The surprising social conscience of Teen Titans #30

A few months ago, I was rifling through some dollar boxes, picking up some flashy '90s books (Silver Surfer #50) and some silly late-80s books (an issue of TMNT) when I came across a couple early issues of Teen Titans, both from 1970 and both in not-terrible-but-not-great shape.  I'm not a big fan of the Teen Titans in any of their iterations (well, maybe Young Justice if that even counts), but some classic stories for only a buck proved to be too good to pass up.  I expected to read cramped, dated, superhero fare, but what I got was actually a bit of a surprise.  The Teen Titans of 1970 read very much like the famous Denny O'Neal/Neal Adams Green Lantern/Green Arrow run in that there was quite a bit of social conscience on display.

One of the starkest concepts on display in the book was the decision to keep all of the characters out of costume for the entire time; apparently, the Titans had previously lost control of a riot in which a man was killed, so they decided to stop being superheroes, foregoing their costumes and refusing to use their powers until they learned more about their role in the human experience.  This was an interesting idea, though it made it really difficult to tell who the characters were in the book.  Which one was Wally West and which was Dick Grayson?  Who could tell?  The character might have taken their vows a little too seriously, though, such as in the following scene, when Wally West - Kid Flash! - watches a guy get hit by a car.

Okay, I mean, I guess he yelled at the guy to watch out.  But when you've got super speed and let a guy get creamed in the middle of the street on, what, principle?  Then you just might be a jerk.

Later on in the issue, the book proves that even after 40 years, people are still generally terrible as this guy recites a line that I've heard...once or twice before...in response to the Titans trying to raise some money for a charity that helps rehabilitate former criminals:

The hits kept coming, as the book moved on to more social causes, this one even more reminiscent of the O'Neal/Adams collaboration:

To be honest, the story came across a bit heavy handed.  Obviously, I understand that the times might have called for frank storytelling like this, at a time when the Civil Rights movement was in full swing, but it did seem a bit like the creators were checking items off a list.  But even so, it was fairly stunning to see such a socially progressive message in a book like this.  Just to make sure they didn't miss anything, the book later responded to an eye-rolling moment at the beginning of the story where the guys of the team told the girls to stay back while they engaged a group of thugs; Wonder Girl and...uh, whoever the other one is...thoroughly mangle a couple would-be assassins thusly:

Overall, this was an interesting look into the history of not only comics but also the socially progressive movement of the late '60s and early '70s.  If nothing else, it's pretty clear that most mainstream comics today would blanche at the thought of putting such controversial material on the shelves and in front of readers.

In other news, the letters page helped me finally learn how to say Dick Giordano's last name!

Interesting stuff!

Pictures from Free Comic Book Day 2013, part 1

What a day this year's Free Comic Book Day turned out to be.  I'm a pretty lucky guy overall (handsome, too), but my good fortune was really in overdrive on Saturday as I got to see the Tick story I wrote in the hands of a whole lot of people.  I spent yesterday at two New England Comics locations - Quincy and Cambridge - and I had a great time at each.  I'll surely talk more about this later, but for now I wanted to upload some pictures (with a little bit of commentary) from the day.  Take a look.

I went to the story in Quincy first.  We opened half an hour early and there was a line for as long as I was there - until 2:30.  I signed a bunch of comics and met some really nice folks.

Someone had this shirt on, and I took a picture of it to show Larry - and now the world.  The person wearing it couldn't remember where he got it.  Pretty neat.

At 2:30, I took a train to the Cambridge store at Harvard Square where I met a few superheroes.  After I got some fantastic Chinese food (really, the fried rice was quite possibly the best I've ever had), I began the second tour of duty and singed some more.

Look!  It's Green Arrow, Superman, and awkward-pose-Pirate-hat guy.

For a while, I turned invisible as I sat behind the table.  We still managed to give away all but six copies of the Tick book by the time the store closed for the night.

The Harvard store is a small one, but it's in a great location and it's got some personality.  I enjoyed it a lot.

At different points during the day, I drew some terrible (really, just horrendous) Tick sketches onto ye ol' Teddy and the Yeti sketch cards.  A few people walked out with them.  I gave one to a little kid, and he brought his sister and brother back for cards of their own, which was kind of embarrassing.  "How are you so good?", the kid asked.  I couldn't find words to answer him, and instead just died a little bit inside.

There were only a few books left at the Harvard store at the end of the day.  Grimm was, apparently, not a popular choice as there were plenty of those books that remained.  I'll bet that if the books were about Ben Grimm, they would have all been taken in the first few minutes (all over the world).

Through a series of fortunate circumstances, I walked away with a load of great stuff, including the (slightly embarrassing) Lost Girls hardcover, the fourth volume of the Hellboy library editions, fellow FUBAR creators Jennie Wood and Jeff McComsey's Flutter, an Earth X companion (for 99 cents!), a new Futurama toy...

And some cool free comics that I'm gonna read the heck out of.

Many thanks to all who came out to one of the stores, and further thanks to New England Comics for having me in town for this event.  I will be at the NEC Malden store tomorrow from noon to 2:00 pm to sign a few more comics before heading home.  I hope that others elsewhere were able to pick up the book and that there was some enjoyment to be taken from it.  If you picked up either the Tick or FUBAR (or both), I hope you'll let me know what you thought of them.

More pictures to come.

Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash comic store in Red Bank, NJ

I took a trip this weekend to visit some family near Allentown, PA (famous for the Billy Joel song and NOTHING ELSE), and while I was there we managed a little day trip to New York and surrounding areas.  My brother-in-law, great guy that he is, mentioned that the Kevin Smith owned comic shop, Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash, was nearby, so an impromptu side trip was quickly undertaken!  Below are some pictures of the shop, which was a pretty neat place.

While I'm not Kevin Smith's biggest fan in the world, I have seen most of his movies and I've enjoyed more than a few (the night before, thought, I watched Red State and MAN was it dark!).  I also think that, despite the fact that he does tend to reuse plot points and character traits, and despite his lack of ability to stick to a deadline, I think he's good for the comic industry and I have enjoyed most of his work.  His Green Arrow run from, what, 10 years ago (?) remains a favorite for me.

You've got to admit, however you feel about the man, it's pretty cool that he owns his own comic book shop.  The above two pictures are, of course, from outside the shop in Red Bank, New Jersey.  Red Bank was a pretty hip place all around, it seemed, and we spent some time in town afterwards.

One of the first things you see when entering the shop is this sign from Clerks.  There were props and memorabilia from a number of Smith's movies all over the place, which was pretty neat.  It beats storing them in some garage for years on end.

Here's the front of the store, complete with New Jersey Devils banners and framed Batman comics.  Smith supposedly works in the store from time to time (i.e. whenever he feels like it), though he wasn't there this day.  I wonder how often he does come in with the amount of time he spends directing and filming.

The store seemed pretty big for a comic shop, which allowed for the showcase areas with movie and comic props.  There was a hefty supply of comics written by Smith at the front of the store, some of which he had signed.  These were on sale for no extra charge, which I thought was pretty thoughtful of the guy.

The back of the store was a little more unorganized, with comics and props in random places as if this part was still under construction.  Even so, there were some neat, bigger items in the back such as outfits from Clerks II.

And look!  Here's Mooby the Golden Calf from Dogma and a number of movies.

I'd like to think that Jesus is my buddy, too.  I wonder who designed this thing.

In Mallrats (featuring an appearance with Stan Lee, in which he's asked about the Thing's junk), Jason Lee's character hangs out at the local comic shop and eventually owns one (if I'm remembering correctly...it's been a long time since I've seen it).  Surrounding this display were lots of comic book parodies from the movie, such as the one directly below...

...yep.  I'm not sure what else needs to be said about it.  But since it's a Fantastic Four parody, I had to take a picture.

On one side of the store, above the back issue bins of comics, there are what I assume to be original Alex Ross paintings.  Smith currently writes a Green Hornet comic for Dynamite Entertainment and Ross does the covers, which explains the connection.  It was pretty cool to see these, which were placed so inconspicuously that I almost didn't see them.

I ended up buying a couple things, including these two autographed Batman comics.  I said it before, but it bears repeating: it's cool that the guy comes in, signs some of his stuff, and then sells it without marking it up in price at all.  This was a cool, unique shop, and I had a good time looking at all of the original comic art, movie props and general merchandise.  And the place was jumpin' when I was there, too!  If you're ever near Red Bank, NJ, stop in and see it for yourself.

Oh, and I found lots of Mug Cream Soda in nearby Staten Island.  I bought a lot of it.  Dear Pepsi, sell Mug Cream Soda in the Pittsburgh area so I don't have to travel to New York to buy it!  Love, Jeff.

Justice League #8 letters page

To prove that everything old is new again, DC Comics recently announced that they were bringing back letters pages to their books.  Letters pages were removed several years ago in lieu of a more standard "DC Nation" page, which ended up being exactly what it was destined to become - a full-page in-house ad for other crap the company wanted you to buy.  It followed a pretty predictable formula: at first Dan DiDio wrote the DC Nation page and it was fairly informative; after a while DiDio still wrote it but would mention things like "well, I'm running really late with this, so...who likes Plastic Man?!"; later, Didio passed the torch onto other editors and assistants; even later you'd see full pages of art with "HAPPY THANKSGIVING!" (and similar messages) plastered on them; finally, it settled down to its current form, the Jay Sherman-esque "buy my book!" ads.

The prevailing sentiment from DC a few years ago was that message boards effectively took the place of letters pages, and nostalgia aside they probably did, though comics do run on quite a bit of nostalgia, to be fair.  I imagine that the DC Nation page might stick around even though letters pages are returning, as most DC books are cutting the page count of their books from 22 to 20 in an effort to save costs and keep cover prices at (or roll them back to) $2.99.

In any case, letters pages seem intrinsically tied to comics in many ways, as they have a long publication history together.  For example, last week I mentioned that I had bought a copy of Justice League of America #8 from Greensburg's Pop Culture Connection.  Within its pages is a 50-year-old letter column that was probably as stupid-fun as any could be today.

The first letter in this column is from none other than Roy Thomas, who later went on to become a mainstay creator himself, writing titles like Fantastic Four and Conan (he just took over as the main writer for Dark Horse's Conan: Road of Kings series, as it turns out, after lengthy runs on several of Marvel's series).  This isn't a great surprise, as Thomas is known to have letters published in quite a few series before he began working for comics in a professional capacity, but it still is funny.  He mentions what had to be the first issue of his well-known and long-lived fanzine, Alter Ego.

Writers of most of the other letters do what fans do best - they complain.  Oh, do they complain!  Most of them complain about the overuse of certain characters like Superman and Batman.  It's funny to read how much disdain some fans had for different characters, especially when fans today spend so much time making the same kinds of arguments.

One fan (Ronald Lehr of Cleveland) wrote to yell about the misuse of Superman, saying "I'd rather see him dropped off the JLA than be abused as he is.  He is the most neglected member.  Never (just about) is he in the action."  The best part about Ron's letter is that he calls DC on using Kryptonite on every possible occasion: "The mineral must be on sale at a local candy-store", he muses, "the way you guys scatter it into the hands of every crook that comes along."  The sarcasm!  The vitriol!  It's nice to know that some things withstand the test of time.

There are other interesting entries; one person writes his letter directly to the Flash (and asks the editors to deliver it to him); one counts - panel by panel - the appearances of each Justice League member (except for Snapper Carr and Green Arrow, for some reason) in each of the first six issues of the book!

My favorite letter of all, though, comes from Mrs. John L. Wright from Terre Haute, Indiana, who wrote to prove that smart people read comics, too.  After listing a string of her and her husband's accomplishments (including IQ numbers), she praises the "clean harmlessness of comic books."

The reply from the editor really knocked me over.  I can't tell if it's supposed to be tongue-in-cheek.  I dearly hope it is, because after noting that this woman's husband had an IQ four points higher than hers, the editor replies: "We're curious about what effect your husband's higher I.Q. has on your married life.  Does it mean that you allow him to make all the decisions in your household?"

My goodness.  As I said, these letters are 50 years old, so we're talking about a time when gender roles were a bit different than they are now.  Even so, what a flippant response!  Here's a woman praising the value of your comics (when everyone else is writing in to say how much they hate Batman), and your big response is "does your husband tell you what to do all the time?"  You're a bunch of jerks sometimes, DC.

You are here.

The New York Comic-Con floor plan is now online, and while I knew that Wagon Wheel Comics had been assigned booth 550, now I know exactly where that's going to be.  I'm pretty happy with our location - we're right across from artists' alley, and while it would have been nice to be on the other side of our row, I think we lucked out with where we are.  One thing about the small press section: people tend to see those booths on the way to other booths, so being next to artists' alley is a good thing.

If you go to the interactive version of the map (and don't just look at my screenshot), you can see some of the other creators we'll be stacked up next to.  We've got some talented company to be sure.  Wagon Wheel will be back-to-back with Khary Randolph (Mutant 2099) and Mike Norton (Green Arrow), and just a few blocks away are the incredibly talented David Lloyd and Michael Gaydos!  Gaydos worked on the series Alias with Brian Michael Bendis and David Lloyd is none other than the artist of the Alan Moore-penned V for Vendetta.  Let me reiterate: the artist on V for Vendetta, one of the classic comic stories of all time (it even includes sheet music!) will be just a few feet away from me at the New York Comic Con.

It'll take a little while for that to sink in.  Oh, and these gentlemen are both Brits, which should make Duane Redhead feel right at home.

Cover preview, part 1

The past few weeks have been pretty exciting, as I've seen artwork continue to roll in as we inch closer and closer to releasing the book in stores.  It's always fulfilling to see a creation come to life, and I know that Duane and I are both just as thrilled to see some great artists put their stamp on a few Teddy and the Yeti covers.

The clip you see to the left here is from our first issue.  The pencils are done by none other than Phil Hester, a super talented guy whose work you might recognize from runs on Green Arrow and The Irredeemable Ant Man, to name a few.  Duane showed us his versatility in inking and Karin did her usual bang-up job in the colors department.

I'm just releasing a clip for now, but I'll show the entire thing soon enough.  I've got another preview from the cover to the third issue coming up soon, but for now...marvel at the awesomeness that is this part of our first cover.