2011 September
The Fifth Color | End of the line with Marvel’s December solicitations
That's a strange amount of whimsy from Matt Murdock...
Now, I will admit that the Distinguished Competition has given this month an air of finality. So many No. 1 issues, what could possibly come next? Tonight there will be drinks raised high and hands shaken to a job well done as their Wrap Party ends this publishing month at Golden Apple Comics. And it does seem a little final, doesn’t it?
It’s the perfect mood for looking ahead to December, where the last of the Marvel books published this year will leave 2011 not with a bang or a whimper, but with a dawn of things to come. I’m not saying it’s a very big dawn or a brilliant one either; right now, I will full admit things look kind of so-so for December at Marvel …
… then again, I have been wrong before, so let’s take a look at December’s books, shall we?
Continue Reading »
- September 30, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Carla Hoffman
Quote of the day | Hey, kids! Comics!
Reading Robo
There are several cool quotes in this post by Atomic Robo writer Brian Clevinger, especially in the letter from a mom whose 6-year-old son is now reading at a fifth-grade level thanks entirely to his love of comics, specifically Atomic Robo and other Red 5 comics. In fact, he loves them so much that he took an issue of Atomic Robo to school to read to his classmates. You can see whether they loved it from the photo.
The part that really got my attention, though, is in Clevinger’s comments at the end:
I would just like to point out that Volume 6, Atomic Robo and the Ghost of Station X, is the darkest story we’ve told. Yet it’s still appropriate for children.
It’s no secret there are still comics that are appropriate for kids. Marvel and DC are even making a couple themselves. But after a week or so of focusing on the comics that aren’t appropriate for children, it’s refreshing to see a story about one that’s not only kid-friendly, but as Clevinger points out, “universally praised by adults” as well.
- September 30, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Michael May
Balloonless | Grant Morrison’s Supergods
Grant Morrison is a very smart comics writer who writes very smart comics, a fact that often results in many of his vocal readers calling his more complicated work confusing.
Supergods, his new prose book on the subject of superheroes, isn’t the least bit confusing. It is, however, slightly confused.
While the book eventually earns its self-help book-sounding subtitle of “What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human” in its closing chapters, that subtitle is a poor distillation of the actual contents of the book, which are a bit scattershot.
Supergods is partially a history of American superhero comics (and their British reflections). It’s partially a biography of Grant Morrison and his career in the comics industry, which naturally overlaps with the first concern at a certain point. And it’s partially a cultural history of the concept of the superhero in the 20th and 21st centuries, with the Promethean subject of what superheroes can teach humanity shining through here and there.
Morrison is an excellent writer, in prose as well as in comics-scripting it turns out, and the pages of the book are fiercely passionate, vibrating with authority and conviction on their subject, and thoroughly encrusted with often lyrical sentences and clever, even brilliant turns of phrase.
Despite these considerable virtues, the wandering mission makes it a frustrating read, as does the fact that Morrison’s many tics come to the fore almost immediately, and can make for a rather uncomfortable read (perhaps especially for those of us who have heard versions of many of these stories before, and from different perspectives).
- September 30, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by J. Caleb Mozzocco
Giffen and Jurgens to replace Pérez on Superman
George Pérez will step down as writer and breakdown artist of Superman, Newsarama reports, to be replaced by Keith Giffen and Dan Jurgens with Issue 7.
Pérez was teamed with artist Jesus Merino on the relaunched title, which debuted this week. There’s a possibility that Pérez will remain as finisher/inker.
Superman will be the second title from DC Comics’ New 52 that Giffen has stepped into as writer. News surfaced just last week that he will replace J.T. Krul on Green Arrow, teaming with Jurgens as penciler and Pérez as inker on the series.
Giffen is also drawing and co-writing O.M.A.C., while Jurgens is writing the relaunched Justice League International.
- September 30, 2011 @ 12:10 PM by Kevin Melrose
Five questions about the Kindle Fire and digital comics
Immediately after Amazon announced its new full-color tablet, the Kindle Fire, on Wednesday, eagle-eyed comics fans noticed something they hadn’t seen before: evidence of a digital version of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ seminal comics work Watchmen. The next day, DC Comics officially announced an exclusive deal with Amazon to offer not only the full Watchmen story in one download for a single price, but to unleash a wave of other graphic novels and collected editions, all formatted for the November-debuting Fire.
As with any announcement for a product not yet available, there remain some questions about the Kindle Fire, the DC agreement, and their effects on digital comics. Here are the ones Robot 6 has:
- September 30, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Stephen Gerding
Jim Aparo Batman collection coming in April 2012?
Legends of the Dark Knight: Jim Aparo, Volume 1
If you’re like me and love ’70s/early ’80s Batman, you’ve been grooving on all the reprints from that era DC Comics has been releasing lately. In addition to the three Neal Adams collections, there’s also a volume for Gene Colan and, later this year, ones for Marshall Rogers and Don Newton. Which raises the perhaps greedy, but justifiable question: Where the hell is Jim Aparo’s?
DC hasn’t formally announced anything yet, but while adding those other books to my Amazon wish list, I may have stumbled across the answer. Legends of the Dark Knight: Jim Aparo, Vol. 1, is apparently scheduled for April 10 of next year. The product description suggests that it will include mostly Brave and the Bold stuff, which makes sense as that’s where he started his long association with the character. Presumably, future volumes will include his material from Detective Comics and Batman. I certainly hope so, because I’ve already got my money in my hand.
- September 30, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Michael May
Creator Q&A: Matthew Thurber
1-800-MICE
It can be hard to describe Matthew Thurber‘s comics. Certain phrases like surreal, absurd and dream-like get thrown around a lot and while they’re all true, it doesn’t accurately capture the free-form playfulness of his work or the way he manages to make his work both bizarre and accessible at the same time.
His latest book 1-800-MICE, now available in stores via Picturebox, is his longest narrative yet. An epic tale set in the imaginary town of Volcano Park, the book juggles a rather large cast of characters and their competing subplots as various political and social groups strive for dominance in the town, not realizing that their actions may result in their own destruction. If that sounds rather grim, rest assured the book remains delightfully nonsensical and silly (in the best sense of the word), full of concepts like bagpipes that also serve as teleporters or rocket ships that run on urine. It’s off-kilter and disarming but never falls apart and is a surprisingly straightforward and easy-to-follow read. In short, it’s pretty great.
I talked to Thurber over the phone from his home in Brooklyn, N.Y., about the new book and the challenges of doing a longer and more involved narrative:
Give me a bit of biographical background about yourself. Have you always been interested in making comics?
I was always interested in anything with a narrative. When I was a kid I made movies and comic books with my friends. My friends Tom and Jeff had this series called The Killer Pigs. It was a sci-fi story. This was when I 10. They were making comics and I imitated them but I was also interested in making more professional versions of the Killer Pigs. I’d put a little Marvel Comics symbol in the upper left hand corner. My background was being into Dungeons and Dragons and comics, making videos with my friends and reading all kinds of books.
- September 30, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Four minicomics from MICE
I spent an enjoyable Saturday at the Massachusetts Independent Comics Expo, a.k.a. MICE, last week, and I came away very impressed with the quality of the work on display. This was MICE’s biggest year so far, with three rooms and some corridors of the Lesley College building in Porter Square filled with table after table of hand-crafted comics. For much of the day, the place was packed.
People don’t think of Boston as a comics town, like Portland or Brooklyn, but there’s a lot of talent here, much of it gathered under the aegis of the Boston Comics Roundtable; in addition, a number of the artists had come from New York, Rhode Island and Maine. Here’s a sample of some of the minicomics I picked up.
By far the standout minicomic of the show was The Potter’s Pet, by Braden D. Lamb and Shelli Paroline. The story feels like a traditional folk tale, although I don’t think it is; it’s about a potter in a Moroccan-style marketplace who makes a robot, then keeps re-customizing it to please his customers. The story is well told and the art is professional quality, which is not surprising as Paroline has been doing professional work for some time now, including the art for several of BOOM! Studios’ Muppet Show comics. In The Potter’s Pet, she carries the Moroccan theme through in the panels, which echo the shapes of Islamic architecture. I would say it’s the best $5 I spent at the show, but the book sold out before I could get a copy and I had to borrow it from a friend. I hope they make more.
- September 30, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | Stan Lee’s Guardian Project target of lawsuit
Stan Lee
Legal | Stan Lee’s Guardian Project, introduced last year at New York Comic Con, has sparked a lawsuit from a Hollywood manager who claims he was cut out of the venture, which transformed National Hockey League mascots into superheroes.
In the lawsuit, filed last week in Los Angeles Superior Court, Adam Asherson contends the project, now co-owned by NBC Universal, dates back to 2003, when he was introduced to the idea by fellow manager Anthony Chargin and Chargin’s client Jake Shapiro. Asherson, who had a relationship with Lee, says he suggested the legendary comics writer would be the “perfect” partner for the endeavor. They pitched Lee on the project, called Defenders, which focused on the National Football League, with plans to expand to Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association and the NHL. For unspecified reasons, the NFL deal never came together. However, six years later The Guardian Project emerged with the involvement of Chargin, Shapiro and Lee — but without Asherson.
Asherson claims Guardian Media Entertainment, SLG Entertainment, Chargin and Shapiro have breach an oral joint-venture agreement, committed promissory estoppel and fraud, and breach fiduciary duties by leaving him out of the NHL agreement. [Hollywood, Esq.]
- September 30, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Kevin Melrose
Grumpy Old Fan | New 52 Week 4: Across the finish line
Aquaman #1 -- overcompensating, perhaps?
So here we are, the last week of the New 52 rollout, and I must say it’s been a fascinating — sometimes exhausting — ride. It’ll be good to get back to more normal posting next week, but I have enjoyed these marathon stream-of-consciousness reviews. Although DC has said over and over that these books are all part of the same revised universe, there are so many different styles and approaches on display (The early ‘90s! The mid- to late ‘90s!) that the line seems a lot more heterogeneous than it did five weeks ago.
Moreover, the realization that these books are the new status quo is only now starting to sink in. Overall it’s a good feeling, but bittersweet too. After all, I had 25 years to get used to the last line-wide revampings.
SPOILERS FOLLOW, as always.
- September 29, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Quote of the day | Comics’ sexism-free zone?
Another thing which is never brought up or mentioned, but it’s very intriguing, forever going back to the old days of The New Yorker and through now, as far as women and men cartoonists are concerned, there is no problem. None of this bullshit that’s been plaguing almost every other endeavor or business, this war of the sexes. Not a trace of it in cartooning. It just isn’t there. It may be because we all have a sense of humor. I don’t know what it is, but it’s very interesting and it’s nice.
— Legendary cartoonist Gahan Wilson of Playboy, National Lampoon and The New Yorker fame, explaining to CBR’s Alex Dueben that things apparently aren’t as contentious over issues of sex and gender in Francoise Mouly’s shop as they are in other parts of the industry. (Cf. recent New Yorker roster addition Kate Beaton’s ongoing victory lap …)
- September 29, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
The complete Astronaut Dad to debut at NYCC
When the first volume of Astronaut Dad came out in 2008, the Robot 6 crew was still blogging at Newsarama. I reviewed it at the time and noted that the story by writer David Hopkins and artist Brent Schoonover owed “a lot more to The Wonder Years than Buck Rogers.” The book is about a team of apparently second- or third-string astronauts during the ’60s, and their relationships with their families, especially their kids. One of the main characters is the son of an astronaut and resents his father always being gone for work without receiving the compensating glory that comes from actually going into orbit. However, as the first volume ends, there are hints that just maybe the dads have been involved in some sort of top secret space mission. I was hooked and couldn’t wait for the follow-up.
- September 29, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Michael May
Read Dash Shaw and Jesse Moynihan’s Lost comic
Previously on Lost: Dash Shaw, author of Body World and Bottomless Bellybutton, and Jesse Moynihan, storyboard artist for Adventure Time and author of Forming, teamed up a couple years ago to create an innovatively formatted fold-out comic for an issue of the literary magazine The Believer. Titled “Spiritual Dad,” the strip told a multi-generational story of fathers, sons and significant others struggling to find their destinies via various chemical and/or mystical means … leading one of them to a dreamlike vision of a plane crash, an island, a mysterious bald man on a vision quest, and other events that years later would become the subject matter of a little cultural phenomenon called Lost.
Flash forward to today, when cartoonist and commentator Frank Santoro hid the never-before-digitized comic, hatch-style, at the bottom of his long and compelling interview with Moynihan for The Comics Journal. Read the whole thing and marvel at the dense meta-magic performed by Shaw and Moynihan as they weave Lost into the tapestry of their own tale. Just be sure to dig into that interview, and Moynihan’s gorgeously colored Forming art, as you scroll down toward the comic itself.
- September 29, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Marco Rudy dreams up ‘Galactus vs. Justice League’ fan comic
JLA vs. Galactus, by Marco Rudy
Everyone enjoys a good crossover. Whether it be Avengers vs. JLA or Archie Meets the Punisher, putting two diametrically (and publishing) opposed forces against each other is a blockbuster waiting to happen. With certain people calling out for a renewed DC/Marvel crossover, artist Marco Rudy has done just that — on his own, for fun.
Check it out below (click to enlarge)!
- September 29, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Arrant
Lizz Lunney’s Romantic Bison
In addition to those at her own site, UK cartoonist Lizz Lunney has created a lot of webcomics for Top Shelf 2.0, including The Truth About Dinosaurs, Dungaree Lion and The Magical Unicorns of Keith the Wizard. Her latest one is about a love-stricken bison, the rabbit of his dreams, and her jealous, feline girlfriend. Isn’t that always the way?
- September 29, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Michael May