CBR: When Words Collide - Nov 21, 2011

[CBR News]

Tim tackles three big questions on the topics of Genre Avoidance, the Most Overlooked Influential Creator and Darwyn Cooke's Possible "Watchmen" sequel.


Full article here.

[starman]

Scott Snyder for Watchmen part deux.

[ian33407]

...the SPELLJAMMER cover is fan-art, right ?

[Matthew E]

And superhero novels? Not so much. Unless they are written by Eliot S. Maggin, they are likely abominations.

Aw, come on. Wild Cards an abomination? Have you read Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gasmask?

I agree that there are difficulties in adapting the genre to the medium. But it can be done. I'm trying to do it now, and I'm certainly aiming higher than "abomination".

[ian33407]

..." SOON I WILL BE INVINCIBLE" was really far from abomination

and

I'd love to read more about SUPREME SQUADRON, though I'll be more interrested by prequels than anything..

[Ziza9]

Aw, come on. Wild Cards an abomination? Have you read Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gasmask?

I agree that there are difficulties in adapting the genre to the medium. But it can be done. I'm trying to do it now, and I'm certainly aiming higher than "abomination".

As I sit here and stare at the binding for Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gasmask sitting on my bookshelf...I can't believe this is the first time I have ever heard anyone on a comic message board mention it. I love that book. It's one of the best superhero stories I've read, in novel or comics form. It's a novel that really gets what comics are about.

Now I need to go re-read it.

[Matthew E]

As I sit here and stare at the binding for Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gasmask sitting on my bookshelf...I can't believe this is the first time I have ever heard anyone on a comic message board mention it. I love that book. It's one of the best superhero stories I've read, in novel or comics form. It's a novel that really gets what comics are about.

Now I need to go re-read it.

I talk it up every chance I get. It's the goods.

[theloupgaroukid]

..." SOON I WILL BE INVINCIBLE" was really far from abomination

Yes, far from an abomination indeed.

[berk]

It's true that any Watchmen sequel or prequel or whatever likely won't affect the perception of the original, but this isn't always the case in comics. In my experience, most readers find it very difficult to think of Kirby's Eternals or New Gods without seeing them through the filter of stories written after the original Kirby series were aborted. And that's a loss.

[Trey]

Cooke is a lot closer to Moore in sensibility than you think mr callahan.

They both long for the simpler times, when men were men and women were women!

[cookepuss]

I'm glad that Mark Gruenwald was brought up. It's such a shame that his body of work is far more remembered than his name. Contest of Champions. OHOTMU. Squadron Supreme LS. Hawkeye LS. DP7. Some really memorable stuff. His 5 year Quasar run alone is a treasure.

Another name that everybody seems to forget is Louise Simonson. Everybody remembers her husband Walt, but Weezie seems to always fly under the radar on the big lists. What did she contribute that still matters today?

• X-Factor #6-64: All of you Uncanny X-Force fans.... The fact that she created Apocalypse and turned Angel into Archangel alone earns her permanent legendary X-writer status. Turning boring old Madelyne Pryor into the Goblyn Queen too.
• New Mutants #55-97 (minus 81 & 92), Annual #4-6: Another big run for X-fans. Claremont may have created baby Nathan Summers, but Simonson co-created Cable along with Liefeld. She's also the one responsible for first killing Doug Ramsey. It was also her runs in X-Factor and New Mutants that really made up the bulk of the now classic Inferno story, whose effects are still felt today.
• Power Pack: Simonson created them too. You can still follow half that team in FF and Avengers Academy, with the other half appearing again in 2012.

Lots of amazing mutant moments from her, both big and small. Not a Marvel fan? Like men in capes? How about Simonson's 5 year run on Superman: The Man of Steel (#1-58) or her contribution the the Death of Superman storyline? Simonson created Steel too.

I could go on. Present day female writers certainly owe a huge debt to unsung heroes like Louise Simonson & Ann Nocenti. Those ladies really made comics their bitch in a way that's still unrivaled.

[Gef]

Huh. As the author of two forthcoming superhero novels from Angry Robot - Empire State (out in January 2012), and Seven Wonders (out early 2013), I protest the accusation that superhero novels are "abominations"!

And my blurbers for Empire State (Cory Doctorow, Paul Cornell, Kurt Busiek, and many others) would seem to agree with me.

[Scud]

Whoever writes and/or draws a Watchmen prequel or sequel will be blacklisted forever in my mind.

[Gorgeousaur]

I'm different when it comes to the fantasy-genre. Books are the best, but other than the LotR trilogy and the two Harry Potter movies I saw and a few others, the movies suck ass. I cannot think of a movie other than those that featured magic and dragons and stuff that didn't bore me. The fantasy in comics has a much better success rate. It's just that most of the good fantasy comics are coming from Japan. The Conan comics are pretty good most of the time and so is Skullkickers. P Craig Russel's stuff is always magnificent.

The only superhero novel I read was Nuklear Age and that was because of Clevinger's name attached to it. I wasn't blown away.

[ian33407]

I could go on. Present day female writers certainly owe a huge debt to unsung heroes like Louise Simonson & Ann Nocenti. Those ladies really made comics their bitch in a way that's still unrivaled.

Oh yes.
I started to feel really alone, thinking the same.