Robin DIES!

Unless you have been living on the moon, you can’t have failed to notice that Dc Comics seem to a have a big problem with my fictional heroic counterpart, resorting to outright killing him twice:-

And of course I would not like to even guess how many times a comic featuring Robin got cancelled (even in the last six months only) – the last one I saw (and actually read) which got cancelled was of course the Tiny Titans

Oh, I hear you say, but it’s Grant Morrison, not DC comics.  Well I beg to differ, as I doubt Grant was pretending to be Jim Starlin or responsible for all those cancelations and I don’t think that Grant has any beef (if you excuse the expression) with me even if Matt Seneca compared him to me

I doubt Grant even knows who I am or would care if he did

So I have to think, it’s DC Comics who have it in for me – I mean would like you to wake up to maelstrom of tweets and Facebook entries suggesting that you will be shortly die by horrific impalement?

I mean yes I know its isn’t me but still the name is the same

So I have to wonder what it is exactly I have done to deserve this?

Oh I know exactly WHAT…

It’s this…

Yes I launched the limited run print edition of WHAT MEN last weekend at the London Super Comic Convention, which luckily DC did not attend… (As several people delighted in telling me)

Still I think DC knows that WHAT MEN exists as…

Three panels from WHAT MEN have been published, in Studies in Comics issue 3.2 December 2012 (thanks to Doug Noble, who’s tweet quote about WHAT MEN appears in the above advert)

Oh, that means nothing?

DC Comics put out a warning to retailers that Before Watchmen Doctor Manhattan "will feature several pages “printed upside down” but that “This is part of the storytelling, and should not be considered an error.” 

This was just before the London Super Comic Convention. I sent a copy of the bleeding cool article to my friends at orbital comics who was one of the few people to get an advanced preview copy of WHAT MEN

Oh, that is just a coincidence?

A few days later (after the LSCC) Bleeding cool then had an article showing that Before Watchmen Doctor Manhattan actually has mirrored images directly commenting on each other,

With the comic being provided by orbital comics

Another coincidence, that specific…?

Orbital comics just featured me in an interview all about what men in their podcast the orbiting pod

Which is here and was posted on orbitals site by another person also called Robin...

Chris J Thompson was the person who interviewed me, who also coincidentally has a quote in the WHAT MEN advert above

Oh that’s all just happenstance, a question of being in the right time in the right place (many times over), and having the right name, right?

OK, so what on earth would Dc be upset about if indeed they are?

Would it be that WHAT MEN is on sale now and you can get hold of a physical copy If you like for just £4.00 from ebay?

Maybe...

But to clarify £4 is the print cost of 96 pages black and white - I make no money from the sale of any printed item (I never have done) in fact I usually lose money – I never claim copyright (unlike Roy Liechtenstein) or even pretend the work is mine and I always make an effort to try and contact the creator and let them know what I am doing – See below signed panel from WHAT MEN as shown to and signed by Dave Gibbons

Also WHAT MEN is available for no money at all on this very blog  and in fact I only went to print as people asked me to!

Could it be that WHAT MEN also features mirrored images just like Before Watchmen Doctor Manhattan and I have precedence on this?

Absolutely not – The concept of mirrored images is hardly unique, though I don’t think anyone has ever taken it to the extent I have where in the print edition there is no front, back, middle, top, bottom, left right, beginning or end and every single mirrored image is direct opposite each other reflecting each other into infinity as well as being directly commented on in the dialogue.

I mean DC freaked out a over a couple of pages!

Meanwhile I am almost directly quoting the entire opening quote from “the outer limits” (a deliberate choice) “We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical” and the entire comic is a  puzzle to be unravelled that can be said to be infinite

My personal favourite mirrored pages in WHAT MEN is the ones featuring a sneaky appearance by Snoopy from Peanuts on the dead little girls slipper (which is covered over with a sunflower in the Watchmen motion comic)...

Or maybe (and this seems to be the most obvious choice) DC comics object to being so openly questioned on their moralities, on their treatment of creators, the contractual nature of work for hire and how that destroys creativity as well as people working for DC personally (by name) addressed all within the readdressed content of a comic they originally produced?

If that is the case – well I can only think that is only because they are resistant to changing any of their polices

Regardless of it they refuse to listen to adapt or to change and regardless of if they agree with the viewpoints within WHAT MEN or not, the central point is that the treatment of creators is specifically why comics are in such a bad way – no other reason. All DC have to do is adapt and change a bit and they would benefit greatly

In fact if anything I would prefer to see them go on to greater heights and remember that when all is said and done creativity comes from the heart, it comes from a passion and expressing that passion and that anything that is done to stifle, stymie control or otherwise limit that expression destroys that expression, dilutes it down until it becomes meaningless pap, so you end up with abused zombie creators and fewer and fewer fans

You can’t keep shifting the same old same old before everyone gets fed up and leaves, so there is no choice but to adapt and adjust

Support creativity, treat creators as the precious resource they are, respect their opinions, respect their rights, actually pay them a half decent wage, heck why not even give the health care, without them all you got is blank pages!

And when all is said and done Marvel do get addressed equally along with DC and Marvel are not trying to kill Robin!

So yes why shouldn’t I try and hijack the latest lame cash in move by DC to generate sales and try and put it to more useful ends  - even more so when it has my name written all over it

I mean we must all know you can’t kill an idea, ideas are bullet proof

To me, killing Robin is an open invitation

So either buy WHAT MEN or read it for free, all I ever want is for you reading to stop and have a think and wonder just how many its contents reflect reality and what if anything would you like to do about it – and that’s all

You can take or leave it, like or hate it

As Alan Moore quite rightly said “I leave it in your hands”