The Marvel Universe: An appreciation
By Dan Brown Did you ever have one of those posters showing all the Marvel superhero characters gathered together in one place? Over the decades, successive generations of Marvel artists have depicted that crowded scene – row after row of colourful do-gooders, a cast of literally thousands, standing at the ready to fight evil.. Whether this heroes’ gallery was drawn by Jack Kirby, John Byrne or Michael Golden or someone else, my jaw hits the floor every time I see it. I am in awe of the creative energy it must have required to come up with backstories and costumes for all of them. So what I want to do this week is take a moment to praise the folks at Marvel for doing such a good job of churning out one interesting character after another since 1939. This will come as no surprise to regular readers who know I was raised on Marvel Comics in the 1970s. (And don’t worry, DC fans, I’ll do a tribute to that company’s stable when I figure out the right way to do it.) When it comes to being prolific, no other comic publisher has the track record Marvel does. What a riot of invention! What a unique assemblage of talent! What a big bang of creativity that set and kept the Marvel Universe in motion! The Marvel Universe is what results when the right talented people get together and are allowed the freedom to let their minds wander. It’s an example of what no less an authority than Willy Wonka calls “pure imagination.” Jack Kirby and Stan Lee – who launched such comics as the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk and the Uncanny X-Men – were undeniably the creators among creators at Marvel. I don’t want to get too much into the weeds on the question of which man possessed the real vision, so let’s just state for our purposes here today that Kirby and Lee combined are among the greatest and most prolific American originators of characters, in the same league as Walt Disney, Jim Henson, Dr. Seuss and Mark Twain. It’s true the different creative teams at Marvel were motivated by economic necessity. They never met a trend they didn’t try to plunder, like the disco craze. No sooner, it seemed, had Studio 54 opened than Marvel came up with the mutant Dazzler – who has all the powers of a disco ball! When kung fu movies likewise hit it big, Marvel answered with Shang-Chi and Iron Fist. Sometimes the plundering was done for the right reasons, as when characters like Black Panther and Power Man were devised to give black readers heroes of their own. Although some fans have by now grown weary of the offerings from Marvel’s movie division, the studio hasn’t even begun to scratch the surface of the vast library of characters it owns. No one would call the comic-book Agatha Harkness a major Marvel character, but there’s currently an entire series streaming right now devoted to her solo adventures. A series about Wonder Man – another B-list character – is set to debut next year. As someone who appreciates and values imagination, I can’t help but be deeply impressed by how productive Marvel has been over the decades, creating a surplus of diverse characters who have now become recognized around the world. And yes, the chumminess of the Marvel Bullpen was likely an illusion created by Lee to help infuse the Marvel brand with an air of fun, but at the end of the day we are still left with what all of those artists, writers, colourists, letterers and editors wrought: An entirely original group of compelling heroes. There’s literally a character for everyone. I stand in awe. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 31 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
Maurice Vellekoop’s Coming-of-Age Story Mirrors That of Toronto
By Dan BrownI’m So Glad We Had This Time Together is the story of one man, but also a city.The graphic memoir, released earlier this year, describes how future visual artist Maurice Vellekoop grew up closeted in a strict Dutch immigrant family in Toronto. The experience haunts him for much of his adult life.As Vellekoop comes of age, so does his hometown; his sexual awakening coincides with Toronto’s arrival on the world scene.These dual narratives make for compelling reading. It doesn’t happen often that I’m so engrossed in a graphic novel I lose track of time, but that’s the kind of hold the book had on me.It’s one of the few comics of which I can say: I wish it went on longer.As a young boy, Vellekoop’s imagination is fired when his father takes him to see Walt Disney’s Fantasia. It was “an experience that more or less set the course for the rest of my life,” he explains.Vellekoop’s drawing style reminds me of that of Seth, arguably the father of Canada’s autobiographical school of graphic storytelling. Vellekoop uses devices like giving his inner child and his inner demon actual shape and form; they flit about his head as he struggles with contradictory emotions.After years of therapy, Vellekoop absorbs both figures into himself, indicating he is overcoming the damage done by his religious parents.Music, which also looms large in Vellekoop’s life, is portrayed as lyrics dancing across several panels in the book. It’s these kinds of visual innovations that kept this reader engaged for almost 500 pages. The artist/writer devotes a big chunk of that to his childhood, and in a couple sections I wish he had taken extra time to develop aspects of his life as an adult in a more fulsome way.The parallel story here is that of Canada’s largest city, and its queer community.In at least a couple passages, I spotted figures from Toronto gay history like the late Gerald Hannon, who was an instructor of mine when I attended Ryerson University’s journalism school in the 1990s. Partway through his account, Vellekoop makes his home in a cottage on the Toronto Islands. On lonely Saturday nights, he watches movies on TV hosted by Elwy Yost. There’s a mention early in the book of “gay cancer,” indicating Vellekoop is then living under the shadow of HIV/AIDS – even before it was called that. Later on, he has an inner debate about bringing home a stranger from a bar. “What if he’s Toronto’s own Jeffrey Dahmer?” Vellekoop wonders. As we now know, there was a serial killer targeting queer men in Toronto’s gay village for several years, Bruce McArthur.Vellekoop also recounts being gay-bashed on two occasions. The first of these attacks is all the more shocking and disappointing when Vellekoop’s father declines to come check up on his son, leaving him with deep emotional scars.I’m So Glad We Had This Time Together also has the most compelling depiction of talk therapy I’ve ever read. You might think two people sitting and chatting wouldn’t be great material for a comic book, but with devices like flashbacks and the aforementioned personal avatars it becomes a dynamic scene.In Seth’s work he wields nostalgia like a weapon; over the years, he has used the fictional town of Dominion – his answer to the Marvel Universe – to evoke a Canada that never existed but which we can all remember. In Maurice Vellekoop’s new graphic memoir, he likewise uses specific details to paint a vivid portrait not of Toronto, but of a Toronto of the mind, with all its grime, glory and Gerald Hannons. That’s why it has fast become a classic of the genre.Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 31 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
Let’s Stop This Comic Trend While We Still Can
By Dan BrownIt started, as far as I can tell, with Watchmen back in 1986.And it ends now, if I have anything to say about it..What am I on about?I’m not even sure what the correct term is. Some call it “back matter,” others say “supplemental material.”I’m referring to the several pages of prose that appeared in every issue of the landmark DC series back in the day. The same material was reproduced when all 12 Watchmen issues were collected into one volume and sold as a graphic novel.In Watchmen, it took the form of faux newspaper articles or documents or book excerpts that shed light on the rest of the story and the characters in it. Alan Moore came up with the stuff when DC was unable to sell ads in the individual issues of what was then an experiment in more mature storytelling.I don’t honestly know how many other comics have used the same device. I have noticed that at least one other series – the alien-invasion tale Wild’s End by Dan Abnett and I.N.J. Culbard – features the same kind of afterword section. I recently read the collected Wild’s End for L.A. Mood’s graphic-novel group, it was one of the books we covered this summer. And each chapter ends with supplementary material.In individual Wild’s End issues, which started appearing in 2015, the back matter takes up as many as five pages. The goal appears to be the same as with Watchmen — to give readers pertinent information in a way that adds context and shading to the story told in comic panels in the front of the book.Maybe you’ve read comics with the same device. I know there is a vast audience out there of comic enthusiasts who don’t even bother to read these pages, which are akin to the bonus material you get with a DVD.In the ideal case, these back pages would flesh out certain aspects of a given story, supplying readers with an even deeper reading experience. That’s fine, but what I fear is these prose epilogues will become the norm.I’m not opposed in every instance to non-comics material in my comics. I grew up reading Marvel Comics in the 1970s and at least two pages in every issue of, say, the Uncanny X-Men, were devoted to a letters column and Bullpen Bulletins. I loved that stuff, it was fun. Those pages made me feel like I was a part of the Marvel community at a time when there was no global communication device like the internet (you can imagine how crushed I felt to learn Stan Lee had made up reader letters in some early Marvel issues). But enough already.This is a pet peeve of mine I’m hoping comes to an end before other creators take it up and it becomes a full-on trend.For starters, five pages out of an individual issue is just a huge chunk of space. I know the justification is that certain aspects of a story are better told in text, but if you’re like me, you don’t like chocolate in your peanut butter. Prose already has a showcase, they’re called books.Taking five pages away from a powerful creative team is too much of a sacrifice. With five extra pages an issue, a creator like Jack Kirby could have launched whole new universes full of interesting characters, concepts and locations.And, frankly, those prose pages never have the same impact as the rest of a chapter or a specific single issue. Reading them feels like homework, frankly. At least it does to me.Also, they just reek of literary pretense. Comics don’t have to be more like books. They are a perfectly legit artform without text passages, so let’s nip this incipient trend in the bud.Creators, the work you do with drawings and word balloons is perfectly fine on its own. You don’t need a prose section at the back of your latest comic to give you credibility, comics are perfect the way they have always been presented.Disagree? I’d love to hear why in the comment box below!Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 31 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
If I’m Not Reading A Book, I’m Lost
I feel weird.I’m at a loss. Like a part of me has gone missing.I’m uneasy. At loose ends.I feel . . . lacking. Out of sorts. As though something unnatural has happened to me.It can only mean one thing.There’s nothing on my nightstand.That’s right: I don’t have a book on the go at the moment.Hard to believe, I know, but your L.A. Mood graphic-novel correspondent isn’t reading anything right now. Talk about unnatural!I don’t know if I’m the only person who feels this way, but my usual state of being is that I have my nose stuck in at least one book.Sometimes more than one.But at this moment, I’m between books. I finished a bunch of graphic novels at the end of August, and I have yet to decide what’s next on my reading journey. This doesn’t happen often. I typically have a long mental list of the titles I want to tackle.But for whatever reason or non-reason, I haven’t been able to settle on my next reading choice.Why does this make me feel leery? I guess it’s because having a book beside my bed is the natural state of things for me, whether it’s a graphic novel or a non-fiction title or something else.Not to be all psychoanalytical about it, but reading has been a constant in my life since my parents read to me as a little kid at bedtime.Out of all the generous things they did and do for me, this has had the most powerful impact on the person I am today. They gave me the gift of literacy.Every night, there would be a book like Are You My Mother? by P.D. Eastman or a Dr. Suess title or a volume from Richard Scarry.If I was cranky and they wanted to get me to take an afternoon nap, my parents would offer me a “read rest,” which meant I would work my way through a pile of books until I dropped off, thus forever connecting two of life’s most awesome things – reading and sleeping – in my mind.These gave way to more mature books as I aged, and it wasn’t long before I was reading on my own. Comics like Fat Albert, Star Wars, and Captain America came first, followed by the Merlin trilogy from Mary Stewart and the pulpy Morgaine books by C.J. Cherryh.Naturally, English was my favourite class in high school and I picked up an undergrad and grad degrees in the same topic prior to heading to Ryerson for my journalism education. I don’t want to overstate it, but reading has been a thread running throughout my life. And of course I married an avid reader who burns through a different urban fantasy every couple days. When we finished our basement in Poplar Hill, she and I agreed there had to be room for lots of bookshelves – finally, a library of our own.I agree with the columnist who once wrote that some books aren’t just books for me, they are events in my life. Turning points.Marvel comics fascinated me with their wordplay. Where else was I going to see terms like “mutant,” “stasis,” “uncanny” and “eldritch”?Although he was a fiction writer, Charles Bukowski has influenced my journalism writing deeply. And when I stumbled across James Stockdale’s A Vietnam Experience in the D.B. Weldon Library at Western University, I began my lifelong quest to be a Stoic.The problem, come to think of it, may be that there are too many books I want to read right now.So I feel kinda paralyzed. Ever felt that way?I had a friend in grad school who had a solution. He told me once that he wanted to be a university professor so badly because he figured it was the only job where he could get paid to read for a living.If you have any suggestions for what I should read next, I’m all ears. Oh, and what book do you have on the go right now? I’d love to hear all about it in the comment section below! Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 31 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
Comic Fans, You Don’t Have to be Extremists
By Dan BrownI have an observation about pop culture that also applies to comics fandom. I want to share it with you.It’s OK to stand in the middle of the road.I don’t mean that literally. What I mean is, when you’re thinking about your feelings for comics, books, movies, TV shows, or anything else, you don’t have to be an extremist.You don’t, in other words, have to love something or hate it.The world, and the human imagination, are vast enough to accommodate more than two possible feelings.So when you watch this summer’s Star Wars series The Acolyte, you don’t have to immediately go to your socials and post, “I loved every minute of it!” Nor do you have to state, “I hate all Star Wars properties produced under the Disney banner!”It is perfectly OK to say, “I liked maybe two of the episodes of Acolyte, but the rest of the eight-part series didn’t move me.”Get the idea? When you’re talking with a friend about Taylor Swift, you don’t have to boast, “She is the best/worst!” It is perfectly acceptable to say, “I guess she’s OK.” She doesn’t have to be at the top or the bottom on the list of your favourite musicians.It’s OK to sort-of like a franchise or a property or an actor or a superhero or a comic title.In no way is it wrong to have mixed feelings. Being “Meh” is a totally acceptable way to feel.I’m not one of those columnists who blames the internet for all of society’s ills, but I do think when people go online they get the impression everyone else is a partisan of one stripe or another.If all that’s required of people is to love or to hate, then it’s easier to sell them stuff, whether that be a political ideology or a new product.And perhaps in the comic world the presence of “completists” – those who have to have every issue of a certain series, or every book by a certain author, no matter how good or bad – makes everyday fans feel they can only belong at one end of the spectrum or another.If you recall the 1989 Spike Lee movie Do the Right Thing, there’s a character named Radio Raheem who has a gold plate over his left fingers spelling out “HATE” and another on his right hand spelling out “LOVE” That was his way of viewing the world.Don’t be like Radio Raheem. (This would be the right time to note: I enjoy some Spike Lee joints, but not all of them. I guess you could call me a middling fan of his work.)Likewise, you don’t have to love a comic deeply or loathe it with all your soul.Riding the fence gets a bad rap, but the full range of emotions is available for your use, and I’m giving you permission right now to even have contradictory feelings sometimes. Because that’s what most of life is when you’re an adult: Neither black nor white, but beautiful shades of grey.I hear so much about how so many things in our modern times are “divisive.” That new Beyonce song is divisive . . . The new Toronto Blue Jays uniforms are divisive . . .Disney’s latest live-action remake of a cartoon classic is divisive . . .Well, things would be a whole lot less divisive if we embraced the entire rich tapestry of human emotions, not just the extremes at either end.Even this column is subject to this principle.If you kind-of like what I had to say, I’m fine with that!Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 31 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
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