Warning: Comic Book History Discussed
A brief interlude wherein I elicit blank stares from those who don’t know or care about comic books and a mocking eye-roll from those who do:
What is it about comics that so inflames journalistic eagerness to get the simplest things wrong? This sentence about the Flapjack Four movie, presumably written by some half-bright studio drone, then slavishly and endlessly repeated throughout print and electronic media, has been plaguing me all day: “Marvel's first family of comic superheroes takes the world by storm as the longest running comic book series in history comes to the big screen.”
Okay, I know I’m out of touch with what’s going on in comics today, but I have a pretty decent recollection of the basics. Like – Fantastic Four #1 was published in November of 1961. Detective Comics* #1 was published in March 1937. I haven’t spent much time in comic shops since 1992 or so, but Detective was still being published back then. Even if it ceased publication the day after I last saw a current copy, can someone explain to me how Fantastic Four managed to overcome a twenty-four-year head start in thirteen years? For that matter, what about Action (first published June 1938)? I assume that DC has at one time or another restarted the numbering on Superman (summer 1939), Batman (spring 1940), Wonder Woman** (summer 1942), et al., but I’d be very surprised to learn they’d decided to re-start or cancel their two original flagship books after 60 years.
What really mystifies me here, though, is given how little I care about this shit, why is it driving me so meshugge to see this misinformation propagated on the back of a stupid action movie?
___________________
*A series not really notable until it got to #27, but then, whoa, Nellie.
**That one I know they started over again at #1.
What is it about comics that so inflames journalistic eagerness to get the simplest things wrong? This sentence about the Flapjack Four movie, presumably written by some half-bright studio drone, then slavishly and endlessly repeated throughout print and electronic media, has been plaguing me all day: “Marvel's first family of comic superheroes takes the world by storm as the longest running comic book series in history comes to the big screen.”
Okay, I know I’m out of touch with what’s going on in comics today, but I have a pretty decent recollection of the basics. Like – Fantastic Four #1 was published in November of 1961. Detective Comics* #1 was published in March 1937. I haven’t spent much time in comic shops since 1992 or so, but Detective was still being published back then. Even if it ceased publication the day after I last saw a current copy, can someone explain to me how Fantastic Four managed to overcome a twenty-four-year head start in thirteen years? For that matter, what about Action (first published June 1938)? I assume that DC has at one time or another restarted the numbering on Superman (summer 1939), Batman (spring 1940), Wonder Woman** (summer 1942), et al., but I’d be very surprised to learn they’d decided to re-start or cancel their two original flagship books after 60 years.
What really mystifies me here, though, is given how little I care about this shit, why is it driving me so meshugge to see this misinformation propagated on the back of a stupid action movie?
___________________
*A series not really notable until it got to #27, but then, whoa, Nellie.
**That one I know they started over again at #1.
posted by PapaDogDuvalier | 1:12 PM
1 Comments:
Because marketers tell lies and get away with it. That's why you're so damned irked!
Post a Comment
<< Home