The Rundown: Comic Book Resources Closes Forums, Opens Community, Vertigo Quarterly Cyan Controversy Arises, and more

Welcome back to The Rundown, our daily breakdown on comic news stories we missed from the previous day. Have a link to share? Email our team at either david@multiversitycomics.com or brian@multiversitycomics.com.

– Cheers to Jonah Weiland over at CBR for his decision to shut down their existing forums and to bring the new Community aspect in the face of recent bad behavior by users. In a very incisive piece on the decision, Weiland draws a hard line about user behavior, and how they’ll react to people exhibiting bad behavior. It was probably a very tough and very trying decision to make, but Weiland really channeled Adam Silver in doing that. That’s about as big of a compliment as you can give right now.

– Joe Keatinge shares a very disturbing story about his experience on the Vertigo Quarterly Cyan that came out yesterday, and how his story with artist Ken Garing was altered to be completely different than what he wrote, especially the ending. It’s a horrifying and fascinating story that spilled onto Twitter (which has since been taken down), with Keatinge and Vertigo (and Cyan) editor Will Dennis getting pretty animated in their discussion, with Dennis asserting that only part of the story was being expressed and that Keatinge’s representation wasn’t accurate to how things went. I don’t think we’ll ever really be able to reconcile the difference, but the fact that Keatinge only discovered his story was changed when he looked at the comic after release is a pretty horrible thing indeed. Another black eye for DC/Vertigo, it seems.

– Alex Pappademas writes an excellent defense of Cyclops at Grantland, highlighting how his many lame characteristics actually makes him such an excellent AND relatable character. It’s actually really great, and made me appreciate Cyclops more. Well done, Alex!

– Rob Salkowitz writes a very even keeled, forward thinking piece on comiXology’s recent changes, and it’s well worth a read. Beware retailers. Beware.

– Oh my god. This list of the 20 most popular manga of all-time really shows how limited the American market is. The most popular manga of all-time – One Piece – has sold a staggering 300 million copies. 300 million! And we’re lamenting issues not selling more than 100,000! WHAT?!

– This has nothing to do with anything, but I love this piece that shows 9 locations that inspired Hayao Miyazaki’s work at Studio Ghibli. Really fantastic and it makes me want to travel.

– Finally, rest in peace, Al Feldstein. The man who once ran MAD Magazine for 28 years passed away Tuesday at the age of 88. This was the man who helped make MAD Magazine the humor publication that everyone knows and loves, and his legacy will live on in the comedians and writers and others influenced by his work.