As the licensing machine revs up for the May 4 premiere of The Avengers, fragrance company JADS International — the company behind such brands as Sulu Pour Homme, Slave Leia Perfume and Shirtless Kirk Cologne — has rolled out scents inspired by Captain America, Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Thor, Nick Fury and even Loki. Sorry, Hawkeye, you’re out of luck.

The Avengers Cologne Set boasts “four unique fragrances”: PATRIOT, Mark VII, SMASH! and Worthy; you can probably piece together which name goes with which hero. Loki, meanwhile, gets Mischief Cologne (“Made to Rule”), and Fury has Initiative Cologne (“Activate the Initiative”).

Check out the details below, or on the JADS website.

PATRIOT Cologne
A cologne that pays homage to the confident, stand-up-to-bullies, hard working average Joe in every man. PATRIOT Cologne is both reserved and sexy; like a symbol on a shield or a moniker on a motorcycle helmet. Fresh notes of green lime and white pepper are the first to hit with dry oak wood, sandalwood and tequila accords finishing the adventure. Perfect for any time or place, PATRIOT Cologne puts the Novus Mundus in your strong, sensuous hands for you to embrace and discover.

PATRIOT Cologne
Your Attack Plan.

Mark VII Cologne
A resolutely sophisticated cologne forged from the sea, the sun, the earth, and a touch of devil-may-care whimsy. Transparent, aromatic, and modern in nature, Mark VII combines mandarin, neroli, nasturtium and jasmine layered with light patchouli to create a contemporary expression of “I don’t play well with others” confidence; leaving you always ready for whatever a genius, billionaire, playboy-philanthropist might encounter along the way.

Mark VII Cologne
Armor Up.

SMASH! Cologne
Very unusual and rare materials have been brought together to create a woody aquatic cologne evoking both a serene sense of timeless freedom and a single-minded, unbridled passion for life. Yuzu, bergamot and tarragon create clean, clear top notes along with unexpected accords of water lily and nutmeg. SMASH! then carries an intense woody drydown enriched with Indian sandalwood, vetiver, musk and sharp cedar. Complimentary to a full range of emotions, it wears well no matter where—at work, the lab or an evening out on the town.

SMASH!
Be Angry.

Worthy Cologne
This woody citrus cologne is a unique, meaningful combination of bergamot, frozen ginger and wheatgrass blended with a hint of fresh natural grapefruit and layered deeply with aromatic cypress. Basenotes are possessed with sensual, seductive tones of dark amber and cedarwood, protecting and enhancing a deep, dry masculine (dare we say almost God-like?) musk.

Worthy Cologne
Possess the Power.

Infinity Formula Cologne
Colonel Nicholas “Nick” Fury. Paratrooper, Ranger, Weapons and Demolitions Expert, Aircraft Specialist and Pilot, Green Beret. Veteran of every US War and Military Conflict since WWII. Director of S.H.I.E.L.D. “The single most powerful, most important organization on the planet Earth.” And the only human strong enough to bring together a group of remarkable people who would fight the battles no one else could.

Infinity Formula Cologne.
Face danger with something dangerous. Activate the Initiative.

Mischief Cologne
Possessed of Superhuman strength, Genius-level intelligence, Mystical powers, Telepathy, Flight, Clairvoyance, Therianthropy, and Teleportation … who could blame you for becoming the greatest trickster of them all? So wear your crown of baleful maleficence with pride; let mirth and mayhem stand ready at your side, anticipating your every command. Test their mettle knowing you have nothing to fear; you are Mischief and you were made to rule.

(via ComicBookMovie)

Peanuts #1

Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading?, where every week we recap what comics have been on our nightstands recently. To see what the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.

Tim O’Shea

Sweet Tooth #29

Sweet Tooth #29: Am I the only one to feel like this is the first issue to have any narrative forward progress in a long while? It just seemed to be spinning its wheels for awhile, but definitely not this issue. And I love the surprises that Lemire threw in this issue.

Secret Avengers #20: For readers, writers and editors wondering what is the great appeal of the done in one comics? Look no further than this issue. Writer Warren Ellis loves pushing storytelling boundaries in his work, but this is a stretch even for him. I’m not sure who had the hardest job in this one-shot time travel story. The writer, artist Alex Maleev or the editorial team of John Denning and Lauran Sankovitch. I have never been a fan of Maleev’s work—until the middle of the tale—when he pulls off a page and a half of Black Widow daily comic strips. (Extra points to Mayela Gutierrez for her production work on those pages). Even if Ellis had not written this issue, I would have bought it for the Steranko-esque cover by John Cassady and Paul Mounts.

Peanuts #1: As I said in my intro to this week’s Paige Braddock interview: “ Anytime an all ages title like this new release from the KABOOM! gang (in partnership with Peanuts Worldwide) comes out, I want to shout it from the rooftops.” The appeal of this new series is captured best by Braddock herself: ‘There hasn’t been a Peanuts comic book series since Dell published comics back in the 1960s. As a fan of both comic books and Peanuts, I’m glad that comic shops will once again have Peanuts on their shelves. As a comic reader, I think Peanuts will be a breath of fresh air in terms of material that’s suitable for all ages.”

Captain America #6: Not sure which I enjoyed more, Alan Davis drawing an Ed Brubaker Captain America tale or the fact that Brubaker worked in some quality Hawkeye/Cap time in the tale. I gotta add though, I hate the new Hawkeye costume that he’s sporting to match the upcoming film.

X-Club #2: OK, Simon Spurrier makes me laugh. I think he is a writer I should keep my eye on. Not sure why Dr. Nemesis chose to kept the empathic starfish on his head, but it made for some incredible comedy in this issue.

Villains for Hire #2: Amidst the cancelled series and aborted miniseries in the Marvel universe, I am pleasantly surprised at how Marvel editorial is enabling writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning to keep telling the struggles of Misty Knight, initially through the ongoing Heroes for Hire, now with this Villains for Hire miniseries.

Thunderbolts #168: Jeff Parker teams with artist Matthew Southworth for a quirky examination of Luke Cage’s fears. The story itself (mostly a mental battle thanks to this issue’s villain) allows Southworth to do some quirky and intoxicating layouts. Kudos to Frank Martin Jr. for his ability to strongly color the art.

Hulk #47: OK, I am starting to accept the fact that Gabriel Hardman is not going to be drawing Hulk anymore (moving on to assignments like Secret Avengers). Not sure if Marvel editorial is auditioning different artists for the book, but if Elena Casagrande is in the running for a permanent assignment (she has done previous arcs on the book), I would be happy. Parker continues to allow a simmering flirtation between Annie and Ross. Also loved the moment where Ross comically gave a brief on Zero/One to Machine Man (who he has taken to calling Aaron, another element of Parker having the hero view these partially mechanical entities as his trusted friends).

Brigid Alverson

Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly’s The New York Five replicates the feeling of being young and in New York so well that one scene, the entrance to a subway station, triggered a flashback to my own New York days. It’s not just the visuals, although they work very well, it’s the story–four young women sharing an apartment, each dealing with their own issues, all of it magnified by the fact that they are in New York. Wood and Kelly cram love, death, betrayal, and loyalty into this slim volume, mixing the big issues skillfully with the minutiae of daily life. Like New York itself, it’s crowded and bustling, with multiple plot threads and panels that are crammed full of details, broken up with little travel-guide vignettes that introduce changes of scene. This was a followup to The New York Four, which Wood and Kelly created for DC’s Minx line, but it’s anything but a teen book–I would think adults like me, who have been through some of what the girls experience, would enjoy it a lot more.

I got an advance look at Best Shot in the West: The Adventures of Nat Love, a YA graphic novel based on the autobiography of the most famous black cowboy of the 19th century. Known in rodeo circles as Deadwood Dick, Nat Love was born a slave in Tennessee and headed west as a teenager. He turned out to have a knack with horses and with guns, at least according to his autobiography, and the book moves rapidly through a series of thrilling adventures involving cattle rustlers, runaway horses, and hostile Indians, as well as personal encounters with Buffalo Bill Cody, Bat Masterson and Billy the Kid. The art is lively and very attractive, done in a painterly style with a palette that shifts as the story moves from one setting to another. My one quibble would be that the faces are extremely inconsistent, to the point where characters can look totally different from one panel to the next. That aside, it’s a great book; Love sure could tell a story, and the creative team has done a great job of bringing his words to life.

Chris Mautner

Studygroup Magazine

After paying for my copy but leaving it at the booth, Zack Soto was kind enough to to mail me a copy of Studygroup Magazine, the new biannual mag he is putting together with former Comics Journal editor Milo George. And I’m so glad he did because Studygroup is fantastic–a smart vibrant amalgamation of TCJ-like critical essays and interviews and comics anthology featuring work by some of the more interesting people laboring in the trenches these days. This issue, for instance, not only features a lengthy talk by Craig Thompson that’s heavy on process (inking, lettering, which paper is best, etc.) and a nice essay on Brecht Evens by Greice Schneider, but also contains some stellar comics from people like Michael DeForge, Johnny Negron, Aidan Koch and T. Alixopulos. Really, it’s a fantastic package that I can’t recommend enough.

It’s not comics, but I also read–or at least gazed at–Rivers Forgotten by Jeremy Kai from Koyama Press. This is basically a slim photo book of the sewer system underneath the city of Toronto. That descriptions sounds dull or gross (or both) but Kai manages to capture some astoundingly breathtaking images of vast, immense tunnels and other structures. Kai’s work shines a literal light on the hidden world that lies underneath much of our urban world and I was surprisingly grateful for the tour.

Tom Brevoort, photo by Luigi Novi

Let’s not mince words, the online presence of Tom Brevoort has provided hours of great reading for Robot 6 readers. Given his constant and unflagging willingness to interact with consumers via social media, Brevoort is a quote machine (His Twitter bio? “A man constantly on the verge of saying something stupid–for your entertainment!?”). There’s always a directness (some would say bluntness) to his manner online–making him the ideal subject for an interview. Last year saw Marvel promote Brevoort to senior vice president for publishing. 2011 was a year of some major successes for Marvel, as well as a year where some hard business decisions were made. In this interview, conducted in mid-December via email, I tried to cover a great deal of ground (we even briefly discuss DC’s New 52 success)–and Brevoort did not hold back on any of his answers. For that, I am extremely grateful. Like any high profile comics executive, Brevoort has his fans and his critics (and many in between), but I like to think this exchange offers some perspectives everyone can enjoy.

Tim O’Shea: Whether it’s in your job description or not, fan outreach via social media is definitely part of your job–clearly by your own choice. What benefit or enjoyment do you get from interacting with the fans/consumers?

Tom Brevoort: I’m not sure that I get a particular benefit, except maybe just being the center of attention for a few minutes—maybe everything I do is motivated by ego! I’m a whore for the spotlight! But I started doing this kind of outreach back in the formative days of internet fandom, largely because I like the idea of internet fandom. I know that, if the internet had existed when I was a young comic book reader, I’d have been on those message boards and in those chat rooms all the time, obsessively—just like a certain portion of the audience today. So I like the idea of giving back, of being accessible enough that anybody who has a question or a concern knows where to find me, or at least to find somebody with an insider’s track who might have the background and knowledge to speak to their point. In a very real way, it’s all an outgrowth of what Stan Lee did in his letters pages and Bullpen pages. Joe Q, I think, was really the first person to perfect that approach for the internet age. As EIC he was incredibly available to the audience in a myriad of ways. It’s a philosophy that’s very much woven into our DNA at Marvel. And for the most part, our fans are interesting, vibrant, cool people, especially when you meet them in person.

O’Shea: Much has been made of the miniseries cancelled in mid-arc, or announced projects killed, but I am curious to learn how it impacts you to see co-workers being let go in the recent round of belt tightening? When I ask this I don’t necessarily mean on a personal level, per se, but rather in terms of the loss to Marvel’s collective creative/editorial talent, how challenging is it to deliver the best product Marvel can produce when you lose some talented editors?

Brevoort: It’s terrific, I love seeing people let go into one of the worst job markets in recent memory! I’m sorry, Tim, but I don’t think it’s possible to answer this question in anything other than a personal way—or if it is, I’m just not that dispassionate about it. I certainly understand that a business is a business, but there’s also a very human face on all of this. The people who were let go were my co-workers and friends, none of them were dismissed for cause, they’re all great, talented people. But that’s the economic world we find ourselves in right now, and as somebody who has to keep an eye on the business as a business, I understand and accept that. And it definitely means that those of us that remain have to work harder to do the same thing—that’s just simple mathematics. An editor who was once dealing with six projects maybe now has to cope with seven, or eight, at least until we’re through the backlog of material that was initially in the hands of those editors no longer on staff. So it’s definitely a lot to ask—but we’ve got the best crew in the business at Marvel, and though we may all grumble from time to time, everybody steps up to get the job not only done but done with the greatest level of excellence that can be managed. It really is an extraordinary group of dedicated people. And, on the flipside, there’s now some editorial talent out in the marketplace with super-strong skills that any other company could benefit enormously from. So a word to the wise there.

O’Shea: When 2011 began, could you ever have envisioned Marvel having cancelled a miniseries before it even finished?

Brevoort: It’s an unfortunate thing, but yes, I could. I’ve seen it happen in the past, though not quite in the way it happened on All-Winners. And some of that is my doing. We could have gone in at the last minute and tried to hack up the climax of the story, bringing things to a truncated resolution in issue #5. But with three whole issues left to go, I didn’t want to do that. Admittedly, that would have given the readers some kind of resolution, but it would have been a bad and unsatisfying reading experience. So I made the argument that, with so much story still left to tell, we should simply stop. That way, if market conditions improved down the line, and there was enough sustained interest in the project, we might eventually be able to return to it and finish it properly in the future. Hey, the last issue of Ghost Rider that I edited saw print ten years after it was created, so anything’s possible. I’m also a child of the 70s, where books would often be cancelled mid-stream, with no warning and no resolution, so I may be more immunized to this happening than a lot of other people, because I’ve seen it happen before. It stinks, nobody likes it, but again, that’s the marketplace in which we seem to find ourselves. The one thing I know for certain is that putting out issues that lose money is a good way to get to the point where you can’t put out any issues at all.

O’Shea: At the beginning of 2011, you assumed your senior VP role. With almost a year under your belt, I am curious what have you most enjoyed about your increased responsibilities? With your increased executive duties, is there an aspect of your pre-2011 responsibilities that you wish you still had time to do?

Avengers: X-Sanction #1

Brevoort: People, I think, get dazzled by the title, which maybe sounds like a lot more than what it actually entails. I’m still very much doing all of the things I was doing last year, just with a bit more stuff added on top of it. I’m maybe looking at the whole line more, rather than just half of the line. But I’m still directly editing a good number of books—Avengers, New Avengers, Secret Avengers, Fantastic Four, FF, Captain America, Children’s Crusade, X-Sanction, Defenders at least for the first two issues, and a lot more. So there isn’t a whole lot of down time, and there are definitely days when I feel like I could use another me to handle all of the stuff that’s stacked up while I was on the phone talking to a creator or off in a planning meeting of some kind.

O’Shea: While clearly a main focus of 2011 was Fear Itself, what were the other main successes of the past year?

Brevoort: I think we had a bunch of successes this year, and I’m probably going to forget all kinds of things as I run down the list. But certainly the death of the Human Torch and the rebranding of Fantastic Four as FF was a bigger success than we would have imagined. The Death of Ultimate Spider-Man and the introduction of Miles Morales. The “Spider-Island” crossover and just Amazing Spider-Man in general, a series that not only has been garnering all kinds of good fan reaction but has also consistently come out twice a month. Schism, and even more so the relaunching of the core X-titles as Uncanny X-Men and Wolverine & The X-Men. Waid, Rivera and Martin’s Daredevil, probably the best-reviewed title we’ve got right now, Remender and Co’s Uncanny X-Force—I feel like our line is very strong overall right now, even though it’s easy for people to sometimes take that for granted. You take a book like, say, Fraction and Larroca’s Invincible Iron Man, and it comes out like clockwork 12-16 times a year, with the same creative team telling highly-polished stories. After a while, people start to overlook it because it’s so consistent. Also, the steady growth of our digital initiatives. That’s a world that’s going to become steadily more important to us, and to the business in general. We had a couple good movies, too.

Miles Morales

O’Shea: In terms of “the steady growth of our digital initiatives,” what kind of milestones or successes did Marvel see in the steady growth?

Brevoort: I don’t know that there are any specific milestones I can point you to, in that most of our data about the digital world is confidential. But especially in instances where we had mainstream coverage on a particular storyline—Miles Morales, say, or Fantastic Four #600—we saw a pronounced uptick in our digital sales, with each new one besting the sales records of the previous. And all without having a measurable impact on our tangible copy sales. I think that everybody has still only scratched the surface of digital as a delivery platform for the kinds of material that we do, and that it’s only likely to grow further into a cornerstone of our overall publishing business.

O’Shea: You don’t work for DC, but you clearly have an opinion about the other major industry publisher, so I have to ask: Did DC’s 52 perform beyond your expectations, or is their success (still potentially short term, only time will tell) along the lines of what one might expect from a major line relaunch?

Brevoort: I don’t think we have good enough optics yet to predict the long term—we’re only now heading into the period of time wherein retailers can return their unsold copies, so the numbers for those months aren’t finalized yet. But there’s no two ways about it, regardless of how many books they get back, DC did a great job of getting their message out to the world and getting excited readers new, lapsed and existing into the stores to check out what they had going on. I don’t know how, at least judged in those terms, it could have been any more of a success. And I’m very happy about it—not just because we’ve seen an uptick in our sales for those months as well, but because increased competition leads to more excitement and better books. A lot of people have maybe misunderstood my message over these months, and maybe that’s my fault for not getting it across as clearly as I might have. But my biggest complaint and concern for the longest time was that it often felt as though DC had given up the fight, that they were content to just drift along, doing business as usual and not making waves. And a marketplace that Marvel is half of or more isn’t healthy—it puts too much weight on one part of the machine, too much responsibility. So I couldn’t be happier that the new DC team is stepping up to the challenge and hitting the field ready and willing to play the game. And that’ll force us at Marvel to up our game as well. The question now, of course, will be whether and for how long they might be able to maintain that increased readership base.

O’Shea: You recently discussed Marvel’s plans for the 2012 Free Comic Book Day. In reading your Formspring discussion of FCBD, I was left wondering, what is the main goal/point of FCBD to you? And while you think FCBD is being served in 2012 by a reprint, for those who are disappointed, do you understand when they may strongly disagree when you characterize them as potentially “petty”?

Avengers/FCBD 2012

Brevoort: Well, in fairness, I characterized a single question-asker’s question as possibly petty, not the audience as a whole. But as I understand it, Free Comic Book Day is an outreach program that enables local retailers across the country to mount the kind of mainstream promotion and local event that potentially draws new people into the stores. The existing fan base is served by it, sure, but it’s not really aimed at them, but at everybody who doesn’t regularly make the trek out to their local stores. So on that level, I want our FCBD entries to be entry-level friendly—not unsophisticated, but self-explanatory in terms of the story presented. And I want them produced at the highest level of quality possible. But I don’t know that there’s any pressing need for them to be all-new material. Certainly DC’s had no problem with running repurposed material in their FCBD entries the past couple of years. I mean, it’s great to be able to give people an all-new story by our best guys absolutely for free, but we’re talking about an economy in which we had to let a number of people go—it’s an expense that doesn’t recoup itself in any way, and one that isn’t even really necessary in terms of what the goal of the event is. So sure, I’m sorry that our regular readers will have to make do with “only” an Avengers comic written by Brian Bendis and drawn by Bryan Hitch that they may have purchased previously. But, y’know, this even isn’t really about you!

O’Shea: With the news of Brian Bendis of departing the Avengers franchise, after his long and very successful run, it got me wondering. When faced with the prospect of finding a new writer for a successful book like the Avengers, what kind of criteria do you use in your search?

Brevoort: Well, it’s different every time, in that you’re working with a completely different array of variable each time. But to paint the process in broad strokes, you need to assess where the series is at, what’s been strong and working and indispensable about it and what it might be lacking. In other words, and this is pretty obvious, you want to try to maintain the appeal that a book has under its current creative team and then build upon it by accentuating those areas or aspects that haven’t been explored as much. To point to a specific example and provide you some context, when Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch were finishing up their run on Fantastic Four, I needed to line up their successor. In looking at the series as a whole, having come off of JMS and Dwayne McDuffie before them, and Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo before that, I felt like the time was right to try to get a younger voice into the mix—the book had been done by apex talent for a long run, but Fantastic Four is a series that’s got a strong almost gravitic pull towards its past, those initial 100 issues are so seminal. So I wanted to bring in somebody who would have something new to say, and who maybe wouldn’t be as shackled in his thinking to the past. At the same time, I wanted to maintain the overall positive/optimistic flavor that the series has always had when it’s been really clicking, in my opinion. Given those parameters, it didn’t take me long to start speaking with Jonathan Hickman, with whom I was working on Secret Warriors at the time. Jonathan went away, pulled together his ideas, and came back with a strong pitch for the series—and away we went! So it’s very much the same kind of thing on Avengers. Brian is leaving behind a legacy that it’s going to be very difficult for somebody else to equal or surpass, but that’s the challenge of the incumbent. As it happens, I’ve already got the next Avengers writer lined up, though it’ll probably be several months before you all learn who it is—Brian’s still got about a year’s worth of great stories to tell before that switchover happens.

O’Shea: You tapped Hickman to write Fantastic Four partially because he was someone “who maybe wouldn’t be as shackled in his thinking to the past”. Am I right in thinking you also do not mind tapping writers who can partially mine the past and find new story potential, given what a writer like Ed Brubaker has been able to do with James Bucky/Winter Soldier Barnes (as well as some elements of Hickman’s work on Secret Warriors)?

Brevoort: Well, yes, sure. One of the strengths of the Marvel Universe is the conceit that it’s one vast, interconnected place in which all of these stories co-exist, going back to 1961 and beyond. So sometimes you want to take advantage of that fact. But you always need to keep the bigger picture in mind. There have been times in Marvel’s history when whole stories have been written to explain some gaffe in an earlier story—those tend to be “comics about comics” and only of interest to our most hardcore audience. The continuity and the history is meant to be there to service the stories, not the other way around. At times, people at Marvel have lost sight of that. But there’s no problem with mining the past of our characters and our publishing history, so long as the stories that you do with that material are genuine, and have some compelling emotional touch-point for a modern reader who may not have read the earlier stories your tale is based on. In other words, you can do Star Trek II: Wrath Of Khan, but like that film, you need to do so in such a way that an audience member can have a great experience even if they’ve never seen the earlier Star Trek episode that Khan was introduced in.

O’Shea: How do you avoid burnout in your demanding job–how and why are comics still fun for you?

Brevoort: I just love comics. I love the characters, I love the stories, and I love the form. And not just any one style of comics, but all sorts of comics. I still go to the comic store every week like clockwork and drop crazy money on assorted new releases. And while what I do isn’t always easy or always fun—it is a business, after all—I never lose sight of the fact that, in a very real sense, I get to sit around and make up stories about people that fly all day, and then they pay me for it. And that’s pretty great! I also get to collaborate with a broad spectrum of supremely talented people, from our assorted creators through our incredible editorial staff, our promotions guys, online, the film and television folks—just about everybody. So yes, the hours are long and the days can be grueling, and there are those times when things aren’t breaking the way you’d like them to or there’s some difficulty that has to be worked through. It’s a high-pressure situation, keeping this many trains on the tracks every month and getting to their destinations on time. But it’s also a considerable amount of fun. There’s never a better feeling than when the printed copy of an especially good issue comes into the office, and you get to look it over before anybody else.

Fantastic Four #600

O’Shea: The death and return of the Human Torch this year (and the saga that transpired along with it) has clearly resonated with readership. From your standpoint, what is it about series writer Jonathan Hickman’s approach to Marvel’s First Family that enables him to click with readers?

Brevoort: I think that readers are only now starting to get a sense of what Jonathan’s been doing, not just on Fantastic Four but on all of his books, and that is to create long-form stories in which the individual parts all mesh together with mechanical precision to create a much greater whole and a much grander reading experience, one that truly rewards multiple rereadings. In a world of short attention spans, Jonathan is one of the few guys who comes onto a series with years’ worth of concepts, and he’s able to set things up in such a way that events past a certain point continue to build and build and build in a logical way, and then ultimately pay off great. Now that folks can look back at all of Secret Warriors as a whole, it’s easy to see just how much of the overall story Jonathan had in his head when the book began, and how even events in the first teaser short story we did in the Dark Reign: New Nation book fold back into the climax 28 issues and three years later. On Fantastic Four, I just gave him a sense of the kind of thing I was looking for and set him loose, and he came back with a gameplan that we’re only now, almost three years later, getting to the climax of. I think it was beneficial as well that Jonathan had never really been a Fantastic Four reader beforehand, in that he was able to come to the characters and the material fresh, to look over the entire history of the series and figure out for himself what he thought worked best about it without any personal nostalgia coloring his viewpoint. He clearly loves writing the kids, to the point where they would often threaten to take over the series.

O’Shea: This past year also saw Daredevil endure a great deal through Shadowland, as well as Daredevil: Reborn. But when all was said and done, the new Daredevil series by Mark Waid (along with Paola Rivera or Marcos Martin on art) is a major shift in tone that has been embraced by critics and fans equally. How satisfying is it to see Marvel take such a creative shift and pull it off so effectively?

Daredevil #1

Brevoort: It was a gamble to break with the past so severely in terms of the tone and the style of Daredevil, but it’s definitely a gamble that’s paid off big time. And that’s all thanks to the efforts not only of Mark, Paolo and Marcos, but especially those of editor Steve Wacker and his team. For my money, Steve is the solidest line editor in the business today. He’s great to work with, he’s got a strong point of view and a vision for what he does, he thinks about the whole package even beyond just the story and the artwork, and creators love working with him. And maybe it’s just that his sensibilities and mine are similar, but his batting average in terms of the content of his titles has been tremendously good: Avenging Spider-Man, Daredevil, Punisher, Venom, Scarlet Spider—those last three are books that, by all rights, I shouldn’t be enjoying anywhere near as much as I do. And, of course, keeping the juggernaut that is Amazing Spider-Man on the rails and successful both commercially and critically for such a long period of time. Getting back to Daredevil, obviously Marcos Martin is a genius, and Paolo Rivera’s an incredible talent, but it’s especially nice to see somebody like Mark Waid gathering such kudos. Like we were talking about with Invincible Iron Man before, Mark’s been around the industry for so long and has such a track record for producing excellent work that I think it’s easy for people to overlook what he does; “Oh, it’s another good Mark Waid comics again. Yawn.” Whether it’s just ageism or familiarity breeding contempt or whatever, the fact remains that Mark’s been a power hitter of great consistency for two decades now—so it’s very nice to see him getting the sort of attention and praise often reserved for new hot young guys.

O’Shea: We have talked about some of the great writing of Marvel in the past year or so, and while we have briefly touched upon the greatness of Paola Rivera and Marcos Martin’s work, I wonder if you’d like to discuss some of the other artists that really seemed to hit their stride in 2011 (and/or you look forward to knocking it out of the visual park in 2012)?

Brevoort: It’s truly an embarrassment of riches at Marvel in terms of artistic talent, so this is something I could go on about at length, and never run out of material. But focusing more on promising up-and-coming talent, there are three or four creators who seem to really be hitting a stride, beyond the ones we mentioned earlier. Sara Pichelli has been a revelation on Ultimate Spider-Man, her sense of environment and character acting is second to none. Nick Bradshaw harnesses the detail-craziness of an Art Adams around an appealing, bouncy, energetic penciling style. Jerome Opena is a terrific action artist, with a subtlety of line that I’m not sure entirely translates into ink. Ryan Stegman draws great , appealing characters with a lot of bounce, very much in the spirit of Joe Madureira or J Scott Campbell. And there are plenty of others, of course—but that’s a smattering of folks that come to mind this morning.

O’Shea: Looking ahead to 2012, if response is strong enough to the Marvel Season One books, would there be a possibility of pursuing an ongoing series with those creative teams, or is the focus solely on original graphic novels of the characters’ origins?

Brevoort: I wouldn’t rule anything out—every option has been discussed, doing follow-up volumes (“Season Two”) or serialized follow-ups, and every other option in-between. But it’s all a moot question until we can see how people respond to the initial books. At this point, I’ve read the completed Fantastic Four Season One volume front to back, and it is outstanding! I couldn’t be more pleased with it—and I say that having had nothing particular to do with it. All of the credit goes to Roberto Sacasa, David Marquez, Lee Duhig and editor Lauren Sankovitch. These guys understood the mandate of the line and really delivered the goods, in a way that I think will be appreciated by fans old and new. The X-Men Season One book is similarly looking and reading well, based on the 40 or so pages I’ve gone over so far.

Brevoort's Twitter photo

O’Shea: Any closing thoughts you’d like to leave Robot 6 readers with?

Brevoort: I think that my general message for comic book readers of all kinds right this moment would be: relax! It’s so easy to become overly anxious or overly outraged or overly agitated about all sorts of aspects of what we do, the characters we create and the worlds we build. And we love that sort of emotional investment! But keep in mind, these are just stories! It’s all just entertainment! If you’re being entertained, then everything is fine! And if you’re not, try something else! Try something new! Reading comics shouldn’t be a job, and neither should it be a series of existential crises on a month-by-month basis. Also (and I know that this isn’t something that most readers are going to be willing or able to do), stop being so concerned about what’s going to be happening three or six or nine months down the line and try to focus a little bit more on what’s going on right now! Don’t miss the precious moment in the anxiety about what tomorrow will bring! None of what we do is life-threatening, it’s not likely to change the world in any but the most subtle of ways—the drama need not be quite so overblown!

Also, it’d be nice to get into a blog entry headline from time to time for something other than saying something provocative.

Angel & Faith

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.

Graeme McMillan

I have to say, this is an amazingly slow week for me in terms of new releases. If I had $15, I’d pick up the fourth issue of Dark Horse’s Angel & Faith series ($3.50), which has surprised me by turning out to be my favorite by far of the new Buffy series (due, in large part, to Rebekah Isaacs’ artwork, which is superb). I’d also grab the third issue of IDW’s Star Trek monthly ($3.99), in the hope that it’ll be as good as the first two issues; hardcore Trek fans, you should really be looking at this book, if you’re not already. Also on the list to grab: Thunderbolts #166 (Marvel, $2.99), continuing a great storyline from what might be one of the most underrated books from either of the big two publishers. One of the few nice things about Marvel’s recent Cancelpocalypse was seeing so many people speak up about how much they love Thunderbolts, and I’m right there with them; Jeff Parker’s done great things with this book.

If I had $30, chances are I’d put one of the above books – Angel & Faith, perhaps? – back for the week (or try and sweet-talk an extra 50 cents from the invisible budgeting gods who rule this column) and grab Rebellion’s Complete Alan Moore Future Shocks collection ($19.99), which collects all manner of (very) short stories from the Bearded One’s early days in 2000AD, with art by equally young masters like Dave Gibbons, Alan David, Steve Dillon and Brendan McCarthy, amongst others. Borag Thungg indeed, Earthlets.

When it comes to splurging, I’m taking that to mean double-dipping as opposed to buying insanely outrageously expensive items. I’ve already read Mark Waid’s wonderful Captain America: Man Out of Time, but now that it’s available in paperback (Marvel, $16.99), I might be tempted to buy it a second time.

Chris Arrant

Spaceman

If I had $15, I’d be all over the board but would start with the new Joe Casey/Nathan Fox joint Haunt #19 (Image/TMP, $2.99). I admit I didn’t jump onto the Haunt bandwagon when it first started, and despite seeing Greg Capullo on the book I never found the time to catch up. Seeing Casey and Fox jump on this gives me just the chance to do that. Next up would be Spaceman #2 ($2.99); I applaud DC for keeping the price point at $2.99, and seeing this dramatic divergence from 100 Bullets from Azz & Risso is something I eat up. Last up would be a pair of Marvel picks: Daredevil #6 ($2.99, Marvel) and Wolverine #19 ($3.99, Marvel).

If I had $30, I’d add to my stack starting with the new Thunder Agents Vol. 2 #1 ($2.99, DC). I enjoyed Nick Spencer’s first run on the title, and I’m a big proponent of artist Wes Craig and I’m excited to see what the two of them can do. Next up would be Uncanny X-Men #2 ($3.99, Marvel); stepping past my ambivalence to Greg Land and my appreciation of Kieron Gillen, I’m interested to see this team expand beyond the classic X-Men dynamic and turn into mutant ambassadors/enforcers in a political way. After that I’d get FF #12 (Marvel, $2.99). I love the transition of this book from being “The team formerly known as the FF” to being Marvel’s version of the Goonies, and seeing artist Juan Bobillo join it is invigorating as well as surprising. Lastly, I’d get Thunderbolts #166 ($2.99).

If I was to splurge like I did last Thursday at the dinner table, I would dig into The Complete Alan Moore Future Shocks ($19.99, 2000AD). I’ve read a majority of Alan Moore’s work post­-Swamp Thing, but his early British career is woefully underrepresented in my memory. I’m interested to see these stories from a younger Alan Moore, and I’d endorse more publishers to do more creator-centric collections like this in the future (hint hint, DC Comics, Alex Toth).

Brigid Alverson

Ernest and Rebecca: My Best Friend Is a Germ

If I had $15…

I would start with a graphic novel from Papercutz, Ernest and Rebecca: My Best Friend Is a Germ ($11.99), which Jim Salicrup pitched hard to me at NYCC. It’s an all-ages story of a girl who makes friends with a microbe, which helps her cope with her parents’ separation and various other problems. Since that’s likely to give me the sniffles, I’ll cheer myself up afterwards with Archie #627 ($2.99), the first issue of the Archie-meets-KISS arc.

If I had $30…

I’d toss the Archie comic and add in B.P.R.D.: Being Human ($17.99). I like the B.P.R.D. comics but I haven’t really read enough of them; this is billed as a stand-alone volume, so it looks like a good investment.

Splurge…

There’s a new book out from Archaia that caught my eye: Rust, an all-ages superhero story set on a farm during the Great Depression. At $24.95 for a hardcover copy, that’s a splurge, but it’s a manageable one. My other splurge would be Tintin: The Complete Companion ($35), a reissue of a book that came out a few years ago. And since I seem to be going for the Euro-comics this week, I’ll add in the fifth volume of the French fantasy story The Elsewhere Chronicles ($6.95), because I really like this series–it has more of an edge than most kids-in-a-strange-land stories.

Chris Mautner

Complete Alan Moore Future Shocks

If I had $15:

I’ve been reading the series as its been coming out in pamphlet form but if I wasn’t I might likely spend my $15 on the third RASL collection. Not many have said much about Jeff Smith’s current work lately, but it remains a slam-bang, captivating noir/sci-fi saga.

If I had $30:

I’d definitely pick up the Complete Alan Moore Future Shocks collection from 2000AD. I haven’t read much of Moore’s early work apart from Miracleman and really would like to become better acquainted with those stories, if for nothing else than for when I get around to doing a Comics College piece on Moore.

Splurge:

The new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book, Cabin Fever, would make a perfect stocking stuffer for my daughter …

Action Comics

Publishing | DC Comics joins the Kia Soul, Goldfish, My Little Pony and several others on Advertising Age’s annual list of America’s Hottest Brands: “With decades of stories under their capes and utility belts, Superman — and other DC characters, including Aquaman and the Flash — had ossified. Though relaunching its entire cast and making their adventures available to print and electronic audiences might alienate some hard-core DC fans, it might also gain plenty of new ones. Making DC characters more popular is crucial for its parent company. While the comic-book business is way down from its heyday, its characters fuel big-ticket Hollywood movies that can generate millions of dollars in revenue and licensing. The pressure may be on DC because rival Marvel, now owned by Disney, has churned out superhero film properties on a regular basis for years.” [Advertising Age]

Broadway | Producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark have changed their tune on the $75 million musical; previously they predicted they wouldn’t make back the money invested in the show without franchising it in other cities and countries, but now they predict they’ll make it back entirely from the Broadway run. They also are considering adding in new scenes and a new musical number to the production every year, “making it akin to a new comic book edition, and then urging the show’s fans to buy tickets again.” [The New York Times]

V for Vendetta Guy Fawkes mask

Creators | V for Vendetta writer Alan Moore comments on the use of the book’s notorious Guy Fawkes masks by various protest groups, including the Occupy movement. “I suppose when I was writing V for Vendetta I would in my secret heart of hearts have thought: wouldn’t it be great if these ideas actually made an impact? So when you start to see that idle fantasy intrude on the regular world… It’s peculiar. It feels like a character I created 30 years ago has somehow escaped the realm of fiction.” [The Guardian]

Creators | Tony Millionaire comments on 10 of the musician portraits that are included in his upcoming 500 Portraits book from Fantagraphics: “I’ve always loved David Byrne. When the Talking Heads started, that’s when music totally changed for me. I had been lost with music. I was cutting my hair shorter and shorter. I was like, ‘I don’t want to be a hippie anymore.’ Music was just getting prettier and more refined – Crosby, Stills and Nash, and all that – and suddenly, it was wild again. And then the girls in the bars had big hair, and leather jackets and fishnet stockings. And I was like, ‘Wow!’ So then the Talking Heads came around and there was not only punk rock, but there was also art music – which, I felt like I could some how get more involved with it. The punk rock bouncing around and smashing in to each other thing wasn’t my idea of a good time. But art music, forget about it, I loved it.” [Rolling Stone]

Creators | ICE writer Doug Wagner discusses writing one of the Justice League comics available in various General Mills cereal boxes. [Park Record]

Chew, Vol. 3

Creators | Marc Oliver-Frisch posts an interview with Chew artist Rob Guillory conducted last year that will appear in a German collection of the popular Image series. [Comiks Debris]

Creators | Former Captain America artist Alan Bellman still gets fan mail—and still draws on commission—at the age of 87. [The Miami Herald]

Retailers | In a story on Small Business Saturday, Christopher Brady, owner of 4 Color Fantasies in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., discusses how his shop took advantage of the American Express-sponsored event. [Contra Costa Times]

Commentary | Lauren Davis looks at one of Robot 6′s perennial favorite webcomics Max Overacts, by Caanan Grall. [ComicsAlliance]

Awards | The Quebec Writers Federation’s young adult novel prize went to a graphic novel, Alan Silberberg’s Milo: Sticky Notes and Brain Freeze. [CBC News]

Fandom | IndyStar.com profiles Kevin Silva, a Batman collector who has nearly 1,600 pieces of Batman memorabilia, including a Gotham City phone book used in the 1960s television show and a Batman lunchbox he took to school as a kid. [IndyStar.com]

History | J.L. Bell chronicles the evolution of the Tin Woodman’s head. [Oz and Ends]

Cosplay | Toy enthusiasts in Jakarta, Indonesia are using the city’s many malls to host Nerf gun battles. Participants dress as movie, comic book and other pop culture characters and battle amongst the shops and food courts, with some malls even setting up designated areas for these “Mall Wars.” [Jakarta Globe]

Hiya kids, it’s time for What Are You Reading?, a weekly look into what the Robot 6 crew has been reading lately. Today’s special guest is Thom Zahler, creator of the delightful superhero/romantic comedy comic Love and Capes.

To find out what Thom and the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, click below.

*****

Michael May

Baltimore

I didn’t get to Baltimore: The Plague Ships before Halloween like I’d planned. I had illusions about reading the novel it’s based on first, but I’m slow with prose and the graphic novel was just sitting there on my reading table; taunting me with its gorgeously gruesome Mignola cover and its peg-legged, harpoon-wielding hero. I’m sure that I would have gotten more out of it had I read the novel first, but Mignola and Christopher Golden did a fine job (as they will) of keeping the comic self-contained and filling in enough details to explain the world (an alternate reality in which WWI was cancelled on account of vampire-plague) and What’s Come Before (Lord Henry Baltimore may have sort of caused the whole vampire-plague and is hunting the Vampire-in-Charge for reasons having as much to do with Revenge as Saving the World).

Ben Stenbeck’s art has a great look (he’s got a special gift for fungus-zombies) and in the sketchbook part he explains how closely he worked with Mignola on creature designs. And thanks to Dave Stewart’s colors, The Plague Ships feels very much like part of the Hellboy-verse even though it’s not.

I wasn’t planning to say anything about Justice League #3, because I’m still frustrated by the price tag, but I have to mention how perfectly and succinctly Geoff Johns updated Wonder Woman’s mission for the post-Flashpoint DCU. “This place…is filled with so many wonderful things…but there is also a darkness that lurks here too. One I’m going to fight. That’s what I’m here for. That’s why I’m staying. To fight.” The post-Crisis missionary-of-peace/Amazon-warrior dichotomy never worked for me, but this essentially updates her Golden Age motivation for coming to our world and it’s awesome in its simplicity.

Brigid Alverson

Tesoro

Natsume Ono’s Tesoro is a collection of her short stories that were published between 1998 and 2008. Ono has a lovely, linear drawing style, and we can see it develop from scribbly to more controlled between the earlier and the later stories. Her storytelling technique improved as well. I like Ono’s work because her characters are so human; a lot of manga characters behave in stereotyped ways, almost like little person-bots, but hers have moments of real doubt, awkwardness, and silliness. Several of the stories are set in Italy, as were her manga Gente and Ristorante Paradiso, and others reflect small incidents in everyday life in Japan. The book is beautifully produced with French flaps and earth-toned inks, and it really feels like something special. While genre manga such as Naruto and Vampire Knight will always dominate the American market, it’s nice to see Viz bringing over more literary titles like this one.

It’s well known that Osamu Tezuka was an admirer of Walt Disney, and that shines through in his Princess Knight, which was originally published in 1953. The edition I am reading, published by Vertical, is actually a retelling of the story that Tezuka did in the early 1960s, but the Disney connection is still there; this is a children’s story, and it is filled with adorable animals and cutely rounded angels and villains. The pacing also makes me think of animated cartoons, with lots of short gags and asides. Princess Knight was one of the early shoujo manga that set the style and the conventions for many manga that followed, but it is quite enjoyable in its own right, aside from any historical significance.

Tim O’Shea

Supergirl #3

Supergirl #3: As I settled into the third issue of this series, I realized something I should have realized at the outset of this series. Why did DC set up a new universe where right out of the gates it’s clear that Superman is not the sole survivor of the destruction of Krypton? Why did the new Supergirl have to be so oddly related to Superman, essentially in the same way it was in the old DC universe? I was distracted in the first two issues as the new Supergirl gathered her wits about her. In this third issue, I just found myself bored, feeling like the series has settled into another Supergirl series that will suffer ultimately lackluster sales and tread on the brink of cancellation. But I am getting ahead of myself, for right now, with this issue #3, I realize I have no interest in returning for issue 4.

Blue Beetle #3: Again a new DCU retreading much of the same ground as the last Blue Beetle series. But in this instance, there’s a major difference in that I find myself still interested. And the reason likely is the supporting cast—namely Jamie’s strong family ties. In this issue, writer Tony Bedard allows Jamie’s mom (and her love of her son) to shine through with a really great, intense scene. Also the villains in this round of the Blue Beetle seem a bit more violent than the last one (not an asset, or a detriment, merely an observation).

Captain America #4

Captain America #4: For the first arc of a new Ed Brubaker Captain America title, this plot is sluggish and not engaging at all. What really astounded me in this issue was Steve McNiven’s art; more specifically his portrayal of Sharon Carter in one scene. Worried about the fate of Steve Rogers, McNiven has Carter nervously bite her lip. It would be understood she’d worry about Steve, but to have a longtime, accomplished SHIELD agent and a member of the Secret Avengers bite her lip? The helpless female lip bite is beneath Carter’s character, no matter how much she may care for Rogers. (Plus it shows minimal faith in a guy that just a year or so ago proved he could come back from the friggin dead)

Birds of Prey #3: This new incarnation of the Birds of Prey has little in common with the old one, but to my delight it continues to work for me. Writer Duane Swierczynski does a great job of juggling all of the cast members and giving them little moments to impact the storyline, while still moving it forward and engaging.

Avengers Academy

Avengers Academy #22: I was glad to read writer Christos Gage tweet that the book is not at risk for cancellation (unless the rumors of its cancellation negatively impacts the number of people buying it, then we have the infernal self-fulfilling prophecy), so I can respect his request for folks to pre-order the book. For Quicksilver fans wanting to know if he was ever going to talk to dad (Magneto) in this series, you get your answer in this issue. Clearly Gage had been loading up and looking forward to writing this issue, but in his haste to tackle the meet-up at every single angle, he dropped the ball slightly. I still love the series, do not get me wrong. But when given the chance to unleash a major character reveal, the reaction to the news is muddled and lost amongst the other action ongoing in the issue. It is my hope this reveal has rippling impacts. In the meantime, however, I still consider this the best Avengers book Marvel is publishing.

Thunderbolts #165: Regular WAYR readers will not be surprised. A book written by Jeff Parker? O’Shea loves it. Indeed, but this is an extra enjoyable Parker story (no really), because it is a time travel story. Parker getting to play in 1940s Marvel, with the Invaders is never a bad thing in my book. With this issue, Parker is at his best with the Namor and Satana scenes (though the dialogue and action from Moonstone is a close second).

Thom Zahler

Daredevil

Mark Waid’s Daredevil has been raking in its share of accolades. You now why? It’s fantastic! Everything they say is true. Mark’s writing a comic book in the very best sense of the world: long stories, short stories, overreaching arcs and yet ever 20 page issue is a satisfying chunk. What’s most remarkable to me is how quickly he manages to pivot Daredevil from the bleak character he’s been to a more shiny happy character, and yet it doesn’t feel forced but effortless.

Mark, along with his artists Paolo Rivera and Marcos Martin are also finding new ways to show and to use Daredevil’s powers. That’s not an insignificant task for a character who’s been around as long as The Man Without Fear has. They manage to visually illustrate Daredevil’s very non-visual senses in just a stunning way.

Really, I love everything about it. It’s Shakespeare the way it was meant to be seen.

Over at DC, I find myself loving Action Comics. That’s a superhuman feat in itself because the new telling of Superman’s early years is not the one I’ve gotten used to, or even the one I’d prefer. But Grant Morrison is harkening back to the early 30’s rough-and-tumble Superman and carrying me along for the ride. It’s a Superman with a bit of an edge, and if you’d pitched it to me that was I would have turned it down. But it seems to be working.

Grant Morrison has a way of embracing all the varied, and sometimes conflicting, facets of a character. He’s making this book one of the ones I have to read as soon as it comes out. And the art by Rags Morales is just beautiful. That guy must have gone to a good school. (Kubies rule!)

You may have missed it, but Dracula the Unconquered was one of the highlights of Halloween. The other was seeing the Tim Burton exhibition at the LACMA, but that’s not important right now. The book, written by Chris Sims with art by Steve Downer and Josh Krach is the type of comic I want to see more of. I think in complimenting Chris on it, I compared it to a Twix bar. It’s got all sorts of sugary goodness to it, but enough of a solid crunchy core to it that it’s not empty calories.

Dracula the Unconquered

Dracula the Unconquered takes place in 1901 as Dracula is freed from his imprisonment in the Tower of London by nefarious people for nefarious plans. I don’t want to spoil anything more than that. Here’s the thing: it’s an all-ages comic. My goddaughter will love it when I give it to her, and I love it to. It doesn’t make the common all-ages mistake of talking down to its audience. She will like the fun art and the frenetic pace of the story.

Most interesting to me is that Dracula here seems to have the bloody past from the novels, and yet the character is instantly engaging and likable. I’m looking forward to seeing how Chris straddles that line.

Also, the comic is embracing digital only. It’s a 24-page story all for just a dollar! (Listen up Big Two.) It’s the perfect price that you can’t say “no” to, and distributed in a way that wouldn’t be possible years before. I thing digital and print books can co-exist, and I’ going to enjoy seeing Action Age help carve this path.

The Dreamer

Lastly, while I haven’t finished reading it yet, I adore Lora Innes’s The Dreamer, published by IDW. The second collection of Lora’s time-traveling historical romance just came out this week, and so far it’s just as good as the first. Lora writes and draws the book, with colors by Julie Wright.

Lora excels at portraying very grounded, human characters doing grounded, human things. It’s an artist’s compliment, but I envy her ability to portray fashion and fabric in a way which eludes so many of us. Yet, her art is never overwrought and has a Disneylike quality to it. It’s just so… smooth.

It’s also a historical piece and Lora doesn’t skimp on the history. She’s clearly got a love for the American Revolution time period and it shines out of every inch of the book. She doesn’t sacrifice storytelling for accuracy or the other way around either, it’s very much a well-balanced approach. I find myself thinking “I wonder if that really happened” and then, more often than not, find out that it did indeed. It’s great to see someone who cares so much about the accuracy of the world they’re building and the story they’re telling.

The book also exists as a webcomic, too, so give it a look at http://www.thedreamercomic.com/.

The awards, which honor the best in science fiction, fantasy and horror films, television shows and comic books, were voted on by fans from a list of nominees selected by an advisory committee that included Neil Gaiman, Tim Burton, Damon Lindelof, George A. Romero and Wes Craven.

The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman and Charlie Adlard, was named Best Comic Book or Graphic Novel, Ed Brubaker as Best Comic Book Writer and John Romita Jr. as Best Comic book Artist.

In addition to the comics-specific categories, awards went to adaptations X-Men: First Class for Best Fantasy Movie, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World for Best Comic Book Movie and Best Fight Scene, and The Dark Knight Rises for Most Anticipated Scream. Chris Evans also won Best Superhero for his turn as Captain America, and Hugh Jackman for Best Cameo in X-Men: First Class.

Here’s the complete list of winners:

• The Ultimate Scream: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
• Best Science Fiction Movie: Super 8
• Best Fantasy Movie: X-Men: First Class
• Best Horror Movie: Let Me In
• Best Thriller: Limitless
• Best TV Show: Game of Thrones
• Best Director: Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
• Best Scream-Play: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
• Best Chase Scene: Chase Through London in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
• Best Fantasy Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
• Best Fantasy Actor: Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
• Best Science Fiction Actress: Milla Jovovich, Resident Evil: Afterlife
• Best Science Fiction Actor: Matt Smith, Doctor Who
• Best Horror Actress: Chloe Grace Moretz, Let Me In
• Best Horror Actor: Alexander Skarsgård, True Blood
• Best Villain: Ralph Fiennes, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
• Best Superhero: Chris Evans as Captain America
• Best Supporting Actress: Mila Kunis, Black Swan
• Best Supporting Actor: Peter Dinklage, Game of Thrones
• Breakout Performance Male: Joe Manganiello, True Blood
• Breakout Performance Female: Emilia Clarke, Game of Thrones
• Best Cameo: Hugh Jackman, X-Men: First Class
• Best Ensemble: True Blood
• Most Memorable Mutilation: Scalped Alive By Motorboat, Piranha 3D
• Fight Scene: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
• Holy Sh!t Scene of the Year: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
• Best Independent Movie: Monsters
• Best 3D Movie: Transformers: Dark of the Moon
• Best F/X: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
• Best Graphic Novel or Comic Book: The Walking Dead
• Best Comic Book Writer: Ed Brubaker, Captain America
• Best Comic Book Artist: John Romita, Jr., Avengers, Kick-Ass 2
• Best Comic Book Movie: Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
• Most Anticipated Scream: The Dark Knight Rises

Wolverine: Debt of Death

Colorist Elizabeth Breitweiser‘s work can be seen in any number of Marvel comics these days. In fact this week sees the release of writer David Lapham and artist David Aja’s Wolverine: Debt of Death one-shot, featuring Breitweiser as colorist (Be sure to enjoy CBR’s preview of the one-shot). Regular readers of What Are You Reading? know how much of an unabashed Jeff Parker/Gabriel Hardman’s Hulk booster that I am–and it is that series where I really started to appreciate Breitweiser as a colorist. This email interview was an effort to discuss her work mostly in general terms, so admittedly I did not discuss the Wolverine one-shot, but focus on some of her ongoing series work. My thanks to Breitweiser (who can also be found on Twitter) for taking the time for this discussion, despite her continually heavy workload. I am also deeply appreciative, that when our conversation led to her discussion of recent specific work, she was kind enough to provide examples of the pages for us to use.

Tim O’Shea: What are the biggest misconceptions in terms of the demands with your job as a colorist?

Breitweiser: Probably just in people not taking my job seriously or not viewing it as a fulfilling way to make a living. Many tend to think of what I do as “easy”. Coloring to them is just an afterthought and not seen as an essential part of the storytelling. I’m pretty sure most of my family and friends still do not understand what it is I do and how I can make a successful living at it. Professional colorists in general seem to almost always be overworked and overstressed. A lot of it has to do with us being at the end of the production line, but it also has to do with people having unrealistic expectations due to an incomprehension of the effort it takes to successfully tell a story with color.

O’Shea: When did you first realize you wanted to be a colorist–and what first attracted you to the work?

Breitweiser: I really just stumbled into it a few years ago. I was teaching art lessons and working as a painter when I began dating my now husband, Mitch Breitweiser. He was working as an illustrator for Marvel and slowly started integrating me into his world of comics. We spent a lot of those early days traveling to conventions, meeting professionals, and comics enthusiasts. Until I met Mitch, like most people outside the industry, I had no clue you could make a viable living coloring comics. I really grew to appreciate the medium of visual story telling and wanted to become involved. After evaluating my strengths and weaknesses as an artist, it felt very natural to transition myself from fine arts into coloring.

O’Shea: Back in March, I interviewed artist Gabriel Hardman–and he said (of your work): “A colorist can have all the technical skills in the world but if they don’t have taste in choosing colors that work with the storytelling it could sink the book.” How did you reach a point in knowing what colors to use (and how to utilize light to the colors effectively)?

Breitweiser: Gabriel is right, being successful boils down to having good taste. As it is with many artists, part of that comes intuitively, but I did spend a great deal of my formative years studying color theory, design, and composition. I would like to think I had a competent grasp on these ideas before I dived into the comics industry and that is what set me on a successful path. I try to use that same foundation in fundamentals to get across the point as simply as possible using solid color and value choices and as minimal of rending as the art will allow. It is so incredibly easy to abuse Photoshop and all its fancy tools. A colorist really has to step back and make sure they aren’t hurting the illustration with too much rendering.

O’Shea: When working with artists like Butch Guice and Hardman, can you talk about what it is about both of their respective art styles that enable you to be an effective colorist for their work?

Breitweiser: These boys bring out the big guns. They very clearly know what they are doing and are masters of story telling. That is what really makes it for me. They are so good at visual story telling that all I really have to do is find the simplest way to accent the illustrations and help guide the reader though the story. It’s all about respecting their artwork and finding the best way to compliment their aesthetic without overrunning it. It’s a lot more challenging to work with an artist who isn’t quite as skilled in storytelling. A lot of the heavy lifting ends up in the hands of the colorist.

O’Shea: Do you ever look to the scripts or other clues from the writers when seeking on how best to approach an aspect of a scene?

Breitweiser: I always, always, always read the script. That is a must. The script provides so much information on the setting, time of day, emotion of characters, etc.. It really is essential that a colorist reads their script before starting. If possible, I always prefer to be in direct contact with both the writer and the artist so that we work together to get the best product possible. The last thing I want to be responsible for is destroying the vision of the creators. If I am working on an ongoing or a miniseries I always approach the writers and artists first to see if there is a specific rendering style they are looking for and if they have any specific notes. After that it’s a process of me finishing the page then, if needed, going back and forth until we get just what we want. That’s one reason I love working with Jeff Parker so much. He is very involved and I think our stories are all the better for it.

O’Shea: A March 2011 CBR/Doug Zawisza review (for Hulk 31) said of your work:  ”Elizabeth Breitweiser’s colors … bring out the emotion in the characters and settings.” How do you go about using color to convey emotion?

Breitweiser: Before I begin any project, I sit down to read the script and make notes of each scene; what kind of atmosphere and time of day is it? who are these characters? what are they doing? what are their motivations? What emotion and mood is the writer wanting to convey? where do I need to create focus? These are the kind of questions I ask myself before I start any of the coloring process. After that, it’s just a matter of utilizing color, lighting, rendering, and texture to convey the answers to my questions. Color can have a huge impact on the human psyche. I really try to play on that knowledge so I can help immerse the reader more deeply into the story.

O’Shea: Not everyone gets to collaborate with their spouse, as you and Mitch did on Captain America 615.1–do you two enjoy a rapport that allows you both to be more ambitious when you work together?

Breitweiser: There is nothing better than getting to work with your spouse on a project. It’s a hugely fulfilling experience and one that I wish happened more often! Since Mitch is right there in the studio with me, we really can sit down and hash out a wonderful product. When I first started in this industry I only worked specifically with Mitch. Now I’m lucky if I can squeeze him in between my monthly ongoings. Our ultimate goal is to flip things back around to where we can be more ambitious with the work we do together.

O’Shea: Can you recall a recent issue you worked on, where after you finished a scene or a page, that you took off your creator hat for a moment/forgot it was something you were involved in creating–and allowed yourself to just be lost in the beauty of the page? With me, for example, in Hulk 39, the opening scenes (in Western New Hampshire of 50 years ago) have a bucolic vibe to them–made all the more jarring/effective when it shifts forward to modern day and has Thaddeus Red Hulk Ross standing amidst all of this.

Breitweiser: Considering the guys I work with, it’s easy to see how that could occur quite often! It happens a lot just in my initial reading of the script. Especially when I work with talents like Ed Brubaker, Jeff Parker, Karl Kesel, Butch Guice, Gabriel Hardman, Chris Samnee, and Mitch Breitweiser to name a few! I could list at least a hundred of my favorite episodes from these guys, but maybe the most persistent in my memory is from the opening scene of Hulk #32 set in modern day India. It’s easy for me to look past the panel boarders and imagine myself pouring down the street through the bustling haze.

Hulk 32

Captain America 618

Captain America 617

I’d be amiss not to mention Captain America #617 and #618. As morbid as it may sound, I felt incredibly drawn into the miserable, icy atmosphere of the Gulag and the unsettling collages of terror. [Click on the images for larger views of the Hulk and Captain America pages]

O’Shea: Sometimes I see you listed as Bettie, other times you’re listed as Elizabeth, when working professionally do you prefer one name more than the other, or is it a non-issue for you?

Breitweiser: haha, yeah, it probably appears I’m having an identity crisis to my readers. I’ve also been listed by my maiden name, Elizabeth Dismang, which I originally wanted to keep (and still do use for gallery work). Production kept crediting me as Breitweiser, so I gave up. Bettie is just a nickname my husband calls me. Elizabeth Breitweiser is such a monster of a name that I decided to shorten it in credits to Bettie to save space. Occasionally production will send it through as Elizabeth, but it’s really not an issue for me. After all, Elizabeths are accustomed to being called a million and one different nicknames.

Captain America #1, by Steve McNiven

Who spoke the inspirational words, “We often suffer, but we are never crushed. Even when we don’t know what to do, we never give up”? Hint: It wasn’t Captain America. Really.

A new survey found that 63 percent of U.S. adults attributed the quote to Martin Luther King Jr., President George W. Bush …. or Marvel’s Sentinel of Liberty. It’s actually a Bible verse — 2 Corinthians 4:8, to be precise — taken from the Contemporary English Version.

In the survey of 2,572 Americans, conducted earlier this month on behalf of the American Bible Society, King came out on top, with 27 percent crediting the civil-rights leader with the quote. Just 12 percent correctly attributed it to the Bible, presumably meaning ol’ winghead trumped the Word.

It just goes to show you, as the Good Book says, “When Captain America throws his mighty shield, all those who chose to oppose his shield must yield.”

"It was nice knowing you, Colonel!"

Sam Hiti (Death-Day) redrew a panel from Tales of Suspense #78 and this is how it turned out. Somebody call that man for the next Strange Tales volume, please.

You can see the original Jack Kirby/Frank Giacola panel at Kirby-Vision.

Supergirl

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.

Graeme McMillan

As we’re heading towards the middle of August, it’s no surprise that curiosity is getting me to pick up more than a few DC books just see how particular series “end;” I’d be getting Justice League of America #60 and Legion of Super-Heroes #16 (both DC, $2.99) anyway, because I’ve been following those series for awhile, but I’m likely to add Batman #713 (DC, $2.99) to the pile as well, if only to see the explanation as to why Dick quits being Batman before the big relaunch. But it’s not all endings for me with my $15 this week; I’d also make a point of grabbing Daredevil #2 (Marvel, $2.99), because the first issue was just breathtakingly good, and the series became a must-read before I’d even reached the last page.

If I had $30 this week, I’d add to my list of DC final issues with Supergirl #67 (DC, $2.99), which Kelly Sue DeConnick has talked up in interviews as being the highpoint of her short run to date and a great capper to the series as a whole. I’d also check in with the third issue of David Hahn’s All Nighter (Image, $2.99), as well as see if Nick Spencer’s Iron Man 2.0 is worth a look with the mini-collection of the first three issues, Iron Man 2.0: Modern Warfare (Marvel, $4.99).

Splurging this week is tough. On the one hand, there’s the hardcover Secret Society of Super-Villains (DC, $39.99), but there’s also the We3 Deluxe Edition with brand new story pages (DC, $24.99) and also a rescheduled release for the Alex Toth book Setting The Standard (Fantagraphics, $39.99). Any one would be good comics, but I’m probably going to plump for the SSoSV. What can I say? Read something as an impressionable pre-teen and it stays with you…

Brigid Alverson

Elephantmen, Book 2: Fatal Diseases

If I had $15, I’d borrow a dollar (or, more precisely, 98 cents) so I can afford my top two picks: vol. 16 of Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys ($12.99), possibly the most awesome manga ever, and Gladstone’s School for World Conquerors #4 ($2.99), continuing the charming and action-packed saga of a school for super villains.

If I had $30, well, call me fickle but I think I’d hold off on 20th Century Boys until next week and pick up the Elephantmen, Book 2: Fatal Diseases ($24.99) instead. I’m still reading the first volume, but I’m intrigued by this quirky comic.

Splurge: The Smurfs book from Abrams looks tempting (I can’t believe I just said that!), but my love of all things retro is going to lead me to Drawing Power: A Compendium of Cartoon Advertising ($29.99) from Fantagraphics instead. And if my splurge could extend to one more book, it would be the seventh volume of the Library of American Comics collection of Little Orphan Annie, a steal at $49.99.

Chris Arrant

Daredevil #2

If I had $15, I’d carve off half of it to get the awesome line-up inside DC Comics Presents Teen Titans #1 (DC, $7.99). Seriously, Bob Haney, Mike Allred and Jay Stephens? They seem ideal candidates for DC’s Retroactive titles; hell, I’d love to see them mastermind more. Next up I would get my two long-term serials, DMZ #68 (DC, $2.99) and Walking Dead #88 (Image, $2.99); both are bleak as hell, but they offer some redeeming qualities in their humanity.

If I had $30, I’d double-back and get a trio of Marvel titles: Avengers #16 (Marvel, $3.99), Daredevil #2 (Marvel, $2.99) and X-Men Schism #3 (Marvel, $3.99). I’m particularly interested in Daredevil #2 to see what Waid, Rivera and Martin continue to do on this; can they keep being as good as #1? Last up I’d get the Image one-shot Deadlands: Death Was Silent (Image, $2.99). I have some serious admiration for Bart Sears, and this is the latest in an all-too-rare fix for that.

If I had a chance to splurge, I’d get the long-delayed 99 Days (DC/Vertigo Crime, $19.99). Writer Mateo Casali and artist Kristian Donaldson are two up-and-comers, and I’m anxious to see more of them. I’ve read the story solicitation but couldn’t tell you what it’s about; I’m buying this strictly for the creators involved.

Michael May

Mr. Murder is Dead

If I had $15, I’d start with Supergirl #67 ($2.99) to finish the fun story Kelly Sue DeConnick’s been telling there. I’d also grab the latest Deadlands one-shot, Death Was Silent ($2.99) by Ron Marz and Bart Sears, as well as Heap #1 ($3.99), because if there’s anything cooler than comics about swamp creatures, it’s comics about Nazi-fighting swamp creatures. To round off the ticket, I’d grab Stan Lee’s Soldier Zero ($3.99) based on Graeme’s recommendation.

If I had $30, I’d put back Soldier Zero for another day and use that money toward Mr. Murder is Dead ($19.95). Artist Brent Schoonover is a friend of mine, but don’t hold that against him. He’s a fantastic artist and the perfect one for this whodunit homage to Golden Age comic strips. And since it’s from Archaia, you know the package is going to be beautiful too.

I have way too many splurge items this week, from the latest volume of B.P.R.D. ($19.99) to the special editions of We3 ($24.99) and Elephantmen Vol. 2 ($24.99). But if I had to pick one thing it would be Tales of the Batman: Gene Colan ($39.99) for the same reason that Graeme’s getting The Secret Society of Super-Villains: ten-year-old me couldn’t get enough of that stuff.

JK Parkin

X-Men Schism #3

I guess I’m the opposite of Graeme in that, with the exception of the titles I was already reading, I find myself less intrigued by what DC is doing this month as storylines are wrapped up in preparation for the relaunch in September. So this week I find myself DCU-less, though there are a couple of Vertigo books I’m considering. In any event, I do know four books I am eagerly awaiting for Wednesday — Captain America #2 ($3.99), Butcher Baker Candlestickmaker #2 ($3.99), Daredevil #2 ($2.99) and X-Men Schism #3 ($3.99). As a longtime fan of Ed Brubaker’s run on Cap, as well as The Boys, those first two were easy. And like Chris and Graeme noted, Daredevil #1 was pretty great, so I’m looking forward to the next issue. Schism actually kinda surprised me; over the last few years I’ve bought the big X-events as trades, usually well after they were over and at a decent discount. I’m an old-school X-Men fan, but in recent years my interest has waned. I ended up downloading the first issue of Schism via Marvel’s iPad app (as it was available on the same day it hit shops) and was really impressed with it.

That eats up my first $15, so if I had $30, I’d also get the weirdest Fear Itself tie-in and possibly one of the weirdest Marvel titles I’ve read in awhile, Fear Itself: Fearsome Four #3 ($2.99). It features Howard the Duck, Man-Thing, Nighthawk, She-Hulk, Frankenstein and like 10 different artists doing the art. Well, not really, but so far it’s featured artwork by Ryan Bodenheim (more or less the regular artist, or at least the guy who has drawn most of it so far), Michael Kaluta (he’s also doing the covers), friggin’ Simon Bisley, and this issue will feature Flint Henry. But wait! There’s more — it’ll also include the New Fantastic Four (Wolverine, Spider-Man, Hulk and Ghost Rider) plus the Psycho-Man! It’s been part crazy throw-in-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink fun, part train wreck, but I’m reluctant to look away at this point.

Wow, I kind of went long there, so I’ll be quick and say I’d round out my week with Fables #108 ($2.99), Walking Dead #88 ($2.99) and Avengers #16 ($3.99). And finally, for my splurge, I would probably also go with 99 Days ($19.99).

Captain America #1 FanExpo variant

Marvel is heading north to Fan Expo Canada Aug. 25-28, and they’re bringing an exclusive Dale Eaglesham-drawn variant cover for Captain America #1. Cap, however, is nowhere to be seen; instead Wolverine and Alpha Flight sport Cap-like shields for the hometown crowd. The “variant” shields worn by Puck and Guardian are really nice touches.

Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList, and tell us what you’re getting in our comments field.

Spontaneous #1

Graeme McMillan

If I had $15 this week, the first thing I’d grab would be a complete nostalgia-buy: DC Retroactive: Justice League of America – The 70s #1 (DC, $4.99), because I am a complete and utter sucker for JLA stories, and grew up reading old back issues of the title I found at used bookstores. This would be worth it for the reprint at the back alone, never mind the new story by Cary Bates that looks like it’s playing around with the multiverse one more time. To accompany that, I’d also pick up the first two issues of Joe Harris and Brett Weldele’s Spontaneous (both $3.99), because – even though I missed the Free Comic Book Day release of the debut – I’m a fan of Harris’ Ghost Projekt and Weldele’s work on The Surrogates, and curious to see just where a book about spontaneous human combustion can actually go.

If I had $30 this week, I’d add Kirby: Genesis #2 (Dynamite, $3.99) and Captain America & Bucky #620 (Marvel, $2.99) to my pile, each one taking on Kirby characters in their own way – I really loved the first two issues of Kirby: Genesis, and Chris Samnee’s art alone makes Cap/Bucky a must-read. I’d also get another Dynamite book, the first issue of Terminator/Robocop: Kill Human ($3.99), because I’m hoping that Brit writer Rob Williams brings the 2000AD feel that the cyborg cop vs. killer robot high concept really deserves. Finally, I admit that I’m unable to resist Amazing Spider-Man #666 (Marvel, $3.99), just to see what Spider Island is like in person, as sad as I am that they didn’t go for the more obvious Spider-Manhattan pun for the title…

When it comes to splurging this week, I’m sticking with ol’ webhead: Essential Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Vol. 5 (Marvel, $19.99) collects all manner of classic issues from my youth, including the original Sin-Eater saga, and resisting that just isn’t going to happen anytime soon, I’m afraid. Make mine late 1980s Marvel!

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 3: Century #2 - 1969

Chris Mautner

If I had $15:

Wow. It’s a really strong week. There’s a new issue of Glamourpuss ($3.99) out, so that’s probably my first buy. There’s also a new Smurfs book, The Astro-Smurf ($5.99) out as well, but I think I’ll hold off on that for now and go instead with the second chapter of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Vol. 3: Century ($9.95), which I’ve been rather anxiously anticipating.

If I had $30:

I love learning about classic Eurocomics, so my next purchase would be one of two new books from Fantagraphics: either Gil Jordan: Murder by High Tide ($18.99) or Sibyl-Anne Vs. Ratticus ($16.99). I know nothing about either book or the creators (M. Tillieux and R. Macherot, respectively) and am eager to be schooled.

Splurge:

Oh my goodness, where to begin? There’s the new Alex Toth collection, Setting the Standard ($39.00), also from Fanta. There’s also a fourth volume of Alex Raymond’s Rip Kirby ($49.99) out. There’s a interesting looking collaboration between Lou Reed and Mattotti on Poe’s The Raven ($22.99), Rick Geary has a new Murder volume out, this time on Sacco and Vanzetti ($15.99), George O’Connor’s latest retelling of classic Greek myths, Hera ($9.99) arrives, Grant Morrison’s examination of the cape and cowl genre, Supergods ($28.00) is out and Gary Spencer Millidge’s biography of Alan Moore ($45.00) is here. I’ll take it all please.

Olympians, Volume 3: Hera - The Goddess and Her Glory

Brigid Alverson

So many choices! If I had $15, the first $10.99 of it would go to vol. 8 of Twin Spica. This is a great series about a girl who aspires to be an astronaut, and while it definitely favors human drama over sci-fi, there’s a bit of both. That leaves me four bucks, so I can buy one comic. I see a lot of temptations, but there’s no way I’m missing The Sixth Gun #13 ($3.99) so that gets the nod.

It doesn’t get any easier at the $30 level. I’m tempted by the newest volume in George O’Connor’s beautifully drawn Olympians series Hera: The Goddess and her Glory ($9.99), but an odd little comic called Seeds ($10.99) is pulling me away with the promise of family drama in a detached indy style. OK, I’ll go with that, and then add Spontaneous #1 ($3.99) to the pile, because who can resist a comic about spontaneous human combustion?

My splurge is all over the place. I’ll take the second issue of Spontaneous, for starters, as Oni seems to be releasing them simultaneously. Toss in Ape’s latest Richie Rich comic as well. The serious splurge begins with Abrams’ Krazy Kat and the Art of George Herriman: A Celebration ($29.95). As much as I love old comics, I love oddball memorabilia even more, and Craig Yoe always finds some interesting ephemera to add to his collections of classic comic strips. I’ll take that Olympians book now, and add the second volume of Defiance ($16.99), also from First Second, because I think the first volume was my favorite of last spring’s books and that’s saying a lot when you’re talking about First Second. And finally, because even splurges have their limits, Atomic Robo: The Deadly Art of Science, the fifth collection of this series and one of my favorites. There. Done. Hold my calls, I’m reading comics.

Flashpoint: Project Superman #2

Chris Arrant

If I only had $15, it would be a tough week for me; I count 14 titles I’d easily spend my money on. Narrowing it down to $15, I’d spend the bulk of it on League of Extraordinary Gentlemen III: Century #2 (Top Shelf, $9.95). If anyone’s deserved my money sight unseen it’s Alan Moore, and that goes double after reading the first issue of this series. Second up would be Ed Brubaker & Sean Phillips’ Criminal: Last of the Innocent #2. This one seems to recapture some of the first series’ magic after going a bit wild in subsequent installments.

If I had $30, I’d double back and get Flashpoint: Project Superman #2 (DC, $2.99) if for nothing else than to see more of Gene Ha. After his debacle with IDW and Bill Willingham, I’m glad to see him back on shelves – although I kind of wish he’d been given a more prominent series at Marvel or DC. Next up would be a trio of Marvel titles: X-Men Schism #2 (Marvel, $3.99), Uncanny X-Force #12 (Marvel, $3.99) and Secret Warriors #28 (Marvel, $2.99).

If I had money to splurge, I’d give it up for the second Metal Hurlant Collection (Humanoids, $29.95). I have some of these stories in their
original magazine format, but this would fill out my collection and let me give away those singles to someone deserving.

Atomic Robo, Volume 5: The Deadly Art of Science

Michael May

If I had $15, I’d load up on floppies, as usual, starting with a couple of series I’m following faithfully. Xombi got recent praise from both Jeff Lemire and Grant Morrison, so don’t take just my word for how good it is. Issue #5 ($2.99) of course makes my pile. Also, I just finished watching the live-action Planet of the Apes TV show and loved it, but watching the cartoon series that followed it is a real buzz-kill. I need some good Planet of the Apes again and the fourth issue of Boom’s series ($3.99) is just the ticket. Rounding off the pile are Image’s undersea-treasure-hunt-gone-horribly-wrong story The Vault #1 ($3.50) and IDW’s Godzilla: Kingdom of Monsters #5 ($3.99). I’m going to miss Phil Hester’s art on Godzilla, but am excited at the same time about Victor Santos’ (who takes over starting with this issue) work on it.

If I had $30, I’d trade-wait Godzilla and Planet of the Apes to save enough money for League of Extraordinary Gentlemen III: Century #2 ($9.95) and Olympians, Volume 3: Hera – The Goddess and Her Glory ($9.99).

As some of the guys said above, it really is a busy week, so I’m also splurging like crazy on four different books. Like Brigid, I loved Carla Jablonski and Leland Purvis’ Resistance, Volume 1 and can’t wait for this new installment, Defiance ($16.99). I’m also looking forward to Keith Champagne and Shawn Moll’s league of extraordinary cowboys in Death Valley ($17.99), Phil Hester and David Marquez’ follow-up to Days Missing with Volume 2: Kestus ($24.95), and of course Atomic Robo, Volume 5: Atomic Robo and the Deadly Art of Science ($19.95). It’s not even fair to call Atomic Robo a splurge item. Really more of a necessity.

Using Comic-Con International and the opening of Captain America: The First Avenger has hooks, CBS’s The Early Show this morning profiled Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso.

“Our fans are hardcore,” he tells correspondent Jeff Glor. “They’re very opinionated. They let you know when they don’t like something. At the end of the day you have to hit them with the right story, you have to back up your event and just stand on your own two feet. [...] In comic books, it’s all about story. People don’t come to a Spider-Man comic book to see Spider-Man punch the Green Goblin — they go to see the journey that brought him there.”

Stormwatch #1

Publishing | DC Comics Co-Publisher Dan DiDio talks about the gay and lesbian characters appearing in the company’s books come September, including Batwoman and WildStorm imports Apollo, Midnighter and Voodoo: “When we looked at trying to incorporate some of the characters that inhabited the WildStorm universe Apollo and Midnighter are two characters that have always popped out. Not because of what they represent, but they’re just strong characters in their own right and [they] were able to represent a story, a style of character that wasn’t represented in the DC Universe. There’s more of an aggressive nature with those characters that will interact interestingly with other characters and allows us to tell more and better stories.” [The Advocate]

Publishing | Todd Allen, Tom Foss and Graeme McMillan react to the list of changes to the “younger, brasher and more brooding” Superman who will inhabit the DC Universe following the September relaunch. [Indignant Online, Fortress of Soliloquy, Blog@Newsarama]

Publishing | David Brothers takes a sharp-eyed look at the DC relaunch: “The fact that Vertigo isn’t included in the digital releases highlights a glaring problem with DC’s big relaunch. They’re playing it safe, essentially, by catering to the same audience that they’ve always served, while offering a few brief nods in the direction of new readers.” He also sees their digital strategy as falling short because it lacks a mechanism for pre-orders and subscriptions. [Publishers Weekly]

Comics | Todd Allen responds to a recent list by Marvel of “required reading” Captain America stories by providing one of his own. [Indignant Online]

Art by Rian Hughes

Creators | Rob Harrigan kicks off a series of Comics & Design Interviews with a discussion with U.K. artist Rian Hughes. [The Offset Past]

Creators | Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson interviews novelist Anne Rice about Yen Press’ planned graphic-novel adaptation of her Interview with the Vampire. [Publishers Weekly]

Comics | Forbes interviews Jordanian comics publisher Suleiman Bakhit, who views comics, games, and social media as paths to greater hope and tolerance in the region: “I go to a lot of poor areas and ask the kids, ‘Who are your role models?’ Sometimes they say Zarqawi and Bin Laden. But in one neighborhood I gave them comics and when I went back a few months later; the superheroes were now their role models.” [Forbes]

Vintage manga | The Comics Journal has a preview of Tank Tankuro, a 1934 manga featuring a superhero robot that’s worlds away from Astro Boy. [The Comics Journal]

Awards | Sean Kleefeld reflects on last week’s announced changes for the Xeric Foundation, which will no longer provide grants to self-publishing comic book creators, and instead devote funds to charitable organizations: “Clay Shirkey has noted that, culturally, we tend to bemoan the over-abundance of information when, in fact, the problem is more that we simply don’t have the proper filters in place to remove what’s irrelevant to us as individuals. The Xerics have been, for me at least, one of those filters. If I was looking for good books, I knew that simply choosing something off a list of Xeric-winners was a sure bet.” [Kleefeld on Comics]

Previews | Critic Paul Gravett pulls out the graphic novels you should be looking forward to in the latest Previews. [Paul Gravett]

Sales | John Jackson Miller detects a slight uptick in June sales. [The Comics Chronicles]

Casanova: Avarita #1

Welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading? Our special guest today is Chris Butcher.

Butcher is the manager of The Beguiling in Toronto and founder of The Toronto Comic Arts Festival. He’ll be at the UDON Booth #5037 and The Beguiling Original Art Sales Booth #1629 at San Diego Comic-Con this weekend.

To see what Chris and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below …

*****

Tim O’Shea

Iron Age #2

Iron Age #2: Jen Van Meter writing a 1970s era adventure with Power Man and Iron Fist, color me interested. Drawn by Nick Dragotta? Sold. Added bonus: the second tale sports artist Sal Buscema drawing Iron Man armor with a nose and Johnny Storm in his red costume. I only wish they could have worked in the Spidey Mobile.

Red Robin #25: In the second to last issue of Red Robin, we see he’s developed his own Robincave. Wow that should be an interesting for … one more month. The final days of DC Oldverse are killing me. Particularly given how well writer Fabian Nicieza utilizes Cassandra Cain.

Batgirl #23: See my Red Robin thoughts above. I hate to see this book going away. If DC is foolish enough to not give writer Bryan Q. Miller a monthly assignment, I hope Marvel scoops him up. The Bombshell/Stargirl/Supergirl/Miss Martian team up cameo would have made for a fun all-female team book pitch for Miller if the universe was not ending.

T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents #8: Sorry, but I had to crack up at the blurb quote slapped on this issue: “If you haven’t jumped on yet, now’s the time.” Yes, by all means, jump on board with a month to spare.

Jonah Hex

Jonah Hex #69: Drawn by Jeff Lemire, Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray reveal Jonah getting to confront his dear old dad. The story far exceeded my highest expectations. And all it is two men talking for the bulk of the tale, and yet it is much more than that. Glad to see the writers will still get to play with Jonah in the DCNuverse.

Alpha Flight #2: Reading the comments section of my interview this week with miniseries artist Dale Eaglesham, I am bewildered by the folks unwilling to consider the characters acting out of character might be the victim of mind control. Neither Fred Van Lente or Greg Pak are writers known for doing Chuck Austen-scale butchering of characters, so I am waiting to see how things play out. But in general, I am loving what I read and looking forward to more (hopefully this series becomes an ongoing).

Mystery Men #3: Of all the new characters introduced in the five-issue miniseries, this issue features my favorite to date: The Doctor. (The guy takes folks out via scalpel with abandon, a pulp noir Wolverine kind of…). I wish this project was an eight-issue miniseries, so that the storytellers could give more of their back story and (in the case of The Doctor) better explain what tragedies fuel his vigilante justice.

Brigid Alverson

Aki Alliance

I really, really enjoyed Ryan Estrada’s Aki Alliance, which is available to read or download for free at his site. It’s a funny, snarky story about a girl who sets out to make friends with everyone in her fifth-grade class, and it’s simply delightful. Estrada presents a number of different challenges: His heroine, Aki, tries to compete in a Scrabble tournament while coaching a friend in a boxing match, take the middle ground when two girl gangs (both of which claim her as a member) start a turf war, and solve a ridiculous grade-school riddle. Most of the book is done in a cartoony style that mixes in scrapbook elements, but he also plays with other styles—one chapter is done in manga style, another like a sprite comic. He clearly had a lot of fun with it, and in the end, no lessons are learned. Good stuff.

I also enjoyed Mameshiba on the Loose! much more than I thought I would—in fact, it made me laugh out loud. Mameshiba are cute, rounded creatures (the name is a portmanteau of the Japanese words for “bean” and a breed of dog) who were first featured in animated shorts on Japanese TV, popping out of people’s lunches and spouting random bits of trivia. The comic goes way beyond that, really bringing these odd little beans to life with distinct personalities and plenty of cuteness. In the first, and longest, story, the beans team up to rescue a pea who has fallen down the drain and into the sewer—the jokes just write themselves, but writer James Turner doesn’t stop there, and he comes up with a zany set of sewer dwellers for the beans to contend with in equally creative ways. The second story is a trip to outer space, again with plenty of slapstick and random humor. Viz has come up with a great kids’ comic here, and I hope the kids find it.

Chris Butcher

What am I reading? Why, single-issue new comics, surprisingly enough.

I ran TCAF—The Toronto Comic Arts Festival—a few months back, and quite honestly in the lead-up to and the downtime after that fantastic event, I feel like I’ve read fewer comics than ever. I moved houses in there, too, and so all of my TCAF purchases like Paying For It by Chester Brown and Vietnamerica by GB Tran are still in boxes, waiting to find a shelf to call home.

Cross Game

Oh, and I’m going to be on The Best and Worst Manga of 2011 panel Friday night at Comic-Con (6:30pm! Room 26!), and so I’ve been feverishly trying to catch up on my manga reading. While I will save the majority of the surprises for the panel, I want to give a special shout out to Mitsuru Adachi’s Cross Game, an outstanding slice-of-life/baseball manga. It is so good—created at such a high degree of craft from a masterful author who’s been working in the manga industry for 40 years. It possesses so much of what I love about manga, including engaging characters, a surprising story… and the whole thing just breathes. It’s a pleasure to read and spend time with. I actually feel confident recommending it to people who don’t normally like manga at all, or even sports. That’s an accomplishment.

But yeah, if you look at what I last read, it’s just a thick stack of single-issue comics. I thought Jason Aaron’s X-Men Schism #1 was a solid start to that mini, great premise, but I found the change of artists halfway through the issue jarring—it reminds me what I don’t like about most corporate superhero comics. Also on the Marvel tip, Brubaker and McNiven’s Captain America #1 was a really solid start, very clean continuity-wise if you haven’t been following… the last 5-10 years of Marvel comics, actually. Some nice art by McNiven there too, I felt like he was stretching himself a little more than he had been as of late, and that incredible glossy sheen that his work had on Civil War that I felt was missing on Nemesis? Back here with a vengeance. Oh, and props to Brubaker (and Sean Phillips) on another outstanding Criminal miniseries, with Criminal: Last of the Innocents. Another great, tangled noir series, this time with a twist that no comic fan will want to miss.

Frankenstein and the Creatures of the Unknown

Over at DC, I’ve been trying to stay on top of the main Flashpoint series, but I’d missed all of the spin-offs (no time to read, son, we’re selling comics!). I sat down with my friend Jeff Lemire’s Frankenstein #1 and #2 and thought those were fun takes on the characters, with more a few excellent surprises thrown in there for good measure as well. If this is what we’ve got in store for Lemire’s ongoing Frankenstein series in September, I’ll definitely be reading that. Speaking of friends who write comics, I also just caught up with my buddy Jim Zub’s series Skullkickers from Image. I think the most interesting thing, for me, is how much he throws against the wall in every issue. You’re at this dinner party in issue #7, and there’s so much possibility for mayhem as the dwarf and the bad ass (shorty and baldy) rub shoulders with the hoi-polloi. Zub runs through all the jokes in under five pages and then kills everyone except for the leads. Breakneck action comedy, both literally and figuratively, no screwing around. Check it out.

Probably the single issue I’ve most enjoyed in the last little while though? I was fortunate enough to get an advance look at Casanova: Avarita #1 debuting this September from ICON. I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Cass fan from before the first issue came out, so it won’t be any surprise to hear that I liked the new issue… but man, it’s great. Gabriel Ba just killed with the art on this issue, and the story is a harrowing natural progression from the first two arcs. I’m kinda sad that there’s only four issues of this series to come, but elated that it’s going to be this good. Pre-order it with your retailer, pick it up this fall. You won’t regret it.

Chris Evans, star of Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger, appeared last night on CBS’s Late Show with David Letterman to deliver the list of “Top Ten Things Never Before Said by a Superhero.” I won’t ruin it for you, but I will say that Aquaman still can’t get any love, even with the impending DC relaunch.

Captain America: The First Avenger opens July 22 nationwide.

Captain America joins Iron Man in the Diesel line of cologne, just in time for his big blockbuster movie, Captain America: The First Avenger.

The limited edition fragrance is made of lemon, mandarin and coriander leaf; essential oils of landanum, violet leaves and rosemary; plus amber, leather and cedar — all essential ingredients of the Super Solider serum.

Cap is currently framing the Diesel site, which has various blog posts featuring the hero. Check out another look at the box art, drawn by Bryan Hitch, after the jump.

*****

Box Art

Red Skull

On the heels of Tuesday’s dossier, offering details on some of the villains of Captain America: Super Soldier, SEGA has released a second round of images and information on some of the main bosses from the third-person action game.

The art — of Red Skull, Arnim Zola, Baron von Strucker, Madame Hydra and Iron Cross — is accompanied by Brandon Gill, game director of developer Next Level Games. You can see it all after the break.

Arriving in stores on July 19, Captain America: Super Soldier allows gamers, playing as Cap himself, to engage in free-flowing combat and acrobatic platforming to infiltrate a mysterious castle and battle the Iron Cross, the forces of HYDRA and a host of enemies serving the Red Skull in an attempt to stop evil scientist Arnim Zola. The game ties into Captain America: The First Avenger, which opens in theaters on July 22.

The villains that we added to the game were chosen for a mixture of reasons.

Arnim Zola

Arnim Zola

For characters like Arnim Zola, who is a genetic scientist and much less of a military figure than the other villains, we felt that he set a wonderful stage for Cap to question himself and what he believes in. Zola augments biology to extremes that Cap feels is wrong, but it’s a slippery moral slope, because Cap himself has been genetically altered as well. This conflict was a major part of the narrative.

Other characters like Iron Cross, who is a huge mech, were brought in based on the enthusiasm of Christos Gage (the game’s writer) and gave us the opportunity to re-envision them in the more “realistic” setting of World War II.

Iron Cross

Iron Cross

Our designs for the boss characters were strongly based around the game’s combat system. Since the combat is designed to deal with multiple enemies, we felt that it would be a disservice to the game experience if Cap was set up to fight every boss one-on-one.

Baron von Strucker

Madame Hydra

To this end we designed the bosses to be enhanced versions of existing enemies, for example, ranged, melee, etc., and then placed them into unique multi-enemy encounters and highly scripted situations to elevate them as climactic battles.

Captain America vs. multiple bad guys

This allows the player to naturally assess each situation and fight the boss by using the skills that they have learned through previous battles, while still maintaining a high level of excitement and unique flavor to each individual boss encounter.

Hello and welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading? Today’s special guest is Shannon Wheeler, New Yorker cartoonist and creator of the Eisner Award-winning comic book Too Much Coffee Man, Oil & Water, the Eisner-nominated I Thought You Would Be Funnier and the upcoming Grandpa Won’t Wake Up.

To see what Shannon and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below …

*****

Tom Bondurant

Superman Family #203

Last week my brother-in-law was in a used bookstore — actually, I guess “used-book store” would be more accurate — and called me asking what random old DCs and Marvels I’d like. One of the fruits of his labors was September-October 1980′s Superman Family #203, a decent little anthology inked mostly by Vince Coletta (so they all tended to look the same) and written and penciled by various DC stalwarts. The lead was a Supergirl story, “The Supergirl From Planet Earth,” written by Jack C. Harris and penciled by Win Mortimer. Seems there’s a formerly-comatose blonde teenager in Kara’s old hometown Midvale who suddenly starts manifesting Kryptonian powers and zipping around in a certain blue-skirted super-suit. Moreover, when questioned by Supergirl, the new kid pretty much recites Kara’s first speech to her cousin, about the destruction of Argo City, etc. Naturally I was reminded of Peter David and Ed Benes’ “Many Happy Returns” storyline, but Harris and Mortimer only have 12 pages to introduce another complication and then resolve everything — and resolve it they do, using X-Kryptonite, a medallion made of lead, and some conveniently-placed acid. It’s a neat little story which, although inconsequential in the greater scheme of things, is still entertaining.

Since I’m always interested in how a Lois Lane solo series might work (once more), I read “Lost,” another 12-pager, written by Marv Wolfman and penciled by Bob Oksner. As with the Supergirl story, there’s a lot of plot in these pages: Lois is kidnapped and mind-wiped, escapes, gets picked up by a helpful widower, falls in love with same, and then uses her (unwiped) martial arts skills to fight off the goons who eventually catch up with her. The story ends with an amnesiac Lois wandering off into the woods, Bruce-Banner-style, so I’ll have to seek out #204 to see how it ends. Here, I’m not sure the format does this story many favors (especially with regard to Ted, the widower). It might do better played out over a few issues of that hypothetical solo title. (That would also leave room to cross over and/or be mentioned in the main Superman books, too….)

Finally, “The Critic Killer” (written by E. Nelson Bridwell and penciled by George Tuska) is a tale of the Earth-2 Lois and Clark, set in the early ’50s when the two were newly married — and when TV was still new enough that the Daily Star didn’t have its own critic. Along comes Lana Lang, daughter of a professor Clark knew from Smallville, seeking to carve out some column space for just that purpose. Clark (editor of the Star, like you didn’t know) gives her the job, and she promptly goes all scorched-earth on the new sitcom from a notoriously thin-skinned writer. Lois realizes nothing good can come of Lana’s scathing review, and sure enough, the writer traps Lana and Lois in a specially-modified elevator car. Because Lois — in what strikes me as a bit of Earth-2 Superdickery — is wearing a “mood ring” which telepathically alerts Clark to sudden changes in her emotions, Superman saves them (of course). However, we learn that the writer bought his elevator-trap from Luthor, still in prison but still scheming about taking down Superman. Dun dun dunnnn! Again, it was a clever little tale whose eight pages were more concerned with establishing Lana’s bona fides (this was apparently the retcon introducing Lana to Lois and Clark) and maybe making Lois a little jealous, than with a straightforward adventure/suspense story. Along those lines, it laid the groundwork for future stories involving Lana and/or Luthor, and I’m now curious to see how fleshed-out the “Mr. And Mrs. Superman” stories got.

And speaking of Earth-2, I read Invaders Classic Volume 1, written by Roy Thomas (who else?), penciled mostly by Frank Robbins, and inked by Vince Coletta and Frank Springer. This paperback reprinted the first several issues of The Invaders, plus ancillary issues, and it’s pretty much non-stop action from page one. Essentially, the Invaders — Captain America and Bucky, the Human Torch and Toro, and the Sub-Mariner — fight Nazi super villains, as depicted by Robbins’ hyperkinetic pencils. What I took away from this book, though, was that even though he was working at Marvel, and even though DC was, at the time, doing contemporary Earth-2 stories featuring the Justice Society, Roy Thomas desperately wanted to write a wartime JSA book. I have no idea how much Thomas drew from those old Timely comics to come up with the various Axis bad guys and the heroic Liberty Legion (although reprinted text pages help out in this regard) — but there sure are conspicuous references to moving “faster than a speeding bullet” and being part of “seven soldiers” of something-or-other. Actually, I take part of that back — the first baddies the Invaders face are a trio of faux-Teutonic godlings, and I thought “oh, here’s a riff on Evil Thor.” Still, though, the Liberty Legion contains 1) a speedster, 2) a guy who stretches, 3) a superheroine with black hair and a red-and-blue costume, 4) the Blue Diamond, who kinda looks like Green Lantern if you squint, 5) a flying guy with big bird-wings on his back, 6) Jack Frost, an ice-based hero who looks like he’s got Aquaman-style scales, and 7) the Patriot, another red-and-blue-clad figure who’s the group’s moral center. Maybe it was just me, but I had more fun looking for those kinds of references than I did reading the stories themselves. Lucky for the series, though, the last couple of issues introduce Union Jack and Baron Blood, a British hero and his undead foe, and The Invaders starts to build its own little corner of Marvel history, instead of reminding readers of others’. Lucky for Roy Thomas, too, that it wouldn’t be long before he was writing DC’s All-Star Squadron — otherwise, I suspect his brain might have exploded.

(By the way, I’m not up on Marvel history as much as some — but doesn’t Union Jack’s debut in World War I make him Marvel-Earth’s first costumed hero, preceding the Human Torch by at least 20 years?)

Michael May

Lois Lane and the Resistance

As I said in this week’s Food or Comics, I wasn’t sure if I was going to buy Lois Lane and the Resistance or not. I flipped through it in the store though and decided to get it for its visuals and action sequences. It looked like fun. And there were some exciting parts, but unfortunately, this still isn’t the Lois Lane comic I’m waiting for. Lois spends the entire issue running around doing the bidding of other people. The story opens with Perry White’s sending her on a fluff piece instead of covering the impending war. The Lois Lane I want to read about doesn’t get sent to cover Fashion Week. She doesn’t have to whine and argue that she’s a serious reporter; everyone should know that she is and treat her that way. But this Lois…even when the story gets going she’s still acting as someone else’s agent, and not even a particularly competent one. This isn’t the story of a strong, empowered reporter that I’ve been craving.

I also read Mystery Men #2 and liked it, but it reminded me why I became a trade-waiter. The first issue got me all excited to continue the story, but now I’m growing impatient with its being rationed out in small chunks. Some cool stuff happens this issue — another masked hero joins the investigation and there’s a major revelation about the villain — but it’s hard to say that I enjoyed this particular chunk of the story as its own, self-contained unit.

Finally, I read the first volume of Jason DeAngelis and Aldin Viray’s Captain Nemo, a manga re-telling of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. There are some cool, imaginative things going on in it, like the story’s taking place in an alternate timeline where Napoleon won at Waterloo and has taken over the world. The 19-year-old son of the original Captain Nemo is operating the Nautilus II in rebellion against the French Empire, providing this version with an actual plot (something that Jules Verne’s novel lacks). Viray’s obviously had a great time creating the steampunk world for the story; the environment of the book looks great. And I like how it’s still hitting major beats in Verne’s story, but reworking them enough to keep them exciting and follow DeAngelis’ plot.

But the book falls victim to some standard manga tropes and the characters are boringly familiar. Nemo is the classic manga hero: handsome, but stand-offish, but really very gentle at heart. Camille Pierpont (who stands in for Professor Aronnax, Conseil, and Ned Land by ending up prisoner on the Nautilus II after Nemo saves her from drowning) is the traditional manga heroine: headstrong, judgmental, entitled, but supernaturally gifted with wild animals and really just one good kiss away from calming down into someone likeable. Even the characters’ designs are unimaginative; something that Aldin admits to in the sketchbook section where he says that he gave Nemo “the standard Harlock look” and Camille “the typical female lead character look.” The other crew members of the Nautilus II are just as immediately recognizable: Smart and Cocky Guy With Glasses, Bad Attitude Girl, Plucky Kid, etc.

Brigid Alverson

Treasury of Victorian Murder

This week was murder, at least in terms of what I have been reading. I got an advance copy of Rick Geary’s latest Treasury of Victorian Murder book, The Lives of Sacco and Vanzetti, which will be debuting at San Diego Comic-Con this year. Like all of Geary’s books, it’s cool, almost clinical, with the timelines and details carefully laid out in a heavy-bordered grid and a narrative voice straight out of a PBS documentary Geary’s objective voice suits the story well, because the guilt or innocence of Sacco and Vanzetti is a matter of some controversy, but it does make the book seem rather dry.

Also on the stack is The Green River Killer, written by Jeff Jensen and illustrated by Jonathan Case. Jensen’s father was a detective on the case, and the story is told from his point of view. The story gets rolling with Gary Ridgeway’s confession and skips back and forth in time as the police bring him to the sites of the murders and then flash back to their first encounters with the same scenes. The art is straightforward and linear, but there are some nice atmospheric moments.

And in the prose realm, I’m reading The Poisoner’s Handbook, which would be more aptly titled “The Toxicologist’s Handbook.” Set in 1920s New York, the book follows the work of pioneering medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler as they investigate various murders — grouped by the poison involved. Some they solve, some they don’t, and sometimes they are simply frustrated by the difficulty of proving their toxicological case in court. It’s a bit overly dramatic but a good read nonetheless, and I’m learning a bit of chemistry from it too.

Tim O’Shea

IDW’s Rocketeer Adventures #1

Rocketeer Adventures #1 and #2: OK, I have to admit, I completely missed the first issue’s release. So I picked up issue #2 this week, Mark Waid teamed with Chris Weston, Darwyn Cooke, Geof Darrow, Lowell Francis with Gene Ha (all colored by Dave Stewart) and realized: “you were a fool to miss issue #1.” Fortunately I snagged the last copy of issue #1 at my local store. And I am torn which is my favorite from that issue, it’s a close race between John Cassady colored by Laura Martin or Kurt Busiek teamed with legendary Michael Kaluta (honorable mention Mike Allred colored by Laura Allred). But after serious consideration I have decided that Kaluta (inked by Stewart) is my favorite. There’s not a bad story in either issue–and I am looking forward to issue #3.

Thunderbolts #159 is a double-sized issue with multiple creative teams on different tales. But all you need to know is this: Jen Van Meter writes a team-up (of sorts) between Ghost and John Walker. I really hope that Marvel announces some more work for Van Meter at San Diego, because she deserves a monthly assignment.

Captain America: Given Bucky’s current status quo (given the Fear Itself event), I am confused as to why I would care what happened to James in this issue. But all my annoyance washed away when I got to see Chris Samnee draw more Nick Fury in the second half of the issue.

Did you catch my interview with Roger Langridge about the preview of his new Kaboom book, Snarked #0, which will sell for $1 in August? Did I convince you to tell your retailer to get a copy for you? You have until June 30 for the Previews deadline (Diamond Code: JUN110963). I mean it when I commit to this series being destined for my best of 2011 books.

Shannon Wheeler

Paying for It

There’s a narrow road to success if a creator already has a lot of good books. If it’s too different from what came before, I’ll hate it, and if it’s too similar to what came before, then I’ll hate it, too. Chester Brown created my favorite comics: Ed the Happy Clown and The Playboy. So, of course, I was disappointed with Paying for It.

It’s an autobiographical book about Chester Brown’s decision to satisfy his sexual needs by being with prostitutes. The best part of the book is when he details his internal conflict and anxiety when he first hires women to have sex with him. Unfortunately, the book drags as he uses his friends as characters to stage pro and con arguments regarding prostitution. The books drags even more when he reiterates his beliefs for the third… and fourth time. He avoids talking about his final relationship in respect for her desire for privacy. This could have been an emotional resolution in the book — Chester finding a relationship that he’s comfortable with. They are both happy with monogamous, but independent, lives where he continues to pay for sex. Any editor could have trimmed 20 percent of the redundant ranting to make it a smoother read and then pushed for a conclusion with emotional depth and acute observations similar to the book’s beginning. Chester Brown could have had a book that matched or succeeded his earlier work. As it stands, the book is a vaguely interesting read as a political diatribe and an okay read as an emotional journey, but is redundant as one and unresolved as the other. Chester is still a great creator; it’s too bad his editor hasn’t kept pace. It’s a good book that could have been a great book.

Okko

Okko

It’s a solid read that takes place in old Japan with demons, ronins, monks and magic. The book is skillfully put together with natural storytelling, attractive drawings and pretty coloring. It’s not a book you’ll ponder much after putting it down. As a book in the same genre as the great Usagi Yojimbo, it holds up as a solid and entertaining read.

New Yorker: On the Money

I always grab collections of New Yorker cartoons. This one has the strength of being assembled by the New Yorker’s current cartoon editor, Bob Mankoff. By choosing financially themed comics from 1925-2009, Mankoff shows an economic history of our country through humor. It’s telling that the rich-screw-the-poor is a recurrent theme that doesn’t change from the earliest comics to the recent ones. The repetition left me a little cold. Maybe not cold – but depressed. If the economics of this country could change the way families, gender roles and race relations have changed, I might like the book better. But I guess that’s not really the book’s fault.

Cowboy Wally

Always funny. I’m constantly amazed at how well this book has held up. I consider it one of the best comics created.

Underground

I just picked this one up, but the first issue shows potential. I love the art and story. Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber are great comic creators. I’m sure they’ll deliver.