Ask Chris #17: Lamest of the Lame and Art vs. Artist

 

 

In today’s installment of my weekly comics culture Q&A column, I court controversy by tackling the question of judging the art by the artist, as well as taking a stroll through the lousier sections of Batman and Spider-Man’s Rogues Galleries!

As always, if you’ve got a question you’d like me to answer, put it on Twitter with the hashtag #AskChris, or shoot an email to ComicsAlliance at gmail.com with [Ask Chris] in the subject line!

23 thoughts on “Ask Chris #17: Lamest of the Lame and Art vs. Artist

  1. Thanks for answering my question! If my name wasn’t misspelled, I’d print it out and hang it on my refrigerator!

  2. I knew when I saw the villains question posted up on Twitter that Orca was gonna get a mention.

    Puma gets a pass for his involvement in Super Villain Team-Up: MODOK’S 11 because i love every last page of that thing.

    I’m not sure I’ve ever read anything with the Iguana in it though.

  3. Going by your “unnecessary” judgement, can we also dump Stegron, the Dinosaur Man? As the cover copy said, “You bet Jurassic!”

    And yes, I remember the cover copy but not what issue.

  4. @Rock Ripsnort

    Aww, leave Stegron alone. One of the first issues of Amazing Spider-man I remember reading was part of a two-issue story arc with Spiderman and poor Billy caught between Stegron and the Lizard. Man, I loved that story. IIRC, it had Stegron bringing dinosaurs back to life in the middle of NYC. What’s not cool about that?

  5. If you’re going to try to tell me that anything from Spidey Super Stories is not absolutely brilliant, then you can leave too.

  6. For what it’s worth, I’ve met Dave Sim, and a devoted feminist friend of mine has worked with him. He’s really not that bad of a guy- he wrote some things in kind of a devil’s advocate mindset, and got crucified for it (wasn’t the Comics Journal running cartoons portraying him as a Nazi?). In real life, he’s a much more moderate guy, and not at all the misogynist you might expect. Then again, people change over time, maybe he’s just grown up a bit emotionally.

  7. It’s my understanding that Sim is a diagnosed schizophrenic, and that he refuses treatment, as many do.

    For me, personally, this ameliorates the crazed worldview. Contrary to what he thinks, it’s beyond his control. Factoring that out, his talent is large and interesting. It’s not like the case of Card, who meant to be a treasonous homophobic bigot.

    But I can understand why you wouldn’t want to read him despite.

    (A female friend of a friend interviewed Sim, knowing about his theories of the Void. It was one of the more bizarre episodes of her journalistic career.)

  8. If Dave Sim is “not that bad of a guy,” I am never leaving the house again.

    Leaving aside the points that he may be ill, and he MAY be writing as a devil’s advocate (I personally do not believe the latter), what do you think of the fact that some people agree with what he said, entirely without reservation? How is that kind of influence benign?

  9. I’ve read enough of Sim’s own writing to be able to state definitively: the views expressed in “Reads” about women are precisely what he believes. And really, it actually just gets worse. But it becomes very clear after sifting through his thoughts and reminiscences that he is indeed mentally ill, and the 25+-year-grind of putting out Cerebus had no small part to play in that. I don’t think that excuses for one second his odious beliefs, however, much less his proselytizing of those beliefs.

  10. I remember that Banjo issue. (Wish I didn’t.) Weren’t he and his brother Bugeye Peter David’s creation’s? Because I want to know who to blame.

  11. I can understand why you wouldn’t want to give your money to Card after he advocated violent treason. Just remember, you can read his stuff from the library for free. You get to read it, he doesn’t get a dime. If your library system is large enough, you might be able to pick up some the Cerebus trades, too.

  12. Seth, that’s only true if you read the book in the library, not if you borrow it; in canada, the us the uk and australia the authors/illustrators (note: not the publishers but the asserted creators of a work) are paid a small royalty every time their registered work is borrowed from a public library. So if you take `enders game’ out, card still gets paid. Not as much as if you’ve bought it, but something. So, unless you can read very quickly or plan on spending a lot of time in the library, chances are he will indeed `get a dime’ when you read his work.

  13. Dave Sim went crazy in the 90’s. Crazy people say crazy things. But this is no reason to deny the experience of some of the finest comics ever published. From “High Society” to “Jaka’s Story” exists comics of the highest level of artistry and narrative sophistication. You won’t fined finer drama or comedy in a comic.

    You are making a huge mistake, denying yourself sublime comics, if you allow Sim’s insanity to keep you from experiencing his pre-insanity genius.

    Read them. At least from #25 to #150. When it starts to get crazy there, the writing suffers, but the comics never stop being fascinating.

  14. Oh, I don’t mean to imply that it’s a bad thing if you don’t read them. That would be silly. But if folks like Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman and Frank Miller agree that “Cerebus” is frequently as good as it gets, I don’t understand a comics lover (and I know of no bigger comics lover than you, Mr. Sims) refusing to experience some of the finest comics ever made because the creator went insane and said insane things.

    It would be like an opera lover refusing to listen to Wagner because he was an anti-semite, or a history buff refusing to read anything by Jefferson because he owned slaves. You can understand why people would say, “Sure, they were assholes, but come on…”

  15. Ah, I see. Previously I’d said, “You are making a huge mistake…” which kind of does imply that it’s a bad thing if you don’t read them. Sorry about that. I just think you’d be awestruck by them, so I got a little carried away.