Over on his site's message board, writer Chuck Dixon addresses how he is pacing the franchise's flagship title. The issues of how fast it reads, and how little has happened are mentioned. Chuck promises that issue 6 will make many people happy.

I'm a bit impaired tehcnologically, so no link. Just go to Dixonverse.net, message boards, dixonverse free for all, and the thread is called "G I Joe too quick a read?".

If you're still feeling doubtful but WILLING to give him a chance, I suggest you hunt down a Nightwing TPB that he wrote. There are a few. The pacing is similar to how he's handling Joe, and you can see how well his stories come together.

Chuck is an approachable guy. He respects his fans and has hosted this message board since the late 90's. And one thing about him that you may not know, is just how FAR he can work in advance. Seriously, the chances of his Joe being late because of him not turning the script in on time are about the same as a USS Flagg rerelease in neon green.

Soooooo... his excuse is that he writes for the trade paperback, not the single issues? Jerk. And my problem was not with the pacing, just the general suckiness of the story. And not even interesting suckiness... lame suckiness.

_________________

Yep, that's the big thing these days with comics, stretching out storylines to last 6-12 issues so they can pit them into a trade paperback, makes me miss the days of the 1-2 issue stories.

_________________

They could also add oh, 4 or 5 pages of story to the comics...it seems like when I read over noad versions , that they are only around 20 to 21 pages. WTF is that about. These comics aren't cheap. And it sucks that there's no real "meat" to the stories. Not even after 5 issues. I kinda expect more from a comic company owned by the comics101.com guys.

edit: oh, and this isn't the level of storyline that would require or deserve a trade paperback to begin with. That kind of treatment should be reserved for "event" storylines like Batman's Battle For The Cowl (WAY too early in the morning, but you know what I meant...like the Infinity Gauntlet stories from Marvel...that one's a better example lol) storyline that hit over separate books, that sort of thing. Not just 5 issues of robots attacking teh pit and snake eyes off doing god knows what somewhere else.

_________________

As I said, Chuck is an approachable guy. He's had his message board up and running since LONG before lettercoloums left comic's backpages. You got a problem? You CAN take it to the source. He's not hiding. All you have to do is present your concern/argument in an intellegent and well worded response.

Children's attention spans are getting shorter for non-interactive entertainment (I have three nephews, ages 6-14 to observe), so a TPB designed to be read in a single sitting isn't the dumbest thing I've heard all day. As for the content of the story, I like it, maybe you don't. But you're going to run into that kind of problem with ANY writer. Nobody can please all of the people all of the time, even Hama.

I am always amused at how much hate there is for the modern GIJoe comics. You expect a little but some of these comments are as if the writers came to their house and kicked their dog. Maybe I am just not as picky or I just don't know what a good comic is, but I haven't read too many modern Joe comics I didn't like. There were a few, but not many. Everyone is entitled to their opinion I guess. For me, I will keep reading because I like them.

_________________

Justin has a link and the exact post on Generals Joes.

Basically he's writing for the trade, an all too common practice in comics these days. Sucks donkey balls but at least we're getting a Joe comic.

_________________

The thing with trades is about longivity. How many printings does a single issue get? Sometimes 2, rarely more. If a TPB sells well enough, they keep printing them as Borders, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and the like sell out. Though I prefer my action in monthly installments, I can see this reasoning.

Say, you know what I'd like to read? Marvel's Joe issue #150. Never got the comic as I was younger. I wonder just how many comic shops in my area have that exact issue on hand? You know what came out about the same time? Batman: Knightfall. Biiiiiiiiiig Bat-book crossover with overall story arch. Designed for a TPB. 15 years later, which am I more likely to find within a week of searching? Or even a day?

GI Joe #150 as opposed to all of those issues in one spot.

Then again thanks to ebay.com you can get both in less than an hour and probably for a lot less than you'd expect. Give or take shipping.

_________________

See, maybe I would find Joe #150 before I find all of those individual issues, but because they were designed to be in a TPB, I have the option of looking for them individually or collected. And unlike the single Joe issue, I could find the TPB at any number of bookstores as opposed to just comic shops or the internet. Or a public library. Libraries are starting to get TPBs, but I've never seen a single issue comic. Borders sells single issue comics, but no back issues. And because the TPB is reprinted whenever DC Comics feels like it, I can get it new, 15 years later, as opposed to second, third, or more hand.


But yes, I could find both on the internet in probably less than 15 minutes, because I'm looking for them. The internet rules. You can communicate with like-mined fans you'll never meet, buy hard to find items, and even communicate directly with comic writers and artists that make themselves avalible. As Chuck has done.

It's a brilliant marketing plan: focus on the Trade Paperback group by alienating the single issue buyers. Then the series gets cancelled after the single-buyers jump ship... and you have no more TBs. I guess all the Enron execs found jobs in the comic bussiness.

_________________