What is your obsession about Catfish comics? What draws you to them?
just wondering as I have a few and they really are not spectacular. This quetion can actually be directed to all that collect catfish comics, not just defiant1.
-j
They encapsulate a lot of the qualities that the comics industry has tossed to the wind and abandoned.
1) It is superheroes with internal conflicts being superheroes.
2) The comics avoid sensationalism for the sake of shock value and they focus on telling a story.
3) They have tight continuity.
4) There is a backstory.
5) There is plot.
6) They aren't presented as story arcs. The story continues from issue to issue without breaks. It maintains the same creative team building upon what was started in the first issue.
7) Everything happens for a reason.
8) Michael Delaney while exhibiting a rigid art style to some, has more artistic talent in his fingernail than many artists have in their entire body. His art style uses well proportioned figures. You don't see malproportioned people with breast augmentation. It is presented realistically.
9) It has light well-presented humor.
10) Much in the vein of Alex Ross in Marvel's, Michael adds a lot of celebrities to his stories. They are featured as cameo's. It gives the comics a "Where's Waldo" appeal.
10) Although I'm not a DC comics collector, they feature the fun and light-hearted aspects of DC Comics from the 60's. They mesh that into a modern style which works for me.
11) The characters have their own personality. (Too many writers <cough-choke-Peter David-cough> write their characters with the same personalities. They crack the same one liners. You could plug and play all the same witty banter onto any other character and it would not make any difference.)
12) The creators really care about the characters. Angelo treat them like his children.
13) Angelo has hand picked some capable talent.
I saw a
Patrick Lee cover while making my site. Would that be the same
Pat Lee who gain more popularity? I saw a
Pia Guerra. That's the same artist critically acclaimed for her work on
Y:The Last Man. I saw a
Louis Small Jr. cover. Hmm?! He did some work for Defiant. I saw
Jim Palmiotti on one comic cover and his brother
Peter Palmiotti did quite a few.
I could name a hundred other reasons why I consider them better than any post-Shooter Valiant comic or any current Marvel or DC comic.
Some thought went into them and they evoke thought. They aren't shallow 5 minute reads. They aren't basing all their editorial direction on last issues sales figures.
Angelo usually tosses in newspaper articles and text columns that all expand upon the readers knowledge of the Catfish Universe.
That being said, there are some drawbacks.
1) Some of the Mythic Comics that tie into the Catfish issues have very poor printing quality.
2) If you are looking for a less complicated story that spells out everything for you in one issues, you aren't going to be pleased. If you don't want a light-hearted DC feel, they might not be for you.
I wouldn't call my appreciation with Catfish Comics an obsession. I don't even think about the comics until I sort through my collection. As with Defiant, I can't tell what happened in every issue. They made an impression upon me and I know what I liked. One day I'll get a chance to reread them all.
My web site is for the sake of information. It's not to stroke Angelo's ego. If he feels complimented by the site, he deserves it. He's definitely disagreed with me a few time in our email exchanges. One thing he should know is that I say what's on my mind whether it's popular or not. This category and site was a surprise to him. When he got the whim to publish another issue, he had no idea that I was posting cover scans on my board. I dropped all my comic subscriptions when Unity 2000 #4 was cancelled. That coincided with Avatar picking up the issues and cheapening everything I liked about the characters. Catfish was out of my mind for about 4 or 5 years.
Defiant1
