Markley’s Fevered Brain: Fixing a Hole…

Wayne Markley

Wayne Markley


by Wayne Markley

OK, I am not going to really fix a hole, but I am going to discuss some random issues in the comic book world that bother me and review and recommend some recent releases I really enjoyed and I think you should take the time to look at also. (And for those of you who are still confused, fixing a hole is a reference to a Beatles song). As a rule of thumb, I try not to be too negative in this blog, even though at times I do admit my pessimism slips in. I have very mixed feelings about the current comic market as I do not see a bright future, for the traditional comic store at least. But on the other hand, it is one of the greatest times to read comics or collect them. There are some excellent current titles, as well as a seemingly new discovery of the rich history of comics. Plus, so much of this history is being reprinted for the first time allowing us to see material that we would have otherwise never been aware of.

First off, I fear that comics are going the way of most print media. Book and magazine have both been hit with dramatic drops in sales of printed copies and are being replaced by digital download. Books have made a fairly smooth transition over to digital with e-book sales growing at a steady pace. But as fast as the digital market grows, the print sales fall. Magazines are hit harder because since the beginning of time magazines have depended on ad sales and subscriptions to maintain profitability, and with digital magazines it is far harder to get people to subscribe for any real money or to sell ads. In addition, what is helping to kill magazines is almost any information you could at one time only find in a magazine, you can almost always find for free on the web. Over the last six months both Marvel and DC have been pushing digital comics hard. They are far cheaper than printing comic books, and to be honest, on an IPad or an Amazon Kindle Fire, comics look amazing. The colors are stunning and the art really stands out. Personally I still like the printed page, but I fear over time there will be fewer and fewer printed comics. This in turn will lead to less and less printed titles till there are only a few superhero titles left. I suspect there will always be a small hardcore group that will still want the floppies, but like vinyl records, I fear we are going to a small but dedicated group.

Steve Canyon Vol. 1

Steve Canyon Vol. 1


On the positive side, IDW just released the first volume of the complete Steve Canyon. What a beautiful book. It covers the first two years of this amazing strip and it shows what a master and genius Milton Caniff was. By the time Caniff moved over to Steve Canyon he had already become a polished master of art and storytelling. While Terry and the Pirates was great, Steve Canyon is miles ahead of it. This is adventure storytelling at its best. One thing I really like about this collection is IDW has reprinted both the daily strips and also the Sunday strips, which are presented in color. And the reproduction is stunning. This is at least the fourth attempt to collect the complete Steve Canyon and I personally hope IDW gets it done where the others have failed. Editor Dean Mullaney deserves a ton of credit for the work he puts into these comic strip collections. They are preserving a lost aspect of the field of comics.

Over the last few weeks, mostly among the DC New 52 books, I have noticed a trend that really bothers me. That is the use of splash pages. I am for a splash page to make a point, or maybe a double page spread for something really cosmic and huge, like Jack Kirby used to do. But in at least five different books over a two week period there were at least two splash pages in a 22 page story. The worst being Justice League #4 which had 5 splash pages. I will be the first to admit that Jim Lee is a fantastic artist, and a very nice guy, but when you are paying $3.99 for a 22 page story and 5 of those pages are splash pages, I feel ripped off. This goes towards my bigger issue of the pricing of comics, they are too expensive, and the value you get for your money is going down all the time. I can see charging $3.99 for JL since you are getting one of the best artists out there with Jim Lee, but he is taking short cuts to make a deadline, and he is the first one to miss the 52 promise of shipping on time (JL #5 shipped a week late). Jim is not even drawing Justice League issues# 6-8. I fully understand that he has a lot on his plate as co-publisher and his art style is time intensive, but given that he should not be on a monthly book. You are sucked into the story with the stunning art and then they change artists shortly into the run. By this time you are already collecting the book now at a higher price and not many are going to stop buying it with Jim being gone (after all we are creatures of habit). Even if he does return, I still consider this almost akin to bait and switch, which I know technically it isn’t, but it feels that way to me. Let Jim do special projects than can be scheduled when he is done, and not use him as a gimmick to boost sales in the short term. And yes, Marvel is guilty of this also.

Justice League International #7

Justice League International #7


On a positive note I am really pleased to see some fun returning to comics. Admittedly it is hard to find at times, but there are a number of fun books out there that are not dark and violent and really remind me of when comics were fun to read. Two of the best of this group is Daredevil and Justice League International. I have raved about Daredevil over and over in this blog so I am not going to go one any more about it, except to say buy it! Justice League International is a fun book in a way DC used to be. It is not as wacky as the DeMatteis, Giffen, and Maguire issues were, but there is a lighthearted feel to the stories. When compared to the rest of the 52 titles, this book almost reads like Dan DeCarlo’s Archie.

Near Death

Near Death


Also, there are a number of really good books out there that are getting no attention, such as Activity and Near Death, both from Image Comics. Both of these comics are very good reads and have absolutely nothing to do with superheroes. There is Boom’s Planet of the Apes comics. These are actually really good, particularly the miniseries, and they get next to no attention. There are also some bestselling books that are excellent and worth your time to look at, such as Batman, Aquaman and Wolverine and the X-Men (which is something I never thought I would write).

Archie: The Best of Dan DeCarlo

Archie: The Best of Dan DeCarlo


In closing I would like to recommend a no brainer, the Archie: The Best of Dan DeCarlo Vol. 3. This is a beautiful hardcover book with top notch production values and it had me smiling from ear to ear with every page. And often I was laughing out loud. These are from the best period of Archie Comics and the stories may only be five pages but they entertain me far more than most of the current 22 page comics do. If you have never read an Archie, try one of IDW’s Archie: Best Of collections. I would recommend Dan DeCarlo and Harry Lucey collections personally, but all of them are excellent. Now that I have cleared out my brain, next time I intend to write about good artists gone bad. (Subject to change, mind you.)

As always, these are just my thoughts and do not reflect the opinions or thoughts of Westfield Comics or their employees. In fact I know of a few co-workers who would strongly disagree with some of my opinions here. Any comments, complaints or thoughts are welcome to be sent to MFBWAY@AOL.COM.

Thank you.

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