2011 June
Green Lantern fan comic sends Jordan and Stewart on patrol
Just in time for the big movie, Moon Girl and Dogs of Mars scribes Johnny Zito & Tony Trov teamed with Azure creator Daniel Govar and letterer (and colorist and artist in his own right) Gabriel Bautista to produce a “fan comic” starring Green Lanterns Hal Jordan and John Stewart. Click that last link to go check it out.
(Also note the other summer movie homage the story includes in the image above).
- June 16, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
NASA discovers the Planet Oa!
NASA/JPL-Caltech
Okay, maybe not. But someone at the space agency is a comic-book nerd — go figure! — the stunning image of the day on the NASA website is accompanied by the headline “A Green Ring Fit for a Superhero.” It’s a shot from the Spitzer Space Telescope of a glowing emerald nebula “reminiscent of the glowing ring wielded by the superhero Green Lantern.” The description goes on to name check the Guardians of Oa, power rings and the Green Lantern Corps. Visit the NASA website to enjoy the image at full size.
- June 16, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
To the ‘Botcave!
Adam Carlson is the artist behind this awesome Star Wars/Batman mash-up in which ’Botman and R2 (obviously Jason Todd, since Grayson would have been R1) are probably swinging off to battle Two-Fett or Emperor Penguintine. Maybe there’ll be a crossover with Marvel’s Dr. Droid.
- June 16, 2011 @ 11:30 AM by Michael May
Guggenheim’s Nowhere Man back on track for November
Nowhere Man
Marc Guggenheim’s name may not have been listed in DC’s September solicitations, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t keeping busy in the comics world. Deadline.com reports today that Liquid Comics will publish Nowhere Man, written by the Green Lantern movie scribe, this fall.
Announced in 2008, Nowhere Man is ““Sci Fi odyssey set in a groundbreaking vision of the future in which mankind has traded privacy for safety,” according to the description released by its original publisher, Virgin Comics, back then (Liquid Comics was formed in the wake of Virgin Comics’ demise). Deadline.com adds, “The story takes place 500 years in the future, where an oppressive government monitors the population, down to its thoughts. Everyone on Earth has been infected with a nano-tech virus that makes computerized thought analysis possible. A group of rebels combat this by generating a genetically altered child born immune to the virus. He grows up to become the Nowhere Man, mankind’s best chance to topple the invasive regime.”
Initially actor Hugh Jackman was involved with the comic, but Deadline makes no mention of him in the announcement. The comic comes out in November.
- June 16, 2011 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
Julia Wertz revisits her childhood home
Drinking at the Movies creator Julia Wertz is working on a new project, and she has put some pages up at her site. It’s about the house she grew up in:
I grew up in a crazy old house build in the late 1800′s in Northern California that my parents bought for mere pennies before living out in the boonies was seen as a desired location. As a kid (and now) I was obsessed with all the weird idiosyncrasies of the house. It was a bit Winchester Mystery House combined with your grandpa’s attic and an old barn, the perfect real estate trifecta.
Her detailed drawing style lends itself perfectly to the subject matter, and she includes some photos of the actual house as well. I’m not really sure where this is going, but so far it’s really cool.
- June 16, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Bachalo, Land, Pacheco to draw dueling X-Men titles
Who will you follow?
The Associated Press announced this morning that following this summer’s X-Men: Schism event, two series will take the place of the ongoing Uncanny X-Men series. October’s Wolverine & the X-Men by writer Jason Aaron will feature, obviously, a Wolverine-led team, while Uncanny X-Men #1, due in November, will feature a Cyclops-led team written by Kieron Gillen.
But who is drawing them? Marvel.com revealed the art teams for both books this morning. Wolverine & the X-Men will be drawn by Chris Bachalo, who has a long history with the characters. Uncanny X-Men will have two rotating artists — Greg Land and Carlos Pacheco. Land has been drawing arcs in Uncanny X-Men for awhile now, while Pacheco recently returned to the characters to draw the Point One issue.
“The best thing about this split is that the two books hit two very different chords. One is hardcore super hero action and the other is something else entirely that I can’t go too deep into without spoiling `Schism,’” Editor Nick Lowe told the AP. “The best way I can describe it is a return to a structure that made the X-Men what it was.”
The current Uncanny X-Men series ends with issue #544.
Update: Aaron has a post on his blog about the news, where he says not to read too much into the accompanying promo image: “I can’t say who’s going to be on my team, other than Wolverine of course. I can’t say where they’ll be or what they’ll be doing. I will say, don’t assume you know the full roster for either team based off this one promo image. Both sides will feature their share of surprises.” Gillen says something similar on his blog.
- June 16, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Invincible versus comic-book renumbering
From Invincible #80, by Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley
In what may be an incredible coincidence, an unlikely bit of last-minute dialogue rewriting, or a terrifying example of Robert Kirkman’s precognitive abilities, this week’s Invincible #80 offers a bit of commentary on the hot topic of conversation — comic-book renumbering. It seems the trend doesn’t end with DC’s superhero line and Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men. Even Dead Stuff is affected!
Multiversity Comics catches the panel in which Mark Grayson, aka Invincible, swings by his local comic shop after spending time in space only to discover every series has started over with a new No. 1. “Why do they do that?” he asks. “It doesn’t help sales long term and they always go back to the numbering for the next anniversary issue. What’s the point?!”
“Anything for a quick buck, man,” the clerk responds. “These companies have no integrity.”
Update: And while this doesn’t require prescience, the sequence also takes a perhaps self-effacing jab at a creator pledging to release work on time for a year. Check it out after the break.
- June 16, 2011 @ 08:08 AM by Kevin Melrose
The untold tale of Asterix and the brain-damaged Romans
Asterix
Poring over 34 volumes of Asterix, German scientists were astonished to discover 704 cases of traumatic head or brain injury, a staggering 65 percent of which involved Roman soldiers, making you wonder whether the conquest of Gaul was really worth it.
René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo’s heroes, Asterix and his sidekick Obelix, delivered more than half the blows, which The Telegraph points out frequently left the victims unconscious or amnesiac, but never, y’know, dead. Surprising … in a children’s comic? Well, the scientists seem to think so.
“The favourable outcome is astonishing,” lead researcher Marcel Kamp is quoted as saying, “since outcome of traumatic brain injury in the ancient world is believed to have been worse than today and also since no diagnostic or therapeutic procedures were performed.”
Hey, maybe the Romans were swigging that druid-brewed magic potion, too.
The study found that although Romans accounted for 450 of the victims, there were plenty of injuries to go around: 120 Gauls, 59 bandits or pirates, 20 Goths, eight Vikings and five Britons.
If, like me, you thought this study sounds vaguely familiar, you’re probably thinking of the 2004 analysis of Tintin, which attributed the boy reporter’s delayed puberty and lack of libido to a growth-hormone deficiency and … repeated blows to the head. Specifically, “50 significant losses of consciousness in 16 of Tintin’s 23 books.”
There’s no word yet as to whether the Romans suffered the same problems.
- June 16, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Your Wednesday Sequence 15 | Blaise Larmee
2001 (2011). Blaise Larmee.
The comic we’re going to talk about to day is a webcomic, which is cool because it means you don’t have to leave your seat to read it. That’s just one picture up there: the sequence is here. Go take a look, then come back.
You good? Ok.
The webcomics medium itself forces the artist to confront choices that the printed page does not. The most obvious as well as the most important is just that, the lack of a page. In print, everything a cartoonist does has to hang around the page, the non-negotiable single unit, the contributing part of the whole. Unless the work in question is a Sunday page-style one sheet (pretty much a dead form in comics, honestly), it has to deal with those splits, the spaces between pages. One of the most special and unique things about comics is how it can present multiple story moments for simultaneous viewing with paneled pages, but that simultaneity only extends until the end of the page. Pages break things up by the very nature of what they are.
- June 15, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Matt Seneca
Rise again: Alexovich, Rausch on the return of Eldritch!
Eldritch #1
Back in April of 2010, writer Aaron Alexovich and artist Drew Rausch’s Eldritch! battled nine other webcomics to win the monthly competition held by DC Comics’ Zuda imprint. It was a hard-fought battle, and Eldritch! would ultimately earn the distinction of becoming the last Zuda winner, as DC shut down the competitions and ultimately the entire imprint soon after.
Eldritch! never had the opportunity to begin its run on the Zuda site, but that didn’t stop Rausch and Alexovich from pushing forward. A little more than a year after their victory, their comic is finally being released by the duo in various digital formats, including through Graphicly, comiXology and via the comic’s website.
The duo was kind enough to answer a few questions about and share some artwork from the new book. You can see even a longer preview on their site.
JK: Let’s start with a question about how this project initially came together. What made you guys decide to enter the monthly Zuda contest? And how did you guys know each other before all of this?
Drew: I was aware of Aaron’s existence from reading Serenity Rose way back when it was in single issues. I remember thinking “Man, this guy can write!” Seriously, each issue was a sequential novel. And I liked that. It had substance, wit and charm what with the “spooky” cute art. Eventually, I ended up asking Aaron to do a pin up for the second volume of my creator book Sullengrey. He and I just started chatting after that and found we both had a lot of similar tastes.
- June 15, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Did DC give The Dude a rude awakening?
You’d think with DC revitalizing its entire line of titles this fall that they’d take all the top talent they could get. But for one reason or another, that doesn’t seem to be the case.
That’s the word according to legendary artist Steve “The Dude” Rude, who related in his regular e-newsletter that he was rebuffed when looking for work at DC. Rude left the Big Two a few years back to work on creator-owned work such as Nexus and The Moth, but after neither project failed to provide for him financially as he hoped he was looking to rekindle a relationship with his preffered publisher of the Big Two, DC. Here’s how Rude says it went:
One month ago, I began my contact with DC through an editor that I knew. Having no success, I tried a second editor. Then finally, one of the higher-up “exec” types. So far, one editor has responded–with a polite turn down. The two others I never heard back from. Interesting world, isn’t it?
In this missive to his fans he explained that of all the characters at DC, the ones he was most drawn to currently was Supergirl, Superman, Big Barda and OMAC. But what do you think? Is there a place for Steve Rude at DC or Marvel in the year 2011? And if so, what would you like to see him work on?
- June 15, 2011 @ 01:30 PM by Chris Arrant
Jenkins and Ramos’ FairyQuest finally makes its way to the U.S.
After years of waiting, Humberto Ramos had to take it into his own hands to bring his European graphic novel FairyQuest to America.
After initial plans to go through an un-named publisher fell through, Ramos has decided to self-publish the book in an extremely limited edition of 1000 at this year’s Comic-Con International at San Diego. Created with long-time collaborator Paul Jenkins, FairyQuest was released in Europe almost three years ago, but the duo couldn’t find the right publisher to bring it to the states.
Although best known now for his work on Amazing Spider-Man, Ramos has done numerous creator-owned projects such as Crimson and Out There at DC/Wildstorm, and even an earlier European series called K.
The sneak peeks over the years have kept my motor running, and I’m glad come July I’ll finally be able to get my hands on Ramos’ rarest work.
- June 15, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Chris Arrant
DC Comics and the shattered illusion
Justice League
There’s a third season episode of How I Met Your Mother where Ted thinks he’s found the perfect girl, but doesn’t see the glaring flaw that’s driving the rest of his friends crazy. When it’s finally pointed out to him, there’s a sound of shattering glass as his illusions are smashed and the veil of perfection is lifted from his image of his girlfriend. In retaliation, he points out one of Lily’s major flaws to Marshall and the dominoes continue to fall until the clatter of breaking glass fills the air. By the end of the episode, everyone stands figuratively naked, their defects bared before the entire group.
This has been happening in serial fiction a lot lately. I don’t mean that this theme comes up a lot; I mean that serialized fiction – whether in comics, TV, or even the movies – presents an illusion that it knows what it’s doing. That there’s a master plan being followed and if you’ll just stick with the story, all will be revealed and eventually concluded in an emotionally satisfying way that makes complete sense. This is of course crap, as I’ve come to realize more and more the last several years. The sound of shattered glass is deafening.
I’m not suggesting that no one’s planning ahead at all. Obviously, there are writers who are. But writers can only plan so far and even the best of them eventually reach a point where they’ve said what they originally set out to say. In order to keep the story going, Sydney has to lose two years of her life, you have to introduce Nikki and Paulo, or Meredith has to betray Derek by interfering with his clinical trial. Or you have to reboot your entire comic book line.
- June 15, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Michael May
Who’s a cute widdle Master of Magnetism?
Baby Magneto by Victor Hugo (after Skottie Young)
As adorable as Skottie Young’s rendition of Marvel’s X-Babies is, something even cuter has emerged: CG artist Victor Hugo’s 3D take on one of Young’s X-Babies — Baby Magneto, the least-terrifying mutant terrorist in history. It’s a spectacular piece, but I particularly like the little details, like Captain America’s shield, Thor’s hammer and Cyclop’s visor in the toy box, and “ERIK” spelled out in magnetic letters. Visit the artist’s blog to see the giant-sized image.
(via Skottie Young, who dubbed the image “So freaking cool”)
- June 15, 2011 @ 11:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Leonard Kirk takes over as artist on X-Factor in September
Madrox by Leonard Kirk
If you saw Marvel’s September solicitations yesterday you might have noticed Leonard Kirk’s name in the X-Factor listing. The artist confirms on his blog that he is working on the book now with his former Supergirl collaborator, writer Peter David. And he shares a whole bunch of sketches of the characters from the book, such as the above Madrox; head over there to check them out.
- June 15, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin