2009 February
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Week of 2/16
This week: more new faces and scratching a little deeper into What To Do About Drytown’s Odious Residents, and a few new faces. Hey speaking of Odious Residents, I wonder what the inhabitants of Drytown are up to anyways? Seems to be they should be a touch more…proactive. Well that’s what this week is for. Take a look, why don’t you, starting Monday.
Comics after the break.
- February 22, 2009 @ 10:44 AM by Matt Maxwell
What Are You Reading?
Nixon's Pals
Welcome to What Are You Reading, where we tell you what books and comics we’re currently in the midst of. Because we like to talk about ourselves. A lot.
Our very special guest this week is comics scribe Fred van Lente, who you might best know either from his work at Marvel, particularly on titles like The Incredible Hercules, or from his work over at Evil Twin Comics (with artist Ryan Dunlavey) on the acclaimed Action Philosophers! and their current funnybook history series, Comic Book Comics.
To find out what van Lente and the rest of us are reading, click on the link below …
- February 22, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Black History Month ‘09 #17: Still Dreaming
Editor’s note: In honor of February being Black History Month, David Brothers is taking “every day in February to talk about specific aspect of black culture and comic books. It’s mainly focused on superhero comics, since that’s what I grew up reading and still makes up the bulk of my reading material.” The series is running over at the 4thletter!, and David was gracious enough to let us repost some of them each Saturday in February. The one reprinted below appeared on the 4thletter Feb. 17.
by David Brothers
One thing Marvel has always pushed, which DC hasn’t, is the idea of social injustice. The X-Men and other mutants are hated and feared. Many of their heroes are outlaws. I think this is a large part of why most black people I’ve talked to preferred Marvel to DC as a kid.
It’s a strictly unscientific survey, but every once and a while I’ll ask my black friends, who I know read comics, what they read as a kid. So far, I think it’s been all Marvel, with a focus on X-Men and Spider-Man. The ’70s pulpy books (Cage, Shang-chi, Moon Knight, Ghost Rider) get a lot of love, too. I’ve always been surprised at the answers I get, though they tend to be the same answer each time. I don’t know if the results are due to some sort of selection bias, but they’ve been pretty true on two different coasts now.
- February 21, 2009 @ 11:55 AM by JK Parkin
Your Mileage May Vary
Robin #183
Quite a few books celebrated their final issues this week. Robin #183 in particular got a lot of reader response.
Captain Elias thought the issue was fantastic:
Fabien Nicieza wrote a fantastic final issue. (100 times better than the penultimate one, and far superior to the majority of issues in Robin’s surprisingly long run.) He gives Tim’s solo title a send-off it deserves, with a clearly defined individual who does not exist in the shadow of his mentors, but under the weight of his own expectations and ambition. Even Freddie Williams manages to draw Tim as more of a grown-up, rather than the mini-Robin so often seen in the animated series or the main Batman titles. In his final pages Tim has poise and presence, and judging from the art leaked by Tony Daniel this will continue in Battle for the Cowl.
Nevermore999 was had some problems with the issue:
- February 20, 2009 @ 07:13 PM by Melissa Krause
He lost. They won.
He Lost. They won.
The Hero Complex blog over at the L.A. Times is showing off several promotional images for Marvel’s Dark Reign storyline, featuring various heroes enduring the agony of defeat or their villainous counterparts at the height of victory, depending on how you want to look at it. Other featured characters include Emma Frost crushing Cyclops’ visor, Loki cradling Thor’s limp body, Captain America bowing before the Iron Patriot and, of course, the Green Goblin, whose tagline is twisted just a bit to let you know he’s the winner.
- February 20, 2009 @ 02:41 PM by JK Parkin
Strangeways: The Thirsty – page 041
Week five comes to a close. I can hardly believe it’s been that long already.
And it comes to a close with a kaboom! Well, a verbal one anyways. But if you’re patient, there might be some real fireworks.
Written by Matt Maxwell. Art by Gervasio and Jok.
The engineer shares a name with this guy, though the real McNamara doesn’t have a beard (but he does have mighty sideburns).
The weekly update will be posted Saturday, unless I get a chance to do it later today. And jump over to the archives to see the works from page one.
- February 20, 2009 @ 12:24 PM by Matt Maxwell
The (panel) madness of Paul Pope
From "Batman: Year 100," by Paul Pope
I’m an easy mark when it comes to this sort of thing, but I really enjoyed blogger Sean Witzke’s analysis of a half-dozen or so panels from Paul Pope’s 2006 miniseries Batman: Year 100. It’s an entry in a “Panel Madness” feature — meme? — running across a few blogs this week. Pieces by other writers can be found here and here.
- February 20, 2009 @ 10:13 AM by Kevin Melrose
Food or Comics | A roundup of money-related news
Borders Group
• Barely two weeks after it eliminated 16 executive positions, Borders Group announced yesterday that it has cut 136 more jobs, or about 12 percent of the corporate workforce, in its Ann Arbor, Mich., headquarters.
“While reducing payroll is never easy and we respect the impact it has on employees and their families, it is one of the necessary steps we must take along with other non-payroll expense reductions to help get this company back on track financially,” CEO Ron Marshall said in a press release. (via GalleyCat)
• At CBR, retailer Brian Hibbs analyzes the Nielsen BookScan figures for 2008, noting, among other things, that Watchmen topped the graphic-novel list by selling 308,396 copies in bookstores. The 28th volume of Naruto was No. 2, with nearly 104,000 copies. Watchmen was the top grosser, too, with $6.1 million, followed by The Complete Persepolis ($1.3 million) and Batman: The Killing Joke ($1.1 million). You should go read the whole thing.
• John Jackson Miller provides more context for January’s direct-market sales figures, comparing them to other years.
• Advertising Age has a video report from New York Comic Con that puts a negative spin on the potential effects “a Kindle-like device” could have on the comics industry: “Could Kindle-like devices put the KABOOM! on the comic-book business? That’s the fear of some publishers who see the handheld digital book readers as a direct threat to their viability.”
- February 20, 2009 @ 08:52 AM by Kevin Melrose
NY Post issues apology for cartoon
Sean Delonas' controversial cartoon
Today’s edition of the New York Post contains an editorial apology for Wednesday’s cartoon that showed two police officers shooting a monkey while making a reference to the recently passed stimulus bill, a reference that many readers took as a racial slur against President Obama. You can read the full apology at the paper’s Web site, but here’s a quick sample:
[The cartoon] was meant to mock an ineptly written federal stimulus bill.
Period.
But it has been taken as something else – as a depiction of President Obama, as a thinly veiled expression of racism.
This most certainly was not its intent; to those who were offended by the image, we apologize.
The apology goes on to deride “opportunists” who “have had differences with The Post in the past – and they see the incident as an opportunity for payback. To them no apology is due.”
And, in case you were wondering just how folks on the Interwebs blogged or commented on this story, The Daily Cartoonist has got what you’re looking for, as well as links to some related, follow-up articles.
- February 20, 2009 @ 07:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Freaky Friday: The Noel Sickels edition
Once again with the art and the strips and the funny stuff and the hey-nonny-noo …
ART
Before he revolutionized the look of comic strips in Scorchy Smith, Noel Sickels was an editorial cartoonist for a short time. Here are just a few of his contributions to the art form. (more can be found here and here and here.) Continue Reading »
- February 20, 2009 @ 06:21 AM by Chris Mautner
Lower Manhattan may be significantly larger than we remember
Doctor Manhattan
There may not be a giant squid in Zack Snyder’s $130-million Watchmen adaptation, but we’ve long known one detail that stays true to the source material: Doctor Manhattan parades around in his full-frontal glory.
Heck, we even caught a glimpse of his outer burroughs in one of the early trailers.
But now a Defamer tipster adds a new wrinkle to the debate over the movie’s faithfulness. It seems the big-screen Manhattan has undergone some significant male enhancement.
“There is indeed shitloads of blue wang,” the tipster writes. “And it’s huge. In the comic book, it’s very average, and uncut, but the film is completely the opposite. Massive and circumcised. Given that it’s digital, was it Crudup or his agent that insisted on the impressive cut cock?”
As Vulture points out, Doctor Manhattan’s blue meanie in the comic book is “modest and understated … symbolizing the character’s impotence in the face of human evil.” Artist Dave Gibbons has said he “was was careful to give him understated genitals, like a piece of classical sculpture.”
So, have Snyder & Co. (further) undercut the intent of Gibbons and Alan Moore by digitally transforming Doctor Manhattan’s uncircumcised, “understated” weenie into a cut tower of power? Or is this just making a (blue) mountain out of a molehill?
- February 20, 2009 @ 05:54 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
TCAF
Crime | David Pirkola, owner of Apparitions Comics and Books in Kentwood, Mich., testified yesterday in the trial of Jevon Sawyer, who is charged with shooting him during a robbery of the store in April. One of Sawyer’s alleged accomplices, James Muriel-Neal Thompson, also testified as part of a plea agreement. Another alleged accomplice, Marvin Michael-Marquis Jones, is set to stand trial on March 2. [Grand Rapids Press]
Conventions | The Toronto Comic Arts Festival has updated the guest list for the May 9-10 event to include Ho Che Anderson, Kate Beaton, Tom Fowler, Cameron Stewart, J. Bone and others. A gallery show of Tara McPherson’s work also has been announced. [Christopher Butcher]
Publishing | Comic book-turned-short-lived-TV series The Middleman will receive the finale ABC Family didn’t give it … in graphic-novel form. Series creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach and Hans Beimler will write The Middleman: The Doomsday Armageddon Apocalypse, with illustrations by Armando M. Zanker and layouts by original comic artist Les McClaine. The graphic novel will be released in July during Comic-Con International. [TV Guide]
Fandom | Ben Morse considers which superhero sidekicks deserves to “graduate” to the mentor role, and which ones don’t. (Spoiler: Tempest totally deserves to be Aquaman!) [The Cool Kids Table]
Creators | Writer/editor Jason Thompson has launched a blog for King of RPGs, his recently announced shonen drama due out in December from Del Rey. [King of RPGs]
Creators | Cartoonist Hope Larson offers two tips to comics students about the nature of the Internet and the industry. [Hope Larson]
Creators | Cartoonist Mike Lynch shows us his shelf porn. [Mike Lynch]
Creators | Marc J. Fletcher names “Ten comic-book creators to watch out for.” [Den of Geek]
- February 20, 2009 @ 04:54 AM by Kevin Melrose
The Surrogates: Flesh and Bone preview
Surrogates: Flesh and Bone
Watchmen and Wolverine aren’t the only comic movies coming out this year … Rob Venditti and Brett Weldele’s Top Shelf graphic novel, The Surrogates, gets the Hollywood treatment in September. Before the film comes out, however, Top Shelf will publish The Surrogates: Flesh and Bone, a prequel to the original story; you can check out an 11-page preview over at MTV’s Splash Page.
- February 19, 2009 @ 10:08 PM by JK Parkin
Annotations for Trinity issue #38
Trinity #38
Man, there was a lot of red meat in Trinity #38, and I don’t just mean the plot. From soup to nuts(y), it was a smorgasbord of superheroics the likes of which I haven’t seen since the Great Pastry Wars of the early issues.
Grab your fork, folks, because tonight we dine … on trivia!
SPOILERS FOLLOW
* * *
LEAD STORY
“Who Are You” was written by Kurt Busiek, pencilled by Mark Bagley, inked by Art Thibert, colored by Pete Pantazis, and lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.
In Brief: I really wanna know!
Continue Reading »
- February 19, 2009 @ 11:17 AM by Tom Bondurant
Preview of AdHouse’s Remake
Remake by Lamar Abrams
I saw this in AdHouse’s email newsletter yesterday, and I checked with Chris Pitzer to see if I could repost it here … AdHouse is publishing a book called Remake by Lamar Abrams in May that looks like a lot of fun … per the solicitation copy:
Remake is 144 pages of silly action and crazy nonsense. Right now the story focuses on Max Guy, a robot boy who can’t seem to stay out of trouble. He’s got this gun called the >MAX BLASTER< that turns things into stuff. Max Guy likes: 1) blue skies, 2) video games and 3) bread pudding. Max Guy hates: 1) mean people, 2) getting beat up, and 3) crap. Tune in to see what the nextgen of comikers is creating!
Check out a preview after the jump …
- February 19, 2009 @ 10:31 AM by JK Parkin