CBR: NYCC: Spotlight on Darwyn Cooke

[CBR News]

Despite a huge audience, Darwyn Cooke's New York Comic Con spotlight panel had an intimate feel to it as the artist of "Parker: The Outfit" spoke about his work, career and the relationships behind them.


Full article here (http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=28917).

[coy_dog0]

I didn't want to deal with the drunken Hal Jordan, I didn't want to deal with the mass murdering Hal Jordan, because that's not him. Do you know what that is? That's a lazy writer.

So say we all.

[Lemurion]

Oddly enough I have the Absolutes of both Watchmen and New Frontier sitting side by side in my bookshelf - and both DVDs in the DVD rack.

[ScotsScribbler]

I nominate Darwyn Cooke for EiC at Marvel or DC.

With him in charge of either one they would be storming.

But it won't happen.

Love, love, love his TCJ interview. It is gospel.

[edhopper]

I am slowly giving up mainstream super hero books. (Actually they have given up on readers like me.)
But after 40 years as a comic fan I don't want to stop reading. Books like Parker .are making it possible for me to stay in the game.
And I got my copy signed this weekend!

[Comicbookfan]

It is people like Darwyn Cooke that make me want to stop reading comics. I know its not a popular opinion but after reading a lot of the old stories such as the original JLA the Original Green Lantern stuff with Hall Jordan. That stuff is Boring. Bad and Boring. The Justice League stories written in the 60's are painful bad and lazy. No character in those stories stands out, its all wooden and boring. I like the Drama and i like the sexy stuff, I like dramatic story telling. I have been a fan of this type of Superhero comic since i was a kid. I know that to a guy like Darwyn i would seem like a perv or some type of sick person but i no, i give to charity and i believe in love and i pray every day.

I don't know why a guy who has written some violent stuff and has behaved in a way that is unbecoming of a professional, would now be flying this flag. I just hope he can learn to pic up the all ages DC books and not try to force me to read the stuff he likes. The comic book industry is very trendy i have seen how this type of complaint has shifted a lot of comics in the direction Darwyn wishes for(and how readership has gone down) But i say there is a comic out there for anyone if you look for it you can find it. Just take a moment to check out those all ages comics and stop damning Superhero comics just because you feel left out.

[earl]

Those Green Lantern stories are total crap though. The JLA has been almost totally unrecognizable for years. That is spot on analysis to me.

"The more I looked into modern continuity, the more I realized that what made these characters what they were had been stripped away from them. The costume was still there, but as people, they were almost unrecognizable to me."

I don't think he is saying everything has to be retro at all, more that writers will tend to just bend the characters away from what made them work to make their poor plots work.

The bad thing about continuity is that someone that making new stories with certain characters often times become completely crippled by bad stories. It becomes near impossible to put the genie back in the bottle or cover up the scar.

Darwyn Cooke is far from the only comic creator that has made this kind of assessment of current super hero comics.

[zooBATZ]

Cooke isn't saying that everything has to be all kittens and roses, New Frontier dealt with some pretty dark themes, death, oppression, racism, but done in a way that wasn't gratuitous. What Cooke is doing with his new work he does with respect towards the character, something that seems to be lacking in most mainstream books.
Good storytelling is something you have to work at, not something you throw at a wall to see if it will stick. Thinking your idea for a character is better than all that have come before is just arrogance, and as we all should know, arrogance is just a symptom of ignorance.

[Ultraist]

It was great to meet Darwyn Cooke and his wife Marsha at the Glamourpuss black tie event (a part of Dave Sim's LAST SIGNING (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPb8mh2OoC8)).

PARKER: The Outfit (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1600107621?ie=UTF8&tag=ultraiststudi-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1600107621) just showed up via Amazon yesterday.

Great people.
Great comics.

[coy_dog0]

Cooke isn't saying that everything has to be all kittens and roses...What Cooke is doing with his new work he does with respect towards the character, something that seems to be lacking in most mainstream books.

Exactly. Why do so many people not 'get it' ? As soon as someone criticizes modern comics, they freak out and accuse them of wanting everything to be Super Friends.

Today's comics are sometimes more 'sophisticated' and 'real', but that does not make them better. Check out All-Star Superman for an example of first rate storytelling that depicts outlandish themes and ideas with absolute conviction and class.