The August Mailbag is Here!

SKTCHD subscribers asked a whole lot of questions and I answered them in this month's Mailbag

By David Harper

August 8, 2019

It’s the best time of the month: Mailbag time! You all have asked, and now, I will try my best to answer your wide mix of questions, ranging from comic related ones at the top to…decidedly not comic related ones at the bottom of this very piece! Thanks to everyone who asked questions this month, and as a quick reminder, you can submit them at any point throughout the month via the SKTCHD forum in the Ask David Anything section, through the comments of this post, via email (I’m at david@SKTCHD.com) or on Twitter by @’ing my personal account or the SKTCHD account.

But let’s get to it! Without further ado, this month’s Mailbag Q&A…

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Notable Replies

levi says:

August 8, 2019

Al Ewing being the given the HiX-Men treatment on the entire Avengers Universe is the best possible answer you could’ve given to that question.

I hope the success of Immortal Hulk is the thing to FINALLY give Ewing some big titles. It’s been so frustrating to see him kick ass on every Marvel thing he’s been given for the last 6 years but still not be given the keys to the main Avengers book or FF or Guardians or some event title.

Maybe they’ve already figured this out and his big Marvel Comics #1000 contribution is leading to something next year…
Prince3PO says:

August 8, 2019

So many good questions!!! And good answers!!!

I’m in the vast minority here, but I actually don’t think Hickman is that good of an architect for a whole universe? I know that seems really controversial, but I think his ideas work best when he’s in complete control of them. When Spencer took over Avengers World it became basically pointless. His F4/FF run was good mostly because it kept to its own corner, and his New/Avengers stuff was weirdly unaddressed for a very long time. Then in Time Runs Out Hickman admittedly used a lot of other ideas (Tony being “superior,” Thor missing an arm) but no one else really used his? I dunno. It’s just hard to imagine someone else playing in his playground when everything’s put exactly where he wants.

All this is to say that I think Ewing might actually be better than Hickman at being an architect.
PhinsUp says:

August 8, 2019

Thank you David! Really excited to delve into what you recommended in the coming weeks (only seen Russian Doll from that list and I can confirm what you said, that show felt special)

(Also your White Claw response made me laugh out loud)
actualtotoro says:

August 9, 2019

One other thing I think makes it harder for DC to tap into the Green Arrow tv hype in particular is how divergent Arrow is from its comic counterpart. The show started out as essentially, “Batman, but not” and offers an often wildly different Oliver. And can you imagine if they tried to make Felicity a thing in comics? It seems to me that bringing Arrow fans into the reading fold is tougher than it sounds at first blush.

I love your hype for Stilt-Man. My first year or two in reading comics I had these two obscure favorites that I could get very few people to care about: Laura Kinney, and Cloak & Dagger. Then suddenly one was Wolverine and the other got a TV show. May you have that sort of luck with your oddball fave!

I will need to read that Ringer article. I left Columbus just as “Hot Chicken Takeover” was, well, taking over. When, two years later, I had a chance to swing through Nashville, I happily waited on line for nearly 3 hours at Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack. I’ve never been so happy to have my colon reduced to ash.

I don’t enjoy eating fish or seafood pretty much at all. If pressed, though, the “used to live in water” thing I’ve most enjoyed in the last ten years was an unagi roll. So, just barely, I can relate.
chrisburton says:

August 9, 2019

actualtotoro:

One other thing I think makes it harder for DC to tap into the Green Arrow tv hype in particular is how divergent Arrow is from its comic counterpart. The show started out as essentially, “Batman, but not” and offers an often wildly different Oliver. And can you imagine if they tried to make Felicity a thing in comics? It seems to me that bringing Arrow fans into the reading fold is tougher than it sounds at first blush.

This is a good point. The Arrow series is by no means a work of art, but I think it has enough solid elements that maybe DC Comics should lean into that version of Oliver Queen a bit and see how it does. Maybe just a mini-series with an offbeat creative team. I feel like Green Arrow comics haven’t had any real buzz or sales success in probably at least 15 years if not more, so might as well try something new while still capitalizing on the name recognition. (I guess they kind of tried a version of this with the Lemire/Sorrentino run)

Continue the discussion at community.sktchd.com

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