Jeph Loeb - photo courtesy 9th Wonder Blog
Hey folks, Elliott here with 2 things:
- Nominations for the CCW Nation Awards will be wrapping up this weekend, so if you haven’t had a chance to get yours in, do it quick! Jose and I will be tallying the noms at this weekend’s recording of the final episodes of 2009. Also, because I LOVED THE IDEA SO MUCH (thanks locusmortis) we will also be awarding the FIRST EVER GOLDEN LOEB AWARD! This award goes to the WORST THING IN COMICS THIS YEAR! Since I’m throwing this up kind of at the last minute, you only have UNTIL SUNDAY MORNING to give us your nominations. It can be the worst writer, artist, comic, event, publisher, whatever. Nominate the ONE person/title/event/etc. that you felt was the WORST in comics, and we’ll include it in the tally.
The most prestigious award in comics! Thanks MANACONDA!
- I will be on WGN Radio (AM 720) in Chicago this evening at 2:30 AM CST as a guest on WGN RADIO OVERNIGHT with Brian Noonan. If you don’t get WGN where you live, you can listen to a live podcast on their website. I know it’ll be kinda late for some folks, but it would ROCK if some CCW*TV viewers would call in to the show to say ‘hey’ and ask questions. I’ll be on the show to talk comics, geek gifts, etc., so hearing some friendly voices would be nice. Visit the WGN Radio web site for the number to call.
Okay, that’s it for now. I look forward to reading your Golden Loeb Nominations and hearing from you on the radio tonight!
The CCW*TV Companion Blog 
I think the worst thing in comics this year is the shitty attitude of Marvel Comics itself. I could list about a dozen artists and writers that I think phone it in every month, but that stuff is subjective. Someone’s Loeb might be someone else’s Kirkman. But Marvel’s total disregard of its fans is just ridiculous. The tired events, the inflated prices, and the throwaway filler material are just few of the shitty practices employed by Marvel. I’ve dropped every book by Marvel, even the amazing Iron Man and I don’t think I’m the only one. Let’s do some cleaning up over there Marvel.
I totally agree. I promised my wife I would budget myself and stop buying as much as I have, so I had to take all $3.99 monthlies off my pull list, including books I enjoy like Detective. And I dropped all Marvel out of prinicple.
I’m assuming we nominate here, so I’m going to nominate “Dark Reign”
Why? Well, have a seat and a small lunch, it’ll be a while.
1. Changing NOTHING! Has ANYTHING changed since they ousted Tony Stark and replaced him with Osbourne? Any cracks in the facade of him not being a nutbag? ESP when there should be. He was wandering around the Baxter Building trying to shoot Franklin and Valaria (And if X-Factor 200 proved anything, it’s that she’s a great character.) and what was the fallout? NOTHING!
2. I would love to sit with a calculator and figure out how much money someone was expected to shell out to get every “Dark Reign Tie In!” book there was, but my calculator doesn’t figure out numbers that high.
3. Forcing a writer off a book because he didn’t want to involve his title in this craptastic event. Thor was SO good. Bill was a great minor character that you could tell was lovingly crafted even in the few pages he’d appear every few months. Thank GAWD he was killed off by said writer before he could be mangled.
4.Forcing Utopia on us. X-Men/Avengers brawls are some of the best Good Guys vs Good Guys fights in comics. What’d we get? The return of Adam the X-Treme. Thinking back, that shoulda been its own number on here but oh well. Then the fight was just the 90 bajillion X-Men dogpiling the Dark Avengers/Dark X-Men. And only giving Dani her powers back for, like, 4 panels? F*** YOU MARVEL!
I’d continue but you get the point. Heaven help y’all if I find out Rulk was made because of Dark Reign cause you’ll NEVER hear the end of it from me then.
“3. Forcing a writer off a book because he didn’t want to involve his title in this craptastic event. Thor was SO good. Bill was a great minor character that you could tell was lovingly crafted even in the few pages he’d appear every few months. Thank GAWD he was killed off by said writer before he could be mangled.”
This has to be the biggest shit that Marvel took on it’s readers this year IMO. I LOVED JMS’s Thor. You can tell that the pay off from his story would have been flipping amazing if he was allowed to finish. I have NO interest in Siege, so sacrificing Thor as a character so that ANOTHER event can be pulled out of their asses, just urks me beyond belief.
This is why I am so discontented with mainstream comics, the creators just aren’t valued unless they have a big name. It’s sickening. JMS’s Thor was comparable to Gaiman’s Sandman. It would have only gotten better. I’m done with Marvel now.
MARVEL did the same thing to JMS when he was writing THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. They dropped CIVIL WAR and BACK IN BLACK on him, then retcon Spider-Man history!
JMS once said that “these aren’t his characters and what someone else does with them isn’t his concern” (I’m paraphrasing) but I’m sure having everything you wrote for the last couple years systematically espunged irks you. He’ll never admit that publically, I think.
So, are we only nominating ONE worst Artist/Title etc, etc., each? or just ONE thing period. I don’t know which way to take the intructions?
But, while I’m sure Benis, DARK AVENGERS, DARK REIGN will all probebly take the Golds, I will throw out something different and say that the WORST thing, in this case “Story”, was “HULK: Code Red” (aka Red Hulk/Thundra/Deadpool/Elektra/Crimson Dynamo/Punisher vs X-Force) by Jeph Loeb and (dumbed down) art by Ian Churchill.
Worst Writer – James Robinson – Cry for Justice & JLA – He has no hand on the characters at all.
Worst Team Book Writer – Matt Fraction – Uncanny X-Men – He couldn’t find the right voice of the X- -men even if they hit him in the ass.
Worst Artist – Greg Land – Uncanny X-Men – Tracing is not an Art.
Worst Comic – Hulk – Jeph Loeb – I just glad this book isn’t apart of the 616 universe.
Worst Event – Image United – Jesus could save this event.
Worst Publisher – Marvel – GREED!
Worst New Character (I’m not sure if this counts) – Dooms Master – Really, doom needs a master?
Worst Cover – Uncanny X-Men #508 – Sweet good, the porn faces!
Tracing would be an improvement over copy and pasting.
damn thats a good list
He he. Porn faces indeed. 🙂
J.
Yeah, that gets my vote:
Worst artist: Greg, porn faces, Land
But I think Hulk is part of the 616 Universe because of the Fall of the Hulks crossover.
J.
I know, but i can’t stop wishing.
Agreed. James Robinson is terrible. Sad, he once gave us a fantastic book in Starman.
All I can say is, Badly played sir!
Seems kind of a dick move to name the awards for bad art, writing, whatever after a writer who isn’t doing so good now but wrote some neat stuff like Long Halloween. But I may just be being too nice.
Also, concerning kicking JMS off Thor, I don’t think its fair to blame Marvel when the readers have made it crystal clear that they want to read the story of the marvel universe that happens to be told using certain characters rather than read certain characters that happen to be in the Marvel universe.
The reprinted shit in the back is their fault but if the readers prefer this method of story telling, even if it means treading on the toes of big name creators, then its the fanboy’s fault.
On a similar note, JMS has basically been given free reign over Superman with this Earth One book they plan on doing, so if you JMS Thor fans dont pick it up then I can’t really have any sympathy for you.
You blame the victim all the time, dontcha’ dad? LOL.
Elliott
Notice Loeb’s best work is only when he’s working with Tim Sale, the guy hasn’t written a good book in years.
Daddy
Worst Writer – loeb!
Worst Team Book Writer – Dark Avengers
Worst Artist – the one doing Dark avengers
Worst Comic – Hulk
Worst Event – Secret Invasion
Worst Publisher – Marvel
Worst New Character – Rulk
hmmm, so many choices, hard to pick just one… So here’s my list of the shittiest shit in comics from this past year…. SHIT I SAY, SHIT!!!
Jeph Loeb- everything this guy touches lately turns to pure shit.
Brian Bendis- uninspired, contrived fanboy fodder seems to be his MO right now.
Tony Daniel- the man responsible for battle for the cowl, need i say more?
Over priced books- charging an extra dollar (or two) for shitty back matter (or nothing at all), this shit has got to stop.
Joe Quesada- The man responsible for the majority of these over priced shit books.
Image United/Haunt- Hate to pick on the little guy, but why unearth god awful 90’s cliches and overall shitty comic ideas, why?
Greg Land/Greg Horn- These two aren’t the only ones doing it, but using computers and light box techniques to trace pornography is NOT art, it cheapens and degrades the entire medium.
I’m sure I’m forgetting something, but I’m already worked up enough from these few shit suggestions. I’m all shat out.
Worst Writer – Grant Morrison the BS event of Final Crisis w/ an extra helping of Batman & Robin 1-6 ENOUGH!!!
Worst Team Book Writer – Bendis on the Avenger titles
Worst Artist – EVS on Flash Rebirth as of now according to DC #6 is coming out on March 24, 2010 that is 51 weeks for a 6 issue miniseries. ROYAL ASS BULLSHIT!!!
Worst Comic – Ultimatum Jeph Loeb
Worst Event – Flash REALLY LATE BIRTH no flow no go between issues.
Worst Publisher – Marvel – GREEDY BITCHES!
Worst New Character RULK (just tell us already Loeb)
Worst Cover – Flash Rebirth #1 (lightning all around Flash cover)
Matthew
I would have put Rulk for Worst New Character also but he 2008 champ.
BATMAN & ROBIN WILL NEVER DIE UNDER GRANT MORRISON!!!!
BA-BA-BOOEY BA-BA-BOOEY HOWARD STERN BA-BA-BOOEY BA-BA-BOOEY BA-BA-BOOEY :p
LOL Ultimate Jeph Loeb 🙂
March 24? Issue #5 just came out this month right? WTF? Is is a triple-sized issue?
the worst thing i read this past year was battle for the cowl
Worst Writer – BRIAN BENDIS
Worst Artist – GREG HORN
Worst Character – RED HULK
Worst Comic – HULK (RED HULK)
Worst Team Comic – DARK AVENGERS
I was just thinking the other day that you guys should do something like this!
Worst comic book and worst team book- Dark Avengers (its so bad it killed two birds w/ one stone)
Worst writer- Jeph Loeb
Worst event- Ultimatum (Battle for the Cowl got lucky…)
Worst artist- 1. Greg Horn, 1. Greg Land, 1. Tony Daniel (they all win first place)
Worst Character(s): Sentry and Rulk
spider woman #1 the motion comic
heres my rendition of the award itself
http://tinypic.com/r/swfdyd/6
Holy shit MANACONDA! That…is…fucking …brilliant!!!
J.
Nice Work ! =)
thanks for the love boys! i appreciate it!
Hey has anyone noticed that they’re cheerleaders behind Loeb in the picture? Lucky guy… I guess… he doesn’t deserve them! lol
No, no he doesn’t unless their tranny cheerleaders then he deserves them all
It would seem a shame not to give the 1st Loeb award to his namesake!!
Loeb should receive the “Liefeld/Austen Lifetime Achievement Award”
LOEB awards Bawh…hah..hah
Genuis E just genuis
My picks for worst
Writer – Bendis (Guy is running outta fuel, ideas and hair)
Artist – Greg Land (Dude just sucks the life outta any book he’s on and he uses porn as reference, I know these things.)
Series(Ongoing)- Frank Castle Punisher (Frank ain’t the only one who’s a monstrosity)
Event – Secret Invasion (Yeah it’s 2008, but the stench of the heaping pile led to Dark Reign.)
Publisher – It should be MARVEL, but for every Dark Avengers Marvel does produce little gems like AoA or Incredible Herc so no pick for this one.
did Bendis ever have hair…?
Ya’know I don’t think he did
Every award series needs a “Lifetime Acheivement Award” which I nominate the person who inspired the name of these awards, the esteemed Jeph Loeb who started from the low of Onslaught and Heroes Reborn then rose to the heights The Long Halloween and the Marvel “Colours” series (all done with Tim Sale….hmmmm) then proceeded to low after low after low culminating with Rulk and Ultimatum.
For the 2009 Golden Loeb I nominate Marvel Comics for the following reasons:
1: Overpriced books – both the $3.99 for 22 story pages and the 3.99 and 4.99 “special issues” bulked out by unnecessary reprints and crappy added “matter”. There is a recession, did you not get that news Marvel??? If you want my money you better damn well give me good value for it.
2: Rulk – An insult to Hulk fans, an insult to Greg Pak after the very good Planet Hulk series, an insult to fans of good comics.
3: The death and humiliation of the Ultimate line of comics – horrible writing, overrated art, overpriced books, complete disarray in terms of direction
4: The X-books – back in the 80’s the Uncanny X-men was the best comic of that era, now Uncanny is a mess despite Fraction and hosts Greg Lands horrible art. Legacy is just boring boring boring and as for the other books?…who really cares?
5. Brian Bendis – The New Avengers are a disorganised mess, a loose collection of 70’s misfits plus a couple of marquee characters who sit around doing nothing but eat chinese food and watch tv for issue after issue except when they are having the crap kicked out of them. Then the Dark Avengers, a loose collection of arseholes who all talk in the same voice despite vast differences in age and experience plus Moonstone who suddenly becomes the team bike (always available for a ride), the Sentry who alternately rips peoples heads off or cowers in the corner like a pussy and Tommy Lee Jones who leads the team and convinces Barack obama and the public that he should be put in charge of a multi-billion dollar espionage agency despite being a known murderer and supervillian.
6. Captain America: Reborn – What the fuck happened you Ed Brubaker? 50 issues of good Captain America stories then you decide to rush into bringing back Steve Rogers by replacing a $2.99 book with a $3.99 one for no good reason except for Marvel to pillage peoples wallets during a recession. The book then acquires an extra issue just so Bryan Hitch can draw more splash pages which he can sell on to collectors later. This means the series drags on and on and fucks with the timing of other books which then destroys ANY remaining suspense.
Added to this is that Reborn is just so fucking BORING! It ends up being a recap of the previous 50 issues, so so unncessary and so symptomatic of a year where Marvel alienates many of its own fans.
7. And then theres the doozy, Dark Reign – a year long fest of BORING fed by hordes of uninteresting, unnecessary, overpriced shitty mini-series like Dark Reign: lethal legion, Dark Reign: Zodiac, Dark Reign: Mister Negative.
Spinning out of the vastly unsatisfying mess of Secret Invasion we have an “event” (or non-event as it transpired” inflicted on the entire Marvel Universe which means that Norman Osborne appears in EVERY FUCKING COMIC for a year and the heroes of the Marvel Universe are shit on from a great height by Brian Bendis and his genius plan for this shitfest.
Thank goodness X-Factor doesn’t count as an X book these days, huh?
Well said!
Very nicely put.
J.
Goddamn Locus
You pretty much said it all, full release man, full release.
hot towel?
My God that was one of the most PERFECT INDICTMENTS of Marvel Comics that I have ever read!
Bravo good sir! BRAVO!
Elliott
Wow. That was brilliant! Best Description of Marvel Comics in 2009! I am pretty pissed about what Marvel did to the Ultimate U. I grew up loving that series and how did Marvel reward me? They pissed and shit all over it. And believe me that has put a big hole in my heart and joy for comics. Marvel should be ashamed of themselves.
I’m pretty angry about Marvels antics this year and they don’t deserve to be left off the hook about any of it. Any company that can have a guy(me) be buying 15 of their titles and no DC books at the start of the year to buying 2 marvel titles and 15 DC titles less than 9 months later deserves to be called on their bullshit. As the trailer park boys would say “I CALL SHENANIGANS!”
well done sir.
That sums up Marvel Comics in 2009 quite nicely.
worst writersartist= tony daniel.
sorry its a short list im feeling down righ tnow.
and i cant spell lol
We still like you anyways
I will have to pick the Dark Reign event as my worst of the year. Admittedly I have only been back collecting for a few months now. The Dark Reign event almost nipped my return to comic collecting in the bud, walking into a comic store for the first time in a decade and I am greeted by a bewildering collection of Dark Reign titles. Where does it start? Where does it end? Does it ever end? Norman Osborn now rates an entire Marvel wide event surrounding him? fucking Norman Osborn!?!?
But I will get even more specific for my nomination.. I would like to formally nominate “Dark Reign: The List” series of books as the worst thing in comics this year. What the fuck is going on with these books? Are they annuals? Giant size specials? Some sort of mini event within a special event? Well, since they are one shots they must be doing something special outside of what is happening within the normal Dark Reign titles right? Nope, not really.. most of what happens in “The List” books could had been incorporated in the regular books. And really they should have part of the regular series, how about the poor Punisher fans who may have not had the four bucks to shell for Dark Reign: The List Punisher. I am sure they would have appreciated having something as important as Frank getting killed! included within their normal comic.
Urge to kill… rising! OK, not really, but this List thing was pretty damn boneheaded on the part of Marvel. In a special event that was already pretty hard to follow, creating another layer of books for readers to buy on top of everything else that was going on was fucking stupid.
whew!
IM
Battle for the Cowl should “win” this!
The worst thing to happen in comics this past year was Karen “the bitch” Berger canceling YOUNG LIARS. She earns the coveted Loeb.
Also, Marvel deserves one for their greed across the board and shitty filler content to over price books.
ummm, Amazing Spider-Man #549 is an awesome comic – read it on its own and not its sequel.
Mary Jane loves Peter and becomes a bumbling super hero to be with him.
read it and keep it 🙂
Hey Elliott,
I just listened to your radio interview. Good job. You didn’t plug your comic?
I also heard the prior hour and a half (I’m working thru the weekend & radio shows help my “temporal awareness”). I waited for them to give out the number. I missed it but not the enthusiastic complaints about seasonal shopping.
You know, every time I get a chance to plug my comic, I dork up and forget. Notice how I plugged 3 different comic shops, 2 video games, Matt Fraction and even mentioned Mr. Melendez. And yet I forget to mention Ash Saves Obama. AUGH!
Maybe next time. Thanks for listening!
Elliott
Old man logan Giant-size finale.
After waiting months and months for the book to ship, it cost 5 bucks for repeated material including an extra copy of the same cover, and it was one of the biggest let-down endings ever.
l feel your pain, Curtis, While l don’t share quite your depth of disdain for the ending, it was nonetheless one of the most anti climatic endings of the year. Let us that there is no sequel!
I agree. What a kick in the nuts! Oooooh how edgy Mark Millar! Hulk bangs his cousin? Why?
In case you didn’t get to read my review of that book here’s the link. You pretty much summed up what I had to say.
J.
Just checked it out. Well put Jose. Bendis and Millar seem to be writing for 13 year old Mountain Dew loving nerds. Kick Ass and Dark Avengers are perfect examples of this.
RED HULK!!!
WHOA?! THE WORST THING IN COMICS THIS YEAR! I thought you meant it had to be Jeph Loeb related! DARK REIGN BENDIS STORIES (new, dark avengers) Will you count this, probably not since I already put a vote in. I just wanna put a Bendis diss out, with Tony Daniel Bat-stories at no.2 -)
Tony Daniels, just don’t like his writing and I’m only new to comic but he’s the worst I’ve read, even if it was a preview
Cry For Justice. This book is just fucking offensive. At least Dark Reign had some good come out of it. Cry For Justice is just a shit heap that keeps on giving, and will keep on giving well until the next Decade!
Man, I couldn’t get passed the second issue of that series.
“This book is just fucking offensive” is exactly how I felt about it too.
J.
I was done with this after Green Arrow and Green Lantern were talking about some three way Hal had with Huntress and someone else. What the hell was that? It was like Robinson has Bendis envy.
o.k. I’ve had some time to think about other people who are worthy.
Writer: need l say it? He already has a plaque in his likeness!
Artist: If wednesday comics was his showcase, then I’ll say PaulPope
Character: DarkAvengers “CaptMarvel” does he serve any purpose other than keeping WolvieJr. from being the most useless on the team?
Event: Dk. Reign
Most uneven/awkward collaboration: toss up between Kirkman,McFarlane,Capullo, Ottley. Or Image United!!
k..0..
[…] (too late!) I wanna close 2009 with a comment made by our own ‘Locusmortis‘ on the Golden Loeb Award post. It’s passionate, thoughtful and well-argued. I may not think he’s right on all points, […]
[…] it yet. That means you have a little more time to get your vote in if you haven’t already. The Golden Loeb Award is still up for grabs so check out the post and give us your […]