Brontoforumus Archive
Discussion Boards => Media => Topic started by: Cannon on February 14, 2008, 09:59:16 PM
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I suppose manga would be a seperate topic, but I'd prefer a big, screw-all American comic thread to split-offs which inexorably perish (though that's up to the insane admin, really). Also, I'm pretty sure Romosome isn't here to kvetch about it.
Kill 'em all, and let Nekron sort 'em out. (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=146753) As the sole remaining nerd on Earth to still be reading Countdown, I will be picking up the issue zero and this, obviously. It's interesting that Morrison dreamed up the Alpha Lanterns, is giving the Corps a big role in Final Crisis, and enjoys Johns's work on GL. Granted, I don't think ex-52 partners would be on bad creative terms. Personally, I would think otherwise about that last one.
By the way, you should probably be reading Salvation Run. Just don't expect Villains United, people.
I... Just don't know how to talk about books that aren't published by DC. So much for a lone nerd doing his part to further a wonderful medium dominated by the "guys who scowl, yell a lot, and punch each other" genre. :sarcasm:
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I'll buy anything with Morrison's name on it. His latest issues of Batman are a refreshing return to form after that goddamn crossover, though I'll save my praise on those for the Batman thread.
This was a great damn week and I still have a hell of a lot of good stuff I haven't gotten through yet, including Walking Dead, Astro City, DMZ, Booster, and Millar and Hitch's debut on Fantastic Four.
The FF book I HAVE read this week is The Lost Adventure. It's pretty cool -- an unpublished Kirby story that was partially recycled in #108. It feels a little disjointed, particularly because most of Stan's dialogue is recycled from #108 and does not actually FIT Kirby's original version of the story. (#108 is included for comparison, as are Jack's original pencils.)
For example, [spoiler]in #108, the Nega Man is some sort of evil double of Janus, whereas in this version he's actually his twin brother. Yet they keep the dialogue which implies he's not his brother but some kind of freakish experiment.[/spoiler]
It's a little pricey at $5, but for cryin' out loud, it's the last Jack Kirby Fantastic Four you're ever going to see.
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Fantastic Four #554: love it love it love it.
Fantastic Four is a tightrope -- so much tradition, and yet the thing that made it so great was its creativity and originality.
Millar and Hitch seem to have a handle on the balance. Millar's dialogue evokes Stan Lee -- it's corny but it's fun. And of course it's a damn sight more realistic than Lee's ever was.
He's got the characters down -- Ben playing with kids at his old school, Reed excitedly describing the minute details of his Galactus defense plan and boring everyone around him. There wasn't nearly enough Johnny but he was spot-on for the few pages there, off on a new adventure as the ultimate celebrity superhero. But the best was the part teased in the previews a few months back, Sue starting a new charity with the Wasp and She-Hulk for victims of superhuman violence. (EDIT: No reference as yet to the fact that Jan herself has been a victim of domestic violence. Given that this is the team from The Ultimates, I would expect that to come up at some point.) I particularly liked Hitch's design on She-Hulk; she's so much BIGGER than Sue or Jan but it doesn't affect her pose at all.
Hitch evokes Kirby not so much in his specific style but in his sphere of influence. His runs on Authority and Ultimates basically defined the modern "widescreen" approach to comics, and there are some really nice two-page spreads here.
All in all, a great start, and I have high hopes for this run. They've struck the right balance between the old and the new, the action and the family, the cosmic and the everyday, and I want more.
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Rob Schrab (who is better than you) is finishing Scud: The Disposable Assassin. Now I'm not familiar with the main run, but after things are wrapped up in issue twenty four, Image will be posting an omnibus edition of all two dozen installments. Basically, it's very kinetic, cartoonish, and expressive stuff that brings Jhonen Vasquez to mind, except that it endures and can deal with its own absurdity.
...No, I totally don't sound like a shill at this point.
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Busiek, Nicieza, and Bagley to reunite for Trinity (http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=12937), the NEW weekly.
God dammit. I got 26 issues into Countdown despite hating most of it just because I was willing to keep giving it a chance because Dini's name was on it. And NOW we're talking about the team from Untold Tales of Spider-Man and Thunderbolts.
...On the plus side, I get to stop reading Superman.
"But it's not leading up to, spinning out of something. This is its own event. It does draw on things that have been established in the DC Universe over the years but not anything that has the drums beat for it and said, 'Look here, building up to or counting down to.' It's just the way I use history and continuity threads to explore the rich possibilities of the DC Universe.["]
Busiek said "Trinity" can be compared to a crossover in a box, and quite frankly, that's its beauty.
"It's absolutely, front and center DC Universe. It's something the ongoing DC fans are probably going to like a lot because it deals with the heart of what they like about DC, but its also something that if you a brand new reader, you won't have any trouble following it.
[...]
"All the way along we were saying, what's going to happen in 'Final Crisis' and how are we going to fit that in. And finally, we said, 'No, we're not going to trying to bread this into everything else. This is its own story and we are going to pedal to the metal and go. And for somebody who only reads 'Trinity,' they are going to get everything they need."
Oh, Kurt, how I love you.
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/buge/2173464593_937b25cfa4_o1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/buge/2173464593_937b25cfa4_o2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/buge/2173464593_937b25cfa4_o3.jpg)
I looked at the fourth issue of One More Day in the store. It was really sort of dull, actually. There was just nothing terribly spectacular about it. There was no Liefeldian contempt, but there wasn't anything Morrisonically challenging, either. It was just another big Marvel™ reset button. Except with more laudatory quotes on the back page to justify Quesada's decisionpraise Straczynski's writing.
Edited because photobucket hates gigantic images
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...On the plus side, I get to stop reading Superman.
Erm. You're not dropping All-Star, though, I take it. Certainly not after last issue.
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May I direct you to
I'll buy anything with Morrison's name on it.
EDIT/AFTERTHOUGHT: Also, it's not like a book that comes out twice a year is putting much strain on my wallet.
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Hitch evokes Kirby not so much in his specific style but in his sphere of influence. His runs on Authority and Ultimates basically defined the modern "widescreen" approach to comics, and there are some really nice two-page spreads here.
The reveal at the end was portrait worthy, but his approach of making everyone stare at the reader is still grating. Very saturated coloring compared to Authority/Ultimates. Also, Takashi from Akira looked freakin' younger than those school kids.
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Wednesday observations:
1. My God this was an expensive week. New Jeff Smith book (with no price anywhere on it!), Morrison Batman, a Millar/RoJu book titled "Kick-Ass"...
2. I've known for years that the current TMNT series was a money sink that Laird was financing from his vast personal fortune, but for those of you who want a picture of just HOW badly it's selling...I showed up at receiving time today and discovered the store only ordered one copy of this month's issue. I AM THE ONLY PERSON WHO BUYS IT.
3. I have to read Black Panther first. Because it says "Black to the Future" on the cover.
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2. I've known for years that the current TMNT series was a money sink that Laird was financing from his vast personal fortune, but for those of you who want a picture of just HOW badly it's selling...I showed up at receiving time today and discovered the store only ordered one copy of this month's issue. I AM THE ONLY PERSON WHO BUYS IT.
Shit, is the main TMNT series back again? I haven't had a monthly saver since I moved a couple months ago and before that there was only Tales since at least around the time the movie came out. Well, I need to start up a new comic saver now that I discovered a store that's about 15 minutes away as opposed to an hour away.
Also, what's this new Jeff Smith book? If it's good (and I doubt it isn't), I'll be sure to grab that, as well.
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Shit, is the main TMNT series back again?
No, Tales, sorry for my lack of clarity.
The main trunk is due back in May and will be digitally distributed through a site called wowio.com -- it currently has the first fourteen issues up.
Also, what's this new Jeff Smith book? If it's good (and I doubt it isn't), I'll be sure to grab that, as well.
It's called Rasl. Haven't read it yet, just flipped through it at the store.
I have to read Black Panther first. Because it says "Black to the Future" on the cover.
Black to the Future is lousy. The dialogue is stilled and overly expository, and the major events are all told in narrated flashbacks. Priest's version of the Panther's future, while far too violent for my tastes, was much better executed -- it did a better job of showing how the cast developed over the years and had better pacing and conflict.
That said, BttF has some decent enough crowd scenes, even though I'm not crazy about the art. I don't buy Silver Surfer fighting for the US government, though.
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...Expect more multi-posting while I work my way through the stack.
Action #862 is the moment we've all been waiting for, the appearance of the Substitutes. This series has been a weird mesh of the utopian Silver Age whimsy of the Legion continuity and a dark, dystopian future story; the Subs' appearance shifts it well into the comedy category. Johns also slyly sneaks in some connections to his Green Lantern colors/emotions cosmology.
I am loving Gray Frank's art on this book. He's just so DIFFERENT. Superman's supposed to look a certain way, and it's cool to see such a different style on the book. Bear in mind that, forty years ago, DC wouldn't let Kirby, Jack the motherfucking King Kirby, draw Superman, because his style was too different from the character sheets. (Al Plastino redrew the titular characters in Kirby's run on Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen.)
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IN THE FUTURE NOBODY SLEEPS MORE THAN THREE HOURS A DAY
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Johns also slyly sneaks in some connections to his Green Lantern colors/emotions cosmology.
You know, I've been meaning to ask you for your opinion on this matter, Thad. Some time back, you said the problem with the Sinestro Corps War is that it "got bigger than itself," I believe (or something to that effect). Now, did you have a problem with just the several spin-offs (Tales of the Sinestro Corps), the concept of the emotional spectrum, the Blackest Night, or all three? Please elaborate.
Possible spoiler (in that speculation from my local comic book store's owner only sometimes has merit, but I think he's on to something here): [spoiler]In one of the last panels in the Blackest Night promo at the end of Sinestro Corps War, one of the graves resembles the tombstone of Thomas and Martha Wayne. Perhaps Batman almost being recruited by the yellow power ring was to hint at this.[/spoiler]
Personally, I just hope Johns can turn the cliche' of the comic book resurrection on its ear via the whole "zombies with power rings" thing. But... Zombies with power rings. Why does that seem like something that can be easy to screw up?
Feel free to pipe in, too, Zara. You can be a bit of an energetic sourpuss about these things, but that doesn't mean that I toss your opinions aside by default.
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The Sinestro Corps War could have comfortably been four issues shorter and had zero tie-in books. It was a solid enough story but it just got dragged out too long.
The Blackest Night was a perfectly good thing to follow up on, though it seemed a little anticlimactic compared to Moore's vision of galactic Armageddon. The emotional spectrum is mostly setup for future stories, and is literally straight out of an unwritten Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic I had bouncing around in my head around age 14.
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Yeah, I guess Johns and Gibbons sat down for a series of chats, and at one point Gibbons threw up his arms and exclaimed "Sod it. It's yours."
I could stand to see more diversity amongst the rainbow Corps than the splash page in the finale offered, but it's still pretty engaging stuff. While I can perfectly understand why hatred, avarice, and (especially) hope would be inspired by the Green Lanterns somehow, after Sinestro's little club entered the scene they're becoming poseurs. I guess I keep wanting the mythology to be yet more imaginative, what with it being space opera and all. Still, this is a minor gripe and I'm looking very much forward to Blackest Night. The drama with the Alpha Lanterns is pretty meaty, too, so that should tide me over.
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I think I'm liking the JSA Kingdom Come prequel, but the "WE HAVE TO STOP KINGDOM COME FROM HAPPENING" thing does not impress me much.
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I love stories that combine the mundane with the fantastic. (See: Gaiman, Neil; Busiek, Kurt.) JMS's Thor has taken this tack from day 1 by putting Asgard in the middle of rural Oklahoma, and #6 continues the trend wonderfully; I love the scene where the Norse gods attend a town hall meeting.
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a Millar/RoJu book titled "Kick-Ass"
Hard to tell if this one lives up to its name just yet, but I'd at least say it's solid. Both creators are up to form; Millar's dialogue is as realistic as you'll find, and JRJr draws real purty.
It's a simple premise -- high school kid decides he's going to be a superhero. No superpowers, no tragic origin story; this is set in the "real" world (though the narration comes from several years in the future where this trend has caught on). Average high school kid puts on an outlandish costume, goes out to fight crime, and gets his ass beaten.
It's not groundbreaking or anything, but it's very good; the tone evokes Chosen in its depiction of a regular guy who goes on to be something extraordinary, and of course in its dead-on depiction of how high school kids talk. The narrative structure makes me think of Priest's Quantum and Woody in how it jumps around between origin story and aftermath.
This is definitely one to watch. Pick it up.
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Phil and Kaja Foglio (http://www.studiofoglio.com/) recently did a radio interview on "The Biblio File" and it's available in a medium-quality podcast. They talk about how Girl Genius came about, their respective forays into the industry and why GG became a webcomic. Fairly standard interview stuff but I thought it was worth a mention.
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Rasl is as good as you expect from anything with Jeff Smith's name on the cover, and edges out Batman and Kick-Ass as my favorite book of last week.
It's one of my favorite styles of storytelling -- a black-and-white, action-oriented approach, with only five lines of dialogue in the whole thing and just enough narration to carry you along without getting bogged down in unnatural exposition. Very Japanese.
The story -- of a time- and space-traveling art thief being pursued by the authorities -- evokes a Doctor Who feel (in a good way), and I don't think it's an accident that a pivotal plot twist involves a Bob Dylan album cover where he bears a more than slight resemblance to Tom Baker.
As for the tone and pace, I'm going to go back to my other favorite books of the week, Batman and Kick-Ass, and say this actually combines the best elements of both: Batman's giddy, disorienting mystery, and Kick-Ass's plunging the reader into the middle of a story without yet explaining how the hero got there.
Great, great book. Go buy it.
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Kick-ass is my book of the week. I liked Rasl, but It was definitely very much a first issue. I wonder, had I not known who wrote, whether or not I'd still care after reading it. Still, it's Bone-guy, the comic was a decent set-up, and I look forward to seeing where it goes.
Kick-ass was... well, kick ass. I liked Wanted quite a bit, and I'm getting a similar vibe from this book. A comic book about a kid who likes comic books becoming a super hero? How delightfully meta!
[spoiler]I'm gonna go look on eBay for a wet suit.[/spoiler]
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Kick-ass is my book of the week. I liked Rasl, but It was definitely very much a first issue.
Uh, and Kick-Ass wasn't?
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Kick-ass was way more engaging. It set up the story and made me care. Rasl set things up, but I don't care yet.
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See, I thought the Dylan bit was money. I want to know how Indian guy got here, what's up with scary trenchcoat monster guy, and what happens next.
And like I said, the storytelling hit all the right notes for me -- I've always loved comics that keep the yakking to a minimum and rely on visuals.
Not to say Kick-Ass's dialogue was a bad thing by any means. It's fucking top-notch. I'd say Millar and Ennis write the best dialogue in comics. (Well, "best" as in "most realistic". I love the brilliant, dramatic stuff from guys like Moore, too, of course.)
And I don't mean to leave RoJu out either. He's one of the best in the biz too.
Anyway. All this to say, don't take anything I say as suggesting I have a negative opinion of Kick-Ass. Far from it; I loved it. I just loved Rasl slightly more.
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Picked up RAZL and Kick-Ass today. I would have to say that I enjoyed RAZL much more - there was certainly some tasty bait on that hook.
Kick-Ass was actually disappointing after the build-up it got here. I don't think that's so much the comic's fault as it is the fact that I've never been partial to stories about 'teenagers just like you!'. That kind of stuff just really grates on me, I suppose* (having not been a teenager for a decade certainly doesn't help that). I fear that eventually the character becomes A Hero of some kind, the comic will have Justification, and the dear reader will learn that You Should Always Follow Your Dreams, leaving this comic no more than a slight variation on every other damn run-of-the-mill Superhero wish-fulfillment theme.
Anyway... that's probably a much harsher response than the comic deserved. I still picked it up, and I'll definitely look up the second issue. The story could still go anywhere, and I'm certainly willing to give it a chance.
*The GooGoo Dolls? Junior stalker (tm)? For fuck's sake Mark... geez... laying it on a bit thick there. Ugh.
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Just a friendly "no crap, Cannon" reminder: All-Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder, while awful, is grating because I don't think it can be mined for Internet memes anymore.
...Which, yeah, probably means I should ask Chris to stop putting the issues in my folder.
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Looking forward to The Long Road home this week. I'm a big Dark Tower nut, but even I thought the comicization that was The Gunslinger Born was a bit lacking. Beautiful, though. Excited for this new one since, so far as I know, it's treading into untold tales.
Wish I has bought that Gunslinger Born poster when I had the chance.
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Secret Invasion Saga is free because it is composed entirely of panels from other comics. The words are new, though, and there are a hell of a lot of them (presented rather distractingly in italic all-caps).
The most interesting thing it does is contrast the goofy Silver Age Skrull stories with the modern SERIOUS BUSINESS approach. Guess which one I like better.
It's done clumsily, too; I get the impression that they desperately wanted this to be like Grant Morrison repurposing goofy old Batman shit for his current run, but it just doesn't work that way.
Still, there's a lot of great shit in there; the original Skrulls who were turned into cows, Super Skrull, the gangster planet of Kral, and the Kree-Skrull War, which may be the best story in the rather dull Bronze Age. No reference to the Skrull who impersonated Nixon, though, which is just a huge missed opportunity.
Anyway. All this to say, this reminds me that I really do like Skrulls, but I still don't give a flying fuck about the invasion.
Except that if Captain Marvel turns out not to be a Skrull I'm going to be very disappointed.
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the gangster planet of Kral
Sadly missing since February 14th, 3002.
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...I don't get it.
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...I don't get it.
I can't link to the file directly, but it's the very last quote on this page (http://www.gotfuturama.com/Multimedia/EpisodeSounds/4ACV03/). I'm sure you remember it.
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Ah. I remember the speech but forgot that detail.
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Booster #7 is decent but subpar. The cause and results of Ted's return are totally predictable; he had damn well better not end up dead again to set the timeline straight, because my God would THAT be hackneyed.
The last page moneyshot probably would have been more satisfying if I recognized anybody there besides [spoiler]Ultra[/spoiler], but I do love a good villains-sitting-around-a-table-scheming reveal cliffhanger. The appearance, a few pages before, of the cavalry, complete with Booster's snarky commentary on same, was fun too. Hoping we get a good, JLU-style look at La Resistance next month before they jump back into the timestream to kick some Time Stealer ass; of course, given the :disapprove: backstory, the big question at this point is what Wonder Woman's up to.
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So I know I'm a little late on this, but I picked up Kickass and the new Terry Moore book Echo. Kickass seems like Millar at his best, which is good because bad Millar can be pretty terrible. I'm really looking forward to seeing more of this book.
Echo I'm not sure about yet. It's clearly a completely different book from Strangers in Paradise, which honestly is probably a good thing as that book lost its way more than once. Still, I have to say the first issue didn't hook me. I fucking love his art though, and I don't care about art in comics usually.
I've been picking up the twelve, and so far it's a lot of fun. Nothing ground breaking here, but it's a very very solid mix of pulp and modern political superhero comics. Maybe it'll come together into something really amazing, or maybe it'll fail hard, it's still too early to tell.
I just don't understand Bendis. Powers, Alias, and his run on Daredevil are some of my favorite superhero comics ever. But then Ultimate Spiderman and New Avengers are just all over the place quality wise, and Mighty avengers is just blah. Currently I'm really enjoying Ultimate Spiderman and Powers, and not particularly caring for either of the avengers titles.
X-Factor has been my favorite book consistently since Vaughn left Runaways. The last two issues were probably the weakest of the current run, and they were still pretty great. I really need to check out some other Peter David stuff.
I assume anyone who'd consider picking it up is already picking it up, but the Buffy comic is just about perfect.
I've started picking up Teen Titans and Birds of Prey. I'm enjoying them, but they're really highlighting for me how much I just don't get the DC universe.
I've actually started to really like Allstar Batman and Robin.
God the new amazing spiderman is terrible.
I'm actually liking the current arc on Runaways, though I wish it wasn't coming out quarterly.
I spend too much money on comics. :sadpanda:
Oh, and I'm finally getting around to reading Bone. Turns out it's pretty good :omg:
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Speaking of "a little late on this", I just got around to reading the Morrison interview Cannon linked in the first post. In addition to the Alpha Lanterns bit Cannon pointed out, the most interesting part to me is that it's Morrison revisiting the New Gods and Frankenstein. Yaaay!
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I think I mentioned Fables and Y, the Last Man on the other boards.
I'm still endorsing it and sticking to it as hard as I would with JMS' Midnight Nation, which I also endorse!
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Booster #7 is decent but subpar. The cause and results of Ted's return are totally predictable; he had damn well better not end up dead again to set the timeline straight, because my God would THAT be hackneyed.
The last page moneyshot probably would have been more satisfying if I recognized anybody there besides [spoiler]Ultra[/spoiler], but I do love a good villains-sitting-around-a-table-scheming reveal cliffhanger.
The other two are [spoiler]Per Degaton (a fun Justice Society villain, because we need to be reminded that Johns is co-writing this, apparently) and Silver Age Despero (which, interestingly enough, is not a baddie that my admittedly limited knowledge of comics lists under 'time travel shenanigans')[/spoiler]. I'm okay with the middling quality of this issue; Johns needs his periods of rest, and he's having one right now in Green Lantern. Anyway... In regards to Ted, chronol duplicate or gtho. That's how era-hopping baddies pull off their comic book "resurrections," in any case.
Speaking of GL books, the smaller story with Alpha Lantern Boodika is a welcome change of pace from the epic stories, even if it's not fantastic. There's so much potential (what with over 7200 Corpsmen active at any given time) for smaller, character-driven tales that I don't like to see it wasted by big event massacres. Sinestro's "I believe in the Green Lantern Corps, Hal Jordan. Don't you?" speech made me put the comic down for a good minute. Now that's a super-villain.
I spend too much money on comics. :sadpanda:
Erm. Yeah, so do I. At least Chris gives me a discount for being a regular customer. Heck, he's even going to get me a convention exclusive HeroClix figure.
Speaking of "a little late on this", I just got around to reading the Morrison interview Cannon linked in the first post. In addition to the Alpha Lanterns bit Cannon pointed out, the most interesting part to me is that it's Morrison revisiting the New Gods and Frankenstein. Yaaay!
Yeah, I'm pretty giddy about the inevitable arrival of the Fifth World (which looks to be happening after or during Final Crisis), which is seemingly the crux of Countdown.
In regards to the current number one of the Big Two, I snapped up the hardcover of the first six issues of Hudlin's Black Panther (it was fifty percent off, and the parts of that arc which I originally bought I liked), so I'm wondering... Is the next part worthwhile, Thad?
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The first BP arc was essentially Black Panther: The Movie. After that, if memory serves, was a fun little vampire story in post-Katrina New Orleans with Blade, Cage, Brother Voodoo, and Monica Rambeau. If that's the second trade, it's worth it; if not, probably not.
Hudlin's Panther is one of those books where I'm kind of wondering why I'm still reading it. Priest's run was much better, and Kirby's run was Kirby; if you're jonesing for Panther trades, those are better.
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Madman #7: another weird one. Very cool, though; no dialogue, and it centers around Frank wandering around a barren planet, grieving for [spoiler] Joe [/spoiler].
The ending is unexpected, and I have very mixed feelings on it. If it were anybody else, I would have thrown up my arms, bitched that he [spoiler]killed off two major characters in a contrivance to make the leads of his two different books hook up[/spoiler], and possibly just dropped the damn book right there. But this, of course, is Allred, and he gets the benefit of the doubt. It could be a standard superhero plot contrivance, but it could also be a realistic, human depiction of grief -- it is, after all, perfectly plausible that [spoiler]two people who were close and who just suffered the loss of their respective loves might fall into each other's arms[/spoiler]. If so, I would expect more pain is in store, as [spoiler]Frank is still clearly looking for Joe, as evidenced by the shot of It Girl with the red sand in her hair -- though of course the shot at the end, him kissing her after the sand is gone, shows he's accepting her for who she is[/spoiler].
This whole book's been about Frank trying to come to terms with the universe and his place in it; I get the impression that Allred's got a lot on his mind too. His father recently passed away, which I'm sure plays into the themes of grief and loss, though this "existential quandary" stuff was part of the series before that, as have foreshadowings of [spoiler]Joe's death[/spoiler].
And of course it's a comic book, so it hardly bears mentioning that characters may not stay dead.
...Moving on. Fantastic Four #555:
The bad: The "utopia without free will" idea is nothing new. There's very little Ben and no Sue.
Other than that, not a bad read, though obviously a hell of a lot of setup involved. I find it interesting that the first "off" thing that Ted says, the first thing that foreshadows him playing God with the natural order of things, is that it would be unethical to put deserts on New Earth. Trust a kid from the desert to take umbrage at a line like that.
The art's the real highlight here; the shots of the unfinished New Earth by night are absolutely gorgeous. Very Magrathea.
And of course Johnny gets a good chunk of the book, which is only fair since he was so scarce last month. Bodes well for Ben and Sue getting more action next ish, I think.
As for the last page -- all right, moneyshot, a pic we were teased with months ago finally makes sense. Of course, the [spoiler]anti-Cap who goes too far in his pursuit of justice[/spoiler] bit is old hat too, but I think they can put a fresh twist on it.
Anyway. Not as good as last month, but still pretty cool. Looking forward to more.
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Thad reads Newsarama, posts a few good links:
Madman #7: [...]
The ending is unexpected, and I have very mixed feelings on it. If it were anybody else, I would have thrown up my arms, bitched that he [spoiler]killed off two major characters in a contrivance to make the leads of his two different books hook up[/spoiler], and possibly just dropped the damn book right there. But this, of course, is Allred, and he gets the benefit of the doubt. It could be a standard superhero plot contrivance, but it could also be a realistic, human depiction of grief -- it is, after all, perfectly plausible that [spoiler]two people who were close and who just suffered the loss of their respective loves might fall into each other's arms[/spoiler]. If so, I would expect more pain is in store, as [spoiler]Frank is still clearly looking for Joe, as evidenced by the shot of It Girl with the red sand in her hair -- though of course the shot at the end, him kissing her after the sand is gone, shows he's accepting her for who she is[/spoiler].
Allred spells it out in an interview (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=150783): [spoiler]Joe IS It Girl. They've merged bodies.[/spoiler]
In other words...
...motherfucking Hedgehog Zero (http://www.corporate-sellout.com/katestory/zero-diagram.png).
So that's at least TWO books I'm reading that are echoing Sonic the Hedgehog fanfic that Brent and I wrote when we were 12.
(Then again, he also did The Golden Plates, and I have heard Mormonism described as "a fanfic version of Christianity".)
...He also mentions 2001 as an influence for the issue, which of course makes for interesting timing.
Really looking forward to #9, which will be a single 22-page panel.
He also hints the movie might be going into production soon, so good for that.
Corben to adapt Lovecraft. (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=150798)
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Corben to adapt Lovecraft. (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=150798)
Not sure if that will work. A lot of Lovecraft's stuff was fleshed out by other authors. It seems to me that he left a great deal of the visual imagery up to the reader. Whatever sort of Ineffable Crawling Terror they could imagine was better than anything he could write.
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Fair.
But Corben.
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Corben's good, but I have to agree with Buge. Nobody can really do Lovecraft illustration - that's the point.
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I don't really think being faithful to the creepy-crawlies in your head is the POINT. Any more than Corben's Hulk looking like the standard Hulk was the point. I'm sure it won't match the pictures in my mind, but I'm equally sure it'll be effin' gorgeous.
Tangent: I read recently that Kevin Eastman had finally concluded selling his stake in TMNT to Laird, but reserved the rights to a few specific issues. One of them was #33 (http://www.ninjaturtles.com/comics/mirage/volume01/33/33.htm), by Corben -- a fitting one for Eastman to keep in his belt since he now owns Heavy Metal.
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I don't really think being faithful to the creepy-crawlies in your head is the POINT. Any more than Corben's Hulk looking like the standard Hulk was the point. I'm sure it won't match the pictures in my mind, but I'm equally sure it'll be effin' gorgeous.
Well, I meant that you can't possibly be faithful to the crawlies in your head. But I'll happily agree that whatever Corben does will look great on it's own merits.
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Funny story:
My comic shop was supposed to get 48 copies of All-Star Superman in today, and instead received a much lower number. Like, 48 lower.
So please feel free to tell me how it is. I expect it is good!
MEANWHILE: Authority Prime was basically a waste of money, despite a couple good bits like [spoiler]Jack turning Bisbee into a giant monster[/spoiler].
Wake me if Morrison's Authority ever gets a #3. Because notwithstanding that, I've been reading this book about 6 years past its expiration date.
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All-Star Superman 10 is god.
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:sadpanda:
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...Still pretty strongly tempted to drop Black Panther, though I may stay through the new arc just to make sure. I'll give Reggie one thing, he's done his homework (not like Panther has as massive a backstory as the average Marvel book), and he's doing a pretty solid job writing Killmonger.
Of course, as a Priest fan, I am obligated to mention that Hudlin has utterly ignored one of the biggest threads Priest left dangling at the end of his run, that Killmonger had successfully taken the Black Panther mantle from T'Challa and T'Challa had only gotten it back by default when Killmonger went into a coma upon consuming the Heart-Shaped Herb. It'd sure be swell to see Hudlin finally deal with that continuity gap, but I doubt it'll happen.
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Dear Geoff,
You are only 29 issues into this book. Do you really feel that it is necessary to retell the Green Lantern's origin story EVERY YEAR?
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some people might forget
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Speak of the Devil is a book that starts out with many familiar Gilbert Hernandez trappings -- the slightly atypical suburban family, the rebellious teenage daughter, her weird friends -- and then rather abruptly takes a hard turn from realistic fiction to bloody psycho drama. It's surreal even by his standards, and certainly doesn't move in the direction you expect when it starts out.
Good damn book though, and I get the impression it's one that'll stick with me for awhile. Disturbing, and hard to figure out; somehow I doubt we'll get a Wizard of Oz dream ending that explains what was "real" and what wasn't. I prefer Palomar, but this is good precisely BECAUSE it's such a departure from that.
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Tangent: I read recently that Kevin Eastman had finally concluded selling his stake in TMNT to Laird, but reserved the rights to a few specific issues. One of them was #33 (http://www.ninjaturtles.com/comics/mirage/volume01/33/33.htm), by Corben -- a fitting one for Eastman to keep in his belt since he now owns Heavy Metal.
Do you remember where you read this? I'm fascinated by stories about Kevin Eastman losing all his turle money.
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It's posted at ninjaturtles.com (http://ninjaturtles.com) and also on Murphy's blog (http://the-5th-turtle.blogspot.com/2008/03/final-release.html) (the latter is more interesting because of the comment thread, which includes additional information such as Kevin keeping the rights to #33 and Bodycount).
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Let's Go to UTAH! (http://www.indyplanet.com/catalog/advanced_search_result.php?osCsid=151ce6f1d2b83aaaf7dfca7e247e4d3a&keywords=UTAH%21&osCsid=151ce6f1d2b83aaaf7dfca7e247e4d3a&x=0&y=0) seems pretty rad (http://davechisholm.deviantart.com/gallery/#Let-s-go-to-UTAH-1).
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Nrama interviews Millar; part 1 (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=151599), part 2 (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=151733). 1985 sounds intriguing as the anti-Marvels. (Which reminds me, isn't the Marvels sequel finally supposed to be coming out this year?) I could give a fuck about Wolverine but will probably give the first issue of Old Man Logan a shot just because it's Millar. (Last book I bought with Wolverine's name in the title was Wolverine/Doop, which was an X-Statix tie-in by Darwyn Cooke, and which STILL doesn't stand out in my memory, except for Laura Allred's colors. I really don't think there are any other colorists in the business whose work I actually recognize.) The fact that these series both tie in with FF (and, tangentially, Kick-Ass) makes me a little nervous, but it sounds like he's handling it Seven Soldiers-style, and I'm down with that.
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Hm. Kick-Ass #2 was much better than the first. Shaping up nicely.
Now, if I could just rid mysef of the nagging idea that writers like Millar are secretly, desperately hoping that stories like this will somewhere somewhow inspire the world's first honest-to-god real life costumed vigilante hero.
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Picked up my fix of Millar today with Fantastic Four 555 & Kick-Ass 1 & 2.
555 moves quicker than 554, but feels slightly heavy on the dialogue all the same. Almost as if Bryan Hitch was asking to draw more frames than were needed. A sub-lot with Johnny was as superfluous as ever, but looked damned nice. The final frame is adorable, and will hopefully produce a figurine or two.
Kick-Ass? Homeboy needs body armor, gott damm. If Frank Miller was credited for this rather than Millar & Romita Jr., would you be able to tell the difference? The last pages of issue two have a nice production comparison, illustrating why Palmer & White shouldn't be left out of the limelight.
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Kick-Ass? Homeboy needs body armor, gott damm. If Frank Miller was credited for this rather than Millar & Romita Jr., would you be able to tell the difference?
If Miller-with-an-E were writing, Dave would be bigger, buffer, and older. And he'd be taking that beating with a lot more grim determination.
What it DOES have in common with a Frank Miller book is that the hero gets hurt. Badly. And the narration does a solid damn job of making you feel the blows to the ribs, the head, all over Dave's body. I think we can cross "wish fulfillment" off as a fair descriptor of this book; Spider-Man never had to get any plates put in his head.
I can find a million people citing Alan Moore's complaint that all Frank Miller ever writes about is tough guys, but can't find a single damn primary source or exact quote. Go figure.
On the art side, you can definitely see the influences, but it's JRJr all the way. The faces and the shading have a Miller kind of quality to them, but the proportions are more Silver Age-y.
Anyway. The Frank Miller influences ARE there, but Millar-with-an-A and RoJu have their own, very distinctive styles. I could probably pick Millar's work out of a lineup, and could CERTAINLY pick out JRJr's.
The last pages of issue two have a nice production comparison, illustrating why Palmer & White shouldn't be left out of the limelight.
Damn right. Inkers and colorists are among the most overlooked people in the business, because it's their job NOT to be noticed. Usually when people notice their work it's because they've messed something up.
I DO think they're starting to get their due in the Photoshop age. With an increasing number of books that don't use inkers at all but just color straight over pencils, well...I find that look suitable to some books, but not most. (Action did a pretty good job awhile back with a story where the Earth scenes were traditionally inked and the Phantom Zone was Photoshop over pencils.) As for colors,I just got through saying nobody's work but Laura Allred's ever really stands out in my mind.
...Anyway. The book's already got a damn movie deal. See how that pans out.
(I want Daniel Stern to narrate.)
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All-Star Superman may be the perfect comic book.
#10 gives us Kandor, breaks the fourth wall, and shows Superman as a guy who's not too busy fighting the big stuff to save individual people who have lost hope. It delivers what issue #1 promised: his powers have achieved godlike levels, but he's going to die from it; he's facing his own mortality.
Since they're calling this an ongoing I can reasonably assume he doesn't die, or at least doesn't STAY dead (though closing the book on "this" Superman and starting off #13 with an entirely different universe would be appealing in its own way), but there's still the clear question of what's coming out of his last days. He's already [spoiler]cured cancer[/spoiler] and left the possibility of [spoiler]a child[/spoiler], but what's yet to come? How much is going to be revealed in that obit?
Anyway. Great, great book. I am sort of hesitant to ask when the next issue will be out.
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Grant has mentioned that Solaris will be making a comeback.
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The book's already got a damn movie deal.
I Made A Thing:
Revver:
http://revver.com/video/795195/kick-ass-comic-trailer/
Direct Download:
10MB .wmv file (http://www.sendspace.com/file/az1u9r)
EDIT:
Millar seems to have enjoyed it, (http://forums.millarworld.tv/index.php?showtopic=80015&hl) Jason from weeklycomicbookreview.com (http://weeklycomicbookreview.com/2008/04/07/kick-ass-trailer/) gave a shoutout, and Ron from ifanboys.com (http://www.ifanboys.com) also sent his compliments by e-mail.
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(http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/2867/baddoomoriginalkc5.jpg)
I'm pretty sure that's not how Dr. Doom addresses anyone.
(http://img90.imageshack.us/img90/8145/baddoom1bj2.jpg)
Much better. (http://mightygodking.com/index.php/2008/04/08/it-could-be-worse/)
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I'm just wondering what the hell is up with his eyes there.
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I'm just wondering what the hell is up with his eyes there.
They have that certain SHOOP DA WHOOP (http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/index.php/IMMA_CHARGIN_MAH_LAZER) quality, doesn't it?
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Just watched a BBC doc by Jonathan Ross called In Search of Steve Ditko. For people who don't know much about Ditko, it's a pretty good and thorough summary of his work; for people who do, it's a star-studded retrospective featuring thoughts from Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, Mark Millar, Joe Quesada (in the halcyon days of 2007 when you could mention his name and Spider-Man's in the same sentence without a string of profanity), Jerry Robinson, John Romita, and, most illuminatingly, Stan Lee.
Stan comes across as largely sympathetic, and it's something of a vindication of him. He praises Ditko's work effusively, and acknowledges that by the end of Ditko's run, all he (Lee) was doing was adding in dialogue balloons. It's sad to think that decades of bad blood boil down to nitpicking over the definition of "creator". While I agree with Ditko's definition and don't believe Stan pitching an idea is enough to count as "creating" the character (I also think of Bill Finger as the primary creator of Batman), Stan's the one who's been a standup guy about it in recent years -- even though he clearly doesn't buy the "co-creator" moniker himself, he's made sure it's put on every Spidey comic, movie, cartoon, and game simply because he knows it's important to Steve. (Or so the unfortunately-named Ralph Macchio claims; this could just be another example of Lee claiming credit for something somebody else did.) He even sent him a signed letter in '99 saying he has always considered him the co-creator, but of course Ditko objected to that choice of words; if there's one thing an Objectivist hates, it's subjectivity.
[spoiler]In the end, Ross and Gaiman track Ditko down. They get to meet him, but, characteristically, he refuses to allow the camera crew in, and Ross reveals nothing of their conversation except that Ditko is pleased that there are people who appreciate his work so deeply.[/spoiler] It's an interesting contradiction -- the recluse who wants to be left alone but also wants recognition. We never do hear Steve's explanation of why he left Marvel, but we get a pretty good feel for him as a person.
Other interesting things of note: the live-action Spider-Man TV series (I'd heard of it but wasn't actually sure it was real) and the 1970's Doctor Strange pilot. Both seem like good picks for Outer Heaven if anyone can find them.
All in all, highly recommended. There's no DVD release (at least not in the US), but it's not hard to find a torrent. Check it out; you'll be glad you did.
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Superhero Hype has promo photos form Frank Miller's adaptation of The Spirit (http://www.superherohype.com/news/spiritnews.php?id=7054)
I've never read any of the Spirit and don't have a huge familiarity with Eisner's work. So I'll just leave that link as is.
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I think there's an "Archives" or "Chronicles" or somesuch-branded trade out of Eisner's original Spirit comics. If you're interested in something more recent, Darwyn Cooke's run is highly recommended (and the first trade includes his Batman/Spirit crossover, which is for all intents and purposes a Batman: TAS story).
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I'll check it out. I realize the incredible influence that Eisner's work has had on the comics medium, but I've just never seen any of the trades readily available. Although, with the internet that is no longer a good excuse, so I'll check him out.
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Two minutes from Iron Man:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX15_zwoZ6c
CamBot looks to have gone into the private sector.
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I recently had a dream that I was reading this Jack Kirby book about how Darkseid was teleported to an alternate Fourth World, whereupon he changed his appearance to humanish and taking up the name "Auroran." Essentially, he adopted Orion's role as a hero, except he had this big mechanical eye that would follow him around.
Does such a thing actually exist, or did I have a brush with L-Space?
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I wonder if I can get a TPB of Fell yet.
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There's a trade call Fell: Feral City that I assume contains the first 6 issues.
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I'm enjoying a few random books here and there these days, but I find that I simply cannot stand the main threads that seem to be going through the big two at the moment. Countdown is un-fucking-readably awful, and Final Crisis? Couldn't care less if I tried. I don't even know what it's going to be about because everything tying into it so far is terrible beyond belief. If that weren't bad enough, Marvel is nearly as awful. I can't read Spider-Man, due to Brand New Faggotry, and I don't know about you guys, but I don't give a flying fuck who is and is not a Skrull. Oh man, who do you trust?! The answer is who gives a shit.
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As I said, I'm going to give Final Crisis a shot because Morrison. His Batman run's been great, and All-Star Superman's probably the best book out right now.
I'm also likely to pick up Trinity because it's the original Thunderbolts team. Busiek's been hit-or-miss lately, but he's still one of my favorites, and I'll at least give it a shot. (More interested in Marvels 2, of course, but until I actually SEE it on the shelf it's going to be hard to get excited about it.)
Marvel...shit, I don't even remember what I'm reading of Marvel anymore aside from FF (good) and Black Panther (not sure why I am still reading). I can certainly relate to event fatigue, and while I love the old Skrull stories, this one isn't doing it for me. Of course, I still haven't gotten past Avengers Disassembled.
On another topic: latest issue of Booster is so-so. Basically unnecessary, IMO; there weren't really any major developments and the twist ending was obvious. Plus Action Comics did it a couple months back with the Subs.
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I'd like to give Final Crisis a shot, because Morrison and whatnot, it sounds interesting. But how many hundreds of issues of things will I need to read just to know what the hell's going on in it?
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Morrison says (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=146753):
Readers won’t have to pick up any other books from the line top follow the story in Final Crisis and its satellite books. So there’s not quite as oppressive or overhanging a continuity there for other writers to have to cope with, just this really big, cataclysmic thing that happens.
As I say, the only real crossover business happens in the books Geoff Johns and I are working on. The two of us are pretty much telling the whole story, and anyone who wants to join in can, but it’s set up in such a way that they don’t have to. We really want people doing big stories in their own books.
Of course, we've all heard that a million times before (Civil War probably being the most notorious recent example of a mini that was supposed to be self-contained but really, really wasn't), but these ARE the guys behind Seven Soldiers and The Sinestro Corps War we're talking about. So I would be more concerned about a ballooning sample of tie-in books than too many pivotal plot points occurring in other titles.
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I'm completely gay for All-Star Superman, and I really enjoyed the Sinestro Corps War, which I hoped would translate into a good run of Green Lantern books, but then they jumped immediately into the Alpha Lanterns, and I stopped reading again. I stopped reading Booster Gold when he saved Ted Kord. Now, don't get me wrong, I wasn't a fan of his death in the first place, but I thought the book was more effective when there were some people he couldn't save, and some things he couldn't change. As for Final Crisis, I don't have any hope for another fucking Crisis. Crisis Crisis Crisis. There hasn't been a good one since the first one, and half the events since the first have been some kind of similar threat, even if it wasn't a Crisis in name. I think the last one I really enjoyed was DC One Million, which was just unashamed fan-service, and even half the books in that were terrible.
I think some of this is just a reflection of the fact that I have less time and interest for comic books these days, but if there was more quality out there I have to believe I'd be reading more books.
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I stopped reading Booster Gold when he saved Ted Kord. Now, don't get me wrong, I wasn't a fan of his death in the first place, but I thought the book was more effective when there were some people he couldn't save, and some things he couldn't change.
The entire story since then has been about the negative repercussions of his decision, and frankly I'm a little sick of it and hoping they don't end up killing him all over again.
As for Final Crisis, I don't have any hope for another fucking Crisis. Crisis Crisis Crisis. There hasn't been a good one since the first one,
You're suggesting the first one was good.
I think the last one I really enjoyed was DC One Million
Also Morrison.
I think some of this is just a reflection of the fact that I have less time and interest for comic books these days, but if there was more quality out there I have to believe I'd be reading more books.
Fair. I need to decrease my intake too.
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Back on the subject of FF: #556 is decent, but it's a "shit blows up" installment rather than a character-development one. It counterbalances last month's focus on Reed by not having him show up at all, but Ben and Sue still get short shrift; this issue breaks up primarily into the Johnny part and the huge-roster-of-Marvel-heroes-fights-giant-monster part.
The CAP premise is a little weak [spoiler](they built in a "don't hurt us" failsafe but no off switch?)[/spoiler], but there's obviously more going on here than we're seeing, and I'm inclined to think these apparent plotholes are there for a reason.
Violent for an FF book, but tame for a Millar/Hitch book.
Dialogue continues to be great, and the big group shots have me picking through them trying to spot everybody.
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(http://www.joelconstantine.com/gallery/d/89-1/the-incredible-hulk-20080414010125119.jpg)
:orly:
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No, no, no, no, no!
I said SADLY WALK AWAY, PAUSE, TURN, PAUSE, PIVOT, STEP, STEP! Not SADLY WALK FORWARD, PAUSE, TURN, PAUSE, PIVOT, STEP, PAUSE! Ohhhh, SUGAR!
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Bruce Banner is...Spider-Man no more!
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...So the first arc of The Brave and the Bold was pretty good, all in all.
Anyone know if Waid's staying onboard?
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...Finally got around to cracking the copy of Fourth World vol 2 that I bought on the first of the year, and it reminded me of why I'm interested in Final Crisis. I've already talked about it in this thread, but...it's Morrison doing Fourth World stuff. Which sounds an awful lot like Seven Soldiers to me. Bal, your thoughts?
Also, while I'm on the subject, out of curiosity...you live in Phoenix metro, right? Where do you buy your comics? I shop at Ash Avenue (http://ashavecomics.com/).
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Panther gets animated series (http://blog.newsarama.com/2008/04/17/black-panther-animated-series-leaping-to-bet/) -- prime time, on BET.
A superhero cartoon for adults is a good idea. Of course, we could wind up with something like the MTV Spider-Man.
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...Finally got around to cracking the copy of Fourth World vol 2 that I bought on the first of the year, and it reminded me of why I'm interested in Final Crisis. I've already talked about it in this thread, but...it's Morrison doing Fourth World stuff. Which sounds an awful lot like Seven Soldiers to me. Bal, your thoughts?
Also, while I'm on the subject, out of curiosity...you live in Phoenix metro, right? Where do you buy your comics? I shop at Ash Avenue (http://ashavecomics.com/).
I shamefully have to admit that, while I love the Fourth World stuff, I've barely read any of it, classic Kirby or otherwise, just due to availability for the most part. In fact, I'd say my strongest impressions of those characters comes from the DCAU. As for Morrison writing it... I just don't know. It seems to me that he does his best work when he's not trying to be super serious (All Star Superman), and is much more inconsistent when he's trying to be dark. From what I've read in the previews, Final Crisis seems to fall well within the latter camp. On the other hand, Darkseid is, thanks to DCAU, probably my favorite DC villain, and if he manages to come off well as the architect of this disaster, then that may well be worth the price of admission.
I live in Tucson, actually, and I'm forced to admit that I download most comics, but I make sure to buy the ones I enjoy when they make TPB.
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Yeah, the availability IS a problem; I'm working through it for the first time myself. They didn't start releasing the full collections until a year and a half or so back, and they're still only available as 4 hardbacks for a rather bruising $50 each. (My comic shop holds occasional 25% off sales; I grabbed the first two up on such occasions.) But if you can afford $50 for a comic book, that's the way to go. (That or the $50 hardback collections of Palomar and Las Locas.) I assume there'll be paperback editions someday, but no word on that.
Can't fault the DCAU's take on the story; it was great. I'm surprised by how dark the last season of Superman got, and it sure ended on a downer.
Can't vouch for the Orion series from a few years back as I haven't read that; as for the current Death of the New Gods, I made it through #1 and then didn't buy #2. Embarrassingly derivative.
Did you read Seven Soldiers? There were Kirby/Fourth World tie-ins throughout, but Mister Miracle was the biggest, for obvious reasons. It recast the New Gods as homeless people on the streets of New York. Pretty cool, actually, precisely BECAUSE it was so much different from a typical New Gods story.
Seven Soldiers also follows Fourth World stylistically, in its method of storytelling, by rotating between different narratives that combine to form a larger gestalt.
How Morrison will do with a more traditional take is anybody's guess, but I'll vouch for his work on Batman. It's not as dark as Batman's generally been for the past couple of decades, but it's not as whimsical as All-Star Superman, either. (The whimsy is mostly to be found in Morrison's selection of reference material, rather than the narrative itself.)
Anyway. I'll at least give #1 a look.
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I didn't read Seven Soldiers. I was out of DC at the time, if I recall. I've heard good things, maybe I'll check it out. It might give me some idea of where he intends to go with this latest take.
The last season of Superman was framed by two of the greatest appearances Darkseid has ever made, Apokolips Now and Legacy, and to end on that note, with Superman essentially a pariah. I remember when it first aired I was a little old for Saturday mornings, so I wasn't picking up episodes regularly, and I was convinced that I had missed episodes after Legacy. It just couldn't end like that. That fight at the end of Legacy part 2, I wouldn't have believed you could put something that brutal on Saturday morning. Of course, they went on to push that envelope even further with Batman Beyond. Not to derail the thread. Maybe there should be a "Nerds Love DCAU" thread.
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I didn't read Seven Soldiers. I was out of DC at the time, if I recall. I've heard good things, maybe I'll check it out. It might give me some idea of where he intends to go with this latest take.
Read it for its own sake (and for the opportunity to read it without a massive delay before the last issue). While I'm sure Final Crisis will have some callbacks to it (he's already said Frankenstein will play a role, and I would be very surprised if the Shilo Norman Mister Miracle didn't show up), I'm equally sure it'll be a much different animal. Seven Soldiers involved an alien invasion, but it wasn't really a cosmic story.
The last season of Superman was framed by two of the greatest appearances Darkseid has ever made, Apokolips Now and Legacy, and to end on that note, with Superman essentially a pariah. I remember when it first aired I was a little old for Saturday mornings, so I wasn't picking up episodes regularly, and I was convinced that I had missed episodes after Legacy. It just couldn't end like that. That fight at the end of Legacy part 2, I wouldn't have believed you could put something that brutal on Saturday morning.
I didn't catch any of it until I got it on DVD a year or two back; I caught the Justice League followups before the original eps. The New Batman/Superman Adventures aired when I was in high school; I slept in on Saturday mornings, and I missed the weekday afternoon reruns because of play rehearsals.
Batman Beyond was an interesting case because we actually didn't get WB with NAU's cable lineup my first year or two there. During this time, I went to great lengths to get copies of Beast Machines either on tape or from the Internet; in hindsight it is clear I bet on the wrong horse.
By my junior or senior year, Justice League was a regular Saturday night activity for my friends and me.
Maybe there should be a "Nerds Love DCAU" thread.
Would be mostly retread since there is no DCAU anymore.
I hear The Batman got pretty good toward the end, though (about the time Burnett took over), so I queued up season 4 on Netflix.
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CBR was liveblogging the Mondo Marvel panel (http://"http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16067") at the NYCC today.
I can now read both Runaways and Spider-man Loves Mary Jane again with Terry Moore at the helm. ::D:
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Final Crisis panel (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=154379): starts off with DiDio reminding us that Martha Kent's going to die in issue #1. (Well, he doesn't say that. He insults our intelligence with more obvious hints.) Aside from that, Morrison seems to indicate there won't be many deaths.
Fair amount of New Gods chatter, and it looks like Sonny Sumo's going to make an appearance.
Best bit:
A question about Morrison possibly working with DC’s animation department resulted in the writer revealing that "they were interested in doing an adaptation of All-Star Superman," which delighted the crowd, but Morrison quickly added that it was "just talk and vague ideas at this point."
Also:
Morrison reminded the crowd that he’s only going to be writing Batman after Final Crisis, saying "I want to take a couple years off and just rethink the whole superhero thing and come back with new ideas."
Hrm -- so it looks like All-Star Superman really DOES wrap with #12, or shortly thereafter. ...Actually...I feel pretty good about that. Satisfying endings are a very rare thing in comics.
EDIT: (Minor) clarification in the Morrison panel (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=154312):
Another member asked when he was finished with All-Star Superman, and he confirmed that it finishes at issue #12, but that he has some other, tangential stories he'd like to tell with some other artists. "But the whole story of Superman ends at #12."
Also:
When an audience member asked about Seaguy, Morrison said, "Yeah, he's back next year, don't worry about it, everything's fine.
:smile:
EDIT 2: From the Cup-o'-Joe panel (http://www.newsarama.com/nycomiccon2008/Marvel/cupOjoe.html):
While Alonso was still talking about this issue, Marvel Comics icon Stan Lee joined the stage, saying "Who here is responsible for Spider-Man being single again?"
He then added that he thought it was "a great idea," and then gave Quesada some compliments before leaving.
Ironic considering that, according to Priest (http://digital-priest.com/comics/adventures/frames/spidey.htm), Stan's the one who railroaded the marriage through in the first place.
Also, around that time, Stan decided that Peter and Mary Jane would get married in the Spider-Man syndicated newspaper strip. I thought, and still think, it was the worst creative move the company could have made. Spider-Man, by definition, is "The Hero Who Could Be You." Once he marries a supermodel and becomes domesticated, he moves beyond the realm of wish fulfillment of most adolescents. I mean, sure they'd like to give Mary Jane a toss, but marriage? What teenage boy dreams of marriage?
It was creative suicide, it could not be tolerated. I told Jim [Shooter] and Tom [DeFalco] that Spider-Man would get married in the comics series, and this is a quote, "Over my dead body."
Less than six months later, Spider-Man was married and I was gone.
In fairness, I'm with Priest and Quesada (and apparently Lee himself now) in the notion that marrying Spidey off was a bad idea from the get-go. I just don't think that makes One More Day any less stupid.
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Spirit Trailer (http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1585694&vid=225572)
Looks and sounds just like Sin City.
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Well, what did you expect?
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Restrai-
Oh, I get it.
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Spirit Trailer (http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?id=1585694&vid=225572)
Looks and sounds just like Sin City.
Works for me. Let Frankie direct everything, I say.
Disclaimer: I have never read The Spirit and have no knowledge of its art style.
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"Copyright restricts this video from being played outside the US"
:lol: :lol: :lol: :hurr:
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Look at the icon for this thread.
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Kayma has the right idea.
I, too, am looking forward to Frank Miller's take on Bone.
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"Copyright restricts this video from being played outside the US"
:lol: :lol: :lol: :hurr:
Here. (http://www.webdico.com/red/)
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A new week, and a new comic book Wednesday shines upon me.
Thor -- Haven't purchased it yet. Anybody else?
Fables -- I'm unsure of why no one has even made mention of this series. It is well-written, and only gets better with time.
DMZ -- Just picked this one up the other day, although it has been around since 2006. DMZ takes place in a distopian NY where it is caught between the strife of the US, and the Free States of America. The protagonist is a Journalist intern who suddenly gets lifted into NY with a world-famous reporter. When he gets pushed away and the ride explodes, he has no choice but to stay, and eventually document the ongoings of a new york between a cellular rebellion and a nation who has lost its constitution, and way. I give this comic 6 floating JMS heads.
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The only thing I picked up this week was the recent trade reissue of Largo Winch. Nothing great, but it was just good enough that I'll probably buy the second trade later... the things are dirt cheap anyway.
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There was a new Thor? Blast, missed it.
DMZ's one of my favorites, though of Brian Wood's stuff my favorite is Local, because it's so real.
I mean, as I've noted before, it once featured a full splash page of my high school (http://www.corporate-sellout.com/img/ths-local7.jpg). It doesn't get any realer than that. I could literally walk a mile from where I am sitting, right this minute, and point to that building.
Anyway. Have been picking up JLA for the last few months since Dwayne McDuffie's been writing it, and hey, he was head writer on JLU when all that awesome shit was going on. Despite his use of JLU-esque material such as Waller and the Suicide Squad and the Injustice League, it's been thoroughly blah for the most part, but I quite liked #20. It wasn't really a JLA story so much as a Brave and the Bold story, since it was just Flash and Wonder Woman with a Black Lightning cameo, but it was a very satisfying Brave and the Bold story. Another book that was on my chopping block puts out an issue good enough for me to hang on at least another month.
Ennis and Chaykin's War is Hell is basically a forgettable book with pretty art.
Oh, and one more on Final Crisis, via Nrama (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=154438):
"It's just astonishing," Morrison said. "I mean, the scene I keep talking about is the bit where it's the Terrible Turpin character, the private detective, and he's using a toilet seat to beat the Mad Hatter to death. And you know, I wrote that scene, and you can't even imagine how that may play in a comic. But then you get his version of it, and it's Martin Scorsese plus. You know? And there's blood on the walls and there's actually real physical pain, and suddenly, the whole scene comes to life. And the way he draws Turpin as this old man, but he's clearly the toughest guy you've ever seen -- he catches it, every nuance.. how he holds his cigarettes... everything's there. It's just amazing."
SOLD.
Great, just great to hear about Turpin getting some use. His death was probably the best moment on Superman: TAS. He's a great damn character, and I love seeing the attention Morrison's paying to the entire Fourth World universe, including its more mundane elements.
Reminder: Free Comic Book Day is a week from Saturday.
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Like any other mostly mediocre or poor example of storytelling, Countdown had its moments. The genesis of Kamandi/When Furries Ruled the Earth (which was... What? Issues four and five?) was something I found honestly creepy, but I was a big enough dupe to think the Great Disaster occured on New Earth, thus...
The last surviving New God wasn't really a shocker, but it was almost a fight worthy of Kirby, and something of a cathartic resolution for the winner (at least I thought so).
I'll just judge each story arc's resolution individually... Una/Karate Kid's was a real downer, Challengers of the Unknown's had one nice twist but wasn't very meaty, Pied Piper and Trickster felt kind of hollow (this was a thread of Salvation Run, which is still a worthwhile mini-series), and Jason Todd was mostly set-up for future stories involving the character. I didn't much care for Mary's single issue, compressed reversal in a decompressed, multiple issue storyline, and alongside Monarch's "origin," I want a better explanation for them down the line. They both scream "editorial made me do it." I've always been a fan of and identified with Jimmy (I suppose you can judge that yourself), but he's always been such a static goof that I'd like to see him become more dynamic, and it certainly seems like DC's intent ("I'm not a geeky screw-up anymore"). Superman-Prime kind of endeared himself to me when he bitched up Mr. Mxyzptlk... In that the issue in question made me slightly nauseous (though it wasn't due to the violence, per se). I still think the character has promise, so I was glad to hear that the Battle of Earth-51 isn't going to keep him down.
However, I still have to read issue one. Whoops! I'll stop by the dork store later and maybe do an update. Still, I can safely say that 52 was superior. I'll be collecting the trades, but I'm an admittedly biased fool with money.
Speaking tangentially about meta-fictional characters, there's an Ambush Bug special coming out down the line. Giffen is involved, and that's all I or anyone else needs to know. Someone really needs to get him (the absurd and comedic perspective), Animal Man (the spiritual/meta-physical approach), and Prime (fanboy rage personified) in a story together, honestly. ...Though, yeah, that could just make for bad fiction.
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if Captain Marvel turns out not to be a Skrull I'm going to be very disappointed.
Have not been reading Secret Invasion, but from a glance at Nrama, it appears that I am indeed the master of the obvious.
Anyone reading the thing? Anything else I should give a fuck about?
I still want to see Norman Osborn turn out to be a Skrull. Because seriously, a Skrull disguising itself as the Green Goblin would just be awesome. HUGE SKRULL BALLS.
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Anyone reading the thing? Anything else I should give a fuck about?
Let me get back to you when the trade comes out.
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For the record, I'm not really a fan of Brian Michael Bendis's writing, but I am enjoying Secret Invasion - partially because, as Quesada helpfully said in his column, Bendis has been setting up the Skrulls' plan for years now. It's an honest-to-goodness mystery, and although I'm at a disadvantage for not being a consistent Marvel reader since the Kree-Skrull War, the positioning of the Skrulls is making sense (to say nothing of the "what's inside the Skrull pod" reveal). At first blush, I'd say it's shaping up to be one of the better retcons in recent memory, even though I'd bet good money on them pulling some bullcrap "so-and-so is a Cyl - Erm... Skrull" twist down the line, but it's just the first issue and the details of the jerks' plan haven't come to light.
Well, I'm the DC minion here and they've sold me. Does that tell anyone anything?
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I do have a pet hypothesis. The Hawkeye who [spoiler]exploded himself in order to take out a Kree ship in Avengers Disassembled[/spoiler] was/is a Skrull, since [spoiler]Skrulls hate the Kree and vice versa, so Skrull-Hawkeye could meet his death in a way that benefited Skrulls as a whole while maintaining the pretense of heroism[/spoiler]. The Hawkeye who [spoiler]was brought to life, went into hiding and adopted the moniker Ronin[/spoiler] was/is the real one, because [spoiler]whatever rules for resurrection the MU follow probably don't allow for resurrecting impostors[/spoiler].
I don't know if there's a statute of limitations on these sorts of spoilarz, so I'm playing it safe.
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That's probably not a bad theory, considering that [spoiler]the Silver Age Hawkeye was one of the heroes(?) who emerged from the crashed Skrull pod, though perhaps Ronin isn't related[/spoiler]. That was the "big twist" for issue one, at least. Again, I'm not a Marvel reader, but I'm tempted to pick up the trades Quesada mentioned in the letter col' of this chapter (which was obviously and entirely his intent) just to be informed.
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Yeah, I'd say don't bother with the spoiler tags for Disassembled; that was 4 years ago and anyone who gives a fuck already knows how it went. I'm not even bothering with spoiler tags on the Secret Invasion stuff; I assume the people who are reading it know more than I do about it since I'm not.
I read something on Nrama about a blink-and-you-miss-it shot of a Skrull in the background right around the time Hawkeye dies. (Related: that was the last issue of Avengers I bought.)
Disassembled itself, of course, ended with one of the most bullshit retcons in recent memory.
Anyway. "Captain Marvel is actually a Skrull" was a gimme; the "he had his memory replaced with Captain Marvel's" was unexpected by virtue of being completely stupid. "We're going to disguise one of our guys as our greatest enemy. While we're at it, we're also going to make him think he actually IS our greatest enemy. What could go wrong?"
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Millar talks about War Heroes. (http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=155639) Sounds pretty good -- an Ultimates-esque story of Super Soldiers going to war.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHTUds1JgcM
Great day, or greatest day?
I'm going to hand out so many heroclix.
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DCAU tangent (we should probably get us a DCAU thread one of these days): I was just reading the ol' Wikipedia, and I read that, as originally aired, Turpin's funeral scene included cameos by Nick Fury, the Fantastic Four, Stan Lee, Paul Dini, Bruce Timm, and a number of other Kirby creations, friends, and fans. A quick YouTube search only comes up with the edited version from the reruns and DVD; anybody (Lyrai?) happen to know where I can find the full scene?
EDIT: Nevermind, looks like I actually had a copy sitting on an old backup disc from back before the show came out on DVD. Poor-quality rip, lots of artifacting, and it looks like the audio sync's bad on top of it, but it's definitely got the shot with Fury, Reed, Sue, and Johnny in it.
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Free Comic Book Day! Wooooooooo
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Hoooo BOY I'm likely to have an awful lot to talk about since I snagged a copy of literally every free book they had. (Probably won't read them all myself; plan to give a bunch away to younger cousins.)
What I've read so far: the not-free (but close!) DCU0. It's like the Countdown to Infinite Crisis preview in that it's a cheapy book made up of a series of teasers for upcoming stories, but it's better than that one was. Still not great; its primary problem is that it shows a bunch of incomplete vignettes, a couple of which I care about and most of which I don't, and the best one of which I already read for free on the Internet (see Batman thread).
The big reveal on the last page is well-handled. For me, it was also a head-slap moment as I'd been trying to figure out who the narrator was and, in hindsight, the clues were not subtle. Plus, the writing's been on the wall for this one since Ollie came back from the dead.
The execution of the last page, though, is excellent; it's not a big punch-in-the-face reveal, it's more of a slow dawning. I wouldn't call it subtle, exactly, but it's not as overt as you'd expect.
I don't plan on picking up most of the books advertised in this thing, but I'm definitely looking forward to the ones Morrison's writing.
Anyway. The thing's 50 cents; there's really no good reason NOT to pick it up.
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Our store made the most munny it has ever made in one day. Ever.
Free comic book day is :profit: :profit: :profit: :profit:
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Did anybody else get the FCBD Gumby comic? I don't know what to think after reading that. But it must be read.
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It's in the stack; I'll let you know when I get to it.
I love Burden's work, and Gumby's been consistently one of the best books I've read. (Incidentally, the first two issues are free downloads on wowio.com , same place that has the entirety of TMNT vol 4.)
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If all the other issues are anything like this one, then I... need to have a long, hard think about whether I can handle something like that every single month. It wasn't what I was expecting.
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Well, "every single month" isn't really accurate. I think they've put out something like four issues in two years.
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Local #11 is delightfully meta. The cover tends to give away the whole story, but it's still well-told, and this remains one of my favorite books of the past three years.
If you haven't picked it up up to this point, now's not a great time to start since it's going to end at #12 and you may as well wait for the trade. But I WOULD say everyone should pick up the trade when it comes out.
It's a great book. And not just because of my high school, though if you live in any of the 12 locales it's covered I'm sure it will be that much more rewarding for you.
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Recommending House of Mystery, if you've got a strong stomach.
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This has to be the most boring secret invasion I've ever read.
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EW has first 5 pages of Final Crisis (http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20198161,00.html), featuring Dan Turpin, Orion, John Stewart, and the Question.
I continue to be cautiously optimistic.
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Getting back to Gumby, now that I've read it: it wasn't done by the usual creative team, but yes, it WAS representative of the book. Gumby's always been pretty surreal, and in case you're not familiar with Bob Burden's work, he's the creator of Flaming Carrot (http://flamingcarrot.com/), the definitive surreal superhero.
Personally, I love it; its Eisner is well-deserved and I'm looking forward to the next issue. Wish they'd put more out.
Moving on: still working my way through my FCBD stack; haven't been to the shop this week because it seems silly to buy new stuff when I still have a shitload from last week.
Just made it through The Death-Defying 'Devil vs. Claw, which is basically a primer for Project Superpowers. I quite liked it, though there's not much there; what I really like is the entire premise of Project Superpowers.
It's an Alex Ross book based around Golden Age superheroes who have fallen into the public domain. The titular character in this one, the 'Devil, is actually the original Golden Age Daredevil (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daredevil_(Lev_Gleason_Publications)); presumably the name change is due to the fact that, while the character has fallen into the public domain, Marvel owns the trademark on the name "Daredevil".
Tangentially, while reading up on the original Daredevil, I found out about a similar Image project using public domain superheroes, titled Next Issue Project (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Next_Issue_Project), which sounds pretty interesting in and of itself. Apparently the first issue came out in February and had a Mike Allred story; I think I might have to see about tracking it down.
I love the idea of doing something with public-domain superheroes just in and of itself; I have long believed that superheroes are, in many ways, figures of modern folklore and mythology, and it's very interesting to me to see different writers cut loose with them without the need to adhere to the editorial mandates of a DC or a Marvel.
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Walking Dead #49:
Whether the last page and next issue's cover are the real deal or just another fakeout, it's plain at this point that Carl is going to be a much bigger character in the coming issues. He's got a lot of potential; in a book about how people react to a world gone to hell, there's a lot to be explored about how a child will react differently to the situation than an adult. He's already shown that he accepts the violent deaths of everyone around him as inevitable, and there's a lot to be done with a preteen who has arrived at that worldview. As we know, the title of the book refers to the humans and not the zombies; Carl may yet prove to be the greatest example of a character who is resigned to his fate before he ever gets to live his life.
Thunderbolts #120:
This is the one we've been waiting for: Norman puts on the mask, accompanied by some of the best sick internal monologue I've seen Ellis put out in ages, including references to impregnating blond girls and then breaking their necks. (Oddly, while the Goblin's been on several covers before, he's not on this one, the first issue he actually APPEARS in. But it looks like he's on next month's.)
The whole arc has made for an excellent psychological thriller. Mind control stories can easily be lame and boring, but Ellis does it wonderfully -- instead of turning the T-bolts into mindless automata, the antagonists simply nudge them, remove their inhibitions. Norman, Venom, and Swordsman are ALREADY mentally unstable; it doesn't take much to turn them into violent psychotics. (Radioactive Man's change is qualitatively different; his violent ranting seems very out-of-character.) At the end of the issue, we're left with only Songbird, Samson, and Penance unaffected -- we know the latter two were able to shake off the mind control, but what about Melissa? Yes, she's the natural leader of the team and probably the most together of the lot, but she's still a damn basket case. If she's not turned by next issue, I want an explanation beyond "because she's the hero".
The antagonists' plan, of course, is itself a massive plothole. Their claim that there's no way the Thunderbolts can wriggle out of the backlash of massacring their non-metahuman staff is absurd. They don't have to spin shit, they can just tell the truth: they were mind-controlled. The entire PREMISE of this series is that the public trusts Norman Osborn, and him as a good guy is more farfetched than "we all got mind controlled into killing a bunch of people."
There was actually a fun issue of Astro City: Local Heroes about a lawyer who defended a mobster in court by raising the reasonable doubt that he could have been mind-controlled or impersonated. In a world where things like that happen on a regular basis, the public would accept them as part of life.
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Booster #9 still fails to live up to the fun of the first few issues, but it's okay, even for somebody who wasn't reading JLI in the 1980's. The end of the issue concludes act 2, and assuming a standard 6-issue arc, it'll be over in 2 months.
We're still where we've been for the past couple of months -- I'm hoping they don't re-kill Ted at the end of this, but that'd be the obvious ending.
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Madman #8:
As has occurred many times in this series, not much happens, but it happens fucking beautifully.
It's another rehash of Frank's origins, this time focusing on the G-Men from Hell story, which I think leaves it reasonable to assume those elements will be coming back soon. (Which reminds me, I'm going to add the movie version of G-Men from Hell to my queue.)
Anyway. A perfectly good jumping-on point for new readers, and the art's gorgeous. For those who want to see something HAPPEN...well, you've had a lot of frustration already in this series, haven't you.
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It has been stated before, but I hate the fucking X-Men.
There have been exceptions in the past decade. X-Statix was a personal favorite (until Editorial fucked with it and it went off the rails). And as I am a fan of Whedon and Cassaday, I have been picking up the occasional Astonishing trade.
So, since I've been picking up trades, and have only gotten as far as vol 3: Torn, I don't know what the fuck's happened since, and I'm also not going to use spoiler tags. Read the remainder of the post with that in mind.
The first two volumes, Gifted and Dangerous, were solid. Very pretty art, and Whedon's managed to make me actually like the cast. Even the utterly tiresome Cyclops/Wolverine dynamic works here. In short, it's Whedon doing what Whedon does: writing a dysfunctional family. The dialogue is witty and the characters are interesting; their flaws are charming instead of obnoxious.
Last week, I picked up Volume 3: Torn. And it reminded me of why I fucking hate the X-Men.
And really, it boils down to the fact that I hate Claremont.
Oh, to list the problems with this story.
For starters, I don't know who Cassandra Nova is, and I don't care. Oh look, another generic evil telepath who manages to singlehandedly shatter the X-Men.
And how the mind games work out? Bleah. The Scott-and-Jean angst is suitably creepy but has nothing else going for it. Wolverine regressing to his childhood as a Canadian aristocrat is pretty damn funny for the first two pages, but then somehow gets stretched out long past that and is resolved through a fucking Simpsons gag.
As for Wolverine? I find him, consistently, the most overrated character in comics; part of what Whedon's managed to do that so amazed me in the first two volumes is make me like him. Mainly by toning down the constant angst and turning him into Jayne.
But he's done that at the expense of Beast. Beast is the new Wolverine. Beast is the one who spends all his time whining about how he can't control his inner rage and he's turning into an animal and blah-de-fucking-boo-hoo.
At least the thing that snaps HIM out of it makes some kind of sense, even if it's a bunch of sci-fi jargon.
And then Kitty, the climax of the story, the big reveal at the end, and the non-ending.
Okay. Giving Kitty three full years' worth of false memories is over-the-top in and of itself, plus it's ripped straight off from For the Man Who Has Everything (where it made a whole lot more sense). I can't begin to understand the "Cassandra was turned into a disgusting slug thing which has apparently been imprisoned in the X-Men's basement since the 1980's" bit, though at least it jibes with Charlie's history of hiding crazy, booby-trapped shit from the team.
And speaking of Charlie's history and ripped-off stories, the whole "villain plants piece of consciousness in hero's mind after major battle" bit was used in the Onslaught story. Not a good bit of X-Men history to dredge back up.
Anyway. The ending is absurd and nonsensical; it's hard to tell what the fuck actually happens. Where are they going? Was Cassandra defeated? Was that Emma telling Scott to go to hell, Emma telling Cassandra to go to hell, or Cassandra telling Scott to go to hell?
This tends to violate the rule of collecting issues in a trade; what we've got here is something that you need to pick up the next issue to make any sense of.
So, okay, following the tl;dr rant, the moneyshot: has anyone read Astonishing past #18? Does it get better? Should I bother picking up the Unstoppable trade when it hits? (Has it yet?)
(EDIT: CBG says that no, it hasn't, and that yes, it's better than Torn.)
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Final Crisis #1 is as good as I'd hoped. A good, solid New Gods story that ISN'T woefully derivative, a hard-boiled detective story with Turpin and Montoya on the ground and Stewart and Jordan in the sky, and, perhaps best of all, the return of Dark Side as he appeared in Morrison's Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle mini. Even the bit with the Monitors seemed interesting.
This is the week to be a Morrison fan. I'll get to Batman and All-Star Superman when I read them.
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Stuart Immonen was at my local comic shop yesterday for an artist's signing. There were maybe 15 folks hanging around total and half of them were industry artists. Good times.
He pretty much put the final nail in the coffin of there EVER being any kind of NextWave sequel (though there may be a What If one-shot... he couldn't actually come out and say so) and it seems that other than his webcomic he'll be roped into doing stock Marvel stuff for quite a while. Felt for the guy... Like many artists his best work comes when he can simply cut loose.
Anyway, that's your daily dose of newsmongering.
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Trades I picked up for my Memorial Day vacation, part 2 of 3: Sandman, Volume 9: The Kindly Ones.
I expect I've shared my opinion of Sandman before, and even if I haven't, it jibes well with my general feelings on comics. Overall, I've found the loosely-connected done-in-one stories to be far more satisfying than the major arcs. I love the stories where Dream plays only an accessory role, and my favorite is probably Men of Good Fortune, with Golden Boy another favorite, an Allred-illustrated biblical retelling of an obscure Kirby series. So yeah, that stuff's right in line with what I love as a reader.
But Kindly Ones makes for a major exception. It is profound. As I read it, I felt I was reading not only a great story, but a culturally significant work.
My biggest criticism of Gaiman has always been his tendency to retell the same story over and over, and this is no exception -- the presence of Odin and Loki rather forcibly reminded me of (the later) American Gods -- but their presence here is necessary as symbols of what this story is about: Ragnarok.
The end times are a vital theme in mythology, and a symbol of the inevitable: Death and Destiny.
The book serves as a superb climax to a series that well deserves its reputation. Gaiman ties together threads from the previous stories so well that I feel an urge to reread them to look for the parts I've missed. (I'd entirely forgotten who Lyta and Daniel were, which tended to make the story a little harder to follow.) All in all, the fact that it took nine volumes to get here is totally worth it, and I am looking forward to eventually picking up the tenth. (Not sure about the eleventh. I have heard bad things, and my general experience is that adding on to a story after its intended ending rarely works out well.)
Anyway. For those of you who've had Sandman on a "yeah, I need to read that" list for awhile, remember that you do in fact need to read it. It is must-read. I don't really expect the non-comic fans (who probably aren't even reading this thread) to throw down for an eleven-volume epic, though I know a few who have; it's totally a comic that people who don't read comics read. Like Watchmen. And just as much a must-read.
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I don't really expect the non-comic fans (who probably aren't even reading this thread) to throw down for an eleven-volume epic,
One wonderful trait of the series is that once you finish a single volume, you know that you'll finish the series at some point in your lifetime. So abstractly different is one volume to the next, that leaving large gaps of time between reading them is a lesser issue than expected. Actually returning to previous volumes is pleasant, but not as necessary as first deemed. When a character that has been out of commission pops back up, what matters most is that particular moment, not the twists that had come beforehand (which is skillful writing in itself, since volume nine is centered around loose threads, and volume ten around remembrance).
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Right; I was going to add to my comment about the Prez story that it flows perfectly well even if you've never heard of Prez before. Which I suppose makes sense, as writing a story exclusively for people who are familiar with him would severely limit the audience.
(I actually had no idea he was a throwback when I read it; I showed it to my uncle and he immediately recognized it as one of Jack Kirby's more embarrassing, less memorable works.)
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Cassandra Nova is Xavier's evil twin sister from Morrison's run. I was going to try to explain in greater detail, but, being a Grant Morrison creation, her backstory is really weird and you'd be better off just reading theWiki entry. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra_Nova)
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See, I love Morrison, and have been meaning to check his run out for years now, but again...I hate the fucking X-Men.
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Haven't read the backup feature in Trinity #1 yet, but the main story is very satisfying. Bagley's art does not disappoint, and while it's still too early to get a good bead on the story, Busiek has a clear handle on the archetypes of the Big Three; the most interesting hook is that they've all had a variation on the same dream, except that Superman saw the figure in it as an alien, Wonder Woman saw him as a god, and Batman saw him as a criminal.
There's also a good bit with Wally.
Compared to both 52 and Countdown (and like most folks, I liked the former and not the latter), it moves at a faster pace, most likely an issue of its page count, and doesn't have as many major characters to follow.
I'm a Thunderbolts fan from way back, so I'm not new to the Busiek/Bagley/Nicieza team. This is good work, and I'm optimistic about its future.
Will probably give my verdict on the backup feature when I've read it.
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The backup feature is so-so. It has some great high-concept stuff from Busiek (more investigation of the rule of threes and the archetypal importance of the eponymous Trinity) and some (intentionally?) eye-rolling villain banter from Nicieza. I do not give a fuck who the Enigma is, though Kurt gets points for not picking Luthor/Joker/Cheetah as the villains. (Though they had goddamn well better show up at SOME point.)
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It seems like less happens in Kick-Ass #3 than in the first two, but it moves along at a nice clip. We get more Peter Parker Teen Drama With a Twist, and really, I'm sure we ALL did some embarrassing things in high school to hang out with the hot chick.
The issue also introduces a new character who promises to be a lot of fun in the coming months.
The lettercol says we should have heard about a movie deal, including director, by now. Seeing as I haven't, that means news should probably be coming soon.
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Morrison on FC#1 (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080609-MorrisonFC01.html).
The first bit is mainly his complaining about people nitpicking the continuity errors between it, Countdown, and Death of the New Gods. Reading between the lines, I like to think he agrees with me that those other series should never have been made.
It gets more interesting later. He talks a lot about Seven Soldiers, Kirby, and mythology.
He's a smart guy, and he knows what this stuff is about. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.
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His thoughts about gods most interested me. I kinda' get the idea that he's had much more of a hand in the development of the Green Lantern mythos than just the Alpha Lanterns.
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Right, between FC and Trinity we're getting some pretty good comics-as-mythology stuff right now.
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The issue also introduces a new character who promises to be a lot of fun in the coming months.
Somehow I'm less interested in what Lil' Zorro has to say, and more interested in what Dave's reaction will be. He came off as a bit of a twerp in the first two issues, but issue three skillfully grounded him just as his celebrity persona was taking off. How he responds to this bloodshed could be a major character defining moment.
The lettercol says we should have heard about a movie deal, including director, by now. Seeing as I haven't, that means news should probably be coming soon.
There was the playfully unconfirmed story (http://www.joblo.com/vaughn-is-kick-ass) from March, but have yet see anything else as a follow-up.
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Somehow I'm less interested in what Lil' Zorro has to say, and more interested in what Dave's reaction will be.
Well, yes.
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Today I was in the book store, and I noticed they had the 52 trade paperbacks. I sat down and started flipping through one.
Then I realized it was four hours later, I was very hungry, and my neck hurt from reading while sitting on a stool for four hours.
So I would say I enjoyed it quite a bit. Of course, I always liked Montoya, dating back to when I watched the Batman animated series as a kid, so there's a fanservice factor in my enjoyment, but it was still pretty fun.
I've also been reading trade paperbacks of something called The Exterminators, and that's a pretty awesome series, but I haven't heard anything about it anywhere else.
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52 had its problems, but I bought the whole series and found it very satisfying.
Countdown was the opposite -- a few cool bits (Jimmy Olsen, Trickster/Piper) wrapped in crap. A huge disappointment all around, and the most disappointing part was that I made it halfway through the series before I finally stopped spending money on it.
Trinity is still too early to call, but I'm an unabashed, longtime Busiek fan and have high hopes for it.
Don't know The Exterminators. Might be worth checking out.
In other news: picked up issue #1 of the new, non-Gaiman Eternals yesterday. The story's not really much to write home about but the art's purty enough for me to look forward to #2.
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Action #866: Gary Frank's back on the art, for a Brainiac arc. His Brainiac drones and ship look scary; there's a definite Terminator influence. As for everything else, well, I've already praised his art previously, and his coming back is a big part of why I'm still picking the book up.
The new Daily Planet crew is a very cool addition too; I'm looking forward to seeing more from those characters.
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I have about half of Countdown left in my pull box, and it's too late to put it back without getting in trouble. :(
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I kinda' enjoyed Countdown. I thought it was mediocre overall, but not terrible. :derp:
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Madman: Atomic Comics #9 is the one Allred mentioned in an interview I linked awhile back, the one that's just one long panel.
It's very kinetic -- it shows the cast moving across a cityscape that spans the entire issue. (The feeling reminds me vaguely of the Mario 3 levels that scrolled by themselves.)
As you might expect, it's some more style-over-substance storytelling in a series that's been chock-full of it, but that's Allred's forte: he's an artist, and he's pushing the medium in directions that nobody's tried before and which it is uniquely capable of in contrast to other media. The effect is something very cool, though sometimes hard to follow (I kept reading the dialogue and narrative boxes in the wrong order).
The story is a simple "chase the aliens, save the girl" affair with some of Frank's characteristic philosophizing thrown in. But it's probably the most groundbreaking presentation I've seen since Rick Veitch's Can't Get No (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Can%27t_Get_No).
Also, it has two pin-ups by Darwyn Cooke.
I have more Madman chatter to give since I recently read the Atomics TPB, but I'll hold off for now. It's about bedtime.
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Go pick up a copy of the Top Shelf 2008 Seasonal Sampler. It's free, it's over 200 pages, and it's chock-full of previews of recent and upcoming books.
Sadly, there aren't any actual panels from League vol 3, but there IS a brief plot summary (http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog.php?type=2&title=583).
and in a London mental institution there's a patient who insists that she has all the answers.
I am frankly going to be disappointed if that turns out to be anyone but Fenchurch.
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RASL 2 came out yesterday.
Well. THAT accelerated things considerably.
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It's in my stack; will give it a glance later.
Just picked up an issue of Wolverine for what I believe is the first time since he got his adamantium back in a fucking flashback. I hate Wolverine, but I figured another Millar/McNiven teamup was worth the price of admission.
It's an interesting and compelling story, but its premise is flawed. It's the same problem that made the short-lived Birds of Prey TV series hard to swallow: it goes against the character's essential nature. Wolverine's not the kind of guy who'd run away, start a family, and refuse to fight back. He'd go down fighting.
But leaving that premise aside, the Mad Max setting is a promising one, and "Logan and Hawkeye hit the road in the Spider-Mobile to deliver a MacGuffin to the east coast, traveling through territory owned by Kingpin and Doom along the way" is a good setup.
The problem is that I don't think you can separate the flawed premise from the rest of the story, because the most interesting question is "What could have happened to do that to Wolverine?" And the real answer is "Nothing" but the answer we're going to see is probably "something nasty involving Kitty and/or Jubilee" (prove me wrong, Millar).
There's also the fact that this story's just part of whatever it is Millar's working on now. He said that this, Fantastic Four, 1985, and, tangentially, Kick-Ass all tie together.
Anyway. It's interesting enough that I want to see what happens next month. Which I definitely can't usually say for a Wolverine comic.
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RASL 2 came out yesterday.
Well. THAT accelerated things considerably.
Having read it, I am now going to assume you are being sarcastic.
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There have been times in Wolverines labyrinthine history where he's been overcome by events and gone to ground before, just not lately. I enjoyed the first book, and I'll probably follow it until it becomes retarded.
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There have been times in Wolverines labyrinthine history where he's been overcome by events and gone to ground before, just not lately.
As I mentioned before, the last time I picked up a Wolverine comic was when he got his adamantium back in a flashback (thanks, Claremont); having recently gone through my Wolverine collection, I can state that it's a nearly-complete run of the years he had bone claws, with little before or after.
So yeah, I know that he's run off before (and even left the X-Men for awhile, as crazy as that sounds), but it wasn't to settle down and raise a family as a damn farmer after attempting suicide by jumping in front of a train. He's gone away to clear his head, but he's never given up. (Guess I could be wrong; like I say, I haven't picked up a Wolverine book in years.)
Then again, the train's got me thinking about the "he'd die fighting rather than give up" point -- maybe the point is that he CAN'T die fighting, that he tried but was robbed of even the possibility of a noble death. Possibly several times.
It's still going to be a tough sell, and Millar's got a tendency to promise the moon in his early chapters and then run out of juice halfway through (Civil War, Ultimates 2, Authority). But we'll see.
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Well, it's really hard to say. There are stories where he's tried to completely leave that life behind, only to have it all fall apart of course, but telling what is and is not canon with Wolverine is a completely asinine endeavor at this point. His past and future is so muddled there's just no point, but the story is definitely not without precedent.
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RASL 2 came out yesterday.
Well. THAT accelerated things considerably.
Having read it, I am now going to assume you are being sarcastic.
I was speaking in terms of information, not plot pacing. 'Accelerated' was probably not the best word to choose for that though.
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No, it was a bunch of exposition (admittedly, presented such that the dialogue actually sounded natural) followed by a [spoiler]fucking WiR[/spoiler] ending. Thought Smith was above that.
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[spoiler]WiR[/spoiler]?
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When a secondary character is killed off as part of the main character's story, as a cause for exploration or growth of said main character as part of their reaction to it, and fans of that secondary character bitch that rather than being a storytelling tool it must be because the comic industry is universally misogynist.
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If a female character exists solely for the purpose of dying and motivating the hero, then yeah, that's kinda misogynistic, dude.
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How so?
No, seriously. You have a character-centric story, in which there is one main character around whom the events of the story resolve. You have ancillary characters, who exist as part of the story to drive the events relating to the main character. How does the gender, or race, or whatever of those ancillary characters have anything to do with anything extrinsic to the story? Guy's girlfriend gets killed, guy seeks revenge - how does that say, or imply, or hint at anything having to do with women as a whole?
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If it happened once, in a vacuum, it might not.
If it happens hundreds of times over a period of 35 years or so, then it's probably a pattern worth examining.
At best, even if you leave any possible gender bias out of it, it's shoddy storytelling. It's a cheap trick, a human MacGuffin. It's like, say, Minority Report giving Tom Cruise a murdered kid as a cheap way to tug at the audience's heartstrings and make him more sympathetic without any actual fucking effort on the writer's part. (Making Anderton an icy, calculating character who'd murder someone in cold blood and willingly spend the rest of his life in exile, just to save his own legacy, now THAT would take a talented author. I wonder why nobody ever thought of that.)
There are intelligent and complex ways of giving characters motivation and making them relatable. "Dead girlfriend" is, at best, lazy storytelling and, at worst, something that happens constantly in a medium dominated by overgrown teenage boys with limited social skills.
Anyway, for Mongrel's benefit: Women in Refrigerators (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_refrigerators).
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Anyway, for Mongrel's benefit: Women in Refrigerators (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_refrigerators).
Tvtropes has a list of examples here. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/WomenInRefrigerators)
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...Incidentally, I assume it's not coincidental that the WiR on Heroes was named "Simone", but last time I did a Google search I couldn't find anyone else making that connection.
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To be fair, Heroes was a much better show after she and everyone connected with her died.
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1985 #2: This is a fun little series, not least because it's a "what if" that we've all pondered from time to time. This is Millar's childhood, but every reader has his own childhood memories -- a point hammered home by the hint that this isn't the first time this has happened.
I DO have to complain a bit that that high concept is somewhat lost in the story; the only definitively 1985 Marvel moment is Banner being in control of Hulk. As for the rest of the cast, they could be from any time in Marvel's history.
Anyway, it's got me thinking about the Marvel books of my childhood, and what the book would be like if it were 1995 instead. The purple-haired female Doc Ock, Norman freshly back from the dead, Colossus as one of Magneto's Acolytes, hints of Onslaught...
...man the 1990's sucked.
Black Panther #37: finally, Hudlin's acknowledging Priest. (Yeah, Everett K Ross (http://phonogram.us/comics/panther/ross.htm) has been a recurring character in this series since issue #1, but this is the first time he's spoken more than a few sentences and actually seemed like Everett K Ross.)
I could give a crap about the fight between T'Challa and Killmonger except that, judging by next month's cover, Killmonger wins, which is as it should be. Still no acknowledgement of Priest leaving his series with Killmonger as ruler of Wakanda, but this is likely the closest we're ever going to get. More to the point, that the US is behind the whole thing goes back to Hudlin's first and strongest arc on the book, and also evokes two major themes from Priest's run, Wakanda as a player on an international stage and a not-always-friendly rivalry between T'Challa and Tony Stark. Also, Everett K Ross.
Thunderbolts #121: the Ellis/Deodato run concludes nicely. The character arcs for Norman, Songbird, Penance, and Bullseye reach satisfying conclusions, the conflict is resolved in a disarmingly quick and efficient manner, and all in all the book's left in a great place for someone else to take it over. Unfortunately, it's going straight into fucking Secret Invasion tie-in territory next month. Not sure how much of that I can take, but the last time I dropped Thunderbolts was during that fucking Fight Club reboot, so I think that establishes how bad the book has to get before I stop buying it.
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So there are people who aren't enjoying Final Crisis.
I blame DC for this. Countdown and Death of the New Gods are two obvious strikes; the other is, where the hell are the $20 paperback editions of the Fourth World Omnibus?
I have the first two $50 hardcovers, and I love them. But that is not an appropriate price point for the casual reader.
If people are going to get excited about Final Crisis, they have to know the fuck Sonny Sumo and Dan Turpin ARE. And, while Barry Allen's return is not a surprise to anyone at this point, the image on the last page is a hell of a lot more effective if you know that [spoiler]that's DEATH HIMSELF right behind him[/spoiler].
All in all, little I can say about #2 that I didn't already say about #1. Great book, but you pretty much need to be up on your Fourth World history for it to have an impact.
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Yeah, sorry I forgot to respond further to the RAZL comments.
After you pointed it out, it became fairly obvious. But I'm surprised I missed such an obvious cliche. Perhaps I was giving jeff the benfit of doubt, but once pointed out, it does become pretty inescapable that that was fairly lazy storytelling.
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Smith's written a number of strong female characters, including Thorn, Grandma Ben, and Mary Marvel.
That's what makes it so jarring to see a female character whose role consists, literally, of fucking the hero while complaining that he doesn't bring home enough money, and then dying to make him vow revenge.
FF #558: damn, Millar's dangling a hell of a lot of plot threads, here. It's not quite like Morrison's Batman where I feel the need to hit up Wikipedia after every ish, but I DO feel like I should be taking notes.
First of all, it appears that every new minor character he's introduced has some hidden agenda and hasn't actually just shown up by chance; more interestingly, each one seems to have a completely different and unrelated agenda.
I have a pretty good idea who Ms. Deneuve is, and think she may play a part related to the title of the arc.
As for the New Defenders: Millar and Hitch already made it clear in The Ultimates that they love the Defenders, and this is yet another great new take.
The Defenders are one of those teams that have a great name but never manage to catch on (see also: Champions). But this iteration could definitely see a spinoff; the characters are interesting, their motivations have piqued my curiosity, and their leader, the only founding member of the team, makes for a great last-page reveal. [spoiler]Plus, this would seem to be one of those tie-ins between 1985 and FF, given that both feature an articulate, under-control Hulk.[/spoiler]
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Fourth World Omnibus
How are they, Thad? I want to pick up something by Jack Kirby, but I'm not sure what. Something that would showcase his bombastic art style and uh... storytelling talent?
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God, there's so much to choose from.
Fantastic Four has got to be his most-loved work, so I'd certainly recommend that. But to answer your question, I love those Fourth World collections. I bought them on sale (and there's a 4th of July sale coming up, so I'm debating getting the third one then), but even with 15 or 20% knocked off they're obviously still a pretty big chunk of change. But they're worth it -- I have 3 comics on my shelves with $50 price tags, those two plus Gilbert Hernandez's Palomar, and they're all well worth the price. (I also have my eye on Jaime Hernandez's Locas. One of these days...)
Anyway, as for the content itself: the art's gorgeous and groundbreaking, and the ideas are positively revolutionary. It's Kirby's attempt to woo the hippies who were obsessing over Lord of the Rings and, 15 years before Watchmen and Dark Knight, to try and write a comic that would later be collected and sold in bookstores. The result is a whole cosmology, with intriguing new characters showing up almost every issue.
The script's pretty similar to what Stan Lee was writing in those days; over-the-top, heavy on exposition, and generally full of dialogue that nobody, anywhere would ever actually say out loud. (It bears remembering that Kirby had a junior-high education.) Sometimes this helps make characters like Orion and Darkseid seem more otherworldly; sometimes it just means silly 1960's slang. It lacks subtlety, but it's effective; the dialogue is simple, but it slowly reveals a very complex story. (Volume 2 hasn't gotten as far as Orion's origin; I think that shows up in 3.)
Of course, the bad news, and one of the greatest tragedies in comic history, is that it's unfinished. So be prepared for that disappointment.
Anyway. All in all, I'm hoping to see paperback editions so that the books can get a wider audience, but if you can afford the hardcovers they're absolutely worth it. Fourth World deserves its legendary reputation, and is some of the best superhero stuff you'll ever see.
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Nrama has an interview with Ellis (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080627-WWCEllis.html). I'm frankly still a little bitter about him leaving that signing in Mesa early when I took off work in the hopes of meeting him, but he's definitely a funny motherfucker.
...I don't give a crap about most of the rest of the Con features they've put up, but in the DCU Crisis Panel (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080628-WWCDCCrisisPanel.html), DiDio says they've got the rights to the Superboy name again. Expect we'll hear more on that very soon.
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Well, that makes both sides of the NextWave equation that I've heard saying no now. Though interestingly enough they both referenced the other - without actually assigning blamein any way - as the reason there would be no more.
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...DiDio says they've got the rights to the Superboy name again. Expect we'll hear more on that very soon.
Superboy: One More Day
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...Finally got around to reading Understanding Comics (http://www.scottmccloud.com/store/books/uc.html). Some of the stuff in there is obvious, some is questionable, but a hell of a lot of it is quite interesting and insightful and, at a minimum, gives me some ideas on what to say the next time one of my non-comic-reading friends asks what exactly it is that the medium does that others can't do better.
It's a recommended read for any comics fan; there's a lot about the history and the craft that I knew instinctively but had never really thought about. It's good for building vocabulary and for understanding why things work the way they do.
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...Was planning not to keep reading Superman after Busiek left, but decided to pick up the first Robinson issue just to see what it's about.
Here is the narration from the first couple pages:
Man.
Man throw thing.
I.
Catch.
I bring to man.
And he does thing makes Krypto happy.
Happy!
That's right. The issue is partly narrated by Krypto.
Frankly the rest of it's pretty mediocre, very standard "new team's first issue on Superman" stuff, but...Krypto narrating while Superman and Hal play fetch with him in space is enough to get me to keep an eye on it for now.
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Astonishing #25 is a whole lot like #1: introducing the new creative team, the new roster, and the new status quo, lots and lots of talking without much plot, and even a bit where Cyclops explains why they have to dress a certain way so as not to piss off the locals. A pretty thin story buoyed by good dialogue and great art.
I'm ambivalent about the whole "all the mutants move to San Fran" angle. On the one hand, it's one more step in the heavyhanded "mutants = gays" allegory that's been an albatross around the X-Men's neck for the past 20 years. On the other hand, moving them to a place where everyone accepts them has exactly the opposite effect; it neutralizes the very ham-handed allegory that it stems from.
Anyway. Too early to tell whether this run's going to come out well, but it's good enough that I'll pick up next month's. Which, given the fact that I hate the fucking X-Men, probably means it's pretty damn good.
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Trinity #6 gets a little didactic as the characters themselves start to talk about their mythological significance and the qualities that make them a trinity. However, I think it suits the story -- someone babbles some mystic prophecy about how they're a trinity, they're going to try and make sense of it.
It's not full-on Grant Morrison winking at the fourth wall, nor is it quite the characters explaining the obvious to the readers. But it's a hard line to walk, and I'm hoping Busiek goes back to being slightly more subtle about the metaphor in the coming issues.
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Booster Gold's about back to form now. It was an honestly well-balanced issue with a heck of a reveal, and it was great to both see things looking up for Booster ([spoiler]but... Uh... He does know that she has to be "on loan," right?[/spoiler]) and (more) proof that Bruce has a sharp mind and a big heart.
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Saw Trinity #6 and Joker #1, but instead picked up a rare, untranslated Spider-Man tankōbon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man:_The_Manga).
:victory: It has major nudity and ultra-violence! Japan!
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I have most of the version Marvel translated and published in the 1990's.
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Booster Gold's about back to form now. It was an honestly well-balanced issue with a heck of a reveal
I expected [spoiler]Rip to be Booster himself[/spoiler], so I was at least in the ballpark.
and it was great to both see things looking up for Booster ([spoiler]but... Uh... He does know that she has to be "on loan," right?[/spoiler]) and (more) proof that Bruce has a sharp mind and a big heart.
And always, always knows more than he's letting on.
I loved the cover -- it is of course nontrivial that this book hasn't just been about time travel through the DCU, but also about time travel through the real-life history of DC. Over the last few months we went back to the 1980's with the JLI, and this month it's back to the 1990's with a One Million issue.
Anyway. Johns leaves on a high note; the art team stays. I like the idea of a rotating writing team; it'll be like The Brave and the Bold with time travel (and, hopefully, more of the aforementioned clever metafiction).
Incidentally, a peek at the Wiki Booster article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booster_gold) says:
During the Millennium Event, Harbinger reveals to Martian Manhunter that Booster is descended from The Chosen, and that he must be protected due to his involvement in elevating the human race. In fact, it is revealed Booster was destined to come to the past to protect him from an unknown event in the future. (Source: Booster Gold #25 (Feb1988))
Since there's no reference to any resolution on this prophecy, I'm going to guess it hasn't happened yet. And given that ol' J'onny was recently killed off in a story by the first writer I would expect to be bringing up twenty-year-old loose ends...
Another topic: Action #867. I don't like the "Superman has only met drones, never the ONE TRUE BRAINIAC" premise, and I like the "What happened to the ONE TRUE KANDOR?" bit even less. I had to hit up Wikipedia to figure out what the hell the story is with the Bottle City post-Infinite Crisis.
I fucking hate Crises.
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Trinity #7 is very talky, heavy on exposition, and self-referential. I was afraid the imprisoned monster in #1 was Krona from Busiek's own JLA/Avengers, and it's looking more and more like that.
The Ennis/Chaykin War is Hell series came out pretty well, I think. Not much to it, but good Ennis-y dialogue, and I've gotten to dig Chaykin's art.
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In Black Panther #38, Harvard graduate Reggie Hudlin gives us this gem:
Villager: Killmonger is a sorcerer--he has enchanted that sword!
Panther: No, but he did magnetize it and my armor with different polarities. Now they repel each other!
Also, Storm is on the cover but nowhere in the issue, and pretty much the whole thing just sucks.
Thinking it's about time to drop this book. On the other hand, next month's is written by the same dude who did Joker's Asylum: Penguin. On the other other hand, it's a Secret Invasion tie-in.
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:facepalm: My god!
Panther, you fool! He is a sorcerer, he created magnetic monopoles!
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If you thought the scammer jokes in Bender's Big Score were stale, do not under any circumstance read Futurama Comics #38. Is there anything less funny than a series of computer jokes by someone who has less knowledge of the subject than his audience?
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How do you become qualified to write anything about Futurama when you don't know about computers?
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Well, I'd say his knowledge is probably above average. But it's pretty much just jokes about mascots and the names of companies and products. The Marvel refs seem largely pointless -- 56K-zar? --; while the bit where Fry puts on Bender's chassis to become Iron Man is one of the better parts of the issue, it's fish in a barrel.
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do not under any circumstance read Bongo Comics
Way ahead of you.
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Not entirely fair. Batton Lash has a room full of Eisners from his Radioactive Man work.
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I'll cop to enjoying Radioactive Man. Even had all of the original '93-'94 run. Although, I've always wondered if I would dislike it equally with the other Bongo titles if it ever had a proper animated counter-part.
:goggles:
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Thunderbolts #122 is better than I expected. Gage has been preparing his run with a series of character-based one-shots, and he picks up where Ellis left off without skipping a beat. It's not as good as Ellis, but so far it's better than most of Nicieza's run.
For a Secret Invasion tie-in issue, it's not bad. Though it's pretty fucking obvious who's a Skrull.
EDIT: Nrama on the next T-bolts team. (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080726-diggle-t-bolts.html)
I guess I can say the team will include an insect and an arachnid. But I've probably said too much...
"Insect" is most likely the Beetle, given his history with the team. "Arachnid" is trickier -- the first two arachnid Marvel villains I can think of are already on the team, and are currently the same person.
I guess Black Widow fits the "reformed villain" theme. Course, they already had Hawkeye lead the team for awhile.
Can I say X marks the spot? I guess I just did.
WOLVERINE IS ON EVERY TEAM
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I guess Black Arachnia fits the "reformed villain" theme.
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More Nrama/SDCC odds and ends:
IDW to do Ghostbusters series. (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080727-GhostbustersIDW.html) I'm a little nonplussed; the writer basically suggests that nothing but the first movie was any good.
Mostly, I get a kick out of the fact that I'm writing Dan Akroyd, Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, and Ernie Hudson.
You're SUPPOSED to be writing Ray Stantz, Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, and Winston Zedmore, you BOOB.
On the plus side, assuming the shot at the top of the page represents what we're going to see in the final version, the artist at least seems to understand he's supposed to be depicting characters and not actors. Blah blah couldn't get through the Serenity comic blah.
Moving on: Millar coming back to Ultimate Universe (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/080727-MillarUltimate.html).
NRAMA: Any teases of some of the characters you'll be using?
MM: Ultimate Cap, Ultimate Iron Man, Ultimate Blade, Ultimate Punisher, Ultimate Ghost Rider, Ultimate Spidey. You won't believe what I have planned here and this just touches on what's coming up[.]
NRAMA: Finally, and to give you one last chance for a vague-ish but exuberant tease, is the artist someone you've worked with before?
MM: No, but I've dreamed about it. He's probably the biggest artist in the industry. This guy is a superstar and Marvel is really stepping up to the plate with this revamp. It's exciting times.
God dammit.
I HATE Jim Lee.
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You know, even though Cooke's been off the book for some time now, The Spirit is still great. (Aragones and Evanier, of course, are two of the greats, though I'm disappointed I haven't seen the former do any art on the book yet.) #19 has 3 stories, and I quite like all of them.
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The plot of Superman #678 is by-the-numbers (and completely discards last year's story about Superman giving Krypto to Jimmy), but the art does some interesting things. It changes to a Kirby style for the villain's origin story, bookended by a Frank Miller-style panel and a montage that I would probably say is Dave McKean-inspired (definitely an homage to SOMEbody on Sandman).
In the end, I was disappointed that it was so heavy on the Kirby influence and only played with two other styles, for half a page each. I don't expect something like the Madman issue where Allred made an homage to a different artist in every panel (that would be pretty much an impossible task when facing monthly deadlines), but a little more variety would have been nice.
Interesting enough that I'll be back next month, but the book's definitely leaning toward "drop" at this point.
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Tom Strong does that, actually. At least, the first few trades I read did. Each issue would have various background stories on Tom Strong and his villains, each done in differing art style. It was really unique.
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Oh man, I love me some Tom Strong.
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Reminds me of one of the early Invincible issues when they introduced the blatant Justice League homage/parody (Guardians of the Globe), and each member had their own page or two drawn in a different style. I don't know nearly enough about comic artists to get any of the references, though.
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Well, Kirby's a pretty obvious one. You know they're going for "vintage" because they use the Photoshop filter for big newsprint-esque color dots, and if it's vintage, it's probably safe to guess "Kirby homage". There are also some attempts to replicate the way he drew facial features and his style of shading.
The Frank Miller one's obvious because it's stark black-and-white with some red.
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Kirby is obvious because in the kirby world, women look like men, and fire looks like dots
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Trinity #9: Ah. Was wondering when the CSA was going to show up. Not slapping a spoiler warning on that because I've considered this a sure thing since day one, made even more certain by Busiek's self-reference in bring Krona back.
The most interesting thing, I thought, was that this issue managed to draw focus on Enigma while being the first issue he doesn't actually appear in. It's the most Gotham-centric ish yet, and the inclusion of Joker and Penguin and reference to Mad Hatter push the focus onto which of the rogues is missing.
So, all right. I didn't really care about Enigma's backstory when he debuted back in #1, but now I'm curious. The Riddler connection's been obvious from the beginning, but unless there's some heavy retconning yet to come, he's not "our" Riddler. So that means probably future or parallel-universe.
I'm going to figure he's the CSA universe Riddler. ("Shouldn't the CSA universe Riddler be a good guy?" Ah, but the New Earth Riddler has reformed, so shouldn't that mean the CSA Riddler turned to crime?) Then again, he seems plenty familiar with Batman -- not Owlman, but "our" Batman.
I dug the trophy-collecting secondary story, too. Interested to see where that goes.
On to Panther:
Thinking it's about time to drop this book. On the other hand, next month's is written by the same dude who did Joker's Asylum: Penguin. On the other other hand, it's a Secret Invasion tie-in.
BIG EVENT aside, this was the best Panther book I've read in a long time. A little heavy on the now-standard "The Black Panther is a fucking genius who is always eleventy billion steps ahead of his adversary" setup, but doesn't go COMPLETELY overboard with it -- the Skrulls get their licks in too and manage to seem like pretty formidable adversaries. I dig the art on this one, too.
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As a fundraiser for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Liberty Comics would be worth the price of admission even if it were crap, but it's a good read. It's a good anthology, something that's become all too rare in modern comics -- good four-page stories are a lost art.
My favorite is probably Mark Millar's story of Dracula, retired to London, no longer feasting on the living, wandering around in a cape but otherwise having an ordinary day-to-day life. I'm also quite partial to the Aragones/Evanier strips on the history of comic censorship; they're preachy as hell but make for some interesting stories (like an EC editor being arrested in the 1950's, not for horror comics but for making fun of Santa Claus). Gordon Lee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Lee_(comic_store_owner)) is never mentioned by name, but his case is alluded to -- after all, cases like his are the reason the CBLDF exists. And hey, it's great, goofy Aragones art -- you can't beat that; there is a reason he is one of the true legends of the form. (Stan Sakai and Tom Luth are credited too, but I'm not sure what they did.)
It's $4 for an organization dedicated to upholding the Bill of Rights. That alone is worth the price (even though I remember the days when freedom only cost a buck oh five). But on top of that, it's a fun read. And Mignola did a Hellboy cover for it.
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All right, I'm warming up to Old Man Logan. I still don't care for the premise, but the atmosphere's good, and I kinda dig the Easy Rider/Road Warrior/Days of Future Past/every movie where a cop comes out of retirement swearing "I don't do that anymore" mashup.
Still too many questions without any answers.
- What's up with Hawkeye? Does EVERY blind person in the Marvel Universe have fucking sonar powers?
- Who's the President? We can eliminate most of the Marvel big bads -- Magneto, Kingpin, Goblin, Doom -- because they already have territory carved out on the map. (Well, Magneto's is "formerly", so it could TECHNICALLY be him, but I doubt it.) We can rule out Apocalypse because that story's been done. Most of the Avengers baddies I can think of, like Loki and Immortus, don't seem like the President type -- maybe Kang. But my money's on a former hero.
- Who's Tanya's mother?
- What's in the suitcase? It's gotta be more than just drugs.
And of course the perennial "What the fuck happened?" and "What will it take for Wolverine to finally say fuck it and pop his claws?"
Also interested to see how this plays out in the other 3 books. Expect we'll see one version of the catastrophe in this book and another version in Fantastic Four.
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Old Man Logan is the best Marvel title running, just due to the sheer anticipation factor that comes with each page.
Who's the President? ... But my money's on a former hero.
:OoO: Sweeeeeet.
Who's Tonya's mother?
:shrug: Doubt we'll find out.
What's in the suitcase?
Hedging my bets on an artifact to assassinate The President. My knowledge of such weaknesses to established Marvel villains and heroes is lacking, but reading over The Punisher Kills The Marvel Universe, I'll go with Nuclear Weapon for $500, Alex.
Also interested to see how this plays out in the other 3 books.
Head over heels for Kick-Ass, and Fantastic Four is solid enough to purchase. Marvel '85, however, is simply not catching my attention. One-sided conflicts never have.
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As a fundraiser for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, Liberty Comics would be worth the price of admission even if it were crap, but it's a good read. It's a good anthology, something that's become all too rare in modern comics -- good four-page stories are a lost art.
My favorite is probably Mark Millar's story of Dracula, retired to London, no longer feasting on the living, wandering around in a cape but otherwise having an ordinary day-to-day life. I'm also quite partial to the Aragones/Evanier strips on the history of comic censorship; they're preachy as hell but make for some interesting stories (like an EC editor being arrested in the 1950's, not for horror comics but for making fun of Santa Claus). Gordon Lee (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Lee_(comic_store_owner)) is never mentioned by name, but his case is alluded to -- after all, cases like his are the reason the CBLDF exists. And hey, it's great, goofy Aragones art -- you can't beat that; there is a reason he is one of the true legends of the form. (Stan Sakai and Tom Luth are credited too, but I'm not sure what they did.)
It's $4 for an organization dedicated to upholding the Bill of Rights. That alone is worth the price (even though I remember the days when freedom only cost a buck oh five). But on top of that, it's a fun read. And Mignola did a Hellboy cover for it.
Stan Sakai has been doing Sergio's lettering for over two decades, just as Tom Luth has been doing his colouring for as long (and Marc Evanier does whatever the hell it is he does).
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Trinity #10 is the best issue yet. Main story is a good spotlight on Superman, features the CSA and a bunch of interdimensional hostages who each mistake Superman for their respective universe's version (including a shoutout to Apollo), some more attention to John Stewart, and a new villain named Sun-Chained-in-Ink who presumably has that miniature sun from #2 (?) inside him.
The backup story features Robin and Nightwing fighting a flirty ape, and then Jason Blood finally puts in an appearance.
There's also a big clue involving dreams; my guess is we'll see John Dee tying into the villain story pretty soon here.
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Final Crisis #3 is fucking awesome. Frankenstein, the Flashes, the draft, the Anti-Life Equation, Shilo Norman, Sonny Sumo, and the Super Young Team...
...well, after all that the ending seems a little flaccid. But the last-page shot of [spoiler]the new Female Furies[/spoiler] is pretty sweet.
I'm curious whether this will win over the doubters. I feel like the story's starting to stand on its own, but I also feel like people who haven't read Seven Soldiers or Fourth World are going to be left wondering who the hell all these characters are who keep showing up for two pages without explanation and then disappearing.
I know who Sonny Sumo is. I know his significance to this story. I know he knows the Anti-Life Equation (or used to; it seems like he's forgotten his role in The Forever People. And it bears noting that Mister Miracle also knew the Equation -- though that was Scott Free, not Shilo Norman, and it was in the 1990's Orion series, which Morrison may be ignoring). The majority of the readership probably doesn't know any of that. And again, that last page is going to be a whole lot less impressive to anyone who doesn't know [spoiler]who the Female Furies are[/spoiler], especially inasmuch as the "scary Wonder Woman" image is on the friggin' cover.
...Curious as to whether Orion's hair color is a mistake or a clue. (Was going to say something similar about Robin and Nightwing's disappearing, reappearing masks in Trinity #10, but forgot.) And I haven't been reading Outsiders -- is the new Aquaman actually capable of surviving on land now, or is that a continuity error?
Anyway. Nitpicking aside, as far as I'm concerned it's Morrison at his best.
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Stan Sakai has been doing Sergio's lettering for over two decades, just as Tom Luth has been doing his colouring for as long (and Marc Evanier does whatever the hell it is he does).
Evanier fixes Sergio's spanglish into proper english.
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Stan Sakai has been doing Sergio's lettering for over two decades, just as Tom Luth has been doing his colouring for as long (and Marc Evanier does whatever the hell it is he does).
Evanier fixes Sergio's spanglish into proper english.
I've been reading Groo for 10 years. Yes, 'whatever it is Mark Evanier does' was a joke. The same one Mark or Sergio makes in every single issue.
YOU KILLED IT ZARA! :MENDOZAAAAA:
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Eternals is largely directionless, pretty much just continuing the "find the gods who have been turned into mortals" story started by Gaiman in the previous volume (and, for that matter, used by JMS in Thor).
But I dig the art. It's straight-up Kirby homage, but not in an annoying way like Death of the New Gods. The Eternals and ESPECIALLY the Celestials are quite clearly Kirby characters -- their dimensions, their costumes, their shading -- but Acuna's art and, nontrivially, colors (I assume they're his as there's no "color" credit, just "art") are distinctive. The Kirby influence is clear, but it's not the only thing going on.
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Crossed #0:
And so I find myself, not for the first time nor, I can reasonably assume, for the last, saying, "Yeah, what the FUCK, Ennis?"
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Stan Lee's career. (http://www.comicbookmovie.com/news/articles/4927.asp)
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Bah dump-ching.
Isn't Stan Lee mostly loved and admired for being a ballsy hack? This might be inspired perfection for all intents and purposes.
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as long as it openly mocks what a retard Hilton is, I might be in support
but only if it is really, really mean
and they, like, beat her openly
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uh
didn't stan lee help create PAMELA ANDERSON IN: STRIPPERELLA
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Maybe lighting will strike twice! ::D:
:oh:
Or maybe... once? Partially? Can... can lightning strike partially? Not really hit anything, just sort of go near it?
-
You could hallucinate the lightning striking.
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Or that Stan Lee is still relevant.
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Tomasi on Green Lantern Corps: I thought the Mongul/Black Mercy arc was pretty meh, but it looks like he's hit his stride in #27. Good levity with Guy and Kyle opening a new Warriors on Oa, and a good new character in Saarek.
I'm frankly already sick of Blackest Night and it doesn't even start until next year. Event Fatigue is a real thing, guys.
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Next month is the time when I get back into the comics since Deadpool's new series is finally hitting.
...And he's all I have left at Marvel because Venom sucks and Spider-Man does more so now. ::(:
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Walking Dead #51: the major twist is sort of telegraphed within the issue, but is a pretty big shock within the context of the larger series.
Next month's cover shows Michonne's back. (Or at least someone holding her katana.) [spoiler]Seems fitting, now that she and Rick have something in common.[/spoiler]
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[...] Superman #678 [...] changes to a Kirby style for the villain's origin story, bookended by a Frank Miller-style panel and a montage that I would probably say is Dave McKean-inspired (definitely an homage to SOMEbody on Sandman).
In the end, I was disappointed that it was so heavy on the Kirby influence and only played with two other styles, for half a page each. I don't expect something like the Madman issue where Allred made an homage to a different artist in every panel (that would be pretty much an impossible task when facing monthly deadlines), but a little more variety would have been nice.
Buckaroo Banzai: The Prequel Of Hunan Bondage #1 does a little of this; it plays around with different art styles, different coloring techniques, and some rather cool panel layouts. That may explain why it took two years between the last miniseries and this one.
The plot jumps around a lot, and I'm not quite sure what the hell is going on; I'm also not sure what the hell decade it's supposed to be. If it's a prequel it should logically take place BEFORE 1984, and the hair, clothing, and attitudes toward the Chinese suggest that it does, but there's also a reference to CD's.
(And didn't Buckaroo meet Penny for the first time in the movie? Maybe the "prequel" part only refers to the flashbacks?)
Course, I don't even remember Return of the Screw ENDING. My recollection was that #3 was a cliffhanger and #4 just never came, but I must be wrong because those three issues have been collected and this new mini is another story entirely.
Anyway. Buckaroo Banzai is probably not supposed to make very much sense anyway.
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Astonishing #26: plot's thin, and dialogue's not up to Ellis's usual standard, though there's a good bit with Armor and near the end he makes Cyclops a sympathetic character (still has a rod up his butt, but now it's the "Hey, we have to kill people sometimes, deal with it" kind of rod up his butt).
Bianchi's art is real purty. The costumes (Storm's in particular) are absurd but honestly pretty cool. It's a really interesting change from Cassaday. (What's he doing these days, anyway? Planetary #27?)
Also, Beast is on the cover but appears nowhere in the issue.
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FF #559: now THAT, my friends, is how you do a big reveal.
Also, nice to get a Johnny issue. And nice to see that, as big a flake as he's been so far, he doesn't fuck around when lives are on the line.
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"I'LL FUCK YOUR FAMILY!" "My family is well-armed!"
The Georgia thread reminded me of what may be one of my favourite comics ever. And it was never even finished (well, maybe someday... blah blah blah).
The Winter Men.
Good luck finding any information online about it. It was a miniseries originally slated to run to 8 issues, then was cut to 6, re-expanded to 8 and then cut down again. Sales numbers were embarassingly paltry. It finally ended with issue 5, with a sort of a placeholder ending and a promise to conclude in 'The Winter Men Special #1', which was never released, but would have have been a single double-sized issue.
The is was quite simply one of the best graphic anythings I've ever seen comitted to paper. Rather than attempt to explain it, I will just quote Warren Ellis' personal review:
"WINTER MEN...I think
it's probably the best thing
Wildstorm are publishing right now.
Nominally, it's the story of the
people who used to be Russian
mecha-piloting "heroes," as far as
I can see; the present day, and the
meat of the book, is one of them
as a drunken, comically immoral cop
in disintegrated contemporary
Moscow. John Paul Leon turns in
the art job of his career, but the
standout, even in that company,
is writer Brett Lewis, who is writing
some of the best dialogue I've ever
read. What DEADWOOD is to
American Western speech, WINTER
MEN is to transliterated Russian
conversation; it has a peculiar
cadence to it that makes you think
of subtitles, but rich with personality
and music. Complete with arrowed
captions that point out and
translate local gestures. I've re-read
the two issues I own a dozen times
each. Go and look for the singles
-- four released, four to come..."
Ashley Woods also called it the greatest comic book he'd ever read from the Big Two.
Now... my question is: Have any of you ever read it?
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No, but it makes a good segue into 1963, which I recently read and have been wanting to talk about.
1963 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1963_(comic)) is a similarly-unfinished comic series from 1993, written by Alan Moore (Swamp Thing) and illustrated variously by Steve Bissette (Swamp Thing) and Rick Veitch (Swamp Thing), with inks by John Totleben (Swamp Thing).
As the title implies, the book is an homage to the Marvel books of the 1960's. The first two issues are Mystery Incorporated, a sci-fi story about a family of four explorers, and The Fury, about a teenage superhero who supports his mother while mourning the death of his father; that issue features Sky Solo, Lady of LASER. Next is Tales of the Uncanny, featuring a story about USA, a patriotic superhero from the '40's, and Hypernaut, a mechanical hero with a tragic secret. Then there's Tales from Beyond, with N-Man, a giant, muscled monster, and Johnny Beyond, a dimension-hopping sorcerer. #5 was Horus, Lord of Light, about an ancient god alternating between a modern secret identity and interaction with his mythical pantheon, and #6 was The Tomorrow Syndicate, which teamed up USA, Hypernaut, Horus, and N-Man with a married couple of size-changing scientists, Inra-Man and Infra-Girl.
Beyond the basic premises, though, Moore wrote the dialogue in an over-the-top, alliterative Stan Lee style, using catchphrases like "Say no more!", "Excalibur!", and "Be sure to see it's Sixty-Three!" Each issue featured a lettercol and a Bullpen Bulletins-style news page, and those were where the parody ceased to be loving and got a little vicious -- Affable Al is a cheerful, no-talent megalomaniac who overworks his artists while claiming credit for their work and paying them poorly. The Marvel Bullpen is replaced with the Sixty-Three Sweatshop, where the artists toil while Al sits in his air-conditioned office.
There are also fake ads. They're pretty entertaining too.
Anyway, 1963 was also something of a rebuke to the Dark-and-Gritty trend of the day, and its final issue was to be an 80-page special where the 1963 characters traveled to 1993 and met the Image stable of Spawn, the Savage Dragon, and whoever the hell else Image was publishing back then, but it never happened. Lee and Liefeld got busy, Moore and Bissette had a falling-out, and the Dark-and-Gritty trend started to recede. So the closest we'll see to the intended denouement is the bit in #6 where the Tomorrow Syndicate travels to the future and the art style changes several times.
Anyway. A great book, and highly recommended if anyone can find it.
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Trinity #12: Probably the best bit of the main feature is the continuing story about the Trinity's personalities starting to bleed into one another.
And the backup story finally brings "our" Riddler in, and seems to put to bed the question of who Enigma is. It's not a surprise, but now that it's out of the way, hopefully we can get more of his story.
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uh
didn't stan lee help create PAMELA ANDERSON IN: STRIPPERELLA
I really think in his old age Stan Lee just wants to be Hugh Hefner instead.
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Madman #10: I love how the conflict that's so clearly depicted on the cover is more a thing that simmers below the surface in the story itself. Frank doesn't want Luna Joe, he just wants Joe back -- and he feels guilty about Adam's death and wants everything to go back to the way it was.
As common as the guilt theme is for someone dating the girlfriend of a recently-deceased friend, it has a metafictional significance here, too -- whatever it was that killed him in the story, the real reason Adam died was to clear the way so Frank could date Luna Joe.
The father-son dynamic between Dr. Flem and Frank has an autobiographical component too -- Allred's father passed away recently, and I've seen a lot of his recent stories reflecting elements of that. I don't know how much Allred's father was like Dr. Flem, but Flem's certainly an archetype here -- the father who cares deeply about his son but can't express it, who puts up a callous exterior rather than risk hurting him. And this issue we hit a moment that's standard in every story of an adopted child: a key to his past, something to tie him back to his natural father.
The last-page reveal raises more questions than it answers; we're closer to finding out who the disembodied narrative voice belongs to but not quite there yet.
I don't think things are going back to status quo any time soon -- but Allred definitely seems to be working toward some kind of resolution to the Frank/Luna Joe/zombie Adam triangle.
Anyway. This is one of my favorite books, ever. Those not reading it may be better served in picking up the trades and starting from the beginning, but in any case I recommend it.
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The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout 'Save us!' And I'll look down, and whisper 'Aglets.' (http://www.afhub.com/jlu-figure-preview-the-question/)
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So uh they're STILL releasing new JLU toys, TWO YEARS after the last episode aired?
Could someone please explain to me again how the five-year rule makes the slightest fucking bit of sense, at all?
-
$
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Yes, I covered that part in the FIRST sentence of my post. The show is clearly still profitable.
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Do you think they would sell more toys because it was still on TV?
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What? I'm not being facetious here, but your question changes tense halfway through and I'm not sure what it is that you're asking.
-
Do you think they would sell more toys because it was still on TV?
Maybe not more Superman or Batman, but they would sure as shit be selling more Question if anyone remembered who the fuck he is.
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Old Man Logan: President confirmed to be neither Doom nor Magneto. Fisk is actually back on the table now that we know the Kingpin is a new guy using the name, but I'm still guessing it's one of the good guys. There's a dot labeled "Pym's Cross" in the President's Quarter, so we can safely assume that Hank, Jan, or one of their descendants went to the dark side, but again, I don't think the President is anyone whose name appears on the map.
Further conjecture: the new nanny in Fantastic Four is not only Sue from the future, she's Sue from THIS future. Which means the next question is, where does Valeria fit in? Is she dead? I think we can assume Franklin is, given that his mutant power is making dystopian parallel universes go away -- though maybe he did that by sending Mom back in time. (It could be that one of them is the President, but I think that's reaching a bit. I'm thinking the massacre is supposed to happen soon so that the FF can avert it in their book, meaning Franklin and Valeria are still kids when it happens and pretty unlikely to be teaming up with Magneto and Doom to kill all the superheroes.)
Given that our principal characters are Wolverine and Hawkeye, and my theory that the President is a good guy, it's probably safe to figure it's either an Avenger or an X-Man. We can probably rule out Scarlet Witch, Professor X, and Jean Grey, because they've all had high-profile "GOES BAD!" stories already. (Also, recent Marvel promos suggest there's a Jean-coming-back-from-the-dead Big Event coming, and I could see it stealing that thunder if she showed up here first.) Actually, has the President's gender been given yet? I don't think it has.
So, spitballing here...probably somebody close to Wolverine for him to freak out over it...let's say one of his teenybopper sidekicks...how about Jubilee, since we haven't seen her in awhile.
That, or the kid from 1985.
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Nrama (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090802-SiegelShusterSociety.html): Meltzer's started a charity to -- for starters -- fix up the boyhood home of Joe Siegel. They've tapped a pretty big list of talent who will be holding auctions for the cause.
The current list includes: Stephen Colbert (VIP tickets to a show taping), Jim Lee, Brian Michael Bendis (appear in Powers), Brad Meltzer (appear in his next novel), Geoff Johns, Richard Donner (an autographed preSuperman Superman movie script), Joe Quesada, Neil Gaiman, Alex Ross, Dave Gibbons, Jeph Loeb (a walk-on role on NBC’s Heroes), Murphy Anderson, Ed Brubaker (appear in his creator-owned work), John Cassaday, Gene Ha, Greg Rucka (appear in his comics), George Perez, Michael Turner, Adam Kubert, Andy Kubert, Judd Winick, Frank Cho, Eric Powell, Tim Sale, Walt Simonson (Superman and Beta Ray Bill original art), Joe Staton, Eric Wight, Dave Mandel, Mike Mignola, Rags Morales, Bill Morrison, Ivan Reis, John Romita Jr., Jason Palmer, Amanda Conner, Geoff Darrow, Ron Garney, Renato Guedes, Heroes, Dave Johnson, Chris Bachalo, Mike Bair, Allen Bellman, Dan Brereton, Ernie Chan, Travis Charest, and Ian Churchill.
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Marvel: Your Universe is one of those free books the publishers periodically put out to try and get new readers up to speed and interested in what's going on.
Earlier today, I posted on the Real World board about a study showing that ads for prescription drugs don't actually increase sales. That seems apt here, because I have always wondered who this audience is that reads these promo books and then goes out and buys what they're promoting. Because, FCBD notwithstanding, I can't think of one I've ever read that hasn't been terrible.
This one is only an exception to that rule inasmuch as it is probably worse than any other I've ever seen. Batman: The 10-Cent Adventure? The 12-Cent Adventure? At least they had original content. Even that Secret Invasion one Marvel put out a few months back reminded me that Skrulls used to be fun. Even if it totally failed to mention the time one of them impersonated Richard Nixon.
This one -- well, its biggest mistake is that it tries to cover every single fucking Marvel event since Avengers Disassembled. In chronological order. "The Scarlet Witch turned evil and then went comatose. Meanwhile, Cyclops and Havok discovered they had a long-lost brother. Then the Scarlet Witch came back and altered reality. Then everything went back to normal, except there were only 200 mutants left. Then they shot Hulk into space. Then there was a Civil War. Also, Hulk was fighting aliens. Then Captain America died. Then they tried to start a superhero team in every state, but they all got infiltrated by Skrulls. Then Hulk came back from space. Meanwhile, the mutants were fighting over a mutant baby, and Bishop betrayed them to avert his dystopian future, even though he already did that ten years ago in the Onslaught story. Then Bucky became Captain America. Also, Black Panther and Storm were part of the Fantastic Four for six issues, though that really doesn't matter and I'm not sure why I bothered to bring it up. Then Spider-Man and Mary Jane made a deal with the devil and now they don't remember they used to be married, and also now there is a Red Hulk and everybody is a Skrull. The end."
I mean, seriously, the only conceivable takeaway from all this is "The Marvel Universe is an epic goddamned clusterfuck." I seriously cannot envision the person who reads this thing and goes, "Oh, cool, I really want to read more about Captain America and Spider-Man's mutant baby red Skrull."
Even if I found a single one of those stories interesting on its merits (well...the first couple issues of Civil War were pretty good), the presentation here is just godawful. You could read a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book beginning-to-end and the narrative would jump around less and make more sense.
I just don't get it. It IS possible to do a good free promo book; I get a stack of the fuckers every May. But this...well, if people are looking for harbingers of the next comic industry crash, I nominate Marvel: Your Universe.
Well...that and One More Day.
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I know nothing about comics, but "Your Universe" is an entertaining title for something so embarrassing. Almost as though they're shoving it in your face and shouting "LOOK WHAT YOU'VE DONE. BAD."
-
Also, it has the word "SAGA" in the lower right-hand corner of the cover for reasons I'm not altogether sure of.
-
So, okay. As I've said before, the Whedon/Cassaday run of Astonishing has been on my "wait for the trade" list for the past couple years. And it's probably better that it was, given the schedule issues they dealt with.
Anyway. I said earlier in the thread that the third trade, Torn, was a massive disappointment, and that I was ambivalent about whether to pick up the last one. People reassured me it was better, and they were right -- it might be the best of the lot.
Perhaps most impressive is Whedon's skill at tying the earlier stories together. Everything that happened in the earlier issues happened for a reason.
And the characters have grown -- Cyclops and Emma show why they're in charge, Armor proves she's ready for the big time, Kitty and Peter struggle against fate, and Hank goes seven issues without whining about how he's going feral. He's good ol' Hank, using big words and making Star Wars references. The ending somehow manages to be surprisingly poignant, even after three death cheats in the preceding six issues and a whole lot more than that over the course of the entire series. (Of course, you have to accept the absurd alien weapon with a grin and a shrug if you're going to enjoy it, but what the hell -- Whedon, like Stan Lee or Kevin Smith, excels at dialogue far more than plot.)
And Cassaday's art -- Giant-Size is one of those books artists do just to draw every major character in the universe, and he does a damned fine job across the board. I love his Spider-Man in particular -- but I like the words coming out of his mouth even better. I would LOVE to see a Whedon/Cassaday Spider-Man book.
Anyway. All in all, a great run (Torn notwithstanding), and this is coming from someone who fucking hates the X-Men. Recommended reading (except Torn).
Huh -- you know, back to Old Man Logan and my betting that the President is Wolverine's teenybopper Asian sidekick? Maybe I picked the wrong one. Maybe it's Armor.
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Took the peanut gallery's advice (http://brontoforum.us/index.php?topic=119.msg24281#msg24281) and, rather than write about Love and Rockets: New Stories #1 here, where nobody is interested in talking about it, I wrote about it on my blog (http://www.corporate-sellout.com/index.php/2008/09/07/love-and-rockets-new-stories-1/).
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Hooray and I think your feed is broken but still hooray!
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Now it's working. Also, what'd you think of Gotham by Gaslight? I found it to be rather bland and predictable (there's a trend of these Elseworlds style stories to just transplant the character from era to era without it actually having any impact on things), with pretty art.
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Pretty much that, yeah.
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...So I've finally gotten around to picking up Invincible vol 1. So far so good; will make more in-depth comments when I'm done with it.
Had forgotten Kirkman did the Masters of the Universe: Icons of Evil miniseries back before he was hot shit. (Think I noticed when I was sorting through my collection awhile back.) That's kinda funny -- Bruce Timm started out doing MotU too (the little mini-comics that came with the toys).
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...So I've finally gotten around to picking up Invincible vol 1. So far so good; will make more in-depth comments when I'm done with it.
I remember insisting that you read Invincible back in Pyokon '06. It's about time - enjoy!
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Finished.
Good stuff.
It seems like every good superhero comic goes back, in some fundamental way, to Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four. Here we've got the two major themes of high school and the superhero family, each combining the extraordinary with the down-to-Earth.
It also makes a hell of a contrast to Walking Dead in its upbeat, utopian tone. While the "physics teacher turns kids into bombs" story is decidedly darker than the rest of the first four issues (and what the hell was a physics teacher doing talking about Mayan mythology, anyway?), overall the story's got a decidedly Silver Age optimism to it. Maybe more optimism than the Marvel Silver Age -- nobody has a dead uncle, a disfiguring monsterism, or shrapnel in his heart. So maybe, in that regard, it's more like Silver Age Superboy. (It also reminds me, perhaps oddly, of Dreamwave's Mega Man series. I really liked that book.)
I'm also aware that this is just an origin story and there's bound to be more conflict as the series goes on. (I'm also aware that there have been several more years of stories at this point and I have some catching up to do next time there's a sale at the comic shop.) But if Kirkman keeps up this tone and pace, I think I'm sold.
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I'm also aware that this is just an origin story and there's bound to be more conflict as the series goes on.
Ohhhhhhh, yes indeed there is.
(I'm also aware that there have been several more years of stories at this point and I have some catching up to do next time there's a sale at the comic shop.) But if Kirkman keeps up this tone and pace, I think I'm sold.
Yeah, when I bought the first volume because of a recommendation, I enjoyed it but was on the fence about spending more money. Luckily, I found volumes 2 and 3 for half price at a convention soon after, and that's really where the story took off for me.
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I'm probably about a year behind on Invincible right now and so probably soon will get to the point where it's time for me to go through another chunk .. but one of the things I really, really love about it is how Kirkman really seems to know just when to bring back an almost forgotten plot element just when it feels right. I can't overstate how much I love the book on the whole. It's one of the few series that I downloaded to try, consumed everything there was to read about it in a day or two, and then went out the next day and picked up several of the trades.
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Finally (http://www.fantagraphics.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=shop.flypage&product_id=1482&category_id=323&manufacturer_id=0&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=62).
(That is a link to the buy page for the newest Tales Designed to Thrizzle comic.)
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I am becoming more dissatisfied with Kick-Ass as each issue passes.
*sigh*
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Yeah, 4 was weak. I'm not ready to say "jump the shark" yet, but it pretty much betrayed the premise of the book -- first of all, that Kick-Ass ISN'T the world's first superhero, and secondly, that the other two are such unbelievably over-the-top characters in a book that's supposed to be set in the real world.
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The diminutive ten-year-old cursing, trash-talking, asian girl dual-wielding a pair of katanas, sort of kills it, yes.
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In other Millar news: Nrama interview (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090809-UltimateAvengers.html) teases his upcoming Ultimate Avengers.
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I am becoming more dissatisfied with Kick-Ass as each issue passes.
*sigh*
:sadpanda:
Haven't read past 3 yet, but I enjoyed it so far. I hope it doesn't disappoint me.
Scuba dude isn't, like, curving bullets, is he?
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Not... yet.
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Apparently, Wizards of the Coast has been using DDP comics to do comics based on the various D&D IPs they own, as I went to the comic book store and noticed the Dragonlance logo on one of them. I picked up the first two issues based on the first of the Legends Trilogy, Time of the Twins. I'm really digging the art style, and the Legends Trilogy has been one of my favorites.
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Hm, yeah, I knew they were adapting Chronicles a few years back. Maybe I should check it out.
Gotta be better than the animated movie.
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The voice acting of the movie was fucking perfect. The animation, not so much.
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I posted my thoughts on the movie (http://brontoforum.us/index.php?topic=24.msg1094#msg1094) in February; not really much to add.
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These are some pretty good deals. I reccomend David Yurkovich and the soft cover of blankets if you don't have that stuff yet. $3 top shelf comix sale. (http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog.php?section=specialdeals&additem=564)
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Nrama (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090802-SiegelShusterSociety.html): Meltzer's started a charity to -- for starters -- fix up the boyhood home of Joe Siegel. They've tapped a pretty big list of talent who will be holding auctions for the cause.
Latest (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090812-SiegelHouseUpdate.html): they've raised over $40K, mostly from $10 and $20 donations but of course the auctions going for thousands of dollars don't hurt, and construction's going to start in the next few weeks.
It's one of those tug-at-the-heartstrings stories, and absolutely appropriate for how Siegel wrote the original Superman -- the paragon, the symbol of our own better natures, the inspiration, and, above all, the guy who gives people a helping hand when times are tough.
An interesting sidenote from the story:
Writer Paul Dini will donate the autographed script for the unaired script episode of Batman: The Animated Series called "Batman/Superman: When Twerps Collide." Dini notes, "This Batman/Superman team-up segment was cut from a Batman direct to video that was ultimately never produced. It is a lost bit of DC animated history. Enjoy!"
A trip to Google shows no matches for "When Twerps Collide" besides this story. A Mxy/Bat-Mite story, perhaps? I'm hoping the winner of the auction shares with the rest of the class.
On another topic, I just found out that, now that Fourth World's been released in its entirety (such as it is), The Demon is getting a similar hardcover Omnibus edition. Something to keep in mind for when I get a job and can buy $50 comic books again. And have bought the last two Fourth World books.
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Nrama (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/090825-WaidColbert.html): Amazing Spider-Man #573 to include 8-page Stephen Colbert story by Mark Waid.
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FF #560:
Unsurprising: [spoiler]Mrs. Deneuve is Sue from the future.[/spoiler]
More surprising: [spoiler]Not just a few decades in the future, but 500 YEARS.[/spoiler]
More surprising still: [spoiler]she doesn't appear to be one of the good guys.[/spoiler]
While things don't overlap 100%, I think it's still fair to assume the dystopian future we're seeing here is part of the same timeline as the one in Old Man Logan. If we assume that to be true, that means there's an environmental collapse AND a supervillain takeover, not necessarily in that order.
Are they connected? Well, one hypothesis is that Reed's the Big Bad in Old Man Logan.
Case for: in Civil War, Millar wrote Reed as an amoral character who believed the ends justified the means, and had no problem throwing his friends into the Negative Zone "for the greater good". Faced with the end of the world, this version of Reed could do some pretty nasty things.
Case against: But teaming up with Doom and Magneto to subjugate the human race is a bit of a stretch (no pun intended). Millar also gave Johnny a pretty flexible set of morals for a few issues in there, but once the chips were down he didn't even hesitate to do the right thing. Indeed, Reed's seeming much warmer and more grounded now than he did during CW.
Plus, while OML has thus far focused on a more diverse cast of Marvel characters like Hawkeye, descendants of Hulk and Spider-Man, and a namesake of Kingpin, I think the big bad has to be an X-Man.
Anyhow. I'm guessing "probably not" on the Reed is the President angle -- though he probably has something to do with the heroes disappearing. And I DO think the two catastrophes are going to turn out to be connected, but only tangentially -- Millar's stressed that, while these books tie together, it's not a crossover and they stand alone.
Speaking of, 1985 #5 gives the clearest tie to Millar's other books yet: [spoiler]it ends with a Big Reveal of Galactus, just like FF #559.[/spoiler] Aside from that, transplanting the hero into the Marvel Universe changes the dynamic in entertaining ways -- New Yorkers totally unfazed by two-bit costumed villains in their midst, the Avengers' and Fantastic Four's respective reactions to his request for help, and...well, the solution's obvious. There's one hero in the Marvel Universe who you'd go to if you wanted your crazy story to be taken seriously.
I've said before that man-on-the-street stories are my favorites, and this is a good one. It also manages the proper symmetry for this kind of story. (I remember being disappointed at a Masters of the Universe comic arc a few years back that featured Man-at-Arms trading places with an evil version of himself from an opposite universe; we saw the evil one running around Eternia, but never the far-more-compelling story of Duncan in the other universe. Hell, you go back to Captain N and there was a Mirror World episode, and I remember being irritated that they never tried to team up with the good version of Mother Brain.)
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The comic version of Treehouse of Horror is less a Simpsons comic and more an homage to pulp and horror comics of the EC era. The art seldom adheres to the standard character models, and the writers often seem like they haven't actually watched the show in about nineteen years. But if you don't get bogged down on whether it feels like The Simpsons, it's usually a damned good book.
This year's features three stories: 30 Days of D'oh by Steve Niles and Glenn Fabry, Murder He Wrote by Ian Boothby and Nina Matsumoto, and Homerstein Conquers the World, by Gilbert Hernandez.
30 Days is the least funny of the three, and is less about the Simpsons than the Wiggums. It's a passable story about a zombie apocalypse, but where it really shines is Fabry's art, at once familiar and different, distinctly Simpsons but also distinctly Fabry, different and more detailed.
Murder is a neat paradox: of the three, it has the most recognizably Simpsons story (Boothby is a regular on the comic), paired with the most radically different art, in a black-and-white manga style by Matsumoto. The contrast is neat.
Finally, Homerstein barely qualifies as a Simpsons story. It's got Bart, Lisa, and Homer, but substitute any three generic characters and the result would be the same. It's just fun Hernandez monster weirdness. The humor is Hernandez whimsy rather than Simpsons satire, but it's charming (not less so for looking somewhat like the Groening doodles that characterized the original Tracey Ullman versions of the characters) and the man does great work.
All in all, a good read; best Treehouse of Horror probably since the Monsters of Rock one a few years back.
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Marvel: Your Universe March on Ultimatum Saga is one of those free books the publishers periodically put out to try and get new readers up to speed and interested in what's going on.
Earlier today, I posted on the Real World board about a study showing that ads for prescription drugs don't actually increase sales. That seems apt here, because I have always wondered who this audience is that reads these promo books and then goes out and buys what they're promoting. Because, FCBD notwithstanding, I can't think of one I've ever read that hasn't been terrible.
This one is only an exception to that rule inasmuch as it is probably worse than any other I've ever seen. Batman: The 10-Cent Adventure? The 12-Cent Adventure? At least they had original content. Even that Secret Invasion one Marvel put out a few months back reminded me that Skrulls used to be fun. Even if it totally failed to mention the time one of them impersonated Richard Nixon. And Your Universe, the previous record holder, at least looked like it had some editors working on it.
This one -- well, its biggest mistake is that it tries to cover every single fucking Ultimate Marvel event since Avengers Disassembled ever. In chronological order. "The Scarlet Witch turned evil and then went comatose. Meanwhile, Cyclops and Havok discovered they had a long-lost brother. Then the Scarlet Witch came back and altered reality. Then everything went back to normal, except there were only 200 mutants left. Then they shot Hulk into space. Then there was a Civil War. Also, Hulk was fighting aliens. Then Captain America died. Then they tried to start a superhero team in every state, but they all got infiltrated by Skrulls. Then Hulk came back from space. Meanwhile, the mutants were fighting over a mutant baby, and Bishop betrayed them to avert his dystopian future, even though he already did that ten years ago in the Onslaught story. Then Bucky became Captain America. Also, Black Panther and Storm were part of the Fantastic Four for six issues, though that really doesn't matter and I'm not sure why I bothered to bring it up. Then Spider-Man and Mary Jane made a deal with the devil and now they don't remember they used to be married, and also now there is a Red Hulk and everybody is a Skrull. The end." "Millions of years ago, the Fantastic Four went back in time and fought dinosaurs. Then a few million years later Atlantis was destroyed. Then a few thousand years later Nick Fury and Wolverine were in the Super Soldier program, and then Captain America got frozen in ice fighting Nazis who were really Skrulls but they're called Chitauri in this universe. Meanwhile, Magneto and Xavier started the Brotherhood, then had a falling out. Then a few decades later Peter Parker got bitten by a genetically enhanced spider. Then Norman Osborn became the Green Goblin. Then Xavier started the X-Men and Magneto sent Wolverine to kill them but he switched sides. Then Nick Fury founded the Ultimates and found Captain America in a glacier. Then the Fantastic Four started up. And then Hank Pym beat his wife. And then fifteen more pages of convoluted shit about Peter Parker's love life, time travel, clones, zombies, and about 300 character names that get thrown out with little or no introduction. The end."
I mean, seriously, the only conceivable takeaway from all this is "The Ultimate Marvel Universe is well on its way to becoming as much of an epic goddamned clusterfuck as the original Marvel Universe." I seriously cannot envision the person who reads this thing and goes, "Oh, cool, I really want to read more about Captain America and Spider-Man's mutant baby red Skrull Chitauri."
Even if I found a single one of those stories interesting on its merits (well...the first couple issues of Civil War were volume of The Ultimates was pretty good), the presentation here is just godawful. You could read a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book beginning-to-end and the narrative would jump around less and make more sense, and you could spend an hour on Wikipedia and get the same information with fewer typos.
I just don't get it. It IS possible to do a good free promo book; I get a stack of the fuckers every May. But this...well, if people are looking for harbingers of the next comic industry crash, I nominate Marvel: Your Universe and March On Ultimatum Saga.
Well...that and One More Day.
Really, a couple things are striking about this. One is that, while the Ultimate Universe is still small enough that it's technically possible to do a 24-page book that summarizes every story it's ever had, it's basically become a convoluted, hacky mess with little resemblance to its original, tightly-controlled vision.
I've noted before that Millar and Hitch's original plan for the ending of Ultimates 2 was to kill off both Tony Stark and Nick Fury, and that that would have been far superior to how things actually wound up going. That goes DOUBLE now that I know somebody fucking retconned Fury to have superpowers.
The change comes from the fact that the Ultimate Universe was originally experimental; writers could do more or less whatever the fuck they wanted. Then it became a victim of its own success and editorial started laying down rules about what the writers could and couldn't do. Which is a pity, because it seems to me that what the editors SHOULD be doing is making sure books don't get published containing passages like this:
As Reed Richards neared completion of his Cosmic Cube, Sue Storm was lured to Siberia by Russian scientist Ivan Kragoff, who hoped to tap into the N-Zone energies within her to revive his dead love. However his assistant, Sorba Rutskaya, hijacked the procedure, killing Kragoff and transforming herself into monstrous gestalt entity, The Red Ghost. When news that Sue's plane had vanished, the Fantastic Four headed to Siberia, where, allied with the armored Russian hero Crimson Dynamo, they managed to destroy the Ghost. In their absence Halcyon forces tried to snatch Reed's Cube, activating its defense program, which surrounded the city in a giant force field, drawing Thanos to come and claim it. He and Reed engaged in a battle of wills to control the Cube, which Thanos, already experienced in its use, won, slaying Reed. Using its power, Thanos swiftly took control of most of Earth's heroes, sending them to conquer Halcyon, but Thanos' rogue daughter, Atrea, revived Reed, and he launched a counter-attack, removing the Cube's failsafes so that it responded to Thanos' subconscious death wish, slaying him.
Even the last page "buy our shit" catalog is fucked up, having a section that looks roughly like this:
Ultimates 2
Ultimates 2 vol 1 TPB
Ultimates 2 vol 1 TPB
Ultimates 2
Ultimates 2 vol 1 TPB
Ultimates 2 vol 2 TPB
Seriously, I see SIX NAMES listed in the credits under Editor, Editorial Assistant, Assistant Editors, and Editors, Special Projects. What the fuck does an editor actually DO? Because I'm pretty sure it's not editing.
So, all right, if the point of March on Ultimatum Saga is to show why a big event like Ultimatum is necessary to clear out all the crap and restore the Ultimate Universe to something worth reading, then I won't lie -- this book TOTALLY MAKES THAT CASE.
Two other good things I can say about it: it's free, and it takes a very long time to read. I've been finishing my entire stack of comics in a day or two the last few weeks, and it's been very frustrating; this took probably four times as long for me to get through as an actual comic.
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So uh I hear God's a skrull or something...
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(http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/memoryalpha/en/images/7/7c/HumanGod.jpg)
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So, you know who's GOOD at putting out free promo comics? Fantagraphics.
A Peanuts Halloween is undersized, it's not full of overblown, convoluted, poorly-edited storytelling -- and it's a genuinely enjoyable way to kill 15 minutes.
No chit-chat, no setup, just a series of Great Pumpkin strips, and then an ad on the back cover for the Complete Peanuts series (now up to 1970). The work stands on its own; no need to explain or editorialize or play it up.
It's well-timed, of course; It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is the first of the three Peanuts specials that mark the holiday season every year; people are receptive to a little bit of Great Pumpkin, and for a lot of people these strips (and cartoons) generate warmth and nostalgia. Where Marvel's free giveaway book was "Here, we will help you understand this! Now buy some shit!" this is more like "Hey, remember this? This is nice."
As for the strips themselves -- well, Peanuts was never edgy by any stretch, but in its heyday, before it got stale, it WAS a decently amusing strip. And, inasmuch as it's probably been twenty years since I actually read these strips, I was surprised by Schulz's skill at dealing with complex issues four panels at a time -- when you come right down to it, the Great Pumpkin is a pretty deft metaphor for religion, coming from a man who was conflicted about his own faith.
All this to say, A Peanuts Halloween takes me back to my childhood, while simultaneously giving me the opportunity to see its subtler touches through the eyes of an adult. Thanks, Fantagraphics. And one of these days I might try picking up a few volumes of The Complete Peanuts...but damn, it sure is expensive.
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Thanks, Fantagraphics. And one of these days I might try picking up a few volumes of The Complete Peanuts...but damn, it sure is expensive.
That's pretty much the only thing keeping me from going to the bookstore and raping the clerks until they sell me those books.
God damn I love Peanuts. I have no idea why. But I just do.
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God damn I love Peanuts. I have no idea why. But I just do.
For some reason I love the idea that if an AI program actually gained sentience the first thing it would decide was that it really liked Peanuts. Somehow that just seems perfect to me.
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PRIME DIRECTIVES
------------------
1. PARTY HARD
2. PARTY HARD
3. PARTY HARD
4. YANK THE FOOTBALL
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.
So, you know who's GOOD at putting out free promo comics? Fantagraphics.
I agree. Good company. They're fast and inexpensive. I'd recommend them to anyone buying hardcopy versions of Banana Games, Spider Garden or Spunky Knight.
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...yes, they DO print a lot of porn.
It is sort of a mixed message!
PS: I Googled "Banana Games" and now I hate you.
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::D:
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Action #870: well, either the foreshadowing was all misdirection, or the ending of this issue is, because it sure looks like [spoiler]they just killed off Pa when it looked like it was going to be Ma[/spoiler].
Either way, it's ground that's been tread before, and done better. [spoiler]Morrison's version of Jonathan's death in All-Star was one of the high points of the series.
Of course, speaking of Morrison, Ma COULD still die in Final Crisis. But that would pretty much suck if they BOTH got killed off by supervillains in the span of a few months.[/spoiler]
All in all, not a great Brainiac story. All the buildup, the whole "All the Brainiacs before have been merely shadows of the one, true Brainiac!" retcon, several issues of making him out to be the ultimate badass...and then he turns out to be a gigantic pussy.
But man, I am loving Gary Frank's art.
The New Krypton plot shows some promise. We'll see if it becomes a long-term thing or just another Chris Kent "this will change everything!" followed by an immediate return to status quo.
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Apparently Fables is intended to go on for at least 75 more issues. I don't know if I can take six more years of parenthood and bureaucracy.
On the other hand, hey, Fafhrd and Grey Mouser cameo.
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Another great Timm cover on the latest issue of The Spirit. And that's got me thinking: I would LOVE to see him and Cooke do an animated Spirit. A direct-to-video movie would be keen; a series would be ideal. (They could adapt the Batman/Spirit crossover as an episode.)
I've gotta figure someone's floating the idea somewhere what with the movie coming.
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Also it has a cameo by Paul Dini's wife. Maybe they ARE trying to tell us something.
...also also, my copy has grease stains on the first few pages, boooo. And, flipping through the rest of my stack to make sure it was the only one, I managed to spoil the ending of the latest Madman for myself. :loser:
On the plus side, it WAS the only one in my stack that had the damage, and since neither the bag nor anything else in it had any grease on it, it must have been like that when I got it. So I just dropped an E-Mail by my local :sarcasm:; hopefully he'll be able to swap me a fresh one. (Although he never managed to get me a replacement for that Doctor Who #4 or whatever it was with the pages stuck together.)
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Doctor Who
pages stuck together.
Eeeeeew
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oh come on, the Doctor is a sexy, sexy man.
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Rasl #3 is great. We get a little bit of origin story, a couple of new characters, and more hints of what's special about our hero and our villain.
I sure wish this book would come out more often, but on the other hand it's striking how well it works with its glacial release schedule -- Planetary is a great example of a sporadically-released book where I would forget what happened in the previous issue by the time a new one came out, and given its complex story, that made it awfully hard to follow. Rasl, on the other hand, has few enough characters and a straightforward enough plot that it's easy to remember what's happened up to this point. Guess that may change depending on how long it goes on, but so far it's easy to pick up a new issue and remember what's going on.
It's getting to be a pretty compelling story, and man does Smith draw some alluring women.
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Rasl #3 is great. We get a little bit of origin story, a couple of new characters, and more hints of what's special about our hero and our villain.
Wow, they're only on three? It feels like forever since I picked up the first issue. I guess the trade will be a nice surprise around the time I retire.
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Wow, they're only on three?
And according to the ad on the last page, #4 will be out in MARCH.
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Wow... THAT I didn't notice. ://///////
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Newsarama's putting up a frickin' TEN-PART interview with Morrison on All-Star Superman.
Part 1 (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/100821-All-Star-Morrison-01.html) is up, and a very good read.
I read various accounts of Superman’s creation and development as a brand. I read every Superman story and watched every Superman movie I could lay my hands on, from the Golden Age to the present day. From the Socialist scrapper Superman of the Depression years, through the Super–Cop of the 40s, the mythic Hyper–Dad of the 50s and 60s, the questioning, liberal Superman of the early 70s, the bland “superhero” of the late 70s, the confident yuppie of the 80s, the over–compensating Chippendale Superman of the 90s etc.
I also love the bit about Batman being an adolescent fantasy and Superman being an adult one -- going to remember that for the next time my friends start talking about how lame Superman is compared to Batman.
EDIT: Part 2 (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/100822-Morrison-All-Star2.html) is up, and is one of those analyses of Superman as a mythological figure that I love so much.
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Once I found out about Herbie (http://www.geocities.com/cheeksilver/herbie.htm), I had no choice but to pirate it. There's one torrent of it on the entire Internet (look it up on Demonoid) and the one seed is very slow, so I still can't tell you much about it. BUT.
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Rage of the Red Lanterns is worth the cover price solely on the fact that one of the Red Lanterns is [spoiler]a very angry housecat[/spoiler].
Also: is there a name for the trope where the council of the wisest beings in the galaxy is always unbelievably, indescribably fucking stupid and is consistently wrong in every single decision it ever makes? Can we just call that Jedi Council Syndrome?
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The entire Thy Kingdom Come arc in JSA has been pretty much defined by big ideas and mediocre execution, and the Kingdom Come Superman Special is true to form.
The actual Kingdom Come stuff is good -- it's nice seeing McCay again -- and the examination of KC Superman as paranoid and twitchy is fun to see too.
Fleshing out Lois's death from the KC series is a good goal, but just a nightmare from the perspective of a self-contained single issue. This scene could go anywhere before the climax in the original Kingdom Come (it would have worked fine as added material in a trade, like the scene with Orion on Apokolips), but putting it at the end of a self-contained story -- well, it's a pretty serious fucking downer.
Also, I think Lois's last words [spoiler]telling Superman not to give up his principles[/spoiler] are a little too hamhanded; KC worked fine without that bit and, for my money, worked BETTER without it. The fact that [spoiler]Superman doesn't kill[/spoiler] is pretty much the crux of the entire story, the contrast between the Golden and Silver Ages and the Dark Age the book was written in.
This makes for an interesting interlude in the middle of the Kingdom Come story, and gives some insight into Superman's evolution over that story, but in the end it's unnecessary.
I think I enjoyed the "making of" backmatter more than the comic itself. It's always fascinating to see how Ross does what he does.
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Also: is there a name for the trope where the council of the wisest beings in the galaxy is always unbelievably, indescribably fucking stupid and is consistently wrong in every single decision it ever makes? Can we just call that Jedi Council Syndrome?
I mentioned this to Zara over PM, and I don't know if you've read the issue in question, Thad, but the latest issue of Corps has the Zamaron Queen calling the Guardians "incompetent" (among other things when the diplomatic mission breaks down). So someone somewhere at DC is taking note of this stuff. Maybe.
Rage of the Red Lanterns was difficult for me to read due to personal reasons. I love it when that happens, but... It was kind of harder than usual this time. Boy, I love the first Blue Lantern, though. "Saint Walker, Space Texas Ranger?" Was Goodie McRighteous already too common a name on his planet?
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Rage of the Red Lanterns was difficult for me to read due to personal reasons.
Do you own a very angry housecat?
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One reason among several, so yes. She's rather more gray and less blue, mind.
I'll be mindful of any molten blood she spews, in any case.
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(http://i.livescience.com/images/KA-DS-D14-171-02.jpg)
(http://i.livescience.com/images/KA-DS-D13-161-02.jpg)
First Images from the Set of the Big Screen 'Kick Ass' (http://www.newsarama.com/film/081113-kick-ass-images.html)
:wat: No wetsuit? No mouth covering? Hum hum.
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To be fair, a mask with a covered mouth would be impractical for pretty much everything.
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Nrama Millar interview (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/110818-Millar-FF.html) focuses mostly on FF, but has a little bit on Old Man Logan in there too.
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On Sunday I picked up Madman vol. 1 because some crazy guy on these forums keeps talking about it so I thought I'd see what the fuss was. Also, Mike Allred draws in an eye-catching pop style that is like Kirby without ripping Kirby off. Today I bought the third volume, they're that good. I was hooked before this one, but this volume has Conan O'Brien and Andy Richter as incompetent hitmen. Every go buy like 15 copies for all of your friends. Now. Each volume is around $15-18 dollars, contains about 8-10 comics each, and they're on sell at Amazon. DO IT!
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Madman's one of my favorite series that I've been flogging for years between the old forum (where I'm SURE I mentioned the Conan and Andy cameo) and this one. Glad to hear I've got another convert.
The current series is different, a lot more experimental and contemplative, but just as much a joy to read. I love the way Allred's played with the medium -- so far there's been an issue where every panel was an homage to a different artist, an issue with no words, and an issue that consisted of one, continuous 22-page panel.
But you're going to want to pick up the Atomics trade before you pick up the current Madman: Atomic Comics series.
(My dilemma is that I have several, but not all, of the trades from when Dark Horse was publishing them, so if I started buying the new Image trades to complete my collection, I'd be buying a lot of stuff I already own. Of course, it's all moot until I have an income.)
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You know, Thunderbolts is a weird damn book to have an almost complete run of.
I quite liked the first 30 or so issues that Busiek did. Then Nicieza's run was, overall, mediocre, but managed to do something brilliant just often enough to keep me from quitting.
I DID quit after the first two issues of that fucking Fight Club reboot they did after Nicieza left. (I read an interview with Joe Q once where he described that as the worst decision he'd ever made as EiC -- and given that this was before One More Day, he was probably right.) I think that arc only last four issues, meaning I'm only missing two issues of the whole series.
The next reboot was more Nicieza, so again, it was so-so but good enough.
The Ellis run was great, and more importantly it was the biggest shakeup in the book's history. (Well, except the aforementioned shitty Mexican wrestler arc.) This is a team that, by its nature, CAN'T have a stable status quo; if you're not a nutjob, you probably shouldn't be a Thunderbolt.
So, okay -- #126 is another shift, some team members leaving, new ones presumably coming, and at least one old character coming back: Dallas Riordan is apparently on the Senate DHS Committee now.
The problem is that it's not very accessible. Dallas showing up isn't really a problem as her history with the team doesn't play into the story at all (you wouldn't even know it was her if Norman didn't address her by name), but the story DOES rely heavily on the Ellis run. This is a two-parter, so maybe #128 will be a good jumping-on point with the new roster and whatever else.
At any rate, it's a good story, though I didn't care much for the art. The characters are well-presented; Moonstone is the standout of the issue as she says what we're all thinking to Robbie, but Norman's almost equally engaging. Wheels in wheels; he's got a master plan and it's going to be very interesting seeing what it is.
The point is, it's a good issue; lots of shit happens and it's got me looking forward to finding out what happens next. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Diggle's work.
But not more of de la Torre's. Sorry, de la Torre.
Predictions:
Norman and Venom stay, because they're the two biggest-name characters in the book.
Moonstone stays, because she's the most interesting character in this issue and it would be lame if they stuck her in a coma for two years again.
Bullseye stays and Songbird goes, UNLESS Bullseye's lying and [spoiler]Norman didn't put him up to this[/spoiler], in which case all bets are off. It's difficult to imagine Songbird staying on the team if Bullseye's telling the truth and [spoiler]her ace in the hole is gone[/spoiler]. I'd lay pretty good odds of her joining up with Dallas and trying to fight back if she leaves, though.
Robbie goes. If Songbird goes, he teams up with her to strike back.
Radioactive Man goes. [spoiler]In fact, he already did.[/spoiler]
Swordsman is a wildcard. He saw this coming, and [spoiler]is the most likely candidate to show up and save Songbird next ish[/spoiler]. As long as he's got a body full of nanobots he can't leave, but there could be a solution to that. Death would be an obvious one.
As for new members? Hard to say. Smart money's on introducing more A-list villains (say, from the Avengers or X-Men rogues gallery), though I think the team works better with B- and C-listers. (Norman's the only A-lister who's interesting; Moonstone and Swordsman are way more fun than Venom and Bullseye.) Course, it doesn't have to be all villains at this point, either; anyone in violation of the SHRA is a candidate. Punisher, for example, is a longshot but would fit right in with this version of the team.
I wouldn't be surprised if one of the original team showed back up; between Dallas's appearance and Songbird looking at the original team photo I think there's some foreshadowing to that effect. The one I'd like to see again is Fixer; Atlas was fun but too dumb and whiny (though he's the one with a connection to Dallas). More than one would be pushing it though.
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The Spirit Special #1: buy this.
There was some conversation earlier in the thread about how the Spirit is a little-known character who's had a big impact, and this collection of old Eisner strips is a great crash course for $2.99. (My CBG commented that there's no fucking way Marvel would release a movie tie-in book for $2.99, even if it was just reprints.)
My overall reaction to the book is "They don't make 'em like this anymore" -- except in a lot of ways, they do. Eisner was decades ahead of his time.
The art's gorgeous; the characters are all loaded with personality. (And all right, Ebony is a hideous pickaninny, but for 1947 he's actually a pretty progressive black character.) The stuff he does with layouts, backgrounds, and light and shadow creates an atmosphere seldom seen then or now. (There's an early page that's all in blue shadow, with only red blood and a yellow light standing out -- and all right, that looks like the sort of thing Frank Miller would do, but I'm still not going to see the damn movie.)
It's also really violent. The first two pages consist of the Spirit getting repeated blows to the head, and it's bloodier than most of the books I read today.
Then there's the writing. The dialogue is natural, in contrast to other books of the day, and the stories move at a breakneck pace -- the first seven-page story in this collection is as complete as the average 48-page two-parter in a modern book.
All in all, there are a lot of reasons Eisner is one of the most revered names in the medium, and this collection's a good example of a lot of them. Well worth the three bucks. And I'm hoping that #1 isn't just a generic #1 like they put on all one-shots; I hope there are more like this.
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Wolverine #69 does fuck-all to advance the plot (except that a background shot of Mt. Rushmore finally tells us who the President is, and it made me :facepalm: with its obviousness), but Fantastic Four #561 makes up for it by providing a satisfying, if predictable, conclusion to BOTH Millar FF arcs AND some more foreshadowing for Old Man Logan.
So, as for my prediction as to what Hawkeye's got in that briefcase: [spoiler]it's a piece of the Galactus Engine.[/spoiler]
And if we REALLY want to go all (http://i225.photobucket.com/albums/dd145/Brentai/MSX_Campbell.png), [spoiler]it could be a piece of the Galactus Engine FROM THE PAST.[/spoiler]
ARC EDIT: Plausible enough for spoiler tags.
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(http://joshreads.com/images/08/11/i081128spideypanel.jpg)
My doctor is retarded. I don't have a brain tumor.
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Mt. Rushmore finally tells us who the President is,
Truly a great man.
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Who was it?
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[spoiler]Red Skull.[/spoiler]
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:facepalm:
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This year's Simpsons Winter Wingding is pretty good. The first couple stories are kinda meh, then the third one picks up, and the last one is written by Paul Dini and Misty Lee.
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So uh apparently Marvels: Eye of the Camera is finally out tomorrow?
Nrama's dug out a five-year-old interview with Busiek (http://blog.newsarama.com/2008/12/03/marvels-eye-sees-thursday-release/) on the subject.
I expect it'll be good, but after Astro City: The Dark Age (or the first half of it, anyway), my feeling is that Kurt's at his best in the Silver Age, and when he goes into the 1970's and 1980's it's just not as interesting -- not his fault, it's just that, with a few exceptions like the Kree-Skrull War, I just don't like the stories from that period that damn much.
And of course I'm going to miss Ross, but Anacleto's work looks pretty good from what I've seen.
Anyway. More thoughts once I've actually read the thing.
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Sure enough, the book starts out awesome and gets progressively less so as it leaves the Silver Age.
The Fantastic Four bits are great; it references a bunch of the early stories (including my personal favorite, where Reed loses all their money and they make a movie to make it back), and of course takes the Marvels man-on-the-street angle of, holy shit, wouldn't it be weird if you were watching TV and a special bulletin came on and said A BUNCH OF POWER PLANTS WERE DISAPPEARING INTO GIANT CRACKS IN THE GROUND?
Anyway, all that stuff's great; as we move into the Bronze Age at the end of the issue it starts slipping, culminating in a really obvious "twist" ending. (Hint: [spoiler]Joe Q's ban on smoking in Marvel comics is well-known. So why would he make an exception and have a character chain-smoking through the whole issue? ...Yeah, there's really only one reason, and it's not historical accuracy for a story set in the 1960's.[/spoiler])
Still, Busiek's still got it, and Anacleto does a pretty good job recalling the Ross vibe without being derivative. Worth picking up; one of my favorites this week.
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really obvious "twist" ending. (Hint: [spoiler]Joe Q's ban on smoking in Marvel comics is well-known. So why would he make an exception and have a character chain-smoking through the whole issue? ...Yeah, there's really only one reason, and it's not historical accuracy for a story set in the 1960's.[/spoiler])
The whole thing was a nightmare vision Jack Kirby experienced as he lay dying?
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Frankly I read comics less and less these days. It feels like the only thing of note that ever happens in them is people dying, and since they always come back, nothing of note is actually happening.
Mostly I read the Warren Ellis shit, since Alan Moore buried himself in his coffin and Grant Morrison is taking six months of butt scratching between each issue he produces.
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Welcome to my world some years back. Now I read almost nothing.... North American (or Japanese!).
Luckily I have Europe to carry the torch, so I have no shortage of reading material. I really wish I could give you guys a sampling or something of the books I have.
I don't know. If any of you guys are really interested in alternatives to the same old crap, I can throw together a reading list of stuff that has been published in English.
In the meantime, This Guy (http://www.shigabooks.com/indeces/bookhunter.html) is hilarious AND distributes his comics for free reading online (I own hard copies). Bookhunter and Fleep are highly recommended.
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I read that like eighty thousand years ago when dinosaurs such as the mighty Argon Zark wandered the pangean netscape.
you can always name the european books you like reading and the net will provide
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Okay, well, this list is by no means comprehensive. And other than Moebius (who remains surprisingly obscure) I'm not bothering with any major well-known works, European or otherwise (e.g. Tintin, Asterix, Maus). This is basically a selection of "good comics that you have probably never read or even heard of". I have not restricted myself to Europe as there are a few North Americans here too.
Available in English
Good Clean Fun
- Green Manor 1&2 (Vehlmann & Bodart): A Holmseian Victorian collection. Many short stories of murder and intrigue.
- Rocketo 1&2 (Frank Espinosa): A pulp hero extravaganza. Phenomenal storytelling. Books 3 & 4 are forthcoming (4-book series).
- Wake (Jean David Morvan & Phillippe Buchet): Space Opera euro-style with a spunky heroine. Episodic TV-like structure (7 books have been published in English so far). Cheesy but fun.
Powerful
- Notes For a War Story (Gipi): A dark story of three kids looking for adulthood in the smouldering fires of an unnamed Balkan conflict.
- Nat Turner (Kyle Barker): An account of the Nat Turner slave rebellion. Extremely stark and powerful artwork.
- Three Shadows (Cyril Pederosa): A whimsical but haunted tale of a father's love for his son.
- Deogratias (J.P. Stassen): A boy comes of age in Rwanda in 1994. Really there's not much you can add to that description. A truly harrowing and heartbreaking story.
- The Madwoman Of The Sacred Heart (Moebius & Jodorowsky): By turns amusing and lunatic, philisophical and cynical, the story of an ascerbic Parisian philosophy professor (with some severe personal issues) who falls in with a group of young fanatics on the verge of founding a new religious cult. Seemingly weighty, but easy to read.
Idiosyncratic
- Nil (James Turner): The book that restored my faith in satire. An extreme, over-the-top, tale of one man's quest for belief in a nation that truly believes in nothing. Cynical hilarity taken to new heights. Plus: Local Guy points: Turner lives in Toronto, only a few blocks away from where I used to work. He probably thought it was quite novel that anyone would actually recognise him on the street.
- The Professor's Daughter (Johann Sfar & Emmanuel Guibert): A one-shot tale by an artist who normally writes and a writer who normally draws but who chose to reverse roles for a book. Lush, beautiful watercolour cartoons that are full of life illustrate an amusing tale of romance and mummies run amok in Victorian London.
- Gus & His Gang (Chris Blain): A story of three western outlaws with a distinctly personal twist. A great introduction to Chris Blain and a fun story. Also a good example of the European pseudo-episodic style, where a collection of shorter stories accretes into one larger story as characters change and develop meaningfully over time.
- Wimbledon Green (Seth): A distinctly Canadian offering, Seth serves up a pastiche of second-hand stories about Wimbledon Green, the world's greatest comic collector and his hilarious adventures. Also has a cameo of the guy I buy my comics from (Peter at The Beguiling)!
- I Killed Adolf Hitler (Jason): One of Jason's two most readable stories. This Norweigian author serves up shortish stories that pretty much embody angst, without losing the essential qualities that make a comic satisfying or fun to read.
- The Last Musketeer (Jason): See previous.
Heavy Metal-eque
- Moebius 0-9 (Moebius): The core work of the man who invented Heavy Metal. This represents most of his best stories for Metal Hurlant. Some brilliant sci-fi stuff here, inlcuding the original ideas for some of the most famous sci-fi properties of the 80's.
- Keepers of the Maser 1-6 (Massimilano Frezzato): Extremely lush artwork and interesting characters keep this story going.
- Gypsy (Enrico Marini & Thierry Smolderen): Technically, this is too trashy for the list, but I had to include it. It could have also gone under 'good clean fun' because it's so damned cheesy. Think Mad Max, but with ice, Russians, and a heavily slavic-accented main character. Excellent 3rd-string action-movie gas. "My dick in your house, my balls in your yard, you motherfucker!"
Film Noir
- The Bloody Streets of Paris (Jaques Tardi): The best example (and only English volume) of Tardi's comic book rendition of a classic French detective series set in the 30's and 40's. The Bloody Streets of Paris add the occupying Germans and Vichy angst to the normal mix of crime and noir intrigue. A riveting tale with artwork that almost makes the time and location active characters in the story. Also a great example of French life in occupied France.
- Blacksad 1&2 (Juan Díaz Canales & Juanjo Guarnido): 50's era detective tales from two Disney refugees, absolutely BEAUTIFUL artwork. PHENOMENAL quality and attention to detail. The stories are basically straightforward classic noir detective stories, but one where each character is depicted as an animal closest to their personality. Most of the time the situation is played straight, with occasional lampshading of the animal factor for hilarious effect. Don't worry: this only qualifies as 'furry shit' if you already are one. Please note that while further volumes after #'s 1&2 do exist, they are only available in French, due to a publication deal falling through.
Additional suggestions available only in French
Powerful
- C'était La Guerre Des Tranchées (Jaques Tardi): Tardi's depiction of a collection of true WWI tales. Quite possibly the best graphic work on the War that I have ever seen.
Idiosyncratic
- La Ligne De Fuite (Christophe Dabitch & Benjamin Flao): The story of a small Victorian-era French poetic club, the French cultural milieu of the time, and one young man's obsessive-yet-innocent search for Arthur Rimbaud (in retreat from the world). The story exhibits a treasured dreamlike quality and the loose sketch-style artwork posesses great energy.
- Le Marquis D'Anaon 1-4 (Fabien Vehlmann & Matthieu Bonhomme): The account of a young Cartesian, Rationalist hero, travelling around France and Europe debunking the supernatural in the early-mid 18th century. Great storytelling and the only extant example I can think of in comics of the anti-climax being raised to an art form.
Cheesecake
- Songes Coraline (Terry Dodson & D.P. Filippi): Really, the writing is irrelevant here. Terry Dodson is persuaded to come to France and illustrate something other than covers for a change. Hilariously contrived situations and curvaceous artwork follow.
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Thanks for the list, IM.
I've been meaning to start a Comics for People Who Don't Read Comics thread. I read the first volume of Klezmer and it was pretty great.
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I'll try torrenting some of those on the weekend.
Meanwhile, Final Crisis #5 finally came out. It's not unlike trying to drink a pint of beer in a single gulp. Highlights include a homage to the original OMAC #1 cover, Mary Marvel trying to defeat Cap Marvel with her groin, and Nix Uotan IS Monitor-Man, Defender of Cyberspace.
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Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes #2 is FUCKED. UP.
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Who does this Warren Ellis character think he is? Warren Ellis? (http://brontoforum.us/index.php?topic=902.0)
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Astonishing X-Men: Ghost Boxes #2 is FUCKED. UP.
In the good way, I think. Every time that I find myself enjoying an alternate universe more than the core universe, I start thinking, "Why don't they just build the whole series out of the alternate!"
Then I realize that not all of the alternate situations would have nearly the same impact if they weren't referencing something with a completely different tone -- maybe leprechaun universe. Maybe.
[spoiler]That sure was a lot of skeletons. Poor Beast.[/spoiler]
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Madman #12 is dead sexy. There's something there for everyone -- Doc draws the ladies real purty in this ish, and the layout technique he uses is neat too (for most of the issue, Frank's portion of the story is told on the top half of the page and the ladies' is told on the bottom).
Aside from that, there's a whole lot going on here -- foreshadowing on Adam's return (and perhaps even Flem someday being able to grow himself a new body), the return of an old foe, and a moment of "HOLY SHIT THAT JUST HAPPENED" [spoiler]eye-plucking[/spoiler] violence.
The ending's a little :facepalm: and likely to be shrugged off as a dream next issue. But the rest is gold. Those of you who haven't been buying this series should be.
(Incidentally, in keeping with the "How much are people charging for books now?" discussion -- or monologue, since I seem to be the only one talking about it -- this one's $3.50.)
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...and for those of you who haven't been buying it, #1 in its entirety, free, on nrama (http://www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia/album.php?aid=24938).
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Thunderbolts #127 is a textbook example of decompression.
It happens just like I said it would -- [spoiler]Swordsman saves Songbird and she gets away[/spoiler] -- but that happens on page 20 when it should have happened on page 2.
I'm not sure if the fact that Bullseye ACTUALLY POINTS OUT that the story is in exactly the same place it was 19 pages prior makes it better or worse.
Anyway, it ends up feeling like a damned waste; this story should have taken one issue instead of two.
Still, that's not to say it's BAD; I'm still looking forward to seeing the new team next month. I never got around to reading The Irredeemable Ant-Man but I heard good things and I'm interested in seeing how he fits in on the new team.
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SO in the first part of our "Hey let's make up for our awful FAILPRESENTS!", my wife got me the complete Tintin boxed set (I do own all the books already, but they've been in my brother's posession for years).
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Uh, I bought volume 1 of Empowered. It's kinda cute. I especially admire Adam Warren's ability to render reflective textures onto curved surfaces.
:>_>:
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Kick-Ass has been in the midst of an identity crisis ever since Hit-Girl and Big Daddy showed up. Viz, is this a book about what superheroes would be like in the real world, or is it going to embrace the most absurd, obvious cliches the genre has to offer?
#5 still straddles the fence. On the one hand, you've got a superhero teamup with Red Mist, who turns out to be a coward and a poser who really just wants to smoke pot and drive a cool car; on the other, he and Kick-Ass do the old "run into a burning building [spoiler]to save what turns out to be a goddamn cat[/spoiler]" schtick.
Also, it entertains me that I read this comic while sitting in the waiting room to take a drug test.
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What's the deal with all of these Madman books? I've intermittently read library copies, but picking up an issue from the store and flipping through some of the big Image trades left me feeling like I'm missing storybits somewhere.
Other than that, here's my shortlist for the next appreciable period of time:
Nil (Mentioned in this thread and it has been on my Amazon list for a while)
American Flagg!
Hotwire Comix and Capers
Wolverine (for the Old Man Logan), The Initiative, Secret Six, Booster Gold
Something with Batman in it
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Madman DOES have a whole lot of story behind it, and the Dark Horse TPB's were named rather than numbered and as such it was tough to follow their proper order. The Image TPB's are numbered. Madman and the Atomics takes place after the original series run, and Madman: Atomic Comics is the current series -- which is probably the best place to start if you don't want to read ALL of them.
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MY GOD - SURPRISE OF THE MONTH.
None of you will care, but after three and a half years or more, they finally published the final issue of The Winter Men. The fact that they were forced to cram 3-4 issues of story into one (slightly) oversized issue shows, and shows painfully.
After getting to know the characters and writers so closely in the first few issues, one can imagine how some scenes that were only given a few panels would have been handled with a proper amount of time. It's like having a great author die mid-book, so that the book is released, but ends halfway, the remainder of the text being a rough summary of the course of the remainder of the story. Some characters had never really even been introduced yet, and here they had to introduce them, display them and put them through their paces all in one go. The fact that the ways in which it deals with superheroes was only supposed to come in at the very end makes the story suffer even more for being compressed so.
But as bittersweet as it is, at least we got the ending - something I was sure would never happen. It's jarring and offensive and a failure in so many ways. But that's not the creators' fault so I don't blame them. In a way it's fitting: The story, like so many things Russian, is stillborn. A great and beautiful project lies forever half-finished. The promise of what might have been rusting away, forgotten, as brutal and practical men burn library books to keep warm.
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Also got Kick-Ass 5 today. Thoughts: A wait-and-see. Some things got stupider, but it was better than issue 4 by a damn sight. After becoming irritatinig enough, #5 was the book's 'last chance', but this issue has at least earned survival by getting me thinking "okay, I'll give you another chance".
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Marvels: Eye of the Camera #2 was a joy to read. It got a little metafiction-y -- it's about Sheldon being asked to do a sequel to Marvels, but it not being the idea he'd originally intended, and it's got a few shoutouts to Astro City: The Dark Age, in repeated references to Cap's arrest and what appear to be Charles and Royal in a cameo -- but it was a great backdrop to set Phil's story against.
Also, Busiek is one of my all-time favorite Spider-Man scribes, and this is a great Spider-Man story despite only having him in a few pages. What Kurt's so good at is writing the Parker Luck -- in this issue, Phil meets Peter at a party, hates him for being Jonah's stooge and helping to defame Spider-Man, and then storms off in a huff -- only to have Spider-Man save him from a gang of thugs a few pages later. Pete has left a party IN HIS HONOR to go keep an eye on somebody who looks like he's upset, because that's the kind of guy Pete is -- and of course the narrator doesn't even know it. It's a pretty neat trick, working that much characterization in-between the panels.
The last page made me laugh out loud and then wince, because next issue looks like the one where the other shoe drops and we enter the Bronze Age in earnest. If Kurt can keep the book at this level of quality while it takes a turn for the darker, that's great -- but again, Dark Age has largely been a disappointment.
...of course, the fucking thing IS $3.99 and festooned with ads, so I think my overall advice is going to be "wait for the trade."
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Impossible! #1 (http://www.actionagecomics.com/comics/Impossible01/pages/Impossible01-00.htm), free online comic that you can read online(for free!).
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Anna Mercury #5 is an argument FOR decompression.
(Oh, and incidentally, at some point I'm going to split the "comic industry will eat itself" conversation off into a new thread. I'm behind on dishes and all kinds of other shit too; still adjusting to having a job.)
Anyway. Anna Mercury #5 is an argument FOR decompression.
It's an all-out action issue where nothing much happens -- but it's done in such a neat way that it doesn't matter. There's a big explosion on four of the first five pages -- yes, a single explosion; it's two panels spread across four pages.
I think that's pretty frickin' neat. Sure, those are pages that could instead be used for more sci-fi musings Warren wrote down on a scrap of paper while high, but you know what, let's play with the medium a little instead.
I'm curious as to how much of the layout stuff was Ellis and how much was Percio -- the backmatter I've seen in books like Fell and AXM: Ghost Boxes suggests Warren's pretty heavy on the panel-for-panel descriptions, but this may not be one of those occasions.
I actually thought Percio's art on this one wasn't as good as on the earlier issues, but he was doing such neat things with it that it didn't much matter.
In summary: comics is a visual medium, and there are times when it's perfectly all right, even preferable, for writing to take a backseat to art and for an issue to just show a bunch of pretty shit rather than actually develop a story any.
And of course so much of what Ellis does is look at other people's work and go "See that? I could do that better." (I think he's actually explicitly stated that he did Wolfskin and Blackgas on a bet with the publisher on whether he could pull off fantasy and zombie books.) Anna Mercury is his take on The Matrix -- some silly but semi-plausible science fiction as a jumping-off point for an action movie where a character goes to other worlds, performs physically impossible feats, and ultimately blows shit up. If it got too caught-up in self-important philosophizing, well, that wouldn't be an improvement over The Matrix, it would be what fucking killed The Matrix. Instead, we're left with a book that plays to the strengths of its premise.
All in all, a pretty good read, but if I were recommending Warren Ellis books to people, I don't think it would fall anywhere on the list. And if you're already a Warren Ellis fan, you've probably already bought it, and the eighty-three other Warren Ellis comics that came out this week.
...Which reminds me, there's one last Mark Millar book from last week that I haven't gotten into yet. Maybe later.
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...Most of what I said about this week's Anna Mercury also holds for this week's No Hero. It's becoming clearer how Ellis has managed to crank out so many books lately -- neat but half-baked sci-fi ideas and a lot of free rein for the artist. Not really a bad thing.
Interested to see how the rest of his books this week play out.
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War of Kings Saga shows that Marvel seems to be ironing out the flaws in its free event preview books -- the layouts are good, and while the continuity's thick, it's much less verbose than in previous preview books, and unlike the Ultimatum one, is written in coherent English sentences. The narrative's also cohesive and doesn't jump around; it goes from Inhumans Origin to Illuminati to X-Men Space Opera to Secret Invasion in a coherent and logical fashion instead of trying to intersperse bits and pieces of each.
I was disappointed by the lack of Kirby art (the Secret Invasion preview book had plenty), but all in all it's not fucking terrible like the last two free preview books. A good companion for people who were already planning to read the book but weren't up to speed on all the backstory (like maybe they read Avengers but not X-Men), but I still don't see it getting people to go "Ooh, I have to read this!"
I'm still not reading the goddamn thing. Fuck giant crossover events. But this book is a positive statement on Marvel getting its shit together on advertising.
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...so hey guys, now that the thread's 18 pages long and I split off some of the "future of the industry" crap, should I bother trying to split off some of the other conversations too? Kick-Ass could carry its own thread, Walking Dead probably could too, even stuff like Madman and Spirit may have a couple pages of posts by now.
(EDIT: Got three pages into rereading the thread and I'm going with "fuck it, too many posts talking about multiple books." But I could still split from somewhere in the middle where posts don't do that.)
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Continuing with the Warren Ellis knob polishing, his impression of Alan Moore is great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQCtQeiDDmM
"And I feel ... POsitivelyy ............................... wooonderfuuuul."
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And yet more Ellis:
Gravel was a pretty good mini; I'm looking forward to Book 2.
A few thoughts:
- It's very nice that the story is self-contained. This isn't the first Gravel book, but it's the first one I picked up, and I don't feel like I've missed anything. The only reason I even know there were earlier books is because they're advertised in the back pages; this series had a perfectly satisfying beginning, middle, and end with no need to know what came before.
- Ellis handled the plot really well for it coming down to a simple collection quest. Each of the confrontations with the Minor Seven was unique.
- On the "How does he put so many books out at a time?" front, this one's a hell of a lot more verbose than the latest Anna Mercury or No Hero, but according to the credits he split the scripting duties. You can kinda tell.
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(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/Tarot53e.jpg)
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I hated Marvel Zombies. This is why I am utterly surprised about liking Marvel Zombies 3. How can this be?
- It is Nextwave's Machine Man versus zombies -- written by Fred van Lente in a style that isn't quite Nextwave, but far better than the first Zombies book.
- There are far fewer instances of "how does that character/power become zombified?!"
- While the zombies still crack wise on occasion, the general tone is a more accustomed "under siege" grim.
- The Conquistador. I'm a sucker for third-string heroes on third-string teams.
Nil! Let's shed the tights-n-fights/cowls-n-scowls/underwear pervert soap opera for another entry of Comics as Serious Literature.
I place Nil under the protection of The Academy because it makes all sorts of postmodern jokes and references to deconstructionism (among numerous other topics.) Iron_Mongrel already covered that side of the endorsement pretty well though, so I'll point to the German Expressionist/clip-art-inspired/gearporn art and the sheer density of the background text. Nihilopolis X (so-named for the nine other Nihilopolii that were forcibly deconstructed with explosives) is filled with posters, side-conversations that the reader only gets in snatches and fits, and little labels telling us how insignificant background characters are gluttons or perverts. It's busy, but purposefully so -- and it works.
(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b167/unhelpful/are-comics-serious-literature.jpg)
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I am real bacon
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Use a paper towel to remove excess grease.
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(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/Tarot53e.jpg)
I read through most of Tarot in one night. Every story can pretty much be summed up as:
- Tarot sees a Tarot card in a vision.
- Something bad happens.
- Tarot uses her Magick to fight whatever it is and her clothes fall off.
- Friends of the creators make a cameo.
- Problem is solved thanks to the "Three-Fold-Law."
- We all learn an important lesson about tolerance.
- Bisexuaaals!!!
It's a very... white comic. And I mean that two ways: There's no non-caucasians in the comic (although they chase Saddam Hussein in one issue). And all of the characters seem to have persecution complexes about something, e.g. being witches, having big boobs, which lover you should be with, etc. Haunted vaginas are pretty much par for the course. The author subscribes to the Stan Lee school of dialogue and plot, with a heaping helping of didactic messages which vary from episode to episode. The most common one is how everyone could live in peace if people stopped persecuting witches. But I've also seen stuff about how your body is nothing to be ashamed of, don't force someone to have sex, child predators are bad and that firemen are the real heroes.
:tldr: It's a little deeper than Marvel Adventures, but it could just be the cleavage.
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I read through most of Tarot in one night.
I hope you didn't suffer too much brain damage.
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You get used to it. It's kinda like a hot shower...
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When all's said and done, Final Crisis was pretty great. Some damn fine writing by Morrison; dense and deep as fuck. Kirby flair with a strong tie to the DCU and to mythology in general.
I particularly liked the Supermen of All Worlds teaming up, and that the squad included [spoiler]Apollo, Captain Carrot, and Barack Obama[/spoiler].
The last page is a great touch, too -- [spoiler]we all knew Bruce would come back sooner or later, and frankly Grant shows some respect for the audience's intelligence by acknowledging that[/spoiler].
When all's said and done, I don't know that the status quo's been shaken up all that much by this story -- it looks like stuff's pretty well back to normal at the end, with the possible exceptions of Batman still being MIA and [spoiler]the Multiverse becoming common knowledge[/spoiler]. The Fifth World and the new New Gods status quo aren't really that different from where we came in.
While Morrison's said he's sticking to his own projects for awhile, aside from Batman, DiDio's said those other two points are pretty much being kept warm for him until he feels like playing with them some more. Frankly I'm all right with that -- it's clear Morrison's got plenty of stories left to tell in his own good time, but I'm happy to see him take a break and get back to Seaguy.
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... what? Wasn't Grant going to have more input on the DC universe post-Final Crisis? This is bullshit. His generous sprinkling of half-ideas is only going to vanish or fertilize mountains of crap just like the last two or three times they let him handle a major event.
Now, I’m sure there are many of you out there who are already firing up your “Well Duh! Did you actually think DC would really kill Batman! Jeez! It was only a matter of time before he showed back up, moron!” comments. To those with a jaded view of the world, I would like to point you to Marvel. Now, I don’t read that many Marvel comics, but there is one thing I do know for sure - when they kill someone, they ain’t back by the next issue.
unless it's wolverine
also this is kinda like saying paris hilton is not as much of a slut as britney spears cause the tape was done with the lights off
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spoilers follow
Final Crisis #7 is the culmination of GM's tendency to compress stories and to rush the plot at the end. It's not as much of a 'story' as a loose connection of dramagic moments, like you tried to make Lord of the Rings a 30-minute movie by reducing it to the quotable lines and FUCK YEAH moments. Not only you lose a lot of the plot, you lose the context that makes those moments awesome to begin with.
The plot is more or less as follows: Checkmate evacuates people to Earth-51 - which was infected by a virus but Frankenstein single-handedly cleaned it out because that's how he rolls - as a dying Darkseid drags New Earth (Earth-0) down into the abyss; Some people kick ass at undefined moments and reasons (between them Aquaman and Barry Allen) and shield one earth or the other from Darkseid; Humanity is frozen, shrunk and placed in storage while every superhero and villain and whatever joins the effort to make a Miracle Machine; As the multiverse is about to crumble, Superman finishes Darkseid's spirit and is faced with -
- and this is where you have to read Superman Beyond or you'll just think Grant is trying to pass things he thought up while sniffing glue as high concept -
MANDRAKK, the original Monitor turned evil (which makes him basically Supersatan) and a vampire Ultraman.
Grant the last crisis already had two evil Supermen. Making the evil Superman a vampire as well is not going to help.
Anyway Nix Uotan finally gets to do something rather than wear cool clothing and leads the final charge which kills the evil man in a panel and then the Monitors are going to die except Superman uses the Deus Ex Machine to bring everything back to normality. At some point in this process most Kirby creations get shunted to Earth-51 where Jim Starlin can't ever touch them again.
... What? Oh, right, there's Batman right there at the end, isn't there. People are angry about it? There's someone above 18 that still gets riled up on last page reveals? Jesus.
It's not a plot you can follow like a string. I don't think it's even fully coherent. GM said it represents the death of time, but GM has a literary theory even for Mahnke's last minute substitution, so it's hard to say he did it on purpose. Just enjoy the moments and don't try to sew them together, as they're retconned by the end of the issue anyway.
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this is where you have to read Superman Beyond or you'll just think Grant is trying to pass things he thought up while sniffing glue as high context
:whoops:
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Nrama interview w/ GM, part 1. (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/010928-Grant-Final-Crisis.html)
Takeaways:
1. The "Batman dies in RIP AND FC" clusterfuck was a DiDio edict. I'm going to call it a wash, because from a narrative and commercial standpoint it's a terrible fucking idea, but Batman's death in FC is much cooler than his death in RIP.
GM: I wanted to be faithful to the spirit of the King. This had to be a story of gods, of God in fact, hence the ‘cosmic’ style, the elevated language, the total and deliberate disregard for the rules of the ‘screenwriting’ approach that has become the house style for a great many comic writers these days. The emphasis on spectacle and wonder at the expense of ‘realism’, the allegorical approach...it’s all my take on Kirby.
Anyway. Seems like there were more things that jumped out at me, but it's been a few hours since I read it and I'm pretty wiped from work.
EDIT: Oh right, wanted to deal with the Wonder Woman bit.
NRAMA: Regarding the big legends of the DCU: Superman got his mini-event, Batman took on Darkseid, Flash tries to outrun death, Green Lantern overcomes granny . . . but Wonder Woman turns out to be Anti-Life Patient Zero and spends the bulk of the series as a disfigured thrall. Why does Wonder Woman not have a comparable moment in that context?
GM: I wondered about that myself. I love what Gail Simone (especially) and other writers have done to empower the Wonder Woman concept but I must admit I’ve always sensed something slightly bogus and troubling at its heart. When I dug into the roots of the character I found an uneasy melange of girl power, bondage and disturbed sexuality that has never been adequately dealt with or fully processed out to my mind. I’ve always felt there was something oddly artificial about Wonder Woman, something not like a woman at all.
Having said that, I became quite fascinated by these contradictions and problems and tried to resolve them for what turned into a different project entirely. Partly because I didn’t want to use any of that new material in Final Crisis, I relegated Wonder Woman to a role that best summed up my original negative feelings about the character. My apologies to her fans and I promise to be a little more constructive next time around.
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Interesting. I just read an article about how Wonder Woman is useless. Where is it... where is it...
Ah, here. (http://www.toplessrobot.com/2008/08/10_reasons_no_one_cares_about_wonder_woman.php)
Of course it really only covers a lot of Golden Age material. Recent storylines are mentioned but not dwelled upon. It's a shame that the author didn't do more research, because I read the 80's George Perez reboot and it seemed like decent storytelling. But then again, it's a list decrying Wonder Woman. Of course it will focus on the Golden Age stuff.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/buge/motivator_golden942070.jpg)
I think Grant Morison is a big turd for dismantling the character... if it's as bad as it sounds. I'll read it in six months and see. I don't know, I think that a lot of authors are uncomfortable with writing Wonder Woman, thus the supposed problems Mr. Morrison has with her. They don't know how to write WW to make her look strong without turning her into a bruiser, as almost happened in the cartoon, and they don't want to make her look soft and risk alienating people who identify her as a strong icon.
Anyway, I'm curious to hear your thoughts, Thad.
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It's just a shame that most of the puerile little boys writing comics only know how to write one-dimensional women.
What was that line from that one Zero Punctuation video about webcomics (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation/108-Webcomics)?
:nyoro~n:
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That's probably one of the reasons they pushed her the other way. Nobody wants to read about a nagging harridan. Even if she's wearing star-spangled booty shorts.
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May need to splitmerge this to the Wonder Woman thread; we'll see.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/buge/motivator_golden942070.jpg)
That looks pretty Silver Age to me.
I think Grant Morison is a big turd for dismantling the character... if it's as bad as it sounds.
Basically she's underutilized and her biggest contribution to the story is that she's given the Anti-Life Equation and becomes the leader of the Female Furies. This DOES tend to acknowledge her iconic status as it was a "holy shit" moment that wouldn't have worked with any other character in the DCU, but the actual big Female Fury fight was in practice much more about Mary Marvel and Supergirl calling each other sluts.
I'll read it in six months and see. I don't know, I think that a lot of authors are uncomfortable with writing Wonder Woman, thus the supposed problems Mr. Morrison has with her. They don't know how to write WW to make her look strong without turning her into a bruiser, as almost happened in the cartoon, and they don't want to make her look soft and risk alienating people who identify her as a strong icon.
In a nutshell, people don't know how to write Wonder Woman.
Superman has this problem, but IMO Wonder Woman has it even worse. Again, we've done this thread already, and what it boils down to is there's not as cohesive a picture of what Wonder Woman is "about" as there is for some of the other characters.
I'll admit I haven't read Simone's WW, but I admire her and she's the first person I'd trust to put out a good Wonder Woman book.
As for Morrison...I think he gave her short shrift here, but he had a hell of a lot going on in FC, and I'll reserve judgement on his views on the character until he gets that "other project" out.
In the meantime, of course, Trinity is all about distilling the Big Three down to their iconic status, what they mean and why, and is doing a pretty solid job of it. It's not as dense a read as Final Crisis, but it's similar in how it examines superheroes as mythological figures.
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Holy shit, after all this time... finally? Really?
Kick-Ass, eat your HEART out. (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090129.lsuperhero30/BNStory/lifeMain/home)
Has this ever actually happened before?
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I remember posting a link to an article about guys dressed like Batman and Robin helping somebody change a tire a few years back, and I saw one the other day about a burglar jumping out a window when the homeowner showed up dressed like Thor, but this sounds a lot more organized.
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There was that guy in England who was removing the boots from cars.
Also that article pretty much sounds like one of the extra material from Watchmen, where they describe how ordinary people started acting like superheroes.
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I already mentioned in IRC my idea of fighting crime in an armored bear suit. My name will be CRIME BEAR, THE BEAR THAT FIGHTS CRIME.
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There's a bunch of them, probably spurred by the recent trend of Superhero movies. They seem to mostly be harmless wish fulfillment with a few hardcore guys that actually try to bust drug deals thrown in for good measure.
I personally think a great deal of them are just vain, self-obsessed fucks though. Article I read talked about an incident where one of these "real life superheroes" heard a woman scream outside his apartment when he was in it and went to put his costume on, and by the time he was finished playing dress-up and got downstairs whatever had been going on had broken up. That just makes me pissed, honestly. "Well gosh, I really was concerned you were being hurt, but I had to have my cool mask and trenchcoat on!" Useless retard.
It'd be unfair to paint them all like that I guess but I really get the vibe most of them are in it for the tights.
Here's the site. (http://www.worldsuperheroregistry.com/world_superhero_registry_gallery.htm)
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I'll admit I haven't read Simone's WW, but I admire her and she's the first person I'd trust to put out a good Wonder Woman book.
Not Greg Rucka? I thought that he balanced the warrior and the diplomat pretty well, embraces the mythological angle, and was even on the way to creating some memorable supporting characters before he disappeared. It's my definitive version of Wonder Woman.
Next up: Grant Morrison post.
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I personally think a great deal of them are just vain, self-obsessed fucks though. Article I read talked about an incident where one of these "real life superheroes" heard a woman scream outside his apartment when he was in it and went to put his costume on, and by the time he was finished playing dress-up and got downstairs whatever had been going on had broken up. That just makes me pissed, honestly. "Well gosh, I really was concerned you were being hurt, but I had to have my cool mask and trenchcoat on!" Useless retard.
Well, of course. He had to protect his secret identity.
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Frankly I'm all right with that -- it's clear Morrison's got plenty of stories left to tell in his own good time, but I'm happy to see him take a break and get back to Seaguy.
I imagine that if I tried to explain how excited I am about more Seaguy, it would quickly enter the realm of gushing superlatives. I'm not against Morrison working on mainline continuity stories, but his stories from the margins don't have to worry how other writers will handle his concepts. (Also, I haven't read his X-Men run, which probably disposes me toward him more than most comic fans.)
The one contrary example that comes to mind is that I imagine that someone else could do more with the Super Young Team. They work as a one-note commentary on Japanese celebrity, but the only one who I want to know more about is [spoiler]Most Excellent Superbat[/spoiler].
The way they fade out of the story is also a pointed comment on how I actually imagine they’ll fare as characters in the DC Universe!
::(:
Without taking behind-the-scenes information into account (other boards complaining that it is too confusing, is this a sigil to banish Didio's dark influence from DC guys?), I had a lot of fun with Final Crisis. I think that I like high cosmic heroics with lots of room for street and non-mainstream characters. Also, no time-punching! The only thing that I'm confused about is [spoiler]why Detective Chimp is immune to the Anti-Life Equation[/spoiler].
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more like defective chimp am i rite
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I'll admit I haven't read Simone's WW, but I admire her and she's the first person I'd trust to put out a good Wonder Woman book.
Not Greg Rucka?
To be fair, he'd just namedropped Greg Rucka for his work with Renee Montoya.
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to be frank if Grant hadn't opened his dumb mouth about not understanding Wonder Woman I wouldn't have even noticed he treated her like crap. Mostly, I was too busy being bothered by Mary Marvel as a punk rock slut possessed by an old pervert with a haircut invented by Satan himself.
OK on retrospect it's not that WW was treated badly in FC, it's that all women were except maybe Supergirl and Black Canary. You didn't see any male heroes being possessed by Furies and becoming Apokoliptian supersluts.
On other news, Apokoliptian Supersluts will be the name of my band.
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Okay, but remember I already called Women in Refrigerators.
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I haven't read all of Final Crisis, but I laughed heartily when Lois said she'd give Superman a big kiss when she "got back from the fridge"
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Wait, Supergirl WASN'T made into an Apokoliptian Superslut for once? Isn't that a first?
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I haven't read all of Final Crisis, but I laughed heartily when Lois said she'd give Superman a big kiss when she "got back from the fridge"
Wow, how did I miss THAT?
Anyway. Regarding Zara's comments on the whole WiR thing -- I was probably more bothered by Mary and Supergirl calling each other sluts than Wonder Woman becoming the leader of the Furies and generally getting short shrift. There's definitely at least a hint of sexism in several parts of the story, but on the other hand, the standard "but plenty of bad things happened to GUYS, too!" response applies. Turpin may be the character who was most thoroughly brutalized in the story, and of course Batman had it pretty rough.
On female characters given good, positive roles in the story: Renee Montoya.
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And she got that positive role in the first place from a male character being crammed into the refrigerator.
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Well, kinda. I was disappointed in Vic's death, but as superhero deaths go it was much more Mar-Vell than Kal-L.
(Speaking of, apparently Kal-L's been confirmed, in a roundabout way, as a Black Lantern. Which fucking reeks on the surface, but in the long term means Johns is planning on working him back into Earth-2.)
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Spirit continues to be a good read. #26 is a decent story with the Octopus and Silken Floss. I like the art -- the anatomy's not great but it's pleasingly kinetic.
And this series gets some INCREDIBLE cover artists -- this month it's Bolland. (I was going to say that it's nice to see he's still working despite his near-blindness, but it turns out I was thinking of inker John Totleben; as far as I can tell from reading Wikipedia, Bolland's eyesight is fine.)
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Spirit #26 was enjoyable, but I'm not as impressed by the cover art as I was by the inside art. The bar scene in particular was a good one. In two months, though, the artist switches to Paul Rivoche, and that art looks simply gorgeous:
(http://www.joelconstantine.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=226&g2_serialNumber=1) (http://www.joelconstantine.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=224&g2_serialNumber=1)
*click for a bigger look, natch
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Bar scene was a different artist than the rest of the issue; was going to mention that but then I didn't.
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Yeah, rechecking it the entire art changes at the scene starting in the cemetery. I wonder why.
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Dunno; it's not the typical team and there are two guys with writer credits too. Stylistically, it's flashback-versus-present.
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The last page of Teen Titans has a "flashforward" featuring a pregnant girl in silhouette and Wonder Girl kissing Blue Beetle.
GODDAMNIT WONDERSLUT STOP HOGGING EVERY MALE BETWEEN SEVENTEEN AND TWENTY TWO. LET THEM HAVE THEIR OWN LOVE STORIES.
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There's a new printing of Alan Moore's The Courtyard out this week. I hadn't seen it before, so I gave it a read. It's a self-contained 48-page Lovecraftian murder mystery.
Most of it feels more like an Ellis book than a Moore one -- the unlikable (and inexplicably British) detective faced with a weird crime to solve, wending his way through a series of colorful characters hunting for clues, wrapped in a distinctive layout -- every page being split into two vertical panels. The artist, Jacen Burrows, has also worked with Ellis (and Ennis), so that's probably part of why I make that connection too.
The ending is not only Lovecraftian in content but in flavor and execution; don't expect an explanation or a tidy resolution, merely a mind opening to a world of elder horrors.
All in all, at $8 it's about the going rate for 48 pages with no ads, and worth the price. It's not Moore's finest work or anything, but it's a decent read.
There's a sequel coming called Neonomicon, which is presumably the reason this one's been reprinted.
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...so despite my general dislike of Bendis and crossovers, I've picked up a few Dark Reign tie-ins. I love the premise of Dark Avengers (it's the original Thunderbolts premise, except instead of villains pretending to be NEW heroes, they're villains impersonating EXISTING heroes), though so far I think it's slow and don't know what the fuck Morgaine Le Fay has to do with anything.
Also, I haven't read Deadpool in several years, but I picked up the latest issue and think I will be picking up more. Although I am not sure who the two different narrative boxes he is talking to are. (Two split personalities?)
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... so far I think it's slow and don't know what the fuck Morgaine Le Fay has to do with anything.
Inside the story or from a bird's eye view? The writers don't want the Dark Avengers to immediately move on the established heroes, so they've pulled out a larger threat that everyone can agree on for a while.
I've really been enjoying the new Dark Reign: Agents of Atlas. The team's methods are different enough from standard Marvel to keep my attention, and there's a talking gorilla! It looks like the fifties flashbacks are going to become a regular part of the story too, so it's a talking gorilla (and a robot and a Uranian and a siren and a super-spy and Namora) caught in Cold War espionage!
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Inside the story or from a bird's eye view? The writers don't want the Dark Avengers to immediately move on the established heroes, so they've pulled out a larger threat that everyone can agree on for a while.
No, I get that. I just don't get why, out of the entire Marvel stable of villains, Bendis settled on one who seems to have so little to do with the premise and setting. It feels like a mashup between two completely different stories. (Because "Morgaine le Fay wants revenge on Doom for banging her, stealing her secrets, and then leaving her" isn't necessarily a bad premise either, it's just a bit of a jarring contrast to the main plot.)
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No, I get that. I just don't get why, out of the entire Marvel stable of villains, Bendis settled on one who seems to have so little to do with the premise and setting.
Why out of the roster of mighty Marvel heroes did Bendis feel the need to stick Spider-Woman in the New Avengers? Not that it makes a difference, as Bendis's writing means we don't have to bother with differentiating between characters anyway.
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No, see, that I get. Picking a roster for the Avengers (or, to a lesser extent, the JLA) means you have to have a hook, you have to surprise the audience. Given that Spider-Man and Wolverine were the two most conventional choices he could have possibly made, the team needed a wildcard.
(I still want to see Songbird join the Avengers, as foreshadowed in Avengers Forever. Of course, given that the Thunderbolts are front-and-center in Dark Reign, it's quite possible that's part of the plan.)
Le Faye is different. She's a time-traveling, magically-based villain smack-dab in the middle of a story that's deliberately modern and technologically-based. And while that contrast could theoretically prove interesting, it very much has not, at least in the first two issues.
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Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps has been a ton of fun lately. I thought the rainbow of Corps would be at least a little corny, but it's all coming off very well, and it's allowed them to bring back all kinds of old DC's cosmic villains with a new bent. So far we've seen the Star Sapphires retooled to fit the concept more closely, we've seen Ganthet and Sayd begin the Blue corps (hope), and try to recruit Hal as their new leader, and we've seen the Red lanterns (rage) become very active. The Sinestro Corps has also experienced some changes with Mongul leading one faction and conquering Daxam as his new base, feeding off the fear Daxamites have for all aliens species, while Sinestro jockeys to get back in control.
The whole thing is a great example of what DC does best. These big, cosmic adventure stories. Gods and monsters kind of stuff.
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Huh. And I just dropped the GL books because I'd gotten sick of the whole buildup.
My testing the waters of Dark Reign notwithstanding, I have Event Fatigue.
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It helps that I totally skipped Final Crisis and Secret Invasion.
EDIT: And am skipping Dark Reign, because nothing about it appeals to me.
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Final Crisis was full of wacky cosmic stuff. I'd recommend checking out the TPB, at least -- as long as it comes with the two Superman Beyond issues.
(I'm a pretty blatant Morrison fanboy though, so grain of salt.)
I've worked through my recent Fantagraphics order to balance out the increase in superhero comics that I've been reading lately. Tales Designed to Thrizzle #4 did not disappoint. I'm surprised that Kupperman isn't more prolific. A lot of his humor is grounded in running gags, and it hasn't grown stale yet. That suggests that he should do more to appease me! I also picked up The Left Bank Gang based on its description in the catalog. It was a little sparse for the acclaim that it has received, but I doubt that I'll be giving it away. They ran out of the third book that I ordered, so now I have $20 store credit. I'll sit on that for a while and see if a new Castle Waiting collection comes anytime soon.
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After much pestering from a friend I started reading 100 bullets. This is pretty interesting and I rather like the art.
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After much pestering from a friend I started reading 100 bullets. This is pretty interesting and I rather like the art.
Kind of a funny time to start reading, since the 100th and final issue is due in a week or two (or mybe even this week... I could be out of my reckoning).
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Kind of a funny time to start reading, since the 100th and final issue is due in a week or two (or mybe even this week... I could be out of my reckoning).
Great then by the time im caught up a final trade will be out then.
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I actually have all the individual issues from #15 onward.
I wish I could trade them for the matching run of trade paperbacks. ::(:
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Joe Shuster confirmed as illustrator for old S&M series. (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090313.wshuster14/BNStory/Entertainment/home)
There's two schools of thought about this. The first is that he took this as a 'desperation' job, either because he needed the money or owed someone something etc. The second is that he was always into this kind of thing, and that some of the snide comments about the early origins of the superhero genre are quite valid (or, slightly more valid than previous).
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Joe Shuster confirmed as illustrator for old S&M series. (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090313.wshuster14/BNStory/Entertainment/home)
There's two schools of thought about this. The first is that he took this as a 'desperation' job, either because he needed the money or owed someone something etc. The second is that he was always into this kind of thing, and that some of the snide comments about the early origins of the superhero genre are quite valid (or, slightly more valid than previous).
I'm inclined to believe the first, but so long as you keep in mind that
a) Comic illustrators were frequently underpaid for doing their work. Most of them lived in fear of being replaced, so they often took many jobs at the same time (Dan DeCarlo, f'rinstance).
b) Just about every decent comic illustrator has drawn fetishy pics at one time or another, for work or otherwise. The book 'Good Cartoonist's Dirty Drawings' has a neat selection.
It could be that your second supposition is correct. After all, did you not say that if you wanted porn, you would draw it yourself?
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Joe Shuster confirmed as illustrator for old S&M series. (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090313.wshuster14/BNStory/Entertainment/home)
There's two schools of thought about this. The first is that he took this as a 'desperation' job, either because he needed the money or owed someone something etc. The second is that he was always into this kind of thing, and that some of the snide comments about the early origins of the superhero genre are quite valid (or, slightly more valid than previous).
I'm inclined to believe the first, but so long as you keep in mind that
a) Comic illustrators were frequently underpaid for doing their work. Most of them lived in fear of being replaced, so they often took many jobs at the same time (Dan DeCarlo, f'rinstance).
b) Just about every decent comic illustrator has drawn fetishy pics at one time or another, for work or otherwise. The book 'Good Cartoonist's Dirty Drawings' has a neat selection.
It could be that your second supposition is correct. After all, did you not say that if you wanted porn, you would draw it yourself?
Two of the most interesting points the article made: 1 - That there was a time in which Joe and Jerry were raking in cash like gangbusters for Superman. It was a short-lived time, but the description seems to be that of something of a rakish high-roller, with big houses, flashy cars, and dates with showgirls (this is leaving aside the "they were shafted" argument that usually comes up). 2 - That a good number of the drawings from the later work were actually copies of earlier Superman panels.
The latter is far from conclusive of course. Okay, so there's a non-zero chance that it instead means that some of the old panels removed from their contexts on Superdickery were in fact that bad, but it's far more likely that Shuster was lazy because it was work he didn't care about and was doing it just to get by.
At any rate it adds a small and amusing debate point to the origins of the Superhero genre.
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It also bears noting that DC itself started off as a Mafia-owned publisher of softcore porn.
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Kinky! :suave:
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I seem to recall something about the comics industry having ties to the Mafia, but I can't remember where I read it.
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Finished Y the Last Man tonight, and I must say it was a superb read from beginning to end. It is a series I recommend to anyone who just likes to read. It is packed full of deep characters, intriguing plots and complex themes. The ending really hits all the right notes, and I find it odd that I've heard so many complaints that it's a terrible ending. It's truly an optimistic ending that is beautiful and complex all at the same time. This inclines me to want to pick up some of Vaughn's other works, such as Ex Machina and Pride of Baghdad.
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Ex Machina is AMAZING and i don't remember why i stopped following it--
wait, yes i do, it's because i ran out of new issues to read :nyoro~n:
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I seem to recall something about the comics industry having ties to the Mafia, but I can't remember where I read it.
I'm told Men of Tomorrow is a pretty good book on the subject. Haven't read it yet; it's on my list.
I only have the first Ex Machina trade (think I picked it up at Tower Records' going out of business sale for something like 70% off), but I enjoyed it. That and Invincible are in my "only have the first volume, would like to read more" list, and I hear good things about Fables, Y, and plenty else. We'll see what-all I get through in the coming months. Currently rereading Watchmen; just picked up a $50 Spirit hardcover; would also like to pick up and read the last two volumes of Fourth World (and, while I'm on $50 Kirby hardbacks, the single volume of The Demon, too). It's a long list.
MEANWHILE: Morrison interview on Seaguy. (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=20507) I really liked the first volume but it ended so abruptly. The way Morrison tells it, it's going to be a trilogy of trilogies; the first three-issue series was Seaguy as a naive, childlike character, the second will have him as more of a rebellious teenager, and in the third he's a fully-formed adult. There's an indication that the series will follow his full life, perhaps into old age and death.
He throws out a couple Watchmen refs, first saying that Seaguy is superhero deconstruction of the same sort, and then saying he's working on a Charlton-universe miniseries with a Watchmen-y vibe.
ALSO ALSO: I think Wednesday Comics (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/030919-Wednesday-Comics.html) sounds like a neat damn idea. Of course, it would work a damn lot better if it were actually being distributed with people's Sunday papers.
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...so the Muppet Show comic's been getting rave (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/030925-Muppet-BSE.html) reviews (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=user_review&id=841).
I can't vouch, because my store immediately sold out. They've ordered more, so hopefully I'll have a copy next week.
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Hey remember when I said Planetary #27 wouldn't be released for another 86 years? (http://brontoforum.us/index.php?topic=961.msg23624#msg23624)
Turns out I was wrong (http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=7148). But I'm man enough to admit it. On the plus side, more Planetary!
Now I'm just going to come up and say that Fell #10 won't be released until 2163.
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So apparently Marvel is killing Carol Danvers (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/030927-MsMarvel.html). This annoys me. Most notably because, if Marvel had at any time chosen to, I honestly believe Ms. Marvel could have been a pretty big deal. Like, Iron-Man level popularity. It wouldn't have taken much, I don't think; at least some exposure outside of comics could have easily done the trick.
Instead, they fridge the bitch.
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fridge
the bitch
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So, the term's completely lost any semblance of its original meaning.
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No no, the term hasn't lost its meaning.
It's just: irony!
Also, DN, are you seriously concerned because Marvel "killed" one of their characters? I'm sure this will be like that time Jean Grey died. Or Professor X died. Or Elektra died. Or Jean Grey died. Or Sabretooth died. Or Mr. Fantastic died. Or Jean Grey died. Or when Magneto died. Or when Bucky died. Or when Jean Grey died. Or when Spider-man revealed his true identity. Or when Spider-man married Mary Jane.
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Or when Mar-Vell died.
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So apparently Marvel is killing Carol Danvers (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/030927-MsMarvel.html). This annoys me. Most notably because, if Marvel had at any time chosen to, I honestly believe Ms. Marvel could have been a pretty big deal. Like, Iron-Man level popularity. It wouldn't have taken much, I don't think; at least some exposure outside of comics could have easily done the trick.
Instead, they fridge the bitch.
I think Carol Danvers is a pretty weak character honestly, and I don't think she could really have been pushed to be something great or iconic. There are female characters in the marvel universe that could be made into something special though, and Marvel isn't pushing them.
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I'm actually excited enough about Moonstone taking over the Ms. Marvel book that I may pick up a few issues of it. I've come to really like Karla Sofen over the years. Anyway, not sure it qualifies as a WiR situation inasmuch as it's killing off one semi-prominent female character to bring another promising female character to semi-prominence. I see WiR as "killing/otherwise harming a female character just to motivate a male one".
MEANWHILE: Most notable book of the week so far (though bear in mind I haven't gotten to Buckaroo Banzai or Seaguy yet) is Mark Waid's Irredeemable. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it yet -- it's definitely got shades of Black Summer, with its "What if Superman went bad?" high concept, except instead of killing the President, this Superman-analog is killing everyone in the Justice League-analog. Basically he just finally snapped and decided the human race is fucking rotten and decided to turn his powers toward revenge instead of salvation.
Again, hard to decide if I like it or not from issue #1, but it definitely stood out and I think I'll be picking up #2.
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Picked up Irredeemable as well. Good hook, but the 2nd book will need to be a bit stronger if I'm going to continue. When characters begin talking about that horrible thing they did but swore not to talk about it so they don't is kind of stilted writing, but the opener is good and how the flashback plays out is pretty good.
Also, I like his superhero names. The Plutonian, Scylla and Charybdis, and Samsara are all good. Hopefully it'll pick up more in the next issue.
As for other books, I'm finally caught up with Madman. I haven't enjoyed the Atomic Comics as much as the other series, but it's still been a good read. The art has been exciting and creative, but the stories seem a little lackluster, especially the conclusion to the 1 of 4 plotline that's been dangled for a long time.
Also picked up Incredibles #1, also by Mark Waid. It's a fun story, and after the movie came out I really wanted to see more of the characters and universe that Incredibles is set in. The story opens with a robot from the 24th century using devolution bombs to turn zoo animals into dinosaurs. If that doesn't hit a soft spot in your old blood pumper, you must be dead.
I've been picking up Hellblazer for the past few months, and Peter Milligan has taken over for Andy Diggle on the writing duties, and his recent story has been a good one. If there's one thing I love about Hellblazer, it's that the series doesn't come with a lot of baggage. John has a history, but his own continuity doesn't weigh down on the book. It doesn't take a separate bible or wikipedia page just to figure out what's going on.
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Picked up Irredeemable as well. Good hook, but the 2nd book will need to be a bit stronger if I'm going to continue. When characters begin talking about that horrible thing they did but swore not to talk about it so they don't is kind of stilted writing, but the opener is good and how the flashback plays out is pretty good.
Also, I like his superhero names. The Plutonian, Scylla and Charybdis, and Samsara are all good. Hopefully it'll pick up more in the next issue.
As for other books, I'm finally caught up with Madman. I haven't enjoyed the Atomic Comics as much as the other series, but it's still been a good read. The art has been exciting and creative, but the stories seem a little lackluster, especially the conclusion to the 1 of 4 plotline that's been dangled for a long time.
Also picked up Incredibles #1, also by Mark Waid. It's a fun story, and after the movie came out I really wanted to see more of the characters and universe that Incredibles is set in. The story opens with a robot from the 24th century using devolution bombs to turn zoo animals into dinosaurs. If that doesn't hit a soft spot in your old blood pumper, you must be dead.
I've been picking up Hellblazer for the past few months, and Peter Milligan has taken over for Andy Diggle on the writing duties, and his recent story has been a good one. If there's one thing I love about Hellblazer, it's that the series doesn't come with a lot of baggage. John has a history, but his own continuity doesn't weigh down on the book. It doesn't take a separate bible or wikipedia page just to figure out what's going on.
What do you think of Sean Gordon Murphy's art? I've been following his art postings separate from any comic purchases.
Also, The Goon's first two trades may be out of print, but I found a British retailer with both (lots of folks had the one or the other... seems few people had both) so those should show up in a week or two.
The thing that struck me most was that in this day and age, a volume 1 of any Trade paperback collection of a decently popular comic would actually go out of print. Especially when a movie version of the series is soon to be released. I mean yeah, if this was the 80's, or even the 90's that would still make sense. But that's just not how popular characters are marketed anymore. Nowadays, the entry-level TP collection is the #1 'hook' for new readers and is usually vastly over-printed.
AH DUNNO.
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I think Carol Danvers is a pretty weak character honestly, and I don't think she could really have been pushed to be something great or iconic. There are female characters in the marvel universe that could be made into something special though, and Marvel isn't pushing them.
Ms. Marvel's problem was that she's a prominent character within the Marvel Universe itself, but not a particularly popular character. End result: she could show up when somebody needed a big shot, but nobody really cared what might happen to her character as a result.
Which is a shame, because she did have the makings for a great character: her costume is cool and she has simple but effective powers. Her basic personality (at least at the beginning of her series) was effective: a former member of the Air Force who dreamed of going into space and, after gaining her powers, realized that she could become the greatest damn super hero ever and would actively work to that end.
Her origins are a mess, sure, but not so much that it couldn't easily be streamlined. Take away Captain Marvel, the X-Men and all of that and you've still got Astronaut Carol Danvers getting super powers from the Brood. And then reintroduce the X-Men, 'cuz Rogue is pretty important.
I really think if she had been in a Saturday morning cartoon, I don't know, I think people would take more notice if she got killed and replaced.
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Except, she was in the X-Men animated cartoon that's probably responsible for a lot of my generation getting hooked on Marvel comics in the first place.
And don't underestimate her popularity, DN. She might not be a top-tier character, but she does have her own series. She's had several in fact. She's been a prominent player in most of Marvel's big event books and played a pivotal role in the character of Rogue. She's not a low-level character because Marvel didn't try (Marvel isn't one to make a character not be profitable), she's just never really been big. She's about on par with Booster Gold or She-Hulk, a character well liked with the fans but just doesn't connect with the larger audience.
And, as I've already mentioned, Marvel loves killing characters. To most characters, it's really just kind of a temporary inconvenience more than something final.
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...so you know Grant Morrison's afterword to the first issue of Irredeemable? Where he bitches about patterning and how people unfairly pigeonhole him as the guy who writes incomprehensible metafiction, no matter how many perfectly straightforward, traditional stories he writes?
I am confident that when he heard that would be shipping the same day as the new issue of Seaguy, he :facepalm:'ed HARD.
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I saw the preview for Power Girl #1. Near as I can tell, it's about some big daddies from Bioshock dropping into New York and setting off the events chronicled in Left Behind.
With a cover by Adam Hughes! :perfect:
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Okay. I am posting in a comics thread. I know very LITTLE about comics, bear with me please. I tend to only read odds and ends in collected editions.
Batman: The Killing Joke. I was told this was a 'must read' Batman comic. Went by a local comic/hobby store, the owner was kind enough to stay open another ten minutes to help me find the book. He only had hardback versions for $18 left, and I was more than happy to pay that. A couple of the local comic geeks nodded in approval when I said "I was told this was a must read."
Wow. This was a wonderful short story. I almost wish I could see the original print for comparison of the coloring jobs. The art and color were fantastic. The story is chilling, dark, and brutal. It got me to feel sorry for the Joker. [spoiler]The fact he doesn't even remember anymore what set him off, but is determined to keep laughing at the joke that is life itself, full of random injustice kind of hit me hard.[/spoiler]
The extra short story included [spoiler]where a guy plots the horrible murder of Batman, complete with art of bullet ripping through the skull of Bruce[/spoiler] was worth the fantastic art of the villains alone.
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That short story is from the excellent Batman: Black & White, which is a four part anthology of short stories from various writers and artists not necessarily known for Batman, though a few are. Some of those included are Neil Gaiman, Bruce Timm, and Katsuhiro Ōtomo (the creator of Akira). Pretty great overall.
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I've posted my opinions on The Killing Joke before, but in brief, I think it's a brilliantly-written story based around a truly awful core of an idea. The deep characterization of the Joker and his relationship with Batman represents everything I love about comics; the senseless brutality against Barbara represents everything I hate about them. (Moore's apologized for the story, and there's been some suggestion in the years since that "let's cripple Batgirl" was an editorial edict and not his idea.)
Could it have worked just as well without resorting to senseless brutality against a female character for the purpose of motivating the male characters? I think it could have. I would argue that Dark Knight proved it could have, but of course Dark Knight also resorted to senseless brutality against a female character for the purpose of motivating the male characters.
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Steve Ditko goes off on things Steve Ditko goes off on. (http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/blash/2009/04/06/steve-ditkos-toyland/) I only skimmed it, but I guess Joe Quesada is responsible for 9/11?
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I had to stop reading it when I saw the scaffolding for the strawman.
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Wow. That's so incoherent it's about one random tangeant away from being Dave Sim, and about two inscrutable rambles away from being Timecube.
It makes me wonder if the comics industry had a single legitimately gifted, sensible, and intelligent person working in it in our parents' generations (okay, Will Eisner, but he's dead).
I mean, I can't think of a single senior "pillar of the industry", who isn't either dead, a complete hermit, batshit insane, a goddamn joke, or some combination of those four attributes.
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Paul Dini? Does he count as senior? Does he count as sane? (I don't know these things)
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Feldstein and Robinson are still around, but they're Golden Age.
Hm...I'll get back to you.
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Feldstein and Robinson are still around, but they're Golden Age.
Hm...I'll get back to you.
I'll be generous: You can cite someone working in ANY type of comics... hell, it's what I tried to do, but I started thinking of newspaper strips and I realized Larson and Watterson are in deeper isolation than Neil freakin' Armstrong and just about everyone else is (again) dead.
I am legitimately stumped.
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Joe Kubert?
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Aragonés is alive and kicking.
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Right! Good one, Zara.
Romita Sr's still around and, as far as I know, not a crazy recluse. I wouldn't put him on quite the same level as some of the other names people have been throwing around, but I love his Spidey stuff almost as much as Ditko's.
What about Jim Steranko?
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Aragonés is a good point, though he doesn't speak out much. He just keeps quietly working away. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
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Short list of Silver Age creators (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Silver_Age_comics_creators)
People like Neal Adams, Dennis O'Neill, Gene Colan, and a few others are still alive and kicking.
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And, of course, STAN MOTHERFUCKING LEE.
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Aragonés is a good point, though he doesn't speak out much. He just keeps quietly working away. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
I thought his stories about the old days of comic censorship were the best part of last year's Liberty Comics.
Feldstein getting arrested for making fun of Santa Claus is a fucking classic.
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And, of course, STAN MOTHERFUCKING LEE.
Oh, we all KNOW Stan's still alive.
But I was specifically looking for people who are respectable, people who add something to the industry, rather than a grotesque self-parody*. My issue is that currently, when a 'pillar of the industry' says something in public, more often than not, it's a pile of retarded drivel. I was openly wondering if there is ANYONE who is interviewed or who regularly speaks out that is actually sensible and respectable.
*Actually, the best career move Stan could make would probably be death at this point.
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So you want someone that was doing comics during the period Batman dressed like a zebra in a regular basis to speak about comics as serious affairs.
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Yes.
Provided that "as serious affairs" refers to the credibility of the speaker, rather than to the comics that they're talking about.
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So you want someone that was doing comics during the period Batman dressed like a zebra in a regular basis to speak about comics as serious affairs.
Hey, it doesn't have to be the exact guy who came up with that idea that.
Anyway, it came to mind because I realized that is actually pretty damaging that the industry currently has very few people who can speak about comics but who can't be easily dismissed for one reason or another.
Regardless of their work, people like Moore, Ditko, and our buddy Stan do nothing but reinforce negative sterotypes of the industry. I'm not asking for them to go away, or for some kind of justice, I'm just trying to think of someone we've got that doesn't do that. Someone who doesn't need 'handlers', if you get my drift.
Actually, I did think of Art Speigelman, but he's always been hobbled by the "your stuff is great, even in spite of it being a comic" attitude. His work is widely accepted, but as an aberration.
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But I was specifically looking for people who are respectable, people who add something to the industry, rather than a grotesque self-parody*. My issue is that currently, when a 'pillar of the industry' says something in public, more often than not, it's a pile of retarded drivel. I was openly wondering if there is ANYONE who is interviewed or who regularly speaks out that is actually sensible and respectable.
Um... Hmm. How about Alex Ross? Barry Windsor-Smith? Peter David? Uh... Adam Hughes maybe, or J. Scott Campbell? I dunno if they're 'pillars of the industry,' but they all have instantly-recognizable styles and command large sums of money for their service. I've heard David, Hughes and Campbell speak, and they're not asses.
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But I was specifically looking for people who are respectable, people who add something to the industry, rather than a grotesque self-parody*. My issue is that currently, when a 'pillar of the industry' says something in public, more often than not, it's a pile of retarded drivel. I was openly wondering if there is ANYONE who is interviewed or who regularly speaks out that is actually sensible and respectable.
Um... Hmm. How about Alex Ross? Barry Windsor-Smith? Peter David? Uh... Adam Hughes maybe, or J. Scott Campbell? I dunno if they're 'pillars of the industry,' but they all have instantly-recognizable styles and command large sums of money for their service. I've heard David, Hughes and Campbell speak, and they're not asses.
Well, they're more recent (relatively speaking). The industry is (luckily) not entirely bereft of sensible people, but as you inadvertently pointed out, the names that come to mind are all people who have spent perhaps not all, but most of their careers working at a time when the art form has become much more accepted.
More and more, I come to realize just how important Will Eisner was.
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Don Rosa, maybe?
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Yeah. I just wish you'd see more of "Interview with Don Rosa" or whoever, rather than "Alan Moore - Loopy interview MkIII! Now with twice the extra bonus crazy!" or Stan Lee mugging for the camera. But hey, bland doesn't really sell.
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Anyway, this week was pretty good to me for comics. The last issue of 100 Bullets came out. And while it wasn't completely unexpected, I'm not entirely sure how how I feel about the [spoiler]rocks fall, everybody dies[/spoiler] ending. And I like those kinds of endings in fiction.
Just seemed like a bit of a cop out. I can just hear Azzarello saying "Could it really have ended any other way?"
Anyway, also picked up volumes 2, 3, & 4 of The Goon (got volumes 0 & 1 last week), which, as promised by Niku is great stuff. It's a hell of a lot of fun with more than a little heart thrown in for good measure. You wouldn't think something that ridiculous would be able to carry weight, but Powell pulls it off. It's also nice to watch Powell's skills improve. There's a huge jump over the first 3 volumes or so. I will be picking up the rest soon as I get the chance (I think I need volume 5, Chinatown (volume 6), and Goon Noir.)
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You know, I should probably note that I DO agree with Ditko on one thing: the emphasis on superheroes being basket cases instead of role models DOES suck in a lot of ways. Hell, even Alan Moore would agree with that, and he pretty much started it.
Perhaps the most tragic thing about the article, to me, was the comment about marriages being thrown away -- the idea that Ditko actually follows what's happening to Spider-Man is, frankly, a little heartbreaking. I mean, as a 26-year-old fan, *I* hate what's happened to Spidey over the past forty or so years; I can only imagine what it must feel like for ol' Steve. (I wonder if he knows about the Spectacular cartoon. Even if he did, he'd probably find something wrong with it too.)
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I got the Goon: Wicked Inclinations and Goon: Chinatown today.
Holy fuck. While Chinatown is a damn fine read*, the scene in Wicked Inclinations where [spoiler]they sign up the ghosts of dead slaves as union members[/spoiler] is fucking genius.
*Trivia: the scene where Goon [spoiler]Kills the watch peddler[/spoiler], was the first Goon material I ever read, and the first thing to really make me decide that yeah, the series was something to look into picking up.
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One other thing that I wanted to mention about The Goon. This is one of the few comics I've ever read that progresses from "more comedic" to "more serious" and actually doesn't lose anything for doing so.
Often, artist-creators may be quick with a joke or a sight gag, gaining early readers. If they have a long story arc planned the series may "lose its innocence" along the way. Often, the writer is not able to substitute humour with drama of an equal quality and the series and characters suffer for it. They my or may not try to 'recapture the magic' with jokes that by then feel awkward and forced.
Powell however does not suffer from this problem. At least, not with The Goon.
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One other thing that I wanted to mention about The Goon. This is one of the few comics I've ever read that progresses from "more comedic" to "more serious" and actually doesn't lose anything for doing so.
Bone?
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Figure I might as well start posting the list of upcoming comics here, so people can see what's coming out each week.
DARK HORSE COMICS
CONAN THE CIMMERIAN #10
STAR WARS LEGACY #35
DC COMICS
BATMAN BATTLE FOR THE COWL THE UNDERGROUND #1
BATMAN GOTHAM AFTER MIDNIGHT #12 (OF 12)
CARTOON NETWORK BLOCK PARTY #56
FINAL CRISIS LEGION OF THREE WORLDS #4 (OF 5)
FLASH REBIRTH #1 (OF 5) 2ND PTG
GEARS OF WAR #6 (MR)
GREEN LANTERN #40
GREEN LANTERN CORPS #35 CORRECTED COPY 01
JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #26
LITERALS #1 (OF 3) (MR)
MAD MAGAZINE #500
MADAME XANADU #10 (MR)
RESISTANCE #5 (OF 6) (MR)
SUPERMAN #687
SUPERMAN BATMAN #59
TEEN TITANS #70
TRINITY #48
UNKNOWN SOLDIER #7 (MR)
WONDER WOMAN #31
IMAGE COMICS
AMBER ATOMS #3
ASTOUNDING WOLF-MAN #15
MADMAN ATOMIC COMICS #15 (RES)
MR UNIVERSE (ONE SHOT) (RES)
PHONOGRAM 2 #2 (OF 7)
PROOF #19
SPAWN #191
WITCHBLADE #126
MARVEL COMICS
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN FAMILY #5
AVENGERS INVADERS #10 (OF 12)
CAPTAIN AMERICA THEATER OF WAR BROTHER IN ARMS
DARK AVENGERS #4
DARK REIGN CABAL DKR
DR DOOM MASTERS OF EVIL #4 (OF 4)
ENDERS GAME BATTLE SCHOOL #5 (OF 5)
KABUKI REFLECTIONS #13 (MR)
MARVEL 70TH ANNIV CELEBRATION
MARVEL ADVENTURES AVENGERS #35
MARVEL ASSISTANT SIZE SPECTACULAR #2 (OF 2)
MS MARVEL #38 DKR
NOVA #24
RUNAWAYS 3 #9
SKAAR #10
THUNDERBOLTS #130 2ND PTG DE LA TORRE VAR DKR (PP #862)
ULTIMATE WOLVERINE VS HULK #5 (OF 6)
UNCANNY X-MEN #509
WAR MACHINE #5 DKR
WOLVERINE WEAPON X #1 2ND PTG
X-FORCE CABLE MESSIAH WAR PROLOGUE 2ND PTG
X-MEN ORIGINS WOLVERINE #1
MISC COMICS
MUPPET SHOW #2 (OF 4)
2000 AD #1629
2000 AD #1630
A G SUPER EROTIC ANTHOLOGY #103 (A)
AIRBOY 1942 BEST ENEMIES BRYANT MODERN CVR $6.50
ARCHIE #596
ARCHIE DOUBLE DIGEST #198 (NOTE PRICE)
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA CYLON WAR #4 (OF 4)
DEAN KOONTZS NEVERMORE #1 (OF 6)
EUREKA DORMANT GENE #1 (OF 4)
FAR WEST BAD MOJO #2 (OF 2)
FARSCAPE DARGOS LAMENT #1 (OF 4)
FEMALE FORCE #1 HILLARY CLINTON (NEW PTG) (PP #859)
FEMALE FORCE #2 SARAH PALIN (NEW PTG) (PP #858)
FEMALE FORCE #3 MICHELLE OBAMA CURR PTG
FULL CIRKLE II #3 (OF 3) (MR)
GARTH ENNIS BATTLEFIELDS TANKIES #1
GI JOE ORIGINS #3
HERESY #4 (OF 4) (MR)
JUNGLE GIRL SEASON 2 #4 (OF 5)
MASQUERADE #3
MR STUFFINS #1 (OF 3) NEW EDITION
NO HERO #2 (OF 7) OPERATOR NYCC ED (MR)
RASL #4 (MR)
RED SONJA #43
SHERLOCK HOLMES #1
SIMPSONS CLASSICS #20
SONIC UNIVERSE #3
VINCENT PRICE PRESENTS #7
VINCENT PRICE PRESENTS GALLERY OF TERROR ONE SHOT $4.99
WARLOCK (BLUEWATER) #1
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Oh that reminds me, free comic book day this Saturday.
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One other thing that I wanted to mention about The Goon. This is one of the few comics I've ever read that progresses from "more comedic" to "more serious" and actually doesn't lose anything for doing so.
Bone?
I actually think that Bone does lose something over time. I mean, it's not like he skids out into the crapper or turned into Dave Sim* or anything. The quality of Smith's work remains high through the series. But after maybe... I don't know, the Roque Ja sequence you started to really notice there's a dropoff from the highest points. He became very tired and burnt out over the course of the series and had some pretty severe eye troubles as well, so I don't really hold it against the guy. He soldiered on, completed the series and did a decent job of it. But really the last 20 issues - while good comics - simply do not compare to the sheer brilliance of the first 20.
* Probably the benchmark for farthest and hardest fall from grace.
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FEMALE FORCE #1 HILLARY CLINTON (NEW PTG) (PP #859)
FEMALE FORCE #2 SARAH PALIN (NEW PTG) (PP #858)
FEMALE FORCE #3 MICHELLE OBAMA CURR PTG
What. The. Fuck?
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Bone stuff
I completely agree, especially about where Bone's turning point was. The sad part for me (as a teenager, anyway) was that that part of the story happened as soon as I was caught up with all the trade paperbacks and miscellaneous back issues, so from then on I had to wait several months at a time for the latest issue that would never be quite as good as everything before it.
Still a great comic all around, though. I forgot about Smith's eye problems, but still, it took the guy thirteen years to complete 55 issues.
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Yeah, I mean, if you read the later books without seeing the early stuff you think "Hey, this is a pretty good comic!", but then you go back and read stuff like, the Eye of the Storm, the huge bet over Lucius' bar ("Hey guys?! Do you like Beer?"), Phoney as Ahab, and of course The Great Cow Race and it just blows the later stuff away. Even the little throwaway stuff like Smiley on the roof with Lucius is priceless.
And it's not all because "He was funnier then" - there was fantastic drama in those early books too.
Also, I will admit to being one of the people who was unsatisfied with the sorta-lame drift-away ending, but I understand Smith's reasoning behind it and don't begrudge his choice.
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FEMALE FORCE #1 HILLARY CLINTON (NEW PTG) (PP #859)
FEMALE FORCE #2 SARAH PALIN (NEW PTG) (PP #858)
FEMALE FORCE #3 MICHELLE OBAMA CURR PTG
What. The. Fuck?
Just a bunch of bio-comics, similar to the ones for John McCain and Barack Obama before the election.
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Well, I figured. But still though... what's with the numbering?
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Female Force #1 is about Hillary, #2 is about Sarah Palin, and #3 is about Michelle Obama. Do you not understand our numbering system?
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(PP #859) (PP #858)
EDIT: Makes it seems like they are issues in some extremely-long running series. I doubt this is the case.
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Also, I will admit to being one of the people who was unsatisfied with the sorta-lame drift-away ending, but I understand Smith's reasoning behind it and don't begrudge his choice.
What was his reasoning for it? My ex claimed that if the story had been written by a girl, Rose and Lucius would have ended up together at the end. I rolled my eyes at this statement, but I'm still curious of Jeff Smith's motivations.
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I don't know. Most of his explanations about the ending revolve around his perfectly correct decision not to show Boneville. Because apparently that's what he got all the mail on?
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so Polite Dissent (http://www.politedissent.com/) is gone, for whatever reason
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???
He says right there in a May 2nd, 2009 update that he's still there.
Am I missing something?
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I stopped picking up Kick-Ass. I just couldn't stand it anymore.
It's almost like... two guys trying to make Spider-Man all over again, only what that kind of thing is supposed to look like for 'our' generation. For all the gratuitous gore, it failed in the most important way, it feels nothing like a 'real-world' superhero story. It feels... just like another comic book.
I don't know anyone else feeling that or am I just a grouch talking outta my ass?
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(http://i630.photobucket.com/albums/uu23/Bon_Bon_2009/scruffy-1.jpg) Kick-Ass lost me around issue 3.
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(http://i630.photobucket.com/albums/uu23/Bon_Bon_2009/scruffy-1.jpg) Kick-Ass lost me around issue 3.
Yeah, if I was being honest I'd say around the same time for me. But I hung on longer to give it a chance.
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grouches talk out of garbage cans
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grouches talk out of garbage cans
Heh. I was one of those kids who thought Oscar the Grouch was a real cool dude.
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so Polite Dissent (http://www.politedissent.com/) is gone, for whatever reason
huh.
the site was a placeholder all yesterday.
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For all the gratuitous gore, it failed in the most important way, it feels nothing like a 'real-world' superhero story. It feels... just like another comic book.
I don't know anyone else feeling that or am I just a grouch talking outta my ass?
That's pretty much been the problem ever since Big Daddy and Hit-Girl entered the scene -- it can't decide whether it wants to subvert superhero cliches or embrace them.
I found that the latest issue actually did a pretty good job of making Big Daddy and Hit-Girl more realistic and believable characters...only to fuck up on the last page and [spoiler]completely ruin Red Mist, the most believable character in the whole damned book[/spoiler]. It was a cheap, cliche twist ending at the expense of, well, the things that make the book good in the first place.
It's still got enough good stuff going on that I'm not dumping it yet, but you're exactly right about the main flaw in the book -- it doesn't know what it wants to be.
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[spoiler]completely ruin Red Mist, the most believable character in the whole damned book[/spoiler]. It was a cheap, cliche twist ending at the expense of, well, the things that make the book good in the first place.
(http://i630.photobucket.com/albums/uu23/Bon_Bon_2009/scruffy-1.jpg)
Spot on right with that. [spoiler]I'd defintely agree that Red Mist was the most believable character by a long shot.[/spoiler]. I found he was a lot more [spoiler]believeable[/spoiler] than the the actual Main Character.
I do have to disgree with the most recent issue making the father-daughter murder machine team more realistic. I'd say the issue threw the reader a badly needed bone [spoiler]even though it's technically a WiR by proxy[/spoiler], but on the whole they're still a pretty awful cliche themselves. I mean come on [spoiler]they start out as the super-killer team without remorse or a shred of emotion - plus the girl is asian and looks maybe.. ten? But by the end of the last issue they're begging Kick-Ass to save them?[/spoiler]. That's a classic hero-story set up. [spoiler]Impress your hero with someone way better than they ever will be... then make the hero save them to show how HEROIC and AWESOME the main character really is.[/spoiler]
Also, we're still waiting on [spoiler]the car battery to the nuts scene[/spoiler], though that might finally show in the next book.
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Re-reading my old copies of Dominion and Dominion: Conflict 1, from waaaay back during Shirow's glory days.
It hurts like hell to be reminded of just how funny and intelligent he once was, but goddamn are those some good comics.
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I do have to disgree with the most recent issue making the father-daughter murder machine team more realistic. I'd say the issue threw the reader a badly needed bone [spoiler]even though it's technically a WiR by proxy[/spoiler], but on the whole they're still a pretty awful cliche themselves. I mean come on [spoiler]they start out as the super-killer team without remorse or a shred of emotion - plus the girl is asian and looks maybe.. ten? But by the end of the last issue they're begging Kick-Ass to save them?[/spoiler]. That's a classic hero-story set up. [spoiler]Impress your hero with someone way better than they ever will be... then make the hero save them to show how HEROIC and AWESOME the main character really is.[/spoiler]
Except that he doesn't. He's in WAY the hell over his head, as he has been since day one.
The story doesn't actually NEED for [spoiler]Red Mist to get the drop on him; ANYONE could have put that gun to his head with the same effect.[/spoiler] Now, [spoiler]getting the drop on Big Daddy and Hit-Girl[/spoiler] is another matter, and given the setup, [spoiler]SOMEBODY had to betray them if they were going to wind up in that position[/spoiler]. I just don't think it should have happened the way it did.
Also, we're still waiting on [spoiler]the car battery to the nuts scene[/spoiler], though that might finally show in the next book.
Yeah, I'm pretty damn sure that's where this is going.
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I do have to disgree with the most recent issue making the father-daughter murder machine team more realistic. I'd say the issue threw the reader a badly needed bone [spoiler]even though it's technically a WiR by proxy[/spoiler], but on the whole they're still a pretty awful cliche themselves. I mean come on [spoiler]they start out as the super-killer team without remorse or a shred of emotion - plus the girl is asian and looks maybe.. ten? But by the end of the last issue they're begging Kick-Ass to save them?[/spoiler]. That's a classic hero-story set up. [spoiler]Impress your hero with someone way better than they ever will be... then make the hero save them to show how HEROIC and AWESOME the main character really is.[/spoiler]
Except that he doesn't. He's in WAY the hell over his head, as he has been since day one.
The story doesn't actually NEED for [spoiler]Red Mist to get the drop on him; ANYONE could have put that gun to his head with the same effect.[/spoiler] Now, [spoiler]getting the drop on Big Daddy and Hit-Girl[/spoiler] is another matter, and given the setup, [spoiler]SOMEBODY had to betray them if they were going to wind up in that position[/spoiler]. I just don't think it should have happened the way it did.
Also, we're still waiting on [spoiler]the car battery to the nuts scene[/spoiler], though that might finally show in the next book.
Yeah, I'm pretty damn sure that's where this is going.
That's fair.
I suppose I'll happily confess to being one of those guys who hates everything about the father-daughter killer team and who just groaned horribly when they first appeared. I think their introduction all but ruined the original concept of the series. Not in the sense that having vigilantes stronger than Kick-Ass is wrong, just everything about their execution. Hot-and-cold*, father-daughter, my aforementioned complaint about a murderous 10-year-old half-asian girl, can only be defeated by [spoiler]betrayal[/spoiler], etc. etc.
If I had to include a "Pro" character in such a comic I probably would have made him someone who was actually mentally unstable, someone you could use to really ask serious questions about vigilantism. Hell, maybe even someone who was one step away from being Charles Whitman... maybe.
But this book doesn't seem to want to ask those questions. Maybe it will later, but you sure coulda fooled me.
*[spoiler]Motherfucking cold killers one moment, vulnerable loving family the next. [/spoiler]
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It's kind of funny when I typed that line about Whitman, I said to myself "Hm. That seems pretty dark for Kick-Ass"... kind of highlights the whole problem for me.
Sorry guys, LOADS OF GORE does not equal realism. :sadpanda:
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I'm really loving the current run on Captain Britain and MI13. It's just so much fun. The current arc involves MI13 fighting Dracula, who has a castle on the moon. :oic: :perfect:
I am curious about most of these characters, some of theme I've heard of from before I read this series, but some of them I've never heard of before, and everyone is written as having an extensive back story.
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(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b167/unhelpful/seaguy.jpg) (http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b167/unhelpful/autaux.gif)
(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b167/unhelpful/seaguy2.jpg) (http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b167/unhelpful/autaux2.gif)
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I'm really loving the current run on Captain Britain and MI13. It's just so much fun. The current arc involves MI13 fighting Dracula, who has a castle on the moon. :oic: :perfect:
Castle on the moon? What a crazy idea! (http://drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=18&issue=11)
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:oic:
:facepalm:
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House of Ideas, indeed.
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So uh the new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is out.
Haven't cracked it yet, because I want to SAVOR it.
It's a good week all 'round, with Seaguy and Astro City also.
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I've got three or so issues of Incognito lying around here that I should probably start reading. I'm just so bad at comics; I hate reading a story I can't immediately finish. Graphic novels, you complete me.
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...So a few weeks back I read an interview with Mark Waid where he talked about 24/7, his Spider-Man arc, and I was impressed enough by the premise that I have bought Spider-Man comics for what I believe is the first time this century.
The premise is vintage Spidey: J Jonah Jameson is elected mayor of New York and creates a task force dedicated to arresting Spider-Man; Spidey responds by not sleeping for days and staying in-costume full-time (hence the title) just to annoy him.
#592 was setup, and it was pretty decent, but #593 really clicked; it had Spidey posing with tourists, webbing people yelling on their cell phones, and generally being Spidey. Much as I loved the movies (well, two of them, anyway), they didn't spend nearly enough time on Spidey being wacky and carefree.
Great balance with the action, too -- this issue ends with Spidey in a fight with a scary new version of the Vulture, [spoiler]blinded[/spoiler] in a cute little bit of symmetry to the previous issue's ending, where he [spoiler]found Aunt May in bed with J Jonah Jameson's father[/spoiler].
Anyway, Waid gets it. It's a Spidey book that plays up one of the greatest things about the series: his relationship with Jonah.
I'm still not likely to make a habit of reading Spider-Man, but I'm onboard as long as Waid is.
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Is the new Astro City worth picking up if a person hasn't read the previous Dark Age arcs? I was this close to picking it up, but didn't get it because I was unsure if I'd be able to follow it.
Speaking of Waid, Irredeemable #2 came out this week and I liked it a lot. It deepening the mystery of the Plutonian wrecking everybody's shit, while also poking fun at the conventions and formula of Superman. The art does a great job of making references to classic Super-man poses. It's also fun to see him turn the "secret-identity" shtick on its ear.
The clear winner, though, is Seaguy. It's because of Bulldressing, which may be the finest sport ever invented.
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Was it Mark Waid or Alex Ross who had the idea to have Superman hook up with Wonder Woman?
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Is the new Astro City worth picking up if a person hasn't read the previous Dark Age arcs? I was this close to picking it up, but didn't get it because I was unsure if I'd be able to follow it.
Will answer once I've read it. My instinct is that it should be possible to follow on its own but will make more sense if you read the last two.
Was it Mark Waid or Alex Ross who had the idea to have Superman hook up with Wonder Woman?
Per a very neat AICN interview with Waid (http://www.aintitcool.com/node/40896) from a couple of weeks back, it sounds like it was his idea:
I don't think Alex would disagree that I found critical roles for Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, neither of whom were players in his original concept.
There's also some pretty juicy behind-the-scenes stuff where he talks about various editors he's had. In particular, he makes Dan Didio sound like a fucking idiot; Countdown was apparently the result of DD not liking 52.
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Is the new Astro City worth picking up if a person hasn't read the previous Dark Age arcs? I was this close to picking it up, but didn't get it because I was unsure if I'd be able to follow it.
Will answer once I've read it. My instinct is that it should be possible to follow on its own but will make more sense if you read the last two.
Confirmed on reading. The story is straightforward and tells you everything you need to know going in. But if you go in without already having an emotional investment in the two lead characters, I think it'll really kill the impact of the book.
Book 1's out in paperback now; don't think Book 2 is.
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Oh hey, I almost forgot to mention that I went to the TCAF (a grand Toronto comic festival that only happens once every two years) on Saturday. It's a very Canadian/Indie festival, with little mainstream stuff, but a lot of good minor artists putting out great stuff. Saw Kate Beaton, got her book and said hi.
It was decent. Didn't buy much. I hate standing in line and don't care about getting stuff signed, so I didn't really do anything with the big names, but it was a nice diversion for the early afternoon.
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Probably not the best way to respond to criticism. (http://www.beaucoupkevin.com/blog/joseph-larkin-review-arcade-of-cruelty/2009/05/11/#comment-6512)
<StushSleep> Hehe, he reviewed his own book on amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Arcade-Cruelty-Joseph-Larkin/dp/0615217990), too.
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League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century: 1910 is pretty great! Looking forward to seeing the rest of the story.
I had an epiphany during the prose story at the end. So, okay, there's a whole lot of violence against women in Moore's comics, and a friend of mine has pointed out that this is frankly pretty disturbing and suggests he may have deepseated issues with women.
But from the bit about Orlando, I think it's actually the opposite: I think Alan Moore might hate men.
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Finally got down to the comic store again.
Picked up RASL #4. Was mildly disappointed that it has turned out to be yet another takeoff of [spoiler]The Philadelphia Experiment (are you kidding me? Really?)[/spoiler], but the rest of the story seems to be going somewhere. I think my opinion of this issue is going to be based on what comes after and what he does in [spoiler]fourty-eight hours alloted by our horse-faced friend. I.E. it's hard for me to judge his actions/reactions until we know what he's thinking. Because right now his reactions are kind of... odd.[/spoiler]. Also, boy does the main character have a dumb name.
Also, Buge, if you see this later: I got that volume you mentioned earlier 'Seigfried'. As promised, the art is excellent. Seems like it's going to be a straightforward lavishly-illustrated European comic adaptation for the Ring of the Nibelungs. I was amused that the Nibelungs are depicted as [spoiler]cartoony Skeksis[/spoiler], where the humans and gods are depicted normally. It works though. Looking forward to more volumes.
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I want them to translate it for us non-frenchies. And while I'm on the subject, Blacksad.
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I want them to translate it for us non-frenchies.
:nyah:
And while I'm on the subject, Blacksad.
The first two volumes of Blacksad were in English. In fact those are the copies I have. The company that was doing the translations lost the rights or went belly-up or whatever, so the third volume is only available in French, but two outta three ain't bad.
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But from the bit about Orlando, I think it's actually the opposite: I think Alan Moore might hate men.
I'll buy that. I'm more inclined to think that he just hates people though. That can be couched a lot of different ways: he hates movie producers, the publishing business, the current state of the culture industry, dumb Americans, dumb Brits, what have you. In the end, his view of people seems to be along the bloody, ignorant apes line. It's a good thing that we have Imagination to save us.
Good book though. As always with a League book, it has encouraged me to chase down some of the more marginal texts that Moore draws upon.
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I vote for Alan being a big ol' pervert.
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I just read the latest Fantastic Four. It wasn't a great issue per se, but it did have a great visual -- the best "holy shit" moment I've seen since...well, I took a minute to think about the last time I saw a "holy shit" moment that good and I think it was in Final Crisis, when the Flashes appeared running from the Black Racer.
It's not coincidental that both moments involve Jack Kirby characters. It's a testament to the King and his big ideas that his creations can evoke such a visceral reaction, all these years later.
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Digging Moonstone as Ms. Marvel. The central conceit of the latest issue, [spoiler]Ms. Marvel tries to make an alliance with AIM, they refuse and try to drop a meteor on Manhattan, she retaliates by diverting it to hit their base in Atlanta, civilian casualties be damned, and then tells the press Atlanta was the target and she minimized the damage[/spoiler], is a great example of what happens when you put a villain in charge. It's not the original Thunderbolts; you don't have Songbird and Mach-1 falling into their hero roles and slowly redeeming themselves. Moonstone...well, she saves some telepathic fetuses from both AIM and Norman's clutches, but she still [spoiler]drops a meteor on a damn major city[/spoiler].
MEANWHILE: Spider-Man: The Short Halloween, by some guys at SNL, is decent and worth a few laughs but probably not worth the $3.99 cover price. (At least it's 33 pages!) But it has a fun enough premise, and also you get to see Spider-Man in the back of a cab with Hunter S Thompson and Shaun of the Dead. And a supervillain named Haymaker whose power is...well, it's not the kind of haymaker where you punch somebody.
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I just powered through all the available trades of Fables. It took a few books to grab me, but once it did I couldn't set it down. It's an interesting way to shuffle storybook characters into the "real" world, and the tale of war and intrigue is sufficiently enthralling. Also, some of the best cover art ever.
Where can I get a witching cloak?
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Got a copy of Goon volume seven and while most of it was setup for the big punches coming with volume 8 (late July) and 9 (October), it was still pretty damn good. A whole lot of new faces and interesting stuff started, that's for sure.
Also got a copy of the Satan's Sodomy Baby one-shot. A few thoughts:
The cover consists of only a lengthy text warning about how offensive the comic is. Amusingly, the warning on the cover is actually pretty legit. While it's nowhere near the worst I've seen, he's honestly trying to give the upper bowels of the internet a run for their money.
Powell's biggest problem when he takes gets into the "HUR HUR I'M BEING OFFENSIVE IN YOUR FACE" LOLTROLLERY, is that it's generally, only offense for offense's sake.
I mean don't get me wrong, it was pretty funny, and way back when he started he had a bit more of a point in doing it, but he can do a whole lot better than merely offending people now. When he takes a trip to gross-out lane to amuse himself, it really has become more for his benefit now than the audience's.
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Meat Suit.
Deadpool, you are going on my pull list RIGHT THE FUCK NOW.
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Invincible spoilarz:
[spoiler]Atom Eve dies in like five minutes of fight and it's really bleh[/spoiler]
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Invincible spoilarz:
[spoiler]Atom Eve dies in like five minutes of fight and it's really bleh[/spoiler]
LOL [spoiler]WiR, what?[/spoiler]
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Sure didn't take them long to bring back Steve Rogers.
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The Goon: Those That Is Damned came out a full MONTH early, but hey, no complaints. This volume suffers for being both very short (half the book is a reprint of a so-so all-Goon Dark Horse Presents) and the middle of a three-volume story arc, but is still pretty decent.
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Man, this (http://brontoforum.us/index.php?topic=16.msg94905#msg94905) reminded me of how badly I wish I had a way to share some of my rarer comics with you guys.
They're too big to scan (even if I had time to scan hundreds of pages and didn't care about wrecking the spines) and too rare and valuable to just get extra copies to mail around or give away.
There's some really great stuff that's pretty important to the development of comics that a lot of people have never seen just because it's reprinted so infrequently (and is very pricey when it is reprinted), not to mention some fantastic stories and beautiful artwork.
Even just little things... To cite Moebius again, there's his short story "The Long Tomorrow", which pioneered the sci-fi gumshoe genre and was almost certainly the first ever instance of the vertical city dug into a shaft in the ground. It's a lean, tight story, full of action, fun, and great damn writing. Or, the aforementioned "Airtight Garage" and "The Man From the Ciguri", which basically started out as a bizarre experiment* but became something that has yet to be duplicated. Or "Arzach", which was a seminal event in both art quality and in textless comics.
It's not just Moebius, there's other European stuff, lots of little one-offs by names you've probably never heard of like Gipi, Cyril Pederosa, Alain Guibert, Chris Blain, Jason... (all in Engish by the way). I mean there's a perception that independent comics often means "biographical or self-referential navel-gazing", but it's not all like that.
There's an INCREDIBLE noir mystery set in nazi-occupied France called 'The Bloody Streets Of Paris', that I have here by Jaques Tardi (also in English), and it just blows me away every time. The only person I know who's read it is my damned roommate and even that took three years to get him to try it. When he finally read it he pronounced it amazing.
There's NIL by Toronto artist James Turner, the book that convinced me Satire wasn't dead after all (I actually spoke to James recently and tried to convince him to put the book up online as a promotional thing for his much newer work... the jury's still out on that one).
I mean, at least some of you have access to the Manga stuff, but the European stuff kills me. It's all here on my shelf and once in a while I re-read a volume, but that's about it. No-one I know knows about this stuff, let alone reads or collects it.
It's frustrating is all. I really could give two shits about being some elitist asshole with a monstrous collection of amazing comics no one has ever read.
*Basically, Moebius started writing a new multidimensional sci-fi story. He did three pages and then misplaced them. Unable to find the first three pages, he then started all over again from a totally different angle. When he found the first three pages, he set himself a challenge: write three more pages that linked the first two groups. From that point, he basically made it into a crazy exercise. Each three-page bundle had to unify the previous bundles, while ALSO completely destroying any continuity he had carefully constructed so far in the story. The resulting story is a hell of a mindfuck, but is still entertaining and well worth a look at the very least.
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Apparently Warren Ellis is going to be writing four movies for various Marvel characters. (http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=7557) They're going to be animated by Japanese animation studio Madhouse, to merge "he beloved Marvel Super Heroes of western culture with the bold animation tradition of Japan".
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I am happy about that news.
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Jesus Christ, Yorick can't go two fucking issues without unmasking in front of some random chick, can he?
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Yorick is a schmuck.
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Yeah, but he's the Last Schmuck on Earth.
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If you just started, it kind of explains why he keeps revealing it. If later on, he kind of just ceases to care about keeping his identity that much of a secret.
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Oh right. New RASL.
[spoiler]Okay Jeff, we get it. Rob gets laid. A lot. He'll fuck anything that moves, probably a few things that don't, and hell, maybe even the lizard guy, if it turns out he has boobs.[/spoiler]
WOW I'M GLAD I WAITED THREE MONTHS FOR THAT.
EDIT:
On further consideration, I guess I can understand what Smith is trying to do. [spoiler]He's trying to present one of those fabled 'scumbag' main characters.[/spoiler] The problem is that I'm not buying it. [spoiler]Instead of a rogue (likeable or unlikeable), or a brilliant man with a hard-drinking, womanizing streak, Rob just comes across as near-totally unconsious other than his willingness to stick his dick into anything with a hole in it. He's not so much Han Solo as he is Ron Jeremy.[/spoiler]
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The Onion AVClub has a list of what they consider the 21 most influential (mainstream) comic artists (http://www.avclub.com/articles/reinventing-the-pencil-21-artists-who-changed-main,30528/).
It's not a surprising list, really, beginning with Kirby and ending with Bill Sienkiewicz. Inclusions of artists like Greg Land and Rob Liefield are probably to spark controversy and debate, but I personally am more incensed by who's excluded, namely Wally Wood, Mike Allred , Dave Gibbons, Eddie Campbell and Jeff Smith. Not to mention Romita and John Byrne.
I also find it odd that sense it's a better or worse article, it seems to exclude Frank Cho, Michael Turner and Marc Silverstri. I'm personally not a big fan of their work, but each of them has had a large impact since joining the field.
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All the silly nonsense elsewhere reminded me of the one comic I ever went to the trouble of scanning page by page for a friend. One of my all-time favourite comics, without a doubt. Mise well share.
(Sorry for the small size - I was trying to keep the filesize down at the time).
Cover (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Cover.jpg)
Page 01 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page01.jpg)
Page 02 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page02.jpg)
Page 03 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page03.jpg)
Page 04 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page04.jpg)
Page 05 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page05.jpg)
Page 06 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page06.jpg)
Page 07 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page07.jpg)
Page 08 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page08.jpg)
Page 09 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page09.jpg)
Page 10 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page10.jpg)
Page 11 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page11.jpg)
Page 12 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page12.jpg)
Page 13 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page13.jpg)
Page 14 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page14.jpg)
Page 15 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page15.jpg)
Page 16 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page16.jpg)
Page 17 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page17.jpg)
Page 18 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page18.jpg)
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Page 22 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page22.jpg)
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Page 24 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page24.jpg)
Page 25 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page25.jpg)
Page 26 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page26.jpg)
Page 27 (http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/Condors/Page27.jpg)
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Behind on comics and everything else; finally gave Blackest Night #1 a read.
My reaction is basically that the thing seems to be at odds with itself. The first half is a clever deconstruction of superhero death -- not as good as Dead Girl, but the best I've seen since -- with "boy, the DC Universe has sure been fucking evil for the past 20 years" thrown in on top. (Hal not knowing where to begin to respond when Barry asked him how Sue Dibny died was a good bit.)
The problem is that, when a couple of well-known characters die on the last page, I just don't give a fuck. I mean, I wouldn't have anyway, but it's just EXTRA hollow after a good chunk of the issue is devoted to pointing out how senseless, trivial, arbitrary, and reversible the whole thing is.
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MEANWHILE (separate post in case I want to split later!): Loving Wednesday Comics. Kamandi may be my favorite right now, though it's tough to pick one from such a great crop.
But Superman...jeez. For their big promo, the thing that's getting reproduced in the The USA Today...they're doing a story that demonstrates why the fuck people don't give a crap about Superman. Nobody wants to see Superman whining about how he doesn't fit in. It's where Superman Returns failed, and where Smallville continues to fail week after week. Except, for fuck's sake, this one had Christian Bale Batman show up in the second week just to demonstrate how much cooler he is.
There are great fucking Superman stories out there. All-Star Superman is a fucking high bar, but this strip could have been at least HALF that good.
Course, it's still early yet. Maybe it'll get better.
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I picked up blackest night. I dig it so far.
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Blackest Night sounds like the name of some blaxploitation movie.
:pimp: :racist:
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Either that or the Occidental equivalent of Ghost Dog (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_Dog:_The_Way_of_the_Samurai).
I guess that would be "Blackest Knight" then yes I know that homophones don't really work in text just work with me here okay?
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(http://www.impawards.com/2001/posters/black_knight.jpg)
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(http://www.impawards.com/2001/posters/black_knight.jpg)
When leaching images, make sure to clear your cache to ensure that others will be able to see what you see! :mahboi:
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(http://www.themoronist.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/black-knight.jpg)
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Fantastic Four #569: it's a Mark Millar ending. Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. Oh, also there are alternate versions of the heroes, but I'm sure you already assumed that.
It's not BAD, it's just...he tries so hard to do the "insurmountable odds" thing, but you know goddamn well the Fantastic Four are going to win. (More kvetching about how much better the ending of Ultimates would have been if he'd actually been allowed to kill off Tony and Fury goes here.)
The actual Marquis vs. [spoiler]Clyde[/spoiler] fight is satisfying, despite or perhaps because of the fact that it's ripped straight out of The Kree/Skrull War. (Actually...when did [spoiler]Wyncham go into his coma[/spoiler]? Because if he was DELIBERATELY evoking the climax of the Kree/Skrull War, that would be totally in-character.)
The resolution to the Thing's wedding is quite a good bit but [spoiler]just another trip back to the status quo[/spoiler].
I'm generally in the camp that prefers to see a story delayed and finished by the same team rather than shipping (roughly) on time with a new scripter and artist, but the dialogue wasn't bad and Immonen's art is just great. (Though I liked the thick inks on his Nextwave stuff better. Oh how I miss Nextwave.) Lots and lots of two-page spreads with lots of characters fighting, but that's another thing you could have probably guessed based on the names on the cover of the book.
So that just leaves the ending to Old Man Logan in his loosely-connected regular-universe stories, right? Speaking of delays.
And Ultimate Avengers next week. I haven't followed the Ultimate Universe since, well, the first Loeb/Madureira issue of Ultimates, but I'll pick it up because I still like Millar despite his faults. And Pacheco's neat too.
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Oh how I miss Nextwave.
(http://i630.photobucket.com/albums/uu23/Bon_Bon_2009/scruffy-1.jpg) Werd ta that, homes.
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The main story in Amazing Spider-Man #600 is fucking awesome. Pretty much the perfect Spider-Man story. It starts out with the best Spidey villain ever (Doc Ock, of course) recounting his repeated traumatic head injuries to a doctor. The first shot is of his first appearance, in original costume, complete with Lee dialogue and Ditko poses.
As the story progresses, there are team-ups galore (just like in the original Annuals where Spider-Man would run into EVERY SINGLE MARVEL CHARACTER as he wandered around New York), the highlight of course being Torch. Slott writes great shit-talk between the two characters, and at one point even reuses a "Spider-Man is strong" gag that he used in that Ren and Stimpy comic where Spidey fought Powdered Toastman.
It's pretty much pitch-perfect across the board. The characterization and the dialogue are top-notch, and it's just a great Spidey story.
The backup stories are pretty meh.
Anyway. Think it's sold out, but I expect it'll go back to press if it hasn't already. (I picked up the Romita Sr cover, which had been marked up from $5 to $9 by the time I got there. I did not actually pay for it as I had a full punch card, which entitled me to $10 off my purchase. It would have been well worth the $5.)
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oh man you guys 52 is awesome
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A good friend of mine, comic buff, aspiring comicador, and all around nice guy is selling a new comic up on his Etsy page. (http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7953649) If you want to throw $4 at a stranger in the name of supporting indie comicry, I'm sure he'd be pleased.
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Disney Buys Marvel (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/business/media/01disney.html?_r=1&hp)... for $4 billion!
:wat:
Guess this lends credence to the rumors of a big musical number in Iron Man 2.
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Disney Buys Marvel (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/business/media/01disney.html?_r=1&hp)... for $4 billion!
:wat:
Guess this lends credence to the rumors of a big musical number in Iron Man 2.
Kingdom Hearts 3 should be ... interesting.
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TA didn't i already owe you a horrible beating from something else
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Disney Buys Marvel (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/business/media/01disney.html?_r=1&hp)... for $4 billion!
:wat:
Guess this lends credence to the rumors of a big musical number in Iron Man 2.
Wow. That is a legitimate "Holy Shit!"
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Yeah, didn't see that one coming.
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I knew I should have killed myself way back when.
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That didn't take long.
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more like MODUCK
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oh shit oh shit gizmoduck
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Just counting the days till we get a kind, friendly Howard the Duck.
...I would be happy with some sort of deathmatch, but life can stink sometimes.
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Disney Buys Marvel (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/01/business/media/01disney.html?_r=1&hp)... for $4 billion!
More bad spinoffs, cartoons, toylines, bloated movies, books, comic book reissues with the Disney stamp of approval, candys, popcorn, and gum!
They'll even take the last can of Who hash
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Envy, seriously? There's nothing that Disney could possibly do to Marvel properties that's worse than what Marvel already regularly does to itself.
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Wait, so I know Disney isn't as squeeky-clean as usually thought (http://brontoforum.us/index.php?topic=1808.0), but do you think they're going to try to force Marvel to scale back the 24/7 GRIMDARK? Will Spider-Man just Love Mary-Jane and not need any stinking clones to get rid of the rest of his baggage? Will Wolverine, Cable, and Shatteredbutt get fired out of cannons, never to return? This may signify a radical split in ideology between Marvel-Disney and DC-Dr.LightRapesAWomanInAFridgerator.
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Roast beef actually brought that up with me today because of Disney's ridiculous, draconian approach to IP management.
The discussion was brief because it was thoroughly overshadowed by the BBC's coverage of how Moscow is a horrible, racist place where 60% of "black" people report having been physically assaulted.
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Roast beef actually brought that up with me today because of Disney's ridiculous, draconian approach to IP management.
Frankly, they'll probably just be running it at arm's length, like most other purchases of this type.
I hate both companies (now), but any serious argument that Marvel will somehow become Disney-fied is rather laughable. especially since Disney has a good record in the modern era of not killing their golden geese (Pixar, etc.) by being too overbearing of an owner.
Also:
The discussion was brief because it was thoroughly overshadowed by the BBC's coverage of how Russia is a horrible, racist place where 60% of "black" people report having been physically assaulted.
Not the first time I've heard that, nor will it be the last. Black guys fond of living should not walk around Moscow after dark.
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...In the latest issue of Deadpool, he goes to San Fran, dresses in a pink half-shirt and hot pants with matching rollerblades, and then beats the hell out of a bunch of sailors who give him shit for being gay.
It reminds me of a story I heard one time.
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A stupid question, I know, but that particular book wasn't written by Liefield, was it?
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I doubt anyone has read it but is Atomic Robo any good?
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I read the first book of it. It was quite good. Haven't read the subsequent stuff, but it's probably equally good.
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I have the first book of Atomic Robo sitting in a pile de shame here somewhere. I will never catch up on my media backlog :(
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The climax of the latest Booster arc would be more effective if it weren't identitical to the climax of Old Man Logan.
Not accusing anyone of ripping anyone off here, it's just that both stories use a pretty logical plot device.
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Disney might not end up owning the actual Marvel IPs. (http://www.usnews.com/money/blogs/capital-commerce/2009/09/20/marvel-disney-deal-copyright-law-complexities.html)
And then X-Men... goes public domain? I would be really amused if that happened and, like, a million Wolverine clones gathered in Atlas Park and typed out "Suck it, Marvel!" in unison.
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The Circle of Jerks should organize that.
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Heh. My giant collection of comics is always right out in our living room, but my wife and my roomate hardly ever read them, in spite of the fact that there are plenty of seriously high-quality comics from four continents that are unavailable elsewhere. Not a big deal, I'm not going to badger anyone to read the books on my bookshelves.
But I finally did get my wife hooked on a comic series. All it took was Hellboy! :happy:
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...did the Wednesday Comics Superman story SERIOUSLY just end with a bit about how, while all this was going on, Batman was fighting a giant robot? "Meanwhile, something fun and interesting that you might have actually liked to read about was happening. THE END."
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How...How Xenogears.
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On reflection, I am convinced that the Wednesday Comics Superman story was intentionally bad. It was the anti-All Star Superman: where All-Star combined all the best elements of Superman and concentrated them into a single fantastic story, the WC story combined all his worst. He spends most of the story moping in Kansas, and not once but TWICE the audience is reminded of how much cooler Batman is.
Really it's the revelation that the evil aliens HYPNOTIZED him into getting all emo that I started to realize there was more going on here and this was a SELF-AWARELY bad Superman story, intended as a critique of all the other bad Superman stories.
On the other hand, it's entirely possible that the writer just hates Superman and wanted to do a Batman story instead.
Either way, I'm still surprised that whoever makes the decisions saw this thing and decided it should be in the The USA Today.
(Okay, okay, so it DOESN'T combine all the worst elements of Superman: Kryptonite isn't used even once!)
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It's still better than the Wonder Woman story.
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There was a story in there?
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Wonder Woman was INTERESTING, though. At least Caldwell experimented with the format. Better to try something cool and miss the mark than not to try at all. (Though again, I am convinced the Superman story WAS trying, was deliberately trying to be the worst Superman story possible. And it succeeded!)
Anyway, my rather lengthy post mortem, as posted at CBR (http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?p=9707827#post9707827). It didn't generate any discussion at all there, which is a pity.
Okay, here's mine:
Strange Tales
Tough call, but I'm giving this one my #1. Beautiful art, effective storytelling, two great heroes and one great villain.
Kamandi
Just about everything I said about Strange holds true here too. Hal Foster by way of Jack Kirby -- what's not to like?
The Flash
The most creative of the bunch; it out-Allreds Allred in its experimentation with the format. Great heroes and villain, and great storytelling -- and the fact that that storytelling eventually gives way to a stylistic examination of the medium is a strength, not a weakness.
Supergirl
I think it was all downhill after the Aquaman scene, but this one just oozes charm and playfulness in a way the grim-n-gritty mainstream seems to have forgotten about entirely. I'd never checked out Conner's work before, but I fell in love with it in this strip; she's definitely one to watch. I can actually pick a favorite panel from this strip: Supergirl chewing her lower lip.
Hawkman
Not one but TWO great stories here. Almost nonstop action, great characterization and dialogue, nice art (though the Photoshop texturing got a little out of control once the T rex showed up), and nice bit with the foreshadowing about Aquaman.
Metamorpho
I don't share our reviewers' dislike for Gaiman and Allred's experimentation on this one; I thought the periodic table bit was fun, and Gaiman managing to work dialogue around every elemental symbol was quite clever. Gorgeous art, great characterization, and Java made me laugh out loud more than once.
Batman
I'm ranking this one below where most people have been putting it, and here's why: it's not a very good Batman story. It's a great Azzarello/Risso story, it's told effectively and the art's excellent too, but...what makes it a distinctively Batman story? Nothin', that's what. Swap in Dick Tracy, or the Shadow, or any other pulp detective, and you'd have exactly the same story.
I think it would have been a better Batman story if it had focused on what makes him a unique character -- I'm not saying they should have worked the Joker into it (in fact, I would like to state, emphatically, that they were right not to), but there are plenty of other elements they could have worked in. Instead we get a straight-up detective story with a cliche ending. It was a fun damn read, and would have been the ideal strip to stick in USA Today instead of Superman, but Batman was ultimately not used to his potential.
Wonder Woman
Caldwell's layouts didn't always work (and I'll join the crew saying that his changes in color saturation didn't work at all -- at least not in serialized form), but when they worked they worked to great effect. (I'm thinking of the strips with the vertical panels.) He really played with the potential of the format in a way that a lot of the other artists didn't, and the result is interesting to watch even if it's not perfect.
Deadman
Some great art in this one (I was convinced at first that Heuck was Darwyn Cooke working under a pseudonym), and some very neat Eisner-y layouts. I know it got written off in this column as pretty blah and forgettable, but it was one I looked forward to even if it wasn't my favorite.
Green Lantern
Too slow. I love Busiek and would probably venture Astro City as my all-time favorite superhero comic, but his methodical pacing and down-to-Earth story focus don't make a good fit for a twelve-page Green Lantern story. There's some real potential there -- I love the vintage setting -- but ultimately the story doesn't keep up with Quinones's absolutely gorgeous art.
Sgt. Rock
Brutal and effective; not much story going on here but the senior Kubert is in top form (and, in the junior Kubert's defense, there doesn't HAVE to be a lot of story in a strip like this). Another one that makes the middle of the list but that I enjoyed, largely as a break from the superhero stuff.
Metal Men
It's been stated elsewhere, but this strip was a frustrating marriage of beautiful art and bad writing. DiDio was a last-minute fill-in and it shows. I know the Metal Men are a bunch of two-dimensional archetypes to begin with, but DiDio doesn't do them any favors; he gave me no reason to care about any of them, or any of the other two-dimensional archetypes in the story. The bank heist premise and bottle setting made for a wasted opportunity; fighting Chemo cranked up the pacing a notch but by then it was too late. It wasn't a BAD strip, but a mediocre strip that shows potential for real greatness is more frustrating than something like Teen Titans which never showed that spark to begin with.
Demon/Catwoman
It's a great idea for an unconventional team-up, and the first and last strips showed real potential, but everything in-between? It wasn't a good Demon story (though I liked the Alan Moore-esque use of iambic pentameter), it DEFINITELY wasn't a good Catwoman story, and in fact it wasn't a good story at all. Where Batman works on its own merits despite not using the character to its fullest, and where Green Lantern and Metal Men managed to be memorable for their art despite disappointing stories, this one doesn't really accomplish anything at all.
Superman
Call me crazy, but between the "ALIENS MADE SUPERMAN EMO" reveal and the "Meanwhile, Batman was doing something much more interesting which would have been way more fun to read about" ending, I am convinced the overall badness of this story was intentional. I like to think of it as a sort of anti-All Star Superman, combining all the worst elements of the character and all the reasons people don't like him, a scathing critique of the Superman from Smallville and Returns, who mopes around in Kansas and is not nearly as cool as Batman (as this story sees fit to point out not once but TWICE). Now, it's possible that Arcudi just wanted to write a Batman story instead, but I like my metatextual theory better. In which case, it's a work of genius (and a grand prank on whoever decided this thing should be in USA Today), but is by its nature a bad read.
Teen Titans
To damn this strip with faint praise: I dig Galloway's stylized character models, it's just a pity he uses them only for absurd poses against blank backgrounds. Other than that, there's nothing positive I can say about this mess; it's got too many characters, a nonsensical plot with absurd twists and dangling threads (whatever happened to that bitchy lady who hated superheroes?). At no point did I ever care about any of the characters or in finding out what happened next.
So, that's my quick-and-dirty (well, not THAT quick; took so long to write that I got logged out) overview of what I thought of each individual strip. Hope to post more about the series as a whole and what I'd like to see next time later.
Regarding the series as a whole: loved it. It's the boldest, most creative new idea in comics since I-don't-know-when. Chiarello really hit this one out of the park, DC deserves kudos for letting him do it, and all the creators involved deserve props for their contributions, even the ones I didn't particularly care for.
That said, there's always room for improvement; here goes:
My only wish is that they don't do 15 12-part serials again. My biggest complaint about "Wednesday Comics," which I've had since the first issue is that format choice. Where are the one-off strips? Shorter stories? More variety, dammit! Maybe split up pages, have certain creators do four-panel comic strip type serial. Really look at the wide range of things this format lends itself to and explore all of them.
Seconded. Pacing is a real problem when all your strips have the same structure; #10 in particular suffered from every strip hitting the same point of its arc at the same time.
The Flash hinted to us that the broadsheet format need not be the only one used by these comics; this format provides room for tons of different kinds of layouts. Family Circus-style cartoons with a single circular panel, Calvin and Hobbes-style half-sheet strips, or even the conventional three-panel gag strips that populate the modern Sunday comics page. Or, as you say, four-panel serials, or broadsheet done-in-ones, or series like we've seen here but without the requirement that they take 12 sheets to tell. Hell, you could break them up like Rocky and Bullwinkle or Underdog cartoons, with an issue bookended by two parts of the same serial and other stuff in-between. There's endless potential to this format; go nuts!
Moving back a bit:
I'm not picking creative teams and characters. I see people doing that a lot and I have no interest in it. I wouldn't have picked many of these strips and a lot of them worked very, very well. Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook on "Kamandi"? Was that on anyone's wish list really? Or Karl Kerschl and Brendan Fletcher on "The Flash"? The best strip was done by creators with a character that no one would have called for! Let Mark Chiarello make those decisions since he's better at it than the rest of us!
Agreed, and the best "dream pitch" I saw him come up with in an interview was Steve Ditko on The Creeper.
That said, Tim throws out some good names; I'd love to see Jeff Smith or Gilbert Hernandez (hell, throw Jaime and Mario in there too!), and let me just throw Bruce Timm's name out there too even though he's way too busy to be a feasible choice. What about Veitch or Bolland? McCloud? Okay, okay, I'll stop.
[TC:] One final topic before we wrap things up for good. What do you say to the people who may not have bought "Wednesday Comics" because it didn't "count"? The stories were outside of continuity, and thus they don't matter in the grand DC narrative. So can you blame the fanboys and fangirls for skipping this comic?
CN: They're morons who don't care about good comics, just about propping up trademarks and would rather read bad stories that 'count' than good ones that don't, and that's just stupid. Of course I blame them. Who cares about continuity in the face of quality? You don't buy a comic because you don't enjoy it, fine -- but if you need it to be an official up-to-date-in-continuity story, I question your sense of what qualifies as an enjoying read, and I have no use for you. You are a huge part of what's wrong with comics. (And that's them, not you, Tim... you're what's right with comics, of course.) What a stupid reason not to read something. My god.
Seconded.
I mean, I've had my fair share of buying bad comics out of sheer force of habit (I've got boxes full of 1990's X-Men and Spider-Man, just like I'm sure most people here), and I'm picking up Blackest Night (but JUST the main mini, NONE of the tie-ins and not even the two main GL books). But if you want to talk about some damn fine reading, well, All-Star Superman's not in-continuity, and neither is Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader? Red Son...I could go on. On the Marvel side, we've got Strange Tales, which I'm quite enjoying, and Nextwave doesn't exactly fold perfectly into the MU either, despite some creators' gallant efforts to that effect.
Here's the thing: anyone who bought every issue of Countdown and all the tie-ins and then complained loudly about how bad it was...they're what's wrong with the comics industry. Quit buying things you don't like. If you bought every issue of Countdown and all the tie-ins because you LIKED it, great, more power to you (I myself quite liked Final Crisis, and that doesn't exactly seem to be a mainstream opinion), but if you didn't, put your money where your mouth is and spend it on something that's actually good.
And I also think about this sometimes: I never read fanfic, largely because it seems absolutely terrible (from the tiny bit I've sampled), but also because fanfic doesn't count. It counts less than an Annual written by Frank Tieri. It counts less than a "Hawkman" strip in "Wednesday Comics." And so if people see "Wednesday Comics" as some kind of high-class fanfic, maybe they're skipping it because of that. They wouldn't be totally wrong.
I'm going to call bullshit, and here's why: I guarantee you every single one of those fanboys has read The Dark Knight Returns, and what is that if not "some kind of high-class fanfic"? It's not any more canonical than any strip in Wednesday Comics, but people have the good sense not to dismiss it on that absurd basis.
Moving back to WC and ways to improve: an idea that got floated a lot in the early days that seems to die off is this concept's potential to attract people who don't read comics. As a trial run, WC showed how it could be done, but as for the execution, I don't think it roped in any new readers. But it could.
Thing one: sell at newsstands and checkout counters. People still buy those insipid Archie digests; if I saw the two displayed side-by-side, I'd definitely take the one with Batman on the cover. (Though given their relative price points and page counts, the choice might not be that easy.)
Thing two: make each issue new reader-friendly. That can mean two things: either self-contained stories in each issue, or recaps at the beginning of each strip. Hawkman and Kamandi, among others, managed to get readers up to speed in a couple sentences each week, but most strips didn't. (Wonder Woman DID have an intro panel every week, but bafflingly, it just explained who Wonder Woman was, as if reader's didn't know, rather than what had happened so far. And Batman was a rare strip where a reader could probably follow the beat of each week's story individually without knowing anything that had come before.) You can't go dropping readers into the middle of a story without letting them know what's going on; you're going to lose them that way.
There are other distribution methods. The USA Today preview was a great idea, though it would have been better if it had been in the print edition for all twelve weeks instead of just one. And if it had been a strip that was, you know, actually good. (Or two, or three! That way you could combine strips with well-known characters, to draw the readers in, with lesser-known ones, to broaden their interest.)
I'm sure there are people at DC considering all these ideas, and I'm sure they all pose a financial risk to the company. And I'll be honest, I don't see Wednesday comics singlehandedly saving the comics industry or print media. But done correctly, it could at least make some inroads.
Anyway, great work all around. Gripes aside, I love the concept, I loved the series, and I'd love to see more.
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I received a box from home with the last of the Wednesday Comics a few days ago.
My ranking of the strips follows your scheme pretty closely, Thad. Kamandi, Flash, and Metamorpho were the three that I look forward to the most, but Strange Tales wins on art.
I liked the Metal Men story a bit more than you, but I have a weakness for bad puns. I'm also on a bit of a Metal Men kick, following their back-up feature in the new Doom Patrol (which I will probably not continue buying just to support a back-up feature, sadly.)
If DC ever tries anything like this again, I would like to see more experimentation with week-to-week continuity. Strange Adventures and Kamandi had a very Prince Valiant-like nostalgia feel, but most of the less pleasant strips came off as "I wrote a 12 page story and some other jerks chopped it up." This was only a minor quibble in some cases, more serious in others.
Thing one: sell at newsstands and checkout counters. People still buy those insipid Archie digests; if I saw the two displayed side-by-side, I'd definitely take the one with Batman on the cover. (Though given their relative price points and page counts, the choice might not be that easy.)
This is the kind of thing that I would have loved as a kid. I didn't enter the comic-reader subculture until late high school or so, but I loved Disney Adventures for the comics. Remember those digest-sized magazines? They introduced me to Bone, actually. The cost is an issue, especially being on newsprint. Even though there's a lot of talent and work going into each issue, where one person sees nostalgia, another person will see "cheap." Suddenly, wham! Price point cognitive dissonance.
All of my fixes to the problem are just thinly veiled revenge fantasies, so I'll stop here.
-
Disney Adventures... Remember those digest-sized magazines? They introduced me to Bone, actually.
Ha! Same here!
-
And me.
-
AND MY AXE
-
Blazing. Combat.
So there's a new hardcover compilation of the only four issues of Blazing Combat ever printed. For those who've never heard of this, it was an anti-war compilation comic full of short war stories published in 1965. It only ran for four issues before it was run out of business for being Anti-American.
It was basically the progenitor of a lot of later war series, such as Enemy Ace, War Stories, etc. Even has a small adaptation of 300 thirty years before Frank Miller!
Written mostly by Archie Goodwin, the artists in this book read like a who's who list of non-Marvel/DC folk from back then, most of whom were in their prime: Alex Toth, Joe orlando, Reed Crandall, John Severin, Angelo Torres, Russ Heath, Gray Morrow, Wally Wood, & others. As if that wasn't enough, the covers were all by Frank Frazetta for God's sake (sadly these last are not reproduced at full size).
The second issue even has a fan letter from Milton Caniff!
Well worth the price of admission, lemme tellya.
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Planetary #27: The MEH Heard Round The World
-
I wouldn't say it was that bad, but really, they had their big send-off in #26, what else was there?
Anyway, now i'm re-reading the whole series. I tend to do that about once a year, with Planetary and Flex Mentallo. Goddamn i forgot how good this was.
-
I wouldn't say "meh". I WOULD say it wasn't worth the wait -- but it couldn't possibly be.
I thought it was a great issue. A good, plausible time-travel story that tied up the last remaining loose end of the series, and two of the main characters were in top form. Jakita pretty much stood around with nothing to do, but that worked to the story's advantage too.
Moreover, the story was told fluidly enough that I remembered what had gone before. Planetary, with its many delays, has often confused me by relying on minute details from issues I've long since forgotten about; this one didn't confuse me at all, and managed to remind me of every important element from years-old issues.
All that and it was dead gorgeous.
A hell of a sendoff, I thought. And I think the whole thing will read better when read all the way through. If only I had the time. And could find my copy of #14. I know I had it.
-
Planetary reads pretty incredible as a straight shot. Everything locks together like a hyper-fractal puzzle box formed from micro-gears of raw information.
I just read it in one go for the first time. Time to add that to my Christmas list.
-
Oh, so that's what Crumb's been up to for the past 5 years. (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/cartoonist-r-mr-crumb-takes-on-the-book-of-genesis/article1333151/)
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Bart Simpson #50 is 31 pages of Aragones goodness. Two great tastes that taste great together.
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i never much was a fan for buffy but Fray is quality work in my books. I think I loved the artwork more then anything else.
-
Is anyone reading Batman and Robin?
[spoiler]I was not expecting Damian to be shot that many times in the spine. Does the Lazarus Pit do anything for paralysis? The issue was enjoyable with a twist of disconcerting; I hope that a talky issue is coming up soon to balance against the Flamingo fight.[/spoiler]
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Damian routinely gets his internal organs replaced. He'll be fine.
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One more issue as good as the Batman/Dial H for HERO and Batman/Brother Power the Geek teamups and I'm going to declare JMS's The Brave and the Bold the best superhero book currently being released.
Now, it's not exactly a secret at this point that TB&TB has just about limitless potential -- the eponymous cartoon series has hammered that point home pretty effectively by now. And JMS's comic is deeper but just as off-beat.
It's a good formula: team a character who's a household name with somebody nobody's ever heard of. Somebody with a really interesting hook who you can look at in some interesting way.
I'd never heard of Brother Power the Geek before, but apparently he's a hippie Frankenstein. I can dig it. And in this issue, he awakes in modern Gotham to find that the world's not like he left it, and tries to come to grips with what's changed. Batman (who is definitively Bruce in this story -- in the Dial H teamup, you never saw who was under the cowl, and I prefer to think it was Dick) is bemused but sympathetic, and IMO we see an interpretation of his character we've seldom seen since TAS: not a cheerful guy, but compassionate.
All in all, the best superhero comic I've read since the LAST JMS Batman teamup story, and a superb done-in-one. If I'm to make the call, I'd say this is the superhero comic to watch right now. (As for non-superhero...well, I'm quite loving The Unwritten, and may have a post for that in Comics for People Who Don't Read Comics coming.)
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re: Superboy Prime's 'catch phrase'
:lol:
-
He's been saving that one!
-
re: what part of the emotional spectrum pertains to comic fandom
:hi5:
Prime is the best worst character ever.
-
Exactly right. Johns has pulled off a neat little bit of jiu jitsu and turned the fact that Prime is a whiny bitch who nobody likes into something that is somehow awesome. I hadn't been picking up Adventure, but I'm a sucker for this kind of metafictional crap, and as soon as I read a summary for #4 I had to check it out.
I know that Superboy Prime is a fictitious character, but that makes it all the better that he actually reads the forums and knows everybody hates him. (Of course, if this makes everyone like him, will he know that, too?)
I've been reading some original Kirby/Lee Fantastic Four and they did this kind of shit all the time. I just read one where the FF responded to their mailbag, and prior to that is an awesome one where Doom busts into the Marvel Bullpen and interrogates Stan and Jack.
Also: in the latest Batman and Robin, Jason Todd's revenge scheme involves a call-in number.
-
Also: in the latest Batman and Robin, Jason Todd's revenge scheme involves a call-in number.
...Yeah, DC's sheepish attempts at calling backsies on decades of questionable tactics is a remarkable (albeit sometimes cringe-worthy) thing to see. For all their faults (great and small), they still have my dollar most of the time.
Like Prime, I want to see what comes next. Not big on the "being a mass-murdering whiner" part, though. Unless you can turn him loose on the Marvel multiverse, of course.
Moving on to other DC cartoon books.
Black Hand is the worst villain in superhero comic books, says I. For every shower Barry needs, I require four. I would've been happier if the number of issues in Blackest Night were unknown, simply so it would've been more surprising when [spoiler]the attack on the Black Lantern went very wrong[/spoiler], and the black rings learned a new trick. This is the opposite of good.
Geoff Johns says that Nekron is more terrible than his herald. While the series is not over yet, that's not been the case so far. I would rather he not top Black Hand, personally.
Lord Almighty! And I thought the Cyborg-Superman was nihilistic...
So far I'm digging the little reveals. Nice to know that even Hal and company think that the Guardians are... Shall we say... Not capable?
Chris keeps sneaking individual issues of ongoing series into my reserve folder, just because they're Blackest Night tie-ins. I can spare the money, and it's thoughtful of him. As a result, L.E.G.I.O.N. has my interest, but... I admit that I have a weakness for space opera, so others may just think it's all right. There are worse ways to spend three bucks a month, however. What do you mean my pitch needs work?
I would give Jim Starlin's recent DC work a chance. It's pretty solid adventuring stuff. Take my word for it, if you want a trade instead of, oh, a new DVD.
I'm done. Next nerd's thoughts, please.
EDIT: Special Back-Up Story! Cannon Rents Superman/Batman: Public Enemies!
I feel guilty about it, but I actually enjoyed the story arc this thing is based on. This was before the series became dreck. Even by my dubious standards.
What's left in sometimes isn't as confusing as what was left out. The plot is somewhat different, naturally (no time-jumping, murderous geezer Supes), and I like the little nods to a continuity that doesn't actually exist.
I love Corey Burton, but he is not my ideal Captain Marvel. Bring back Jerry O'Connell, would you, Mr. Timm? Oh, well. The fight went the way it should have, and my inner fourteen-year-old was satisfied.
The dialogue flows better, and I found myself wishing the ending was more of a downer. Crazy Clancy Brown Lex makes a return, and that's always a highlight.
-
Black Hand is the worst villain in superhero comic books, says I. For every shower Barry needs, I require four. I would've been happier if the number of issues in Blackest Night were unknown, simply so it would've been more surprising when [spoiler]the attack on the Black Lantern went very wrong[/spoiler], and the black rings learned a new trick. This is the opposite of good.
This Wednesday was a grand day for Larfleeze. I enjoy everything that he does. This was also the Blackest Night turning point for me -- up until now, it seemed like DC was taking the idea of trash-talking space zombies who could only be stopped by rainbows of love (a concept that I'm not against, for the record) too seriously. Some of the comments that the characters made surrounding your spoiler text helped reseat things.
-
Yeah, there's nothing groovy or amusing about my avatar. I just love Agent Orange. I have every plastic power ring that DC's put out there (thanks, Chris), and I think I wear my orange one the most.
My favorite: "This reminds me of a Saturday morning cartoon." Geoff Johns has no illusions about his job.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by "too seriously." This is very much a horror comic, and though the genre is certainly known for its juvenile excesses, the savage feeding methods of the Black Lanterns warrant some kind of SERIOUS BUSINESS, at the very least. I would like for you to elaborate, if you would, please.
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Sure thing. [spoiler]My largest nit is the way that the zombies are characterized. They need strong emotion to feed; that makes sense. How do most of them cause these strong emotion? By slinging hip, irreverent insults. There are notable exceptions (Psycho Pirate, the Flying Graysons), but in general the zombies are portrayed as jerks and bullies rather than cosmic horrors. Nevertheless, we get all of the pomp of a LARGE DC TIE-IN where THINGS WILL NEVER BE THE SAME.
Secondly, there's the juvenile gore excess. That seems like it influenced me harder than it did you, however. Having zombie Ralph Dibny, of all people, eating one of the first hearts struck me as being unnecessarily extreme (with all the exclamation points that implies).
Third: Black Hand as a Life is Meaningless necrophiliac because he's deep.[/spoiler]
Those all have aspects of fun in them, but I read them as clashing with the sort of fun that I prefer -- little character moments and the occasional acknowledgment that a mad, beautiful idea ("color-coded cavalry") is a little askew.
As for the rings, good collecting. I was let down when my local comic book store told me that they had some, but they "lost" them.
-
About the only surprise from the whole zombie thing was Robot-Man being haunted by his own brainless corpse.
-
The new Strange mini is as good an argument as I can think of for creating new characters instead of retooling old ones.
Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad book -- in fact, it's quite good! But there's really absolutely no reason why the down-and-out wizard needs to be Stephen Strange.
This is a good comic, and it's recommended. But I read it and I think, you know what, if Mark Waid had done this for Boom instead, and used an original, creator-owned character, it wouldn't have lost anything and in fact would have been better for not relying on (or, as the case may be, ignoring) several decades' worth of history.
I've used Kirby's quote in response to a young artist saying he'd do Captain America "in the Kirby tradition" a number of times, but it bears repeating: "The kid doesn't get it -- the Kirby tradition is to create a new comic."
And I can't find the exact quote, but Allred said something in an interview awhile back to the effect that repurposing characters to fit a story in your head makes a lot less sense than just making up new ones. To support his argument, he said, "Watchmen -- nuff said."
It all adds some weight to Kirkman's recent evangelism for creator-owned properties -- if Boom did this story, I grant the book probably -- PROBABLY -- wouldn't sell as well as it will under Marvel (though who knows? The entire reason they've retooled Dr. Strange for the umpteenth time is they can't figure out a way to sell his books), but the people who actually put the book together would get a much bigger piece of whatever they DID sell. (Especially given that Waid is the head honcho at Boom.)
Guess I don't really have any other big thoughts to add to those. But these are the kinds of things I think about sometimes.
-
I think they're afraid that if they use too many original characters we'll realize what pointless drivel most comic book plots are.
-
Or we'll end up with another Sentry.
-
Preview of Adventure Comics 5 (http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2009/12/07/close-out-your-day-with-a-look-at-adventure-comics-5/) :profit:
-
Norondor you're a genius wordsmith, could you summarize why Super-Boy Prime is terrible for me?
-
GUYS WAIT
WAIT
WHAT IF SUPERMAN
WAS A WHINY LITTLE PISSANT
AND ALSO WHAT IF
STAY WITH ME
WHAT IF HE WAS SO TOUGH HE KILLED EVERY SUPERHERO
also there's the time that he carves the S symbol into the flesh of his own chest with a kryptonite shard, because it's hardXcorps.
(this adventure comics thing is so good that i am really amazed, like twice.)
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And not only is he such a stupid little shit, but he is meta-aware of the fact that he is and is going to punch Didio to death?
Amazing.
-
Yeah, somehow the fact that he is the worst character ever became the joke, which i am 100% ok with.
(ok, there are lots of characters who are worse, many of whom have or had their own ongoings. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_(comics)) but he's pretty awful.)
-
Yeah, but Cable isn't aware that he was written as a lumpy grouch with too many pockets, nor did he ever get the opportunity to smack Liefeld around because he became aware of how much of a caricature he was.
Besides, that seems more like something Deadpool would try.
-
Tonight, on Missing-the-Point-Theatre: Why Marvel's last two big events were about misogyny. (http://io9.com/5419369/revealed-marvel-comics-secret-war-on-women?skyline=true&s=x)
-
Have superhero comics outgrown a pre-adolescent fear of women?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH :happy:
Ohhh, GOODNESS
-
Could someone point me to a series that stars Superboy Prime other than Adventure Comics?
This Superboy Prime looks fairly interesting. Unlike the old SP. Or is this the same Superboy Prime that was trapped outside the universe and keeps making all of the crises?
-
Yep, same one.
Let's see, as I recall, after Infinite Crisis he made appearances in Countdown as Superman*-Prime with some horrible dialogue...
(http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t81/SalieriTheFish/Diction.png)
Then he showed up in the Sinestro Corps War, I think. After that was Legion of three Worlds, which leads us back to his Earth-Prime hikikomori lifestyle.
*due to legal disputes with the Siegel heirs.
-
Ah. Well this will give me another reason to read the Sinestro Corps War stuff, I think.
And I have a theory. Instead of killing the DC heads, he will BECOME one. They will make Superboy a writer and he will be a total dick/amazing Superman writer.
-
And not only is he such a stupid little shit, but he is meta-aware of the fact that he is and is going to punch Didio to death?
Well, thing is, as originally conceived, Superboy Prime was a "What if Superboy existed in the REAL WORLD?" character. He's on Earth-Prime, AKA our Earth.
(ok, there are lots of characters who are worse, many of whom have or had their own ongoings. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_(comics)) but he's pretty awful.)
I think Magog (a character specifically designed to highlight how awful Cable is) getting an ongoing series is as sure a sign as foil covers that the industry's heading for another crash.
-
I think Magog (a character specifically designed to highlight how awful Cable is) getting an ongoing series is as sure a sign as foil covers that the industry's heading for another crash.
ohhh, why did you have to remind me and where is my drinky crow emoticon
-
I guess on the plus side, he's just like Superboy-Prime and one self-aware retooling away from going from terrible to awesome. Play him as a completely over-the-top sociopath (uh, I mean, for laughs) and you've got gold.
Warren Ellis would be the perfect guy for that, but of course Warren Ellis turned fucking X-Man into a great character.
But I could totally see Magog and a bunch of other B-listers on a DC version of Nextwave.
He'd work as a more-dickish version of Deadpool, too. That'd be a nice little bit of symmetry -- he's already a visual knockoff of two Liefeld characters, and a spiritual knockoff of pretty much every Liefeld character, so throw in Deadpool and he'd also be a DC knockoff of Liefeld's Marvel knockoff of a DC character.
-
And then the universe exploded.
-
And then the universe exploded.
It does that a lot in comics.
-
He'd work as a more-dickish version of Deadpool, too. That'd be a nice little bit of symmetry -- he's already a visual knockoff of two Liefeld characters, and a spiritual knockoff of pretty much every Liefeld character, so throw in Deadpool and he'd also be a DC knockoff of Liefeld's Marvel knockoff of a DC character.
So, Dan Hibiki.
-
:itsatrap: ...didn't we used to have an emote for that? Oh well.
Do not buy that issue of Adventure Comics. Everything after the attack on DC HQ is shit.
-
:trap:
:atrap:
:akbar:
:ackbar:
Hm, I guess not!
-
:itsatrap: ...didn't we used to have an emote for that? Oh well.
Do not buy that issue of Adventure Comics. Everything after the attack on DC HQ is shit.
awww :(
-
::(: :facepalm:
Dammit. Now I have to hunt up the scene from the UY cartoon where Megane does an Ackbar. Complete with "ITS A TRAP" in mangled English.
-
...yeah, had a feeling it was something simple, but I was in a hurry. Thanks for your help.
Anyway, to elaborate: after attacking DC, Superboy gets sent back to his parents' basement (because jokes about losers who live in their parents' basements weren't old in 1995, you see) to whine some more. About that point, the fanboy schtick quits being funny and pretty much gets downright mean-spirited. Which is not to say that fanboys don't deserve to be mocked, but John comes across as being just as petulant as Superboy here.
The most self-aware moment of the issue is where Prime whines that it's not his fault, they MADE him a villain -- yeah, that's straight-up teen angst crap, but in this case it happens to be literally true.
Basically, a great setup that runs out of gas halfway through. Where the story could have continued cleverly skewering the foibles of the industry and its consumers alike (I think it was the Newsarama review that pointed out Superboy should have been bitching about the two-issue event tie-in, and there's quite a lot of shit he could have said about how the story ended), but ultimately it turns into a writer using his bully pulpit to mock the people who say mean things about him on messageboards.
Oh, and there's a backup story with the Kon-El Superboy. It's very boring.
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(http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/6362/sn850008e.jpg)
WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME OF THIS?!
I had to find it on my own. Lucky I checked the rack today.
-
It's not that good. Cool that it exists, though.
-
I thought it was good. :nyoro~n:
Decent set up for a series, gives insight into the main character and why he is an evil villain, decent art work, and you get what you'd expect from the writing.
I think it works well for what it is.
-
(http://i630.photobucket.com/albums/uu23/Bon_Bon_2009/scruffy-1.jpg)
Not as great as the source material, but that is a fucking high bar. A good read; sorry I didn't bring it up sooner.
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Cross-posted from the Canadian news thread: Old man donates comics collection to Western University (http://communications.uwo.ca/com/western_news/stories/comic_books_donated_to_western_20091216445477/)
With an estimated value in the tens of thousands of dollars, the Dr. Eddy Smet Comic Book Collection includes rare Batman appearances from the seventies and eighties written by living legend Denny O’Neil, Frank Miller’s revolutionary run on Daredevil, Alan Moore’s complete runs on Watchmen, Miracleman and Swamp Thing, and the first 14 issues of Captain Canuck, arguably Canada’s most popular and important superhero comic.
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http://www.japanator.com/alan-moore-is-now-a-schoolgirl-thanks-to-japan-12793.phtml (http://www.japanator.com/alan-moore-is-now-a-schoolgirl-thanks-to-japan-12793.phtml)
I don't think I need to say much else.
-
MARVELOUS
i love the FISH & CHIPS flying out of the school
-
if you don't eat your meat you can't have any pudding
-
Oh Japan
-
Ohh, it's the same westaboo guy who made (NOT) MADE IN JAPAN, that makes sense
-
I may have to revoke my thoughtful-reader card. Green Lantern 39 and Blackest Night 6 played me like a harp. Is this... hope?
I dare not! I'm supposed to be against large events not written by Morrison.
-
WOW, i thought shit got real in the last issue. Clearly i was mistaken, as shit has just gotten real.
-
ALPHA NEKRON HAS RISEN AGAIN FIND ME SIX EARTHLINGS WITH ATTITUDE
seriously why recruit six more dudes
-
so they have more lasers to kill zombies with until indigo-1 gets back didn't you even read it
-
#6 wasn't much on story, and the [spoiler]"oh yeah I can just clone a bunch of new rings"[/spoiler] bit was pure deus ex machina (and in fact right off the Doctor Who Bingo sheet (http://io9.com/5436831/play-along-at-home-doctor-who-end-of-time-bingo-cards); just replace "Time Lord" with "Guardian"), but it did what it's good at: it toyed with symbolism. I quite liked the color-coded choices. A trifle obvious for the most part (though I really don't think red is [spoiler]Mera[/spoiler]'s color), but again, this series is about playing with the archetypes these characters represent, and it does it well here. And of course the plot thickens with [spoiler]Wonder Woman[/spoiler] -- that's probably the most important clue since Don Hall refused to wise fwom his gwave.
...also, anyone else notice Hal got the details of Ollie's resurrection wrong? He came back when Hal was SPECTRE, not Parallax. He DIED when Hal was Parallax. Um, I think. I really didn't read any DC back then.
-
It's kind of weird there, what with being mid-90s DC storytelling. Oliver Queen died between Parallax's defeat in Zero Hour and Parallax's return in Final Night. Parallax sort of brought Ollie back to life before sacrificing himself and eventually becoming the Spectre a few years later.
Of course, it turned out that the Ollie that Hal 'made' was more of a construct with most of his memories but without his soul, because Ollie didn't actually want to come back from Heaven and inhabit the body, until Quiver.
-
...
...I hate the fucking 1990's.
-
This didn't take long.
And yet, it did.
-
one more one more day
-
And yet, it did.
Yeah, the baby part is from way back when I stopped reading Spider-Man.
-
Huh, it's almost as if Marvel doesn't have any long-term plans for the growth of one of their most popular characters, and is instead banking on hype and the whims of an increasingly fickle audience to boost sales...
-
Marvel
long-term plans
growth
:lol:
-
Related: it was reported today that Spider-Man 4 is on hold because they don't want to listen to Raimi, who wants to use an oldschool Spidey villain.
That's right, guys: Marvel STILL thinks it's a good idea to demand that Raimi shoehorn in somebody they want instead of the villain HE wants. Because it worked so goddamn well with Venom.
-
Didn't Raimi want to re-imagine Felicia Hardy as the Vulturess?
-
That does present some intriguing possibilities.
-
Didn't Raimi want to re-imagine Felicia Hardy as a SPICCCCEEEY COUGAR?
:ohmy:
-
Didn't Raimi want to re-imagine Felicia Hardy as the Vulturess?
from what i'm hearing, that was the studio.
-
I find it very unlikely that Raimi even knew who the fuck Felicia Hardy WAS before Marvel told him to put her in the movie.
-
Which old-school villain? Cougar or not I find it kinda hard to believe that any incarnation of The Vulture could carry an entire movie.
-
Nor could any other enemy named after an animal (that hasn't been in a movie yet). Except maybe the Chameleon.
-
ELEEECCCCCTROOOOOOOO?!
(god, can you imagine just how stupidly funny that would be? :lol: )
-
Hmmm, Electro was the villain for James Cameron's script for Spider-Man....
Could be worse though. We could get Paste-Pot Pete, the Hypno-Hustler or Spot.
-
Paste-pot Pete! How could I forget him?! *giggles*
OH SHIT! To hell with all that, for sheer unbridled comedy why go with half measures? Time for the nuclear silliness option!:
(http://www.comicbookmovie.com/images/users/uploads/12413/Mysterio442px.jpg)
-
I'd watch a movie with Spot if it were tempered by someone like, say... Kraven.
(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b167/unhelpful/kraven.gif)(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b167/unhelpful/spot.jpg)(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b167/unhelpful/kraven.gif)
:perfect:
-
Bruce Campbell has long been rumored/hoped for as Mysterio, and damnit, Bruce Campbell as Mysterio could carry an entire film himself.
-
Bruce Campbell as Mysterio was the subject of one of the Ultimate Spider-man arcs.
-
Bruce Campbell has long been rumored/hoped for as Mysterio, and damnit, Bruce Campbell as Mysterio could carry an entire film himself.
Good God... that would break reality itself. BREAK IT WITH THE POWER OF AWESOME.
-
So, the Kick-Ass ending.
Yeah, pretty much how I've felt about the series since the Big Daddy/Hit Girl intro holds; it really didn't keep up with its original premise at all. This is just crazy over-the-top Tarantino violence all the way.
It DOES get quiet at the end, and go back to subverting cliches rather than adhere to them. Dave confessing the truth to the woman he loves does not go like it would in the movies.
I AM of the opinion that if your story ends with a quote from someone else's work, you've kinda fucked up. There are exceptions (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081398/), but I don't count this among them.
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I AM of the opinion that if your story ends with a quote from someone else's work, you've kinda fucked up. There are exceptions (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081398/), but I don't count this among them.
... you link to this and not Watchmen?
-
Re: Moondragon pregnant with otherworldly tentacled horror
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/buge/reaction/20090717.png)
-
YES
A BILLION TIMES YES
-
http://www.slashfilm.com/2010/01/20/early-buzz-ten-reviews-from-a-test-screening-of-edgar-wrights-scott-pilgrim-vs-the-world/
Meh.
-
(http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/7475/grunting.jpg)
-
WHAT THE HELL
-
... you link to this and not Watchmen?
...a series where every issue ends with a single-panel quotation is rather different from one where the last issue is a full-page spread where the supervillain says a famous quote from another supervillain. (Incorrectly.)
Raging Bull IS the correct analogy here, because it ends with the main character reciting a famous speech from another film. Watchmen's final panel is more like a movie where the last line of dialogue is spoken and then the screen goes black and a quotation comes up. The quotation isn't the most memorable thing about the ending (in fact I had to crack my copy open and flip to the last page to remember which one he used in the final issue), it's just sort of a final touch on it.
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(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/1264516475-kwog.jpg)
(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/1264516489-kwog2.jpg)
(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/1264529947-mov3.jpg)
(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/1264711348-guardian.jpg)
(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/500x_sinestro.jpg)
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Yeah. I can't tell you how excited I am for this. Carol AND Sinestro are in it?
Niiiice. I am throughout the movie you see Sinestro become less and less of a Green Lantern and then finally creates his yellow ring or something.
Carol is an important side character. Next movie she finds the Star Sapphire?
Qwards are the first bad guys?
Gah. There are so many options.
But they have to cut Sinestro's hair and trim his facial hair. Sinestro is supposed to be dapper.
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That's awesome!
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I can understand why the JLA doesn't go around Africa killing muslim elders that whip raped women, but isn't there -any- hero that does? and doesn't the JLA try to stop them? In a really awkward scene?
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Yeah. I can't tell you how excited I am for this. Carol AND Sinestro are in it?
Niiiice. I am throughout the movie you see Sinestro become less and less of a Green Lantern and then finally creates his yellow ring or something.
Carol is an important side character. Next movie she finds the Star Sapphire?
Qwards are the first bad guys?
Gah. There are so many options.
But they have to cut Sinestro's hair and trim his facial hair. Sinestro is supposed to be dapper.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/buge/reaction/sinestrovd1.jpg)
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Yeah. I can't tell you how excited I am for this. Carol AND Sinestro are in it?
Niiiice. I am throughout the movie you see Sinestro become less and less of a Green Lantern and then finally creates his yellow ring or something.
Carol is an important side character. Next movie she finds the Star Sapphire?
Qwards are the first bad guys?
Gah. There are so many options.
But they have to cut Sinestro's hair and trim his facial hair. Sinestro is supposed to be dapper.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/buge/reaction/sinestrovd1.jpg)
Mmmmmyep.
Just like that
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I can understand why the JLA doesn't go around Africa killing muslim elders that whip raped women, but isn't there -any- hero that does? and doesn't the JLA try to stop them? In a really awkward scene?
That sounds like something out of The Darker Mask (http://www.amazon.com/Darker-Mask-Gary-Phillips/dp/0765318512).
Also, rape's only accepted role in comics is to make female characters deep.
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That sounds like something out of The Darker Mask (http://www.amazon.com/Darker-Mask-Gary-Phillips/dp/0765318512).
Wow, that actually looks pretty keen. At least, based on the cover anyway.
Also, rape's only accepted role in comics is to make female characters deep.
winner winner chicken dinner
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Also, rape's only accepted role in comics is to make female characters deep.
And in order to make the MALES deep, they... rape the women.
Oh! And they murder the women and shove them in appliances.
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Sometimes you have a character rape an orc so they can fall in love.
In the latest issue of Siege, Brian Michael Bendis has managed to make something that is both horrible and awesome at the same time. [spoiler]The Sentry rips Ares in half, rather violently[/spoiler]. It's horrible because it's the issue is really just filler, and the violence on display is an example of why Marvel just isn't that fun to read any more. It's awesome because [spoiler]it's Ares[/spoiler], and I hate that guy. Seriously, fuck him. So yeah.
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A few things I wish Marvel would do.
1. Get rid of the Sentry. He's a character that had an interesting origin which should have stayed in its own continuity. His powers are vague and bland and no writer knows what to do with him. Also, I'm pretty sure he was a ripoff of Marvelman as well as Superman and Tyler Durden.
2. Kick Bendis off the big books. Just... give him Luke Cage or whatever and let him play with that, ok?
3. No more ham-handed political allegories.
4. Bring in good writers. Warren Ellis's run on Thunderbolts was the only decent thing to come out of Civil War. Dan Abnett can stay where he is.
Once these conditions are met, I'll start paying for the books.
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Also. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheWorfEffect)
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I kinda liked when they were making Sentry's origin more and more convoluted to the point whoever wrote him was actually a comic character. What happened with that?
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All I've read of the Sentry is Age of the Sentry.
And I loved that.
The whole retro-comics thing with the art and the story telling with the flashes of something deeper and more sinister under the surface?
Fantastic. More things need to be like that.
Of course, since I talk to comic nerds I've been told that [spoiler]apparently he's Galactus and some otherworldly god and is far beyond the universe and has the mind of someone from OUR universe or something[/spoiler]
Yeah. Shit like that has to stop.
I would love more Age of the Sentry stuff. An entire series or two of the campy comics but with the whole "We are semi-mocking/semi-paying homage to the old stuff but at the same time giving you something modern and interesting to read." I can see at least one single character comic series and a team series.
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Captain America, USO (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2010/02/captain-america-will-be-a-uso-performer-in-the-movie-director-says.html)
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Marvel forced to apologize to teabaggers (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100211/ts_ynews/ynews_ts1129)
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Quesada then went on to say that Marvel would "apologize for and own up to" a series of "stupid mistakes"...
:victory:
...that led to them "accidentally identifying" one of the members of the protest group "as being a part of the Tea Party instead of a generic protest group."
:oh: :;_;:
Dammit. I was hoping that when cornered, Marvel caved in and just started apologizing left and right about Spider-man and everything else fucked up they've been doing recently.
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Mad Marvel mags don't have spines, new at 11.
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is humiliated and mortified on behalf of my entire industry that Fox News is able to bully us into apologizing to lunatics.
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I thought it was considered bad form to directly insult large political movements solely on the basis of private opinion outside of specifically political works.
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I thought it was considered bad form to directly insult large political movements solely on the basis of private opinion outside of specifically political works.
1. No, it's not. It's called "being topical".
2. The teabaggers have crossed over from being a political movement to being a terrorist organization (http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/patriot-movement-calling-joe-stack-hero/story?id=9889443).
3. How is showing a crowd of tax protesters holding signs lifted directly from photos of actual tax protests insulting to those tax protesters?
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Comparison to the fringe is always unflattering and rarely warranted. I haven't read the comic in question; maybe it really is only targeting that fringe, but given the author's comment quoted above I find it unlikely.
If you want to be "topical," you owe it to your audience to demonstrate that you at least understand what is being said by the wrong side. If the work isn't being marketed as polemic or satire, it represents a threat to the audience's trust: sure, it's all well and good when he's taking the piss against a position you also find ridiculous, but what happens when he moves onto a different topic, and the opposing position is more sympathetic to you? An author who uses his work as a soapbox is not being "topical" but political, and should be honest about it.
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Fuck that.
Marvel is a comic book company, and its writers have permission to say whatever they hell they like about whomever they like. And they shouldn't have to apologize just because the teabaggers got offended. The writers at Marvel aren't under any pressure to present a neutral view. There is no code of conduct in this, mostly because Marvel isn't a major political organization or even presenting factual stories.
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But it is a corporation with shareholders.
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Well let me go back and get two big scoops of Who-Gives-A-Fuck?
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Fuck that.
Marvel is a comic book company, and its writers have permission to say whatever they hell they like about whomever they like. And they shouldn't have to apologize just because the teabaggers got offended. The writers at Marvel aren't under any pressure to present a neutral view. There is no code of conduct in this, mostly because Marvel isn't a major political organization or even presenting factual stories.
(http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y25/FramFramson/wordup.gif)
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Well let me go back and get two big scoops of Who-Gives-A-Fuck?
Maybe you should throw in a package of Cram-It-Up-Your-Ass.
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I'll top it off with Well-Wouldn't-You-Just-Like-That-Wouldn't-You?!
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Man, I am never coming to this ice cream place again.
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Don't forget a parting scoop of There-Are-No-Refunds.
On-Ice-Cream.
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They don't have to, no. It ain't classy, though. That's all I was trying to say.
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I don't really get into the Capes & Tights genre of comics very much, but I can never get enough of Lantern Corps jokes. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/02/25/lantern-corps-quiz/)
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WARNING: That article makes a reference to vajazzling. You may suffer a hemorrhage.
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I thought it was considered bad form to directly insult large political movements solely on the basis of private opinion outside of specifically political works.
"There aren't a lot of black people in the Tea Party movement" is not really an opinion.
Comparison to the fringe is always unflattering and rarely warranted. I haven't read the comic in question; maybe it really is only targeting that fringe, but given the author's comment quoted above I find it unlikely.
...I'm assuming you're referring to my Mark Waid quote.
Waid is not the author. The author is Ed Brubaker, who is furiously backpedaling and making the absurd claim that he never intended the protesters to resemble the Tea Partiers in the first place.
At any rate, superhero comics are all ABOUT broad strokes and exaggerations. Captain America, in particular -- this is a guy who was punching Hitler on the cover of his first issue some 70 years ago.
(Actually, it's not; the current Captain America is Bucky Barnes, who was brainwashed by the Soviets and is now trying to atone for his years as an assassin. Which IMO is an important detail -- this is not the original Captain America, and he does not share the original Cap's perspective or attitude.)
...point being, saying Captain America should be apolitical is rather silly, IMO.
Marvel is a comic book company, and its writers have permission to say whatever they hell they like about whomever they like.
Wait, what?
If you'd said "Image", I might be inclined to agree, but no, Marvel has a pretty strict set of editorial guidelines.
I happen to believe "Don't offend the Tea Partiers" shouldn't be one of them, and Joe Q and Ed Brubaker are both being punks, but to suggest that there are no restrictions on what they can and can't say is frickin' crazy.
(And frankly there SHOULD be editorial guidelines. A few years ago there was no rule against having stories about rape in Spider-Man comics, and I am HAPPY that there are such rules in place now.)
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...anyway. Might split all that stuff off.
The real reason I came to the thread was to point out that Ultimate New Ultimates is the stupidest title of anything, ever.
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I honestly feel like the Tea Party is a big enough deal right now that it deserves its own thread. My dad, a completely sane, rational, liberal man in Massachusetts was actually defending these folks on the basis that they were a movement bemoaning the shortcomings of the two-party system.
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That's not a valid understanding, though. In fact, I kind of wish liberals, progressives and socialists would get the balls to do the same thing and just ditch the Democratic party. But that's not about comics.
Marvel is a comic book company, and its writers have permission to say whatever they hell they like about whomever they like.
Wait, what?
If you'd said "Image", I might be inclined to agree, but no, Marvel has a pretty strict set of editorial guidelines.
I happen to believe "Don't offend the Tea Partiers" shouldn't be one of them, and Joe Q and Ed Brubaker are both being punks, but to suggest that there are no restrictions on what they can and can't say is frickin' crazy.
(And frankly there SHOULD be editorial guidelines. A few years ago there was no rule against having stories about rape in Spider-Man comics, and I am HAPPY that there are such rules in place now.)
Yeah but Marvel sets those in-house editorial guidelines. Which was the point my largely-muddled statement aimed for.
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On the subject of the Tea Party and other new parties: I think you'll see more leftists abandoning the Democrats if Obama's term completely fails.
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Amazon.com is having a big sale on Marvel Omnibi! /co/ 's been discussing it for the last day or so. Wolverine, X-Men, Daredevil, The Ultimates... they're all on sale for $8.24.
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Oh god. I'm karma++ing both Buge and Soup for that exchange.
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Amazon.com is having a big sale on Marvel Omnibi! /co/ 's been discussing it for the last day or so. Wolverine, X-Men, Daredevil, The Ultimates... they're all on sale for $8.24.
Was actually a fuckup, and it may have been Diamond's fault, as it happened to Diamond-distributed books on Barnes and Noble (on a smaller scale) a few days later. (It only affected books distributed by Diamond; DC, which distributes its trades through Warner, was unaffected.) Some people got the books they ordered; those whose orders were cancelled got $25 gift cards.
I missed the whole thing; pity, because $8 for a fucking $100 Madman Gargantua would've been sweet. I mean, I'm big on the whole "support your local comic shop" thing, but a 90% discount...?
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(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/SOL0203.jpg)
oh snap (http://www.actionagecomics.com/comics/SOL02/pages/SOL0200.htm)
Still not as great as Hitlerfist (http://www.actionagecomics.com/comics/MonsterPlus01/pages/MonsterPlus0100.htm), though.
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"Why the sweet fancy Jesus would Harry continue to wear his school uniform after...well, not graduating from Hogwarts, but was probably awarded an honorary diploma for practical demonstration of skills learned in his previous six years at said institution..."
Actually, it says "Dog Farts".
Then Adam realized that he was self-debating the logic of a fictional universe, and realized that Thad brought to his attention to a comic book about President Barack Obama teaming up with Spawn and Harry Potter to save the world, presumably from the title.
Sadly, it does not actually exist, it was just a joke ad campaign that Kirkman cooked up to make fun of Marvel's ad campaign for the new Avengers books coming out.
When I realized it would not actually happen, I decided what the hell, I was going to write it myself. And that it actually was totally a KateStory premise.
(I COULD see Kirkman actually making a one-shot out of it; IIRC he's making a one-shot out of the joke Walking Dead-as-Superheroes variant cover from awhile back. But they probably wouldn't be able to do much with the Harry analogue.)
And then I decided to focus on the bits that COULD actually tie the characters together, without resorting to hoary "parallel universe" crap. Spawn is former CIA and Rick's a former cop, so I worked out a backstory between them. (It requires pretending the CIA is the FBI, but it's not like that's a new thing for comics.) And Obama fit perfectly into the Walking Dead storyline where one of the characters tells them the zombie virus was cooked up by the government and they need to go to DC.
And then I threw in some Dragon Age shit because it was already in there and it fit with the zombies and Spawn kind of.
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(http://thetorchonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/twotowers-gimli1.jpg)
YYYYES!
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Zircher's had enough of writers' names being 6 times the size of artists'. (http://www.606studios.com/bendisboard/showthread.php?t=190273)
Makes for an interesting thread. Highlights:
- more of a "bookstores" thing. The covers on trades -- ie the ones that target comic shops -- are more likely to have balance.
- writers, of course, aren't the ones asking for their names to be big, but if they start making a fuss about it they can make a difference.
- and yes, in cases where there are multiple artists and one writer, Zircher acknowledges it's reasonable for the writer's name to be emphasized. (The reverse is, of course, also true, but...when's the last time you saw a trade with the same artist and multiple writers?)
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they should do it like in videogames where the only Sid Meier, Tim Schafer and John Romero get top billing
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Zircher's had enough of writers' names being 6 times the size of artists'. (http://www.606studios.com/bendisboard/showthread.php?t=190273)
Makes for an interesting thread. Highlights:
- more of a "bookstores" thing. The covers on trades -- ie the ones that target comic shops -- are more likely to have balance.
- writers, of course, aren't the ones asking for their names to be big, but if they start making a fuss about it they can make a difference.
- and yes, in cases where there are multiple artists and one writer, Zircher acknowledges it's reasonable for the writer's name to be emphasized. (The reverse is, of course, also true, but...when's the last time you saw a trade with the same artist and multiple writers?)
Looking at those sigs in that thread makes me feel a little better about being here and not somewhere else.
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The knowledge that Zappa and Kirby were friends makes up for every single other sig in that or any thread.
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best April fools prank this year
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I thought for a minute he actually expected us to believe him.
Then I realized it was a direct Quesada quote.
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I am pissed about the new Captain Boomerang [spoiler]NOT being brought back[/spoiler], too be honest. I love the Rogues and this kids whole story was interesting. Speed powers, not knowing either of his parents, bloodlust, and boomerangs.
Digger is fine, but my favorite Boomerang moments involve the younger one.
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What book is that from?
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Blackest Night #8
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I don't know so much about Captain Boomerang [spoiler](the dead one)[/spoiler], but [spoiler]Ostrander's Suicide Squad has me convinced that Digger can do no wrong.[/spoiler]
I still don't like Hal Jordan. Guess I never will.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5t_S8eIOrP4&feature=player_embedded
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West to the comic store for the first time in a while (visiting the comic store has become depressing for at least three or four completely separate reasons, but that's another story entirely).
Some new stuff, most interestingly Larry Gonick finally released the last volume in his Cartoon History of the Universe series, which was about equal in pacing and coverage to the previous volume.
Also, picked up the latest Hellboy volume, The Wild Hunt. Now, I can maybe someday forgive Mignola for giving up drawing his series (that happened a few volumes ago), since Duncan Fegredo is excellent and his drawing style is well-suited to Hellboy. But wow did Mignola's writing ever take a turn for the worse in this volume. considering his past high standards, that was definitely new.
It seemed good at first, but it dawned on me an hour or two afterwards that just about every single plot element in that volume has been recycled. [spoiler]Hellboy hanging out in the house of folks who've died long ago, shoehorning in an older short story as a key plot point (Alice was was kind of superfluous, other than her Dr. Watson-esque role as the story's human point of contact), the interestingly neutral cabal guys turning out to be yet another boring evil bunch who want to use Hellboy for their own purposes, the seemingly friendly guide spirit leading Hellboy to a trap, Hellboy growing his horns again and breaking them off again - I guess that's going to be routine now? Plus many minor recycled bits.[/spoiler]
But the worst of those was when [spoiler]he re-used the And the "The last half of the book all took place in Hellboy's head - it was only a dream!", again. Now that was a total cop-out.[/spoiler] also instead of using mythological figures judiciously, he now seems to just be grabbing them by the fistful and chucking them willy-nilly into the story like it's some kind of "how many references can I make?" game. This goes double for linking said mythologies together in awkward ways, just so we can have a SURPRISE CONNECTION.
The instances where things are just forced for no really good reason didn't help either. [spoiler]When Alice says "The little people did me some good as a justification for her abnormal youth, it was like a record needle screetch in my head[/spoiler]. Writers using paper-thin justifications to allow them to draw attractive women is something I normally expect from a much lesser artist.
But the most painful part was when he decided that this volume's BIG REVEAL would be the fact that [spoiler]Hellboy's human half was descended from King Arthur[/spoiler]. Ugh? Really? That was the most forced thing of all. I think it was much better when [spoiler]Hellboy's mother was just a random witch.[/spoiler] That actually made him more human, not less.
Don't get me wrong, there were still a few nice moments [spoiler]The 'slug house' gag, the art-deco demon, and especially when they pointed out all the prophecies of doom have come from people who had a vested interest in lying to Hellboy.[/spoiler] With that last bit being the only really meaningful growth Hellboy experiences in the whole volume.
:tldr: I guess I always thought that there was an overall plan and that the story might come to an end someday, after a long and overarching tale. This volume makes me think that perhaps there is no plan at all and we're just wandering aimlessly while a burnt-out artist drags his finest creation down with himself.
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...Blackest Night postmortem:
It had a lot of good ideas. And abandoned them all almost immediately.
I'd have loved to see more of Lex as Orange Lantern. Sinestro as White Lantern was the cleverest twist of the whole thing, and "resurrected heroes come back as White Lanterns" was a good idea too but the trouble is they worked poorly together. If Sinestro was going to be the WL, he should have STAYED that way.
Brightest Day could be good or it could suck. I'll pick up an issue or two and see. I like the IDEA of DC going back to a brighter, more heroic backdrop, but they've been swearing that was coming since fucking Infinite Crisis and I'll believe it when I see it.
Actually, I probably won't believe it even then. It took me YEARS to finally pay money for Astonishing X-Men, even after Marvel had the first issue free on their site.
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On another topic: the latest issue of The Muppet Show has Skeeter come in and join the cast...but oddly, she is never referred to by name, she's just "Scooter's sister" throughout. Makes me wonder if the rights to the character are owned (or at least co-owned) by the company that made Muppet Babies.
Of course, I thought the company that made Muppet Babies was Marvel, which is now owned by Disney, which also owns the main Muppet license. So who the fuck knows.
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I would have loved in Blackest Night was longer. And gave us more time with Orange Lantern Lex and Yellow Scarecrow. It's a new way to see old characters and it'd be really interesting to see how Orabge Lex fought Superman.
What I wanted to see for the White Lanterns was for Sinestro to be the only one and for him to either die and be remembered forever as the Greatest Lantern of All Time (which would really stick it to Hal) or for him to live through the Blackest Night and have the Brightest Day revolve around him and how he is cleaning up the universe. I'd assume at first he'd try to be his old self, but being connected to every living being would make that hard. He'd be forced to either change his ways or give up the ultimate power.
I completely agree that Blackest Night had a lot of good ideas that they kept around for maybe half an issue then ignored. I need to check in on the tie-ins though. See if they explored more in them than what I've read so far.
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Fuck tie-ins.
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That's my normal stance but dammit. I want more from the Blackest Night. And the Green Arrow shit was pretty good, right? So maybe they did TWO good books for tie-ins.
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If they had more story to tell, they could have cut down on the goddamn Where's Waldo two-page spreads and told more goddamn story.
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The Blackest Night tie-ins didn't really expand on the hints of cool in the larger event. Most of them follow the formula 1) hero is made fun of by zombies, 2) hero can't defeat zombies, 3) hero defeats zombies.
The ones that I found interesting were Weird Western Tales, the Power of Shazam, and Suicide Squad. They're just good zombie stories though -- not anything that expands upon the thematic significance of the larger event. I'm glad that I spent very little money on this one.
Sinestro was robbed.
My big two books right now are Batman and Robin and Unwritten. Not empty promises there!
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I've stopped reading comics entirely at this point. DC is mediocre at best, and Marvel is a stinking pit full of Quesada's mid-life crisis.
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Uh, I'm not actually trying to be a dick when I say that "I'm pretty sure there are other comic book companies whose work you might enjoy".
Oh hey, that reminds me, finally read RASL 6 & 7. Pretty good. The plot's moving along and even though the science is pretty FAIL, you can at least stop caring and just go along for the ride. I may still be on the fence about the plot, but the book as a whole is still worth picking up.
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I haven't seen anything so standout that I was compelled to read it from any of the other publishers either. Invincible tempts me sometimes, but that's not something you can just pick up in the middle. I'll read the odd comic here and there if something gets recommended to me, but by and large it just isn't worth the effort. The big two are worthless, and I don't really have the time or the inclination to sift through everything else.
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I don't really have the time or the inclination to sift through everything else.
That's a problem that I have with a lot of media and pastimes these days. Time was, I just sort of piggybacked my friend Patrick's hard work sifting out the good games/music/movies/tv series. These days it's pretty much just you guys and 4chan.
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I am actually a big fan of Invincible. Not too entirely sure about this new series they are starting (or whatever they are doing) but I loved the first 70 issues or whatever. If you've got the time, go back and read it. But yeah. Not something to just jump in on.
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That's why I pick up trade paperbacks. The library carries them, so I can weed out stuff without having to buy them first! That said, I've picked up a few things I like:
Fables: Read the first trade, which collects the first 5 comics and then throws on a short story to boot. Didn't have time to read the short story, but enjoyed the actual comics. Bill Willingham has a gift for writing some of the clunkiest, most obnoxiously obtuse dialogue I've read in awhile. His characters also tend to veer from mood to mood like a drunk driver, but I still found myself enjoying the story anyway. Despite the flaws, the idea of a bunch of fable characters trying to hide in the real world while their homeland is ravaged is a compelling enough hook to make up for Willingham's writing.
It also coined the word "cocksmanship", which I plan to use in everyday situations now.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Read the first two volumes, one penned by Whedon and the other by Brian K. Vaughan. They're fun! They pick up where the show left off, and follow the spirit and humor of the pretty well, only freed up from its low budget constraints. I guess the most accurate review is that if you enjoyed the show, this is pretty much that only in comic book form.
Ex Machina: Also written by K. Vaughan, this series is about a former superhero who becomes the mayor of New York City after September 11th. But like Y the Last Man, Vaughan manages to take this premise and weave a complex, well-constructed story around it. One of Vaughan's greatest gifts is his ability to write dialogue that is both natural and informative. His characters read like they're having a real conversation, not just hitting plot points.
The book is filled with little touches that bring the characters to life, and make the world seem real and lived in. Mitch Hundred (the ex-superhero named "The Great Machine") admits that he freely gave up being a superhero because he felt he could do more good in the public sector rather than just trying to save individual people from criminals. This becomes part of the theme of the book, about self-reliance and about the need for strong, protective leadership. It's thought-provoking at times, but never loses site of its characters or themes.
At least, in the first two books.
As for more current series, Batman & Robin is my favorite book, with Morrison having fun with the a different dynamic duo than normal. The latest story arc, in particular, has been a blast, with Dick Grayson uncovering clues about the secret history of the Wayne family beneath the manor, and Damien's Robin fighting alongside a fake British detective against punks in a graveyard.
It's full of touching little character moments, such as when Damien remarks that if Bruce Wayne comes back, he and Dick won't get to be Batman and Robin anymore. I recommend it, even if you've written off superhero books.
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Spider-Man: Fever is simply fucking gorgeous. It's a loving tribute to Ditko, without feeling too derivative. It features Dr. Strange and the requisite psychedelic worlds he travels through, and Spidey...it's really quite uncanny; it's like the last 45 years never happened. The angle of the webbing on his costume, the height of his nose and eyeholes, the poses of his lanky body -- Brendan McCarthy draws Ditko's Spider-Man.
The dialogue, similarly, has traces of Lee's cheesy incantations, but it doesn't cross the line from "loving homage" to "slavish duplication" either.
But mainly, it's the art that deserves praise. The shapes, the colors...if you're a fan of Spider-Man or Dr. Strange at all, pick this one up.
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I agree. The art is a nice change of pace. Looks great. Too much of it may be overkill but I do want more.
The writing?
Ugh. I mean, it's still better than some of the Spider-man writing in recent years but...
Well...
That's not saying a lot.
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Is anyone reading Unwritten? I'll pull out scans if I have to!
As for more current series, Batman & Robin is my favorite book, with Morrison having fun with the a different dynamic duo than normal. The latest story arc, in particular, has been a blast, with Dick Grayson uncovering clues about the secret history of the Wayne family beneath the manor, and Damien's Robin fighting alongside a fake British detective against punks in a graveyard.
Also, a shovel fight!
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I have an Unwritten trade sitting next to me here. I'm going to start it one day, I swear.
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Unwritten is one of my current favorites and you are correct that we should be talking about it more.
Possibly in the "for people who don't read comics" thread, because it is not about guys in tights whumpin' on each other.
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Brightest Day #0 is 48 pages, with no ads except for tie-ins at the back, for $4.
It's a pity that's the only good thing I can say about it. No, I will not be purchasing #1.
...okay, okay, there's ONE more good thing I can say about it: it gave me a GREAT idea for a sitcom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Syt8qQUbzVc
Jason is black. Ronnie is white.
Ronnie is a jock. Jason is a nerd.
Jason is a college kid from Detroit.
Ronnie was killed in the Crisis on Infinite Earths, came back as a zombie, and killed Jason's girlfriend.
Now they share a superhero identity -- AND a penthouse apartment in Harlem!
...seriously. Christopher Priest would be perfect for this. Except he already passed on Firestorm because he doesn't want to be the black guy who writes black guys.
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After Reg Hudlin's mishandling of Black Panther, who could blame him?
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so brightest day will be the tale of twelve characters that were so lame nobody thought to bring them back from the dead before
yay
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I-I like Aquaman
:nyoro~n:
And NotDeadman is fairly interesting so far.
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It's pretty much like 52 except that it sucks.
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So Countdown?
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Depends on how tight the editors are controlling it.
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Now they share a superhero identity -- AND a penthouse apartment in Harlem!
I liked it when Batman: The Brave and the Bold did it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G4tdqzzXhA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ1Y74wukss
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http://www.mister8.com/the-illustrated-prisoner/
Kirby had earlier included a Prisoner homage story in his renowned run with Stan Lee on the Fantastic Four, that saw the titular heroes banished to a town run by Doctor Doom. The mood of the show, and the sci-fi modernist designs, seemed especially suited for Kirby’s art, as did the heavy-browed visage of McGoohan, who resembled Kirby heroes of the 1950s. Like Kane before him, Kirby completed a full issue of the Prisoner before Marvel abandoned it, reportedly due to the lack of action in the mostly expository issue.
:O
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Oh man, I've totaly found a new comic I need to try and find:
(http://i34.tinypic.com/2v2tlzm.jpg)
(http://www.blog-bazar.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/smtherese.jpg)
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Bone banned? (http://graphicpolicy.com/2010/04/16/bone-to-be-banned/)
And Jeff Smith's response. (http://graphicpolicy.com/2010/04/22/jeff-smith-responds-to-bone-ban-attempt/)
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Bone banned? (http://graphicpolicy.com/2010/04/16/bone-to-be-banned/)
Of course not.
Bone challenged.
It won't succeed.
There's nothing in there that isn't in Pinocchio.
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DC’s output is just kind of joyless and tedious these days, not in a particularly vicious or cruel way but just kind of there, and everybody knows it, and “Brightest Day” isn’t going to be a turnaround to “more innocent and fun stories” because comics companies have learned that they can spike their sales for a few months every time they promise that and then it’s back to the emo snuff porn that the hardcores want.
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"Emo snuff porn" might be the best nutshell description of stock North American superhero comics I've heard in years.
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And Jeff Smith's response. (http://graphicpolicy.com/2010/04/22/jeff-smith-responds-to-bone-ban-attempt/)
Oh snap. Did he just call that lady a nazi?
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The latest Hellboy one-shot is about Hellboy going to Mexico and fighting a demon-bat luchadore.
Also the newest Batman and Robin reveal is the most WTF thing ever.
-
Also the newest Batman and Robin reveal is the most WTF thing ever.
Spoilers for those of us who are curious, but not curious enough to start picking the book up? Plz?
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Well, throughout Batman and Robin, Oberon Sexton has been a kind of detective on the trail of the Domino Killer. It's made hints towards the identity of Sexton, mainly that he's faking his accent and knows more about Gotham than he probably should. At one point both Batman and Robin accuse him of being Bruce Wayne in disguise.
But, at the end of B&R #12 [spoiler]he pulls off his mask and reveals he's the Joker in disguise[/spoiler]
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Saw it coming.
Still pretty sweet.
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Chris Sims discusses the racist implications of bringing back the Silver Age. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/05/06/the-racial-politics-of-regressive-storytelling/)
But you can't really even blame the creators entirely, because it's reinforced by the fans. I'm sure a lot of it comes from the fact that the stories are often good stories (as I said, the Legion stuff isn't necessarily what I want the Legion to be, but it's still very enjoyable), but there's an underlying resistance to change that seems to come out in a far more ugly manner when race is involved. Again, I would certainly hope that the majority of comics fans aren't racist, but I heard John Stewart referred to as "Black Lantern" years before Nekron started sending out rings, and I've heard enough people refer to Jason Rusch as "Blackstorm" to know that a lot of them don't understand that casual racism is still racism.
-
Saw it coming.
Still pretty sweet.
There were enough red herrings and false leads that it could have been a few other characters, but /co/ had me pretty firmly convinced. Still, I can't help feeling that Morrison [spoiler]pulled one Oberon us[/spoiler].
I'm excited about caveBatman.
Yeah, that one's not mine. I'm inordinately fond of it though.
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The latest Hellboy one-shot is about Hellboy going to Mexico and fighting a demon-bat luchadore.
And is drawn by MOTHERFUCKING RICHARD CORBEN.
Haven't been to the comic shop yet this week (still working my way through my FCBD stack...and the shitload of trades I bought at 20% off), but that is at the top of my list. Followed by Batman and Robin and Allred and some writer's iZombie.
Chris Sims discusses the racist implications of bringing back the Silver Age. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/05/06/the-racial-politics-of-regressive-storytelling/)
It's a great thread but what's shocking about it is that nobody seems to have brought this up before. I mean, it's incredibly fucking obvious to me.
Pleasantly surprising: nobody is arguing with him about it; all the replies are positive.
I have a few posts in there myself. I bring up my usual point about how, while Batwoman is largely a positive portrayal of a lesbian character, unintentional stereotyping DOES crop up, in that of the two other lesbians I can think of in the DCU, one is her ex and the other just moved to Gotham to be her love interest.
Speaking of her ex, when someone acknowledges "Well, I WOULD like to do away with Montoya and bring Vic back as the Question," I respond that that's kind of exactly the point -- you don't like Renee, I don't like Kyle, somebody doesn't like Jaime, and pretty soon EVERYBODY has a minority legacy character they'd rather roll back to the version they liked better, which is exactly what's happening.
Also, I'm not the only person in the thread to point out that Barry and Hal are legacies themselves.
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Well, that's when you get right to the heart fo the fact that after what in some cases is eighty-odd years of constant storytelling, there's just WAY too much baggage. Period. Full Stop.
The only escape is the Kirby way: "Make a new story, kid."
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Now hey, Geoff Johns would never be racist. I mean there's John Stewart right here in ... where the hell did he go.
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Spoilers for those of us who are curious, but not curious enough to start picking the book up? Plz?
Well worth picking up, actually. As much of a mess as RIP got to be (and I actually kinda liked RIP), Batman and Robin has just been a great, fun read from day one. Art was a little meh on the second arc but has just been great in the other 9 issues to date.
And while Morrison hasn't given up the complexity of his storytelling, he's ratcheted the pacing way up. Not only does he do three-issue arcs where most guys do six-, but #12 in particular could have been three issues if another writer did it. Twelve if it was Bendis. It's got a nice, satisfying three-act arc: Batman vs. Robin, Damian confronts Talia while Dick confronts Slade, and the exploration of the Batcave with Oberon's identity revealed at the end.
Saw it coming.
Still pretty sweet.
(http://i630.photobucket.com/albums/uu23/Bon_Bon_2009/scruffy-1.jpg)
[spoiler]He's acting very out-of-character, but that works fine for how Morrison's set him up: the Joker reinvents himself periodically (which explains how the Sprang-era Joker is the same guy as the Killing Joke version).
And he would be due for a BIG change with Batman out of the picture. I don't think there's any question here; the Joker knew IMMEDIATELY that this Batman wasn't HIS Batman. He's the fucking Joker; he KNOWS.
And I like the "not as good a detective as his predecessors" jab to hammer it home.[/spoiler]
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(http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j242/FullmetalFRK/slow-1.gif)
Siege sucks ass
-
Also, I finished reading The Black Dossier.
Quite frankly, it's bad. It's pretty much... how do I describe it...
Okay, you know how the first League of Extraordinary Gentlemen book (and to a lesser extent, the second) had little references here and there to reward the well-read and keen-eyed?
Well, here is where the window-dressing takes over. Imagine you're trapped in Shelob's lair, getting suffocated by spiderwebs. Only the strands are Alan Moore's beard crusted with self-congratulatory semen. Understand that there is a story in the book, but it takes a Master's Degree in English Language and Literature to get everything else.
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Imagine you're trapped in Shelob's lair, getting suffocated by spiderwebs. Only the strands are Alan Moore's beard crusted with self-congratulatory semen.
Honestly? This is is what pretty much anything that I've ever read by Alan Moore other than Watchmen feels like.
I mean, okay, he's not as bad in that regard as Dave Sim... but that's like comparing a pixellated Doom imp to the naked face of Lucifer himself.
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Imagine you're trapped in Shelob's lair, getting suffocated by spiderwebs. Only the strands are Alan Moore's beard crusted with self-congratulatory semen.
Honestly? This is is what pretty much anything that I've ever read by Alan Moore other than Watchmen feels like.
THANK you. 100% agree.
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Much of Alan Moore writes is essentially fanfiction, and thus subject to all its dangers.
-
This is decidedly true. LXG doubly so, because it's crossover fanfiction.
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Sorry to break up with MooreFest, but damn. Read Justice League: Generation Lost #1.
This is going to be great. This is going to be better than great.
Max finally asked the question: [spoiler]How can I be a bad guy? I am trying to save the world. Someone killed me and the universe BROUGHT ME BACK. How can I be doing the wrong thing?[/spoiler]
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See, I quite liked Black Dossier, particularly the Wooster and Jeeves vs. Cthulhu bit. And I don't think Watchmen is Moore's best work. (I quite like it, but V is better.)
-
It's been over 15 years since I read V, so I may be willing to concede that on a re-read.
-
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 1910 is a lot more like the first two books. It led me to learn more about Bertold Brecht, but I see that as a positive rather than a crushing weight.
-
See, I quite liked Black Dossier, particularly the Wooster and Jeeves vs. Cthulhu bit. And I don't think Watchmen is Moore's best work. (I quite like it, but V is better.)
I will concede that the Wooster and Jeeves bit was delightful.
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Not a better place for this, but apparently Little Orphan Annie was still running. (http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/columnists/ct-biz-0513-phil-annie-20100513,0,344970,full.column)
was.
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Local comic shop had a spring storewide sale this weekend. I've never actually read any of the Hellboy comics, but I love the movies, so I picked up the first hardcover library edition volume yesterday.
Went in and picked up the other two today.
Also made out with Absolute Sandman volume one, another series I haven't read prior.
Sorry Jack of Fables and Transmet, big shiny hardcovers outdid you this time. :(
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read that as you were frenchnhg a copt of hellboy.
gigled.
fjghed out later that wasn't the case.
did the opposite of giggling.
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(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2009/09/robotmachineman.jpg)
It amuses me that a character created by Jack Kirby in a series expanding on 2001: A Space Odyssey would become one of the most endearing characters in the Marvel Universe.
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Question:
Are you just discovering NextWave now, or is HK-47 Aaron making similar appearances elsewhere?
Bonus points: Did you know that Stuart Immonen lives in Toronto? :glee:
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No, I just read Marvel Zombies 3. Actually, the last time I read about him was back in the 1990 Annual issue of West Coast Avengers where they were fighting Terminus. He's really loosened up since then, I gotta say.
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If you have not read NextWave: Agents of H.A.T.E. you have not read a Marvel comic from the last decade worth reading.
You have no idea how hard I am NOT KIDDING.
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He is top of the list for best Marvel characters.
(http://www.the-isb.com/images/Nextwave-Aaron01.jpg)
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I also love how NextWave gives fanboys fits by being ambiguously canon.
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Well, isn't that interesting.
Nextwave is by Warren Ellis, who wrote Transmetropolitan and the best run of Thunderbolts*, two books I enjoy. I'm going to have to add it to my wish list.
* something else I need to pick up.
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I also love how NextWave gives fanboys fits by being ambiguously canon.
YOU'RE A LOOSE CANON, NEXTWAVE, BUT A DAMN GOOD COMIC
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Also made out with Absolute Sandman volume one, another series I haven't read prior.
This was my introduction to the series too! I got all four of them as Christmas and Birthday gifts over three years or so. They are pretty amazingly crafted books. They are the collective second entry on my list of things in my room I could kill people with.
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And they make a handy doorstop.
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Oh uh, hey, apparently the Wednesday Comics hardcover is out? I was tipped off to this by the roundtable reviews in Comics Alliance.
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If they had charged 99¢ for each issue of Wednesday comics I probably would have bought more than one.
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Remember how Jack Kirby's kids are fighting for the rights to some of Marvel's properties that he created? Well, Disney is backing Marvel. (http://thresq.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/05/disney-marvel-kirby-termination.html)
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Not be be rude, but... this is a suprise how?
Disney has been a champion of corporate domination of copyright for sometime. And now that they own Marvel, it seems pretty natural that they'd do this.
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/buge/herpaderp/MelissaGold-Songbird.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/buge/herpaderp/uglybird.jpg)
Kev Walker should really stick to illustrating Magic cards.
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Yeah, I hate her new do too. I like how he draws all the monster and robot guys, though.
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It looks like Mr. Fatman is saying something about Ms. Pinkhair's old design and new design Ms. Pinkhair is expressing her scorn in turn.
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Wasn't a bad story. The new status quo they spent the issue constructing was pretty neat, [spoiler]so it was a bit of a surprise when they tore it all down with a twist ending. (Though as soon as Cage got zapped it was pretty easy to guess whodunnit.) There are a few places it could go from here, but I'd quite like for the new recruits to leave with Zemo while Mel and her ridiculous hair stay behind to help Cage and regroup. And then I'd like for Zemo's group to become the focus of the book.[/spoiler]
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Scuttlebutt has it that [spoiler]it's a test of loyalty. Possibly by Steve Rogers. And /co/ is gnashing its teeth at the thought that Songbird is going to 'defect' to become a villain or make Moonstone look good or whatever. But I am with you on the idea of Zemo forming an (ostensibly) heroic group. Anything to keep Luke Cage out of the limelight.[/spoiler]
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Susan Storm is getting fridged... again. (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/fantastic-four-3-hickman-100607.html)
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The shoddy Kirby-style ripoff art is a nice touch of frosting in that cake, I guess?
EDIT: Oh man, I just noticed the threes on the shirts. What a missed opportunity: Imagine a Reed who becomes unhinged after Sue dies, insisting they are still a quartet and forcing Johnny and Ben retain the '4's on their uniforms. Now THAT might be an interesting twist.
The '3' is just a gimmicky way to insist to fans that 'THIS IS NEW NORMAL. WE ACCEPT IT - AND YOU MUST TOO'. If you think about it, it'd be pretty odd for people to do that normally.
OH WELL.
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"'Three' is a cosmic, star-spanning Fantastic Four story with consequences," the writer said.
:lol:
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Susan Storm is getting fridged... again. (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/fantastic-four-3-hickman-100607.html)
Actually, they've got multiple versions of the cover, so it might not be her.
I think it's Johnny's turn this time.
"'Three' is a cosmic, star-spanning Fantastic Four story with consequences," the writer said.
:lol:
Yeah, pretty much this shit. I hear Hickman's run's pretty great, so it may very well be a compelling story, but Jesus Christ can we all stop pretending like we believe this copy? For fuck's sake, we just went through this shit with Millar.
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Comics Alliance interview with Straczynski about his story for #700 of Superman (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/06/23/superman-grounded-jms/)
Good story idea, and I like the ideas JSM floats around. He also shoots down the interviewers attempt to label this as a "Superman is an alien" story.
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If he was an alien he'd be stopped at the Arizona border.
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I didn't see Phoenix on the route.
Thanks for the link; saw it in my feed but assumed from the title it was the same as the other 87 news stories that appeared at the same time that just explained the plot.
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Ok. It's no secret I love Booster Gold. So it should be no surprise that I am reading all the stuff he is in.
But my god. Justice League: Generation Lost is fucking amazing. Every issue tops the one before it. It's a better Brightest Day than Brightest Day.
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It's a better Brightest Day than Brightest Day.
That's not very hard: nothing's happening in Brightest Day, it relies too much on shock gore, and it's not going to change anything so why bother. Generation Lost is pretty swell though. It's the first time that I've been all right with . Bringing Jamie back into the fold has been classy as get out.
Another quality DC offering: (http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b167/unhelpful/batmankick.jpg). For more than just the obvious reason.
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Yeah, just got through reading that one. Digging it quite a lot. (I love Damian's line about "Shouldn't we be dealing with the Joker?")
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Wonder Woman's new costume. (http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2010/06/29/unveiling-wonder-woman%E2%80%99s-new-costume-direction/)
Hey guys I hear the Malibu Stacey's getting a new hat.
So can anyone confirm if Blacksad (http://www.amazon.ca/Blacksad-Juan-Diaz-Canales/dp/159582393X/ref=pd_mw_b_2?ie=UTF8&s=books) is as incredible as it looks?
I mean, look at this art:
(http://venerable-bede.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/blacksad-streetscene.png)
(http://kozmicbooks.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/scene-blacksad-guarnido.jpg)
(http://www.bigshinyrobot.com/reviews/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Blacksad-NY-70x100-web.jpg)
I mean, I barely ever buy comics anymore, and it's a fairly expensive full-colour hardcover, but daaaaamn.
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I own Blacksad.
Yes, buy it. It is in-fucking-credible.
Warning: They stopped translating it after volume 2, because the North American publisher who brought it over went belly up. If you want to read volumes 3+, well... hope you can read French (well, you're from New Brunswick, maybe that's not a forlorn hope after all).
EDIT: The first two volumes should be available in a cheaper softcover form.
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Specifically I'm looking at the Dark Horse hardcover that was released earlier this month. It's about $20 on amazon, plus either shipping or another item, PLUS the activation fee for a prepaid credit card... Hm.
(also, I can read French, but not very well, so I try to buy my stuff in English)
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Another item you say?
How about volumes 1 & 2?
EDIT: HOLY SHIT... my older copies are worth over $50?!?!
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EDIT: HOLY SHIT... my older copies are worth over $50?!?!
the North American publisher who brought it over went belly up.
Why are you so surprised?
If I ever go broke my plan is to sell my hardcover Black Jacks. Since there's only 1500 of the first one and 1200 of the other two they tend to go for a lot (http://cgi.ebay.com/Black-Jack-Camellia-Nieh-Osamu-Tezuka-Book-2008-/341597705825?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4f88cf5661).
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I'm surprised because - as you've pointed out - there are numerous printings. And it's been picked up by a new distributor.
So it's not like it's impossible to get in English or French.
Comics values are just funny sometimes, I guess. I mean, hell, old Moebius books published by EPIC are rare as hell and Moebius is one of the most highly-regarded creators in European comic history, but even those were only $20 or $30 each.
:shrug:
ANYWAY JUST BUY THE DAMN THINGS. THEY ARE AMAZINGLY GOOD.
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nothing shocked me more than when i was looking for stuff to ebay to afford my computer and i sold an entire run of card captor sakura dvds for $500 goddamn dollars when i paid something like $180 for them on a whim back during some mega sale. turns out that out of print shrink wrapped dvds can increase in value!
also shut up i watched like half the show in fansubs because it was cute and a girl i liked really liked it.
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Niku roughly how much of card captor sakura did you end up watching
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Well, a guy's dealt in Magic Cards for nearly two decades probably has no right to be amazed at the value of any collectible item, really.
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Niku roughly how much of card captor sakura did you end up watching
.. h .. hal ..
two th ..
about three fourths.
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(http://i49.tinypic.com/357j1j4.png) (http://i49.tinypic.com/357j1j4.png)
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So, okay. I quit reading Astonishing X-Men: Xenogenesis after the first issue because the art is just senses-assaulting bad. But Astonishing X-Men #34 is pretty good! Sure, the guy drawing that (Lanning?) has a completely bland House Style, but at least it's inoffensive.
Ellis's plots on this series have been largely forgettable. His dialogue's up to his usual snappy standard, and that's worth the price of admission, but where he's really shone is the relationship between Scott and Hank, and that's once again where this issue stands out.
He just nails the idea of two guys who have been friends since they were kids and who don't see eye-to-eye anymore but who still have a tremendous care and respect for each other.
To wit: Hank tells Scott to go fuck himself because he's turned into a prick. For about two pages.
Then there's a panel of silence.
And then they both start laughing.
And in that exchange, Ellis just manages to say so much -- not just about the tonal shift of the past Jesus-Christ-is-it-really-almost-50-years of X-Men history, but of the very fucking nature of enduring friendship.
The man's very good. Even the shit that seems like he just thought it up over breakfast -- well, hell, my avatar's from one of those.
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Yes, buy it. It is in-fucking-credible.
I gave in and bought it yesterday at The Beguiling. Along with Vol. 9 of Girl Genius.
I'm weeeeeeak
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TEG (and anyone else who was interested in Blacksad): I just found out that the hardcover dark horse Blacksad is actually all three of the first volumes, translated. So don't bother getting a separate copy of Arctic Nation (volume 2) or anything.
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The most interesting bit in Captain Swing #2 is two namedrops: the policeman identifies himself as Charlie Gravel, and Captain Swing's real name is Jonathan Rheinhardt.
(Plus there's also a bit about Viking warriors; I suspect that's a reference to Wolfskin.)
Now, I don't think Ellis is doing anything quite so boring as building a shared universe out of his various creator-owned books. But I DO think there's probably more to this than just a quick wink-and-nod reference. I bet we'll be seeing a little bit more connective tissue as this goes on.
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/buge/whatever/ThanosImperative_3_Teaser.jpg)
:jizz: :jizz: :jizz: :jizz: :jizz: :jizz: :jizz: :jizz: :jizz: :jizz: :jizz: :jizz: :jizz: :jizz: :jizz: :jizz:
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... Horse Thor? :wat:
-
That's Beta Ray Bill. He's a badass muthafucka.
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As well as fucking better than Thor in every way. Beta Ray Bill is like Thor + Captain America's Speeches - the lame villains IN SPACE
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... Horse Thor? :wat:
The proper term is "Thorse."
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Superman Goes for a Walk, Chapter 1
You know, it's hard to explain Superman to people who hate Superman. It's easy not to like Superman, because 90% of Superman stories suck. That's not a higher ratio than anybody else, it's just that even terrible Batman stories are exciting. Or have George Clooney in them.
The problem is, much of the time people write Superman as fucking boring. And he shouldn't be.
Now, it can't all be All-Star. (And you shouldn't fucking try. More on that in a bit.) But there are ways to make Superman interesting.
The "Superman walks across America to get in touch with the common man" premise is a perfectly good one. The trouble is that, so far, it's about 80% Boring, Sanctimonious '90's Superman and 20% Crazy Social Justice Vigilante '40's Superman.
I love '40's Superman. He was like if FDR got up out of his chair and PHYSICALLY FORCED motherfuckers to treat the working class right. Run an unsafe mine? Superman's going to trap your ass down there until you promise to impose strict safety guidelines. Is your neighborhood full of run-down, abandoned buildings? Superman will just KNOCK THE FUCKERS DOWN so that HUD will come build new ones.
So when Superman shows up in a neighborhood full of drug labs and burns them all up with his heat vision, and then mocks the dealers? That's EXACTLY the kind of shit Joe and Jerry would have done. THAT is Superman connecting with the common man and solving real-world problems.
Too bad he spends the rest of the issue spouting smug platitudes in a bunch of scenes we've seen before. (Seriously? Talking a girl off a ledge? I don't know which is harder to believe, that JMS hasn't read All-Star or that he has but still decided it would be a good idea to do a shittier version of a scene from it in a book whose target audience is mostly made up of people who read it.)
Point is, I love the original Superman, and for a brief, fun moment, he's in this book, using his might to make life better for people in a seedy neighborhood, while mocking the thugs who have made it so bad. I want more shit like that. I want him to come to Phoenix and stick Joe Arpaio in Tent City.
But of course that's never going to happen, and the best we can hope for is that he takes down a few more conventional comic-book thugs in-between his sanctimonious lectures.
-
He, uh, also informs a man that he's having a heart attack and then just walks off.
-
Between Superman and Green Lantern, DC is in such an American-centric moment I all but stopped reading their comics.
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(http://rawstory.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/cinderblock.jpg) Grr, I hate that Spider-Man! I sure wish there was a way to get back at him for all my fellow brick walls he's incidentally punched over the years.
(http://www.rapsheet.co.uk/Images/Characters/Mephisto.jpg) Then have I got a deal for you...
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One Moment In Time somehow managed to be even more fucking retarded than Brand New Day. I hate Joe Quesada so fucking much I've begun crying tears of bubbling pitch every time I think about that motherfucker. That said, Grim Hunt was actually pretty fun.
-
And as has been pointed out elsewhere, OMIT was just completely fucking unnecessary. They needed to give an explanation of why the wedding was called off? Really? The wedding that almost got called off like 7 different times in the course of the original story?
-
Quesada really feels he can make this a good story.
Also, he needs to explain how Gwen is coming back.
-
CLONE SAGA.
-
Compared to OMD/BND the Clone Saga was a motherfucking masterpiece.
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Why does that shit always happen to Spider Man?
At least when they did it in other main franchises, they'd do it to characters nobody cares about, or make brand new ones for the express purpose of suffering it.
I mean, I haven't actively cared about any of these characters in years, but I'm still curious why Spidey always draws the short(est) straw on HORRENDOUS STORYLINE CONFUCKERY.
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There are many differing ideas about the Platonic Ideal of Spider-Man, as well as many differing ideas about how to spice him up. The writers often feel compelled to change the character, and consequently they feel compelled to write stories about how these changes take place. And since he's such a big character, they're not going to write a small story about the changes. The end result is that he has the worst case of continuititis of any superhero (which is no small feat).
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Hey, for all the hate on Spider-man lately, SHED was a pretty damn fine story. That said, it's baffling that apparently Spider-man's marriage to Mary Jane is somehow the most important event in the Marvel universe. 'One More Day' was this slipshod, terrible way to solve the problem of Spider-man's marriage.
It's not that Spider-man and Mary Jane were a bad couple, it's just that Spider-man began to be so far removed from his everyman roots that he was difficult to relate to. A teenager/college student who has trouble making ends meet and holding a steady job while trying to maintain relationships and girlfriends is a helluva lot more relatable than a guy who is married to a supermodel and living it up in the Avenger's Tower.
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When did Mary-Jane become a supermodel? :wat:
Or were you just referring to the current method of drawing her.
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Hey, for all the hate on Spider-man lately, SHED was a pretty damn fine story. That said, it's baffling that apparently Spider-man's marriage to Mary Jane is somehow the most important event in the Marvel universe. 'One More Day' was this slipshod, terrible way to solve the problem of Spider-man's marriage.
It's not that Spider-man and Mary Jane were a bad couple, it's just that Spider-man began to be so far removed from his everyman roots that he was difficult to relate to. A teenager/college student who has trouble making ends meet and holding a steady job while trying to maintain relationships and girlfriends is a helluva lot more relatable than a guy who is married to a supermodel and living it up in the Avenger's Tower.
I don't think the fact that he finally had a good life made him difficult to relate to at all, magically resetting his history does make him difficult to relate to though. He was living in avengers tower and was married to a supermodel but this wasn't sprung on him like he won the lottery, it came about naturally as a result of his story. And at the same time that he was experiencing such great things, he was also teaching science at his old run down inner city high-school, which I thought was one of the better places they possibly could have taken Peter Parker as an adult. Instead now we've got Peter Parker as an eternal man-child still scraping by with the same job he had in high school.
One of the great things about Spider-man up until OMD was that he was one of the very few superheros to actually grow and permanently change as his story went on. He actually graduated high school, graduated college, dated, got married, got new jobs, and matured. His villains actually had some sense of mortality. His friends and family had a sense of mortality. It's wasn't perfect, he had a lot of dumb stories over the years, but I think that it's was right for Peter Parker to eventually move past isolating and torturing himself. It's not like there wasn't enough pathos along the way to justify a little happiness.
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There's a lot of validity to that idea.
I mean, the whole thing about someone being relatable goes hand in hand with wanting to see the relatable guy finally succeed. Eternal cockblocking just leads to intense frustration (and blueballs).
It doesn't work so well with say... Superman or Batman, because they're basically mythological figures, but Peter Parker is supposed to be an everyman. And while sometimes they win and sometimes they lose, everymen usually don't stay on some bullshit habitrail hamster wheel for sixty years.
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I like that even the title acronym implies that this will be a retcon.
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He was living in avengers tower and was married to a supermodel but this wasn't sprung on him like he won the lottery, it came about naturally as a result of his story.
No, it didn't, it was sprung on him like he won the lottery.
Peter Parker got married to Mary Jane because Stan Lee did it in the comic strip and demanded that they do it in the regular comics too (http://phonogram.us/comics/adventures/spidey.htm). MJ hadn't even BEEN a major character in the comics for YEARS at that point and they had to find a way to awkwardly shoehorn her back in.
And he and Wolverine were added to the Avengers because nobody was buying Avengers.
I'm with Constantine -- the marriage was a bad idea in the first place and shouldn't have happened, but I'm really hard-pressed to think of a worse way to reset the status quo than the deal-with-the-devil route Quesada went. Honest to God, the Clone Saga WAS a better way to get the marriage out of the way -- and it was still FUCKING AWFUL.
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You're right! Peter should marry an ugly girl instead OH WAIT THERE ARE NO UGLY GIRLS IN COMICS.
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Jimmy Soul - If you wanna be happy (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh9ZZgDqzAg#)
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I also think that BND failed on a deeper level than just story telling. The message is sent was, basically, hey kids, don't grieve the loss of a loved one with the support of family and friends, instead throw all that into the fucking crucible and reset your life so you can run away from your problems at the expense of everything you supposedly held dear. It doesn't help that in the preceding months Marvel had gone out of their way to make the MJ/Peter relationship really very good, only to spit it all back in our faces. For the first time in years their relationship was strong, believable, and actually likable and then not only do they cock that up, but they do in the worst way I can think of, with the worst message attached.
Fucking disgusting.
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(http://i32.tinypic.com/29og0n8.gif)
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You're right! Peter should marry an ugly girl instead OH WAIT THERE ARE NO UGLY GIRLS IN COMICS.
There actually IS a middle-ground between "supermodel" and "ugly girl". Though I've been trying to explain that to Spram for 5 years to no avail.
This is probably as good a time as any to remember that Ditko ostensibly wanted MJ to be homely. (I've seen that story questioned recently, with a quote attributed to Ditko basically saying "No, Stan and I didn't have any disagreements over the direction of the book, because he had absolutely nothing to do with the plotting." Couldn't find a primary source, but it sounds like something he or anyone else who worked with Stan in the '60's would say.)
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Dwayne McDuffie working on animated All-Star Superman adaptation (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/07/27/all-star-superman-cartoon/)
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That is pretty good news. I haven't seen the entire run yet, but aside from New Frontier being way too short to cover its book, the DC dtv stuff has been of pretty high quality.
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The Avengers is going to lay the groundwork for a Cosmic Marvel film franchise! (http://comicbookmovie.com/fansites/Poniverse/news/?a=20758)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/buge/herpaderp/cosmicstuff.jpg)
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A trilogy based on Annihilation would be fuckawesome.
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Haha, holy fucking shit. Have you read this new Spider-Man? You can't even try to be this bad. Only natural talent can explain it.
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Well, it is Joe Quesada...
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Okay, now I'm curious, what did he
do fuck up now?
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The whole "They never got married thing?" The big hand wave that you were supposed to nod sadly then move on? The one that people yelled and screamed about nonstop until... well, until this? He's going back and explaining it. Bit. By. Bit. Minute. By. Minute.
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Quesada's pushing a personal agenda. His father died of cancer, so nobody smokes in the Marvel Universe anymore. He got divorced, so he didn't want Spider-Man to be married anymore.
Oh! And MJ is being painted as the bad guy in all of this. She was the one who agreed to the deal with Mephisto, and now, in OMIT, she's the one who doesn't want to get married because marriage was only a means for having children.
(http://i34.tinypic.com/2wekqhj.jpg)
Not because, you know, THEY LOVE EACH OTHER AND WANT TO SPEND THE REST OF THEIR LIVES TOGETHER
(http://i33.tinypic.com/35l4tfn.jpg)
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Is it a coincidence that Peter bears more than a casual resemblance to Quesada in his artwork?
(http://www.comicsbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/ASM_638_Preview3.jpg)
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I really didn't think a Spider-Man Book could be worse than Sins Past, OMD, and BND, but OMIT takes the fucking cake. Not only is it terrible, but it's just god damned insulting throughout. Every single piece of it is is poorly wrought, poorly thought out, and just plain awful in every regard. BND made me stop reading Spider-Man regularly, but this shit makes me actually dislike the characters.
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His father died of cancer, so nobody smokes in the Marvel Universe anymore.
Not even Wolverine, whose mutant power is that HE CAN'T GET CANCER.
Because, as Quesada explains, the guy whose OTHER mutant power is that he carves motherfuckers up with his knife hands is a role model for the kids.
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Also Punisher is a zombie right now known as Franken-Castle. Who thinks this shit up? All of my hate.
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And yet that idea is far more interesting and entertaining than the usual story ideas of "Frank Castle shoots guys with a gun". FrankenFranken-Castle rules.
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It completely changes the fundamental aspects of the character. But you know what? Fuck the Punisher. He sucked. The only people who liked the Punisher were juggaloes. The only time I could stand him were the crossovers with other heroes and how many times can you read "I'mma shoot you, Spidey. Lols. Wait. Yousa good guy. My bad."
Frankencastle may be spitting on the original concept of the Punisher, but the original concept ran out of stories years ago.
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I have to agree with you there, Lottel. Punisher was good in the early 90's but stopped being interesting with the death of violent action films and James Bond.
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Yeah, I'm with you guys. Franken-Castle is fucking hilarious and the best thing that's happened to the Punisher since...ever.
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Is it a coincidence that Peter bears more than a casual resemblance to Quesada in his artwork?
(http://www.comicsbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/ASM_638_Preview3.jpg)
(http://a.imageshack.us/img43/8896/664221533352.jpg)
Oh god.
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Extra creepy points if MJ looks like his ex-wife.
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Why is Peter so fat in that comic?
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So last night I work, I worked with Curtis, a sometimes employee. He's the owners brother and he's often busy doing yadda yadda yadda.
Well! He's a graphic novel fan. He likes superheroes but never gets into them except for the occasional graphic novel. He asked if I liked Spider-man. I laughed and said yeah, before OMD. He gave me a blank look.
I explained everything from the Civil war to OMIT. He threw a beer against the wall and knocked a huge stack of papers off the counter. I told him I pretty much feel like that every time I see Spidey.
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Why is Peter so fat in that comic?
Is it a coincidence that Peter bears more than a casual resemblance to Quesada in his artwork?
(http://www.comicsbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/ASM_638_Preview3.jpg)
(http://a.imageshack.us/img43/8896/664221533352.jpg)
Oh god.
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Could someone summarize everything from Civil War to OMIT for a brother? Last I heard, didn't Peter's marriage somehow never happen because of magic?
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Magic? No. Aunt May was shot and dying. So he talked to the Devil. He traded his marriage for Aunt May to live. Both he and MJ only paused briefly before changing their lives forever in order to stop a 93 year old lady from dying from a gunshot wound. But wait! Everyone knows Spider-man is really Peter Parker! If only there was some way to make this go away, because hey, that's why Aunt May was shot, right? MJ steps up to the plate and tells Mr. The Devil "I will let you have this unborn baby in me that I told no one about if no one remembers he was Spider-man." The Devil nods. Then POOOOOF! (well, BOOOOONG!) And it goes back!
But see, not just everyone knew about Peter. A lot of heroes did too, so Petey unmasked himself in front of the heroes and they instantly remembered everything. So now the FF and Daredevil and the Avengers and everything know that Peter Parker changed the history of the world for the last X years. Because a lot of changes happened in New York.
Right now, they are going through EXACTLY why they aren't married. Even though people have finally just accepted it. They were fine with the handwave "it never happened." But NOPE! They aren't married because [spoiler]Spider-man was late for his wedding. Because a fat guy fell on him. And he was knocked out. Of course, in order to believe this you have to forget the umpteen times a building fell on him and he stood up and pushed the building off. Oh well. That was the Devil's master plan. A fat guy. [/spoiler]
I am only touching some quick things. If anyone wants to go over anything I missed, go right ahead.
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(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/buge/comics/lottel1.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/buge/comics/lottel2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/buge/comics/lottel3.jpg)
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Why is the publisher letting this asshole Quesada get away with basically writing himself and his life drama as spider-man?
Is there no one overseeing this shit?
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Yes perfect
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I'm going to assume that question was honest, in which case: Joe Quesada is he Editor-in-Chief of Marvel. Hence, he is the one overseeing this shot.
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At least Ultimate Spider-Man isn't ruined, right? Right!?
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I'm going to assume that question was honest, in which case: Joe Quesada is he Editor-in-Chief of Marvel. Hence, he is the one overseeing this shot.
:facepalm:
I didn't know. Holy shit that is both tragic and hilarious.
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I was going to reply "Well, he used to be EIC, so... "
I didn't realize he still held that post. Ugh.
Anyway, it's a moot point. Even if he wasn't EIC, it wouldn't be the first time atrociously catastrophic self-insertion writing "writing" was approved at Marvel (or DC).
And Buge is THE BEST.
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Who edits the editors?
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At least Ultimate Spider-Man isn't ruined, right? Right!?
Once again, Ultimate proves to be the better of the two.
I mean, what other comic can a big part of it be "My clone that's a chick is falling in love with my man-whore good friend!" and everyone is cool with it?
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I should just never read comic boox, huh?
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Ultimate Spider-man is just such garbage these days. Once the series restarted, I got to about the fifth series of Bendis's back and forth dialogue before I had a stroke.
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I could never get past the giant eyes.
Ultimate Avengers is also terrible. My uncle is convinced that Millar is having his untalented nephew ghost it.
...
...why did his brain go straight to "untalented nephew"?
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The first book of Ultimate Avengers 2 starts with Millar making fun of the Punisher, and I was down with that. He also apparently had Hawkeye kill the Red Skull by flying a plane into him. The series is goofy, and Millar seems to want to write like a cartoonish Garth Ennis these days.
Ultimate Spider-man was good for a little while at the beginning. Then Bendis had to kill Gwen, and he began literally inserting fight scenes in between issues, then he just began falling back on his Bendis-speak. He had Stuart Immonen doing art for a little while, which was good (even if the stories were terrible), and the artist on there now is just goofy.
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The Marvel Adventures books are probably the best versions of Spider-Man/Avengers/Hulk/etc Marvel is putting out these days.
This isn't as bad as it sounds, though, as MA:A has given us stories where Ego The Living Planet falls in love with Earth, and the Avengers get turned into MODOKs. So yeah, pretty much amazing.
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Also Spider-Man uses the Ultimate Nulifier, in perhaps the greatest page published by Marvel in the last five years.
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The first book of Ultimate Avengers 2 starts with Millar making fun of the Punisher, and I was down with that.
I...don't really think he was making fun of him, though. The whole thing was a love letter to the goofiest, dumbest things about Punisher and Ghost Rider and horrible ethnic stereotypes.
The Marvel Adventures books are probably the best versions of Spider-Man/Avengers/Hulk/etc Marvel is putting out these days.
This isn't as bad as it sounds, though, as MA:A has given us stories where Ego The Living Planet falls in love with Earth, and the Avengers get turned into MODOKs. So yeah, pretty much amazing.
I really should start checking those out. Isn't Roger Langridge writing Marvel Adventures Thor now? I like his art better than his writing, but The Muppet Show is straight-up the best all-ages book out right now.
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I...don't really think he was making fun of him, though. The whole thing was a love letter to the goofiest, dumbest things about Punisher and Ghost Rider and horrible ethnic stereotypes.
Millar certainly isn't asking anyone to take the concept of the Punisher or the Ghost Rider seriously, at the least. He opens the story by having the Punisher going on a killing rampaging, even being so crazy as to joke about killing an innocent limo driver. He's then taking down in a ridiculous sting, Nick Fury all but calls him an idiot to his face, and then they dress him up in a costume like his Civil War Captain America outfit so he can stand around being useless while War Machine and black Hulk do most of the work.
The secret to enjoying his Ultimate Avengers stuff is to go into not expecting a Punisher book, a Ghost Rider book or even an Avengers or Midnight Sons book. You have to realize that he's re-writing the A-Team but with psychopaths with superpowers. And that all hinges on whether you think a skeleton man cutting a plane in half with a flaming motorcycle is absolutely hilarious or not.
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I think /co/ summed up Mark Millar's writing succinctly:
All the villains team up and/or everyone is an asshole.
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I thought Stuart Immonen summed it up better on the last cover of NextWave. :whoops:
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Heh. Turns out [spoiler]the cancer killing Mar-Vell is the cancer killing Marvel.[/spoiler]
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Cathy is retiring. (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2010/08/another-comic-disappearance.html)
(http://files.sharenator.com/not_a_single_fuck_was_given_that_day_Pokemon_collection_of_lolz-s200x148-64002.jpg)
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Huh. I thought Cathy had already been retired. Shows how much I know, then.
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Assume newspaper comics exist indefinitely until opposite proof.
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But how will I deal with mondays?
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I should just never read comic boox, huh?
Do what I did: Read Zot! and Watchmen and pretend they were the only superhero comics ever written.
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Man, there are so many better superhero books than Zot!
Any man who denies himself the Grant Morrison Batman, or has never read Mike Allred's Madman, or Ex Machina or Concrete is only living half a life.
Should Concrete be considered a super hero book? It's about a guy who's in a rocky, alien body but he never fights monsters or does much other than try and go hiking.
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Ex Machina
WHEN IS ISSUE 50 COMING OOOOOUT
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I've been in Chicago all week.
All I've bought has been food and comic books.
:Iamokaywiththis:
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Man. You should've told me. You could've said hi, and commented at how fat I look in person.
Man, there are so many better superhero books than Zot!
BOOX!
But... but I'm already halfway through teg's plan.
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All-Star Superman is love.
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I think /co/ summed up Mark Millar's writing succinctly:
All the villains team up (and the government uses them as replacements for the heroes) and/or everyone is an asshole.
Because Ultimates ended exactly the same way as Authority.
Do what I did: Read Zot! and Watchmen and pretend they were the only superhero comics ever written.
I don't know if this is actual snooty elitism or just ironic snooty elitism, but either way, it's annoying.
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She's young. She'll learn.
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naw i am only joshuaing you
I actually do highly recommend those two because they're so enjoyable, but there are other good superhero books out there.
...Although I personally don't really delve into the genre much outside of the ocassional self-contained work because on top of not having a lot of interest, it's nigh-impenetrable.
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teg, you should read The Legion of Super-Heroes.
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I just checked out All Star Superman volume 1 from the library and oh man, it is so good. Superman finds out he is dying from an extreme blast of solar radiation that makes him even more powerful, so the comic centers around him making the most of his time. He gives Lois Lane a serum that gives her his superpowers for a day, and other fun and great stuff happens. Can't wait to get volume two out.
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Yeah, All-Star Superman might legitimately be the best Superman comic ever.
Has anyone mentioned Astro City as must-read superhero stuff yet? Because it is. You can read it in pretty much any order (except The Dark Age, which is numbered), but I'd recommend the first two volumes as the best options to start. The first one is a great overview and introduction; the second is a Batman and Robin homage and the strongest arc in the series.
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I just realized.
according to Geoff Johns life in the universe now began on Earth.
Next he'll make it so it began by Hal Jordan reciting the green lantern oath while ramming the white lantern with his penis.
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Yes. That's how he explains why Earth is SO DAMN IMPORTANT in DC. And why 3/5 of the population is THE STRONGEST EVER.
It's because Earth is best.
Best out of all.
I personally would have preferred Mogo being the planet to house the white lantern. A mobile planet given life would be perfect for that. And to get to the lantern? Nekron had to destroy Mogo, sending tiny living asteroids everywhere. Mogons or Mogettes or something. Better than "Not only did life begin on earth, but in Middle America! Right where the Green Lantern happened to live!"
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"Not only did life begin on earth, but in Middle America! Right where the Green Lantern happened to live!"
Whoa whoa whoa. Are we talking DC here or the Book of Mormon?
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You know, when I read the first issue of Golden Plates, I commented that the Book of Mormon had all the makings of a bad comic that you just couldn't put down.
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:MENDOZAAAAA: BRIAN K. VAAAAAAAAAAAAUGHAN
[spoiler]THERE ARE OTHER ENDINGS THAN "LEAVE THE PROTAGONIST DEPRESSED, ALIENATED AND ALONE," Y'KNOW[/spoiler]
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In other news, the spirit of Fredric Werthram lives on. (http://www.comicvine.com/news/maryland-politician-condemns-comics-in-campaign-ad/141970/)
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Cracked magazine makes tentacle rape look good. (http://www.cracked.com/article_17626_the-5-creepiest-sex-scenes-in-comics.html)
Hurm.
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Cracked magazine makes tentacle rape look good. (http://www.cracked.com/article_17626_the-5-creepiest-sex-scenes-in-comics.html)
Hurm.
#5: Man, that's fucking weird, this is number 5?
#4: :wat: But.. Wait, what?
#3: I only saw the cartoon of astro boy, and I don't remember this. Thank god.
#2: :tilt:
#1: This is not deserving of #1. #2 is.
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Yeah, #4 is all kinds of TOTALLY FUCKED. #1 is pretty bad, but I coudl easily see #4 or #2 take the top spot over the one they picked.
Still, hairsplitting aside, these are all kinds of YIKES JESUS FUCK WHAT.
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(http://www.thehighdefinite.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/4jgxS.jpg)
Holy jesus blathering fucking fuckity fucksticks. :jizz:ⁿ
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#3: I only saw the cartoon of astro boy, and I don't remember this. Thank god.
The butt-fueling almost never comes up in any version of Astro Boy canon. I know that it's in the manga and the 1963 cartoon, but I don't know if it survived the transition to the 1980 version. It was totally eliminated in the 2003 version.
The butt machine guns were invented out of practicality. Astro Boy is at times outrageously violent for a childrens' franchise from the sixties (some parent groups actually complained about it); and Tezuka was not afraid of routinely mangling his main character. Astro's machine guns are in his butt because he frequently gets his arms torn off. They don't show up in modern variatons not so much because they're silly, but because Astro's never in quite as much danger in the later series.
...Though personally if I were given the task of redesigning Astro Boy I would put them on a swivel joint in his hips. Because they are pretty silly.
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...SERVING YOUR ASTRO BOY TRIVIA-RELATED NEEDS SINCE 2008.
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This week brought the biggest haul of superhero comics in I’ve had in awhile. Which says a lot about how few mainstream superhero comics I read, but the last few months have seen me picking up quite a few Batman and Superman books than normal.
Batman #702 (written by Grant Morrison, art by Tony Daniel) – The last Batman book began a story bridging the RIP storyline with the events of Final Crisis, and this one concludes the story by bringing the events around to the Return of Bruce Wayne. What’s made the last few years of Batman so great has been the density of Grant Morrison’s storytelling and his multi-layered approach to the Batman mythos. And in this issue, he does not disappoint. The gaps in RIP and Final Crisis are filled in, and certain events from each story are given new context and meaning. Morrison continues being the best Batman scribe in years.
Prince of Power #4 (written by Greg Pak & Fred Van Lente, art by Reilly Brown and Adam Archer) – Also another excellent pick that finishes a mini-series starring the affable hypermind, Amadeus Cho. For the last few years Greg Pak has been writing Cho and the Incredible Hercules, and he’s got a sense of humor and timing that can’t be matched. The way Amadeus off-handedly refers to Thor as his sidekick, the action movie finish as Cho and Delphyne kiss while monsters attack. Pak has hilarity down. The only downside is that the book functionally acts as a lead-in to the Marvel event Chaos War, so we don’t get Hercules back so soon. Otherwise the book has been a highlight for the last few months.
Astonishing X-Men #34 (written by Warren Ellis, art by Phil Jimenez) – This pretty much concludes Warren Ellis’s run on the regular Astonishing X-Men title, with only his Xenogenesis mini-series left. And like a lot of books, it suffers a tad too much Warren Ellis dialogue. Notably Wolverine punching an old guy and then commenting on his “Wheelchair of Death”.
Baltimore: The Plague Ships #1 (written by Mike Mignola & Christopher Golden, art by Ben Stenbeck) – Another new series from Mike Mignola and Christopher golden, about a tough-as-nails monster hunter on the trail of World War I German vampires. It’s the usual from Mignola, who writes monster books like the rest of us breath air. The first book mainly serves to deliver up background on what’s going on, and establish the stakes for future issues. It does, however, feature a zeppelin filled with German vampires exploding thanks to a well-timed lightning strike, which I can get behind no matter what day of the week it is.
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I'd like to take a moment to shill for a local fellow. I can't recommend NIL (http://www.comixology.com/sku/FEB052509/NIL-A-Land-Beyond-Belief) strongly enough. back in the early 2000s, this was THE book that reassured me that satire was still possible. Absolutely brilliant stuff.
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Is it Dr. Light that has a problem or is it Judd Winick? (http://livingbetweenwednesdays.blogspot.com/2006/11/can-we-talk-about-something-else.html)
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Thor: The Mighty Avenger is fucking delightful. I picked it up because Roger Langridge is writing it, and I love his Muppet Show comic.
I missed the first couple issues, but in #4, the Warriors Three show up, try to take Thor out to a pub, get lost, and due to a misunderstanding Thor ends up in a fistfight with Captain Britain. After they realize they shouldn't be fighting, they all get drunk together.
And it hit me, you know, I think I've realized why this book is awesome: because Langridge understands what was so goddamn great about the Silver Age. You get the excitement of the shared universe, of characters from other books popping up unexpectedly, like in the 1960's, WITHOUT all the modern baggage of having to read 20 different books just to know what the fuck's going on. Back in the old days, seeing the Fantastic Four show up in a Spider-Man comic was fresh and new, but you didn't have to buy that issue to understand what was going on in that month's Fantastic Four. Or the next month's. Or the next month's.
It's just got that crazy chaotic anything-can-happen feel. Plus you can just pick it up and read it -- there IS an overarching story, but the individual issues are done-in-one and there's enough exposition to fill you in on what you've missed so far.
And I'd be remiss not to mention the art, by Chris Samnee. Again, I don't really have a good art vocabulary, but his work's dynamic and has a clean, clear line to it. Timm's the closest analogue I can think of. And Matthew Wilson's colors are great too. (There's a preview of a few pages at Comics Alliance (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/06/25/preview-thor-the-mighty-avenger-1-exclusive/).)
All that and they're still only charging $3 an issue. Seriously, buy the hell out of this thing. I want more books like it.
And while we're on the subject: what are some other good all-ages books? I hear Tiny Titans and Batman: TB&TB are pretty great but haven't picked them up yet. (Obviously I love the Batman cartoon, so I should presumably dig the comic too.)
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Nerd talked up the new Darkwing Duck comic somewhere around here and he was absolutely right, it's fantastic.
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Incognito, Ed Brubaker Sean Phillips, was really good. It's a pulp classic, despite being made only a few years ago, wherein some super villain is put into the witness protection program. his powers are sapped and he's forced to push a pen at some office job. maybe not so much pushing a pen as much as a mail cart. anyways, it's got a kind of fight club i can't fit into the machine type deal going for it too if you're into that sort of thing. classic twists, evil villains, super heroes in the real world type stuff. all of it very good.
Can anybody else back this up? I'm interested based on this description, but the source of this review may not be the most objective fellow.
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(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/69476comic_storystory_full-4578841.jpg)
Yo dawg we heard you like Tron
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does this mean he's boning black cat again?
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No, but he's still a loser!
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Jimmy Olsen is getting backs up in Action Comics these days, and they are amazing (https://comics.comixology.com/#/issue/4022).
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"Highly advanced genie society"
:glee:
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Yeah, that was pretty damn good.
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The main feature's not too shabby either.
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You know, between Neonomicon and Nemesis, it feels like Alan Moore and Mark Millar are trying to outdo each other at horrifying their readers. Except that I'm fairly confident Moore has no idea who Millar is.
I'd say the major difference is that when Millar does it you get the feeling he's really spending a lot of effort thinking up the most horrible shit he possibly can, and in Moore's case it just kinda casually rolls off his tongue.
(Tangent: I just realized that, aside from the Scottish "a", "Mark Millar" is totally a Stan Lee name. It's alliterative, one- and two-syllables, and has multiple R's. Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, Warren Worthington, Matt Murdock, Brodie Bruce, Mark Millar...)
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Don't know if want:
All Star Superman Official trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zPv6DiA_eM#ws)
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I'm not going to lie, I am going to watch that. But if the actual movie follows on the heels of that trailer, the tone is way, way off. Too many shots of Superman looking grim and determined while that epic string music plays. This does not jive well with a series represented with the gorgeous image of a friendly, smiling Superman sitting atop a cloud (http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/files/2009/07/all_star_superman_cover_1.jpg)
Seriously, how does someone make the image of Superman writing his journal on a giant stone wall with his heat vision look so incredibly boring?
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No Clancy Brown Luthor by the sound of it too. I don't absolutely need TAS VAs in these things, but Clancy Brown would surely be better for this one than whoever that guy is.
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Superman doesn't smile very often in A*S, I think. Mostly when he's with Lois.
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Trailers always lie.
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I'm hoping they're trying to get non-fans of the books to be interested by showing off the whiz bang action sequences, but then it occurs to me that All-Star Superman was 12 issues long, and had a whole lot of stuff that will never make the cut, but really mattered. I don't envy the guys over there at Bruce Timm HQ having to figure out what they had to cut and what they could keep.
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One of the greatest posts about super-heroes? (http://www.4thletter.net/2010/09/gamble-a-stamp-01-its-only-like-heaven/)
Oh, and it's technically about Flex Mentallo; might be some spoilers there.
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So, Love and Rockets? Still one of the greatest comics being put out, after 30 years.
While the first 2 issues of the current series were a lot of fun, #3 is pretty brutal. Both Gilbert and Jaime create stories that are sad and disturbing and affecting.
I rant a lot about the last 35 years' worth of violence for the sake of violence in mainstream American comics, but violence, like any other tool in an artist's kit, has its place and can be truly powerful. These are stories that could so easily have been abhorrent, exploitative, or simply poorly-executed in less skilled hands, but in the hands of Los Bros Hernandez, they're powerful.
There's a real sense of sadness to both of the main stories, a feeling that the world is an ugly place and there's nothing we can do about it -- and indeed, we may have no idea about the ugliness around us. But it never quite reaches the level of nihilism -- people get by, life goes on, and we cling to the beautiful things all the harder when we're faced with the ugly ones.
All in all, it's got two of the most affecting stories I've ever read in comics. I'm not going to forget them any time soon.
(And for people who don't follow Love and Rockets: I've chatted about it a bit already in the People Who Don't Read Comics thread, and given some places to start, but really any issue is enjoyable without its context. Gilbert's main story here doesn't relate to any existing continuity; he has a later story that reuses some members of his cast but it's the weakest in the book even if you know who they are. Jaime's story is rooted in his Locas characters, but tells you all you need to know about Maggie, Ray, and their relationship in the framing story, and the story it frames is a prequel of sorts and doesn't require any background. These are guys who can write stories that stand alone and are easy to pick up and read, even with 30 years of continuity behind them.)
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Hey, Mike Mignola and Evan Dorkin are teaming up for a Hellboy/Beasts of Burden crossover with art by Jill Thompson. The preview looks pretty nice (http://bit.ly/dzgZsr)
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Yeah, looking forward to that one. Beasts of Burden might could use a write-up in the Comics for People Who Don't Read Comics thread.
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So, okay, Thor blitz, because hey, movie coming out.
But isn't it nice that the books are pretty great too?
Actually, I haven't been reading the main series, or many of the spinoffs. But I've already expressed my affection for The Mighty Avenger all-ages book, and today's Ultimate Thor #1 is probably the best book I've read with the Ultimate name on it since...the Ultimate Thor subplot in Ultimates 2. There's some perfectly neat stuff going on there, split across three time periods: old Asgard, Nazi Germany, and today. Quite a few characters we know from the reg'lar Marvel U show up, and it's always neat seeing Ultimate reimaginings of them. The characterization's good, mysteries are introduced, and it's well-paced -- and pretty to look at besides. Off to a very good start, this one.
Also, I picked up the first volume of Simonson's run, which I've never read before. It's immediately obvious why it's considered the definitive run on the character; Simonson just GETS IT. He nails the characters right out the gate, and his writing and art are both superb -- the pace is quick, the large number of plot threads is easy to follow and never bogs down the story, and the characters' voices are all spot-on. There's a new hardback omnibus of the entire run (and yes, everyone has already made the "only the worthy can lift it" joke), but I'm liking it in split-up paperback form -- and volume 1's still plenty hefty at 288 pages (for a very reasonable $25).
Anyway. Thor's one of those really wonderful Marvel characters who hasn't always gotten the star treatment, and it's nice seeing he's got at least two great books going right now -- and the old stuff's pretty keen, too.
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Marvel and DC dropping prices back to $2.99 from $3.99 (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/10/07/marvel-and-dc-299-399/)
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That's a nice surprise. Now if only they would print something I would pay money to read.
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So okay, there are too many goddamn Deadpool books, but I figured I'd give Deadpool Max a shot, because he's a character who it fits. I think David Lapham's a good writer even though Young Liars wasn't my cuppa, and Kyle Baker's a great artist. So, sold.
And...well, the art's pretty, but god damn is the writing ugly. It's just a mean-spirited, homophobic book. Yeah, the ultraviolence is present in the book, but it takes a backseat to swearing and really uncomfortable jokes about coercive sex with large sadistic men. (Oh, and there's a poop joke on page 2.) Deadpool's barely in it, the extent of the comedy in his scenes is pretty much "dur hur 'crumpet' sure is a funny word", and the story focuses on Hydra Bob, who in this series is also not funny.
The whole thing comes across like it was written by a 13-year-old, and not a very nice one; it's yet another example of a book that uses the "explicit content" label for all the wrong things. I was hoping for Itchy and Scratchy, and instead I got...well, I can't really think of a good analogy. Let's Go to Prison? I never actually saw it, but the trailer was rooted entirely around man-on-man rape jokes, so if that's what the whole movie's like, then it's a pretty good analogy.
I've spent money on a lot of bad comics in my time, and this certainly isn't the first time I've ever said, "I paid four bucks for THIS?" But it's been a long time since I actually felt BAD that I paid money for a comic. Wish I'd flipped through the thing in the store first.
But hey, y'know...at least the art's good.
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Ok just reread Wolverine Rahne and Knights of Terra. I still get this ierd feeling seeing Cable fire a crossbow and as the mage but in a way it fits him in a medieval sort.
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medieval
Sorry if this was part of a joke I didn't get. Pet peeve.
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Sorry it was really late here and I was just posting it before I head to bed.
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Like me and one other person will care. Megaman and Archie (http://www.archiecomics.com/blog/news/2010/10/mega-man-explodes-into-archie-comics.html)
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Did anyone else click the link expecting a hilariously bad crossover?
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I was hoping.
Spaz already did the last issue of the (quite good!) Dreamwave Mega Man mini. He's a good fit, but I liked the other guy better. His name was Mic Fong; I think he was from Hong Kong.
Basically I expect this to be a more by-the-numbers Mega Man book than the Dreamwave series was. The Dreamwave series basically threw canon out the window and focused on MM's Astroboy roots, casting him as a tween going to school for the first time. He had a secret identity and didn't know who Dr. Wily or Protoman were.
...maybe that sounds terrible, but it was actually pretty great.
The writer of the new series, Ian Flynn, is a Sonic fanfic writer who got hired on to write Sonic fanfic professionally. I'm trying to figure out if I should feel like I missed the boat when I quit writing Sonic and Mega Man fanfic at 14.
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Maybe you did, but seeing as how the boat is kinda like the Marie Celeste, I wouldn't worry about it.
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I kind of think that overwrought Sonic-style bullshit is the sort of thing that Mega Man would be able to handle with... well, "grace" isn't the right word, but it is probably less likely to make you puke.
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X is the angsty one. OG Mega Man should be upbeat.
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Is Superman suffering from PTSD? (http://toobusythinkingboutcomics.blogspot.com/2010/07/j-michael-straczynskis-superman-hero-as.html)
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Or it could just be that Occam's Razor applies, and Straczynski is a hack who can't walk his own talk.
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Now, since "Superman" # 701 is constantly providing us with an at-best rather baffled Clark Kent, and an at-worst vindictive and rather vicious Superman, one that nobody has ever seen before, we have to assume that there's a reason for that.
(http://www.astutewisdom.com/assignment5/superdick.jpg)
Guess they weren't kidding when they said Geoff Johns was bringing back the Silver Age.
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Or it could just be that Occam's Razor applies, and Straczynski is a hack who can't walk his own talk.
That's a mighty big claim about a writer who's been writing for close to 3 decades*.
I think that article was a good read, but the writer's points aren't illuminated further in the second issue of Grounded, as it's more of Superman just kind of bullying people with his super powers. If Straczyinski is going for a PTSD Superman who's dealing with the pain of losing his father and New Krypton, and I hope he doesn't drag out more of his jerk actions over the another 3 or 4 issues before we start getting a more likable Superman. Of course, Colin Smith does say at the end of the article that he could be wrong, and JMS is just writing an asshole Superman because that's how he believes Superman acts. Keep in mind, it's a 12-part series, so there's still development to go.
*A long, successful career does not prevent you from being a hack**. For further examples see Crichton, Michael and Steel, Danielle
** Read that Spider-man story where Gwen Stacey has sex with Norman Osbourne, but then he kills her because she's pregnant with his child.
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My love for the man who wrote B5 is undying and eternal, but I really can't remember the last story arc he did for a comic book that folks did not seem to whole-heartedly loathe.
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** Read that Spider-man story where Gwen Stacey has sex with Norman Osbourne, but then he kills her because she's pregnant with his child.
All the things they chose to retcon with One More Day, and they chose that to keep in canon.
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I'm not saying it's a certainty, but fans - of anything - justifying poor writing with specious reasoning and long-winded arguments is as old as the hills. Doubly so when the evidence cited for those arguments is very "subtle".
Sure, this could all turn around in the next three, five, seven issues; after all, there's got to be something 'bigger' to keep a twelve-issue arc going. I just refuse to dismiss the obvious conclusion until it has been disproven by hard evidence.
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** Read that Spider-man story where Gwen Stacey has sex with Norman Osbourne, but then he kills her because she's pregnant with his child.
All the things they chose to retcon with One More Day, and they chose that to keep in canon.
In defense of Straczynski, that storyline did not, as he wrote it, contain Osborne plowing Stacy. The kids were supposed to be Peter's, but Editorial stepped in after the first issue had already been published and made him change where the story was going, so it was Osborne instead.
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(http://www.astutewisdom.com/assignment5/superdick.jpg)
Guess they weren't kidding when they said Geoff Johns was bringing back the Silver Age.
But see, I would LOVE more crazy, far-out Silver Age shit like that. It's a pretty far cry from Superman acting like a prick to a random guy on the street.
"Superman acts like a dick -- in SPACE!" is a fun story. "Superman walks across America to reconnect with the common man" has potential as a story. "Superman walks across America to act like a dick to the common man" -- actually, now that I say it, that DOES sound hilarious. JMS must just be doing it wrong.
...Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go work on a pitch for a Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged series.
My love for the man who wrote B5 is undying and eternal, but I really can't remember the last story arc he did for a comic book that folks did not seem to whole-heartedly loathe.
His run on TB&TB was pretty great, though I don't know that it counts as a story arc since it was a bunch of done-in-ones.
I quite liked his Thor run.
In defense of Straczynski, that storyline did not, as he wrote it, contain Osborne plowing Stacy. The kids were supposed to be Peter's, but Editorial stepped in after the first issue had already been published and made him change where the story was going, so it was Osborne instead.
He also claimed he built a reset switch into it but Quesada wouldn't let him throw it. Still no excuse.
(A correction: if I'm not mistaken, Gwen had already given birth to Norman's children; she wasn't pregnant at the time. Still, quite possibly the worst retcon ever. I know the entire point of the phrase "worst ____ ever" is that CBG's throw it around like punctuation, but I mean it sincerely; can anyone think of a worse one? IMO this is worse than the Clone Saga or OMD -- and isn't it interesting that the examples I think of are all from Spider-Man?)
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There was Kevin Smith's attempted retcon where Batman pissed himself, though I think those are non-canonical, but eh.
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I know the entire point of the phrase "worst ____ ever" is that CBG's throw it around like punctuation, but I mean it sincerely; can anyone think of a worse one?
The one where Aunt May got teen pregnant and is actually Peter's mother.
No, wait.
Xorn.
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Xorn hands down
SECRETLY MAGNETO is pretty much my favorite twist of all time
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Hm, that's a good one (Magneto as a drug-addled demagogue who discovers he was more influential dead than alive may be my favorite modern X-Men story), but I still don't think it compares to the abject horror of Gwen fucking Norman.
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Xorn isn't bad, actually. Shocking, and disheartening, but not bad.
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Well, which do you mean, here? "Magneto pretending to be Xorn" was a great twist. "Xorn's twin brother pretending to be Magneto pretending to be Xorn" is not.
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Ahh, I was referring to the former, that was a good twist. The later stuff was dumb.
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Nicholas Gurewitch does a story where Magneto becomes Galactus' herald (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/10/18/is-this-the-best-galactus-comic-book-of-all-time/)
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Yeah, Strange Tales is pretty wonderful. It could use an entry in that other comics thread.
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Pretty much every story in last week's Strange Tales was worth reading. It is the mirror that reveals my weekly superheroes to be clowns.
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Yeah, but the straight stories are great, too. The Grampa lead-in with Wolverine and Sabretooth as wrestlers was lovely. As was the Hulk Samurai story Sakai did last year.
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It's funny. Strange Tales is what Wednesday comics should have been, just in a more conventional format. Marvel asks a bunch of independent, less well known artist to contribute stories free of continuity or really much guidance and all and lets them go nuts with it. And it works so well. I hope Marvel at least continues with the series, allowing a rotating cast of artists and writers to come in and contribute these little one off stories.
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I like both formats quite a lot TBH. I still think the Wednesday Comics format had real crossover potential -- though $4 is too much for a checkout counter impulse buy.
Speaking of, what's this I hear about the The USA Today printing Dark Horse stuff? I hear they've got Hellboy and Dr. Horrible.
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Yeah, but the straight stories are great, too. The Grampa lead-in with Wolverine and Sabretooth as wrestlers was lovely. As was the Hulk Samurai story Sakai did last year.
I'm including those in my evaluation. It's as condemning an argument against decompression as I can think of. Why bother with several weeks of middling-quality Avengers when I can get more emotional punch in four pages of Strange Tales? (The obvious answer is that I'm losing my joy for stories about men and women in flashy tights. That's not true though. I guess I'll just stick to my Morrison, Simone, and Giffen.)
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Speaking of Simone, I wasn't really sold on her run on Atom or Secret Six (though the latter was pretty decent), but what little I saw of Wonder Woman was pretty top-notch. What's she done recently that's worth a look?
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Nicholas Gurewitch does a story where Magneto becomes Galactus' herald (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/10/18/is-this-the-best-galactus-comic-book-of-all-time/)
I still like the first one he did:
(http://i54.tinypic.com/5dl2ll.jpg)
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It's as condemning an argument against decompression as I can think of.
In fairness, there are arguments FOR decompression -- I do quite like Bryan Hitch. I honestly can't tell you what happened over the course of the original Ellis/Hitch run of The Authority except they fought a bunch of aliens and exchanged witty banter and then Jenny died. Granted it is now a fucking decade since I read any of them.
Basically the best argument for decompression is you've got some really fun things for the artist to draw very big. Which is why it doesn't work as well when Bendis uses it for talky-talky.
Really Strange Tales is an argument for exactly the thing that it is: anthologies of short stories that don't look or sound like standard superhero stories.
If this thing was monthly, I would buy the hell out of it.
Anyway, next month, Jaime Hernandez.
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Apparently Firebreather (http://www.comicvine.com/firebreather/29-49612/) is being made into a movie. I just saw the trailer and it should be showing up next month on cartoon network.
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Copied over from forum split:
Dear Internet,
Is Grant Morrison's JLA (http://www.corporate-sellout.com/index.php/2010/10/23/jla-new-world-order/) actually any good, or have you all been lying to me for years?
Love,
T
Try To Take This Seriously.
It's a 1997 story. A very well done 1997 story, but still a 1997 story. If you're gonna say that the majority of the works of Alan Moore are excused their laughable retardation because of the time when they were written, you should be extending Morrison the same courtesy.
It does get a lot more interesting than the first arc, though.
Question: Was this a monomythical JLA story before or after Morrison did it?
Huh. That actually seems like the kind of plot I would have expected from the Justice League cartoon. Like if they ran out of DC continuity to mine ideas from.
Responding to TA: "Very well done" my ass. The art's hideous and the story's paint-by-numbers. Calling it simply a product of its time is a copout, and the Moore comparison is flawed because Moore did plenty of great shit in the 1980's. Hell, Morrison did too; you don't see me bitching about the mullets in Animal Man.
Animal Man was deep; this really couldn't be any shallower unless the single-issue plot was stretched out across six issues instead of just four.
Dismissing it with "it was 1997" is bullshit. Sure, it was better than the Evil Hal stuff they'd just gotten past or the Onslaught nonsense Marvel was up to, but Marvel was also doing Thunderbolts. Ellis was writing Stormwatch, Kingdom Come and Sandman had just ended, and Planetary and the Priest version of Black Panther were a year off.
In short, yeah, it was better than a lot of what was being published at the time. That still doesn't make it good, even for a 1997 book from one of the Big Two.
Responding to Brent: That's actually a good question, and one I intentionally raised, albeit in an offhand manner. Were all these plot elements cliches before Morrison got ahold of them?
I acknowledge that I wasn't a DC reader at the time, but my impression is that they were. Batman always wins even when he's up against foes who could physically overpower him. Aquaman -- well, he had that ridiculous metal quarter-shirt thing and harpoon hand before Morrison got there, so the "WE ARE TRYING TO MAKE AQUAMAN A BADASS" nonsense was already well underway.
And the "why doesn't Superman just fix everything?" question has been around as long as Superman's had his current crazy power level. And the "new guy shows up, makes hero look bad, but is actually evil" is MOST DEFINITELY a cliche -- and yeah, there WAS a book out at the time that put a fresh spin on it; this wasn't it.
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That was the comic where the Flash punched a guy into low orbit!
That was also the comic when I started to realize that super-speed is more hax than comics like to acknowledge.
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(http://www.corporate-sellout.com/img/jla/catchem.jpg)
Ahahahaha yessss
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That was the comic where the Flash punched a guy into low orbit!
That was also the comic when I started to realize that super-speed is more hax than comics like to acknowledge.
But didn't he fall back down right away?
Anyway. There were guys doing shit with Flash's powers way before Morrison -- vibrating his molecules through walls, vibrating at different frequencies to travel to parallel universes, the Cosmic Treadmill -- yeah, I guess all that's more wacky than what Grant did here.
Actually Flash probably came out of the story looking the least ridiculous, in terms of story, and certainly in art (that was the only panel I could find where he had a stupid look on his face -- though, as noted, his superpower was to generate annoying Photoshop Blur). His distrust of GL is a little irritating but rich with irony since he was the LAST new guy who took over from a dead guy. We all know where it's going but it's probably the only legitimate character relationship we see in this arc.
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Morrison's JLA did lead to the Ultramarine Corps and Earth 2, which were fun reads.
Speaking of Simone, I wasn't really sold on her run on Atom or Secret Six (though the latter was pretty decent), but what little I saw of Wonder Woman was pretty top-notch. What's she done recently that's worth a look?
I'm primarily a fan of her for her Wonder Woman work and Villains United/Secret Six. The first few issues of the new Birds of Prey didn't grab me, but I haven't read the original series.
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Yeah, I'll give Earth 2 a chance, at least; Morrison's always at his best when Quitely's on art duty. But I don't think I can take much more of the guy who did his main JLA run.
MEANWHILE: For anyone who isn't reading Action Comics right now, you are missing out on something legitimately AMAZING.
So okay, this week's issue -- which follows on last month's issue, where, and I cannot stress this enough, GORILLA GRODD TRIED TO CHOP LEX'S HEAD OFF WITH A GIANT SPOON AND EAT HIS BRAINS -- has Lex meeting Death. The one from Sandman. And from what Cornell's said, Gaiman wrote all her dialogue himself.
It may be the best superhero comic I've ever read where two people just stand around and debate philosophy.
Death is Death -- unflappable, wise, compassionate, and yeah she has a couple of good lines about the nature of death in the DC Universe.
And Cornell pretty much boils Lex down to his essence, and what makes him such a great damn character (at least in his modern incarnation). He's tenacious, he's brilliant, he's driven, and he's an utter egomaniac. Putting him up against Death is a brilliant study in contrasts, and shows him at his best.
And then there's a backup that starts with Jimmy Olsen's drunk alien date crashing her spaceship into the Daily Planet.
Seriously, fucking buy this comic.
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I keep finding things about comics that make me mad. (http://ragnell.blogspot.com/2010/05/forget-death-character-needs-to-be.html) I know that the Sentry was pretty much built up into the ultimate Mary Sue. But this just downright irritates me. "The Sentry was so awesome, he banged Rogue. It just never got mentioned until Cyclops made an offhand remark at his funeral, which we're attending because he was a great guy. Even though we never really talked about him outside of books he had the spotlight in."
uuugh
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The real tragedy is that the original Sentry limited series was actually fucking awesome, self-contained, and, most importantly, NEVER MEANT TO ENTER INTO REGULAR CANON BECAUSE THAT WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE STORY. However, it made money, so they obviously had to bring him back even though this was established to be an awful idea in the inception of the character.
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I'm kinda in the "Eh, who cares, it'll never get mentioned again" mindset. But then, I could give a sideways crap about Rogue and her sex life.
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I don't really care about the Rogue thing either, I was just raging about The Sentry existing outside of his mini. I actually don't give a shit about anything the X-Men do because all of their books are always terrible. It's not like Spider-Man where even when mired in shit like the OMD status quo a good story can pop up here and there, X-Men is just bad all the time. Even when it starts to look like it's getting good they inevitably shit the bed. I don't know what it is.
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I think the Sentry's power is to make Chuck Norris facts about himself come true
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I just finished reading Superman Earth-One by JMS, and I have to say, I really enjoyed it. I know a lot of people have been down on him lately for his run on the main Superman book, and they would be down on his work on Wonder Woman if anyone cared about that character in the slightest, but this shouldn't be ignored because of those. I've always found that JMS works best in some kind of vacuum (Babylon 5, Rising Stars, etc), and that's sort of what this is. Superman's beginnings as if this is the first time it's happened, and it's happening right now.
It's mostly not even about Superman, but about a young Clark Kent who would rather find a job where he can use his unique talents to make enough money to be happy, and to take care of his Ma back in Smallville, and never have to pretend to be someone else, or let the world know he even exists as anything other than a successful man, until he is inevitably forced to take on the role of Superman. It's a great read, and I recommend it to any comic fan.
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(http://img828.imageshack.us/img828/8171/1288365815.jpg)
(http://brontoforum.us/Smileys/classic/rolleye.gif)
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Good god is that ever hilarious on so many levels. There is no rolleyes big enough.
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Despite how epic Onslaught is supposed to be or whatever,
Captain AmericaSecret Agent Steve Rogers sure does seem to be slumming it.
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he's gonna beat it with his pouches
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is onslaught's secret weakness "exposed teeth"
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I don't really care about the Rogue thing either, I was just raging about The Sentry existing outside of his mini. I actually don't give a shit about anything the X-Men do because all of their books are always terrible. It's not like Spider-Man where even when mired in shit like the OMD status quo a good story can pop up here and there, X-Men is just bad all the time. Even when it starts to look like it's getting good they inevitably shit the bed. I don't know what it is.
Astonishing has been pretty good mainly because that's the one where the writer gets to do whatever the hell he wants and everyone else can worry about shoehorning it into continuity later.
Despite how epic Onslaught is supposed to be or whatever, Captain AmericaSecret Agent Steve Rogers sure does seem to be slumming it.
You'd probably be scared of the thing that killed you too.
(He has the best face. I'd say it should be an emote, but it doesn't work as well with the hilarious pointing finger cropped out.)
As for slumming it...well yeah actually, it's pretty much him, Beast, and a bunch of C-listers.
...you know, Eric O'Grady Ant-Man vs. Onslaught could actually be an awesome story. But I somehow doubt that it will be.
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Most of the people in that splash are from Young Allies, which got cancelled after its first arc.
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I've been trying to isolate that goofy-looking face of the redhead to the left of the blonde with the gun into a 45x45 square for possible use as an emoticon, but I can't get it to look right after resizing it in Paint.net.
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Oh hey, I thought that was a Jean Grey clone at first glance but now I think it's a badly deformed Black Widow.
So I guess I have to amend my statement to "him, Beast, Widow, and a bunch of C-listers".
Once you've been in a multimillion-dollar movie you're at least B-list.
EDIT: Oh, you're referring to a DIFFERENT goofy-looking redhead. Anyway.
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Took a lot of searching before I realized that girl was Nomad. At first I thought it was Hope, in which case
Oh hey, I thought that was a Jean Grey clone
would have been fairly on the mark. But, instead, she's the only surviving remnant of that whole Heroes Reborn thing.
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I just really like what this says about how Onslaught now rates as a villain.
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Took a lot of searching before I realized that girl was Nomad.
Ah, Parallel Universe Liefeld Bucky. Well that makes sense given it's Onslaught and all.
At first I thought it was Hope
Yeah, me too.
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Batman is Tony Stark, apparently. (http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/03/secret-identity-revealed-batman-international/)
THAD EDIT: ENDING OF BATMAN AND ROBIN #16 REVEALED IN LINKED ARTICLE. NICE SPOILERTAG, ASSHOLE.
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Yeaaaah, Until he becomes Spider-man and BONG! BONG! BONG!
-
That's.... really lame?
-
Here is a link to my stated opinion on assholes who spoil the ending of a comic book before it actually arrives at my comic shop. You prick. (http://www.corporate-sellout.com/index.php/2006/06/14/no_spoilers/)
Fuck you, Huffington Post Büge. And fuck everybody else who blabbed about this today without so much as a spoiler warning. Fuck you from the bottom of my heart.
-
Jeez, calm down, Charlie Sheen. I got it the first time.
-
Holy shit. Thad went off the deep end over a comic book.
-
... it's a really good comic book though!
-
So the latest Amazing Spider-Man "brings an end" to the BND status quo in the same way that Fellowship of the Ring "brings an end" to The Lord of the Rings, not to put it in such illustrious company, just to say that no, it doesn't at all. BONG is still in effect, supporting cast is the same minus Harry who is leaving for reasons related to the last BND arc and well, it's still the same status quo, only now they're not calling it that.
-
I just want to know what the big reveal or twist in Big Time is going to be. "Things are looking up for Spider-Man!" is not enough to base a storyarc on. Everything they've solicited about it is completely devoid of conflict.
New suit, new job, new girlfriend. Nice, but who's going to fuck it all up?
-
Spider-man
-
Well, in some of the preview pages he's leading the Avengers against some big Doc Ock thing. Maybe Big Time refers to him leaving "street level" stuff behind for awhile, and maybe some of his more resources villains, such as Doc Ock do too. The street level stuff at Marvel is all being shaken up by this Shadowland thing right now anyway, so maybe he backs out of it ue to however that whole mess turns out. Honestly, I don't care, the book has been a bit better recently (minus OMIT of course), and if it continues on this upswing (get it) then maybe ASM will be readable again.
Speaking of street level. Batman and Robin 16. Seriously, what the fuck, Morrison? Seriously? You're doing this?
-
He is, and it is incredible.
-
This probably belongs in the Batman thread, but I'm just not feeling it.
-
I just want to know what the big reveal or twist in Big Time is going to be. "Things are looking up for Spider-Man!" is not enough to base a storyarc on. Everything they've solicited about it is completely devoid of conflict.
New suit, new job, new girlfriend. Nice, but who's going to fuck it all up?
Is he dating that girl named after Joe Quesada's daughter?
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Batman is Tony Stark, apparently. (http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/11/03/secret-identity-revealed-batman-international/)
THAD EDIT: ENDING OF BATMAN AND ROBIN #16 REVEALED IN LINKED ARTICLE. NICE SPOILERTAG, ASSHOLE.
I like how [spoiler]having read it, the article isn't even right. That's Fox, I guess[/spoiler].
-
Jeez, calm down, Charlie Sheen. I got it the first time.
Apparently not.
I like how [spoiler]having read it, the article isn't even right. That's Fox, I guess[/spoiler].
Yeah, okay. Urge to kill...fading.
-
Fading... except for the fact, you know....
[spoiler]They got a story wrong. Which means they lack the respect necessary to properly pay attention and get a story right. And let's not forget the fact that even though they got it wrong, they won't bother correcting it because, hey, who cares about comic books?
(IGNORINGTHE WHOLE 'FOX NEWS' THING)[/spoiler]
-
It's worth noting that the headline is wrong, but the actual article gets the story right. So, yeah?
Anyway, I was reading Astonishing X-Men last night, which got me thinking about New X-Men, which made me think that Morrison is repeating some of the same story beats from that run here on Batman. The franchising of the name, the incredibly powerful, intelligent villain with a familial connection, the revelation about identity. It's not a one for one story, but it is very similar.
-
(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2010/10/peteranduncleben.jpg)[/quote]
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Oh my god that's beautiful.
-
So having just read the third book of Astonishing X-Men, can anyone tell me exactly why these books are so well loved and popular? These stories are terrible, terrible stories. Mutant cure?
HolodeckDanger Room goes crazy? And that's all before Wolverine regains memory by getting hit on the head with a beer can. That is some Fred Flintstone shit there. I'm as gay for Joss Whedon as the next guy, but these books have just been so below his level it's embarrassing to read.
-
I think #3's definitely the weak link, but I think it's a solid run. Nothing special about the "Cure" plot as it's been done to death, but the characterization is quite good (I generally hate Wolverine; Morrison made him interesting by turning him into The Cool Teacher) and the banter's great.
I'd say what really sets it apart from other runs, though, is Cassaday's art -- that's the reason I'd put the Whedon/Cassaday run ahead of the Morrison/Quitely/Reis/a bunch of guys who aren't very good run. Cassaday's take on the costumes is just gorgeous, and the fourth book gives him the run of the Marvel Universe. I'd love to see him do a regular Spider-Man or Fantastic Four gig.
(Cassaday, regular gig. Ha.)
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http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/09/27/adam-warrock-hank-pym-rap/ (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/09/27/adam-warrock-hank-pym-rap/)
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"Kick, punch, it's all in the mind"
-
Darkwing Duck Preview.
(http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/11/08/darkwing-duck-comic-preview/)
:OoO:
-
That was released months ago. They are on the 6th issue next month?
Great read. Pick it up
-
Yeah, I can't recommend DW highly enough right now. Looking forward to Rescue Rangers.
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JMS off Superman and Wonder Woman (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/11/10/J-Michael-Straczynski-quit-superman-wonder-woman/)
So what's the last thing he's finished? Babylon 5?
-
Focusing on OGN's isn't a bad idea for him; most of his stories work better longform.
The exception is TB&TB, which really was a great little series of done-in-ones.
The other benefit to doing OGN's is that it presumably won't involve as much fuckery from editorial.
-
Thanos Imperative #6:
[spoiler]You're Gonna Carry That Weight[/spoiler]
-
Is this necessarily the relevant thread? Unsure. But today is Veteran's Day in the US, and this is the Garfield that ran today (http://www.garfield.com/comics/vault.html?yr=2010&addr=101111).
Jim Davis swears it's a coincidence, that it was written sometime last year and put on the queue.
-
Of course he doesn't have a calendar with important dates, that'd require him to keep a sliver of touch with reality.
-
JMS off Superman and Wonder Woman (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/11/10/J-Michael-Straczynski-quit-superman-wonder-woman/)
So what's the last thing he's finished? Babylon 5?
And Rising Stars.
-
Is this necessarily the relevant thread? Unsure. But today is Veteran's Day in the US, and this is the Garfield that ran today (http://www.garfield.com/comics/vault.html?yr=2010&addr=101111).
Jim Davis swears it's a coincidence, that it was written sometime last year and put on the queue.
I'm trying to figure out if that's just a huge tasteless knock against vets who fight to be remembered or if he's trying to make fun of how little the public seems to care about these sorts of holidays. The latter would imply some kind of metaphor in a Garfield comic so you know what? No.
Did Garfield make the holiday himself to remind spiders that they should take no comfort in being a martyr (i.e. attempting to subjugate and demoralize and essentially terrorize his enemies) or did the spiders make the holiday to forever mock the very attempt at standing up to this vindictive, murderous beast (in essence bowing to terror and helping his reign to continue unchallenged)
Also fuck everything about the official Garfield website
-
I think you're ascribing way too much thought to the Garfield comic creation process.
-
He had released an apology stating that
his best friend is black his son is a marine and he totally didn't mean anything by it. If any conspiracy theory is going into play here the most likely would have to be that he found a way to make Garfield topical again for five minutes and took the shot.
-
Why would he want to make Garfield topical? That is not one of the qualities that it uses to make money.
-
The Garfield site crashed my flash plugin.
Jesus CHRIST
-
Bleeding Cool (http://www.bleedingcool.com/forums/showthread.php?29947-Decide-Which-Marvel-Creative-Teams-Get-Fired-After-Christmas) (so standard grain of salt): Vote to pick which Deadpool series gets canceled.
Granted, it's an opportunity to fire Rob Liefeld, but it still seems like a dick move.
-
Deadpool's been kinda spiraling the drain since Simone went to DC, by the looks of it. I will never forgive myself for following Cable and Deadpool as long as I did.
Goddddd that series :bam:
Also: MAN people weren't kidding about Ultimates going downhill huh? 2 had its moments in the first half (before the bad guys turned out to be a terrorist supergroup of all America's enemies from the past 50 years and somehow everyone suspects goddamn Captain America over the random russian spy character), 3 is pretty much the exact reason I can't pick up an Avengers or Captain America comic these days, and holy shit Ultimatum. Just WOW that thing is unreadable.
Still, reread Ultimates 1 again and liked it quite a bit more than I remembered.
Next on my list is Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol run.
-
Deadpool's been kinda spiraling the drain since Simone went to DC, by the looks of it.
The main, Daniel Way-written series is actually quite good.
The Merc With a Mouth series...well, at least it had awesome covers.
And I liked the first Deadpool Teamup I read (where Deadpool deliberately gave himself brain damage so he'd be immune to mind control -- and then started talking about how much he liked Glenn Beck) but haven't followed it past the second.
Anyway, more from Bleeding Cool (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2010/11/16/rob-liefeld-claims-deadpool-corps-already-cancelled-with-issue-12/): Liefeld (who's done with his 9 issues anyway) says this is all a publicity stunt and Deadpool Corps was only intended to go 12 issues in the first place.
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(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/jeangreybrb.jpg)
I <3 Bully. (http://bullyscomics.blogspot.com/2010/11/jean-graves.html)
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Chris Sims and Nedroid present: Super-Hero Thanksgiving Parade Balloons. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2010/11/24/superhero-balloons-nedroid-comics/)
The Alan Moore balloon is fantastic.
-
The KGBeast balloon is fantastic-er.
-
So, finally got a copy of Neonomicon #2.
Don't think I'll be picking up #3.
Moore at his most flat-out depraved and horrifying. I can't say it's bad, because it does exactly what it sets out to: it's sick and it's violent and it succeeds in the mission statement the early pages give: it adds sex to Lovecraft's horrors.
It actually feels a lot like your typical horror/occult hentai, except Moore's at least got the decency not to suggest that any of it's actually titillating. I think it's fair to call it pornographic, but it's certainly not sexy.
Anyhow, if you want something to disturb you, well, Moore's outdone himself on this one. But I don't think I can take any more of it. I'll be here waiting for the next issue of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
-
The preview for Knight and Squire #3 looks amazing (http://www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia/album.php?aid=40450)
-
I missed #2. My CBG's sometimes get distracted when I tell them to hold things for me.
But I'm pretty much loving everything with Cornell's name on it right now.
-
#2 was also great, but you won't be missing any plot related stuff if you pick up #3. The general gist of the series seems to be best summed up as a comic from an alternate universe where DC is still publishing Silver Age Batman stories in Britain.
-
Fables #100 is out. Nope, it's still not over. In my opinion, the comic was already downhill by the time it -should- have stopped at #75.
Personally, my problem with Fables is that all the interesting characters got either killed or married off, and we're left looking at Totenkinder's plan (that turns out to be CAST MAGIC MISSILE) and Ozma (dear god couldn't we pick an even more obscure character why not the cat from the ugly duckling) tough but fair ten-year-old rule.
-
I've been picking up the trades but I'm two behind. Not sure what issue number I've read up to but it's right before the crossover.
The defeat of the Adversary really was a pretty obvious ending point and just pitch-perfect, but I do kinda like that it kept on going because there's still potential for a lot of great stories there. Whether or not that potential's realized -- well, like I say, I've only read one more trade past that.
"Downhill after #75" is about how I'd describe Spider-Man.
(Although, Quesada mandates aside, it's currently a pretty great book. I've loved Slott's writing on Spidey since he fought Powdered Toastman.)
-
Honestly, it was worth going past the Adversary just for Haven.
-
http://weblogs.variety.com/on_the_air/2010/12/twilight-scribe-rosenberg-to-adapt-female-marvel-character-for-abc.html (http://weblogs.variety.com/on_the_air/2010/12/twilight-scribe-rosenberg-to-adapt-female-marvel-character-for-abc.html)
Hahaha
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OH, well that's inter- wait, Jessica Jones? Huh. If one esoteric character can make it to TV, can MODOK, P.I. be far behind?
-
Wow, they wouldn't even let them use the word "Alias" in the title. I mean, obviously you can't call the show that, but "AKA" just sounds clunky; just calling it "Jessica Jones" would be better.
Pretty good choice; there's been quite a lot of discussion lately (with the Smallville finale approaching) of which superheroes would make for good TV shows. So far we've got Alias (which is just about a perfect choice), Raven (which could quite easily go either way), Hulk (which worked pretty well as a TV show 30 years ago), and Locke and Key (which I've never read but people seem to be excited about). ...wait, does Locke and Key count as superhero? If I'm just listing general comic book TV adaptations, well, there's that one they've been doing on AMC, too, of course.
Lots of fans have mentioned Power Man and Iron Fist as a great potential TV show. I'd throw out Daredevil as a good choice. Birds of Prey was actually a perfectly good basis for a show; it's a pity the show sucked.
-
Wait like, Teen Titans Raven?
-
Yup. (http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2010/12/03/dcs-raven-heading-to-the-cw/)
-
If I'm just listing general comic book TV adaptations, well, there's that one they've been doing on AMC, too, of course.
There was talk of a Fables pilot for ABC a year or two back, and then again a couple of months after the first announcement, but it's gone quiet since then so probably not happening.
Dream show: That's My Doom!
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Yeah, Willingham's said as much (http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2010/12/06/abcs-fables-tv-show-is-probably-dead-says-creator/).
TV IS the best place for Fables, given its longform story, but the budget's bound to be a sticking point. Because of course nobody's going to be willing to do the obvious thing and animate it, because you can't market a cartoon to adults unless it's a comedy.
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You'd think that Heroes For Hire would be a natural conversion to the big or small screen.
-
Or hell, Dial H for HERO would lend itself great to episodic stuff with mini-arcs throughout.
-
So it turns out that Superman can get worse than Straczynski's "Grounded".
-
I assume you want someone to ask you to elaborate.
So here I am asking: Please elaborate.
-
I don't envy the task of G. Willow Wilson having to fill in for JMS and produce a story for Superman #706 at the last moment, but that still doesn't excuse the awful story. Basically Perry White learns that the internet exists - which is odd for a man running a media giant in the year 2010 - and then being shocked that someone on it doesn't like the Daily Planet. It ends with Perry hiring the Matt Drudge wannabe because he baseless hated the Planet and then fell for a photoshoped image from an unreliable source.
Also the art was terrible and probably a quick rush job. Faces are deformed and melty at points.
-
That sounds, uh, pretty bad. Yeah.
-
Steel might be the next minority character on DC's death list. (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2010/12/steel-1-and-the-state-of-the-superhero-comic/)
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It's cool, there's a white guy named Steel that can step in for him.
-
Wait, a guy with the S badge on his chest is being killed by Doomsday?
Well he'll DEFINITELY stay dead, then.
-
So I finally read ASM 450, the beginning of BIG TIME. I saw the costume design quite a while ago and I really liked it, I doubt it'll stay forever but who knows. Reading this issue though, I can see it being a big hit, not quite symbiote level but almost. I mean [spoiler]Invisibility and noise canceling? I can see how people would like that. Me on the other hand, Spidey is supposed to be noisy and talkative and trying to distract the villain as much as he is fighting. [/spoiler] But I really dig the science aspect of it, and I like Pete's new job.
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I am learning about the existence of all kinds of incredible things (http://www.amazon.com/Tarzan-vs-Predator-Earths-Collection/dp/156971231X) at work.
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There is a Flex Mentallo (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/01/04/flex-mentallo-deluxe-hardcover-reprint/). And he loves us.
-
So Joe Quesada stepped down as EIC for Marvel. (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=30169) It's probably not going to change anything, but it's news.
-
Probably not. I like Alonso, but then, I liked Quesada when all he was doing was editing Marvel Knights books, too.
-
I liked him as EIC until he started projecting his mid-life crisis and messy divorce into every corner of 616 continuity.
-
Pretty much.
And honestly the "Spider-Man is single again!" idea wasn't a bad one, it's just that there was no good way to do it. And out of all those possible bad ways of doing it, he chose the worst short of fridging her.
And then when everybody got past it and was realizing that hey, this new direction is pretty good, he came back and reminded them of the incredibly stupid means he chose of getting there.
Oh well. At least he's still CCO. Which means he probably won't go back to drawing terrible Batman costumes.
(Actually, talking of DC, weren't harsh words between Levitz and Quesada the reason DC and Marvel don't do crossovers anymore? Not that I can think of a pitch that would top JLA/Avengers, but just throwing that out there.)
-
You know what pitch would top JLA/Avengers?
"Amalgam ongoing"
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Hey it's new comic day. At least, in America.
What's coming out today?
27 #2 (of 4)
Adventure Comics #522
Ant-Man & Wasp #3 (of 3)
Avengers Children's Crusade #4 (of 9)
Avengers Earth's Mightiest Heroes #3 (of 4)
Avengers Prime #5 (of 5)
Avengers Thor Captain America Official Index to the Marvel Universe #9
Azrael #16
Batman Beyond #1
Batman Confidential #52
Betty & Veronica Double Digest #187
Billy the Kid Ghastly Fiend London #4
Brightest Day #17
Bring the Thunder #2
Captain America Hail Hydro #1 (of 5)
Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers #2
Choker #5 (of 6)
Darkness #88
DC Comics Presents Lobo #1
Doc Macabre #2
Doom Patrol #18
Dracula Company of Monsters #5
Earp Saints for Sinners #1 (of 5)
Edge of Doom #3
Freedom Fighters #5
Generation Hope #3
GI Joe Origins #23
Green Hornet #12
Green Hornet Blood Ties #3
House of Mystery #33
Iron Man Legacy #10
Iron Man Thor #3 (of 4)
Irredeemable #21
iZombie #9
Jonah Hex #63
JSA All Stars #14
KODT Black Hands 2010 #2 (of 2)
Lady Death Ongoing #1
Marine Man #2
Megamind #1
Ozma of Oz #3 (of 8)
Raise the Dead II #2
Ryder on the Storm #2 (of 3)
Scooby Doo Where Are You? #5
She-Hulks #3 (of 4)
Simpson's Super Spectacular #12
Soulfire Vol Two #9
Starman Congorilla #1
Steel #1
Superboy #3
Sweet Tooth #17
Sweets #4 (of 5)
Terry Moore's Echo #27
Thanos Imperative Devestation
The Suicide Forest #2 (of 4)
Torchwood #6
TransFormers Ongoing #15
TransFormers Prime #1 (of 4)
Ultimate Comics Captain America #1 (of 4)
Vampirella #2
Walking Dead #80
Weird Worlds #1 (of 6)
Who Is Jake Ellis? #1
Wolverine Best There Is #2
WWE Heroes #8 Timequake Undertaker #2
X-Factor #213
-
Wh-
There's an Ant-Man and Wasp series?
Isn't Ant-Man Wasp now?
-
Ant-Man spends a lot of time talking to a cardboard cutout of Wasp as if it were a real person.
-
You know what pitch would top JLA/Avengers?
"Amalgam ongoing"
I'll admit it's tempting, but the real be-all end-all would probably be Morrison continuing Multiversity through the Marvel U.
Wh-
There's an Ant-Man and Wasp series?
Isn't Ant-Man Wasp now?
And Eric O'Grady is Ant-Man now.
...anyhow. Looks from that list like a cheap week, which is good.
I'm taking a cousin to see Tron today and think I'll swing by the comic shop first. Get him something nice like a Spider-Man.
-
Well it's good to see the mutton chops are back.
Is O'Grady still spying on various marvel characters showering?
ALSO: Ant-man has a daughter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassandra_Lang)?
-
WARNING: Do not buy Batman Beyond. It is terrible. It involves a plot by a villain who gains his powers by literally just walking into the Justice League vault and stealing a super-powered item.
It then ends with the Justice League casually remarking that huge casualties in the mall they're trying to save would be no big deal.
This book. It may be the worst thing.
-
Also DC's covers this week all matching is fucking retarded because while the minimalist thing might look good across a line or something doing it starting at a random issue in all of your lines just looks silly as hell.
-
I wish I had picked up a comic I had seen in Lone Star a few months back.
It was a comic about Rush Limbaugh.
Also, a few days ago, I saw the funniest thing: a current Archie comic, about Archie and Reggie opposing each other in the elections for student body president. Veronica gets Archie to come to some party of hers, and who else would be there?
Obama.
No foolin'.
Someone gets a photograph of Archie and Obama together, and this hacks Reggie off to no end. So what does he do? Seek endorsement from Sarah Palin.
No foolin'.
-
WARNING: Do not buy Batman Beyond. It is terrible. It involves a plot by a villain who gains his powers by literally just walking into the Justice League vault and stealing a super-powered item.
It then ends with the Justice League casually remarking that huge casualties in the mall they're trying to save would be no big deal.
This book. It may be the worst thing.
I kinda want to read the new Batman Beyond series just to see how terrible it is.
-
WARNING: Do not buy Batman Beyond. It is terrible.
Pity. But good thing I dropped it.
I'll say one thing for unemployment: it's done a good job of forcing me to reevaluate which books are worth picking up. I've dropped all the Bat-books except Inc and Batwoman (and I'll hold on for Cornell's last issue on B&R and the rest of Knight and Squire). Between that and DC dropping most of its books back down to $3 I'm now spending under $20 a week on comics.
The downside is that Jimmy Olsen is now a separate book and I'm probably going to start spending $3 a month on it, but I think I've made enough cuts to justify it.
-
Yes, but why go to all that effort?
-
So this is kind of crossover thread stuff but, if you order comics from Heavy Ink? Maybe stop doing that. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/01/10/heavy-ink-arizona-shooting-corcoran/)
-
Jesus Christ. That's ducking crazy.
-
So this is kind of crossover thread stuff but, if you order comics from Heavy Ink? Maybe stop doing that. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/01/10/heavy-ink-arizona-shooting-corcoran/)
Where?
-
Online comic retailer.
-
I can hear the FBI knocking on his door all the way from here!
-
New comic book day!
ALL NEW BATMAN THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #3
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #651 BIG
ATOMIC ROBO DEADLY ART OF SCIENCE #2 (OF 5)
BATGIRL #17
BATMAN AND ROBIN #19
BIRDS OF PREY #8
BLACK PANTHER MAN WITHOUT FEAR #514
BOOSTER GOLD #40
CAPTAIN AMERICA MAN OUT OF TIME #3 (OF 5)
CASANOVA GULA #1 (OF 4)
CHAOS WAR DEAD AVENGERS #3 (OF 3)
CHIP N DALE RESCUE RANGERS #1
DAREDEVIL REBORN #1 (OF 4)
DARK TOWER GUNSLINGER LITTLE SISTERS ELURIA #2 (OF 5)
DAYS MISSING KESTUS #1 (OF 5)
DEADPOOL #31
DOC SAVAGE #10
DOCTOR WHO SPECIAL #27
DR WHO MAGAZINE #429 SPECIAL
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS DARK SUN #1 (OF 5)
FEEDING GROUND #1 (OF 6)
FEVRE DREAM #10 (OF 10)
GREEN LANTERN EMERALD WARRIORS #6 (BRIGHTEST DAY)
HACK SLASH ME WITHOUT YOU (ONE-SHOT)
HALCYON #3
HEAVY METAL MARCH 2011
HEROES FOR HIRE #2
I AM AN AVENGER #5 (OF 5)
INCREDIBLE HULKS #620
INFINITE VACATION #1
JOHN BYRNE NEXT MEN #2
JUSTICE LEAGUE GENERATION LOST #17 (BRIGHTEST DAY)
KANE AND LYNCH #5 (OF 6)
KNIGHT & SQUIRE #4 (OF 6)
LET ME IN CROSSROADS #2 (OF 4)
REBELS #24
RED ROBIN #19
ROBERT JORDAN WHEEL OF TIME EYE O/T WORLD #1.5
SECRET SIX #29
SPAWN #200
SPIKE #4 (OF 8)
STAN LEE STARBORN #2
STAR WARS KNIGHT ERRANT #4 AFLAME PT 4 (OF 5)
SUPERMAN #707
THOR FOR ASGARD #4 (OF 6)
THOR MIGHTY AVENGER #8
THUNDER AGENTS #3
TITANS #31
TRANSFORMERS ONGOING #15
TRANSFORMERS PRIME #2 (OF 4)
UNCLE SCROOGE #399
UNWRITTEN #21
VICTORIAN UNDEAD II HOLMES VS DRACULA #3 (OF 5)
WALKING DEAD WEEKLY #2
WIDOW MAKER #3 (OF 4)
WONDER GIRL #1
X-MEN FOREVER 2 #15
Probably going to get Batman & Robin, Superman, and Knight & Squire. Otherwise a light week for me at the store. Also for this is Thor: The Mighty Avengers' last book, so you can see a great comic go down in flames, all because of that abominable kids label.
-
Yeah, light week is good because I need to pick up more bags and boards. Maybe a box too. Unemployment means time to sort comics!
And yeah, Mighty Avenger has been my favorite Marvel book of the past year; going to miss it. Looking forward to more Langridge/Samnee stuff; maybe if they stick a label on it saying it's canon it'll sell this time. They're doing a Cap/Thor crossover for FCBD.
My list is like yours but with Unwritten in place of Superman. Unwritten really is pretty great!
Also, back to the staffing change: it occurs to me to wonder if this might finally mean TPB's of Priest's Black Panther run. I've been hoping for them; I won't be buying any for myself as I can see my complete run from here, but I'd buy them as gifts for people. It really is one of my all-time favorite books.
-
Batman & Robin, Knight & Squire, and Secret Six for me. I'm trade-waiting on Unwritten.
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Captain America: A Little Help depicts a man on the verge of suicide who has a chance meeting with the Marvel Comics hero. The story is written by psychologist and comic book newcomer Dr. Tim Ursiny, and illustrated by Nick Dragotta (recently of Captain America: Forever Allies).
I appreciate the sentiment, but this has way too much potential to be preachy. Besides, I find comics can be more effective when they're NOT targeting a specific problem. That page from All-Star Superman didn't need to be written by a psychologist.
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The more canon a book is, the less likely I am to enjoy it. The Mighty Avenger was good BECAUSE it wasn't canon. Comic book canon is always a terrible, bloated mess, and getting away from it almost invariably makes your story better.
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You know, I was weary at first but became more and more excited the closer Big Time came. Officially two issues in and I'm digging it.
New costume is great to look at. And it's about time Spider-man got sciencey as a main thing.
But now that I like it, I'm worried about the future. This is too different. What happens when the next guy in charge decides he wants old spidey back? What will happen to the movie?
The obvious answer is to make a new universe to contain the new movie and keep main title spidey and "just here because of the movie" spidey different. But the chances of that happening are pretty low.
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The more canon a book is, the less likely I am to enjoy it. The Mighty Avenger was good BECAUSE it wasn't canon. Comic book canon is always a terrible, bloated mess, and getting away from it almost invariably makes your story better.
On the flip side, canon allows for the development of characters, relationships and events which feel like they have weight to them. A comic where Spider-man reveals his identity doesn't have the same impact if he hasn't had a storied past of not revealing his identity. And like all things in life, it's best with how it's used. Adhering to canon at the cost of story is always bad, but Grant Morrison's Batman and All-Star Superman are aided because of canon, not despite it. Basically it's good when it's used to uplift and carry on the feeling of a larger universe and story. It becomes a drag in events like, say, "Blackest Night" where the entire point of the story is provide canon reasons for why characters don't have to be so violent and grim all the time.
That said, I'm still convinced that Mighty Avenger was mostly hurt because at my store, it was kept on a rack with Sonic the Hedgehog, all the BOOM! Disney stuff and the Marvel Ages books. The comic book who pick up singles usually ignore that stand.
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I'm not saying it's impossible to like a canon book, I do it all the time, but most of the best books, even those informed by canon, are removed from it. All-Star Superman is a great example of that. It's completely drawn from canon material, but isn't technically canon itself. The same is true of Planet Hulk, on of my favorite limited series of the past decade. It's heavily informed and influenced by cosmic Marvel and Hulk lore, but remains disconnected, and at it's best, for the majority of the run.
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A shared universe is a powerful narrative tool, but it only works if you remember you're telling the story of the character you're dealing with presently, not the story of the universe as a whole.
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The more canon a book is, the less likely I am to enjoy it. The Mighty Avenger was good BECAUSE it wasn't canon.
Partially. But I have no doubt that Langridge and Samnee can produce equally great work that's set in the MU proper.
Keep in mind that what constitutes canon is a flimsy and subjective thing in the first place. Nextwave is Marvel canon. So's X-Statix.
And hell, part of why Langridge's Muppet Show is so endearing is his love of pulling out more obscure characters and bits from throughout the franchise's history. Remember there was a whole arc devoted to Skeeter. (Of course, the second anyone starts debating whether Muppet Babies is canon I'm out of here.)
Comic book canon is always a terrible, bloated mess, and getting away from it almost invariably makes your story better.
Almost, but guys like Busiek and Morrison do some wonderful damn things with it. I don't know that bad continuity-whoring is any more prevalent than bad anything-elsing; Spurgeon's Law and all that.
That said, I'm still convinced that Mighty Avenger was mostly hurt because at my store, it was kept on a rack with Sonic the Hedgehog, all the BOOM! Disney stuff and the Marvel Ages books. The comic book who pick up singles usually ignore that stand.
Indeed; my CBG said Futurama started selling a lot better after he put it in with the indy books instead of the other cartoon adaptations.
Course, at my shop, Mighty Avenger is right in there with the half-dozen other Thor books. Which probably doesn't do it any favors either.
I think the hell of it is that most of the people who come into the shop every week WANT the canon books, and BUY the event books even if they bitch about how terrible they are. (I once read an anecdote on a comics site about a father who didn't buy his son a kids' Spidey book because it "didn't count". Of course, my response to that is to pick up a damn Marvel Masterworks Spider-Man vol 1, which is about as canon, about as kid-friendly, and about as straight-up fucking GOOD as it gets, but that's a tangent. Also, Marvel Masterworks paperbacks cost fucking $25 now. For 10 issues. Of decades-old comics with coloring that doesn't look very good.)
Hem. Where was I?
Oh yeah. The audience that Mighty Avenger would have most appealed to isn't the people who go to the specialty store every Wednesday, it's kids who just saw the Thor movie and then see the trade in their local bookstore. Which is why it's so blindingly goddamned boneheaded that it was canceled (1) before the movie came out and (2) before the TRADE came out.
I could go on for days. Mighty Avenger's cancellation is pretty much the perfect example of everything the industry is doing wrong.
Your tiny and shrinking audience only buys event books. So what do you do? You cancel everything that could possibly appeal to any other audience, of course.
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I think the hell of it is that most of the people who come into the shop every week WANT the canon books, and BUY the event books even if they bitch about how terrible they are.
There seriously are people like that in the world?
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Yes, they're called comic book fans.
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There seriously are people like that in the world?
That's what the sales figures say.
The sad, shrinking sales figures.
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Bleedingcool (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/01/14/sequel-to-wednesday-comics-from-dc-coming-steve-rude-contributing-new-gods-story/): Steve Rude's wife says on Facebook that he's doing a New Gods story in a second volume of Wednesday Comics.
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I am excited for more Wednesday Comics. I ended up with an extra copy of one issue, and it made or the best Christmas wrapping paper ever. Not a trick that I'm likely to repeat given the price, but the broadsheet gimmick has won me over.
I hope that the next run has some people who realize what they can do with all that space.
Oh... Everyone who regularly comments in this thread picked up Cornell's last Batman & Robin. Thoughts?
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Oh... Everyone who regularly comments in this thread picked up Cornell's last Batman & Robin.
/me looks around
nope
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Nah, meant to pick it up but didn't. Any good? I dig Cornell but the last couple issues haven't really been his best IMO.
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/me looks around
OK, it was just me, Constantine, and Thad. It seemed worth mentioning though, since our pull lists from last week looked so similar.
I wasn't blown away by Cornell's three issues. He's funnier and more personal in Knight and Squire and weirder in Action Comics. That said, he does live up to Morrison's original promise that Batman and Robin would be the "Adam West plus David Lynch" of the Batman comics.
A lot of the ideas in Cornell's run were good ones, but they ultimately don't gel together into a fun story. When I'm feeling charitable, I like thinking that he recognized how most comic fans would respond to a three issue run as a "gap" between what really mattered, and rode that apathy until the wheels fell off. He plays with the most logical danger of Batman Inc ("Hey guys, why don't we attack Bruce Wayne?"), subverts a few conventions with his villain, and then pulls the rug out at the end. After all, if he's just filler, what does it matter that Batman [spoiler]doesn't solve the crime[/spoiler] and the villain [spoiler]just disappears[/spoiler].
When I'm feeling less charitable, the story feels like smoke and mirrors without any stakes.
I wanted to like these issues a lot more than I ended up liking them. That said, the Dick-Damien exchanges about Bruce at the end of the final issue are worthwhile for people who don't unequivocally hate Robin.
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After all, if he's just filler, what does it matter that Batman [spoiler]doesn't solve the crime[/spoiler] and the villain [spoiler]just disappears[/spoiler].
Well, that depends. Is the writer [spoiler]Kevin Smith[/spoiler]?
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Goddamn it, France (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/0117/1224287664594.html)
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Heh. I've been living that article for nearly fifteen years. I mean it basically sums up my whole experience with comics. The number of series that I have half in English but which end in French is kind of funny. Obviously, I don't mind French books, but I can loan out English ones to far more people and I generally prefer to have a given series all in one language.
Most folks who have even the smallest knowledge of European and French comics, HAVE heard of Asterix, Tintin, and often Lucky Luke. But yeah Tardi is hardly known. I would say regarding Tardi, I can confirm that C'etait La Guerre Des Tranchées (I bought it a couple years ago when you could only get it in French) is one of the most harrowing things I have ever read.
If you're looking for a book by Tardi that's a: in English and b: Won't give you PTSD, I can easily recommend The Bloody Streets Of Paris. One of the finest comic books I've ever read and an absolutely splendid hard-boiled film noir detective story. A real classic showpiece for the genre as a whole, up there with anything by Marlowe.
This reminds me that I put a total moratorium on comic buying while I was unemployed. I bet there's some good stuff that came out int he intervening months.
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Edit by way of post: Shit man, if you want to read the best European comics, you should just come over here again and peruse my Library again.
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I think the hell of it is that most of the people who come into the shop every week WANT the canon books, and BUY the event books even if they bitch about how terrible they are. (I once read an anecdote on a comics site about a father who didn't buy his son a kids' Spidey book because it "didn't count".
Rigid adherence to canon seems sort of silly to me nowadays. Limiting, even. Moore summed it up best.
"This is an IMAGINARY STORY...
Aren't they all?"
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Rigid adherence to canon seems sort of silly to me nowadays. Limiting, even. Moore summed it up best.
"This is an IMAGINARY STORY...
Aren't they all?"
What was it that Jack Kirby said about stories? It was something to do with ending old stories and telling new ones. Thad quoted it some pages back, I think.
Edit by way of post: Shit man, if you want to read the best European comics, you should just come over here again and peruse my Library again.
I really should. But I'd feel guilty coming over and ignoring you in favour of comics and cats.
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I used to have a really old Superman book (original print, mid 60's) that also used that line at the end about them all being imaginary stories.
Man, I hope that's not lost forever, it actually had the first death of Superman, where Lex kills him in an elaborate trick (hence the line about "imaginary stories"). It's actually an amazingly good Superman story.
I really should. But I'd feel guilty coming over and ignoring you in favour of comics and cats.
Pffft, better that you get the chance to read them than worry about proprieties.
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Rigid adherence to canon seems sort of silly to me nowadays. Limiting, even.
Flat out fucking impossible, really; after 70+ years there's just too much shit. Use of canon comes down to deciding what to use, how to use it, and what to ignore. History's a tool, same as any other in the writer's toolbelt.
Now, Mighty Avenger relied on plenty of established Marvel history (mostly in its wonderful use of guest stars), but it's not canon because it rewrites Thor's origin.
(Well, actually, you can of course rewrite a character's origin AND have the new one be canon -- both of the major publishers do it several times a year, actually, from last year's genius "Barry Alan's mom was murdered now" retcon to whatever that Captain America mini that's out right now is called -- but Mighty Avenger is clearly self-contained and has no ramifications for the MU at large. Of course, like I pointed out earlier, you could say the same of Nextwave and X-Statix, so the question of what the fuck canon actually IS is a good one, and should be considered by any nimrods who'd pass up a great book because it doesn't fit within whatever the fuck canon is.)
What was it that Jack Kirby said about stories? It was something to do with ending old stories and telling new ones. Thad quoted it some pages back, I think.
It was in response to a new Captain America artist saying he'd do it "in the Kirby tradition": "The kid doesn't get it. The Kirby tradition is to make a new comic."
In that sense, this new Thor isn't precisely "in the Kirby tradition" because it's an imitation of his work and not something original, but god damn it is a GOOD imitation -- not just of his work at Marvel but of his romance comics, too. It's got that wonderful anyone-can-show-up feeling that the connected Marvel Universe had back before it got bogged down by spoilsports debating what was and wasn't canon, and it's got a sweet emotional core in Thor's relationship to Jane Foster.
Moreover, while I'm all for people creating new books instead of relying on established properties, I think this is one case where it wouldn't have worked. A HUGE part of this book's charm, as I said, comes from Thor meandering his way through the Marvel Universe; it's great fun when Ant-Man, Captain Britain, or, in the final issue, Iron Man in his original armor shows up. This is one of those cases where using original characters, even as obvious analogues, wouldn't have tasted as sweet. (Contrast with my feelings on Mark Waid's Strange mini a year or so back; it was a neat enough little story but I didn't think it gained anything at all by using Stephen Strange as the main character; I felt Waid would have done better to make it a creator-owned book. Sometimes established characters are best, sometimes new ones are, and sometimes using a clear analogue to an existing character actually helps to highlight what's great about the original -- if you were to ask me what my favorite Batman story was, I'd probably say Confession (http://www.astrocity.us/cgi-bin/index.cgi?page=features/collections/confession.html).)
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I used to have a really old Superman book (original print, mid 60's) that also used that line at the end about them all being imaginary stories.
Man, I hope that's not lost forever, it actually had the first death of Superman, where Lex kills him in an elaborate trick (hence the line about "imaginary stories"). It's actually an amazingly good Superman story.
You might be mis-remembering some bits. Google for "Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow".
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Rigid adherence to canon seems sort of silly to me nowadays. Limiting, even.
Flat out fucking impossible, really; after 70+ years there's just too much shit. Use of canon comes down to deciding what to use, how to use it, and what to ignore. History's a tool, same as any other in the writer's toolbelt.
That's interesting. Last night there was a debate on /co/ about the direction of Hulk, specifically, that they could have stuck with the Planet Hulk theme and brought him into the Cosmic Marvel arcs, rather than killing his wife off and bringing him back to Earth. Yeah, yeah, I know that World War Hulk was planned from the beginning, but I think that Space King Conan would have made for an ultimately more interesting direction for the character. And heck, they could still have Red Hulk running around and being a douchebag. I mean, that appeals to Loeb all the kiddies, right?
You might be mis-remembering some bits.
Nope. (http://www.comicvine.com/superman-the-death-of-superman/37-5549/)
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Yeah, that's the one. It's a great story. [spoiler]Basically Luthor promises to reform forever. Supes has him on probation for a while but eventually Luthor does so much to help people that he starts taking him at his word. After that Luthor just waits for the right time to bathe him in the green stuff. It seems simple when you just summarize it like that, but it's really well done.[/spoiler]
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I can hear the FBI knocking on his door all the way from here!
Local police got there first.
And took his guns (http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/arlington/2011/01/blog_post_prompts_police_to_se.html).
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N-n-n-n-new Comic Day!
28 Days Later #19
Amazing Spider-Man #652 BIG
Archie & Friends #151
Archie Double Digest #215
Avengers Academy #8
Avengers vs Pet Avengers #4 (of 4)
Batman #706
Batman Streets of Gotham #19
Boys #50
Brightest Day #18
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #40
Cyclops #2
Darkwing Duck #8
DC Comics Presents The Atom #1
Deadpol Max #4
DMZ #61
Do Androids Dream Dust to Dust #8 (of 8)
Doctor Who Vol 2 #1
Dungeons and Dragons #3
Farscape Ongoing #15
Fraggle Rock Vol 2 #1 (of 3)
George R R Martin's Doorways #3 (of 4)
Grimm Fairy Tales Myths & Legends #1
GI Joe Cobra II #12
Gore #1
Green lantern Corps #56
Hellblazer #275
Ides of Blood #6 (of 6)
Invincible Iron Man #500
Jurassic Park The Devils in the Desert #1 (of 4)
Justice League of America #53
Legion of Super Heroes #9
Locke & Key Keys to the Kingdom #4 (of 6)
Lucid #3 (of 4)
Mass Effect Evolution #1 (of 4)
Mediterranea #2
Memoir #1 (of 6)
Mickey Mouse #304
Morning Glories #6
Northlanders #36
Power Girl #20
Ratchet and Clank #5 (of 6)
Scarlet #4
Silent Hill Past Life #3 (of 4)
Simpsons Comics #174
Sonic Universe #24
Spirit #10
Stan Lee Soldier Zero #4
Steampunk Palin one-shot
Supergirl #60
Superior #4 (of 6)
Superman Batman #80
Thor #619
Thor First Thunder #5 (of 5)
Time Lincoln Apocalypse Mao one-shot
Tiny Titans #36
TransFormers Prime #3 (of 4)
TransFormers Sector 7 #5 (of 5)
Witchblade #141
Wolverine #5
Wolverine & Jubilee #1 (of 4)
X-Factor #214
X-Men Legacy #244
Young Justice #0
Another light week for me. Just getting Hellblazer, Superior and Thor. I am excited about Hellblazer. Peter Milligan's run on the series has been top notch, and I think getting Constantine wed has potential for entertaining storylines.
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I think getting Constantine wed has potential for entertaining storylines.
I'm sure Eva would too if you just asked.
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Hrm, surprised there's new stuff today; figured the holiday would bounce it back to tomorrow.
Anyway, yeah, light week. Superior, Simpsons, Doctor Who (which will probably be my last issue; it's okay but not worth spending $4 a month on when you're unemployed). Really doesn't justify the trip out there except I need boards. (I bought bags last week but their boards came in bent.)
Tempted to pick up Mass Effect and see if it's any good. I was nonplussed by the #1 of the last series (too much bending over backwards to leave all the player-choice stuff ambiguous, to the point of really stilted dialogue where nobody ever uses fucking pronouns when referring to Shepard), but this one shows some promise. I've always said that the ancillary material should expand the universe rather than deal with Shepard's story.
Also: Ryg, that avatar is FUCKING DISTRACTING.
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Public Service Announcement: Books should now be arriving on Tuesday at local establishments, with do-not-sell-until-Wednesday orders. So if your place is on top of things stuff should be out first thing Wednesday from now on.
At least, I've been told this is an industry wide thing.
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Tempted to pick up Mass Effect and see if it's any good. I was nonplussed by the #1 of the last series (too much bending over backwards to leave all the player-choice stuff ambiguous, to the point of really stilted dialogue where nobody ever uses fucking pronouns when referring to Shepard), but this one shows some promise. I've always said that the ancillary material should expand the universe rather than deal with Shepard's story.
Sadly, the dialogue isn't any better even without Shepard in the equation. It's split between stupid cliches like "WHY...WON'T...YOU...DIE?" and ridiculous "As you know..." exposition:
- Sorry, Jack. It's just seein' our settlements up close -- my brother was one of the people they wiped out!
- And that's why you joined the cause. But we're after more than payback. You just want to kill Turians, join the military!
- Seems nobody has the nerve to fight these monster any more.
- We do, General -- and so do you. It's why you gave our group training -- and access. You put your ass on the line for us.
I was -- uh, kind of hoping she had something else in mind. But that's crazy. We got nothing in common. I mean, we both lost people to the stupid war -- that's why we signed on with you. But that's it.
It's peppered with interesting namedrops like "General Williams" and "Shanxi" (and am I the only one who finds it interesting that the Illusive Man's name is Jack? ...yeah, probably just a coincidence.); the story is solid. But the dialogue is just fucking painful to read. And the pencils seem serviceable enough, but something about the finishes bothers me; not sure if it's the digital inking or the coloring, but I don't like the way the human faces look in close-ups.
All in all: great potential; missed opportunity. Will not be buying #2.
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(http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l6gz3gKA3l1qzelz9o1_400.jpg)
This is a real thing.
I... I think I need to lay down.
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Fred Perry.
I see.
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(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2010/11/sarah-palin-vs-the-world.jpg)
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To be fair, I could actually envision Sarah Palin living in a fantasyland where she has to beat the Seven Evil Ex-Presidents.
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The Imperial Senate will no longer be of any concern to us. I have just received word from Coruscant that the Emperor has dissolved the council permanently. The last remnants of the Old Republic have been swept away forever. (http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/01/21/archie-drops-the-code-wertham-dead-forever/)
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Hopefully this will finally mean the raunchy Archie comics written by the Hernandez brothers that I've been waiting years for.
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Oh wow. This quote.... this quote is the BEST THING:
“The code never affected us editorially the way I think it did other companies,” he said. “You know, we aren’t about to start stuffing bodies into refrigerators or anything. We have to answer to Archie fans.”
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Man who the hell still buys Archie comics? Is it just nostalgia at this point or am I missing something deeply appealing about these?
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Man who the hell still buys Archie comics? Is it just nostalgia at this point or am I missing something deeply appealing about these?
They don't frighten old people.
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Archie manages to hold on to that youth market. It's worth noting that they're the only comic still sold in grocery stores these days.
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Anybody heard of the Guardian Project? Stan Lee is making superheroes for the NHL. My favorite:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v316/buge/herpaderp/oiler.jpg)
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So I started picking up Marvel Adventures Spider-man when they rebooted the numbering. After a few months I can now say that it is hand down my favorite currently published comic. I really can't properly do justice to how much fun the comic is, so I'll just say if you're even remotely interested in the spider-man character I recommend you find the back issues from the reboot on and start reading it.
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You know, it's kind of a shame that FF 587 was spoiled by pretty much everyone(including Marvel, gg guys), because a lot of the tension of the comic comes from the fact that all four of them are in mortal peril, and it's not until the very end that you know who's going to die. Still a damn fine comic, though, and worth a read even if you already know what happens.
[spoiler]Also, it should be noted that the "death" thing was a bit of an overhype. Johnny isn't really dead. Outnumbered and overwhelmed, definitely. But since we don't actually see him die, he's really just MIA/presumed dead.[/spoiler
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Have I mentioned lately how much I love Cornell's Action Comics?
I also love that not only is Superman not in it, but the best issues have very little action. In this month's Lex has a sit-down with the Joker. It's mostly talking, and (clearly, deliberately) evokes his conversation with Death a few months back. His contrasts with -- and similarities to -- the Joker highlight his character nearly as effectively as his conversation with Death did, and, amusingly, further cement one of the attributes Cornell's given him: Lex Luthor has no sense of humor; he does not get jokes. And it's entirely because he's so fucking self-absorbed.
(Also, the Joker watches Doctor Who.)
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CREATORS FRONT FOR DIVERSITY IN COMICS (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPk6chRXDDg#ws)
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Preachin' to the choir, brother. Preachin'. To. The. Choir.
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But... how do you tell if a book is creator-owned? And furthermore, what if you can't find any creator-owned books that you'd want to read?
Example: I have copies of Empowered, vol. 1 and 2 (shut up) and they're published by Dark Horse, but the characters and stuff are trademark Adam Warren. Who owns what? Where is my money going?
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I think you're overthinking this. It's more of a "For the love of god, would someone publish something besides Superhero crap?!?!" rant with good production values.
To be honest, it's a failed request. Marvel & DC just sell what the market has decided it wants. Sure, as Thad has pointed out recently, sales are on the downswing again for the big two. But you don't exactly see kids clamouring for anything else. They're more apt to go to video games or Manga or whatever.
Me, well... I gave up a long time ago, grateful that Europeans can provide the fix I want.
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there are tons of people who don't publish just more shitty superhero shitty shit. they're called "every single imprint in the entire world except DC and Marvel."
it's like complaining that Games Workshop just refuses to put out a tabletop comedy of manners miniature game.
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Well regardless, people ain't buyin'.
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I'M NOT MADE OF MONEY
CRIPES
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Besides, you said I could come over and read yours :3c
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Clearly this means you're not people.
SAFE AT LAST.
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Well regardless, people ain't buyin'.
...the guy faking the retainer lisp in that video wrote five of the ten bestselling graphic novels* of 2010.
Granted, that's because they got made into a TV show (http://brontoforum.us/index.php?topic=5627.0). And four of the other five got made into a movie (http://brontoforum.us/index.php?topic=366.msg165885#msg165885). So we're still seeing a huge problem with monoculture here, but the monoculture isn't superheroes, it's stuff that's been adapted for movies or TV.
Alan Moore isn't singlehandedly propping up American comics, Hollywood is.
* As noted elsewhere, I hate the term "graphic novel" when used in its typical, I-am-to-cool-for-Spider-Man sense, but I use it here in the sense of "shit people buy at bookstores instead of comic shops". Not to put too fine a point on it, THAT'S the market that matters. At least until digital takes off.
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I think Powell may be right in the sense of "Who cares if non-superhero-stuff graphic novel sales outperformed superhero graphic novels, if monthly superhero books totally dwarf those graphic novels in sales".
I mean, I don't think your point is invalid, but I also think that at least on some level a comic is a comic is a comic, regardless of whether you want to call it a comic, sequential art, bande dessinée, or whatever. Writers of good books sometimes deride terrible authors by saying those lesser works aren't 'books', but that's not really accepted as a valid form of dismissal either.
But again, this isn't the author's responsibility. If there's a demand for trash, then trash shall be produced.
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My point is more that specialty shops are a niche and bookstores are not. Sure, it takes specialty shops to get a book like The Walking Dead or The Goon enough exposure to get a TV or movie deal, but once it's off the ground that's not where the money is. And I think it's fair to argue that Scott Pilgrim never needed specialty shops at all.
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I like how Eric Powell complains about superhero comic book, but then offers no tangible solutions. It's nice of him to bitch, what with the Goon taking a year between issues.
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I thought the same thing but then I remembered wasn't he trying to make that movie?
My point is more that specialty shops are a niche and bookstores are not. Sure, it takes specialty shops to get a book like The Walking Dead or The Goon enough exposure to get a TV or movie deal, but once it's off the ground that's not where the money is. And I think it's fair to argue that Scott Pilgrim never needed specialty shops at all.
Well, I suppose here we could go into the fifty year old (older?) debate about comics not getting any respect in North American bookshops anyway.
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What we need are digitally-distributed anthologies - and I don't mean just to the iPad (honestly some Kindle love would be nice but without color it's understandable that they don't want to limit themselves to grayscale).
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Well, I suppose here we could go into the fifty year old (older?) debate about comics not getting any respect in North American bookshops anyway.
Well, sorta; the things we now call "graphic novels" go back at least to Rhymes With Lust, but reprint collections being sold in stores is really a 1980's phenomenon.
I don't know that I'd say comics don't get respect in North American bookshops at this point; they've all got comics sections. Granted, "comic books" is still treated like a genre, but a hell of a lot more people are buying the likes of Scott Pilgrim, Walking Dead, and Watchmen at Barnes and Noble than their local comic shops.
(Oddly, the local B&N has Walking Dead tucked away in a corner and a bunch of DC & Marvel books displayed prominently. That probably falls under the problem of people associating comics with superheroes, but as much as anything it's just poor marketing.)
We've reached a point where bookstores are more important to the long-term success of a book than specialty stores, and indeed where the mass market is not at all a reflection of the specialty-store market. Specialty stores are still necessary (and I happen to like them, quite a lot, I just happen to think most of the people who shop there must have terrible taste based on the books they're buying), but they're becoming less and less so.
What we need are digitally-distributed anthologies - and I don't mean just to the iPad (honestly some Kindle love would be nice but without color it's understandable that they don't want to limit themselves to grayscale).
What we need is a standard format that allows you to save files locally and copy them across devices. For starters.
Some agreement on a reasonable price point would be neat too. ($2 is good; $1 would be better. And yes, anthology pricing, by all means, like the track-or-album model on iTunes.)
And the publishers need to stop focusing on same-day digital releases. It makes comic shops nervous and doesn't help them get any new customers; the people who know comics come out on Wednesdays are already your fucking customers, and the people who just want to read a Batman comic don't know if it came out on Wednesday or Thursday or a goddamn month ago. The only benefit to same-day release is when they pull big marketing pushes like this past week's Fantastic Four to try and pull new people into the comic shop, which incidentally is invariably a big spoilery "fuck you" to the existing fans.
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I agree with you that things are better than they used to be, but comics as a whole are still extremely closely associated with superheroes in North America. Other media don't suffer from the problem of being so completely pigeonholed in the minds of people who aren't familiar with that media form. If I rarely watch movies, that doesn't mean I think "most movies are sci-fi action flicks" or if I don't read books I think "they're all harlequin romances, right?".
The difference nowadays being that most people would hazily concede that, yes, there's definitely other stuff in comics. But unless that person regularly buys more than one funnybook, the old assumptions of "Superheroes/kid's stuff" are generally still there.
I don't really know what the solution is. I suppose comics and media companies with comic properties could market non-superhero stuff more aggressively, but I don't really know how well that would work. Progress has been made and mores are slowly changing, but we may simply have to wait a very long time before attitudes drift enough that comics are treated the same as similar forms of media (books & movies).
Only somewhat related: I actually find it one of the most profound ironies the the best Western-genre comics in the world are generally French.
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comics almost nearly fell out that hole in the 80s, but rolled right back in again.
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Other media don't suffer from the problem of being so completely pigeonholed in the minds of people who aren't familiar with that media form.
I can think of one other one.
The difference nowadays being that most people would hazily concede that, yes, there's definitely other stuff in comics. But unless that person regularly buys more than one funnybook, the old assumptions of "Superheroes/kid's stuff" are generally still there.
I'll agree.
I don't really know what the solution is. I suppose comics and media companies with comic properties could market non-superhero stuff more aggressively, but I don't really know how well that would work.
Walking Dead is, once again, currently the best example. Bone stands a good chance of being a breakout hit too, I think. The Goon is going to be trickier as animated movies for adults are usually such a tough sell. Tintin could be huge; it's not American but I doubt that the average American will make that distinction.
Other than those, I don't know what's coming down the pipe but I do know that both the TV networks and the film studios are all looking to comics for the next big thing.
Only somewhat related: I actually find it one of the most profound ironies the the best Western-genre comics in the world are generally French.
I read an observation recently to the effect that people who live outside the American bubble are better able to see what makes American genres tick -- Sergio Leone is a pretty classic example.
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Other media don't suffer from the problem of being so completely pigeonholed in the minds of people who aren't familiar with that media form.
I can think of one other one.
I'm guessing it's either videogames or tabletop games.
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I meant video games. Not entirely sure tabletop games count as a medium per se, though they certainly occurred to me as another example along the same lines.
Moving back a bit:
But... how do you tell if a book is creator-owned? And furthermore, what if you can't find any creator-owned books that you'd want to read?
Marvel's creator-owned imprint is Icon. Most of the stuff out of Image and Vertigo is creator-owned, if I'm not mistaken. Warren Ellis publishes his creator-owned stuff through Avatar these days; his work tends to be a smattering of neat high-concept stuff mixed with witty dialogue (see image at left) which runs until he gets distracted. In fairness, he probably completes as many books as he drops off in the middle of.
Not sure if you're a Mark Millar fan or not, but CLiNT is a good showcase of British creator-owned books, and it's big, pretty, and a pleasantly cost-effective way of getting ahold of those books. The main drawbacks are (1) if you ARE a Millar fan, you've probably already read half the shit in there; (2) the articles are goddamned embarrassing.
It's worth looking through the Free Comics thread and seeing if there's anything you like; I think most of the stuff in there is creator-owned.
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Personally, I don't think it's critical for a comic to be creator-owned comic in order to actually be any good. It helps, certainly, but it's not the be-all end-all.
Changing an across-the-board (producers and consumers) culture happy with terrible derivative work is much more important. But that's not a really a battle you can fight, so we see calls for more creator owned books. Still, that's a laudable goal for several other reasons, so I don't think it's a bad stand to take.
Also, I really don't think video games are genre-pigeonholed as badly as comics (in North America). But they still have plenty of stigma, so I'll let that one slide.
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The two issues are pretty damned closely intertwined, though -- if you're going to do something original, you go creator-owned; if you're going to do something derivative, you, rather by definition, work on someone else's property. The best way to break out of the same old crap is to support creator-owned work.
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See at first, I might be inclined to agree, but there were and are many European works which were technically owned by the production studios or publishers, but treated as a creator-owned book might be here.
The dynamic is different, in the sense that there's more appreciation for the wishes and intentions of creators across the board. If an artist dies or moves on, usually they are not replaced unless they give their consent or pick a successor. People at a higher level than the immediate editor rarely make content decisions and even editors work much more closely with their authors over there (or at least give the impression of that being the case). It's not some kind of perfect candyland and there are certainly instances that look more like the North American standard, but that implicit respect for the artists and authors is built into the comic publishing culture there. I'm not even sure if there are actually more creator-owned properties there or not.
I don't know, maybe it's just the ingrained European reverence for fine artists, but they seem to know know that too much meddling will ruin a good book and tend to act accordingly. Or at least, moreso than we do. Here the process is so heavily commercialized that company-owned properties are managed with a heavy hand.
It's also worth mentioning that -anecdotally - the European artists and writers are much more serious about professionalism. While more than a few North Americans are known for putting out for low quality work or being terrible with deadlines/generally unprofessional, those types of workers not tolerated in Europe. The impression I get from North American editors is that they manage as if they were managing children. That's a broad generalization and something I'm not as well informed on, so you can throw it out as an unsubstantiated fact, but I figured I could throw it in there.
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I'm just talking about America.
Hell, there's been plenty of great corporate-owned stuff in America too -- there's no greater example than EC's output -- but what I'm saying is, people doing original stuff, in America, at this point in time, are generally keeping the rights. Because they can. If you want a steady paycheck, you do a Big Two superhero book; if you want to do something new or unconventional, well, you CAN sell it to a publisher if you want, get money upfront and maybe a little bit of promotion, but in terms of risk and reward you're generally better off keeping the rights yourself.
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I'm just talking about America.
Fair enough.
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I'm just talking about America.
We can dig it.
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Batman: Plutocrat (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2011/01/batman-plutocrat)
I'm going to guess this bit's been done better elsewhere, but I giggled a bit.
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Oh sort of a convergence between "Batman babbling" and the creator-owned works debate.
I've been following Duss Nguyen's art for a few years. Man, ever since he's been regularly cashing those Batman cheques, the amount of effort and creativity he puts into his artwork has very noticeably declined. It's kind of depressing, really.
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I'm sure DC could care less, so long as he keeps to a schedule.
See also: Greg Land.
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Just keep in mind that no matter how low he goes, he'll never be as bad an artist as Scott McDaniel.
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See what happens when you get rid of the Comics Code? CRIME Does Not Pay to be collected. (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=30756)
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Before I hit the list, I just want to say that the best book of last week was Power Man & Iron Fist, written by Fred Van Lente with art by Wellinton Alves, inks by Nelson Pereira, colors by Bruno Hang and letters by Joe Caramagna. If the words "Written by Fred Van Lente" don't move you to buy the book then something is fundamentally broken in your person and I'm sorry.
Anyway, onto the show.
After two weeks of SNOW delays I'm back to copy pasting from other forums!
28 Days Later #20
Amazing Spider-Man #654.1
Angel #42
Archie & Friends #152
Astonishing X-Men Xenogenesis #5 (of 5)
Avengers Academy #9
Batman #707
Betty & Veronica Double Digest #188
Booster Gold #41
Boys #51
Brightest Day #20
Captain America Man Out of Time#4 (of 5)
Captain Wonder 3-D one-shot
Cyclops #4
Daredevil Reborn #2 (of 4)
Darkwing Duck #9
DC Universe Online Legends #2
Deadpool Max #5
Detective Comics Classics
DF Uncanny X-Force #1 Midtown Shared Ltd. Cvr.
DMZ #62
Donald Duck #363
Doom Patrol #19
Dungeons and Dragons #4 <-- Did you guys know this is written by John Rogers (of Leverage fame)?
Edge of Doom #4
Fables #102
Flash Gordon Invasion fo the Red Sword #1
Formic Wars Burning Earth #1 (of 7)
Garth Ennis' Jennifer's Blood #1
Generation Hope #4
GFT Presents Neverland #7 (of 7)
GI Joe Cobra II #13
Green Hornet Year One #8
Green Lantern #62 Brightest Day
Green Lantern Corps #57 Brightest Day
Grimm Fairy Tales #55
Hawkeye: Blind Spot #1 (of 4)
Hellblazer #276
Hulk #30
Iron Man Rapture #4 (of 4)
Justice League of America #54
Kill Shakespeare #1 100 Penny Press Ed.
Knights of the Dinner Table #171
Legion of Super Heroes #10
Loki #3 (of 4)
Magdalena (ongoing) #5
Magnus Robot Fighter #3 (of 4)
Marineman #3
Marvel Girl #1
Mass Effect Evolution #2 (of 4)
Memoir #2 (of 6)
Mickey Mouse #305
Mighty Samson #2
Nanny & Hank #3
Nanny & Hank #4
Night of the Living Dead #3 (of 5)
Outsiders #36
Proof Endangered #3
Ratchet & Clank #6 (of 6)
Robert Jordan Wheel of Time Eye of the World #8
Scourge #3
Shield #6
Silent Hill Past Life #4 (of 4)
Silver Surfer #1 (of 5)
Simpsons Comics #175
Sonic Universe #25
Spider-Girl #4 BIG
Spirit #11
Stan Lee Soldier Zero #5
Star Wars Knight Errant #5 (of 5)
Supergirl #61
Superman Batman #81
Tank Girl Bad Wind Rising #2 (of 4)
The Suicide Forest #3 (of 4)
Thunderbolts #153
Tiny Titans #37
TransFormers Infestation #2 (of 2)
Twilight Guardian #2 (of 4)
Uncanny X-Force #5
Vampirella #3
Venom Deadpool #1
Wolverine #6
Wolverine & Jubilee #2 (of 4)
Wonder Woman #607
Young Justice #1
Light week for me this week, limited to Hellblazer and Generation Hope! Looks like I'll have the cash to put towards another trade!
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FELL and Ministry of Space on ultra-giga sale (http://www.khepri.com/)
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Motherfucker's still in his early forties? I'd have figured another decade on him.
Anyway, yeah, Fell is awesome; go buy it.
MEANWHILE: Doesn't look like much this week to buy. Which is okay, because there wasn't much LAST week, so I didn't actually go in, for the first time in I don't know how long. And I need more bags and boards. And some of those divider tabby things we were talking about.
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After two weeks of SNOW delays I'm back to copy pasting from other forums!
at least we got half of our books on time this week
you asshole
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:deal:
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Doom Patrol's canceled. (http://doompedia.blogspot.com/)
I was enjoying it.
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Having gotten caught in a series of Wikipedia links last night while looking up Young Justice characters with whom I was unfamiliar, I am proposing a new rule for comic book writers: Every comic book writer must read the Wikipedia summary page for the characters involved and for story arcs and realize how fucking dumb and convoluted almost everything is.
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Then all we'd have is Grant Morrison.
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so
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So Buge hasn't actually read any Grant Morrison?
Not that All-Star Superman wasn't entertaining but if that wasn't a clusterfuck of stuff tied together by the most tenuous of threads I don't know what is.
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Stop.
Just stop.
I will hear no profaning of the greatest Superman story in this household.
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Nonsense. The greatest Superman story is Hitman #34.
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The new Silver Surfer miniseries is written by Greg Pak, of Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, and as you would expect, it is awesome.
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Stop.
Just stop.
I will hear no profaning of the greatest Superman story in this household.
Superman turns evil and then Jimmy Olsen becomes Doomsday to punch him a lot and then Superman goes to Bizarro world where a Bizarro writes him poetry and then he gets hurled back to Earth and....
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Oh, so you saw the pictures, I get it now.
But just so I'm clear, you're complaint is that Superman has fantastic adventures?
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Jimmy Olsen getting superpowers and fighting crazy Superman is completely in-genre.
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It's a typical afternoon for Jimmy, actually.
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Oh, so you saw the pictures, I get it now.
But just so I'm clear, you're complaint is that Superman has fantastic adventures?
No, I have both books. My complaint is that in All-Star Superman his fantastic adventures are intentionally overcomplicated and poorly tied together, and that it is perfectly possible to have good Superman stories without them being so zany or complex for the sake of being complex.
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See, I thought All-Star was pretty straightforward (ESPECIALLY by goddamn Morrison's standards). And one man's "poorly tied together" is another man's "done in one".
Anyway. How many pages has it been since our last conversation on continuity? Doesn't seem like that goddamn long.
Quick summary: This shit's been going on too long for anyone to adhere completely to continuity; as such, writers (and fans) should be aware of this and know that they have to choose the bits they like and ignore the ones they don't.
Most established continuity sucks anyway; see Spurgeon's Law.
Guys who are good at working with shit-tons of continuity: Morrison, Busiek
Guys who are good at ignoring shit-tons of continuity: Ellis, Gaiman
I'm sure there are plenty more names to add to both lists, though most writers fall somewhere in the middle.
I would also like to submit that Paul Cornell is writing the best superhero comics currently being published. (Though I haven't actually read any of Hickman or Fraction and hear they're pretty great too.)
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See, I thought All-Star was pretty straightforward (ESPECIALLY by goddamn Morrison's standards). And one man's "poorly tied together" is another man's "done in one"
This is a fair point, but I prefer my "done in one"s to not have multiple instances of time travelers hinting at a bigger arc. In any case, I was mostly pointing out that even Morrison's most accessible stuff is still kind of a mess even though it's fun to read, and so he would certainly not be the sole remaining writer under my proposed regime, if he's there at all.
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Except it's not a mess. Morrison lays out that Superman will do 12 fantastic deeds or whatever before he explodes and goes to repair the sun. He then proceeds to do that, and each story can be read individually. And if you need a further, overarching plot there's the stuff about Lex Luthor's attempt to kill Superman and seize power.
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also his run on batman has been both pretty un-messy and really awesome imo
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RIP was HUGELY messy, but the rest of it has been pretty easy to follow even when it's leaned heavily on obscure stories from the 1950's. And Batman and Robin was pretty much balls-out.
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Is Marvel going to start killing a character every quarter? (http://www.weeklycrisis.com/2011/02/marvel-deathsales-solution.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheWeeklyCrisis+(The+Weekly+Crisis))
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I thought that was a joke rhetorical question before I clicked that link.
I was amused that the writer spent a long somewhat rambling time trying to thoughtfully address a situation that's almost comic in its absurdity.
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Is Marvel going to start killing a character every quarter? (http://www.weeklycrisis.com/2011/02/marvel-deathsales-solution.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheWeeklyCrisis+(The+Weekly+Crisis))
(http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b85/ohakubi/shjb.jpg)
Your move, Marvel.
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Superman 2000 pitch from Grant Morrison, Mark Waid, Mark Millar, Tom Peyer back in 1998 (http://theages.superman.nu/History/2000/SUPERMAN2000.php)
Pertinent part:
Ultimately, Luthor’s threat becomes so grand that it threatens all of spacetime--including the Fifth Dimension, forging a tense alliance between Superman and Mxyzptlk. With superhuman effort, Luthor and Brainiac are thwarted--
--but not before Brainiac gets his revenge.
Memories, as science is only now theorizing and as Brainiac has known for years, are not electrical in nature. They are, in fact, actual chemical deposits in the brain. And what is chemical can easily be turned to poison.
Brainiac has adjusted Lois’s chemical memory of Clark’s secret identity so that it’s killing her.
The poison memory can’t be removed. It can conceivably be masked--Superman has more than one magical ally who could erase Lois’s conscious memory of his identity, who could facilitate a reality in which Clark and Lois were married without Lois being aware of her husband’s double life--but deep down, Superman knows that’s too risky. He can’t live with her, can’t be her husband, can’t share her life. She’s too sharp. No matter what he does, no matter how on guard he is, she’ll stumble onto his secret eventually, and when she does, it will be the death of her.
With no other conceivable option, Superman turns to Mxyzptlk. Sure, says Mxy, I can fix this--
--but only by altering history so that she NEVER knew. So that there was never a memory TO poison.
Unacceptable, says Superman. You have the power to fix this more simply. You don’t have to go that far.
Untrue, counters Mxyzptlk. Despite what I may or may not WANT to do for you...when I’m in the third dimension, I’m INCAPABLE of doing anything BUT mischief.
So the offer’s on the table, the clock is ticking on Lois, and together, she and her husband make their tragic decision. Though Lois would rather spend one day with Clark’s love than a lifetime without it, he swears to her that they’ll be together again when the time is right. For now...they have no choice but to erase their lives together so that Lois might live.
Mxyzptlk weaves his spell. As night falls around the globe, people will begin to fall asleep--and as they do, the world will change and Clark’s secret will be restored. People will awaken without any memory that Clark Kent and Lois Lane were ever married, were ever together. Clark and Lois have until sundown to enjoy one last, perfect day.
And so long as we live, we will never again see two people so much in love as we do that day.
Eventually, however, the violet dust of twilight settles across the city. It’s happening. Their arms wrapped around one another as if they’ll never touch this way again, Lois and Clark begin to fall asleep. With a last kiss, they drift into slumber...
...and when dawn breaks across Metropolis, Clark Kent exits his bachelor apartment at 344 Clinton Avenue and makes it to his Daily Planet desk just in time to catch the latest in a long line of caustic barbs from rival reporter Lois Lane. She has her sights set on Superman, thinks Kent for the millionth time. If only I could get her to love me as Clark...
via Bleeding Cool (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/03/05/swipe-file-one-more-day-vs-superman-2000/)
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Given the quality and subject of Birthright, I think Waid could pull it off. if I'd read this earlier I would have asked him about it this morning.
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Interesting. So it's a plan to revitalize the company's signature hero by retconning away his marriage. The method of this retcon being a deal with an extradimensional creature, bartering the relationship away to save the life of a loved one that's dying.
Mxyzptlk weaves his spell. As night falls around the globe, people will begin to fall asleep--and as they do, the world will change and Clark’s secret will be restored. People will awaken without any memory that Clark Kent and Lois Lane were ever married, were ever together. Clark and Lois have until sundown to enjoy one last, perfect day.
I like that. That's a good title. "One More Day".
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:castoflesmiserables:
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Google is celebrating Will Eisner's birthday today (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/03/06/google-celebrates-will-eisners-94th-birthday-with-the-spirit-google-logo/)
With a nice little title bar dedicated to the Spirit:
(http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5174/5502935678_20e4c75316.jpg)
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McDuffie tribute video. (http://popculturezoo.com/2011/03/eccc2011-dwayne-mcduffie-memorial/)
(He wrote Monster in My Pocket? Hell, I've still got 3 of the 4 issues of that thing. Hooray for being a packrat!)
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My friend Troy picked all the clips for that! It was originally supposed to have some clips of his DVD commentaries and stuff like that, but it was trimmed down and still pretty good. Love the synch of the music to Superman's Falcon Punch.
I missed the actual tribute because I was about ready to pass out from not eating, but Mark Waid in particular was amazing in putting it all together.
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Guess who's going to be writing Deadpool.
Go on, guess.
Give up?
[spoiler]Chris Hastings.[/spoiler]
http://marvel.com/news/story/15347/fear_itself_deadpool (http://marvel.com/news/story/15347/fear_itself_deadpool)
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:victory:
A Deadpool spinoff worth reading!
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Just read Brightest Day 21...
[spoiler]That was quick, huh? I expected more than an issue and a half. So. Now it's just 'did Max use his powers to make them think BB was dead to get away?' or 'did the scarab save him and heal him?' A lot of people are saying that maybe Jaime's brain dead and the scarab is letting him "live" through the suit. That'd be an intersting choice, but I don't see it happening. For one they would have changed his speech bubble or something, right?[/spoiler]
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I really, really want to read JH Williams III and W. Haden Blackman's Batwoman, but now the ship date for #1 has moved from April 6 to "indefinite". (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/03/10/batwoman-1-delayed-april-reschedule/)
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Given how heavily they're promoting it it probably won't be much longer. I've waited this long and given the complexity of the art delays have never been a surprise.
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Disney fucks Langridge, again. (http://hotelfred.blogspot.com/2011/03/whatever-happened-to.html) Fucking hell.
Here's hoping he gets more work soon. Maybe he can pull a Cornell and get the respect he deserves over at DC. Given Samnee's recent sketches (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/03/06/the-emerald-city-comic-con-sketches-of-chris-samnee/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BleedingCool+%28Bleeding+Cool+Comic+News+%26+Rumors%29), I'd love to see the two of them collaborate on something over there.
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Steve Rude needs art supplies. Give him $5, get an entry in a raffle for an original piece of art. (https://www.steverudeart.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MARCHRAFFLE)
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Thad!
I am running a pen & paper game soon, set in modernish times (think 80s-90s), and figured you might be able to help me with a specific aspect
Namely, one of the player's characters is goign to be a corporate sponsored Superhero. Any storylines somewhere that feature this that I could read to glean ideas and see how that sort of thing got handled?
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Read pretty much anything but the last few years of Booster Gold.
Hell, read most of 52. The LexCorp baddies will give you some good stuff too.
Can't think of better examples off the top of my head.
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The Manhattan Guardian bits of Seven Soldiers might have bearing on that. And the stuff in Supreme Power dealing with Blur, too.
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Luke Cage is not corporate-sponsored, but his somewhat mercenary nature might give insights into commercial heroics.
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Lex Luthor: Man of Steel. One of the plot lines in the most recent run of Doom Patrol also has clever, contemporary take on corporate hero teams.
There's also THUNDER Agents, but that just started and I don't know if it's any good.
Aberrant, White Wolf's superhero RPG, is all about superheroes as celebrities. Many of them are corporate sponsored or have endorsement deals. If that's not what you're running, it's still a good reference.
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the last stage of the original run of x-force by peter milligan and mike allred, as well as x-statix.
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The Milligan/Allred run of X-Force (which becomes X-Statix, but you want to start with X-Force). (Dah, New Reply. Yes, that.)
52 and Manhattan Guardian are both good picks but a bit of an investment as they require picking up multiple trades each. (52 is, as the title implies, 52 issues long, and unless I'm mistaken the Seven Soldiers trades are chronological, not split up by character, so if you want Guardian you're also in for, say, Klarion, Shining Knight and Zatanna. If I'm remembering the order correctly.)
In other media: the "Ultimatum" episode of Justice League Unlimited has a corporate superhero team (actually modeled partially after X-Statix -- see above), and the earlier "Eclipsed" episode has Flash dabbling in product endorsement, to the consternation of the rest of the League. The current Batman: The Brave and the Bold includes a few episodes with Booster Gold in his corporate shill mode, and Mystery Men (the movie) has Greg Kinnear as a smarmy Superman knockoff with a jacket covered in endorsements.
A bit off the beaten path but related: Planetary isn't strictly a superhero book but its protagonists are a private company of paranormal investigators, and the villains are like an evil corporate version of the Fantastic Four. And it's a damn fine book in and of itself.
Current stuff: Speaking of Fantastic Four, it's been relaunched as The Future Foundation; Reed Richards has turned the team into a nonprofit seeking to make the world a better place. And Batman Inc has Bruce Wayne turning the Batman name into a franchise and recruiting Batmen across the world. But it's early days yet for both these books and I don't know that there's much in there you can use just yet.
I also recall Kurt Busiek doing a series called The Power Company sometime in the last decade that dealt with corporate superheroes, but I only read a couple issues and it didn't leave much of an impression.
Busiek IS doing a book right now called Dracula: The Company of Monsters, which isn't a superhero book but explores a similar juxtaposition, as a modern corporation resurrects Dracula for its own nefarious ends. It explores an interesting dynamic between bloodsuckers of both the gothic horror and corporate thriller varieties.
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New comics this week:
As much as I'm looking forward to the final issue of Knight and Squire, it doesn't really justify a trip to the comic shop in and of itself. If they finally got short boxes in then I'll probably go buy a couple of those, but otherwise I'll give it a miss this week.
(Oh and apparently there's a new Tom Baker Doctor Who radio serial, but I sincerely doubt my comic shop has ordered that and I can't afford to spend $75 on it anyway.)
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New Knight and Squire? That's enough for me to make the trip. I can also pick up last week's Doom(ed) Patrol and Batman Inc.
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28 Days Later #21
5 Ronin #3 (of 5)
Adventure Comics #524
Amazing Spider-Man #656 BIG
Archie & Friends #153
Artifacts #6 (of 13)
Avengers Academy #11
Avengers Children's Crusade Young Avengers #1
Bad Dog #4
Batman #708
Bomb Queen vs Hack Slash Special one-shot
Brightest Day #22
Captain America and Crossbones #1
Casanova Gula #3 (of 4)
Charmed #8
Chew Script Book
Dark Tower Gunslinger Little Sisters Eluria #4
Darkwing Duck #10
DC Comics Presents Batman Irresistible #1
DC Universe Legacies #10 (of 10)
DC Universe Online Legends #4
Death of Zorro #1
Deus Ex #2 (of 6)
DMZ #63
Doctor Who Ongoing Vol 2 #2
Fear Itself Book of the Skull #1
Formic Wars Burning Earth #3 (of 7)
Gears of War #16
Generation Hope #5
GI Joe Infestation #2 (of 2)
Guild Tink one-shot
Hack Slash Ongoing #2
Hulk #30 Point One
Iceman and Angel #1
Invincible Iron Man #502
Iron Man 2.0 #2
Kato Origins Way of the Ninja #7
Knight & Squire #6 (of 6)
Last Phantom #5
Loki #4 (of 4)
Marvel Zombies Supreme #2 (of 5)
Mice Templar Vol 3 #3
Mickey Mouse #306
Mindfield #5
Morning Glories #8
Night of the Living Dead Death Valley #1 (of 5)
Northlanders #38
Phoenix #1
Planet of the Living Dead #1
Power Girl #22
PS 238 #49
Rebels #26
Red Robin #21
Roger Corman Presents Deathsport #2
Ruse #1 (of 4)
Scooby Doo Where Are You? #7
Simpsons Comics #176
Sonic Universe #26
Spider #1
Spike #6 (of 8)
Spirit #12
Stan Lee Soldier Zero #6
Superman #709
Thunder Agents #5
Thunderbolts #155
Thunderstrike #4 (of 5)
Time Lincoln Cuba Commander one-shot
Tiny Titans #38
TransFormers 3 Movie Prequel Foundation #2 (of 4)
Twilight Guardian #3 (of 4)
Ultimate Avengers vs New Ultimates #2 (of 6) DOSM
Uncanny X-Force #5 Point One
Uncanny X-Men Annual #3
Unwritten #23
Vampirella #4
Warlord of Mars #5
Wolfskin Hundredth Dream #5 (of 6)
World of Archie Double Digest #5
X-Factor #217
Xombie #1
Young Justice #2
Superhero week for me. Picking up Knight and Squire, Generation Hope, Superman and Northlanders. Good a week as any to pick up the next Walking Dead trade, I suppose.
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Morning Glories and Darkwing Duck. \o/
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Totally missed Morning Glories on there. That's a series people should check out. The trade is $10 and has the first 6 issue story arc.
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Yeah, I'm not 100% completely on board with it from what's out there so far, but I definitely like it enough to keep reading it. And the guy writing it has gone on record saying he has the ending planned out, so the Lost comparisons being tossed all over the place don't make me as leery as they would otherwise.
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That said, this issue blatantly makes a reference to Lost.
Speaking of references, in Superman #709, Lex Luthor steals 40 cakes. Needless to say, the writing on Grounded has gotten much better since Robinson took the helm.
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Xombie #1 was pretty good! It was weird and freaky and it looked terrific, which is all can ask of a horror comic. The nun puns were nice, too.
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So what's up this week?
5 Ronin #4 (of 5)
Alan Moore Neonomicon #4 (of 4)
Angel #43
Astonishing Spider-Man Wolverine #5 (of 6)
Batman Incorporated #4
Batman Streets of Gotham #21
Batman The Dark Knight #2
Betty & Veronica Double Digest #189
Captain America #615 Point One
Captain America and Batroc #1
Captain America Comics #1 70th Anniversary Edition
Captain America Man Out of Time #5 (of 5)
Creepy Comics #5
Daken Dark Wolverine #7
Daredevil Reborn #3 (of 4)
Deadpool #34
DeadpoolMax #6
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep #21 (of 24)
Dracula Company of Monsters #8
Echoes #4 (of 5)
Fables #103
FF #1
Futurama Comics #54
Ghostbusters Infestation #2 (of 2)
GI Joe A Real American Hero #164
Green Hornet #14
Green Lantern #64 War of GL
Green Lantern Corps #58 War of GL
Grimm Fairy Tales #57
Haunt #14
Hellblazer #277
Hellraiser #1
Hulk #31
Infamous #2 (of 6)
Invincible #78
Jughead #206
Justice League Generation Lost #22 Brighest Day
Justice League of America #55 Doomsday
Knights of Dinner Table #172
Legion of Super Heroes #11
Lorna Relic Wrangler one-shot
Marineman #4
Mass Effect Evolution #3 (of 4)
Meta 4 #5 (of 5)
Mission #2
Monster Hunters Survival Guide #3 (of 5)
Namor First Mutant #8
New Mutants #23 AGEX
New York Five #3 (of 4)
Orson Scott Card's Speaker For the Dead #3 (of 5)
Osborn #4 (of 5) BIG
Power Man and Iron Fist #3 (of 5)
Red Sonja Deluge one-shot
Shrek #3 (of 4)
Silver Surfer #2 (of 5)
Sixth Gun #10
Spawn #205
Spider-Man #12
Supergirl #62
Superman Batman #82
Thor #620 Point One
TransFormers Heart of Darkness #1
Ultimate Comics Doom #4 (of 4)
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #156 DOSM
Uncanny X-Force #5
Uncanny X-Men #534
Witchblade #143
Wolverine & Jubilee #3 (of 4)
X-Men #9
Okay week for me, just Batman Incorporated, Hellblazer, New York Five, Thor and Osborne.
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New comics for March 30th, 2011
5 Ronin #5 (Of 5)
Action Comics #899
Age Of X Universe #1 (Of 2)
Amazing Spider-Man #657
American Vampire #13
Amory Wars In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth 3 #1 (Dollar Edition), $1.00
Amory Wars In Keeping Secrets Of Silent Earth 3 #9 (Of 12), $3.99
Avengers #11
Archie #619
Black Panther The Man Without Fear #516
Butcher Baker The Righteous Maker #1
Captain America #616
Captain America And The Secret Avengers #1 (One Shot)
Cartoon Network Action Pack #58
Cyclops #1
Deadpool Corps #12
Deadpool Team-Up #883
Detective Comics #875
Doctor Who #3
Dollhouse Epitaphs (One Shot)
Echo #29
Elephantmen Man And Elephantman #1
FAIL Of The Living Dead (One Shot)
Fame #12 (Black Eyed Peas)
Female Force #22 (Angelina Jolie)(not verified by Diamond)
Frankenstein Prodigal Son Volume 2 #5
Godzilla Kingdom Of Monsters #1
Gotham City Sirens #21
Green Arrow #10
Green Hornet Year One #9
Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #8
Halcyon #1 (Of 5)(2nd Printing Variant Cover)
Halcyon #2 (Of 5)(2nd Printing Variant Cover)
Halcyon #4 (Of 5)
Incognito Bad Influences #5 (Of 5)
Incorruptible #16
Incredible Hulks #625
Insane Jane Avenging Star #4
Jack Of Fables #50 (Final Issue)
Jimmy Olsen #1 (One Shot)
JLA The 99 #6 (Of 6)
Justice Society Of America #49
Kick-Ass 2 #2 (Of 6)
King Conan The Scarlet Citadel #2 (Of 4)
Knights Of The Dinner Table #172
Last Zombie #5 (Of 5)
Logans Run #6
Pocket God #4
Political Power #14 (Richard Nixon)
Proof Endangered #4
Punisher In The Blood #5 (Of 5)
Savage Dragon #170
Scalped #47
Scarlet #5
Secret Avengers #11
Sherlock Holmes Year One #3 (Of 6)
Sonic The Hedgehog #223
Spider-Girl #5
Spider-Man You're Hired (One Shot)
Stand No Man's Land #3 (Of 5)
Star Wars Darth Vader And The Lost Command #3 (Of 5)
Star Wars Legacy War #4 (Of 6)
Styx & Stone #3
Suicide Forest #4 (Of 4)
Teen Titans #93
Tarot Witch Of The Black Rose #67
Thor #621
Transformers Rising Storm #2
Traveler #5
True Blood Tainted Love #2
Ultimate Comics X #4
Ultimate Spider-Man #1 (Marvel's Greatest Comics)
Undying Love #1
Vampire Huntress The Hidden Darkness #3
Walking Dead #83
Walking Dead Weekly #13
Wolverine #7
Wonder Woman #609
World Of Warcraft Curse Of The Worgen #5 (Of 5)
X-23 #8
Zatanna #11
Some stuff in there, but may give my comics purchases a pass this week and pick some trades up off of Amazon. Been meaning to check out Finder and get the next Unwritten trade.
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I'm tempted to head out to the store for Jimmy Olsen, but next week is pretty strong: Doom Patrol, Secret Six, and Annihilators.
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You know how in Marvel Comics when somebody writes a really popular character or team and then Bendis comes along and stuffs them in his book(s) while simultaneously disregarding/flanderizing their characteristics? Examples of this phenomenon include:
Sentry
Ares
Noh-Varr
The Hood
Ellis's Thunderbolts
Red Hulk
Well, guess who's next on the list?
[spoiler]Thanos.[/spoiler]
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I'm tempted to head out to the store for Jimmy Olsen, but next week is pretty strong: Doom Patrol, Secret Six, and Annihilators.
Yeah, on the one hand I could give it a miss till next week (though I AM looking forward to Jimmy).
On the other, I realized yesterday I'd accidentally grabbed 4 box tops instead of 2 and I should really take the others back.
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...wait. The Jimmy Olsen one-shot costs $6 and includes all the bits I already paid an extra buck each for?
Fuck. That.
I really loved the story up to this point, but that doesn't mean I'm going to pay for it a second time because DC decided to "save me money" by not finishing it in Action Comics so it could hold the line at $5.99.
The hell of it is that when nobody buys this thing, DC's going to take it to mean that nobody wants to buy awesome Jimmy Olsen comics. Instead of, you know, nobody wants to pay for comics they already fucking bought just because you're holding the ending hostage.
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DC comics has long gone past "people don't want to buy this comic, let's cancel it" and into "people don't want to buy this comic twice, let's cancel it"
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The hell of it is that when nobody buys this thing, DC's going to take it to mean that nobody wants to buy awesome Jimmy Olsen comics. Instead of, you know, nobody wants to pay for comics they already fucking bought just because you're holding the ending hostage.
This. I'm justifying the price by a) assuming that it won't be released in trade, and b) having downloaded the Action Comics issues that it appeared in.
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Hey, if you haven't already bought them, then by all means buy the collection; it's awesome.
But for those of us who HAVE already bought them, at a dollar extra on the regular cover price, this feels like a giant "fuck you" from DC.
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Yeah, I'd gladly pay just $2.99 for the 30 extra pages of the story or whatever, but tacking on another $3 for what I've already bought is low down and rather par for the course, really.
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Double Feature (http://fourstarstudios.com/store.html?c=doublefeature): 99 cents, DRM-free PDF. I haven't bought it yet but I plan to; it doesn't even have to be GOOD to be worth the purchase.
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I don't hate it, but I'm not as fervently into it these days either.
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DC's not the problem. Having DC turn out like every OTHER place they've ever been is the problem.
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John Constantine to return to mainstream DC continuity? (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/04/21/john-constantine-returns-to-the-dc-universe/)
A bit sketchy at this point, but still... :serious:
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Captain America, walking across America. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/29/man-dressed-as-captain-am_n_789258.html/) Thought this deserved mentioning cause I saw him walking along the street and had ot ask him what was going on. He actually hopes more people ask him.
Edit: Fixed
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404'd
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He's doing more than Superman did, that's for sure.
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Action #900:
Well, the lead-off is the finale to Cornell's Lex Luthor story, which is severely hampered by three things.
One: It's part of a goddamn crossover.
Two: It's a big anniversary issue, which apparently means it has to switch artists every other page.
Three: Inevitability. We all knew it would end this way; it HAD to end this way. So really, though the journey was great, the destination was bound to be something of an anticlimax.
There are flashes of brilliance in there, moments I really love, and yes it DOES encapsulate Lex's fatal flaw and Superman's essential humanity.
But I really do not give, and have never given, a fuck about what Doomsday is up to. I didn't care in 1994 and I sure as hell don't care now. I'm inclined to ask my CBG not to pull the next two issues; I've loved Cornell's work up to this point and if he's staying on after #902 I'll be happy to follow him, but I've had just about enough of getting yanked into crossovers I have no interest in. That's why I quit reading Action the LAST time, and why I quit reading the Lantern books, as well as Thunderbolts and indeed nearly all of Marvel's output.
After that there are some pretty neat backups. It feels like Dini and Johns cranked their scripts out in about ten minutes each, but they're fun reads, and it's nice seeing Gary Frank's art again.
And then there's the big bullshit artificial-controversy story of the moment, 9 pages of nonsense from David Goyer that culminates in Superman announcing he's going to renounce his American citizenship. Cue big stupid media tempest which is still better than hearing about whatever the fuck Donald Trump said today.
Really it feels like Epic Troll. Not on DC's part -- if they'd meant to cause a shitstorm they wouldn't have made it the fourth backup story -- but on Goyer's. It really reads like "Hey, I tweaked the Huffington Post with The Dark Knight; how can I tweak Fox News in a Superman story?"
And the biggest problem is that it doesn't make any logical story sense.
Superman interferes in a protest in Iran, and it causes an international incident because Iran thinks of it as an American intervention. Okay, that's not a bad premise, and so far so good.
But I don't see why he has to renounce his citizenship just to prove he's not acting on behalf of the US government. That doesn't actually make any sense. Seems like he could just act as a private citizen and make it clear his actions don't represent US foreign policy. Like, you know, 300 million real-life American citizens do every goddamn day. I'm an American citizen, and I'm currently sitting at my computer typing about comic books on a goddamn Internet messageboard; I assure all of you that I am not doing it on behalf of the Obama Administration.
So it doesn't make any story sense, plus it undercuts the "walking across America" story currently going on in the OTHER Superman book, and indeed tends to undercut the picture of him holding an American flag LATER IN THE SAME ISSUE. And it also doesn't matter a hell of a lot given that Clark Kent will presumably still be an American citizen.
Now, this COULD have been a good story if Superman had announced that he's an illegal immigrant and his papers are forged, and declared himself not to be a citizen on THOSE grounds. That would actually make logical story sense AND a political point that has some balls behind it rather than just feeling like it's there to tweak the people who are still mad about Captain America making fun of the Tea Party.
Also there's a script written by Richard Donner at the end that is told with storyboards instead of as a comic, but I haven't read it yet. If I find anything in there that's worth discussing I will.
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http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/04/action-comics-900/[/url]]So much for "fighting for truth, justice and the American way". Yet another American symbol of strength and freedom falls to political correctness and the liberal progressive views of "American un-acceptionalism"
I guess we need to start checking our apple pies now to make sure they don't offend Muslims...
DC you are a disgrace...why don't you take your left-wing-socialist, anti-God, anti-American PC comics and move to Europe or better yet China. Been reading DC comics on and off for about 50 years but no more go take your crap writers across the border where you belong. You do not reflect America or our way of life but the UN socialist utopia the commie left dreams about. WILL NEVER BUY ANOTHER OF YOUR CRAP COMICS AGAIN.
"it’s refreshing to see an alien refugee tell the United States that it’s as important to him as any other country on Earth," yeah--I'm sure it's refreshing to you if you're not from the United States, or are a self-hating liberal.
Shame on you for equating every other country on the planet with the USA. I grew up reading Superman comics. I have a sculpture on my piano -- a copy of an old comic cover showing Superman with an eagle on his shoulder standing in front of an American flag shield. And now you're going to make Superman ASHAMED of America? Are you people nuts?
Yes, it's just a comic, but Superman, since the 1940s, has been an American icon to kids the world over. A comic in itself is not all that big a deal, but you're talking about making some anti-American statement coming from a character that has been identified with America since World War Two? Superman is a part of American culture. This is just shameful. That's the end of DC comics for me. Lemme guess, Batman's next.
Somebody needs to take Superman's creative production side back from the misguided Commie children who are destroying his character. Crap writing. Crap PC heresy.
So basically, Hollywood LibCommies have once again taken it upon themselves to destroy another all-American icon, and turn him into a treasonous Lib.
Have they no shame?
The good Senator Joe McCarthy has been fully vindicated. He never knew just how right he was...
The real "Death of Superman" has finally come. Perry White is no longer allowed to say "and the American Way", and now Superman himself is being written away from his wholesome Mid-Western American roots. Martha and Jonathan must be rolling over in their neatly drawn graves (or crying in their milk, depending on which time line we're talking about).
I'll puke when Supie changes his colors to the United Nations ( white on a blue background) and then sits around watching while people under his protection are being slaughtered, say, that would make an interesting and realistic story arc, ehh? "But Superman, you must renounce violence so that the aliens understand that we are a peaceful people". BOOM {intra stellar annihilation}
Its unfortunate that Superman comics are now being written by basement dwelling bed-wetters who feel the need to inject their own half-baked politics into everything. The ideals that Superman represented in 1938 and for most of the 20th century have been so corrupted that as a character, he is hardly recognizable. Scott Thill says "Superman has always been bigger that the United States." Bull. Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created Superman as a representation of the United States. Unfortunately, patriotism isn't cool with a certain segment of the population.
When Superman is pro-American defending justice during World War II, you call it "propaganda". When these new ultra-liberal progressive writers bastardize this American icon, then all of a sudden, THAT agenda is seen by you America-haters a "cutting edge savvy", right??
...and in the next issue, George Soros makes an appearance as his new mentor.
Superman is dead. The American people have to save themselves now.
Let's see you ungrateful bastards give up your own citizenship. Easy to say, yes? You pansies disgust me--you're a disgrace to honest, hard-working pansies.
This was written by communist bastards! Hope they all burn in nazi hell.
It's official: Superman has jumped the shark.
And to clue in the clueless: "Jumping The Shark" does not mean something is old, outdated, or unpopular. It means that the main character has betrayed his own identity. Superman joining protests and renouncing his US "citizenship" (don't know he was a US citizen to begin with - I thought that was Clark Kent)? Really?!? Instead of just stringing up Ahmadinejad by his balls? Please.
The guys who wrote this lame excuse for a Superman comic don't even deserve a job writing tasteless "fat lady on the beach" greeting cards sold in tourist gift shops.
well there went the Hollywood reboot.
/what was Marvell thinking ;)
Let me get this straight: for, literally, decades nobody cared and suddenly a bunch of sissies is worried that Superman being an American could offend someone? Seriously?
I'm suddenly glad I never liked him and never read the comics. Batman all the way. But even Batman has been sissified by now. RIP superheores of old.
Do we need more proof that America is being eaten from within by a cancer that invaded from without? Superman has never been "bigger than the United States". He is a work of fiction that was supposed to embody the best ideals of American life. Basically, liberty for all, even to the weakest among us. There was never any prejudice or pretense in Superman. As I grew up, there was never anything that could not be shown to the youngest fan of Superman. Today's super hero bears no resemblance. RIP
It doesn't even make sense. If Superman's actions are good ones, why *wouldn't* he want to be seen as an instrument of the country he loves? Perhaps the folks at DC don't love their country.
The American Way fights for Liberty, including freedom from government intrusion into my family's personal economic affairs. It's Barack Hussein Obama's evil, Un-American appeasement of the Anti-American, Anti-Christian Muslim leaders of Iran and Obama's Un-American attacks on capitalism and the free market that the Superman comics should attack!
If he is no longer American, then he should not wear our colors.
Just one more example of how liberals are destroying this country! Soon, whites will be in chains and called evil simply by being white and the liberals will rejoice in that too. Unfortunately for them, there won't be anyone left to produce for them once they disable all the producers and they will starve waiting for handouts they all think they are entitled to receive. Just ask Mugabe in Zimbabwe how well it worked to kill and/or displace all his producers. That country used to feed most of Africa... now they are begging for food and starving along with everyone else. North Korea, Cuba, and Venzeula are another examples of wise leadership. Yes, whites are evil, the US is evil, and the world will starve without us evil folks! Like I care any longer!
boycott superman they are playing with the obama birth certificate issue to make sales I love superman and superman stands for truth justice and the american way far back as I can remember and I don't want it any other way' GOD BLES THE USA' The men who started this country and the ones who fought and died and the ones who are still fighting to protect us and this great country are the real heroes. everybody needs to pay attention to what is happening to our country they are training us for a one world order one day we all will wake up homeless. I was born american and I will die american. In my opinion so would superman Lets all stand for truth justice and the american way!
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I call Poe's Law on some of those comments. It's 2011. People can't call each other 'commies' with a straight face.
I hope
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I finally got curious enough as to why there have been so many goddamn X-men covers with vampires on them to wiki what the hell was going on.
Apparently at some point, a vampire terrorist detonated a vampire bomb that turned a lot of people into vampires.
~COMICS~
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And now vampire Jubilee is drinking X-23's blood.
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suddenly i'm okay with this
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Vampire X-23 will probably sparkle in the sun.
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It makes sense because all the lesbian vampires in the Marvel universe know each other.
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Jubilee is getting blood from Wolverine and I guess X-23 now, though I hadn't heard about that, to keep the natural vampiric tendencies at bay. Apparently Wolverine and Wolverine clone blood is prime vintage, and as established the healing factor carries over on a limited basis with transfusions, which is also apparently part of what's going on. Mostly it is stupid.
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Vampire X-23 will probably sparkle in the sun.
well to be fair
jubilee is already a sparkling vampire
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Mostly it is stupid.
Cleaned up your post re: the Marvel universe at large.
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suddenly i'm okay with this
Just think, Niku. They could have bloody guro sex for days.
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I would make some snide remark about how my beloved independent comics don't do this shit, but I haven't actually found an independent comic I want to read in like two years.
On the other hand, I saw the third volume of Amulet at a department store yesterday. I should probably get right on that.
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The first two issues of the new L&R actually did a wonderful superhero teamup story that really DID make it feel like we were looking at characters with decades of history instead of just Jaime making stuff up mostly out of whole cloth.
And then #3 was depressing as fuck but legitimately one of the best comics I have ever read.
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L&R?
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Love & Rockets AKA one of the best American comics of the last 30 years.
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...Jesus Christ, DC, ANOTHER line-wide relaunch?
...well, I'll be buying Batwoman, anyway.
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OR SO YOU THINK!
She's not Batman or Green Lantern, the only two confirmed not to change. Everyone else is possibly out the window.
Batwoman might not be around any more in a year.
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I refuse to believe that Batwoman #1 will not come out when DC said it will.
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I'm tempted by Simon/Van Sciver Firestorm even though I've never read anything Firestorm ever, but nothing else listed really jumped at me at all.
That and it's not like this would be the first half-assed reboot a comic company has done, so my skepticism is pretty high.
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Anything worth actually mentioning? I.E. major changes to major characters?
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Bully's thoughts on new titles. (http://bullyscomics.blogspot.com/2011/06/new-dc-theres-no-stopping-us-now.html)
I would totally read #6.
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Anything worth actually mentioning? I.E. major changes to major characters?
Tons.
Any that will actually stick around after six months?
Probably not.
See also: Wonder Woman reboot they just did.
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I got my hopes up when I saw Darwyn Cooke and Green Lantern in the same paragraph but it was just going over people Geoff Johns had already collaborated with. Simone/Van Sciver remains the only interesting pair they've announced. Oh well.
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And that's mainly interesting because I want to see how long they can be in the same room without killing each other.
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As soon as they learn to overcome their differences and work together, the results will be heroic.
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I'd say they should team on Hawk and Dove, but it didn't exactly work out for Ditko and Skeates.
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I've basically just been reading Thunderbolts and the Hulk books, because they've got nothing to do with anything but themselves, and they're quite good.
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Read Criminal.
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Funny, I quit reading Thunderbolts because for the past three years it had been nothing BUT tie-ins with whatever the latest event was (Civil War into Secret Invasion into Daredevil is a Dick).
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This latest run, not sure what issue I can refer you to to get started, takes place after Steve Rogers sets the new Status Quo in the beginning of Heroic Age. Luke Cage and Songbird are tasked with turning the Thunderbolts into a sort of work-release program for super criminals on The Raft. The team shifts slightly as people wash out and new ones are brought in, and there's a somewhat dark undertone as the Government committee for the Thunderbolts keep using them for overly dangerous missions, because who cares if some fucking villains get off'd? I quite enjoy it.
The Hulk books (Incredible Hulks and HULK) are both quite good right now, and again basically have nothing to do with anything except Bruce Banner's extended family dealing with the fact that they're all monsters now, or rather, that they're not, despite appearances.
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Yeah, I know the current status quo with Cage and the Raft; the last issue I picked up was #150.
Maybe I'll pick up a new issue to see how it looks; it was one of the "not bad but not good enough to keep spending $4 a month on" books I dropped when I lost my job.
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I think Fear Itself may be intruding itself on the series in the latest issue, so maybe give it a read in the store after the next issue comes out to see how bad it is.
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Or just agree to disagree.
Seriously, though (unless nobody -wins noir stories make you depressed to suicide), Criminal.
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I went to a tiny local comic book convention on Saturday where a few British and Irish comic book illustrators were offering free sketches. I planned to ask Transformers artist Mike Roche for a drawing of Master Chief fighting a creeper (http://i.imgur.com/rnjBih.jpg), but when it turned out he wasn't familiar with Minecraft, I went with plan B.
"Are you by chance familiar with the new My Little Pony series?"
"Actually, I kind of sort of am."
"Could you draw me Wolverine riding a My Little Pony?"
(http://i.imgur.com/PduQm.png)
Afterwards, he proclaimed "That was actually a lot of fun to draw", took a photograph of the drawing, and signed it "Love Nick Roche x". Everyone within five feet chuckled at the finished drawing, including a long-haired British DC comics artist whose name I don't remember.
I also got this drawing of eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) (http://i.imgur.com/4Kbmb.png) from Mike Collins.
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(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/silveragegrounded.jpg)
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Secret Six is ending (http://www.606studios.com/bendisboard/showthread.php?208178-Okay-About-Secret-Six). Simone sounds pleased that it will have a natural end (rather than, say, what recently happened in Doom Patrol), so that's a silver lining.
I can't say I'm impressed with the new direction Deadshot or King Shark are taking (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dcnu-men-at-war-110609.html). Or Harley Quinn, who was briefly a member of the Six.
Unrelatedly, Vertigo's recent Strange Adventures (http://www.wired.com/underwire/tag/strange-adventures/) is exciting. I'm not quite done with it yet, but it's classic Vertigo: short sci-fi stories, body horror, and a strong blend of writers and artists.
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New Blue Beetle, though, so that's a plus.
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So Harley Quinn's rebooted design is... just awful.
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Unrelatedly, Vertigo's recent Strange Adventures (http://www.wired.com/underwire/tag/strange-adventures/) is exciting. I'm not quite done with it yet, but it's classic Vertigo: short sci-fi stories, body horror, and a strong blend of writers and artists.
I picked it up. I love the IDEA of anthologies but I found the execution wanting. There were bits I liked, like the imaginary friend story, but on the other hand that one was rather ruined by the fact that the protagonist for some reason looked exactly like Bobby Hill.
I also picked up the new Dark Horse Presents #1. Same kinda deal: I liked bits of it, I'll pick up the next one, and I hope it turns into something I can talk about in the Comics for People Who Don't Read Comics thread, but it's just not there yet.
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Solicitations for all 52 #1's DC is doing. (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/06/10/those-52-issue-one-solicitations-in-full/)
A couple of them sound like things I'm likely to buy (hey, Grant Morrison Superman), but mostly I'm not interested. I guess the two things that bug me about it are (1) Dick back to being Nightwing, undoing the most interesting thing that's happened in a Batman comic in 25 years and (2) even if this lasts a couple of years you know it's all going to be undone anyway as part of DC's endless cycle of throwing out continuity and then bringing it back.
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I also picked up the new Dark Horse Presents #1. Same kinda deal: I liked bits of it, I'll pick up the next one, and I hope it turns into something I can talk about in the Comics for People Who Don't Read Comics thread, but it's just not there yet.
That's fair. I didn't feel like chasing down my friends who only read a TPB a month and forcing the comic into their hands, like I do with Seaguy and Nextwave, but I feel like the book deserves my support. Part of that is reminding others that it exists and is a viable alternative to Feat Itself and Flashpoint.
That said, the Flashpoint story about Frankenstein is fun. I'll be following that new series.
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Yeah, I like Jeff Lemire (are you reading Sweet Tooth?) and I think Frankenstein was my favorite of the Seven Soldiers. I picked up #1; I didn't think it was outstanding but it was good enough that I'll keep reading.
And of course it doesn't (at least yet) really have anything to do with the main plot of Flashpoint, just like Fear Itself: Deadpool is only a Fear Itself book because it involves a hammer.
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...you know, the stated goals of the DC relaunch are actually admirable enough. Making the books new reader accessible, kid friendly, and self-contained, increasing the diversity in the universe, and having everyone quit running around in their damn underwear are all great ideas.
The main problem is that we've heard all this shit before and it never sticks. I'm supposed to believe Geoff Johns, the guy who's made a career of bringing back Silver Age characters, is going to lead DC into a fresh new world that's not completely stuck in the past? Yeah, isn't he the same guy who told us that Infinite Crisis was going to lead us back to a happier, less violent time and then it had Superboy-Prime punching motherfuckers' heads off?
So yeah, great ideas and all, but I don't think they'll stick, and I'm REALLY going to miss Dick as Batman.
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...you know, the stated goals of the DC relaunch are actually admirable enough. Making the books new reader accessible, kid friendly, and self-contained, increasing the diversity in the universe, and having everyone quit running around in their damn underwear are all great ideas.
If they REALLY wanted to do that, they'd find a way to get their books back into groceries and drugstores and stuff.
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Yeah, I like Jeff Lemire (are you reading Sweet Tooth?) and I think Frankenstein was my favorite of the Seven Soldiers. I picked up #1; I didn't think it was outstanding but it was good enough that I'll keep reading.
Nope, but I've heard its name enough that I'll check it out. The first trade will arrive at my local library in a few days.
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If they REALLY wanted to do that, they'd find a way to get their books back into groceries and drugstores and stuff.
I'm sure there are people talking about it.
Trouble is that the print periodical industry as a whole is in serious trouble; trying to move your product into a shrinking market is a tough sell. I think their emphasis on expanding bookstore and digital distribution is smart, but yeah, I'd like to see something besides Betty and Veronica in the checkout line too.
(Though in fairness, by all accounts Archie's actually been putting out some surprisingly good comics lately.)
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The main problem is that we've heard all this shit before and it never sticks. I'm supposed to believe Geoff Johns, the guy who's made a career of bringing back Silver Age characters, is going to lead DC into a fresh new world that's not completely stuck in the past?
It's already starting with Barbara Gordon as Batgirl.
I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that Dick Gordon is just going back to being Nightwing, instead of being forced to be Robin again.
Honestly the most exciting thing about the whole affair is the day and date digital release. Frankly the whole "We're going to be doing a fresh reboot... with the same writers, artists and guiding hand of Geoff Johns that we've always had."
Much like in the Heroic Age or whatever, where Marvel had this big moment where the characters gathered around saying about how things were going to be different and it was the start of a new age, then this began with Avengers #1 written by Bendis, it feels like this would be the perfect opportunity for some fresh blood to take over. DC has a lot of good up-and-comers, whose work is often sidelined by the needs and whims of Geoff Johns.
I'll probably still check out that Grant Morrison Action Comics though. Maybe since Morrison is being given control of both Batman AND Superman, he'll start pumping out a World's Finest book as well.
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It's already starting with Barbara Gordon as Batgirl.
Yes, and some (http://bitchmagazine.org/post/douchebag-decree-the-dc-comics-re-boot) people (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/oracle-is-stronger-than-batgirl-110606.html) are very angry about that.
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There's also this awkward conversation (http://www.the-gutters.com/comic/147-ron-chan) that's bound to happen at some point.
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It's already starting with Barbara Gordon as Batgirl.
Yeah, but I'm okay with that. I understand the diversity angle, but the way they got there was really and truly ugly. Wiping that away is a long time coming.
I guess we should consider ourselves lucky that Dick Gordon is just going back to being Nightwing, instead of being forced to be Robin again.
And that we get to keep Damian.
(Wonder where Tim is. Guess he's kinda redundant with three other Robins running around out there.)
Honestly the most exciting thing about the whole affair is the day and date digital release.
Meh.
I think the iPad and other portable devices are a great way to attract new readers.
I also don't think new readers give a shit if an issue comes out on Wednesday. They want to read Batman, and (with the exception of media-choreographed events) it doesn't really matter if it's this month's issue, last month's, or one from 25 years ago.
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It's already starting with Barbara Gordon as Batgirl.
Yeah, but I'm okay with that. I understand the diversity angle, but the way they got there was really and truly ugly. Wiping that away is a long time coming.
Chris Sims has a pretty good take (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/06/10/ask-chris-60-batgirl-walks-again/) on the whole thing.
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Deadpool #38: Bong Dazo clearly did not even bother to look at a photograph of Flagstaff before drawing this one.
It's the twenty-first century, dude; there's really no excuse for not doing cursory research. If you just wanted to draw a big fight in the middle of a dusty desert town, you should have just asked Way to change it to Queen Creek or something; it's not like the specific location matters. Hell, if Queen Creek is too obscure, it could have passed for Tucson.
But seriously guys, northern Arizona DOES have trees. They're the things that are on fire.
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Deadpool Bong
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Steve Rude wants to draw Superman. (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/06/16/steve-rude-would-like-to-work-for-dc-comics-please/)
Which I already knew and chose not to blather to the Internet about, but hey, now you guys know too.
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Wow. If I were DC, I'd give that man a New Gods book and just let him go nuts.
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Honestly if they put him on Action Comics with Morrison I would buy 10 copies.
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Scott Adams continues to dig himself deeper. (http://www.mediaite.com/online/dilbert-creator-scott-adams-believes-rapists-philanderers-are-just-behaving-naturally/)
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Clearly that's just his natural instinct.
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I have a theory that may have been brought up before, but I think the Marvel Universe ruined DC Comics. Used to be some team-ups, and the Justice Society/League/whatever, but not everything happened in the same world the way it did in Marvel, until Marvel did it. This concept proved cool, and so they emulated it, but I think it hurt all the books involved.
I would prefer a DC Comics brand that had a lot of separate worlds than the DC Universe they've got now, even if some of these worlds were connected, JLA style. Everything in DC being connected makes everything fucked eventually.
That's just a theory though, more likely what makes everything fucked up is bad writing and unfocused editorial staff. Just like at Marvel, where the universe thing works just fine.
Also, STOP DOING FUCKING COMPANY WIDE CROSSOVERS. I am sick to death of them. I want to be able to enjoy a god damned Spider-Man story line for more than three issues without seeing COMING SOON: SPIDER-MAN: CROSSOVER #A18672. Fuck right off, whole comics industry.
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Sort of.
I don't think setting everything (or, at least, the core books) in the same universe is inherently a bad thing, I think it's just that there are too goddamn many books now to keep them all straight -- both over the course of any given month and over the course of five decades of continuity.
When you'd see Spider-Man run into Ant-Man, that was cool because there were only a half-dozen books in the Marvel Universe. It was small and easy to keep straight (and internally consistent). Now there aren't even few enough SPIDER-MAN books in a month to keep them all straight without tripping over each other's continuity.
The Ultimate Universe has done a really good job of staying down to a set number of books and making them all fit together. I think Loeb really fucked everything up pretty badly there, but that's got nothing to do with internal consistency, just bad storytelling.
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Also they're killing Spider-Man in Ultimate.
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What do you guys think would actually help save comics as a whole?
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Also they're killing Spider-Man in Ultimate.
I'll believe it when I see it.
But yeah, they're doing a "death of" and then replacing him, anyway. And I suspect they will pull a Fury and give us a black Spider-Man.
What would be fucking awesome would be if they pulled a fast one and used this new Spidey as the lead on the upcoming Ultimate Spider-Man cartoon (and this would also help soften the blow of Spectacular's cancellation), but I doubt they'll go as far as that.
What do you guys think would actually help save comics as a whole?
Well, again, I think DC's relaunch idea is actually a good one on paper: ditch the baggage and give readers a book they can just pick up and enjoy without having to read 10 other books this month and 50 years' worth of backstory. And tone down the sex and violence so that parents are okay with buying them for their kids.
It would be nice to see them back on newsstands and in supermarkets, too, but I increasingly fear that that ship's sailed; the print periodical business as a whole is in serious trouble and I don't know if comics can make inroads where everybody else is suffering.
That said, it looks like they're making inroads at bookstores. Bookstores have been the main place people have bought comics for at least a decade anyway, and now they're starting to sell single issues instead of just collections. That's not a bad thing.
Other than that? Well, remind people that comics aren't just superheroes. The single best reminder we've got going right now is The Walking Dead TV show. Game of Thrones and other big multimedia tie-ins will help with that. Fifty million superhero movies won't, but they'll at least get a few people to buy the comics. Unless they suck.
I also think the 20-to-22-page for $3-$4 format is a barrier. As I said above, I really like the IDEA of anthologies like Dark Horse Presents and Strange Adventures, but their respective #1's were underwhelming. Mark Millar's CLiNT is gorgeous (and you can quote me on that) but it's sophomoric even by Mark Millar's standards; the articles are downright embarrassing. And you can't sell it in the checkout line (though it might do all right sitting next to Maxim on the rack).
There's also digital distribution to think of, and they've made some inroads. But right now it's extremely fragmented in terms of formats and stores, and they cost too much besides. And really, not that many people have iPads and I wouldn't want to read a comic on anything smaller.
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Well, North America is the only market hurting as bad as it is. Comics are doing well enough elsewhere.
To be honest, I think that the only route to real long-term survival for the DC/Marvel bunch is a two part strategy.
First, strip the core comics down to the bone. Maybe two monthlies tops for the flagship characters (we're talking only the biggest of the big), or even go to a single double-sized book, with old-style filler stories for the last half/third or so (gives you a variable size for the main story - more flexibility). Second-tier books get one book, and lesser guys can have mini-series, trades, specials or whatever fits their market. I mean, if it was me, I'd just cancel 'em all and put out the occasional high-quality standalone trade, but I recognize that's silly and that there will always be some steady demand for the core marvel/DC characters.
Then, make up the difference with new material. Stuff that has nothing whatsoever to do with the old core books. There's a lot of different ways you can go with this. You can have a large format book like Spirou or Shonen Jump that features multi-part series of variable length, small features, and one-offs. You can have them all over the place, or stick to a WEIRD TALES/CRIME! type format where each book sticks to a genre at least.
Essentially, you want to provide playgrounds where artists and writers can play. Anything successful can be spun off into it's own standalone series. This is the basic model for success that both Europe and Japan have followed for decades (hell, even the US USED to have quite a bit of that). You have a low-risk entry point for creators AND readers (a bundled product with something for everyone) and vastly increased flexibility. You can also go over to more trades and complete self-contained books, but that's also a logical outcome of the more successful monthly features in the big books.
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I'd like something formatted for Kindle.
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Marvel needs to release a sequel to Nextwave with Elsa Bloodstone, Hellcat, Songbird, and Squirrel Girl.
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Marvel needs to release a sequel to Nextwave
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So. This is a vision. This is what must be made reality. These are the lessons American comics need to learn from the businesses that have learned these lessons the hard way.
The centerpiece of this is monthly genre anthologies. They come in two print versions, one high-quality color and one cheap black-and-white. (If this leads to a resurgence in simpler coloring styles, good.) The dead-tree versions include download codes (managed through the publisher's website) giving you access to as many digital formats as the lawyers can manage - not just the popular ones (iPad, Kindle). If you buy it in print, you also get it digitally. Or you could save a buck and get the digital version separately - available in every supported format, with new formats added retroactively, repeatedly downloadable. DRM-free generic formats might be too much to ask, but as long as I'm dreaming....
Individual titles would be collected periodically, and all of the above would apply to the collections as well. If you just want a specific sub-issue of a specific title, you can get it digitally, but it's not cost-effective to do more than a few of those in favor of the anthologies.
The publisher might pick up some webcomics or even sponsor some of their own, and include premium bonus content in the anthologies and collected versions. Have a good mix of digital content to give away for free every day, and make sure people can see the free things without having an account. Convenience is the key to all of this.
All versions are released the same day. Dividing the anthologies by genre or demographic make it easier to sell in nontraditional environments; beyond comic book shops and conventional book stores, get some shelf space in coffee shops and grocery stores and airports. Let readers order copies directly from the publisher if they want, saving them the trouble of of punching in the download code manually. Let them subscribe, even. Sell wholesale boxes of the things to anybody who wants one, no questions asked, and let them figure it out.
New properties should be creator-owned where possible, because that way it's easier to get them to sign up in the first place. Established properties (since they're obviously doing this) would probably be under closer editorial control. Imagine having all your monthly pulls in a single volume, and also imagine that the titles in a single anthology might often cross over inside the same tome, but rarely outside of it.
So why can't this happen?
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The centerpiece of this is monthly genre anthologies.
You mean, why don't US comics follow a more WSJump format? My first guess would be distribution hurdles.
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The margins might also be higher on individual monthlies, though that's a pure guess on my part.
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Probably, but the goal is to increase the audience size.
The people who don't buy self-contained stories or anthologies are the same people buying 20-page monthlies and then complaining about them. It's the same old catch-22: the customers who are sustaining the industry are supporting the business model that is killing it.
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Oh, all I was trying to do was offer an explanation as to what sort of incentive/argument the industry uses to rationalize the current format to themselves.
You're certainly correct.
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Yeah, it's also responsible for the weird doublethink that has DC attempting to appeal to non-comic fan markets with their relaunches, while at the same time trying to
bring back the 90s retain their hardcore fanbase. This is why something like 90% of their new titles are superhero books.
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Weeell, they've also got Vertigo covering the non-superhero, non-traditional-audience stuff. Fables is still probably the biggest non-superhero property that doesn't have a TV show or movie associated with it, Sandman is still the go-to Comic for People Who Don't Read Comics 15 years after it ended, and Sweet Tooth and Unwritten are two of my current favorites.
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http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/06/21/dc-roadshow-hits-dallas-million-dollar-ad-spend-justice-league-beyond-and-black-people/ (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/06/21/dc-roadshow-hits-dallas-million-dollar-ad-spend-justice-league-beyond-and-black-people/)
Many of the new 52 books will have six issue story arcs, and Dan DiDio states that if sales are bad on a title, they won’t wait very long to cancel it. He wants strong sales across the line.
So we can say goodbye to anything that doesn't have Batman, Superman, GL or the Flash.
He also wants comics to ship on time and even mentioned that he is very willing to replace a writer or an artist if they fall behind.
With the exception of Grant Morrison, Jim Lee, Geoff Johns...
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Yeah, they'd NEVER pull the rug out from under Morrison.
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Yeah, it's also responsible for the weird doublethink that has DC attempting to appeal to non-comic fan markets with their relaunches, while at the same time trying to bring back the 90s retain their hardcore fanbase. This is why something like 90% of their new titles are superhero books.
Hey, it sounds just like the videogame industry. I dunno who that's a bad sign for.
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Oh hey, Marvel's going to start selling a bunch of anthologies at bookstores (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/06/20/marvel-to-change-the-face-of-newsstand-comics/).
Now if they could just put spinner racks by movie theater exits...
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Oh hey, Marvel's going to start selling a bunch of anthologies at bookstores (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/06/20/marvel-to-change-the-face-of-newsstand-comics/).
Now if they could just put spinner racks by movie theater exits...
That's actually a pretty good idea. You think they can really get back into the newsstands? As a child of the 90s I'm still surprised to see there's no longer comics at the drugstore anymore, but I guess magazines are dying too.
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Yeah, they'd NEVER pull the rug out from under Morrison.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2rTR2Dls5Yg/SiS0eybgnDI/AAAAAAAAB54/AaUWKTU53Ak/s400/sarcasm_detector.jpg)
Readings are indeterminate!
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There is only one Batman in the new DC Universe.
Which sorta runs counter to the ENTIRE PREMISE of Batman, Inc.
Sure, they're keeping Damian and the black guy, and they're relaunching Inc with a new #1, but they've still undone the most interesting developments Batman's had in 25 years.
Because apparently eight million Green Lanterns and Flashes are fine but more than one Batman is just too hard for new readers to understand.
(Which makes me think of the alleged reasoning behind not collecting Priest's run of Black Panther: "We're going in a different direction now and if we printed that stuff it would confuse the people reading the new stuff." Because new readers are, of course, stupid.)
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What ever happened to Wally? He was around for two or three issues when Barry came back but disappeared. Hell, in the new series there was a Flash Family dinner and he wasn't there. Nor was he there for the Flash Family Picnic.
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Yeah, they've kept multiple Green Lanterns because of the Green Lantern Corps, but Flash is a bad example because as soon as Barry came back Wally fell off the face of the goddamn earth.
At first I thought you were referring to what they did to him with RIP and Final Crisis. I don't think they're really pulling the rug out from under Morrison this time. Grayson becoming Nightwing again is counter to what he was setting up, as well as Bruce working with Damian, but none of the Inc. stuff seems impacted. All the other "Batmen" are there, with their own codenames, and Batwing is even getting his own monthly.
I feel worse for Gail Simone.
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So I guess the new status quo will include breaking up Lois and Clark. Hey DC. Fuck you. I am so god damned sick of your fucking stunts every 18 months, no wonder I haven't even looked at one of your books for the last six.
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Just read USM #160.
Wow. That was... all of 5 pages. 3 of them leaked. Seriously.
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Okay, if you've never heard of Moebius (I've mentioned him before), here a quick rundown:
- French, been drawing since the 60's
- Probably the most significant science-fiction comic artist of the 60's or 70's, with significant production and relevance even today
- He's one of the two founders of the original Heavy Metal (Metal Hurlant)
- He is partially (and in some cases almost entirely) responsible for the look and atmosphere of these films:
# Alien (1979)
# The Time Masters (1982)
# Tron (1982)
# Masters of the Universe (1987)
# Willow (1988)
# The Abyss (1989)
# The Fifth Element (1997)
- He has also had significant indirect influence on the look and feel of stuff like Blade Runner, Star Wars, The original uncompleted Dune adaptation (which in turn influenced the David Lynch version), Neuromancer, etc.
Basically, if it's science fiction, it's cool, and it was made in the last 40 years, he's probably in there somewhere.
His books are really hard to find and are quite expensive (some of the collections are going for well over $100 on Amazon/ebay), but I have just about all of them and the rarity of the print books seems to be mirrored by a rarity of torrents or other online sources.
I'm not here for SWEET BRAGS BRO, but to instead ask if anybody is interested in my sacrificing the spines of some of these books to scan and share them. Because he really is that good. I can't really do it with the long stories, but the short ones are his best work anyway.
Anybody interested?
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If there aren't any scans on the major torrent sites already, I'm sure somebody there will appreciate it. I'm not sure myself, and at any rate I won't be able to take advantage of such a thing for a few weeks.
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There are some torrents I think, but they don't have many seeds and a lot of them may be in a language other than English. Basically, I can provide an entry point. Anybody who likes the stuff can of course go looking for proper CBZs or buy the books afterwards.
I just figure it'll take a while to do all the scans, so I want to see if there's actual interest first.
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Definitely interested. I've seen his work referenced all over the place, and I've flipped through some issues of Airtight Garage.
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Well, that's er, 1.5 people so far. Buge? Thad? Anybody else?
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...Ubuntu has borked the portrait display I use for reading comics on my laptop, and personally I couldn't imagine destroying the binding on any of my treasured comics. Sounds like it'd be a neat damn thing but I'm not going to push.
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What Thad said. I think I'd rather make the trip to your house and read them, all things being equal.
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Well, I think I probably overstated the amount of real destruction involved.
I would be sacrificing my smaller Dark Horse reprints (just as hard to find as the Epic collections, but smaller and not as good quality - easily good enough for scans though), not the original $100+ books. And I wouldn't actually be cutting them up, just fanning them really hard.
Basically, if the consequences for my library are what's worrying you, don't worry about it.
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Some guy with manga scans on his laptop was arrested by Canadian Customs for possessing child pornography. Now The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is coming to his, um, defense. (http://cbldf.org/homepage/cbldf-forms-coalition-to-defend-american-comics-reader-facing-criminal-charges-in-canada/)
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In a delightful bit of synchronicity, Thwipster is selling the hardcover re-release of Moebius's The Incal today for $27 (http://www.thwipster.com/)
Note: That link stops working after tomorrow.
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Dark Horse Presents #2 still doesn't quite rise to the level where I'll recommend it to people who don't read comics, but there's a lot of good stuff there. The Concrete story is just wonderfully told (and unlike Bong Dazo, it appears that Chadwick knows how to research locations before he draws them; I've never been to Haleakala Crater but it looks like it was described to me instead of "generic Hawaii landscape"), and Finder is a pretty little self-contained story despite being a "part 2". Number 13: Part 1 and Blood: Part 2, by contrast, both feel like they just drop off at the end without a satisfying narrative arc, which seems particularly odd in Blood's case given that Part 1 worked perfectly well on its own.
I also quite like The Wraith, a silent Batman parody by Patrick Alexander that feels like something by Aragones or Jaffee.
But I'm going to pick on Chaykin a bit here.
Chaykin is a great artist and his work here is subpar; I've come to like Photoshop inking less and less over the years. It doesn't feel as rough as Sanford Green's work later in the book but it's still not up to Chaykin's standards.
The plot's not much better, as it seems half a retread of last month.
But worst of all is the script, which is almost unreadable. Here's the dialogue from page 1:
Anita: I'm telling you, Albert, he's out there.
Albert: And I'm telling you--
Anita: Yeah, yeah, I know...
Anita: ...this is what got me pulled off field assignments in the first place.
Albert: And that condescending tone didn't help either, Anita.
Anita: Fine. None of which gets to the heart of the matter...
Albert: Which is...?
Anita: Which is that there's one bad actor out there...
Anita: ...who's responsible for all these unsolved crimes.
Albert: Your so-called "Perpetrator Zero."
Anita: Your choice of words, not mine.
Albert: Maybe--but you've been flogging this dead horse for two years now...
And it goes on like that for seven more pages.
I don't know if it's Chaykin or his letterer who's responsible for that awful, unreadable mess of misplaced emphasis, but for Christ's sake you'd think that's what editors are for.
Kinda hope it's the letterer's fault and not Chaykin's; I know Chaykin's more experienced as an artist than a writer, but he's been in this business long enough to have picked up the simple rule that you read your dialogue out loud to see if it sounds natural.
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Maybe off-panel there's someone who's grabbing and fondling their parts. And the bolds are when they squeeze particularly hard.
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Anita: Which is that there's one bad actor out there...
Not including you.
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Yeah, the whole thing reads like it's being performed by William Shatner.
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Maybe off-panel there's someone who's grabbing and fondling their parts. And the bolds are when they squeeze particularly hard.
Given that it's Howard Chaykin, this may be the correct interpretation.
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Every single thing I hear about the new status quo planned for DC makes me like it less and less, and I was already not buying their books before they even started this nonsense.
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Yeah, the guy who owns/runs my comic shop got to go to a meeting in Chicago with DiDio and about 30 other regional comic shops owners, and everything he told me about it basically boils down to "don't worry guys, nothing's really going to change lol". That, and the stuff they've said about being even more ruthless about cancelling underperforming titles makes me think the titles I'm actually interested in(Demon Knight, the western and war titles, and a few others) will end up getting lost in the fray amongst the dozens of traditional superhero comics, and cut within the first 6 months to make way for more Green Lantern spinoffs.
Of course, like Bal, I don't buy any current comics, and I don't plan to, so my purchasing habits will remain exactly the same: wait for the trades.
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All I want from comics right now is for there to be a moratorium on brand wide crossovers for three years. Just three. You can do smaller crossovers, even fairly large events, but nothing brand wide. No Crises, no Civil War or Dark Reign, or whatever else, just fucking comic books. I want a Spider-Man story that lasts more than five issues without an ad in the back promoting Spider-Man: Crossover #1 for three whole god damned years. Maybe do a story where the New York based heroes, Spidey, the FF, Luke Cage and company, but just them. Kind of like Maximum Carnage was. That was a pretty big crossover, but Thor didn't give a shit about it, because it all happened in New York, and really only over the course of like two days. Not that I hold that particular story to some great standard, but it had the right scope. Oh, and even the stuff involving other heroes happened in SPIDER-MAN BOOKS.
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Well, again, that kind of seems like what they're (claiming to be) doing -- even books with common characters seem to be insulated from one another. Action Comics is dealing with an early Superman, while Superman is dealing with the "modern" version; similar with the Batman in Justice League versus the one in the various Bat-books.
Again, my problem with this thing isn't its stated goals -- those are actually pretty good. My problem with it is that I'm not stupid enough to believe Lucy's really going to let me kick the football this time.
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That's what DC is claiming, but the problem I now have with them, even if they follow through on that, is that the premises for practically every single one of their new, rebooted books seems absolutely terrible.
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Spurgeon's Law. I'm interested in roughly the same number of books now as I was before, and that is rooted entirely around my affection for the creative teams on them.
I've been looking forward to Batwoman for some time, and I dig Morrison's pitch for Superman. Aside from that, bringing Stormwatch into the DCU sounds like a fucking stupid idea but I'm willing to give it a shot because Cornell's on it; I'll probably read the Demon book he's doing as well.
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Spurgeon's Law. I'm interested in roughly the same number of books now as I was before, and that is rooted entirely around my affection for the creative teams on them.
But how long will they last with DC's harsher cancellation rules?
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Depends on how far ahead they are and how many fill-ins are ready to go.
Batwoman, for example, really has no excuse for being late for awhile given that it's been delayed three times at this point. And I'm sure there are drawers full of unused Batman and Superman stories that can be used in a pinch. (Apparently Kurt Busiek's Krypto story finally saw print recently; I'll have to pick that up.)
Now, books getting canceled at the drop of a hat due to low sales is probably the most potentially alarming thing about all this; Blue Beetle's been canceled once and it could easily happen again. OTOH, there are books DC's going to want to prop up for various reasons -- Jonah Hex has been in print for years despite low sales and an atrocious movie tie-in, because it's DC's only western. (That's why, while I think Ted's right that Demon could face immediate and arbitrary cancellation, I think they'll keep the western and war comics around as long as they can just for the sake of variety.) Similarly, Batwoman, Static, Blue Beetle, Firestorm, and Mr. Terrific all feature minority characters, which is something DC's trying to play up right now. (Course, I AM cynical enough to believe someone could say "Well, we only need ONE black guy" and cancel Firestorm and Mr. Terrific but leave Static.)
Still, though, books I like being canceled prematurely (Thor: Mighty Avenger) or retooled so I'm no longer interested in them (Cornell's Action Comics) aren't exactly a new phenomenon.
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Hopefully, the exposure Jaime's gotten from BatB will be enough to boost sales on his solo book. Of course, there's still the issue of quality: a look at Tony Bedard's wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Bedard) doesn't exactly instill me with confidence that the new title will actually be any good.
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Looks like he's mostly been shunted from one third-string book to another for 20 years, with a little X-Men thrown in.
I've got a soft spot for 1990's-era Valiant comics, though (though I grant that's pretty much entirely from Quantum and Woody).
Yeah, I'm not seeing anything in there that jumps out at me as great, but I'm also not seeing anything jumping out at me as awful. Except Countdown. And if I were to hold Countdown against its writing team I'd have to include Dini, so.
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All I want from comics right now is for there to be a moratorium on brand wide crossovers for three years. Just three. You can do smaller crossovers, even fairly large events, but nothing brand wide. No Crises, no Civil War or Dark Reign, or whatever else, just fucking comic books. I want a Spider-Man story that lasts more than five issues without an ad in the back promoting Spider-Man: Crossover #1 for three whole god damned years. Maybe do a story where the New York based heroes, Spidey, the FF, Luke Cage and company, but just them. Kind of like Maximum Carnage was. That was a pretty big crossover, but Thor didn't give a shit about it, because it all happened in New York, and really only over the course of like two days. Not that I hold that particular story to some great standard, but it had the right scope. Oh, and even the stuff involving other heroes happened in SPIDER-MAN BOOKS.
I was thinking about crossovers today, and I agree with you. I would, however, like to see more integration of teams and books with the universe at large. Things like when the X-Men went to Asgard or when the Avengers fought in the Kree-Skrull War. Just a change of venue to get the characters to grow in new and interesting ways.
Or heck, put the X-Men in space. There's less than two hundred mutants in the world, so why not just fit Utopia with a warp engine or something? Humans will be happy they don't have to deal with the "mutant menace" and mutants don't have to worry about persecution.
But then again, that would mean that Wolverine wouldn't be on six teams anymore.
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It wouldn't and you know it.
You know, I always liked Asteroid M.
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I'd like a book to come out that confirms the multiple Wolverines theory.
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Mark Millar's run on Fantastic Four dropped Old Man Logan into the present.
EDIT: And, per Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_versions_of_Wolverine#The_Hooded_Man), the Fantastic Force mini stuck him back in the future. Oh well.
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I was just implying that Wolverine lives in some kind of weird quantum existence where he appears to behave both as an team member and a solo hero at the same time. What I'm saying is, if you were to create a vacuum, Wolverine would appear within it.
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My theory is bits of Wolverine grew into Whole Wolverines and no one noticed.
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Lobo had that ability, for a while.
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Following New Avengers 16, Bendis' last Fear Itself tie-in, Issue 16.1 sets up the next story line for both his Avengers and New Avengers titles: the rise of Norman Osborn and the new H.A.M.M.E.R., as well as the return of the Dark Avengers. With Osborn out of prison (as seen in Kelly Sue DeConnick's recent Osborn miniseries), he and his new group make their first big move, and the Avengers are there to deal with it.
"The idea is to really set up H.A.M.M.E.R. to be even over Hydra and A.I.M. as far as this organization that has a worldview that is just different from that of the heroes. Not necessarily villainous, but the only way for them to do what they have to do is really go to war with the Avengers and Steve Rogers. It's quite an interesting cast of characters that Norman's going to build up," says Bendis, who's currently working on next summer's "big giant hoo-hah" event. "It's pretty awesome."
(http://data.whicdn.com/images/2228023/tumblr_kueysem6Tr1qzjzkvo1_500_thumb.jpg?1273722806)
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... did i fall through a time portal
what year is this
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The biggest problem with Kirby: Genesis #1 is that the art is incredibly bland and generic -- Ross did the (excellent) layouts, and drew a few bits within the issue, but he's not the main artist; the bulk of the issue looks like any number of DC House Style artists could have drawn it.
But as I read it, it became clear that was by design: the mundane art is for the mundane scenes, and every time a Kirby character shows up the art POPS. The book is all about the contrast between real life and the ideals we've created through superhero comics, and the art reflects the high concept perfectly.
It's a decent book and I figure I'll probably stick with it. It's pretty by-the-numbers Busiek and Ross, but I LIKE by-the-numbers Busiek and Ross.
If you've never read Marvels, Astro City, or Kingdom Come, pick those up instead. But if you have, this is worth a look.
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NEW 2011 DC SUPER FRIENDS JUSTICE LEAGUE CARTOON part 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHiJyTKBEv8#)
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I can't decide which is worse, the voice acting, sound effects or the shoes.
Nice that they were able to get Cyborg's VA from Teen titans though I guess?
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...that's Green Lantern's VA from Justice League.
:racist:
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I wanted to post a video showing that they are at least painfully similar (saying only that the VA did a good job) but apparently you can't have a video of cyborg on Youtube without it being a fan music video.
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I can't seem to find any trace of this cartoon on wikipedia or IMDB. You sure it's Phil LaMarr, not Khary Payton?
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Actually, never mind.
Once you mentioned Phil Lamarr I instantly recognized the voice.
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I can't seem to find any trace of this cartoon on wikipedia or IMDB. You sure it's Phil LaMarr, not Khary Payton?
I'm pretty sure it's filed under Superfriends (2010) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1773355/), because what Superfriends thing was there last year?
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I don't know if the actual comic is any good at all, but man, this is the best comic trailer I've seen in a long time.
Infinite Kung Fu - Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jipeVbR48E4#ws)
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We already know Superman won't be married to Lois Lane come September. So how does DC top One More Day? Simple.
HIS PARENTS ARE DEEEAAAAAAAAD! (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dcnu-superman-lois-lane-break-up-110718.html)
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Of course they fucking are; this is Morrison overtly using the original Siegel/Shuster version of Superman.
Superman's parents were dead from 1939 to 1986. This is the OPPOSITE of a retcon.
(Though if you want to get technical, Action Comics #1 states that Clark Kent was raised in an orphanage. So the existence of Ma and Pa Kent is ITSELF a retcon.)
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The opposite of a retcon is still a retcon.
So, they're removing most of Superman's supporting cast. I assume they'll give him new ones, which won't stick because comic book writer inertia is the most powerful force on earth.
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Well yes, that's the other reason that the nerdrage over this is completely asinine.
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Ok. I know this is old news but I recently picked up some Mighty Avengers and started reading.
First book was #11 and all I can say is
What the shit? Why does every panel have someone with a thought bubble repeating what they said out loud or just cursing. It's not endearing, it's not making things more personal. It just looks bad and makes the writing feel cheap and sleazy.
I'm going to read one more. If it's there, I'm done with it until someone can tell me they stop doing that.
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Honestly? Morrison is doing something that's vastly more interesting than Brainiac attack#35687-C or Kneel Before Zod or whatever 2000 stories that all end with Superman punching something. A return to his Siegel/Schuster roots is great because that Superman was a stone cold badass. Not paying your workers enough or having unsafe conditions, Mr. Mine Boss? Then prepare to be sealed in your mine until you die.
That said I imagine everything will change once Man of Seel is released and he has to reset to the John Byrne status quo
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Ok. I know this is old news but I recently picked up some Mighty Avengers and started reading.
First book was #11 and all I can say is
What the shit? Why does every panel have someone with a thought bubble repeating what they said out loud or just cursing. It's not endearing, it's not making things more personal. It just looks bad and makes the writing feel cheap and sleazy.
I'm going to read one more. If it's there, I'm done with it until someone can tell me they stop doing that.
You've never read anything by Bendis, have you?
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USM, I guess. But there were only Spider-man's thought bubbles. Sure it was bitching, but Spider-man's secret power is the proportional bitching of a spider.
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spiders got tough lives man
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...so I haven't been keeping up with Black Panther Takes Over Daredevil's Book, but according to Comics Worth Reading (http://comicsworthreading.com/2011/07/18/marvel-spinner-rack-black-panther-521-ff-6-iron-age-2/comment-page-1/#comment-120822), in the latest issue he fights the Hate-Monger (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/05/11/five-goofiest-moments-in-fantastic-four-21-25/), who this time is a right-winger who blames all his problems on affirmative action.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to buy that book.
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I like how the second-to-last entry straight-up acknowledges "Oh come on, nobody really dies in these things". Not that that's changed or anything, but they sure were cheerily open about it once upon a time.
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Still not caring about most of the relaunch, but Cornell remains a bright spot:
On Demon Knights: Cornell said that he was very excited to write this book, and that its swords and sorcery is in the Dragon Age/Game of Thrones vein. Additionally, a new character called the Horsewoman is involved. Horsewoman will reportedly use a wheelchair, and while Cornell explained he knows she can't replace Oracle, he's very excited about her.
On Stormwatch: They've been around in the DC Universe for a long time, and find the new superheroes such as the Justice League rather unprofessional and gauche, since they were fighting alien invasions and similar threats covertly for years. He also stated that he wanted to get a "They're Still Gay" T-shirt to reassure people about Apollo and Midnighter, and that the villain in the first arc is -- wait for it -- the moon.
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The Flashpoint comics baffle me. You have a few "What if this dude didn't have powers? Well his life would kinda suck" series, a few "What if Deathstroke was a PIRATE" series, and some that seem to be introducing characters but are just kind of off there (The Outsider, mary sue of the decade)
It's like, do these comics stand for themselves? Are they pointing towards DC's "new" direction (which seems to be exactly the same as the old direction)? We just don't know.
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It's pretty much Age of Apocalypse, isn't it?
I dunno, the only one I picked up was Frankenstein.
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Zara
You're reading a DC event book.
Please seek medical attention immediately.
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I'm bored
also I picked up all of Locke & Key and it is awesome. it's like a cross of warehouse 13 with lemony snicket. you should all read it all
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A thoughtful essay on DC's decision to change Oracle back to Batgirl (http://www.bleedingcool.com/forums/showthread.php?45377-Give-Batgirl-The-Chair-by-Eric-Glover)
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An interview with the girl who asked Dan Didio questions at SDCC (http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/8130151171/bgsdccinterview)
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Just finished League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1969. It has some of O'Neill's most gorgeous work. As for the story, I'm still trying to decide how I feel about it, but one thing's clear: Alan Moore is full of shit.
Moore spends every interview he does griping about how he'll never do superheroes again and how sad it is that everything's all grim-'n'-gritty and nobody does anything light and fun.
Well, first of all, League is a goddamn superhero book. Dress it up however the hell you want, it's a superhero team, whether they wear tights or not. (And incidentally, Mina does in fact wear a damn superhero costume in this one.)
Also, Moore's continual griping about what a horrible thing he did in The Killing Joke is somewhat undercut by scenes like [spoiler]Mina getting straight-up molested by Tom Riddle[/spoiler].
Seriously. I understand what he's doing here, and why the book had to end on the note it did, but...it's all a bit too far. Not nearly as nasty as Neonomicon, of course, but still...just feels like he's going for shock value here.
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WARNING: Don't read the news until WEDNESDAY. The New Spider-man has been announced to news sources.
Read it here, if you want spoiled (http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/2011-08-01-black-spider-man_n.htm)
I find it a bit silly that comic fans keep getting the biggest news spoiled by major news outlets. You didn't see USA Today's frontpage ever being DUMBLEDORE DIES or something. But this is an old complaint.
Also, it SEEMS like they want to make this permanent (as permanent as these things get nowadays, anyway).
I can see it sticking until the new Ultimate Spider-man cartoon get's announced at least. I'm actually hoping it's permanent. I love USM's Peter but the idea they can get rid of Peter Parker in a Spider-man comic is an interesting one. The Ultimate Universe revolves around Spider-man though, so we'll see how this works, I guess.
No spoiler tags in this post because Death of Spider-man and him being replaced is two years old by now, right? I figure if you didn't know he died, you've been away for long enough you need something to get you back in. Maybe a minor "spoiler" would help.
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I don't care about the spoiler, so it's okay, but I had no idea they killed off Peter Parker.
Of course, after all the Quesada bullshit, maybe they were just putting him out of his misery.
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Wrong Spider-man! Ultimate Spider-man is the 16 year-old one from the Ultimate line. He and Mary Jane weren't even dating.
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Fuck it. Spoiler time:
[spoiler]Italian artist Sara Pichelli, who was integral in designing the new Spider-Man's look, says, "Maybe sooner or later a black or gay — or both — hero will be considered something absolutely normal." [/spoiler]
[spoiler]
Some people (read excitable morons) believe this to mean that the new guy is gay. It'd be interesting, but I doubt that's the case. I'd say that's TOO much they're doing. Killing one of the biggest names in comics is one thing, but to replace him with a gay guy? There is no way that'd stick. People will already be upset at the replacement, don't get homophobes in on the trashing Marvel. It'd be interesting to see a big name be openly gay though, but I don't think that'll happen through Spidey. [/spoiler]
Also, I was thinking about something that hit just now, leaving me with a few predictions. [spoiler]Miles will be first appearing in Peter's costume and will be seen by people who knew Peter. Then he'll get his own costume. After his death, Peter Parker Spider-man is a national hero and loved by all. The new guy stepping in will be seen with a lot of hate, I'm guessing. Which will keep him true to the Spider-man form but with a rather nice twist. I can't wait to see what JJJ, who just came around to loving begrudingly accepting loving Peter, does with this new Spider-man. He'll probably menace-ize the new guy and say he's spoiling the image of the original or something but maybe he's learned his lesson and treats the new guy as a hero? [/spoiler]
Ok. I'm done until Wednesday, at least.
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Just finished League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1969. It has some of O'Neill's most gorgeous work. As for the story, I'm still trying to decide how I feel about it, but one thing's clear: Alan Moore is full of shit.
Moore spends every interview he does griping about how he'll never do superheroes again and how sad it is that everything's all grim-'n'-gritty and nobody does anything light and fun.
Well, first of all, League is a goddamn superhero book. Dress it up however the hell you want, it's a superhero team, whether they wear tights or not. (And incidentally, Mina does in fact wear a damn superhero costume in this one.)
Also, Moore's continual griping about what a horrible thing he did in The Killing Joke is somewhat undercut by scenes like [spoiler]Mina getting straight-up molested by Tom Riddle[/spoiler].
Seriously. I understand what he's doing here, and why the book had to end on the note it did, but...it's all a bit too far. Not nearly as nasty as Neonomicon, of course, but still...just feels like he's going for shock value here.
I've also heard it said that the story itself takes a backseat to cramming as many literary references as possible. Chris Sims said it was "Family Guy for smart people".
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Oh was it just Ultimate Spidey they killed?
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Just finished League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1969. It has some of O'Neill's most gorgeous work. As for the story, I'm still trying to decide how I feel about it, but one thing's clear: Alan Moore is full of shit.
Moore spends every interview he does griping about how he'll never do superheroes again and how sad it is that everything's all grim-'n'-gritty and nobody does anything light and fun.
Well, first of all, League is a goddamn superhero book. Dress it up however the hell you want, it's a superhero team, whether they wear tights or not. (And incidentally, Mina does in fact wear a damn superhero costume in this one.)
Also, Moore's continual griping about what a horrible thing he did in The Killing Joke is somewhat undercut by scenes like [spoiler]Mina getting straight-up molested by Tom Riddle[/spoiler].
Seriously. I understand what he's doing here, and why the book had to end on the note it did, but...it's all a bit too far. Not nearly as nasty as Neonomicon, of course, but still...just feels like he's going for shock value here.
Actually, it felt like the whole book was structured like a bad acid trip (if there's one thing Alan Moore knows, it's mind-expanding drugs). There's a gradual buildup of intensity in colour and sensation, but it starts to accelerate and go too far, culminating in a crash and burnout.
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Just finished League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century: 1969. It has some of O'Neill's most gorgeous work. As for the story, I'm still trying to decide how I feel about it, but one thing's clear: Alan Moore is full of shit.
Moore spends every interview he does griping about how he'll never do superheroes again and how sad it is that everything's all grim-'n'-gritty and nobody does anything light and fun.
Well, first of all, League is a goddamn superhero book. Dress it up however the hell you want, it's a superhero team, whether they wear tights or not. (And incidentally, Mina does in fact wear a damn superhero costume in this one.)
Also, Moore's continual griping about what a horrible thing he did in The Killing Joke is somewhat undercut by scenes like [spoiler]Mina getting straight-up molested by Tom Riddle[/spoiler].
Seriously. I understand what he's doing here, and why the book had to end on the note it did, but...it's all a bit too far. Not nearly as nasty as Neonomicon, of course, but still...just feels like he's going for shock value here.
Well it's pretty minimal rape (like we were talking in the channels, it's a rape-lite) when compared to, well, pretty much every other issue of LEG.
The most annoying thing is the sheer amount of sex. It's like, sex, sex, sex, gay sex, vampire sex, lesbian sex, sex, sex, talk about sex, man-on-hermaphrodite sex, sex. Even for Alan Moore, this is excessive and completely distracts from anything else that might be going on. It's like trying to read the newspaper in a strip show, you get distracted off both things and can't do either properly.
Also, the references are all both old and British, so most readers are gonna be completely confused. If they have to take half the references off to get Century 2009 out earlier, it'll be unnoticeable.
Also: [spoiler]if Voldemort is the newest reincarnation of Aleister Crowley/Oliver Haddo, does that mean Harry Potter is the Moonchild?[/spoiler]
(THAD EDIT: Spoiler tagged, even though it's a pretty obvious twist.)
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Oh hey, they actually killed Tarot...
in the most hilariously gruesome way! (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/06/02/thor-tarot-watch-black-rose/)
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So, what you guys are saying is that Alan Moore is well past his sell-by date?
I, uh, can't say I'm surprised.
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I wouldn't say that, I'd just say it's time he gets over his mid-age crisis. Though I can't quite recall any comic writers that have done so successfully.
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Is 57 'middle age' now?
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I can see it sticking until the new Ultimate Spider-man cartoon get's announced at least. I'm actually hoping it's permanent.
I was actually disappointed when they confirmed that animated USM was going to be Peter. Because really, it'd be a pretty neat trick if he wasn't.
I've also heard it said that the story itself takes a backseat to cramming as many literary references as possible. Chris Sims said it was "Family Guy for smart people".
I haven't read Sims's review yet (just about to), but I think he's missed the point. He's right that the story isn't there, and that the obscure literary references are a mile a minute, but I think he's incorrect in assuming that the story isn't there BECAUSE the obscure literary references are a mile a minute. The series has always played with that.
The reason the story isn't there is that Moore's entirely focused on the tone of it. It's about the end of the 1960's, the world spinning out of control, and Mina herself desperately trying to fit in with a world that's changed around her. And yes, the last half of the book is a bad trip.
It is, of course, also the second act of a trilogy, so it doesn't have a happy ending.
Actually, it felt like the whole book was structured like a bad acid trip (if there's one thing Alan Moore knows, it's mind-expanding drugs). There's a gradual buildup of intensity in colour and sensation, but it starts to accelerate and go too far, culminating in a crash and burnout.
Well, yes. But what I'm saying is that Moore goes beyond that and into nasty-for-the-sake-of-nasty (and with [spoiler]a character from a series of children's books[/spoiler], to boot, not that that's a new thing for him).
Well it's pretty minimal rape (like we were talking in the channels, it's a rape-lite) when compared to, well, pretty much every other issue of LEG.
Granted, this is a series that started out with Polyanna being raped by the Invisible Man, but that doesn't really excuse it. Moore's not treading any new ground here, he's spinning the same wheels he has been for years; at least in Lost Girls and Neonomicon it seemed like there was a point to it, but here it doesn't even really serve the story. The story already ends with [spoiler]Mina having a nervous breakdown and hallucinating that Dracula's coming after her again[/spoiler], and Haddo makes a reference to the bit with Griffin in vol 2.
The most annoying thing is the sheer amount of sex. It's like, sex, sex, sex, gay sex, vampire sex, lesbian sex, sex, sex, talk about sex, man-on-hermaphrodite sex, sex. Even for Alan Moore, this is excessive and completely distracts from anything else that might be going on. It's like trying to read the newspaper in a strip show, you get distracted off both things and can't do either properly.
Yeah, but...1969.
Also, the references are all both old and British, so most readers are gonna be completely confused. If they have to take half the references off to get Century 2009 out earlier, it'll be unnoticeable.
I didn't get most of them but I didn't find them distracting either. I'm going to poke through some annotations here shortly, but I think Moore's right when he says he shouldn't have to tone down the references for Americans -- that he read Mad Magazine growing up and they never bothered to explain who Adlai Stevenson was.
But yeah, generally I found that the story still worked even without knowing who everybody was -- and I've always liked the little Easter Eggs (like the Diabolik ref).
Also: [spoiler]if Voldemort is the newest reincarnation of Aleister Crowley/Oliver Haddo, does that mean Harry Potter is the Moonchild?[/spoiler]
Hm. It certainly fits.
Wonder who else'll show up. Moore's already made repeated reference to Jack Bauer at least getting mentioned, and given that he's a South Park fan I'm guessing the boys will at least put in a cameo.
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Re: Spider-Man. And I'm going to drop the spoiler tags now, because it's unlikely that there's anybody left who doesn't know at this point.
Byrne brings up a valid point, in his own extremely John Byrne way:
More creative bankruptcy. Remember the Black Panther? Remember Luke Cage?
Somewhere along the line -- and, sadly, it's not recent -- Black characters at Marvel suddenly were only allowed if they adopted the names of existing characters. Iron Man. Captain Marvel. Giant-Man (who'd begun with the staggeringly original name "Black Goliath"). Nick Fury. Now, a Black Spider-Man.
I'll admit to having created only a handful of Black characters, but at least NONE of them were forced to follow in some White guy's footsteps.
Aren't Black audiences weary yet of this modern-day Minstrel Show?
And that got me wondering: what non-legacy superheroes HAVE gained mainstream popularity in the past 20 years?
Here's what I came up with:
Static
Spawn
Hellboy
The Tick
Gray areas:
Blade (created in the 1970's, got a movie in the 1990's)
Savage Dragon (had a cartoon, I don't think it was that popular)
Mysterymen (had a movie, ditto)
Kick-Ass (ditto, and as the most recent it's a bit early to tell what its staying power will be)
New Teen Titans (not sure if this counts as "non-legacy"; Starfire, Raven, and Cyborg are non-legacy characters explicitly created for a legacy team book)
First of all, it's interesting to note the number of minority characters on the list.
Second, it's also quite interesting to note just how many of those are creator-owned. (Or at least were originally. Does DC own Static outright now?) I think, as much as anything, that points out the real inertia in the Big Two -- it's not that people aren't creating new characters for them; they are, all the time. But I think people who read DC and Marvel are probably less likely to buy books featuring new characters. And even out of the ones who become popular, it's rare for any to be worth the risk of a jump to TV, let alone film. (Though if the Deadpool movie gets made, he'll go on the list too.)
Blade's the real outlier; he's an obscure 1970's character revived for a film franchise a couple of decades later, right as Marvel was coming off of bankruptcy and right after Batman and Robin poisoned the well for superhero movies. It was a comparably low-budget, low-risk venture -- and so were most of the rest of the movies/shows on this list.
So, people ARE making new shit. And a handful are making POPULAR new shit. But most of those are doing it outside the DC/Marvel framework.
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(http://geeksyndicate.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/boostergold.jpg)
"Hey, what about me?"
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Doesn't he go back to the 80's? If not further?
Anyway, Thad seems to think that list is.. I don't know, hopeful? I think it's appalling. If any other industry had gone thirty some years of hundreds of monthly releases without more than three or four really good product successes, that industry is probably dead. Mainstream north American comics work so heavily off nostalgia and legacy product that it's amazing they can even pay for ink each month let alone limp along as viable businesses.
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Doesn't he go back to the 80's? If not further?
Yeah, and I'm not sure a smattering of TV appearances really qualify as mainstream recognition.
Anyway, Thad seems to think that list is.. I don't know, hopeful? I think it's appalling. If any other industry had gone thirty some years of hundreds of monthly releases without more than three or four really good product successes, that industry is probably dead. Mainstream north American comics work so heavily off nostalgia and legacy product that it's amazing they can even pay for ink each month let alone limp along as viable businesses.
But really, how many non-legacy superhero characters became popular in the 1980's? (The TMNT, of course -- also creator-owned. Watchmen, though you could argue they don't satisfy the "non-legacy" requirement given that they're mostly Ditko characters with a fresh coat of paint.) The 1970's?
(I could ask "The 1950's?" but that wouldn't really be fair as legacy characters really WERE a fresh new idea back then. The Barry Allen Flash was a big goddamn deal.)
For all that I hate DC and Marvel's inertia and reliance on legacy characters, it's understandable. The 1940's and 1960's were unique decades in the history of comics and showcased the most amazing talents that the superhero genre has ever seen. So the fact that guys have managed to create breakout success stories at all in the past couple of decades -- and done it while KEEPING THE RIGHTS TO THEIR CHARACTERS -- yeah, that's a good thing.
And of course once you quit restricting it to superheroes you've got quite a lot of American comic-book success stories. Y: The Last Man, Fables, Ghost World, Road to Perdition, 100 Bullets, Hellblazer, Sandman, Walking Dead, and so on -- and you'll note that half of those made the list without even getting a movie or TV version. Include Canada and you've got Scott Pilgrim. Start looking at American imports of manga and you've got Dragon Ball, One Piece, Inuyasha, Bleach...
I'm not saying the industry doesn't have problems. It's more that there's a lot more going on than superheroes and the Big Two.
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Comic books are modern Mythology. A Spider-Man story doesn't need any context, because it's about Spider-Man, and you know who that is and what that means. There's nothing particularly sacred or interesting about "new" characters in this context. Now, I'm pretty massively disinterested in black-latino-gay-deaf Ultimate Spider-Man, but no more so than I was with Brand New Day or Grounded, to make a Superman example. Spider-Man doesn't need good stories to be Spider-Man, and neither do any of the other truly enduring characters in comics. Maybe some day people will stop making up stories about Spider-Man, just like they did with Zeus (Oh christ guys, what's he going to turn in to to rape someone this month? I swear, these traveling orators are such hacks these days), but then again Zeus beat up The Hulk a few months ago, so maybe not.
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http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2011/08/poster-debuts-for-frank-millers-holy-terror/ (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2011/08/poster-debuts-for-frank-millers-holy-terror/)
And only a decade late!
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Oh man, I love the comments:
Man, I sure hope this isn’t super-racist so I can enjoy it!
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So here's some bad damn news: Atomic Comics is bankrupt and has shut down all four locations without warning. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/08/22/atomic-comics-closes-stores/)
I didn't usually buy my comics there, but it's always bad to see a local business shut down, particularly if it also happens to be one of the best-known comics retailers in the country.
The hell of it is that this is largely the result of an accident that they never recovered from: five years ago, an uninsured 16-year-old crashed a car through the storefront of their main location and broke a water main in the process, destroying nearly all of their inventory.
Hell of a thing.
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Wow, that is a hell of a thing to destroy your business.
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Fucking kids these days.
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Perhaps a little niche for the Superstore thread; Criminal Deluxe Edition 44% off (http://www.thwipster.com/products/criminal-deluxe-edition). As far as Brubaker+Phillips goes I think Sleeper is probably their top tier but Criminal is very good. It'd be classic noir but for being in color.
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Similar thing happened at the comic shop I worked at. It was in an old, old building anyway but when the river a block away flooded, they didn't get sandbags up quick enough and waters destroyed the front of the store (mostly cards/board games/painted figurines). While they were trying to get the water out, the roof collapsed in a few places causing gallons of water to flood the back, where the comics were kept. I was able to save a good chunk of stuff, but from then on my job was mold control. Every few days we had to crunch numbers to see if we could open.
And like I said in a different thread, they finally shut down earlier this year.
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There were 3 Atomic refugees in my store when I went in today.
Like, wearing Atomic Comics T-shirts.
Nice seeing them get new business even if it's a shitty way to get it.
Meantime, Samurai Comics and All About Comics seem to be at each other's throats (or at least their Internet fanboys are) over who's actually arranged with Diamond to cover Atomic's shipment.
Which is still probably better than all the out-of-state schmucks shooting their mouths off. (One guy on Bleedingcool yammered that Malve is a tax evader and should be breaking rocks in the Mojave Desert. It would sure be nice if the conversation were restricted to people who could locate Phoenix on a goddamn map!)
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During a panel session, Dan DiDio was called out on the lack of women writers at DC, his response was to basically jump down the questioner's throat and punch him in the appendix (http://emmyc.tumblr.com/post/8133781657/albinwonderland-caustica-lecorbeau)
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While he expressed it in the stupidest way possible, being Dan DiDio and all, he does have a point in that if you're going to ask a question like that you should be prepared to list names of known writers who have been passed up at DC comics.
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While there's a peanut-gallery guy yelling "Hire women!" and obviously the questioner does think that DC should be employing more women writers, that's not the question.
The question being asked is much darker: "Why did you fire basically every female writer you had?" And the burden of proof there lies fully on DiDio.
In attacking the way he did, DiDio makes it very clear that he does not think there are any good women writers for comics.
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My idea is DC isn't so much a boys club as a "Big Names" club. Hell, they even brought Liefeld out because he sells. I know people who are buying Hawk and Dove just because he's doing it. Sure they are buying it to laugh at how bad he is, but they are still buying it.
You know, I would like to see the sales for the women writers for DC before they got fired.
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I feel Didio is being picked on a little here, but mostly because Marvel is being ignored. The Batgirl cosplayer at Comic-con started the chain of "DC is ignoring women" complaints, but since her interests and focus were on DC, it shaped the internet debate to be about how DC doesn't have women writers.
Quick, name a top female writer at Marvel off the top of your head!
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You guys are about a month behind; following the bad press on this DC gave a "We hear you" (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/07/30/dc-comics-we-hear-you-female-creators/) response and promised to do better.
While he expressed it in the stupidest way possible, being Dan DiDio and all, he does have a point in that if you're going to ask a question like that you should be prepared to list names of known writers who have been passed up at DC comics.
Bullshit.
I don't have to know names; I just have to reasonably assume that more than 1% of the people who apply to DC are women. If that's the case, then DC is disproportionately hiring men; if that's NOT the case, then DC still has rather a huge fucking problem on its hands.
My idea is DC isn't so much a boys club as a "Big Names" club. Hell, they even brought Liefeld out because he sells. I know people who are buying Hawk and Dove just because he's doing it. Sure they are buying it to laugh at how bad he is, but they are still buying it.
Fair, but (1) there are dudes I've never heard of working on the New 52 and (2) if there IS an institutional bias preventing women from getting hired at DC, they're not going to fix it by saying "Well, they're not already famous, so we have no reason to hire them."
Quick, name a top female writer at Marvel off the top of your head!
Kathryn Immonen.
Also, not a writer, but Sara Pichelli's been getting more press this past month than pretty much anybody else in comics besides Bendis and Morrison.
Which isn't to say Marvel is squeaky-clean on this subject, just that they're less awful than DC at the moment.
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Bullshit.
I don't have to know names; I just have to reasonably assume that more than 1% of the people who apply to DC are women. If that's the case, then DC is disproportionately hiring men; if that's NOT the case, then DC still has rather a huge fucking problem on its hands.
Never said they weren't passing up women left and right, just saying that one of these things is a much better way to call someone on the carpet in front of a ton of people.
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Fair, but we rarely find out the names of people who get rejected, particularly people who get rejected and aren't already popular.
And Didio's "Why don't you send us your portfolio?" response is disingenuous as DC doesn't accept unsolicited submissions.
Newsarama (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/dcnu-lack-of-female-creators-miscalculated-110803.html) has a breakdown of the numbers, suggesting that DC's not actually any worse than it's ever been (that they haven't actually fired any female creators, it's just that they're not on the #1 issues of the New 52) but that it's still pretty bad.
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That the number of female authors not only willing to write, but are actively interested in writing for mainstream superhero comics is even close to 10% of the total is actually rather surprising to me.
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Marko Djurdevic flips shit at FanExpo, quits Marvel (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/08/26/marko-djurdjevic-gives-marvel-a-slapping-at-fan-expo-canada/)
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:lol: Stay classy, comics industry.
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Here's a more detailed recap of the panel. (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=34103) It sounds like Djurdevic had some valid beefs with the way he was treated.
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(http://i.imgur.com/Qcxfy.jpg)
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meanwhile, batman knocked out newbats and put on his suit
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(http://i.imgur.com/DwCob.jpg)
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18 months later everything was back to normal.
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You think they're really gonna drop Power Girl? I haven't exactly been following her, but the series she got seemed like it was fun and had some character. Not a lot of ongoing mainstream series are terribly fun right now, that I can think of.
This is largely why I dropped Secret Six, and well, comics as a whole.
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I thought that "fun" comics sold poorly, though.
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The Amanda Conner series was pretty great, but she hasn't been on it for awhile. She's got something new coming, and I'd be happy if it were more Power Girl but I'd be happier if it weren't.
Most obvious solution to the Power Girl problem is, since we know they're bringing back the JSA on Earth 2, to just use her there. But given that Johns has already done a convoluted "Earth-2 already has its own Power Girl" arc, I don't expect that.
Still, they're going to need to either simplify her convoluted origin or just knock over the fourth wall and play it for laughs.
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Greg Pak just finished his run on Incredible Hulk that he started just before Planet Hulk began, through to today. It's probably going to go down as the best run the character ever had, and I strongly suggest reading at least Planet Hulk to, well, basically everyone.
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It would have been great to have the Hulk stay as King on his planet so he could get involved in Cosmic Marvel.
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The DC Relaunch (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jH3W1gQYiD4#ws)
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Greg Pak just finished his run on Incredible Hulk that he started just before Planet Hulk began, through to today. It's probably going to go down as the best run the character ever had, and I strongly suggest reading at least Planet Hulk to, well, basically everyone.
But my inbuilt prejudice about names like Skaar!
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It's ok. He lives in the Savage Land now, so his name is actually the least stupid around.
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Charles "Sparky" Schulz Draws Charlie Brown (Official) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dS0vUbWdNxg#ws)
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6 page preview of Morrison's Action Comics. (http://www.newsarama.com/php/multimedia/album_view.php?gid=3581&page=1)
Looks pretty good, actually! Has a lot of the crazy, socialist stuff that came from Superman's bronze-age debut. (The scaring the shit out of a business owner bit is straight out of the newspaper strips that used to run).
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More on the Atomic Comics closing:
Don't remember if I mentioned this or not, but Samurai Comics has managed to open up a location in the space RIGHT NEXTDOOR to the flagship Atomic store. Great move for them, lucky that the space was available and that they got it on such short notice, and great news for the Atomic customers.
At the moment it's pretty barebones; it's got the last couple weeks' releases right upfront, and some of the popular trades you'd expect would be big sellers (Walking Dead, Fables, Sandman, Spider-Man both Essential and Brand New Day, Batman: Year One, and so on), plus some toys. It's a pretty good stock for having only been there two weeks but it looks like, well, a collection that was thrown together on two days' notice.
I didn't chat with the manager myself but I overheard him saying that they'll be moving more stuff in as time goes on, and that they expect they'll be in this location for at least a few months, though after that they may relocate to a different spot in the same area.
I didn't buy anything, but I think it's great that there's a store there, and, like Atomic, I'll be sure and poke my head in every time I'm in the neighborhood and see if I catch anything that strikes my fancy.
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(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/cap_explains_it_all_by_docshaner-d47p9vr.jpg)
(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/batgirl-supergirl_comic01.jpg)
(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/2011-09-06-canete-bellaire-church-ultra-humanite.jpg)
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(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/2011-09-06-canete-bellaire-church-ultra-humanite.jpg)
Moltar, I have a GIANT brain, and can reduce any problem to a simple yes-or-no equation.
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Barry Allen is not going to be married anymore. (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2011/09/barry-alleniris-west-marriage-falls-victim-to-dc-relaunch/)
... which would mean something to me except for the fact that seriously fuck Barry Allen. Wally West is The Flash, and has been for over twenty years.
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(http://i385.photobucket.com/albums/oo297/BBLegs/batgirl-supergirl_comic01.jpg)
That is cute. Can I ask the source, my good man?
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Barry Allen is not going to be married anymore. (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2011/09/barry-alleniris-west-marriage-falls-victim-to-dc-relaunch/)
... which would mean something to me except for the fact that seriously fuck Barry Allen. Wally West is The Flash, and has been for over twenty years.
Well, and the fact that, do you really think that's going to stay status quo?
The DC un-marriages aren't really the equivalent of Spider-Man's. Superman's going to end up with Lois and Barry's going to end up with Iris; we're just focusing on a spot in the timeline where it hasn't happened yet.
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The Allen family timeline was so fucking jerked up anyway, I'm almost glad they did this.
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That is cute. Can I ask the source, my good man?
SOURCES ARE FOR HORSES
Captain Marvel (http://www.evanshaner.com/2011/08/cosby-on-cap.html)
Supergirl/Batgirl (http://cowshell.com/buffalog/2011/09/02/a-little-6-panel-batgirlsupergirl-comic/)
Ultra-Humanite (http://www.agreeablecomics.com/therack/?p=1540)
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Why the long face?
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It's after midnight in England and Rich Johnston has reviewed the 13 DC #1's for the week (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/09/06/tuesday-comics-reviews-stormwatch-batgirl-batwing-animal-man-detective-comics-action-comics-men-of-war-swamp-thing-jli-green-arrow-omac-hawk-dove-static-shock/).
He's disappointed by Stormwatch but has good things to say about most of the rest.
I'm definitely getting Action; I expect whatever else I pick up will depend on what's still in stock by the time I get there. They said they'd stick some books in my pull box based on my existing subscriptions; I expect that'll mean the Cornell and Lemire books wind up in there too.
I'll share my opinions when I get around to them! But of course keep in mind I just got done with a Dark Horse Presents from 2 weeks ago.
Granted, it was 104 pages.
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THE 2011 TOP SHELF MASSIVE $3 SALE! (http://www.topshelfcomix.com/catalog/special-deals)
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A LOT of people are complaining about Superman's behavior in Action.
I don't see much of a problem. He's acting a bit gruffer, sure. But it's not like he didn't act like that before.
His powers are downgraded to near Golden Age levels in Action, why not his personality?
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Because these people have never read a Superman comic that predates Man of Steel.
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this just happens every time morrison writes something. i remember people saying the miagani bat-god and batman of zur-en-arhh were stupid.
morrison's a bad comic writer because he actually reads and enjoys comics and knows a lot about the characters he writes.
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morrison's a bad comic writer because he actually reads and enjoys comics and knows a lot about the characters he writes.
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not but this is quite possibly true.
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i actually wasn't. people who buy comics hate that shit.
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See, when Morrison says he wants to take characters back to their roots, he means it looking through their history and finding out the subtle depths of the characters that work with their continuity.
This is opposed to the more popular Geoff Johns method, which is to have Hal Jordan spit blood or some shit.
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When Morrison says take characters back to their roots, he brings up things people forgot about.
When Geoff Johns does it, he wipes out every character that followed after his favourite Silver Age hero.
Where the FUCK has Wally West been for the last year?
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As far as I can gather, Wally West is actually not part of the new DC Universe.
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I quite enjoyed Action #1 and heartily recommend it! Reverting Superman to his socialist vigilante roots is exactly the thing I've wanted for years. Seriously, read back through the strata of this thread.
However, two complaints.
Writing complaint: this entire thing is cribbed from Spider-Man 2.
Art complaint: People's eyes keep pointing in different directions. When I said I wanted things to be more like the Silver Age, that's not what I meant.
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Art complaint: People's eyes keep pointing in different directions.
Like Marty Feldman or like Cookie Monster?
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I kept thinking Marty Feldman.
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Justice League International is not funny. I... can't figure out what the point of this book is.
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Crossposting my comments on Rick Veitch's The Big Lie from the Comics Worth Reading comments section (http://comicsworthreading.com/2011/09/07/good-comics-out-september-7/comment-page-1/#comment-121668):
Well, it’s not very good.
Not just the conspiracy-theory stuff (which leads me to wonder if Veitch actually believes this stuff or is just engaging in some epic trolling and cashing a paycheck while he’s at it) — I can read and enjoy Mr. A even though I totally disagree with its message.
(Actually, there are quite a few bits that Veitch gets exactly right — the warnings that went ignored, the PNAC’s reference to “another Pearl Harbor”, and so forth. Which makes the leap of logic to “inside job” more frustrating; I’m strictly a Hanlon’s Razor guy and think the Bush Administration was asleep at the switch and missed the warnings, but once the attack hit it saw the justification it needed to go to war in Iraq. Equating that — rather reasonable, IMO — belief with the idea that there were explosives planted in the towers makes it much easier to confuse legitimate criticism of the Bush Administration with out-to-lunch conspiracy mongering.)
But anyhow, all that aside, it doesn’t make for a good comic. The dialogue is heavyhanded and riddled with typos. The plot is obvious, and something we’ve seen a thousand times before (time traveler tries to prevent a tragedy but nobody believes her). The setting, too, is suitable for a low-budget episode of Twilight Zone or Hitchcock; most of it takes place inside a meeting room. And as such, the issue suffers its biggest flaw: Veitch’s art, which should have been the highlight of this book, just isn’t very impressive. It’s talking heads, broken up by pictures that look like they’d be more at home as clip art in a Truther’s PowerPoint presentation. Some of the layouts are quite nice, but by and large it’s just blah.
For all its flaws, I quite liked Army @ Love. It had weird, offbeat characters, goofy tech, and even though it was about the wars in the Middle East it didn’t seem to have any overwhelming political message or propaganda purpose (or, if it did, it didn’t leave enough of an impression on me to remember it). This is missing all those things.
I would really like to see Veitch just go nuts with a Tales from the Crypt homage series, and that’s what I was hoping we’d get here beneath the Truther facade. But beneath the Truther facade there’s nothing. I’d say the book is exactly what it says it is, but even that’s not quite true — because it doesn’t even live up to the over-the-top promise of the agonized, flag-waving, giant Uncle Sam standing over the Twin Towers on the cover.
Basically, its cardinal sin isn’t its message — it’s that it’s just utterly mundane.
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Oh hey, speaking of Morrison's Action Comics...
Crazy comic shop owner boycotts all Grant Morrison books because Superman says "GD" in Action #1. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/09/09/gd-action-comics-boycott-retailer/)
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Already over; Morrison pointed out that it was obviously a goddamn sound effect and the guy apologized.
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:slow:
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Already over; Morrison pointed out that it was obviously a goddamn sound effect and the guy apologized.
I see what you did there.
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If you cannot immediately tell from the very premise of Action Comics exactly where it's going, you are literally retarded.
Young impetuous teen wants to change the world with his bare hands and has to find out that he can't, and shouldn't, try to fix everyone's problems himself. (why don't you put the whole world in a bottle?)
He eventually is confronted by huge and powerful threats that only he can stop and finds his actual role, and matures into a wiser, calmer, SuperMAN, leading by example and serving as inspiration in order to effect change while using his powers to stop that which humanity is literally helpless against.
but comics are for manchildren so we have to put up with OMG Y IS SUPERMAN SO MEEN NOW
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I would like to think Morrison's going for something a little less boring and conventional, but sooner or later, yes, of course Superman and everybody else will be back to status quo.
Funny thing is that the way the chronology is set up Morrison doesn't even really have to handle the character arc himself; we'll be seeing an older Superman in Perez's book in, what, two weeks? And JL not long after.
It would be fun for Morrison to play with Golden Age Superman awhile and then move on to Silver Age wackiness. And let Perez and Johns handle the boring-ass Superman of the past 25 years.
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More new DC:
Static Shock is a perfectly conventional teen superhero book, but there's nothing wrong with that. It's fun, it's fast, and it's got a good supporting cast (Hardware!) even if the villains so far are lame. Worth a glance, at least.
Animal Man is the best I've read so far, though; I dug Action but this beats it out. Jeff Lemire is writing, so it's got a couple of things in common with Sweet Tooth (animals and trippy shit), but mostly it feels like Animal Man. Buddy's family is front and center, and the balance between the mundane comfort of home and the surreal dreamscape of the Red really makes the book work. There are some unobtrusive references to Morrison's run (most notably the introduction to the issue is an interview with Buddy Baker conducted by Lemire himself), but the issue is new reader friendly even though it definitely targets an older audience than the other relaunch titles I've read. And while I was initially disappointed to hear Lemire wasn't doing the art himself, I'm really loving Travel Foreman's work (except for one goofy face on Ellen when we first see her) and think it fits this world a lot better than Lemire's would.
I really, really liked this one, and it is definitely going on the ol' pull list. Highly recommended.
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Okay Thad maybe you can explain this to me. The lexicon of a "Pull" or "Comic Pull" eludes me.
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i think he just means he'll ask the comics shop guy to pull a copy off the shelves to reserve for him.
also lemire+animal man, good lord. goooood lord. i should head to the shop tomorrow...
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"Pull" refers to the comics you have your local comic shop set aside with your name on it, guaranteeing you a copy when you come in. It's a subscription you go to the shop and get.
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It's when the store owner sticks it in a box for me instead of leaving it out on the shelf for anybody who wants it. A subscription, essentially, except since we're talking about periodicals that term implies getting them by mail.
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Swamp Thing: Well, it's interesting for a couple reasons. One: unlike the other books, it doesn't feel like it takes place in a vacuum; it plays up the whole interconnected universe angle, with Batman, Superman, and Aquaman all having cameos. Two: I like Paquette's art. And three: it's clearly building toward a crossover with Animal Man, and while I hate big events I think small crossovers can be neat and I think having the big animal-themed supernatural book connect to the big plant-themed supernatural book makes a lot of good sense.
Men of War: This one piques my bias in favor of things that are different. It's not an outstanding book, or a particularly original story, but the high concept and execution are neat. I haven't gotten my hands on Stormwatch yet, but I'm willing to bet that Men of War feels more like a Wildstorm book than Stormwatch does. Take a "realistic" genre -- modern war -- and stick a superhero in it.
I like Men of War and Animal Man partly because they're different from the other books, but a pattern of sameyness has emerged that's begun to irritate me: every single issue builds to a big splash-page twist ending. Sometimes, like in Animal Man, it's effective. Sometimes, like in Men of War, it's obvious. And sometimes, like in Static Shock, it's just stupid and forced.
Guys, it's great that you're trying to demonstrate to a new audience that not all comics have to have the same tone or be part of the same genre. You know what else would be great? Demonstrating that they don't all have to have the exact same fucking structure.
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I'm sure some of you have seen this but here's a bunch of people new to comics reviewing the New 52 (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=34344)
I really enjoyed the Hawk and Dove review.
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Three issues in, Elric has finally hit its stride -- probably because the disparate plotlines are starting to converge, with the four different versions of the Eternal Champion each making it to their respective world's version of New Orleans in search of a MacGuffin. And this is where Elric works best as a comic book -- the last 5 decades of comics have cribbed Moorcock's Multiverse concept pretty goddamn liberally, and it's a language comics readers, writers, and artists are all well-trained to understand, with no explanations necessary.
So really, it's not about the plot or even about the four manifestations of the Eternal Champion and his guide, it's about looking at three freaky parallel-universe versions of New Orleans. Elric finds himself in a New Orleans where white people are slaves (not a good place to be an albino, as you might expect) and the city is controlled by giant insect mecha. The insects in Dorian Hawkmoon's Narleen, meanwhile, are not mechanical; they're insect people. And in Corum's world, it appears that Europeans have never landed on the shores of the Americas.
All in all, it's neat; Roberson and Biagini have nailed the shifting setting that's totally alien and yet clearly a version of not only Earth but a specific, familiar location. Good stuff.
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I'm sure some of you have seen this but here's a bunch of people new to comics reviewing the New 52 (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=34344)
I really enjoyed the Hawk and Dove review.
Those are interesting reviews, actually, and the most common complaint seems to be aimed towards intentionally omitted story information, ie stuff you'll find out about in later infos. They're supposed to be hooks, but it seems like to new readers they just feel like they missed information. That stuff shows up in Lost, but if the show is new and is not supposed to have existed before, it's easier to realize that story beat.
It's worth noting that I've been reading the Marvel Masterworks Amazing Spider-man books, and in those comics Stan Lee used to use narration boxes and thought balloons to talk directly to the audience, letting them know that yes this was a mystery. I wonder if there's a correlation between the falling out of favor of those techniques (both major publishers forbid omniscient narration and thought balloons) and the decline in readers.
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And DC forbids recap pages.
Animal Man sorta has one, but that didn't seem to do it for the readers. Which is a pity because I thought the book was quite self-contained, but if new readers say it's not then you should be listening to them, not me.
The "forbidding thought balloons" thing is pretty much an in-name-only thing; we still have thought balloons, they're just shaped like narration boxes now.
Absence of omniscient narration...well, I'm of two minds on this. I think too many old-timey comics use narration boxes to violate the fuck out of "show, don't tell"; look at an early Batman story sometime for an example of a comic where EVERY SINGLE PANEL has a narrative box describing the exact thing that Batman is shown doing right under it.
On the other hand, I've been reading some Savage Sword of Conan, and by Crom Roy Thomas is a master at the correct use of omniscient comic-book narration. His captions clarify things that aren't immediately obvious, grant a perspective other than the hero's, crank the tension the hell up in stories that would otherwise mostly consist of Conan walking around temples and scowling, and, yes, tell us who the fuck all these people are and why they matter. They hop the fuck around in the timeline (going, for example, from an adaptation of Howard's very first Conan story to a much later one where Conan's throne's been usurped -- skipping entirely over the part where he became a king in the first place) but even when you feel like you missed an issue somewhere you get all the information you need.
I think part of the problem is that they're still very much writing for the trade, deliberately leaving stuff dangling to explain later. (Batgirl seems to be the most egregious example of this; I haven't read it but both new fans and old seem infuriated by the huge emphasis on The Killing Joke and lack of explanation on how Barbara's up and walking around.) Obviously a little of that's okay. But I think more to the point, Stan didn't just give you "Yes, this is a mystery" notes, he also made sure every issue could be read on its own even if he was building an arc with it.
He also used footnotes, which are another of those things that are out of vogue with most modern editors -- I saw a lot of them in Men of War, mostly to explain military jargon, which is a great and appropriate use for them.
I do think it's telling that the readers had the fewest questions about Action and Detective, because they already know who the fuck Superman and Batman are. (NOTE TO DC AND WARNER: This means you can stop retelling their goddamn origin stories.)
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God help us if the day has come that Stan Lee looks like a luminary crafter of dazzling plots.
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When did Stan Lee ever craft a plot?
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Hey hey hey, I said "Looks like"
First and foremost, ol' Stan is a marketer of... ol' Stan.
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Matt Seneca at Robot 6 has a Kirby feature (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2011/09/your-wednesday-sequence-24-jack-kirby/) that ties into what we were saying about Stan Lee narration a bit ago:
Of the brickbats most commonly thrown at Kirby’s golden legacy, one of the most compelling is that he very rarely “told a story” in the traditional manner with his sequencing. Especially in his action scenes, Kirby’s storytelling style was often simply too wild to support “correct” sequencing, with each panel giving a clue to the content of the next and every prop and figure grounded in recognizable three-dimensional space. In Kirby fight scenes characters transmogrify from one physical state to another between panels, hurl each other across vast chasms of space before clashing again within an instant, and reveal heretofore unknown powers as the conflicts crescendo. Usually there’s just too much going on in a Kirby fight scene for the traditional values of motion tracking and choreography to hold much sway. It’s also why Kirby comics are so verbose: take out the explanatory word balloons and you haven’t a hope of understanding the specifics of what’s going on half the time.
Now, we were talking about Spider-Man and that's a different kettle of fish -- Ditko's storytelling is much more straightforward and it's easy to tell what's going on without reading the text in his Spider-Man stories. But, given that Kirby was Lee's most frequent collaborator, it IS interesting to consider that all that exposition, all the narration (both omniscient and from the characters themselves), was often necessary for the reader to be able to tell just what the fuck was going on in any given issue. (Oh, by the way, Sue can generate force fields now.)
MEANWHILE: The early reviews of this week's quarter of the New 52 are coming in; take a gander at CBR (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2011/09/new-52-pickup-week-3/) or Bleeding Cool (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/09/14/wednesday-comics-reviews-batman-and-robin-batwoman-deathstroke-demon-knights-frankenstein-agent-of-s-h-a-d-e-green-lantern-grifter-legion-lost-mister-terrific-red-lanterns-resurrection-ma/) if you're interested and don't mind spoilers (the biggest of which is how Deathstroke #1 ends). Consensus seems to be that Demon Knights is the best of the lot this week, which is good because that's the one I've probably been looking forward to most besides Action.
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oh and Amanda Waller's skinny now. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/09/14/amanda-waller-skinny-thin-reboot/)
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Solution: whoever's writing and drawing Suicide Squad draws her slightly fatter in each issue, as the stress of dealing with all these lunatic supervillains gets to her. Sort of a reverse Power Girl (yes, I know that was just an urban legend).
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Actually, there are quite a few posts in the comments thread suggesting that this, like many of the books, is set in the past and we're going to "learn how Amanda Waller got fat".
I think they're joking but I'm not sure.
...wait, I got it: they knew this would get people to quit bitching about Harley's new design!
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Now, we were talking about Spider-Man and that's a different kettle of fish -- Ditko's storytelling is much more straightforward and it's easy to tell what's going on without reading the text in his Spider-Man stories. But, given that Kirby was Lee's most frequent collaborator, it IS interesting to consider that all that exposition, all the narration (both omniscient and from the characters themselves), was often necessary for the reader to be able to tell just what the fuck was going on in any given issue. (Oh, by the way, Sue can generate force fields now.)
Funny, I was just reading the first few issues of OMAC online and it was an exhilarating experience. I got the feeling that Lee would have tried to reel him in if they were collaborating on it.
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So okay. DC reboots. Power Girl no longer exists but "Karen Starr" does. And she's a supporting character in Mr. Terrific's book. And the writer's gone on record to say:
Of course now the question is, what will Karen’s involvement be in the book? Sorry, no spoilers here. Beyond confirming her presence as an integral part of Michael’s journey, I can only say that you’ll have to wait for issue #1 to find out how it all begins.
So this page shows up in the book:
(http://i.imgur.com/42WIXl.jpg)
The "integral part of Michael’s journey" quote is bothering me. I have this unpleasant feeling that they're fitting her for a fridge.
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If that's the case, he's going to get blood on his mouth. Which will make him stain the bottom of his 'T' red.
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Funny, I was just reading the first few issues of OMAC online and it was an exhilarating experience. I got the feeling that Lee would have tried to reel him in if they were collaborating on it.
I think the only reeling-in Stan ever really did was through the script he added after the pages were already drawn. Kirby did pretty much whatever crazy shit he wanted -- remember that the Silver Surfer wasn't part of the original conversation about the Galactus Trilogy at all.
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Since the store was sold out of every DC book I wanted to read when I got in, I decided to pick up Ultimate Spider-man #1, starring Miles Morales as the new Spider-man.
Or at least, it probably will in 3-4 issues.
The problem with the big Marvel events that are supposed to shake up the status quo and establish a new working universe is that, well, Bendis is still the writer. He's been writing Ultimate Spider-man for over a decade now, and you can tell he's kind of lost steam. His stories are taking longer and longer to tell us stuff that we probably are already familiar with. Since it's a Spider-man story, we know the beats are that Miles will get bit by the spider, misuse his power, lose someone close him and learn about Power and Responsibility before being inspired to take up the mantle of Spider-man. That's just the way it goes.
Ditko and Lee did it in 22 pages, Bendis circa 2000 did it in 3 comics. By the end of this Ultimate Spider-man #1, Miles has only JUST been bitten by the spider. This would be more forgivable if anything else interesting happened in the other pages. But, nothing much but people talking about exposition gets done. And most of it is the same kind of rapid-fire family drama dialogue that I'm sure Bendis has a program on his computer to generate.
On the plus side, Sara Pichelli does draw really good art, with expressive characters and interesting panel design (even if Bendis seems to be forcing her to draw his trademark double-page spread of a lot of little panels of talking heads). The colors are also vivid and bright, rather than the dark, gritty colors of most modern superhero comics.
Is it worth following further? That's up for debate. In Miles's first appearance in Ultimate Fallout #4, he's already in costume beating up bad guys and delivering the Spider-man banter. In this, he's mopey and silent. I understand the dichotomy between quiet Peter Parker and wise-cracking Spider-man, but it just feels weird to get a taste of Miles being Spider-man, then have to set through maybe 40+ pages of him getting to that point.
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Finally got around to Stormwatch. (I might be a week behind on some books for awhile, given the shortages; I didn't get Frankenstein or Demon Knights this week, either.)
It's...about as mediocre as everybody's saying. Too slow, like many of the relaunch books, and it perversely spends more time introducing the existing characters than the new ones. Neither Cornell's plot nor his script is up to his usual high standard. (I hear Demon Knights is much better.)
The best part was spoiled in advance: the villain in the first story arc is the moon. Now THAT is the Stormwatch I know and love. (Well, the Authority I know and love. I never actually read the original Stormwatch run.)
I mostly hate the new costumes, I still don't see how it's a good idea to drop Apollo and Midnighter in the same world as Superman and Batman, and it also bugs me that they're not Jenny Quantum's adoptive parents. (On the plus side, they've tossed out all the lazy, stupid Jenny-artificially-ages-herself-and-then-gets-killed crap from the last few volumes of Authority.)
I like that J'onn J'onzz's JLA membership hasn't been completely retconned out, but he still seems like a weird fit.
At least the Photoshop dickery fits the comic, though; that's a rare thing.
All in all, I'm probably still onboard since I like Cornell and there are enough good ideas here to keep me curious. But mostly I'm looking forward to getting my hands on Demon Knights.
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Demon Knights is fun. Especially [spoiler]Vandal Savage[/spoiler].
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Martian Manhunter being in both does explain how the JL has never heard of Stormwatch.
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So a lot of people have said great things about Batwoman #1, but there's something I haven't noticed being talked about: it's a great issue 1.
It's a great introduction to the character and her world, and tells you everything you need to know even if your only past DC experience is from the Batman movies. It's better at that than most of the other "New 52" books I've read -- and it wasn't even WRITTEN as a New 52 book. (Which also explains why its cliffhanger ending is low-key and natural instead of being a totally forced "OH MY FUCK" splash page.)
Yes, the backstory's there; Sawyer's in there, and Montoya is acknowledged. And it looks like Chase is going to be part of this arc. But everything you need to know about Batwoman is right there -- her origin story and the ending of her last big arc are right there, with a few lines of dialogue, across a very pretty two-page spread.
Speaking of which, Williams continues to kill it on the art. Dialogue's a little flat, but I never bought the book for Rucka's writing anyway.
Definitely one of the better ones I've seen. Not quite up there with Action and Animal Man, but probably my #3 at this point.
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CA: Cartoonist (and Non-Superhero Reader) Carolyn Main Hilariously Reviews the DC Comics New 52 (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/09/17/new-52-review-new-reader-carolyn-main/)
Another look at a few of the books from a new reader perspective. Edifying! And this reader, at least, thought Animal Man was new reader-friendly and also awesome. Which is what I thought!
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Welp, new books out today. Wonder Woman is shaping up to be the surprise hit of the week. I'm not much of an Azzarello fan, but maybe I'll check it out. By which I mean ask my CBG to hold one for me when he gets his next shipment in, because fucking everything is sold out again this week.
Still, I'll be going today, for the books I didn't get LAST week, but mostly for the new Love and Rockets. Which apparently is even more emotionally brutal than last year's.
EDIT: L&R AND Dark Horse Presents. With a Beasts of Burden AND an Age of Reptiles. AND the latest Treehouse of Horror, with a piece by Jim Woodring.
Jeez, comics, my birthday isn't for another week and a half!
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Um... What the hell happened to Starfire?
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Welp, new books out today. Wonder Woman is shaping up to be the surprise hit of the week. I'm not much of an Azzarello fan, but maybe I'll check it out. By which I mean ask my CBG to hold one for me when he gets his next shipment in, because fucking everything is sold out again this week.
Still, I'll be going today, for the books I didn't get LAST week, but mostly for the new Love and Rockets. Which apparently is even more emotionally brutal than last year's.
EDIT: L&R AND Dark Horse Presents. With a Beasts of Burden AND an Age of Reptiles. AND the latest Treehouse of Horror, with a piece by Jim Woodring.
Jeez, comics, my birthday isn't for another week and a half!
Wait... AZZARELLO's writing Wonder Woman?
:scanners:
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Scuttlebutt has it that the book is quite good, too.
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Translator's note:
Scuttlebutt means gossip or rumor.
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And not scuttling butts?
Dammit, why you gotta spoil everything, Lottel!
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Speaking of spoiling everything, Blue Beetle.
The hell? Why the total reboot? The last volume was great and not that old. A quick flashback or two would be nice, sure, but completely rebooting?
Maaaaan
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My shop didn't get L&R this week. Which is fine, because now I get it for my ACTUAL birthday, and have DHP and ToH in the meantime. Plus I haven't quite finished with LAST week's books.
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So, okay.
Yesterday, CA took the new Red Hood and the Outlaws (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/09/21/dc-firestar-sex/) book to task for a scene where Starfire casually propositions Arsenal.
Most of the comments were supportive, but a loud minority accused the piece of slut-shaming, because Starfire is just being a strong female character (http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=311) you guys and it's totally empowering for a chick to propose emotionless sex with every man in sight while toweling off her gigantic, barely-covered tits. (While appearing to be completely dry.)
EIC Laura Hudson responded with a very well-thought-out piece examining superhero sexism (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/09/22/starfire-catwoman-sex-superheroine/) in general; it's thorough, it's clear, and the only thing I don't like about it is that every single thing she says should be totally goddamned obvious to everybody and shouldn't REQUIRE a lengthy explanation.
Comments so far are overwhelmingly supportive, which is a pleasant surprise.
I'm not optimistic enough to think this will change anything, but DC IS likely to be taking notes on any bad press it gets from major comics sites during its big push for new readers. At least we're having this conversation.
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So, okay.
Yesterday, CA took the new Red Hood and the Outlaws (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/09/21/dc-firestar-sex/) book to task for a scene where Starfire casually propositions Arsenal.
There's also this. (http://www.fempop.com/2011/09/22/inside-scott-lobdells-revolutionary-attack-on-comic-book-sexism/)
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Oh yeah, and Judd Winick responds to the controversy (http://blog.newsarama.com/2011/09/22/judd-winick-speaks-out-on-the-controversial-catwoman-1/) over the ham-fisted sex scene at the end of Catwoman #1:
This is a Catwoman for 2011, and my approach to her character and actions reflect someone who lives in our times. And wears a cat suit. And steals. It’s a tale that is part crime story, part mystery and part romance. In that, you will find action, suspense and passion. Each of those qualities, at times, play to their extremes. Catwoman is a character with a rich comic book history, and my hope is that readers will continue to join us as the adventure continues.
Except, not really...?
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...I've just figured out what this is.
It's the scene in Spinal Tap where Ian says there have been complaints about the album cover being sexist, and Nigel demands to know what's wrong with being sexy.
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It's annoying because these are (supposedly) first looks at the characters. It's like we saw Power Girl for the first time, she was lounging on Mr. Terrific's bachelor pad wearing just a shirt with nothing underneath OH WAIT THAT IS A THING THAT HAPPENED.
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But that wasn't Power Girl!
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It's annoying because these are (supposedly) first looks at the characters. It's like we saw Power Girl for the first time, she was lounging on Mr. Terrific's bachelor pad wearing just a shirt with nothing underneath OH WAIT THAT IS A THING THAT HAPPENED.
In fairness, the first page of issue 2 is totally going to be her punching him right in the face.
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Totally?
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End of #1 is [spoiler]Mr. Terrific becoming possessed by some sort of thing that turns him into an asshole, using his Science Machine to create an earthquake, and announce that he is going to kill a Senator[/spoiler]. Karen Starr is in the room when this happens. I really don't see a resolution that involves her not punching him. If not on the first page, then probably as a big splash second or third page.
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As the author has repeatedly restated, this is Karen Starr, not Power Girl. I think she'll just pull the machine's plug or hit it with her purse or something.
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She'll probably do something so incredibly sexist and out of character that we can't even begin to think of it right now.
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As the author has repeatedly restated, this is Karen Starr, not Power Girl.
You're so cute.
I bet you believe they're not going to renumber Action at #1000, too.
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As the author has repeatedly restated, this is Karen Starr, not Power Girl.
You're so cute.
I bet you believe they're not going to renumber Action at #1000, too.
That would mean that they renumber the series again and, well, that would be just plain cuckoo!
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Like when they kicked Wonder Woman up to 700?
Anyway, we all know Karen Starr will solve the Mr. Terrific problem by having sex with him.
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Like when they kicked Wonder Woman up to 700?
Or when Ultimate Spider-Man renumbered at #150. Even though it was actually the 149th issue.
Marge: I can't count how many times your father's done something crazy like this.
Lisa: It's three hundred, Mom.
Marge: I could have sworn it was three hundred and two.
Lisa: Shhhh.
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Anyway, we all know Karen Starr will solve the Mr. Terrific problem by having sex with him.
Frankly, this was what I was thinking too.
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Don't be silly. She will be DEEP and full of character and thus will make him better by withholding sex, the only power a woman can have over a man!
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Wrong! He'll proposition her and she turns him down. He thinks she's racist at first and yells at her but it turns out she's a lesbian with her friend Terra!
But since lesbians aren't real, they all have sex anyway.
And since it involves lesbians AND a black guy, it's super progressive, right?!
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Oh, she's probably good friends with Batwoman and the Question, then.
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Yes. Every lesbian knows each other. And has sex with each other all the time.
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Nah, he'll probably slap her or something, causing him to go WHAT HAVE I DONE and snap out of it.
ALSO: Red Lanterns #1: Not as as bad as Catwoman or Red Hood and the Outlaws, but that's a pretty low bar. (http://www.4thletter.net/2011/09/why-i-put-back-the-red-lanterns-book/)
ALSO ALSO: DC is bad at math. (http://www.shortpacked.com/2011/comic/book-13/04-remedial-adulthood/math/)
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Was there anyone left in the face of the earth that thought DC would use the reboot to widen their audience? They didn't do it during Identity Crisis -or- Final Crisis.
DC is not even trying anymore.
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Just the opposite: the sad thing is that this IS them trying. Full-on media blitz, every issue selling out, my LCBG saying he's never had a month like this in the ten years he's owned the store or the several years prior that he worked there as a clerk.
Basically DC is doing everything right here except making comics that actually appeal to a new audience.
I suppose another way of putting it is that they're marketing it well but not really doing anything different on the creative side. Which is sort of a "well duh" given that it's pretty much the same people running the show as before.
Anyone who's surprised by Lobdell after the past 20 years is, well, an alien with some kind of brain disease that makes them constantly forget things.
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That's not true. The problem is that they're trying and think they're doing a reboot but comic book-writing and art has become so insular that they're doing a remarkably shitty job of it and don't really know. It's also not a strictly DC problem by any means, but Marvel is a little lucky that they have Matt Fraction as their marquee instead of Grant Morrison.
Warning - while you were typing a new reply has been posted. You may wish to review your post.
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That's not true. The problem is that they're trying and think they're doing a reboot but comic book-writing and art has become so insular that they're doing a remarkably shitty job of it and don't really know. It's also not a strictly DC problem by any means, but Marvel is a little lucky that they have Brian Bendis as their marquee instead of Geoff Johns.
Action's actually one of the most new-reader-friendly books of the lot, even for people who don't know Superman's Depression-era background. Green Lantern, on the other hand, hasn't skipped a beat.
This is something handed down by WB, organized by DiDio, Johns, and Lee, and with Morrison being allowed to pretty much keep doing whatever he wants.
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That's fair, but given that DiDio placed Morrison as official revamp guy a few years back and this is a reboot I can't imagine he didn't have input into some of the other books. In any case, it's the same basic point.
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Maybe. I'm still not entirely sure I get Bendis's appeal. (Haven't read enough Fraction to have an opinion on him; the Hickman I've read is good. Brubaker...I really only read his Authority run, and was largely unimpressed.) The biggest story to come out of Marvel this year is one that could certainly be read as nakedly cynical, but for some reason I've got a good feeling about it even if I haven't picked USM up. Still wish Miles were the Spidey on the new cartoon coming up.
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Brubaker basically checked out after his main Cap run to focus on his own stuff.
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Oh right, that ended, didn't it.
Comics Project Part 2 (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/09/26/she-has-no-head-the-comics-project-part-2/) is up and far more upbeat than part 1; nearly everybody likes what they see this week. (Except the guy reading Frankenstein, ironically because it tries too hard to be new-reader-friendly.)
For all my cynicism, I would love to see DC pull this off and bring in new readers who actually stick around. They are putting out some legitimately great books, and I hope the shitty ones don't distract TOO much from that.
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"Holy Terror" is badly-plotted and hateful, but Frank Miller still knows how to draw. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/09/26/frank-millers-holy-terror-review/)
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(http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b167/unhelpful/catwoman03_BW_UL.jpg)
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I'm still not entirely sure I get Bendis's appeal.
To readers or to editors?
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Bendis is frustrating for me. He's written some of my favorite superhero comics period and he's also written a lot of super generic mediocre crap. He's better with solo books than team books, but he's written good and bad books for both. I've actually had weeks where the best and worst comic I got were both from Bendis. One saving grace is he's usually pretty consistent with his quality on any given title, so it's pretty easy to figure out whether something is worth reading from him.
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Oh right, that ended, didn't it.
Comics Project Part 2 (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/09/26/she-has-no-head-the-comics-project-part-2/) is up and far more upbeat than part 1; nearly everybody likes what they see this week. (Except the guy reading Frankenstein, ironically because it tries too hard to be new-reader-friendly.)
For all my cynicism, I would love to see DC pull this off and bring in new readers who actually stick around. They are putting out some legitimately great books, and I hope the shitty ones don't distract TOO much from that.
So... they're actually doing decent new work on the C-listers that will die in a year while leaving their top brands to languish?
I don't get it. At all.
Also, Grant Morrison is known for two things: For presenting material in a bold and exciting way, and for the same material getting pushed under the carpet as soon as he leaves a brand.
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Note: Morrison's Action Comics run is already being swept under the rug the same MONTH as it starts because of Perez's Superman and Johns's's's JLA
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J'off J'onnzz
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Woman shows DCNu Starfire to her 7 year old daughter. (http://michelelee.net/2011/09/24/dear-dc-comics/) Starfire has been, at least up to this point, the girl's favorite hero. It is, quite possibly, the saddest thing.
ARE YOU HAPPY NOW, THAD?
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Man, so many people are reading that article that the guy's server keeps DDoSing (I had to try quite a few times before it worked).
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Yeah, you know what's great for situations like that?
FUCKING DESCRIPTIVE LINKS.
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Woman shows DCNu Starfire to her 7 year old daughter. (http://michelelee.net/2011/09/24/dear-dc-comics/) Starfire has been, at least up to this point, the girl's favorite hero. It is, quite possibly, the saddest thing.
ARE YOU HAPPY NOW, THAD?
Yes, partly because now that I know what you're talking about I can link to the io9 repost (http://io9.com/5844355/a-7+year+old-girl-responds-to-dc-comics-sexed+up-reboot-of-starfire), since the OP is still down. Descriptive links help everybody!
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Descriptive links help everybody!
Usually (http://www.usually.org/).
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Should feminists give up on (mainstream) comics? (http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2011/09/26/327292/should-feminists-give-up-on-comics/)
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That implies there are more than a smattering of feminists reading them in the first place.
I'm of the mindset that believes mainstream comics writers, artists, and editors aren't intentionally sexist and, while they may set out to generate controversy, do not want to provoke the kind of response those books have gotten (particularly after being humbled by Batgirl at Con and swearing they'd do better). To that end, I believe that incremental change is possible through efforts like Laura Hudson's to get them to pay attention to what the hell they're doing and try to do better.
Gail Simone's original Women in Refrigerators piece got the industry to sit up, pay attention, and try to do better (and hire people like Gail Simone to help them). It's frustrating that we still have to have this conversation 12 years later, but it's a process, not an overnight change. There's been plenty of progress, and there needs to be plenty more.
Aside from that, though, the qualifier "mainstream" is important (if somewhat muddled). There are a hell of a lot of comics that aren't about superheroes and aren't published by DC or Marvel. I just, about 20 minutes ago, finished posting a comment at CA suggesting that Laura do a regular feature spotlighting books that DO have positive portrayals of women.
And while I'm on the subject, here's the first recent one I thought of: Optic Nerve #12, by Adrian Tomine, released a coupla weeks back.
The first story, Hortisculpture, is told as a series of four-panel gag strips; it bears a certain tonal and structural resemblance to Wilson. It's about a guy with a wacky invention who tries to make a living selling his art, and fails because the invention is, frankly, ridiculous.
But the reason I would submit the book as a candidate for Positive Portrayal of a Woman is the second story, Amber Sweet, about a college-age girl who learns that she bears a strong resemblance to a porn star and has to contend with harassment as a result. It's down-to-earth, slice-of-life modern alienation stuff; I'd compare it to Ghost World (yes, two Clowes comparisons in the same review). Great book and well worth buying, even for the $6 cover price.
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If there's one conclusion that's safe to draw from sales numbers, it's that "mainstream" comics aren't.
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If there's one conclusion that's safe to draw from sales numbers, it's that "mainstream" comics aren't.
I was thinking about this the other day and it occurred to me that the number of people that have seen comic books movies and cartoons compared to the number that have read the comic books themselves, that in a cultural sense even if the comic books came first, the movies and cartoons are the "real" versions of the characters while the comic books are the side story.
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Batgirl at Con
Speaking of whom, her response to Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 brings up some salient points about consent and mental impairment. (http://www.comicsbulletin.com/wheel/131723690154781.htm)
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That adds a whole new layer of dirty feelings to the book.
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All-Star Western #1 is very good. I know the $3.99 cover price is a tough sell, but I don't want this book to be cancelled.
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I don't want this book to be cancelled.
too bad
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If there's one conclusion that's safe to draw from sales numbers, it's that "mainstream" comics aren't.
Well, in terms of sales numbers, no, absolutely not. In terms of cultural awareness, though, Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man are still the first thing most people think of when they hear "comic books".
And that's exactly why I describe the term as "muddled".
(There's also the fact that, even if Walking Dead outsells Batman, DC outsells Image. ...DOES Walking Dead outsell Batman? I know Walking Dead had most of the top ten slots nailed down last year, but...there are a hell of a lot more Batman trades than Walking Dead ones.)
I was thinking about this the other day and it occurred to me that the number of people that have seen comic books movies and cartoons compared to the number that have read the comic books themselves, that in a cultural sense even if the comic books came first, the movies and cartoons are the "real" versions of the characters while the comic books are the side story.
Depends. I don't think anybody would describe Smallville as the "real" version of Superman. (Okay, neither a movie nor a cartoon, but the Superman adaptation that's had the most attention in the past 15 years or so.) And, while Patrick Stewart and Hugh Jackman may be synonymous with Professor X and Wolverine in many people's minds at this point, the X-Men are a bit too nebulous a concept to pin down to what we've seen in the far-too-busy movies. (Which, in fairness, IS probably a fair and accurate representation of the comic.)
On the whole, though? Yes, Starfire in the comics should be more like she is in the cartoon. Batman in the comics should draw from things like the TAS and TDK (and does! With about 70 years' worth of other, less recognizable influences, in Morrison's case).
Not just because they're more accessible to new readers and don't just cater to fanboys -- but because, in many cases, they're BETTER than what the comics have been doing for the past several decades.
I don't want this book to be cancelled.
too bad
Jonah Hex never got cancelled (just retitled and renumbered, as this), no matter how poorly it did or how legitimately embarrassing the movie was. I don't see what's changed except for the top couple inches of the cover; this is a book DC wants to keep for the sake of genre diversity.
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I've not read a bad Jonah Hex book yet.
Granted I read them all in a series (when one series gets cancelled) but they are pretty consistently good.
I really can't say that about a lot of comics.
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CBLDF buys the Comics Code Seal trademark. (http://boingboing.net/2011/09/29/comics-code-seal-now-under-authority-of-comic-book-legal-defense-fund.html)
Happy Banned Books Week!
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Jonah Hex never got cancelled (just retitled and renumbered, as this), no matter how poorly it did or how legitimately embarrassing the movie was. I don't see what's changed except for the top couple inches of the cover; this is a book DC wants to keep for the sake of genre diversity.
Oh, right. I was conflating this one with the war one as like a generic HEY LET'S DO A NEW WESTERN COMIC. I forgot it was just Jonah Hex continuing right along.
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CBLDF buys the Comics Code Seal trademark. (http://boingboing.net/2011/09/29/comics-code-seal-now-under-authority-of-comic-book-legal-defense-fund.html)
Happy Banned Books Week!
Oh now THAT'S grand. :glee:
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Oh, right. I was conflating this one with the war one as like a generic HEY LET'S DO A NEW WESTERN COMIC. I forgot it was just Jonah Hex continuing right along.
Weeeell, it's kinda both.
DC's TRYING to diversify into different genres, though of course in practice that means the widely diverse genres of superhero, superhero horror, supernatural superhero, superhero fantasy, superhero western, and war (with superheroes).
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Oh, right. I was conflating this one with the war one as like a generic HEY LET'S DO A NEW WESTERN COMIC. I forgot it was just Jonah Hex continuing right along.
Weeeell, it's kinda both.
DC's TRYING to diversify into different genres, though of course in practice that means the widely diverse genres of superhero, superhero horror, supernatural superhero, superhero fantasy, superhero western, and war (with superheroes).
No superhero romance? :;_;:
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They tried, but as you can see, people just flip the fuck out.
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it would probably be easier if they knew any writers who had at any point spoken to a female human
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it would probably be easier if they knew any writers who had at any point spoken to a female human
Thank you. SOMEBODY had to say it.
EDIT: A refined version could be "Someone who had at any point spoken to a female human and actually listened to what they had to say instead of tuning out that droning noise while mentally undressing her."
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but guys starfire is a female alien hurr hurr
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but guys starfire is a female alien hurr hurr
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On the subject of superhero romance: Thor: The Mighty Avenger was fucking awesome.
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On the subject of superhero romance: Thor: The Mighty Avenger was fucking awesome.
Also Spider-man Loves Mary Jane.
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On the subject of superhero romance: Thor: The Mighty Avenger was fucking awesome.
Also Spider-man Loves Mary Jane.
I went to high school with the guy who drew that (Takeshi Miyazawa).
So yeah, I bought that for a while. :nyoro~n:
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A few quick run-throughs:
Kick-Ass: Oh boy, gang rape and child murder. Think I'm finally done with this book.
DC Comics Presents: I've seen lots of people suggest this was a middling book, but I really liked it; I'd say it's one of my favorites of the DC relaunch. Perfectly decent Deadman introduction, and hopefully this book will continue to highlight B-listers.
Aquaman: I was a little put off by reading that it's yet another book that tries to directly take on all the Aquaman mockery, but it's actually pretty good! This Aquaman is, like all other versions of Aquaman, not as good as the one on TB&TB, and is in fact kind of a dick. But I like him as a long-suffering character who's tired of getting made fun of, and I laughed several times.
Futurama: Oh boy, HERE'S a comic that no British person read before it went to press. Because otherwise you can pretty safely assume that Steampunk Bender would not have referred to rescuing Queen Victoria from "space-wogs".
Dark Horse Presents: Beasts of Burden and Age of Reptiles continue to be two of my favorite comics, and they're true to form here. The rest of the book is competent but not standout. Chaykin continues to frustrate; just as he's finally hitting his stride and beginning to get the hang of characters and pacing, bam, it gets all rapey.
Treehouse of Horror: This may change once I finally get around to Love and Rockets, but as of now this is the best thing I've read all month. I considered putting it in the Comics for People Who Don't Read Comics thread, but given that the highlight is a Jim Woodring pastiche of the old EC horror tales, I would have to explain who Jim Woodring is and what EC was.
Suffice it to say that it is a gorgeous fucking book and Treehouse-the-comic has never worn its influence on its sleeve so clearly as it does here. The art is incredible and the story could have come straight out of Tales from the Crypt -- but with a neat little metafictional twist. Just delightful.
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So, you know how folks (especially me) often complain that we see modern North American (NA) comics as something of a wasteland. That apart from some independent work superhero comics have come to dominate meaning that the crappy superhero genre is now conflated with NA comics as a whole.
Now I'm beginning to see more and more that the real tragedy is actually masked in a way, because a lot of people seem to think that Superheroes have always dominated the American comics scene. That the issue is more one of the quality of the genre than with NA comics as a whole.
This wasn't always the case. There used to exist a vastly more mainstream comic form, one with an incredibly sophisticated level of writing that calls back to some of the very best of American writers like Twain or Whitman, or earlier writers like Jonathan Swift. Those would be newspaper comics.
I think by now a lot of us have been educated on the demise of the funny papers by Bill Watterson, but I don't think it's truly appreciated what's been lost, because a lot of the material has simply never been reprinted, has not been reprinted in an accessible way (such as with the lavish Popeye and Krazy Kat coffee-table books), or was once reprinted in a widely available form, but has not been reprinted since the 60's. Just about the ONLY book I can think of that avoided this fate is Peanuts.
A lot of that stuff is dismissed - like Superhero Comics - as kids' stuff. That's understandable, considering the absurdist, often slapstick humour, the fondness for gibberish and satire, and so forth, but man, when you actually read the best material, it's phenomenal stuff. There's always that idiot debate about how artistic comics can be, but apart from some more modern outliers (Will Eisner for example), some of those early newspaper strips may have reached for heights higher than any other comics published in any country at any time have scaled.
There's this sort of dim awareness that maybe something is gone, but really the tendency is to automatically slot newspaper funnies in the "Blondie" cheap sitcom slot (well, even Blondie was kind of neat when it was new). Bill Watterson's most lasting legacy may have been to provide a sole living example to current generations of what was once a thriving, bountiful industry.
There's just this huge hole now and superhero comics (or any single genre for that matter) are never going to fill it.
None of what I have to say will probably be any kind of surprise to Thad, but I dunno about anybody else. At the very least, the following strips are worth looking at if you ever get the chance. Some of these are no doubt blindingly obvious choices (Calvin & Hobbes), but are included on the list for completeness' sake (Thad, feel free to add any suggestions of your own):
George Harriman - Krazy Kat
E.C. Segar - Popeye
Walt Kelly - Pogo
Al Capp - Lil Abner (not so much the later stuff after Capp became a horrible reactionary curmudgeon. Anything prior to Vietnam is probably still good.)
Crockett Johnson - Barnaby
Charles Schultz - Peanuts
Gary Larson - The Far Side
Bill Watterson - Calvin & Hobbes
There's a wealth of other stuff (especially in the earlier half of the 20th century), but my experience of it has been so limited that I don't know enough to recommend stuff like Little Nemo, or the early works of Rube Goldberg (and even if I did, I'm not sure how much of it would be easy to find, other than Little Nemo). In the same vein, I have yet to get much in the way of exposure to some of the long running drama strips (Terry & the Pirates, Scorchy Smith, Gasoline Alley) or comedy-dramas (Barney Google). So I don't know where they fall on the spectrum from really good to boringly soap-operatic.
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Actually there's been a real push to reprint old newspaper comics in the last decade or so, spurred on by the aforementioned Complete Peanuts collection. The work of John Stanley is highly recommended -- did you know Nancy used to be AWESOME? -- and, thanks to Dark Horse and Drawn and Quarterly, his work is widely available. Little Lulu is his best-known work, but I'd recommend anything with his name on it.
Bloom County's getting the same treatment Peanuts is. Early strips are rough but it's a great comic.
Joanna Draper-Carlson has a recent review up of the first two volumes of Archie Archives (http://comicsworthreading.com/2011/10/02/archie-archives-volume-1-and-2/) -- those aren't actually the Archie newspaper strips (which are being collected separately), but I expect that most of her praise and criticism apply to those as well.
I think my next book purchase will probably be the first volume of Floyd Gottfredson's Mickey Mouse strips. There was a preview last FCBD and it was just beautiful. And, starting next month (if I'm not mistaken), Fantagraphics is going to be publishing reprints of Carl Barks's Duck comics.
Strips that I haven't really read but which have gotten the reprint treatment and which I hear good things about include Bringing Up Father, Dick Tracy, and Prince Valiant.
And now's as good a time as any to link to Digital Comic Museum (http://digitalcomicmuseum.com/) again; it's an archive of public-domain comics which includes a number of the strips we've talked about.
Only problem with all of these is that they're usually hardcover coffee table books -- meaning they're expensive, heavy, and not conducive to throwing in a bag and taking with you to flip through when you have a few minutes to spare. I've got a stack of hardcovers I haven't even cracked yet, and a handful which I've started but haven't been able to finish, even as I'm finally starting to dent my backlog of trades.
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The one I'm really waiting for is the long delayed Pogo reprint collection. The main problem is a lack of good quality source material and I don't know if they've completely solved that problem yet. They keep pushing back the publication date and the last update was a vague "Autumn 2011", but I haven't heard anything concrete about a release that's supposedly imminent.
At any rate, even if we do see real significant reprints of classic work, I'm not sure that will necessarily translate into genuine new material or if it does, that that new material will appear in any quantity to threaten superhero books for volume (Bone is a good example of what's possible though).
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Little Nemo deserves to be on the list, and it's got a current print run of the series, but is also available on some (http://www.comicstriplibrary.org/) online archives (http://www.ilovecomixarchive.com/L/Little-Nemo-in-Slumberland).
A lot of people are looking into these older works and trying to bring them back into the fold, which is a good thing. It takes artists who look back, like Spiegelman, Pope and Watterson, to really get the ball rolling, and critics like Seneca who know the history to press for it.
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I once saw a My Little Nemo collection for sale and didn't buy it, and spent five years looking for it afterwards.
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I'm collecting the Peanuts collections. I already have the C&H one, which is absolutely beautiful. Every strip has a date it was published and everything.
If you have your eye on the peanuts ones, though, jump on them NOW. Some of the earlier sets are starting to vanish.
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Love and Rockets: New Stories #4: ...wow. Going to have to chew on that one for awhile.
It's definitely The Jaime Show this year, even moreso than last. There are only two Gilbert stories in this one; one's a kinda fun take on the vampire trend through the lens of Fritz's B-movie career, and the other is a slice-of-life story that's mostly just Fritz chatting with her guy. (I don't know who he is; haven't been keeping up with Fritz. I don't really like Fritz very much, though I like her as an "actress" who appears in other stories.) It's decent stuff and highlights Gilbert's gift for dialogue and mundane, day-to-day stuff, but again, I don't like Fritz very much so it ultimately doesn't do much for me.
Jaime's work is mostly the conclusion of last year's The Love Bunglers, with an interlude for another story from Maggie's childhood.
I think the reviewer who said that the back half of The Love Bunglers was more emotionally brutal than the front half was overstating it, but there's still real pathos, tragedy, and loss here.
It's also an ending. A real, full-circle, the-past-thirty-years-have-all-led-up-to-this ending. Which is not to say we'll never see our girls again -- indeed, this is at least the third real, full-circle, the-past-X-years-have-all-led-up-to-this ending the series has had -- but it closes the book on another chapter in the lives of our three leads, and, while there's shock and tragedy along the way, it ends on a positive note.
L&R is still one of the best goddamn comics ever. And it's consistently worth the wait. I don't know that I'd recommend this book on its own -- you get a good sense of who Maggie and Ray are without needing any backstory, but last year's book is essential to understanding who Calvin is -- and if you're already reading, you probably don't need me to tell you to keep reading. Just rambling, I suppose -- because it's the kinda book where you finish it and want to talk about it.
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So, we got a new DC pint glass collector set in at work today. All classic art, screened to look like newsprint.
Superman: Getting hit by lightning bolts and saying "That tickles."
Batman: A normal Batman pose.
Green Lantern: Using his ring to stop a missile from hitting a city.
Wonder Woman: Shrunk to a tiny size and being tortured with a pair of tweezers.
For some reason I was reminded of a couple of recent discussions.
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(http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51a%2B6GTD3oL._SS500_.jpg)
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is that real
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I'm afraid so. (http://comicsworthreading.com/2007/07/16/bad-batgirl-cover/)
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:disapprove:
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Nursery Rhyme Comics (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/10/05/nursery-rhyme-comics-kate-beaton-mike-mignola/)
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Wow, not exactly a tough sell.
I'd buy Reading the Phone Book Comics by Kate Beaton, Jaime Hernandez, Mike Mignola and More.
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Animal Man is still the best new DC book.
And I suspect it will be until Astro City comes out.
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In other news, Barnes & Noble hates money. (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/10/07/barnes-noble-pulls-watchmen-sandman-and-100-dc-graphic-novels-from-their-shelves-over-amazon-kindle-fire-deal/)
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Before thad thads all over the place:
Barnes & Noble pulls a bunch of popular DC titles in response to DC releasing them on the Amazon Fire and not the Nook.
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Curious who'll come out worse in this. Amazon's just-released tablet is, obviously, still a pretty small market; brick-and-mortar bookstores may not be doing as well as they used to, but they're still the biggest comics sellers in the country, and B&N is the biggest of them.
Yes, it's going to hurt Barnes and Noble -- but it may well hurt DC more.
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Superior: You know, it reminds me of Chosen in that it's a really kind of sweet, earnest book -- and then boom, some Satan shit. It's not as horrifying as Chosen (and sure as hell not as horrifying as last week's child-murder/gang-rape issue of Kick-Ass), but it's still just disappointing. Millar's spent the last decade showing us he can do adolescent shock-schlock; I think childlike wonderment suits him better at this point and would love to see a series where he drops the negativity entirely and just goes for pure joy.
Then again, maybe that IS what this series is. After all, it's not like "monkey emissary of Satan" is a story beat you can play straight. This may yet turn out to be the first comic Millar's written that he can show to his daughter. (Outside of his stint on the British Sonic the Hedgehog, I suppose. And even then he purportedly managed to work in a character named Clint Flicker. Oh, Mark Millar...)
(Tangentially: The first Kevin Smith superhero arc I read, Green Arrow: Quiver, was much the same in that it had a whole lot of fun character beats -- Batman and Superman bullshitting in Smithian fashion, and a tour through some fan-favorite characters like the Demon and the Spectre -- and then it turned into a bunch of Satanism/child-sacrifice shit at the end for no good reason. Disappointing.)
The Flash: Now this is a solid, straight-up superhero book. It has a great pace -- as a Flash book damn-well should -- and, while I'm still not crazy about the Photoshop-over-pencils approach on art, those pencils are solid and the layouts are goddamn wonderful. It's not just the pace of the book that's brilliant -- it's the MOTION. The book is kinetic; the positioning (and even coloring) of the panels carries you across the page in a way that only comics can. The story's serviceable enough, but in terms of pure comic-book storytelling, this book is probably the best of the New 52. (Yes, better than Batwoman -- Williams is a better artist, and I love his layouts, but they don't add to the storytelling in the same way that Manapul's do.)
JL Dark: Now THIS is a book that uses the Photoshop-over-pencils technique well. Nice, thick, clean lines, and colors that make the pencil shading pop. I wouldn't bitch about digital inking if it looked like this all the time.
I really like Janin's figures. His faces are great, and he even makes the far-too-busy new Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman/Cyborg costumes work. (And Superman without a spit curl!)
As for the writing, it's pretty good. Milligan's one of those guys who (like Azzarello) paired with a phenomenal artist around the turn of the century and put out a book that really hit it out of the park, but whose subsequent work has failed to grab me. I haven't read his Shade or Hellblazer. But I can see the appeal here; it's no X-Statix, but if that's going to be my bar then I'm going to spend my life being disappointed.
All in all, it bears repeating: while I've griped about Red Hood and Catwoman, and stand by every word of it, there really are quite a few good books coming out of the New 52. Yes, DC needs their knuckles rapped when they fuck up, but they deserve praise for the shit they're doing right, too.
The reason I complain about books like Red Hood and Catwoman is because dammit, I want more books like Flash and JLD instead.
Still dealing with some shortages. Haven't read Wonder Woman yet. Or the #2's of Swamp Thing or Stormwatch. (I hear Stormwatch is better this month! I hope Swamp Thing is, too.)
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Geoff Boucher interviews Gary Groth on the upcoming Carl Barks collections (http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/10/11/donald-duck-and-carl-barks-fantagraphics-goes-on-classics-quest/#/0). Dauntingly, Groth says there will be about 30; reassuringly, he's starting in the middle, with the best stuff, rather than release them chronologically.
I have mapped out roughly 30 volumes of Barks’ duck stories, published at the rate of two per year. Barks drew his first duck story in 1942 and became very good very fast. But he was 41 when he drew “Donald Duck Finds Pirate Gold,” so he was already an accomplished craftsman. I’m not sure I’d point to a specific turning point, but I think he hit his stride in the mid- to late ’40s, which is why I chose to start our series with what will technically be the seventh chronological volume in what we call “The Carl Barks Library.” There was also a sentimental reason: “Lost in the Andes” was Barks’ favorite story — as well it should be because it’s undoubtedly among his best stories. The second volume we’re publishing — technically the 12th in the series — is “Just a Poor Old Man,” titled after the lead story and filled with stories starring Uncle Scrooge. As you know, Barks invented Uncle Scrooge — as well as so many other characters in the Duck universe — and Scrooge, I think, re-energize him, making these, again, some of his best stories. The third volume will be “A Christmas for Shacktown,” featuring that story, of course. I have to admit a slight prejudice in favor of Barks’ longer adventure stories, which may be another reason I chose this period to publish at the beginning.
Excellent. I'm quite looking forward to it.
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the latest twist in irredeemable is soap opera level terrible
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Oh man, remember last week when I said Animal Man is the best DC relaunch book? Well Demon Knights #2 has me seriously considering changing my answer.
Vandal Savage is HILARIOUS, and while the rest of the cast isn't exactly fully fleshed out yet, I'm growing to like all of them as well.
It's a pretty decompressed book but it's funny and action-packed. It's also not a bad example of the principle Gillen and Busiek mentioned in that article I linked over in the other thread, in the importance of diversity in a female cast. Yes, there is a lady running around in a chainmail bikini -- but it is softened somewhat by the fact that everybody constantly mocks her for running around in a chainmail bikini. And we've also got the return of Sir Ystin (there's been some debate on the forums about whether she qualifies as a legitimate transgender character or is still just the Mulan/Eowyn lady-masquerading-as-a-man archetype Morrison introduced her as). And we only get a brief look at Horsewoman this issue, with no immediately obvious indications that she's crippled (if she's strapped to that horse I couldn't tell by looking), but even in the couple of panels she shows up for she's already intriguing and seems like a different voice.
I love Cornell and he's really starting to find his footing. (Still haven't gotten a copy of Stormwatch #2; can anybody tell me if it's better than #1?) This is another great book from the relaunch.
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I read in one interview that Horsewoman has a magic saddle.
Stormwatch #2 is better, yeah. The art's not quite as terrible, and it's starting to dig into the concept of paranoid neo-gods facing off against enormous threats. I'm hoping that [spoiler]using C-list villains as a smokescreen for the JLI[/spoiler] becomes a running gag. I'm the most interest in Harry and Adam One at the moment, although the Projectionist's powers are the most compelling.
There's still more of the characters explaining their powers than I'd like, and [spoiler]I want to know more about the limits of data miners[/spoiler], but #2 is better than #1.
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All in all the #2s seem to be better than the number ones, which is great. Demon Knights is easily one of the best, and also works as, well, a comedy book. Cornell demonstrated his ability to have funny, action packed stories in Knight and Squire, and I hope Demon Knight sticks with that formula. It's a refresher from the darkness of the other books, which is ironic as the lead is a demon from Hell.
Animal Man is good and trippy, and combines the weirdness of the Morrison/Vertigo runs, with the quaintness of the original concept. Plus things like skeleton pets are entertaining.
Action Comics #2 is good, and establishes a nice rapport between Luthor and Clark. Morrison is smart not to focus on the historical arch-foe relationship of the two, and allows Luthor to make huge mistakes that show him as arrogant while still making Superman look badass.
I've got Batman #1 but have yet to read it, Superior #5 is just plain goofy at times (Millar really seems to like the idea of dropping superheroes on the middle east for some reason. Could Millar be taking after Miller?) and I've got more Hellblazers at this point than I know what to do with.
On the trade front, I picked up Chew Vol. 4. And if you're not Chew, well what the fuck is wrong with you? The basic concept follows the actions of an FDA agent named Tony Chu, in a world where an outbreak of avian flu has allowed the FDA to achieve national security status and led to a world-wide ban on poultry. Tony Chu happens to be a cibopath, meaning that he can sense the origin and story of whatever he happens to eat, including decaying bodies. Chu ends up solving a variety of crimes that involve chicken-like fruits from outer space, vampires, revolution on small island nations, and a badass luchador chicken.
But what really makes Chew work is the perfect pairing of writer John Layman and artist/colorist Rob Guillory. Layman writes tight, hilarious crime stories that are filled to the brim with clever narrative tricks (more than once he breaks the fourth wall to dictate that narrative hooks happening on panel do not actually occur in the story, but would be dramatic if they did!) that are pulled off with bright, expressive artwork by Guillory. Guillory is one of those few artists that remembers he's working comics, so the characters are unique, stylized and work in the context. He also has an amazing sense of pace and paneling that makes the narrative flow well with Layman's writing. He also makes the colors vivid and unique, not attempting to emulate reality like most books, but make it fun and entertaining to read.
The fourth volume involves suicidal outer space cults, cryptic alien writing and an overweight genius who's at the peak of his mental acumen as long as he's eating. Seriously, Chew is one of the best books on the stand. Go buy it now.
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Yeah, I've gushed about Chew in the past but it totally bears repeating. It is one of my favorite books in years and everyone should be reading it.
Tell me what you think of Batman #1 after you read it. Most critics seem to love it but I'm having trouble getting past the art. Heard the guy used to do Spawn and it was not in the least bit surprising.
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Read it and liked it well enough! Snyder's writing is strong, even if it provides few surprises. And Capullo's art is honestly not that bad. He did do some Spawn work (the cover is like 50% cape) but it isn't so distracting. He has the obnoxious over sketchiness of a Jim Lee or a Todd McFarlane, but for the most part his style is expressive and the coloring is vivid. Those faces sometimes. Also has several panels of Bruce Wayne talking to a guy who looks just like Bruce Wayne, which gets kind of confusing. I'm also going to pretend that's actually Zasz with a Riddler fixation, and not actually the Riddler.
Otherwise the story was a lot of fun to read. The mystery towards the end of the comic feels a bit too inspired by Se7en, but there are scenes where a chipper Bruce Wayne addresses the Robins in an almost jovial manner. Plus, Batman is drawn with smiles. "That'd be ridiculous, Jim."
So not the best of the bunch, but still a pretty good book, and worth picking up. It's secured my second purchase. Which is the goal! I didn't really buy a lot of DC books, and this last month I've bought close to 10. And I'll continue picking up more!
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Ultimate Spider-man #3 finally has Mile Morales doing something.
Saving people from a burning building.
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Patriotism may be the last refuge of a scoundrel, but making firemen look bad is the last refuge of a hack comic book writer.
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http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/10/22/the-phone-call-that-confirmed-watchmen-2/ (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/10/22/the-phone-call-that-confirmed-watchmen-2/)
(http://brontoforum.us/Smileys/classic/rolleye.gif)
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Patriotism may be the last refuge of a scoundrel, but making firemen look bad is the last refuge of a hack comic book writer.
Are we really complaining about Spider-Man not being nuanced enough here?
This is the kind of bitching that leads to stuff like Grounded.
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There's a difference between "obvious" and "cliched since the 30's".
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But it's so incredibly basic that you might as well complain about superheroes punching people.
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Paul Pope is getting a new collection of his hard to find stuff from between 1993-2001. Doesn't include THB, but that stuff isn't hard to find:
(http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6043/6280996634_92b2104ab6.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ernestborg9/6280996634/)
OTRO (http://www.flickr.com/photos/ernestborg9/6280996634/#) by ernest.borg9 (http://www.flickr.com/people/ernestborg9/), on Flickr
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Other exciting comic news!
'King City' writer Brandon Graham and artist Simon Roy to revitalize Prophet (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/10/18/prophet-preview-brandon-graham-extreme-studios/)
Look at that spread. Looks to only barely resemble the original Image Comics book, which is fine by me. Also part of a larger effort to revive Rob Liefield's Extreme Studios line from the 90s, but with Alan Moore and others involved.
Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan to do new Conan series for Dark Horse (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/10/14/conan-the-barbarian-brian-wood-becky-cloonan/)
Not really much I can add to that sentence.
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Man, what is it with Lobdell and sexualizing female characters? This time, Wonder Girl. (http://www.comicscavern.com/news/2011/10/25/wonder-girl-makes-it-to-page-2-of-teen-titans-before-discuss.html)
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The "They're real" comment wasn't even necessary! Even if he WAS staring at her chest, she's not a Power Girl or Wonder Woman in the chest department. That was just added to emphasize she's "all woman" or whatever.
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Yeah, that scene might've been sorta okay without that horrible second dialogue balloon. Cheesy and lame, but not HAY GUYS HOW ABOUT THAT SEXXXXXXXX? AH? AH?
I mean, it saddens me to realize that Curling Flower Space is actually a realistic depiction of Superhero Comics writers' real knowledge of women.
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Wow, that art looks like something from 1996.
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I have to admit something
I
I have always thought Jim Lee is kind of a shitty artist
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I have to admit something
I
I have always thought Jim Lee is kind of a shitty artist
Michael Jackson - You Are Not Alone (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAyKJAtDNCw#)
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Hey guys... I have to admit something.
Sometimes I drink water.
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Hey guys... I have to admit something.
Sometimes I drink water.
Michael Jackson - You Are Not Alone (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAyKJAtDNCw#)
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Sorry, you can't repeat a karma action without waiting 12 hours.
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Wow, that art looks like something from 1996.
This is pretty much the most alarming thing about the DC reboot: they want to pull in new readers, so they go for guys like Lee, Liefeld, and Lobdell (which I believe is a law firm in the Marvel Universe).
I like a lot of what's going on in the New 52, I really do. But the spectre of the 1990's bubble is all over it. As we've often remarked here and elsewhere, you can't go in a new direction if you keep the same damn people in charge.
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Nat Gertler's started abuckforjack.com (http://abuckforjack.com), where he's soliciting people to donate a dollar for every movie they've seen featuring Jack Kirby characters, which he'll then pass on to the Kirby Museum. (He hopes at some point to pass a share on to the Kirby heirs, too, but hasn't been in touch with them as yet.)
On the whole it may be a more attractive solution than Bissette's boycott; the boycott isn't hurting Marvel in any substantial way, it's certainly not helping the Kirbys, and meanwhile I haven't seen Captain America or read any of Mark Waid's well-received Daredevil run.
(Let's see, I've seen...4 X-Men movies, 2 Iron Man movies, 2 Fantastic Four movies, 2 Hulk movies, Daredevil, and Thor. And did any of Kirby's work make it into Blade, Ghost Rider, or Spider-Man?)
Seriously considering signing on for this in lieu of Bissette's boycott. And maybe starting to pick up Daredevil and contributing now and again for that (but a buck for a $3 monthly series is a bit different for a buck for a few $9 movie tickets a year, so I'd go with some lower value per-issue).
-
Does Masters of the Universe count? How about Superman/Batman: Apocalypse? Or even Star Wars?
-
in the case of MotU and Star Wars, I think we should probably delineate between stuff that's a DIRECT use of Kirby's work and stuff that is clearly influenced by it but legally distinct from it. If we're going to go for "obvious Kirby influence" then we'll be bankrupt in a hurry.
No need to contribute extra money for his DC work, as his estate DOES get royalties from that. (At least, the stuff from 1969 onward -- I dunno about, say, the Guardian or the Newsboy Legion.)
-
That there has not yet been made a Thundarr the Barbarian movie is The Greatest Crime.
-
Busiek's blogging again!
It's all worth reading, but in particular check out the Astro City pic on his mailbag post (http://busiek.com/site/2011/10/through_the_mail_slot_19.php). Looks like we won't just be seeing the Samaritan/Confessor World's Finest teamup that he'd previously alluded to, but indeed he's still got the Trinity bug. Good stuff.
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Hm -- apparently Chris Sims has written a Dracula comic (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/10/31/dracula-unconquered-chris-sims-interview/) which he's pitched as a tongue-in-cheek all-ages adventure that contrasts Dracula's depiction as the ultimate badass in such media as Castlevania with his rather pathetic portrayal in the original novel and indicates that the latter was sort of a low point in his career. Should be fun, the art by Steve Downer looks like a good fit, and they're selling it DRM-free for a buck.
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Deadpool is one of those books that was awesome two years ago and has since been coasting on just good enough to keep me from dropping it.
Well, it finally got good again! Not quite meat-suit good, but the best I've seen it since the pirate arc. (Not including the mini by Chris Hastings.)
The evil twin idea is one that's obviously so totally played in the genre but actually works really well for Deadpool. Because his whole deal is that he's GOT a moral compass, it's just broken. He so desperately wants to be the good guy.
So, you put him up against a twin who doesn't have that at all, who really IS just literally soulless, and hilarity ensues.
Even the "Check out these other Deadpool books" page at the end was hilarious.
This is the only Marvel book I've been buying for months now. That's partly due to my earlier comments about not buying books with Kirby characters, but it's also partly because of stuff like this.
-
Welp, Steve Rude's gone and gotten himself in trouble again.
Via Tom Spurgeon (http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/a_brief_update_on_steve_rudes_arrest/), who's been in touch with Jaynelle:
* Monday night's incident was as reported the latest development in a longstanding dispute between Rude and his neighbors. This includes the barking dogs cited in some reports. This also includes Rude stating at some point during a previous permutation of their encounters that he'd like to kill the neighbors, which was apparently enough for them to secure a restraining order.
* the incident in question from Monday night concerns the aforementioned barking dogs, which were out again where Rude could hear them as he handed out Halloween candy in costume. Rude responded to the barking dogs by throwing rocks at the fence behind which the dogs were barking in an attempt to silence them.
* one of the dog-owning neighbors confronted Rude verbally, followed by the other when the first one retreated inside. Rude says this quickly became verbally abusive, and included an invite for Steve to come over to where the second neighbor, a male, was standing. This ends with Rude ripping the neighbor's shirt and shoving him backwards, causing the second neighbor to also go indoors. This would be the basis of the assault charge.
* Rude returned to handing out Halloween candy. The cops -- Rude says in four police cars -- found him at his candy-dispensing station and asked after a concealed weapon. When the cop to whom he was speaking asked him to turn around and put his hands behind his back, Rude at first tried to ascertain if he was being arrested and then complied.
* Rude suffered some physical abuse during the arrest and later at the jail, the latter of which will be looked at by a doctor.
There are, of course, two sides to every story and we haven't heard the neighbors'.
But in any disagreement between Steve Rude and the Maricopa County Sheriff's Department, I am inclined to side with the former until given sufficient reason to do otherwise.
Upshot is, discounted Rude art on eBay (http://www.ebay.com/sch/steve_rude/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=&_trksid=p3686) to help pay his legal bills.
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Hm -- apparently Chris Sims has written a Dracula comic (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/10/31/dracula-unconquered-chris-sims-interview/) which he's pitched as a tongue-in-cheek all-ages adventure that contrasts Dracula's depiction as the ultimate badass in such media as Castlevania with his rather pathetic portrayal in the original novel and indicates that the latter was sort of a low point in his career. Should be fun, the art by Steve Downer looks like a good fit, and they're selling it DRM-free for a buck.
This looks like a riot, thanks.
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http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2011/11/14/from-the-editors-desk-introducing-darkseid-design-by-jim-lee/ (http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2011/11/14/from-the-editors-desk-introducing-darkseid-design-by-jim-lee/)
Uuuuugh
Goddamn it, stop giving everybody armour.
-
COLLARED armor.
-
Wasn't Darkseid the one guy who already had collared armour though?
-
Not really. He had sort of a helmet-dome and tunic ensemble going on.
-
And skirt! Don't forget the skirt!
-
Well, maybe. I guess the important thing is that either way, he's never had a neck.
-
This editorial (http://insidepulse.com/2011/11/17/the-gold-standard-where-did-marvels-women-go/) makes some good points regarding Marvel's treatment of women. DC may be treating some of its female characters poorly, but at least they've got female characters headlining books. Marvel is canceling (or has cancelled) just about every book they're printing starring a woman in the lead role.
-
Bleedingcool: photos teasing impending Valiant relaunch (http://www.bleedingcool.com/forums/showthread.php?52123-Secret-Valiant-Insider-Blog-Exposed-X-O-Manowar-Bloodshot-And-Rai&p=268848[/url).
I had just finished joking that I hope they bring back my favorite 1990's Valiant/Acclaim book when I noticed that the word "Quantum" is in fact sitting smack-dab in the middle of the second photo.
Still a pretty huge longshot, but goddammit, I am officially starting this rumor. Make it happen, Valiant.
-
Bleedingcool (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/11/28/here-comes-cyber-monday-fill-your-digital-boots/) has lots more sales listed.
You know, I was planning on donating $50 to CBLDF anyway; if I can get a copy of Paying For It, then so much the better. (Am ambivalent about whether I want a personalized copy of Chester Brown's book about going to prostitutes, but what the hell.)
And on the subject of charitable donations, Stan Lee (http://shiftmygift.com/e286/stan-lees-89th-birthday/) wants you to donate to the Hero Initiative for his birthday.
-
Alan Moore interview. (http://www.comicbookgrrrl.com/2011/11/27/full-and-uncut-interview-with-alan-moore/)
It's about what you should expect from an Alan Moore interview at this point: alternately brilliant and myopic, insightful and curmudgeonly. The damn thing appears to stop just shy of getting into the "What's with all the rape?" question, but still, a worthwhile read.
-
He also recently did an interview where he discusses the impact of the Guy Fawkes mask (http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/27/alan-moore-v-vendetta-mask-protest) in regards to protests.
Also, I can't help but hear his slow, sonorous voice whenever I read any interviews of his.
-
Preview of Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan's Conan the Barbarian #1 (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/11/29/conan-the-barbarian-1-brian-wood-becky-cloonan-preview/)
Such gorgeous art.
-
Name them all:
(http://i.imgur.com/E3nA0.jpg)
-
This is one of those no-win scenarios they teach you about in Starfleet, isn't it.
-
:glee: I LOVE A CHALLENGE
[spoiler]
Rogue, Spider girl, Batgirl, Red Sonja, ???
???(Possibly a woman from Alpha Flight I can't name), ???, She-Ra, Harley Quinn, Pink Power Ranger, ???
White Queen, Phoenix, Power Girl, ??? Wonder Woman
She-Hulk, Zatanna, Lady Deathstrike, Jana of the Wonder Twins (ha), ???, Bumblebee from Teen Titans
???(Don't know of any female Robin), Cheetara, ???, Star Sapphire, ???
???, Chun-Li, ???, Poison Ivy, Storm, ???
???, ???, Supergirl, Black Canary, Sailor Moon
???, Mystique, Ms. Marvel, Starfire, Samus Aran, ???
Princess Peach, Ivy, ???, Miss Martian, Mrs. Incredible
???, ???, Sue Storm, Kerrigan, ???, ???
[/spoiler]
U pervin' MEDIOCRE !
-
...the one with the big red bat on her chest is Batwoman, Dooly.
And there was a female Robin in Dark Knight Returns. (Also Stephanie Brown but I don't think she counts.)
-
:glee: I LOVE A CHALLENGE
[spoiler]
Rogue, Spider girl, Batgirl, Red Sonja, Big Barda
Aurora, Huntress, She-Ra, Harley Quinn, Pink Power Ranger, Raven
White Queen, Phoenix, Power Girl, Silver Banshee Wonder Woman
She-Hulk, Zatanna, Lady Deathstrike, Jana of the Wonder Twins (ha), Batwoman, Bumblebee from Teen Titans
Carrie Kelly Robin, Cheetara, Black Cat, Star Sapphire, Xena
Dr. Light, Chun-Li, Thundra, Poison Ivy, Storm, Green Lantern (Arisia?)
???, Silk Spectre, Supergirl, Black Canary, Sailor Moon
Photon, Mystique, Ms. Marvel, Starfire, Samus Aran, ???
Princess Peach, Ivy, Vixen(?), Miss Martian, Mrs. Incredible
Dagger, Songbird, Sue Storm, Kerrigan, Emma Frost (again), Domino
[/spoiler]
U pervin' MEDIOCRE !
-
:glee: I LOVE A CHALLENGE
[spoiler]
Rogue, Spider girl, Batgirl, Red Sonja, Big Barda (I think)
Aurora, Huntress, She-Ra, Harley Quinn, Pink Power Ranger, Raven (I think)
White Queen Dagger, Phoenix, Power Girl, ???, Wonder Woman
She-Hulk, Zatanna, Lady Deathstrike, Jana of the Wonder Twins (ha), Bat Woman, Bumblebee from Teen Titans
Robin (Either the girl who used to be spoiler or the one from DKR, Cheetara, ???, Star Sapphire, I think this is maybe supposed to be slave Leia?
???, Chun-Li, ???, Poison Ivy, Storm, some female green lantern. Maybe Jade?
The female Speedy (green arrow's side kick), ???, Supergirl, Black Canary, Sailor Moon
???, Mystique, Ms. Marvel, Starfire, Samus Aran, the Wasp (I think)
Princess Peach, Ivy, ???, Miss Martian, Mrs. Incredible
???, White Tiger maybe?, Sue Storm, Kerrigan, White Queen, Black Widow maybe?
[/spoiler]
U pervin' MEDIOCRE !
Added what I could. I'm going to go be sad about my life choices now.
-
To left of Chun-Li is Artemis from Young Justice.
-
...the one with the big red bat on her chest is Batwoman, Dooly.
And there was a female Robin in Dark Knight Returns. (Also Stephanie Brown but I don't think she counts.)
That's [spoiler]Stephanie Brown. The outfit is different from Carrie's.[/spoiler]
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...the one with the big red bat on her chest is Batwoman, Dooly.
And there was a female Robin in Dark Knight Returns. (Also Stephanie Brown but I don't think she counts.)
According to the writers for Brave and the Bold, she does! (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/11/08/robins-team-up-batman-brave-bold-preview/)
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Yeah, but they made Disco Collar Nightwing awesome, too, so.
...there are trades of that thing, right? I only ever picked up the Kandor issue.
-
I knew about Batgirl, but didn't know there was a separate Batwoman. Also, if there are two White Queens in there that's just cheating.
-
No, the first one labeled the White Queen is Dagger from Cloak and Dagger, as pointed out by Kashan.
Also, bottom left is unknown and bottom right is Catwoman.
-
Bottom left is The White Violin from Umbrella Academy.
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I knew about Batgirl, but didn't know there was a separate Batwoman.
Original Batwoman predates Batgirl but has been out of circulation for some time.
Current Batwoman has been around for about 5 years and her book is one of my current favorites, mostly down to JH Williams III's art.
Her costume was designed by Alex Ross IIRC, but that big red logo on her chest was originally used in Batman Beyond.
Her backstory involves a personal tragedy involving her mother and sister and an Army career cut short by a discharge under DADT, and she's aided by her father, who's also ex-military. The first trade is called Batwoman: Elegy and is well worth picking up.
(Her first appearance was actually prior to that, in a series called 52. While 52 was great, her arc wasn't anything to write home about, and it's inessential to her later series. Only important stuff it introduces is that there's a Religion of Crime, complete with a Crime Bible.)
No, the first one labeled the White Queen is Dagger from Cloak and Dagger, as pointed out by Kashan.
Bah, White Queen has worn that exact top; see Quitely's design for her.
(Come to that, if you tinted the skin orange it'd be Arisia.)
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But it actually IS Dagger's costume:
(http://dyn4.media.forbiddenplanet.com/products/18220830.jpg.size-300_square-true.jpg)
Which is actually different from the one Emma Frost wore:
(http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/emma-frost-frank-quitely-headshot.jpg)
Also, I'm gonna "Ummm... Actually" here, but Emma Frost is no longer the White Queen. She just goes by Emma Frost now, the White Queen is a position inside the Hellfire Club.
-
That costume... how does that work. That doesn't work.
-
She uses brain magic on her clothing.
-
It's rare when you get to see a man's first introduction to Emma Frost.
Truth of the matter is, Emma Frost has NEVER worn clothing. She simply psychically projects clothing into everyone else's mind. Of course, the only one's who see her naked are telepaths more powerful than her, which is why Jean Grey hated her and why Professor X suddenly developed the ability to walk again.
-
I'd laugh but you are talking about an X-men.
So you are probably sugarcoating it and leaving out a lot of dumb details.
-
well, there's the fact that she's a psychic diamond golem, so being nude all the time is not actually all that bad.
-
If you've got fabulous psychic powers and are using them to project the illusion of clothes, would it be better or simply missing the point to make them clothes that could exist in reality?
-
I- BB, it's psychic powers. It's got implied limitations that are more severe than magic. One being no ex nihilo creation.
-
That is answering an entirely different question than the one I asked. But I suppose if you have psychic powers and you're using them for a clothes-related purpose, it follows that you're showing off, and therefore, clothes that would be impossible without psychic powers are the order of the day.
Okay, this shit is rationalized. You can go about your business.
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Also, I'm gonna "Ummm... Actually" here, but Emma Frost is no longer the White Queen. She just goes by Emma Frost now,
True but not exactly relevant.
the White Queen is a position inside the Hellfire Club.
I call shenanigans; she was still calling herself White Queen when she was running the school in Generation X.
...on a related note I finally figured out what to do with my comics I don't want anymore (like Generation X). I know that there's a glut of 1990's X-Men and such and so libraries and comic shops don't really want them. And I kind of hate them so I don't want to donate them to children because I don't like the idea of that being someone's introduction to comics.
But it has finally occurred to me that soldiers serving overseas would appreciate them!
So, you know, next time I do a major reorg I'll probably bag a bunch up to donate to the troops. But God knows when I'll get around to that.
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Truth of the matter is, Emma Frost has NEVER worn clothing. She simply psychically projects clothing into everyone else's mind. Of course, the only one's who see her naked are telepaths more powerful than her, which is why Jean Grey hated her and why Professor X suddenly developed the ability to walk again.
What about artificial life forms, like the Vision or Jocasta?
...or Machine Man?
-
machine man wouldn't even notice. all humans, naked or clothed, are equally revolting.
-
Brian Bendis to finally, FINALLY, give up the Avengers in 2012. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/12/06/benis-concludes-avengers-run-breaking-bad/)
Taking bets on who will replace him. I've got 3 to 1 odds on Fraction, but I'm open to hearing other suggestions.
-
Thank the Maker. Maybe now we can have a series that doesn't include superfluous characters and lengthy dialogue scenes that drag the story down and serve only as a means to pad a story arc to six issues.
-
Oh hey, the Fourth World omnibi are finally coming out in paperback.
...and cost $10 less than the damn hardcover.
Ah well, I've already got the first three volumes in hardback anyway.
-
After a delay of 5+ years, they are FINALLY releasing the Pogo collections.
First volume should be in stores before Christmas.
-
On this side of the border, it's already out (same day as the Barks collection; rather unfortunate timing).
Legitimately loving the Barks collection, BTW; will give it a writeup in the Who Don't Read Comics thread when I get a chance. tl;dr you're not going to find a better thing to spend $25 on and I'm going to buy two more copies as Christmas presents.
-
Tom Brevoort doesn't think visibility of women and minorities is important for diversity. (http://www.comicsbeat.com/2011/12/07/tom-brevoort-on-marvels-distaff-dearth/)
-
Not exactly news.
-
There's a compilation of Bruce Timm's pinups (http://fleskpublications.com/blog/2011/12/03/naughty-and-nice-the-good-girl-art-of-bruce-timm-behind-the-scenes-and-pictures-book-arriving-soon/) coming out soon. It looks real purdy (and nsfw).
-
Not exactly news.
More on the subject (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/12/08/marvel-women-comics-editors/), this time from Axel Alonso and Jeanine Schaefer.
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http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/12/10/fanboy-rampage-jms-vs-steve-wacker/ (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2011/12/10/fanboy-rampage-jms-vs-steve-wacker/)
NERD FIGHT
-
I like how JMS pretends that a statement like "Sales of the book I worked on cratered after I left" does not imply anything bad about the people who took over after him.
Or that "Just Sayin'" means anyone is "just saying".
-
It seems JMS was saying "Jack & Jill sucks" and Adam Sandler replies "WHY ARE YOU INSULTING AL PACINO"
-
Well, I think we all agree that both parties are pretty retarded.
[Joke that "both parties" means Jack & Jill and Al Pacino]
-
Yeah, but even considering the OMD nonsense, does anyone anywhere actually think the book was better when JMS was writing it?
-
I don't know, I don't read Spider-Man.
-
Yeah, but even considering the OMD nonsense, does anyone anywhere actually think the book was better when JMS was writing it?
I dropped the book pretty quickly after OMD, but I liked the JMS run other than OMD. I've heard the post OMD run has gotten better as time has gone on though.
-
I liked the JMS run other than OMD.
I would like to remind you that he retconned in Gwen giving birth to Norman Osborn's illegitimate children.
I've heard the post OMD run has gotten better as time has gone on though.
OMD was an ugly solution but the aftermath has been positive. I've been a Dan Slott fan for a very long time; the book's in good hands.
I would generally describe myself as a JMS fan, too; his TB&TB and Thor were both pretty great.
-
I liked the JMS run other than OMD.
I would like to remind you that he retconned in Gwen giving birth to Norman Osborn's illegitimate children.
Which were originally written as Peter's children, but changed by editorial mandate. Again, ugly solution.
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I liked the JMS run other than OMD.
I would like to remind you that he retconned in Gwen giving birth to Norman Osborn's illegitimate children.
I've heard the post OMD run has gotten better as time has gone on though.
OMD was an ugly solution but the aftermath has been positive. I've been a Dan Slott fan for a very long time; the book's in good hands.
I would generally describe myself as a JMS fan, too; his TB&TB and Thor were both pretty great.
Oh yeah, forgot about the Gwen retcon, I also didn't like the back in black stuff that led up to OMD. Let me say what I did like from his run. I loved what JMS did with Mary Jane. I loved what he did with Ezekiel and the spider totem stuff. I loved the visions of spider-man's future. I really wanted to see where he was going to go with spider-man after he gained his new powers. I loved his Spider-man and Iron Man interaction during the Civil War. I loved spider-man teaching at his old high-school. I didn't see why Spider-Man needed a soltuion to fix it, ugly or otherwise.
I didn't immediately drop spider-man after OMD, I gave it a couple of months. I eventually dropped it because I didn't see anything interesting about any of the characters in it, especially in comparison to what had been there before it. The best thing I can say about the post OMD spider-man stuff I read was that Mr negative seems like he could have become a semi-iconic villain over time.
I liked the JMS run other than OMD.
I would like to remind you that he retconned in Gwen giving birth to Norman Osborn's illegitimate children.
Which were originally written as Peter's children, but changed by editorial mandate. Again, ugly solution.
I didn't know that, that could have been an interesting story.
-
I liked the JMS run other than OMD.
I would like to remind you that he retconned in Gwen giving birth to Norman Osborn's illegitimate children.
Which were originally written as Peter's children, but changed by editorial mandate. Again, ugly solution.
Spiderman's books have had so much disastrous meddling in the past decade (fifteen years, really), it'll at least take a solid decade of bland non-events to wash the gruesome taste from everyone's mouth.
-
Eh. Name me a book that's been running for the past 15 years and HASN'T been subject to disastrous meddling.
I don't know if I'd even say that about Love and Rockets.
(Because I hate Fritz.)
-
Blacksad.
-
Does it count as "meddling" if you just self-immolate in spectacular fashion (LOLDaveSim)?
Blacksad.
:wat: There's only three one-off books. That doesn't really count as a fifteen-year continuing series.
Of course there ARE hundreds (If not thousands) of European serials which have been treated in a fairly businesslike way (i.e. that would meet Thad's criteria for meddle-free), but I figured we were just talking about the North American market here.
-
Does it count as "meddling" if you just self-immolate in spectacular fashion (LOLDaveSim)?
Blacksad.
:wat: There's only three one-off books. That doesn't really count as a fifteen-year continuing series.
Oh, I thought he meant books that have appeared in the last fifteen years, not the ones that run for that long. So yeah, the odds of executive meddling go up the longer your series runs. I wonder how many times execs have messed with 2000AD...
In other news, a man dressed like Superman saved a guy who'd been hit by a car (http://www.news.com.au/national/superman-a-real-life-superhero-at-bucks-party/story-e6frfkvr-1226216835936).
-
Even marrying a journalist. Nice.
-
Oh, I thought he meant books that have appeared in the last fifteen years, not the ones that run for that long. So yeah, the odds of executive meddling go up the longer your series runs.
That's my point, yes. Though my L&R example is to point out that creators can change the direction of their own work in not-always-desirable ways too -- it's certainly not Cerebus, and in fact it's still consistently one of the best comics out there, but...still not a fan of Fritz as the main character in Beto's stories. (Though I quite like the ones where she's an actress playing a part instead of appearing as herself!)
Hm -- maybe Hellboy? Granted there was a long run where Mignola wasn't drawing it himself, and I haven't read most of that. (Keep spoilers in mind if you intend to tell me that yes Hellboy was actually subject to meddling.)
I don't think Optic Nerve is published regularly enough to count. And Eightball is no more.
-
Hellboy is still fully Mignola's property, in spirit and effective control.
I'd say he's suffered from distraction, dilution, and wandering in the past few years (hell, arguably the last decade), which is always a danger with those series that push and pull between contained, episodic stories, and larger pieces of a single long arc; but overall Hellboy's still doing fine.
He's at least managed to avoid becoming stale, which is one of the other big killers besides meddling.
-
Even if there's no executive meddling, the artist's own aging will change the comic. I mean, Dennis the Menace and Family Circus were edgy at one point.
-
Dick move, Joe. Flat out, a dick move, and you know it. Either your point was to show people how awesome you were, or to show people how things have deteriorated since your absence. There’s no other way to interpret your post. None. Are you really that hard up for approbation and fan love that you can’t rise above that sort of shit? I understand Wacker’s frustration. Maybe he overreacted a bit, in the way good friends DO react when they perceive their friends and employees being attacked by a bitter man with a bottomless ego, but you made the first move, and it was a dick move. And if anyone doubted you were doing it for anything other than informational purposes, adding “Just sayin’” was the snarktacular icing on the cake. No one says “Just sayin’” unless they’re doing exactly the opposite of “Just sayin’
…
Half an hour later, still fuming at JMS’s shitty passive-aggressiveness. I should probably go walk it off. Maybe with a long walk. A long, dull, pointless, boring walk. Across America.
…
That I won’t finish.
-
~*~THE CALLOUT~*~
-
This is going to end in a fistfight. At a con. I hope.
-
Oh shit, Mark Waid is totally baller.
-
Mozambique ad campaign uses superheroines to raise awareness for breast exams (http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/14190615322/bcawareness).
-
Atomic Comics' assets to be auctioned on Tuesday the 3rd. (http://sierraauction.com/calendar/010312-atomic-comic/)
A 5-minute drive away from my work.
I may need to take an early lunch that day.
-
X-Men With Googly Eyes (http://xmenwithgooglyeyes.tumblr.com/)
-
Atomic Comics' assets to be auctioned on Tuesday the 3rd. (http://sierraauction.com/calendar/010312-atomic-comic/)
A 5-minute drive away from my work.
I may need to take an early lunch that day.
Hey, see if you can snag me some of those Marvel Legends sets, Thad. :D
-
With the passing of Robinson and Simon, Evanier has been linking to stories about great Golden Age artists who are still with us. He's linked a Times article on Irwin Hasen (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/nyregion/for-irwin-hasen-a-life-with-dondi.html?_r=3) and a NorthJersey piece on Russ Heath (http://www.northjersey.com/arts_entertainment/136076078_A_life_as_colorful_as_the_comics_.html?page=all).
There are a lot of unsung Golden Age greats still out there.
-
http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/12/23/harley-quinn-chart-infographic/ (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/12/23/harley-quinn-chart-infographic/)
heh-heh
-
As I get older I sometimes like to reread comics from my youth and see if they hold up or if age has brought about any new appreciation. Usually I'm disappointed but over the holiday I reread Fantastic Four vs. the X-men and was pleasantly surprised to find this was the first comic from my childhood I enjoyed more as an adult.
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xk_2FySPK9o/Tj7-lTRqUYI/AAAAAAAAAtw/hrTY48tRqQo/s1600/xmenfantasticfour4a+franklin+lockheed+guilt+trip.jpg)
Keep your Alan Moores. Claremont had always been interested in drawing a parallel between the X-men and minorities, but it never really clicked without a recognizable, relatable character cast in the role of Privileged White Man and causing unchecked suffering due a lack of empathy and understanding, not malice. Using Reed Richards, the perpetual Smartest Guy in the Room, never wrong about anything, as this foil is a stroke of genius and justifies Claremont's entire career. Read it again.
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So a little over a year ago, one of my friends gave me this book (http://www.amazon.com/Smithsonian-Comic-Book-Comics-Martin-Williams/dp/0810906961). I actually put it aside, mistakenly thinking it was mostly a dry history summation (of which I already had one or two). But it's actually almost all full reprints of famous early comics!
The book has this funny editorial bent, really strongly stating that the comics code ruined comics (well, it was published in 1981... and the comics code DID ruin things for a long time), so the writers chose to include nothing after 1954. But it really hits all the major early works, Batman, Superman, The Spirit, Carl Barks Duck Books... it's pretty much like it was written by Thad.
I'll let you guys know how it is.
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So I'm enjoying the new Death Stroke alot.
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So I'm enjoying the new Death Stroke alot.
(http://i.imgur.com/iuzvP.png)
me too
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http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/01/03/marvel-takes-back-marketshare-lead-from-dc-comics-december-2011/ (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/01/03/marvel-takes-back-marketshare-lead-from-dc-comics-december-2011/)
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First DC 52 cancellations/new series announced: (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2012/01/12/thoughts-on-dcs-re-organization-of-the-new-52/)
They are launching six new titles: Batman Incorporated, Dial H, Justice Society of America, World’s Finest, Ravagers and GI Combat.
Therefore, the six canceled titles are: OMAC, Mister Terrific, Static Shock, Men of War, Blackhawks and Hawk and Dove.
A little surprised by Static -- I'm cynical enough that I figured two of the three books starring black guys would be among the first to get canceled, but I would have guessed Mr. Terrific and Batwing. I would have expected Static to have more selling power because of the cartoon -- granted, the current Static Shock series isn't very good and I quit reading a couple issues in.
Interesting but not altogether surprising: they're not just cutting down the ethnic diversity in their books, they're cutting down the genre diversity too. Memo to DC: the reason people didn't buy Men of War may have had less to do with it being a war book than with it costing four dollars.
China Miéville is going to be writing Dial H.
I am so there.
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Isn't GI Combat a new war book though?
If Dial H is like early H.E.R.O., I'm in. If it's like late H.E.R.O., I'm out.
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Oh, right.
So two war books canceled and one started up.
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Whoever wrote that quote should be shot. Even if you're one of the idiots that doesn't use the Oxford Comma, that's a situation where it's necessary.
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http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/01/13/dc-comics-gets-logo-here/ (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/01/13/dc-comics-gets-logo-here/)
and it's baaaaaaaaaaaaad
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Superheroes in different eras (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2012/01/18/the-line-it-is-drawn-73-comic-book-characters-in-different-eras/)
Hee hee, that Booster
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On the one hand, this is BC's stock-in-trade gossip that could get a creator in trouble for talking out of turn.
On the other, it really IS a fascinating peek behind the curtain, so I'm going to link and quote it even if I have some reservations.
John Rozum, (ostensible) writer of the first four issues of Static Shock before he quit and the book got canceled:
I went into Static Shock with a lot of high hopes. Among them was showing that Static wasn’t simply an A-list character, but one of the most powerful in the DCnU. I really wanted this series to be fun and exciting and to bring the same degree of creativity to it that I put into Xombi balanced with making Virgil’s personal life at least as engaging as his superhero life. I also saw Static Shock as an excellent gateway through which to pull the rest of the Milestone characters into the DCnU.
I quickly learned that none of these plans were going to see fruition. I wound up being shunted to the sidelines as the writer while Scott McDaniel’s “high concept” criminal syndicate made up of Power Rangers and a big monosyllabic thug took center stage and Harvey [Richards, editor]‘s ideas of the 2 Sharon’s and slicing off Static’s arm were implemented as desperate means of trying to draw attention to the book.
I tried my best to keep it from being a total turd, but as I said, I was completely sidelined. My main contributions were the Pale Man character, Guillotina, naming the school after Dwayne McDuffie, and including Hardware, along with random lines of dialogue. I decided it was unethical to stick with a title that a) I thought was garbage b) that people were buying because of my involvement, due to Xombi, when really I had nothing to do with it c) because I wasn’t being utilized on the title.
Frankly, Static deserved a lot better.
Sooo he wrote the bits that were good, and the bits that sucked were the result of artistic and editorial meddling. Yeah, that's kinda what I thought when I was reading it.
I haven't given Rozum's other work a look yet, but I hear Xombi was really good. One thing I definitely get out of that post is that he has a working understanding of what was good about Static Shock and what sucked.
EDIT: Now that BC's picked it up, Rozum's written more on his own blog:
Initially, I had never intended to openly discuss the reasons why I chose to leave Static Shock. My reasons were my own, and I felt that after expressing them to the powers that be at DC Comics and after discussing them with Bob Harras that the situation was resolved amicably and that there was no reason to say anything further than acknowledging that I had indeed left the series. However, since the announcement that Static Shock would cease publication with issue #8 ( I was only involved with issues 1-4) there's been a lot of online chatter about why the series failed, and I've received a lot of angry email blaming me for wrecking the series, the character, and the opportunity for an African-American character to take center stage at one of the big publishing companies. I've had people announce that due to the low quality of comic that they would no longer buy anything that had my name on it. I've had an editor at a publisher other than DC say they weren't interested in having me write for them because they thought Static Shock was a poor comic book series.
[...]
To say I was disappointed with how things turned out is an understatement. From the first issue on, I was essentially benched by Harvey Richards and artist/writer Scott McDaniel. All of my ideas and suggestions were met with disdain, and Scott McDaniel lectured me on how my method for writing was wrong because it wasn't what the Robert McKee screenwriting book he read told him was the way to do things. The man who'd never written anything was suddenly more expert than me and the editor was agreeing with him. Scott had also never read a Static comic book, nor seen the cartoon series, yet was telling me that my dialogue didn't sound true to the character and would "fix it."
There was more concern about seeing that the title sold and didn't get cancelled than there was in telling good stories and having something coherent to bring readers in. This is what led Harvey to insist on the stuff with the two Sharon's and cutting off Static's arm. He had no answers for how to resolve these things, but thought it would keep reader's wowed enough to stick with the series. This, too, was frustrating. It was a lot of grasping at straws and trying to second guess what would keep it selling. It was decided that "bigger action" on every page of every issue was the key.
Presumably I don't need to point out the irony of a book selling poorly and being cancelled because all the editor and artist were interested in was making sure it sold well and didn't get cancelled.
Shit like this is just so weird to me. Do these guys not know who Spider-Man is? Gross as it is to boil Static down to "black Spider-Man", that's a phrase that marketing pinheads should at least understand. And I really can't believe that there's anyone working in superhero comics who hasn't read Spider-Man. Which, for fifty years, has been a book about Peter Parker more than Spider-Man.
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Bleeding Cool (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/01/23/so-was-deal-infinite-anyway/) airs another recently-cancelled-comic's creator's dirty laundry: The Infinite, by Robert Kirkman and Rob Liefeld, has been cancelled, with Liefeld saying Kirkman's objection was that the inked pages didn't look Liefeldy enough. Really.
My uncle actually brought the first two issues of The Infinite to breakfast a couple weeks back and passed them around for pointing and laughing. (He said he picked them up for a "what not to do" project in the comics class he's teaching.)
Highlights included: the cover for Issue #2 is laid out with the characters actually COVERING the title so that YOU CANNOT READ THE TITLE OF THE BOOK YOU ARE LOOKING AT; there's a two-page spread that's just one guy talking, with the whole thing just showing different angles on his face with the same gritted-teeth expression; and one issue ends with a splash page that's just one character, except you can see the back of another character's head peeking out from the corner, strategically placed right over the guy's feet so that Liefeld does not have to draw feet.
Anyhow, Jon and I got to chatting about Liefeld, about how he had a recent "ignore the haters" blog post that I thought was a great thing to write but wouldn't it be nice if he could pay just a LITTLE attention to the haters who are actually offering constructive criticism on how to improve his style, which hasn't changed in 20 years?
And then we got to talking about the market and the point that, really, Liefeld DOES have a fanbase, and the people who are buying Rob Liefeld comics don't WANT him to draw any differently than he did 20 years ago. And how this is a great example of the biggest problem DC and Marvel are dealing with, which is that any attempt to appeal to a broader audience may instead just alienate their existing audience.
Well, it's almost like Liefeld was sitting in on that conversation, because:
If I want to evolve my work, expand it, alter the way it looks, without limiting the amount of detail than that’s what I will do. I can’t have the terms of my art dictated to.
Go figure.
I love Kirkman but he's got his weaknesses. (The aforementioned page of just one guy monologuing, with the same facial expression over and over? Well, that expression was Liefeld's fault, but my first reaction on seeing it was, "You know, it's Robert Kirkman's fault that we're looking at two pages of just one dude talking." And now it would appear that maybe even the expression was Kirkman's fault, too.)
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"any attempt to appeal to a broader audience may instead just alienate their existing audience."
That's called risk-taking. Risks are risky.
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...so okay. Deadpool #49.1 is titled Deadpool: The Musical and features a bunch of parody lyrics.
I heard that editor Jordan D White actually played all the songs on ukelele and uploaded it, so I was waiting to read the comic until I could sit down at my computer and listen along. But now the track is down (I suspect some Marvel lawyer stupidity). Don't suppose anyone knows where I can get it?
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I'd say Megaupload, but, well...
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Al Rio hanged himself. (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/01/31/remembering-al-rio-by-david-campiti/)
:(
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Walter Simonson's got a new project coming from DC: The Judas Coin. KC Carlson read some early pages and has some non-spoilery thoughts (http://comicsworthreading.com/2012/02/02/walter-simonsons-the-judas-coin-finally-announced-and-how-kc-read-it-already/):
I won’t go into details here, because I think the book will be more powerful as a surprise. What’s already known is that The Judas Coin consists of six chapters, each set in a different place in the DC timeline, starring a diverse selection of DC historical characters, some of whom haven’t been seen in decades. One chapter even provides some closure to an unfinished DC series from the 1970s. I won’t mention who all the characters are, but you can obviously figure out some of them from the recently released cover, shown here.
What hasn’t been announced (and maybe DC’s marketing folks aren’t even aware of this — or don’t think it’s important) is that Walter is using a different style of artwork for each different chapter/character. In some instances, he’s drawing in the style of the artist who originally drew the character, while for others, he applied a style of drawing that he admired and wanted to attempt. If nothing else, this makes The Judas Coin a fascinating artistic tour de force for Simonson and his legion of fans. The story is great, also. I still don’t know all the details, but I have been present a couple of times when Walter was discussing plot points with friends and other creators — all of whom reacted with some version of “That’s brilliant!” — including me.
Looking forward to it.
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http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/Thorverine/news/?a=53400 (http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/Thorverine/news/?a=53400)
So there's a hypothesis floating around that they're going to set up a black Nick Fury in the main Marvel Universe. You know, to pull in people who saw the Avengers movie. If this is so, my question is why they would go to such lengths to make this happen and disrupt the Marvel U, instead of just making comics based on the movie?
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They probably don't want to alienate the Marvel U audience, while at the same time bringing newcomers from the movie into the core, ongoing Marvel series.
Also: Was thinking of picking up some of the post-Agent X Taskmaster stuff. Anyone know if he's even a quarter as charming without Simone?
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Evanier (http://www.newsfromme.com/2012/02/03/sergio-on-hiatus/): Aragones has hurt his back ("You apparently get this condition if you sit at a drawing board sixteen hours a day for 50+ years drawing silly pictures") and some of his books, including Groo vs. Conan, are going to be late (at Evanier's insistence, not Aragones's).
When you see #1, you’ll find at least one thing particularly amusing. As in Sergio Destroys DC, Sergio Massacres Marvel, Sergio Stomps Star Wars and other like series we’ve done, the Señor and I are characters in the tawdry drama…and in the first issue we did some time ago, Sergio winds up in the hospital, unable to work. I am well aware that Life often imitates Art but I worry when it imitates Groo.
[...]
P.S., Added ten minutes later: I’ve already received three e-mails from folks asking me to forward Get Well messages to my partner. I’m sure he’d appreciate them but let’s hold off for a little while. I’ll post an address later where you can send such things.
Sorry to hear it and hoping for a speedy recovery. Aragones is a treasure and Funnies is one of my favorite comics right now.
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James Sturm's been talking to Steve Bissette, and now he's talking boycott (http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/02/the_avengers_why_i_m_boycotting_marvel_s_movie.single.html) too.
There's an online petition. I think online petitions are dumb.
However, if more creators speak up, I could see this snowballing, getting MSM attention, and mmmmmaybe putting enough pressure on Disney to convince them to make some sort of token gesture to the Kirby heirs. As I noted in the copyright thread (http://brontoforum.us/index.php?topic=280.msg218673#msg218673), Neal Adams has made some rumblings, and he's the guy who organized the bad press around the Superman movie that eventually led to Siegel and Shuster getting credits and stipends.
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...why do I read comments sections?
...why do I read the ComicsAlliance comments section?
...why do I read comments sections on articles about how Jack Kirby got screwed by Marvel?
...why did I read the comments section of a ComicsAlliance article about how Jack Kirby got screwed by Marvel?
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May we have the highlight reel?
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Go nuts. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/02/08/cartoonist-james-sturm-boycotts-the-avengers-movie-over-marvel/)
Meanwhile: Finally caught up on the Walking Dead TV series, and it occurred to me to wonder: certainly Cerebus is the longest-running creator-owned comic in terms of number of issues...but what about other criteria?
What's the longest in number of years? I'd guess Love and Rockets.
Second-longest in number of issues? If I had to guess I'd say Savage Dragon or Usagi Yojimbo. Both of which have been written and drawn by the creator for their entire run.
But past that things get murky. How do you count Spawn, since McFarlane hasn't been writing or drawing it himself in years?
TMNT is an especially thorny one. The Mirage volumes numbered, what, 62, 13, and 29 issues. Plus the Tales series that ran for 7 and 50 issues or so. Plus various one-offs. But Eastman and Laird didn't write probably half of those or more.
And what about the Archie series? The Image series? Do those count? Certainly the Bodycount mini should count since Eastman wrote it. Archie and Image together would raise the count by another 100 issues or more (and put it past Savage Dragon and Usagi Yojimbo).
Does Futurama count? I would say no -- it's owned by Groening and published by his company, but he doesn't write or draw the comic himself and never has.
Anyhow. Walking Dead's getting close to 100. I'd say it counts even though it switched artists a few issues in and neither artist owns any part of it.
An interesting subject, anyway.
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Are... are you actually responding to those twits? Egad, Thad, I know you love a rousing debate, but that's like covering yourself in turkey gravy and diving into a den of tigers.
Except in this case, replace "tigers" with "fat asthmatic kids" and "turkey gravy" with "spiky riot gear."
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...well, last time I tried to just paste my form post (http://www.corporate-sellout.com/index.php/2010/04/05/kings-ransom/) and it took like six posts. Fucking character limit.
Also, they tricked me. The first few commenters weren't morons.
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...wow. Wonder who linked it. Because the comments section is now full of people ranting about how Disney are a bunch of cultists and Freemasons.
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Man, who's not in a mystic fraternity or cult these days?
Anyway, it's not like Disney hasn't been earning this kind of ire and rage since forever. To say nothing of what they do to incur it recently.
Cross posting your own stuff at you.
Welp, HERE'S something completely fucking horrible: Marvel Demands $17,000 For Gary Friedrich’s Ghost Rider Prints (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/02/09/marvel-demands-for-gary-friedrichs-ghost-rider-prints/)
Recently, Marvel triumphed in court against Gary Friedrich, the creator of Ghost Rider, as to whether any moneys or rights were owed to him from the use of the characters in movies, with the second movie starring Nicolas Cage on its way.
And while the court decided that Marvel owe Gary nothing, they also decided on a counter claim from Marvel, that Gary Friedrich owes $17,000 for selling prints of the Ghost Rider character at conventions and the like.
This represents Gary’s earnings from selling such prints over several years – but now Gary is penniless. And Marvel are demanding payment now. Oh, and that he is not allowed to say he is the creator of Ghost Rider for financial gain, say by doing an interview, in the future.
Now, what the article doesn't mention, according to one of the commenters, is that Friedrich was selling unauthorized Ghost Rider prints -- which weren't even of his own art. But even granting that he fucked up and they had every right to smack him down for that, this is wildly excessive and it's hard to see it as anything other than retaliation for his lawsuit.
I've never seen anything like this. Marvel is not exactly known for treating its creators fairly, but I've never heard of them completely grinding somebody into the dirt like this before. I've never even heard of ARCHIE being this vindictive.
The motivation is clear: it's a warning. "Any more artists have any bright ideas? This is what happens when you fuck with the Mouse."
The only reason I can think of not to resent Disney's brass is my creepy fetishizing of Lasseter.
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...and now it's a bunch of guys all saying how Disney Corp is totally different from Walt Disney and how he would never have countenanced this, because Walt Disney totally respected creators' rights, yo.
It's just bizarre. What site are they coming from?
It's dumber than last night, but it's not making me as angry, at least. More like a traffic accident now, except the only person who's hurt is Noah Webster.
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It's just bizarre. What site are they coming from?
...oh. I should have known. (http://www.foxnews.com/)
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DC Comics Survey Reports 'New 52' Readership 93% Male, Only 5% New Readers (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/02/10/dc-comics-readers-survey-reports-new-52-readership-93-male/)
Can we call it a failure yet?
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DC Comics Survey Reports 'New 52' Readership 93% Male, Only 5% New Readers (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/02/10/dc-comics-readers-survey-reports-new-52-readership-93-male/)
Can we call it a failure yet?
So basically, My Little Pony has a more diverse audience than DC.
:glee:
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Travel Foreman's leaving Animal Man (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/02/10/dc-comics-travel-foreman-steve-pugh-resurrection-man-suicide-squad-birds-of-prey-jesus-saiz/), which is a pity because he was wonderful on it and perfectly suited to the story Lemire's been telling. That said, he explains that his mother died recently and drawing something this dark, twisted, and grotesque has begun to wear on him, and I can't fault him for that.
Don't know that I'll follow him to Birds of Prey, but I'll think about it.
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WHY DOES THE NEW POWER GIRL (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=36931) LOOK LIKE OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN AND NOT A MUSCULAR CHRISTINA HENDRICKS? WHY IS SHE WEARING SUPREME (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supreme_(comics))'S COSTUME? WHYYYYY? WHYYYYYYYY? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?
YTPMV - Robotnik demands an explanation (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSNeL0QYfqo#)
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Eh. Could be a lot worse. I'm kinda with the commenters saying the Earth-2 costumes look a lot better than the Earth-1 ones.
Though the damn thing's still got piping all over it.
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And now Tony Moore is suing Robert Kirkman (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/02/10/walking-dead-artist-tony-moore-lawsuit-robert-kirkman/). What's with all the lawsuits getting flung about these days?
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Weeeeell, the reason there are a bunch of copyright termination transfer suits happening is because we're hitting the 56-year point on a bunch of different popular properties.
And the reason we're getting a lot of new suits over properties that have become successful as movies or TV shows (and, er, Ghost Rider) is that there are a whole lot more of those now than ever before.
The Gaiman/McFarlane litigation was pretty much entirely because Gaiman could afford to sue, expected to win, and wanted to set a legal precedent that other creators could follow.
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Via Robot 6, Steve Niles has started a donation page (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/02/steve-niles-starts-donation-campaign-for-gary-friedrich/) for Gary Friedrich, and artists have begun selling original art (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/02/stokoe-graham-donate-original-art-proceeds-to-benefit-gary-friedrich/) to raise funds too.
EDIT: Evanier (http://www.newsfromme.com/2012/02/11/uneasy-rider/) has a well-written, heartfelt rundown of the ills in the industry, how it hurts people, and how it just plain doesn't make good business sense ("Why spend a million bucks on lawyers to crush someone who’ll settle for a third of that?"). He's mainly speaking of Friedrich but there's a mention of the Avengers boycott at the top of the page; he doesn't specifically endorse it and adds that he can't speak much on the Kirby matter as he might be a witness in the appeal.
EDIT 2: Poplitiko (http://poplitiko.blogspot.com/2012/02/gary-friedrich-ghost-rider-and-marvel.html) talks to Bissette, Grell, and others about their feelings on it. Bissette once again ponders how we could ever get out of this predatory mess, and the outlook's not good.
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Paul Cornell is starting a campaign for gender parity on con panels. (http://www.paulcornell.com/2012/02/panel-parity.html)
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So the new Wood/Cloonan Conan is pretty good, and as a bonus I get to use the phrase "Cloonan Conan".
It's a bit decompressed for my tastes, but I dig the approach. Conan somewhere in his early twenties; he's not a neophyte but he's not a veteran either. I really like Cloonan's model for him; people have pissed and moaned that he doesn't have the muscles they're used to from the Schwarzenegger movies or the art of guys like Vallejo, Frazetta, and Buscema. But a lither, wirier Cimmerian works just fine, and is still distinctly recognizable as Conan. (And anyone who was worried that a woman drawing Conan would result in fewer sexy, scantily-clad ladies can put their mind at ease.)
And a shoutout to Dave Stewart. The colors popped out at me enough that I flipped back to the credits page to see who did them, and then I said, "Ah, of course." Few colorists really stand out to me (I can identify Laura Allred without a second glance, even when she's not working in tandem with her husband); Stewart is one of the best.
And yes I'm mentioning the writer last, but yes he does a pretty great job too. Wood's got the mood down, the "gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth". The one false note that took me out of the story is when Conan refers to going to "the clink" -- it feels like a weird little anachronism. (But it sounds like it'd be right at home in 1930's slang, so I won't rule out the possibility that the turn of phrase is Howard's, not Wood's.) Other than that, it's solid; I love the characterization and get a great sense of who this Conan is in the first few pages -- and it just gets better from there. I've been a Brian Wood fan for years and he hasn't disappointed; I never got around to reading Northlanders but this has me thinking maybe I should.
A very solid start -- even if the plot and pagecount are, like Conan himself, much leaner than in the 1970's Marvel era.
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Is that the same ongoing Dark Horse Conan series or something new?
Conan was the ONLY serial book I was buying issue by issue when I lost my job a year and a half ago, so I stopped picking it up and even though I've been working again for over a year I have yet to resume buying any comics at all. I think I stopped somewhere when he was dying in the swamps of Stygia after losing his mercenary army.
I do plan on picking Conan up again in the trades. At some point.
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DC Comics Survey Reports 'New 52' Readership 93% Male, Only 5% New Readers (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/02/10/dc-comics-readers-survey-reports-new-52-readership-93-male/)
Can we call it a failure yet?
It looks like the VP of sales is coming out of the dugout, folks! (http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/comics/article/50633-dc-s-rood-breaks-down-reader-survey.html)
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Is that the same ongoing Dark Horse Conan series or something new?
Kinda both. It's a new #1 with a new team adapting a different story, but it's still Dark Horse and it's still in-continuity with all the rest of their Conan books. There's at least one more mini being published concurrently by a different team, but this is the main book, the Conan the Barbarian title.
It looks like the VP of sales is coming out of the dugout, folks! (http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/comics/article/50633-dc-s-rood-breaks-down-reader-survey.html)
Seems mainly to be arguing selection bias, which is fair enough. But I have a hard time believing the "real" numbers, whatever they may be, are much better.
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Marvel honchos on the Friedrich suit (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=37017):
[Quesada:] First and foremost, Marvel has not settled with Gary. What has been misinterpreted as a settlement is a court document that Gary's very own attorneys agreed to, along with Marvel's attorneys. That document basically ends his lawsuit against Marvel at the trial court level with Marvel having won and Gary's case dismissed. By agreeing on a number for the profits Gary made from selling unlicensed Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider merchandise after the court has decided that Marvel is the owner of that copyright, it allows Gary's attorneys to file his appeal now rather than have Gary litigate further. It is in no way a "fine" or "punishment" for Gary. It is something that the court asked both parties to do and agree upon. This is one more step in an expensive and time-consuming legal process initiated way back in 2007.
Buckley: We should also clarify another rumor that Marvel is somehow preventing Gary from promoting his creative association with Ghost Rider. This is simply not true. The court document Joe mentioned specifically gives Gary the right to sign authorized Ghost Rider books and merchandise and sell his autograph.
[...]
Quesada: From the Marvel side of things, we absolutely agree that Gary made a significant contribution to the creation of Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider. That has never been under contention. But Gary didn't do it alone. Mike Ploog, the original artist, was a co-creator. Other people contributed as well, including Roy Thomas and Stan Lee.
Grain of salt (and I just LOVE how they managed to wedge Stan Lee claiming credit for something in there), but if this DOES end in a result less than "Friedrich has to pay $17K and stop saying he created Ghost Rider" then I'm all for that.
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Is that the same ongoing Dark Horse Conan series or something new?
Kinda both. It's a new #1 with a new team adapting a different story, but it's still Dark Horse and it's still in-continuity with all the rest of their Conan books. There's at least one more mini being published concurrently by a different team, but this is the main book, the Conan the Barbarian title.
Yeah, that was the pattern while I was reading it too: The main series gets reset to #1 after every 50 issues or so, with each 50 issues representing an old Conan book. There were also concurrent but unrelated miniseries of 1-5 issues written by other artists and writers (some were good enough to pick up, others kind of stunk a bit).
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Ah, okay. I read maybe the first half-dozen Busiek/Nord issues but didn't keep up after that.
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Marvel honchos on the Friedrich suit (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=37017):
[Quesada:] First and foremost, Marvel has not settled with Gary. What has been misinterpreted as a settlement is a court document that Gary's very own attorneys agreed to, along with Marvel's attorneys. That document basically ends his lawsuit against Marvel at the trial court level with Marvel having won and Gary's case dismissed. By agreeing on a number for the profits Gary made from selling unlicensed Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider merchandise after the court has decided that Marvel is the owner of that copyright, it allows Gary's attorneys to file his appeal now rather than have Gary litigate further. It is in no way a "fine" or "punishment" for Gary. It is something that the court asked both parties to do and agree upon. This is one more step in an expensive and time-consuming legal process initiated way back in 2007.
Buckley: We should also clarify another rumor that Marvel is somehow preventing Gary from promoting his creative association with Ghost Rider. This is simply not true. The court document Joe mentioned specifically gives Gary the right to sign authorized Ghost Rider books and merchandise and sell his autograph.
[...]
Quesada: From the Marvel side of things, we absolutely agree that Gary made a significant contribution to the creation of Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider. That has never been under contention. But Gary didn't do it alone. Mike Ploog, the original artist, was a co-creator. Other people contributed as well, including Roy Thomas and Stan Lee.
Grain of salt (and I just LOVE how they managed to wedge Stan Lee claiming credit for something in there), but if this DOES end in a result less than "Friedrich has to pay $17K and stop saying he created Ghost Rider" then I'm all for that.
Wow, Mike Ploog was the original artist? Ha!
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Why does that name sound so familiar?
Oh, right (http://magiccards.info/query?q=a%3A%22Mike+Ploog%22&v=card&s=cname).
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Ah, okay. I read maybe the first half-dozen Busiek/Nord issues but didn't keep up after that.
Yeah, the first run was titled just "Conan", and the second was "Conan The Cimmerian". Looking it up, I stopped buying after the Kozaki story arc was completed in Cimmerian #21 (so, effectively #71 of the overall series).
It got to be a really good book. Worth looking at anyway.
Why does that name sound so familiar?
Oh, right (http://magiccards.info/query?q=a%3A%22Mike+Ploog%22&v=card&s=cname).
Also, he did all the art in the static "storyboard-esque" scenes in Ralph Bakshi's Wizards.
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Yeah, I've always dug Busiek and it was neat seeing him do something besides superheroes.
Sounds like he's still at the table, too; he showed up in the comments thread on a recent Robot 6 post (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/02/quote-of-the-day-brian-wood-on-emo-conan/) about the current book. (Ironically, the post was based on an interview where Brian Wood said, among other things, pros shouldn't show up in fan forums.)
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Twenty-One Not Exactly Original Notes On More Watchmen (http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/twelve_not_exactly_original_notes_about_there_soon_to_be_more_watchmen_writ/)
17. I'm also not certain how you can see this as anything but a step away from the wider cultural message of Watchmen back in the 1980s: that authors matter, that original work can be rewarded on the same level as reworking someone else's ideas, that comics have literary and culture value for their ideas and expressive force above and beyond their value as entertainment product. I might call DC foolish if they were touting these sequel books as a match for Watchmen's artistic achievement, but that this idea isn't even on the table may be scarier. This is a toy line. This is a happy meal. This is "based on." This is product.
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But you see, DC needs Watchmen. Like, really needs it. It's consistently their top selling item since Neil Gaiman went to Hollywood.
MEANWHILE AT MARVEL!
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3923260/pg14.jpg)(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3923260/pg15.jpg)
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That image of Mal deciding not to say anything.
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...oh. Well that explains the cover (http://www.comicvine.com/wolverine-and-the-x-men-mutatis-mutandis-part-one-congratulations-its-a-brood/37-315083/staff-review/).
And here I was thinking it was just a sequel to Heroes for Hire #13 (http://i6.tinypic.com/62h4aab.jpg).
(Both covers possibly NSFW despite having Marvel's equivalent of a PG-13 rating)
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So... two Marvel tentacle-rape covers in one month?
Er... ahem
*shuffles papers*
ahem hum
*straightens tie*
And that's it for tonight folks!
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Don't be foolish!
...oh. Well that explains the cover (http://www.comicvine.com/wolverine-and-the-x-men-mutatis-mutandis-part-one-congratulations-its-a-brood/37-315083/staff-review/).
This one's just a pregnant, vaguely lizard/insect gangbang/rape scene.
And here I was thinking it was just a sequel to Heroes for Hire #13 (http://i6.tinypic.com/62h4aab.jpg).
This one's got tentacles, but it's a bdsm voyeur group thing that might theoretically be consensual. Though one of the lead characters is, at best, having second thoughts.
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The heroes for hire cover is also from years ago. Stay classy marvel.
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Apparently, Kevin Smith's new AMC series about comic book stores just perpetuates the worst comic book nerd stereotypes (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/02/16/comic-book-men-review-kevin-smith/).
And Bryan Johnson takes issue (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/02/17/bryan-johnson-steve-dave-comic-book-men-response-comicsalliance-review/) with that review.
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Yeah, I'm curious how much of that is "Hey guys free publicity let's argue with Chris Sims some more!" and how much is that Kevin Smith and his buddies have legitimately thin skin and can't let Chris Sims criticize them without retorting.
I haven't actually seen the show, but it occurs to me that Clerks would probably not have been a very good movie if it had been about the store owner, the manager, and their buddies.
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Latest drama at Archie comics (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-news/its-not-like-riverdale-archie-comic-co-ceos-embroiled-in-bitter-feud/article2344082/)
I posted this here rather than the Archie thread for two reasons: 1) I just want to point out how cool it is that Mark Evanier has reached a point where he's being used as an industry expert by mainstream news media, and 2) any possible relevance to the Archie vs. Penders suit conversation.
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Yeah, I'm curious how much of that is "Hey guys free publicity let's argue with Chris Sims some more!" and how much is that Kevin Smith and his buddies have legitimately thin skin and can't let Chris Sims criticize them without retorting.
They responded in a similar manner to another review, although that response was so passive-aggressive that they didn't even respond directly TO the person writing the review, so I'm gonna go with the latter.
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1) I just want to point out how cool it is that Mark Evanier has reached a point where he's being used as an industry expert by mainstream news media
He's actually their go-to guy on lots of shit. He says his phone starts ringing every time somebody in the comics industry dies.
2) any possible relevance to the Archie vs. Penders suit conversation.
Penders has mentioned it obliquely. (http://kenpenders.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2455&start=175#p6305) He hasn't gone into detail but he thinks they're smearing Silberkleit because they want her out, and that she's innocent. Bob Repas goes into a bit more detail on the next page.
BC (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/02/15/archies-two-rivals-nancy-and-john/) had an article on it last week; standard "BC is a gossip rag" disclaimer applies but I think it's pretty measured (and makes the point that even if everything they say about Silberkleit is actually true, it's nothing compared to the whispers about previous execs -- meaning that Archie has hushed up worse in the past and is very pointedly not hushing this up).
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MEANWHILE AT MARVEL!
...oh. Well that explains the cover (http://www.comicvine.com/wolverine-and-the-x-men-mutatis-mutandis-part-one-congratulations-its-a-brood/37-315083/staff-review/).
This one's just a pregnant, vaguely lizard/insect gangbang/rape scene.
Okay so, out of morbid curiosity, I've been reading this arc. I haven't picked up an X-Men title since... I actually don't think I've ever bought an X-Men comic. The closest I came was that issue of Venom's old series where he and Wolverine teamed up (http://marvel.wikia.com/Venom_Tooth_and_Claw_Vol_1_1). And that was going WAY BACK, to I think '96, when I was 10.
It actually is pretty good, this arc, so far. It's mostly a fantastic voyage plot against million of zerglings, with a fairly cool space doomsday as the main Bad Guy, and a B-plot with Wolverine and some genius mutant kid going to Space Vegas to count cards and win enough money to save the school.
I think it's a bit better for me because there's all this insane shit that has probably been set up in previous issues but of which I have no clue about, like the fact that they have an actual dragon in a sub/space suit (with a little hole near his mouth through which he can blow fire out) go in with them on their fantastic voyage, and the presence of this adorable pair of hot-headed space-king kid and overprotective claymore-carrying lady-knight crush, and the fact that their lawn is apparently actually a massive plant monster who devours intruders, and so forth. It has been nothing if not entertaining so far.
That said, the fact that kitty is pregnant isn't completely necessary, as far as I can tell. I mean she could just have these zerglings in her blood stream and it wouldn't really change any of what's been established up to this point. They probably did this for the SHOCKING REVEAL and the cover.
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Better than a straight superheroine has a baby plotline, right?
Or at least that infamous Avengers 200 (http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/the-big-picture/5013-Favorite-Ms-Take-Part-1) storyline, which is one of the few things I knew about comics prior to obsessively watching that MovieBob series.
Good job comic books. Set the bar high.
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That said, the fact that kitty is pregnant isn't completely necessary, as far as I can tell. I mean she could just have these zerglings in her blood stream and it wouldn't really change any of what's been established up to this point. They probably did this for the SHOCKING REVEAL and the cover.
To be fair, the shocking reveal is goddamn hilarious.
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I mean it was definitely better than KITTY IS SICK WHAT'S WRONG
MY GOD
This way, with the pregnancy thing, there was a whole scene of Beast talking her out of her room and then her trying to call her boyfriend to tell him and it's just this glowy-eyed robot man made entirely of metal all "WHO KEEPS CALLING ME?!"
KITTY?!
KITTY IS THAT YOU WHAT'S WRONG *click* SHE HUNG UP
and them kind of coming around to the idea of a kid and her getting an ultrasound done and then MY GOD
(http://mothra.brontoforum.us/img/ohmystarsandgarters.jpg)
YOU'VE GOT ALIENS IN YOUR VAGINA
WE'RE GOING IN
I can't tell if it takes itself seriously or not but it's fun and the concept is pure comic book x-men shlock and it's been a good read so far.
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Also the dragon has been with them literally every step of the way. It's like a mascot anime character, but slightly different in that it is a FULL INEXPLICABLE MEDIEVAL DRAGON
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(http://mothra.brontoforum.us/img/dragon.jpg)
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Oh, that's Lockheed. Kitty's had him for a while, although it it sort of hilariously nonsensical that they gave him a spacesuit WITH A HOLE IN IT
Maybe he's related to Batman (http://www.shortpacked.com/2005/comic/book-1-brings-back-the-80s/01-just-a-toy-store/batman-can-breathe-in-space/).
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Yeah, Lockheed's been around since at least the 80's... maybe even the 70's? Kitty got him as a permanent housepet way back in some issue or other of the New Mutants. HE'S MAGIC AND STUFF.
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I can't tell if it takes itself seriously or not but it's fun and the concept is pure comic book x-men shlock and it's been a good read so far.
Enjoy it while it lasts.
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/02/24/brian-bendis-to-take-over-the-x-men-books/ (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/02/24/brian-bendis-to-take-over-the-x-men-books/)
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You mean X-Men is just going to be a bunch of nonstop angst with nothing happening?
I can't imagine what that would be like!
(Anyhow Kabbage/everyone else yeah if you want to read some good X-Men you could do a lot worse than the Morrison -> Whedon -> Ellis run. Morrison did some really clever shit to the point that I had to revise my "I hate the fucking X-Men" stance, but unfortunately the rotating art team was wildly inconsistent, ranging all the way from Frank Quitely down to pure shit, and the ending is a rushed mess where he pretty much goes "Well I'm off the book now so here are all my remaining ideas AT ONCE". I'd probably tip the Whedon run as the best of the three on the strength of Cassaday's art; it's the series that turned Cassaday from "the Planetary guy" into one of those guys who makes a living just doing covers because he is THAT IN-DEMAND. And Ellis is Ellis; his plot's pretty forgettable high-concept parallel-universes stuff that doesn't hang together very well but the dialogue is absolutely hilarious and the whole thing makes for a rather insightful metafictional take on the superhero genre and the rather serious tonal shift from the Silver Age to today which X-Men embodies perhaps more than any other book.)
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I really cannot see myself reading any more of X-Men if it's any more serious than this, though I can certainly say that replacing the entire cast, save for Beast and Wolverine, has been a huge leap in the right direction.
Honestly, I don't expect I'll really ever get back into comics again unless we see another Agent X or DMZ. I always hold out hope that something quite as light-hearted and well-paced as the former comes along.
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Whedon's run gets bogged-down in a couple places -- the third arc is his weakest -- but Morrison's is just bursting with great ideas; in particular I love his use of Magneto as a drug-addled demagogue who eventually realizes that he was a more effective symbol when everyone thought he was dead. (This was immediately retconned out, but fortunately I don't give a fuck.) I don't know why Marvel doesn't sell real Frank Quitely Magneto Was Right T-shirts; I would buy the fuck out of one of those. (Well, except for the part where I'm not buying anything Kirby-derived from Marvel. But I WOULD have bought the fuck out of one of those a year ago!)
Whedon and Ellis are Whedon and Ellis, respectively. The banter keeps things funny and seldom lets the books get too somber (with the above-mentioned exception, which actually also involves a traumatic Kitty Pryde pregnancy that turns out not to be as it seems).
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You mean X-Men is just going to be a bunch of nonstop angst with nothing happening?
No, but there will be lots of ordering takeout and talking over each other.
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Oh yeah, and Jessica Jones's baby turns out to be a mutant, so she and Luke Cage are gonna move into the mansion and since he's there he might as well join the team.
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Bissette's still beating the drum for the Marvel boycott, and his latest post (http://srbissette.com/?p=14234) is really quite a good one. It makes a case that's probably obvious to most of us here but which a lot of otherwise-reasonable people seem to be having difficulty with: the reason Stan Lee is getting so much from all he did, and Jack Kirby and his heirs have gotten fuck-all, is precisely BECAUSE Stan Lee has ensured that Jack Kirby and his heirs would get fuck-all.
Stan saying anything (including the very dubious proposition that unused pages were paid for—never happened in my 30 years of freelancing for any publisher, including myself publishing myself!) to ensure any challenge to Marvel/Disney’s ABSOLUTE OWNERSHIP of the 1960s Marvel body of published (and, now, thanks to Stan’s testimony in the deposition, unpublished) work would be defeated.
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(http://i.imgur.com/8jdMU.jpg)
What's up guys I just flew in from the 90s and boy is my angst tired
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Where'd Cable put his guns?
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DC Nation - Plastic Man - 001 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8FuYOrJFj8#)
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(http://i.imgur.com/8jdMU.jpg)
What's up guys I just flew in from the 90s and boy is my angst tired
Jay Garrick (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/03/06/earth-2-flash-jay-garrick/): I'd file this under "even worse" if the idea of a grim-'n'-gritty Captain Marvel weren't so damn offensive on its face.
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I have only the DCAU Cap Marvel to go off of, but isn't this exactly the opposite of what Captain Marvel is? Like the exact polar opposite of his innocent, ideallic, classically-heroic core concept?
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Yes.
Besides which point, Alan Moore already had the last word on grim-'n'-gritty Captain Marvel back in the 1980's.
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Rob Liefeld Drawing and Driving! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPhlWKi9uKQ#)
Why didn't I hear about this?
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"Oh and I'm filming myself too. Did I mention that?"
Please tell me that video was recovered from the twisted wreckage of a car that plunged off a curve into a gorge.
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Amy Reeder off Batwoman, cites creative differences. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/03/09/amy-reeder-leaves-batwoman-trevor-mccarthy/) Fanboy speculation is that Harras is meddling and wants to sex the book up to sell more copies. Guess we'll know in a few months.
(Total number of lesbian sex scenes in Batwoman to date: one, near as I can recall. Granted it was pretty graphic for a "teen" book.)
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Okay, I am thinking of pulling the trigger on some very hard-to-find old Moebius books which would complete my collection of every book he had printed through Epic, but the only place they are available is Amazon and Amazon seriously has to be the worst fucking site in the world for internet commerce (nobody ever offers international shipping, the few who do have exorbitant rates, and inventories are actually completely segregated by nation - no US seller or their wares appears on Amazon.ca, etc.).
Can someone receive and re-mail three books for me?
If you want to be terrified, check this (http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0936211288/ref=sr_1_1_olp?ie=UTF8&qid=1331439130&sr=8-1&condition=new) out (that's a mint new version - I'm looking at a used copy for $75 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0936211288/sr=8-1/qid=1331439130/ref=olp_tab_used?ie=UTF8&coliid=&me=&qid=1331439130&sr=8-1&seller=&colid=&condition=used)).
Also looking at Lieutenant Blueberry 3 & 4 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0871357429/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&qid=1331440198&sr=8-2&condition=used) and Marshal Blueberry 1 & 2 (http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000H45QVC/ref=dp_olp_used?ie=UTF8&qid=1331440266&sr=1-6&condition=used) (bookmarks are mainly for my benefit).
Also, I don't think anybody else here actually collects this stuff, but I have an extra copy of Blueberry #2 (Ballad for a Coffin & The Outlaw) I would let go for cheap.
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Green Arrow plumbs new depths (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/03/07/this-is-not-the-green-arrow-comic-you-were-expecting/)
Wow, that's pretty much just a straight-up porno.
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... wait a minute. What exactly do they have twelve of?
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Why is he saying they're adorable as Kitten Hitler?
Is that more or less disturbing than them having twelve assholes or whatever?
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There's three of them, so it's something that they have four each ... and it's supposed to be sexual, but ... jeez, what does a lady have four of?
The only possible explanation I can think of is that they're counting labias both majora and minora, and that's ... creepy as fuck.
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Easier explanation: That writer has never actually seen a real vagina.
Also, the lines about "DADDY CHANGED US" are suuuuuuuuuuuuuper-fucking-creepy.
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Easier explanation: That writer has never actually seen a real vagina.
Also, the lines about "DADDY CHANGED US" are suuuuuuuuuuuuuper-fucking-creepy.
The writer is Ann Nocenti. A woman. So ...
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Huh. Maybe it's a personal in-joke directed at people who've never seen vaginas then? Like "Haha, let's see who pretends they get it."?
I dunno, I'm just reaching at this point.
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I think you guys may be overthinking it. I think you're supposed to go "Wait, twelve?" and then stop there.
Anyway, responding to Mongrel's post in the I Don't Have the Patience to Answer Questions But I'm Going to Completely Stop My Media Consumption You Guys thread:
Did you stop reading [DMZ] because the story quality went into the crapper or because the character became an unlikable asshole?
IIRC I stopped reading because I lost my job and had to drop a bunch of books.
But the reason that one wasn't on my list of keepers anymore was basically that it just felt like it was dragging. I wouldn't say the story quality went in the crapper, but it just felt, even with major shakeups like Parco being elected and trying to get his hands on a nuclear weapon, like it was meandering and nothing was really changing.
That I didn't like Matty anymore was part of the problem. I give Wood some credit for having the balls to take him in that direction; making your protagonist unlikable is a gamble. But in my case, at least, it didn't pay off; after awhile I was tired of waiting for Matty to finally Learn His Lesson and become one of the good guys again.
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io9 inteviews Mieville about Dial H. (http://io9.com/5893904/china-mieville-gives-us-a-sneak-peek-of-dc-comics-weirdest-new-superhero-series) There's not much to the interview, but there are some good pics; this is probably the series I'm most looking forward to right now.
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...and all of a sudden there is a title I am looking forward to SECOND-most: The Rocketeer, by Mark Waid and Chris Samnee. (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/03/wondercon-mark-waid-chris-samnee-team-for-rocketeer-series/)
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I have 1,374 of these.
And each and every one is razor sharp.
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So
Ms. Captain Marvel is getting her own series again (http://marvel.com/news/story/18290/wondercon_2012_captain_marvel), and Jamie McKelvie designed her a new look:
(http://i.imgur.com/eGvcb.jpg)
I like it! It's a heck of a lot better than what Jim Lee did to Power Girl.
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You know, it's only just occurred to me that Demon Knights probably has more tokens than any other book I have ever read, but they're integrated into the story tightly enough that I didn't even really think about it.
I mean, we've got a woman who can't walk, a Muslim, and I think at this point it's pretty clear that Sir Ystin isn't dressing as a man simply as a disguise, he is in fact transgendered. (Which may make him the first major transgendered character in a DC or Marvel comic whose story hasn't revolved around shape-shifting in some way -- can anyone think of any others?)
Last week Paul Cornell joked that A Million Moms should boycott Saucer Country (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/03/quote-of-the-day-a-million-moms-should-boycott-this-title/) to boost his sales. But really, if they knew there was a Muslim and a transgendered character in a book RIGHT NEXT TO DETECTIVE COMICS on the stand*, the fundamentalists would flip.
And yet the whole thing never really feels like it's pandering. (Maybe because, like all European medieval fantasy, it is so incredibly lily-white.)
* Well, not really; everybody knows Detective Comics goes under "B".
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Oh yes. The fundamentalists would flip if they knew the book called DEMON KNIGHTS has trannies in it.
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Well yes, fair enough. But this makes it more offensive than Hellboy.
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Saucer Country is Paul Cornell's new book about alien abduction and invasion. The most implausible thing about it is that it features a woman telling everyone that her grandparents were illegal immigrants, in a speech where she announces she's running for President. (Cornell DOES allow a bit of suspension of disbelief with a one-liner about how if there ever WERE a time where such a candidate was actually viable, it would be against a crop of GOP contenders very much like the one we're looking at now.)
Not quite sure how I feel about it from the first issue -- there was a spot that made me laugh, a spot that creeped me the hell out, and on the whole there was a whiff of Ex Machina about it -- but I'll be sticking around for #2.
And speaking of Ex Machina, I haven't gotten around to Vaughn's new book yet but I'll share my thoughts when I do.
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So uhh
Apparently the latest Wonder Woman retcon has turned the Amazons into succubus-like pirates who seduce sailors to get pregnant, then kill them. Any male children are then used as slave labor.
:disapprove:
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My gosh, you're right (http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/19704793909/ww7).
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The reason Wonder Woman changed Greek myth up so much is that part of the point of those original myths was punishing women for having aspirations beyond the domestic. Right?
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I thought it was just the macho soldier's equivalent of the scary bedtime story. "Somewhere, in a far off land to the east, there's a tribe of incredibly ferocious women who can kill any man in single combat! And their own men are slaves! If you're a bad boy you'll be posted to the Euxine Sea!"
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AzzarellOOOOOOOOOOOO :MENDOZAAAAA:
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Saga reminds me, cursorily, of New Gods. Because it's a space opera about a war between two planets that features obvious biblical symbolism, and because there is some fucking crazy shit going on.
That's really where the similarity ends. This isn't a superhero book, and it's not like Kirby in writing, pacing, or art. (Maybe in the themes and Big Ideas.) And yes it goes without saying that only Jack Kirby was Jack Kirby.
But so far I quite like it. I think, in the span of 32 pages(? they're not numbered and I didn't count, but it FELT like 32 pages -- for only $2.99!), Vaughan and Staples managed to create a neat, weird universe, and fill my head with questions that I legitimately hope go unanswered.
(Vaughan's good at that. It's easy to give readers an explanation for the Big Mysteries -- and just as easy to let them down with an anticlimax that is not anywhere near as interesting as the mystery itself was. What killed all the men in Y? YOU NEVER FIND OUT. And that may seem, to the untrained eye, like it's lazy or a copout -- but it's just the opposite. It's very good instinct and remarkable self-control on Vaughan's part.)
Really good start, and I can see why it seems to be the New Hotness and is purportedly selling out everywhere. If you can still find a copy at cover price, I definitely recommend getting it; if not, I suspect there'll be a second printing, the way things are going.
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It's going to end in tragedy. You know this.
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I never got around to finishing Ex or Y, but yeah, so I hear.
At least we can assume Hazel survives, seeing as she's narrating and all.
MEANWHILE: Robert Crumb has opinions on people. (http://www.crumbproducts.com/aboutcrumb_others.html) Lots of people. Politicians, writers, artists, musicians.
Some of it's pretty interesting, but you can probably get the gist of it by repeating "I liked his early work, but then he got too commercial" over and over to yourself for an hour. Robert Crumb was into being into things before they were trendy before it was trendy.
Probably the most fascinating thing about it is that Crumb has learned to be diplomatic. Even when he says he doesn't like something, it's "It just doesn't do it for me" or "I could never get into it" -- he doesn't criticize the artist, he says it's not his thing personally. Not only that, but he always adds something positive -- "I never got into Jack Kirby, but I love his life story", or "Trina Robbins hates me and we have very different sensibilities but she's really done some great work bringing classic woman cartoonists the attention they deserve."
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What killed all the men in Y? YOU NEVER FIND OUT.
Dr. Mann's father perfected cloning, which caused a morphic field resonance to discard all males as obsolete. I mean, it was obvious.
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MEANWHILE: Robert Crumb has opinions on people. (http://www.crumbproducts.com/aboutcrumb_others.html) Lots of people. Politicians, writers, artists, musicians.
Some of it's pretty interesting, but you can probably get the gist of it by repeating "I liked his early work, but then he got too commercial" over and over to yourself for an hour. Robert Crumb was into being into things before they were trendy before it was trendy.
Probably the most fascinating thing about it is that Crumb has learned to be diplomatic. Even when he says he doesn't like something, it's "It just doesn't do it for me" or "I could never get into it" -- he doesn't criticize the artist, he says it's not his thing personally. Not only that, but he always adds something positive -- "I never got into Jack Kirby, but I love his life story", or "Trina Robbins hates me and we have very different sensibilities but she's really done some great work bringing classic woman cartoonists the attention they deserve."
There's some neat comments in there, but after I read that page, everything I looked at was green for like the next five minutes.
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'Excitable Liefeld' Site Charts Rob Liefeld's Use of Exclamation Points on Twitter (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/03/23/excitable-rob-liefeld-tweets-exclamation-points/)
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If the Big Two don't want to get into webcomics, then fans are just going to have to pick up the slack.
Little League (http://littleleaguecomic.tumblr.com/) is incredible.
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http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/03/27/dan-didio-celebrates-his-ten-years-as-a-dc-comics-executive/ (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/03/27/dan-didio-celebrates-his-ten-years-as-a-dc-comics-executive/)
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http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/03/27/dan-didio-celebrates-his-ten-years-as-a-dc-comics-executive/ (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/03/27/dan-didio-celebrates-his-ten-years-as-a-dc-comics-executive/)
Oh man, see this other sidebar? http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/03/26/that-wondercon-incident-in-the-hilton-lobby/ (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/03/26/that-wondercon-incident-in-the-hilton-lobby/)
There's a story there, alright.
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New Otomo series!!!! (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2012-03-25/akira-katsuhiro-otomo-prepares-manga-series-in-shonen-mag)
:victory:
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I learned three things about All-Star Superman.
1. [SPOILER]Leo Quintum is (probably) Lex Luthor, traveled back in time. The evidence is subtle enough that you'd miss it on the first few read-throughs: Quintum says he's trying to "escape the past" and that he "could be the devil himself", O is the 'opposite' of X (Lex/Leo), Lex names his monkey 'Leopold', both are super-scientists: one selfish, the other altruistic, etc.[/SPOILER]
2. [SPOILER]In issue 10, Superman saves a girl named Regan from suicide. In that same issue, a scientist from the 24th century contacts Superman to warn him about Solaris, the Tyrant Sun as thanks for saving his 21st century ancestor... implying that Regan was that ancestor.[/SPOILER]
3. [SPOILER]The title is a pun. "All-Star" is exactly what Superman becomes in the end.[/SPOILER]
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I was aware of #1 (actually a fairly common device in Superman stories -- Red Son has it that [spoiler]Superman wasn't sent from another planet, he was sent from Earth's future, and the House of El derives from Luthor, his distant ancestor[/spoiler], and it wasn't a new idea when Millar used it). Good catch on #2; pity that one didn't make it into the movie. (Actually, a pity they waited for Dark Knight Returns to decide to split a movie into two parts.) #3 strikes me as more of a lucky coincidence than anything as I'm guessing "All-Star" wasn't Morrison's title, but still, yeah, good point.
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http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/03/31/james-stokoe-godzilla-idw/ (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/03/31/james-stokoe-godzilla-idw/)
:0
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Scott Pilgrim: Now With Photoshop Gradients (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/03/30/scott-pilgrim-hardcover-reprint/)
On the plus side, it should get much easier to find cheap used copies of the books I don't have.
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Welp, iZombie is canceled (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/04/02/talking-to-chris-roberson-and-mike-allred-about-the-end-of-izombie/). Was fun while it lasted.
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That was always a book that I looked at with vague interest but never picked up. I'm glad to know they're going to get an actual ending because (day late and a dollar short) that actually encourages me to look into the trades.
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I love you Mike Allred, but ENOUGH WITH THE FUCKING ZOMBIES ALREADY.
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Eh, I think he does a pretty good job of just sticking one zombie in an eclectic ensemble cast.
Speaking of him (and Laura), Bleeding Cool (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/04/03/eccc-mike-and-laura-allred-making-a-monster-out-of-madman/) has an interview up.
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So you might recall I was trying to get someone to send me some rare Moebius books that were only available from a US Amazon seller with domestic-only shipping. What happened was a friend from another board who sells on Amazon agreed to do it. As a bonus for him, he had tons of accrued Amazon dollars, so because I'm paying him back via PayPal, he gets to turn his Amazon credit into real cash munnies at face value.
Anyway, the funny thing is that I get this message today that he hasn't sent them out yet... because he got too caught up in reading them himself. :happy:
(It's someone I've known for like ten years, so I'm not worried he's not going to send... besides which I haven't even paid for anything yet).
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So apparently there is no Best New Series nominee for this year's Eisners, because the judges "didn't find enough contenders that reached the level of quality they were looking for."
CA (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/04/05/2012-eisner-awards-best-new-series-2012/) has a list of all the books that were submitted:
Angel & Faith, by Christos Gage & Rebekah Isaacs
Animal Man
Aquaman
Batwing
Batwoman
The Bionic Man
Blue Estate
Blue Exorcist
Breakneck (215 Ink)
Butcher Baker The Righteous Maker, by Joe Casey & Mike Huddleston (Image)
Charismagic, by Hernandez, Randolph, & Lopez (Aspen)
Daredevil
Dream War, by Andrea Grant (Copious Press)
FF
A Game of Thrones
Green Wake
I, Vampire, by Joshua Hale Fialkov and Andrea Sorrentino
Jennifer Blood
John Carter Princess of Mars (Marvel)
Kirby: Genesis
La Mano Del Destino, by J. Gonzo (self-published)
Lady Mechanika, by Joe Benitez (Aspen)
Legend of Oz: The Wicked West, by Tom Hutchison & others (Big Dog Ink)
Mameshiba: On the Loose!
Memorial
Monocyte
Mudman, by Paul Grist (Image)
Near Death (Image)
Orchid, by Tom Morello & Scott Hepburn
Pilot & Huxley, by DanMcGuiness (Scholastic)
Planet of the Apes, by Darl Gregory & Carlos Magno
Punisher
Rachel Rising, by Terry Moore
Sergio Aragonés Funnies
Shame: Conception, by Lovern Kindzierski & John Bolton
Skullkickers (Image)
Snarked, by Roger Langridge
Spongebob Comics
Starborn, by Chris Robertson & Khary Randolph (BOOM!)
The Strain, by David Lapham, Guillermo del Toro, Chuck Hogan, & Mike Huddleston
Swamp Thing
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The Ultimate 7, by Robert Wawrzyniak, Shawn Surface, & Scot Shoemaker
Ultimate Spider-Man, by Bendis and Pichelli
Vic Boone (215 Ink)
Voltron
Wolverine & the X-Men
I can see why the Eisner judges would pass on most of those since they are in fact mostly relaunches of existing books (though Uzumeri notes that didn't stop them from giving the award to Invincible Iron Man in '09), but...Funnies, Snarked, and Rachel Rising are all very good original books, and three nominees seem like plenty to me.
Phil Hester says (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/04/quote-of-the-day-throwing-rocks-for-comics-awards/),
Eisner committee: You could throw a rock through artists’ alley at SDCC and hit a full slate of worthy Best New Series nominees. In fact, I’m willing to turn the entire comics awards process over to throwing rocks through artists’ alleys.
Robot 6 (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/04/who-should-have-been-nominated-for-the-eisners-best-new-series/) has a thread for people to list their favorite new series. I'm going with the aforementioned Funnies. Frankenstein is probably the best non-relaunch book of DC's New 52. I also think Dark Horse Presents is awesome though I'm not entirely sure it counts given that it's both a relaunch and an anthology.
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Wow... that's a hell of a troll/slap-in-the-face/challenge.
Imagine the Oscars deciding not to award any best supporting actor awards one year because "the collective quality of the supporting actors was just not up to our minimum standards".
EDIT: I had to laugh at this reply:
People have been throwing rocks at me for years — I had no idea I could get an award out of it.
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Imagine the Oscars deciding not to award any best supporting actor awards one year because "the collective quality of the supporting actors was just not up to our minimum standards".
Well, they DID only nominate two songs this year.
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So the new trend for awards shows will be to cease giving out awards and instead mock their respective fields with merciless condescension?
That actually sounds kind of funny.
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So the new trend for awards shows will be to cease giving out awards and instead mock their respective fields with merciless condescension?
Yeah, pretty much. (http://www.joystiq.com/2012/03/07/fez-wins-2012-igf-seumas-mcnally-grand-prize/)
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Another Crumb interview. (http://www.paulgravett.com/index.php/articles/article/r._crumb1/) Most interesting is that he's currently doing some serious research on the financial crisis and trying to figure out how to make a comic out of it.
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I read Amanda Conner's run on Power Girl and the Terra mini series.
All I have to say is that DC should feel deep, profound shame in negating Atlee's existence with the reboot.
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they negated her existence as soon as the dream team wasn't working on her book anymore, really
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Yeah. And knowing DC is only a matter of time before the Giant Alien Corpse her family lives in would been blown to bits by DEATHSTROKE THE TERMINATOR (Oh gosh, that child fucking mass-murderer is SO COOL) and then she'd join the Titans and get violently torn in half.
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Waid's new book: Insufferable. (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=38164)
"It's about what happens when you have a kid sidekick who grows up to be a douchebag," he said, describing the basis of the series. "It's about what happens when you have a sidekick who grows up to be a completely ungrateful, self-aggrandizing, Kanye West of a man who will not shut up about how much of a genius he is and how the world is a better place now that you guys are broken up because now he can do it all the way he wanted to do it. Then the story is, what is the one case that comes up where they have to put their heads together even though they have been broken apart for years and they hate each other? What is the one case that could bring them back together again?"
Well, I never got around to reading past the first issue each of Irredeemable and Incorruptible, but I think I'm onboard with this.
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So, I've been reading me some back issues... via pirate bay. Anyway! I decided to read some X-Men, of which there are plenty of options, including Uncanny X-men drawn by Greg Land.
Now, I knew this guy traced photos, but having never actually read anything he's drawn, I was never really able to appreciate just how fucking awful he is about it. It's actually distracting how inappropriate it is at times, the faces characters make when they talk. It's like he can't comprehend a woman making a face other than a coy smile or a screaming orgasm. Psylocke at one point calls Magneto a monster, and instead of having her sneer with contempt at him like it should read, she screams at him like a child.
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That's because he doesn't just trace photos, he traces porn.
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Also, for a fun drinking game, take a drink whenever a female character's hair switches between straight and curly.
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We got a great show for you tonight, with our special guest, Roger Langridge's last four issues of The Muppet Show! (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/04/limboed-muppets-story-finds-its-way-to-print-in-july/) YAAAAAAAAY!!!
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(http://i.imgur.com/uVCk5.jpg)
THIS NEEDS TO BE A REAL COMIC (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/04/17/batman-jay-z-comic/)
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Comments are fun for a change, too.
oh man the chinese finger trap MAKES IT
Obviously, the dog in the upper left must be Male. Jay-Z may have 99 problems, but a bitch ain't one.
You KNOW the best part of the actual comic would be Bob Haney writing Jay-Z's dialogue.
Bob Haney is famous, of course, for the phrase "Yes, the Batman digs this day." (http://io9.com/5895230/10-times-batman-acted-like-an-absolute-lunatic) It will probably come as a shock to no one that he went on to write for Thundercats.
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Sonia Harris (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2012/04/18/committed-why-ancient-mythology-breaks-in-contemporary-comics/) has a pretty good piece on why the Amazons-as-rapists-and-slavers thing doesn't work for Wonder Woman even if it IS consistent with their origins in Greek mythology.
I asked Tara about the current treatment of Wonder Woman, now that a version of the Amazon mythology is being incorporated into this current iteration of the comic book. I explained that while proponents of the rapist Amazon behavior have said it is true to the original mythos, detractors are disappointed by this rapey / slavey behavior from former feminist icons. As an anthropologist, Tara had another take on the subject. Apparently, back when stories of a race of Amazon warrior women was current, the idea that these warriors would be slavers or rapists wasn’t frowned upon because this was how all warriors behaved, it was part the job, i.e. “We won, we get to rape your women and sell your menfolk – wooohooo!” The reason the Amazon rapist / slavers was such a disturbing story at the time, wasn’t what they did, but that they were _women_ doing it to men, turning the tables on them, so to speak. The idea that warrior men could be raped and forced to experience the horrors they regularly inflicted on their female foes was the frightening part of the myth at that time. Therefore, if we follow this logic, the problem isn’t that we’re using the original mythology in the current stories, the problem is that we aren’t amending it to work with our current moral standards.
Interestingly, I think if you carry this argument to its logical conclusion, that's precisely what WMM was doing in the original Wonder Woman stories.
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Yeah, that's one of those things that throws a lot of people regarding the Amazons, that they were basically the ancient misogynist Greek version of the Planet of The Apes.
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I believe that the myth was propagated after Greek armies clashed with the Scythians, who were proficient in bowmanship and allowed women to fight in war. They added the whole breast-cutting and male-baby-killing thing to make them seem scarier.
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Warning: the wiki links may be not as safe-for-work as you might expect.
They also play a part in the seinen series Historie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historie) by Iwaaki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hitoshi_Iwaaki).
It's a story about Alexander the Great being told by one of his senior hangers-on and it's nothing as batshit insane as Reign: the Conqueror (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reign_the_conqueror).
The first couple of chapters shows the lead character having a chat with Aristotle and establishing the rough boundaries of human knowledge at the time.
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(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2012/04/avx2-2.jpg)
Marvel would like to remind readers that no donkeys were punched in the making of this comic. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/04/19/comicsalliance-vs-avx-round-two-avengers-x-men/)
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Welp, iZombie is canceled (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/04/02/talking-to-chris-roberson-and-mike-allred-about-the-end-of-izombie/). Was fun while it lasted.
Wow, and apparently it is not amicable (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/04/19/chris-roberson-quits-dc-comics/):
Having an afternoon cocktail to celebrate the end of my time at DC.
Aside from the Fairest arc I already committed to doing, iZombie will be the last time I’ll ever write for DC.
[...]
Sorry. In a better world, characters like the Legion would be owned by a more ethical company, but sadly not in this one.
The short version is, I don’t agree with the way they treat other creators and their general business practices.
I decided quite some time ago, but waited until after the cancellation of my book was announced to discuss it.
Good for him, and I look forward to reading whatever he comes up with next.
I can't bring myself to read the whole 14-pages-and-still-growing comments thread, but John Layman (writer of Chew) wrote some things on the first couple pages, so that's a thing.
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Continuing with his current crusade, David Brothers OCR's the transcript of Frank Miller's 1994 speech on creators' rights (http://4thletter.net/2012/04/frank-miller-on-jack-kirby-creators-rights-1994/). (There's a fact-check at Funnybook Babylon (http://funnybookbabylon.com/2012/04/18/frank-miller-and-the-fairy-tale-history-of-comics/); Miller stretches the truth a bit to make his point.)
It's probably the best-written thing by Frank Miller I have ever read.
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Welp, Chris Roberson is fired. (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/04/20/now-dc-comics-fires-chris-roberson-off-fairest/)
Which at least makes a counterpoint to the people saying he cynically waited until after his series was cancelled to speak up.
Because really, if he were waiting until he didn't have any skin in the game, well, this couldn't have happened.
EDIT: Most of the comments aren't worth reading but there are a few good ones from Brian Wood -- notably, "My careers [sic] only gotten better since I stopped working for DC. Chris Roberson is DC's loss."
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It's funny, but going from the Disney thread to here just really makes me feel like we're right on the cusp of something grand. All the pieces are in place for artists of all stripes to move away from the studio/label middleman distributor system and to go directly to the public.
The only thing missing was a way to collect cash for higher-budget projects, but Kickstarter and similar sites are getting closer to filling the gap there. Yes, to date the highest amount raised on such sites is just shy of 4 million, but costs are coming down all the time and with that much funding you can rope in more traditional investors because you've already demonstrated there's a proven demand.
And of course, movies are the highest-threshold for costs. Someone looking for support for a comic book or music album launch will have a much lower bar.
It's frustrating of course, because music fans have been awaiting the dismissal of the labels for a bit longer than comic or film fans and there's still very little movement here, but what I think will really do the trick is a truly world-famous artist really pushing to drop the middleman, walking the talk, and reaping a great critical and commercial success because of it. Young artists are still usually just dumb kids and the old saw about "The Label is not really your friend" is as old as music. They all still dream of "making it" in the sense of being signed/getting work published at Marvel/DC/being noticed by a film exec/etc.
The only thing that's really missing is that key "If [whoever] can do it, so can I!" moment to change the paradigm - once that happens, it's unstoppable, because "being recognized by the public" is always going to trump "being recognized by a suit" as a young artist's dream. But that is rapidly becoming inevitable, I think.
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What I love about Kurt Busiek: he will drop into a comments section and repeatedly remind people that freelancers are not employees (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/04/chris-roberson-ends-his-relationship-with-dc-comics/).
Chris still has his job. He’ll just be selling his work to other publishers.
Unemployed? Did DC become a monopoly when I wasn’t looking?
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On the subject of a long-term departure from the Big Two: Well, we haven't seen anything like the Image Exodus of the 1990's. Only two A-list creators have completely abandoned the Big Two in favor of creator-ownership: Robert Kirkman and Mark Millar. Other than that, you've got some midlisters like Roberson (and Wood, though he acknowledges in that thread that he didn't leave DC so much as they showed him the door).
Now, it DOES bear noting that most of the A-listers working at Marvel right now are also working on creator-owned stuff with other publishers. Now, it could be they'll get the kind of wild success doing it that convinced Kirkman and Millar to jump ship -- but I wouldn't bet on it. Bendis and Loeb have become big wheels in Marvel's TV division, and they're not likely to see anything like that kind of money outside of Marvel. Hickman -- well, Manhattan Projects is all right but there's no way he's making more money from it than Fantastic Four. And Waid -- well, he's playing up his creator-owned stuff and his digital projects in a major way; he'll be the first to jump ship but I don't think it'll happen in 2012.
These guys are doing what Ellis has been doing for the past decade: playing in Marvel's sandbox, and using the money they make there to support their creator-owned stuff.
That and there's a bit of a loop at work here, a sort of progression: you start out doing creator-owned work; if you're successful, you get something at Vertigo. From there you go to DC, and from there to Marvel. And from there, you go back to creator-owned.
The Big Two aren't going to run out of guys who want to write or draw Batman or Spider-Man. There's always going to be somebody waiting in the wings. Once in awhile it'll be somebody pretty damn good.
I really do think we're on the verge of something of a creator-owned renaissance -- Dark Horse and Image are putting out their best books in 20 years, no lie. And it's great news for people who want to wriggle out from under the Big Two -- from what I've heard, even Vertigo's "creator-owned" terms are actually pretty predatory. And they're better than DC Proper, which in turn is better than Marvel. (Which is better than Archie, which is pretty much pure evil, but is still better than Bluewater, which from what I've heard doesn't even pay its creators and instead hoodwinks them into thinking that churning out celebrity comics for Bluewater will get them exposure.)
But still, I think it's great news for everybody from Kate Beaton on up to Brian Bendis. The future of comics IS wide open; I don't see DC and Marvel going anywhere or suffering any major brain drain, but more and more people in the industry are realizing they're not the only game in town. And that's without getting into all the talented amateurs raising money on Kickstarter.
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This Avengers review (http://You know how people say "don't read the comments"? This is pretty much a perfect example of that.) is basically a perfect encapsulation of "don't read the comments".
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Found this sketch on 4Chan:
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13204397/1335222768757.jpg)
Notice that it says "Part of her skin must always remain 'Earthed' for her powers to work. Hence bare feet".
I just want to point out that they created a character whose power actually necessitates having her bare skin exposed to the elements, and they have her wearing what appears to be a very thick leather bodysuit. Meanwhile, the woman who fell in a vat of acid (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harley_quinn#The_New_52) runs around in short-shorts and a corset.
This is just something that's been bugging me about the DCNU: there seems to be a clear divide between sexualized and non-sexualized female characters, with an even number of characters on each side, but which side each character actually belongs to seems completely arbitrary. It's almost like they picked which women got skimpy outfits by throwing darts at a wall of names, character recognition be damned.
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They couldn't have just gone with Atlee. Nope, gotta change it up because change is good. ESPECIALLY arbitrary changes. So instead of innocent, fun-loving fish out of water we get bland Toph-lite.
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Deconstructing Batman: Odyssey (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/03/08/batman-odyssey-neal-adams-insane/)
Now that is way too much text to read (on that subject anyway). Hell, it's probably too much text to even write on the subject.
But damned if those panels aren't drop-dead hilarious out of context. In fact, they're so good, I suspect they're still hilarious even in context.
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This reminds me of the Doom comic.
YOU'RE THE JOKER! THAT MUST MEAN YOU HAVE FUNNY GUTS!
HONK AND CLOWNCAR!
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Neal Adams has gone plum loco in his old age. He even believes in the Expanding Earth "theory".
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His CO series Blood is running in DHP and is pretty effin' crazy too.
He's still perfectly reasonable in most interviews I've read with him. And still a big advocate for creators' rights.
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Absolute best quote from that:
David: Reading this feels like waking up in a ballpit filled with every action figure of every Batman character ever made and then at the moment you open your eyes, they all start telling you their life stories.
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This is just something that's been bugging me about the DCNU: there seems to be a clear divide between sexualized and non-sexualized female characters, with an even number of characters on each side, but which side each character actually belongs to seems completely arbitrary. It's almost like they picked which women got skimpy outfits by throwing darts at a wall of names, character recognition be damned.
Follow-up: in addition to the de-sexualization of characters like Power Girl and Terra, we have sexualization of character most would agree shouldn't be sexualized. And they tarted her up in the most backward-assed way imaginable:
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13204397/1335373411452.jpg)
Fuck's sake, it looks like she's wearing a mud flap/diaper combo. Anyway, it reminds me of what exactly it is that I don't at like about the New 52 designs: they're not fun.
See, I have this criteria whenever I look at a super hero outfit: if you can imagine this super hero standing next to a little kid dressed up just like him or her and it looks like both hero and little kid are having fun, you have a good super hero outfit. I cannot imagine a single little kid wanting to dress up like any New 52 hero.
And any attempt at dressing a little girl up just like Super Girl there would and should get your sick ass thrown in prison.
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That's terrible. That costume would look great if they just coloured the skin tone area on the legs to the same blue as the torso (i.e. make it a singlesuit rather than some absurd diaper-shirt). It's still be sexy and wouldn't be half so stupidly ludicrous. What lazy bullshit.
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CROTCH-SHIELD
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CROTCH GUARD KEEPS YOU STAIN FREE!
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I'm kinda curious as to whether it originally DID have pants and editorial decided to change it. Like Wonder Woman's costume.
Funny thing is they JUST got Supergirl wearing shorts after finally deciding maybe the constant panty shots were not appropriate.
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What I never understand is long sleeve, armored looking tops with panties and boots. This is all over and I don't get it at all.
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The Comics Journal interviews Chris Roberson. (http://www.tcj.com/i-have-not-yet-had-any-conversation-with-any-creator-who-doesnt-agree-with-what-ive-said-an-interview-with-chris-roberson/) It's quite a good read. He talks about DC's recent practice with NDA's, which Brian Wood recently described as "the devil".
He also mentions a proposal by Kurt Busiek (http://www.comicsbeat.com/2012/04/20/chris-roberson-no-longer-writing-fairest-arc/#comment-187374) that seems pretty obvious to me but which, of course, the Big Two will never go for: retroactively apply the terms of modern contracts to all previously-published works. From here on in, start paying Kirby's heirs, Heck's heirs, Romita, Thomas, Friedrich, whoever, the same royalties that they would get if their books were published today, or were adapted into a movie, TV show, action figure, etc. today. (Course, Mark Millar claims he and Hitch aren't getting squat for the Avengers movie, and Len Wein gets a creator credit for Lucius Fox but not for Wolverine -- so it's not like modern contracts are perfect. But people who get paid are much less likely to sue.)
And this:
And regarding iZombie, the impression I got from your previous statements is that DC currently holds the rights, up until the books go out of print, and then they revert to you. Is that correct?
No, it’s actually tied to new work no longer being commissioned, which is suggestive in and of itself that the creator-owned contracts within DC have been changed, so that going out of print is no longer the trigger. Suggesting that someone at DC realized that that maybe wasn’t the best way to go. So now with iZombie, the rights will revert a certain amount of time after Mike Allred and I are no longer commissioned to do new work.
Iiiiiinteresting.
It really is a very good read.
And so are Busiek's comments in the thread I linked, as usual; among other things, he responds to the calls to unionize by pointing out that comics creators can't, that modern law prohibits the unionization of freelancers (and things like the SWG and SAG were grandfathered in but could not be formed today). There are a number of other creator comments up at the top, too, from Brian Wood, John Layman, and Cameron Stewart.
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An interesting(and actually effective) alternative to boycotting. (http://calamityjon.tumblr.com/post/21851744946/the-avengers-opens-in-theaters-in-the-us-on-may)
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Are those red belts above Supergirl's knees connected to the boots in the back, or are they just completely separate from everything else and useless?
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completely separate from everything else and useless?
Well, it wouldn't even be close to the first time that's happened on a costume :/
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Well leaving the joints "exposed" makes sense for mitigating some of the mobility loss of primitive armor, and the thighs are packing some nice, big arteries.
But... She's invincible, right?
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An interesting(and actually effective) alternative to boycotting. (http://calamityjon.tumblr.com/post/21851744946/the-avengers-opens-in-theaters-in-the-us-on-may)
It's not actually an alternative to boycotting. It is entirely possible to boycott and STILL donate to the Hero Initiative.
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Well, yes, but I was referring to the author's suggestion of 'go see the movie/buy the comic/whatever, but donate an equivalent amount to the Hero Initiative'.
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Anything that gets donations to the Hero Initiative is all right by me. But this is one of those things people do to make themselves feel better while utterly failing to hold Marvel's feet to the fire.
(Like, um, going to see the movie for free. Which I did last night. Still technically did not break my boycott; I saw the movie on their dime and will not be acting as a marketing instrument for them. Look for a non-review where I complain about standing in line tonight!
I was going to throw some money at abuckforjack.com (http://abuckforjack.com), but Hero Initiative is probably better.)
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Look for a non-review where I complain about standing in line tonight!
Posted. (http://www.corporate-sellout.com/index.php/2012/04/27/avengers-non-review/)
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Thanks, Thad. It's helped me put some thoughts into order.
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More from Roberson (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=38395), including talk of the end of iZombie, his current work on Memorial, and expanding his views on creators' rights. Finally, he comments a bit on what his Fairest arc was going to be about.
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Thanks, Thad. It's helped me put some thoughts into order.
I've very slightly revised it, adding a link to James Sturm's article on Slate from a few months back.
And an afterthought on the "They didn't do anything, they're just related to somebody" point: the reason we are having this conversation right now is that Stan Lee's uncle owned Marvel Comics.
Which isn't to knock Stan! BUT, he got a leg up from his family too!
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TCJ is doing a rather nice roundtable discussion of a new book on Kirby called Hand of Fire (http://www.tcj.com/jack-kirby-hand-of-fire-roundtable-part-1/) (by Charles Hatfield). Quite a lot of it is concerned with how Jack's service in the War changed him.
There was one shell that had hit, and I saw these Germans laying in a perfect circle except the bottom half of their bodies were missing, see? The shell evidently hit right in the middle of this group. You see a lot of these nice designs if you’re an artist.
JESUS CHRIST.
EDIT: The comments section's worth reading too, once you get past the initial bitching about "OMG you do roundtable with people who have not read the book!" Patrick Ford -- a guy who's handy to lay down some science in pretty much every thread about Kirby on every site on the Internet -- gives us this excerpt from an interview:
..at Marvel I couldn’t say anything, because it would be taken away from me and put in another context, and it would be lost. All my connection to it would be severed. I created Galactus, the Silver Surfer, and an army of characters, and my connection with them is lost. You get to feel like a ghost. You’re writing commercials for somebody and…It’s a strange feeling, but I experienced it, and I didn’t like it much.
Skelly: Things are bad for you in the comics field as far as recognition goes?
Kirby: It wasn’t recognition so much—you just couldn’t take a character anywhere. You could devote time to a character, put a lot of thought into it, help it evolve, and then lose all connection.
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China Mieville's Dial H is pretty good. If you liked Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol, this is quite close.
Also this week, Supreme comes back, and it manages to somehow pull together both the Alan Moore and Rob Liefeld versions of Supreme.
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BATTLE SCARS: THE ABRIDGED EDITION
(http://i.imgur.com/zKfnj.jpg)
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http://joshreads.com/?p=13534 (http://joshreads.com/?p=13534)
Josh Reads is a blog where a dude gently makes fun of the funny pages, and one of the funnies finally caught wind of this fact.
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Archie sometimes references Comics Curmudgeon jokes about it being written by a computer that barely understands humor.
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And the artist from Slylock Fox gave the Curmudgeon a piece of merchandisible artwork (http://www.cafepress.com/joshreads/3573296).
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Sweet Tooth will end with issue #40. (http://www.vertigocomics.com/blog/2012/05/07/jeff-lemire-bitter-sweet)
It's not a Roberson/Wood situation; Lemire is ending it himself because it's the end of the story. Good to hear.
Sweet Tooth is one of my favorite books of the last few years and is highly recommended.
I also can't help wondering if this means Lemire will be able to draw Animal Man himself. I'd love to see that, even for an issue or two.
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Alex Alice's SIEGFRIED - North American Trailer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDoJMwjs0I8#ws)
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I don't remember Siegfried ever picking a fight with Odin...
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Hey, I still have the first book of that comic. Never saw the rest, though I could probably order them.
Of course, I'd probably have to go to a comic store again for that.
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Latest to leave the Big Two: Roger Langridge (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/05/11/now-roger-langridge-quits-marvel-and-dc-comics-over-ethical-concerns/).
He cites Bissette's boycott call specifically.
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"Time Man and Oil Man [..] were rather powered up compared to the other six!"
"You should've known you can't beat me!"
:glee: The Mega Man comic is pretty good.
depending on how much you like stupid inside jokes about mega man maybe
i'm an easy sell
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depending on how much you like stupid inside jokes about mega man maybe
i'm an easy sell
Next up Archie is releasing a comic about a guy who buys every version of a Nintendo console even if he already owns it.
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hey hey hey hey hey hey
hey
hey
i don't own a dsi xl
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Hey, I still have the first book of that comic. Never saw the rest, though I could probably order them.
Yeah, except now it's in a real language!
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"Time Man and Oil Man [..] were rather powered up compared to the other six!"
"You should've known you can't beat me!"
:glee: The Mega Man comic is pretty good.
depending on how much you like stupid inside jokes about mega man maybe
i'm an easy sell
Cut Man's pun obsession <3
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A new five issue limited series this August will reveal that it was in fact Wolverine who assembled the first team of mutants in the Marvel Universe. Written by Christos Gage and with art from Neal Adams, The First X-Men takes place before X-Men #1 and it sees Logan attempt to recruit both Xavier (who turns him down) AND Magneto to his team. Rather than a school, Logan will put together a team of soldiers which includes Sabretooth, Magneto, Bomb and a new female character. The series is set firmly in continuity and will feature a cameo from Namor the Sub-Mariner before he regained his memory in the pages of Fantastic Four. So, the first mutant team was put together by Wolverine (who Adams strongly hinted funded the X-Men). And who said Marvel was running out of ideas?
(http://brontoforum.us/Smileys/classic/rolleye.gif)
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I preferred First Class's approach.
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Daniel Best has a great post on a 1970's theft of DC art (http://ohdannyboy.blogspot.com/2012/05/joe-simon-fbi-and-strange-case-of.html), including some of Joe Simon's work.
300 pages appeared on the market in 1997; the dealer originally claimed that Simon had gifted those pages to his father, and then, when Simon disputed that, claimed that Simon's daughter had sold them to him for $100.
Simon sicced the FBI on the dealer, but eventually settled for 55% of the proceeds from auction. Toward the end, he acknowledged that it was POSSIBLE his daughter had sold the art, but it's unclear why he would; if this art was stolen from DC, then neither he nor his daughter would have had it in the first place, and even if his daughter was estranged from him and desperate for money, she would have known those pages were worth far more than $100.
Best has covered the theft of Kirby's artwork from Marvel (http://ohdannyboy.blogspot.com/2011/04/marvel-worldwide-inc-et-al-v-kirby-et_04.html) before; Greg Theakston has a rundown (http://gregtheakstonteasemag.blogspot.com/2011/06/jack-magic-v2-pt2.html) as part of a pretty extensive series called Jack Magic. Shooter (http://www.jimshooter.com/2011/03/mystery-of-missing-box-of-marvel.html) has his own take, which I believe he believes to be true but which I consider highly suspect; the comments there are more interesting than the post itself (and have some less-than-friendly back-and-forth with Best).
It violates Hanlon's Razor, but I personally believe that somebody at Marvel deliberately put the box of Kirby's art in a spot where it was likely to get up and walk away, not merely so that they would be off the hook for returning it to him but also because there was unpublished work in there that Kirby was never paid for -- in other words, evidence that he worked on spec, not for-hire, at least some of the time.
I'll grant that nobody's produced any hard evidence of this -- they can't; that's kind of the point -- but I'm not the first person to suggest it. Indeed, the Theakston post makes much the same argument (though he doesn't mention the spec issue):
A lot of what follows is speculation so please indulge me. There is no proof or evidence I can offer, only conjecture. Seems that the week of the theft, one of Marvels editors had been fired and decided he wanted an unannounced severance package and moved it out on the weekend. His name was uttered by more than one dealer as the root source for the pages.
The editor was rehired shortly thereafter.
There has been some rumor that the editor was in league with Marvel and Cadence in an effort to keep Kirby from ever getting those pages back. Ensuring that he would have no leverage in that department: they wouldn’t have to return what they no longer had.
And, as the copyrights to the characters were about to come up for renewal this was a good thing for management. The return of the pages might have been misconstrued in court as an admission that Kirby owned a part of the characters. Stuck between a rock and a hard legal place, the lawyers might well have conceived a plan to avert this.
But this is all just speculation.
A little too much innuendo and "I won't say who, but everybody knows who I'm talking about" for my tastes. (I don't have my early-1980's Marvel editors straight, so I'm not sure who he's referring to.) But at any rate, that art theft certainly seems to have worked to Marvel's advantage.
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Prominent DC character will be outed as gay (http://now.msn.com/entertainment/0520-dc-gay-character.aspx)
...
Wait, why is this big news, exactly?
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Weeeell, there still aren't that many prominent openly gay superheroes.
And there's a segment of the population that freaks the fuck out every time anyone suggests it's okay to be gay.
And there's a rather large segment of comics readership that freaks the fuck out every time an existing character is altered in any way.
That said, if it's Wonder Woman I don't think many fans will be upset, and even the talking heads at Fox News are going to have a hard time saying "Wonder Woman was never supposed to be gay" with a straight face. (They WILL, of course, but I'm just saying it might take a couple rehearsals.)
CA had rather a good op-ed (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/05/11/spandex-closet-gay-superheroes-need-come-out/) on the subject just a couple of weeks ago. It makes a pretty good case for Tim Drake.
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That said, if it's Wonder Woman I don't think many fans will be upset,
Are you joking? That'll stir some serious backlash. It'd be logical from an in-universe perspective, but outing their most prominent female character would send the message that a female character can't be strong without also being gay.
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You gotta admit that the've always struggled to build her numbers and that few of her relationships have ever been very meaningful to the character. I can see DC doing it just to redefine the character in the hopes of finally driving readership numbers for her.
There's also the argument that states that if the writers have been ambiguously hinting a character is gay or bi for decades, then it's just as big a disservice to keep playing coy about it.
Who would the next "strongest" female DC character be anyway if you discount WW?
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Batwoman. :whoops:
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Are you joking? That'll stir some serious backlash. It'd be logical from an in-universe perspective, but outing their most prominent female character would send the message that a female character can't be strong without also being gay.
I'll grant I'm generally pretty broad in my use of the word "fans", but in this case I specifically meant people who buy comics in specialty shops, not Gloria Steinem. (I only pick Ms. Steinem because she was a vocal critic of the 1970's mod era of the book; I don't actually have any reason to believe she'd have a problem with Wonder Woman being gay, particularly if she's aware of the character's genesis.)
The message isn't "A female character can't be strong without also being gay", the message is "There have been lesbian and bondage undercurrents to Wonder Woman's character for 70 years and it's time to acknowledge them overtly."
This isn't like Batman and Robin, either, where any homoerotic undertones can be dismissed as fans' (and critics') projections and not what the creators intended. William Moulton Marston clearly and unambiguously intended bondage/femdom/bisexual themes in Wonder Woman, from the very beginning; that's not up for debate (though I'm sure Fox News et al would happily pretend it was).
That said: you're not wrong; I can definitely see a hue and cry from people who aren't familiar with Wonder Woman's history (or are but argue that the past 65 years are more pertinent to who the character is than the Marston years) and who aren't anti-gay but nonetheless feel this is a betrayal of the character, or pandering, or a publicity stunt, or what-have-you.
And I'm certainly not saying that it ISN'T pandering or a publicity stunt. I'm just saying that, if it IS Wonder Woman, it's absolutely consistent with the character's history, the creator's intent, and it's about damn time.
And it might not be her, it might be somebody else. Like I said, I think Tim Drake would be a great call -- though they might not want to risk the "ick" factor of the inevitable "Robin is gay" -> "Batman is a pederast" false equivalency.
Then again, Tim's not currently Robin, so that would probably help with some of the inevitable confusion from the mainstream audience of people who know who Robin is but don't know the difference between Dick, Jason, Tim, and Damian.
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And I'm certainly not saying that it ISN'T pandering or a publicity stunt. I'm just saying that, if it IS Wonder Woman, it's absolutely consistent with the character's history, the creator's intent, and it's about damn time.
Oh, I agree. But it'd be a political and public relations minefield.
I read speculation that it might be a Green Lantern or a Flash, but not The Green Lantern or The Flash. That way they can claim the character (or to be more specific, the brand) is prominent to satisfy groups that wanted to see this, while not upsetting the groups that were afraid their beloved flagship characters were going to come out.
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Flash seems unlikely; Wally's completely absent from the New 52 and indeed DiDio seems pretty big on the whole "Only one of each character (except Green Lantern)" edict. (Which is why Dick is no longer Batman, more's the pity.)
As for GL, I haven't read it in years but I'm guessing that John, Guy, and Kyle all still exist (not sure about Alan). Given that all three of them are pretty inextricably linked to past female love interests, Johns is HUGE on continuity wank, and GL is the single book that has been LEAST affected by the reboot, it's hard to figure any of them will turn out to be gay (maybe bi but DiDio explicitly said "gay"). Of the three I'd guess Guy, except I don't see how he could come out without it being played for laughs and I don't think that's what they want to go for here.
Course, if it's Kyle and they retcon out the whole fridge thing then that would be two birds with one stone.
EDIT: Oh hey, they just reintroduced Earth-2, didn't they. So yeah, it could be the parallel-universe version of pretty much anyone.
EDIT 2: Johnston (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/05/21/no-fox-news-superman-is-not-going-to-be-gay/), who was there, claims that DiDio specifically said it would be a character just now being introduced to the New 52 -- which, if true, rules out Diana, Tim, and Harley, to name a few obvious guesses.
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how can you care about this
please
tell me your secret
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"Care" is a pretty strong word. Idle speculation makes for an amusing distraction, is all.
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Wonder Woman let slip that she was at least bi-sexual (having engaged in relations with some of the women of her home island) years ago. It was a pretty casual thing though.
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EDIT 2: Johnston (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/05/21/no-fox-news-superman-is-not-going-to-be-gay/), who was there, claims that DiDio specifically said it would be a character just now being introduced to the New 52 -- which, if true, rules out Diana, Tim, and Harley, to name a few obvious guesses.
Come on, gay Anti-Monitor.
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Larfleeze is kind of by definition greedy for cocks
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They ARE reintroducing Ted Kord, remember.
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Really? Huh. That could totally work.
Dunno that he's likelier than Wally Flash (now that they're tipping that it's a "popular, iconic" character who hasn't been introduced in the New 52 yet), but...one of the draws of the Tim idea was the possibility that they WOULDN'T go all slashfic and hook him up with Superboy, but just have two male best friends, one gay and one straight, and who the hell cares because it doesn't matter if your friend is gay or not.
Which of course would be exactly what we'd have with a Booster/Beetle friendship if Ted's the guy.
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Until Booster fakes being gay for the publicity.
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I haven't been paying attention; is New 52 Booster still just pretending to be an ass, or is he back to actually being an ass?
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Per the "Why should we give a fuck?" question, Bleeding Cool has the guy who asked DiDio about gay characters in the first place (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/05/23/asking-dc-comics-the-gay-question/).
My name is Joe Glass, a lifelong fan of comics, a big gay man, and new writer of comics too, including LGBT superhero series, The Pride. And I asked that question.
The ‘why’? Simple…for nearly a whole year now, Dan Didio’s comment kind of stuck in my craw a bit. I understood them, and respected that it intimated a desire to add new LGBT characters, a group that is still sorely lacking within comics, despite what some commenter’s may think.
But it was the ‘rather than [change an existing] character’ bit that really bugged me.
I mean, what? They changed Superman, Flash, Apollo and Midnighter from being married to single and/or dating. They changed Barbara Gordon from being a disabled, non-violent hero to a fully bodily-abled violent one again. They resurrected, vanished, killed, changed ethnicities, made skinny, gave out new dads, and changed almost any other aspect of a character as part of the re-invigoration process of the New 52, but for some reason they couldn’t or wouldn’t change a character from straight to gay?
Why not? Why was THAT the line they dare not cross? I know it’s a fairly small thing, and maybe as a gay comics reader I should just be happy to take what I was getting, but I couldn’t help but feel that there was an unintentional implication there.
[...]
And so, at Kapow, with DiDio present, I saw my chance to finally get it off my chest and ask him personally what he meant and why. I honestly didn’t expect much of an answer, or if he’d even remember the interview. I even expected to get groans from the crowd for some reason. Instead, I got an answer back that made me feel genuinely happy. Seriously, no one in that hall was clapping louder than I was, and I laud DiDio and DC for this.
And clearly I’m not alone in that respect: I was approached by a number of convention goers after that panel and the subsequent Marvel panel (where I asked another LGBTQ related question), all congratulating me on an excellent question, saying it was great to see a comic big wig answer to their previous comments, and even got thanked by one young man who told me his cousin was gay and has a hard time of it, and it was great that I ‘took a stand’. Honestly, I was completely taken aback by the amount of attention I was getting, let alone DC’s answer. It was quite amazing.
So, y'know. On the one hand, yeah, I think the Big Two's (and Archie's) introduction of a more diverse lineup does, unfortunately, often come across as cynical pandering. But it's the end result that's important. I was pretty uneasy about Batwoman at first but she's turned out to be a great character in a great book. As for racial and gender representation, well, Ted Kord's death was still stupid but I love Jaime; John and Shayera were clearly included on JL precisely because of their race and gender respectively, but they turned out to be a damn sight more interesting than Kyle and Carter would have. Samuel L Jackson is now the definitive Nick Fury.
So it's easy to see it as just another cynical marketing effort -- I won't disagree with that characterization. But if it makes people feel like they're being included instead of being shunned, then that's awesome.
Related: Bill Rosemann and Nelson Ribeiro help a hearing-impaired 4-year-old feel good about his hearing aid. (http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/330760/real-life-heroes?CSAuthResp=1337791494%3A5r5g27j165ivk16rs2pc4tmu31%3ACSUserId|CSGroupId%3Aapproved%3A696CF42FCEB6B690AF9E541BBAD6177C&CSUserId=94&CSGroupId=1)
EDIT: More. (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/05/marvel-bullpen-assembles-to-help-mom-and-her-hearing-impaired-son/) You know, amid all my cynicism and griping about Marvel as a corporate entity, it's easy to forget that there really are some wonderful people there who really DO just want, more than anything, to give kids something to aspire to.
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CA places bets (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/05/24/dc-comics-gay-character-superhero/); it's a Sims article but is actually mostly (if you'll pardon the expression) played straight.
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Here's something nice: Jack Kirby getting recognized in the Badass Hall of Fame. (http://badassdigest.com/2012/05/01/badass-hall-of-fame-jack-kirby/)
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Rising to take his place among such badass luminaries as Sherlock Holmes, Abbie Hoffman and Judy Blume.
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(http://media.comicvine.com/uploads/1/12397/2362971-03_super.png)
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And I'm certainly not saying that it ISN'T pandering or a publicity stunt. I'm just saying that, if it IS Wonder Woman, it's absolutely consistent with the character's history, the creator's intent, and it's about damn time.
Oh, I agree. But it'd be a political and public relations minefield.
I read speculation that it might be a Green Lantern or a Flash, but not The Green Lantern or The Flash. That way they can claim the character (or to be more specific, the brand) is prominent to satisfy groups that wanted to see this, while not upsetting the groups that were afraid their beloved flagship characters were going to come out.
Such speculation is [spoiler]entirely correct[/spoiler], as the correct answer turns out to be [spoiler]Alan Scott[/spoiler].
You know, this guy (http://i.imgur.com/ZNIRC.jpg).
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You Serious? (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztVMib1T4T4#ws)
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Ayup. And they're [spoiler]retconning out his family, so he can be gay. Including his son Obsidian. Who was already openly gay.
The net change in the homosexuality level of the DC universe will be 0.[/spoiler]
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... oh god. [spoiler]He becomes helpless if you come at him sporting wood[/spoiler]. Fuck. Fuck you DC. Fuck.
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Sooo... basically after making a big public announcement full of promise, they've botched it about as badly as they possibly could have.
Sounds about right.
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Ohhhh, they could have botched it MUCH worse.
There were people who seriously thought it was going to be the Joker.
EDIT: Or Captain Marvel Shazam.
"how did you get your powers Billy?"
"well a crazy old man dragged me into an alley and turned me into a big gay man"
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Superman never died in the New 52. That means:
no Cyborg Superman, which means
Coast City was never destroyed, which means
Hal never went crazy, which means
Parallax never possessed him, which means
he never killed all the other GLs, which means
Kyle Rayner never got the GL ring.
How is Kyle Rayner still a Green Lantern if Superman never died?
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Sooo... basically after making a big public announcement full of promise, they've botched it about as badly as they possibly could have.
Sounds about right.
(http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/136/boner_2.gif)
Just imagine the rest of this post is the rest of these.
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Sooo... basically after making a big public announcement full of promise, they've botched it about as badly as they possibly could have.
Sounds about right.
I don't think that's fair. The curious thing about all these announcements is that Didio was talking in may about a book coming out in June. In order to get a book on the stands in June, DC would have had to have had art and story in the can for awhile, far ahead of Didio's kind of off-handed remark to a fan. Seems DC was planning on just having him be gay and not making some big ol' jubilee out of it. And really, it's a legacy character from the 40s. Making him gay isn't exactly the easy target as it seems. It's a good choice, I find.
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So the Earth-2 writer stated, essentially, that he couldn't put Obsidian in because Alan Scott is not old anymore, so he decided to make Alan Scott gay and keep everyone happy and pandered to.
Except old people, of course.
But fuck those guys.
-
If I had to choose a JSA-er, it'd be Wildcat. A rough and tough boxer being gay seems like a better idea to me.
Of course, with all the problems the GLs have with girlfriends dying or turning evil, I think all the Lanterns should be gay.
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How long does Alan's boyfriend have before they fridge him? Taking all bets!
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Here's the interview with James Robinson (http://geek-news.mtv.com/2012/06/01/green-lantern-alan-scott-gay-earth-2/) where he talks about making Alan gay.
And in case you felt like getting depressed / angry today, here are some of the worst comments about it. (http://geek-news.mtv.com/2012/06/01/green-lantern-gay-alan-scott-reactions/) Although they do end with a couple of positive ones, so there's that.
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I must say I'm quite offended by the recent change to Alan Scott:
(http://www.comicsbeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/EARTH2_Cv3.jpg)
Dropping his baller Errol Flynn costume for a GL Corps style one.
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man, what a flamer
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(http://i.imgur.com/k7sh7.jpg)
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Dear Vertigo,
Nice table of contents.
Traditionally, though, you don't just put page numbers in the table of contents. You put them on the pages, too.
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I must say I'm quite offended by the recent change to Alan Scott:
Dropping his baller Errol Flynn costume for a GL Corps style one.
Mr. Komodo on the CA thread pointed out to me that that looks a lot like his costume from Kingdom Come. An interesting catch; I was thinking it looked like Hal as Parallax, but he's right, that looks like the Ross design.
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Dear Vertigo,
Nice table of contents.
Traditionally, though, you don't just put page numbers in the table of contents. You put them on the pages, too.
That reminds me of how the trade for Ghost in the Shell contains extensive footnotes, each headed by a page number, only there are no page numbers in the book.
And it's over 300 pages long.
And even if you count by hand from reference points you CAN figure out (i.e. the footnote refers to something obvious), the pagecounts don't line up because they don't count the chapter header pages or something.
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Archie execs settle. (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/06/archie-comics-executives-settle-bitter-bizarre-legal-battle/)
The yearlong legal feud for control of Archie Comics has ended with a settlement that restores embattled Co-CEO Nancy Silberkleit to her position at the company. However, the confidential agreement was criticized by the granddaughters of Archie co-founder John L. Goldwater, who claim that both executives’ “hands are dirty.”
Ah hell.
“Nancy Silberkleit and Jon Goldwater are no longer in an adversarial position, and they are beginning their working relationship anew,” Silberkleit’s attorney, Howard Simmons, said in a statement. “She’s thrilled to have settled this extremely upsetting matter.”
Kornreich signed off on the settlement over the objections of Richard Goldwater’s daughters, Lisa, Taylor and Summer Goldwater, who, after initially sitting on the sidelines, now accuse their uncle Jon Goldwater of misusing Archie assets and Silberkleit of drawing a company salary while still working as a teacher. In court papers, one of the daughters’ attorneys said the agreement is little more than a reciprocal exchange between “two directors who have been stealing from the company, or aiding and abetting each other’s theft.”
The judge said that while three didn’t have a legal standing to insert themselves into the settlement, the Richard Goldwater estate is free to pursue its own lawsuit.
...welp, onto the next lawsuit, then.
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The Dresden Codak dude makes a not-so-subtle pitch to take over the lead writer's role on the X-Books (http://dresdencodak.tumblr.com/post/24574027688/dresden-codaks-x-men-reboot)
Okay that's a little exaggeration, but still...
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He's got no love for the source material and he couldn't keep to a schedule if his life depended on it. I think the position is safe.
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Yeah, if they wanted someone like that they'd just put Ellis back on Astonishing.
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God I forgot what it was like to read his stuff.
"Okay guys so like, I wanted to write this story, but I can't write characters anyone likes so I'm taking these."
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God I forgot what it was like to read his stuff.
"Okay guys so like, I wanted to write this story, but I can't write characters anyone likes so I'm taking these."
:glee:
Anyway, in spite of how terrible a writer the dude is and the fact that the idea is not really that great, it's telling how many people like his idea (I'm sure the execution would be terrible, but whatever). There really is a hunger there for comics that aren't Marvel/DC retarded.
Now if we can just get past that hump where people are still hoping for DC/Marvel to be the source of non-retarded comics...
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"Okay guys so like, I wanted to write this story, but I can't write characters anyone likes so I'm taking these."
Lots of people have that problem, though -- myself included. Original characters are hard.
I like a lot of his designs. But I think his JL (http://dresdencodak.tumblr.com/post/10979241054/rebooting-the-justice-league) ones were better.
Never managed to do much more than skim the text, though. It's not his strong point.
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I thought the Justice League redesign was atrocious, completely missing the point of every single character for the sake of inserting completely new shit with a familiar trapping.
This, though? I'd read this. If the actual writing were done by someone good. These are good concepts, opens fresh storytelling ground while sticking to what's supposed to make X-Men be X-Men.
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I dunno, it starts well, but then you have "lol there are BREEDS of mutants" and next thing you know it's vampires vs. werewolves.
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Magneto kills Wolverine. Wolverine was a werewolf.
Then Magneto was killed by Interceptor.
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Also, the "they think they're mutants, but they're actually ALIENS/CELESTIAL BEINGS/WHATEVERTHEFUCK" thing kind of misses the entire fucking point of mutants.
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So the point is he created a bunch of original characters then draped the X-Men over them.
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The Dresden Codak dude makes a not-so-subtle pitch to take over the lead writer's role on the X-Books (http://dresdencodak.tumblr.com/post/24574027688/dresden-codaks-x-men-reboot)
Okay that's a little exaggeration, but still...
I stopped reading when I saw Nightcrawler.
Anyway, this is nothing new. Everyone has ideas about how to improve the X-Men. I've always wanted to expand on the idea of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters as an actual institution aimed at helping mutants manage their powers responsibly and function within society and not some insane para-military training organization.
Crazy, right?
Like, The Danger Room? There's no real excuse for having a life-threatening combat training system in a school for children. But a system for helping students control their powers and to help teachers better handle children with dangerous powers, on the other hand, makes sense. I want to see Cyclops expertly calm a child down who's having a nervous breakdown and whose powers are going catastrophically wild.
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Also, the "they think they're mutants, but they're actually ALIENS/CELESTIAL BEINGS/WHATEVERTHEFUCK" thing kind of misses the entire fucking point of mutants.
Well, this sort of thing isn't actually new in the Marvel universe. Humanity was seeded with genes from the celestials and those with superpowers (esp. the mutants) have their genes triggered either by natural means or by other means.
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Also, the "they think they're mutants, but they're actually ALIENS/CELESTIAL BEINGS/WHATEVERTHEFUCK" thing kind of misses the entire fucking point of mutants.
Didn't stop Jeph Loeb.
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So is Nightcrawler still a literal demon these days?
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Well, he's dead, so maybe.
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(http://i.imgur.com/dKc0r.jpg)
This is a joke, right? Some immature trolling on DC's part, right?
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HOLY SHIT
THEY CAN'T BE FUCKING SERIOUS
edit: how i'm imagining the board room meeting responsible for that shitty idea
(http://www.indecisionforever.com/files/2012/01/scottwalker-200x200.jpg)Exec 1: OK Guys, we need a new idea for a Green Lantern book.
(http://www.newbusiness.co.uk/files/imagecache/article_main_image/files/article_images/200x200-MarkDixon_BW_1_0_1.jpg)Exec 2: OK, we could use more Black characters in the New 52, so let's make it a black guy.
(http://www.womensconference.org/assets/Our-Kitchen-Table-Images/David-Gregory.200x200.jpg)Exec 3: We could also use a muslim character. Let's make him a black muslim.
(http://www.indecisionforever.com/files/2012/01/scottwalker-200x200.jpg)Alright, it's settled. Black Muslim Green Lantern. But how do we portray him, to show that we're culturally sensitive?
(http://www.newbusiness.co.uk/files/imagecache/article_main_image/files/article_images/200x200-MarkDixon_BW_1_0_1.jpg)We could just make him a normal Green Lantern. That's a pretty heroic and positive role.
(http://www.womensconference.org/assets/Our-Kitchen-Table-Images/David-Gregory.200x200.jpg)No, that's a horrible idea. Nobody would get it. Let's give him a ski mask.
(http://www.indecisionforever.com/files/2012/01/scottwalker-200x200.jpg)Great idea! Put a gun in his hand and we've got ourselves a cover. That's a wrap, guys, let's go play golf.
I don't think DC could have pulled off being more offensive without making him use his green lantern ring to create a bucket of fried chicken.
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(http://i.imgur.com/dKc0r.jpg)
This has to be fake.
Tell me this is fake.
Or, alternatively, tell me that it is real so I can (http://i.imgur.com/80i70.jpg)
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HOLY SHIT
THEY CAN'T BE FUCKING SERIOUS
edit: how i'm imagining the board room meeting responsible for that shitty idea
(http://www.indecisionforever.com/files/2012/01/scottwalker-200x200.jpg)Exec 1: OK Guys, we need a new idea for a Green Lantern book.
(http://www.newbusiness.co.uk/files/imagecache/article_main_image/files/article_images/200x200-MarkDixon_BW_1_0_1.jpg)Exec 2: OK, we could use more Black characters in the New 52, so let's make it a black guy.
(http://www.womensconference.org/assets/Our-Kitchen-Table-Images/David-Gregory.200x200.jpg)Exec 3: We could also use a muslim character. Let's make him a black muslim.
(http://www.indecisionforever.com/files/2012/01/scottwalker-200x200.jpg)Alright, it's settled. Black Muslim Green Lantern. But how do we portray him, to show that we're culturally sensitive?
(http://www.newbusiness.co.uk/files/imagecache/article_main_image/files/article_images/200x200-MarkDixon_BW_1_0_1.jpg)We could just make him a normal Green Lantern. That's a pretty heroic and positive role.
(http://www.womensconference.org/assets/Our-Kitchen-Table-Images/David-Gregory.200x200.jpg)No, that's a horrible idea. Nobody would get it. Let's give him a ski mask.
(http://www.indecisionforever.com/files/2012/01/scottwalker-200x200.jpg)Great idea! Put a gun in his hand and we've got ourselves a cover. That's a wrap, guys, let's go play golf.
I don't think DC could have pulled off being more offensive without making him use his green lantern ring to create a bucket of fried chicken.
HEY SHINRA WAY TO DECIDE WHAT BLACK PEOPLE SHOULD BE OFFENDED BY, YOU RACIST
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Is this really how this is going to be? I have an opinion you don't like, so you're going to follow me into other threads to shit on my posts?
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Actually, I was just going to do it as a de-karma, but it wouldn't fit. :)
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Actually, Islam has associations with the color green, so if you had to have a Muslim character having them be a green lantern is something of a match. Supposedly, one of the "miracles" of Islam is how awesome the Koran sounds in its native tongue (it's poetry), the tribes of Mohammed's day still clung to traditions of warrior poets. So it's even conceivable that you could make him a black rapper. You could also argue that he elects to wear a mask as some sort of observance of prescribed dress (but that's stretching it).
The fucking pistol though? I do not get that. That's begging for trouble.
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Yeah, that doesn't seem like a warrior poet. That seems like THUG LYFE.
The two are not mutually exclusive of course, but HEY THERE'S A GUN IN YOUR FACE MUTHAFUCKA GUN GUN GUN POP POP POP.
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David Brothers said on Twitter that a GL using a gun makes a certain kind of sense, considering how prone the GL rings are to running out of energy at the worst possible moments, but... somehow, I don't think that's what they were thinking here.
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Also, a regular old .38 is probably not so hot against attack ships off the shoulder of Orion.
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Looks like a beretta to me, so it'd probably be a 9mm. Or a 'nine' if you will. What really pulls the design together is the ski mask+gun combo. It couldn't have just been a normal hood/cowl, it had to be a mask perfectly designed to make him look like he was knocking over a convenience store.
Actually, Islam has associations with the color green, so if you had to have a Muslim character having them be a green lantern is something of a match. Supposedly, one of the "miracles" of Islam is how awesome the Koran sounds in its native tongue (it's poetry), the tribes of Mohammed's day still clung to traditions of warrior poets. So it's even conceivable that you could make him a black rapper. You could also argue that he elects to wear a mask as some sort of observance of prescribed dress (but that's stretching it).
I'm 100% cool with the idea of a black muslim green lantern. The awesome thing about the lantern corps is that there can be a huge number of green lanterns all the time and they have very different ideas of how to use their powers and come from very different walks of life. DC just seems to be incapable of making any character who isn't a gender/preference/race stereotype. I'm waiting for the first panels to come out of him saying something like ALLAHU AKBAR, MOTHAFUCKA or something equally stupid.
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I think it'd be nice if they made Green Lanterns that weren't from America.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Green_Lanterns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Green_Lanterns)
There's actually been a few, they just didn't get top billing in the main book.
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All I see are a monk that lived in medieval China and a Soviet woman that was a GL for two issues. Not exactly what I'd call representational.
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SUDDENLY RELEVANT AGAIN:
(http://i.imgur.com/LMWbi.jpg)
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I'm waiting for the first panels to come out of him saying something like ALLAHU AKBAR, MOTHAFUCKA or something equally stupid.
Am I the only one hoping they actually do that? Like, just go balls-out with it?
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I'm not actually hoping that DC shows any kind of decorum or respect for their subject matter. Does that count?
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Depends on whether it's because you don't think they can, or because you don't think they should.
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Given DC's rich history of sensitivity in comics, I'm going to lean more towards the former than the latter.
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seriously, giving the black green lantern a gun is like giving the gay green lantern a cape.
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giving the gay green lantern a cape.
Oh lord, did they do this?
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The new design doesn't seem to have a cape, but Alan Scott's pre-reboot costume always did, so it wouldn't be a surprise.
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giving the gay green lantern a cape.
Oh lord, did they do this?
Technically it was making the caped Green Lantern gay, but
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Hey, convenience store robber is not the only green lantern getting a comic in the new 52.
(http://i.imgur.com/SxliA.jpg)
100 hours in mspaint.
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Wait. Is that not Jon Stewart?
Did they erase the most popular Green Lantern outside of comic book nerdom and just replace him with another black guy?
Or did they just erase his religion and replace it with another? And then make him into a thug instead of a proud ex-soldier?
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So is Nightcrawler still a literal demon these days?
No.
Absolutely everyone completely ignored the entirety of Austen's run.
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Mostly Nightcrawler is dead these days.
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Yeah, but the parallel universe one is in X-Force.
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what, they're resetting all comics numbering already? It's not even been a year yet.
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A #0 isn't really a reset, it's a one-off. But yeah, it's pretty silly.
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Yeah, but the parallel universe one is in X-Force.
Man, why can't they bring Roguecrawler (http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/roguecrawler) into the main universe?
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Gertler makes a chart (http://natstv.wordpress.com/2012/06/14/creator-ownership-and-the-generation-of-comic-book-movie-properties/) investigating something I've been talking about for quite some time: that nearly all the post-1980 comic books to be made into movies have been creator-owned.
Of the large mainstream publishers that preexisted the change, Marvel and Archie have published no new company-owned properties that have reached the big screen. DC has published four over those 30 years. In contrast, in just the 10 years preceding 1982, Marvel launched 6 purely-Marvel-owned properties that would later become movies, including a couple that were made into movies within 15 years after creation (so it’s not merely a matter that company-owned concepts take longer to reach the screen – although they seem to – that prevents post-1982 Marvel material from showing up.)
Fascinating. Would be interesting to see one with TV properties added too -- TMNT looms pretty large in that space, and The Tick had two different series to his name.
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So it looks like Dan Slott is trying to turn Spider-Man into a Ditko-esque moral absolutist. (http://funnybookbabylon.com/2012/06/14/the-thrilling-adventures-of-the-absolutist-spider-man/)
I'm not kidding when I say that Spidey stuffing his face while lecturing Franklin Richards about baseball is the most unintentionally hilarious thing I've seen all week.
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I'm not kidding when I say that Spidey stuffing his face while lecturing Franklin Richards about baseball is the most unintentionally hilarious thing I've seen all week.
How'd that bit in Ricky Bobby go? Something like "Man, I was high when I said that! 'If you ain't first, you're last'? That don't even make sense! You could be second, you could be third...hell, you could be FOURTH!"
Anyway. I'm kinda curious if it IS unintentional. Can't tell, out of context. I've been a fan of Slott since Ren and Stimpy and while he's written some terrible Spidey books (he was part of the Clone Saga morass) he's written some brilliant ones too. Between the torture issue and this stuff, I'm inclined to think he's going somewhere with this.
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Yeah, and he was basically responsible for salvaging She-Hulk, too. Maybe there's just something about working on Spider-Man for a long time that turns people into assholes.
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Action Comics has been hit-or-miss, but I thought this issue was delightful. Particularly a Watchmen bit in the middle.
Also the ending makes me legitimately wonder where things are going to go from here. I mean obviously there's a reset coming sooner or later, but I'm really interested in seeing what happens before that.
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So it looks like Dan Slott is trying to turn Spider-Man into a Ditko-esque moral absolutist. (http://funnybookbabylon.com/2012/06/14/the-thrilling-adventures-of-the-absolutist-spider-man/)
I'm not kidding when I say that Spidey stuffing his face while lecturing Franklin Richards about baseball is the most unintentionally hilarious thing I've seen all week.
You ... you understand that only the first couple pages, the "No one dies" and the "I failed" ones ... they're they only ones that are real. You get that, right? That the others are the person writing the article relettering things for his joke?
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:shrug:
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Yeah, I kinda went from "Wait, this is a joke, right?" to "This...this is real?" myself.
Thing is it's not really much of a stretch. Poe's Law.
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When Spidey started quoting the Question in the JJJ panel I figured something was up. That said, it's a testament to the guy's lettering skills that you thought they were real.
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http://www.progressiveboink.com/2012/6/14/3084348/the-second-40-worst-rob-liefeld-drawings (http://www.progressiveboink.com/2012/6/14/3084348/the-second-40-worst-rob-liefeld-drawings)
In light of recent discussions, they did a sequel.
Still hilarious, but the bitterness at Rob's ill-gotten-gains burns through a lot more this time around.
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Man, this piece is pretty bitter and for Liefeld a lot of these drawings aren't that bad. #40 in particular just strikes me as mediocre-OK and were it not for Liefeld's name actually being on the piece I wouldn't guess it was liefeld over any other generic comic book artist. #31 is a better drawn female than some of the recent offerings, given that we can't see simultaneously her ass and her breasts. Also #29 is even striking me as an objectively good drawing, despite the absolutely bizarre guns and subject matter. If anything, this is a case study for how much Liefeld has improved at his art in the last five years.
I get that Liefeld is making money despite being a hack and also a 14 year old (and that is admittedly awful) but christ these are some sour grapes.
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Yeah, I'm all for making fun of Liefeld's art but there's no reason to make it personal. I actually like the guy's just-don't-give-a-fuck attitude. I think what Zappa said about punk rock applies here:
Well I liked the attitude of punk, I didn't necessarily like it from a musical standpoint; it is anti-musical. The whole idea was we're gonna play shitty and fast and so what? The so what part I always like. But anybody who's against music I don't like.
That's pretty much it. The "So what?" part I like.
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Well, in fairness to the gripers, there's a difference between "It's shitty. So what?" and "I'm the greatest! You don't like it? So what?". But there's still merit in the latter too.
Calling Rob a 14-year old is most apt, because when you get too mean, it's like kicking one.
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Langridge (http://hotelfred.blogspot.com/2012/06/charlotte-im-comin-for-ya.html):
Marvel and DC character sketches: This was a tough one. I was faced with a dilemma: should I just refuse to do them? Should I do them for free and annoy my neighbours, who would be charging? Or should I take the money and leave myself open to charges of hypocrisy and other malarkey? My elegant solution is to do Marvel and DC character sketches as usual, but to donate the proceeds from drawing those characters to the Hero Initiative (http://heroinitiative.org/). I've been in touch with the organisation about this and they're keen, and have helpfully supplied me with official logos and so forth, so that's what's happening. In short: from the point of view of you, the attendee wanting a sketch of Thor, it'll be business as usual. Plus, you'll be helping a good cause. Everybody wins!
Have I mentioned this week that I love Roger Langridge?
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Our internet was off for a couple of days at home (modem died, Bell sent us a replacement), so I was re-reading some old comics, including all of The Goon (well, up to volume 9).
I only buy the trades so I hadn't seen this recent issue cover yet, but man oh man...
(http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/600/19/19141.jpg)
:whoops:
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Yeah, I haven't read much Goon (have the first trade and that's about it) but I picked that one up. It was fun.
A lot of the jokes are warmed-over '90's refs (and Powell cheerfully admits it) but man-oh-man he sure called the "Everyone is gay" marketing blitz right before it really took off.
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That DH logo makes me giggle. That and I love "LOOK AT US, MAINSTREAM MEDIA!! LOOK AT US!!"
Also, Goon volume 11 is coming out in a week. I was going to go buy volume 10 (which would have been my first comics purchase in maybe 6 months... I've really fallen off the wagon), but I'm going to wait 'till next month and just pick them both up.
EDIT: Well, falling ON the wagon is more like it. But unintentionally.
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Life in Hell ends. (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/06/matt-groenings-life-in-hell-ends-after-32-years/) Wow -- the phrase "end of an era" gets thrown around a lot, but seriously, end of an era.
Curious what he'll get up to next. The EIC at Bongo recently left his position and made some mysterious comments about a new project he's helping Matt with.
Meanwhile, new Futurama tonight, if I'm not mistaken.
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Oh wow... I haven't picked that up for a long time, but I think I have the first ten years or so in trades.
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Yeah, the circulation has dwindled and trades have been fewer and farther between; apparently it's been a money-loser for the past decade (not like Matt Groening can't afford to lose a little money on newspaper comics). It hasn't been in my local altweekly for a long time, and it's never been available online either.
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I honestly thought he'd go on with it forever, doing that as other people would a blog. I guess it just outlived it's usefulness in that regard.
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Yeah, that's basically what it's been, but per his interview with the The USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/story/2012-06-19/matt-groening-life-in-hell/55698336/1),
"I love the characters, I love doing it, but it was just time," he told USA Today. "Life in Hell prevented me from doing other projects, because every week I had to go back to the same drawing table. Quitting will open me up to new things, more animation, more stuff. I may just sit and stare into space."
On the one hand, he's managed to do a whole hell of a lot while still meeting that weekly deadline; even granting his diminished role in Simpsons he's still produced hundreds of hours of commentary for the DVD's.
But obviously he ain't getting any younger, and if he can't multitask like he used to I don't blame him. And given that I haven't actually been able to read a single new Life in Hell strip this century, I'm looking forward to seeing what new thing he's got in mind. ("More animation" -- I like the sound of that.)
There's more at The Beat (http://www.comicsbeat.com/2012/06/20/matt-groenings-life-in-hell-winds-down-after-32-years-a-personal-history/) and Poynter (http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/177889/simpsons-creator-matt-groening-to-end-life-in-hell-comic/).
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Not to mention that he hasn't actually had to work in, what, 20 years now? Maybe he just didn't love his labor of love so much anymore, and didn't want to become some weird indie Charles Schultz.
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So was anybody figuring June 2012 was ripe for a Mars Attacks revival?
First off, last week's Bulletproof Coffin: Disinterred #5 (Kane/Hine) was a Mars Attacks homage. Every page is done as a trading card, a single image with a title and a narrative of a sentence or three.
And then this week came a new actual licensed Mars Attacks series, by Layman and McCrea.
On the whole the Bulletproof Coffin issue was better, because Bulletproof Coffin is fucking amazing, but the actual Mars Attacks issue was pretty great too.
Bulletproof Coffin was mainly memorable for its insane violence. It's about zombies in Vietnam and it is graphic and legitimately disquieting. "Graphic and legitimately disquieting" is a pretty good description of most of the series, really.
The Official Mars Attacks book was less memorable. It's perfectly serviceable; Layman is the perfect guy for this story and, while I'm not familiar with McCrea, his art is totally appropriate. More, it does a good job of telling a self-contained story while setting up a complete arc, which unfortunately is not a common skill in modern comics.
And, most appropriately, it's violent (not Bulletproof Coffin violent but violent) and it gets us to root for the Martians. There are essentially two redeeming characters in the whole story -- General Zar the Martian, and Burtie the Hillbilly. And it's not really much of a spoiler to tell you that Burtie doesn't survive the issue.
The non-Zar Martians are pretty much indistinguishable, while the non-Burtie humans are all reprehensible. Zar is immediately taken advantage of and abused, and he's clearly the protagonist of the story. Layman and McCrea do an effortless job of getting you to root for the "kill all humans" guys.
Anyhow. Both interesting books. I'm sure I'll be picking up BC:D #6, and I expect I'll pick up Mars Attacks #2 too.
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So was anybody figuring June 2012 was ripe for a Mars Attacks revival?
every month is ripe for a mars attacks revival in my eyes
the april fool's joke this year about the mars attack musical cut me deep
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Also, while I think variant covers are stupid I think I'm going to have to make an exception for the Mars Attacks ones. There are 55 different covers, each one an homage to one of the trading cards.
I got #50 (I think), which has a cop bashing a Martian's brains out with the butt of a rifle. Because they're all great, but once I saw that one it wasn't going to be anything else.
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Should You Steal Comics? (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/austin-wilson/comic-book-piracy_b_1590304.html?utm_hp_ref=books)
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Reading that article makes me realize how charged the words "stealing" and "piracy" are, and how both are pretty much the language of the larger corporations leading the charge against filesharing.
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Yeah, my stance on referring to it as "stealing" is well-documented.
I think "piracy" is a bit less charged because of the rather large difference between how actual high-seas piracy works in real life and how it is depicted in popular fiction.
Aside from the biased language it at least gives some deference to Mark Waid and his comments on the subject. And ending on a positive note -- that the question shouldn't be whether you should pirate comics, it should be whether you should BUY them -- is a good move.
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So then what would you call it when you don't buy every comic that you read but you do buy every comic that you like?
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It's better to buy than to pirate, and it's better to pirate than to just not read. So says I.
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So then what would you call it when you don't buy every comic that you read but you do buy every comic that you like?
Probably pretty harmless.
I still spend very little time reading comics on screens. I don't pirate current stuff; I gravitate toward stuff that's out-of-print and CAN'T be purchased legally (without scouring ebay, dollar bins, etc.).
I've said it before but it bears repeating: Jack Kirby's 2001 will never be reprinted, and neither will Moore et al's 1963. As such I feel there is a value to preservng, distributing, and, most importantly, reading them.
(Same goes for, for example, MST3K -- I won't download any episodes that are available on DVD or Netflix, but there are plenty of episodes in rights hell that I think it's totally cool to share. Course, I saw a guy selling bootleg DVD's of them at Con last month and I think that falls under "not cool".)
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So then what would you call it when you don't buy every comic that you read but you do buy every comic that you like?
Take this concept and apply it to your life before the internet or filesharing.
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I don't understand.
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Libraries and borrowing CDs from friends? Granted that's only if you are just downloading-and-deleting.
What he's getting at is it's still piracy and still "taking" something and not paying for it. It all boils down to your definition of digital ownership and whether or not you can steal something that doesn't have physical form. I personally go with the "borrowing" form of piracy and buy what I can. Have I read a few comics without paying for them? Sure. But have I bought more comics because of the comics I read without paying for? Oh yes.
Does it make it right? That's a debate I'm pretty sure we've had like ten times on this forum already.
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Actually, my larger is point is that piracy is something unheard of and actually challenges existing social and legal norms as far as markets, economics and sharing are concerned. When we try and ascribe the old terminology and way of thinking to actual, physical media to unlimited digital media the way we determine ethics and morals just kind of falls apart.
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I will say that I've bought more comics that I pirated first than that I didn't.
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We've been talking a bit about people leaving DC and Marvel to do creator-owned things. I'd observed that while there are some B- and C-list guys leaving DC and Marvel entirely (Roberson, Langridge) and some A-list guys doing creator-owned stuff in addition to their DC/Marvel work (Ellis, Bendis, Hickman, and really quite a lot of others), there are really only two A-list creators who have gone ENTIRELY creator-owned: Robert Kirkman and Mark Millar. (And Millar still publishes his creator-owned stuff through Marvel.)
Well, Brubaker (http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/cr_sunday_interview_ed_brubaker2012summer/) may make it three. He's staying on Winter Soldier for now but ending his Cap run and not doing any other Marvel books, and he's certainly expressing distaste for the Kirby situation with Marvel and Moore situation with DC.
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DC editor/Lobo co-creator Roger Silfer is in critical condition after a hit-and-run. (Evanier had a post (http://www.newsfromme.com/2012/06/25/sad-news/) about it but it looks like his site's down, so I'll link Johnston (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/06/25/lobo-creator-roger-slifer-in-intensive-care-after-hit-and-run/) too.)
He worked on some of the Sunbow toons, too, including Transformers and Jem.
Hoping this doesn't turn into fodder for the Obit thread but it's looking that way. Damn it.
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Apparently, Spidey's getting a sidekick named Alpha. (http://nation.foxnews.com/spider-man/2012/06/26/exclusive-spider-man-get-amazing-sidekick)
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"Part of it is that Spider-Man is grown up," said Axel Alonso, editor-in-chief of Marvel Entertainment. "He's older, more seasoned, but young at heart. He's still a young man, but he's been around. It's interesting because it flips the paradigm. Teen hero Spider-Man is now responsible for this teen hero sidekick. He's responsible because one of his inventions caused this kid to get his powers. He's directly responsible for the responsibility this kid now has with his new powers. He feels he has a responsibility to make sure this kid walks the right path, which won't prove easy."
GOSH IT'S A GOOD THING HE'S NOT MARRIED AND A PARENT BECAUSE THIS IS TOTALLY UNLIKE A SITUATION A PARENT WOULD FACE
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Andy Maguire.
Get it?
GET IT?
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League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Century 2009 is out. It's best described as "rushed" - nevermind that Kevin O'Neill's art has been getting progressively sketchier with each update, but the whole plot tries to do what the entire first series did in a single issue.
It's not like the protagonists -do- much, either. It feels a lot like the second volume: the League is passed from god-figure to god-figure, doing very little to fix things up while the big boys are busy. One new character does nothing but say "hey I have plans" OH WAIT COMIC'S OVER.
Overall, it's an ending, but honestly feels like the series should have ended with the second series. Maybe even the first series.
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...I love that it's 3 years late and still seems rushed.
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Same as any other late project, I guess. It's not like people have been working on this for three years, trying to make it juuust perfect.
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Man Alan Moore is too busy thinking up ways to have women get raped in his other books to worry about working on LoEG.
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how else will anyone realize how he feels about adaptations and sequels of his stories
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I will say that the solution to kill the Moonchild is absolutely brilliant.
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Haven't finished with it yet; having my usual mixed reaction so far.
Very first problem: a Kickstarter joke. Guys, if you're going to commit to this "2009" business so thoroughly that that's still going to be the title of the book even though you release it in 2012, mmmmaybe you shouldn't open your book with a joke about a trend that didn't really kick off until 2011. It may be a trivial difference in the scheme of things, but if you're going to truly evaluate trends of the modern century, the fact that two years is now a nontrivial amount of time in terms of technological shifts is pretty high up the list. (And yes, Kickstarter was founded in '08 and blah blah parallel universe, but I think my point stands.)
Anyhow. This one, at least, seems a little less Where's Waldo-y than the last one, so far. The references seem at least to be in service of the story, or quick one-offs that at least aren't too distracting. The jokes about President Bartlett and an agent who can solve any crisis are inoffensive but stale, not just because Alan Moore has been talking about those gags in the past four years' worth of interviews but because those shows have been off the fucking air since 2006 and 2010, respectively and this is the problem with delaying a book that far past its sell-by date. (So yeah, I guess I'm not satisfied by references that are up-to-the-minute OR references that would have been current 3 years ago. There's a problem right out the gate, isn't it?)
Once in awhile, though, something pretty smart squeezes through. Judi Dench's M as an elderly Emma Peel? That's fucking brilliant. A little overreliant on continuity, I suppose, but forgivable because it's (1) clever and (2) actually serves the story in a meaningful way rather than just being clever for its own sake.
Anyhow. Still a little ways to go yet but more thoughts as I get them.
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...Okay, haven't read the prose section yet but I finished the comic.
And...well, the references DO seem less overwhelming than last time, probably as much as anything because Moore and O'Neill know a lot more about 1969 pop culture than 2009 pop culture. There ARE still those irritating damn panels that are just, like, a shot of Mina and Orlando running away in the distance while we get a closeup of some damn group of people I don't recognize, but they seem like they're taking up less of the book.
And now and again a cameo actually serves a thematic purpose to the story -- Captain Jack and Doctors 1 and 10 in the corners of panels where Mina is asking Orlando how she deals with immortality.
Biggest gut punch, of course, is Platform 9 3/4 and Hogwarts. That's where this book manages to become genuinely fucking unsettling, and actually use our shared culture to DO it. I mean, LoEG is a book where we've seen Polyanna raped by the Invisible Man and Winnie-the-Pooh revealed as a horrifying creation of Dr. Moreau, but neither one of those packed the kind of power of comforting children's imagery corrupted that this sequence does. (Which is something, considering that I was in my late teens before I read any Harry Potter and my mid-twenties by the time the last book came out.)
Past that, it's all pretty much downhill; Zara, you nailed the point that everyone's pretty much going through the motions and not actually doing much of anything. But I think that's by design; Mina spells it out when she compares 1909 to 2009 and says that the people today don't have the same spirit. Mina, Lando, Allan, and the Moonchild all act out their roles because that's what they're supposed to do, but none of them really wants to be there and none of them really accomplishes much of anything. Welcome to the twenty-first century.
All in all, it's not very satisfying but it's thought-provoking, which probably applies to most of Moore's recent work.
And hey, did he go a whole issue without anybody getting raped? Or am I supposed to infer something horrifying from that panel where McGonagall's dress is torn?
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#700 is big. What I can clearly say is that in the 20-odd years I've been working in this industry, I have never done something as big to a character as what we're doing to Spider-Man in #700.
I'm very serious — after #700 comes out, I'm not doing interviews for a bit. I'm not sticking my head up out of the hole. People are going to be like, "What have you done?" and the message on my machine will just say, "Keep reading."
Taking all bets, taking all bets! Who will Spider-Man kill directly or through plot-contrived gross negligence? Let's take a look at the odds!
Mary-Jane, 1:2
J. Jonah Jameson, 1:50
Time-displaced Uncle Ben, 1:5
The Black Cat, 1:17
A clone of Gwen Stacy pregnant with his spider-babies, 1:1
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Spidey's getting an abortion!
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Ooooh, topical!
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Spidey goes back in time and accidentally kills Uncle Ben, so he then has to take his place Seymour Skinner-style.
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NEW! 64-page giant, Uncle Ben dies on EACH page. As the reader turns each nail-biting page, we learn how a new Uncle Ben is revived and killed off, teaching Peter new lessons on power and responsibility with each grizzly panel.
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grizzly
(http://www.comicbookresources.com/images/news/colbert/colbert_quesada_clr.jpg)
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colbert_quesada_clr.jpg
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Are you surprised by that, considering it says Quesada in the left corner?
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no, but I am boiling with the rage of a million suns.
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Suns are well-known for their anger.
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...wait. Are you mad at Quesada just for existing at this point?
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meh
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Isnt' #700 when they introduce his new sidekick?
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Isnt' #700 when they introduce his new sidekick?
Spidey's gay!
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Sonic/Mega Man crossover comic happening. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/07/10/ian-flynn-on-archies-sonic-the-hedgehog-mega-man-crossove/)
Ian Potto and I are the same age and were involved in Sonic fandom at the same time. I skipped a grade, so I expect I was probably a freshman in college and pretty much done with the Sonic comics around the time he was mailing in submissions. Once in awhile I wonder what might have been. I wouldn't really want to work for Archie, but on the other hand it would probably be more fun than my current day job.
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Brian Wood to do a Star Wars series based upon the original trilogy and nothing else (http://www.comicsbeat.com/2012/07/10/brian-wood-is-writing-star-wars/)
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So, Splinter of the Mind's Eye?
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Yeah, seems like it'll have the same feel, basically.
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Oh hey, here are some annotations (http://jessnevins.com/annotations/2009annotations.html) for Century: 2009.
Again, I think the references are less all-consuming than in the previous issue, but they're still interesting.
(And it turns out nobody ELSE knows who the fuck those people in the "Will Mockney for Food" panel are supposed to be, either!)
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hey about that Spidey thing
he's getting a new made up sidekick right when something horribly tragic happens
Anyone remember Arana? You know, Spider-Girl?
Doesn't look good for her.
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Neil Gaiman is writing a prequel to Sandman (http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2012/07/and-by-way-here-is-some-actual-news.html).
I don't know what the appropriate level of cynicism for this event is, but it does seem to be following up on an opening whose existence was established right in the first issue of the original, and at the end of the day it is still Neil Gaiman.
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doesn't matter had Gaiman
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So they're making prequels to all the DC heavy hitters? Maybe they'll call Alan Moore back for a Swamp Thing OOOH oops.
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Well, Williams is certainly a good fit. And while I think Sandman is fine the way it is, it's certainly a better universe to expand than Watchmen. (I never did read Endless Nights or whatever the last post-conclusion collection was. Somebody told me he should have ended it with The Wake and I certainly FELT like The Wake was a pretty obvious ending point.)
I'm not quite so ecstatic as some people about more Sandman, but I'm always happy to hear Gaiman's writing more comics. Will see how it goes.
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Interesting. There's a gap of about 25 years that we don't know about in Morpheus's life from between his 1889 visit with Hob Gadling to his imprisonment. That seems like plenty of space to tell a story.
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That's exactly when the story is going to take place, Buge.
Endless Nights was good, too; it's not really a continuation, nor much of a prequel, just a handful of self-contained stories about the characters.
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The The USA Today interviews Len Brown (http://www.usatoday.com/life/comics/story/2012-07-23/Mars-Attacks-50th-anniversary-cards-comics/56441958/1), who wrote the descriptions on the Mars Attacks trading cards 50 years ago and is part of the push for the current comic series.
Meanwhile, Brown and Gelman were receiving some mail about the cards, the majority of it negative. He remembers one batch of 30 came from a school in Wisconsin as part of what Brown thinks was a class assignment.
"We started to read one letter after another, and they were saying, 'You should put out educational trading cards. We don't like these space cards you're putting out.' One kid wrote, 'P.S. We really love them. Our teacher is making us write this.' We thought that was hysterical. He snuck in the secret to us," Brown remembers.
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CBR interviews Morrison (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=40014); he announces he'll be leaving Action after #16 and Batman Inc after #12. He says Multiversity and his Wonder Woman book are coming along but that after that he's looking to more creator-owned stuff.
Of course, "after that" could still be years off; these are books that are already years behind schedule.
...and he's got a book called Happy coming from Image in the fall that features "pedo-Santa". I...may have to give that one a miss, Grant.
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(http://i.imgur.com/1N4zO.jpg)
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...and he's got a book called Happy coming from Image in the fall that features "pedo-Santa". I...may have to give that one a miss, Grant.
Seems to be dipping into Alan Moore's oeuvre, there.
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I was thinking Ennis.
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I'm not gonna lie:
The Olympic opening ceremony just made League 2009 WAY better than it was a month ago.
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http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/08/01/black-panther-and-storm-split-up-in-avengers-vs-x-men/ (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/08/01/black-panther-and-storm-split-up-in-avengers-vs-x-men/)
At least some good will come out of this event.
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Eh, we'll see.
I was never opposed to the marriage per se. I DID find it a little insulting that the two most prominent African characters in the Marvel U turned out to be childhood friends, but that was part of the backstory well before the marriage.
And of course logistically it's pretty tough to actually make it work.
Short, of course, of combining the Avengers and X-Men into a single team, which by the way is totally happening at the end of this crossover. So, y'know, seems like a pretty good opportunity to reconcile.
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The Beat has a good rundown of the history of Black Panther/Storm as well as the reception to the breakup (http://www.comicsbeat.com/2012/08/01/spoiler-black-panther%E2%80%99s-decision-in-avengers-vs-x-men-9/)
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Yeah, it bears noting I haven't actually READ much of anything the characters were in since McDuffie's pretty-good FF run. (I would also add that Jason Aaron did a pretty good job with them in his Secret Invasion tie-in.) But yeah the marriage DID feel forced and abrupt -- but then again, so did Peter and MJ, and that managed to hold for what, 25 years before being retconned by Satan?
I DO think that combining the X-Men and Avengers into a single team is a solution to the biggest hurdle, that Storm is on a US-based superhero team while married to an African king, and that we haven't necessarily heard the last of it. But I'm not going to miss it either, particularly inasmuch as I'm not buying Avengers or X-books.
I think Priest did a pretty good job with the two of them in Sturm und Drang -- my favorite single arc in his entire excellent BP run --, but honestly Storm was the LEAST interesting guest star in that story; I was much more interested in his exploration of the international relations between Wakanda, Atlantis, Genosha, and Latveria.
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Wolverine and the X-Men #17 will be a Doop story by Milligan and Allred. (http://www.comicsbeat.com/2012/08/04/doopdate-doop-returns-for-an-all-doop-issue-of-wolverine-the-x-men-in-september/)
Hm. Now I have to figure out whether buying that would break my boycott. On the one hand, I don't know of any Kirby characters appearing in the issue in question; on the other, it's got "X-Men" right in the title.
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(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0znhtyhvx1qfs6p2o1_500.png)
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It's all well and good for him to say that, but to turn around and throw up personalized concepts for the characters of the genre he's decrying would be like Dave Sim doing redesigns of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. It's not exactly coming from a place of love.
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I'm no fan at all of Diaz's work, but it's a valid point nonetheless.
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I just noticed something in the epilogue of Kingdom Come: [spoiler]When Norman McCay and Jim Corrigan are at the diner, they're sitting between Phil Sheldon and Uncle Sam.[/spoiler]
I enjoy books that reward multiple readings.
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Kingdom Come is chock-full of stuff like that; Comic Book Easter Eggs did two (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/07/29/comic-book-easter-eggs-day-one-of-kingdom-come-easter-eggs/) installments (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/07/30/comic-book-easter-eggs-day-two-of-kingdom-come-easter-eggs/) on it and that's not exhaustive.
(Related: yesterday Cronin started on Marvels (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2012/08/07/comic-book-easter-eggs-a-look-at-alex-ross-and-kurt-busieks-marvels-1/).)
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Kingdom Come is chock-full of stuff like that; Comic Book Easter Eggs did two (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/07/29/comic-book-easter-eggs-day-one-of-kingdom-come-easter-eggs/) installments (http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2011/07/30/comic-book-easter-eggs-day-two-of-kingdom-come-easter-eggs/) on it and that's not exhaustive.
Yes, I recall someone did panel-by-panel annotations, but I don't really want to get all the tidbits at once. I think they also did annotations for LoEG, poor devil.
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Mark Waid's 4 Panels That Never Work (http://the-gutters.com/comic/330-jeremy-rock)
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http://io9.com/5933085/ben-affleck-to-direct-the-justice-league-movie (http://io9.com/5933085/ben-affleck-to-direct-the-justice-league-movie)
It's only a rumour, but a hilarious one at that.
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I am fully supportive of the director of I Killed My Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal at Disney being given Justice League.
Also I never saw Gone Baby Gone but it did win a bunch of directing awards. Also also, anything you might say about Affleck now, you could have said about Clint Eastwood before he turned out to be a genius.
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Affleck gets ragged on a lot, and I think of a lot of it traces back to the rumor that Matt Damon wrote Good Will Hunting and Ben just put his name on it. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBWnJNtRF8Y#)
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I've found that I pretty much can't stand Affleck as a leading man but he's pretty good as a character actor. I haven't seen anything he's directed as yet but I hear it's good.
I also hear is that he's only willing to direct movies he's in, so that's a problem right there. But come right down to it, I think a Justice League movie just might be able to find a role for a smug, hammy Boston liberal known for his working-class attitude despite his vast personal wealth.
Bleeding Cool (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/08/08/so-apparently-ben-affleck-wont-direct-the-justice-league-movie-but-he-will-take-a-meeting-about-it-seriously/) says it's pretty much all-but-confirmed already that it's not really happening anyway.
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I've found that I pretty much can't stand Affleck as a leading man but he's pretty good as a character actor. I haven't seen anything he's directed as yet but I hear it's good.
I also hear is that he's only willing to direct movies he's in, so that's a problem right there. But come right down to it, I think a Justice League movie just might be able to find a role for a smug, hammy Boston liberal known for his working-class attitude despite his vast personal wealth.
Bleeding Cool (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/08/08/so-apparently-ben-affleck-wont-direct-the-justice-league-movie-but-he-will-take-a-meeting-about-it-seriously/) says it's pretty much all-but-confirmed already that it's not really happening anyway.
He's not in Gone Baby Gone.
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I wrote some shit about Action, Batman, Rasl, and iZombie. (http://www.corporate-sellout.com/index.php/2012/08/14/comics/)
I liked them!
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Rob Liefeld quits DC over "too much BS", "Editor pissing contests" (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/08/23/rob-liefeld-quits-dc-on-twitter-names-names-and-points-fingers/)
(http://i.imgur.com/HoMXP.gif)
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Rob Liefeld quits DC over "too much BS", "Editor pissing contests" (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/08/23/rob-liefeld-quits-dc-on-twitter-names-names-and-points-fingers/)
(http://i.imgur.com/HoMXP.gif)
When a fan suggested that Liefeld's comments would bring about a positive change at DC, he responded, "I assure you, it will not."
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Lots of people are going for the low-hanging "lol Rob Liefeld" fruit, but he's not the only guy who's complained about editorial fuckery -- we've seen Rozum, Simone, Perez, and Cornell say all this stuff already, and all of them are actually good.
Bridge-burning's a bit of an exaggeration (unless we keep it in the original context and remember that Homer did in fact get his job back by the end of the half-hour); Liefeld brings in the money and while I can't imagine he's won any friends in editorial, I doubt he's lost many either.
Liefeld's still a name and a draw -- I don't know why, but I accept it -- and I'm pretty confident he'll be back at DC in the next few years.
Anyway. While "Rob Liefeld going away" is not a problem, "editorial shoving people off books through obsessive micromanagement" is.
My favorite books at DC are currently Dial H, Animal Man, Frankenstein, and Demon Knights. It is not a coincidence that all of these books exist on the fringe of DC continuity and not subject to whatever major narrative editorial is trying to construct.
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I actually like the blatant name-names-and-point-fingers thing he's doing.
See, he can actually get away with it pretty much scott free because he IS Rob Liefeld. Other people might have their careers hurt and people would say that the person should be more circumspect or statemanlike or whatever, but Rob'll just sail on through like nothing's happened.
I'm not saying that name-and-shame is what should be done all the time or that that will solve the situation, but I like a little good-cop/bad-cop. This shows DC how messy things can be, given that the boycotts have been fairly quiet so far (even when big names are involved).
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Well, George Perez can say pretty much whatever the hell he wants, too; he's been more diplomatic than Liefeld but he's also been very clear about his frustrations.
Simone's probably a big enough name to complain without major repercussions too, though she hasn't gone into as much detail as Perez and certainly not as much as Liefeld.
Cornell has the awards but not the sales clout to say whatever he wants, and I think Rozum may very well have burned some bridges.
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It's not so much the clout, but the established personality and attitude.
Rob's already known for that "perpetually 14" attitude, so it actually just adds to that narrative, rather than harming his, er, reputation.
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Yeah, that makes sense; Perez and Simone might be able to get away with naming specfic people they're frustrated with, but they won't.
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We've been talking a bit about people leaving DC and Marvel to do creator-owned things. I'd observed that while there are some B- and C-list guys leaving DC and Marvel entirely (Roberson, Langridge) and some A-list guys doing creator-owned stuff in addition to their DC/Marvel work (Ellis, Bendis, Hickman, and really quite a lot of others), there are really only two A-list creators who have gone ENTIRELY creator-owned: Robert Kirkman and Mark Millar. (And Millar still publishes his creator-owned stuff through Marvel.)
Well, Brubaker (http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/cr_sunday_interview_ed_brubaker2012summer/) may make it three. He's staying on Winter Soldier for now but ending his Cap run and not doing any other Marvel books, and he's certainly expressing distaste for the Kirby situation with Marvel and Moore situation with DC.
Apparently he's off Winter Soldier too (http://www.comicsbeat.com/2012/08/24/ed-brubaker-off-winter-soldier-jason-latour-replacing/).
As the article notes, it's not clear whether this means he's off Marvel properties entirely at this point or they made him an offer he couldn't refuse and he's doing some as-yet-unannounced Marvel Now project, but given his past statements I'm more inclined to believe the former. Guess we'll find out soon enough.
EDIT: Brubaker confirms he's leaving Marvel (http://www.comicsbeat.com/2012/08/24/now-official-ed-brubaker-no-longer-working-for-marvel/), "But I may return, because Marvel has been my home."
Wonder what changed -- sure doesn't sound like any kind of falling-out with management or editorial.
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Does Waid count as A-list or B-list?
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Why, is he quitting Daredevil?
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Remember, in the '90s, how comic companies would release variant covers for all their books to inflate sales? Well, look what Marvel's doing!
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/09/03/how-marvel-are-ensuring-marvel-now-will-dominate-sales/ (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/09/03/how-marvel-are-ensuring-marvel-now-will-dominate-sales/)
What's next for Marvel? Holofoiling, maybe, or trading card inserts?
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Did variant covers ever really STOP being a thing? I mean, they did decrease in popularity, but I can't think of a time ever disappeared completely.
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There's been variant covers but I don't think there's been as big of a push for them as this.
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Dude every DC title has like 50 variant covers, and every Marvel has as well. The recent Mars Attacks had 51. That Marvel list is paltry.
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I get that this isn't news, per se, but do these facts diminish that it's kind of a dumb idea?
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Flaming Carrot collections coming back into print, plus not-print. (http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/592668574/flaming-carrot-hardback-and-digital-comics)
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http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/09/04/a-comic-show-the-new-green-lantern-is-not-a-terrorist-hes-a-car-thief/ (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/09/04/a-comic-show-the-new-green-lantern-is-not-a-terrorist-hes-a-car-thief/)
:facepalm:
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"Muslim car thief becomes Green Lantern" sounds like a GTA mod.
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“The next question was about Marvel and DC Comics not being creator friendly. Ennis said he thinks that DC Comics has realized what Marvel Comics has, that you do not have to do creator-owned comics, and you can keep putting out the same thing and people will buy it. “Before Watchmen”—which he said he has not read and will not read—is a message that the balance is going away from the writers and artists back to corporate. As such, DC Comics is not creator friendly right now. He said that going to smaller publishers and getting as much of your own works out in print is not changing the industry, but survival. He does not want to be a creator in failing health asking for charity. Nor does he want to be a creator knocking out a “Huntress/Catwoman” series at 65. He said there is “no union, no one looking out for” the creators. Later he added that he wished he owned several characters he created under work-for-hire agreements, including Baracuda (from “The Punisher,” published by Marvel Comics), Kev (meaning Kevin “Kev” Hawkins from “The Authority” published by WildStorm), and “Hitman” (from DC Comics).”
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http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/09/04/a-comic-show-the-new-green-lantern-is-not-a-terrorist-hes-a-car-thief/ (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/09/04/a-comic-show-the-new-green-lantern-is-not-a-terrorist-hes-a-car-thief/)
:facepalm:
So, the black muslim green lantern that uses a gun and has green lantern prison tats is also a car thief.
Not racist.
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He's not black, he's Lebanese. The car thief thing goes like this: he lives in Dearborn, Michigan, where he worked in an automotive factory which was shut down. Desperate for money, he turns to car thievery, but accidentally steals an armed van bomb, gets arrested by Homeland Security, extradited, and tortured, which is when the ring finds him and makes him the new GL of Sector Whatever.
Yes, it's incredibly hamfisted, but that's pretty much par for the course with superhero comics, and given that Geoff Johns, who created him, is also Lebanese, I think the cries of RACISM were a bit premature this time. I know, people on the internet casting judgement without knowing all of the facts, crazy, right?
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To be fair, he can't be just Lebanese. Lebanese arabs are typically pretty light skinned. Check it:
google image search (https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=lebonese&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&biw=1618&bih=965&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=7d1MUPH6EOqDyAGE9IHgDg#um=1&hl=en&safe=off&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=8d1MULyRMKm9ygHfr4CwCg&ved=0CEkQvwUoAQ&q=lebanese&spell=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=cf895102c9906120&biw=1618&bih=965)
Is it possible that his 'ethnicity' might have gotten amped up by DC? It just seems weird that the masked, gun-wielding green lantern car thief is also a suspiciously african american looking lebanese person.
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Yes, it's incredibly hamfisted, but that's pretty much par for the course with superhero comics, and given that Geoff Johns, who created him, is also Lebanese, I think the cries of RACISM were a bit premature this time. I know, people on the internet casting judgement without knowing all of the facts, crazy, right?
Johns was born in Detroit, Michigan, son of Barbara and Fred Johns of Clarkston, and grew up in the suburbs of Grosse Pointe and Clarkston. He is of half Lebanese ancestry. As a child, Johns and his brother first discovered comics through an old box of comics they found in their grandmother's attic, which included copies of Flash, Superman, Green Lantern, Batman from the 1960s and 1970s.
Huh. I dunno how strongly he identifies himself as Lebanese, but it's news to me.
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To be fair, he can't be just Lebanese. Lebanese arabs are typically pretty light skinned. Check it:
google image search (https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=lebonese&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&biw=1618&bih=965&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=7d1MUPH6EOqDyAGE9IHgDg#um=1&hl=en&safe=off&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=8d1MULyRMKm9ygHfr4CwCg&ved=0CEkQvwUoAQ&q=lebanese&spell=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=cf895102c9906120&biw=1618&bih=965)
Is it possible that his 'ethnicity' might have gotten amped up by DC? It just seems weird that the masked, gun-wielding green lantern car thief is also a suspiciously african american looking lebanese person.
That's entirely possible; every other recent controversy over minority superheroes has resulted in boosted sales for the company involved, so I wouldn't put it past DC to try and manufacture one. Here's an actual shot of him from the comic:
(http://i.imgur.com/1Pn3x.jpg)
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Yeah, Lebanese guys look very mediterranean.
Because they are.
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To be fair, he can't be just Lebanese. Lebanese arabs are typically pretty light skinned. Check it:
google image search (https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&q=lebonese&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&biw=1618&bih=965&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=7d1MUPH6EOqDyAGE9IHgDg#um=1&hl=en&safe=off&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=8d1MULyRMKm9ygHfr4CwCg&ved=0CEkQvwUoAQ&q=lebanese&spell=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=cf895102c9906120&biw=1618&bih=965)
Is it possible that his 'ethnicity' might have gotten amped up by DC? It just seems weird that the masked, gun-wielding green lantern car thief is also a suspiciously african american looking lebanese person.
That's entirely possible; every other recent controversy over minority superheroes has resulted in boosted sales for the company involved, so I wouldn't put it past DC to try and manufacture one. Here's an actual shot of him from the comic:
(http://i.imgur.com/1Pn3x.jpg)
Yeah, looks completely different in the actual book. I'm convinced now that DC just made him look black on the cover to get people talking about the book.
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I'm convinced now that DC just made him look black on the cover to get people talking about the book.
I can totally beleive that at this point, but it could just have been an unintentional cock-up/miscommunication between Johns and the cover artist.
Or, simpler still, the cover artist was all "A-RAB? OH LIKE A SAND-NEEGAR, RIGHT?"
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That's some pretty washed-out lighting though. Have any other pages?
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I'm thinking it's the latter:
(http://i.imgur.com/dKc0r.jpg)
Having lived 15 minutes away from Dearborn for 22 years I don't think I ever met a person of Arabic descent that was this dark skinned. I've met some Indian people (as in India) who did but that's like saying Mongols and Japanese are functionally the same because they're both from Asia.
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Ennis said he thinks that DC Comics has realized what Marvel Comics has, that you do not have to do creator-owned comics, and you can keep putting out the same thing and people will buy it. “Before Watchmen”—which he said he has not read and will not read—is a message that the balance is going away from the writers and artists back to corporate.
Tempting as it is to treat "DC" as a monolithic entity, this is really down to the ousting of Paul Levitz and the reorg that put DC more directly under WB's thumb.
Levitz didn't always make creators happy -- he pissed off Moore, Ellis, Millar, and Ennis himself off the top of my head -- but he was (is) a creator himself and much more sympathetic to their situation than most company presidents. He actively pursued equitable deals with creators, even old ones who he was under no obligation to help, even renegotiating old deals to give royalties and profit-sharing agreements to creators who Marvel would have just told to fuck off. He came pretty close to a deal with the Siegel estate, and even did his best to appease Alan Moore -- he didn't really succeed at either of those, but current management doesn't even seem interested in trying.
And he was very clear that there would be no Watchmen sequel on his watch.
(Wait...Watchmen...watch...Dr. Manhattan's watch, the Doomsday clock -- I just got that!)
It's not a coincidence that Before Watchmen was pretty much greenlit as soon as Levitz was out the door.
I'm convinced now that DC just made him look black on the cover to get people talking about the book.
I can totally beleive that at this point, but it could just have been an unintentional cock-up/miscommunication between Johns and the cover artist.
Bears reminding at this point that every single #0 cover is pretty much terrible. I'm sure none of us have forgotten the Catwoman one.
(EDIT: Actually apparently the Catwoman one's been changed (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/09/09/dc-changes-catwoman-zero-cover-and-admits-rafa-isnt-drawing-the-comic/). Still a pretty impossible pose but not as bad as it was.)
My uncle was flipping through my stack yesterday and got a look at Animal Man #0. "So the artist left and they got a guy who quit art school before the class on foreshortening?"
These covers were designed by editorial/corporate; I think even a good artist is pretty hamstrung under those conditions.
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The next question was about Marvel and DC Comics not being creator friendly. Ennis said he thinks that DC Comics has realized what Marvel Comics has, that you do not have to do creator-owned comics, and you can keep putting out the same thing and people will buy it. “Before Watchmen”—which he said he has not read and will not read—is a message that the balance is going away from the writers and artists back to corporate. As such, DC Comics is not creator friendly right now. He said that going to smaller publishers and getting as much of your own works out in print is not changing the industry, but survival. He does not want to be a creator in failing health asking for charity. Nor does he want to be a creator knocking out a “Huntress/Catwoman” series at 65. He said there is “no union, no one looking out for” the creators.
Migration is change.
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I think it's missing the word "about". As in, he's not TRYING to change the industry in doing more creator-owned stuff, he's just trying to make a living. (And he's a big enough name that, in his case, there IS more money in owning your shit.)
Now, it MAY change the industry -- as I've said before, most A-list creators seem to be doing creator-owned work on the side, and a few have started doing it exclusively. But even if it doesn't, it's just a good business decision for some of them. (To say nothing of creative control and the other perks.)
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Basically, change via demographics rather than by revolution.
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LADY COP (http://io9.com/5944175/meet-lady-cop-the-most-underrated-comic-book-hero-of-all)
(no relation to Axe Cop).
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LADY COP (http://io9.com/5944175/meet-lady-cop-the-most-underrated-comic-book-hero-of-all)
(no relation to Axe Cop).
With the way DC is churning through their old properties, I think we can expect the hydroencephalites in charge to give Lady Cop her own ongoing in the next few months.
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Rucka doesn't have anything nice to say about Marvel either. (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/09/20/greg-rucka-on-leaving-marvel-and-dc-behind/)
Another midlister leaving the Big Two. Glad to hear it and I look forward to his creator-owned work.
Despite what the publishers say, their interest in the talent is minimal now, the interest is only in promoting the financial worth of their properties. That was not the case as of two or three years ago, when there was an ‘Exclusives war’, but that’s all gone by the wayside now. Ultimately, they are saying, “We don’t need you,’ because they can get a million more just like you.
...that's it.
That's the pending crash of the current decade.
Should have hit me sooner, but that's it: if the "even = boom, odd = bust" cycle continues, this time it's going to happen because Disney bought Marvel and WB took a more active role in DC and the comics are now (again) run by a bunch of people who see them as character banks to exploit and don't recognize the value of talent.
Which, so far, is working out pretty well in the movies, but I don't expect that to last forever either. DC hasn't been able to succeed with any movies not starring Batman, and while Marvel's doing gangbusters now and I expect it to do so at least through Avengers 2, there are plenty of chances to stumble. (Much as I like the idea of Guardians of the Galaxy, it could be a tough sell.)
Mark Millar predicted, years ago, that the next crash would be precipitated by all the talent leaving comics and going to Hollywood. He had it backwards: it's going to be caused by Hollywood coming to the comics and chasing out all the talent.
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Welp, the zero issue of Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld -- written by the creator of Jem -- has an attempted gang rape in it. Chris Sims (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/09/20/so-theres-an-attempted-gang-rape-in-the-first-issue-of-amethys/) has opinions on this.
It might not even be necessary to elaborate on why that thoroughly ruined the book for me, but to be honest, it's actually pretty difficult to be mad about it at this point. Throwing rape and the threat thereof into a superhero story to give it an air of edginess and modernism is a trick that writers and editors have pulled over and over and over again over the past 20 years in an attempt to recapture the critical success and importance of Watchmen and, in the case of DC Comics, assure their dwindling readership that Aquaman was definitely not silly, no sir. It's cropped up in stories from Green Arrow to Nightwing, a trend that culminated in the abysmal Identity Crisis, a story explicitly designed to go back and put rape into past comics that didn't already have it. And, to be fair, it's not just DC, either -- superhero comics as a whole have developed an over-reliance on rape as a plot point to signal that they're trying to be more "mature" or "relevant." At Marvel, Kevin Smith added a rape into Black Cat's backstory, and Mark Millar can't do a mini-series without throwing in at least a few hints, if not an outright incest-rape-pregnancy with a "booby-trapped womb" to go along with it. But with DC, it's become mainstream. I had a slight hope last year that the New 52 relaunch would signal that they'd finally move on and stop chasing this thirteen-year-old's idea of "maturity," but it wasn't. They doubled down on it, and here we are.
That's what makes it so difficult and exhausting to be angry about it. It's not that it's not an abhorrent cliché that sums up everything that's wrong with their line in one tidy scene, because it certainly is that, it's that this just seems to be how it is now. Rape and rape threats have become a cornerstone of the DC Universe. Complaining about it at this point is like complaining about Marvel having a bunch of comics about mutants. It's just something they do in their books because they don't know any other way to tell stories.
The more I thought about it, though, the more infuriating it was, and a large part of it was that this was the last book where I expected it to crop up yet again. As goofy and fannish as it may seem, I feel like they suckered me into getting excited about it, presenting it as a genuine attempt to draw in new readers and experiment with genres that they hadn't tried for a while. Instead, it's just the same thing they always do. They have once again shown themselves to be the Lucy Van Pelt of rape comics, pulling that football away just as soon as you hand over four bucks for the privilege of trusting them not to.
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Wow. That's awful. And it has a cover that makes it look like it's about the adventures of off-brand She-Ra, so you just know that there are young girls who will be reading it.
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So in the Ultimates universe, Captain America got elected to the presidency by write-in ballots. Just heard it on the radio.
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if authors are interchangeable why does Geoff Johns write so fucking many comics
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Is that a rhetorical question, or do you actually want answers?
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I want him to stop writing comics.
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(http://i.imgur.com/fdx35.jpg)
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http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/09/29/multiversity-grant-morrison-interview-and-frank-quitely-art-morrisoncon/ (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/09/29/multiversity-grant-morrison-interview-and-frank-quitely-art-morrisoncon/)
This looks like it could be interesting.
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Yeah, I've been looking forward to it for years.
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I especially like the idea of each comic being featured in the next comic. I just wonder how they can exist. Would the comics be considered "too violent" in Thunderworld? Would DC be a floundering, mismanaged company in '90s World, surviving on the last fumes of nostalgia? Maybe it's a propaganda mouthpiece in Nazi World, showcasing what a mess the world would be like without the firm hand of Fascism.
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The Beat just broke my heart with the misleading headline NYCC Exclusive – Quantum & Woody at Valiant (http://comicsbeat.com/nycc-exclusive-quantum-woody-at-valiant/) -- as it turns out it's just the original series coming out in digital format.
Still and all, obviously the idea is to gauge enthusiasm for a new series.
#1 is going to be free on Comixology starting 10/24. I will remind you all then.
Because Quantum and Woody is one of my absolute favorite comics in the history of ever. And you guys need to buy this, because I want a new series.
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(http://i.imgur.com/VxkXg.gif)
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(http://metrokitty.com/comics/webcomics/assortedcomics/ecb_card.jpg)
Source (http://www.metrokitty.com/index.php?id=402)
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I want to see one for alternative comics.
Squares include "10 pages of people talking in the same room" and... that's it pretty much
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Cornell's leaving Demon Knights.
Good. I need to drop some books.
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Life in Hell ends. (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2012/06/matt-groenings-life-in-hell-ends-after-32-years/) Wow -- the phrase "end of an era" gets thrown around a lot, but seriously, end of an era.
To Hell With You, Matt Groening (http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2012/10/matt_groening_s_life_in_hell_a_tribute_in_comics_by_alison_bechdel_tom_tomorrow_and_others_.html): 9 cartoonists bid Matt a fond farewell via poster. The poster itself appears to be down (probably due to traffic) but you can see the strips on that page.
EDIT: Poster looks to be working now, and has quite a few more cartoons than the 8 on the Slate page. (Spiegelman! Nice.)
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http://www.newsarama.com/comics/nycc-2012-guarians-of-the-galaxy.html (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/nycc-2012-guarians-of-the-galaxy.html)
GOTG written by Bendis? Nova written by Loeb? What the
With Marvel doing their version of a soft reboot, titled Marvel Now, Quesada said you can expect the GOTG comic book to go along with the movie in some ways. "There is sutff that I know is going on with the movie that we might be able to apply to the Marvel Cosmic Universe. And try and develop that Synergy. Not to copy one from the other, but to make it look like it's on the same page," He explained. He also went on to say that it is important to make sure that not only is it important to capture what the comic book fans want, but also to make sure general audiences understand what they are seeing in their movies.
(http://i.imgur.com/Ou8LP.gif)
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...dude. They just got done introducing Nick Fury's black son who is also named Nick Fury and has an eyepatch.
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...dude. They just got done introducing Nick Fury's black son who is also named Nick Fury and has an eyepatch.
This development may not be unexpected but I still feel like throwing the writers and editors down the Gemonian Stairs.
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Well, it depends entirely on WHAT they're changing to make it more like the movie. Morrison and Quitely's X-Men, for example, brought things in line with the movie by (1) having everyone wear black leather, (2) by expanding it from a "school" of like 20 superheroes to an actual full-sized school, and (3) absolutely nothing else. The Other really only brought Comic Spidey inline with Movie Spidey by giving him organic web-shooters, which lasted until the next retcon. Could be that we're talking pretty minor changes here. And even if we're not, well, it's not like anything's permanent.
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BC: we will be getting at least two issues of new Quantum and Woody (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/10/14/two-completed-unpublished-quantum-and-woody-comics-to-be-published-on-comixology/).
Well, new to us. They're actually unpublished issues from the original run.
Still, I expect this is the best news I will hear all day.
On the downside: Frankenstein cancelled (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/10/15/dc-cancels-frankenstein-agent-of-s-h-a-d-e-with-issue-16-and-what-about-dc-universe-presents/). On the upside, one less book for me to buy.
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Yeah. I love Frankenstein but the series had some serious issues getting in a proper gear.
But that means we get more.... Larfleeze.
kill me now.
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Warner wins key legal battle against the Shusters (http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-superman-shuster-warner-20121017,0,3093750.story)
Welp.
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The Beat (http://comicsbeat.com/the-legal-view-what-the-shuster-ruling-means/) has a pretty good rundown. Sounds as if the judge was sympathetic to the argument that DC wouldn't bank actual ownership of Superman onto such a simple two-page document, but ultimately ruled in DC's favor for two major reasons: precedent, and some shenanigans between the Shusters and Toberoff (Shuster's nephew signed a contract giving his interest to Toberoff; Toberoff openly admitted that such a contract is invalid because you can't sign over rights resulting from a transfer termination until the termination has actually occurred).
The upshot: the Shusters and Toberoff will appeal, but will likely lose; the Siegels (who have a better case because they DIDN'T sign away the right to termination) will have less leverage because DC will own half of Superman no matter what.
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I, Vampire outselling every other DC book in bookstores. (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/10/23/could-bookstores-be-the-saviour-of-i-vampire/)
So apparently there IS at least one DC book that's broken outside the usual superhero niche audience. Pity it took hopping on the vampire bandwagon, but fuck it, you know, if it's bringing in new readers I'm all for it.
Plus my brother-in-law says it's actually pretty good.
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February will see not only the release of the highly-anticipated "Justice League of America" #1 (by the powerhouse team of Geoff Johns and David Finch) -- but 52 variant covers, one for each state, as well as Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. We'll also get solo books for two fan-favorite characters, Vibe (by "Arrow" creator Andrew Kreisberg and artist Pete Woods) and Katana (written by "Catwoman" scribe Ann Nocenti and artist Alex Sanchez).
seriously, what
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It is the 90s and there is time for variants
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(http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_md55ovZiVH1qbpfamo1_1280.jpg)
You can get all four issues of Edison Rex for less than $4 on Comixology. (http://www.comixology.com/Edison-Rex/comics-series/8520)
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Quantum and Woody #1 (http://www.comixology.com/Quantum-and-Woody-1/digital-comic/ICO004413), by Christopher Priest and Mark Bright. (And #2-#14, plus the Goat Special, are $2 a pop, with more to come -- including previously unpublished issues!)
Whole series is up now (no unpublished issues as yet). Protip: you're supposed to read #32 in-between #17 and #18. The gag is that the series got canceled and then revived later; Priest and Bright jumped straight to #32 as if the series had just kept going.
As for the Goat Special, I forget where exactly it falls in the chronology but it's somewhere during the Magnum Force arc (#14-#17). You'll know it when you get there because the Goat and a handful of characters you've never seen before inexplicably walk through the middle of the story. I think there's a footnote telling you to buy the Goat Special.
I'm not sure if I ever read #0; I know I don't own it. May have to pick it up...
But yeah guys bears repeating this is one of my all-time favorite series and you should spend all your dollars on it.
I own a signed Quantum and Woody poster. I am looking at it right now.
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New Deadpool run's off to a promising start.
I think Way's run had some really great stuff early on and then settled down into just-good-enough-that-I-kept-buying-it territory. The new series has breathed some fresh life into it. The script (by Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn) is sharp, and original Walking Dead artist Tony Moore is doing the pencils so you just know there's gonna be zombies.
Zombie PRESIDENTS, to be precise.
[spoiler]Captain America decapitates Harry Truman.[/spoiler]
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February will see not only the release of the highly-anticipated "Justice League of America" #1 (by the powerhouse team of Geoff Johns and David Finch) -- but 52 variant covers, one for each state, as well as Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. We'll also get solo books for two fan-favorite characters, Vibe (by "Arrow" creator Andrew Kreisberg and artist Pete Woods) and Katana (written by "Catwoman" scribe Ann Nocenti and artist Alex Sanchez).
seriously, what
It's a copy/paste job of the state flag being raised Iwo Jima style by the JLA. (http://www.comicvine.com/news/dc-reveals-details-on-the-52-justice-league-of-america-1-variant-covers/145509/)
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I can't wait to see how they deal with Ohio's weird-ass flag.
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So this happened:
(http://i.imgur.com/aBvWe.jpg)
In honor of Harris's... whatever the hell that is, Gail Simone has declared today Cosplay Appreciation Day.
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In honor of this, I think Cosplayers should go as Jim Lee's version of Mitchell Hundred.
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Oh man, it gets even better. Bleeding Cool posted about it, and he responded to them with another crazy-ass rant. (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/11/13/hey-quasi-pretty-not-hot-girl-you-are-more-pathetic-than-the-real-nerds-tony-harris/)
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Thad
Thad Thad Thad
Listen to me.
How do I buy comics. Like, the single issue comics.
Specifically, This comic. The 4th one. The 4th cover. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/11/15/adventure-time-fionna-and-cake-2-covers-art-gender-swap/)
(No seriously I am at a loss how you buy single-issue comics online, there are no comic stores around here)
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You have a few options, depending on whether that's an incentive or just a regular variant cover. If it's an incentive, then you can either go to your comic store and try to preorder it directly with the Diamond Item Code from Previews (which should hit in the next week) or you can preorder it from online shops like My Comic Shop (http://www.mycomicshop.com/) which will send it out to you when it gets in.
If it's incentive, though, it'll be harder to get. Incentives can only be bought once the store purchases a certain amount, such as you can buy one of these for every ten or twenty or so forth. In that case, the only thing you can do is watch eBay and hope the incentive isn't wildly expensive. Incentives are usually priced based upon how many it takes to get one. IE if it's buy 10 books get one 1 incentive, the price would be 10 times the price of one book ($2.99) so $29.90
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The worst part about Adventure Time comics is that I want all the covers every time.
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Good news: you can GET all the covers! (http://adventuretime.wikia.com/wiki/Adventure_Time_Cover_Showcase_Issue_1)
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So Chew just celebrated its halfway point by getting SERIOUSLY FUCKING GRIM.
Like, [spoiler]tied to a chair, multiple limbs hacked off and eaten, tortured and interrogated[/spoiler] grim.
I mean, this is a series that has relied on cannibalism for laffs since the very beginning. But this issue? Not so much with the laffs.
Not sure what to make of [spoiler]Toni's final taunt that she's going to help Tony kill Vampire Man. My first thought was the not-altogether-pleasant idea that Tony was going to have to eat his dead sister's flesh, but then I remembered oh right, she's so saturated with beets that that's not going to help. (Which I guess leaves the even LESS pleasant idea that he might eat her flesh and then discover it was for nothing.) So that leaves some other beyond-the-grave implication -- could be she comes back as a robot, or somebody has an as-yet-unrevealed food power that allows them to talk to the dead, or...at any rate, the good news is I don't think we've seen the last of her.[/spoiler]
But it DID get an involuntary "Oh, FUCK" out of me when I hit that page.
On the whole not as nerve-wracking a read as Walking Dead #100, but probably the most affecting book I've read since.
Quantum and Woody pulled a similar trick, right around #13 if I'm not mistaken. All fun and games and then bam, someone dies tragically and shit just got real.
...reminder: you can buy Quantum and Woody (http://www.comixology.com/Quantum-and-Woody/comics-series/9332).
(Apparently there was a Black Friday sale for all Valiant books but I didn't hear about it until it was over. Damn. But still, two bucks an issue is pretty good!)
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Masks: It's an entire comic painted by Alex Ross. Man, it's been awhile. (Has he done any since Justice?)
It's a big 1930's pulp hero teamup book -- this issue focuses on Green Hornet, Kato, and the Shadow, but introduces the Spider at the end and also alludes to Zorro. (Does Dynamite still have the Lone Ranger license? Because the original lore had it that he was Britt Reid's great-uncle. He'd be pretty long-in-the-tooth by now, but I could dig him as a Dark Knight Returns-style coming-out-of-retirement character.)
The premise is...pretty 1930's pulp. Organized crime manages to take control of the government of NYC, and institutionalize protection/enforcement as the law of the land. The Green Hornet, chasing a low-level crime boss up from Chicago, runs into the Shadow, who explains what's happened. There's a bit of back-and-forth about the difference between the law and justice (Shadow gets it; Hornet originally protests that they're the same thing, which is a little silly coming from a guy who goes out in a mask and a trenchcoat and metes out vigilante justice while pretending to be a crime boss himself, but okay, we'll go with it). There's also a Mexican artist with some connection to Zorro, who gets arrested for being a Mexican, and a DA who refuses to prosecute him for being a Mexican. I assume the DA is another pulp hero but I don't recognize him.
There are some pretty solid action scenes but also rather a lot of talking-head scenes -- the courtroom, for one, and a lengthy restaurant conversation between Britt Reid and Lamont Cranston. Ross does some neat things with angles, and his characters are expressive (Margo Lane is a highlight), but there are definitely places where it's all a little too mundane and feels like a waste of his talents. I like Roberson but his pacing gets a little deliberate for my tastes.
Still and all, it's an interesting book, and a good premise (let's take the 1960's idea of the Big Superhero Teamup and apply it to prototypical superheroes from the 1930's). And I still love Alex Ross.
Also: I don't know who his model is for The Shadow, but I just kept thinking of Frank Miller as the corrupt cop in the TMNT Annual.
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This is cute: Neil Degrasse Tyson guest stars in Superman, adds real science (http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2012/12/03/166246743/neil-degrasse-tyson-helps-his-new-bud-superman-get-a-glimpse-of-home)
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Karen Berger leaving Vertigo. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/12/03/karen-berger-steps-down-vertigo-dc-comics-march-2013-executive-editor/)
Shit.
DC's been gradually dismantling the imprint over the past decade with a less and less creator-friendly bent, and dismantling it much more quickly over the past year and a half with the removal of Swamp Thing and John Constantine from the Vertigo line in favor of the DC Universe proper. Without Berger I fear the writing is really on the wall at this point.
Fables isn't going to go away or change in any significant way -- it might have a little "DC" logo in the corner instead of a "Vertigo" one, but I expect it to keep on going without much interference. But I don't think any other Vertigo book has that kind of job security at this point.
(Well, Sweet Tooth. Because it's ending this month.)
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Gail Simone fired from Batgirl. (http://ca.ign.com/articles/2012/12/09/gail-simone-fired-from-batgirl)
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Gail Simone fired from Batgirl. (http://ca.ign.com/articles/2012/12/09/gail-simone-fired-from-batgirl)
Interestingly, when a follower tweeted at her, "Did you not put enough women in refrigerators or something?", referring to her coining of the phrase about the treatment of women in comics (Kyle Rayner's girlfriend was murdered and stuffed in his fridge). Simone simply replied, "Funny you should say that."
:pop:
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It's not as seismic a change as getting rid of Berger, but yeah it's just one more sign of how management is running DC now.
There are still some great books out on the fringes, but the closer you are to one of the main DC books -- ie anything with "Bat" in the name -- the more they seem to want to micromanage.
Wonder how long Batwoman's going to be able to stay as good as it is. Maybe having Wonder Woman show up for an arc was a concession to editorial.
Also wonder whether Simone will pursue other opportunities with DC or whether this is finally too much for her. She's generally been very good about keeping any disagreements she's got with editorial quiet up to this point (like why she left Firestorm), so I expect she'll still be amenable to working for DC. And I find it hard to believe they won't be willing to work with her anymore, either.
Would sure be nice to see her do creator-owned over at Image or somewhere for awhile, though.
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Wasn't her Batgirl book, uh, terrible? That's what I've been hearing, anyway.
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It might have been terrible, but it was selling well. That's the head-scratcher.
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It had good sales: comichron (http://www.comichron.com/monthlycomicssales/2012/2012-11.html) has it at #17 for November -- the only better-selling DC books are Batman, Justice League, and Green Lantern; not to put too fine a point on it it outsold Walking Dead and Avengers by about 20,000, and was only a few thousand behind My Little Pony #1 and the much-ballyhooed Amazing Spider-Man #698. Granted, its sales were most certainly boosted by the Death of the Family crossover, but it still outsold Batman and Robin, Detective Comics, Catwoman, Batman: The Dark Knight, Nightwing, and Red Hood (not to mention Batman Inc and Batwoman, which aren't part of the crossover).
It was also pretty well critically-acclaimed, for whatever that's worth -- I wasn't keeping up with it but consensus seems to be that, after a rocky start (mostly rocky because Simone didn't immediately explain how Barbara was up and walking around), it found its footing and turned out pretty good. Like most of the DC books, people liked what she was doing with it and didn't like the stuff editorial was forcing on her.
But hell, you know, even if it HAD been terrible, there's no fucking excuse for firing a beloved creator via E-Mail. Short of a Liefeld-level temper tantrum, anyway. (And even then, I was pretty much on Liefeld's side up until he decided to blame everything on a low-level editor and insult him by name instead of putting it at the feet of Warner Corporate, who I think are the ones who are really responsible for everything from the New 52 to Before Watchmen to Berger's departure to the Sandman prequel...okay, that last one actually might be pretty good.)
EDIT: Going through her Tumblr:
I am not giving up on the idea of a major trans character in an ongoing mainstream title without a fight. I want a clear, unambiguous trans character in a prominent, unambiguous and unapologetic role THIS YEAR.
So it doesn't sound like she has any intention of leaving DC -- or if she does, it'll be to go to Marvel. She's not planning on taking her ball and going creator-owned (at least, not exclusively; she DOES have a couple creator-owned books in the works); she's as intent as ever on being the person who reforms the industry from the inside.
I...have mixed feelings on this. I think she's done an incredible job so far and DC and superhero comics in general would be poorer if she put her talent to use on original, less-prominent characters. But there is a big, big part of me saying "Fuck them; let them all burn down and all the talent go creator-owned."
As it is, the most prominent trans character at DC is probably Shining Knight. And Paul Cornell has been pretty vocal in his support of Simone today.
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Simone didn't immediately explain how Barbara was up and walking around
How did they handwave that in the end anyway?
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Gail Simone fired from Batgirl. (http://ca.ign.com/articles/2012/12/09/gail-simone-fired-from-batgirl)
Interestingly, when a follower tweeted at her, "Did you not put enough women in refrigerators or something?", referring to her coining of the phrase about the treatment of women in comics (Kyle Rayner's girlfriend was murdered and stuffed in his fridge). Simone simply replied, "Funny you should say that."
:pop:
I don't get it.
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It sounds like editorial was pressuring Simone to kill someone and she kept saying no.
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Simone didn't immediately explain how Barbara was up and walking around
How did they handwave that in the end anyway?
She got wheelchaired, but recovered after a couple of years of physiotherapy. Much like, oh, Batman himself.
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I thought Batman recovered by having magic sex with Lady Shiva.
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Simone didn't immediately explain how Barbara was up and walking around
How did they handwave that in the end anyway?
Actually, they still haven't. Per Simone's Tumblr, the story of Barbara's recovery was going to be her next arc, and now it isn't. Even though she'd already finished writing it.
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Simone didn't immediately explain how Barbara was up and walking around
How did they handwave that in the end anyway?
She got wheelchaired, but recovered after a couple of years of physiotherapy. Much like, oh, Batman himself.
Batman was cured by magic.
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Simone didn't immediately explain how Barbara was up and walking around
How did they handwave that in the end anyway?
She got wheelchaired, but recovered after a couple of years of physiotherapy. Much like, oh, Batman himself.
Batman was cured by magic.
I thought Batman recovered by having magic sex with Lady Shiva.
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If only the AMA recognized magic sex tantra physiotherapy as a legitimate treatment, but they'll drag their feet on it like everything else. Look at how long it took to sanction chiropractors.
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Captain Carrot is back in the New 52 (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/12/11/captain-carrot-new-52-krot-threshold/)
(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2012/12/threshold1.jpg)
Giffen confirmed to the Robot 6 blog that "Captain K'Rot" is, indeed, Captain Carrot, the 1982 creation of Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw who most recently appeared in the grand finale of the 2008 crossover event Final Crisis, showing up to save the day at the last moment (No, really). "Every book needs a borderline psychotic, booze swilling, whore-mon-
Ahh screw this, I'm out.
::(:
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Why not just bring in The Captain then?
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Hey, it worked for Rocket Raccoon, didn't it?
Except he was introduced as part of a team and they had some breathing room to build his characterin the Annihilation: Conquest miniseries. But what am I saying? All that's going to get undone so he can be a one-note periphery character in Bowel Movement Bendis's Guardians of the Galaxy.
Ahh screw this, I'm out.
::(:
Wait for me.
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Captain Carrot is back in the New 52 (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/12/11/captain-carrot-new-52-krot-threshold/)
(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2012/12/threshold1.jpg)
Giffen confirmed to the Robot 6 blog that "Captain K'Rot" is, indeed, Captain Carrot, the 1982 creation of Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw who most recently appeared in the grand finale of the 2008 crossover event Final Crisis, showing up to save the day at the last moment (No, really). "Every book needs a borderline psychotic, booze swilling, whore-mon-
Ahh screw this, I'm out.
::(:
EXTREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEME
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Because trademark protection doesn't have to mean it's good!
Well, y'know...it IS Keith Giffen. I like to think he knows how fucking asinine this sounds and that's the joke. Like when Marvel did that grim-'n'-gritty reboot of Forbush Man a few years ago.
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Not so much that I think he's going to be Grim-'n'-Gritty so much as think he's just going to be Machine Man.
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Or Lobo, another Keith Giffen character who was intended as satire of the grim-'n'-gritty extreme badass trend but who wound up turning into the thing he was intended to satirize.
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Because trademark protection doesn't have to mean it's good!
Well, y'know...it IS Keith Giffen. I like to think he knows how fucking asinine this sounds and that's the joke. Like when Marvel did that grim-'n'-gritty reboot of Forbush Man a few years ago.
You mean Nextwave?
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That's what I was referring to when I mentioned The Captain.
Only NextWave was legitimate funny.
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You mean Nextwave?
No, Captain America: Who Won't Wield the Shield.
Nextwave DID fight Forbush Man, but I don't remember him being particular grim-'n'-gritty in that appearance.
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He wasn't gritty but he was grim.
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Demon Knights #15: Well, that's it for Cornell. We've got a full-on Merlin regeneration (http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Merlin), and a sentence or two of too-awkward dialogue finally doing what Cornell said he would in the beginning and establishing the Demon Knights as the original Stormwatch. Kind of a neat idea (even if it seems a little too much like Prospero's Men in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), but...well, that's it. Next issue is apparently going to take place 30 years later, which makes for a clean break and a potentially interesting angle (though if it winds up being the same cast of characters reuniting after 30 years, that's going to feel a lot like League too).
It's also definitely got the potential to free up Shining Knight for a solo book; as I noted before, Simone's pushing for a title starring a trans character and she and Cornell seem to be on pretty good terms, so I won't rule out the possibility that he left the door open intentionally.
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Demon Knights #15: Well, that's it for Cornell. We've got a full-on Merlin regeneration (http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Merlin), and a sentence or two of too-awkward dialogue finally doing what Cornell said he would in the beginning and establishing the Demon Knights as the original Stormwatch.
I ended up liking the connection between the two books less than I expected because Stormwatch is so mediocre. There are good ideas flying around, and the mythology is compelling, but it's 15 issues in and I'm not rooting for any of the characters. I also ended up cancelling Demon Knights since it seemed like a good jumping off point (and also, I'm cutting back on comics to save money.)
It's also definitely got the potential to free up Shining Knight for a solo book; as I noted before, Simone's pushing for a title starring a trans character and she and Cornell seem to be on pretty good terms, so I won't rule out the possibility that he left the door open intentionally.
But this, I would subscribe to!
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You made it 14 issues farther into Stormwatch than I did.
I like Cornell and I hung on to Authority a whole lot longer than I reasonably should have (I think the last arc I read was Brubaker/Nguyen?), but...well, dropping them in the middle of the DC Universe is just stupid and redundant. What the hell's the point of having Apollo and Midnighter live in the same world as Superman and Batman?
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The same reason it seemed like a good idea to absorb the WCW stables into the WWE.
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Comixology the #3 highest-grossing iPad app of 2012. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/12/18/comixology-ipad-app-3-highest-grossing-apple/)
Now, I've got my gripes about Comixology -- proprietary format, DRM, potential distribution monopoly, the usual gripes you would expect me to have about a thing.
But that shit will sort itself out over time. The important thing is, this shows a high demand for digital comics. I believe that is a very good thing.
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Simone un-fired from Batgirl, apparently. (http://gailsimone.tumblr.com/post/38488228246/i-know-who-the-next-writer-on-batgirl-is) Or maybe she has some other Batgirl project that's not the main Batgirl series. It's not entirely clear. But I'm guessing this is DC backpedaling after the outcry.
EDIT: Bleeding Cool (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/12/21/dc-comics-put-gail-simone-back-on-batgirl/) seems to believe the obvious implication too, that Gail's been put back on the main Batgirl book after the backlash her firing caused.
Usual grain-of-salt for BC, but they seemed to know this was coming (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/12/20/gail-simone-to-break-the-internet-tomorrow-again/).
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That sure doesn't make it sound like no one is at the helm.
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Well, it sure tends to undercut my theory that this came from Warner Corporate. Somebody that high up in the chain is NOT going to reverse a firing decision like that; they do not want to create the impression that freelancers have leverage over executives, no matter who they are.
Now, it could be a Didio decision -- he's certainly had the "We have to kill somebody off to give this series a punch" approach before. (Remember when he wanted to kill off Nightwing at the end of Infinite Crisis?) Hell, could be Johns; he's the one who decided Barry Allen needed more Batman in his origin story.
I wouldn't be surprised if Snyder floated the idea of killing someone off and Simone said no, but judging by Snyder immediately coming to her defense on Twitter I don't think it was his intention that she should be fired if she didn't want to do it.
And it could just be a case of a new editor on the arguably-most-visible collection of books in all of comics deciding to throw his weight around. I'm reluctant to blame everything on a low-level editor without direct evidence, but I bet that's how DC's going to frame it, anyway. And whether it was his decision to boot her or not, there's no question that he completely botched the execution. You do NOT fire a creator over E-Mail -- you don't do it ANYBODY because basic human decency, but you don't do it to someone who's popular and selling a lot of books because of tactical reasons.
Purely hypothetical but maybe it went something like this:
Didio: Hey, this Death of the Family thing's selling really well. Who you going to kill off?
Snyder: I was thinking [some character in Batgirl. Barbara's roommate or somebody.]
Didio: Hey, tell Gail we're killing off [whoever].
Group Editor: Gail, we're killing off [whoever].
Gail: No.
Group Editor: Then you're fired.
Internet: :rage:
Didio: Oh no, not again.
We'll probably never know the details, because Gail doesn't generally talk out of school. All's well that ends well, I suppose.
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Gail Simone tends to be fairly tight-lipped, so I doubt we'll ever fully known what happened any time soon, but I'd also guess that some execs down the chain are trying to jockey for position within the greater Time-Warner structure. A 'Look at how balls-tough I am" gesture like trying to break the arm of Gail Simone could have been an attempt at a power-play. Either way, I'm actually willing to believe that somebody in Didio's position could have been the one to patch things up with Simone to bring her back. He may be kind of a rude jackass sometimes, but he's not going to kick his biggest female writer off of a successful book so crassly.
Now, as for what DC wants to do with Vertigo (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/12/21/dc-vertigo-promotions-bob-harass-hank-kanalz/) is anybody's guess. If DC has plans to shutter the imprint and cast its books to the dark-nether, it sure is going through a lot of trouble to do it.
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Gail Simone tends to be fairly tight-lipped, so I doubt we'll ever fully known what happened any time soon, but I'd also guess that some execs down the chain are trying to jockey for position within the greater Time-Warner structure. A 'Look at how balls-tough I am" gesture like trying to break the arm of Gail Simone could have been an attempt at a power-play.
Wouldn't rule it out but I prefer to call Hanlon on this one.
Either way, I'm actually willing to believe that somebody in Didio's position could have been the one to patch things up with Simone to bring her back. He may be kind of a rude jackass sometimes, but he's not going to kick his biggest female writer off of a successful book so crassly.
Well, I'm sure the "do it by E-Mail" decision wasn't his. I think it's totally possible that he's ready to fire writers who won't play ball with editorial mandates, but this is a case of something that should have been a routine creative shuffle being a huge black eye. Because of (1) how they handled it, (2) who the creator was, and (3) the sales numbers of the book.
So even if he WAS involved in kicking her off the book, yeah, I'm sure he was involved in reversing course, too.
(Plus, as Bleeding Cool notes, he really doesn't want to spend the next year's worth of cons answering questions from people dressed like Batgirl demanding to know what happened to Gail Simone.)
Now, as for what DC wants to do with Vertigo (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/12/21/dc-vertigo-promotions-bob-harass-hank-kanalz/) is anybody's guess. If DC has plans to shutter the imprint and cast its books to the dark-nether, it sure is going through a lot of trouble to do it.
Nah, "Put Harras in charge" is the QUICKEST way to bankruptcy.
At any rate, I don't see Vertigo shutting down this soon; they've got a Sandman prequel coming, for crying out loud. I see them chugging along for at least another year.
There are a lot of good reasons why you might put the digital guy in charge. For starters, Vertigo's backlog is stronger than the stuff it's got in print, with Sandman, Y, Hellblazer, and so on (as compared to Fables, which is the only hit it's got that's still ongoing, not including the aforementioned upcoming Sandman prequel). I'm sure that stuff already sells well online but could sell better, and maybe they think he can bring that kind of attention to some of Vertigo's other books. After all, it's a lot cheaper to sell books that are already made and don't have to be printed.
And speaking of "don't have to be printed", that's another potential route for Vertigo to decrease costs: DC's already had a handful of Digital First books, and they're mostly cross-media titles (Batman Beyond, Smallville) that are geared to appeal toward people who aren't necessarily regular comics buyers. That could be an "in" for continuing Vertigo -- continue to publish offbeat, nontraditional books, but save on the costs of printing and distributing them by putting them up as digital and seeing if they catch on in that format first.
Why a creator would go for that over Image, say, well, I couldn't tell you. Vertigo books probably get slightly better promotion, and can be an "in" for getting work at DC proper, but...everything I've read has made it sound like a less and less appealing prospect for anyone who isn't already established there.
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Captain Carrot is back in the New 52 (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/12/11/captain-carrot-new-52-krot-threshold/)
(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2012/12/threshold1.jpg)
Giffen confirmed to the Robot 6 blog that "Captain K'Rot" is, indeed, Captain Carrot, the 1982 creation of Roy Thomas and Scott Shaw who most recently appeared in the grand finale of the 2008 crossover event Final Crisis, showing up to save the day at the last moment (No, really). "Every book needs a borderline psychotic, booze swilling, whore-mon-
Ahh screw this, I'm out.
::(:
Every time I open this thread thinking I should get back into comic books, I find myself leaving content with my decision to stop reading comic books after the shitty, unbelievably bad ending to Civil War. Thanks guys.
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ComicsAlliance has a Best-Of list. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/12/26/best-comics-2012-list-part-1-stephanie-brown-memorial-awards/) It misidentifies Barbara Gordon as "the original Batgirl", but makes up for it by closing with the award for BEST STRAIGHT UP SLAP IN THE GOD DAMN FACE:
(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2012/12/pantherslap.jpg)
Also it looks to be a pretty good list.
Saga is great, BTW. In fact I'm going to go link to it on the Free Comics thread right the fuck now.
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2012 wouldn’t let us get away without another dose of bad news. Peter David, a fine writer and good friend, has suffered a stroke that has impaired his vision and paralyzed most of his right side. He was on vacation in Florida when it occurred and is awaiting further prognosis or diagnosis or some kind of nosis.
:;_;:
Hope and best of luck for a speedy recovery.
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http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/01/08/more-dc-writer-changes-to-come-was-gail-simone-just-the-beginning/ (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/01/08/more-dc-writer-changes-to-come-was-gail-simone-just-the-beginning/)
And after the fallout of the attempt to fire Gail Simone, I’m told other creators being dropped have been asked not to tweet about it, in return for the possibility of future work at DC on other titles or fill-ins. Those who make a fuss won’t be returning.
so keep your head down and keep your mouth shut
grunka-lunka-lunka-dunkety-dutt
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Well there's no way THAT could possibly backfire.
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http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/01/09/in-april-dc-comics-brings-us-holy-sht-month/ (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/01/09/in-april-dc-comics-brings-us-holy-sht-month/)
I understand that, across the New DCU line, we are to get some sort of “surprise” covers for April. Something that will really stand out on the comic shelves.
IN THIS ISSUE: DR. LIGHT RAPES EVERYBODY
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http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/01/10/warner-bros-legal-copyright-victory-superman-siegel-shuster-lawsuit/ (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/01/10/warner-bros-legal-copyright-victory-superman-siegel-shuster-lawsuit/)
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Welp, I expect Toberoff will try to appeal, but if SCOTUS doesn't take it up it's game over.
As precedent goes it's pretty heartbreaking but at this point I'm too cynical to be surprised anymore. Doesn't matter what the law says your rights have, some lawyer somewhere can make a case that you gave them up on some spurious grounds.
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So if you ever create a comic character or something, never sell. Stay interdependent and doing webcomics/self publishing forever, I guess?
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ORIGINAL CHARACTER DO NOT STEAL
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Creator-ownership doesn't necessarily imply self-publishing. Robert Kirkman owns The Walking Dead but doesn't self-publish it. (Course, co-creator Tony Moore is none too happy about Kirkman's sole ownership -- creators can screw each other just as surely as publishers can screw creators.)
Course, where I assume you're going with this is that if you get a bad publishing deal, creator-ownership doesn't mean shit -- as in the case with Watchmen. Indeed, I recently linked a story where Marvel attempted to claim ownership of a creator-owned book (http://srbissette.com/?p=16292) it published decades ago.
On the other hand, some people who sell their creations, or produce them as work-for-hire, DO wind up doing pretty well for themselves. Stan Lee and Bob Kane are both good examples -- and also examples of guys who pretty thoroughly fucked their co-creators. Conversely, Steve Bissette has wryly noted that the only collaborations he did with Alan Moore that he's able to profit from now are the work-for-hire ones, because Alan Moore has stonewalled reprints on any of their creator-owned books.
Self-publishing's got its own share of problems, of course, and the biggest is obscurity. While the Internet has made it easier to self-publish and therefore easier for someone to distribute a book (or any kind of work) without the need for a middleman, that also means there's that much more competition and that much less curation. For every Penny Arcade, PVP, Achewood, or Hark!, there are plenty of talented cartoonists languishing in obscurity (and even those four examples have turned to traditional publishers for their print collections).
TMNT's gotta be the biggest creator-owned success story in comics history, and even it turned into an acrimonious split between the two co-creators and eventually ended in the rights being sold to Viacom. On the other hand, both co-creators actually DO seem much happier now than they were twenty years ago.
And you know, as bad as things are today, they're not as bad as they used to be. Scott Kurtz is completely full of shit when he says all that stuff that happened to Kirby has been fixed now (look at the sad case of Robert L Washington III, co-creator of Static, who died last year and whose family had to turn to charity to get him a grave), but at least today there are royalties and equity deals. Chuck Dixon and Len Wein have made more money off Bane and Lucius Fox than Bill Finger ever did from Batman himself.
Ultimately what I'd like to see is a comic book industry that behaves more like the traditional book industry -- authors retain ownership, and are paid in a some combination of advances, page rates, and royalties.
I'm rambling. There's no easy fix. And this is legitimately devastating. We desperately need copyright reform, and I'd sure like for the SCOTUS to take a look at this and decide that no, the agreements the Siegel and Shuster heirs made in the 1990's did NOT waive their right to terminate the copyright transfer -- but with this Supreme Court I have a hard time seeing that happen.
Beyond that, though, is my unwavering belief that copyright should never have been extended past 56 years, and Superman should have been public domain by now.
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Trexler (http://comicsbeat.com/todays-superman-rulings-explained/) breaks the ruling down.
The big point: the ruling was issued as a memorandum disposition, which means the good news is that it can't be cited as precedent but the bad news is the SCOTUS is very unlikely to accept an appeal. (The other bad news, of course, is that even if this technically doesn't set a legal precedent, it's still going to make creators everywhere think twice about trying to get back rights, even if they're owed them.)
The ruling seems to have hinged on Toberoff's professional conduct -- that he was representing the Siegel estate in exchange for gaining a huge interest in Superman himself. I can certainly see the ethical problem there -- quite a lot of people have raised the possibility that Toberoff's in it for himself and not what's in his clients' best interests.
On the other hand, I'm pretty uncomfortable with how DC snared him: one of his employees stole documents, and, when Toberoff reported them stolen, a court ruled that that action, Toberoff REPORTING the documents as stolen, made them admissible. Bit of a catch-22, seems to me.
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So I guess DC is trying to retcon firing Gail Simone:
Harras: What we had was Ray [Fawkes] coming on for two months to help out, schedule-wise. We’re very happy Gail is back; she’s on the book moving forward, so to me, that was a moment in time where we were just looking for Gail’s next plot to come in and we’re moving forward.
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DC's been gradually dismantling the imprint over the past decade with a less and less creator-friendly bent, and dismantling it much more quickly over the past year and a half with the removal of Swamp Thing and John Constantine from the Vertigo line in favor of the DC Universe proper. Without Berger I fear the writing is really on the wall at this point.
Fables isn't going to go away or change in any significant way -- it might have a little "DC" logo in the corner instead of a "Vertigo" one, but I expect it to keep on going without much interference. But I don't think any other Vertigo book has that kind of job security at this point.
It begins: Saucer Country is cancelled. (http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2013/01/dc-cancels-i-vampire-dc-universe-presents-and-saucer-country/)
On his blog (http://www.paulcornell.com/2013/01/the-end-of-saucer-country.html), Cornell states that he’s “heartbroken” Saucer Country is ending and knows fans will be disappointed that book’s mysteries weren’t all answered. “So I make this promise to you: I will, one day, finish Saucer Country, in one way or another, in a dramatically satisfying way,” he wrote. “That is to say, I won’t just put up the remainder of the plot on my blog or something, I’ll find a professional means to actually complete the story, ideally in comic book form, or as a novel or, hey, go on, a movie. The rights revert to me reasonably soon. We’ll work from there. “
So that's good. It would sure be nice if Image or somebody picked it up.
In the meantime, I guess the good news is it's one less book for me to spend money I can't afford on.
Unless I get Cornell withdrawal and start buying fucking Wolverine, I guess.
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How You Can Help Peter David (http://www.peterdavid.net/2013/01/16/how-you-can-help-peter-david-recover/)
The most direct way is to buy his e-books from Crazy 8 Press (via ComicMix) or from Amazon or Barnes and Noble websites. These are books that he gets the money from directly and the most per book. The quickest and most money is buying the EPub versions from ComicMix, by the way. The more we sell of these books, the easier it will be for us to pay the bills as they start to pour in. All the books are in the sidebar.
Buying his other books does help– especially the Marvel graphic novels he has written. The Crazy 8 books are the most immediate help but all his writings do help the family and the family’s ability to pay bills. If you buy via Amazon, please use this link, which will bring in even more funds.
Buy X-Factor. Put it on your pull list at your local comic book store. Encourage others to do the same. Peter is still writing it and will continue to write it. Issue 250 ships on Jan 15th, 2012 (today) and is a great jumping on point for both X-factor and something Peter has been working on in the Marvel Universe since his Hulk days.
If nothing there catches your fancy, you can just donate directly. And, as always, it helps to raise awareness for the injustice of anyone, let alone a distinguished comic-creator with decades in the industry who has health insurance, having to struggle with large hospital bills.
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Boom! to create Regular Show comic penned by KC Green (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/01/16/regular-show-ongoing-comic-series-boom-studios-kc-green-allison-strejlav/)
Boom! is starting to seem like Marvel in the 70s/80s, letting a lot of talented creators loose on some licenses.
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Scott Shaw DID raise some hell a few weeks back about the low rates for Adventure Time (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/01/07/scott-shaw-and-the-hundred-dollar-page-rate/). He says artists get $100/page, $200/cover, and no royalties -- so, for example, the Cover Showcase books don't pay out shit to the artists, because they were already paid for the cover the first time. He adds that they sent him a work-for-hire contract after he'd already started the work, which of course is not how work-for-hire works.
I read an interview with Mark Waid (http://www.comicsreporter.com/index.php/cr_holiday_interview_22_mark_waid/) a few days later; he's of course no longer with Boom but used to be the EIC there. He was pretty sympathetic to both sides -- yes, that IS a really shitty page rate; yes, that really IS all Boom can afford to pay its artists.
Now, Adventure Time continues to be one of the best goddamn comics on the stands. I love the thing. But Shaw's not wrong to express outrage at such a low page rate. And Boom had better hope that it has its shit together enough that the contract thing was a one-off, because WFH agreements can't be made retroactively. As Shaw is well aware, since that's at the core of the legal action he, Penders, Maggin, and others are involved in with Archie.
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(http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2013/1/25/1359140700469/Judge-Dredd-comic-009.jpg)
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uh
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Uh, what is the source on that?
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Next week's issue of 2000AD (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/01/25/big-gay-judge-dredd/).
Seeing as it's not actually out yet, it's not clear what happens after that. Which I guess is kind of the point of releasing it as a tease.
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Hum... smells like marketing gimmick for now.
'Course if he's NOT gay and it IS a deliberate marketing gimmick, cue the outrage.
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Been spoiled. [spoiler]It's a cosplayer.[/spoiler]
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Thought it'd be something like that.
On one hand, that would have been the ballsiest comic retcon in years, which woulc have been interesting. Though mostly it'd be funny to watch the internet explode.
On the other hand, even if Dredd was gay there's no way he could ever be anything other than the ferociously self-suppressing/denying kind.
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My understanding of Dredd is that any sexual attraction he's capable of feeling is 110% sublimated and redirected towards his raging law boner. And that physical relationships are forbidden to Judges anyway. So his sexuality really doesn't matter all that much, because he's barred by training and nature and job from ever expressing it.
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Exactly.
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On the other hand, those pauldrons... :luv:
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Simone's next book revealed: The Movement (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bryan-young/exclusive-dc-comics-revea_b_2641445.html), with Freddie Williams II. It will be complemented by The Green Team, by Baltazar and Franco. Movement is about the 99%, Green Team is about the 1%. Should be interesting.
I would totally read a book where Superman and Batman bicker about politics, but as usual I'd rather see lesser-known characters here. (No, not Green Arrow and Green Lantern. Been there, done that.)
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I am dubious. We're talking about social issues (and not Social Issues: Tumblr Edition) that have implications both grand and subtle. This is a book that will have to avoid being didactic, simplistic or absurd, make sure not to miss the point, and still be a good story.
I know it's Gail Simone, but I still don't envy her the tightrope she's walking.
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So the Authority is now about weird crossovers as they all fight amongst themselves.
and Animal Man is now about weird crossovers as they all fight amongst themselves.
and Swamp Thing is now about weird crossovers as they all fight amongst themselves.
I can only imagine Constantine will be some sort of pointless all-out fight between supporting cast for a whole year while he tries to stop THE BIG BAD's PLAN
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Welcome to The Edge! (It will make you say, "What the F?")
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Suggestions written anonymously to DC from its creative staff (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/02/08/suggestion-box-results/)
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I'm with pretty much all of them except
Script should dictate artwork, not the other way around.
That's as huge a dick of a thing to say as the reverse is, and whoever wrote that should maybe try drawing his own book for awhile and see how far that gets him (since it's clearly someone who's never drawn a book before).
Comics is a collaborative medium. Neither writer nor artist is any more inherently entitled to lead than the other. There certainly ARE projects that are writer-led -- most anything written by Alan Moore comes to mind -- but there are projects that are artist-led, too, including, oh, say, every single fucking comic ever created using the Marvel Method, you IDIOT.
Some books should be writer-led. Others should be artist-led. And I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that in many cases, it's probably a good idea to have the writer and artist fucking collaborate because it is a goddamn collaborative medium.
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and Animal Man is now about weird crossovers as they all fight amongst themselves.
Yeah. It was kind of interesting how they went with the switching-off writer and artist for the Swamp Thing scenes, but I'm sick to death of Rotworld. The whole "Hey if you want to read the resolution of the plot we've been building since the very beginning then you're going to have to buy another comic" thing is vexing but hardly unexpected at this point, but I'm way past the point of falling for that little marketing gimmick. They can sit and spin and I'll read about what happens to Maxine on the Internet.
I love Lemire so I'm giving him one more issue to turn things back around (since at least the crossover will be done), but this book's next on my cut list. Which is a pity, because it really WAS the best of the New 52 when it started.
Might give JL Dark another shot, just because I love how Lemire writes Frankenstein. But I quit reading it an issue or two into Milligan's second arc.
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Simone on The Movement (http://gailsimone.tumblr.com/post/43085335591/gail-im-a-fan-of-yours-and-will-be-picking-up-the):
the book really is NOT about Occupy, and I do feel that message has been very much invented.
I kinda suspected that; the "1%/99%" rhetoric in the original piece smacks of Marketing Department Trying to Make the Comic Seem Hip and Relevant By Referring to Something That Got a Lot of News Coverage in 2011. (Whether it's DC's fault or the Huffington Post's I don't know; I'm inclined to believe the former but wouldn't be surprised by the latter.)
Still and all, regardless of the language they're couching it in, it's a Gail Simone book so I'm sure there will be Social Issues.
(BTW, Green Team (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Green_Team:_Boy_Millionaires) was actually a Joe Simon comic in the 1970's. I was not aware of this, presumably because only one issue was ever published.)
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So this could be interesting: online course on gender roles in comic books (https://www.canvas.net/courses/gender-through-comic-books). (Nominally it's free but there's a note on the side that says "Requires the purchase of a textbook or other course materials" -- don't know if that just means comics?) The course will include interviews with Mark Waid (http://markwaid.com/guest-posts/so-im-asking-for-your-help/), Gail Simone, Steve Wacker, Terry Moore, Brian K Vaughan, Scott Snyder, Bendis, Fraction, Aaron, Hickman, and Slott.
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Ball State University
:3c
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Catching up on this thread, something caught my eye...
And you know, as bad as things are today, they're not as bad as they used to be. Scott Kurtz is completely full of shit when he says all that stuff that happened to Kirby has been fixed now (look at the sad case of Robert L Washington III, co-creator of Static, who died last year and whose family had to turn to charity to get him a grave), but at least today there are royalties and equity deals.
I'm not usually the type to leap to Scott Kurtz's defense, lord knows that's a futile endeavor, but I do follow the guy and this sounds like the opposite of what he says. Like, for example, in this blog post about creator rights (http://pvponline.com/news/know-your-creator-rights), his message is "the publishers are there to make more money off your work than you will, not to make your dreams come true, so educate yourself and don't just give away your rights to the first asshole who'll take them", which is a far cry from "don't worry about it, nobody gets treated like Kirby anymore". There are bits in that post that are more questionable, he's way too soft on the publishers and I personally think it's not unreasonable to assign them a duty to not be complete dicks, but in the end I find it hard to disagree with his advice.
That said, for all I know maybe he went "all that stuff that happened to Kirby has been fixed now" some other time. Wouldn't be his first 180, in any case. :shrug:
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I am referring specifically to this one about how it's totally cool that Marvel didn't give any royalties to anybody for the Avengers movie:
I don’t like that Jack Kirby got screwed over by Marvel back in the day. I don’t like it at all. It’s a sad story. It’s as tragic as the story of the men who created Superman. These guys got screwed over. But that was over 40 years go,guys. The men involved are dead and buried. The policies that screwed them over were changed decades ago. Things have changed for the better, even when it comes to doing work-for-hire with the big two. I’m not saying we shouldn’t learn from this. I’m saying we’ve ALREADY learned from it. I have no doubt that we learned from it. The black and white creator-owned books of the 80s. The exodus of Marvel creators to form Image in the 90s. The indy comics movement now. Webcomics. Kickstarter. We’ve learned this lesson, folks. You’re getting angry over nothing. You’re suiting up for a battle we’ve already won.
This, not to put too fine a point on it, is total fucking horseshit.
Ask Marv Wolfman. Ask Ken Penders. Ask Robert Washington, except you can't because he died in the gutter.
Coming back to the post you linked, though:
Creators don’t lose their rights unless they sign them away
Kinda needs an asterisk.
For starters, prior to the 1976 Copyright Act, creators lost all kinds of fucking rights without ever signing a damn thing. Kirby didn't sign shit (at least, not prior to 1973), and everyone who posts in a thread about Kirby getting screwed with "Well he should have gotten a lawyer to look over the contract before he signed it" deserves a swift kick in the nuts.
Even allowing for the point that, starting in 1978, work-for-hire has to be agreed upon in advance, creation's not always so clearly-cut. While it's true that Neil Gaiman won out, and deserved to, in his litigation against McFarlane, there are plenty of cases where the creator still gets screwed.
Going with the examples I chose:
Wolfman created Blade independently. (Yes, this was prior to 1978, but that's not really relevant in this case; unlike the Kirby case, Wolfman produced clear and unambiguous evidence that he created Blade on his own and then pitched him to Marvel.) But a judge ruled that the Blade who Marvel ultimately published was sufficiently different from Wolfman's original pitch to constitute a discrete, work-for-hire creation.
Ken Penders, Scott Shaw, Elliot S Maggin, and others allege that Archie never made them sign a contract in the 1990's -- which means that they still own every word they wrote and every line they drew, and that Archie has spent the last couple of decades reprinting their copyrighted work (and using their original characters) without their permission and without compensating them.
And Robert Washington was never legally acknowledged alongside McDuffie and Leon as co-creator of Static. They got royalties (and, unless I'm mistaken, Leon continues to get them and so does McDuffie's widow); he didn't. Now, I don't mean to speak ill of McDuffie; by all accounts he was a great guy, and he's not around anymore to defend himself -- I'm sure he felt he was justified in declaring only himself and Leon as the creators of Static. But I think he was wrong; I think co-writing a character's first appearance qualifies as co-creation (because copyright is based on the expression, not the conception, of an idea), and I think it's a legitimate tragedy that Washington did not receive his share in credit, ownership, or profit.
Hell, look at Kurtz's own reasoning in that Avengers post: he points out that the Avengers movie bears a closer resemblance to Millar and Hitch's Ultimates than Lee, Kirby, and Heck's Avengers -- ergo for some reason none of those people deserve any money for the movie. I'm not gonna lie, I have a lot of trouble following his logic there. (Maybe it's because if Disney were to give a million dollars to each of the dozen or so people who wrote and drew the comics it was based on then it would be forced into bankruptcy? Maybe Scott Kurtz is just terrible at math.) I don't see that as implying that it's okay to deny profits to Kirby's heirs. I see it as an indictment of Marvel for continuing to shaft current writers and artists like Millar and Hitch.
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Research by Carol Tilley reveals that Wertham wasn't merely wrong, he deliberately falsified his data (http://io9.com/5985199/how-one-mans-lies-almost-destroyed-the-comics-industry).
Not surprising, of course, but it throws Wertham's perfidy into even starker detail.
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Just a warning, DC went and spoiled a character death in Batman, Incorporated in the New York Times today. If you're following that book, well, don't read the New York Times today.
And in case you don't follow it but want to know:
[spoiler]It's Damien[/spoiler]
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I thought it was the Post.
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Ehh, one of those. I just remember reading "New York... yadda yadda"
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Roman Dirge hit by a drunk driver. (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/02/26/roman-dirge-hospitalised-after-drunk-driver-accident/)
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Here's a really neat blog of artists redoing entries in the Handbook of the Marvel Universe in their own style: http://ohotmuredux.blogspot.ca/ (http://ohotmuredux.blogspot.ca/)
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VIBE CREATED BY GERRY CONWAY AND
CHUCK PATTON LUKE MCDONNELL (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/02/22/gerry-conway-creating-vibe-and-felicity-smoak/)
Scratch that, Vibe wasn't created by anyone, apparently.
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Welp, while Bleeding Cool is politely putting spoiler warnings in its headlines (and ComicsAlliance is, as usual, a week behind what everybody else is talking about and devoting its major coverage to Orson Scott Card this week), Robot 6 isn't. So that's nice.
So if for example you've been laid-up with a cold for the past few days and haven't been able to make it to the comic shop to pick up the latest Batman Inc, don't go to Robot 6. And maybe delete their RSS feed entirely from your reader, as I'm seriously considering doing.
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Re: That particular spoiler
[spoiler]One of my local papers ran a story on Robin dying, but with a photo of Adam West and Burt Ward. I was momentarily devestated until I realized they were just talking about Damien.[/spoiler]
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Simone on Red Sonja. (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/03/01/red-sonja-gail-simone-dynamite-comics-emerald-city-2013-fiona-staples/) Interesting.
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...well for fuck's sake, the Big Batman Spoiler is right on the fucking cover. Guess it's not really a spoiler at all.
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...yeah, no sense going forward with spoiler tags anymore, even if there ever was -- which there probably wasn't, because again, the cover.
Anyway, apparently he'll be staying dead for at least five months; Batman and Robin is being retitled (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/03/05/batman-and-robins-name-changes-requim-trade-dress-and-worlds-finest-sell-outs/) for at least that long, with a different sidekick in the second billing every month.
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Chris Sprouse, the artist for Orson Scott Card's upcoming Superman comic, quits the project. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/05/chris-sprouse-superman-orson-scott-card_n_2812942.html)
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Which, in turn, has delayed it so that it won't appear in issue #1. Which automatically means Card will be seeing less money from it, because #1's sell better.
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New Astro City ongoing starts June 5. (http://geek-news.mtv.com/2013/03/07/interview-kurt-busiek-astro-city/)
It sounds fucking beautiful. If you're an AC fan, go give that link a read; it's worth it even though the interviewer asks a few dumb questions and inexplicably transcribes Kurt's initials as "KG" for the last half of the piece.
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The latest Batman was pretty great but I'm still probably dropping it anyway (http://www.corporate-sellout.com/index.php/2013/03/15/books-im-dropping/) because I do not need another goddamn retelling of the fucking origin story hell ass shit.
Also probably dropping Animal Man because I wracked my brain trying to remember the last time I gave a fuck and it turns out it was that issue where Cliff spends the whole thing watching a movie that Buddy starred in.
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And then I read the latest issue of Manhattan Projects and all is right in the world again.
It can be easy to forget how many great fucking comics there are right now. So what if I drop Batman and Animal Man? There's still Adventure Time and Prophet and Dark Horse Presents and any number of really great comics each and every month. Hell, even DC's still got Dial H. I might even start reading Wolverine again since Cornell's writing it.
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On the subject of DRM, digital distribution and big-name creators seeking publishing other than the Big Two (+Image), Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin have released a new comic called The Private Eye which is DRM-Free and Pay-What-Want (http://panelsyndicate.com/). That's 32-pages by the author of Saga and Y The Last Man and the artist behind Doctor Strange: The Oath for whatever you feel it's worth.
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Welp, I bought Wolverine #1 because Paul Cornell.
It's pretty good, despite being decompressed as fuck. Like, I feel like there are two pages' worth of story in this comic. Three, tops.
But I still liked it enough that I'll probably pick up #2.
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So I got a job AND Quantum and Woody is coming back?
This is, like, the third-best day I've had all month.
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Just read Action Comics' Vyndktvx arc, and bloody hell, Grant Morrison really perfected a way of telling stories where he makes a story for 12 issues, then throws everything away except for every third page. I really hope his Wonder Woman is not this tangled.
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So okay.
Joshua Fialkov quit two GL books. BleedingCool ran a story today alleging that it was because DC was planning to kill off John Stewart (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/03/21/fialkov-left-dc-comics-over-plans-to-kill-off-john-stewart-dcs-black-green-lantern/). And then another story five and a half hours later saying that DC changed its mind (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/03/21/john-stewart-he-lives/) due to the immediate backlash from the rumor.
I'd say there are pretty even odds here on "DC editorial almost did something really stupid but then flinched within hours of fans getting pissed off" and "Bleeding Cool just made the whole thing up."
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So this could be interesting: online course on gender roles in comic books (https://www.canvas.net/courses/gender-through-comic-books). (Nominally it's free but there's a note on the side that says "Requires the purchase of a textbook or other course materials" -- don't know if that just means comics?)
Looks like, yeah; Bleeding Cool (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/03/22/gender-through-comics-gives-you-comixology-discount-even-if-youre-not-taking-the-course/) has a list of the comics assigned for the course, which Comixology (http://www.comixology.com/Gender-Through-Comics-Syllabus/comics-collection/1019) is offering at a discount -- even if you aren't taking the class.
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Quantum and Woody not being written by Priest or drawn by Bright. (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=44482)
That news deflated me pretty significantly from "this is the most excited I have been in years" to "well I guess I'll pick up #1 and see if it's any good."
And then this explanation from Kevin Maguire in the comments section dropped me down a lot farther from there:
We Acclaim creators signed contracts before we started working on our projects that had a clause saying we could buy the rights to the material back for half the profits the material made in the previous 3 years. Several years after Acclaim went under, Priest and Bright tried to get the Q/W rights and were told that the contracts we signed were never submitted to a different division of Acclaim and were thus considered invalid. Someone else came in and bought up all the Valiant/Acclaim leaving us with nothing. I've been following what Priest/Bright were doing because I wanted the rights to Trinity Angels back. But the legal fees it would cost to get it back would just be too much for us. I'm pretty sure Priest/Bright are not pleased with the new Q/W, but I don't know that for a fact. As I said, I know if they went in and re-vamped Trinity Angels, I would be furious.
To summarize how I feel about hearing there was new Quantum and Woody, and then hearing Valiant yanked it out from under its creators and put another team on it, I give you this bad cellphone video of an old episode of South Park.
Southpark Chef on God (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCuqR2l4Ztk#ws)
Also, it bears adding, one more time, that every single person who responds to a creators' rights thread with "Wull they shoulda gotten a lawyer and signed a contract!" is an asshole. It should be abundantly clear by this point that contracts are merely speed bumps and that publishers will find a way to fuck creators out of their rights no matter what agreement they signed.
I'm hoping to hear what Priest himself has to say on this, see if he can confirm or deny what Maguire said -- and on top of that, whether Valiant ever approached him, whether he's at least getting royalties for the characters even if they cheated him out of ownership, and so on. There's an interview with Valiant's CEO/CCO at CBR (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=44482) where he claims he's been in contact with Priest and that they're working on some projects together, but he repeatedly calls him "Chris", which suggests he's never spoken to the man in his life.
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...so what would be worse than if Priest and Bright weren't being compensated for the new Quantum and Woody?
If Priest and Bright weren't being compensated for the OLD Quantum and Woody. The ones they actually wrote and drew, which Valiant is selling on Comixology.
Kevin Maguire says he hasn't been paid for the Trinity Angels back issues on Comixology, and Valiant hasn't responded to his E-Mails.
My not-a-lawyer self has spent the afternoon reading up on bankruptcy law and it DOES seem that it's possible for a buyer to buy up copyrights from a bankrupt company without assuming the contracts associated with them -- and that this is legally considered a breach of contract but that the bankrupt company, not the buyer, is legally responsible.
Any Actual Lawyers are welcome to chime in and tell me if I'm right or wrong in that interpretation.
And this one: the possibility that Valiant may not actually have any legitimate stake in Q&W at all because it wasn't Acclaim's to sell. Priest and Bright invoked reversion; Acclaim told them their contract was invalid because Acclaim Comics failed to submit it to the correct department in Acclaim Corporate.
Now, am I correct in understanding that:
1. a contract signed by both parties and a witness is legally binding even if the corporate party fails to submit the proper paperwork to its corporate parent;
2. if Priest and Bright invoked reversion and Acclaim illegally refused to sell, the sale to another party (who eventually sold it to Valiant) was invalid?
Still no word from Priest or Bright themselves. Hope they work something out one way or another.
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Hey, Thad, you're pretty plugged in to the comics world. Have the Mystery Hipster Cops been solved yet?
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Not that I know of. I'd forgotten all about them and had to do a search to remember what you were talking about.
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DC's most-recently-announced digital-first series is Batgirl Beyond (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/03/29/batgirl-batman-justice-league-beyond-dc-digital-comics-annie-wu-sean-murphy-kyle-higgins-christos-gage/). And the new cover DOES seem to suggest Barbara in a mentor role. Which would probably be a little hypocritical given all the shit she gave Bruce for training a successor, but I guess if someone shows up using her name she's got to make a call on that.
The writer, Scott Peterson, was involved in the Batman Adventures series of the 1990's, including Mad Love, plus the Cassandra Cain version of Batgirl.
And Batman Beyond is changing creative teams, which could be a good thing; I didn't care much for Beechen's original miniseries and never bothered picking up the main series.
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I pretty much never read superhero comics, but Glory caught my eye. It's only a twelve issue series, and the last one just came out so, yeah.
(http://i.imgur.com/NWzKYYb.jpg)
That gets my attention. And not in an Amazon fetish way. I pretty much never see the cover of a superhero comic and think "Whoa! That's new." And hey, it turned out to be a pretty great series, with memorable characters, a good yarn moving it along, lots of surprisingly quiet and touching character moments, and a huge angry lady cutting monsters into tiny bits and literally biting someone's face off once in a while. So... pretty much everything I like.
Which stands in perfectly, hilariously stark contrast against the original character it's reimagining here.
(http://i.imgur.com/vU5hKZK.jpg)
Yeah. Liefeld. No, really. Fucking seriously here. You can't make this shit up. I'm holding this
(http://i.imgur.com/Z8t7mib.jpg)
next to this
(http://i.imgur.com/duhXb8r.jpg)
... and my brain just keeps shorting out. I mean...
(http://i.imgur.com/YlvqSPX.gif)
Though it a way it seems fitting that the best thing Liefeld has ever done in his career has been giving his go-ahead to redo one of his characters as essentially its perfect anti-particle.
(http://i.imgur.com/y8f9cbo.jpg)
Anyway, it's a good read. The absolute meanest thing I can say is that there are a few places where the dialogue is a little awkward, and one point where they do that "horde/hoard" mixup thing which happens to make me fucking nuts (it comes up pretty much constantly in game writing, and fucking nobody seems capable of getting it right.)
Hell, I could probably drop this into that old "let's yell at each other about misogyny" topic, but... yeah, let's not. It only ends up making me wish I could educate people I otherwise like by punching them a lot.
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Most of us will probably try to punch you back though.
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That's a scholarly debate!
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I haven't been reading Glory, but you need to check out Prophet, the other recently-relaunched-and-completely-subverted Liefeld book. It's this wonderful surreal Heavy Metal-style SF epic. I don't know what the fuck's going on most of the time but I really am enjoying the shit out of it.
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Yeah, don't Liefeld characters have a history of getting better once Liefeld is miles away from them.
-
That's a scholarly debate!
(http://i48.tinypic.com/2j30geg.jpg)
Tales Designed to Thrizzle, Volume 1
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Yeah, don't Liefeld characters have a history of getting better once Liefeld is miles away from them.
Mostly because they're such generic pastiches that later writers can take them in any direction DC refused to let them take Superman into.
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That's a scholarly debate!
(http://i48.tinypic.com/2j30geg.jpg)
Tales Designed to Thrizzle, Volume 1
Can I just say that...
right now... for this brief instant...
I love you. So much.
... ow fuck I tripped on a haiku. Who has been leaving these things lying around? Someone's going to break their damn neck. Hell, if it included a proper seasonal motif it would have pierced my heart. If there were cherry blossoms in this thing it would have killed us all.
I see you in the back. Brentai or whoever. Don't you dare translate that shit into Japanese, you young bastard. You'll be lucky if you keep any of your fingers.
Oh dear, I lost track of whether I was supposed to be a headmaster or a drill sergeant. Whatever. Works either way. Line up, maggots!
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Yeah, don't Liefeld characters have a history of getting better once Liefeld is miles away from them.
Mostly because they're such generic pastiches that later writers can take them in any direction DC refused to let them take Superman into.
Give the man a ci-gar! The old backstory on Glory was essentially a 90s shitbox Wonder Woman. They actually kept that, stuck with the numbering, and then threw on some Incredible Hulk and an effective story I actually don't want to spoil for once, though it has its share of tropes and cliches. And as almost a happy accident, a bunch of very 90s characters get either maimed or outright mocked (I especially liked the inclusion of "Fourplay," "New Fourplay," and "Even Newer Fourplay.")
But mostly I'm just thrilled that this kind of thing ever sprang from something that in any way ever came into contact with Rob Liefeld. Every head exploding gif goes here. Maybe God does have some kind of plan for us all. If it means turning Liefeld's children into something that even begins to approach what Alan Moore did with Charlton's stable. Bravo, you incomprehensible murderous sky-man. Slow clap.
Hell, speaking of, Alan Moore did an issue of this thing back in its... don't say it.
Well, something else to hunt down.
... right after I read Prophet on Thad's recommendation. Liefeld-loving God damn you, Thad.
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Well, Liefield's most famous character that became a great after he left is
CableDeadpool, so there is a rich history of people taking Liefield's turds then meticulously polishing them. Glory also ties into Supreme, which was another Liefield creation that then became a launching pad for a series by Alan Moore for a few years. Maybe Liefield should just sit back, creates characters and hand them off to competent writers and artists and let the royalties roll in.
And yeah, I'll back up the 'Prophet is sooo good' recommendation. It's written by Brandon Graham, who is a great artist in his own right, but also just writes off-the-wall sci-fi stuff like Multiple Warheads and King City. Great stuff, all of it.
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Also, in other comic news, Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staple's Saga #12 has been banned from the Apple App Store because of thumbnail-sized images of homosexual sex (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/04/09/saga-12-apple-app-store-banned-brian-k-vaughan-fiona-staples-sexual-content/). Just another example of Apple's grip over different forms of publishing. And this in particular comes as a black eye to Comixology, which is getting over it's embarrassment at the Marvel mess-up awhile back. It's hard to make the case for buying digital when some other company can dictate what you can sell and what people can have on their devices.
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To clarify, it's the latest issue of Saga, issue #12; I'm sure you didn't mean to imply it was the entire series but your comment could be read that way.
(Funnily enough I was just having a conversation over on Bissette's comments section (http://srbissette.com/?p=17303#comments) where he brought up the disproportionate influence Apple has on the market.)
It bears noting that last month's issue started with...well, let's go to Thad from a week and a half ago (http://www.corporate-sellout.com/index.php/2013/03/29/saga-sexy-funny-thrilling-and-sad/) for a recap.
When I first opened Saga #11, I was sitting in the lobby of Big-O Tires waiting for an oil change.
And I was like Wow, that sure is a giant splash page of two people fucking right on the first page.
So I quickly flipped to the next page. And on page two, it was naked people talking about how they'd just finished fucking.
So yeah it wasn't a very good comic to be reading in public so I put it back in my bag and read Bravest Warriors instead.
Now, I'll grant those shots in #12 are more graphic than last issue's sex scene. But they're also a lot smaller and not on the first page. (EDIT: One of them IS actually on the first page. My bad.)
And you know, a previous issue had an orgy scene with on-panel (heterosexual) penetration.
And that's without getting into the giant with the huge sagging scrotum. I'll grant that's not the same as a dude getting bukkake'd, but again, it was also significantly larger than a postage stamp and went on for more than two panels.
Point being, this is a stupid fucking place to draw the line and Apple is stupid for drawing it.
You know, the first time I ever used the iTunes Music Store, the fucking thing censored the title of Bitches Brew? Apple is a company that has trouble with the idea that Serious Art can target adult audiences.
Anyway. Probably did 'em a favor. I love the hell out of Saga and if this makes more people go out and see what the fuss is about, then that's great.
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To clarify, it's the latest issue of Saga, issue #12; I'm sure you didn't mean to imply it was the entire series but your comment could be read that way.
Yeah, you're right. Didn't notice that I'd accidentally dropped the issue number. Corrected.
You know, the first time I ever used the iTunes Music Store, the fucking thing censored the title of Bitches Brew? Apple is a company that has trouble with the idea that Serious Art can target adult audiences.
Anyway. Probably did 'em a favor. I love the hell out of Saga and if this makes more people go out and see what the fuss is about, then that's great.
Apple's policies seem to come from that special place where only marketing and legal departments can exist. They seem reluctant to implement an actual parental lock function of any sort on there so parents can have the illusion of control, and that way we don't end up with stupid decisions like how we can't have political cartoons because making fun of politicians is wrong.
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Today, ComiXology's CEO posts to say Apple didn't ban it, ComiXology did it themselves (http://blog.comixology.com/2013/04/10/ceo-on-saga-12-controversy/) (and now that they've reversed that, it'll be up on the store soon).
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http://www.newsarama.com/comics/batgirl-19-reveals-transgender-character.html (http://www.newsarama.com/comics/batgirl-19-reveals-transgender-character.html)
While DC refers to her as the first transgender character, Newsarama pointed out in November 2012 that the heroic DC character Shining Knight was outed as transgender in Demon Knights #14.
However, the Demon Knights issue was published without any fanfare about the character's admission of being transgender. In fact, the hero's "outing" was so accepted and unremarkable to comic book fans that the issue's writer Paul Cornell stated, "It's great that a DC character can come out as transgender and it not excite much comment. Very refreshing."
So then why does this one merit some kind of press release? She's not the first, not even in a mainstream comic.
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The ways of DC press releases are mysterious and vaguely understood.
Also, I heard they're introducing the first black character in a mainstream comic next month.
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Today, ComiXology's CEO posts to say Apple didn't ban it, ComiXology did it themselves (http://blog.comixology.com/2013/04/10/ceo-on-saga-12-controversy/) (and now that they've reversed that, it'll be up on the store soon).
Yeah, just coming here to post about BKV and Fiona Staple's correction to the whole thing. Though, it's coming across as incredibly weird. To read Comixology's response, it sounds like they didn't even try to submit #12 to the App Store. Which is strange in itself, but even stranger that it telephoned to Vaughan and Staples as being Apple's fault. Add to that, Comixology waited until the next day to issue a correction, even as the story was going viral. How, exactly, did this story get so out of hand?
Either way, it brings up the nature of gatekeepers to content, only in this case we're dealing with two of them. It's a reminder that Apple has (in the past) made some dicey decisions about content (and still forbids some explicit content. Their guidelines are the reason given by Instagram for why you can't post nudity), but also brings up the issue that Comixology i still, at their core, a gatekeeper as well, and their decisions must be examined and criticized as well.
So then why does this one merit some kind of press release? She's not the first, not even in a mainstream comic.
DC is releasing a press release to announce the first transgender character to get a DC press release.
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Now, I'll grant those shots in #12 are more graphic than last issue's sex scene. But they're also a lot smaller and not on the first page.
I stand corrected; one of them is in fact on the first page.
Anyway, damn, this mostly derails my planned blog post.
I guess it can STILL be about Comixology and Apple's dominant market positions and the vagueness of Apple's submission guidelines.
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Picked up Batgirl. And y'know, it probably shouldn't have to be said, but DC's press releases are one thing and Gail Simone's writing is another.
I haven't been reading Batgirl ('cept one issue a couple months ago). I don't really know Alysia Yeoh. I knew enough to know she was who everybody was figuring would be the trans character.
But y'know, coming into it as a new reader, I think Simone really nailed it. It's the wonderful little moment of "this is a big deal to this character but it doesn't really change anything". It's that peculiar mix of something that really matters and simultaneously doesn't matter at all.
That's Simone's strength: these little human moments.
(And yeah she totally acknowledges Ystin (http://gailsimone.tumblr.com/post/47631678544/huge-spoiler-alert-of-course-while-yeoh) on her Tumblr, too, and says she was misquoted in claiming Alysia is the first trans DC character.)
The rest of the book -- well, it's more of the "Barbara's brother is a sociopathic serial killer" arc that I don't care much for. I think Gail does a fantastic job with it but it is so very much not my cup of tea.
She's promised things are going to get lighter in the coming months, but next month's cover has a super-creepy new version of the Ventriloquist on it and I'm not holding my breath.
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Stormwatch has changed writers and been rebooted. Apparently, the new DC policy with conflicting canon is FUCK YOU.
Jim Starlin is the sort of writer that I hate but DC really likes: the kind that writes ensemble books where everyone talks exactly the same, in a sort of stilted exposition-speak that betrays no personality or emotion. Geoff Johns is exactly the same but adds occasional reminders of a character's profession or single background event as excuses for a personality. (Did you know Barry Allen is a chemist and a cop? He'll make sure to tell you.)
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BC (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/04/16/digital-first-comics-and-straight-work-for-hire-contracts-with-no-royalties/) alleges DC's Digital First books don't pay royalties.
Fuck. I was really looking forward to Little Gotham and Batman '66.
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It's a hard road, being principled.
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(http://i.imgur.com/cJ55f3E.jpg)
It's interesting how every portrayal of Wonder Woman lately seems to be trying to make her into some kind of man-hating dominatrix, like the typical idiot man-child's idea of what feminists are like.
And by "interesting", I mean, "god am I glad I quit reading cape comics".
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As Buge pointed out, today is the 75th anniversary of the debut of Superman and Lois Lane. Kurt Busiek used the opportunity to drop this nice note about how Superman should be in the public domain by this point (http://kurtbusiek.tumblr.com/post/48333456742/my-favorite-superman-writer-is-cary-bates-artist).
Happy Birthday, Supes.
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ComicsAlliance is being shut down. (http://www.theverge.com/2013/4/29/4283086/comicsalliance-blog-the-latest-aol-property-to-be-shut-down)
Damn shame.
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Huh. That seems weird given that it had good traffic and was well-liked. Why not sell the property?
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I DO love Rich Johnston's observation that the site hadn't updated in 3 days as evidence of impending doom, no reference included to the fact that two of those three days were a goddamn weekend.
Oh, Rich, even when you report things that are true you can't get basic details right.
Anyway, hoping the writers land on their feet. CA had some of the smartest articles (and some of the dumbest comments) on the comics internet.
Fuckin AOL.
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Interesting. This coming on the heels of DC blacklisting The Outhouse:
http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/news/121832-editorial-mandate-what-to-do-when-a-publisher-blacklists-you-3.html (http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/news/121832-editorial-mandate-what-to-do-when-a-publisher-blacklists-you-3.html)
ComicsAlliance is owned by AOL-Time-Warner, which also owns DC. Are the two things connected?
Okay, my out-of-date information is out-of-date, invalidating the possibility of conspiracy.
In a move that surprised no one, Scott Kurtz took the opportunity to gloat: https://twitter.com/pvponline/status/328964117161472000 (https://twitter.com/pvponline/status/328964117161472000)
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Time Warner divested itself of AOL years ago (and Warner spun off Time just this past month or so).
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Well, you know what they say: you either die a hero or... Fuck, this is making me mad.
On a more serious note, I was out of the comics scene for a long time, stopped visiting all the big websites and everything, but I still regarded Comics Alliance as fondly as I did when I was still reading it. I just sorta naively assumed it would stick around forever, but... well, you know.
If nothing else this is getting me to check out my favorite articles again. It's like madeleines laced with arsenic!
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(https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/229717_10151548604298904_978475149_n.jpg)
This was my friend. And it wasn't Trix, it was Fruit Loops. Which is far funnier.
In other news, I went to my LCS for Free Comic Book Day. They recently moved to a new location so everything's really unorganized. On top of that, he doesn't actually buy any new comics anymore. He has a tiny box of New52 stuff and that's it.
His store would be shut down if he didn't take commissions and paint Muppets or supervillians for people. It's bizarre.
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The Movement is off to a pretty solid start. Interesting new characters and setting, good premise (gang of misfit superheroes kicks the corrupt police force out of the Bad Part of Town and tells them they'll be taking care of it from here, thanks), real potential. It's also a lot less grim and nasty than Simone's last couple Batgirl issues.
And because it IS Simone, we've got one immediately-prominent character representing an underrepresented-in-superhero-comics demographic: [spoiler]Burden, a character who initially appears to be possessed by demons but who later turns out just to be a superpowered paranoid schizophrenic who hasn't received the compassion and care he needs to cope with his illness.[/spoiler] As Simone herself puts it (http://gailsimone.tumblr.com/post/49439567113/gail-the-movement-the-movement-gail-it-was-holy): "talks with readers over the past couple years have made me realize that people with mental illnesses need a better representation in comics than the Joker."
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Well, there's Batman.
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Yeah, but he's undiagnosed.
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http://www.hasdcdonesomethingstupidtoday.com (http://www.hasdcdonesomethingstupidtoday.com)
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(http://i.imgur.com/Fze8jYY.gif)
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Welp, Dial H is canceled.
I think within a few months the only DC books I'll be reading will be Astro City and The Unwritten. Oh, and I guess Lemire's new Vertigo book, too, once it starts up.
I guess I MIGHT stick with Detective as long as Layman's on it. It's no Chew, though.
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Welp, Dial H is canceled.
AND Demon Knights. That was a long time coming, though.
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Welp, Dial H is canceled.
son of a WHORE
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ComicsAlliance may be coming back. This morning they posted ';)' with a heartbeat sequence form the Dark Knight Returns (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/05/20/heartbeat/)
(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2013/05/clarkmonday.jpg)
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God Dial H I love you SOFA KING MUCH.
You know what I hope is that this doesn't put Mieville off comics but makes him decide to do some creator-owned stuff.
Hell, I think he should file the serial numbers off Scrap Iron Man (http://chinamieville.net/post/4406165249/rejected-pitch) and do THAT as a creator-owned series.
(It would also make a great concept for a Hardware relaunch. If he wanted to do a book that was guaranteed to be really awesome and then get abruptly cancelled. Which, in fairness, he's already done once.)
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That looks a bit too close to Enginehead to be pulled off.
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I picked up a copy of Comic Book Creator #1; it features a big story on Kirby and interviews with Kurt Busiek, Alex Ross, and Derf Backderf, among others.
You can get a free bonus PDF (http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=108&products_id=1112) that has extended versions of some of the interviews and such. If you don't mind signing up for a free account. Which, okay, I mind a little, but John Morrow is good people.
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And had a pleasant chat with Valiant CEO Dinesh Shamdasani who gave me all the information I was looking for vis-a-vis Trinity Angels. I am now cool with them.
That's a relief.
Still no word from Priest and Bright on the new Quantum and Woody, but I would say this is a good sign that Valiant is acting in good faith and trying to do right by the Acclaim-era creators.
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ComicsAlliance may be coming back. This morning they posted ';)' with a heartbeat sequence form the Dark Knight Returns (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/05/20/heartbeat/)
(http://www.blogcdn.com/www.comicsalliance.com/media/2013/05/clarkmonday.jpg)
And this today:
(http://i.imgur.com/yUM78FY.jpg)
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Johnston talks to Bright (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/05/31/valiant/), who says
As far as I know Priest hasn’t spoken to anyone about anything concerning Quantum and Woody other than myself and that happened only within the last month or so… Our position with Valiant isn’t adversarial. The people at Valiant have been more than willing to talk about what is happening at the company and with Quantum and Woody and with Priest and me. What happens from here is yet to be seen, but everything thus far has been amicable.
Johnston adds:
And I’m told that even though they are not legally obliged to, Valiant are offering to pay royalties to creators on the publication of older work.
That's...something, at least. I still think it's a messed-up situation, but it's better than it could have been.
And now I can link this without feeling too bad about it:
Quantum and Woody Weekly at IGN (http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/29/ign-presents-quantum-and-woody-weekly-may-29-2013), featuring a strip by James Asmus and Ty Templeton every week leading up to the #1 of the new series. The first one, well, it ain't Priest and Bright but I admit it made me smile.
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http://imgur.com/gallery/h2my0 (http://imgur.com/gallery/h2my0)
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No more teases; CA is back for real (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/06/03/comicsalliance-returns-townsquare-comics-everybody-lets-be-friends-again/). It's still got AOL trappings on it but apparently is now owned by Townsquare Media.
Here's hoping the AOL stuff gets replaced by something else. Especially that nightmare of a comments system.
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Typical. Another comic book death that is overturned in two months. Way to be predictable, comics industry.
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CA has the first 12 pages of the new Quantum and Woody (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/06/03/quantum-and-woody-1-preview-valiant/).
It's not nearly as funny as the original, but I have to admit Asmus has captured the relationship between the two leads well.
(While shamelessly cribbing Priest's nonsequential storytelling and even his chapter titles. I'm not crazy about that part.)
This looks decent. And while I'm still pretty conflicted about the rights situation, I think Bright's recent comments are good enough for me to throw down a few bucks on #1 and see how it goes.
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So. Superior Spider-man, Hawkeye, and Indestructible Hulk. Anything else Marvel is knocking out of the park?
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I hear good things about Defenders. Or New Defenders or whatever it's called.
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On the one hand, I still haven't finished the comics I picked up 2 weeks ago.
On the other, new Astro City.
Also, I'm low on beer.
(The place where I buy beer is by the comic shop.)
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Astro City #1 is fucking delightful. If you're already a fan, I will tell you that it's not only better than Dark Age, it will reward you for being a fan.
And if you're not a fan, I assure you this is a perfectly decent jumping-on point, though if you want to pick up some old trades first I certainly support that course of action, too. (Life in the Big City, Family Album, and Confession are the first three, are my favorites, and don't have to be read in order.)
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Dial H continues to be the best DC book (or at least the best DC proper book).
This month we found out the tragic origin story of Open Window Man, my new favorite superhero.
[spoiler]It's exactly like Batman's origin story, except instead of a bat crashing through a window he is inspired by just a regular window.[/spoiler]
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BC interviews Paul Jenkins (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/06/05/the-bullying-of-creators-paul-jenkins-talks-about-leaving-dc-and-marvel-for-boom/), who talks about how fucked up things are at Marvel and especially DC right now.
It's pretty much what anybody who's been reading or even following DC for the past couple of years has already worked out: Warner is running the show and forcing the editorial directions of the books, creators are not being treated like creators, and, well, at least on the fringes there are still some books that aren't being micromanaged, but those are of course the books that Warner doesn't care about and that are a hair's breadth from cancellation at any given moment.
I guess there are a few exceptions. Batwoman seems to be doing its own thing despite being (nominally) a Bat-book. And while I haven't been reading Wonder Woman, I've certainly gotten the impression that it IS very much Azz and Chiang steering the ship -- but Wonder Woman kind of occupies a unique place in the DC pantheon in that she's one of their biggest characters but corporate has no idea what the fuck to do with her. And of course anything Morrison does is going to be Morrison doing whatever the fuck he wants, but he's a smaller and smaller presence at DC all the time.
On the one hand, it's sad. On the other, well, the solution is the same as it always is: buy books you like, don't buy books you don't. I think there are still a handful of great books coming out of DC, even if that number is shrinking all the time -- but, more to the point, there are plenty of other publishers around if DC isn't doing it for you. Image and Dark Horse are putting out the best work they have in years; Boom's putting out great stuff too, and Jenkins praises them as a place where he's respected, even if some creators there have complained about the rates.
Back to Jenkins's specific comments:
The culprit, in my opinion, is the culture of the comic industry over the two and a half decades I have worked in it. When things are going poorly, the creators are most valuable. They are needed, so that they can pull the publishers arses out of the fire when creative bankruptcy sets in. When the business is doing well (and let’s face it, the Avengers just made 1.4 billion dollars) then the creators are disposable.
It's a good point. Some of the best comics I've ever read were Marvel coming out of bankruptcy. We had Marvel Knights, Priest's Panther, on into Milligan and the Allreds' X-Force/X-Statix.
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Appeals court vacates Friedrich ruling (http://comicsbeat.com/appeals-court-revives-gary-friedrichs-ghost-rider-law-suit/)
More later, but this could be big; throws back-of-check contracts back into question.
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BC interviews Paul Jenkins (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/06/05/the-bullying-of-creators-paul-jenkins-talks-about-leaving-dc-and-marvel-for-boom/), who talks about how fucked up things are at Marvel and especially DC right now.
His screeds about how comic creators should be able to do whatever they want man oppose his actual ideas, which are terrible and deserved to be stopped by editorial.
Never forget that comics creators were once comics nerds.
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More thoughts on the Friedrich developments. (http://www.corporate-sellout.com/index.php/2013/06/12/gary-friedrich/) It's still pretty damn early and these are just my initial reactions after reading a couple of articles by people more familiar with the case and the law than I am -- but it's definitely going to be interesting to see how this plays out and what ramifications it has elsewhere.
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http://thrillbent.com/blog/how-dc-contracts-work/ (http://thrillbent.com/blog/how-dc-contracts-work/)
Interesting, but unsurprising. I had no idea how much Paul Levitz went to bat for creators, either.
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And speaking of Aragones (http://brontoforum.us/index.php?topic=89.msg259162#msg259162), the new issue of Funnies is finally out and the comic is scheduled to continue on a bimonthly basis from here on in. (I'm willing to bet that, even slowing down in his old age, he's still the fastest artist in comics.)
It is delightful. Aragones remains a treasure and one of the greatest who has ever lived. And while five decades in the business may have taken a toll on his achin' back, they haven't made his material any less funny, sharp, or brilliant. (I mean, I think of some of the all-time greatest cartoonists, and...well, the last 20 years of Charles Schulz's output was dreck, and Jack Kirby's 1980's work, while fascinating and beautifully drawn, never quite clicked like his earlier stuff. A guy with Aragones's resume could easily retire or phone it in -- and instead he's doing work that's as good as anything he's ever done. ...though I have to admit I had to stare at that strip on the back cover for like five minutes before I got the joke. I probably spent more time puzzling that comic out than the spot-the-differences/find-the-hidden-objects puzzles. And those are HARD.)
If you like comics you need to buy this. If you don't like comics you need to buy it anyway. It's got simple gag strips, biting political satire, wonderful true stories from a guy who's lived an interesting damn life and picked up plenty of anecdotes along the way...just good, pure, all-ages comics.
And when I say "all-ages", I must reiterate that his cartooning style is striking enough that it stuck out to my two-year-old nephew out of two entire shelves full of Batman statues. Simple, evocative, funny; cartooning at its purest and finest.
(And the pictures are a lot bigger in Funnies than in Mad.)
Now when is Groo Meets Conan supposed to come out, anyway?
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Got my Ditko books. Haven't had a chance to do more than leaf through them yet but I am very excited.
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Gerry Conway starts a site for crowdsourcing creator credits (http://comicsequity.blogspot.co.uk/) for DC characters -- so that those creators get paid when DC uses their characters.
A personal note. I started this site because some of my fans alerted me to the use in the TV series "Arrow" of characters I co-created in the late 1970s, early 1980s. Without those fans I wouldn't have known those characters were appearing. I wouldn't have filed equity participation paperwork with DC. And neither I nor the artists I worked with would be eligible to receive money for the use of those characters. DC does not make payments retroactive. If a creator wants to claim equity participation in a character he or she co-created, they need to do so proactively.
Anyone who's created any characters for DC since 1975 is eligible. So if you've got a favorite obscure DC character, go to the site and fill out the form.
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Superior Foes of Spider-man came out today.
It's from a c-list villian's (Boomerang) point of view and about him and his team just trying to get by.
It's got a similar feel to Hawkeye as they both have nice simple art and are about the day to day life.
Give it a read if you haven't.
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Image has just announced (http://www.imagecomics.com/content/view/welcome-to-the-new-imagecomics.com) in-house, DRM-free, standards-compliant digital comics sales. The store (http://www.imagecomics.com/store/comics) has a pretty small selection at the moment, but this is only day two and I expect it to fill out nicely pretty quickly.
Further thoughts (http://www.corporate-sellout.com/index.php/2013/07/03/images-goes-drm-free/), which are about what you expect them to be.
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So, as we all know, Jim Steranko is fucking amazing.
And it appears he's on Twitter (https://twitter.com/iamsteranko/). ComicsAlliance (http://comicsalliance.com/jim-steranko-twitter-slap-bob-kane/) notes that it's unconfirmed whether or not it's really him -- but I tell you what, if it's not, it's somebody who's a great fucking raconteur and who's studied the way Steranko talks and the kinds of stories he tells.
That ComicsAlliance link, BTW, is about how he bitch-slapped Bob Kane.
Bleeding Cool's got one on his superhuman abilities (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/07/05/jim-sterankos-ability-to-see-in-the-dark-breathe-fire-employ-x-ray-vision-and-do-without-sleep-why-you-need-to-be-following-him-on-twitter/) and another about how he forged $20 bills to buy his girlfriend a fur coat (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/07/09/when-jim-steranko-drew-his-own-money-to-buy-a-fur-coat/). None of this fancy printing-press forgery shit, either; he drew the forgeries himself.
Even if it's all bullshit -- and even if it is the real Steranko, I won't rule out the possibility that it's still all bullshit -- it's pretty damn entertaining.
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It's almost certainly bullshit. But as you said, it's a gas.
I'm still sad we never got Steranko's Chandler: Red Tide reprint Dark Horse had been planning in 1999.
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A fan of Matt Fraction's Hawkeye recently sent an Ask to Fraction's Tumblr, talking about how she was made fun of for cosplaying Hawkeye because of her weight. Fraction responded by being a wonderful human being (http://mattfraction.com/post/54813242962/i-have-sent-you-a-few-photos-of-my-hawkeye-cosplay).
(https://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/6ddad5b5c2aa1d2fcaad6c418d3ae0f4/tumblr_inline_mpjzk6DP5i1rzqgjt.jpg)
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So, as we all know, Jim Steranko is fucking amazing.
And it appears he's on Twitter (https://twitter.com/iamsteranko/). ComicsAlliance (http://comicsalliance.com/jim-steranko-twitter-slap-bob-kane/) notes that it's unconfirmed whether or not it's really him -- but I tell you what, if it's not, it's somebody who's a great fucking raconteur and who's studied the way Steranko talks and the kinds of stories he tells.
That ComicsAlliance link, BTW, is about how he bitch-slapped Bob Kane.
Bleeding Cool's got one on his superhuman abilities (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/07/05/jim-sterankos-ability-to-see-in-the-dark-breathe-fire-employ-x-ray-vision-and-do-without-sleep-why-you-need-to-be-following-him-on-twitter/) and another about how he forged $20 bills to buy his girlfriend a fur coat (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/07/09/when-jim-steranko-drew-his-own-money-to-buy-a-fur-coat/). None of this fancy printing-press forgery shit, either; he drew the forgeries himself.
Even if it's all bullshit -- and even if it is the real Steranko, I won't rule out the possibility that it's still all bullshit -- it's pretty damn entertaining.
Bendis seems to think it's Matt Fraction, which is plausible, since he was behind the Hobo Darkseid twitter account, and, as noted in the post above, is completely awesome.
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I'm still sad we never got Steranko's Chandler: Red Tide reprint Dark Horse had been planning in 1999.
Supposedly it's still in the works.
Bendis seems to think it's Matt Fraction, which is plausible, since he was behind the Hobo Darkseid twitter account, and, as noted in the post above, is completely awesome.
Hm. Fraction is a pretty good guess.
-
CA has the first 12 pages of the new Quantum and Woody (http://www.comicsalliance.com/2013/06/03/quantum-and-woody-1-preview-valiant/).
It's not nearly as funny as the original, but I have to admit Asmus has captured the relationship between the two leads well.
(While shamelessly cribbing Priest's nonsequential storytelling and even his chapter titles. I'm not crazy about that part.)
This looks decent. And while I'm still pretty conflicted about the rights situation, I think Bright's recent comments are good enough for me to throw down a few bucks on #1 and see how it goes.
As it turns out, I don't have much to add after reading the rest of it.
This isn't the book I was hoping for, but it's still pretty good. It's not as funny or as smart, but its heart's in the right place. The details are different but the core of the book, the relationship between these two childhood friends who are still mad at each other, is there, and that counts for a whole lot more than a goat on the cover.
I'm still hoping that someday Priest and Bright will get it back. I'm hoping the new book does well and that the old stuff goes back into print and they get paid for it -- and I hope that leads to more work from them, Q&W or otherwise.
Anyway...on its own merits the book is solid. I'll be around for #2.
-
The time jump in The Massive #13 is so fucking jarring that I went back and bought #12, thinking I'd missed an issue, and got 3 pages into it before confirming that no, I hadn't missed anything, Brian Wood did in fact just jump from hacking their way out of ice in the Arctic Circle to chasing a nuclear sub in Manhattan with NO FUCKING TRANSITION.
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Simone has assembled a truly eye-popping who's-who of female comics writers for Red Sonja's 40th anniversary (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/07/15/gail-simone-brings-devin-grayson-marjorie-m-liu-kelly-sue-deconnick-blair-butler-rhianna-pratchett-leah-moore-tamora-pierce-nancy-collins-meljean-brook-nicola-scott-mercedes-lackey-and-mor/)
Via the press release (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=46626):
Marjorie M. Liu, Mercedes Lackey, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Rhianna Pratchett, Leah Moore, Tamora Pierce, Blair Butler, Nancy Collins, Meljean Brook, Nicola Scott, Devin Grayson and more to be announced.
Rich Johnston snipes, "And for those publishers wondering about their own female creative line up, isn’t it embarrassing that just one title will have more female writers than every book you’ve published this year so far?"
Simone herself (http://gailsimone.tumblr.com/post/55526037847/and-for-those-publishers-wondering-about-their-own) responds, "Ooooh burn!! Gotta admit, it is a fair question!"
-
I managed to snag the last copy of Red Sonja #1 from my LCS.
Worth it!
-
News out of Comic-Con I'm most interested in so far:
New Bone from Jeff Smith.
Mark and Sergio are doing a history of Mad.
And also Groo vs. Conan is coming along.
And also also Stan Sakai is doing an adaptation of War of the Worlds set in feudal Japan.
-
New Bone from Jeff Smith.
Huhwhat?!
Mark and Sergio are doing a history of Mad.
OOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooohhh
-
New Bone from Jeff Smith.
Huhwhat?!
Didn't link because there's really no other information beyond that, but that's what Bleeding Cool (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/07/18/new-bone-from-jeff-smith/) is saying, at least.
And here's the Mark and Sergio (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/07/18/a-new-history-of-mad-magazine-by-mark-evanier-and-sergio-aragones-groo-friendsfoes-and-maybe-grootarzan/) post.
Just teases so far and no real information to speak of. But I'm a lot more excited about this stuff than anything else I've heard.
Though I'm still hoping for a Batman '66 DVD announcement.
-
That reminds me of how I was collecting RASL as one of the very last monthly comics I was picking up (I was down to like that, Conan, and one other book). My getting fired from the job I had at the time put the last nail in my buying comics* so I never actually picked up the last issues (I was up to like issue 6 or 7?). I had completely forgotten about that book. I guess I should finish that off at some point.
*I finally started again, though only in the smallest way. Maybe a half-dozen trades in the last year.
-
I'm kinda curious what it would be like to read Rasl in one sitting. It sure was a pretty book, but it was one of those that came out so seldom that I'd forgotten the previous issue by the time I picked up the new one and it was pretty hard to give a fuck. And fetishizing Tesla is so passe.
I gripe, but a mediocre Jeff Smith book is still better than damn near anything else you're likely to see.
Anyway, the bad news is Evanier says he and Aragones are not actually doing a book about the history of Mad (http://www.newsfromme.com/2013/07/19/early-friday-morning-3/). Serves me right for linking unsourced rumors from Bleeding Cool. :whoops:
Still looking forward to Groo vs. Conan, though.
-
So here's an actually-sourced announcement from Bleeding Cool, then: Walter Simonson is doing a new series based in Norse mythology (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/07/19/more-on-walt-simonsons-new-epic-series-from-idw-ragnarok/).
So we are getting new Thor from Simonson. Not Marvel's Thor, but the way I see it this is even better.
-
Then a lovely young lady got up and thanked me for including Alysia in Batgirl and she got a big hand from this hardcore DC comics crowd.
[...]
This makes me happy. This thing that would have been super controversial a few years ago, to the point where it seemed like it might never happen, was met not with scorn for the most part, but with a positive reaction. People like Alysia, we get constant requests for MORE of her story in the book.
This makes me happy because there is so much bad news out there, and the notion that a trans character would be embraced by the comics community, well, that’s very nice. It makes me happy because when I was growing up, in a small, very white town, the first interracial marriage I ever saw was in a comic. The first out gay hero character I ever saw was in a comic. If we’re telling stories about heroes, inclusion follows naturally, or we’re doing it wrong.
It's easy to think of the loud assholes as representative. It's nice to be told that they're not.
I like to think the decent folks outnumber the rotten ones. In fandom and outside of it.
-
I think I liked Quantum and Woody #2 better than #1. It feels more like Asmus and Fowler are starting to make the book their own.
Yes, there's a framing device that leads into a flashback with a white-text-black-background title. But I'm pretty sure it only happens once this time.
The art's better, too. Fowler's faces are a little weird and distorted -- in a way I like, that reminds me of Jim Lawson or Jeff Lemire.
For all that it seems fresher than last issue, it's got its nods to the original series too -- Quantum appears in his original MD Bright costume (in the now traditional "superhero appears in a different costume for his first outing" bit), Magnum gets a namedrop, and -- was there a Created By credit in #1? Because there is in this one. Not only that, but there's a Comixology ad that prominently features issue #1 of the new series and almost-as-prominently features #1 of the original series. And again, while I don't know for certain that Priest and Bright are getting royalties for the old books on Comixology, I've seen unnamed sources quoted as saying that, and I think it's the likeliest explanation for Bright saying things are amicable with Valiant and Maguire declaring that he's cool with the company too now.
So -- again, with the heavy disclaimer that I don't know FOR SURE that Priest and Bright are profiting from the original series -- there's a prominent ad for it in this book and I THINK that's an ad for something that sends money their way.
(Well, I mean, technically #1 is free. But you know what I mean.)
Anyway, that's rather a long tangent. Point is, I like the book, and I think it's both starting to find its new voice AND do a better job of acknowledging its origins.
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http://comicsalliance.com/stardust-toy-fletcher-hanks-fantomah/ (http://comicsalliance.com/stardust-toy-fletcher-hanks-fantomah/)
Oh man, he's even got the messed-up proportions.
-
Punk Diana (http://franzbluest.tumblr.com/post/58102178662/rock-is-not-dead-just-ask-diana)
-
Zatanna as Slash? Yes.
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http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2013/08/23/dc_comics_to_launch_justice_league_canada_in_2014.html (http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2013/08/23/dc_comics_to_launch_justice_league_canada_in_2014.html)
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http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2013/08/23/dc_comics_to_launch_justice_league_canada_in_2014.html (http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2013/08/23/dc_comics_to_launch_justice_league_canada_in_2014.html)
PFFFLOL
EDIT: It'd be funny if the reason they move the Justice League to Canada is to escape tyrannical US spying. :whoops:
-
Happy Birthday to The King.
-
Happy Birthday to The King.
Tom Scioli reposted (http://www.ambarb.com/?p=1146) a comic he drew about Jack Kirby in honor of the occasion.
-
I wrote a bit of a ramble (http://www.corporate-sellout.com/index.php/2013/08/28/important-comics/) where I covered both Kirby's birthday and the anniversary of the March on Washington, by way of tying them together through John Lewis's new comic and the 1950's-era MLK comic that he's discussed reading as a teenager. Funnybooks can be serious business.
It also seemed appropriate to work in a bit about the Black Panther and how Marvel censored Kirby's design and covered up his jaw. I suppose you could give them the benefit of the doubt and say Jack's version looked too much like Batman, but...nah, I think concealing his skin tone was deliberate. Marvel was always on the progressive side -- but it was that cautious, commercially-viable form of progressivism.
-
The Batwoman writers are done (http://www.hadenblackman.com/archives/696).
Unfortunately, in recent months, DC has asked us to alter or completely discard many long-standing storylines in ways that we feel compromise the character and the series. We were told to ditch plans for Killer Croc’s origins; forced to drastically alter the original ending of our current arc, which would have defined Batwoman’s heroic future in bold new ways; and, most crushingly, prohibited from ever showing Kate and Maggie actually getting married. All of these editorial decisions came at the last minute, and always after a year or more of planning and plotting on our end.
sigh
-
Huh.
You know how I've been saying for months that by the end of the year I might not be reading a single Bat-book but oh wait that's right there's always Batwoman?
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So, uh... Lobo is Bishie now?
(http://i.imgur.com/j2TsRRI.jpg)
Jesus Christ, DC.
Holy Fraggaroley
-
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/09/want-to-be-a-dc-artist-just-draw-harley-quinn-naked-committing-suicide (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/09/want-to-be-a-dc-artist-just-draw-harley-quinn-naked-committing-suicide)
seriously, what the fudge
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So, uh... Lobo is Bishie now?
Given that Lobo's entire thing is that he vacillates between being a parody of the excesses of the comics industry and a perfect example of them, I am totally okay with this.
And speaking of situations where it's difficult to tell the difference between a parody of DC and totally-serious DC:
http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/09/want-to-be-a-dc-artist-just-draw-harley-quinn-naked-committing-suicide (http://www.tor.com/blogs/2013/09/want-to-be-a-dc-artist-just-draw-harley-quinn-naked-committing-suicide)
seriously, what the fudge
My first reaction on reading this was "Wait, isn't this a Connor/Palmiotti book?"
And sure enough, via The Outhousers (http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/news/123898-dc-releases-script-for-harley-quinn-contest-internet-outraged.html), Palmiotti claims that the scene is a parody of the terrible things writers have been doing to Harley Quinn.
DC editorial hasn't earned the benefit of the doubt, but Mr. and Mrs. Amanda Connor have. I still plan on picking up the issue.
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Oh, so they turn a prominent male hero completely, 100% flaming gay, and still you guys complain!
-
oh, yeah, fuck. that reminds me:
(http://i.imgur.com/RmoWMtN.jpg)
(http://i.imgur.com/RsKH1JR.jpg)
Wonder Woman's official costume versus a porn parody costume.
http://io9.com/who-has-the-best-live-action-wonder-woman-outfit-the-w-458956801 (http://io9.com/who-has-the-best-live-action-wonder-woman-outfit-the-w-458956801)
The one on the bottom could uh, stand to cover a little more vulva, of course.
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Man, Axel Braun has just been KILLING it.
The Batman '66 parody has to be the best one, of course -- they had the guy playing the Joker grow a mustache JUST SO HE COULD COVER IT WITH MAKEUP like Cesar Romero -- but my God they're ALL pretty spectacular. He just did a Wolverine one with a comic-accurate Lady Deathstrike. (Er, aside from the claws, I would hope.)
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Given that Lobo's entire thing is that he vacillates between being a parody of the excesses of the comics industry and a perfect example of them, I am totally okay with this.
It did provide Coelasquid with some material (http://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/1905), that's for sure.
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http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/news/123915-what-no-aquaman-is-not-married-to-mera-why-would-you-think-that.html (http://www.theouthousers.com/index.php/news/123915-what-no-aquaman-is-not-married-to-mera-why-would-you-think-that.html)
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On the plus side, it's pretty clear that DC's not anti-gay, just anti-marriage.
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DC is against anything that progresses a relationship past third base. Because the more a relationship develops, the less they can do with a character, right? It also means that it's just another thing to undo once a new writer comes along with their own preconceived notions of what the character should be like. Besides, people don't read comics to read about relationships. That's boring! It has nothing to do with punching, laser eyes, the batmobile, two-page spreads of battle scenes, or close-ups of ladies' bottoms, which is why people really read comics.
Ugh. Oof. Excuse me, I think I'm coming down with a case of Didio.
-
I just realized the other day that fighting and stuff, in videogames as much as comics, is a substitute for actual change. You have a lot of shit flying and people punching each other to disguise the fact that, at the end of the issue, everything returns to the status quo because that's simpler in the long run.
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DC is against anything that progresses a relationship past third base. [...] Ugh. Oof. Excuse me, I think I'm coming down with a case of Didio.
You say this like they're not just following Marvel and Joe Q's lead.
Granted, DC/National invented this shit, when they nixed The K-Metal from Krypton (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_K-Metal_from_Krypton) in 1940.
I often wonder about just how different American comics would be if that story had been published. I think that was a critical moment, when the guys who invented this shit really wanted to shake things up and the publisher refused to mess with a good thing. The last 73 years of American superhero comics have been iterations on that single moment, I think.
(And of course an entirely different critical moment occurred in the 1950's and decimated every other American comics genre.)
I just realized the other day that fighting and stuff, in videogames as much as comics, is a substitute for actual change. You have a lot of shit flying and people punching each other to disguise the fact that, at the end of the issue, everything returns to the status quo because that's simpler in the long run.
I just finished reading The Untold Story of Marvel Comics, and one of the recurring themes is Stan Lee's mandate that stories only provide "the illusion of change", and not ACTUAL change.
(Stan, ironically, is responsible for the MJ marriage mandate which was later, messily, overturned for a reversion to status quo. Now, that marriage actually WAS a terrible idea, but that's precisely BECAUSE it was an editorial/marketing mandate that made absolutely no sense in the context of the then-current Spider-Man comics -- MJ hadn't even been a major character for years.)
Futurama nailed it pretty hard, too, all the way back in (production) season 1:
Fry: Married? Jenny can't get married.
Leela: Why not? It's clever, it's unexpected.
Fry: But that's not why people watch TV. Clever things make people feel stupid, and unexpected things make them feel scared.
...it occurs to me that Futurama just ended with [spoiler]Fry and Leela getting married and growing old together and then everything being reset at the end of the episode[/spoiler]. That seems appropriate.
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Talking about 90's-era funnybooks elsewhere brought this classic up:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v139/mengblom/changes/10capwolf.jpg)
seriously this shit should be in a museum; no matter what order your eyes gaze upon them, every element of this cover is funnier/worse than the last
you have captain america, who is now a werewolf
you have cable saying "back off, fur face!"
while wearing what appears to be a flotation device
and the rare male example of the impossible "boobs and butt" pose
and the final caption, "WHO WILL BE LORD OF THE WOLVES?"
wolverine is just chilling in the background, because it's the 90s and that's what you do
-
Well, yeah, they had to have Cap do SOMEthing in the '90s to justify keeping his book around. He'd stopped being Nomad and The Captain at that point, so what do you do once you're done reclaiming your superhero identity from a corrupt government? Become a werewolf, of course.
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Valiant teases "The (Original) World's Worst Superhero Team". (http://comicsbeat.com/valiant-tease-the-original-quantum-and-woody-team/)
Which had damn-well-better mean Priest and Bright.
Even if it's only the handful of finished-but-unpublished issues of the original Q&W, I'll take it. But I sure hope it's something new.
-
Sandman prequel. Thankfully, by Neil Gaiman.
http://www.vertigocomics.com/comics/the-sandman-overture-2013/the-sandman-overture-1 (http://www.vertigocomics.com/comics/the-sandman-overture-2013/the-sandman-overture-1)
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Gaiman may be the last creator left who DC has the good sense not to piss off.
This may be because DC has some goodwill to a man who has made them hundreds of millions of dollars. Or it could be because he's the most prominent example of a creator who has successfully sued a comics publisher.
(It's probably actually the former. Or, at least, that they know they'll make more money with his name on it than with him urging a boycott. Gaiman's victory over McFarlane was an important moment, but he doesn't really have any case for ownership of Sandman and has said as much.)
-
Valiant teases "The (Original) World's Worst Superhero Team". (http://comicsbeat.com/valiant-tease-the-original-quantum-and-woody-team/)
Which had damn-well-better mean Priest and Bright.
Even if it's only the handful of finished-but-unpublished issues of the original Q&W, I'll take it. But I sure hope it's something new.
Yep. (http://comicsalliance.com/quantum-and-woody-christopher-priest-mark-bright-interview-valiant/)
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And another interview at CBR (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=48361).
On the plot: it picks up 20 years after the original series.
Basically, Woody is off living his life, the Quantum character reappears on the news and some news chopper gets a shot of Quantum in action. At first, Woody is kind of scoffing at him, because he knows Eric's way too old to be running around like this now. But then he sees on the news that Quantum has a new partner -- and the partner's like a teenage sidekick. Woody thinks Eric's lost his mind, that he's being really reckless and irresponsible, endangering some kid. In theory, Woody thinks he has to seek Quantum out and confront him about this new behavior and talk some sense into him. That's the inciting incident for the story that brings them back into each others' lives.
And on being asked to do it:
For reasons that only Dinesh could possibly know, Valiant went out of their way -- and I mean really out of their way -- to approach us. They kind of went down to the old comic book creators' home and dragged us out in our wheelchairs and said, "Hey, we want you guys to do this."
This has been a rollercoaster, but as both a fan of the comics and of the creators I really couldn't be happier right now. In a world where I've come to expect the worst from publishers, it's wonderful to be wrong.
From here on in, any time I hear something bad about Dinesh Shamdasani, he gets the benefit of the doubt.
-
Steve Niles 'loses everything' to flood (http://comicsalliance.com/steve-niles-flood-damage-help/)
And like all successful, well-known comics creators he doesn't have the money for insurance so he needs help. Honestly, how many creators need to be ruined before we end this system?
-
Superman 75th Anniversary Animated Short (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebXB0lBoaQ0#)
-
And like all successful, well-known comics creators he doesn't have the money for insurance so he needs help. Honestly, how many creators need to be ruined before we end this system?
Obviously I agree, but Niles's case isn't really the equivalent of the typical freelancer's -- he's done some Batman minis here and there, sure, but his most successful work is creator-owned. If every freelancer in the industry were given a full-time employment contract tomorrow, that still wouldn't have an impact on guys like Niles. I'm not sure even a union would help given that he's working for himself.
So what's the answer in his case? I know that if he were a successful novelist, every book would come with a contract and an advance that would cover his living expenses until the deadline.
I don't know. It's a compelling question. We spend a lot of time -- justifiably -- considering how much freelancers get fucked over by the major publishers, not getting a fair piece of the revenue their work has generated -- but it can be pretty rotten for even a successful creator-owner who DOES get to profit from his work.
-
Bill Watterson chills out, gives an interview (http://mentalfloss.com/article/53216/mental-floss-exclusive-our-interview-bill-watterson)
-
Superman 75th Anniversary Animated Short (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ebXB0lBoaQ0#)
Well, that was an absolutely delightful two minutes.
Hey, you know what popular DC superhero has a 75th anniversary next year? Bruce Timm should totally try doing some kind of animated project related to Batman.
-
Yet another classic panel-taken-out-of-context.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-XhqFzJlytIo/TZu_qm83FRI/AAAAAAAACZ4/hHQnP0Y9LkA/s320/LukeCageRoguesGallery_04.jpg)
-
Yeah, but this isn't Joker's Boner. The context is pretty much what you think it is.
-
True! In this case it's more taken-in-isolation, I suppose.
-
I've been kind of wanting to do a comics podcast for a while. Mostly weekly recaps and story summaries before going off tangent and whathaveyou. This is basically what I do Wednesday nights at the bar anyway.
My problem is I stick to Marvel and indie and don't touch anything DC. I asked around trying to find someone who does and found absolutely no one (other then the occasional "I only read a Superman twice a year to feel sad.")
That's a pretty bad sign.
-
Everyone I know who read DC, myself included, had been periodically and steadily removing more and more titles from their pull list until they just didn't have anything left.
It's sad because DC has some amazing potential content (see: just about everything they put out that's not a comic) but their comics-division leadership and editorial just keeps fucking it up.
-
Yeah, you've all seen my slow burn here.
DC's still putting out a few good titles (I like The Movement and...another one might come to me); Vertigo has turned out to be much less doomed than I thought when Berger left. I'm really enjoying Trillium and, of course, Astro City; I'm hoping Unwritten finds its footing again but I'm kinda irritated that even Vertigo is now getting caught up in crossovers and relaunched #1's.
-
Here's an interesting one: Artist Al Plastino finds the artwork for his Superman/JFK story about to be auctioned (http://comicsalliance.com/al-plastino-superman-president-kennedy-art-auction/)
What makes the story interesting, though, is that Plastino was under the impression that the pages had been donated to the JFK museum at Harvard for the last 50 years. Apparently the art wound up in a Sotheby's auction in 1993 and that's why they've been sitting around. As a result, people are wondering about the current status of the work. Interesting to see where this goes.
-
http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=48808 (http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=48808)
DC is moving its offices to Burbank.
-
Marvel introducing teenage Muslim girl as the next Ms. Marvel, giving her a solo book (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/06/books/marvel-comics-introducing-a-muslim-girl-superhero.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0)
While I applaud the effort, those Spider-Man sales numbers just seem to confirm my feeling that diversity in comics is a band-aid on a sucking chest wound.
-
Well, we had to cancel the book because its numbers were low. But hey, at least we tried! Now get ready for five more titles starring Wolverine.
-
I also find it amusing that they've chosen to go the "all the minorities rolled into a single character" route.
-
She needs a disability as well. Physical, of course. Mental disabilities aren't real
-
I also find it amusing that they've chosen to go the "all the minorities rolled into a single character" route.
Eh. I understand the "filling out checkboxes" view, but most people aren't just one thing.
She needs a disability as well. Physical, of course. Mental disabilities aren't real
Or are only used for villains. Thankfully there appear to be some efforts to break that trend recently.
-
I also find it amusing that they've chosen to go the "all the minorities rolled into a single character" route.
Eh. I understand the "filling out checkboxes" view, but most people aren't just one thing.
She needs a disability as well. Physical, of course. Mental disabilities aren't real
Or are only used for villains. Thankfully there appear to be some efforts to break that trend recently.
I know I'm just making fun of the "collective token" concept where you can minmax more slots for heroic white guys but putting all your token obligations on one character.
-
Remember Dust? I remember Dust. She was kinda neat until they started drawing her abaya clinging skintight to her breasts. She still around?
-
There's always Faiza Hussain... but then, nobody reads Captain Britain.
-
(http://i.imgur.com/EGKSPBd.jpg)
-
http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/10/10/the-dc-comics-weekly-spinning-out-of-five-years-later-new-details-from-the-bars-of-new-york/ (http://www.bleedingcool.com/2013/10/10/the-dc-comics-weekly-spinning-out-of-five-years-later-new-details-from-the-bars-of-new-york/)
a DC Comics weekly title was spinning off from the Five Years Later event next September.
Five Years Later will spin out of the planned September event, which sees every book skip forward in time five years in their future, for that month only.
oh my goodness how different might these heroes be in five years
will joker be in jail
will joker be OUT of jail
we just don't know
-
Will Batman KILL the Joker?
Will Batman MARRY the Joker?
Tune in this September!
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The only thing I would want out of this event is for them to just reprint all those issues as regular issues in September 2019.
-
The first time Quantum and Woody came back from cancellation, they jumped forward from #17 to #32 as a joke, as if the book had never been cancelled, and did a bunch of crazy shit like make Woody the villain and give Quantum a teenage sidekick. Per Priest, they then actually planned to go back and figure out how all that stuff had happened and fill in the gaps, but then it got cancelled a second time.
Chew did a similar gimmick a year or so back, and just caught up.
DC's original weekly-for-a-year series, of course, was part of a gimmick where they jumped ahead a year and then went to fill in the gaps, but then went off in a completely different and altogether better direction and just kinda handwaved the stuff that had changed in a spinoff series.
-
Tales of Metropolis - Jimmy Olsen | DC Nation | Cartoon Network (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58xLOAvTtCE#ws)
-
THAT'S country-restricted?
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Here's an interesting one: Artist Al Plastino finds the artwork for his Superman/JFK story about to be auctioned (http://comicsalliance.com/al-plastino-superman-president-kennedy-art-auction/)
What makes the story interesting, though, is that Plastino was under the impression that the pages had been donated to the JFK museum at Harvard for the last 50 years. Apparently the art wound up in a Sotheby's auction in 1993 and that's why they've been sitting around. As a result, people are wondering about the current status of the work. Interesting to see where this goes.
Sadly, Plastino didn't live to see it, but DC has belatedly honored its end of the bargain, reacquired the art, and donated it as originally promised (http://www.newsfromme.com/2013/12/16/happy-ending-almost/).
Evanier adds that we shouldn't forget the story's writer in this discussion -- and that writer appears to have been Bill Finger, co-creator of Batman.
I gripe a lot about current DC management, but they did the right thing here -- they're not the ones who stole from Plastino 50 years ago, and this is a really quick turnaround for setting things right once he brought it to their attention. It's a pity they weren't just a little quicker.
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Having just read the first two volumes of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, my overriding though was constantly one of "Why on earth is Alan Moore considered a great writer again?"
I swear Watchmen must have been the product of some Christopher-Marlowe-is-the-real-Shakespeare comical conspiracy, because everything else I read by Moore seems amateurish and stunted in comparison.
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Having just read the first two volumes of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, my overriding though was constantly one of "Why on earth is Alan Moore considered a great writer again?"
I swear Watchmen must have been the product of some Christopher-Marlowe-is-the-real-Shakespeare comical conspiracy, because everything else I read by Moore seems amateurish and stunted in comparison.
Having just read the first two volumes of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, my overriding though was constantly one of "Why on earth is Alan Moore considered a great writer again?"
I swear Watchmen must have been the product of some Christopher-Marlowe-is-the-real-Shakespeare comical conspiracy, because everything else I read by Moore seems amateurish and stunted in comparison.
Eeyup. I remember reading that he had a fair number of people breathing down his back on Watchmen, and so I'd point to the base readability of it as a matter of editorial control and having to answer to a publisher. The more freedom he gets, the more of Alan Moore he's able to put into a project, it seems like the shittier his work gets, from being simplistic bullshit like V for Vendetta or From Hell all the way to the extreme self-indulgent gibberish of Lost Girls.
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V is an interesting case. It's been yeeaaaaaaaaaaarrrrs since I read it, but the vague and hazy memories I have of it aren't awful. What's most important to remember is that that sort of theme had a MASSIVE presence in mid-80's British comics, so you can't take it as some work created in isolation.
I mean, okay if I'm being fair, he has other reasonably good work. It's not stuff I particularly care for, but it's decently-written at times. But Watchmen just seems so vastly superior to even other works of his in this "good" category.
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Being ripped from the headlines doesn't make something less hacky.
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Eeyup. I remember reading that he had a fair number of people breathing down his back on Watchmen, and so I'd point to the base readability of it as a matter of editorial control and having to answer to a publisher. The more freedom he gets, the more of Alan Moore he's able to put into a project, it seems like the shittier his work gets, from being simplistic bullshit like V for Vendetta or From Hell all the way to the extreme self-indulgent gibberish of Lost Girls.
As further support, his Swamp Thing is great.
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I'd point to the base readability of it as a matter of editorial control and having to answer to a publisher.
So like every other writer.
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hey, I liked the first volume of LEG. The second a bit less, the Orlando shit very much not.
Then again I also enjoy Top Ten, and Promethea despite its creepy old man undertones.
If there was a way for Alan Moore to just propose character concepts and panel layout and someone else like Matt Fraction write the script, that might be the best comic ever.
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Alan Moore's post-90s output is directly reliant on whether he's writing about magic or not. Is it not about magic? It's probably pretty good! Is it about magic? Expect 60 pages of just dialogue.
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I like LoEG quite a bit. V for Vendetta too. 1963 was a lot of fun.
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So you can totally reuse the 1975 Mighty Marvel Calendar (http://www.andertoons.com/cartoon-blog/2014/01/2014-1975-marvel-desktop-calendar.html) for 2014.
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Really wish An Evening with Alan Moore hadn’t involved four white people on stage defending the “golliwog” as a “strong black character” – Followed by a short film about a young woman stripping, dressing in “slutty clothes” and killing herself on screen – Followed by Moore insulting Gordon Brown based on mental and physical disability – I then left the venue. (http://slovobooks.wordpress.com/2014/01/09/last-alan-moore-interview/)
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I thought that, buried under that veritable mountain of verbiage (I gave up about halfway through - the Alan Moore defence is to tl;dr everyone!), there was at least one good point: That rape and sexual assault is far more prevalent in the real world than murder, yet in fiction murder is vastly more common than rape or sexual assault.
Whether or not you think that that real fact is being used as a very sly dodge is probably depends on the reader's opinion of Alan Moore.
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Apparently Alan Moore has this massive hate-on for Grant Morrison, too, because he spends a good third of the interview trying to rag on him.
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On the one hand, Morrison kinda started it. On the other, that was like 20 years ago and Moore's decades-long grudges against other creators are not cute, they're tiresome.
(And apparently he's gotten Michael Moorcock to hate Morrison too, which kinda makes me sad. Morrison's hardly the only guy in comics to do a story that cribbed heavily from Moorcock's work; DC's been throwing the word "multiverse" around since, what, the fifties? Sixties?)
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Apparently Alan Moore has this massive hate-on for Grant Morrison, too, because he spends a good third of the interview trying to rag on him.
Brits, man.
Although Morrison has made it extremely easy to hate him, what with deciding the future is a spaceship/convention center shaped like his bald head.
IN OTHER NEWS:
It's really weird to read Cataclysm, because Galactus blundering into the Ultimate universe means they now have to use terms like 'energy signatures' with a straight face.