The Week at the Curve

Week of April 14, 2005

(obligatory Countdown update to kick things off)

I'm going to go out on a limb to kick this week in review off and say that the biggest post of the week was definitely the announcement that none other than Neal Adams is going to be stepping aboard for some upcoming X-Men pages. As I become more and more disenchanted with all things X-Men outside of Astonishing these days, this is incredibly good news.

I wish all the news this week could have been as optimistic. The volume of commentary and writers we've been attracting on here continues to spark some pretty important discussions. Don't know what I'm talking about? Look at Alex Ness's piece this week on the state of the industry. Then read some of the follow-up. And I'm afraid I'm going to have to side pessimistically with Ness on his final thoughts.

Check out Alex's interview with Norm Breyfogle though. This was another shining point of the last week. I think discussion board nails my sentiments to the wall quite well. this was a guy with a clean unique style back before things got "Image-ized" (as TJ puts it), and I can't say I would be as happy as Alex to see him hired again over a few Bat-artists out there right now.

As for wittiest exchange on a message board this week, I'm conversation was kept a great deal more civil and intelligent than previous week. However, opinions did knock heads over the Eisner Award nominations thread. A valiant effort was made by Zach to defend Michael Turner, and I expected a rebuttle somewhere later to turn up. But in the end, Tim O'Shea snagged my trophy for comment of the week.

Tim: I think going to the Eisner "rolling over in his grave" cliche so soon is questionable in and of itself, Franklin (though I welcome your return to the blog). That being said, Turner is a weak nominee. Not corpse spinning level, but still...

Now, when Liefeld gets a nod from the Eisners...well we might see a certain late legend pull a Jason Todd in response.

Great week all in all. Also, good to see new poster Marc Sobel aboard. As far as I'm concerned, the more Concrete appreciators we get around here, the better.

And the way it is in TGC-land, kids. I'll see you 'round the the Curve.