2010 December
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs | Walker Bean and pirate comics
The Unsinkable Walker Bean
The Unsinkable Walker Bean
Written and Illustrated by Aaron Renier
First Second; $13.99
As popular as pirates are, you’d think there’d be more comics featuring them. Certainly there’ve been some good ones over the years. Isaac the Pirate and Polly and the Pirates immediately come to mind, but the most recent of those is more than two years old. And even then, that’s not a lot of pirate comics for a time when Jack Sparrow was the hottest thing going at the box office. Since then, there’s been what? Boom! did a nice one-shot called Pirate Tales about four years ago and there was also Galveston, a pirate-Western mash-up by the same publisher, in 2008. That’s not a lot, but maybe I’m missing some. Let me know in the comments. It’s hard to believe that we haven’t even had a licensed Pirates of the Caribbean comic yet (outside of some short stories in the old Disney Adventures Magazine). That sounds like a no-brainer.
One reason for the shortage of pirate comics may be that it’s damn hard, apparently, to write an original pirate story. I interviewed Chuck Dixon about it back when he was promoting CrossGen’s El Cazador. When I asked him how we end up with so many bad pirate stories, he said that the problem is not having a story in the first place, but relying on a string of clichés and hoping that’ll suffice. As anyone who’s seen Cutthroat Island or that Walter Matthau movie will tell you, that’s true. You need a lot more than just peg legs, buried treasure, and a character who talks like Robert Newton.
Aaron Renier’s doing his part though. The Unsinkable Walker Bean is as original as it is swashbuckling and adventurous. It’s the story of a young boy named Walker Bean who’s never been to sea, but comes from an ocean-faring family. In fact, his father and grandfather both serve in the navy of the fictional country they belong to.
- December 22, 2010 @ 06:36 PM by Michael May
Chris Schweizer’s Community/Avengers mash-up
by Chris Schweizer
Artist Chris Schweizer shares an early Christmas present for comic fans who also dig NBC’s Community — a mash-up of the casts of both. It looks like he went with a more classic Avengers line-up, or else I’m sure Troy would be Spider-Man. Head over to his site to download wallpapers of the image.
- December 22, 2010 @ 02:09 PM by JK Parkin
Free kids’ comic from Wowio
Wowio has a nice little promotion going on: Once a month, they offer a free graphic novel e-book. This month’s choice is Gary the Pirate, by Scott Christian Sava, and to get it, you just have to go to Wowio’s Facebook page and “like” them—you can download the PDF straight from the page with no muss, no fuss, no DRM.
Gary the Pirate is a cute story about a klutzy pirate (he knocks over a whole row of pirate ships early in the book) and a girl who isn’t quite ready to grow up yet. There are some tender moments and a battle between pirate ships in the sky. The art has a Disneyesque feel to it, and it’s definitely a kid comic—there are no sophisticated asides for the grownups. But it’s great to have on your computer or iThing if there are going to be young folks in danger of getting bored over the holiday season.
- December 22, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
RIP Geraldine Grundy
Look up “spinster” in the dictionary and you’ll probably see a picture of Miss Grundy, the longtime homeroom teacher of Archie Andrews and the rest of the Riverdale gang. Everything about her screams “sweet 60 and never been kissed,” from her steel bun to her quasi-Victorian dress down to her sensible shoes. Of course, Miss Grundy was born old, and if anything she improved with age. Compared to her 1940s avatar (a wrinkled crone who worked in a pickle factory before turning to education for a career), her modern incarnation is quite soft and chic.
So it’s particularly poignant that just when she found love—with longtime crush Mr. Weatherbee—Miss Grundy also found out that she was seriously ill, and now we learn that she will shuffle off this mortal coil in issue #6 of Life with Archie magazine. Of course, the magazine is set in a different universe than the monthly comics: It follows the grown-up Archie and the rest of the Riverdale gang after they graduate from college, get married, and launch careers in an Archie-esque version of the real world. Miss Grundy will continue to torment the students of Riverdale High in the regular Archie series.
While it’s big news at the moment, Miss Grundy’s fate was actually foreshadowed in the first issue of Life with Archie, when she tells Mr. Weatherbee that she is gravely ill, and he responds by proposing. Unless the sixth issue is a huge break with the rest of the series, this is a very Riverdale version of cancer. We haven’t see Miss Grundy recover from surgery or spend hours in the infusion room getting chemo; she just works in her garden and looks a bit more haggard than usual.
(Also, Miss Grundy’s illness seems to take place only in the Archie Marries Betty stories, which makes one wonder if some odd version of the butterfly effect is at work: If Archie marries Veronica, does Miss Grundy get to live?)
Incidentally, the news of this sad event totally overshadows something every bit as momentous, and even more continuity-breaking: Jughead’s wedding. In issue #5, he gets hitched to Midge in a triple wedding with Mr. Weatherbee and Miss Grundy, and Mr. Svenson and Miss Beazly.
- December 22, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Brigid Alverson
Who should be the next Thunderbolt?
Marvel Two In One #86
So for a few days now Marvel.com has been running a poll asking folks which villain should join the Thunderbolts. Choices include a lot of great classic villains, like the Absorbing Man, Batroc, Mr. Hyde and The Shocker, as well as some that aren’t quite so classic, like Dr. Demonicus.
I’ve changed my vote several times now, as I keep going back and forth on who really deserves the kind of redemption being a Thunderbolt could bring:
- I started out backing Sandman, because I always thought Flint Marko got a raw deal when they turned him back into a villain. The now-classic Marvel Two-in-One #86 was a quiet story where Sandman and The Thing hung out at a bar, trading tales and becoming friends, that set up the Sandman as the ultimate case of redemption. Marko eventually moving on to work for Silver Sable and even became an Avenger. I mean, look how happy he is here — doesn’t he deserve a second second chance?
- December 22, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin
Full-color Bone One Volume Edition coming in 2011
BONE: 20th Anniversary Full Color One Volume Edition
Is it okay to start making my Christmas wish list for next year?
2011 is the 20th anniversary of the publication of Bone #1, the comic that kicked off a Jeff Smith’s epic tale and launched his successful career. To celebrate, Smith announced today that a full-color version of the Bone One Volume Edition is coming next year.
“The technology has finally caught up!” Smith posted on the Bone site. “Through a combination of sewing and glue, we can make a nearly 1400 page color One Volume Edition that lays flat when open!”
The Bone One Volume Edition, previously only been available in black and white, collects the entire Bone comic series. Scholastic, meanwhile, has been publishing color collections of the story over the last few years. With a trio of Bone films on the horizon. the timing for this couldn’t be better.
- December 22, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | Spider-Man musical resumes, amid criticism, after fall
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
Broadway | The fall that seriously injured an actor Monday night in the musical Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark was the result of human error, the Actors’ Equity Association said. Christopher Tierney, the 31-year-old aerialist who doubles for Spider-Man and two villains, remains in serious but stable condition after the cable to his safety harnesses snapped, sending him tumbling as far as 30 feet into the orchestra pit. As we reported on Tuesday, today’s matinee has been canceled while the show enacts additional safety measures. However, tonight’s performance will go on as scheduled.
Amid criticism from Broadway actors and calls for the plug to be pulled on the $65-million production — Tierney is the fourth Spider-Man performer to be injured — director Julie Taymor issued a statement, calling the accident “heartbreaking”: “I am so thankful that Chris is going to be alright and is in great spirits. Nothing is more important than the safety of our Spider-Man family and we’ll continue to do everything in our power to protect the cast and crew.” Meanwhile, the New York Post — home to theater columnist Michael Riedel, who’s gleefully chronicled the musical’s many setbacks — quotes one unnamed investor as saying, “We should cut our losses and just get out,” while another worries about potential lawsuits. The Daily Beast provides a timeline of the delay-plagued production, while Mark Evanier offers commentary. [Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark]
- December 22, 2010 @ 08:12 AM by Kevin Melrose
The Middle Ground #34: Tis The Season
There are too many comics to read out there.
I realized this while making my top 10 comics of the year list for the main site (Spoiler! The Rise of Arsenal will not appear on that list. I’m sorry, David Wolkin), as I firstly tried – and, most likely, failed – to remember everything good that I’d read from the past twelve months, and then gazed long and hard at a list someone else had prepared of the major releases of 2010. Both times, it kept coming back to me, over and over: there is so much that I still haven’t managed to get to, yet.
- December 21, 2010 @ 04:30 PM by Graeme McMillan
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Axe Cop
Welcome once again to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy based on certain spending limits — $15, $30 to spend and if we had extra money to spend on what we call the “Splurge” item. Check out Diamond’s release list for this week if you’d like to play along in our comments section.
Michael May
If I had $15:
I’d be all about the Axe Cop, Volume 1 ($14.99). Should be the best thing since Katie Mignola’s The Magician and the Snake.
If I had $30:
I’d add On the Case with Holmes and Watson, Volume 5: The Adventure of the Speckled Band ($6.95) and Robert E. Howard’s Savage Sword #1 ($7.99). Those On the Case books are cool and a Howard anthology of new and reprinted material sounds awesome. Especially when the creators involved include Paul Tobin, Marc Andreyko, Tim Bradstreet and Barry Windsor Smith.
- December 21, 2010 @ 03:37 PM by JK Parkin
Marvel revives the line-wide mega-event era with ‘Fear Itself’
Cue the Welcome Back, Kotter theme music: At a live press conference from NYC’s Midtown Comics today, Marvel unveiled “Fear Itself,” a line-wide event beginning in March. Featuring a prologue one-shot by Ed Brubaker and Scot Eaton, tie-ins, spin-off stand-alone miniseries, and an April-launching seven-issue core limited series by Matt Fraction and Stuart Immonen, it’s very much in the vein of past mega-events like “Civil War,” a comparison company personnel made repeatedly at the presser. If anything, it sounds even bigger than “Civil War,” as the two core Marvel franchises who’ve traditionally been kept at arms’ length from the big events of late, the Hulk and the X-Men, look to be playing an integral role right along with the Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and so on.
- December 21, 2010 @ 02:10 PM by Sean T. Collins
Comics for Christmas?
At the CO2 Comics blog, Gerry Giovinco (who moonlights as Santa—who knew?) encounters a kid who wants comics for Christmas and wonders how he will find them.
Will his parents know to go to a comic shop and if they do will they be able to find comics that are age appropriate for this little guy? When I was a kid you could find comic books anywhere, especially ones that a kid could enjoy.
Are there enough comics out there in the market today to maintain the enthusiasm of a six year old? Sadly, probably not.
What have we done. What have we done to comics.
Actually, I think comics are better than ever. Gerry, bless him, waxes nostalgic for something that no longer exists: Single-issue comics printed on cheap newsprint, with a complete story in each one, sold on a spinner rack. Those comics are definitely gone. Even an Archie floppy costs three bucks nowdays, and most single-issue comics are anything but kid stuff.
But spinner racks, the single-issue format, and cheap paper are what the philosophers call “accidentals.” What Gerry really misses is comics that are FUN! Those we have in abundance, and they are readily available to children. G-Man, The Unsinkable Walker Bean, Papercutz’s Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, and Diary of a Stinky Dead Kid graphic novels, Babymouse, Knights of the Lunch Table, Stone Rabbit, Boom! Studios’ Pixar, Muppet, and Disney comics—there’s something out there for every age and taste. Gerry mentions that comics used to be a boys’ club, and some of these are definitely gendered, but there’s a girls’ club now as well. (Want more? Good Comics for Kids, of which I am a member, just released its Best Comics for Kids 2010 list.)
- December 21, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
IDW takes graphic novels digital
Single-issue comics have been the format of choice on the iPad and iPhone, but IDW is about to change all that: They announced this week that they will offer full-length graphic novels for the iPad. Each graphic novel will be a stand-alone app, priced between $5 and $10.
IDW has never been timid about digital comics, and they are jumping into digital graphic novels with a strong lineup of recent releases: Darwyn Cooke’s Parker: The Outfit, which is making a lot of best-of-the-year lists, for just $9.99, and Cooke’s earlier Parker: The Hunter for $7.99, as well as a Star Trek movie adaptation ($9.99), Vol. 1 of The Bloom County Library ($7.99), Tribes: The Dog Years ($7.99), and After the Fire ($4.99).
This is exactly what comics readers have been saying they want—recent releases priced lower than the print editions. IDW has chosen to release these comics as stand-alone apps, rather than through the IDW or Comics+ apps that carry their single-issue comics. That means iPad users who are not comics readers but are fans of Star Trek or the Parker prose novels have a shot at running across these in the iTunes store.
When IDW launched the Star Trek: Countdown iPhone comic, publisher and director Ted Adams commented, “We will sell as many iTunes apps [of Countdown] as we will of as the print version.” That kind of thinking is clearly behind this move. The initial lineup has an appeal way beyond the traditional comics audience, and by presenting them as single apps, rather than walling them off inside a comics app, IDW has made it more likely that new readers will find them.
(Image taken from the Comics Alliance piece.)
- December 21, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Labor union to stop performances of Spider-Man musical following injury [Updated]
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
In the wake of last night’s accident that sent a stuntman to the hospital, Actors’ Equity Association has announced it will halt performances of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark until better safety measures are instituted.
“Actors’ Equity Association is working with management and the Department of Labor to ensure that performances will not resume until back-up safety measures are in place,” the labor union, which represents live theatrical performances, said this morning in a statement released to Broadway World. Update: Broadway.com now reports that “additional safety protocols” will be enacted immediately, resulting in the postponement of Wednesday’s matinee. However, Wednesday evening’s performance, and all subsequent ones, will proceed as scheduled.
As we reported earlier, aerialist Christopher Tierney, who doubles for Spider-Man and two villains, fell about 30 feet when the cable to his harness snapped during the closing minutes of Monday night’s performance. (The New York Times has amateur video of the mishap.) He was taken by ambulance to Bellevue Hospital, where he’s reported to be in stable condition. According to Showbiz 411, Tierney suffered broken ribs and is being monitored because he was bleeding after the fall.
Inspectors from the New York State Department of Labor are visiting the Foxwoods Theatre today to conduct their own investigation. “We’ll be talking to the production team, checking the harnesses, cables, and other equipment, and trying to determine what happened, and we’ll have more information after that,” a department spokesman told The Times.
- December 21, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Quotes of the day | Tom Brevoort vs. Brian Hibbs on title glut
Marvel's Thor-related products for December 2010
“Event Marketing” ultimately conditioned the majority of consumers to not want books that weren’t part of events, weren’t part of the “core continuity.” The over-proliferation of line expansions (seriously who wants eleven different “Thor” comics solicited to ship in a single month? Thor, historically, can barely support a single title) did the same….The thing is: this is a self-inflicted wound. Event marketing, line expansions, overproduction of minis and new #1s, price increases — these were all things that publishers chose to do in order to make as much money as they could. There’s nothing wrong with that, per se — we live in a system of capitalism, and capitalism demands greater profits. But we’ve systematically made what seemed like sound short-term decisions that largely gutted the long-term market for most of the product within it. Ooops!…We have to strip lines down, hard, to just the brilliant shiny heart of it all and have the message be, “Yeah, we’re publishing half of what we used to, but, damn, if we published any more awesome stuff that you just can’t wait to get the next issue of, we’d all explode!”
–Retailer and CBR columnist Brian Hibbs, arguing that the proliferation of comics about the same characters has been a disaster and publishers need to radically cut back.
[Reader Question:] Do you think less having titles would be workable? Would having e.g. Batman in only one (or at most two) title be a high-enough seller in the long term (due to not diluting the franchise) to offset the loss of sales from multiple books?
[Tom Brevoort:] No, not at all. Every time this sort of thing has been tried in the past, the results have been the same. For the most part, multiple titles featuring the same character(s) don’t cannibalize sales from one another, nor do the sales aggregate when you eliminate the other books.
–Marvel Senior V.P. – Executive Editor Tom Brevoort, arguing that radically cutting back would be a disaster and the proliferation of comics about the same characters is just fine.
One of these men is wrong. But who?
- December 21, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Free Comic Book Day title to feature Langridge and Samnee’s Thor: The Mighty Avenger
Thor & Captain America: The Mighty Avengers
“Is it worth my time to hope that Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee are the creative team for “Thor & Captain America: The Mighty Avengers?” If not, is it possible that Marvel could make this happen?”
–ryan, in the comments section of Kevin’s post yesterday about the “Silver” titles for this year’s Free Comic Book Day
Yes, ryan, there is a Santa Claus.
“You want some more Thor: The Mighty Avenger? You want some Cap? You want it for free??? DONE! 
,” artist Chris Samnee posted on Twitter yesterday.
According to the Free Comic Book Day site, Thor & Captain America: The Mighty Avengers is indeed by Samnee and writer Roger Langridge — meaning issue #8 of Thor: The Mighty Avenger won’t be the last time we see the pair collaborate on the character.
Update: Chris Samnee posts his cover creation process for the book on his blog.
- December 21, 2010 @ 09:15 AM by JK Parkin