2011 December
Gillen’s X-Men as a modern-day Authority?
In the wake of X-Men: Schism, Marvel’s mutants are split down the middle and heading in two divergent directions. While Wolverine’s team is following in the footsteps of Xavier’s original plans for the X-Men, the Cyclops-led team based in Utopia is on a different track. Dubbed his “Extinction Team,” the primary purpose of the team is to stand between mankind (not just mutantkind) and threats that would render them extinct. It sounds like a unique kind of mission for the X-Men, but an interesting question on writer Kieron Gillen’s Formspring reframes it in a familiar way.
Gillen was asked: “The x-men seem a lot like the old superhero team The Authority lately. is that intentional?”
“The Authority are certainly one of the big influences on [Uncanny X-Men],” answers Gillen. ” The Extinction Team are certainly the closest the MU has ever had to something that occupies the niche the Authority dominated in the Wildstorm U.”
While saying that most modern super-hero comics were inspired by Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch’s The Authority isn’t too far off-base, seeing this straight correlation by Gillen fires off my fan synapses and helps define a team that, frankly, I was having trouble with even after reading Uncanny X-Men #1. Although I don’t want to see Gillen and crew follow this analogy too closely, it makes me more interested to see where the book goes next.
Also, isn’t it interesting that in the pin-up for Avengers vs. X-Men that it’s Cyclops’s X-Men versus the Avengers pictures? Both Wolverine and Beast seem to be lunging after their former teammates in the X-Men rather than the Avengers, who they currently owe more allegiance to.
- December 7, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Chris Arrant
I’d be careful about opening some of those gifts, Batman …
Christmastime in the Bat Cave isn’t as lonely as you might think, at least as imagined by artist Ulises Farinas. He sent the above print out to his family and friends as a Christmas gift, and he’s also selling it for $25 on his site. And if you like that, you might also like his “Batman is a Hoarder” print or his “Batman Loses” comic that was featured on ComicsAlliance last year.
- December 7, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Go, go: Pogo!
Well, deck us all with Boston Charlie: BoingBoing has posted a generous preview of the upcoming Fantagraphics collection Pogo: The Complete Daily & Sunday Comic Strips, Vol. 1: Through the Wild Blue Wonder. The blog also includes the foreword to the book and a brief bio of Pogo creator Walt Kelly. If you’re new to the work, it’s a great introduction; if you’re already a Pogo fan, it’s a delightful indulgence.
- December 7, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Quote of the day | Bendis on leaving Avengers ‘on a high note’
“I’m going to wrap up Avengers and New Avengers. At the same time the first storyline of ‘Avengers Assemble’ will be done. It’s a good time to move on to other things. Before I go, though, I’m ending things big. I’m in countdown mode. You know when you’re watching a show like Breaking Bad, and every episode feels like the second to last episode? That’s where I’m at. I’ve been on the Avengers longer than anybody in the history of the book. When you take everything into account, I’ve written over 200 issues. I’m very, very proud of that, and what we have coming up this summer gives me the opportunity to go out on a high note. I know enough about showbiz to know that’s a great time to go.”
– writer Brian Michael Bendis, revealing plans to leave Marvel’s Avengers franchise after eight years
- December 7, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Stan Lee Excelsior Award shortlist announced
What, you’ve never heard of the Stan Lee Excelsior Award? Well then, you must not be a teenager in the U.K. The awards were started last year by a teacher in Sheffield, and students in 17 different schools voted for their favorite graphic novels. This year, 66 schools participated. The books must be suitable for readers aged 11-16, and yes, Stan Lee did authorize the use of his name, although other than that he doesn’t seem to be personally involved (however, the website does say organizers work closely with the Stan Lee Foundation).
Here’s what’s interesting about this shortlist: It reflects what tweens and teens are actually reading, as opposed to what the adult gatekeepers think they should be reading. That means the list is fascinatingly eclectic and also devoid of any award winners — I know when I was a kid, that foil Newbery Award seal was the kiss of death. Things don’t seem to have changed much. Here’s the 2012 shortlist:
- December 7, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Jim Zubkavich responds to Skullkickers scanlator
Jim Zubkavich’s Skullkickers, a lively action-comedy series about two monster-fighting mercenaries, has been one of the success stories of 2011 in the North American market, and now it turns out to have overseas fans as well. Last week, Zubkavich got an e-mail from someone named Roman who is translating Skullkickers into Russian, then carefully cleaning the English words out of the word balloons and replacing them with the new text. Roman actually e-mailed Zubkavich and asked if he would be willing to send unlettered pages to make the job easier.
“I have no idea how to properly respond to this,” Zubkavich wrote on Twitter. “I mean, I can’t send him page art like that, but it’s just so damn bizarre.” Zubkavich noted that he owns Skullkickers (which is published by Image), so he knows there are no plans for a Russian edition. A fascinating Twitter conversation followed, with Cameron Stewart arguing for sharing the files — “it may be ‘piracy’ but I’d reckon the goodwill you’d get from authorizing it is significant” — and Indigo Kelleigh expressing reservations: “But politely point out that him giving your work away for free makes it difficult for you to enter that market legitimately.”
Zubkavich is still mulling it over, but he shared his e-mail reply to Roman with Robot 6:
- December 7, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | Angoulême Official Selections; cartoonist suspended
Angoulême International Comics Festival
Conventions | The Angoulême International Comics Festival has announced the Official Selections for the 2012 festival, which will be held Jan. 26-29 in Angoulême, France. Eddie Campbell’s Alec, Craig Thompson’s Habibi and Daniel Clowes’ Mister Wonderful are among the almost 60 graphic novels on the list. [Angoulême]
Editorial cartoons | The Columbus Dispatch suspended political cartoonist Jeff Stahler after finding that his Monday cartoon was too similar to a New Yorker cartoon published in 2009. At The Daily Cartoonist, Alan Gardner posts several of Stahler’s cartoons alongside earlier pieces with similar punchlines. While one can debate whether Stahler lifted his ideas from the older cartoons, it’s obvious that he drew them in his own style, unlike David Simpson, who was recently accused of copying Jeff McNally’s cartoons. [Comic Riffs]
Crime | Several pieces of original artwork, among other items, were stolen from the car of AdHouse Publisher Chris Pitzer while he was in New York City last weekend for the Brooklyn Comics and Graphics Festival. Pitzer is offering a reward for any information leading to the recovery of the artwork. [AdHouse]
- December 7, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
The Middle Ground #80 | Free Comic Book Day?
When the 2012 Free Comic Book Day “Gold” titles were announced last week, you would’ve been forgiven for thinking that the Archaia release was either a mistake, practical joke or particularly egregious typo, but it wasn’t: The indie publisher really is putting out a 48-page hardcover anthology of strips for free. Beats a reprint of a year-old issue of Avengers, at least, right…?
- December 6, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Graeme McMillan
Food or Comics? | A dollop of Defenders
Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy at our local comic shop based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on a “Splurge” item.
Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList, and tell us what you’re getting in our comments field.
Action Comics #4
Chris Arrant
If I had $15, I’d start with Image’s new anthology Thought Bubble Anthology #1 (Image, $2.99). That Becky Cloonan cover is great, and seeing that the book holds new shorts from Andy Diggle, Duncan Fegredo and others is enticing. Next up would be a DC three-pack: Swamp Thing #4 (DC, $2.99), Animal Man #4 (DC, $2.99), Action Comics #4 (DC, $3.99). DC really wins this week when it comes to my wallet, and these three books are becoming the key titles in the New 52.
If I had $30, I’d try out Matt Fraction and Terry Dodson’s Defenders #1 (Marvel, $3.99). While I was nonplussed by their previous collaboration in Uncanny X-Men, I remain high on other segments of their work and hope this one lives up to that potential. Next up would be X-Club #1 (Marvel, $2.99), based solely on this eclectic line-up. The X-Club was one of the few parts of the previously mentioned Fraction run on Uncanny X-Men I enjoyed, and I hope this mini makes them a more viable part of the universe long-term. Next up I’d get iZombie #20 (DC/Vertigo, $2.99) for the ongoing adventures of Roberson and Allred and Irredeemable #32. I’m really enjoying what Diego Barreto brings to the book, and Mark Waid continues to deliver.
If I could splurge, I’d get IDW’s collection of Mike Grell’s Shaman’s Tears maxi-series. This was one of the early Image titles, and gave me my first glimpse of Grell’s work and the potential for Image outside the original 7. As the series went on I ended up going back to track down Grell’s earlier work, but Shaman’s Tears holds a special place and I’m anxious to relive it without dusting off my longboxes.
- December 6, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Michael May
Matt Fraction, Nathan Fox go inside bin Laden raid with GQ comic
The December issue of GQ magazine features “For God and Country,” a comic by Matt Fraction, Nathan Fox and Jeremy Cox described as “an illustrated account” of the May 2 raid by Navy SEALs on the compound of Osama bin Laden.
The magazine’s website includes annotations by Fraction and Fox, with the writer noting, “The original editorial directive was to tell the story from OBL’s perspective but, aside from not caring to get inside the man’s head, the more I researched that night, the more in awe I became of the DEVGRU/Seal operators who performed the raid — and the more I decided their story demanded telling, too.”
- December 6, 2011 @ 12:15 PM by Kevin Melrose
Josh Neufeld will break your heart in 18 pages
Cartoon Movement has been knocking it out of the park lately with short comic about topical issues — it’s the home of the Occupy Sketchbooks and a number of other thought-provoking pieces of journalism done in the comics medium. Now Josh Neufeld has a new comic up there, Bahrain: Lines in Ink, Lines in the Sand, that tells the story of the recent unrest in Bahrain from the point of view of two cartoonists.
Neufeld starts out with his own visit to Bahrain, which struck him as a peaceful and progressive country. “I didn’t sense any underlying tensions,” he says, but the very next page shows how much he missed. What began as peaceful demonstrations against the government quickly turned ugly as long-buried resentments came to the surface. There had been rifts, chiefly between the Sunni and Shia, that Neufeld had not seen on his trip (which was sponsored by the U.S. Department of State).
Neufeld resists the temptation to boil this down to a simple tale. The two cartoonists he met on his trip have very different perspectives on the unrest, and he allows both to tell their stories, even including their cartoons in his comic. The result is a sad tale of how a country that seemed stable and peaceful could fracture along political and religious lines — and of the consequences that has for its people.
- December 6, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Quote of the day | Brian Wood on digital pricing
The Massive
“I’ve had series cancelled recently. I’ve had pitches rejected for financial reasons. I’ve seen my editors laid off. I’ve taken page rate cuts (a LOT of us have). My income from royalties have dropped. Most comic shops don’t carry my books. I have very good reasons to suspect my career in comics may be drastically reduced in the near future. Things just plain suck, but I’ve taken these hits, figuring that everyone else is having hard times too. I don’t mind bleeding a little, and one ray of hope has been digital, the potential it has to maybe, just maybe, keep some of us going through these lean times. But like I said, we can never explore that potential to even just see if its there, as long as current pricing stay locked in.
“So I’ll have to bleed a little more so that others can bleed a little less. The problem with that, to really keep abusing this metaphor, is that eventually I’ll just keel over and die from it.”
–DMZ, Northlanders, The Massive and Conan writer Brian Wood on Dark Horse’s same-day digital plans that we learned yesterday will come with a $2.99 pricetag when released rather than $1.99, a price point some retailers weren’t happy with. Wood said he planned to make the single issues “a luxury object specifically for the benefit of the retailer community, to make it a unique book with truly added-value content so that the two formats would not be in competition for the same product” — something you know he’s pretty good at if you read Demo. I encourage you to go read his entire post.
- December 6, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Joe Harris joins Ethan Van Sciver on Firestorm with issue #7
Firestorm
DC Comics today confirmed the rumors that started circulating around the New York Comic-Con earlier this year, as they announced that writer Joe Harris will replace Gail Simone on The Fury of Firestorm: The Nuclear Man with issue #7. Harris joins co-writer Ethan Van Sciver, who will also draw issues #7 and #8 of the series while Yildiray Cinar takes a break.
The change follows yesterday’s announcement that Tom DeFalco is replacing Fabian Nicieza on Legion Lost.
“The first arc is called ‘The Firestorm Protocols’ and, I can promise you, it’s going to be filled with a lot of big science fiction concepts and super-hero smackdowns… some good, tense international and geopolitical maneuvering around the prospect of a new nuclear arms race in a much smaller and interconnected world than the Cold War-era knew, and some really dark, juicy moments that should really shock the hell out of people,” Harris said on his blog. Harris has been busy in comics recently, as write of Oni’s Ghost Projekt and Spontaneous, and Dynamite’s upcoming Vampirella vs. Dracula.
More art can be found after the jump.
- December 6, 2011 @ 09:58 AM by JK Parkin
Oh, look, Kate Beaton did a bunch of Wonder Woman comics again
Hark! A Vagrant cartoonist Kate Beaton’s no stranger to superheroes, and her salty take on Wonder Woman really brings out the best in both women, real and imaginary. This time around, Beaton’s Wondy receives advice on how to be more awesome from Superman, Batman, some DC honchos, admiring fans, angry detractors, and more. Needless to say, she’s having none of it. Go read, but be careful not to touch that tiara. It looks dangerous!
- December 6, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Sean T. Collins
Our Love is Real’s Sam Humphries returns to self-publishing with Sacrifice
Earlier this year writer Sam Humphries and artist Steven Saunders had a cool little success story with their science fiction comic Our Love is Real. It was released digitally, sold via their website and a few select comic shops, and eventually went into multiple printings before finally being picked up by Image Comics. (Sam spoke at length about his efforts to market and distribute the book during a panel we were both on at the San Diego Comic Con).
It worked out so well for him the first time that Humphries is trying it again. He’s teamed up with artist Dalton Rose for Sacrifice, a full-color, self-published, self-distributed, six-issue mini-series that debuts Dec. 14. It’s about Hector, a time traveler/Joy Division fan who finds himself in the middle of the Aztec empire.
And courtesy of Sam and Dalton, we’re pleased to bring you a look at the comic, which you can find after the jump, along with the book’s many variant covers. The comic will be available for digital download through comiXology and Graphicly, or you can buy it in print from several comic shops or through online retailer Things from Another World.
Addition: If you are in L.A., Collector’s Paradise will host a release party on Dec. 14 for the book, and you can also purchase their exclusive edition from their website. The cover for the “Shadow Edition” they have can be found after the jump.
- December 6, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by JK Parkin