I can’t believe I just typed that.

As far as the Shazam thing goes, I haven’t read a significant amount of the Beck stuff from that era like you have, but I have read, for example, a lot of the early Superman, which had a vitality and an energy that the modern comics don’t always have. And then there’s a fuckload of other great comics and movies from the ‘olden days’… so yeah, some old things are pretty damn good.

However, there’s something to be said for the accumulation of technical wisdom that can (ideally) be found only in newer works. I mean, go see ’300′ and then watch ‘The 300 Spartans’ on DVD, and August’s argument starts to make a lot more sense.

Judging ALL old comics by the standards of DC’s Silver Age ‘Green Arrow’ comics is like judging all old movies by the standards of ‘Robot Monster’.

Quality endures. Age is irrelevent.
And a screenwriter who wants to write a script about a character but is too freakin’ lazy to read the seminal works on the character is a hack.

Frankly, August wanting to write a Captain Marvel script based on nothing except Judd Winnick and Jerry Ordway’s version of the character is like someone wanting to write a Dracula Script based only on ‘Blackula’, ‘Dracula: Dead And Loving It’ and that episode of ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’.

But then again, why bother with Bram Stoker’s novel?
It’s old.
And old things suck, apparently.

Johnny Hollywood is full of crap.

If you’re offended by August’s comments because you used to read those old comics, then okay, you can feel emotionally put out – but that doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t suck. Let’s face it, when we read those old comics, they were much newer comics, and we were six, and we loved the thought of becoming a superhero and knowing a talking tiger. But that was then. And now they suck. I cannot believe that you could give those specific comics to a comics newbie nowadays and expect them to do anything but laugh in your face. In fact, I dare you to try it.

This is the kind of thing Grant Morrison was always banging on about while he was hyping up his X-Men run; there might well be plenty of concepts salvageable from how something was done ages ago, but you steal them and you make something new and shiny with them, and that’s what becomes good. Not the source material. The source material is still crap.

I see August’s blog has a comment from Andy Diggle expressing complete agreement with August’s POV, so it’s not just sucky and evil and untalented Hollywood screenwriters, it’s (obviously sucky and evil and untalented) comics writers who think this, too.

~ Gil

http://johnaugust.com/archives/2007/on-the-topic-of-old-things-sucking

But I dunno that that makes him a BAD choice for a Captain Marvel screenwriter.

And as a screenwriter, I can totally see him bein’ more responsive to new comics. They’re much, much closer to movies in pacing an’ structure. Back in the forties, comics were still, basically, illustrated pulp novels. If you don’t know this and aren’t prepared for it, makes ‘em tough to read.

Hmmm…. he lives in LA, he’s a screenwriter, and he has shitty taste.

Who is he hanging out with?

My guess is Total Douchebags.

Isn’t this pretty common cultural knowledge in the U.S.? Who is August hanging out with?

And I even like a lot of the stories ON the list.

But as a “guideline” to Captain Marvel stories, that is a bad list.

SEAN

Yeah, that kinda floored me too.

The guy is a screenwriter. He writes for the screen. Of course, he writes modestly entertaining pablam for people with short attention spans, but still.
Blah.

He wrote the Superman/Cap vs Eclipso story that was collected in the trade.

The Eclipso story wasn’t all that good though.

And the Ordway stuff is good.

Most importantly, in my mind is that he focuses in on the Johns stuff, which is probably the best take of the “Billy in the driver’s seat” version of the character. Which I still think is more interesting and has more possibilities than the alternative.

And even more important is the fact that if he uses Black Adam, we’d probably get the three dimensional version and not the cartoon one.