How many more covers have Roy peeking out over water?
Robotech: Return To Macross #36
Academy Comics, Ltd (September, 1996)
“High Combat”
WRITER: Bill Spangler
ARTIST: Dusty Griffin
Civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. delivers a speech to a crowd of approximately 7,000 people on May 17, 1967 at UC Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza in Berkeley, California. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Here’s one I should have linked to closer to Martin Luther King Day. During the Civil Rights movement a comic was created to celebrate Reverend King and promote his message of peaceful protest for the rights of black people to be treated like people. There’s also a link at the end of the article so you can read the comic yourself.
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I’ve loved comics since my age was in single digits. Comics can tell stories in ways no other medium can, and vice versa which is why I love any form of good storytelling. I have my genre preferences but not really a format. Comics are amazing in the way they can tell a story…which is why seeing sales numbers drop and comic stores closing in a time when adapting them into movies, cartoons, and video games is at an all-time high makes me sad.
Why are comics doing so poorly? I don’t think you can point to one or two factors or even something recent. There isn’t one movement or one mindset to blame. This has been going on since the 1990s and the stupid speculator bubble altering the way people saw comics, and not necessarily for the better. It’s been going on since writers and editors decided Watchmen should be the rule rather than the exception. However, it is more recent mindsets that I think is responsible for the comic book losing its status as a storytelling format. Where comics used to be everywhere now they’ve gone into hiding except on the internet. And no, I don’t think digital comics are a big factor in reduced floppies and graphic novels. This is of course something I think about a lot and while I can’t say I’ve most definitely isolated every problem or have THE solution to the falling cultural value of comics I think I have identified a few things the industry as a whole needs to work on besides the distribution issues mentioned in yesterday’s Morning Article Link. I’m not saying following my advice will “save comics” or anything like that. Comics as a whole still has life online and in the independent and self-publishing fields, but these are things the comic industry should start thinking about…and probably won’t.
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It took five issues, but we finally have Autobot versus Decepticon and no human villains. And it’s the last issue.
Transformers Animated: The Arrival #5
FINAL ISSUE
IDW Publishing (December, 2008)
WRITER: Marty Isenberg
COLORIST: Liam Shalloo
SELECTED COVER ART: Marcelo Matere (assisted on colors by Priscilla Tramontano)
LETTERER: Chris Mowry
EDITOR: Denton J. Tipton
“Survival Skills”
PENCILER: Dario Brizuela
INKER: Leandro Corral
“Everything Must Go”
ARTIST: Boo
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Tonight’s article is going to be a heavy rant and the comic isn’t that great either, so let’s start the day with something fun. Before William Shatner did dramatic readings of Beatles songs and called it singing, Jon Pertwee put out a song called “Who Is Doctor Who“, a spoken word answer to that question set to the theme song. And while you’re over there ask Retroist contributor Vic Sage to pick up those other records he mentions and let us know if they’re any good.
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How Steve Ditko left the comic.
After Steve Ditko, co-creator of Spider-Man and artist for the early years since Amazing Fantasy #15, had his falling out with Stan Lee a new artist had to be chosen to continue the series. John Romita Sr. was the man chosen, but how did he get the gig? Hero Journalism posts an old interview the host had with the legendary artist, discussing the events that led him to work on a superhero he never knew anything about.
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This cover would later be reused as a regular Star Trek cover titled “Menageried”. (It was that or the tattoo joke.)
Star Trek: Early Voyages #4
Marvel/Paramount Comics (May, 1997)
“Nor Iron Bars A Cage”
WRITERS: Dan Abnett & Ian Edginton
PENCILER: Patrich Zircher
INKER: Greg Adams
COLORIST: Marie Javins
LETTERER: Janice Chiang
EDITOR: Bobbie Chase
