Episode 1704 Talkback - July 2018 Previews
Adam_Murdough
Posts: 506
Be-Bop-a-Lula, here comes Previews! We go through the July 2018 catalog for items shipping to stores beginning in September 2018. (2:01:36)
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Andres
Written by OTTO BINDER
Art by C.C. BECK and PETE COSTANZA
Cover by MICHAEL CHO
At first he was simply a disembodied voice on the radio, taunting Captain Marvel with his ever-more-fiendish schemes to conquer the world. Then, readers gasped as Mr. Mind was revealed—all two inches of him! Was this lowly creature really the epitome of evil he claimed to be? Fortunately, Billy Batson understood the folly of underestimating someone based on their size! As small as he was, Mr. Mind was big trouble—especially once he turned the menacing members of his Monster Society of Evil loose to wreak havoc!
This new title collects the entire 24-chapter serial from the Golden Age of Comics with new essays by Fawcett Comics expert P.C. Hamerlinck and film producer and comics historian Michael Uslan. Collects stories from CAPTAIN MARVEL ADVENTURES #22-46!
ON SALE 02.06.19
$49.99 US | 272 PAGES
7.0625” x 10.875”
FC | ISBN: 978-1-4012-8769-6
Only two things could make this better.
1 - Put Captain Marvel on the cover.
2 - If Chip Kidd had a hand in the design.
Geoff Spears’ photography is very nice, and is really the heart of all of Kidd’s comic-related books. But there isn’t going to be any photography (at least not any new photography) in this book. There really shouldn’t be any room in this book for Kidd to “be Kidd”.
There was an article on CBR stating this as well. Seems a shame seeing as there was a lot of enthusiasm for this book. Any ideas what the concerning content might have been?
Okay, I'm half-joking about that. I'm only interested in having the book for the story’s historical significance, for the fun of the storytelling, and for the wonderful (if at times offensive) artwork. Easy for me to say, I know—I’m not black or Japanese. But I have a problem with any work of art, even one intended purely for entertainment, being for all intents and purposes censored. Art reflects society, and our society at the time was quite racist (to put it mildly). Hiding things like this story, in my opinion, makes it easier to forget (for those who don’t experience racial inequality) just how insensitive (or hateful) we were. And I don’t think that’s a good thing. Again, easy for me to say.
The story is still out there. You can still read it. But you won’t get any context to go with your reading experience like you would have gotten with the book. And context is everything. Go to the link to read the first chapter and see for yourself.
I mean, you can buy Mein Kampf on Amazon but you can't buy this comic book?
I hope at the very least those essays will be released in some other form.
The Vampirella cover was a tribute to outrageous exploitation covers of the past (and featured a line that some people considered transphobic) and the Chaykin cover (of a lynched Muslim man) was an attempt by Chaykin to illustrate what he sees as a hatred for Muslims in this country. Some people were also calling for a boycott of Image because Chaykin had a scene illustrating an instance of transphobia towards a character who actually was a positive portrayal of transgenders. Someone on one of the comics websites actually condemned him for this because they were tired of seeing transgenders being abused as a story "trope". The character went on to do a lot of other things - including be a heroine - and the story was an indictment of how transgenders are treated in this country, but none of that matters.
Chaykin could not be more liberal (or at least what liberal used to mean), but it doesn't matter. The feelings of one person with enough of a social media presence can get almost anything shut down anything these days. And I say this as a Puerto Rican who has felt deeply uncomfortable - or in today's vernacular, "offended" - watching parts of West Side Story, but never believed it should be pulled from public viewing. I really worry about how much worse things will get when "hate speech" is officially outlawed as it is in some European countries. At the rate things are going, I think it's inevitable.
I agree with what you’re all saying-the story is a product of its time, essays explaining the historical context would probably assuage most of those feelings, people are too sensitive.
If people can’t see or take a piece of art as a product of its time and that it might contain some anachronistic depictions then we really have gone too far.
I think I’ve mentioned before that I grew up on The Phantom comics in Australia. Looking back now there are similar issues that have the possibility of causing offence (the depiction of the Japanese in The Phantom Goes to War is one example) but it is what it is and should be enjoyed as such. People need to not go out of their way to look for a reason to be offended.
I am now of the position that it's perfectly fine that companies consider people's feelings, or consider the potentially bad publicity for their upcoming movie, rather than allowing a tiny group of people to pay over the odds to enjoy some ancient racist, but historically important, but mainly racist, comics.
Also it didn't help that a lot of dudes whose opinions on censorship I'd been parroting since a teenager turned out to be creeps, leading to the suspicion that their position was actually an excuse to keep on creepin' on.
There's a lot of good non-racist comics out there I haven't read that I'm not going to lose my mind if a company doesn't want to sell me some 70 year old racist ones.
I am wondering if a possible solution to this would be to package these kinds of reprints in plastic and put a Mature Readers warning label - a "trigger warning" - on the cover that prominently reads something along the lines of "Reprints old material that may offend modern readers". The LCS could also be instructed not to sell it to minors. I don't know if this would be enough for the kinds of people who prefer that these books are never seen by anyone again, but it seems like it would do the trick of insuring that nobody accidentally gets offended by the material. The only people who would buy it would be adults who were interested in it.
But I think that @BionicDave puts the concern well: And I agree. I think the problem, in DC being worried about the potential optics of the problematic material, is that they are not an academic press. What they publish won't be racked in the history or cultural studies section of the bookstore or the library. Particularly in a year with a Shazam movie, a book like this is likely to get featured with other Shazam/Captain Marvel things that are in print, say on a book store display, or in a library.
And while I totally thing that readers, even young readers, probably *could* navigate historical material like that, especially with the help of essays or editorial notes giving context. At the end of the day, that is not the business that DC is in. They are not archivists or academics. And they never promised us they would make everything they own and possibly could reprint available. Rather, they are (like Marvel) first and foremost the publishing division of a larger character-based entertainment company. And if any concern about something problematic in a Shazam book (that, let's be honest, was going to be a specialty item for a niche audience) might confuse or distract from their giant investment in their giant product next April... well, I get why that niche item might lose out. At the end of the day, for a company that is going to be in the Shazam business next year, I can see that as a business decision. (Even if it is a bummer for those that wanted that book. It's too bad they didn't get it out 5 or 10 years ago, when there would likely have been less concern about being so protective of Shazam as a brand).