2009 December
San Diego daze: Comic-Con International one-day passes on sale tomorrow
With four-day memberships (with and without Preview Night access) for its 2010 show already completely sold out, San Diego’s Comic-Con International — the mother of all North American nerd gatherings — will begin selling one-day passes tomorrow.
So consider this fair warning: At the rate these things have been going, you can expect to endure a real Con-mageddon if you don’t get your hands on one early.
- December 14, 2009 @ 02:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Coming soon: the new Wizard website
from WizardUniverse.com
Is Wizard preparing to relaunch its web presence one more time? That’s the implication of a graphic recently added to the current, bare-bones site that once housed the digital version of Gareb Shamus’s publishing flagship (and once employed yours truly).
A banner atop the placeholder page now present at wizarduniverse.com reads:
Please pardon our appearance!
There’s a new WizardUniverse.com coming soon!
We’re relaunching with a New Look & New Attitude!
In the meantime, we are still open for business…enjoy!
Additional, awkwardly punctuated text directs visitors who are “looking for Wizard” to WizardWorld.com, where in addition to the usual assortment of news they will find updates on “the Wizard World tour of conventions, from 2010′s Toronto Comic Con, to our inaugural Anaheim Comic Con to next summer’s Wizard World Chicago Comic Con!”
Con War tea-leaf readers can make of the omission of the June 11-13 Philadelphia and October 7-10 Big Apple shows what they will.
- December 14, 2009 @ 01:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 105
Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell.
Holiday mania has dug into the casa de Maxwell with both jaws. Limited commentary (and since when have I really reveled in commenting on my own work, anyways?) for a little while.
- December 14, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Straight for the art | Darwyn Cooke’s cover for MIA Ambush Bug #6
From Darwyn Cooke's cover to "Ambush Bug" #6
At Almost Darwyn Cooke’s blog, Calum Johnston posts the artist’s cover for Ambush Bug #6, the issue of the recent DC Comics miniseries that never saw the light of day.
“So what happened to #6?” Johnston writes. “It’s a mystery wrapped in an enigma eaten by the Riddler.”
Follow the link to see the full cover.
- December 14, 2009 @ 12:04 PM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | Livio Ramondelli’s Frightful Four
Hobgoblin
Gelatometti is always a fun blog to check out if you’re in the mood to look at some comic book art. Take, for instance, these four pieces by Livio Ramondelli, which include two Transformers, Jango Fett and the Hobgoblin (above).
- December 14, 2009 @ 11:15 AM by JK Parkin
Peruse the writer’s bible for Batman: The Animated Series
From the writer's bible for "Batman: The Animated Series"
My favorite reading of the weekend wasn’t the bizarre back and forth between a prominent comics blogger and a comics retailer. No, it was the writer’s bible for Batman: The Animated Series, the early-’90s show against which all other superhero cartoons are compared.
Developed by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini and Mitch Brian, the guidebook lays out the approach, structure and tone of the series, including the importance of setting, the role of humor and, perhaps most interestingly, the ban on Batman origin stories: “Nothing about his parents’ murder, the film they saw at the movies before they were shot, the theatre usherette who happened to see them go into Crime Alley seconds before the gun went off, etc., etc. … if you’re thinking up stories along those lines, flush them.”
(via Chris Sims)
- December 14, 2009 @ 10:10 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics Journal writer vs. Comics Journal website: FIGHT!
The Comics Journal #300
A contrarian’s contrarian known for writing pieces like an Art Spiegelman takedown titled “In the Shadow of No Talent,” Noah Berlatsky is the sort of writer whom people who’ve never read The Comics Journal but know of its fearsome reputation might conjure up as the notoriously cranky comics mag’s critical platonic ideal. In that light, the longtime Journal contributor and current Journal blogger’s essay on everything that’s wrong with the Journal‘s new web presence might be the Comics Journaliest thing ever written.
Writing at his usual blog platform The Hooded Utilitarian — which is now hosted at the Journal‘s site, TCJ.com — Berlatsky rattles off a laundry list of problems with the recently relaunched site. Gaudy ads, WordPress clutter, an “everything and the kitchen sink” approach to organizing its bloggers and their very different approaches and beats, “read more” jump-cuts that interrupt every single post mid-sentence, launching in beta, lack of promotion, frequent outages, and the already-infamous posting and yanking of TCJ #300′s content are among the many targets that draw Berlatsky’s fire.
More Journal and TCJ.com contributors chime in in the comment thread, such as as well as blogger Derik Badman, who notes the site’s user-unfriendly headline-only RSS feed, which is undetectable to some browsers.
Though Journal publisher and guiding light Gary Groth continues to dismiss the comics blogosphere even as he admits he doesn’t follow it all that closely, the problems with his publication’s entry into the digital era make me wonder if we’ve reached a “physician, heal thyself” moment.
- December 14, 2009 @ 09:45 AM by Sean T. Collins
Found: One comic-strip physician, slightly tanned
Like MacArthur to the Philippines, Rex Morgan triumphantly returns to Glenwood
While plenty of barbs have been aimed at DC Comics regarding the prolonged absences of Batman and Superman from their own titles, the disappearance of one prominent comics character has gone virtually unnoticed.
It appears that before emerging from hiding — okay, a cruise ship — on Dec. 6, a certain Rex Morgan, M.D., hadn’t appeared in his own strip for five whole months. Of course, in fictional Glenwood, where time moves at a glacial pace, that probably only amounts to a few days. But still — five months?
Luckily, journalist Mike Kernels of The Virginia-Pilot is on the case, and he learns from longtime writer Woody Wilson that evolution of Rex Morgan into an ensemble strip allowed him to leave the good doctor and family at sea.
“You try to create a back story,” Wilson said, “a story where Rex and June are not the only compelling characters but the rest of the cast as well.”
- December 14, 2009 @ 09:20 AM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | TV icons by Albert Exergian
True Blood by Albert Exergian
If you had to pick one iconic image to sum up your favorite television series, what would it be? That’s the challenge graphic designer Albert Exergian set for himself when he created this gorgeous, funny series of posters, each of which boils a popular TV show down to a single essential visual. Check out the gallery of some of our favorites below, check out every single one of them at Exergian’s site, and buy prints of your faves at Blanka.
(Via Shaggy Erwin.)
- December 14, 2009 @ 08:51 AM by Sean T. Collins
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Painting by Frank Frazetta
Crime | A Pennsylvania newspaper delves into the family feud over the fortune of legendary artist Frank Frazetta that led to the arrest last week of son Alfonso (Frank Jr.) in the theft of $20 million worth of paintings from his father’s museum in East Stroudsburg. Frank Jr.’s wife Lori claims he was only trying to protect the paintings from his brother and two sisters, whom she accused of attempting to take their father’s fortune: “My husband, all he ever wanted to do was to take care of his family.”
Frank Jr. was jailed under $500,000 bail on charges of burglary, criminal trespassing and theft. A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday.
The family dispute apparently began after the death in July of Frank Sr.’s wife Ellie, who had long run the business. The 81-year-old Frazetta, who suffers from dementia, lives in Florida with his daughters. [Pocono Record, Pocono Record]
- December 14, 2009 @ 07:50 AM by Kevin Melrose
Watchmen as a gateway to … the same old, same old
In his annual sitdown with ICv2.com, Dark Horse President Mike Richardson tackles the notion of gateway comics, such as the oft-cited Watchmen:
Mike Richardson
I love Spider-Man and Superman and all those books that I collected myself. I have boxes and boxes of them back from the beginning. As long as the direct sales market focused most of its attention on those types of titles, we pretty much have the audience we’re going to have. I don’t know that the person who doesn’t read comics is going to be pulled in if they read Watchmen and then they go in and it’s the same books they knew in the first place that were on the rack. I’ll say the same thing I’ve always said: if we had a wide variety of material featuring a wide variety of content we’d bring in a wide variety of readers. In the hard core comic industry, we stay focused on the same characters that we focused on since the late seventies. In the late seventies I had a retail store during, when the direct sales market was birthing. And you know what? If you walked into one of my stores in 1980 or ’81 you’d probably see pretty much the same characters that you see when you walk into a store in 2009: Superman, Batman, X-Men, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Wonder Woman, Teen Titans.
There’s much more at the link, where Richardson also discusses the state of the market, manga, digital content and kids’ comics.
- December 14, 2009 @ 05:55 AM by Kevin Melrose
What Are You Reading?
Beasts of Burden #3
Like the Sunday newspaper, it’s time once again for another round of What Are You Reading. Our guest this week is Ryan Sands, who can be found over at the Same Hat blog, recommending and even translating (Tokyo Zombie) some great, and occasionally bizarre manga (and I mean that in a good way).
To see what Ryan and the rest of us are reading this week, click on the link below. Then let us know what books you’re enjoying and want to recommend (or not) in the comments section.
- December 13, 2009 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Unused Batman Year 100 art by Paul Pope
Batman Year 100 unused art
Batman Year 100 creator Paul Pope shares an unused cover design from the book on his blog.
- December 13, 2009 @ 10:38 AM by JK Parkin
Batman: Arkham Asylum 2 trailer
As mentioned on CBR, here’s the trailer for the sequel to this year’s best game, Batman Arkham Asylum:
The game’s website has also gone live.
- December 13, 2009 @ 07:58 AM by JK Parkin
The Fifth Color – Some Say I’m a Dreamer
At some point one’s comic reading career (yes, career), you’ve probably picked up and read about the X-Men. I say read about, rather than read an X-Men comic because the mythos is so large it’s nearly a brand as much as Icon and Marvel Knights. When I say that thinly veiled metaphors for the isolation and confusion of adolescence wrapped in a candy coating of super-powers and mystique make money, well. Just ask a standard issue 14-year old girl if Edward can beat up Jacob. We can’t escape multiple X-Books and hordes of characters, big sprawling epics with casts of thousands and the future of our own humanity at stake.
This is a stage that has been set for years, each generation getting their own X in some new form of social unity. The X-Men have bonded together as students, as friends, as family, as instructors, even as a corporation for a time. With each change, we the reader have been invited in as part of that group dynamic through writers and stories they tell (okay, maybe we didn’t want to be part of a corporation so much).
As of Uncanny X-Men #500, it looked like the next form the X-Men would take would be X-Towspeople. Moving the show to San Fransisco was a stroke of genius on so many levels I don’t even have to go into half of them. The change of scenery and motivation was unique enough to be a blessed breath of fresh air on a sadly stagnant and overcomplicated title. Let’s face it, we can’t all be Grant Morrison and by the time the Xavier Institute had become an internment camp for registered mutants, it’s really time for change. And San Fransisco is a vibrant, unique and unified community, which fits our merry mutants to a T. Or… X. Whatever.
So I ask you now, Gentle Reader: Where is the love?
(WARNING: Mild spoilers for Nation X and Uncanny X-Men #518 but I wouldn’t worry too much about Darth Vader being Luke Skywalker’s dad — oh.)
- December 11, 2009 @ 03:46 PM by Carla Hoffman