Hey Kids, Free Comics

Heidi MacDonald's recent linkage to Bob Greenberger's announcement that he'd be joining the ComicMix team reminded me of something: it reminded me that ComicMix exists.

I don't say that to be callous, and I've actually bumped into ComicMix President and EIC Mike Gold twice at two local comic book events, so I have had ComicMix on my mind this year, but whenever I sit down in front of my computer, I always forget to check out ComicMix. The thing to check out of course -- especially now that they're winding down their news coverage -- is their regular stream of original comic book content.

They have Mark Wheatley and Mike Oeming on Hammer of the Gods 2.

They have Dick Giordano drawing a kung-fu comic.

They have our old pal Mike Baron writing a high-flying adventure comic.

Plus, they have archived strips featuring John Ostrander and Tim Truman's Grimjack, Mike Grell on Jon Sable, and Bo Hampton doing a Robin Hood horror comic.

It's all-new content, exclusive to the website. It's like First Comics never died, it just moved online.

But even though I love my old First Comics, and even though I love all of those creators, I have absolutely no interest in reading any of those comics on my computer screen. It's good stuff, from what I've sampled, and it's the type of thing I should adore, but I don't want to click and read any of it. I'll probably buy some of it when it's collected--especially if it comes out in a nice hardcover edition--but as webcomics, I just don't care.

So here we are, in 2008, with a wealth of free comics at our fingertips, and guys like me (guys who love the content and the creators) don't have any interest. Something must be wrong with that. Something must be wrong with me.

Check out ComicMix yourself. Maybe you'll like reading free comics more than I do.

Mike Baron's Coked-Up Heyday

From TwoMorrow's The Flash Companion, edited by Keith Dallas:

KEITH DALLAS: The late 1980s were a particular heyday for you. At the time you started writing Flash in 1987, you were also writing Nexus, Badger, Robotech Masters, and Marvel had you on The Punisher.

MIKE BARON: I was a busy boy.

DALLAS: [chuckles] Can you describe your career at that point? What was it like writing all those titles?

BARON: Well, there was a lot of confusion.

DALLAS: How so?

BARON: [pauses] Keith, at the time I was making a lot of money, and I was doing a lot of cocaine.

DALLAS: Really?

BARON: As a result, my work was not the best that I could have done. I have gone through a lot of changes since then and I look back at that period with mixed feelings.

The cocaine definitely contributed to my "over-writing." I don't think I was taking my writing subjects as seriously as I do now. However, I took Flash very seriously and that's the reason I stopped writing the series [after issue #14] because I just ran out of ideas and I couldn't vamp it.

DALLAS: It was around this time that you were nominated three years in a row for an Eisner Award for your writing on Nexus.

BARON: My work on Nexus has never suffered.

When you do cocaine, you think you can do any damn thing. Often, I just would grab a sheet of paper and start telling a story and make it up as I went along, panel by panel. But you can't do that really. You need a real solid idea and solid characters to build a story around.

For the record Baron's work on that Flash overlapped with Nexus #33-46 and The Punisher #1-9. I think his work on those two runs, and on Flash were actually the BEST work of his career. Maybe because he was "over-writing" instead of "over-thinking." Much of his later work seems to suffer from being worked to death and drained of all improvisation.

Drugs are bad, kids. But am I wrong in thinking that Baron's self-proclaimed cocaine phase was also the time when he did his best work?