesada, Grant Morrison and Dan DiDio.

Among the highlights of the article is Marchman describing the Dark Phoenix Saga as an ancient story, declaring Image to be a boutique publishing house, describing modern day storytellers as "pretentious autodidacts" and mocking the hell out of J.Michael Straczynski for his work on Before Watchmen. It's a pretty damning article that only makes me want to read Leaping Tall Buildings more, if only to see exactly how the Great One is characterized in the novel.

Judging from the cynical and jaded tone of the review, there's only one conclusion to be made: Tim Marchman is obviously an Outhouse reader.  One can only hope that Marchman will dedicate a follow up article to the slow death of Vertigo or how X-Men Forever and the EXTREME Universe will save the industry.



Source: Wall Street Journal
Written or Contributed by: ThanosCopter


http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/news/comics-news/19611-wall-street-journal-trashes-comic-book-industry.html/

I LIKE THIS GUY!!!

*Goes back to reading rest of article and maybe thread*

[Cat-Scratch]

Needs editing. Missing words completely ruined the Avengers vs. X-Men/AvX Versus point he was trying to make.

I don't think you can lay the blame for the industry's current woes at any creator's feet (whether they're JMS, Morrison, Bendis, or Greg Land). No one sets out to do bad work- they're clearly trying. If there's a problem, it's farther up the chain.

No, they just set out to make a pay check and not work too hard while doing it.

[SilverPhoenix]

The guy REALLY hates JMS and OMD.

Sentiments that I share with this writer, even if the source of my disdain for the former isn't exactly connected to the latter.

Beyond that, here are the things I take away from this article.

1) I'm not sure how necessary it was for him to roast Marvel and DC on a Spitfire in this review. Yeah I get that "controversy creates hits", but there's a way to do it without sounding like a total dick.

2) He really needs to do more research. Yes, Avengers Vs. X-Men is total nonsense, but not getting the names of the main books correct is inexcusable. All because Marvel and DC don't care enough to get the little things right (which leads into bigger problems) doesn't mean you have to follow their example.

3) Paragraphs 12 - 14 are the strongest part of the article. Whether it's talking about how the younger generation has all but forsaken Marvel and DC from a creative standpoint (which is different from working for them), to mentioning how the Summer's most prolific comics involve characters that are approaching 30 at their youngest, he's completely spot on.

It's also something many of us have posted about on this forum in similar length, meaning that (for me at least) he's preaching to the choir.

4) The fact that the book is said to damn many contemporary Fanboy Icons in Brian Michael Bendis, Joe Quesada, Grant Morrison and Dan DiDio makes me want to read the book more than ever now.

5) For an industry that feeds on its own past to go 20 years without fresh characters or concepts is death. - This would be a poignant statement if it didn't feed into my one pet peeve.

The fact that people equate the Comic Book Industry with being solely Marvel and DC.

Yes, I understand that Marvel and DC produce an overwhelming amount of the output in this medium, but when you sing the praises of the Independent creator in Paragraphs 12 - 14 and 16, then go around and say that, it's leaves a mixed message that weakens your overall statement.*

From where I sit this could've been a much better article if the writer stopped to think and shored up his weak points. He wrote this the throes of impotent rage and it showed.

I know someone is going to say that I may have misinterpreted what he said, so I am going to reserve the right to feel differently about this after taking some time to think about it. However, being dismissive of the actual comics that actually try and do something different doesn't help anyone.

[ElijahSnowFan]

5) For an industry that feeds on its own past to go 20 years without fresh characters or concepts is death. - This would be a poignant statement if it didn't feed into my one pet peeve.

The fact that people equate the Comic Book Industry with being solely Marvel and DC.

Yes, I understand that Marvel and DC produce an overwhelming amount of the output in this medium, but when you sing the praises of the Independent creator in Paragraphs 12 - 14 and 16, then go around and say that, it's leaves a mixed message that weakens your overall statement.*

I have no idea why people do this, as well.

I've always read more than Marvel and DC -- other material has ALWAYS been available, and it has almost always been as good as or better than what Marvel and DC have put out. When I was younger, people flocked to that stuff, and you can still find it, and it's still just as good or better.

Except...Image's early days. How this guy doesn't eviscerate what Image was when it started is beyond me. Image in 1992 -- with poster child Rob Liefeld -- did as much to damage this industry creatively as they did to advance the cause of creator rights. It could easily be argued that comics as a whole haven't been the same since 1992, and that's for better AND worse.

You can be a fan of Rob Liefeld's and still acknowledge how horrific his work was at Image. Those two things aren't incompatible. You can be a fan of Jim Lee's and Marc Silvestri's and acknowledge that their inability to provide quality work AND ON TIME was truly harmful in the early-to-mid 90s, and it set back the industry.

It doesn't mean they are bad people. But Michael Jordan with the Bulls was not the same Michael Jordan with the Wizards. People can, and should, acknowledge what is good and bad about a person's career.

[BlueStreak]

I think that the big two are inevitably tied together with the rest of the industry because how dependent the industry is on them to perform.

If Image, Dark Horse, IDW or any other publisher were to go out of business, the industry would be able to survive. The licensed properties would find a new home, and the creator-owned stuff would simply find a new publisher. Some stores would take a hit, but most wouldn't go under because they weren't selling any more issues of the Walking Dead, for instance.

If Marvel or DC were to go under (as in stop producing comics), the industry would be fucked. Considering that most stores rely on Marvel/DC for about 90% of their sales, it's easy to see why they're considered to be the entire industry. Should Marvel or DC stop publishing new comics, the industry would largely collapse within a year.