2010 February
What Are You Reading?
The Sword, Vol. 3
Is the El Nino winter getting you down? Cheer up my friend, I’ve got just the thing. Namely, another round of What Are You Reading. I bet you’re feeling better already.
Our special guest this week is the lovely and talented Nina Stone, wife of Tucker Stone, who can frequently be found dipping her toe into the comical book waters over at The Factual Opinion, via her regular weekly column Romancing the Stone (formerly known as the Virgin Read).
To find out what Nina and the rest of the R6 crew is reading, click on the link below. But first, put on a sweater. You look cold.
- February 28, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs: Anne Freaks, Volume 4
Anne Freaks, Volume 4
Anne Freaks, Volume 4
Written and Illustrated by Yua Kotegawa
ADV Manga; $9.99
I’ve told the story before about how I was once madly in love with this girl and how I dodged a bullet by not ending up with her. She had all kinds of issues that I wasn’t prepared to deal with, but I romantically and naïvely thought that I could be the one to fix everything and make both of us happy. It was a powerful fantasy and – in hindsight – explains a great deal of my attraction to her.
That wasn’t the only time that’s happened either. The need to fix is strong. Off and on throughout my pre-married life I found myself attracted to some really needy women. I wanted to be the Knight in Shining Armor that rode in and fixed everything. Of course I never could, but man, the idea was addictive.
Ever since I’ve figured that out, I’ve never criticized women who always fall for Bad Boys. Most people want to be the hero and fix someone. At its root, it’s a symptom of poor self-esteem (we get to ignore our own problems in order to work on someone else’s, plus there’s always the remote possibility of an esteem-building success), but it would be awfully hypocritical to point fingers at women who do it when I’ve been guilty so often myself. This is also why I totally get Yuri in Anne Freaks.
The deal with Yuri (and the rest of us) after the break.
- February 28, 2010 @ 07:00 AM by Michael May
Unbound: Webcomics in print
Copper
While webcomics have certainly come into their own as a medium unto themselves, most creators eventually produce a print volume, either on their own or through a major publisher. Print publishers may put up part of a volume as a preview, or they may post an entire volume (as Viz does on its SigIKKI website) and then pull it down when the print edition arrives. Webcomics creators, on the other hand, generally leave the entire comic up on the web, which begs the question: Why pay for the book when the comic is free?
I recently received review copies of print editions of two well known webcomics, Cyanide & Happiness and Copper (links are to the web versions). In both cases, I had read the comic from time to time but didn’t follow it regularly. And in both cases, I felt that the print edition did indeed present extra value over the webcomic. Read on to see why.
- February 27, 2010 @ 08:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
A couple of quick notes …
- First off, a bit of sad news for us here at Robot 6 … Melissa Krause, who does her Your Mileage May Vary column on Saturdays, is leaving us. Melissa is currently in her last semester at law school, where things are getting hectic, and something had to give. We wish her the best as she wraps up that chapter in her life and hope that once she’s done she’ll be able to return.
- Second, you may have noticed there were no Unbound or Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs columns this week. Or, at least, so far this week … both Brigid Alverson and Michael May’s columns are moving to the weekends. Look for Brigid’s today and Michael’s tomorrow morning.
- And last, we want to send our best wishes to Tom Bondurant and his family this week, who left town unexpectedly earlier this week due to a family illness. Tom and Grumpy Old Fan will no doubt be back next week.
- February 27, 2010 @ 07:50 AM by JK Parkin
Preview: Irredeemable Special #1
Irredeemable Special #1
In April the regular Irredeemable title takes a break as BOOM! releases Irredeemable Special #1, a collection of three different stories by Mark Waid and three different artists. Today BOOM! sent over three pages from the book by legendary artist Howard Chaykin, which you can take a look at right after the jump …
- February 26, 2010 @ 07:32 PM by JK Parkin
The Fifth Color | Bendis’ Perilous Throne
It’s probably unnecessary to say this, now that my readership has dropped back into the threes of sixteenths (Hi Mom), but at face value, the title ‘Siege’ has nothing to do with the Siege Perilous. Sure, it’s the pun I’d put as the front runner for Overused Title by Bloggers (I had to stop from using it myself, so catchy!) Talking about Marvel’s Latest Event Book, but in that context, it doesn’t even mean the big swinging alpha hero fight we’re coming to love and enjoy. Siege has its roots as the word through Old French and Latin as the word ‘to sit’ or ‘seat’. It’s obsolete in use as a ‘seat of distinction’, but once was the most famous seat in all of chivalric tales. The chair was given to Arthur by Merlin for his round table and ruthlessly reserved for the ‘perfect knight’, the one who would eventually go get the Holy Grail. Anyone else who sat in it would erupt into flames, so this both acted as an indicator for the quest and as a sign to the Knights of the Round Table that they, despite their accomplishments and great deeds, were not perfect and greater men were still to come. A nice little talking point for humility and humanity for what is man, if not imperfect?
But, like I said, the use of the word Siege as a seat is long out of use. Nowadays, it summons up great armies clashing and some walls to embattle, siege weapons and general’s tactics. A siege is essentially a waiting game: if you cannot take a location by force, you surround it, isolate it and then wait them out for weakness or surrender. This waiting game could last moths, or even years so it all comes down to planning and timing.
If you look at it from an angle, one could even say that the heroes of the Marvel Universe have had villainy sieged for about, oh say seven years. Villains had already moved into positions of trust or complacency with the new millennium of storytelling, so the heroes could have just backed off, waiting for the villains to grab all this power and enact all their plans at once so that the center could not hold and eventually the heroes would win out. In New Avengers, Spider-Man has said this expressly about Norman Osborn, you can’t fight him head on. You wait until he makes his mistake (and he will) and then take him down.
If the current and final chapter in Bendis’ story arc is more a metaphorical Siege than just the taking of Asgard, I think it’s the most poorly planned and timed siege since the Turks at Vienna.
Wiki the historical reference above or just roll your eyes and click below to hear some thoughts on what Brian Michael Bendis tells us about writing and ourselves.
- February 26, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Carla Hoffman
Off-topic: The trailer for Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
I’m not generally a fan of promotional trailers for comics and books — most rely on dull montages and even worse music — but this new spot for Seth Grahame-Smith’s upcoming novel Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is incredibly well done. Well, if you can ignore the really obvious wig and fake mustache on whom I presume is vampire-John Wilkes-Booth.
The novel, Grahame-Smith’s follow-up to the bestselling Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, depicts Lincoln as the savior of the Union and lifelong enemy of the undead. The author has a couple of comic-book connections: He was among the genre novelists who contributed to the latest Marvel Zombies miniseries. In May, Del Rey/Villard will release a graphic-novel adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is due March 2 from Grand Central Publishing.
- February 26, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by Kevin Melrose
Robot reviews: Two from Toon Books
Benny and Penny in The Toy Breaker
by Geoffrey Hayes
Toon Books, 32 pages, $12.95
This is my favorite of the Benny and Penny books so far. It isn’t that I’ve disliked the previous two books in the brother/sister series as much as this new entry, about an unruly cousin that comes over to play, seems a bit more lively and playful, both in the layouts and in the art itself, which has a frenetic and loose — but never sloppy — quality. It’s a pretty energetic and fast-paced book, even by young reader standards. You sense Hayes had a lot of fun putting this together and his good humor is infectious. Obviously it’s not going to challenge anyone over the age of seven, but I’d easily recommend it for it’s intended audience.
- February 26, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Comics cavalcade: Zombies, electroshock therapy and Encyclopedia Brown
Zr + 4HC1 → ZrC14 + 2H2U + 3F2 → UF6 by Roberto Altmann
Trains Are Mint #6 by Oliver East
- February 26, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the shirt | Lisa Hanawalt’s Kitty Biker
Lisa Hanawalt's TeeFury t-shirt
You have until midnight to purchase this adorable T-shirt from I Want You writer/artist Lisa Hanawalt at TeeFury. After that, this lovely little lady rides off to the Big Scratching Post in the Sky. Go!
- February 26, 2010 @ 11:08 AM by Sean T. Collins
Project: Rooftop returns with Cory Walker’s Supergirl
Cory Walker redesigns Supergirl
Chris Arrant sent out word today that Project:Rooftop, the superhero fashion blog that features character redesigns by professional and amateur comic artists, is back, and they brought several Supergirl redesigns by Cory Walker with them.
Per the press release, the site is also encouraging artists to submit their own redesigns of their favorite characters. “Our concerted calls for redesigns of specific characters will return,” Arrant said, “but those will be on a limited basis. We’re open to submissions year-around from artists redesigning characters of their own choosing.”
They’ve also added several new contributors, including a couple who may be familiar to CBR readers: former CBR new editor Andy Khouri and “When Words Collide” writer Tim Callahan, as well as Jessi Reid.
- February 26, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
New Jeff Lemire project: The Underwater Welder
The Underwater Welder
Austin Wilson at Hideous Energy has word on a new project from Sweet Tooth creator Jeff Lemire: The Underwater Welder, due from his Essex County publisher, Top Shelf, in 2011 2012. The 250-page book is about an underwater welder who works on an oil rig off the coast of Nova Scotia who “has a strange and mind-bending encounter that will change the course of his life forever.”
“So not only is Lemire writing/drawing an ongoing title for Vertigo right now, with issues coming out regularly and on time, but he managed to write AND draw a 250-page original graphic novel? I have no idea how this guy does anything but sit at a drawing table,” Wilson writes.
Update: Here’s Top Shelf’s page on the project.
- February 26, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Jim Woodring’s sketchbook
from Jim Woodring's sketchbook
Jim and Frank creator Jim Woodring, comics’ master of dark psychedelia, has posted a selection of drawings from his moleskine notebook to his blog, and they are pretty much mindshattering. I seriously don’t even know where to begin, other than to say that the images above may be the least strange in the batch.
If that’s not enough, you can always take a look at our exclusive preview of Woodring’s upcoming graphic novel Weathercraft, which hits this spring from Fantagraphics.
- February 26, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
Cool things to bookmark: GreatCaricatures.com
The recent passing of David Levine just underscores for me how the art of caricature (and editorial cartooning in general) is passing away rather speedily these days. Thankfully there are sites like GreatCaricatures.com, that celebrate the great newspaper art of yesteryear by folks like Thomas Nast, above, Honore Daumier and James Gillray. This is one of those sites it’s possible to get lost in very quickly. (via)
- February 26, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Incarnate #1
Publishing | Following widespread accusations that Incarnate creator Nick Simmons plagiarized Bleach and other manga titles, bloggers Deb Aoki (on Twitter), Rob Bricken, Christopher Butcher, Johanna Draper Carlson and Simon Jones weigh in with commentary on plagiarism, scanlations/piracy and fan art. Butcher has some particularly pointed words for “the legions of artist-alley dwellers selling mass-produced copies of their fanart,” while in the comments of Comics Worth Reading, Jones neatly ties together the discussion by pointing out that some of the Bleach art that Simmons is alleged to have copied comes from volumes not yet released in North America. [Robot 6]
Comics | John Jackson Miller provides perspective on Thursday’s record-setting sale of a copy of Detective Comics #27. [The Comichron]
- February 26, 2010 @ 08:50 AM by Kevin Melrose