2010 July
A ‘Grounded’ Superman gets lost in Philadelphia
From Superman #701
The Man of Steel’s much-discussed yearlong walk across America starts off on the wrong foot this week in the City of Brotherly Love.
Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Michael Klein takes note of a caption box in Superman #701 that sets the scene in “Philadelphia, Pennsylvania … the South Side,” specifically, on the 500 block of S. 48th St. The thing is, the city doesn’t have a “South Side” — it’s South Philadelphia or, more commonly, “South Philly” — and even if it did, that block wouldn’t be in it. You see, the intersection of 48th and Larchwood streets is in West Philadelphia (aka University City, aka where the Fresh Prince of Bel Air was born and raised).
“Is this the comic book version of revisionist history?” one commenter asks. “Maybe you should have started in Texas.”
The misstep is, of course, one of the pitfalls that comes with setting a story in such a specific real-world locale. With Lex Luthor otherwise occupied, perhaps the geographical goof will fill the role of archnemesis in the “Grounded” arc, as J. Michael Straczynski and Eddy Barrows take Superman through Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon and Washington. (I’m guessing the “South Side” caption will be changed for the collected editions.)
Okay, so Straczynski botched the neighborhood, but how did Superman #701 score with the other Philadelphia touchstones? Well …
“[Superman] stops at a diner for a ‘Philly cheese steak sandwich’ but is short on money,” Klein writes, “so the waitress allows him to work it off by cleaning the storeroom. He also thwarts drug dealers by setting their stashes on fire with his X-ray vision and talks a woman off a ledge. Standard stuff.”
We’ll have to wait until Wednesday to learn whether it was the term “Philly cheese steak sandwich” that drove the woman to the ledge.
- July 12, 2010 @ 07:51 AM by Kevin Melrose
Nominees announced for 2009 Harvey Awards
Harvey Awards
The nominees have been announced for the 2009 Harvey Awards, which recognize outstanding work in comics and sequential art.
Named in honor of the late Harvey Kurtzman, the cartoonist and founding editor of MAD magazine, the awards are selected entirely by creators. Final ballots are due by Aug. 7. Winners will be announced Aug. 28 in Baltimore in conjunction with Baltimore Comic-Con. Scott Kurtz will again serve as master of ceremonies.
The nominees are:
Best Writer
• Jason Aaron, Scalped (Vertigo/DC Comics)
• Geoff Johns, Blackest Night (DC Comics)
• Robert Kirkman, The Walking Dead (Image Comics)
• Jeff Kinney, Diary of a Wimpy Kid #3: The Last Straw (Amulet Books)
• Mark Waid, Irredeemable (BOOM! Studios)
Best Artist
• Robert Crumb, Book of Genesis (W.W. Norton)
• Guy Davis, B.P.R.D.: Black Goddess (Dark Horse)
• Brian Fies, Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow? (Abrams ComicArts)
• David Petersen, Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 (Archaia)
• Frank Quitely, Batman and Robin (DC Comics)
• J.H. Williams III, Detective Comics (DC Comics)
- July 12, 2010 @ 06:17 AM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’10 | Mattel’s Starro the Conqueror packaging sounds like Batman
Well, it is Batman … or Kevin Conroy, to be precise.
One of Mattel’s exclusive items available in San Diego this year will be a Justice League of America Starro the Conqueror set, which includes the villain and five heroes — Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern. The packaging is pretty nice:
More info on it can be found at MattyCollector.com.
- July 11, 2010 @ 09:18 PM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading?
Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne
Welcome once again to What Are You Reading? Today’s special guest is writer and artist Dean Trippe, creator of Butterfly and co-founder of the Project: Rooftop blog, among other credits. He posts regularly on his Tumblr site Bearsharktopus-Man, where he is currently selling this nifty Doctor Who/Batman crossover print. He also has some art in the Webcomics Auction for the Gulf.
To see what Dean and the rest of the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below …
- July 11, 2010 @ 02:04 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’10 | Highlights of Sunday’s comics programming
Comic-Con International
At last we arrive at the schedule for the final day of Comic-Con International — Sunday, July 25 (aka “Kids’ Day”).
Below you’ll find highlights of the comics-related programming, which include the final Smallville panel, an appearance by famed Japanese artist Yoshitako Amano, spotlights on Matt Fraction and Dennis O’Neil, and a look at the upcoming Spider-Man storyline “Origin of the Species.”
The full programming schedule for Saturday can be found here.
10 to 11 .m. Emily The Strange — Get your last day of Comic-Con off to a strange start with Dark Horse’s Emily the Strange panel! Meet Emily’s creator Rob Reger and Dark Horse editor Shawna Gore, and come prepared to quench your curiosity about all things Emily. Exciting announcements, wacky wordplay, and tasty news bits are all on the menu for this early bird panel! Room 3
10 to 11 a.m. Jack Kirby Tribute — It’s time once again to pay tribute to Jack “King” Kirby, the prolific writer/artist who co-created some of the world’s most famous superheroes, including the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, Thor, Captain America, the New Gods and many more. Kirby biographer and friend Mark Evanier (Kirby: King of Comics) hosts this annual Comic-Con tradition and is joined this year by writers Marv Wolfman (Tomb of Dracula, New Teen Titans) and Kurt Busiek (Astro City, JLA/Avengers) and other Kirby fanatics to discuss the King. Room 4
- July 11, 2010 @ 11:09 AM by Kevin Melrose
SDCC ’10 | Highlights of Saturday’s comics programming
Comic-Con International
Like clockwork, Comic-Con organizers have released the schedule for the third day of the convention, Saturday, July 24.
Below you’ll find highlights of the comics-related programming, ranging from movie panels for Warner Bros.’ Green Lantern and Marvel’s Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger to Joe Quesada’s traditional “Cup O’ Joe” and “Scott Pilgrim, Vol. 6: Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour vs. The Fans.”
The full programming schedule for Saturday can be found here.
10 to 11 a.m. Spotlight on Carla Speed McNeil — Comic-Con special guest Carla Speed McNeil is best known for her creator-owned title Finder. A few years back, Carla took new stories of Finder to the Internet, and the result was an Eisner Award for best webcomic of 2008 and a new series of reprints from Dark Horse. Carla talks about her work and what’s next in this Spotlight panel. Room 3
10 to 11 a.m. The Black Panel 2010 — This year’s Black Panel will be one for the ages. The focus will be on empowerment, education, real-world networking, and finally but never last, fun. The panelists include entertainment attorney Darrel Miller, novelist Nnedi Okorafor, artist Denys Cowan and writer/producer/director Reggie Hudlin, with moderator Michael Davis. Once they answer life’s burning questions, they’ll chill with a salute and Q&A from the audience with actor/writer/director Bill Duke. As always, surprise guests who will rock your world. Room 5AB
10 to 11 a.m. Marvel Comics Writers Unite! — The third in Comic-Con’s series of “Year of the Writer/Comics Writers Unite!” panels focuses on Marvel Comics and includes Comic-Con special guests Brian Michael Bendis (Avengers, New Avengers, Ultimate Spider-Man), Matt Fraction (Invincible Iron Man, Thor) and Chris Claremont (X-Men Forever, X-Women) in a discussion with writer Mark Waid (Amazing Spider-Man, Irredeemable). Room 6DE
- July 10, 2010 @ 03:18 PM by Kevin Melrose
Chain Reactions | Scarlet #1
Scarlet #1
Since details of the new Icon series by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev were revealed in April, fans have wondered what to expect from the reunion of these frequent collaborators — they previously worked together on such titles as Daredevil, Halo: Uprising and Spider-Woman — and from a storytelling approach that promised to smash the fourth wall.
With the release this week of Scarlet #1, we were introduced to a hard-boiled protagonist who addresses her readers, drawing them into the story’s ultra-violence and, in the words of one reviewer, making them complicit in it.
Some see the first issue of Scarlet as a return to form for Bendis and an example of Maleev at his best. Others, however, aren’t so certain. Here’s just a sampling of the reactions:
Dan Phillips, IGN.com: “For those of us who haven’t been all that fond of Brian Bendis’ ongoing Avengers saga but loved his earlier work on books like Jinx, Goldfish, Alias and Daredevil, reading his and Alex Maleev’s Scarlet #1 feels like reuniting with an old friend, or, to put it another way, rediscovering a bold storytelling voice that’s been sadly and inexplicably dormant for the past half decade.”
Jim Martin, Comics And … Other Imaginary Tales: “I’m very conflicted about this book and I’m not sure if this is just incredible pretentious crap or whether this is the beginning of a unique book that could turn into a very strong series.”
- July 10, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Help assemble an exquisite corpse
The panel that got things rolling
An exquisite corpse is a sort of round robin where everyone contributes one piece to a work, without necessarily knowing the context of what they are creating. (Wikipedia entry here.) You probably did something like it as a kid, like the game where you fold a piece of paper in threes and different people draw a head, torso, and feet.
Bea AD (probably NSFW) is an exquisite corpse webcomic, and creator Snapper52 is inviting everyone to participate. The rules are straightforward: Send in a link to your illustration or comics site and Snapper52 will assign you a panel. The design of the main character is spelled out in detail but the rest remains mysterious, and the plot is rather obscure at the moment.
Creators should be aware that Snapper52 assumes all rights to reproduce the panel online or in print, and the goal is to ultimately assemble the panels into a publishable graphic novel.
- July 10, 2010 @ 08:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
The Fifth Color | Feeding From a World That Hates and Fears Them
Jubilee is with Team Edward
Neil Gaiman thinks modern vampires suck.
And not in a good way, but in a weak, namby-pamby embarrassing kind of way. They have sullied the good name of Dracula and horror antagonists everywhere!
Okay, maybe he didn’t say that, maybe it was better put and far more eloquent or politely than I would have said, but a gist could be taken. From the interview in The Independent:
He said he hoped that mainstream culture would lose its interest in the undead so that vampire fiction could regain its potency. “Maybe it’s time for this to play out and go away. It’s good sometimes to leave the field fallow. I think some of this stuff is being over-farmed,” he said.
He also said far more damningly:
“My next big novel was going to have a vampire. Now, I’m probably not. They are everywhere, they’re like cockroaches.”
Yikes, cockroaches? Really? I’d say that’s a bit iffy on the eloquent and probably not polite. I certainly know enough Gaiman fans who feel a little more than put out by the shelving of what could be another incredible story from an unbelievably popular writer because of Stephanie Meyer’s work. Should we put the vampire genre, like Gaiman says, “back underground for another 20 years or another 25 years.” Will a whole new generation have to discover the fascination of the alluring and inhuman, the forces of will, the metaphor of sexual awakening and the ancient mythology of human hunters in the night because of the Cullens?
Let’s read X-Men #1 and find out!
(WARNING: Surprise! There are spoilers for X-Men #1 ahead. No, not the one from 1991. Certainly not the one from 1963! No, these would be the new X-Men… wait. No. Let me come in again…)
Continue Reading »
- July 9, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Carla Hoffman
SDCC ’10 | Help me put together my San Diego wish list
Comic-Con International kicks off in less than two weeks — two weeks! — in San Diego. Here’s a photo of what to expect if it’s your first time going.
If you are a comics creator or publisher, and you’re planning to bring something new to the con — a sketchbook, a print, a graphic novel debut, etc. — then we want to hear from you. Drop me an email and let me know if you’ll have something cool on hand that attendees should know about. Feel free to send any artwork as well, and we’ll start posting them. Thanks in advance!
- July 9, 2010 @ 02:39 PM by JK Parkin
Robot reviews: Wilson and Weathercraft
Wilson
Wilson
by Daniel Clowes
Drawn and Quarterly, 80 pages, $21.95
Weathercraft
by Jim Woodring
Fantagraphics Books, 104 pages, $19.99
Here we have two of the more notable and anticipated graphic novel releases of this year. Though at first glance the two don’t seem to have much in common, they do have some similarities. Both come from artists who came to help define the alt-comix movement in the late 1980s and ’90s and their work during that period was seen by many as sterling examples of the sort of Art with a capital A that the medium was capable of producing. Both have also laid relatively low in recent years, pursing projects in other mediums like film, illustration, performance art and toy-making, occasionally returning to comics through the side door (Woodring in the pages of Mome, Clowes with his Mister Wonderful serial in the New York Times). And, while it doesn’t have nearly as much significance as some would like to think it has, this also marks the first time both authors have attempted to publish their work in the “done in one” graphic novel book format rather than serialize it over a lengthy period of time in the more traditional pamphlet format (indeed, this is likely the longest story Woodring has done yet).
Both also begin with the letter W.
- July 9, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Old Major would be proud: Preview AdHouse’s Duncan the Wonder Dog
Duncan the Wonder Dog
AdHouse has a nice-looking book called Duncan the Wonder Dog shipping in September, by Xeric recipient Adam Hines. The description of the book reads:
What if animals could talk? Would some of them form a militant group in reaction to how humans treat them? Would humans treat them different? Come explore this dense tome of an alternate universe where the lavish renderings recall Dave McKean. 2009 Xeric winning Duncan the Wonder Dog WILL be one of the most talked about books of 2010.
After the jump you’ll find a preview of the first few pages of the book, but there’s an even longer one over on AdHouse’s site, available as a PDF. Go check it out.
- July 9, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’10 | Highlights of Friday’s comics programming
Comic-Con International
As we inch another day closer to Comic-Con International, which kicks off in just 13 days, organizers have released the schedule for Friday, July 23.
Below you’ll find highlights of the comics-related programming, which range from a panel on AMC’s highly anticipated adaptation of The Walking Dead to spotlights on such creators as Chris Claremont, Moto Hagio, Paul Levitz, C. Tyler and Stan Lee to, of course, peeks at publishing plans for companies ranging from Marvel, DC and BOOM! to Dark Horse, IDW and Top Shelf.
The full programming schedule for Friday can be found here.
10 to 11 a.m. DC Talent Search 2 — DC’s editorial art director Mark Chiarello presents an informative orientation session that will explain how DC’s Talent Search works and discuss the different needs of DC Universe, Vertigo, WildStorm and MAD magazine publications. If you want to learn what DC Comics looks for in artists and how to improve your chances of becoming a working professional, this is the panel for you! To have your work reviewed, attendance at this orientation session is mandatory. (Please note: Not all attendees are guaranteed a one-on-one review.) Room 4
- July 9, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
‘I always heal but I never stop hurting’
The nerd rock band Kirby Krackle, who jammed with Joe Quesada at C2E2 in April — have a new music video/fan film for the song “On and On,” a fun ode to Wolverine and his crazy adventures. The video is directed by Todd Downing and can be seen on YouTube.
from "On and On" by Kirby Krackle
The song is one of 22 from their latest album, E for Everyone, which also includes songs called “Secret Identity,” “Henchman” and “Great Lakes Avengers.” Let’s hope they make a video for that last one, too.
- July 9, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Quote of the day | Mark Waid quits reading superhero comics
“Annnnd today was the day I stopped reading super-hero comics. One that I won’t name finally broke me. Collection stops as of now. No joke.”
– longtime superhero-comics writer Mark Waid. You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! God damn you all to hell!
- July 9, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Sean T. Collins