Captain America-Palooza

Fact - I was just about to write about how much I enjoyed last week's issue of MARVEL ADVENTURES SUPERHEROES: CAPTAIN AMERICA.

Fact - I've been working on an editorial piece wherein I compare Marvel's successful movie-making machine to DC's clunky contraption and how that relates to DC's superior efforts to attract young comic book readers.

Fact - The New York Daily News just "broke" the comics "story" about Steve Rogers returning as Captain America next year.

What do all of these facts have to do with one another? Synergy, that's what!

Little did I know that even that charming little 28 page comic book I enjoyed last week was all part of Marvel's three year marketing push for the Captain America movie (coming soon, Summer 2011!). But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I've been of the opinion for awhile now that Marvel considers its comic book division obsolete. That they are content to do no more than print comics for an ever dwindling market of thirtysomething males. Without courting any new readers, monthly Marvel comic books will eventually become extinct. Now with the recent price hike to four bucks an issue, that's sure to happen sooner rather than later. The majority of their profits, and the future of their superhero properties, is found in video games, DTV animation and film. That last one is their biggest cash source. Thanks to a decade of smart film making they've been able to merchandise the shit out of their characters. This makes their comics function as little more than promotional tools- a way to keep the brand out there between films and maybe stir up a little mainstream media attention over publicity gimmicks such as Obama appearances or Captain America assassinations.

Marvel has enough clout now to produce their own movies, as opposed to leasing their characters out to different studios. The geek-o-sphere is already buzzing about their upcoming Captain America and Avengers movies scheduled for 2011. Marvel laid out some teaser marketing for them at the end of Hulk and Iron Man last Summer. Since 20th Century Fox produced the only Marvel movie this summer - the unfortunate Wolverine - there was no cinematic platform available to promote Cap and The Avengers. So they enlisted the publishing division to pull out the old dog and pony show. This month sees a focus on Captain America through the aforementioned MARVEL ADVENTURES title, plus an anniversary issue of the "regular old universe" CA title, bolstered by that Daily News article. This kind of promotional push makes the Captain America brand vital. Basically they're trying to create a mainstream demand for these films by reintroducing Cap into the pop culture consciousness. It's crazy, complicated shit and Marvel has become very adept at it.

So what about that issue of MARVEL ADVENTURES SUPERHEROES: CAPTAIN AMERICA? That little stand-alone issue that's a small piece of an awesome and terrible marketing juggernaut? Well, it's pretty good. I'll post my favorable review of it tomorrow. And if that just makes me another media pawn in Marvel's promotional machine - so be it. I have no problem with helping Galactus as long as I can turn some folks on to a legitimately good comic book in the process.

UPDATE:
Retailer Brian Hibbs has a more cynical view over at The Savage Critic.

Summer Reading Assignment

Alice Cooper says school's out forever and it's time to kick back and read some comic books.

How big of a misanthropic nerd am I? Such a nerd that some of my best childhood memories are of reading comic books in the Summer. And I don't just mean the general idea of it, I mean specific vivid memories such as enjoying WEST COAST AVENGERS #2 one warm June day with a glass of Lipton's instant iced tea. Or sitting on the back porch with an oversized hardbound volume of Gladstone's THE COMPLETE TALES FROM THE CRYPT.

So let's round up a few choice selections for these crazy kids today. What follows is a little bit of the old and some new releases, just to mix things up. I tried to find some fairly dense material that can withstand rereadings. These are also all available in soft cover or disposable floppy issues. No unwieldy hardcover collectors editions here. These books are meant to travel in a beach bag or sit poolside or get dragged into the woods. These are Summer books and will therefore receive some abuse. By September you'll know if your kids enjoyed them by the beaten spines and creased covers.

JELLABY: MONSTER IN THE CITY
Official Site

Kean Soo's whimsical tale of a girl and her dragony friend concludes in the second volume of the graphic novel series. From the official site:

This second book picks up immediately where the first book ended, and will bring the story of Portia, Jason and Jellaby to a satisfying conclusion. I had always intended for Jellaby to be read as a single 300-page story, so I would suggest you dust off your copy of the first book and give it a re-read before reading Monster in the City!



TINTIN
Little Brown Young Readers Publishing

If adventure has a name, it must be Tintin. Grab a few of these oversized editions for rip roarin' good time. Not only are they long engrossing tales, but you can spend just as long rereading each page just to take in Herge's delicately detailed renderings. A kid can spend an entire day getting lost in his masterful compositions. Be sure to include a few of the Captain Haddock stories for the full blistering-barnacles experience.





LITTLE LULU:THE ALAMO & OTHER STORIES
Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse has been doing the world a wonderful service by reprinting these classic comics from the fabled land of 1950's suburbia. Did such a world really once exist? A land where kids wander the town unsupervised all day, getting into shenanigans and kerfuffles? The LITTLE LULU titles still endure because they pepper this Americana setting with plenty of sardonic wit. Not to mention the fact that solid, professional comics storytelling never goes out of style. This latest reprint trade of John Stanley/Irving Tripp era stories is in glorious color, the perfect outdoor read on a sunny day.



SPIRALBOUND
Top Shelf Productions

This is probably the closest thing to a dramatic selection (even if it does star talking animals). It's a funny and poignant story of juveniles exploring art and relationships and ambiguous lake monsters. The story pulls you in immediately as it casually follows it's characters along their days. It's thoroughly quirky and just as thoroughly engrossing. If I have one kvetch it's only that the art could do with a splash of color. I love black and white and clean line work is full of personality, but even a monochromatic color scheme could take this book from looking nice to looking exceptional. Regardless, older kids will enjoy getting to know Turnip the elephant and all of her friends.

LOCKJAW AND THE PET AVENGERS
Marvel Comics

A good limited series is always a fun way to mark the beginning and end of summer. Unfortunately, the Big Two have taken the notion of fun out of this equation. The self contained miniseries is now a decidedly unfun cataclysmic crossover event full of sturm und drang that doesn't actually end so much as fizzle out, leaving a lingering sense of dissatisfaction and self loathing. Luckily this year Lockjaw and the Thunder Frog have slipped in under the radar with the true must-read Summer event of the year. The first issue is already out and it's a fun story that avoids being overly silly. It's surely tempting to make a self consciously camp story about superpowered animals (and a dragon), but PET AVENGERS takes itself half seriously. Really, that's the only way to make such a concept work.

BATMAN: THE BRAVE & THE BOLD
DC Comics

As far as self-contained story comics go, the latest Batman spin-off is your best bet. Thanks to it's assured consistent monthly quality, this is the ideal series when you need to grab a random comic book or two on a rainy day. Each issue offers a fun guest appearance by another DC hero and the stories are dense enough to offer more than a mere three-minute trifle of a book (TINY TITANS, I'm looking in your direction).






STINKY & JOHNNY BOO
Eleanor Davis
James Kochalka

I know, I know - I said no hard covered books. But I can't resist. When you need something to read to the little ones, your best bet is STINKY and the JOHNNY BOO books. One is about playing in the woods with a monster, the others are about watching the stars and eating ice cream. You can't get more Summery than that. How much more summery can that be? The answer is none. None more Summery. You can read my reviews HERE and HERE to get the full picture.

Yes, Kids Still Like Comic Books!

Everybody knows kids today don't read comics. With the Nintendo DS and the Xbox and the internets stealing away their attention, it was inevitable that Marvel Two In One would fall by the wayside. Kids today aren't interested in static words and images. Right?

Balderdash, I tell you!

I present my irrefutable anecdotal evidence:

As part of my ongoing crusade to indoctrinate the youth of America, I gave my neighbor's son a Marvel Adventures Spider-Man digest for his fifth birthday. Now, this kid is already predisposed to superheroes. He's got enough costumes to outfit the Avengers and wears a different one every day. He already has a base knowledge of Marvel and DC thanks to Cartoon Network and DTV cartoons. But his mom was telling me that the few comics he owns were too old for him. To help her out, I immediately rattled off a list of age appropriate titles and publishers in such a rapid fire nerdly fashion that I surely overloaded her poor civilian mind. Not that it would have helped if she retained any of the data I regurgitated. Knowing what's available is only half the battle. The other half is actually tracking down a comic shop to get a good title. But I digress. I'll rant about accessibility another day.

Anyway, fast forward to the birthday party. He opens the Spidey digest and half the kids in the room are immediately drawn to it. One by one I watched kids pick it up and flip through, stopping to read a few pages. Quite a feat when you consider all the other distractions at a birthday party. I hope it holds up to his scrutiny later on, because unlike video games, the trance is broken if the story doesn't deliver. Video games are a lazy medium. They don't require the same level of work as reading. But reading, be it comics or literature, delivers much higher artistic returns. As I saw at that party, the allure of comics is there. The medium itself - the art, the panel progression, the typography - is still an effective hook all by itself.

All we need to do is find the quality titles that can hold their attention. How hard can that be?