2010 December
Which member of the Fantastic Four will die? Place your bets!
Fantastic Four #587
As most of us know by now, January’s Fantastic Four #587 will mark the death of a member of Marvel’s First Family. But which one will it be? Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch or The Thing?
Well, if odds-makers are to be believed, Sue Richards probably should get her affairs in order.
BetUS.com, which bills itself as “the world’s leading online sportsbook and entertainment website,” has released odds for which of the Fantastic Four will die in January. And, according to the site’s analysts, even money is on Invisible Woman, with 1/1 odds. She’s followed by brother Johnny Storm at 4/1, husband Reed Richards at 6/1, and loyal friend Benjamin Grimm at 100/1.
Fantastic Four #587, by Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting, will arrive polybagged in stores on Jan. 26.
- December 27, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
David Aja’s 5 Ronin cover process
5 Ronin
No doubt you’ve seen David Aja’s incredible covers to Marvel’s upcoming 5 Ronin miniseries. If you’re interested in seeing how they came together, the artist has posted his process for creating each of them on his blog. Check out covers featuring Wolverine, Deadpool, Hulk, Psylocke and Punisher.
- December 27, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Manga piracy moves to the Kindle
It was inevitable that someone would try manga piracy on the Kindle. It’s actually coming a bit late: The iTunes store is riddled with manga apps that pick up files from pirate sites like OneManga.com.
The Kindle is more of a closed system, so you have to hack it a bit, but an entrepreneur has figured it out. Manga on the Kindle is a subscription service; for $5 a month, you can download your choice of manga to your Kindle. It sounds legit, until you look at the list of available manga: Naruto, Bleach, Fullmetal Alchemist, Air Gear. No way is any American manga publisher going to let properties like that go to an obscure multi-comic app like this.
So how do they do it? At first I thought this might be published as a blog or e-zine on Amazon’s Kindle service, but it’s not. Basically, it’s just downloads that can be configured to go on a Kindle. There’s something touchingly old-school about the instructions page; it reminds me of the beginner’s guides to IRC (Internet Relay Chat) that scanlation sites used to feature, back when you still had to download. It’s written in the same friendly, reassuring tone, and it explains absolutely everything that will happen.
It’s pretty blatant piracy, but Manga on the Kindle gets a lot of things right. Continue Reading »
- December 27, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | DC to promote $2.99 comics, Eisner family pledges to museum
DC Comics
Publishing | DC Comics will roll out a marketing campaign next month in support of its new $2.99 price initiative. The campaign, apparently revealed in a communique to retailers, will include online banners, ads in January issues of Comics Buyer’s Guide, Comic Shop News and Wizard, in-book ads, and in-store posters, shelf talkers and cards. [Crimson Monkey]
Libraries | The Will and Ann Eisner Family Foundation has pledged $250,000 over five years to the new Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum facility, part of the Sullivant Hall renovation at The Ohio State University. [The Daily Cartoonist]
Broadway | The father of Christopher Tierney, the 31-year-old aerialist who fell a week ago during a performance of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, offers a full account of his son’s injuries: a hairline fracture in his skull, a broken scapula, a broken bone close to his elbow, four broken ribs, a bruised lung and three fractured vertebrae. Timothy Tierney said his son underwent back surgery on Wednesday, and took his first steps on Friday with the aid of a brace and walker. Doctors are “cautiously optimistic” that Christopher Tierney will eventually resume his performing career. [Arts Beat]
- December 27, 2010 @ 07:35 AM by Kevin Melrose
Happy Holidays from Robot 6
by Chris Samnee
With the holiday weekend upon us, we’re winding down here at Robot 6 to go spend time with family and friends. Before heading off to stuff our stockings and trim this trees, though, you’ll find a collection of holiday-themed links after the jump.
On behalf of all of Robot 6, have a great holiday and stay safe. We’ll see you next week.
(Above: Chris Samnee says happy holidays, Thor style).
- December 24, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Right-wing bloggers decry Nightrunner, DC’s Muslim ‘Batman of Paris’
Nightrunner, from Batman Annual #28 (art by Trevor McCarthy)
A conservative blogger who earlier sounded the alarm about the perceived attack on the tea party movement in Captain America and warned of the “anti-American nihilism” of Watchmen has now turned his attention to Bruce Wayne’s recruitment of a Muslim to be the Batman of Paris.
But Nightrunner, the parkour-trained crimefighter introduced in this month’s Detective Comics Annual #12, isn’t just any Muslim — he’s a 22-year-old Algerian Muslim living in Clichy-sous-Bois, the poor commune east of Paris best known outside of France as the epicenter of the 2005 riots. And that doesn’t sit well with Warner Todd Huston.
“You see, DC Comics has decided that the ‘French savior,’ the French Batman is to be a Muslim immigrant,” Huston writes on his Publis’ Forum. “The character’s name is Bilal Asselah and he is an Algerian Sunni Muslim and an immigrant that is physically fit and adept at gymnastic sport Parkour. Apparently Batman couldn’t find any actual Frenchman to be the ‘French savior’.” What constitutes an “actual Frenchman” isn’t entirely clear, but presumably the writer is referring to one of the “Frenchmen of European stock” he mentions later.
- December 24, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Macho heroes display their feminine side on parody site
Bruce on the loose
I’ll just have to quote from the site on this one …
“WELCOME EARTHLINGS TO THE COMICAL COMMAND CENTER FOR SEXY SUPERHEROS.
“LED BY THE EVIL LORD OF MOCKERY, EMPEROR SKIPNOSIS, THEY HAVE COME HERE TO SMASH THRU BARRIERS OF SUPER HERO AND VILLIAN MASCULINITY AND EXPRESS THE MORE FEMININE SIDE OF THEIR TYPICALLY MACHO PERSONAS.
“FOR EVERY SUPERHERO HAS A SECRET KINK OF SOME SORT, AND THESE MASKED MEN HAVE GROWN TIRED OF HIDING IN THE CLOSET AND PRETENDING THAT THEY ARE RULED ONLY BY OUR UNRELENTING AGGRESSION AND ACUTE MENTAL TOUGHNESS.
“THEIR MISSION IS TO BREAK FREE FROM THEIR MUSCLE BOUND PHYSIQUES AND EXPRESS THEIR CROSS DRESSING TENDENCIES FOR ALL THE WORLD TO SEE.”
And … yeah. The caps lock seems really appropriate for some reason.
- December 24, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Grumpy Old Fan | Unto us an Archive is given: DC Comics Solicitations for March 2011
DC Special Series #21
It was both a frustration and a relief to see the DC solicitations this week. I was prepping a holiday column, because it’s my last chance to do something seasonal and I always like doing those. Part of what I wanted to say appears at the end, but the March solicits help keep the more sappy impulses in check.
Anyway, let’s see what’s under the tree, shall we?
GLBXPT!
The long-awaited Sugar & Spike Archives are finally on the schedule — but I am careful to note that similarly-anticipated projects like Suicide Squad collections and the New Teen Titans: Games graphic novel have also made it to the solicits without (so far) showing up on bookshelves. Therefore, Sugar & Spike goes in the “I’ll believe it when I hold it in my grubby paws” category. It’s also ironic to me that Sugar & Spike gets the Archives treatment just as DC seems to be phasing out the Archives line in favor of the imposing Omnibus format.
Continue Reading »
- December 23, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
BOOM! goes old school with Disney classics
Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #715, the 70th anniversary issue
BOOM! Studios has made quite a splash since taking over the Disney licenses, with their Darkwing Duck and Ultra Heroes collections, but it has also been continuing Disney’s standard lines with modern-style stories (mostly from Italy) featuring Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge, and the rest of the classic stable.
A few weeks ago, BOOM! announced announced that starting in January, it would be marking the 70th anniversary of Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories with a return to classic content in these standard lines. The new comics will drop the contemporary work in favor of older stories, sometimes with new illustrations, as well as older content that has been released overseas but not in the U.S. The relaunch begins with Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories #715, which features a story written by Carl Barks and redrawn by Daan Jippes, as well as several classic reprints, and Mickey Mouse #304, which includes two Floyd Gottfredson stories from 1932 and 1944 and an Italian story by Romano Scarpa that is making its first appearance in English. Both comics are 40 pages long, which takes a bit of the sting out of the $3.99 cover price.
Next up is the 400th issue of Uncle Scrooge, in which Barks makes an appearance as himself and meets with Scrooge McDuck and the other denizens of Duckburg.
And just yesterday, BOOM! announced a quartet of collections that continues the theme: Walt Disney Treasury: Donald Duck vols. 1 and 2, Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories Archive vol. 1, and Disney’s Four-Color Adventures vol. 1. The Donald Duck books will feature some of Don Rosa’s early stories, while Walt Disney’s Comics and Stories Archive is a completist’s dream, the whole series presented in chronological order. All four books are due out in late spring and early summer 2011.
- December 23, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Mark Sable on Teen Titans: Cold Case and his dad
Teen Titans: Cold Case
This week saw the release of Teen Titans: Cold Case, written by Mark Sable (Unthinkable) and drawn by Sean Murphy. Originally titled “Father’s Day,” Sable details the book’s long road to getting published, as well as what the book means for him personally after his dad passed away earlier this year. I’d pull a quote from it, but really, you just need to go read the whole thing.
- December 23, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
Better than coal: First Second leaks pages from Paul Pope’s Battling Boy
Battling Boy
Here’s a nice pre-Christmas treat … First Second has started “leaking” some of the artwork for Paul Pope’s long-awaited Battling Boy project on their blog. Check’em out here and here. Those of you with long memories may remember that Pope told us earlier this year that Battling Boy will come out in 2011, and hopefully these teasers mean it will be sooner rather than later.
- December 23, 2010 @ 12:26 PM by JK Parkin
Notes on digital piracy
At the Content Protection Summit (yes, there is such a thing) in LA a few weeks ago, a Warner Brothers exec, Ben Karakunnel, discussed some insights into digital piracy that the company has gleaned through its reseach. Apparently WB has been tracking both P2P and streaming of their movies, and they have come to some interesting conclusions—which may have implications for comics as well.
One key insight, which vindicates the indignant comments whenever a site like scans_daily, HTMLcomics.com, or Onemanga.com is shut down, is that people who use pirate sites also pay for their media.
Even the most diehard pirates spend some money, though less than more casual infringers. “One of the main things we’re doing is looking at why they do things legitimately on certain products and not on others,” said Karakunnel.
Another is that people are finding their free media via specialty sites that link to it rather than search engines. That’s also significant for comics. Publishers have been doing a better job lately of making their own sites rank ahead of pirate sites on search engines, but if everyone is heading over to Surfthechannel to see what’s new, it really doesn’t matter. In fact, the difference here seems to be between looking for something you already know exists and looking for something new to watch—which means those link sites could have considerable promotional value.
- December 23, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
The Spider-Man musical’s problems explained, using CGI animation
Confused by all the twist and turns involving the delay- and injury-plagued Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark? Don’t worry, Taiwan’s Next Media Animation has your covered, explaining the latest developments in its customary CGI-animated, and somewhat-humorous, style.
- December 23, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Quote of the day | President Obama’s Spider-Sense is tingling
“You know, my sense is the Republicans recognize that with greater power is going to come greater responsibility.”
– President Barack Obama at Wednesday’s White House press conference on the 111th Congress’ surprisingly productive lame-duck session and the transition to a GOP majority in the House of Representatives next year. Sounds like he won’t be crumpling his sensible suit and tie in the trash and saying “President No More!” anytime soon.
- December 23, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Comics A.M. | Spider-Man resumes tonight, One Piece creator makes $24M
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
Broadway | The Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark canceled both Wednesday performances to test new safety measures following the Monday-night fall that left a stuntman hospitalized with broken ribs and internal bleeding. The cancellation of the sold-out evening show was announced just three hours before showtime at the Foxwoods Theatre. Tonight’s performance is expected to go on as planned.
Producers and creators met privately on Tuesday with the entire company to address safety concerns about the $65-million musical, the most expensive and technically complex in Broadway history. Although accidents in theater productions aren’t uncommon, it’s unusual for there to be four injuries before a show has officially opened. MTV offers some context. [The New York Times, The Associated Press]
- December 23, 2010 @ 08:19 AM by Kevin Melrose