Wow, my impression of him from every other fan account, letters column, and interview I've ever heard or read was that he's such a raging asshole that he's lucky not to have been pushed in front of a bus by now. You must have caught him on a really good day.

Maybe the hate mail and dropping sales on Robin are chipping away the ego...

When you'd rather see Chuck Austen on a title, you know it's gone horribly wrong.

My biggest issue with Willinghamfucktard is his complete lack of respect for the genre in which he's now writing. He's just not fanboy enough for the job.

Quasi-related (at least, the thought train went RIGHT there), Matt, have you seen the picture of Anderson Gabrych shirtless with a Batlogo across his chest from the '04 Prism LGBT comics guide? If not, you want I should scan it in for you?

My biggest issue with Willinghamfucktard is his complete lack of respect

I myself would have trouble respecting any genre whose readers appended "fucktard" to my name.

Ah. Do you judge all genres by their readers?

I myself would have trouble respecting any genre whose readers appended "fucktard" to my name.

I'm sadly prone to doing that sort of thing to pretty much any author in any genre who annoys the hell out of me, at least in casual conversation and in my notes for class (oh, the joys of finding old notebooks and wincing at the content). Flaubert, in particular, has been a target. Believe he got renamed Flaubarf.

Totally unrelated to my childish dissing of creators (which I am willing to admit I should have stopped at about age 12), is it worth it to pick up the exceedingly thick Bone collection that claims to be complete rather than collecting individual volumes?

I think it was priced at about $40, so it's obviously a cheaper option. I was just wondering if that meant there were things the individual books have that it doesn't.

It looks like the pages in the thick volume are slightly smaller than the individual volumes, so the artwork is going to be a little smaller. Also, a paperback with a 2.5" spine isn't going to be very resilient. Neither of those are important enough to warrant the price difference, though.

Also note that scholastic is in the process of releasing full-color editions of the books. They've only released one volume so far.

Do you judge all genres by their readers?

Judging a book by those who like it's cover ... sounds like a plan.

Maybe the hate mail and dropping sales on Robin are chipping away the ego...

Just a correction, here. Since Willingham took over Robin, its sales are better than they ever had been, at least since 2001 (excluding Bruce Wayne, Murderer?/Fugitive crossovers). Of course, this has been helped by some major stunts (Tim quitting, Stephanie taking over as Robin). Since War Games, the sales have been slipping, but that is true for all of the Bat-books. I think the DC offices would consider Willingham's run on the title a success, even if the fans don't.

Has anybody besides me picked up the Bat mini-series' Dark Detective and Jeckyll and Hyde ? For some reason, it appears that Dark Detective is in continuity, while Jeckyll and Hyde isn't. Love the art in J&H. The story in Dark Detective is dumb (the Joker runs for governor?), but it does show a more "human" side of Batman/Bruce Wayne. That also seems a little out of synch with current writing.

I agree with Plei that Winick is writing well. One thing that is tough at the moment is trying to fit in all the events that are happening in the disparate titles into the proper chronology (I know, often a futile task in comics, but DC is supposed to be tighter this year because of the lead-in to Infinite Crisis). If anybody knows of a website that is keeping track of the links between series, I would appreciate them sharing it.

I am this close to dropping Batman: Gotham Knights. The Posion Ivy storyline has been wretched, I really wish they would get a new writer on the title.\

Finally, what does everybody thing about the latest events in Captain America? Or is nobody reading it besides me?

Thanks, Tom!

Just a correction, here. Since Willingham took over Robin, its sales are better than they ever had been, at least since 2001 (excluding Bruce Wayne, Murderer?/Fugitive crossovers). Of course, this has been helped by some major stunts (Tim quitting, Stephanie taking over as Robin). Since War Games, the sales have been slipping, but that is true for all of the Bat-books.

Huh. At almost every store I've been in locally, they've seen steep drops, but that may be just post-WG. (Which is when I dropped it.)

I'm with you on dropping GK. Right now, it seems like only Batman and Batgirl are really readable in the Bat titles. I've already dropped Catwoman.

Jeff, what would I need to catch up in Captain America? With Brubaker now a Marvel-only man, I'm trying to decide if I should start reading it.

At the comic store yesterday they had the Return of Donna Troy, and a new Teen Titans (and a new TT TPB) and new Outsiders. I guess this is all old news as of last Thursday, but it waas interesting jumping around in those particular titles which were all interwoven.

I bought Emmett a new Calvin & Hobbes, and got the first two Transmet books for me and JZ.