2010 May
Arts and crafts corner: DIY Captain America
Chibi Captain America
Why just read about your favorite characters when you can make your own? You don’t need a lot of talent or fancy equipment to make these super-cute superheroes, designed by Xavier Leo Gale-Sides, just a color printer, some sharp scissors, and double-sided tape. Gale-Sides designs the paper models himself and posts templates on his blog for easy download, together with photos of the finished products. Hours of fun for a rainy day or a lazy summer afternoon! (Via Sean Kleefeld.)
- May 24, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Anaheim Convention Center
Conventions | A labor union that represents hotel workers embroiled in a fight with Disney hotels has warned organizers of Comic-Con International that if they move the convention to Anaheim, they could find their “future events caught in the middle of a bitter labor dispute that could jeopardize their success.” Unite Here Local 11 has been been in a standoff with Disney over the company’s proposal to increase the amount hotel workers contribute to health-insurance coverage to a level that would represent a week’s pay for employees who make $11 an hour. [LA Weekly]
Passings | Mark Evanier reports that Howard “Howie” Post, a mainstay of comics and animation, passed away last week, reportedly due to Alzheimer’s. He was 83. He wrote and illustrated funny-animal comics for DC beginning in the 1940s, and is often credited with helping to create Spooky, Hot Stuff the Little Devil and other characters for Harvey Comics. He worked for Marvel in the 1950s and again in the ’80s, drawing titles like Heathcliff and Strawberry Shortcake for the publisher’s Star kids line. Post also created the comic strip The Dropouts, which was syndicated from 1968 to 1981. [News from ME]
- May 24, 2010 @ 08:37 AM by Kevin Melrose
What Are You Reading?
Enter the Heroic Age
Welcome once again to What Are You Reading? where we ask, “If you were stuck on an island with the smoke monster, what would you bring to read?” Yes, that was my lame attempt to make today’s edition topical. Sorry. Let’s just write that off as me being really excited to see the end of Lost.
This week our special guest is comics retailer Randy Lander, who you can find selling comics at Rogues Gallery Comics & Games in Round Rock, Texas or blogging over at Inside Joke Theatre. To see what Randy and the rest of our merry castaways have been reading, click the link below …
- May 23, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Chip Zdarsky’s Lost cast drawing
Lost by Chip Zdarsky
The National Post has a really cool interactive drawing of the cast from Lost, which allows you to add characters to the drawing by the season they were introduced. You can also scroll over the characters for biographical info.
“The original is on two large sheets of bristol taped together,” said Chip Zdarsky, who created the piece. “I looked like a madman working on it in the office. And then I had to learn Flash. That program is stupid!”
Lost wraps up tomorrow night.
- May 22, 2010 @ 12:03 PM by JK Parkin
ThunderCats writer Stephen Perry missing after grisly discovery [Updated]
Stephen Perry
Police in Florida are searching for ailing ThunderCats writer Stephen Perry, who disappeared from his Zephyrhills home under suspicious, and possibly ghastly, circumstances.
His van was found Sunday abandoned in a motel parking lot. Nearby, FOX 13 reports, was a man’s severed arm. More remains were discovered at a gas-station dumpster two miles away from Perry’s home, which had been ransacked.
On Friday authorities arrested Perry’s two roommates, Roxanne D. Davis, 49, and James W. Davis, 46, who had been missing since Sunday. The St. Petersburg Times reports that James Davis is charged with trafficking of controlled substances, possession of paraphernalia, possession of controlled substances and two warrants for failure to appear in court. Roxanne Davis is charged with violation of parole, grand theft and burglary.
Police have avoided publicly referring to the case as a homicide investigation, but signs obviously point to that. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement told The Tampa Tribune the agency had been called in to assist with an apparent homicide, but wouldn’t say whether it was related to the missing persons investigation. However, Zephyrhills Mayor Cliff McDuffie said, “I assume it is the same investigation. I assume it is a homicide.”
Perry, 56, is best known for his work on the mid-1980s animated series ThunderCats and SilverHawks, both developed by Rankin/Bass. However, he also wrote comics like Timespirits and Psi-Force for Marvel and Wally Wood’s THUNDER Agents for Deluxe.
- May 22, 2010 @ 06:12 AM by Kevin Melrose
SpringCon 2010
Jeff Parker, Michael May, and Phil Hester at Minnesota's SpringCon
The Midwest Comic Book Association’s FallCon has always been a great, local convention, but recently it’s also been a show with a problem. Traditionally the first weekend in October, it had always done well at attracting out-of-town guests thanks mostly to the extremely friendly, creator-focused organizers and volunteers (what other convention has a break room for creators with free lunch as well as an all-you-can-eat steak dinner after the show on Saturday?), but also to its being scheduled well after the summer convention season. In the last couple of years though, convention season has grown longer and longer and larger conventions like Baltimore and New York have been getting closer and closer to FallCon’s traditional date.
Also – I found out from talking to volunteers – paid attendance was starting to become an issue with Minnesota’s unpredictable, Autumn weather. Since FallCon was a two-day show, if the weather was bad on Saturday a lot of folks would skip it in hopes that Sunday would be nicer. And if the Twins were in the playoffs, you could forget about large crowds altogether.
So this year the MCBA decided to do something different. FallCon’s sister show was an annual, one-day event in the Spring called MicroCon. They’ve canceled that, turned FallCon into a one-day show, and created SpringCon, which debuted last weekend at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds to enormous success. In a newsletter I got this morning, the MCBA reported that it was easily the largest crowd to ever attend one of their events. They also raised a record amount of money and food for their charities (the Minnesota Lupus Foundation, the CBLDF, and Minnesota Food Shelves) and got a ton of positive feedback from dealers, creators, and fans. That was my experience on the floor as well.
Vampire cows, friends, famous people, and oh-so-many costumes after the break.
- May 21, 2010 @ 04:30 PM by Michael May
The Fifth Color – Forward into the Past: Marvel in Aug ’10
No, she doesn't!
The Heroic Age is here, every one! Hoorah! Siege is over, the great event Seven Years in the Making has reached its last chapter and we stand in May on the crossroads. Behind us, we can see a different Marvel Universe, full of doubt and fears. Heroes were in hiding, the Avengers were villains, it was madness, my friends. But now, ahead of us is this all new age (a Heroic one, you could say) and as prices average to $3.99 a comic, the iPad gives you access to digital content, movie studios and comic company walking hand and hand… a new age is indeed upon us.
So let’s think to the future without forgetting where we came from; from darkness, the True Believer will emerge unscathed and approach the future facing front, chin held high, excel-
Wait. The Women of Marvel alternate cover for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #640 features the Black Cat and MJ in a cute T-shirt? Mary Jane doesn’t love Spider-Man anymore. I thought we were through with this, Marvel? You can’t sweep the marriage under the rug and then use her to promote a man you untied her to!! No! This is an outrage! This is just rubbing our noses in the Mephisto deal and I won’t stand for it! Angry letters at the ready! Open weeping in the streets on standby! BAAAW-
*achem* My apologies. Excelsior.
- May 21, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Carla Hoffman
A closer look at those Fringe “alternate reality” covers
As noted earlier this week, last night’s season finale of Fox’s Fringe featured an alternate reality where everything was topsy-turvy — including the comics. Over at DC’s the Source blog, DC’s Geoff Johns and Wildstorm’s Hank Kanalz talks about how the mock covers used on the show came about.
“A month or so ago, I was fortunate enough to take on the job of Chief Creative Officer. That meant I was charged with bringing out characters out of the comic book pages and into the vast world of television, film, animation and video games that is DC Entertainment,” Johns said. “One of the first calls I got was from the director of the Fringe season finale – writer/producer/director Akiva Goldsman. He was shooting a scene in an alternate world where things weren’t exactly like ours. Where even the smallest details were somewhat off. Including the comics. Together with executive producer Jeff Pinker, Akiva wanted to showcase an array of DC Comics that could’ve been including the ones you can see below. He wanted them to be as authentic as possible. Something only the hardcore would really recognize. We all came up with some ideas. That’s when Hank Kanalz came in…”
“We mobilized Batman: Arkham Asylum artist Carlos D’Anda, The Authority: Lost Year artists JJ Kirby, Michael Lopez, and Oliver Nome, and art directors extraordinaire Larry Berry and Ed Roeder to create these fun alternate reality covers,” Kanalz said. “We assembled the first four covers quickly…but we really wanted to exceed all expectations for the fifth cover. With the concept of RED LANTERN/RED ARROW we had only one choice – Ivan Reis. Geez, did he and Oclair Albert deliver, or what?”
In addition to the Red Lantern/Red Arrow cover, there were several other classic DC Comics covers that got a little twist of their own. For instance, Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 featured the classic Superman holding a lifeless Supergirl … but on the show last night, the roles were reversed:
"Mock" Crisis #7 cover
- May 21, 2010 @ 01:50 PM by JK Parkin
Robot reviews: Prime Baby, Black Blizzard, Twilight and more
Prime Baby
Prime Baby
by Gene Luen Yang
First Second, 64 pages, $6.99
Every book by Gene Yang thus far follows the same basic thematic plot: A young man (or woman, but usually man) feels his life would be perfect if he could only attain that one special thing (acceptance, money, popularity, etc.). Through supernatural or otherwise fantastical means, he obtains his goal, only to discover (all together now) that it wasn’t what he really needed after all.
So it is with Prime Baby, Yang’s newest book, which was originally serialized in the New York Times Magazine. It’s about a young boy, Thaddeus K, who dreams of global conquest and is supremely resentful, jealous of, and thoroughly annoyed by his baby sister. When it turns out that his sister also serves as an inter-dimensional doorway to an alien world and tens of little pod spaceships start spitting up of her mouth, Thaddeus sees an opportunity to rid himself of his sister once and for all. Does he come to regret his decision? Are there stars in the sky?
- May 21, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Perez, Simonson supply DC 75th anniversary variant covers
DC rolled out two more variant covers this week, as artists continue to provide their renditions of classic DC covers. Ironically, the two artists featured here are responsible for a good number of classic covers themselves.
First up, here’s Walt Simonson’s version of Jerry Robinson’s Detective Comics #69 cover, which will be a variant cover for Detective #866:
Detective Comics #866
- May 21, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Cliff Chiang rocks the Archie 50 covers project
Cliff Chiang rocks an Archie cover
Cliff Chiang shares his cover for the Hero Initiative’s newest cover project, which features artists drawing their own rendition of the cover to Archie #600. You can check out more covers and read more about the project here.
- May 21, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
Wimpy Kid turns purple, joins the undead
The Color Purple
Amulet Books will pull yet another egg out from under their golden goose on November 9, when they release the fifth book in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. The press release makes it seem like the big news is that the color scheme of the new book will be purple, and to be fair, that probably is the most important feature to the readers, who are already sold on the first-person tales of Greg Heffley, average guy. However, author Jeff Kinney also hints at a major shift in the relationship between Greg and his best friend Rowley; apparently, nothing will ever be the same again. Not something I was expecting from the Wimpy Kid books.
Can’t wait that long? You can scratch both the Twilight and the Wimpy Kid itch with a single parody, The Diary of a Wimpy Vampire which is just out this week; it’s from a British publisher but is supposed to be published internationally. According to the UK paper The Independent,
Aimed at kids aged 12-15, the book is called a “comic tale of a teenage vampire’s struggle with the angst and traumas of adolescence.” It focuses on Nigel Mullet, who was made into a vampire as a teenager and will therefore spend eternity at the awkward age of 15.
Now that is a fate worse than death. Speaking of which, if you’re thinking “Why didn’t someone do a zombie mashup of Wimpy Kid?” wonder no more; Papercutz has you covered.
(Hat tip: Martha Cornog.)
- May 21, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Sequential science
The Facts in the Case of Dr. Andrew Wakefield
Daryl Cunningham’s short webcomic, The Facts in the Case of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, has been getting some chatter on Twitter and the blogs this week.
The comic is less a story than an essay on bad science. Cunningham summarizes the story of Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who claims to have found a link between the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine and autism. While Wakefield’s research has become an article of faith in some circles, leading parents to the risky choice of not vaccinating their children, Cunningham shows, in just a few panels, that the research was faulty, unethical, and tainted by financial incentives. It’s a shattering story, and Cunningham backs it up with references in a followup post.
But does it need to be a comic? I started wondering as I read it, because it struck me as being more an illustrated essay than a sequential story. Cunningham relies heavily on the research of Brian Deer, a reporter for the Sunday Times, and he presents the reader with a series of facts and opinions, some presented by a narrator, some illustrated by simple art such as an altered photo of Dr. Wakefield, a map of the world, etc.
- May 21, 2010 @ 09:18 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Legal
Legal | A judge in Macomb County, Michigan, has reduced the bond for Michael George from $2.5 million to $500,000 following an appeals court ruling that that the retailer should get a new trial in the 1990 fatal shooting of his first wife. He has been in jail since his arrest in August 2007 after detectives reopened the 17-year-old cold case.
George was convicted of first-degree murder in March 2008 and sentenced in June 2008 to life in prison. However, the judge set aside the conviction less than three months later, citing prosecutorial misconduct and the release of new evidence that could lead the jury to believe another person was responsible for the murder. [Detroit Free Press]
Legal | Drew Combs digs for additional information about the unnamed lawyer who allegedly stole the documents that represent the basis for the Warner Bros. lawsuit against Mark Toberoff, the attorney representing the heirs of Jerry Siegel and the estate of Joe Shuster. [The AM Law Daily]
- May 21, 2010 @ 07:50 AM by Kevin Melrose
Grumpy Old Fan | Budgeting DC Comics solicitations for August 2010
Detective Comics #468
[Note: I wrote this post before reading this week's ironically big stack of comics.]
Obviously I buy a good bit of DC’s superhero line. (It’s somewhere in the neighborhood of eighty percent, although I haven’t run the numbers in a while.) Lately I’ve been buying a nominal amount of Vertigo titles as well (including the might-as-well-be-a-superhero-book Madame Xanadu), and even the odd Wildstorm miniseries which isn’t Astro City. Every month I survey the DC solicitations knowing that a significant number of these books will come home with me on one Wednesday or another. By and large I don’t drop books as often as I add them. At times it makes me wonder whether there will ever be some kind of perfect convergence, where DC publishes exactly what I want out of a shared superhero universe, no more and no less … but then again, I probably won’t live that long, because it sure hasn’t happened yet.
I say all this because a variety of things have put me in the mood to do some pruning. Keep in mind that this happens sooner or later, but I’m motivated both by the budget and, at the risk of sounding too vague, the need to take a good hard look at what I’m getting out of each Wednesday’s purchases.
Therefore, this look at DC’s August solicitations will be a little different. I’ll run through the things I plan to buy and see where I might trim some fat.
* * *
Continue Reading »
- May 20, 2010 @ 01:50 PM by Tom Bondurant