Comments on: 365 Reasons to Love Comics #215

By: Apodaca

Apodaca — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 20:59:26 +0000

What in the world is in that Taco that WW’s carrying?

Spaghetti?

By: DanCJ

DanCJ — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:24:31 +0000

I like Bill Messner-Loebs a lot – I think I knew him first from his run on Dr Fate which was great.

Is it wrong of me to hold a grudge over his run on Impulse? He just wrecked the book. Iâ€™m sorry that heâ€™s in dire straits now, I hope his situation improves, I know itâ€™s pigheaded of me to judge a man by a select few issuesâ€¦but dammit, he ruined Impulse before Todd DeZago set fire to the wreckage.

I haven’t read them so I don’t know, but it might not be his fault. I vaguely remember Tod Dezago saying that the editor on Impulse was forcing him to write Impulse as a superhero book rather than the comedy he felt it should be, so Loebs might have had the same problem.

By: "O" the Humanatee!

"O" the Humanatee! — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 20:17:38 +0000

Since I urged you to include Bill Messner-Loebs at the start of Bill Week, I’m of course delighted to see that you did. I’ve actually read little of his mainstream superhero work, such as Flash or Wonder Woman. From what I’ve seen of it, he handled humanity, characterization, and humor well, but conflict and violence not so much. Ultimately – and unfortunately for his finances – I think he’s probably too individualistic a talent to work well in the mainstream (though I’d like to go back and check out his Flash work sometime).

My love of his work comes from more personal stuff like Journey and Epicurus the Sage (the funniest treatment of ancient Greek philosophy you’re ever likely to read). Journey is a seamless melding of frontier adventure, history (human and natural), humor, human relations, and even occasional mysticism. It is, put simply, a wonder. The bear chase in issue 1 must be seen by anyone who loves the comics form. And there’s a scene at the end of a later issue where Jemmy Acorn (Messner-Loebs’s delusional Johnny Appleseed figure – he travels America planting oaks!) receives a “message from the future” like nothing you’d ever expect. That scene always brings me close to tears of both laughter and something more sublime.

If I had the money, I’d become Messner-Loebs’s patron and fund him to continue creating Journey. (The second Journey series, War Drums, only lasted two issues.) I wonder if he could get a grant to do it?

By: Tom Russell

Tom Russell — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 12:48:16 +0000

His rationale on Wonder Woman was, let’s see how she does on her own, with out the large supporting cast to help her out. While the end result made many, in his words, willing to crawl over broken glass in order to strangle him, he was trying something new.

I enjoyed his Impulse run myself, especially the kookier sort of characters he introduced, like the Green Cigarette. That issue in which all the characters– heroes, villains, and townies– teamed up to try and stop the flood– that was a really interesting and entertaining story.

And, in his defense, at least his Impulse– and DeZago’s– were an attempt to write Impulse. No broken legs, angst, or being kicked to death. The character of Impulse may have been ruined– but it was _not_ on their watch.

By: Jason

Jason — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 16:38:13 +0000

Is it wrong of me to hold a grudge over his run on Impulse? He just wrecked the book. I’m sorry that he’s in dire straits now, I hope his situation improves, I know it’s pigheaded of me to judge a man by a select few issues…but dammit, he ruined Impulse before Todd DeZago set fire to the wreckage.

By: Craig

Craig — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 16:24:56 +0000

That Flash #54 was one of the best comics I’ve ever read.

By: Rebis

Rebis — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 13:43:35 +0000

I’m sorry to hear about all of Bill’s personal woes. (I had no idea.) But I was also very sorry to read his run on Wonder Woman. He did that incredibly vexing thing where he ignored her supporting cast â€” and Perez and Co. had created a really wonderful supporting cast, in addition to fleshing out reasonable new roles in WW’s post-Crisis universe for Steve Trevor and Etta Candy. Also, Diana working at Taco Whiz? Worst. Issue. Ever.

By: Tom Russell

Tom Russell — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 13:24:38 +0000

I’ve had the privilege of talking to Bill on more than one occasion. Both he and his wife are wonderful, wonderful people– very generous with their time.

Bill has been doing some illustration work, and you can see some more of his excellence by getting a copy of “Chicken Wings for the Beer Drinker’s Soul”.

By: Tom Fitzpatrick

Tom Fitzpatrick — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 13:03:27 +0000

I loved the JOURNEY series, and was quite disappointed when it was discontinued (cancelled or whatever).

Hopefully, somebody like IDW will pick up the reprints like they did with GRIM JACK and JON SABLE FREELANCE and soon to be published BADGER and even do a brand new mini-series.

Epicurus the Sage and the MAXX was fun to read.

By: stealthwise

stealthwise — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 05:24:14 +0000

I always did like his run on the Flash the best, even though I’ve found his issues hard to track down here. I had no idea about any of his background or current troubles, though, that’s sad.