2011 September
Talking Comics with Tim | John Arcudi
The Complete Major Bummer Super Slacktacular
Sometimes I wish I could run two interviews in a week, but that’s not always possible. Last week marked the release of The Complete Major Bummer Super Slacktacular, a Dark Horse published collection that features writer John Arcudi and artist Doug Mahnke’s co-creation Major Bummer (a 15-issue comedic series that ran from 1997-1998, originally published by DC Comics). This interview was lined up months ago, yet delayed on my end. Then I suddenly realized last week that the Major Bummer collection was due to be released. After a hastily compiled apology note to Arcudi, we quickly conducted this email interview (for which I am grateful to Arcudi). As described by Dark Horse: “Lou Martin’s just gained incredible superpowers! Too bad all he wants to do is stay firmly planted on the couch. But an alien got Lewis Martin, slacker extraordinaire, and Martin Lewis, promising young lawyer, confused and sent an Extreme Enhancement Module to the wrong guy, and now Lou’s got superheroes trying to get him to . . . ugh . . . contribute to society–and outlandish super villains, monsters, and aliens are out to take him down!” This series is a damn funny body of work that has both Arcudi and Mahnke firing on all cylinders. Don’t take my word for it, consider Comics Should Be Good’s Greg Burgas 2010 post from his Comics You Should Own series. I genuinely hope that this collection sells so well, that Arcudi and Mahnke get to explore the possibility of developing new Major Bummer stories. If you were a fan of the series, please do me a favor in the comments section and chime in with your thoughts on it.
Tim O’Shea: Back in 1997, what prompted you and artist/co-creator Doug Mahnke to pitch your creator-owned idea to DC–and how was it that you were able to negotiate a deal that allowed the rights of the series to eventually revert back to you?
John Arcudi: Captain Slackass (the original name) was an idea that I had come up with a few years earlier. When Peter Tomasi up at DC asked me to submit a few series ideas to him, I tossed that one in as a lark thinking “They’ll never go for this.” As to the rights, it was a standard element of the DC creator owned contract back then. They needed to continue to exploit the property in some way after publication had ceased, or compensate us, or return it. No special negotiation skills were required.
- September 19, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Tim O'Shea
DC’s push for the New 52: A Supergirl for The Hunger Games crowd
Supergirl #1, by Michael Green, Mike Johnson and Mahmud Asrar
• USA Today talks with Supergirl co-writers Mike Johnson and Michael Green about their approach to the relaunched title, and provides a five-page preview of the first issue, which goes on sale Wednesday. “We’re really excited about the opportunity to hand this book to a female reader who is into things like The Hunger Games,” Johnson says. “This is a strong character with her own point of view.”
• Writer J.T. Krul will be replaced by Keith Giffen and artist Dan Jurgens on Green Arrow with December’s Issue 4. The news comes just days after John Rozum announced he’s leaving Static Shock.
- September 19, 2011 @ 01:25 PM by Kevin Melrose
Preview: Foley, Staples take a bite out of vampire fiction with Done to Death
Done to Death
Courtesy of Andrew Foley, Fiona Staples and IDW, we’re pleased to present a sneak preview of Done to Death, a graphic novel that arrives in shops this week. It’s the story of an editor who gets tired of reading “poorly written Twilight knockoffs,” so she starts killing off the would-be writers submitting them to her. Here’s the official description:
WRITTEN BY: Andrew Foley
ILLUSTRATIONS AND COVERS BY: Fiona Staples
FOREWORD BY: Steve Niles“Fed up with receiving poorly written Twilight knockoffs, editor Shannon Wade did what any reasonable person would: she started killing the worst of the would-be authors sending them to her. Meanwhile, Andy, a stuttering, overweight vampire has targeted those who portray vampires in a light he deems unrealistic. Not exactly novel but terribly graphic, Done To Death follows Andy and Shannon’s paths towards a collision as darkly funny as it is ridiculously violent.”
“DONE TO DEATH” Drops This September From IDW Publishing! (MSRP – $19.99 Page Count – 136)
I should note that the preview contains violent/gruesome scenes, it’s not safe for work and it’s for mature readers only. Check it out after the jump.
- September 19, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Marvel offers digital bundles
Marvel comics has become the latest comics publisher to offer entire story arcs at a slight discount through their digital comics app (the one run by comiXology). They are launching with ten titles:
- Astonishing X-Men Vol. 1: Gifted
- Captain America: Winter Soldier Vol. 1
- Invincible Iron Man Vol. 1: Five Nightmares
- New Avengers Vol. 1: Breakout
- Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage
- Thor, vol. 1 (by J. Michael Straczynski)
- Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1: Power and Responsibility
- Ultimate Fantastic Four Vol. 1: The Fantastic
- Ultimates Vol. 1: Super-Human
- Ultimate X-Men Vol. 1: The Tomorrow People
I checked in with comiXology CEO David Steinberger, and he said the discounted collections are available only through the Marvel app. A number of other publishers, including Archaia, IDW, and Image, are already doing this, and Steinberger expects to see more: “This is a great value to the consumer, both from it being a bit cheaper than the individual issues and from the fact that they are complete story arcs in a convenient form,” he said.
In related news, the debut of MIles Morales in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1 broke the record for the most digital sales on the day of release—although since Marvel isn’t releasing any numbers, it’s hard to know exactly what that means.
- September 19, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
You must learn: Frank Santoro’s comics correspondence course
Cartoonist Frank Santoro (Cold Heat, Storeyville, Kramers Ergot) has long taken his knowledge about comics and cartooning straight to the masses. From his curated longboxes, whose hand-selected ’80s genre-comic treasures bring a touch of the back-issue bin to the alternative comics conventions he attends, to his popular columns on page and layout for The Comics Journal, he’s brought idiosyncratic intensity to the study of making comics. Now, from his Tattooinesque wind-and-solar-powered redoubt in New Mexico, Santoro’s offering an eight-week correspondence course for more in-depth study.
Conducted over email, snail mail, and phone, the class will begin on Oct. 28 and cost $500 per student. Each student’s instruction will vary, designed with Santoro to be tailored to their specific needs and the kinds of comics they want to make. In the announcement, Santoro sets up his course as an alternative to schools like CCS, SVA, and SCAD: “You don’t have to move to a different city to attend one of the few schools that exist for making comic books. Put your money directly towards training – not living expenses.” But act fast: The course is only open to ten students.
Find more details, including the application requirements, at The Comics Journal.
- September 19, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
SLG abandons floppies for digital
Indy publisher SLG, the home of Halo and Sprocket, Pinocchio Vampire Slayer, and Gerry Alanguilan’s Elmer: A Story About Chickens, will begin publishing all its serialized comics in digital format rather than print. President and publisher Dan Vado summed up the situation rather neatly in the company’s press release: On the one hand, the market for print comics is dwindling; on the other hand, serialized comics allow creators to build up a fanbase before releasing a completed graphic novel. Digital allows the company to bypass Diamond’s quotas and avoid some of the costs of print comics while ensuring as wide a distribution as possible. The first two comics to be distributed this way are Stephen Coughlin’s Sanctuary and Chris Wisnia’s Monstrosis. In both cases, the first issue is available as a free download from the SLG site or through the iTunes store, and subsequent issues are priced at 99 cents each.
SLG got into the digital game early, offering downloads of its comics from its website, and their strategy now seems to be to make the comics available in as many channels as possible: By direct download from their site as well as through iTunes (for the iBooks app), Nook, and the comiXology and iVerse services.
While this is an unusual step, there is a certain logic to it. Phil and Kaja Foglio did it years ago, switching Girl Genius from serialized comics to a free webcomic, and they found that sales of their graphic novels increased, while they were able to avoid the cost of laying out and printing the monthly comics. The Foglios already had a large fan base when they made the move, however. SLG has a diverse set of offerings, so it’s less of a slam dunk, but it’s worth watching to see if they can make digital-first distribution work.
- September 19, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Miles Morales to get his very own Marvel Minimate
Miles Morales/Ultimate Spider-Man Minimate
His costume is already set to appear next month in the Spider-Man: Edge of Time video game, but Miles Morales will follow that with a Minimate of his very own.
The new Ultimate Spider-Man will join Diamond Select Toys’ line of Marvel Minimates next summer with a 2-inch figure that comes with two heads a removable mask, so you can showcase the character with or without his identity concealed. There’s also a “webline accessory.” The figure will be available exclusively at Toys “R” Us in a two-pack with a classic Spider-Man villain that will be revealed later.
- September 19, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Ziggy creator passes away; The Chill wins Anthony Award
Ziggy
Passings | Tom Wilson Sr., creator of the long-running comic strip Ziggy, passed away Sept. 16. According to a press release from Universal Uclick, Wilson, 80, had suffered from a long illness and died in his sleep. For more than 35 years, Wilson served as a creative director at American Greetings. Wilson first published Ziggy in the 1969 cartoon collection When You’re Not Around. The Ziggy comic panel, syndicated by Universal Uclick (formerly Universal Press Syndicate), launched in 15 newspapers in June 1971. It now appears in more than 500 daily and Sunday newspapers and has been featured in best-selling books, calendars and greeting cards. Wilson’s son, Tom Wilson Jr., took over the strip in 1987. [Universal Uclick]
Awards | The Chill by Jason Star and Mick Bertilorenzi won an Anthony Award this weekend at Bouchercon, the annual mystery convention. The Vertigo Crime selection won in the Best Graphic Novel category, while Birds of Prey writer Duane Swierczynski took the Best Original Paperback category with his novel Expiration Date. [Examiner]
- September 19, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading? with Kevin Colden
Animal Man #1
Welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading? Today our special guest is Kevin Colden, whose comic work includes Fishtown, I Rule the Night, Vertigo’s Strange Adventures and Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper, among others. He’s also the drummer for the band Heads Up Display.
To see what Kevin and the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, click below …
- September 18, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
DC’s relaunched Teen Titans to debut gay teen superhero [Updated]
Bunker from "Teen Titans"
Following through on its pledge to create “a more modern, diverse DC Universe” with the New 52, DC Comics will introduce a gay teenage superhero in Teen Titans.
Series artist Brett Booth has revealed that Bunker will debut in November’s Issue 3 — he’s referred to as “The Wall” in the solicitation text — where he’s depicted as an openly gay teen from Mexico who “can create small force fields that look like bricks.” The character, whom the artist describes as “happy, fun-loving,” appears in the background in the cover of the first issue and again, more prominently, on the one for Issue 3.
“We’re trying to make being gay a part of who he is,” Booth wrote last night on Twitter.
Bunker isn’t the first gay Titan — that was probably Hero Cruz of Titans L.A., although there was a lot of fan speculation about Jericho when he debuted in 1984 — but he’s (likely) the first gay teen introduced into the post-Flashpoint DC Universe.
Teen Titans, by Scott Lobdell, Booth and Norm Rapmund, premieres on Sept. 28.
Update: On his blog, Booth has posted Lobdell’s description of Bunker:
- September 18, 2011 @ 08:15 AM by Kevin Melrose
Chain Reactions | Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1
Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1
Last Wednesday a first issue relaunched an entirely new take on a classic character, and it didn’t have a DC Comics logo. Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1, by Brian Michael Bendis, Sarah Pichelli and Justin Ponsor may not have been the first appearance of Miles Morales, but it did give us a glimpse into his world and what makes him tick.
Since Morales’ new role as the web-slinger in the Ultimate Universe was announced, he’s been met with attention and controversy both inside and outside the comic world. But now that his comic has actually come out, what are people saying about it? Here’s just a sampling of what people are saying about Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #1:
James Hunt, Comic Book Resources: “In a month when readers have been prompted to think about the craft of the first issue (courtesy of DC Comics) “Ultimate Comics Spider-Man” #1 makes it look easy, striking a strong balance between showing what readers need to know and teasing what might come later. Most importantly, what the issue lacks in costumed antics, it makes up for with character. It’s only the second time we’ve seen Miles Morales on the page, but already we’re starting to see how his background and outlook differ from Peter Parker’s. It suggests that we’re going to see a Spider-Man quite different than the one we’re used to — but at the same time, it’s still one who you’ll want to read about next issue. A very conventional start to the series, but in the Ultimate line in particular, that’s exactly what it should be.”
- September 17, 2011 @ 06:00 PM by JK Parkin
The Fifth Color | A look at what could have been from the Thor DVD
Thor didn’t come with a tiny hammer and I, my friends, am sorely disappointed.
I’ve been pretty excited for this movie to come out on DVD since I saw it back in May. Despite Captain America: the First Avenger‘s incredible achievement in crediting Marvel Studios as a real-live movie-making studio rather than a tentative wing of a funnybook publishing arm, I still like Thor better. I love the tone of the film, I love the music and the actors, I love the costumes and the pageantry, and I wanted to take it all home from the moment I walked out of the theater.
A lot of movies I adore come out with special packaging for their big release, and chain and online stores will often stock a limited thingamajig with your DVD sale. Iron Man came in a metal case when you bought it from FYE, and when my friend bought the first “Bayocalypse” Transformers movie, there was a bevy of different boxes, statuettes and editions he could choose from. It’s a nice bonus to being a nerd sometimes: we get cool stuff for liking cool stuff.
When I went to FYE this Tuesday to grab myself a copy of Thor, we chatted about this as I bought my very plain edition of the Thor movie. No tiny hammer. No statuette. The box wasn’t even shaped like his head. The only extras were a digital copy (that refuse to ever work when I download them), some Avengers hype, an awesome little short on Agent Coulson (see it here!) and some interesting featurettes on how this movie was made. All of them seemed very short but were more than simply accolades for all the people working on the film. I actually feel like I learned something about the production’s process, which brings me to the best part of the DVD that isn’t the movie, the deleted scenes.
In the featurettes, they mention that the director Kenneth Branaugh would take a lot of “one more” shots, giving the actors new and interesting directions as they went along. Some of these off-the-cuff innovations weighted Thor’s more dramatic moments stunningly, but that got me thinking about the choices that didn’t make it into the movie. What did they want to do before they shot this scene this way? Going through the deleted scenes, you could almost use them as puzzle pieces, trading one exchange out for another to make a slightly different movie for a different audience.
Join me, won’t you, as I take a look at these deleted scenes from Thor and try to figure out what could have been.
- September 17, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Carla Hoffman
DC to release The Ray miniseries, by Palmiotti, Gray and Igle
The Ray #1
Writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray will team with artist Jamal Igle for The Ray, a four-issue miniseries debuting from DC Comics in December.
The Washington Post reports that this time the “human ray of light” isn’t Stan Silver, the version created by Palmiotti, Gray and Daniel Acuña and featured in Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters. Instead, he’s Lucien Gates, the fourth incarnation of The Ray since the character’s introduction in 1940 in Quality Comics’ Smash Comics #14.
The second Ray, Ray Terrill, was introduced in 1992 in a six-issue miniseries by Jack C. Harris and Joe Quesada before going on to star in a monthly series by Christopher Priest and Howard Porter. That title ran from 1994 to 1996, ending with Issue 28.
The Ray marks the second DC relaunch title for the prolific duo of Palmiotti and Gray, who last month concluded a 70-issue run on Jonah Hex: They take on the bounty hunter again in All-Star Western, which premieres Sept. 28. Igle most recently drew Supergirl for DC.
- September 17, 2011 @ 06:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Police nab suspect in Superman theft, return collection to owner
Mike Meyer
Police in Granite City, Illinois, have arrested a man suspected of stealing thousands of dollars worth of Superman memorabilia from a mentally disabled collector in St. Louis. Better still, they were able to recover the collection and return it to the owner, a very grateful Mike Meyer.
The Post-Dispatch reports that 37-year-old Gerry A. Armbruster of Granite City was connected to the late-August theft during the investigation on Thursday of the forcible robbery of money and jewelry from a 76-year-old man. Armbruster has been charged with one count of residential burglary for the Superman theft, and one count each of robbery and aggravated burglary for the incident with the elderly man. He’s being held in jail on $100,000 bond.
Armbruster allegedly befriended Meyer, a 48-year-old man who lives on Social Security and works part-time at McDonald’s, before swindling him out of more than 1,800 Superman comics, figures and other memorabilia he’d been collecting since 1974.
The theft quickly drew worldwide attention, with fellow fans from as far away as Australia and the United Kingdom rallying to replace Meyer’s collection. According to the Post-Dispatch, officials in Cleveland offered to pay for Meyer to tour the house where a young Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster created the Man of Steel, while the Metropolis, Illinois, Chamber of Commerce has its own plan in the works.
Meyer, who now has close to double what had been stolen — with more promised or already en route — plans to give those donations to charity, likely a children’s hospital.
“People were generous to me,” Meyer, who lives with his dogs Krypto and Dyno, told the newspaper. “This is how I can be generous in return.”
- September 16, 2011 @ 05:21 PM by Kevin Melrose
Are spoilers spoiling comics? Or holding them to a higher standard?
Spoiler alert
DC and Marvel have complained for years about how difficult it is to continue surprising readers when everyone has access to solicitation information two months before a story comes out. To combat that, they’ve offered a steady increase in the number of redacted solicits and “classified” covers; a solution that’s not just unhelpful to retailers trying to decide how many comic to order, but creates a situation in which retailers have to rely on publishers saying, “We can’t tell you anything about it, but trust us, you’re going to want lots of this one.” If I’m a retailer, that sounds like an untenable situation to be in. But what if it’s a whole lot of noise about something that doesn’t have to be a problem?
Last month, a study revealed that – contrary to conventional wisdom – spoilers can actually increase enjoyment of a story. According to UC San Diego psychology researchers Nicholas Christenfeld and Jonathan Leavitt, “subjects significantly preferred the spoiled versions of ironic-twist stories” and knowing the ending ahead of time “not only didn’t hurt enjoyment of the story but actually improved it.” Click the link for a fuller run-down of how the study was conducted, but the research is relatively unimportant. It just scientifically demonstrates something everyone already knew was true.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve come out of a movie that I enjoyed for its thrilling pace, but realized how many plot holes there were as soon as I started discussing it with my friends. Or the number of comics I’ve read where I was caught up in the “event” only to be disappointed by the end that there was no real story there. In the words of Christenfeld and Leavitt, “plot is overrated.”
- September 16, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Michael May