Comments on: What I bought - 30 April 2008

By: Blog@Newsarama » Variations on a Theme

Blog@Newsarama » Variations on a Theme — Sat, 24 May 2008 01:47:03 +0000

[...] Greg Burgas didn’t think the Spanish was a complete success: [...]

By: ivan brandon

ivan brandon — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:01:48 +0000

no, see, the thing is, clearly, it IS how machine man speaks these days.

By: Greg Burgas

Greg Burgas — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:55:02 +0000

Ivan: That's true, but let's be honest - Ellis's Aaron Stack was one of the most interesting takes on the character in years, so I wondered why he didn't sound that way in the story. I wasn't "looking" for anything, but when a character gets defined that way, it's curious when he/she doesn't speak that way anymore. Let's face it - Machine Man is a corporate character, so it's not like Marvel is going to let you write him however you want to. You can't suddenly make Spider-Man a ranting racist, for instance. Personally, I wouldn't write a story with Aaron Stack in it now, because I wouldn't want to try to make him as entertaining as Ellis (and later, Reed in Ms. Marvel) did. I simply wondered if you wrote the story after Ellis got through with him (as seems likely) and why you chose to change the way he spoke. That's perfectly fine, but I'm curious if anyone at Marvel said, "Well, that's not how Machine Man speaks these days."

By: ivan brandon

ivan brandon — Mon, 19 May 2008 16:17:32 +0000

the answer is: none of the above- i write all my dialogue like me, turns out. no one promised you what you came looking for.

By: red-Ricky

red-Ricky — Wed, 07 May 2008 07:34:12 +0000

Re: Blue Beetle #26: So my question is: does Jaime speak perfect Spanish? Or is it â€œteenâ€ Spanish?

If the cover is an indicator, the answer is neither! Or to put it in another way... "DESTRAILLÃ“" is not a WORD (or verb) in Cuba, Spain, Puerto Rico, Mejico, Texas, Arizona, Monterey or even Pig-Latin America! So hopefully, that settles that! Because to be honest, I'm afraid to read past the cover. Plus, I don't think I'll be able to even if I try. The butchering of my native tongue may have been too thorough for me.

By: FunkyGreenJerusalem

FunkyGreenJerusalem — Mon, 05 May 2008 02:06:22 +0000

I picked up the first trade of The Order after nearly every reviewer was going on about how good a book it was - and Fraction is a pretty good writer.
I quite liked the book, however, I was reluctant to try it out due to it spinning out of a crossover.
I know that's what Marvel was hoping would make people try it out, but I usually stay the hell away from anything to do with crossovers as I don't like them, and don't want to support them... so yeah, I'd say a lot of people who would've liked the book stayed away, due to the device Marvel thought would attract the most people to it.
(Oddly, for a crossover spin-off, I enjoyed this much more than the stand alone Iron Fist. Book just did nothing for me).

By: Nate

Nate — Sun, 04 May 2008 20:57:41 +0000

The Order
Someone out there speculated that because Marvel was paying to keep Kitson exclusive it didn't make economic sense to keep him on a lowish selling book. This seems possible.

By: Talent Copies - Genius Steals- Kreetrappers Linkblog » Better your English

Talent Copies - Genius Steals- Kreetrappers Linkblog » Better your English — Sun, 04 May 2008 18:58:30 +0000

[...] über eben diese namens 1963. Hier sind noch einige andere dieser Anzeigen zu sehen. (via Comments on Comics Should Be Good) Mai 4th, 2008 Posted in comic, lol • [...]

By: stealthwise

stealthwise — Sat, 03 May 2008 16:09:05 +0000

RASL came out in MARCH? Holy crap, no idea what's going on in my comic shop, but I guess I'll probably have to wait for the trade, although I only had to pay $3.50 for my copy.

By: Greg Burgas

Greg Burgas — Sat, 03 May 2008 13:50:46 +0000

Mordy: I have NO problem with people trying new stuff and not liking it. If The Order didn't work for you, that's fine. Different strokes for different folks and all that. I disagree with you, but that's cool. I heard several people say they weren't going to try it because they didn't know the writer or they didn't know the characters or they didn't like the Initiative. That just seems silly to me. I'm sorry you didn't like it, but at least you tried it!

By: Mordy

Mordy — Sat, 03 May 2008 09:48:13 +0000

I just wanted to offer another POV on The Order. I read issues 1 through 4, missed 5, and read 6. I didn't bother reading the last 3. My problem was that (assuming nothing definitive happened in #5) having read 5 issues of the comic I couldn't name a single character. I couldn't tell you the plot. I had no idea what was going on. Which isn't to say I missed the conceit. As a piece of genrework (Superheroes as Celebrity), I thought The Order was a very clever idea. But when I read a comic, I need one of a few things: Either a character I love (which is why I'll read anything with Kitty Pryde in it), great writing (which Fraction brings to Iron Fist far more than he brought to the 5 issues that I read of The Order), or great storytelling. Potentially, The Order developed one, or all, of those things over its 10 issues. But if by the middle of the series, it hasn't distinguished itself to me, I really can't keep trucking along hoping it'll get better. There's so much great stuff - a mediocre but clever genre exercise isn't enough.

By: Gianluca

Gianluca — Sat, 03 May 2008 07:07:02 +0000

Hi Greg,

Thanks for the reviews of Hercules and Caliber. I'll hook you up with a Steranko cover.

By: Andrew Collins

Andrew Collins — Sat, 03 May 2008 07:05:30 +0000

A few thoughts: BLUE BEETLE- Loved the parts at the family reunion, felt the Parasite battle was tacked on to give the issue some *umph* Personally, I would have loved to have seen more with the aunt and grandmother and just the family dynamic in general. Plus Jaime and Traci are turning out to be quite a cute couple. I like that the next issue will be a focus on the two of them. HELEN KILLER- I bought this on a whim because of the farout premise and enjoyed it a lot more than I expected too. I don't quite understand your complaint about the way she overcomes her handicap in the comic, though, Greg. If she really could see and hear and was just pretending, I think that would confuse people more because they would ask if the writer was playing "Miracle Worker" off as make believe, or ignoring it altogether. Since that is most people's intro to (and usually only information about) Keller, it makes sense to keep that intact and go with the super-science angle with the spectacles. I thought it gave it a 'steampunk' feel, which is something I enjoy. Very much looking forward to issue #2... LESBIAN PIRATES- Another 'purchased on a whim' title and another win. This book was also very fun and had me laughing out loud a couple times. I liked how it never took itself or its concept too seriously. Plus the throwback art style (echoes of Liechtenstein and 50's romance and sci-fi comics) and deliriously trashy concept made for a good read. Also planning on picking up issue #2...

By: Bill Reed

Bill Reed — Sat, 03 May 2008 04:08:22 +0000

Caliber sounds like it's worth a look. Nifty. Also, I demand Helen Killer be traded so that I can actually be able to read it.

I am totally a Lesbian trapped in an American's body.

Hey, Glamourpuss has that "Shamed By You English" guy from 1963 on the cover. He must be a dude from comics or something. Hmmmmmmm. I never gave this thought before-- http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y191/luxxcorp/blammo/ShamedEnglish.jpg

By: Lucion

Lucion — Sat, 03 May 2008 03:57:27 +0000

Too bad they can't toss in a random reprint and put Marvel Comics Presents on news stands like Spider-Man Family or the Marvel Two-In-One books. Those three books are the only ones I buy in floppies since they have them at the local bookstore. But we've beaten the issue of accessibility into the ground. I just don't know what they are going for with that title. Like the rest of the city here, I'm hopping on the Atlanta Hawks bandwagon. There's plenty of room for the rest of you!

By: sleeper

sleeper — Sat, 03 May 2008 03:40:22 +0000

Also, everyone listen to 10,000 DAYS by Tool as a fitting tribute to Albert Hofmann. Just an aside.

By: Dan Bailey

Dan Bailey — Sat, 03 May 2008 03:38:14 +0000

Just for the record, having already mentioned the ABA, I stopped caring about (pro) basketball pretty much the day the league's last 4 teams merged with the NBA some *choke* 32 years ago.

By: sleeper

sleeper — Sat, 03 May 2008 03:31:31 +0000

Alan Coil - How could you miss the DOOM PATROL reference? Mr. Nobody is a comic book classic, or at least he is in my weird little world. I am very sad that THE ORDER is finished. You're right - more people should try new books. For the record, it was awesome while it lasted. "I like The Order a lot, but I liked Aztek, and Automatic Kafka, and Wildcats, and Nextwave, and tons of other books that have gone the way of the passenger pigeon, so who cares, really?" That particular sentence made me oddly depressed because I'm in the same situation. I loved all those books and I feel like my favorite comics are often axed way too early. This is why I'm for cheaper and digital distribution for comics... it makes it less expensive to try new things and titles that have a snowball's chance in hell of surviving in the "Spider-Man, X-Men and Batman ONLY" direct market might get a lengthier shelf life. Rhod - Lots of people care about basketball. If, however, he was fascinated by NHL hockey, we'd have him committed.

By: Greg Burgas

Greg Burgas — Sat, 03 May 2008 03:18:59 +0000

Ariel: So as not to completely veer off-topic, I'll respectfully keep my opinions about Manu to myself.

By: Rhod

Rhod — Sat, 03 May 2008 02:44:19 +0000

I think now that I should have picked up the order, having read Fraction's work on Punisher War Journal (an easy character to do averagely), and heard many good things about the rest of his work.
I'll try and run the lesbian thing past a lesbian friend of mine for a laugh, if I can find it, and also the spanish Blue Beetle past a friend of mine who is Venezuelan and regularly makes remarks about the non-Spanishness of Mexicans.
Also I'm disappointed to hear of the passing of Albert Hofmann and surprised that anyone cares so much about basketball.