Morning links

Over the last couple of weeks, I fell behind on my RSS feeds and yesterday realized that I had over 9000 over 1000 unread items in Google Reader. I knew that trying to catch up on all the blogs I normally follow would be an agonizing and fruitless effort, so I took a deep breath and hit "Mark all as read." Blank slate. Fresh start.

So this morning I actually had a manageable number of new posts to read and enjoyed going through them leisurely while drinking my morning coffee. And it seemed like the perfect time to start a regular linkblogging feature on Irrelevant Comics. Here we go.

• Savage Critics: Abhay interviews Mark Sable about the first five issues of Secret Avengers. Which starts with: "So, Mark Sable, speaking on behalf of all comic creators, everywhere, ever: what’s with you people and the fucking assassination teams?" This is a long and fascinating discussion, which ends up being less about just one particular comic and more about the current state of Marvel comics. 

• Robot 6: DC and Marvel editors are still arguing over whether or not Marvel "lied" about dropping prices when they were conveniently "misquoted", just hours after DC announced they were going to hold the line at $2.99, that they were more or less doing the same thing. (Then, as Bleeding Cool points out, CB Cebulski  tweets about a certain unnamed editor who "further cements his reputation and legacy as 'The Worst Editor in Comics'" with his "idiotic antics and ignorant statements at C2E2." Gee, I wonder who he's talking about!) The thing is, though, Marvel did blatantly lie about cutting down prices, and the only thing that came out of that promise was their nonsensical "point one initiative," which comes off more as a way to sucker current readers into buying an extra issue than an affordable "jumping-on point" for new readers. But I wish DC editors would just let it go and not fall into this petty back-and-forth. It's like when Mom and Dad are fighting. The only people enjoying it are the gossip columnists. 

• DC Women Kicking Ass comments on Dean Trippe's pitch to DC for a Lois Lane young adult series. According to Trippe (whose post about it you can read here), DC is not interested. I share Sue's perplexed reaction: "DC and Warner Bros. know their business much better than I, but when I see pitches like this and Ben Caldwell's passed over, I wonder whether that business really does think about getting young girls into comics. [...] Expanding readership into new demographics with beloved characters in new mediums. You'd think that would be a mandate when [your] business is shrinking. You'd think."

• Bleeding Cool: This one's older, but worth commenting on. Comics creators, fans and bloggers all over the internet are outraged that "Chip Kidd hates the All Star Superman cover." How dare he! To be honest, I think the reactions are a bit silly. Kidd is looking at it from a designer's point of view - not from a fan's point of view. Sure, I disagree with him when it comes to Frank Quitely's gorgeous cover art, but I can also see how it clashes with the design he had in mind for the series. The only really offensive part of that video is hearing the ignorant audience laugh when Quitely's art appears on the screen. These are not comic book fans and they apparently fail to grasp what Quitely and Morrison were going for with this unique interpretation of the character. But whatever. Get over it people. Who cares what Chip Kidd thinks of Frank Quitely's art?

Check back this evening for Comic Book Carnage!