Drunken Comics Rage

Just got done reading part two of a three part interview with Harlen Ellison over at Newsarama. Good stuff in general from Harlan. The man has been writing since before my parents were born. He's won practically every science fiction, horror, and mystery writing award known to mankind, many of them on multiple occasions. He's been nominated for Emmy's and Grammy's. 

One might surmise he knows a thing or two about the craft. I reckon.

Towards the end of this segment of the interview they ask him about Identity Crisis. Here was his answer:

"Horses**t. A maximum amount of pointless s**t. Not to be too candid about it. But then I think a maximum amount of pointless s**t was Civil War. I think the maximum amount of s**t was all the pointless crap they made you read at DC after the, uh, the uh, Infinite Crisis, I mean, just a really bulls**t, forcing people to buy a lot of comics they wouldn’t otherwise read to tell a story that doesn’t even tie in very well. They should be ashamed of themselves!"

"The, ah, the company’s in business to make money. But when everybody’s imitating themselves, just, just cannibalizing their own material, then I don’t want to know from it! It’s not art anymore, it’s not even entertainment! It seems to me impossible to pick up almost any Marvel comic with any of the regular characters – up to and including the bogus “death” of Captain America, which is even more bogus than the death of Superman – and read it, and enjoy it, because you don’t know who anybody is anymore! I can’t give you any answer to that!"

"My wife was an X-Men fan for ever and ever and ever, and even she is scratching her head about (the book), you just don’t what the hell it is! The characters die, they come back, they get recycled, they got a new identity, they change the uniform, they get married, they get divorced – well, what do you think, folks? Maybe, instead of taking people in and out all the time, you should get people who know how to write a f**kin’ story, who understand what internal logic is all about in the story, where you don’t have to kill someone to have a moment of drama."

Jeebus,Harlan. Don't hold back! Tell us how you really feel!

Kinda good to read this type of opinion from a man who has "been there, done that". Here I was just starting to hit the point where I was feeling like I was being a little too harsh on the comic world with my posts. Then Harlan comes along and just whips it out there and shows it to the world.

I can now go on, knowing I'm fighting the good fight.

You can read the rest of the interview here.

Filed under: DC Comics, DVO Reading Rage, General Comics Rage, Marvel Comics