We celebrate the return of the War Rocket Ajax/Comics Alliance roundtable and the close of our unofficial Ladies’ Month by welcoming CA Editor-in-Chief Laura Hudson and correspondent Bethany Fong to the show to discuss just how DC fared with the past month of new number-one issues, potential tattoo ideas, what we’d cancel from the New 52, best-and-worst CA moments, and a ton more! Plus, find out what has laid Chris Sims so low this past week and find out what the iTunes hold-up is.
The Rundown
- Follow Laura and Bethany on Twitter, and be sure to check out Bethany’s two Tumblrs!
- The fake comic cover above, by artist Brodie Brockie, comes from the super-awesome DC Fifty-Too! blog. There’s a ton of great art there, and so many versions of titles that would have been great to see in the real DC reboot.
- This poll: A sign of a world in the gutter or a big hoax? U-decide!
- Creator Dan Harmon saw to it that Community‘s writing staff was half women.
- Be sure to read Chris’ review of Flash #1.
- What would Chris Sims get tattooed on his back? This.
- Tom Fowler’s illustration of Berko Shemets from The Yiddish Policeman’s Union is amazing.
- iTunes says it could take as long as three weeks to get the show into the store. Sorry, guys.
- Chris’ checks and recs: Computer woes; his new comic, Dracula the Unconquered
- Matt’s checks and recs: Seeing Black Star in concert, The Yiddish Policeman’s Union
- Music used: Black Star, “Brown Skin Lady”
Comics Talked About:
- The last batch of DC reboot #1s
- Amazing Spider-Man #670
- Secret Avengers #17
Shameless Self Promotion:
- The @FakeAPStylebook book, Write More Good, is still available to buy right here!
- Check out Sims at The ISB, Comics Alliance, his webcomic Awesome Hospital, as well as the complete Solomon Stone at ActionAgeComics.
- Check out Matt’s Fake e-Etiquette Twitter feed, his webcomic Copernicus Jones, his Tumblr and the ISS.
- Check out all Euge’s music at AdamWarRock.com.
- Check out Max Huffman on Twitter, or at his site.
- Check out Rusty Shackles on Twitter, or at his site.
Remember to send in your listener questions to warrocketpodcast_at_gmail.com!
In the same way that movie ticket prices have shot up a lot over the last century, comics have greatly improved production value compared to 40 or 50 years ago. Films and comics cost more to make, and they are much more awesome as a result, so their prices have risen faster than inflation.
Ultimate Spider-man #1 felt like it should have been longer than 21pp + a 9/11 memorial back-up. After all, the original USM 1 was like 40 pages or something. But there weren’t any ads in this all-new Spider-man relaunch.
This podcast got me thinking about the audience DC seems to be targeting with the reboot & it’s really puzzling to me. I think they have the chance to & would want to draw in younger readers, which could be the true hope of sustaining the superhero comic market, but that’s obviously not the case since it seems the content is still geared towards males that are 18-35. I don’t think there were many comics I’ve read of the new DC that I would hand to a kid under 10 (which is around the time I started to get into comics). I think Wonder Woman is a good example. It’s a comic I actually liked, but I thought the horse beheading scene might be too much for a younger reader which is a shame because WW can be portrayed as a strong female character that you wouldn’t mind your daughter having as her hero. I also think Catwoman could have been written without losing the sexuality of the character while appealing to anyone (am I remembering wrong, but wasn’t the Brubaker/Cooke version of Catwoman just like that?). But instead we got a version that is appealing to a specific reader (hint, it’s not women or children).
I’d also mention how baffling it is to alienate the potential female audience with Catwoman & Red Hood but Laura said it sooooo much better than anyone could.
I think DC is wasting a chance on making this reboot really work financially (in terms of sustaining sales in the long term) & creatively while really expanding their audience but they seem content to just pull in a wider array of the same type of comic reader & it makes me despair for comics especially because we lost good books like Bryan Q. Miller’s Batgirl & Xombi for the same shit under the guise of massive change.