Blah Blah Blog – Three Challenges

A series of three posts from my long-ago Marvel blog that quizzed the audience about comics they had read and their feelings about them.

Challenge!

October 29, 2008 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General

Just a quick update tonight, since I’m in a rush–but I wanted to throw a question out to the group, based on what we were speaking about yesterday and the responses to that post.

It seems to me that, at the end of the day, everybody feels that the stuff they like is quality, regardless of how many other people like it, and regardless of how well it sells.

And, typically, people decry the quality of books that do sell well–especially when they don’t like them.

So, in trying to create some sort of objective barometer of quality:

Can you name some series that you believe were produced with quality, but that you do not like?

Discuss.

More later.

Tom B

Challenge II

October 31, 2008 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General

We got our typical outstanding response to yesterday’s question about quality, so I thought I’d toss another one out there—one that a few people have already anticipated.

You’ve already tried to pick out some books that you thought had been produced with quality, but that you nonetheless didn’t like. We got kind of a mixed bag in terms of responses—many of them seemed to argue the quality of the book they were pointing to (usually on the grounds that “Everybody else says it’s good.” ) So now let’s look at the opposite:

I’d like for you to name a series that you really liked despite the fact that you know it’s lacking in quality. And, most importantly, I’d like you to indicate why.

I’ll be very interested in seeing what turns up. Extra points if you mention FANTASTIC FORCE or SECRET DEFENDERS.

More later.

Tom B

Challenge III

November 3, 2008 | 1:00 AM | By Tom_Brevoort | In General

Going for a bit of a hat trick here, I’ve got another in our series of questions about quality to ask you.

Now, individual taste is often subjective, and changes over time. I can point to any number of books that I thought were terrible when they were first coming out that I’ve since gained a greater appreciation of. (Heck, the entirety of the Marvel line kind of counts for this one, since I was an avowed Marvel hater for my first five or six years of comic book reading.) And the reverse is also true—there are titles that I enjoyed when they were first published that seem crummy to me now. So much of why we like what we like has to do with when we encounter it, and under what circumstances.

So—today’s challenge: name a title that you hated when you first encountered it that you now, in retrospect, like a great deal.

More later.

Tom B