Weird Love (IDW) #1 out 5/14

[CharlieRock]

http://www.previewsworld.com/Home/1/1/71/916?stockItemID=MAR140449

Non-horror Golden Age comic fans get a new series in print next week with Weird Love!

[Yoc]

Ha!
That's my favourite ACG romance cover they are using... sure wish we could get a scan of that one.

[Drusilla lives!]

"... bargain-priced."

Yeah, or you could just read them all here and save a bundle.

Although I happened to notice in the preview to the latest "Haunted Horror" that they did finally acknowledge Jim (JVJ) and a few others at least... it was about time imho.

[Yoc]

Hi DL,
Actually Craig Yoe has been nice to DCM. 
He ran a free, full page, full colour DCM ad in his Haunted Horror comic in issue #7. There was also a full page colour ad for JVJ's 'ImageS' run in #6 and he credits our Tilliban as a contributing editor in HH #9. 

[Drusilla lives!]

And ya know what... I think there's something slightly offensive in the marketing of those comics.   Perhaps it's just me, but I find something somewhat disingenuous by republishing them the way they're doing, with terms like "kinky," "sick" and "bizarre."

Perhaps some of them were, perhaps they weren't, who's to say really... IDW?

[Drusilla lives!]

Hi DL,
Actually Craig Yoe has been nice to DCM.  
He ran a free, full page, full colour DCM ad in his Haunted Horror comic in issue #7. There was also a full page colour ad for JVJ's 'ImageS' run in #6 and he credits our Tilliban as a contributing editor in HH #9.  

Well, that's nice of them... it really is.  Until you consider that nobody really asked them to republish these comics (for $$$) in the first place, particularly in the cherry-pickin' scandal-mongerin' way they do.  So as I've said, it's about time.  

But as I've also just pointed out in the prior post (before I read your reply... sorry Yoc, I don't want to come off as angry at you personally, I'm not), it's not the only thing that I've gradually come to dislike about them (the IDW reprints).

[John C]

Well, that's nice of them... it really is.  Until you consider that nobody really asked them to republish these comics (for $$$) in the first place,

There's someone about once a year coming by looking for a good way to print the books, so it's not out of the question that they're filling some need.

It's also not strange (or problematic) for publishers to reprint public domain information, which is why there's a copy of Hamlet, Moby Dick, and the Bible for every price range, even though you can find them for free everywhere.  It's sort of the point of the public domain, that we all get to do whatever we want with material, making a part of the culture, if we so wish.  The things that nobody bothers to reprint, because "oh, there's a copy to read for free in the library," are the things we've forgotten.

As for their marketing approach...well, they have to compete with teen superheroines with breast implants in anatomically implausible poses...

[Drusilla lives!]

They should have to compete against teen superheroines with breast implants in anatomically implausible poses?  Who said they had to do anything... again, nobody told these people to republish this material. 

Somehow I just get the feeling that the dead don't want to be remembered THAT badly.

[crashryan]

I haven't read IDW's book so I don't know which stories they are reprinting. I do want to suggest that they really may be reprinting "kinky, sick and bizarre" romance stories. There certainly were many of these...here's a link to a blog post about Comic Media's contribution:

http://smurfswacker.blogspot.com/2013/09/comic-media-romances.html

[Drusilla lives!]

I didn't say there aren't "odd" romance stories out there, the point I was trying to make is why bother... do we really need another reprint comic to point them out to us?  

Why don't they just put out a reprint comic focusing on the romance genre, period... without all the sideshow hyperbole.  Or better yet, try putting out an all-new modern romance comic... now that really would be "making a part of culture" wouldn't you say?  In my opinion, at the very least, what they're presently doing is a gross misrepresentation of that genre... an historical distortion.  

And as to this whole "it's PD, so I can do anything I want with it" nonsense.  In my opinion just because the material is PD and one can legally do anything one wants with it, doesn't mean it's always right to do so... it's not really a free lunch in my opinion.  There should be a strong sense of custodial guardianship that goes along with the privilege, for in a sense custodial guardianship is all that has changed with these works... these "orphans."  For like any orphan, they should really be thought of as our own.  And I dunno about any of you, but I for one wouldn't like any of my children being dragged through the muck in the cause of "filling some need" (in someone's wallet).

[Drusilla lives!]

Yeah, ya know, I had pretty much forgotten about this "Weird Love" comic, so I went back to one of the online comic shops to check it out again... I guess it is filling a need, it's going into a second printing!  And there's even going to be a second issue!  So that's literally gonna be the second time these orphans will be dragged through the muck from my perspective.  Honestly, the way I see it, IDW or Yoe, or whoever, should have taken the high road here knowing the history of this period in comicdom and what all these works have gone through already.

Instead of picking out the stories that appealed to them personally the most, they should have just gone out and created their own work of a similar fashion, and slapped "Weird Love" on their own work, and used "kinky," "sick" and "bizarre" to describe their own work... and not the work of others who have already paid in full.  I cannot help but think these comics are being once again setup as some sort of scapegoat... and their original creators being abused all over again.

Sorry, I don't want to spoil the "love-fest"... don't want to be a party pooper... but that's just how I feel about this Weird Love title.  I can't help but feel some sort of line has been crossed here with this one.

[Yoc]

Everyone is entitled to their opinion DL.  No need to apologize for anything.
I suspect the whole 'weird' angle is mostly a marketing method to sell more books.

You might enjoy 'Love on the racks: a history of American romance comics' by Michelle Nolan.
and 'Romance Without Tears : 50'S Love Comics With a Twist!' by John Benson

-Yoc

[Drusilla lives!]

...here's a link to a blog post about Comic Media's contribution:

http://smurfswacker.blogspot.com/2013/09/comic-media-romances.html

Perhaps it's just me, but the marriage counselor hostess/narrator of that Dear Lonely Hearts comic whose "eyes don't line up" sorta resembles the "Look At Skinny" ad girl.

And whomever penciled "Girl Into Woman" (Stan Drake???) can sure draw voluptuous woman!  In my opinion one of the better things to stumble across whilst thumbing through those Comic Media issues.