La Zona Muerta

This is very much me at my get off my lawn, yelling at clouds old man-est, so if that isn’t for you, skip to the end for a relatively amusing drawing where matter and anti matter seemingly collide on the page for your amusement.

“To the terminally online members of Comics Twitter – you’re aware you don’t have to buy that Frank Miller Uncle Scrooge cover, right? Let Uncle Frank do his thing. It has no bearing on your life. Remember that.” – Peter Melnick

There seems to be a decided uptick in the fight against negativity of late. I don’t mean being negative for negativity’s sake or being a shitty contrarian to get a rise out of someone… in today’s climate, if you don’t give something your immediate thumbs up, you’re bound to get yelled at. “Give it a chance!” the strawman yells. “If you don’t like it, it’s not for you! Let people enjoy things!”

I listen to a Transformers podcast (yes, I’m a dork; we’ve established this) where the folks who present it did two hours (!) of HOT REACTION TAKES to a trailer for Transformers: ONE, a CGI origin story for Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee, et al. It’s one of those movies where the cast list are all Hollywood actors instead of typical voice talent by trade, everyone quips like a Marvel movie every three seconds and the vibe is very DreamWorks, for better or worse. Not my thing, but it probably could be a thing for you if you like Transformers and have kids. The podcasters spent a lot of time talking about the negative reaction to the trailer from old folks, old folks like me, I suppose. They didn’t exactly lay down the “you don’t have to like it, it’s not for you” rap down, but they came awful close.

The Emoji Movie (to name a lame Hollywood CGI thing full of stars and quips) is not for me. I didn’t grow up with emojis. It looks dumb, and I didn’t think about it again once it released.

Transformers IS for me. I did grow up with Transformers. To me, I’m bummed when a Transformers thing comes out and I don’t vibe with it. I want to like new Transformers stuff but I don’t, always (honestly, I rarely do, these days or even most days). I promise it’s okay if I don’t like it. As for it not being for me, they wouldn’t call it Transformers if they weren’t hoping for my forty five year old dollar. Transformers means something to me and Hollywood greenlights Transformers stuff in the hopes of getting me and people like me to fork over cash.

You may know Marvel Comics is owned by Disney. Marvel these days is pretty darn inescapable; ubiquitous in it’s omnipresence. Well, not the comics (no one likes those), but the movies and TV shows and Funko Pops and…

For whatever reason, Disney does not typically publish Disney comics themselves (with an exception here and there), despite their rich comics history. This filters down to Marvel; a huge comics company owned by Disney and they don’t publish Disney books…

Until now. Marvel has commissioned and is publishing an Uncle Scrooge adventure, written by Jason Aaron (ugh) and featuring “the Infinity Dime,” (double ugh) and a trip through the multiverse (triple ugh).

Not for me. DEFINITELY not for me. Wrong creative team, wrong premise.

But Uncle Scrooge IS for me. I grew up with DuckTales, a show largely based on the works of Carl Barks. That show led me to the actual works of Carl Barks, the creator of Uncle Scrooge and his wonderful comics. Thank goodness for Gladstone publishing, giving us affordable Disney comics in the late 80s. Those works are foundational for me; they mean something. In this country, Uncle Scrooge isn’t really a huge deal outside of an occasional DuckTales revival anymore, but overseas, he’s a huge deal in comics and out.

Marvel doing an Uncle Scrooge story should be kind of a big deal. They clearly want it to be; they are throwing a million variant covers at it. One of them is by Frank Miller.

This Frank Miller.

I don’t think he’s at the height of his creative prowess any longer. That’s not a crime; only a handful of creators stay great until the end. What is a bit of a crime…

Trading on your name when you’re capable of better.

I don’t think the drawings or compositions on the Daredevil or even the Deadpool (? Why is Miller covering Deadpool?) covers are bad. The ones above I spotlighted with Superman, the Thing and Wolverine are, um… less good. I don’t care for them.

And that’s okay.

There are some who tell you that you have to like these works or at least respect them because Frank Miller did them. He was great once, so you have to appreciate the work now.

Horse apples.

It’s okay if you don’t like something and moreover, if you’re disappointed and think the creator can do better. I think Miller can do better. I have no choice but to let him “do his thing,” for which he received thousands and let’s be honest, probably tens of thousands of dollars for, but I don’t have to like it.

And now, a thought experiment on paper:

A tale of two ducks, a duckotomy, if you will. Shame on Miller and those that tell us we have to enjoy things.