2010 January
Kneel before Zod! (Or at least his clothes and wig)
From the General Zod costume eBay auction
If you’re a Superman fanatic with an extra $15,000 or so lying around, do I have an eBay auction for you: Someone is selling Terence Stamp’s General Zod costume from Superman II.
The wig creeps me out for some reason, but not nearly as much as this line from the auction description: “Now you can kneel to Zod anytime you want! Or perhaps Zod could kneel to you naked to get his famous uniform and wig back??!”
- January 26, 2010 @ 06:26 AM by Kevin Melrose
Talking Comics with Tim: Paul Tobin
Spider-Man Marvel Adventures
As we noted a week or so back, the Marvel Adventures line will relaunch in April with Spider-Man #1 and Super Heroes #1–both written by Paul Tobin. Given how much I already enjoyed Tobin’s approach on the line, I was curious to get his take on the relaunch. We also got to cover a lot of Marvel Adventures ground, as well his current miniseries work (Spider-Man & the Secret Wars as well as Black Widow and the Marvel Girls), and amazingly enough, even Bing Crosby works his way into the discussion.
Tim O’Shea: From a writing standpoint, do you look to change your approach to the Marvel Adventures line, as the series reboots? For example, Invisible Woman has been at the forefront of recent Super Heroes issues, will her role remain prominent?
Paul Tobin: We’re not looking at these as reboots, but rather as relaunches. We’re very comfortable with the changes we’ve done to the Marvel Adventures line in recent months… in fact it’s those storylines, and the response they’ve garnered, that convinced us to move forward and relaunch the titles completely. Marvel and I are quite focused on making these stories sing… and we wanted to draw attention to that. So… bottom line, we’re continuing with what we were doing, and now doing it EVEN BETTER. And I love Sue Storm as a prominent character… so there she will remain.
- January 25, 2010 @ 03:30 PM by Tim O'Shea
CBGB: The comic book?
Manhattan’s famed CBGB music club may have shut down, but the name lives on … in the form of several “branding” initiatives. Today a press release went out about CBGB teaming up with the Clear Channel media mega-empire to launch CBGB radio on Clear Channel’s iheartradio network.
So what does that have to do with comics, you ask? Well, I’ll direct your attention to the boiler plate at the bottom of the release:
CBGB
About CBGB
CBGB & OMFUG (Country Blue Grass & Blues & Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers) opened its doors in December 1973 and became one of the most famous music venues in the world. Everyone from the Ramones to Debbie Harry rocked the CBGB stage, cementing the establishment as the mecca of punk and rock music. In 2008, the legend was reborn as CBGB Holdings – a consortium of individuals including members of Hilly Kristal’s family and former employees dedicated to seeing the influential venue and its ethos flourish. CBGB Radio is the company’s first new initiative. Also on the horizon: a CBGB Graphic Novel series by Boom Studios, a revamped website aimed at building a community around everything CBGB, TV, live events and new venues in key music and entertainment capitals worldwide.
BOOM! hasn’t responded to my inquiries for confirmation on this (or to explain what exactly a CBGB comic would look like) but hopefully we’ll have more details soon.
- January 25, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by JK Parkin
Comics College: Neil Gaiman
Absolute Sandman Vol. 1
Comics College is a monthly feature where we provide an introductory guide to some of the comics medium’s most important auteurs and offer our best educated suggestions on how to become familiar with their body of work.
This month at Comics College we’ll be taking a look at the work of one of the true celebrities in the comics world, Mr. Neil Gaiman, who has been in the news a bit lately, thanks to a certain award-nominated film and a big profile piece in The New Yorker.
Now, Gaiman is an incredibly prolific writer. and his comics output alone is quite impressive. be concerned mainly with his comics work and less so with his novels, screenplays and other material.
- January 25, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by Chris Mautner
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 111
Week three of rain here at Strangeways Central. I’m beginning to tire of it. I know, folks from Portland and Seattle are mocking my weakness right now.
Anyways, here’s today’s page.
Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell.
Another page going up Wednesday, assuming my house hasn’t floated away by then. Living at the bottom of a big hill in rainy season ain’t no fun.
- January 25, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Comics cavalcade: Greek gods, skags and William Bendix
Oh That Dad! Wii Comics! by Brian Ralph
- January 25, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Ring, Ring: Photos of the ‘Blackest Night tie-ins for Siege variant’ trade-in in action
BN tie-ins sent to Marvel (photo by Tom Brevoort)
“Turns out nobody has any extra copies of those ring books…” Thus tweeted newly minted Marvel Vice President, Executive Editor Tom Brevoort this morning. And based on the accompanying picture, which showed a stack of covers for Blackest Night tie-ins that were part of DC’s recent power ring promotion, your sarcasm detectors were right to go off there.
It’s anecdotal evidence, to be sure, but the photo, and a subsequent pic documenting some 300 mailed-in covers from a single store, show that some retailers at least are both willing and able to take Marvel up on its controversial offer to retailers to exchange one Deadpool variant of Siege #3 for every 50 copies or covers of DC’s “ring books” they receive.
But will the initiative be a success overall, for either Marvel or the participating retailers? Does all the publicity for it factor in positively or negatively? Those probably aren’t the kind of questions you can answer with an iPhone photo, but we’ll see.
- January 25, 2010 @ 10:59 AM by Sean T. Collins
Straight for the art | Ted Naifeh’s Batman gallery
by Ted Naifeh
Courtney Crumrin creator Ted Naifeh has a gallery up on his website showcasing sketches and sample pages that feature the Caped Crusader and related characters.
“It’s clear to me that anyone doing the Joker ought to start, like Bob Kane and Bill Finger did, with The Man Who Laughs,” Naifeh says in the comments field of the gallery. “As you may already know, by big introduction to comics was DKR, and the Joker was completely amazing in that (until book 3, anyway). So yeah, I really want to do a Joker that doesn’t smile until it really counts. Like so many other things, they did a great job of that in TDK. Boy, I tell ya. That film was like experiencing DKR all over again.”
- January 25, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Kevin Huizenga’s Fan Art
Kevin Huizenga draws Kiyohiko Azuma's Yotsuba&!
Critically acclaimed comics creators: They’re just like us! Take Kevin Huizenga, for example. Sure, his work in his series Or Else and Ganges has gotten him labeled the best cartoonist of his generation. But he geeks out over other people’s comics just like you and me — and even draws their characters as a tip o’ the fanboy cap.
Check out the STL Drawing Club blog for Huizenga’s renditions of characters by Osamu Tezuka, Richard Scarry, Alain Saint-Ogan, Jim Woodring, Kiyohiko Azuma (see Yotsuba Koiwai at right) and probably even more I’m not recognizing. (There’s a pretty badass Dan Zettwoch drawing of the biker gang from Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure in there, too.)
And don’t forget the killer fan art drawings he posted on his own blog, including characters from Johnny Ryan’s Prison Pit, CF’s Powr Mastrs, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. Fandom can be fun!
- January 25, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
Straight for the art | Kirby draws God
Jack Kirby's almighty
Really, what more do you need to know?
- January 25, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Wizard announces New Jersey Comic Con
It’s the biggest thing to hit the Garden State since Jersey Shore: Wizard Entertainment’s Gareb Shamus has announced the launch of yet another convention, the New Jersey Comic Con Wizard World Convention. (Yes, that’s the full name.) The ninth show in Shamus’s ever-increasing roster — many of which are based on pre-existing cons, rebranded with the Wizard name — it will take place in Edison’s New Jersey Convention & Exposition Center on Oct. 15-17.
That, of course, places it just one week after both Reed Exhibition’s New York Comic Con and Shamus’s own Big Apple Comic Con, controversially scheduled in the same city and on the same weekend as Reed’s effort in a move widely seen as launching a Con War between the two companies. Since then, the two outfits have rolled out distinct battle strategies, with Reed focusing on top-tier comics guests and Shamus/Wizard concentrating on adding more and more shows to the Wizard World Tour.
- January 25, 2010 @ 07:53 AM by Sean T. Collins
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 1
Publishing | Deb Aoki notes that within hours of the announcement last Wednesday of a March 16 release, Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 1, rocketed from No. 230 on the Amazon.com sales chart to within the Top 10. As of this morning, the Yen Press adaptation hovers at No. 7. The current issue of Entertainment Weekly features a 10-page preview of the hardcover, which will receive a staggering first printing of 350,000 copies. [About.com]
Passings | Tom Spurgeon pens an obituary for French cartoonist Jacques Martin, who passed away on Jan. 21 at age 88. Martin, who collaborated with Herge on several Tintin books, in 1948 created the series Alix, which centered on the adventures of a young Gallo-Roman in the late Roman Republic. [The Comics Reporter]
Sales charts | Viz Media’s accelerated release schedule for Eiichiro Oda’s One Piece — five volumes a month through June — seems to be paying off, as two volumes vault onto The New York Times’ graphic books bestseller list. R. Crumb’s The Book of Genesis Illustrated remains atop its perch on the hardcover chart, while Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen reclaims its paperback throne. Meanwhile, the fourth volume of Naoyuki Kageyama and Kazuki Takahashi’s The Yu-Gi-Oh! GX 4 debuts at No. 1 in the manga division. [The New York Times]
- January 25, 2010 @ 07:45 AM by Kevin Melrose
Samuel L. Jackson writing Cold Space for BOOM! [Updated]
BOOM! Studios sent over this teaser image tonight without any explanation as to what it was for … but it looks like another movie adaptation. I went through Samuel L. Jackson’s IMDB page, but nothing really jumped out at me.
Maybe Shaft? Snakes on a Plane? Coach Carter? What do you think?
Update: So apparently it isn’t an adaptation … BOOM! confirmed what eagle-eyed Evan Meadow posted in the comments section, that Samuel L. Jackson is writing an original miniseries for BOOM!:
COLD SPACE #1
(W) Samuel L. Jackson, Eric Calderon (A) Jeremy Rock
From legendary actor Samuel L. Jackson and Emmy nominated writer/producer Eric Calderon, the team that brought you the Emmy-award-winning, best-selling Afro Samurai, comes their next original series — Cold Space! When an on-the-run outlaw crash-lands on a hostile planet on the brink of civil war, he finds himself caught in the crossfire between two warring factions. But in chaos lies opportunity… because where there’s war, there’s money to be made! A hard-boiled sci-fi action-adventure with covers by Eisner Award-winning artist Dave Johnson and Irredeemable cover artist, Jeffrey Spokes!
32pgs, FC $3.99
- January 24, 2010 @ 09:59 PM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading?
Deadman Wonderland Vol. 1
Arriving on your virtual driveway like a big, thick newspaper (remember those?) it’s time once again for What Are You Reading. Our guest this week is Deb Aoki, who runs the excellent Manga About.com site, which, if you have any interest at all in Japanese comics, you really should have that site bookmarked and/or in your RSS feed.
I’m abstaining from participating in this week’s WAYR, as a nasty cold has made it difficult to form coherent sentences. But Deb and the rest of the Robot 6 crew have a veritable boatload of interesting comics to talk about, so be sure to click on the link and see read their comments. Oh, and be sure to share with us what you’re reading in the comments section, OK?
- January 24, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
The Fifth Color – Forward into the Past! Marvel in April ’10
Gun Shy. I’ve been saying that to myself a lot today as I look over the bountiful feast of explosive endings, new beginnings and variant covers, even in foilogram (you heard me! FOILOGRAM!). For some reason as I made my notes for writing this, I kept thinking of the phrase, gun shy.
From yourdictionary.com:
gun·-shy (-s̸hī′)
adjective
- easily frightened at the firing of a gun a gun-shy dog
- frightened, wary, mistrustful, etc., as because of a previous experience
Why would I be thinking gun shy?
From the Siege #1 solicitation:
THE MARVEL BLOCKBUSTER OF THE YEAR!!
This double-sized finale brings the Dark Reign to a shattering conclusion and brings with it the bombastic new HEROIC AGE. Every single page of this book is a shocker: Lives are changed. Heroes fall. Deaths. Revenge. Villain comeuppance. And when the dust settles, who will be in charge of the Marvel Universe??
You will find out here and only here. This is the one they will be talking about.
Gun shy, huh.
- January 22, 2010 @ 03:48 PM by Carla Hoffman