Friday, March 31, 2006

Confidential To Comic Book Fans

ANOTHER TENDENCY THAT COULD SURELY BE NOTED IN FAN-TURNED-PRO WRITERS, IS THAT THEY'RE STICKLERS FOR CONTINUITY AND CONSISTENCY. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS?

It's fine to an extent, but there is simply so much trivia accumulating, that some things have to be discarded, that you can't feel bound by a story that took place say ten-twenty years ago. Take the origin of Superman: Mort Weisinger changed it to a certain extent, annexing the Superboy legend and various other survivors of Krypton and so on. Details were not always conceived of as being historically momentous. Who knew thirty years ago that Superman would be such an institution today and that all of the little things would have to be explained. Personally I don't feel another editor ten years from now should be bound by what I do today.

TO SOME READERS, THE TIGHTER THE CONSISTENCY, THE MORE BELIEVABLE THEIR FANTASY WORLD BECOMES AND THE MORE THEY ENJOY IT. HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT THIS?

The point is that comics are fantasy, telling stories that didn't really happen. When you try to bring too much reality into fantasy, it has a tendency not to be entertaining. So if we're not consistent at times, you simply must excuse us.

--An excerpt from an interview with Julius Schwartz
Interviewer : uncredited (Mark Gruenwald?)
Source : AMAZING WORLD OF DC COMICS #14 (March 1977)
(formatting and punctuation duplicated exactly)

Thursday, March 30, 2006

This Blog Is Non-Canonical

Welcome to Earth B, a weblog named for that DC Comics parallel Earth where stories that did not "fit" into established continuity supposedly took place. I am your humble host Christopher Elam. Some of you in the comics blogosphere may be familiar with me as occasional commenter "C. Elam." After a lot of thinking, I've decided to take the plunge and give comics blogging a try.

A few words about what to expect here are probably in order. I buy very few new comics, so most of my posts will be devoted to old comics and reprint collections of same. I want you to know this up front, because it's very unlikely I'll be doing weekly reviews of new releases. Besides, there are plenty of bloggers who do that job superbly. Snark will be at a minimum as well, because...well, because I really love the silly old comics I'll be discussing. I hope you do, too.
I have no timetable on updating, but I'm shooting for at least once a week. When I get rolling, you can expect posts on The Brave and The Bold, Superman Family, Metamorpho, and World's Finest Comics.

Oh yeah, and I reaaaaally like Bob Haney's work. Just so you know.

Once again, welcome! Enjoy the show!