2011 June
What a bunch of poozers: A review of Green Lantern: Emerald Knights
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, the latest foray in Warner Brothers’ collection of straight-to-DVD animated movies, is a tired collection of military cliches interspersed with some impressive fight scenes. Words like honor, sacrifice and bravery get batted around like a well-used hacky sack at a Grateful Dead concert, but to little effect, other than to remind you that there’s a big screen, live-action movie starring Ryan Reynolds that will be coming out in theaters any day now.
- June 3, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Start Reading Now | Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant
Only four pages in, Tony Cliff’s Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant already has me hooked. The art is absolutely gorgeous, taking the ligne claire style a step beyond simplicity — just look at the drawing of boats in the water lapping on the second page to see what I mean. The story is exotic and promises to be filled with adventure; here is Cliff’s capsule description: “In 19th-century Turkey, an officer in the Janissary army must struggle to repay a brash adventuress for saving his life, even though she was the one who endangered it in the first place.”
- June 3, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
The New DCU may be many things, but don’t call it a ‘reboot’
Green Lantern #1, by Dave Johnson
The sweeping line-wide retooling of DC Comics’ superhero titles that will see the debut of 52 first issues introducing “a more modern, diverse DC Universe” has been referred to in a number of ways — a renumbering, a relaunch, a revamp. But what it isn’t, apparently, is a “reboot.”
“This is the launch of the New DCU,” DC’s Senior Vice President-Sales Bob Wayne explains in a letter to retailers. “It is not a ‘reboot.’ I think you will soon discover why that is.” Note also that it’s “New DCU” and not, thankfully, “DCNu” (so cut that out).
What differentiates Tuesday’s announcement, with its across-the-board No. 1 issues, promises of new origins and new (younger) ages for some characters and minor changes for others, from a reboot, of course, remains to be seen.
DC revealed the first wave of titles yesterday — 10, plus the earlier announced Justice League by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee — including Wonder Woman by Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang, The Fury of Firestorm by Ethan Van Sciver, Gail Simone and Yildiray Cinar, and Aquaman by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis, followed this morning by the four Green Lantern books. That leaves 37 more series and creative teams to be parceled out between now and Tuesday, June 13, when the publisher’s September solicitations will be officially released.
- June 3, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Some thoughts on DC’s first wave of relaunched creative teams
Wonder Woman by Cliff Chiang
Following their announcement that they were starting everything over and relaunching all their titles with new first issues this fall, DC Comics today announced the creative teams for ten of the titles.
And while Tom may have other thoughts on his mind this week, here are some of my quick thoughts on those announcements:
Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang on Wonder Woman: Now all we need to know is whether she’s forming a rock band or not … but seriously, art wise, in my eyes, perfect choice. I’m a huge fan of Chiang’s, so I was just hoping we’d see him on any regular title. And Wonder Woman seems like a great fit. Azzarello, meanwhile, probably isn’t the first name I would have thought of when thinking about Wonder Woman, but the more I think about it, the more I like the idea. Of the creative teams revealed so far, this is probably becoming my favorite, or is at least tied with …
Ethan Van Sciver, Gail Simone and Yildiray Cinar on Firestorm: Back at WonderCon in 2010, Simone and Van Sciver teased that they were working together on something. Could they have been talking about Firestorm? Maybe; Simone also said on Twitter that she and Van Sciver have another as-yet-unannounced project they’re working on, so it could have been something else. I like the fact that Van Sciver is co-writing the book (rather than drawing it), and it’s getting a bit of a reboot. “Jason Rusch and Ronnie Raymond are two high school students, worlds apart – and now they’re drawn into a conspiracy of super science that bonds them forever in a way they can’t explain or control.” So you have two writers with very different worldviews writing a character composed of two other characters with wildly different worldviews. That’s actually pretty cool. Yildiray Cinar, meanwhile, has been killing it on Legion, so he’s a plus to a team I was already liking.
- June 2, 2011 @ 04:05 PM by JK Parkin
Grumpy Old Fan | The Alternative Thirty
DC Universe: The Stories Of Alan Moore
[A quick note before we go too much farther: I started writing this post before DC’s big announcement about its September-and-beyond plans. In fact, I wanted this particular post to be about something other than Flashpoint and/or line-wide reboots -- so depending on your perspective, I picked exactly the right week, or exactly the wrong week, to draw that line. In any case, it’s probably not hard to tell, from the past few weeks’ worth of posts, where I stand on current events.
[So there you go. On with the business at hand.]
Since it’s pretty much summer, and time to think about catching up on reading, let’s revisit DC’s list of “30 Essential Graphic Novels” — “best-selling titles that you must read[, ]whether you are just beginning to discover graphic novels or you are an established fan looking to expand your collection.”
The list is almost four years old, and has had a few minor updates. (Pride Of Baghdad replaced The Quitter, and Crayon Shinchan replaced Sword Of The Dark Ones.) For the most part, though, it’s the same compilation — heavy on the Batman and the Jeph Loeb, a decent amount of Alan Moore (but no Swamp Thing), a couple of Sandman books and Hellblazer, but no Wonder Woman, no Joe Kubert, and no Jack Kirby. While there are at least a couple of representatives from each of DC’s imprints, there aren’t many hints at the real scope of DC’s diverse publishing history.
- June 2, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Tom Brevoort, Defender of DC
look for Tom Brevoort to become an honorary member of the Justice League this September
Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso joked around. Avengers writer Brian Michael Bendis worried about retailers. Talent guru C.B. Cebulski said he was “excited” as a reader, “terrified” as a pro, and interpreted the promised creative shake-ups as vote of no confidence by DC in their own creators. Yes, plenty of prominent Marvel staffers reacted publicly to DC’s big announcement of a simultaneous line-wide relaunch and day-and-date digital comics program on Tuesday, but one of them emerged as one of the move’s most prominent defenders: Senior Vice President of Publishing Tom Brevoort. On his Twitter and Formspring accounts, Brevoort repeatedly praised the Distinguished Competiton’s move as a smart, gutsy maneuver that’s precisely what the publisher needed to do to attract a larger readership.
Here are a few choice quotes from Brevoort on the topic, edited slightly for clarity; click the links for full context.
“Just to be clear, for all of the irate DC readers out there, I genuinely think this is the kind of bold and daring thing that DC needs to do. I can sense the hand of my old boss Bob Harras in it, among others. And I’d never bet against a JL book by @GeoffJohns0 and @jimlee00.”
- June 2, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Kate Beaton’s Spider-Man (and every other superhero she’s drawn)
Previously: Wonder Woman I, Wonder Woman II, Wonder Woman III, Wolverine, Aquaman, Batman, Lois Lane, Kraven, Thor (with Nicholas Gurewitch), Rogue page 1/Rogue page 2
Did I miss any?
- June 2, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Marvel abandons digital ‘vault’
As the digital marketplace continues to grow and evolve, it seems that some folks can’t (or won’t) grasp the distinction between digital and physical media. Thus you have HarperCollins trying to sell libraries on ebooks that expire after 26 checkouts (because ebooks don’t wear out like physical books do), numerous publishers who think they can put regional restrictions on ebooks, and the Marvel Digital “vault.”
Last year, Marvel sent out a newsletter saying that Daredevil #1 and The Invaders #1 were going “into the app vault” on a certain date. This mimics Disney’s strategy of making its DVDs unavailable for long stretches of time, to encourage people to buy them before they disappear. Disney basically creates artificial scarcity to drive sales, which is kind of obnoxious from the customer’s point of view. With digital comics, it seems downright perverse. As David Brothers cogently explained at Comics Alliance, it tries to carry over the physical concept of scarcity into the digital world. At the time (last November), he urged fans to speak up.
Either they did so or someone at Marvel came to their senses, because the Wall Street Journal reported last month that Marvel seems to have abandoned the digital comics vault; an unidentified spokesman told WSJ reporter Eric Felten that “Marvel is not implementing a vault strategy at this time for its Marvel Comics app.” Admittedly, they weren’t pushing the idea that hard—aside from the newsletter, there was no press release, and no one at Marvel wanted to talk to Brothers about it at the time.
Still, that doesn’t mean the vault is blown up. The comiXology and Comics+ apps carry both comics, and Graphicly has the Invaders but not the Daredevil one. The only app I couldn’t find them on is the Marvel app. Maybe they have a mini-vault for just that app? Both comics are available through the Marvel Digital Comics online service as well. Which points to another problem with Marvel: Too many digital platforms, not enough integration between them. But that’s another post.
- June 2, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Jeff Smith shows off his Superman cover
Remember back when burglars conveniently identified themselves by wearing striped shirts and masks? Bone creator Jeff Smith does, and his variant cover for Superman #713 has a retro feel to it. The comic goes on sale on July 13 (7/13), which makes it easy to remember, and the regular cover is by John Cassaday.
Jeff also posted his pencil sketch for the cover at his Facebook page.
- June 2, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
The mystery of the missing Green Lantern ring — solved!
Justice League #1 cover pencils by Jim Lee
If you were among those who looked at the cover of Justice League #1, the first issue in DC Comics’ line-wide reboot, and wondered whether Green Lantern’s trademark ring had been dropped as part of the character’s redesign, fear not: The mystery has been solved, by none other than artist (and co-publisher) Jim Lee.
Responding to questions about the missing jewelry, Lee wrote last night on Twitter, “Green Lantern has no ring on the Justice League image? Sounds like the work of Sinestro!” before assuring fans that, “Before it spins too far out of hand, (ha no pun intended) the ring will reappear by the time the comic debuts or b4 Sinestro is done w/it.”
But then he tracked down the true culprit: longtime inker Scott Williams. “HAHA case of the missing ring solved-was gonna say it was due to senility but I dug up the pencil scan-BEHOLD,” Lee wrote, linking to an image of the penciled cover (at right), which depicts Green Lantern with his ring. “So it’s true: a penciler is only as good as his inker … wow; must cut his rate, stat!”
Justice League #1, by Lee and writer Geoff Johns, will be released on Aug. 31, with a ring-wearing Green Lantern.
- June 2, 2011 @ 08:15 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Archie addresses gays in military; NYT explains Crisis
Kevin Keller #2
Publishing | We noted in late April that Archie Comics appeared to be embracing cultural and political commentary with its upcoming Kevin Keller miniseries, which features Riverdale’s first openly gay character and his father, a retired three-star general. But now the publisher, or at least the character, is going a step further, marching into the middle of the debate over gays and lesbians openly serving in the armed forces by revealing that Kevin aspires to be a journalist, but only after attending the U.S. Military Academy and becoming an Army officer. “Even though we don’t tackle the specific issue of Don’t Ask Don’ Tell, the goal was to show that patriotism knows no specific gender, race or sexual orientation,” cartoonist Dan Parent says. “While it sounds like heavy subject matter, I tried to show it simply that Kevin, like his dad, loves his country. Being gay doesn’t effect that in any way.” [The Associated Press]
Publishing | DC Comics’ line-wide reboot has received extensive coverage by mainstream media outlets, based largely on the original USA Today article or The Associated Press report. But my favorite piece is this one by George Gene Gustines that turns back the clock to 1985 and attempts to explain to The New York Times audience the effects, and problems, of Crisis on Infinite Earths, and the publisher’s subsequent attempts to streamline continuity: “… If the goal was to make the DC universe easier to understand, the end result was the opposite: to this day, fans frequently mention ‘pre-Crisis‘ and ‘post-Crisis‘ as a way to distinguish stories. Twenty years later, in the Infinite Crisis limited series, DC tried to clean continuity up again: Superman’s career as Superboy was back; Batman knew who murdered the Waynes; and Wonder Woman was a founder of the Justice League again.” [The New York Times]
- June 2, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Kevin Melrose
Chain Reactions | DC’s reboot, relaunch and new digital strategy
DC Comics
This week DC Comics made headlines and turned heads with its announcement that it would reboot and relaunch the majority of its titles this September. Titles will end, others will begin, DC’s current status quo will be rewritten and undone in a way we probably haven’t seen since Crisis on Infinite Earths or maybe Zero Hour or what have you. They’ve announced the fall will bring:
- 52 new first issues, starting the last week in August with the launch of Justice League by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee
- New creative teams, like Grant Morrison writing Superman
Fabian Nicieza writing Teen TitansandJames RobinsonTony Daniel on Hawkman. Gail Simone and Marc Guggenheim, meanwhile, won’t be writing Birds of Prey or Justice Society of America, respectively. - Day-and-date digital release of all the titles.
- Pants for the women!
Such news brings reactions, of course, and here are just a few pull quotes from around the web … be sure to click through to read them in their entirety:
Tom Foss, Fortress of Soliloquy: “On one hand, I’m impressed that DC would do something this ballsy; gaining new readers means shaking things up and possibly stepping on some of the long-term fans’ toes, and this genre is in desperate need of new readers. On the other hand, this isn’t going to last. Marvel’s learned that the flipside to a new #1 is that you jettison the history and gravitas of a large number (and conversely, that large numbers–even without reason–have some kind of appeal), and Detective Comics is rapidly approaching that #900 milestone that Action Comics just hit, meaning there will be, at most, 19 months of this “renumbering” nonsense (Detective #881 ships in August) before we see some high numbers again.”
Tom Spurgeon, The Comics Reporter: “Overall, this sounds to me like that time when the older, dependable brother in a respected family gets sick of always being the source of stability and flips the fuck out and does something slightly nuts, with the knowledge that ultimately the family money takes care of him even if his crappy decisions goof up a few sets of lives tied into his own. I’ve thought in recent years that publishing entities companies like Marvel and DC should be concentrating on core readerships rather than mass ones, that growing their existing audience by 200 percent was a lot more reasonable a goal than somehow matching the heat and flash and cultural buzz that comes with something like that last Batman movie.”
- June 2, 2011 @ 06:00 AM by JK Parkin
Robot Review | The Tooth
The Tooth
Written by Cullen Bunn and Shawn Lee; Illustrated by Matt Kindt
Oni; $24.99
Equal parts Hellboy and Hulk, The Tooth is the story of a young man named Graham Stone who inherits a spooky old estate from his grandfather, Ezekiel. While looking over the place, Graham discovers a room full of “occult esoterica,” a collection of dangerous artifacts that Grandpa Zeke spent a lifetime accumulating. Unfortunately, Graham doesn’t understand how unsafe the stuff really is and grabs an amulet designed to control a mystical, yellow tooth.
Who does understand the significance of the collection is Caleb King, evil mage and one-time arch-nemesis to the late Ezekiel Stone. But when King gets rough with Graham, the supernatural tooth forms a humanoid body and grows to fightin’ size in order to protect his new… well, “master” doesn’t seem like the right word, but the relationship between Graham and the Tooth is hard to define.
Graham doesn’t command the Tooth, but it is attached to him, sometimes quite literally. In between battles with King’s monsters, the Tooth shrinks down and implants itself in Graham’s gums. Graham acts as a reluctant host for the creature who in turn defends the young man. The relationship between the mild-mannered protagonist and the uncontrollable monster brings classic Hulk comics to mind, while the Tooth’s occult origins and the evil wizard who seeks to exploit them are reminiscent of Hellboy.
- June 1, 2011 @ 05:58 PM by Michael May
Your Wednesday Sequence 13 | Paul Pope
Pulphope (2007), page 32. Paul Pope.
Creating the illusion of movement is one of the main goals of comics art. It’s what sequence is there for. That said, it’s not the hardest thing to do when the movement in question is that of human figures or familiar machines. Dynamic posing and composition work quite nicely much of the time, even when it isn’t quite certain where the movement is being directed, or how. Comics have a library of stock gestures and shot transitions for artists to pull from in order to sell their action. Creating a sense of real life on the page is one thing, but to simply put some jump in the pictures, two words — “copy Kirby” — are often all that’s needed.
However, that’s only true as long as the artist is dealing with easily recognizable forms. Abstract comics have become a more and more significant part of the dialogue surrounding the art form over the past few years, and artists in that section of the medium are faced with a different set of challenges. How does one animate pure shape or color or linework, how can these things be convincingly brought to life? It’s not a question with a solid answer yet. There’s no How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way for abstraction, no solid set of rules cartoonists can turn to to string their non-figurative drawings into sequences that work as comics, accumulations of images that build power and function as more than the sum of their parts. I think it’s probable that one day some artist is going to come along and lay down a broad, workable grammar for abstract comics the way Kirby did for action or Ernie Bushmiller did for gags, but until then abstract comics are shots in the dark, unarmed forays into unknown territory.
- June 1, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Matt Seneca
DC changes World of Flashpoint map
In this week’s release of Flashpoint #2, DC published the World of Flashpoint map that raised questions about racism in many fans when it debuted online. It’s the same as the version they posted earlier, but with one, significant difference.
Edited for clarification: The original map labelled Africa as ape-controlled. In the comments section for the post about the controversy, there’s a substantial discussion about the historical usage of “ape” as a racist term, so please read that before claiming here that it’s not.
As I said in the original post though, no reasonable person believes that DC intended any offense by the wording on the first version of the map. It was an oversight (though a telling one, since no one at DC caught it and this isn’t the first time DC’s been accused of this kind of thing) and it’s good to see that they’ve corrected it.
The new question is: Is this enough? Should DC also apologize and/or issue a statement?
- June 1, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Michael May