Yes, the art is frequently lackluster, but you takes whats you can gets at times.

good for him.

does anyone remember that old Bob Newhart show where he was a comic book creator and he went to a convention and met like Todd McFarlene or someone. That's what I thought of when reading the introduction inviting people to the comic convention, I don' t know why, but I did

now on a related note, yeah the buffy artwork sucked, but the story is good like everyone has mentioned, including in the review

I'm over my hate of Buffy "Season 8" title and am just going to live with it, however I still think it would be a hot if some non traditonal comic show had the balls to do this, like Season 6 of NewsRadio or something, or Sienfeild, the comic!

The Bram Stroker book looks excellent, I'm going to have to pick that up...

We thought he was a gonner

The "Cap" came back,

The very next day,

He just wouldn't stay away!!!!

I've read interviews with Kirby where he called himself the creator of Spider-Man. While I'm sure he did a concept sketch or something, anybody who has ever read an issue of Spider-Man and an issue of, say, KAMANDI THE LAST BOY ON EARTH, knows that Jack didn't have jack to do with Spider-Man. (And put it back in yer pants, guys, Kirby was a genius, the King, the visual creator of Marvel, the sole creator of Silver Surfer but Elvis didn't record JOHNNY B. GOOD, ya know). This is as ridiculous as Joe Simon was when he took full credit for CAPTAIN AMERICA, which was as Kirby as you can get without being about a race of lost cosmic people.

But if you look at, say, Bob Kane. Yeah, he created BATMAN, but he'll tell you he created Robin, the Joker, all the stuff Bill Finger brought into the mix.

It's ironic, in the unescapable AGE OF THE WRITER, that the party line is to deny Stan credit. Look at this talkback, for example. A reviewer does a well written piece of Buffy that focuses on the art (an important point because if you really love comics, bad art can take you out of a good story) ... and it ain't a comic book without the art, but it can be a comic book without a single written word ... and he gets undeserved flack.

IMHO, a comic book superhero, especially an icon, is both a character and visual concept. Ditko himself once made that point, and even Stan sort of conceded it (although probably not permanently, which is cool). It is fair to say Stan created this or that. It's also fair to say Ditko created Spider-Man, Kirby created the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, etc.

Really, all you have to do is look at what each of these guys did without the other and you get the equivalent of the former Beatles albums. The work all has its' merits, but BAND ON THE RUN or PLASTIC ONO BAND isn't exactly SGT. PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND, ya know. Just like SHE-HULK isn't THE INCREDIBLE HULK or THE QUESTION isn't THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN or THE NEW GODS isn't THE FANTASTIC FOUR.

In today's comic scene, it is sad how much the contributions of the artist are dismissed. We have the founding fathers of Image to thank you that, because they were seen as and believed themselves to be the Second Coming of the American Comic book but only Erik Larsen had any real writing ability (because he knew his limitations). All the others were faking it and of the fakers, only McFarlane had any skill at that. Their "writing" was unintentionally like the comics that, say, sixth grade kids do in the back of their notebooks. You had the Liefield Kid who proably wouldn't have written a word if he could have gotten it past his buddies and on the other end of the spectrum you've got the McFarlane Kid who could do a reasonable pastiche of Frank Miller doing a supernatural comic.

I've got a modest filmmaking background, so I tend to look at comics like filmmaking. In the past, comics were like films, with the writer in the subordinate role as screenwriter (except for Stan who was both screenwriter, producer and studio boss) and the artist as director. Now, comics are like T.V. with the writer as writer/producer/show runner/whatever and the artist, if he or she is allowed and at their msot creative, as maybe ... MAYBE...cinematographer and film editor.