JONAH HEX?

Wednesday Means Comics!

Some people believe I don't like print. What with all my digital prosthelytizing on the old pulp soapbox here I can see where someone might get that opinion. As a clarification on the matter let me just say this:

I'm for whatever puts the most content into the most people's hands (and hearts). I'm also for experimentation and creating something inexpensive that draws attention to itself by design.

I'm for cool.

Today is the first Wednesday featuring the experimental title WEDNESDAY COMICS from DC. 15 characters and stories in a large newsprint format just like the good old days. We've spoken about it before.

USA TODAY will be running the first SUPERMAN feature from WC in its paper today as a promotion for the project. I would urge everyone to not just read the USA TODAY, but to trot over to your Local Comic Shop and pick up a copy of WC. You will only get a small taste of the project from the USAT and not the full meal. It's only $3.99 - as much as you're already paying for your comics.

The reason(s) I'm asking for you to support this are simple:

- We should encourage experimentation on the part of the bigger companies that yields quality comics at reasonable prices.

- We should build opportunity for creators. More formats = more opportunities for people to break into the industry. Especially if the cost is low and the distribution high and wide.

- There are storytelling opportunities to be rediscovered with the classic "page a week" format. (Just as there are storytelling opportunities for Kindle, Iphone and laptop formats - which will be the subject of an upcoming post).

- Most of the characters featured in the WC run are the "second stringers" - characters that deserve to be redsicovered by new audiences.

- Overall we NEED a healthier, more diverse marketplace for genre media - comics, pulp, video and so on. If we don't support the good stuff when it comes along - then what good are we?

On your way home tonight run over to your LCS and pick up a copy of WEDNESDAY COMICS. Tell me what you think of it here in the comments thread.

You'll be doing me and yourself a favor.

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Here's a review from CBR.

The best contributions may be the ones that deliberately harks back to the comic strips of yore. Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook come at Kamandi by way of Hal Foster, providing a Prince Valiant-like take on the character that perhaps suggests Kirby’s ties to his comic-strip forebears may be stronger than surface glances would suggest. Joe and Adam Kubert pull a brutal nine-panel sequence that nevertheless evokes Roy Crane and Milton Caniff. Karl Kerschl and Brenden Fletcher’s Flash strip attempts the clever hat trick of offering two strips — one a straight-up adventure, the other a Juliet Jones-style soap via Iris West. And, of course, there’s Paul Pope, whose pulpish Adam Strange delivers Alex Raymond-like thrills while still being delightfully weird.

It Isn't Wednesday, But It's Comics...

Thanks to Heidi MacDonald over at THE BEAT we have a picture of the size of the forthcoming DC Comics title WEDNESDAY COMICS:

Nice... an old school look with a ton of comics content inside...
Just like the old days when there was value for your dime.

I wish every comic book looked like this (The British model?) so comics could get back to being the throwaway literature they've always been and we can start to see the subject and storytelling innovations that the form requires in order to really grow.

You can't reach an audience from the inside of a mylar bag (or an ivory tower).

Remember kids, when the budget and costs are low you can be creative, experimental, opinionated, daring, audacious and get away with it. If comics are too expensive, people will stay away in droves...or ignite controversy on the internet. (Oops!)

The same point was recently made by Father Jim over here.

And earlier here.

I keep saying this over and over (and I'll probably have it tattooed on my person somewhere) . If you want to affect people with your entertainments they have to be able to see it first. Get it into their hands and hearts as effectively and cheaply as possible. This Wednesday Comics seems to be a step in the right direction. Let's hope this is the case - more and less expensive comics that go for the throat (okay, or the groin) and look like a copy of the LA WEEKLY.

It's the pulp way.

Follow up to Batman Post Below....

Got it.
Read it.
Enjoyed same.

Grant Morrison is a sick puppy. Ditto Frank Quitely.
Looking forward to more of this.

Still, would have liked a black utility belt.

I'll live.

Why Didn't Someone Tell Me?!!!

Story by Bruce Jones! Art by Barrionuevo and Palmiotti!!
Freakin' cover by Neal Adams!!!

Why, oh why am I just seeing this now?!!!!!

(Dee Cee you gots some splainin' to do!)