Kibbles ‘n’ Bits 9/21/16: When Ghost Rider burst into flames, one brave family tried to find a fire extinguisher

§ I guess Ghost Rider appeared on Agents of Shield last night! I didn’t watch it because I was watching the Mets because that’s what I do. But he was in flames!

#AgentsofSHIELD was so awesome. They absolutely nailed #GhostRider! Can't wait to see more of him. Season 4 is gonna be one hell of a ride. pic.twitter.com/xgwDYPnT96

— ᴶᵃʲᵘᵃⁿ ᴷ|ᴶ (@StraySpidey) September 21, 2016

The twitter reaction is gathered here. I still like the Tradd Moore version of the All New Ghost Rider from 2014, above. But an even NEWER new Now Ghost Rider is coming in November.

§ Love is an illusion and we’re all going to die.

§ BUT WAIT! Over the weekend, a few notable couples were married proving some people just won’t give up. JZ Holden and Jules Feiffer were wed; the bride is 67, the groom 89, and he has a new graphic novel out, Cousin Joseph. Love can always bloom; congrats to the happy couple.

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And Audrey Niffenegger and Eddie Campbell were wed as well. Congrats to THIS happy couple.

And now back to the charts and numbers that everyone adores so much.

§ Chris Arrant did a geographic breakdown of where comics Kickstarters make money. I don’t know what it proved, but there you go.

§ I wrote this piece about the Spanish and Latin American graphic novel scenes. A group of amazingly talented Spanish creators will be appearing at the McNally Jackson bookstore in Soho tonight at 7.

§ Tragically Hip’s Gord Downie has a graphic novel/album project called Secret Path and its notable for many reasons.

Downie is set to play in Ottawa on Oct. 18 and Toronto on Oct. 21 to promote his solo project Secret Path, an album with an accompanying graphic novel and animated film. The project is inspired by the story of 12-year-old Chanie Wenjack, who died in 1966 after running away from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School near Kenora, Ont. The record was announced just weeks after a massive concert in Kingston, Ont., that marked the end of a tour many feared could be a final goodbye to Downie, who revealed in late May that he is terminally ill.

 

§ Alternative Press’s Jonathan Diener suggests10 current comics this scene has to read, which additionally suggests that there’s a scene where comics reading is a must. The list is mostly Image-centric.

§ Zainab Akhtar and David Barnett also picked Love and Rockets to Wonder Woman: 20 comics and graphic novels to look forward to for the fall season. This is Akhtar’s first real comics writing since she shut down her site; hopefully there will be more.

§ John Rood, who was SVP of Sales and Marketing for DC Entertainment for a while, is now SVP of Marketing for Disney Channels. He was at Disney before moving to to DC, and has been consulting there. I had a chance to talk to Rood a few times and he was a smart guy, so I’m glad to see he has a good gig again.

§ Marvel has announced a new 50 state variant cover series featuring the Avengers. This should boost sales.

§ There’s a new book out that has a thorough breakdown of the chronology of the Watchmen.

Watching Time: The Unauthorized Watchmen Chronology literally lists every character, every date, and every event that has ever been created in every incarnation of the Watchmen universe. It boasts a detailed history encapsulating every known event from all corners of the Watchmen franchise, a gallery showcasing nearly 250 covers from the Watchmen comics, trade-paperback collections, DVDs, Blu-rays, reference books, and video game, original essays, and much more.

There’s an excerpt in the link above if you want to see how much it drills down, and drill it does, all the way to the earth’s core. These kinds of obsessive indexing projects used to be the defining characteristic of fandom but now they are outliers.

§ Oh speaking of long ago writing, once upon a time, very, very long convention reports with detailed accounts of road signs, breakfast, and every stoppage at every artists table were the way we learned about comics events. If you liked that kind of thing, Harvey nominated Albert the Alien co-creator Trevor Mueller has a very long, very detailed and very, very happy report on Baltimore Comic Con.I liked reading these because they are so full of joy and appreciation. Sometimes we’re too jaded to remember that our world can be a fun and wondrous place.

§ Speaking of new style media, although it wasn’t a comics site, After Ellen often covered nerd-topics for the LHBTQ audience, and I’ve linked to it many times here. And guess what! It’s going away, as editor in chief Trish Bendix reports in a moving, personal post.

Here are the facts: Evolve Media purchased AfterEllen from Viacom two years ago. They gave us two fiscal years to become their LGBT property and profit in that space, and they found we are not as profitable as moms and fashion.

And, yes, “they” are mainly white heterosexual men, which is important to note because not only is this the story for us, but for a lot of other properties—large-scale media outlets, lesbian bars out-priced by neighborhoods they helped establish, housing in queer meccas like Portland that is being turned into condos and AirBNBs.

At the very same time, queer women and culture is being celebrated on the Emmys, in the legalization of both mothers being included on their newborn’s birth certificate, and our namesake, Ellen DeGeneres, being one of the most well-known, well-liked and undeniably profitable television and lifestyle personalities of our generation. Somewhere, there’s a disconnect.

AfterEllen wasn’t just an online magazine, but a community for a group so often marginalized, and that one of the biggest losses as these niche sites shut down and become just a memory.