2011 July
What Are You Reading?
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 3 Century #2
It’s time once again for another round of What Are You Reading?, kids. Today we welcome special guest Daniel Merlin Goodbrey, creator of Necessary Monsters, The Last Sane Cowboy and more.
To see what Daniel and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
- July 31, 2011 @ 02:26 PM by JK Parkin
Comics College | Jack Cole
Comics College is a monthly feature where we provide an introductory guide to some of the comics medium’s most important auteurs and offer our best educated suggestions on how to become familiar with their body of work.
This month, we’re looking at the career of one of the Golden Age greats, Jack Cole.
- July 30, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Lee, DiDio on female creators, characters: “We hear you”
DC Comics took a few on the chin at Comic-Con International and in the week that followed as attendees at their multiple “New 52″ panels asked them over and over again, “What happened to all the women?” Sean posted about one panel in particular earlier this week; you can see more color on it over at The Beat, as Heidi was there, and on ComicsAlliance, where Laura Hudson lays out a thoughtful post on the subject.
Yesterday DC Comics responded with a post on The Source by co-publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee:
Over the past week we’ve heard from fans about a need for more women writers, artists and characters. We want you to know, first and foremost, that we hear you and take your concerns very seriously.
We’ve been very fortunate in recent years to have fan favorite creators like Gail Simone, Amy Reeder, Felicia Henderson, Fiona Staples, Amanda Connor, G. Willow Wilson and Nicola Scott write and draw the adventures of the World’s Greatest Super Heroes.
DC Comics is the home of a pantheon of remarkable, iconic women characters like Wonder Woman, Lois Lane, Batgirl, Batwoman, Catwoman and Supergirl as well as fan favorite characters like Black Canary, Katana, Mera and Starfire. We’re committed to telling diverse stories with a diverse point of view. We want these adventures to resonate in the real world, reflecting the experiences of our diverse readership. Can we improve on that? We always can—and aim to.
We’ll have exciting news about new projects with women creators in the coming months and will be making those announcements closer to publication. Many of the above creators will be working on new projects, as we continue to tell the ongoing adventures of our characters. We know there are dozens of other women creators and we welcome the opportunity to work with them.
Our recent announcements have generated much attention and discussion and we welcome that dialogue.
Best-
Jim Lee & Dan DiDio
DC Entertainment Co-Publishers
DC has a reputation of having a “duck and cover” approach to controversy, so I have to say I’m a bit surprised and pleased that they would put out an official statement. Good on them — now how about opening up the comments on The Source so you can start a dialogue again with fans?
- July 30, 2011 @ 08:54 AM by JK Parkin
The Fifth Color | Looking at Marvel for October 2011
Fear Itself #7
You guys.
We did it.
This is, quite possibly, the best it’s ever going to get. Two opening weekends of more than $65 million from Marvel Studios movies this summer, Thor and Captain America, combined with the $55 million from X-Men: First Class … I feel like I want to go buy a jet ski! We really did own the box office this year, and I am so proud to see the House of Ideas forge their own path in Hollywood and come out on top for staying close to the stories we adore and yet still forging entirely new ones for a new generation.
Then there’s print media. I know, it’s a weird time to be looking ahead to October, because events tend to end around this time of year, if not simply reveal their catastrophically shocking twists. So the solicitations have shed a lot of words like trees shedding leaves, both leaving us with the bare branches of what will later flower in the spring with … well, whatever next big story will dazzle the public.
I will be honest with you, gentle reader; this one will be a little bare as a snapshot of Marvel’s titles in October. Add to this that I wasn’t at Comic-Con this year, so I can’t exactly report or add info I heard at the show. The good news is that CBR is the most dashing and handsome news site out there, so you can catch all the coverage here.
Thanks to the seasonal shift that event books create, there’s a lot of stuff we just can’t say or know about until we hold those issues in our hot little hands. On the other hand, you can’t keep everything a mystery without the public going to town on speculation, so let’s delve int the unknown of October and see what Marvel has around this corner.
- July 29, 2011 @ 05:00 PM by Carla Hoffman
Robot Review | Olympians: Hera – The Goddess and Her Glory
Olympians, Volume 3: Hera - The Goddess and Her Glory
Olympians, Volume 3: Hera – The Goddess and Her Glory
Written and Illustrated by George O’Connor
First Second; $9.99
I used to hate Hera. Still do, most of the time; the way she’s portrayed. I mean, even in the Greek mythology I read as a kid, Hera was always picking on Hercules; sneaking snakes into his crib; getting him to kill his own kids. And I liked Hercules. I grew up reading comics about him and catching the occasional Steve Reeves movie on Saturday afternoon TV. How could you not like a guy who killed an invulnerable lion and then wore its skin as armor? And none of those stories – right up to and including the ones with Kevin Sorbo – had anything good to say about Hera. Not until George O’Connor.
O’Connor’s been teasing his interpretation of the Queen of the Gods since the first volume of Olympians. That one was about Zeus, whom O’Connor presented as a hero, but one who couldn’t control his own libido. He’s not defined by his sex addiction, but it certainly influences his choices and makes life miserable for the women in his life. When Zeus first notices Hera in that volume, I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for her. She’s just minding her own business, talking with a friend, and Zeus appreciates her from afar. “Oh, no,” I thought, knowing where that story would eventually end up.
This third volume of Olympians is where it ends up. Over the last couple of installments – and in interviews and on his blog – O’Connor’s been saying that Hera is his favorite goddess. He explains it again in the Author’s Notes to this book. “Part of it,” he writes, “is because she’s the one person that Zeus well and truly fears.” But the reason for that – and the reason she has the reputation that she does as a shrewish, jealous wife – is because Zeus is a terrible husband. The emphasis is O’Connor’s. So, though Hera’s always been my least favorite goddess, I’ve been eagerly awaiting O’Connor’s stab at changing my mind. His first two volumes, Zeus and Athena were so excellent that I had high expectations for Hera. If anyone could turn her into a hero, it was O’Connor.
- July 29, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Michael May
Best bets and digital deals | Superman, Star Wars, and Black Butler
There are a lot of digital bargains running around in this post-SDCC week, and some new digital releases that look tasty as well. Let’s start with a good one that won’t last: ComiXology is having a Superman 101 sale, starting at midnight (EST) on Friday, and running through Sunday. You can brief yourself on the Man of Steel with 99-cent issues of Action Comics #1 (Superman’s debut), The Man of Steel #1-6, Superman: Secret Origin #1-6, and more including the first appearances of Jimmy Olsen, Lex Luthor, and Supergirl.
In case you missed it in the rush of SDCC news, Dark Horse is now releasing Star Wars comics on its digital app, and they are posting Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #1 and Star Wars: The Clone Wars #1 for free to celebrate.
New free comics on comiXology include (links are to the comics on their web reader): Batman: Gotham Knights #1, Impulse #1, Robin #1, Titanium Rain #1, and a bunch of previews. And there’s the third chapter of the Rise of the Planet of the Apes prequel from BOOM! Studios—the whole thing is free, so you might as well go back and get the earlier chapters as well.
Free comics on Graphicly include Carpe Chaos: Rising Up #1, The Devil Died Different #1, and a preview of Eye Witness, which “combines a Biblical adaptation, with a modern day action-thriller.”
- July 29, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Oleksyk and Van Lente draw the Borgias and the Medicis
This isn’t what they taught us in World History class: Check out this preview of Renaissance #1, by Sarah Oleksyk (Ivy) and Fred Van Lente (Action Philosophers, Cowboys & Aliens), but only if you’re not at work, because when you click the link, you will see the pope naked. And cussing. Fred describes it as “A graphic novel about the painting of the Mona Lisa (plus betrayal, war, sex, torture, intrigue and more),” and with Medicis and Borgias, you know it’s going to be a lot of fun—in an evil sort of way.
- July 29, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Toronto Cartoonists Workshop-produced Holmes anthology available for free digitally
When he isn’t writing and drawing, Ty Templeton teaches at the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop, where the “Fit to Print” class simulates a real freelance job for a mainstream comics publisher — complete with deadlines, editorial feedback and working on pre-determined characters. And eventually, publication, in the form of an anthology that will be sold at Fan Expo Canada Aug. 25-28 and digitally (for free!) through Graphicly, DriveThruComics, My Digital Comics and The Illustrated Section.
“Our end-of-the-year project takes the form of an anthology book featuring adventures of the 21st Century descendants of Sherlock and Watson, under the title Holmes Incorporated, and the work this year is shockingly good for a group of rookies trying to get their foot in the door—they deserve a little love and attention. And to sweeten the deal we wrapped our issue up in a cover by X-Men/JSA/Supergirl artist and nice guy, Leonard Kirk — who is also an instructor at our school, so it was a matter of cornering Len in the lunch room,” Templeton said. “This year we’re making the new issue (and last year’s) available as a FREE download for anyone’s e-reader, computer, phone, iPad, etc. Between the two issues it’s 140 FREE pages of the remarkably skilled comics work of some eager and talented newcomers looking to prove themselves, and all they ask is the time it takes to look at the pages.”
After the jump you can take a look at an embedded preview, courtesy of Graphicly.
- July 29, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
Colleen Doran returns to comics
OK, she was never really gone … but lately there has been a rush of news regarding her work. At Comic-Con International last week DC Comic highlighted her next major project for Vertigo Gone to Amerikay, with writer Derek McCulloch, and over the weekend she posted some sketches she did for the ill-fated JMS reboot of Wonder Woman. To cap it all off, she’s now on Twitter!
Described by Doran as a story of Irish immigration to the United States, her writer Derek McCulloch spoke at length about the book at Comic-Con. “It’s a story about people emigrating to America from Ireland over the course of 140 years,” said the writer. “It’s a great big historical epic with a crime story and a ghost story and a couple of love stories and all kinds of things in it.”
Doran is best known for her long-running independent series A Distant Soil, but her work has been on my mind recently because of her graphic novel Orbiter with Warren Ellis and the final voyage of the U.S. space shuttle. Plans to do a second graphic novel with Ellis, titled Stealth Tribes, seemed to go on the backburner due to Ellis’ workload, freeing her up for Gone To Amerikay as well as Mangaman with novelist Barry Lyga.
- July 29, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Arrant
Preview: Veitch and Erskine’s The Big Lie
The Big Lie
This September Image Comics will release Rick Veitch and Gary Erskine’s The Big Lie, and no doubt it will turn some heads. It’s the story of a lab technician who travels back in time to the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and she has one hour to try and get her husband out of the World Trade Center before it falls.
You can read more about it at USA Today, and check out the preview after the jump.
- July 29, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Your video of the day | ‘Rise Above’ from Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark
If you’ve been following the media on Spider-Man:Turn Off the Dark, then no doubt you’ve already heard “Rise Above,” the song written by Bono and the Edge for the multimillion-dollar musical. If not, the producers have you covered, as they’ve released a video of the song featuring the two U2 members and Reeve Carney, who plays the webslinger on Broadway. The video shows rehearsals as well as a few on-stage clips, but probably not nearly enough Spider-Man. Watch it above and see.
- July 29, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
RoboCop vs. Transformers (vs. Harbin vs. Hanawalt)!
With the San Diego Comic-Con just days behind us, I guess there’s enough nerd culture in the air to permeate the brains even of comics folk who don’t make a living off capes and cowls. How else to explain the near simultaneous salutes to science-fiction cinema from two of alternative comics’ most talented draftspeople, Dustin Harbin and Lisa Hanwalt?
First up, Diary cartoonist and Casanova letterer Dustin Harbin brings us “The Faces of RoboCop,” a 16-panel portrait of the cast of Paul Verhoeven’s Detroit-dystopia sci-fi satire. I’m particularly fond of “Psycho That ’70s Dad,” but you’ll have to click the link to see him. I’d buy that for a dollar! (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
Next, I Want You cartoonist and Pizza Island member Lisa Hanawalt reviews Michael Bay’s Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon in words and pictures. It’s a harrowing, heartbreaking, ultimately uplifting tale of human perseverance in the face of adversity and atrocity — I’m talking about the review, not the movie. (Oh God, definitely not the movie.) It also features the best portrait of Rosie Huntington-Whitley ever drawn. Chewy indeed!
- July 29, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Ghost Rider co-creator must defend himself against Marvel claims
While the big legal story is, of course, a federal judge’s ruling that the family of Jack Kirby has no claim to the copyrights for the characters he co-created for Marvel, the company also scored a courtroom victory this week in another, lower-profile case.
A judge declared on Tuesday that Ghost Rider co-creator Gary Friedrich will have to defend counterclaims by Marvel accusing him of violating its trademark by using the phrase “Ghost Rider” and the character’s image on posters, cards and T-shirts, Courthouse News Service reports.
The dispute stems from a 2007 lawsuit filed by Friedrich against Marvel, Columbia Pictures, Hasbro and other companies alleging the copyrights used in the Ghost Rider movie and related products reverted to him in 2001. He sought unspecified damages for copyright infringement, and violations of federal and Illinois state unfair competition laws, negligence, waste, false advertising and endorsement, and several other claims.
Friedrich claimed he created Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider in 1968 and, three years later, agreed to publish the character through Magazine Management, which eventually became Marvel Entertainment. Under the agreement, the publisher held the copyright to the character’s origin story in 1972′s Marvel Spotlight #5, and to subsequent Ghost Rider works. However, Friedrich alleged the company never registered the work with the U.S. Copyright Office and, pursuant to federal law, he regained the copyrights to Ghost Rider in 2001.
The case has taken a few turns, with a judge in May 2010 dismissing the claims made under state law after determining that the Copyright Act of 1976 is the relevant federal statute. That decision was followed in December by counterclaims by Marvel Characters, the subsidiary that actually holds the rights to the company’s characters, accusing Friedrich of the unauthorized sale of Ghost Rider posters, T-shirts and cards online and at comic conventions.
Friedrich, who amended his complaint in March 2011, attempted to have the counterclaims dismissed. However, on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Barbara Jones rejected his motion. Courthouse News Service notes that Friedrich’s lawsuit is in discovery, with Marvel and the other defendants so far turning over 34,000 pages of documents.
Ghost Rider, the 2007 film based on the character Friedrich co-created, grossed $228 million worldwide. Columbia Pictures will release the sequel on Feb. 17, 2012.
- July 29, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Kirby family lawyer vows to appeal copyright ruling
Jack Kirby
Legal | Marc Toberoff, the lawyer suing Marvel on behalf of Jack Kirby’s heirs, plans to appeal Thursday’s ruling by New York federal judge Colleen McMahon that the Kirby estate had no claim to copyrights on the superheroes Kirby co-created for Marvel Comics. “We respectfully disagree with the court’s ruling and intend to appeal this matter to the Second Circuit,” Toberoff told The Hollywood Reporter. “Sometimes you have to lose in order to win.” [The Hollywood Reporter]
Creators | Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison chat about Supergods, The Sandman, Superman and more. “…when I did comics, it was also a performance,” Morrison said. “It’s like playing live. You don’t get much time to edit; we don’t really do second drafts in our business. I love that aspect of comics, where you could have a Sandman out and people would be talking about it immediately, and we could be responding to things that were happening all around us and it could be published three months later, or two months later, depending on how late we were. It’s not like writing a book, which is over a span of years like building a cathedral. The comic is so instant. That’s why it covers the seismic shifts of culture very, very accurately.” [Shelf Life]
- July 29, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Grumpy Old Fan | DC’s new five-year mission
Batman #436, beginning "Year Three"
One of the more precarious parts of DC’s New-52 relaunch is this notion that a whole lot of in-story history happened over just five years of comic-book time. So far, this comes primarily from narration in the new Justice League #1, indicating that the team was formed “five years ago,” when “the world didn’t know what a super-hero was.”
Now, this may not be an entirely accurate measurement of the relaunch’s age. Practically by definition, the Justice League consists of heroes with fairly well-established careers, so we have to think that its charter members had been around for a little while before teaming up. Furthermore, in the context of the New 52 specifically, we can infer from what we know about the new Action Comics — which will show him less-powerful and with a more mundane costume — that Superman debuted some time before the events of Justice League #1. (According to Comics Alliance’s account of Friday’s New-52 Comic-Con panel, Action initially takes place just a few months before Justice League.)
- July 28, 2011 @ 05:00 PM by Tom Bondurant