My God, Has It Been That Long?

Just got done posting a quick comment on Warren Ellis' Fell on his newish message board (replacing the near-utopian-in-comic-related-boards Engine) and realized it would have been even better posted on my very own cybermegaphone. Enjoy, ye who've waited these months for new content.

I'm starting to appreciate the structure and presentation of Fell: The Series almost as much as I enjoy Fell: The Stories.

Like most good episodic television shows, it's not a stringent requirement to access prior installments to enjoy the current one. The disuse of modern-funnybookish "cliffhangers", "story-arcs", and "future story-arc teasers disguised as subplots" keeps the interval between issues from being a "wait" situation; Fell comes out when it comes out. Not that I wasn't delighted to see Fell on the shelves this week, but I didn't ever catch myself thinking, "Christ, it's been forever since #8 came out! I'm not gonna enjoy #9 as much, due to the waiting between issues."

True, there's probably (read: obviously) some backstory living in Mr. Ellis' notebooks and scribbled on liquor market receipts, but the stories that begin and end inside a single floppy alleviate that burning need to see that history explicitly portrayed for me. I know it's there, but Fell in its current state kind of forces the reader (this reader) to exist in Snowtown's Now. The possibility that we might never find out the whys and wherefores of Detective Fell's consignment to Snowtown, or that there actually won't be a detailed six-part miniseries titled "Fell: Owsley, What's The Deal With Your Leg?" never seems to dog my thoughts while I'm immersed in the latest update.

End of gushing rant.

My overview on Fell #9: Typical Fell, atypical comic: solid, satisfying, and yet another Comic to Wave At Sniffling "Real" Fiction Snobs.

Now, what stuck with me specifically about this issue?

"...rich like astronauts."

I am now off to start a band, write songs, and record an album, just to title said recording "Rich Like Astronauts".

And if you're reading this blog and not reading Fell, I don't really know what to do with you.

Dear Comic Book Industry...

...you had a chance to do something magical Wednesday, and you were emphatically disappointing.

I have the discipline of a meth addict when it comes to New Comic Day, and I can almost always talk myself/force myself into buying at least 2 extra comics on top of my regular purchases. Yesterday, however, was an align-the-planets, hit-all-the-green-lights, served-breakfast-in-bed-by-wife-dressed-as-Emma-Frost kind of day.

Not one comic I normally buy came out.

I was surprisingly upbeat walking into my LCS, because this was a chance for me to feel like the "new reader" that all comic producers are horny for. Their advanced marketing theories, the hours of work spent designing comics that make use of the typical rack-space in stores, all of it would be brought to bear on my weak-willed consumer psyche.

I bought this:



Big Four, if you couldn't come up with something to sell me that was better than a comic I knew would be crappy, then get back to the drawing board (no pun intended). Otherwise, there are more weeks like this in your future. And if that happens, good luck explaining to whoever you answer to that you couldn't sell a comic to a comics addict.