CBR: Pipeline - Oct 7, 2009

[CBR News]

The last time that environmentalism and Big Business was all the rage, Marvel gave comic book fans John Byrne's "Namor." That's what Augie's looking at this week in a special Wednesday edition of Pipeline Retro.


Full article here.

[Crusader K]

I actually love this series! It was the last time I feel Byrne was being innovative and taking chances with his art. It got a little formulaic and robotic later on. Same faces, same poses, etc.

I loved the use of the duo tone. It was like getting a special effect. I remember that pool scene perfectly and was stunned that it looked so much like actual underwater. LOL - I thought it was cool that 'Nita was able to lean over the side and talk to Namor.

The series did some important things: It established after (at the time) 60 years why Namor flew into rages and was moody all due to the oxygen imbalance because of his mixed heritage. It reunited the Invaders in modern times. It brought Namor to trial and cleared up any legalities hampering his future. It also revived Iron Fist, who at that time was quite dead. It also explained Namorita and gave her a plausible origin. I thought it was interesting at the time that Byrne did away with Kara Zor-El in the Superman books but let Namor keep his cousin!

Unfortunately, when Iron Fist was revived Namor was almost becoming a guest star in his own book. You had Iron Fist, Misty Knight, Namorita, the New Warriors all drifting in and out of the book.

And then Jae Lee took over the art. Look, the man may do moody and gritty well...but on Namor I was absolutely turned off by the "Savage Sub-Mariner" with those ridiculous '90's era guantlets he was sportin'. Ugh.

[Alexrules]

I really enjoyed Namor. If it were done today, it would be so weak because I'm sick of seeing 'Go Green' and 'Use less Energy' from people who fly around in private jets.

[Marvelbunny]

From John Byrne's website

Were comics really so much less sophisticated then?
••
No. But the audience was a lot less engorged with faux ennui.[/CODE]



"The series started with a coverdate of May 1989, though it looks like Byrne had been plotting out his stories well in advance: the first six covers had a 1988 date next to his signature."

••

What we see here is a rather astonishing ignorance -- in a "reviewer" -- of the way comics used to be (and still should be, dammit!!) produced. First off, that May cover date means the issue hit the stands in January or February of 1989. So, unless he thinks the issues are produced in the same month they are published, having some issues in the drawer (six in this case) would be perfectly normal.

Of course, in the NAMOR review he makes a guess about a "deadline crunch" being the reason I dropped the duoshade for an issue, noting also that the "crunch" was probably due to the upcoming double-sized 12th issue. Thus he demonstrates again a complete ignorance of how the books are/were produced.

Apparently the idea of lead time is completely alien to this "reviewer".

Am I the only one who hates it when reviewers or fans complain about the dialogue in either "old school" comics or written by "old school" creators today as being "unrealistic" or "sounding unnatural when read out loud"?
••

grumble grumble grumble. . . .


Augie

I love reading your columns, but I thought you made some pretty wild assumptions and deserved a good old fashion "bitch slap".

Am laughing out loud that Byrne has provided it.

Back to your regular writing ........

[pmpknface]

I only have a few issues of this series, but I'll get 'em all eventually.

[kevhines]

Augie

I love reading your columns, but I made a pretty wild assumption and deserved a good old fashion. I assumed Byrne would love someone talking nice about his work.

Am laughing out loud that Byrne has provided a "bitch slap" for a largely complimentary review. Let the lesson be learned, do not review Byrne work, he won't be happy for the press.

Back to your regular writing ........

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

Actually, I thought the biggest problem with the review is that I went on at length about how Byrne skipped over the "boring legal mumbo jumbo" when the very next issue after I stopped reading was the Trial of Namor. Yikes! If I had just read one more issue, I would have had to toss out an entire paragraph.

As for cover dates: While most of them to this day are done far in advance to allow for PREVIEWS solicitations, I think we'd all be surprised at just how close they're really done to printing dates.

I'm confused on Byrne's reaction to my guess -- which I admitted freely was a guess and made no statement of fact about -- about the dropped DuoShade/DuoTone/whatever it is. So, what was the real reason he dropped it? Yes, I've heard of lead time -- it's that thing that every creator chews up and spits out at some point.

As for "old school" comments, well, that's just a sign of the times, I suppose. So many creators work so hard to make their comics sound like prime time dramas these days, that it's just a difference of style, I suppose. Again, I went to great lengths to mention why it appealed to me.

I wish I had time to interview creators for Pipeline Retro. And I wish they'd all be excited about doing one. Maybe I'll do one for a future edition. We'll see what time allows for.

-Augie

[torippu]

I wish I had time to interview creators for Pipeline Retro. And I wish they'd all be excited about doing one. Maybe I'll do one for a future edition. We'll see what time allows for.

-Augie

I actually think that this sounds like a really good idea. Provided you could find the time, it would be cool to review old books and then get the creators to provide a commentary track (if they can remember that far back).

[pmpknface]

It'd be cool to see what (for example) Ed Micguess thinks of his old Deadpool arc, or what Jim Valentino thinks of his Guardians of the Galazy stuff.

Just the 1st 2 I thought of.

[Augie De Blieck Jr.]

You're right; it would be fun. I just think that the lack of time will prevent it from ever happening. I've never planned Pipeline out that far in advance, save when I was basically a couple weeks ahead for when my daughter was born last year.

Plus, every creator is interviewed about every facet of their career every damned day somewhere on the internet, it would almost seem to be redundant. But you never know. If something comes up, I'd jump at it.

-Augie