2009 April
Six by 6 | Six ways to bring’em back to life
X-Men #42
From Green Arrow to Colossus to Jean Grey to Superman himself, no hero is safe from death’s sting — or from some sort of deus ex machina to bring them back. It’s become almost cliche that once a character dies in a comic book, fans will start counting down or even placing bets about when they’ll return. Sometimes it could be in the very next issue, or in some cases — like with the recent rebirth of Barry Allen — it could be decades later. Dead, it seems, never really means dead, except in the cases of Phoenix and Bucky. Cough cough.
So if the destination is inevitable, it’s the journey that makes it fun. So here are six ways comic book characters can break death’s grip and swim back across the River Styx:
1. That wasn’t really me: This is a bit of a classic that recently came back in a big way. Using this method, a comic will establish that a character wasn’t really dead because someone else died in their place — usually some sort of shape shifter.
Two classic examples of this are Professor X and Jean Grey. Way back in the 1968 version of X-Men #42, Professor X was killed by a villain named Grotesk; 17 issues later, it was revealed that the Professor X who died wasn’t the real one. It was — surprise! — a shape shifter, a former villain named the Changeling who had taken Xavier’s place while he went off to prepare for a fight against the Z’Nox. Even back then, Xavier was pulling fast ones over on Cyclops and company.
- April 12, 2009 @ 09:50 AM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading?
Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 5
Welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading. This week I’m pleased to announce that our special guest star is Dash Shaw, who wowed the critics last year with his doorstop family drama Bottomless Belly Button and was just nominated for an Eisner for his recently completed Webcomic Bodyworld (soon to be published in book form by Pantheon).
To see what Shaw and the rest of us are reading, click on the link below.
- April 12, 2009 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Who the heck are the Yuan Brothers?
Read BOOM! Or Else
So BOOM! sent out a press release yesterday saying that they’d gotten John and Matthew Yuan to be spokespeople for their books. So who the heck are the Yuan Brothers?
Apparently they aren’t the winners of the BOOM! ARG and this is their prize, like I suspected. According to this Wired.com interview, they’re supporting characters in Observe and Report, the Seth Rogen comedy that opened this weekend. Apparently the two former security guards collect comics and guns, and are readying for the upcoming zombie apocalypse, something I can definitely get behind. From the Wired.com interview:
Wired.com: Are you guys widely known as anti-zombie experts? Do you share tactics online, use Twitter to disseminate zombie-fighting tips or anything like that? Are you part of the larger anti-zombie community?
Matt Yuan: Our friends and family know us as anti-zombie experts, but we tend not to talk about it too much online.
John Yuan: When the dead rise, the power’s going out. A plan on the internet doesn’t do you much good then.
Matt Yuan: So we spread our plan verbally, face-to-face, with people we know we can trust.
John Yuan: Sort of like Johnny Appleseed, but with shotguns.
- April 11, 2009 @ 09:04 AM by JK Parkin
Scott Pilgrim vs. The Web
Universal Studios has launched a website in support of the upcoming film adaptation of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim series. The site includes video of director Edgar Wright talking about the training the cast has been going through:
Blog One – Introduction – Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World from Scott Pilgrim The Movie on Vimeo.
According to a press release from Pilgrim publisher Oni Press, “The filmmaker has promised to encompass the entirety of the New York Times Best Selling Graphic Novel series into the movie and fans are keen to get a sneak peek at the production process.” Scott Pilgrim vs. The World stars Michael Cera, Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, Kieran Culkin and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
- April 11, 2009 @ 08:47 AM by JK Parkin
Your Mileage May Vary
All-New Savage She-Hulk #1
One new comic out this week was Marvel’s All-New Savage She-Hulk #1. Reactions appear to be interesting and varied.
Chris Sims approves of the issue:
All-New Savage She-Hulk #1: With this issue, Marvel takes another stab at She-Hulk, this time ditching Jen Walters in favor of Lyra, the alternate future daughter of the Hulk and Thundra, who has come back to the present to punch men in the face with gamma-powered militant feminism. Feminism which is, of course, expressed through the time-honored medium of a fetching Andre-the-Giant-esque sports bra and skin-tight low-rise Han Solo pants, just as it should be.
Electric Goldfish didn’t enjoy the issue:
All New Savage She Hulk #1 (Dark Reign tie in)
Urgh, I have no idea where to begin. I literally facepalmed a few times while reading it. Writer Fred Van Lente does a bait and switch for this book and it mainly features Lyra, child of Hulk and Thundra.
Dear Fred Van Lente: Not much Jen Walters in this issue, but I have my doubts you can salvage her from the mess she’s in.
Final though: Oh gawd, please get better next issue. I don’t know if I can handle all this camp.
Randy Lander’s response was short and mixed:
All-New Savage She-Hulk #1 (Well, it’s different, that’s for sure… it’s a goofy concept played straight, and not as impressive as Van Lente’s work in places like Scorpion or Incredible Hercules, but a few glimmers of potential, plus Van Lente’s track record, means I’ll give issue two a shot)
So what do you think?
- April 10, 2009 @ 05:24 PM by Melissa Krause
Process junkies, prepare to be overstimulated
I’ve ended up with several process-related posts in my saved links file, so I thought I’d share them all in one swoop.
• Let’s start with Jeffrey Brown, who has been posting up a storm of process goodness on his blog. Brown’s new book, Funny Misshapen Body, was just released; here are some early cover “brainstorming” sketches:
Cover process for 'Funny Misshapen Body'
Here’s some of the initial brainstorming for the ‘Funny Misshapen Body’ cover. There were about a dozen more ideas, but these were the strongest ones. All the ideas were passed along to the editors at Touchstone, who then looked at them and decided which parts and aspects of the concepts they liked most.
In another post, he develops the concept further, and then later shares the final art before it went to the designer. He also shares a flow chart he used to put together the story.
• Next, Joshua Middleton covers Supergirl #45 …
- April 10, 2009 @ 11:59 AM by JK Parkin
Strangeways: The Thirsty – page 056
Written by Matt Maxwell. Art by Gervasio and Jok.
Hit the archives to get the story from the beginning.
- April 10, 2009 @ 10:57 AM by Matt Maxwell
Thin wallets, fat bookshelves: D&Q, Hill & Wang’s fall plans
Thirteen Going on Eighteen
Believe it or not, it’s that time again already. Once again, the mail has brought me the latest catalog from Farrar, Straus and Giroux, whom, as you all no doubt know, handle the book distribution for Drawn and Quarterly, as well as own the nonfiction division Hill and Wang. Both publishers have some interesting plans for the second half of the year, so let’s take a look at what’s coming to a comic store near you come September, shall we?
- April 10, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
‘This wasn’t Brian somehow flipping the bird to the Spidey guys’
From "New Avengers" #51
On his blog at Marvel.com, Executive Editor Tom Brevoort responds to reader reactions to Spider-Man’s latest unmasking in The New Avengers #51.
“… Seriously, folks, do any of you really believe that Brian Bendis unilaterally decided to have Spider-Man unmask himself to his fellow New Avengers without talking to anybody else about it?” Brevoort writes.
After noting the amount of editorial oversight and coordination between titles, he continues: “So no, this wasn’t Brian somehow flipping the bird to the Spidey guys. It wasn’t an editorial commentary on ‘One More Day’ or the thrice-monthly ASM. And it wasn’t some stealth operation that was snuck onto the racks without anybody knowing about it. Just think about it for two seconds — really, how likely is that? Really?”
Brevoort goes on to say that Spider-Man revealing his identity to his teammates doesn’t negate the reason for the controversial “One More Day” storyline.
- April 10, 2009 @ 09:56 AM by Kevin Melrose
Gas masks, ‘transforming laser-swords’ and Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman art from "Wednesday Comics," by Ben Caldwell
Artist Ben Caldwell has posted more art from his Wonder Woman story for DC Comics’ upcoming Wednesday Comics weekly miniseries.
“Now, a lot of people on message boards have fussed that WW isn’t wearing her ‘real’ costume in any of my sketches,” Caldwell writes, “so FYI, this is not her costume but her training gear from Paradise Island. Her final costume is just like usual, although there will be transforming laser-swords!”
He follows that in the comments section with, “I’m kidding about laser-swords. Probably.”
- April 10, 2009 @ 09:33 AM by Kevin Melrose
As suddenly as the Gunslinger arrives, he leaves
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born
After roughly a month, I’ve just about given up on The New York Times’ weekly Graphic Books Best Seller List.
It’s great for publishers, in that it allows them to slap “A New York Times Bestseller!” on the cover, but I don’t see that the list tells much — if anything — useful.
I concede I might be late to that realization. However, the mystery of The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born leaves me wondering what we should make of the list, which, like the other Times book charts, employs a mysterious, and often-criticized, formula.
Last week, Marvel’s 2007 adaptation of the Stephen King fantasy epic appeared, as if by magic, atop the hardcover list, unseating Watchmen. Although I couldn’t find an obvious reason for the book’s performance, I was willing to accept that the upcoming release of The Dark Tower: Treachery hardcover or another miniseries might’ve renewed interest in the original. (Or did I completely miss a new edition or reissue?)
But this week The Gunslinger Born is nowhere to be seen. Watchmen again rests comfortably upon its hardcover throne, followed by a trio of Batman-related books.
It’s as if last week never happened.
More than half of the hardcovers in last week’s Top 10 are still there, moving a few positions in either direction. But last week’s No. 1? There’s no gentle drift back down the list. Just … poof.
Perhaps the lists are too short; if we were to see, say, the Top 20, maybe The Gunslinger Born would be peeking at us from No. 11 or 12. Or maybe the sampling is so small that a relatively minor change in sales triggers a major shift in position?
Or maybe it’s neither of those. It just seems odd.
- April 10, 2009 @ 08:51 AM by Kevin Melrose
Everyone’s A Critic: A roundup of comic-related reviews and thinkpieces
• Over at Big Hollywood, Batton Lash posts an recent essay by Steve Ditko on comics and the alleged moral bankruptcy of modern pop culture:
So what is ignored/evaded is that there is a long, ongoing “status quo” in Marvel Comics company’s very existence and publishing that needs to be “broken”, “smashed together”.
There are periodic operational changes in the company’s “status quo” with different editors. But while these new editors create different personal styles, they all maintain the same editorial “status quo”, that same anti-hero premise.
Flash: Rebirth
• Really Ken? EW’s Ken Tucker declares Flash: Rebirth and Secret Warriors the “two best superhero comics written right now”:
For my money (at the comic shop most Wednesdays), both Bendis and Hickman write the best dialogue in comics. (Also check out the banter Bendis bats out in the equally-good Dark Avengers.) So there you have it, writers at their peaks: Johns a master of humanizing comics mythology, and Bendis and Hickman creators of conversation that seems real no matter how “super” the action is.
- April 10, 2009 @ 08:41 AM by Chris Mautner
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
The Hunter
Awards | Deb Aoki lists some manga the Eisner Awards judges might have overlooked. Meanwhile, Noah Berlatsky and David Welsh ponder the relationship between manga and the awards. [About.com, The Hooded Utilitarian, Precocious Curmudgeon]
Webcomics | Theater Hopper has been removed from Google’s index because of malicious code placed on the site by hackers. Creator Tom Brazelton has removed the code, and is trying to convince Google to reinstate his webcomic. [Comixtalk]
Webcomics | Matthew Braga covers the “Talking Webcomics” panel in Toronto. The discussion, sponsored by The Beguiling and the North York Central Library, featured such creators as Kate Beaton and Ryan North. [blogTO]
Publishing | In a review of Hannah Berry’s Britten and Brülightly, Sarah Weinman considers the intersection of the comics medium and the crime genre: “It’s not difficult to see why comics and crime suit each other well: brutal death invites a visceral response, and murder in pictures only amplifies that reaction further.” [The Los Angeles Times]
Publishing | John Seavey has a few words for Marvel about its numbering system. [Fraggmented]
Conventions | Alex Carr files a report, with photos, from last weekend’s Emerald City ComiCon. [Omnivoracious]
Creators | Artist Cameron Stewart answers 13 questions about his comics work. [Mindless Ones]
Creators | Creators Rob Guillory and John Layman have launched a blog in support of their new Image Comics series Chew. [Chew]
Comics | The top five character resurrections. [Examiner.com]
- April 10, 2009 @ 07:17 AM by Kevin Melrose
Post Office debuts ‘Simpsons’ stamps
Simpsons stamps
As I noted earlier this week, the United States Post Office unveiled five stamps featuring The Simpsons yesterday. The stamps will be available to purchase on May 7.
Related products and information on a contest can be found at the USPS’s Simpsons site.
- April 10, 2009 @ 07:17 AM by JK Parkin
Nick Fury was right!
"Nick Fury Was Right" stencil, by Joe D!
Marvel’s Secret Warriors series inspired artist Joe D! to create this fantastic stencil that declares “Nick Fury Was Right.” You can download the stencil here.
(via John Struan)
- April 10, 2009 @ 06:21 AM by Kevin Melrose