What Classic Comic Have You Read Lately? Pt. 2

[berk]

... and I think it's a neat commentary on corporately-produced work versus independent work (franchise vs. local) made all the more interesting in light of Steve Gerber's consistent problems with Marvel.

This is why I haven't read it: Gerber wasn't happy about Marvel's new Omega miniseries and I think Lethem should have respected his feelings and declined the project. And that Marvel should have at least offered Gerber and co-writer Mary Skrenes the opportunity to finish their original story before publishing a new version with a different writer.

So if Lethem's Omega has something to say about corporate vs independent work, that would strike me as pretty bloody ironic given the circumstances surrounding this very series.

[dan bailey]

Well, Lethem was a charter member (like yours truly) of the Philip K. Dick Society, to the point that (unlike yours truly, who lived halfway across the country) he was involved in collating & mailing some of its newsletters, so possibly he was so unclear on the true nature of reality that Gerber's feelings struck him as possibly illusory.

[Aaron King]

So if Lethem's Omega has something to say about corporate vs independent work, that would strike me as pretty bloody ironic given the circumstances surrounding this very series.

To that, I will offer this:

Gerber and Skrenes were then put in contact with Jonathan Lethem by a third party. Gerber reported, "I was wrong about a few things. According to Jonathan, Marvel did not approach him with the intent of his reviving OMEGA. That was Jonathan's own idea. He claims he was unaware of my history with Marvel, including the lawsuit over Howard the Duck, until the present incident arose; I choose to believe him. Marvel did not, he says, attempt to entice him into the fold with hints or promises of film work in the future. I find that unutterably stupid on Marvel's part, but, again, very believable.

"As best I can tell, Jonathan is a very nice guy who was acting with the best of intentions. His interest in reviving OMEGA comes out of passion for the material, not purely monetary considerations.

"I misjudged him, and I offer my sincerest apologies."

Gerber goes on to say that he's still not entirely comfortable with the idea, though. Full article here.

[berk]

To that, I will offer this:

Gerber and Skrenes were then put in contact with Jonathan Lethem by a third party. Gerber reported, "I was wrong about a few things. According to Jonathan, Marvel did not approach him with the intent of his reviving OMEGA. That was Jonathan's own idea. He claims he was unaware of my history with Marvel, including the lawsuit over Howard the Duck, until the present incident arose; I choose to believe him. Marvel did not, he says, attempt to entice him into the fold with hints or promises of film work in the future. I find that unutterably stupid on Marvel's part, but, again, very believable.

"As best I can tell, Jonathan is a very nice guy who was acting with the best of intentions. His interest in reviving OMEGA comes out of passion for the material, not purely monetary considerations.

"I misjudged him, and I offer my sincerest apologies."

Gerber goes on to say that he's still not entirely comfortable with the idea, though. Full article here.

Yeah, I remember reading that article at the time. Gerber goes on to say:

"That doesn't change my mind about the OMEGA revival itself, however. I still believe that writers and artists who claim to respect the work of creators past should demonstrate that respect by leaving the work alone -- particularly if the original creator is still alive, still active in the industry, and, as is typically the case in comics, excluded from any financial participation in the use of the work.

"Over the last decade or so, it's become the trend in the industry for creators just to let these things slide. By lodging even an informal protest, a creator always risks appearing pathetic and whiny to the fans or threatening to a current employer. No one wants to be thought of that way.

"Remaining silent, however, would implicitly condone the comic book industry's business practices up through the early 1980s and the means by which publishers claim to have procured ownership of characters and story material in those days.

"Remaining silent would also perpetuate the fiction promulgated by publishers that 'we all knew' what rights we were supposedly giving up by signing our paychecks. (In those days, the publishers' favored instrument for acquiring rights to material was a one-party 'contract' printed or stamped on the back of a writer or artist's paycheck. This so-called 'agreement' set forth terms of employment that were rarely if ever agreed to by the writer or artist prior to the start of work.) The truth is, we didn't all know. Most of us had no idea, until the Siegel & Shuster case came to light again in the late 1970s. (In fact, there are serious questions regarding the ownership of 'Omega The Unknown' that Marvel has probably never thought to ask.)

"When a writer of Jonathan's stature agrees to participate in a project like this, he also, intentionally or not, tacitly endorses the inequities of the old system. I've tried for a couple of decades now to convince the rest of the industry that those inequities will end only when writers and artists -- whether celebrities from other fields, like Jonathan, or longtime comics professionals, like myself -- say 'no' to projects that make no provision for the original creators. I've failed. I find that endlessly frustrating.

..."

There's more, but I don't want to quote the whole article. It seems pretty clear to me that Gerber was still very unhappy about the situation and that the right thing for Lethem to do would have been to drop the project. Maybe that wasn't feasible by the time he became aware of Gerber's objections, maybe he'd already signed a contract and had to carry on with it. Be that as it may, the whole story left a bad enough taste in my mouth that I find myself unwilling to read Lethem's Omega - and possibly anything else of Lethem's.

I feel much the same way about Neil Gaiman, mainly because of his Eternals miniseries for Marvel. Just the sight of his name on an introduction is enough to turn me away from a book now.

[Rob Allen]

how exactly did that bit of skin get melded to his top and bottom lip, anyway? if someone branded your face, im pretty sure that wouldnt happen. skin doesnt melt, and then reset itself, AFAIK. People will no doubt say its "scar tissue" but im still skeptical.

Several years ago someone posted a lengthy explanation of how that kind of injury is created, but I spent too much time today looking for it without success. I'm not entirely sure it was here at CBR, but there aren't many other places I would have seen it. IIRC, it had to do with cutting the connective tissue that surrounds the mouth. Rather gruesome, which may be why I don't recall many details.

[Aaron King]

Yeah, I remember reading that article at the time. Gerber goes on to say:
There's more, but I don't want to quote the whole article.

Yeah, that was my problem, too. I didn't want to quote the whole article, but then it ended up looking like I was just splicing it to suit an argument. I fully encourage anyone interested to go read the entire thing.

[benday-dot]

This is why I haven't read it: Gerber wasn't happy about Marvel's new Omega miniseries and I think Lethem should have respected his feelings and declined the project. And that Marvel should have at least offered Gerber and co-writer Mary Skrenes the opportunity to finish their original story before publishing a new version with a different writer.

So if Lethem's Omega has something to say about corporate vs independent work, that would strike me as pretty bloody ironic given the circumstances surrounding this very series.

I am a huge fan of Gerber's comics, and have always been grateful that his Omega the Unknown graced the the astute comic readers path for even a brief while. But I am also a huge fan of Lethem's prose. He is a brilliant writer and when I happened upon his own version of Omega, gratis as luck would would have it, I found myself setting ambivalence aside and enjoying it as much as Aaron (though no doubt it being presumptuous of me to make this claim).

Unrighteous though it may be I found myself, via my reading pleasure, discharged from any creative disputes and ended up loving both works and hopefully enriching myself in the perhaps traitorous act.

[berk]

I am a huge fan of Gerber's comics, and have always been grateful that his Omega the Unknown graced the the astute comic readers path for even a brief while. But I am also a huge fan of Lethem's prose. He is a brilliant writer and when I happened upon his own version of Omega, gratis as luck would would have it, I found myself setting ambivalence aside and enjoying it as much as Aaron (though no doubt it being presumptuous of me to make this claim).

Unrighteous though it may be I found myself, via my reading pleasure, discharged from any creative disputes and ended up loving both works and hopefully enriching myself in the perhaps traitorous act.

I wasn't trying to take a stance on any moral high-ground - just articulating my own response to the situation. I wouldn't feel any guilt about it if I happened to read them for some reason, but that's unlikely to happen since I don't even feel much idle curiosity about Lethem's version.

OTOH, I would be curious to hear if co-writer Skrenes has any interest in finishing her and Gerber's original story.

[Aaron King]

I wasn't trying to take a stance on any moral high-ground - just articulating my own response to the situation. I wouldn't feel any guilt about it if I happened to read them for some reason, but that's unlikely to happen since I don't even feel much idle curiosity about Lethem's version.

OTOH, I would be curious to hear if co-writer Skrenes has any interest in finishing her and Gerber's original story.

If it helps, I never felt like you were taking any moral high ground. This issue is complicated enough and, in my experience, posters here are respectful enough that I definitely feel like this has always been a case of, "Let's throw all our knowledge in a pile and see if it gets us anywhere."

As for Ms. Skrenes, Hard Time, which is another of her co-creations with Gerber, is one of my favorite series ever, and I'd absolutely and blindly pledge money to seeing her finish Omega. In an ideal universe, any support towards Lethem's Omega would've been seen as interest in the Gerber/Skrenes original since, tonally, they feel very similar to me (accounting, of course, for changes in taste across thirty years).

[Polar Bear]

I've finished the 1970s run of Freedom Fighters #1-15 and their guest-appearance in 1982's DC Comics Presents #62.

#15 said it was the last issue, but that we should be sure to pick up Secret Society of Super-Villains #16 to see Uncle Sam & company again! Trouble is, #16 was never published. Oops. Well, the SSoSV hardcover #2 is coming later this month, and it presents #16 in full for the first time ever! Not counting Canceled Comics Cavalcade, of course. I don't know about the unfinished #17.

Interestingly, the DC Comics Presents issue actually included, in lieu of about a third of its letters column, a lengthy summary of the unpublished SSoSV #16-17, including the Freedom Fighters' return to Earth-X. I think that's the first time I've ever seen a letters column include an original story as canon! (We're not counting no-prizes and such.)

The quality of the series remained uneven, except for exceptional inking by Alcala (credited as Christian Volt, real name via GCBD) on #12. But it enough to remind me of life back when my age was in the single digits.

[dan bailey]

As for Ms. Skrenes, Hard Time, which is another of her co-creations with Gerber, is one of my favorite series ever, and I'd absolutely and blindly pledge money to seeing her finish Omega.

Hell, I'd absolutely & blindly pledge money to seeing her finish Hard Time (a gigantic favorite of mine as well), which pretty much had to cram god knows how many years' worth of planned story arc into a single concluding issue when DC suddenly pulled its plug, IIRC.

[pmpknface]

I LOVED HARD TIME! I rarely give DC stuff a try, but this I did and loved. I used to (kinda still do) make a word document of all the new stuff coming out each week. When I started an issue of HARD TIME was coming out, and since I hardly get DC books this ended up being at the top. MS Word will take the first thing on a doc and suggest to save it as that if you don't come up with anything new. So that week my list was saved as "HARD TIME."

I still save my document as HARD TIME every, single, week. God Bless Steve Gerber!!!

[benday-dot]

If it helps, I never felt like you were taking any moral high ground. This issue is complicated enough and, in my experience, posters here are respectful enough that I definitely feel like this has always been a case of, "Let's throw all our knowledge in a pile and see if it gets us anywhere."

That wasn't the implication of my reply either. I know, from past record, how highly berk thinks of Gerber's Omega the Unknown, and I think the principle he posits of the respect of the creator's vision is on solid, never mind moral, ground. I share his view. It just so happened I was kind of blown away by Lethem's story, no less than by Gerber's, so whether I wanted it or not I found myself in a position where the enjoyment of both works became the main thing in any internal debate I might have.

[dupont2005]

I haven't read any classic comics in a while but I just bought a new bookshelf to move my favorite comics out of the boxes into a more accessible location. This means I'll be reading plenty of classic comics in the near future

Wait, I did read some classic comics. My new TMNT hardcover. Re-read I should say. I enjoy the large format and the bonus material.

[shaxper]

It's been a long time, but I'm finally returning to The Life & Times of Scrooge McDuck. I read the first two volumes two years ago, but I've drawn out reading the Companion volume simply because I don't want it to end. Still, I read "The Prisoner of White Agony Creek" (#8B) today and adored it. Not only was it gorgeously illustrated and laugh-out-loud funny at several points, but it was one of Rosa's best snap-shots of who Scrooge is/was in all of these stories.

This is the one in which we finally see what happened during that month that Scrooge kept Glittering Goldie hostage at his White Agony Creek claim to show her how hard the sourdoughs that she regularly robbed had to work for their gold. While the entire Life & Times series has been invested in showing Scrooge's transformation from a wide eyed child to a bitter and hardened old captain of industry, this story captures the entire transformation in microcosm, showing Scrooge just over that threshold, noting the transformation in himself, and being drawn to Goldie precisely because he is caught between those two worlds. The true magic of this story is that it show his relationship with Goldie as having only been possible in that one brief interlude of time -- still the most valuable memory in his treasure chest of trophies, but no longer relevant to the Scrooge of today. When he looks back on those memories, what he misses just as much as Goldie was that one brief moment when he was stronger than the strongest, more cunning than the most cunning, but also still capable of tenderness and idealized love.

I don't know that this was one of my all time favorite chapters in the series, but it was certainly an essential one.