Comics Talk Descriptions (in numeric order) (count 15)

Even fans who read few or no other comics seem to find something in the Legion of Super Heroes to keep them buying and reading the comic, some of them for decades. Just what is there about the Legion?

Manga is more than just Japanese comic books. How do they differ from what we have in the United States and in Europe? How is it that they cover so many more different topics and are read by so many different types of people?

Forty years ago, in 1966, the American airwaves were hit with a "camp classic" before anyone knew what that meant. Batman was so popular, with it's "pows" and "whams" and over-the-top villains it ran two nights a week. How did that series change the television (and popular culture) landscape? What effect did the series have on the comics it came from?

An in-depth look at the art of bringing together the story, the dialogue, and the images that make comic books and graphic novels a unique art form.

Is there anything believable about Superman's powers? Batman's abilities? How can you explain what superheroes do?

A discussion of past and current science fiction successes and failures in comics, and why this has been a troublesome commercial marriage of form and content.

We ask an eminent bunch to recommend comics for our teenage audience, perhaps comics they wished they read when they were teens, or comics they did read when they were teens.

Was The Incredibles simply the best super-hero movie ever made? So what if it was a comedy? The animation was amazing, and the writing was even better. Why are so many other super-hero movies so much worse?

Kurt Busiek, Jeph Loeb/Alfred Miller, Grant Morrison, and others have found radically different ways to retell and re-invent Superman's story. Panelists discuss approaches that add to and detract from the collective myth.

Publishers from different areas of publishing -- a major imprint, a small press, an on-line magazine, a prozine -- compare the similarities and differences in their tasks.

Superpowers we'll accept as a given. But what effects would there be on society if there really were superheroes? Would government's just let them act? Would near absolute power corrupt? Would the existence of superheroes ultimately bring forth supervillains? What toll (or benefit) would the world see from years or decades of superpowered daring-do?

How are the comic books of today different from what they used to be? What can we look forward to in the future? Is there a future for comics? Is it in print or on line?

There's a lot of "art" to creating comics but there's a business side to. What does it take to publish comics today, for big companies and self-publishers? What's distribution like? How do you stay in business? Is there really a market for comics or are comics now just a testing ground for future movie properties?

There seems to be no end of movies based on comics, ranging from Superheroes to the more esoteric V for Vendetta. Some of them work creatively, some financially, some do both. But some don't. What works? What doesn't? And where do filmmakers go wrong?

Sure, super strength, invulnerability, being able to fly, being invisible are all really cool powers. But not everyone can be blessed with good, useful powers. Someone's got to be Allergy Boy or Mr. Droopy Socks. What are your ideas for the world's most useless super powers?