Friday, September 12, 2008

Comics Out September 10, 2008

I wanted the misprinted All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder with the curse words, but it does not really seem worth the trouble or the price. (Though if you have one, and are looking to sell for less for 25 bucks, let me know). My comic book store guy was surprised: "You're not a collector, are you?" I did not know what to tell him. I just love Frank Miller and what I love about Frank Miller is how over the top he is. A curse word variant just makes me laugh. Two things I wanted to say about this.

1. Is there any genuine claim -- rather than conspiracy theory -- that DC did this on purpose? I wonder if "R-Rated" variants will become the new hologram covers.

2. I have not read any surprise over the physical mechanics of how this went wrong, but I for one was really taken aback by the fact that whenever I see a black box in a dialogue balloon there is a real curse word under it. I always assumed that the script, and especially the printed page, just said "I'm the [insert seven letter black box here] Batgirl." I mean, this opens up a really weird dimension to the comic book page doesn't it? This is a step away from learning that someone draws an anatomically correct Superman BEFORE drawing the uniform on top of him. Wait till DC accidently prints that...

8 comments:

Chad Nevett said...

I just got the first hardcover collection for this series today and, in issue six, they censor the word "bullshitting" a few times with a black bar without any problems. You can tell that the actual word is below the bar, because parts of the letters stick out over the top slightly, but you can't see through the bar that much.

Anonymous said...

Dude! You got me all frazzled and excited that the latest issue was going to be out before the 24th (you know how I love this series too). According to my comic book guy, though, they didn't even make it out of the warehouse... now, he specifically mentioned the 'mepmhis' warehouse and I'm in the 'South East' ... so maybe I'm just not considered 'East Coast'... still, if you come across some copies, pick up a second one for me... I totally want one now.

Anonymous said...

by the way... the nude variant of all Star Superman is due to ship out next week ;)

Marc Caputo said...

Unbelievable. How sad is Miller? (I'm proceeding from the general sense that Miller gave the word to letter in the word and then black-bar it.)

Please. If you can't curse, don't fake it. And that goes for every other use of it in any other comic. It's so stupid to be insulting at this point. Which, of course, is the running point of ASBARTBW.

And of course, the point will be raised, it was put in for the "unrated, director's cut". C'mon. DC changed CHUNKS of Infinite Crisis after the singles were printed.

Marc Caputo said...

EIGHT pages of eBay listings!?! Man, that is ludicrous. Wait, it's second in ludicrousness to calling it an "error."

frank said...

I don't think there's a genuine claim, since they're replacing copies that should have been destroyed.

Why can't Batman curse, anyway? Most comics go to the direct market, and I'm sure fanmen don't care. Censor when you go to the bookstore editions.

Mitch said...

I have to say, while I love Frank Miller and all he stands for, this annoys me... mostly because SO MANY comics these days overuse *%#@ symbols for curse words. (Bendis, I'm looking at you - I'm really sorry you're not doing independent black and white comics anymore, but please don't take it out on Marvel's intellectual property.)

Mitch said...

I have to say, while I love Frank Miller and all he stands for, this annoys me... mostly because SO MANY comics these days overuse *%#@ symbols for curse words. (Bendis, I'm looking at you - I'm really sorry you're not doing independent black and white comics anymore, but please don't take it out on Marvel's intellectual property.)