QUOTE: Well now he has it strapped back on like a mask so he looks like himself again.

Well, as my sister would have put it circa 1983....."That's grody to the max"!

@ Anthony:

   That's true.  So long as there is some interest out there, comics will still be produced.  It might not be on newsstands and in bookstore shelves, but somewhere they'll have an artist plunking down a drawing on a piece of paper or using a digital tablet to create the whole thing in cyberspace.*

   What saddens me is that the sort of people that the Chief has called out for years are now in charge of some of the titles that we used to enjoy so much, and that they've taken those characters and turned them into ciphers for whatever whim has crossed their mind.  Hence the Joker turning into Leatherface on everybody.

* Webcomics seem to be going along nicely, but are still a near-schizophrenic jumble of different tastes, very few of which seem to be well done and interesting enough for me to want to follow beyond an occasional glimpse.  Like myself, many of the creators of webcomics are actually ordinary folks who're moonlighting as comicbook artists, enjoying it as a hobby rather than working on it for a living.  If I had the self-discipline of some of those who've continued doing it for years, I'd have entered the fray long before now.