about two brothers hosting the city’s first comics convention might’ve had something going for it, until towards the end, as I realized, it took a turn into the superficial, and blows like a flat tire:

Carrara, of Greenfield Center, said he thinks people like comics because they are “fast-paced, have identifiable characters and they can be filled with timely, relevant information or they can be the exact opposite and provide an escape.”

With all of these powers combined, Carrara said, comics are becoming increasingly mainstream.

Even Captain America’s funeral was prominently featured in mainstream media outlets such as USA Today, he said.

Oops, once again, it sounds to me like a case of publicity at any cost. Another letdown is that it doesn’t ask if current offerings are as good as what was put out years before. And thanks to that, the article falls flat on its face and has no impact by me.

Besides, isn’t USA Today’s own news coverage awfully superficial compared to most other newspapers?

would like us to think that the way a new exhibition on the evolution of superheroes at Montclair Art Museum is being displayed does reflect society, I’m sure, but, the following parts really cast a shadow of a doubt over just how honest this exhibition is:

The show is about as up-to-the-minute as a comics fan could hope. It begins with the birth of Superman in June 1938 and ends with the death of Captain America in March 2007.

Boy, putting that on display has got to be reason enough not to go visit! Because if that’s what they’re going to consider “art” then something’s got to be wrong here.

More recent developments continue to underline how superheroes reflect political realities, whether it’s the Justice League’s questioning President Lex Luthor’s decision to invade the fictional nation of Qurac in 2003 or the continuing schism among Marvel’s heroes after being ordered to register their identities and abilities with the government. That debate began last year and will affect the group for some time to come.

The future of heroism is what Ms. Stavitsky hopes visitors will weigh at the conclusion of the exhibition; specifically, she said, “What kind of role should superheroes play now?”

A better question might be, “what roles are they being made to play now?” And the answer to that is overly politicized roles replete with anti-war rhetoric that have also largely deprived them of any real development in their own worlds. Alas, the NYT is not going to discuss subjects like those, if the superheroes are being forced to act in too many politicized storylines, and thus, nothing is accomplished by this propaganda article.

, I made a discovery via one of the replies that tells that Mark Waid may have led to the Rogues’ tarnishing:

Back during Waid’s run, he killed the Rogues off once, restored them when Rogue Fandom begged the point, then inactivated them all with the Replicant storyline. In interviews he was always vocal about not feeling the Rogue’s Gallery was a worthwhile enemy for Wally.

Waid’s use of the Rogues Gallery during his run was certainly minimal, and this could explain why. But while it’s not like William Messner-Loebs used them much either, he didn’t disrespect them. Here’s an example of an early form of writer’s disdain for what made a book like this entertaining when it first began.

Waid may not have tarnished the Rogues, but he certainly may have set the path to its happening.

Is Rogue Fandom going to beg the point again? Come to think of it, is Impulse fandom going to do something similar?

, one of the first things Image Comics published when he co-founded them. But then, part of the reason for that is because, strangely enough, he seems to have some kind of an eerie following that’s willing to shell out their money for his awful penciling. Fortunately, I’m not fool enough to be one of that gullible bunch.

This has been spoken about for a few days now about how called whose purpose is to look for new talent, here being in webcomics.

It’s certainly an interesting idea, but, why not search for talent in scriptwriting for their own mainline of books, done by people who can understand what it takes to make the characters work, and who’ve got more respect for them than today’s own writers? Oh, right, because of how they’re deliberately limiting themselves to all but a few select writers, that’s why.

Interesting to see that the comics columnist of the Colorado Springs Gazette :

I agree with those fans who say, enough is enough. Sure, death doesn’t stick a lot of times in comics. Even so, I’m getting tired of DC bumping off characters. Every character, after all, is someone’s favorite. And the drama seeps away when death becomes routine. Live and let live, I say.

Maybe his saying so is better late than never, but that won’t excuse him of three years ago. In fact, is he sorry for how dishonest he was when he pulled that dumb stunt? Otherwise, what’s his justification for saying he’s in agreement over pointless deaths?

And I do wonder if he would also agree with anyone who finds cheap and sensationalized villification of veteran characters like Jean Loring, instead of offering them new development as cast members of their respective universes, terrible. Otherwise, again, what’s his justification for saying he’s in agreement over the pointless deaths that have been strewn out? that Captain America: Fallen Son

should be a heart-wrenching issue.

Thus, I have to question his sincerity here.

about how graphic novels could be an “explosive opportunity” for booksellers. Unfortunately, they send their whole arguement here down in flames with the following:

Subject matter of the new genre runs the gamut from adult titles like Fun Home or Mom’s Cancer to teen reads like American Born Chinese and Identity Crisis.

Well well well, what a clever attempt at disguise - not! American Born Chinese may be a title suitable for teen/family, but Identity Crisis is only for the most perverted adults with a mind like a teenager. Putting a grisly book alongside one that’s for the family and trying to pass it off as a teen book is dishonest and disgraceful.

Another disgraceful mainstream article that does little more than to mislead the public, and families.

about comics aimed at adults, at least one that’s published by Fantagraphics.

The , who’d spent at least two decades as a writer in the field, about DC Comics Covergirls, which she’s an editor of, but I can’t help but wonder if some of what she says here is being used by the newspaper as a superficial apology for what misogyny exists there today. At the end of the article:

Just as superhero comics appeal largely to male readers, they’re also created largely by men. But Simonson, who now focuses most of her attention on writing children’s books, said she never felt out of place in comics.

“Back when I was working on Superman, we were treated as a team. I don’t think I was treated any different from the guys.”

But what about the women of the DC Universe? And the Marvel Universe? Any woman who’d worked in the comics medium over the years could surely be diplomatic for the sake of good relations with otherwise appalling people, or the writer, whom I’m not forgetting , chose to water down the whole article. No wonder I can’t help but ask if this column was meant to obscure the contempt for women among comics publishers and editors, and it certainly does avoid the meatier stuff.

that discusses DC’s femmes. It may make a point about how many girls are treated as expendable compared to their male counterparts, but, there’s still a lot of shortcomings in here. One example: it talks about how

There have been 5 Green Lanterns of Earth— none of them female.

That’s not entirely true. Jade, daughter of Alan Scott, while her power is more metaphysical unlike her male counterparts, is still in some ways a GL, but she was offed by an uncaring editorial. And while there may not have been more female Lanterns on earth besides her, there have been a few alien members of the GL Corps such as Katma Tui, who was slain by Star Sapphire in 1988, and Arisia, who’s luckier to have been brought back. Surely they don’t count?

Overall, it’s a very iffy article that shows that even some student newspapers don’t exactly have a full grasp on all the details about comic books. And why is this page built using a frameset for the article, when frames became passe a couple of years ago?