JK Parkin
Is ‘Astro City’ #1 worth the return trip?
Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, Alex Ross and Alex Sinclair returned to Astro City this week, with a brand-new first issue published by DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint. The creative team introduces us to several new characters, including the fourth wall-breaking Broken Man and the anime-inspired American Chibi. Old favorites are also still in residence, including Samaritan and Bill Pullam, one of the ordinary citizens we met earlier in Astro City’s history.
It’s a first issue that feels comfortably familiar but also refreshingly different, as we kick off what looks like a big event within the Astro City world. I definitely found it well worth my $3.99, but if you don’t believe me, here are a few more reviews that might convince you:
Deadpool’s driving a taco truck to Comic-Con
The only thing better than one Deadpool is six Deadpools, right? (Hey, I could be a Marvel editor!) And the only thing better than six Deadpools? Tacos. This summer attendees at Comic-Con International in San Diego will have the chance to buy the Deadpool Corps. wrapped in a taco-truck package at the Hasbro booth.
Marvel.com reports that the 3.75-inch Marvel Universe figures of Deadpool, Lady Deadpool and Champion of the Universe Deadpool will come with figurines of Kidpool, Dogpool and Squirrelpool, packaged in individual “taco shells” and stuffed inside a taco truck. After the con, a limited number will be available for sale at the online Hasbro toy shop.
Check out the packaging below.
‘Avengers Alliance’ coming to mobile phones (plus: Squirrel Girl)
Marvel’s popular Facebook game, Marvel: Avengers Alliance, is coming to Apple devices on June 13, according to USA Today, with an Android version to follow “soon.”
Designed by Playdom, one of Marvel’s sister companies within the Disney media empire, the game allows players to assemble a team of Avengers from all corners of the Marvel U. to fight through various missions involving a host of villains. Recruitable heroes include everyone from Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, Deadpool and the Fantastic Four to heroes with, um, lower profiles, like Union Jack, Black Knight and Thundra.
Warren Ellis says ‘Dead Pig Collector’ is ‘cancelled (for now)’ [Updated]
Dead Pig Collector, the ebook by Warren Ellis that sports a wonderful Ben Templesmith cover, won’t be released June 18 as planned following the author’s split with his publisher.
“Due to continuing issues, I have today terminated my relationship with Mulholland Books,” Ellis announced Wednesday on his email list, which is also provided by the publisher and thus is being turned off. “Dead Pig Collector is cancelled (for now).”
The 99-cent short story was being offered for preorder on the publisher’s website and was about a character named Mr. Sun. “As far as Mr. Sun is concerned, the heart is just a pump. It’s an anatomical fact he knows quite intimately, and a key component of the knowledge base essential to his particularly devious line of work: murder for hire and body disposal<” the description on the page read. “Certain jobs, however, make it hard to keep this in mind. Like the one that’s brought him from cold, dreary London to sun-soaked Los Angeles, and connects Mr. Sun with a beautiful and perpetually curious woman who has to know everything about Mr. Sun’s methods.”
Mulholland published Ellis’ most recent novel, Gun Machine, in January. Hopefully, Dead Pig Collector will find another publisher soon.
Update, June 10: Ellis tweeted that Dead Pig Collector will be published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, with more details coming soon.
‘Face Your Doom’ with new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle shirts
If you’re looking for some T-shirt on the halfshell, Threadless has you covered, as they’ve released 15 shirts featuring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — as well as Shredder, Krang, Splinter and other characters from the comics and TV show. The Turtles join a growing number of shirts based on comics and/or cartoons at Threadless, which already include Marvel superheroes and various other Disney properties.
The above shirt, “Face Your Doom!!” by Matthew Skiff, is probably my favorite, and I’ve included a few more I liked below.
Gerard Way shares art from his unused Batman pitch
Musician and comics writer Gerard Way once pitched a Batman miniseries to DC Comics titled Kingdom of the Mad, and this weekend on Twitter the former lead singer of My Chemical Romance started sharing some of the concept art.
The designs are “from a comic I pitched to DC the year Gab[riel Bá] and I won the Eisner” in 2008 for The Umbrella Academy, Way said on Twitter. He notes that it was approved and would have been released through Vertigo; however, he tweeted, he “Never got to write it. Sadface.”
Check out the cover and designs for Batman and Mr. Freeze below.
What Are You Reading?
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? To see what the Robot 6 crew has been reading lately, click below.
Comics, statues, action figures from Edmonton highlight this Shelf Porn
Hello and welcome to Shelf Porn, where fans invite us into their homes to take a look around. Today’s shelves come from Jeff in Edmonton, Canada, who shows us his collection of comics, statues, action figures and more.
If you’d like to submit your own collection, you can find the details here. We’ve built up a pretty good backlog, so it might be awhile before your collection appears — but don’t worry, we’ll get to it!
And now here’s Jeff …
From ‘X-Force’ to the Backstreet Boys: Six questions with Joe Harris
Thirty-six questions. Six answers. One random number generator. Welcome to Robot Roulette, where creators roll the virtual dice and answer our questions about their lives, careers, interests and more.
Joining us today is Joe Harris, writer of Great Pacific, Wars in Toyland, X-Files: Season 10, Ghost Projekt, Spontaneous, The Fury of Firestorm, Vampirella And The Scarlet Legion , Slingers, Bishop: The Last X-Man and many more.
Now let’s get to it …
All Hawkeye cosplayers need a set of these in their quiver
With the popularity of Hawkeye –both the Clint Barton version, starring in his own stellar comic and various Avengers titles, and the Kate Bishop version, currently appearing in that same stellar comic and the snappy Young Avengers — it’s not surprising that Hawkeye cosplayers are taking aim at conventions around the world.
If you’re wanting to sport the gear of the younger, female Hawkeye, but aren’t sure where to get started, here’s a Tumblr by a devoted Kate Bishop cosplayer that should tell you everything you need to know. It’s appropriately titled “Gosh I Love Arrows,” and I think she goes above and beyond in the creation of a set of trick arrows based on David Aja’s illustrations from issue #3.
‘X-Men’ #1 finally hits comic shops — what did people think?
The new X-Men title by Brian Wood and Olivier Coipel, which debuted Wednesday, has received a lot of attention for its all-female team. Honestly, when I heard the news, I didn’t find it surprising — in fact, I had to ask myself, “Is this really the first time we’ve had an all-female cast in the X-Men?” As an old-school Chris Claremont X-fan, I guess I’m used to characters like Storm, Rogue and Kitty Pryde having as much prominence on the team as Cyclops, Colossus and … yeah, I was going to put Wolverine there, but he’s always been in a class by himself due to his popularity. But you get where I’m coming from.
There were certainly X-Men stories where the women outnumbered the men during Claremont’s run — I’m thinking of an issue where Wolverine, Shadowcat, Rogue and Rachel Grey, I believe, were on a mission, and Wolverine turned leadership over to Kitty because he didn’t like being leader and she had “seniority” — but I can’t think of a time when they were male-less for a significant period. If someone pops up in our comments section to tell me otherwise, though, I won’t be surprised, because the X-franchise just seems like the natural place where this would happen. It’s notable that just about every one of the main characters in the book were co-created by Claremont, the only exception being Storm, who was actually created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum. But Claremont obviously put his stamp on the character in his long run on Uncanny X-Men.
But yeah, a female X-team? It’s been a long time coming, if indeed it has never occurred. But enough about the make-up of the team; how was the book itself? Here are a few opinions on the first issue from around the internet, and you can check out the CBR poll to see that almost half of respondents gave it five out of five stars:
Check out the trailer for Gene Luen Yang’s ‘Boxers & Saints’
The next project from Gene Luen Yang, creator of American Born Chinese, is a set of two graphic novels that tell both sides of the story of the Boxer Rebellion, the anti-foreign, anti-Christianity, pro-Nationalist movement in China circa 1899-1901. One of the books is about a peasant who joins the Boxers, while the other is about a woman who converts to Catholicism. The books will be sold individually or as a boxed set.
Colored by Lark Pien, Boxers & Saints will be released Sept. 10, and on his blog Yang has revealed a promotional trailer for the project. Check it out below.
President Clinton endorses graphic novel by Rep. John Lewis
Top Shelf Productions will publish a graphic novel by Congressman John Lewis, co-writer Andrew Aydin and artist Nate Powell in August; titled March, it’s the first of three books that chronicle Lewis’ life and involvement in the Civil Rights movement. This first book focuses on his youth in rural Alabama and the start of the Nashville Student Movement.
And as you can see in the image above, the back cover will sport a cover blurb from former U.S. President Bill Clinton. His quote says:
“Congressman John Lewis has been a resounding moral voice in the quest for equality for more than 50 years, and I’m so pleased that he is sharing his memories of the Civil Rights Movement with America’s young leaders. In March, he brings a whole new generation with him across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, from a past of clenched fists into a future of outstretched hands.”
— President Bill Clinton
‘Opportunity has knocked twice’ with Venture Bros. Shirt Club
The long-awaited new season of Adult Swim’s The Venture Bros. debuts June 2, and along with it comes the second-ever Venture Bros. Shirt Club.
For one week after each episode airs, you can purchase a shirt based on that week’s story for $20, designed by Doc Hammer and/or Jackson Publick. Or, if you already know you want them all, you can subscribe and get all nine T-shirts (the season will run eight episodes, but the hour-long premiere gets two shirts) plus a bonus shirt for $165, saving yourself a little scratch in the process.
“You know the score. Opportunity has knocked twice,” Publick said on his blog. “You snooze, you lose. Venture fans, this is your proudest moment! You know that Official Venture T-shirts are as rare and beautiful as albinos, and ones created by the actual Venture brothers are even more rare, and like five times more beautiful … What are you going to do? Answer: SHIRT CLUB!”
You can check out the bonus shirt here, along with details on how the club works. If you decide to subscribe, make sure you do it before June 8.
Shelf Porn Redux | Arts and crafts with Theo from Greece
Theodoros Papadopoulos from Drama, Greece, shared his Shelf Porn with us over the weekend, and in the comments section, he mentioned “some pictures of furniture dressed with comic pages. Something we did at our school.”
Theo is a high school teacher in Drama, and he sent in pictures of a craft project he did with his students.
“I am a teacher in a high school here in my town. I teach computers, but every year it becomes harder and harder. Children are more difficult because life is more difficult. They grow up away from us, hiding in that huge internet place that nobody can control, at least in a good way,” Theo said. “So I tried to do something different in my class. We made some chairs to look like comic books. We used glue and put some comic book pages on them. The glue is crystallized wood that you can buy by the pound. It’ s non toxic and you can remove it from your hands with water. When they dried the next day we used again another layer of glue. It worked like polish. The glue is white but it becomes transparent when it dies. Now people can sit of them without any problem. The students like the experience, or maybe the time that did not have a lesson.”
Check out some of the photos below.
