Jim Beard came to us by way of the DC Direct Boards. Known as JSA Jim, he was enthusiastic collector and spoke eloquently on the direction of DC's line. An ardent proponent of the classic age of comics, Jim would work as a writer for Marvel's website, co-write a Red Tornado story for DC, team up with Troy and OJ for Newsarama's Super-Articulate column, and go on to write and/or edit books like Gotham City 14 Miles: 14 Essays on Why the 1960s Batman TV Series Matters. Today, he talks about the shifting tides that can occur for a fan.
On Shotgun . . .
When I think “shotgun” I think of a scattershot blast of buckshot – so here’s a burst or two comin’ right atcha.
I don’t buy a lot of action figures anymore. Funny how they used to be a major part of my leisure time, often to the point of distraction. Collecting figures was so fun and engaging, but in the last few years or so it’s become a minor blip on my radar. Oh, I still dig ‘em. But is it me or is the field a little…boring of late? DC Direct is a pale ghost of itself, producing more statues than articulated figures these days and when they do solicit they’re from some video game I’ve never played or heard of or the umpteenth iteration of Superman and Batman. Gone are the glory days of JSA figures or Silver Age goldmines like Beppo the Super-Monkey or Hoppy the Marvel Bunny…or Composite Superman. Oops; that’s just another iteration of Superman and Batman, innit? I think I’ve bought more Star Wars figures in recent days than super-hero toys – have to hand it to Hasbro. They’ve reached a Golden Age in their output, I think. Still hard to find, though. My days of haunting Targets are far, far behind me. My tradition now is that if I can walk into a store at any time of the day or any day of the week and stumble across a figure I’d like to buy, than that’s how it should be. Are there still those idiots who haunt the aisles of Toys-R-Us like ghasts, flitting about, pale and unshaven, peering into boxes left lying about by the night-stock crew? I pity them, if they still exist.
I don’t yearn to write comics like I used to. There, I said it. I would still snap up an offer, sure, but it doesn’t eat away at me like it once did. The industry is still a fortress and still a circle-jerk for the favored few who do God-knows-what to “get in good” with editors. Yes, that’s sounds like sour persimmons – I realize that – but I assure you that I don’t pound my computer desk in abject frustration quite as many times as I used to when I see someone I know get an eight-page story at DC or when an inker of my acquaintance who is supposed to be working on my vanity-press project scores a miniseries at Marvel. Nope, I’m calm and tranquil compared to my days of haunting Walmarts for Wave 14 of Mattel’s DC Superheroes action figures. Hell, I’m practically a new man. See, I write pulp now, thank you very much.
What’s that I say? Well, there’s this movement in writing called New Pulp, and I’m proud to say I’m part of it. Basically, it’s a bunch of writers who pen stories in the vein of the pulp novels of the 1930s and 40s. You know, all that wonderful plot-driven stuff that hammers your guts like a staccato blast of Tommie-gun fire. Yeah, you know what I mean. Lissen: I’ve been having the time of my life in the past year, writing pulp prose. I’ve found I’m actually kind of good at it and getting better every day. Got a bunch of stuff that will be published this year from pulp publishers like Airship 27 and Pro Se Publications, stuff I’m really proud of. Comics will always be my first and true love, but pulp speaks to me and in it I’ve found a, well, calling, if you don’t me getting all poetic on you. It’s been good for my soul.
I buy pretty much the same amount of comics I’ve always bought and there’s some pretty good stuff out there at the moment. I got off my high horse about DC’s New 52 and found a few titles that I really dig, like AQUAMAN and BATWOMAN and FRANKENSTEIN. They already cancelled OMAC on me, the bastards, but I have a few shreds of hope left in my tattered JSA soul for the upcoming EARTH 2 book. Can you go back home? No, never, but maybe it will be good for a few larfs. Besides, the best book on the racks today, bar none and pass the Mountain Dew, is Boom’s PLANET OF THE APES ongoing series. Man, what a consistently entertaining title from the ground on up. I used to rip its artist, Carlos Magno, a new one almost every damn week when I was online reviewing COUNTDOWN TO FINAL CRISIS, but this guy’s done a complete turnaround in his art on APES. I mean, it’s fantastic. Check it out, if you haven’t already. Damn fine comics.
Captain Marvel is dead. Long live Shazam. “Look! Up in the sky! It’s…Shazam!” “What’s a ‘Shazam’?” “Hmm, y’know, I don’t know. Good question…but we must trust him to protect us!” “I’d feel better if I knew what a ‘Shazam’ was…”
I think that’s it from me. Action figures, comics, pulp, bitchin’ and moanin’…yep. That’s me in a nutshell. So, thanks for the mike and drop me a line now and then and stay true to yourselves. You can be your own best friend or your own worst nightmare; the choice is yours. Love to you all.
Come visit me in all my glory at http://www.facebook.com/thebeardjimbeard .
"The industry is still a fortress and still a circle-jerk for the favored few who do God-knows-what to “get in good” with editors."
ReplyDeleteSomeone needs to write a tell-all book about the TRUE workings of the comic book industry. Someone get Andrew Ross Sorkin or Michael Lewis on the case.
And as for figures...remember the days of yore when they were BIGGER? I pull some 90s era Star Wars figures out of my trunk for my little boy and they could whoop ass on the Hollywood Diet version of their contemporary selves. Sure, they'd have to whoop ass with less articulation, but still. Ass whoopin' they would.