A Question About the Kurt/Ororo/Logan love triangle, et al.

Got questions? He's got answers!
ChastMastr
Posts: 25
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 4:07 am
Location: Clearwater, Florida
Contact:

Post by ChastMastr »

Alan Davis wrote:in general, I just don’t connect with the philosophy or raison d’etre behind modern comics. As I have stated elsewhere, if this makes me a dinosaur and ultimately unemployable I am prepared to accept the consequences but I really only want to do the kind of work I like.
As a reader, I don't think I connect with the mindset behind some modern comics either. (In my case, I mean what I perceive as a cynical and anti-heroic mindset, more in vogue at Marvel than at DC right now. On the plus side, Civil War and its little anti-heroic friends drove me to discover Marvel's all-ages books, like Spider-Girl and First Class and Marvel Adventures, where heroes act like heroes rather than betraying their friends...) If you're a dinosaur for that, well, we're in good company with most of the writers on what makes good fiction for pretty much the history of the human race, from Aristotle's On Poetics (and before) on down. I mean, one can of course tell a very good story involving un-heroic characters -- half the world's great drama is tragedy, after all -- but that's not what's being done in those comics, and they've been dragging our childhood icons through the mud to basically sell crossover issues. :cry: (I think Marvel is starting to change its tune, happily -- I have read that a new Iron Man series will have him seeing what he's done and trying to basically step back from it all, make up for what he has done, and find redemption -- so perhaps they're backing off from the grim approach they've had the last few years. They're called super-heroes for a reason, after all!)

Er -- I assume of course that's what you mean. If you mean something entirely different about working in modern comics, I feel rather silly for pontificating now, though I'm curious as to what you do mean.

Happy Easter!

David
Current mood: Glad Marvel has vastly improved
wonderdallas
Posts: 32
Joined: Wed Nov 16, 2005 6:12 am
Location: Atlanta GA

Post by wonderdallas »

[quote="Alan Davis"
I would like to read the issues I have worked on in the same way I’d love to read more comics in general but. in general, I just don’t connect with the philosophy or raison d’etre behind modern comics. As I have stated elsewhere, if this makes me a dinosaur and ultimately unemployable I am prepared to accept the consequences but I really only want to do the kind of work I like.

I would hope that I have a ‘cool detachment’ to all of the nonsense in the industry-- The petty politics, ego and hype-- but I’d like to think I am still as passionate about doing good work. If I didn’t feel that way I would quit and do something else. It’s the challenge of improving and perhaps producing something of real quality that keeps me interested.

Alan[/quote]


Thanks for the answer Alan. To tell you the truth, I thought I may have offended you....which surely wasn't my intent.

I work for aCNN network, and besides just being hit by a tornado, most of the excitement in my job has been replaced with much frustration. The guys in charge seem more interested in ratings than journalism. Cool, clean design is pushed aside for lens flares, sound effects and anything that parrots the FOX News archetype. That said, occasionally I get to stretch and work on a project that really means something.... but ultimately I think my conscience is out weighing my want of job security.

My work is anonymous. Millions may see my designs but there is no signature. Your work can be identified. It's just the best out there and I'll take it in anyway that I can. Preferably a series you write and draw. I certainly hope you keep producing such high caliber work in spite of the state of the industry.

Remember, dinosaurs are quite impressive. :)


Dallas
ChastMastr
Posts: 25
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 4:07 am
Location: Clearwater, Florida
Contact:

Post by ChastMastr »

wonderdallas wrote:most of the excitement in my job has been replaced with much frustration. The guys in charge seem more interested in ratings than journalism. ... ultimately I think my conscience is out weighing my want of job security.
Man, do I hear that. Back in the late 1990s I was a copy editor at a newspaper. I came in with a lot of idealism -- I wanted to help people Know Things They Need To Know and I really felt like I was involved in making the world a better place. But in news meetings the editor kept talking more about selling the paper, and then the Clinton-Lewinsky thing hit, so there was a deep sense of sensationalist yellow journalism for eight hours or more every single day (yikes!!) that really got to me after a while. :( And here I was seeing important world events over the AP wire that they just didn't care about including in the paper because they thought people wouldn't be as interested in them. I left for other reasons in the end (conflict with my editor, who was a pretty nasty piece of work in general, and was gone after another year, probably due to his unprofessional behavior) but I think I'd have gotten burned out for those reasons after a bit longer anyway, the same way you are. (Kind of trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life now after 7 years in editing for a different publication. I think I'm sick of editing.)

Re dinosaurs I think of C.S. Lewis, who called himself a dinosaur too, and whose company I think is also good to be in. :)

Again I have to say that I am so glad the current ClanDestine series is set in the past, before all the present depressing storylines started, so we can ignore Civil War and Decimation with impunity. We don't need to see the Destine folks having to battle the SHRA. (Well, unless of course it's part of a storyline that sets things right again. ;) I am sure it will be set right eventually, I just don't know when.)

Hmmm. You know, with ClanDestine (set in the past), Spider-Girl (spinning out of the 1990s era), and Claremont's GeNext series (spinning out of the 1980s era), not to mention Millar's upcoming 1985 (I know it's by Millar, I'm just mentioning it as evidence), I wonder if this is a sign readers are missing the kinds of books we used to have a few years ago? I don't think people really want to read a Civil War world forever -- it's got novelty but no real staying power, I believe. DC is leading up to Final Crisis but they're going out of their way to say that this is the FINAL one, and from the way it's all being talked about I think the parallel worlds are here to stay -- and I notice they're bringing back all the cool fun toys of the past, so we have Hal Jordan back as GL, Kara Zor-El as Supergirl, Krypto, multiple Earths, the classic Legion (!!!!) in which Superman was a member back when he was younger but they can't yet call him Superboy (they're being coy about it, I am sure, till legal wrinkles are worked out, but they're doing what they can there), Batman is smart and somewhat dark but not depressingly dark or crazy, Wonder Woman helped start the JLA again, and so on. While the villains there are darker, the heroes are brighter than they've been in years -- so perhaps this is the turning of the tide...

(I see Infinite Crisis as kind of the anti-Civil War. In IC, the heroes found out that if they cross moral lines, like the whole mind-wiping thing, and betray their friends (Zatanna erasing Batman's memory), and don't trust each other, terrible things happen -- they learned from this, took a year off to get their heads on right, and had to forgive each other and keep trusting each other. In Marvel, they've set up a new ongoing paradigm of mistrust, and the people betraying each other get rewarded with being made head of SHIELD and such. Which is more heroic? Though again I am glad to read that Tony Stark is going to face that he did a lot of wrong, and try to, as they put it, "earn his soul back," so I'm glad to see that he's going to become a hero again.)

David
Current mood: Glad Marvel has vastly improved
neling4
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2007 5:35 pm

Post by neling4 »

Look what happens when I leave my thread for a few days!

Carry on.

Nancy
ChastMastr
Posts: 25
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 4:07 am
Location: Clearwater, Florida
Contact:

Post by ChastMastr »

LOL! Yes, probably there are threads which move into naughty slash fiction, OR into complex moral metaphysics and the nature of literature with references to C.S. Lewis, but not both. :shock:
Current mood: Glad Marvel has vastly improved
Alan Davis
Creator
Posts: 472
Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2005 9:13 pm

Post by Alan Davis »

To tell you the truth, I thought I may have offended you....which surely wasn't my intent.
No problem, Dallas. I am not easily offended, certainly never by an honest query. I prefer concise considered questions-- rather than the sort of vague query set to inspire an English lit essay OR the ‘this is what I think… don’t you agree?” type of question but as far as I am concerned there are no taboo subjects.

Alan
ChastMastr
Posts: 25
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 4:07 am
Location: Clearwater, Florida
Contact:

Post by ChastMastr »

Alan Davis wrote:but as far as I am concerned there are no taboo subjects.
Whew! I was worried that either my salacious humour or my metaphysical/ethical digression would offend...

David
Current mood: Glad Marvel has vastly improved
neling4
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2007 5:35 pm

Post by neling4 »

Greetings ChastMastr/David.

I don't drop in here very often, I'm usually making mischief over on the Marvel boards, but I see my thread has grown a bit more since I was last here.

I have another question for Mr. Davis, but I think it will fit better in one of the Clandestine threads.

Later!

Nancy
Post Reply