Lord have mercy, the comment sections at Fanboy Rampage are on fire today. I can’t even single one out, but it’s like there’s some kind of contest for personal best in snark going on.

Also, the latest installment of Flipped is up at Comic World News. Math is hard!

The shop forgot to pull my copy of Case Closed Vol. 3, which makes me sad. Sgt. Frog Vol. 6 showed up unexpectedly, which makes me happy. (You all read Scott’s excellent medical reviews over at Polite Dissent, right? Now he’s delved into the tricky area of alien amphibian health care.)

The ad for Peach Fuzz in SF makes me really, really want to try it. “The epic story of a ferret who defied her cage.” It’s hard not to root for a ferret.

My order of crazy cheap manga from DollarManga arrived, filled with lots of Iron Wok Jan! and Tomie. Glad to hear that IWJ! will continue, now that I’ve managed to snap up a big chunk of the run.

Have I mentioned that I really love Maison Ikkoku? I don’t know why I put off trying this for so long, but it’s won me over. What I really love about it is that it manages to create romantic misunderstandings without making its character look stupid (for a counter-example, see Three’s Company). Rumiko Takahashi has accomplished this by filling the boarding house with eccentric pot-stirrers. They’re addicted to gossip and drama, but they’re quirky and oddly sweet enough to be sympathetic. The physical comedy is very funny but low-key. And the central characters, charming widow Kyoko and hapless student Godai, are really winning both individually and as a couple.

I’m not much of a Captain America fan. I’ve never picked up his solo title for long and found him kind of irritating in the context of the Avengers. (That’s not always a bad thing; some writers have used his disruptively inflexible presence to good effect.) So I’m really surprised by how much I’ve enjoyed the first two issues of the re-launch of Captain America.

I say I’m surprised because I find the character fairly creator-proof. There are writers whose work I routinely enjoy on other titles who just can’t make Cap work for me. But Ed Brubaker seems to have a very solid direction for the character, where he’s an uneasy player in a noirish world of espionage. I think it works for Cap as a character while opening up some interesting thematic possibilities. This take on Cap responding to these kinds of circumstances… it works for me. And he hasn’t given a single inspiring speech yet, thank God. (I love the art by Steve Epting, too, and there was the added bonus of pages by Michael Lark in #2.)

And, as much as I enjoyed the actual comic, I loved the fan letter from Kurt Busiek. His thoughts on writing for a shared universe are always worth reading, and this isn’t an exception:

“And what we value isn’t the consistency of it all, but the vision. The runs that stand out are those where a creator (or a team) had such a strong vision that they took the character someplace distinctive and exciting, someplace fresh — and the stuff we dismiss is the stuff that doesn’t have that kind of vision, when a series just sort of meanders about in between those good and memorable runs.”

It’s interesting to see him phrase it that way, as I think he’s a writer who has erred on the side of consistency. I’m not saying I didn’t have fun with the high-energy nostalgia of his run on Avengers, particularly those issues done with George Perez. I just think that, in a shared universe, he can get a little too reverent. Of course, I think that also contributes to his reliability as a craftsman of quality, readable super-hero fiction, so it’s not exactly a huge liability. (I wish I didn’t have such a viscerally negative reaction to the art in JLA, but I can’t quite get past it to pick up the book.)

Let me put it this way: if I were forced to choose between never reading his Avengers run again and never reading Arrowsmith again, it wouldn’t even be a contest. When he’s working from zero — no continuity, no franchises — on something like Arrowsmith or Shockrockets, he makes the jump from highly-skilled craftsman to real storytelling artist. Both flavors are worth reading; one is just more deeply satisfying for me.

It’s almost the reverse with Brubaker. I actually prefer his shared-universe stuff (Catwoman, Gotham Central) to his own creations (Sleeper). Though, as with Busiek, it’s a fairly fine distinction between loving a comic and liking it a whole lot.

(Unrelated gushing: I think Kurt Busiek should hold some kind of professional development course on how to interact with fandom. He’s unfailingly polite, though he sets reasonable limits if someone really insists on being a wad. He graciously accepts compliments and constructive criticism, provides clarification where relevant, and has a reservoir of comics trivia locked in his head that would daunt the entire cast of Desk Set, including the computer.)

Have I devoted too much mental energy to a comic I never intended to read in the first place? Obviously. But, when I come across two pieces on Orson Scott Card, future scribe of Ultimate Iron Man, in one day, I can’t possibly pass up cheap synergy. (Schadenfreude may be my drug, but thematic coincidence is the chaser that mellows the buzz.)

At Prism Comics, Scott Anderson makes me slightly uncomfortable:

“We didn’t know he was this way [referring to Card’s well-publicized anti-gay sentiments], but now we do, so what do we do? While I wouldn’t suggest that he be censured in a meaningful way, I would suggest that we don’t help him, that we don’t give him a platform from which to speak or resources to finance his macabre views or the prestige to give them credibility.”

Now, this presumes that Card’s beliefs will automatically influence his creative outpout, and there’s really no way of knowing that. And, if they do, I would find it much more rewarding if the market self-selected the dumbass out on its own. At the same time, I would significantly downgrade my opinion of Marvel (get a shovel) if they looked at Card’s story bible and said, “Hey, Tony Stark endorses the Federal Marriage Amendment! Score!”

Much more to my liking is Paul O’Brien’s assessment over at The Ninth Art:

“None of which is to say that liberals should put aside their distaste and rush out and buy an Orson Scott Card publication. The entertainment possibilities of spending an evening in the company of his personality, albeit mediated through his writing, strike me as slim.”

I really can’t argue with that. Still, all things considered… Ultimate Iron Man? Pass.

The New York Times Arts page (well, the virtual one, at least) is a study in contradictions today.

In her review of the new season of Alias, Virginia Heffernan offers the following:

“In the second view, “Alias,” whose fourth season has its two-hour premiere on ABC tonight, is nothing more than a pretentious comic strip: static, allegorical, a pleasure only to addicts, but also headache-inducingly difficult to criticize in these times when American comics have become, through male nostalgia and the canonization of the graphic novel, sacrosanct.”

Using a definition of comics narrow enough to suit her argument (“Many of us don’t like comic books and have feigned interest in their jumpy bif-bam fighting scenes and the way they redeem loser guys, only to impress and minister to those loser guys.”), Heffernan goes on to deride one entertainment by likening it to another. (I’m not defending either; I don’t watch Alias, and super-hero comics are losing their glow by the day.)

She couldn’t have possibly known, of course, that her piece would be listed two doors down from the obituary for comics legend Will Eisner. It’s got to be purely coincidence that she’s rolling her eyes at the “canonization of the graphic novel” right below a tribute to the man who gave the graphic novel its name.

Bad timing, though.

Not much going on in the comic shop tomorrow, as others have observed. Still, I’ll definitely take a look at Proof of Concept from AiT/Planet Lar. Peter David returns to Incredible Hulk with #77. David wrote the only take on the character that interested me in the slightest, so that gets a shot. Lastly, there’s another volume of Case Closed from Viz, which is certainly on my list.

By the way, when exactly does Hero Squared (tantalizingly reviewed here) ship? Have I missed it? I lose all sense of time when I have to change years writing checks.

Actually, he made it a while ago, but I wanted to heartily second Lyle’s suggestion that Fake is a worthy contender for a GLAAD Media Award. The ongoing portrayal of a relationship of equals is smart, funny, sexy, and heartfelt and never lapses into a sociology lesson. A comic about two adults forging a romance, facing believable obstacles and false starts along the way, shouldn’t be revolutionary, but it still is in this context. As for the mainstream/independent impact issue, I would argue that Tokyopop is just as mainstream as Marvel and DC.

On the subject of men who like men in manga, Johanna has reviewed Legal Drug at Comics Worth Reading. I read this digest over the weekend and had much the same reaction. It seems like “less of the same,” if that makes any sense.

On the subject of ducks who don’t like men in comics, I’ll leave all comment to Dorian.

And, found via Thought Balloons, Beckett Publications gets its shojo working with today’s release of the new magazine, Anime for Girls. I hope they aren’t kidding about that “other major retailers” bit, because I won’t set foot in a Wal-Mart.

Whenever I look too long at soliciations, I feel like I’m tearing a hole in the space-time continuum, but I’m really delighted by two products coming from Marvel in the spring.

The second volume of She-Hulk, Superhuman Law, collects issues 7-12 in a full-color TPB for a mere $14.99 in Apriil 2005. I was looking at the graphic novel sales for November 2004 at ICv2, and I was thrilled to see how well the first volume did in the Direct Market. She-Hulk Vol. 1: Single Green Female ranked 12th in estimated sales by Diamond to comic specialty stores. It’s completely anecdotal, but the guy who runs the shop I use says he can’t keep it on the shelves. This makes me very, very happy.

I’m even more pleased to see Marvel release a digest-sized collection of the first six issues of Inhumans in Culture Shock. This is the wonderful (and short-lived) Sean McKeever series featuring a group of young Inhumans taking part in an exchange program and enrolling at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. It’s a terrific mix of fish-out-of-water comedy, interpersonal angst, horror, and action, beautifully rendered by Matthew Clark. It requires absolutely no prior knowledge of the Inhumans from their Marvel continuity, so don’t let that stop you from trying it. And it’s $7.99 for 144 full-color pages! It arrives March 9, 2005, and I think this is a Marvel title that would really sell well with the manga audience, much like Runaways.

Wow! 2005 is looking better already!

John Jakala offers up an overview 2004 at The Low Road and concludes with what’s essentially going to be my comic book resolution for 2005:

“Stop investing time and money in works you don’t enjoy or don’t expect to enjoy.”

Looking back on my buying habits in 2004, I really can’t justify some of my purchases. I mean, is there any reason to buy a Chuck Austen comic? Well, maybe the first one can be excused, but willingly repeating the experience? I didn’t think so. Given the volume of evidence to the contrary, should I keep expecting a different response to comics written by Geoff Johns, or does that fit too neatly under the definition of insanity? (Where is that pesky line between optimism and madness, now that I think about it?)

Nostalgia, misplaced more often than not, leads me to buy too many books because I liked the characters when I was 13. And, while this kind of cord-cutting won’t be easy for me (decades of entrenched behavior, and all that), I’m really going to make an effort to follow creators I like rather than characters. 2004 has offered ample evidence that blindly following franchise characters is a recipe for disappointment. 2005 promises more of the same (Countdown, House of M). Following creators at least lowers the level of risk.

So, despite my lack of interest in Spider-Man and the Human Torch, I’ll try Dan Slott’s mini starring the two. Superman doesn’t interest me in the slightest, but Gail Simone and Grant Morrison do. I’ll give Peter Milligans upcoming X-work a shot. And it isn’t as though my current buying list will be totally decimated: books like She-Hulk, Birds of Prey, Fallen Angel, Ex Machina, The Losers, Astonishing X-Men, Gotham Central, Manhunter, and some others will stay in place for 2005.

And, though I find its heft and layout painful, I’ll try and make better use of Previews. Of course, there’s always the blogosphere, which has already given me any number of great recommendations. Without it, I wouldn’t have picked up great books like Street Angel, Scott Pilgrim, Planetes, Hot Gimmick, Sgt. Frog, and others.

So, that’s the goal for the year ahead: fewer comics that I liked two decades ago, more comics that I might actually like now. And, yes, it is about time. Happy new year!

I love it when comics I enjoy just keep getting better. A pair of third volumes of favorite titles just made my day.

Girl Genius is pure pleasure with its combination of screwball comedy, off-kilter fantasy, and wonderful characters. In the third volume that came out this week, protagonist Agatha proves herself even more resourceful than I’d suspected in a series of exciting and hilarious sequences. Kaja and Phil Foglio have given her a winning combination of independence, compassion, and smarts. I don’t normally think in terms of “who’d be in the movie?”, but I’d love to see a good adaptation of this starring Kate Winslet or Rachel Weisz.

I’m dangerously close to giving up my curmudgeon status, as I got a little misty more than once during the third volume of Imadoki! This title is as touching as it is funny, which is saying something. Yu Watase introduces an intriguing new character and adds new dimensions to an existing one that further complicate the romantic angst. Now that Koki’s betrothed, Erika, has shaken off her stupor, she’s turning out to be a real spoiler. She’s strangely sympathetic, too, which puts determined optimist Tanpopo in an achingly uncomfortable position. All cliffhangers should be as good as the one that concludes this digest.