Ambassador's Dispatch
February 21, 2001 vol.1 no.6
First, a quick item: Last week I mentioned the Chat Board Mascot election that was being held over on the eBay Comics Board. As expected, my less-than-villainous nominee (as I mentioned last time, I chose him before seeing the rules) Pariah was removed from the ballot during the week. The election was held all day Saturday and we ended up with a mascot choice that surprised me. If you want to get all the details about the election take a look here... and be sure to check out the News Release links to get more of the sense of fun.
It's with some effort that I'm getting the new Dispatch up tonight. Half a dozen reviews and more lie half-written, but there's no promise I'll be getting any of those up till later in the week. I feel lousy, still, and that's both cause and symptom for my insomnia the past couple nights. Ah, the joys of kids and the microscopic pets they bring home. When I did get any sleep it was decorated with nightmares and only lasted an hour or less at a stretch. The only one I remember involved being pulled into some mission I didn't understand in some Southeast Asian locale where life was still running cheap, my race surely didn't seem to be working in my favor, and every moment carried with it speculations of whether or not I'd have a momentary awareness of a bullet ripping though the back of my skull.
Hopefully tonight will be more restful.
*** *** ***
Warren Ellis is trying something.
Experience has shown that's a safe, blanket statement to cover any given week in recent memory, even if the something would be "someone's nerves." In this case, though, he's trying to help creators get a spotlight for their work during the ordering phase, and as a result help to get those items on store shelves. (Never mind that two of the items he's selected the first time out involve his own work; I'm sure none of that entered into his selection process...) He's taking on a committment to locate items he deems worthy, make his pitch and link prospective readers to more information. The aim is to get more people to order their comics in advance so that their local comics shop owner will take a look, too.
As you'd expect, Warren explained it quite nicely. (it's the second piece, posted 2/19), or just cut to the actual project directly.
While I don't get my comics via a local shop, I do order them in advance through the fine people at Westfield. Using their online pages for info, having an undoubtedly childish attachment to many mainstream superheroes, and having all-too-exhaustible funds, I've always been aware that I'm giving very little attention to the plethora of small-press titles out there. I could try to justify this by recounting the times I have tried some of these upstarts only to be disappointed, but at the same time I know I'm missing out on items that could be potential favorites. While my taking a chance on a Powers trade edition paid off, that is admittedly within a super-powered genre so I wasn't being terribly adventuresome. Linda Medley's Castle Waiting only made it on my list because Don Corn sent me a copy of the first issue from the first run as a courtesy. Chances are I'd have remained ignorant of it otherwise, just another of the hundreds of items I overlook on the monthly order form.
Normally I place my order within the first few days of the month, soon after Westfield puts up the new info. For reasons not worth getting into I've let my order wait till today, and based on the focus Warren gave to 9 of the titles I've added two of them to my list: Obergeist and Pulp. (Actually, 3 from the list were ordered, but I'd already intended to get Jar of Fools based on excerpts from and comments on it in Scott McCloud's Reinventing Comics.)
They each came aboard experimentally because they look potentially interesting and also appear to present a value in terms of cost/page. Yeah, it's an ugly world, but with both this habit and a family to feed I have to make the tough choices. In the case of Obergeist it's a chance to try out something new, right at the start. With Pulp it's an anthology approach to material I have had minimal contact with before.
For the hell of it, aside from the simple fact that I can't afford to try them all (and I'm not in the least bit repentant that I didn't drop Avengers, JSA or any of the other items I enjoy in order to make room for them), here are the reasons why I didn't pick the others, in the order Warren listed them. Before doing so, though, since economics factors into each of them in some way, I want anyone ready to pelt me for being a philistine to ask themselves the question "How many of the comics Warren reads and plugs do you think he actually has to pay for?" I'm sure each of these creators is a fine and perhaps even compelling human being, with a distinct vision, and I'd probably recommend at least half of the work if it made its way into my hands gratis. When one has to pay for items, though... there's a tendency to be more critical.
American Splendor:Portrait of the Artist In His Declining Years. I find myself agreeing with all the praise, albeit some of it left-handed, that Warren heaps on Pekar's work. However, $3.99 (okay, I'll get a discount, but still) for 24 black and white pages... No. I can't justify that for another slice of his life. This is especially the case when I'm fairly sure I'll come across it later either in a trade collection or - let's be honest here, kids - a 4/$1 box somewhere down the road. Let's consider that last sentence (after a fashion) my Economic Block (EB) and I'll just toss that reference in where it applies below.
A Distant Soil #23: Though it has been a couple years, and I likely should give it another look, I nonetheless do have a couple early issues of this series. I tried them based on recommendations from others I've met in Legends APA over the years... and simply didn't find myself interested enough to come back. Neither the characters nor the artwork grabbed me. So, if I'm going to give Ms. Doran's work another try I think it would be best accomplished by my digging through my own back issues.
Rumble Girls #7: This one almost made the cut. I simply had to make a choice (between this and Obergeist) and I found I preferred what I saw of the artwork in one over the other. While I know that graphics styles frequently do grow on me, I can't say that I've been enchanted by anything I've seen Lea Hernandez do.
Eddie Campbell's Bacchus #59: This is essentially the same set of objections I had to A Distant Soil. In this case I have several of the earlier pieces from back when I used to dabble in Dark Horse Presents, and they simply didn't grab me. As with Soil, I am overdue to try this again, but the best way for me to do it is via back issues I already have.
Hollow Grounds: Carapaces: EB. Aside from finding it uneconomical, I have the distinct sense I have much better SF available already. As for the big titties and the connecting theme of lust, to be perfectly honest this sort of thing had a very limited appeal for me even back when I wasn't gettin' any. This was the easiest item in the lot to pass up.
Beowulf: Hey, good luck to Gareth Hinds and his company. As best I can tell it's a unique attempt to capture the epic tale in visuals without representing (or attempting to rewrite in a more modern idiom) the verse. The use of different media for each of the three chapters is inspired; be sure to follow the link Warren provides so that you can see sample pages from each chapter. I even applaud their marketing campaign, offering a free copy to any interested comics shop. I'm simply not sufficiently interested in the work, however seminal the source material might be to the Western heroic tradition and however interestingly rendered, to go that last step of praising it with gold.
I invite any contrasting or supporting views, along with any other recommendations. The handiest way to share them with all who come here is by using the Embassy Messageboard
Okay, that's enough for now.
NyQuil, take me away!
Send mail to: Mike Norton
or take a look at previous Dispatches
..or go Back To The Embassy!