Bent Corner

Word out of the San Diego Comic-Con (the cool kids call it SDCC) is that the comic book website Newsarama won an Eisner award for Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism.  I normally don’t put much stock into awards, but seriously, Newsarama, an award for journalism?

It seems to me that whoever decided Newsarama should win an award for journalism either does not know the meaning of the word journalism or didn’t get wind of the recent Heroes Con panel entitled, “Covering Comics: Criticism, Reportage, and Gossip“. Newsarama’s co-founder and current editor Matt Brady attended the panel and made some startling comments.

Among the many things Brady said was that there had been times where he had to think about the long term picture before breaking a story. He admitted that he sometimes worried about repercussions from the publishers if he (Newsarama) was the first to break certain stories. He said that sometimes he would ask himself if it was more prudent to “hang back” and allow certain stories to break elsewhere — like a blog or a rumor column — and comment on the story then.

I would think that if you are going to hang back and allow someone else break a story so that you don’t get flack from the Marvel or DC, you are not a comic book journalist.  You are certainly not an award winning comic book journalist.

I hate blogs that moderate comments. I hate blogs that only allow readers to post comments after they have been approved by the blog’s owner. Nothing demonstrates just why I hate comment moderation more then a recent post on Occasional Superheroine. Valerie D’Orazio, the blog’s owner, must first approve a comment before it appears on her blog.

She wrote a post that asked if comic book creators and other funny book professionals should have private security with them when they attend comic book conventions. What would prompt such a question? She pointed to a recent discussion that took place on Newsarama between TV producer and comic book writer Marc Guggenheim and comic book reviewer and blogger Kevin Huxford. The discussion spiraled into the recent WGA writers strike and Marc Guggenheim’s comment that there was nothing wrong with a non-WGA member crossing a WGA picket line. Huxford rightfully pointed out that no good union member approves of or encourages any person to cross a union picket line. Guggenheim responded that since Huxford didn’t work in Hollywood and wasn’t a member of the WGA, he lacked the ability to understand the “nuances” pertaining to the WGA strike. Huxford responded to this snarky comment by stating that since his knowledge of the particulars was being called into question, he was turning the matter over to the WGA so they could decide if Guggenheim actions were indeed improper or not.

Of course some people freaked out over this.

Valerie D’Orazio tried to make the asinine assertion that Kevin Huxford posed some type of threat to Marc Guggenheim’s physical well being. As if reporting someone to their union for encouraging or condoning people to cross a picket line means that next they will obtain a high powered sniper rifle and try to take them out from 500 yards away at the next Wizard World.

That’s just dumb.

What does this have to do with comment moderation? She wont allow Kevin Huxford to defend himself. Over 45 comments have been left on Valerie D’Orazio’s post. None of them have been from Kevin Huxford. She evidently is not allowing them to get through. Who else is she not allowing to comment? I left two comments. One she approved, the other one she did not. Why not? Because my opinion didn’t mesh with her opinion? So what? I just don’t get that. Click here to read my second comment, the one that she didn’t “approve”.

Allowing a free flow of ideas is an important part of the blog equation. When a blogger employs comment moderation and uses it to filter out opinions that differ with their own, they might as well ditch the blogging platform and just write Word documents. It’s dishonest. It gives the false impression that everyone reading and commenting agrees with the author. That very well might not be the case. Bloggers shouldn’t be afraid of people not agreeing with them. Bloggers shouldn’t be afraid of someone pointing out that they are wrong. They shouldn’t use comment moderation to discourage dissenting opinions. In fact, they should be encouraging people to weigh in with contrary opinions.

There’s been an uproar on some comic book blogs over the fact that Wizard has decided to crown itself the #1 men’s pop culture magazine. The idea is that by Wizard declaring themselves to be a men’s magazine, they are purposely and unnecessarily going out of their way to exclude female comic book fans.

I don’t see why that is such a bad thing. To be excluded from the intended demographic of this particular magazine can only be looked at as something positive. To be excluded from Wizard is a good thing.

I can’t imagine why anyone - man or woman - would want to read Wizard. Anything that can be learned from the pages of Wizard could have been learned months ago online on Newsarama or Comic Book Resources. When was the last time something broke in Wizard? It was the New York Post and not Wizard that broke the story that Spider-Man was going to take his mask off in CIVIL WAR #2. It was the New York Daily News that broke the story that Captain America was going to be killed in CAPTAIN AMERICA #25.

It wasn’t Wizard magazine that broke these stories.

Wizard has become irrelevant and outdated. I get my comic book news and information from sources that update content on a minute by minute basis, not on a month to month basis like Wizard. That’s not to say there wasn’t a time for a monthly comic book magazine that could be purchased at any grocery store. That time has simply passed.

Sometimes I wonder if the only people still reading Wizard are female comic book fans looking for something that offends their feminist sensibilities. One has to look no further then to the website When Fan Girls Attack to see this strange phenomenon in action. Why else would they go out of their way to read something they know they’re going to find offensive?

If Wizard is in fact the #1 men’s pop culture magazine, whatever magazine came in at #2 must be really bad.

Joe Quesada once again touches upon the controversy surrounding the cover of HEROES FOR HIRE #13.  Will this be a weekly thing until he admits that it’s wrong and pulls the cover from publication?  This from Newsarama:

So once again, no tentacle rape was intended, implied, or even in our thought processes as we were doing this cover nor was it in the thought process of the artist who created the cover. If some have chosen to see it that way there is nothing I can do except to say that I’m sorry.

And yes, if that was indeed what we intended the imagery to be, then shame on us, but that is not what happened and certainly not the case.

What did they intend the imagery to be?  Remember, this is a book intended for ages 9 and up.  I would love to see what written instructions the cover artist was given when she was assigned the job of painting the cover.  That certainly would go a long way in establishing the actual original intent of Marvel Comics.  Not that the intent is really all that important.  At the end of the day, they still have a cover showing tentacle rape.

Joe Quesada can tell Newsarama each and every week that the cover was never intended to show rape.  The problem is that he told Newsarama last week that the creature molesting the women was the Brood.  I’ll be honest.  I didn’t know what the Brood was.  I do know how to use Wikipedia.  This is what it says about the Brood:

The Brood possess wings, fanged teeth and a stinging tail. They have a hive mentality and mindlessly follow a queen. To reproduce, they must infect other races with their eggs.

So there you have it.  This isn’t rape.  This is forcible reproduction by means of tentacle infection.

Longtime comic book retailer and columnist Brian Hibbs touched upon Wizard’s recent smarmy Captain America #25 eBay activity in his most recent Tilting at Windmills column on Newsarama. Brian writes:

Finally, I think there’s some very real concern about Wizard magazine having advance knowledge of this event (and, as a print magazine, clearly they had to have that information weeks ago), and it either accidentally, or very much on purpose leaking to their sales arm, and their affiliated retail stores, giving them a clear market advantage.

Brian was able to sum up very nicely what Wizard did and why it’s so scummy. He goes on to add:

Wizard is not doing anything, that I am aware of, that is illegal. The comics aftermarket isn’t a regulated one. However, I believe it is deeply unethical to report on news and prices while at the same time selling items that can capitalize on that news and those prices.

He’s right that Wizard doesn’t seem to have done anything actually outright illegal. It’s not like Wizard did anything unethical or illegal with anything having to do with Wall Street.

What Wizard did was Insider eBaying. They used information someone at Marvel told them because they are the de facto Forth Estate of the funny book world and made some serious PayPal money from it. Scrooge McDuck would be so proud.

Wizard needs to figure out what it wants to be when it grows up. Does it want to be the pinnacle of comic book journalism or does it want to sell $4 comic books for $50 on eBay the day they come? I honestly don’t see how they can do both. Not if they want people to respect what they do or what they represent. The more this type of crap goes on, the less they seem like a credible magazine and more like the typical fleamarket vendor. Only without the grotesque body oder.

Then again, if they were looking for respect they would have hired Augie De Blieck as Editor-in-Chief and not the guy that ran FMH into the ground. Not that FMH didn’t deserve to be run into the ground.

The other day I wrote about Wizard Universe selling hundreds of issues of Captain America #25 on eBay. It seemed as though Wizard Universe had some kind of special insight that Captain America #25 would include the death of Captain America. That’s some insight no other comic retailer seemed to have.

Wizard the magazine is a magazine about comic books. Wizard Universe is a retailer that sells comic books. Is there an information firewall between the two entities? Are there safe guards in place to ensure that the retailing side of Wizard doesn’t get an unfair advantage from the (don’t laugh) the journalistic side of Wizard?

The Daily News was the first to break the story about Captain America getting killed. It wasn’t by accident. They were privy to the fact that Captain America was going to be killed in issue #25 two whole months before it happened. What if the Daily News also sold comic books? Would that be a conflict? They don’t sell comic books, so it’s not an issue.

The difference with Wizard is that not only do they report on comics, they also sell them. By the looks of Wizard Universe’s eBay auctions for Captain America #25, someone over there had the foresight to order lots and lots of this particular issue.

I decided I would try to ask Wizard.

I contacted Wizard’s media contact Drew Seldin. In an email, I asked if in fact anyone at Wizard the magazine had prior knowledge of Captain America’s death and if anyone at Wizard the magazine passed this information over to Wizard Universe before last week. Seldin responded to my email. Instead of simply answering my question, he told me that he believed that my “ultimate goal is to attack Wizard“.

He went on to say that if he was wrong about my intentions, I could call him next week and we could discuss it. My ultimate goal was not to attack Wizard. It was to have him answer my question. By refusing to answer my question, I’m left with even stronger suspicions then I had before.

Yet another reason Wizard magazine should be avoided at all costs. Newsarama’s Vaneta Rogers talks with comic book retailers about Captain America #25. It’s an interesting read. Especially when the topic turns to how Wizard Universe, which is owned by the same company as Wizard magazine, sold hundreds of issues of Captain America #25 on eBay on Wednesday at prices from $10 to $50 an issue.

It’s as though Wizard Universe had some kind of inside information from Marvel Comics that Captain America #25 would include the death of Captain America. That’s something no other comic retailer was privy to. That Captain America was going to be killed.

Did anyone over at Wizard magazine with information concerning what was going to happen in Captain America #25 advise their counterparts at Wizard Universe to stock up on copies so they could quickly post them on eBay?

It sure seems like it.

It also seems highly unethical. I lost all respect for all things Wizard last year after Wizard World Philadelphia. I haven’t purchased any of their magazines since.