Frank Miller is a giant among comic book creators. He gave us
The Dark Knight Returns, which rewrote the book on Batman and comics in general. He also gave us seminal versions of Daredevil, Batman, and Wolverine. His
Sin City and
300 books are a triumph of design, if not subtlety.
Lately, though, he's taken a different path. He recently released
Holy Terror, which
in 2005 was to have featured Batman, but now features a renamed stand-in fighting Al-Qaeda. It has been nearly
universally panned as a piece of ugly, anti-Muslim propaganda.
Last week, Miller blasted the "Occupy" movement
on his blog, describing the participants as, "louts, thieves, and rapists," who, "can do nothing but harm America" and pointing to the looming threat of Al-Qaeda.
posted by Legomancer
on Nov 14, 2011 -
227 comments
The most recent issue of Superman, 712, was supposed to have a certain storyline, but it seems at the last minute, DC Comics decided to nix that storyline and instead publish a five-year-old story about Krypto the Super-Dog. These sorts of things happen, but
Comics Alliance opined (with some help from direct sources) that the change was due to DC not wanting to feature a Muslim superhero (the original story had Superman aiding "Sharif", a Muslim superhero.) The theory is, after the brouhahae surrounding
the Muslim Batman and
Superman renouncing his American citizenship, DC is hesitant to add any more fuel to the "DC hates America" fire.
"But," says comic-book muckraker
Rich Johnston, "I have inside DC stories that are telling me the REAL reason the story got nixed." He claims it's not about Muslims, it's about...well, just see for yourself what it's allegedly
really about.
posted by Legomancer
on Jun 23, 2011 -
55 comments
The Sacrifice! Valve Software releases a 4-part comic that chronicles what happens to Francis, Louis, Zoey, and Bill at the end of the original Left 4 Dead.
[more inside]
posted by kbanas
on Sep 22, 2010 -
15 comments
Before the internet, nerds communicated through
Amateur Press Associations (APAs). Members wrote and photocopied their individual 'zines on a subject, then mailed them to a central mailer, who collated and mailed the completed sets to all the members. The earliest APAs were founded by printers and amateur journalists.
The National Amateur Press Association is the oldest, founded in 1876. Later APAs were often the province of science fiction and comic book fans. They are
still around [pdf]. A lot more inside...
[more inside]
posted by marxchivist
on Aug 2, 2010 -
12 comments
Cleveland, Ohio, c.1932: A young American writer named Jerry Siegel teamed up with a young Canadian artist named Joe Shuster to create science fiction comic books. Out of this collaboration, a superhero was born. In 1938, the duo sold their creation to Detective Comics, and the rest, as they say,
is history.
Ten years and several lawsuits later, Siegel and Shuster, after being fired from the company they had helped to build, signed on with a fledgling comics publisher called Magazine Enterprises. Once again, their collaboration yielded fruit. But... would lightning strike twice?
Sadly, it would not.
posted by Atom Eyes
on Aug 13, 2009 -
62 comments
Scans_daily is was a LiveJournal community specializing in posting scans of comic books, both older and current ones. On Friday night, however, the community got
suspended, allegedly because comics author
Peter David complained that one of his books was posted to it (David denies this in the linked blog post.)
Regulars at scans_daily are
outraged that the community has been shut down, claiming that the ability for people to "try before they buy" encouraged readers to buy more comics. Other comics fans are not so kind and cite that, for better or worse, the community was knowingly violating copyright.
The community
has resurfaced and is at least discussing what changes should be made to avoid this "unpleasantness" in the future and make the community more "copyright friendly".
We've seen these issues come up with movies, games, and music; now it's comic books' turn to try to figure out what to do about the internet and digital technology.
posted by Legomancer
on Feb 28, 2009 -
49 comments
"In Wells, God writes the human narrative, in Moore's version, it is humanity that ghostwrites its own story and credits it to God. The decision left to humanity is whether it will script its own history consciously, or allow the narrative to be shaped secretly by leaders and figures of authority..." The
historiography (alternate, longer
explanation) of
Alan Moore. Warning: long.
[more inside]
posted by flibbertigibbet
on Aug 14, 2008 -
14 comments
