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The ease in which you take offense offends me
Heidi at The Beat posted about the new blogging crew over at Blog@Newsarama and she made the analogy that they were like the characters in the movie The Dirty Dozen, the 1960’s World War Two movie staring Lee Marvin. In the movie, Lee Marvin is an Army officer that takes a bunch of condemned soldiers off death row and turns them into commandos to take part in a deadly suicide mission behind enemy lines that nobody else wants to do. The movie always struck me as being kind of goofy because I think history shows that the Allies in World War Two didn’t seem to care an awful lot about risking the lives of it’s soldiers.
Watch the first hour of Saving Private Ryan to see what I mean.
Heidi made the The Dirty Dozen comparison because like the condemned soldiers in the movie, the new Blog@Newsarama crew have been, in her words, “made sport of by the Nazis soon after landing in Brittany“.
In her analogy, the Nazis were other bloggers weighing in on the new Blog@Newsarama team. If you guessed that someone claimed to take great offense to this Nazi comparison you would be correct. If you guessed that it was the people actually being compared to the Nazis in The Dirty Dozen, you would be wrong.
Two of the people from Blog@Newsarama commented on Heidi’s post.
Lucas Siegel wrote:
The only other thing I’d like to put here is that, honestly, a killed-in-action metaphor in relation to myself is, well, offensive. You may or may not have read in our introduction post or in the comments section of the blog in question that I served in the Army for six years. I’ve served overseas, in a warzone, and seen people actually get killed-in-action. I assure you, it’s not something to be used as a joke under any circumstance. Thanks.
So let me get this straight. Getting killed in action in a war zone is not something to joke about or to make reference to lightly, but it’s OK to bring it up to score points in a silly Internet discussion? The Dirty Dozen was not real. There was no actually commando unit in World War Two comprised of death row inmates. Heidi made a comparison to a movie of fiction.
Lucas Siegel wasn’t the only Blog@Newsarama blogger to claim to take offense. Sarah Jaffe quickly chimed in.
She wrote:
Gee, thanks. I love not even being slagged off properly and compared to victims of Nazis since my family actually was killed by Nazis. Wow, classy.
Once again, they were movie Nazis. They were not real Nazis. They were actors playing roles in a movie.
I don’t really understand how people become so easily offended. The moral indignation some choose to display when they are exposed to something they claim to be offended by always seems so fake to me. I just don’t get it.
More about the demise of Blog@Newsarama
Heidi at The Beat has some more details concerning the news that the people behind the popular blog section of Newsarama are leaving at the end of this month.
JK Parkin explains:
Anyway, everything came to a head in September, when I decided to step down and the rest of the blog said they were going with me. The headaches, problems and lack of response from Imaginova just weren’t worth it anymore. But Matt (Brady) talked us into staying, promising some changes in how things worked, how we interacted with Imaginova and our first pay raise since we started with the blog back in 2006. He offered a pretty decent pay system that turned this from a side hobby we were all probably spending too much time on into a legitimate freelance opportunity.
Unfortunately, for whatever reason, he came back in November and said those changes he’d promised were effectively null and void. So we decided to leave, effective Nov. 30.
JK Parkin states that he decided to leave Newsarama and the rest of the team, Kevin Melrose, Tim O’Shea, Carla Hoffman, Melissa Krause, Jeff Trexler, Matt Maxwell, and Jennifer de Guzman, decided to go with him. Or maybe not. In the same post over at The Beat, Matt Maxwell left a comment stating that he hasn’t yet decided if he is leaving Newsarama or not. Maybe there’s others who having decided to leave quite yet.
It doesn’t make much sense for any of them to remain blogging over at Newsarama. As I pointed out in an earlier post, traffic to Newsarama seems to have dropped off dramaticly since Imaginova relaunched the site. If making money is their goal, they could still do that on their own site by placing ads for the same entities that were buying ad space on Blog@Newsarama.
The Newsarama bloggers are leaving at the right time
With news coming out that the entire blog@newsarama blogging staff was leaving Newsarama at the end of this month, I thought it might be interesting to see how if Newsarama’s Alexa ranking has changed much since it was acquired by Imaginova and then subsequently “made over” by the new owners.
The above chart shows a steady decline in traffic to Newsarama since Imaginova relaunched the “new” Newsarama on June 26. By looking at this Alexa chart, traffic has dropped by nearly half.
The death of Blog@Newsarama
The folks that post content to Blog@Newsarama have announced that they collectively will be leaving Newsarama on November 30. On December 1, Blog@Newsarama will continue with all new people. In other words, the only section of Newsarama worth reading since the acquisition by Imaginova is going bye-bye. I wonder if any of these new people even read funny books?
JK Parkin writes on Blog@Newsarama:
It’s kind of bittersweet, then, to announce that those of us who currently write for the blog are leaving Newsarama. It’s no secret that the site has gone through tremendous growing pains over the last few months and has been moving in a new direction since being purchased by Imaginova. Behind the scenes, there’s been a lot of growing pains as well, and we’ve reached the point where we think it’s better for us to move on. Nov. 30 will be our last day, and starting Dec. 1 you’ll be seeing a new crew take over the site.
Later on in the same post, JK Parkin hints to the fact that the team behind Blog@Newsarama will be forming up somewhere else to deliver the same excellent content:
Like I said, this isn’t a goodbye; it’s more like a “see you later.” Take care until then.
Like a lot of people, I look forward to where ever they end up next.
Newsarama wins an award for journalism?
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.
Who still reads Wizard magazine?
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.
This isn’t tentacle rape, it’s reproduction by means of forcible tentacle infection
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.
More on Wizard and their eBay shenanigans
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.
Wizard sort of responds
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.
Did Wizard take advantage of insider information?
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.
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