2010 January
Heroes 4 Haiti auctions go live
by Dean Haspiel
As we mentioned last week, Heroes 4 Haiti is putting together various charity auctions to benefit the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. You can now bid on several donated pieces, including the above art by Dean Haspiel, A Graveyard Book drawing from Dave McKean and many more. Find the complete list here.
- January 18, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by JK Parkin
Your video of the day: ‘Buddy Bradley,’ the song
Adam Green (formerly of The Moldy Peaches) sings an ode to Peter Bagge’s surly hipster. I was wondering when someone would do that. (via)
- January 18, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Clowes’ ‘Wilson’ to premiere at TCAF
Clowes' TCAF poster
The Toronto Comics Arts Festival announced a big feather in its convention cap last Friday when they revealed that Dan Clowes will be headlining this year’s show. Even more impressive, Drawn and Quarterly will be debuting his new graphic novel, Wilson, easily one of the most anticipated comics of 2010, at the show. Clowes has also done a groovy poster for the show, which you can see above.
TCAF will unveil their official Web site, with, no doubt, more news about the show, on Tuesday. (via Tom Spurgeon, who announced that he will be attending the con with his mom, which is cool in a completely different way)
- January 18, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Winsor McKay editorial cartoons
I was hesitant to even use the phrase “editorial cartoons,” because these things are a world away from your average “heh heh, look how big they drew Obama’s ears” piece in the paper. Little Nemo in Slumberland artist Winsor McKay destroys your eyeballs with this massive gallery from Golden Age Comic Book Stories. Many are available in the Fantagraphics collection Daydreams & Nightmares, by the way, so if you want to pore over them on paper, you know where to look.
(Via Abhay Khosla)
- January 18, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Robinson would like to do more with the Shade and Opal City — but not Jack Knight
Starman #81
iFanboy.com’s Ron Richards posted this morning a conversation he had with writer James Robinson about Starman #81, Justice League and Blackest Night, among other topics.
Some of the highlights include:
–Robinson revealed that the “blue Starman,” Mikaal, will officially take on the Starman name and mantle in Justice League. Robinson said he plans to “make him more of a hero.”
–Robinson said he’d like to do more with Opal City and its inhabitants, perhaps in the form of a Shade series or miniseries.
–If he did revisit Jack Knight from his Starman run, “it would have to be with Tony, and it would have to be something big.”
–He talks a little bit about his Justice League work so far, noting “I’m not sure that that was my best work,” and also spoke about the challenges of trying to put a fresh spin on all the Blackest Night tie-ins he’s been writing. “Ultimate it was worth doing, and I certainly had a lot of fun.”
–Ron brought up the recent Red Arrow developments in Cry for Justice, which led to Robinson saying he doesn’t like to kill off characters and won’t be doing so in the future. “It’s a much nicer James Robinson who will be writing comics in the future,” he said.
- January 18, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Jack Kirby’s ‘Caesar’
Kirby's 'Caesar'
Way back in 1969, Jack Kirby designed the costumes for a production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar at the University Theatre Company at Santa Cruz, and The Kirby Museum has the pictures to prove it. (via)
- January 18, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Benny and Penny, Little Mouse and Stitches win Youth Media Awards
Benny and Penny in the Big No-No!
Three graphic novels were honored at the Youth Media Awards, presented this morning during the American Library Association’s midwinter conference in Boston.
Geoffrey Hayes’ Benny and Penny in the Big No-No!, published by TOON Books, received the (Theodor Seuss) Geisel Award, which recognizes authors and illustrators of books for beginning readers. Jeff Smith’s Little Mouse Gets Ready, also from TOON, was one of four Geisel Honor Books.
David Small’s Stitches: A Memoir, released by W.W. Norton & Company, earned an Alex Award, given each year to 10 adult books that appeal to young-adult readers (ages 12 to 18).
- January 18, 2010 @ 08:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Congratulations to Jennifer de Guzman and Brian Belew
Mateo Bernard de Guzman Belew
Congratulations to SLG Publishing’s Jennifer de Guzman and her husband Brian Belew on the birth of Mateo Bernard de Guzman Belew, who was born on Jan. 15. “Brian and I are in enchanted with him,” Jennifer wrote on her LiveJournal.
- January 18, 2010 @ 08:00 AM by JK Parkin
Gillen confirms ax has fallen on Marvel’s S.W.O.R.D. series
S.W.O.R.D. #5
Writer Kieron Gillen confirmed this morning that Marvel’s Astonishing X-Men spin-off S.W.O.R.D. will end in March with Issue 5.
Rumors of the title’s cancellation began circulating last week, sparking a last-minute Valentines-themed campaign to save the low-selling S.W.O.R.D. However, the comic’s absence from Diamond’s April order form — available online over the weekend, but now removed — makes it clear the effort came far too late.
“While cynics have noted, it’s unlikely this sort of activity will magically get S.W.O.R.D.’s run extended,” Gillen wrote on his blog. “But it’s not just about that. Letting a publisher know they released a book which people liked and had an audience is always worthwhile. As others have noted, if you dug it, it’s worth being grateful for five issues.”
S.W.O.R.D. (Sentient World Observation and Response Department), an agency that deals with extraterrestrial threats, was introduced in 2005 in Astonishing X-Men #3, and played a prominent role in Secret Invasion. The monthly series, by Gillen and artist Steven Sanders debuted in November 2009 to estimated sales of 22,000. By the second issue, the figure had dropped to barely 15,000.
“Comics operate on a system of pre-ordering,” Gillen wrote. “As in, the first issue’s orders were in before anyone had even read a single page of the book. The numbers which people are reporting are low enough that the inevitable second issue dip — also ordered before anyone had read Issue 1 — would move it into a clearly dangerously low sales for a book in the X-family. In other words, I actually don’t feel that bad about the cancellation. It was already on unsteady ground before anyone had even read the thing, and got annoyed over Sanders’ Beast design or my over-verbal theatrics.”
Word of S.W.O.R.D.‘s cancellation comes just weeks after Marvel announced it would end the newly launched Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural after just five issues.
- January 18, 2010 @ 07:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
What Are You Reading?
Invincible Iron Man #22
Welcome and thanks once again for joining us here at What Are You Reading Central. Our guest this week is cartoonist, blogger and curator of the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco Andrew Farago, who also has a book coming out later this year from Palace Press entitled The Looney Tunes Treasury. To see what he and the rest of the Robot 6 crew are reading, well, you know what to do.
- January 17, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Your Mileage May Vary: Birds of Prey
As announced earlier this week, Gail Simone’s much-missed Birds of Prey is returning, and it seems like everyone has something to say.
Alan of Reilly2040′s blog is excited:
Birds of Prey #1
Of course, things have moved on again since Black Canary was in JLA, and I think its fair to say that the move didn’t really do her character any favours, with her automatically playing second fiddle to Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, and then the eventual Green Arrow/Black Canary book that never really seemed to take off (for the record I was never opposed to the marriage itself, but the book has never seemed to really click).
So the announcement that Birds of Prey is coming back, with the core cast of Oracle, Black Canary, Huntress and Lady Blackhawk reunited is brilliant news. I really can’t wait to see how Gail approaches the happenings in the characters lives since the first series ended (and could we please have Helena reinstate the updated version of her current costume. It looked so much more practical).
While the blogger at 1979 Semi-Finalist has some trepidation:
- January 16, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Melissa Krause
Exclusive preview: Ghost Riders: Heavens on Fire #6
Courtesy of our friends over at Marvel Comics, check out this exclusive preview of Ghost Riders: Heavens on Fire #6. This issue, which is due in stores Feb. 3, wraps up writer Jason Aaron’s long run on the character, as Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch go up against a renegade angel.
Here are the solicitation details, and you can check out four pages from the book after the jump.
COVER BY: Christian Nauck
WRITER: Jason Aaron
PENCILS: Roland Boschi
INKS: Array
COLORED BY: Dan Brown
LETTERED BY: VC – Joe CaramagnaTHE STORY:
Writer Jason Aaron’s hellblazing, heaven-burning run on GHOST RIDER roars to its dramatic conclusion with a confrontation that’s been a long time coming. In one corner, we have the Ghost Rider brothers, Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch. In the other corner is Zadkiel, the renegade angel. And before the battle is through, you can rest assured that blood will flow on the golden streets of heaven. And no matter who wins, will it mean the end for America’s favorite Flameheads? Parental Advisory …$3.99PRICE: 3.99
IN STORES: February 3, 2010
- January 16, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Marvel’s Avengers franchise to end in the wake of Siege
New Avengers: Finale!
April will see both the conclusion of Marvel’s Siege four-issue miniseries and the apparent end — certainly only temporarily — of the Avengers franchise.
That’s right, the publisher’s solicitations preview lists the series finales of The New Avengers, Dark Avengers, The Mighty Avengers and Avengers: The Initiative. It also solves the mystery of what comic writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist Bryan Hitch have been collaborating on: It’s a 64-page one-shot called New Avengers: Finale.
“Siege ends the Avengers … and this is how I find out?” Bendis joked late this afternoon on Twitter.
References to “the Age of Heroes” and “the Heroic Age” are sprinkled throughout the solicitation text, making it a safe bet that at least some of those titles will quickly return as part of a new status quo teased back in November: “Witness the Marvel Universe triumph over its greatest challenges ever as the Heroic Age ignites! Still lurking in the shadows are forces of evil and cosmic-level threats, but a new spirit of hope, courage, and the selflessness at the heart of heroism will rise up. The most extraordinary tales ever will be told in this Heroic Age of the Marvel Universe. The Age of Heroes is upon us!”
The New Avengers debuted in late 2004 in the aftermath of the “Avengers Disassembled,” followed in 2007 by The Mighty Avengers and Avengers: The Initiative, and in early 2009 by Dark Avengers.
- January 15, 2010 @ 05:10 PM by Kevin Melrose
The Fifth Color – The Familiar and Strange
So, Brother Voodoo dusted off his doctorate, hung it high above his name and became an Avenger of the Supernatural last October. While skeptical of how he went about it, I felt the first issue was fast, hard-hitting and looked ready for action. This was new! All new, one might say… maybe even all different. After a lot of hemming and hawwing, the House of Ideas was finally going to show us what it wanted from a Sorcerer Supreme, reinventing the man in their own image. If Stephen Strange didn’t do it for Editorial, let’s see who did.
Oh. It’s canceled at issue 5, you say? Hrm.
Personally, I thought the second issue wasn’t as good as the first. The dialogue sounded stilted, character voices started to blend together the longer you read it and… well, something was missing. A lot of ominous atmosphere, a fight with Doctor Doom is always cool, but the momentum of the narrative slowed down. This was not a good sign for the book and honestly, as creative a villain as Nightmare is, I know I was at least burnt out on him since Peter David’s Hulk story ‘Tempest Fugit’, oh way back when. Something was missing, the book sold poorly and Rick Remender will probably scoot Voodoo and Pals into his surprisingly entertaining and fun FrankenCastle story. He’d play better there and have a more specific set of goals herding giant monster terrors as well as helping out the undead Frank Castle (hey, voodoo!), more than is was with the ‘you’re going to get important, hang tight’ theme of his own book. I don’t see this is as fall for Jericho Drumm, more a return to his strengths.
But where does this leave Wong, the fate of our dimension and the Sanctum Sanctorum?
Well, the Sanctum Sanctorum will remain safe right above the Pinkberry (no, really!), but the setting of an old familiar story and the way it’s told isn’t as in jeopardy as you may think.
Continue Reading »
- January 15, 2010 @ 03:24 PM by Carla Hoffman
Fifth Marvel Zombies mini on the way from Fred Van Lente and Kano
Marvel Zombies 5 #1
Marvel announced today that they are bringing Marvel Zombies back from the dead one more time with a fifth mini-series, by writer Fred Van Lente and artist Kano.
“What I’ve tried to do ever since they gave me the Zombies assignment was to do something different every time,” Van Lente told Marvel.com. “Folks who read [MARVEL ZOMBIES 4] know that at the end Jack Russell, Werewolf by Night, was infested with the zombie virus. Morbius the Living Vampire wants to cure his friend and in order to do that he needs to somehow figure out a way to unlock a cure for zombie-ism. He recruits his old pal Machine Man from MARVEL ZOMBIES 3, who is back and is again the star of the series, and sends him across the multiverse to take samples from different kinds of zombies.”
Van Lente says Machine Man and a mystery companion will encounter zombies in places like Camelot, the Old West and Killraven’s War of the Worlds. The five-issue series kicks off in April.
- January 15, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin