Yes, it was. The thing is that everything since (even the Jenkins/JRJR mini) has been REALLY bad.

Could you elaborate on this statement in a future column? I got out of comics when they got god-awful in the early 1990s, started picking up a lot of back issues around 2000 (but older stuff, 1960s-70s), and not until a couple years ago did I get back into the current stuff.

I’ve often wondered what I missed, but my occasional forays back into the 1990s haven’t really paid off.

If DC hadn’t rejected Paul Jenkins’ Hourman pitch and forced him to rework the character into something new then we wouldn’t have all that “great” Bendis Sentry stuff. Well, they can’t all be winners.

The original Sentry series with Lee was pretty damn good.

it was [Bendis] writing Ultimate Spiderman that got him fired, and not even that – he wanted off of Hellspawn and took Ultimate Spiderman, and McFarlane saw it as taking Marvel gigs over his gigs, and not that Bendis didn’t like writing Hellspawn.

Hmm, I knew the timing was close. Oh well. We’ll do this, then:

If McFarlane hadn’t been unable to find a company that could make toys the way he wanted, action figures wouldn’t have evolved to the level they have today.

If McToys’ sculptors hadn’t been so marginalized, the Four Horsemen would never had started working for Mattel, launching the DC and He-Man lines; also, NECA would still be a company making lunchboxes and shot glasses.

(those are vaguely comic-related examples, no?)

In that case wouldn’t the lucky unlucky break be “DC Implosion caused DC to focus and create fewer, better comics”?

In all seriousness, there’d be no Sandman if DC had allowed Gaiman to write the Phantom Stranger series he wanted.

If Warren Ellis’ Santanna hadn’t been rejected by Marvel’s new owners, we never would have gotten Strange Kiss, and Avatar may still have just been a porn publisher – none of their works from him, Ennis, Grant, Delano or Moore adaptations could have come about.

If Oscar Jimenz had made deadlines, Ellis wouldn’t have worked with Hitch and Neary on Stormwatch, and The Authority may never have come to be.
(I believe Brian covered this once before).

– If Archie Goodwin hadn’t gotten bored writing Batman, he would never have poured himself into the Manhunter stuff with Walt Simonson.

I’m not sure that’s how that happened – he was editor of the book and needed a backup.
From my understanding it was Simonsons art that made him throw himself into Manhunter.

If Bendis hadn’t been fired by McFarlane, we wouldn’t have Ultimate Spider-Man…

Yes you would have, it was him writing Ultimate Spiderman that got him fired, and not even that – he wanted off of Hellspawn and took Ultimate Spiderman, and McFarlane saw it as taking Marvel gigs over his gigs, and not that Bendis didn’t like writing Hellspawn.

If John Byrne hadn’t taken over Superman, George Perez wouldn’t have taken on Wonder Woman.

If a fanzine writer hadn’t tracked down Will Eisner, he never would have gotten back into comics and written his graphic novels.

If Jerry Siegel hadn’t been so offended by the Superman movie, we might never have known who created Superman.

If any comic strip syndicate had bought Superman, we might not have comic books today!

http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=73350897&blogId=494242895

if anyone is interested.

If Jack Kirby hadn’t drawn Spider-Man too bulky for Stan Lee’s liking, no Ditko Spider-Man.

It wasn’t the bulkiness that was the issue, it was that he was too dashing looking. Ditko himself did a bulky Spider-Man, at least as bulky as your average Kirby character.