2010 June
How to create new comic fans: cast ‘em in a comic book movie
Here’s a (slightly expensive )way to create new comic fans … cast’em in a comic book movie, which will send them to the comic shop to do “research.” X17 Online has video of Iron Man 2‘s Robert Downey Jr. at Meltdown Comics in L.A., buying various Avengers comics and talking to fans:
Hat tip to Jim McCann, who pointed out Downey grabs a copy of New Avengers: The Reunion around the 1:20 mark …
- June 4, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
China Miéville’s Swamp Thing would’ve been ‘epic,’ ‘pretty political’
China Mieville
Acclaimed “weird fiction” author China Miéville has confirmed the cancellation of his planned Swamp Thing reboot for Vertigo, the apparent result of an editorial decree to return the character to the DC Universe.
“My feelings at the moment can doubtless be intuited,” Miéville wrote in an email to the Roots of the Swamp Thing fansite, “though I have nothing but gratitude and respect for the people I worked directly with at DC, who were consummately professional and helpful.”
Created in 1971 by Len Wein and Bernie Wrightson, Swamp Thing starred in his own comic from 1972 to 1976. The title was relaunched in 1982 as The Saga of the Swamp Thing, which rose to critical acclaim in the hands of the (then) relatively unknown writer Alan Moore. The series moved under the Vertigo banner with the imprint’s founding in 1993, and it’s remained there ever since. Swamp Thing hasn’t been published since 2006, when the fourth volume was canceled.
Miéville, who’s known for such award-winning novels as Perdido Street Station, Iron Council and The City & The City, told the fansite he had planned “an ‘epic’ arc, in terms of scale and stakes,” for his Swamp Thing series. That 15- to 18-issue arc would’ve been “pretty political,” but not “entirely straightforwardly traditional ‘green’ politics.”
“It was conceived of, at least in part, as a respectful argument with some of Alan Moore’s formulations,” he wrote. He provides more “vague” details in his response to the fansite.
There’s no indication yet as to what creators might relaunch Swamp Thing under the DCU bullet. It’s likely any announcements will be held until Comic-Con International in July.
Miéville’s latest novel Kraken will be published this month by Del Rey.
- June 4, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Everyone’s a Critic | A roundup of comic book reviews and thinkpieces
The consequences of wearing a metal suit (from Windell's Superhero Showcase)
Review: Richard Bruton on Windell’s Superhero Showcase, which “mercilessly takes the superhero ideal out the back and kicks it in the face a few times.”
Advice: Erica Friedman discusses condescending comics, using Tantric Stripfighter Trina and Executive Assistant Iris as exhibits A and B:
It can be argued that publishers only publish what sells, which is exactly why I chose these two specific series. I can pretty much *guarantee* than neither of them sold all that well, if at all. And, instead of investing in something groundbreaking, or heck, something marginally less sad, the publisher said that they approved of this utter crap. I’m all for having comic company execs walk around with signs that say, “Why yes, we ARE condescending assholes.”
She has plenty to say about fans and creators as well. When Erica gets on a roll, she takes no prisoners.
Art critique: Frank Santoro shows some panels from Jonah Hex to demonstrate how photo-referencing is killing comics art.
Review: How do I love thee, Wally Gropius? Ken Parille counts the ways.
Contrast: Sean Kleefeld reviews Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber’s Underground, and he notes that this very (visually) dark book is drawn with a wide-open format, where Lieber’s earlier Whiteout, which is set in Antarctica, has much smaller panels (the opposite of what one might expect). Bonus reading: Kleefeld is temporarily thrown by some curvy women in Dynagirl.
Review: Matthew J. Brady finds Curio Cabinet utterly incomprehensible, and he’s not afraid to say so.
Reality check: Bob Temuka points out that punching people in the head and knocking them out is really quite dangerous. Why haven’t they done a Law & Order about this?
Review: Kristy Valenti takes a dim view of the graphic-novel adaptation of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
- June 4, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Stephen Perry
Crime | Florida authorities are trying to determine whether human remains discovered Wednesday in Pasco County are those of Stephen Perry, the 56-year-old ThunderCats writer who’s been missing for more than three weeks and presumed murdered. Zephyrhills police are still awaiting the results of DNA testing on the severed arm found in a trash bin on May 16 near Perry’s abandoned van.
Tampa Tribune reporter Howard Altman, who’s been covering the Perry case from the beginning, notes police revealed the latest discovery on the same day that Warner Bros. Animation announced it is producing a new version of ThunderCats. [The Tampa Tribune]
- June 4, 2010 @ 07:39 AM by Kevin Melrose
Grumpy Old Fan | Titans, go … away?
The New Teen Titans #39
Thinking about the idea of “definitive” runs (touched on last week) brings me back to one of DC’s seminal creative teams. Of course, for fortyish DC fans like me, that team could only be Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, whose New Teen Titans helped DC straddle the line between Silver Age homage and Marvel-style soap opera.
When NTT premiered in the summer of 1980, the DC superhero line looked pretty static: Cary Bates and Curt Swan on Action Comics, Gerry Conway writing Justice League, Irv Novick drawing Batman, Don Heck drawing Flash. Not that these were talentless hacks churning out pulp dreck — far from it — but Marvel had Frank Miller, Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Wolfman and Pérez themselves. Teen Titans was a twice-cancelled title, yadda yadda yadda, naturally it changed the course of DC’s history.*
It sounds redundant to call Wolfman and Pérez’s four-year collaboration “definitive” — how could it have been otherwise? — so I won’t dwell on that too much. Instead, for now let’s say it was a singular collaboration, with a beginning, middle, and end. Many of the book’s long-term story arcs began as character-based subplots, and many of those were on display in issue #1. Besides the issue’s main plot (Starfire escaping the Gordanians), Robin is snippy to Batman, Wonder Girl reminisces at the site of the abandoned building where she was rescued as an infant, Kid Flash has to be coaxed back into superheroics, and Cyborg hates his half-human existence.
- June 3, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Postal Service to issue ‘Sunday Funnies’ stamps, honor cartoonists on July 16
The "Sunday Funnies" stamps from the United States Postal Service
The “Sunday Funnies” stamps announced earlier this year by the United States Postal Service will be issued July 16, kicking off at 10:30 a.m. with a dedication ceremony at The Ohio State University, home of the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.
The five stamps honor Archie, Beetle Bailey, Calvin and Hobbes, Dennis the Menace and Garfield, so it’s fitting that the ceremony’s guests include Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker, Garfield creator Jim Davis, Dennis the Menace artists Marcus Hamilton and Ron Ferdinand, Archie newspaper strip writer Craig Goldman and Calvin and Hobbes editor Lee Salem.
See larger images of the stamp artwork, and read the text from the back of the “Sunday Funnies” pane, after the break:
- June 3, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by Kevin Melrose
Ulysses and the road to the iPad
Ulysses on the iPad: Somewhat cleaner than the original
Note: The following story contains images intended for an adult audience.
Earlier this year, Rob Berry and Josh Levitas launched an ambitious project: Adapting James Joyce’s Ulysses into webcomic form. Their Ulysses “Seen” is more than just a graphic novelization; readers can click on the images to a reader’s guide that translates the parts in foreign languages, explains the obscure references, and notes how Berry and Levitas had to improvise to put the text into graphic novel form. So when Buck Mulligan hoists his shaving bowl and intones “Introibo ad altare Dei,” readers who did not grow up with the Latin Mass will know what he is talking about.
Yesterday, Berry and Levitas unveiled their free Ulysses “Seen” iPad app. In order to meet Apple’s standards for the iTunes Store, they had to tone down some of their art—specifically, the nudity—and since fig leaves and pixelation weren’t allowed by Apple, they had to reframe some of the panels. Below is their description of why they undertook the project and what it took to get it accepted, as well as a panel (NSFW) from the webcomic, the original version of the art reproduced above.
- June 3, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Comic Cavalcade | Goldfish, LARPing and Gerald Ford
Every day people post comics on the Internet. Here are a few that caught our eyes.
“Gerry Comix” by Bob Fingerman
- June 3, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Langridge finds it, the Rainbow (Bridge) Connection
by Roger Langridge
Here’s another submission for this weekend’s HeroesCon art auction — this time The Muppet Show and The Mighty Thor‘s Roger Langridge combines two of Disney’s properties into one awesome mash-up. And hey — why not a Thor/Muppets comic?
- June 3, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by JK Parkin
Everyone’s a Critic | A roundup of comic book reviews and thinkpieces
To Terra
Philosophy: Ed Sizemore writes about the deeper meaning of Keiko Takemiya’s classic sci-fi manga To Terra:
Takemiya’s real concern is the same as the ancient Greek playwrights. She is writing to combat hubris, or extreme arrogance. It’s a belief there are no limits to one’s actions and a failure to recognize there are boundaries to life, which if violated will result in one’s destruction. In the old Greek tragedies, hubris was the downfall of the protagonist. The gods swiftly punished those that dared violated divine law or dared to imagine themselves as equal to the gods. Takemiya isn’t worried about divine law, but natural law. She is writing to warn us against the belief that we can become masters of nature and ourselves.
Review: Christopher Allen reviews Tim Hensley’s Wally Gropius, which mimics the style of Harvey comics and relies on a lot of sight gags: “I think the way to approach the book is as a lavish, frequently funny, if superficial, joke.”
Review: Tucker Stone, on the other hand, immerses himself in Jim Woodring’s Weathercraft, which he finds anything but superficial.
Review: It’s good news for readers when Chris Sims hates a book, because it gives him an excuse to perform one of his trademark vivisections, as with this takedown of Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal #3.
Auteurs: You know, there’s something awesome about reading a critique of The Wizard of Id in French. Loleck analyzes the humor of the long-running strip at du9.
- June 3, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Straight for the art | Jim Rugg draws my childhood
by Jim Rugg
This weekend’s HeroesCon will feature an art auction, and artist Jim Rugg is showing off his submission — featuring everyone from Lobo and Hellboy to the friggin’ Road Warriors — on his blog.
On an unrelated note, why the hell do I not have this convention in my travel plans every year?
- June 3, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
How to successfully pitch a superhero comic
from S.H.O.O.T. First by Justin Aclin and Ben Bates
It was an awesome thing to behold. My friend Justin Aclin — editor of ToyFare magazine, head writer of Twisted ToyFare Theater, and author of the graphic novel Hero House — came up with a great idea for a comic, about a super-powered team of militant atheists who track down and kill supposedly supernatural entities for meddling in humanity’s affairs. This was on a Monday. On Tuesday he pitched it to Dark Horse. On Wednesday it was greenlit. From idea to approval in under 48 hours. Amazing, right?
By now you’ve seen the end result: S.H.O.O.T. First, an eight-page story from the final issue of MySpace Dark Horse Presents. But if you’re an aspiring comics writer, perhaps you wanna see exactly how Aclin managed to catch lightning in a bottle in the first place.
Fortunately, he’s got your hook-up: On his blog, Aclin has posted his successful proposal for the comic. It sets up the concept, introduces the characters, and walks you through the plot of the initial short story in seven paragraphs and one catchphrase — pretty much a how-to for clear, concise, compelling comics pitches. Read and learn.
- June 3, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Brian Michael Bendis interviews David Mamet — comics writer
The Trials of Roderick Spode
Somehow it’s largely escaped notice that David Mamet has released a comic book.
Yes, the Pulitzer Prize-winning, Tony- and Oscar-nominated playwright and screenwriter responsible for such works as Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed-the-Plow, Wag the Dog and more. That David Mamet. But don’t worry, Brian Michael Bendis is way ahead of us!
“Just talked to David Mamet for a half hour,” the avowed Mamet fan tweeted this morning. “Yeah? And I only half embarrassed myself. You’ll see it on @cbr soon. He made a comic book! [...] My Mamet interview was not exactly The Chris Farley Show but it was pretty close! Fun fact — he just directed something for Funny or Die”
Released last month by Chicago-area independent publisher Sourcebooks, Mamet’s The Trials of Roderick Spode (“The Human Ant”) is a 32-page hardcover described as “a clever and postmodern take on the world of superheroes and ordinary life.” It chronicles the bizarre adventures of Roderick Spode, an ordinary man who confuses a photo booth with a device that doles out special powers, transforming him into an ant half the time: “Follow Roderick as he hangs out with his friend Cocky Cockroach, freelances as a comma, and fights his nemesis: the European Sourdough Rye!”
Bendis’ interview with Mamet will appear next week at Comic Book Resources.
- June 3, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
HeroesCon ’10 | McCann, Lee and the ‘Dapper Men’
Writer Jim McCann and artist Janet Lee are exhibiting at HeroesCon this weekend to support their upcoming graphic novel Return of the Dapper Men, and he sent over a look at the limited edition print they’ll be selling at the show. You can buy one at their table, AA-726; they’re limited to 314, signed and numbered, for $15.
- June 3, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Cameron Stewart talks about leaving Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne
Cowboy Batman sketch by Cameron Stewart
Yesterday, DC announced that frequent Grant Morrison collaborator Cameron Stewart has been replaced by Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Eight artist Georges Jeanty on the Western-themed fourth issue of Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. Post-solicitation creative-team changes are a dime a dozen at DC, but this is certainly one of the more high-profile examples of that kind of switcheroo I can think of. Amid all the say-it-ain’t-sos, Stewart took to his blog to offer a fairly circumspect summary of the situation:
Unfortunately, several weeks back I was forced to make the difficult decision to leave the book. It was a decision that I struggled with, but sadly conditions were such that I felt that my work would be drastically compromised and subpar should I stay on board, and so I felt that it was best that I walked away. I’d like to extend big thanks to my editors for trying to do whatever they could to make it possible for me to stay, but in the end it just wasn’t happening.
Stewart added that the only thing he’d drawn for the issue was the cover and a sketch or two, so the final product will be all Jeanty. He also promised a big announcement at the San Diego Comic-Con regarding a popular property he and Karl Kerschl will be working on. So while fans of his Bat-work (like me!!!) are no doubt disappointed, there are at least a few more Cam jams coming down the pike.
- June 3, 2010 @ 08:31 AM by Sean T. Collins