Okay, time to post about the subject that finally convinced me to start a blog: DC's decision to reboot all their titles back to #1. I'm not one of those folks on the DCMB that's screaming "I'm gonna quit, you guys suck!" or whatever, but I am a little taken aback that they're smacking the reset button with very little preamble. Yeah, I know, it's just a "soft reboot", they're not erasing everything. I'll believe that when the new stuff hits in September. Right now, I feel like I'm sneaking alongside a wall, and around the corner there's all this clamor going on that I can't quite make out and I'm not sure if I want to. Yep, this fangirl is beginning to wonder if she should cut her losses and run the other way.
I should be used to these sort of shakeups, since they've been going on literally as long as I've been reading comics. Like I said before, I got my first taste in 1984, which is when Crisis On Infinite Earths hit. For a full year, DC slowly tore down then rebuilt their whole universe. Funny thing is, out of that entire stack of comics my dad gave me, very few contained references to Crisis (I somehow managed to acquire no issues of that historic 12-part miniseries), so all I knew was that, somewhere off-panel, something very big was happening. It wasn't until 5 years later, when I became a regular reader, that I learned what "pre-Crisis" meant, and that most of my grounding in comics came from there. I had to re-learn some things (Supergirl and Superboy never existed?), and a few post-Crisis changes were a bit too drastic for me (What the heck happened to the Legion of Super-Heroes?!? Timber Wolf's a big furry monster!), but for the most part, I managed well enough. Batman was still Batman, Jason Todd was still a jerk (I didn't get to vote for his death, but I didn't exactly cry over it either), and Swamp Thing was still pretty darn cool for a guy made out of algae.
As years went on, I dug into quarter boxes and got all 12 parts of COIE (yep, quarter boxes...seeing as how there was no trade edition back then, I got real lucky), as well as all the issues of Who's Who, including the updates and the looseleaf version. I absorbed the stuff real easy, learning the differences between pre- and post-Crisis so I could flip between eras without getting lost. I still use those books as reference when certain things come up, like what were the circumstances behind Barry Allen killing Reverse-Flash (yes, I actually looked that item up last week). By the time Zero Hour rolled around in '94, I knew what to expect: things are going to change, be ready for it. I agreed with many of the tweaks, especially since it gave me a version of the LSH that I quickly grew to love, but like Crisis, we all knew it was coming, it was right there in the storylines. Even with Infinite Crisis ten years later, we had warning, and we got to watch it unfold. Didn't think that all of DC's decisions this time around were the proper ones, but they carried it off decently enough.
Unfortunately, this is also when I began to lose faith in the DCU in general. Just before the "One Year Later" jump, I found myself enjoying my regular titles less and less. Green Lantern came through it fine, Jonah Hex was completely unaffected (one of the perks of living in the past!), but Batman and all the other Gothamites? It became of downward spiral of storylines that I just didn't give a darn about. Nightwing became the first casualty for me, and I dropped his title with little hesitation. Then they announced that Bruce Wayne was going to die, and that both the Robin and Birds of Prey titles were getting cancelled, and I didn't flinch. "Thanks for making the decision for me," I said. "I just needed a good excuse to let them go." You know how strange it was to go into the shop those first couple of months and not have a Bat-title waiting in the pull box for me? I'd been living in Gotham City for twenty years, so you'd think it'd be a hard adjustment, but it wasn't. I will admit, I bought the first dozen issues or so of Batgirl when they re-launched it with Stephanie Brown under the cowl, but it never caught on with me, and I just recently took those issues out of the longbox and tossed them into the sell bag for the next con, along with all the OYL Nightwing issues. God, I used to be hardcore for the Bat, and now I look at the newer stuff and just shrug.
I got a bolster of hope after Blackest Night/Brightest Day came out. I was enjoying the new BoP title, thanks to Gail Simone writing them again (my disappointment with the previous version didn't begin until after she left), Green Lantern was still moving along at a good pace, and Jonah Hex had just passed fifty issues (Fifty! We were all afraid it wouldn't last twelve!). Then the bombshell comes: "Hey, you know that Flashpoint miniseries you've been ignoring? Well, guess what? We using it as an excuse to reboot! All those titles we just started up after Brightest Day...GONE! All the anticipation over Batman and Superman closing in on the 1,000-issue mark...GONE! No time to adjust, no time to wrap up storylines, we're just gonna throw all the readers into the deep end of the pool, and if you can't swim...oh well, we wanted to bring in new readers anyways!"
So here I am, sneaking alongside a wall, and around the corner there's all this clamor going on that I can't quite make out and I'm not sure if I want to. Do I stay or do I go? All I know is that my husband keeps whispering "Excelsior!" whenever I talk with him about this. I'm not ready to fully expatriate, though (I have been buying Captain America for a few years and enjoying the heck out of it, but that's as far into Marvel territory as I've gone with my own pulls recently). I want to stay in the DCU to some degree, I'm just not sure which section of it I'll be living in.
That's the subject of my next post: The lay of the land in DCNu as can be seen in the solicits, and what corners of it look inviting. It'll also be my first attempt at putting up pictures on this blog-thingy. Fingers crossed!
Sunday, June 26, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
I betcha Hal Jordon and Hank Hall got tons of this in their medicine cabinets.
From One Minute Galactica, maker of Nerdy Instructional Films and other fine products.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Secret Origin Time!
Okay, not really all that secret. Lots of people know this stuff, I just needed a dang title.
When I was a wee fangirl growing up in Michigan, my dad worked for a toy company that later became part of Fundimensions, which was an umbrella name for MPC, Lionel Trains, and Craft Master in the mid-80s. So, unlike most kids whose only exposure to the toy industry was TV commercials and the aisles of Toys R Us, I got pretty familiar right off the bat with the concept of licensed products. That's not to say that I wasn't duped into liking dumb things just because a pitchman told me to, but I also knew that, when my dad went to New York not long after my birthday every year, he was going to Toy Fair to check out what was new and hot before it even hit the shelf. I recall begging him to take me a few times, but it never worked, and in my head, New York soon became this mythical land that revolved around FAO Schwartz. However, my dad would sometimes bring his work home with him: I still remember the night we played with a remote control R2-D2 that one of his buddies at Kenner loaned to him. I have an RC Dalek these days that could probably run circles around it, but when I was three, this was the end-all-be-all pinnacle of coolness. I treasured toys of all shapes and sizes, and would love to just look at the darn things in catalogs.
So that's the first link in the fangirl chain. The second goes back to that R2-D2 toy: the mass-merchandise phenomenon that is Star Wars. Again, I was three when this came out, and I shall be perfectly honest when I say that I screamed like the little girl I was when we saw it the theatre. DARTH VADER SCARED ME TO DEATH! Every time I peeked out from behind my fingers, there he was, glaring at me from the screen. I actually refused to see The Empire Strikes Back when it came out because I knew Darth freakin' Vader was waiting to get me. Mind you, this didn't stop me from playing with the action figures or reading the storybooks, but to go sit in that darkened auditorium? No way no how! Thank God I mellowed out by the time I got to elementary school, because some parent had managed to get a hold of the first reel of Star Wars, and that became a special treat over the years: going down to the lunchroom/gym, sitting cross-legged on the floor, and watching Luke and Han and Princess Leia get projected onto the cement wall (note to all you young'uns: this occurred in the days before home video, so this was the ONLY way to see the movie once it was out of the theatre!).
The third link comes from my mom, who taught me how to draw Snoopy when I was little. Like most kids, I gravitated towards cartoons (both animated and in the newspaper), and by the age of 5, I had a goal of becoming a cartoonist (I figured I'd squeeze it in when I wasn't being an astronaut). Because of this, I studied linework and tried to copy my favorites until I got a style down that fit me good (I also made a brief living one summer by selling my drawings to neighborhood kids...the venture collapsed within a week). I've become a pretty fair artist since then, and I really did consider making a career out of it when I entered college, but I couldn't stand being told what to draw day after day by my teachers. I still love looking at vintage newspaper strips and checking out what new 'toons are on TV, though the plotlines of some are just a tad too out there for my tastes.
The fourth and strongest link in my fangirliness is what sent me right over the edge. One of the licenses that my dad's company had the rights to was DC Comics: they'd make models and magic-marker posters and rubber-stamp kits of Superman and Batman and all their Spandex buddies, and due to this, DC would occasionally send the company free comics. These were totally random issues of whatever DC was printing the month they made the package, and one day in 1984, my dad decided to bring one of these comp packages home for us kids. Now, keep in mind that the only comic book I'd seen before this was an Uncle Scrooge that I swiped from a friend of mine. So here I am, a 10-year-old wannabe cartoonist with a love of overblown adventure stories, looking at this foot-high pile of reading material. I don't know how they managed to pry the things outta my hands so I could eat dinner! I READ EVERYTHING. Even the stuff I probably shouldn't have been reading at age 10 like Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run and the Mature Readers-labeled Vigilante. I didn't understand half of what was going on, but dangit, I was going to learn!
And learn I did. Any hopes my mom had of getting me to act like a normal little girl were irrevocably shattered (not that things were looking so hot before that: I supposedly announced to her around the age of 6 that I would never put on a dress again or wear my hair in pigtails). My already-healthy reading appetite kicked into high gear when we moved to a town that had both a public library and a comic book store within walking distance...and this was in 1989, the Year of the Batman, so I went absolutely bonkers and never looked back. I still own about 80% of what I've termed "the original stack", and many of my current favorite comics were introduced to me there. I'll give you a breakdown of the particulars in later posts.
So that's my secret origin. A bunch of random events that blended together to create the craziest fangirl known to the Interwebs. Maybe not the most unique origin, but it's the only one I've got.
When I was a wee fangirl growing up in Michigan, my dad worked for a toy company that later became part of Fundimensions, which was an umbrella name for MPC, Lionel Trains, and Craft Master in the mid-80s. So, unlike most kids whose only exposure to the toy industry was TV commercials and the aisles of Toys R Us, I got pretty familiar right off the bat with the concept of licensed products. That's not to say that I wasn't duped into liking dumb things just because a pitchman told me to, but I also knew that, when my dad went to New York not long after my birthday every year, he was going to Toy Fair to check out what was new and hot before it even hit the shelf. I recall begging him to take me a few times, but it never worked, and in my head, New York soon became this mythical land that revolved around FAO Schwartz. However, my dad would sometimes bring his work home with him: I still remember the night we played with a remote control R2-D2 that one of his buddies at Kenner loaned to him. I have an RC Dalek these days that could probably run circles around it, but when I was three, this was the end-all-be-all pinnacle of coolness. I treasured toys of all shapes and sizes, and would love to just look at the darn things in catalogs.
So that's the first link in the fangirl chain. The second goes back to that R2-D2 toy: the mass-merchandise phenomenon that is Star Wars. Again, I was three when this came out, and I shall be perfectly honest when I say that I screamed like the little girl I was when we saw it the theatre. DARTH VADER SCARED ME TO DEATH! Every time I peeked out from behind my fingers, there he was, glaring at me from the screen. I actually refused to see The Empire Strikes Back when it came out because I knew Darth freakin' Vader was waiting to get me. Mind you, this didn't stop me from playing with the action figures or reading the storybooks, but to go sit in that darkened auditorium? No way no how! Thank God I mellowed out by the time I got to elementary school, because some parent had managed to get a hold of the first reel of Star Wars, and that became a special treat over the years: going down to the lunchroom/gym, sitting cross-legged on the floor, and watching Luke and Han and Princess Leia get projected onto the cement wall (note to all you young'uns: this occurred in the days before home video, so this was the ONLY way to see the movie once it was out of the theatre!).
The third link comes from my mom, who taught me how to draw Snoopy when I was little. Like most kids, I gravitated towards cartoons (both animated and in the newspaper), and by the age of 5, I had a goal of becoming a cartoonist (I figured I'd squeeze it in when I wasn't being an astronaut). Because of this, I studied linework and tried to copy my favorites until I got a style down that fit me good (I also made a brief living one summer by selling my drawings to neighborhood kids...the venture collapsed within a week). I've become a pretty fair artist since then, and I really did consider making a career out of it when I entered college, but I couldn't stand being told what to draw day after day by my teachers. I still love looking at vintage newspaper strips and checking out what new 'toons are on TV, though the plotlines of some are just a tad too out there for my tastes.
The fourth and strongest link in my fangirliness is what sent me right over the edge. One of the licenses that my dad's company had the rights to was DC Comics: they'd make models and magic-marker posters and rubber-stamp kits of Superman and Batman and all their Spandex buddies, and due to this, DC would occasionally send the company free comics. These were totally random issues of whatever DC was printing the month they made the package, and one day in 1984, my dad decided to bring one of these comp packages home for us kids. Now, keep in mind that the only comic book I'd seen before this was an Uncle Scrooge that I swiped from a friend of mine. So here I am, a 10-year-old wannabe cartoonist with a love of overblown adventure stories, looking at this foot-high pile of reading material. I don't know how they managed to pry the things outta my hands so I could eat dinner! I READ EVERYTHING. Even the stuff I probably shouldn't have been reading at age 10 like Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run and the Mature Readers-labeled Vigilante. I didn't understand half of what was going on, but dangit, I was going to learn!
And learn I did. Any hopes my mom had of getting me to act like a normal little girl were irrevocably shattered (not that things were looking so hot before that: I supposedly announced to her around the age of 6 that I would never put on a dress again or wear my hair in pigtails). My already-healthy reading appetite kicked into high gear when we moved to a town that had both a public library and a comic book store within walking distance...and this was in 1989, the Year of the Batman, so I went absolutely bonkers and never looked back. I still own about 80% of what I've termed "the original stack", and many of my current favorite comics were introduced to me there. I'll give you a breakdown of the particulars in later posts.
So that's my secret origin. A bunch of random events that blended together to create the craziest fangirl known to the Interwebs. Maybe not the most unique origin, but it's the only one I've got.
Friday, June 17, 2011
There's a first time for everything, and I reckon this is mine.
I've been debating about doing one of these blog dinguses for a couple of years, mainly because it seems like everybody else is yammering away in public forums except for me. I don't do Facebook or Twitter or whatever other social network invention has sprung up. I'm an introvert most times, and I only really reach out when I feel like I have something to say that isn't just noise. I'm also a writer (or at least I'm trying to be), so when I do say things, I can be a tad long-winded. That's an up-front warning, kids.
Overall, though, I'm a fangirl. I can quote from various corners of pop culture without blinking an eye. I can walk into a comic book store and not look lost, and am equally comfortable at a horror movie convention (though there are some aspects of the genre that can make me feel faint...I'm not so good with blood sometimes). And I can even recognize things that haven't been popular since my parents (and possibly my grandparents) were in school. This isn't a matter of studying, mind you, it's just that stupid junk sticks in my head. That's my superpower, if you will. I probably couldn't tell you what I had for dinner last night, but I can identify at least half the members of the Legion of Super-Heroes (both pre-Crisis and post-Zero Hour variations).
So that's gonna be the main thrust of this blog. Me poking at various and sundry aspects of comics and movies and what-have-you, along with the continuing adventures of my attempts at getting published. I promise to never talk at length about my job or my family problems or some other mundane subject (not unless it's relevant to, say, my latest trip to Motor City Comic Con). If I get boring, feel free to tell me so in the Comments section. Also, bear with me as I learn the ropes of this "blogging" thing. The appearance of this page is probably gonna change about a half-dozen times before I get it that way I want it.
That's all for now. Go look at something else on the Interwebs for a bit while I'm busy redecorating.
Overall, though, I'm a fangirl. I can quote from various corners of pop culture without blinking an eye. I can walk into a comic book store and not look lost, and am equally comfortable at a horror movie convention (though there are some aspects of the genre that can make me feel faint...I'm not so good with blood sometimes). And I can even recognize things that haven't been popular since my parents (and possibly my grandparents) were in school. This isn't a matter of studying, mind you, it's just that stupid junk sticks in my head. That's my superpower, if you will. I probably couldn't tell you what I had for dinner last night, but I can identify at least half the members of the Legion of Super-Heroes (both pre-Crisis and post-Zero Hour variations).
So that's gonna be the main thrust of this blog. Me poking at various and sundry aspects of comics and movies and what-have-you, along with the continuing adventures of my attempts at getting published. I promise to never talk at length about my job or my family problems or some other mundane subject (not unless it's relevant to, say, my latest trip to Motor City Comic Con). If I get boring, feel free to tell me so in the Comments section. Also, bear with me as I learn the ropes of this "blogging" thing. The appearance of this page is probably gonna change about a half-dozen times before I get it that way I want it.
That's all for now. Go look at something else on the Interwebs for a bit while I'm busy redecorating.
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