As most of the comic world knows, Wonder Woman just got an overhaul on her outfit by artist Jim Lee. I love Jim Lee. He’s an incredible artist and an all-around wonderful guy. That said, here’s the outfit:

I don’t think much of it. Not in a bad way. Personally, I don’t think Wonder Woman’s original costume was very good to begin with. It was sexy and patriotic (and that’s, you know, great and all), but practically speaking, it was a silly design left over from the golden age of comics. Nevermind that the woman comes from a mythical Greek island and yet she wears the American flag for her business-wear. Let’s not pick hairs here, but maybe the costume needed some tweaks. Just so it could make freaking sense.

I’ve heard a lot of criticism from people I respect nagging on it, saying that comics need-not be realistic and that going in this direction devalues what people love about comics: namely, the ridiculous costumes. I think, first of all, that’s a stupid argument. People read comics for different reasons. One of the reasons I avoid most superhero books is the ridiculous costumes, so making them more realistic appeals to me. I’ve also heard people compare her outfit to a 1990′s Rob Liefeld drawing, prompting a buddy of mine to photoshop this picture up:

By the way, if you don’t know who Rob Liefeld is or why this is hilarious to me, this document is required reading.

Thing is, I think all this is so silly, and only highlights how creatively deprived main-stream superhero continuity comics are. In both Marvel in DC (particularly DC), fans make the biggest deals out of when a character’s costume changes, and it’s silly. These comic fans don’t even care what happens in their stories anymore. Oh, Batman died. But you know he’ll come back, somehow. They all do. That removes all threat of drama. What kind of tension can you build in a story where characters can jump across the void of death at the whim of any and every writer? Where any action can be retconned and undone by a writer in the future? What the hell is the point!?

Marvel and DC books are the soap operas of comics. Plain and simple. That’s fine and dandy if you like soap operas. I like a few books here and there, and I like the characters (at least… the characters who were created ages and ages ago). What irritates me is that THESE are the comics that get national attention. Nobody cares if a character in a soap opera dies or is replaced by another actor, YET in these books, you have Superman fart with a different sound effect caption, and the whole world goes ape-shit.

This is how I imagine your average DC or Marvel executive talking during a meeting:

“Shit we’re losing readers! Kill off [CHARACTER]! That’ll get us some attention! Yeah! Oh… [CHARACTER]‘s been dead and is presently a clone? Shit. Well, bring [CHARACTER] back from the dead! Oh… that didn’t work. THEY’RE STILL NOT READING! Uh… uh… give [CHARACTER] a jacket and a new headband…. okay… okay… HA! LOOK AT THAT! THEY’RE EATING OUT OF THE PALM OF MY HAND!”

Six weeks later.

“SHIT! We’re losing readers! Kill off [ANOTHER CHARACTER]!”

And process repeats. FOREVER.

Edit: By the way, I know DC Comics isn’t to blame for fan outcry against garment changes in their comics. But if you don’t think DC isn’t cranking out tons of money to create that outcry, then, you’re insanely naive.

Also, to bring attention to books worth bringing attention to, Doug Tennaple has a new book out called Ghostopolis. Go buys it! Because Doug Tennaple’s better than Wonder Woman’s wardrobe.

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Hey guys!  I’m running late this morning, so the comic today is going to go online later tonight.  But I dooooo have a PODCAST for ya!  Go check it out! This week’s discussion covers the idea of “Nostalgia” and the idea of companies raping our childhoods, reaching such topics as the homophobia of Ace Ventura and Sean Young’s man parts, the evil secret behind Smash Brothers, and the brilliance of Nickelodeon shows.  I’m going to warn you… it’s a very video game heavy discussion.  It gets a little nerdy.  Don’t forget, you can subscribe to our podcast on iTunes now!

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Today’s Love and Robots is, sadly, the last of these fellas for the time being.  I hope you enjoyed these as much I as I enjoyed drawing them.  Next week presents a new rotating Friday feature… which will feature some characters that some of my long-time readers may remember…

Yep.  Be here next Friday.

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There was a time when I owned close to 100 VHS tapes. Hell, that’s an understatement. I was a movie nut as a kid, and I spent hours every weekend jumping from one Blockbuster to another to mine their previously viewed section. You could find some gold back in those days. Rare editions VHS cassettes with special features, alternate versions of movies, even mistakes that were never meant to find the light of day could be found swimming around in the bargain bin at local video stores, ignored by most of the movie-going public.

To this day, when I see or hold a VHS cassette, I get this twinge of nostalgia. This warm and comforting feeling.

As we all know, VHS is officially dead. They made the last tape over a year ago (Digi-Betamax, though, is going strong… you can’t pass a post-production office in Los Angeles that doesn’t have a stack of those suckers at-the-ready).

What amazes me about VHS looking back at it is the idea of the cost of the damn things. Your average movie, brand new on VHS, would cost (on average) $100. $100! Of course, no one bought those. What people bought were movies that had been out longer, worn down, or sold second hand. To be honest… I don’t know how the process worked, because everything I’ve ever read and everything I’ve ever been told (even at the time), was that VHS cassettes were INSANELY expensive to produce. It’s kind of hard to think about them like that… as they were flowing around everywhere in my youth, from the 1980′s into the 2000′s. Perhaps movie studios sold them at a loss. I really don’t know.

But when you think about it, the entire concept of them is a little ridiculous now. Kids born today will hear of these plastic shells filled with magic “magnetic” tape (magic if you’re the Insane Clown Posse) and laugh.

So just stop and think about them for a second.  We used to purchase these plastic shells that contained two geared plastic wheels that spun magnetic tape.  And on this tape were movies.  Then you’d put the shell into a machine, a little assembly line in a box under your TV, that opened that shell and grabbed the tape and read it.  Now movies are totally digital, printed onto single slivers of plastic by a high-powered laser, or even better, never put into a hard format altogether, but downloaded to your TV or computer.

I sound like an old man here, but seriously… this intrigues me.  Looking back at how VHS changed the movie industry by putting movies into people’s home… yet is still such a weird, dumb idea.  Think of all the moving parts JUST INSIDE the tape itself.  Now think of a DVD… that has no moving parts.

Kind of blows my mind to see how much things have changed in so little time.

And I’m sure when we’re downloading movies into our eyeballs from satellite laser beams that come out of flying cats, we’ll think of the internet as this “dumb, complicated thing” and how we could ever live in a world that wasn’t run by space-faring laser cats.

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