DiDio Shares First Look At Giffen & Porter's Reinvented "Sugar & Spike"

[vartox]

So Porter just did the cover right? We're not losing him on JL3K?

I think that's the case. Porter does a bunch of other covers too, I don't see him leaving JL3001. None of the minis they announced this week have interior artists attached yet.

[Jim Kelly]

Or they could not worry about all that crap and do something that might sell.

I guess it's good that you're honest, but now I know your opinion of my comments, I won't be expecting any birthday cards from you.

[etamogrey]

I guess it's good that you're honest, but now I know your opinion of my comments, I won't be expecting any birthday cards from you.

I don't think Glenn meant any offense by what he said ,but also if most people who read comics don't even know/care about sugar and spike i would think this would be a good thing since it might interest them enough to look into or just make them aware of Sheldon Mayer's work. Also Dc archives has a Sugar and Spike volume.

[Jim Kelly]

Even though I like the Archive format in general and I bought the Sugar & Spike Archive when it came out, I never believed it was the right format for that feature and I said so on the old DCMBs at the time. Slowly DC is waking up to the idea that maybe one size doesn't fit all and they have tried out other formats, but it's taken them a couple of decades to figure that out. And I'm not holding my breath for a better format for S&S reprints in the near future. But when I go in the bookstore and see all these great formats that have been used for different kinds of comic features, I do wish that DC was a little more nimble in their selection of formats.

Not really for myself, mind you, but for my great nieces. I'm not going to give two little girls (4 and 6), a DC Archive as a present. It's not right for them. You want Sugar & Spike reprints in a kid friendly kind of album--preferably with the paper dolls at the back of the book, so they can pop them out and put the different costumes on the Pint-Size Pin-Ups.

I've heard the justification for reviving old characters and putting them into totally different contexts in order to generate enough interest for a collected edition of reprints to sell. It seems like Vasco da Gama taking the route around the globe just to get from his living room to the bathroom. Jeph Loeb made this argument on the old DCMBs in defending his weirdo use of Sgt. Rock, saying that by doing that we would get some Sgt. Rock Archives. I'm not sure it works though, because you're dressing up a penguin as a giraffe and when everyone buys the giraffe and finds out it's a penguin, they're apt to think they were duped into getting something they didn't want. It doesn't really help the people who want a penguin to get a penguin.

Does it really help GlennSimpson to take something he thinks is crap and turn into something he thinks is gold? That doesn't succeed in making him think the original was anything other than crap and he's not going to buy it. You can turn Charlie Brown into the Punisher and everybody will buy the new Charlie Brown Punisher, but it does nothing to pay respect to Charles M. Schulz or what he created. It's just a bait and switch or maybe in this case a switch and bait.

[Flash Gordon]

This looks like fun! Any word of Giffen drawing it too? I sure hope so.

[Mr.Majestic]

Giffen's recent work has been underwhelming. The last thing that he's ever done worth reading was Doom Patrol. I'm gonna have to pass on this.

Well I really enjoyed OMAC but didn't care for JL3K.

[Ropeburn]

I think that is correct. Sounded to me like they just really haven't gotten started yet and they needed something for promotional purposes. That might not even be a cover they use. And I guess since Giffen is already talking to Porter a lot...

It's more fair to say "Since Porter is the only artist calling Giffen back...."

Most assignments for KG are for copyrights. DC doesn't expect the books to make money -- and they don't.

[GlennSimpson]

Even though I like the Archive format in general and I bought the Sugar & Spike Archive when it came out, I never believed it was the right format for that feature and I said so on the old DCMBs at the time. Slowly DC is waking up to the idea that maybe one size doesn't fit all and they have tried out other formats, but it's taken them a couple of decades to figure that out. And I'm not holding my breath for a better format for S&S reprints in the near future. But when I go in the bookstore and see all these great formats that have been used for different kinds of comic features, I do wish that DC was a little more nimble in their selection of formats.

Not really for myself, mind you, but for my great nieces. I'm not going to give two little girls (4 and 6), a DC Archive as a present. It's not right for them. You want Sugar & Spike reprints in a kid friendly kind of album--preferably with the paper dolls at the back of the book, so they can pop them out and put the different costumes on the Pint-Size Pin-Ups.

I've heard the justification for reviving old characters and putting them into totally different contexts in order to generate enough interest for a collected edition of reprints to sell. It seems like Vasco da Gama taking the route around the globe just to get from his living room to the bathroom. Jeph Loeb made this argument on the old DCMBs in defending his weirdo use of Sgt. Rock, saying that by doing that we would get some Sgt. Rock Archives. I'm not sure it works though, because you're dressing up a penguin as a giraffe and when everyone buys the giraffe and finds out it's a penguin, they're apt to think they were duped into getting something they didn't want. It doesn't really help the people who want a penguin to get a penguin.

Does it really help GlennSimpson to take something he thinks is crap and turn into something he thinks is gold? That doesn't succeed in making him think the original was anything other than crap and he's not going to buy it. You can turn Charlie Brown into the Punisher and everybody will buy the new Charlie Brown Punisher, but it does nothing to pay respect to Charles M. Schulz or what he created. It's just a bait and switch or maybe in this case a switch and bait.

For what it's worth, I don't think the old "Sugar and Spike" strip was crap. It was quite funny. What I consider "crap" is all the reverence for what came before and worrying about the original creator's intent. These are fictional properties designed to make money. If they need to be changed to continue to make money, there's nothing wrong with that.

[Sandy Hausler]

For what it's worth, I don't think the old "Sugar and Spike" strip was crap. It was quite funny. What I consider "crap" is all the reverence for what came before and worrying about the original creator's intent. These are fictional properties designed to make money. If they need to be changed to continue to make money, there's nothing wrong with that.

I think the point that most of us who don't really like this idea is that if DC wants to do a book about private eyes in a super hero world, then do that book. Just don't link it to a book about the antics of two babies. The Sugar and Spike link is not really going to add any readers and it may alienate some or might otherwise try the book. Just my opinion.

Sandy Hausler

[GlennSimpson]

I think the point that most of us who don't really like this idea is that if DC wants to do a book about private eyes in a super hero world, then do that book. Just don't link it to a book about the antics of two babies. The Sugar and Spike link is not really going to add any readers and it may alienate some or might otherwise try the book. Just my opinion.

Sandy Hausler

I understand that, but I think two things...

1. There must be copyright/trademark reason they have to trot out these names and such every once in a while. So there was no situation where they were going to do the detective thing without using some previous name.
2. There was almost no chance at all of getting the old kind of "Sugar and Spike", so it's not like you're any worse off than you were before.

I don't think it was "let's do this detective book as Sugar and Spike to pull in all those S&S fans". I think it was "let's do this Sugar and Spike book as grownup detectives to pull in people who would be fans of grownup detectives."