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imaginations? I mean, I enjoy tales of the techno-superspy as much as the next guy, whether his name is James Bond or Nick Fury, sure; and in the hands of an able team a good story, well-told, can be enjoyed no matter what name you give to your brooding, cowl-masked avenger of the night. But how many new Channel Zero s or Lowlife s or Happydale s are comics fans being deprived of because creators with bold new visions are only rewarded when jumping through pre-approved hoops?

At what point can you not even really hear that copy of Stevie Nicks’ Edge of Seventeen because it’s a tape of a tape of a tape?

It’s time for the comic book industry to stop taking its cousin to the prom

With Apologies to The Who April 13, 2001

The comic book industry is on the brink of... well, something.

Warren Ellis outlined it in his “Old Bastard’s Manifesto.” Steven Grant’s taken to calling it “The Year of Blood,” which has its charms. My pal Joe Casey talks about it, but mentions Stanley Kubrick in the same breath, so how serious can he be?

Let’s call it a “revolution,” just to get all grand about it.

Too many folks are just flailing about, rending their garments and belly aching about how comics are dying without actually, you know, putting their finger in the hole in the dike. But every revolution has those with a vision… those with clarity of purpose or the wherewithal or the pluck to carry things forward. These people aren’t the ones looking for The Big Chair. The kinda folks I’m talking about aren’t craving the limelight; they’re the kind of people to whom something bro ken is an affront that must be repaired.

The ones who don’t set out to become revolutionaries often make the best, albeit most unlikely leaders.

They are Men of Action.

If you read this column, chances are you also read Savant , so this may be a little redundant, but we shall note in passing that Matt Fraction, one of the three editors of Savant and front man and mouthpiece for all that is Good and True in comics, has stepped down from his post.

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