Officer Downe

Hello and welcome to a special birthday bash edition of our weekly “What Are You Reading” feature. Typically the Robot 6 crew talks about what books we’ve read recently, but since it’s our anniversary, we thought we’d invite all our friends and colleagues from Comic Book Resources and Comics Should Be Good! to join in the fun.

To see what everyone has been reading, click below …

*****

Timothy Callahan

Uncanny X-Force #1

Uncanny X-Force #1-19, by Rick Remender, Jerome Opena, Dean White, and others. I’ve been reading — and enjoying — this series since the first issue debuted, but I carved out a couple of hours recently to reread the entire run to see the whole Archangel saga play out as a single story. I wondered if this was, perhaps, the defining run for the character — the way the Brubaker/Fraction Immortal Iron Fist defined Danny Rand, or the way Jason Aaron provided the definitive Ghost Rider. And upon rereading, I have to say “yes.” This first year-and-a-half of Uncanny X-Force is the definitive Angel/Archangel story, and what’s so great about it is that Remender built upon the mythology of the character’s past instead of trying to revert him to some oversimplified version of the original Lee/Kirby creation. Also, this series is just packed with characters and plot points and yet maintains a deep emotional core. Good stuff, all around.

The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner. I’m only about 50 pages into this novel so far, and though I’ve read a decent amount of Faulkner — and plenty of Fitzgerald and Hemingway, the other two Big American Moderns — I’ve never taken the time to read this acclaimed masterpiece. I’ll reserve complete judgment on it until I’ve finished it, of course, but I already know that it lacks a direct through-line like you’d find in my favorite Faulkner book, As I Lay Dying. When I used to teach that novel, we would explore Faulkner’s use of heteroglossia — basically, the multiplicity of narrative voices — and he’s clearly up to the same tricks in The Sound and the Fury. My prejudice against this novel, and the reason why I’ve avoided it for so long, is that I assume it will be more of a portrait of a time and a place than an actual, compelling story. I have always been more of a story guy than a portrait guy, personally, but we will see what treasures this novel holds.

Tom Spurgeon’s Holiday Interview series. Every year, during the Christmas season, Tom treats us to daily interviews with some of the most interesting people in and around the comic book industry. From Kim Thompson to Jeff Parker to Tucker Stone, we get a profile of the current state of comics from all angles, and the interviews go far deeper than the standard online promotional pieces. These are actual conversations with people who have things to say. Every one of them is worth reading, even if you don’t think you’re interested in the topic at first.

Timothy Callahan writes CBR’s When Words Collide column. He also writes about comics for Tor.com and has his own blog.

Chad Nevett

1. A bunch of Joe Casey comics. Anyone who knows me probably isn’t surprised by that statement, but, look at December: Doc Bizarre, the Officer Downe hardcover, new issues of Haunt and Gødland, and the conclusion to Vengeance. All that was missing was a little Butcher Baker… Any month with that much Joe Casey is going to seem a little crazy. Doc Bizarre is some madcap fun, Officer Downe manages to be even more fucked up, and Vengeance ends on such a crazy high note that I think I need to send Mr. Casey a big thank you letter for writing a comic book series so squarely aimed at yours truly. I know I’m not the only one who marked out at Z making a cameo appearance at the end…! I’m still not entirely sure about Haunt (aside from loving Nathan Fox’s art). Casey obviously has some plans, but it’s hard to see where they’re heading. I dug the new issue, though. Ending the year with that small stack of December Joe Casey comics is pretty nice.

The Visible Man

2. The Visible Man by Chuck Klosterman. Probably the last book I’ll finish in 2011 (I finished reading it late Friday night) and it was a big leap from his first novel Downtown Owl. I’ve really enjoyed Klosterman’s non-fiction (or semi-fiction, maybe?) work for years. Funny, insightful, and always interesting in his essays on pop culture in all its forms. I tend to blow through his books, because they’re so damn enjoyable. His fiction, on the other hand, hasn’t always grabbed me. Downtown Owl was entertaining and had its moments, but it was definitely something that I read because I like Klosterman’s writing. The Visible Man has me thinking that Klosterman may have some strong fiction chops. It’s a novel framed as a non-fictional account of a therapist and her (failed) treatment of a man who wears a suit that renders him virtually impossible to see by reflecting light in such a way that you see what’s on the other side of him. The protagonist ‘Y____’ reminds me a lot of a character who has stepped out of a Paul Auster book. Forceful and strange with a strong and unique perspective on the world and himself. Some of the ideas discussed are wonderful. The stories he tells of observing people in their homes without detection are rather engaging — to the point where the novel suffers a little when it moves away from those stories. The ending is what it is… it doesn’t live up to the potential the book or Y____ showed, but… entertaining book that made me stop and think from time to time. And has me wondering what Klosterman’s next novel will be like.

3. Banner by Brian Azzarello and Richard Corben, and Filthy Rich by Brian Azzarello and Victor Santos. A couple of Azzarello books that I’ve been meaning to get for a while. I read Banner years ago on Marvel’s website and it’s both very like and very unlike Azzarello’s other writing. The language games are there in spots, but his dialogue is very sparse — he really steps back and lets Corben run the show to a degree. Filthy Rich had its moments, but is so rooted in being ‘pulp’ that it doesn’t do much more than work within the confines of the genre. It’s a fun little exercise. Santos’s art is wildly inconsistent — but, when he’s on, he does a mean Frank Miller impression.

Chad Nevett talks about comics in several different places around the web — at his personal blog GraphiContent, at Comics Should Be Good! and as a reviewer for Comic Book Resources. He also writes about wrestling for 411mania.

Bill Reed

These days I’ve found myself reading more and more webcomics, and as someone who still hasn’t figured out how an RSS feed works, that involves me remembering to read a strip on a specific schedule, and then clicking or typing myself over to the designated webspace from which the particular comic springs forth. I would totally pay real dollars for the following:

Al’Rashad, from Christopher Bird and Davinder Brar, which goes up weekly at Mightygodking, a clever, funny, and superbly drawn fantasy adventure comic that features pirate action, bizarre bazaars and the wiliest mop-haired street orphan since Flim-Flam from The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo.

Bearmageddon

Bearmageddon, artist Ethan Nicolle’s other, non-Axe-Cop webcomic, which has been slowly building its way to the titular Grizzly apocalypse, and has just recently leaped into the Kodiak carnage we’ve been waiting for, with well-meaning hippies versus nature’s hungry killing machines. Nicolle’s gorgeous cartooning and Noah Maas and company’s vibrant colors give the series the most beautiful mayhem since, well, Axe Cop.

Bucko, by Jeff Parker and Erika Moen, a freewheeling (actually, fixed-gear) epic for our times, populated by hipsters, cyclists, Juggalos, and fartmongers, the strip turns Portland into a magical, madcap fantasy land filled with delightful, deranged characters, the true Oz of the Northwest. Moen’s lines have been getting sparer and more confident, the art style becoming more refined, like the evolution of a newspaper comic strip, only at hyperspeed.

Lady Sabre & the Pirates of the Ineffable Aether by Greg Rucka and Rick Burchett, a beautifully realized space pirate cowboy adventure serial that opens with a tremendous swordfight on a space zeppelin before segueing into Sam Elliot kicking ass. I shouldn’t have to say any more, but I will: it’s the best artwork of Burchett’s career, and the included script with each new installment provides a great insight into the collaborative process, specifically in terms of how artwork interprets and diverges from the narrative skeleton.

Bill Reed contributes regularly to Comics Should Be Good! and has his own personal blog.

Ryan K Lindsay

11.22.63

11.22.63: I’m a massive Stephen King fan. Always have been and always will be. Most of his recent fare hasn’t been anything compared to his late 70’s stuff (but what is?) though his short stories continue to thrill and I enjoyed Under The Dome right up until the cop out ending. I am, however, thoroughly enjoying 11.22.63.

There might not be any subtext to this book but you must cast that aside and revel in the fact King is one of the premiere storytellers when it comes to sinking you right into the narrative. There are some King tics that’ll stand out (constantly naming songs to set the tone and you’ll hear his unmistakable voice coming through some of these characters) but the swell of this tale is captivating. King turns a phrase well but mostly he just wants to tell an enjoyable tale and he really is.

There has been more than one occasion in this book where I have stopped because the events have floored me. That’s the sign of a good book to be read. Oh, and this is my first novel read on the iPad and I’m completely digging the way it goes. I have no issue with it at all.

The Cape: This is the sort of comic that makes me excessively proud to be a comic fan. Just by tangentially knowing this product through purchasing, reading, enjoying and reviewing this book, my life is better and I’ve spread the love out into the world. This book started with the acorn of an idea from a Joe Hill short story, and now Jason Ciaramella and Zach Howard have grown it into a mighty tree with a canopy of rich ideas and a nasty lead character at the peak.

If you haven’t picked up The Cape then you need to do it. If you have any member of your family who digs on subversive fare then buy this for them. The level of amazing this comic goes to will win you over completely. Comics need to try this hard more often.

The Mighty Thor Omnibus

Simonson’s Everything: I listened to Walt Simonson on Word Balloon, and it’s put me in a spin. I’ve owned the SIMONSOMNIBUS (The Mighty Thor Omnibus) for half a year and my New Year’s Resolution is to burn through it all. I might even annotate my thoughts. I also found some Simonson Fantastic Four issues on ComiXology for only $1.99 so I snapped those up. And I’ve also pulled down my old Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown issues for another spin through.

I’m a big back issue fan, as a kid I loved coming back from the comic shop (an hour train ride to and back) and spreading all my swag out on the bed and spending the day losing myself in old Marvel U history. It’s now nice to have my pick of them in authentic old school issues, a massive omnibus presentation, and crystal clear on my iPad. We do truly live in the future – here’s to 2012.

Ryan K Lindsay is a reviewer for CBR and a podcaster with Kurtis J Wiebe and Jeremy Holt on The Process, where they talk about comic writing. He is planning to have a very big 2012 in all things comics.

Greg McElhatton

Kushiel's Dart

Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey: I still remember when Kushiel’s Dart was published in 2001; I was living in Falls Church and the local Borders had copies of it everywhere. Clocking in around 700 pages, it looked interesting but daunting at the same time. There are nine books in the series now, and I’ve still never gotten around to reading them. Fortunately for me, my book club picked it as the January 2012 book, which means I finally have an excuse to dive in. I’m still in the early pages and it’s slow-moving, but Jacqueline Carey’s prose is comfortable and I’m interested in what I’ve seen so far about this alternate history. Half of the fun is piecing together what’s different when it comes to an alternate history, and this one is no exception.

Embassytown by China Mieville: I’ve put Embassytown temporarily aside so I can finish up Kushiel’s Dart, and already I’m dying to get back to China Mieville’s latest novel. Mieville’s ideas are always wonderfully huge and crazy, and Embassytown is no exception. What starts out as a simple “humans co-existing with aliens on another planet” story has rapidly turned into a mixture of social dynamics and linguistic oddities. Similar to his novel The City & The City (with its two cities that exist side-by-side where the inhabitants have learned to block out the opposite side), it’s hard to describe the joy and wonder of Embassytown without giving away a lot of the wonderful surprises, but if you can make it to the point where you first meet the Ambassadors, you’ll quickly learn just why Embassytown is in a class of its own. If you’ve never read a Mieville book before, Embassytown is a great place to start.

Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes

Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes by Carl Barks: I’m a little mortified to admit that Walt Disney’s Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes is my first exposure to Carl Barks (after decades of being interested in finally seeing why he’s so revered as a comic creator), but it definitely won’t be my last. Fantagraphics’ first volume of Barks material is a great place to start; a mixture of epic quests, short stories, and gag strips that are all impressively funny and awesome. There’s something wonderfully evil about a strip where a witch is forcing the Duck nephews to cry so that she can turn their tears into a potion to destroy all Christmas trees, only to turn around and have a hilarious transformation sequence to break up the gloom and make you laugh.

A friend once said, “Everything good in the DuckTales cartoon was first done by Carl Barks” and I can see that now. This is one of those rare comics that really is meant for all ages, or for that matter all interests; the only reason it took me a few weeks to finish the book is that halfway through, my non-comics-reading boyfriend started flipping through it and then temporarily claimed it as his own so that he could finish it first. Trust me when I say, that’s high praise indeed.

Greg McElhatton writes reviews for Comic Book Resources and Read About Comics, and he has a cool personal blog as well.

Dave Richards

Beautiful, Naked & Dead and Out There Bad by Josh Stallings: If you’re like me, you love a great crime story regardless of whether it’s published in four color or prose formats and these two prose novels which I recently discovered were some of the best crime stories I read all year. In Beautiful, Naked, & Dead, Stallings’ stellar debut novel, you’re introduced to Moses McGuire; an ex-marine, ex-con, and strip club bouncer as he goes on a quest to avenge a friend’s murder. In the even better follow up novel, Out There Bad, Stallings sends Moses to Mexico for a confrontation with human traffickers. If you love the work of Ed Brubaker, Jason Aaron and Greg Rucka pick these two books up. You won’t regret it.

Batman: Noel

Batman: Noel by Lee Bermejo: I got this as a Christmas present and read it Christmas eve. I don’t think I really need to say a whole lot about Bermejo’s art. It’s beautiful, breathtaking and speaks for itself for the most part. His renderings of Gotham City and the Joker were especially impressive in this. I believe this is Bermejo’s first book as a writer though and he does a pretty great job with it. He tells a fun story that does a nice job working the framework of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol into a Batman story. Bermejo also did a great job with characterization, especially Superman who serves as the Ghost of Christmas Present. All in all this was a fun holiday read and might just become a Christmas Eve tradition for me.

Hellboy: House of the Living Dead by Mike Mignola and Richard Corben: House of the Living Dead is a tale that involves Hellboy, a Frankenstein style monster, a werewolf, a vampire and Mexican Lucha Libre style wrestling. That’s a pretty awesome recipe, and Mignola and Corben cook it up very well for this original graphic novel. In the story it’s 1952, and an alcoholic Hellboy is working as a masked wrestler. Thanks to the machinations of a mysterious foe he has to wrestle a scientist’s monstrous creation to save a young girl. The result is a fun, strange, exciting tale with a lot of heart.

Dave Richards covers all things Marvel for Comic Book Resources.

Greg Hatcher

Kamandi

Well. I’m sort of reading all three of these at the same time, alternating.

1. The new Kamandi omnibus, because it arrived recently and Kamandi is awesome. I could go on and on but Alex Cox really said it all here a couple of years back…

2. The Green Hornet Casefiles. I love the Moonstone prose anthologies and already own a bunch of them– the Avenger, the Phantom, Kolchak, the Domino Lady. But I think the ones featuring the Green Hornet may be my favorites and this is the new one. Full disclosure– editor Win Eckert and I occasionally correspond and he asked permission to use a quote of mine for a cover blurb on the deluxe edition. But I went out and spent my own money on this because I enjoyed the first one so much. New, original prose adventures featuring the Green Hornet and Kato– and it’s clearly MY Hornet and Kato, the Van Williams and Bruce Lee version from the mid-sixties. What with Kevin Smith and Matt Wagner and Seth Rogen and God knows who else doing versions of the Hornet these days, it can get confusing. But this version’s mine. Rocking it old-school.

Rider of the Rifle Rock

3. For Christmas my wife Julie found me Bennett Foster’s Rider of the Rifle Rock, a vintage Western hardcover from 1939. It’s a great story of how young Chet Minor learns how to be a real man again after a riding accident that leaves him crippled. I love old westerns and I’m a sucker for a redemption story. This actually is pretty easy to find–reprinted in hardcover under the “Sagebrush Western” imprint not to long ago–but mine’s the original one. Because my wife is even more awesome than Kamandi.

You can read more from Greg Hatcher every Friday at Comics Should Be Good!

Pól Rua

Infinite Kung-Fu by Kagan McLeod (Top Shelf Publishing): First, read that again… Infinite. Kung. Fu. Roll it around inside your head for a bit. Give it a bit of reverb. Now try saying it out loud, feeling each syllable thunder off your lips. That’s some serious righteousness right there, and a comic book would have to be pretty damn good to live up to a name like that. So, it’s damn lucky that Kagan McLeod has the chops (and the kicks, stomps and strikes) to do just that and exceed it.

Infinite Kung Fu

First of all, he’s good. Crazy good. He has a kinetic, graphitti-inspired art style that leaps, glides and dives across the stage like righteous combat lightning. But, in conjunction with that, he’s also a hell of a storyteller. He effortlessly translates the classic style of 1970′s Hong Kong Kung Fu cinema into comic form, using an incredible degree of craft, draftsmanship and skill to convey all the style, dynamism and impact of martial arts combat into pictures which seem to come alive on the page. And what’s more, he knows his stuff, combining bone-shattering kung fu, Taoist mysticism, bloodthirsty zombies, ruthless villainy and funky blaxploitation-fuelled grooves seamlessly together without the disparate elements clashing with each other. In short, this is an amazingly good comic, and Top Shelf have really put it all together into a gorgeous package.

Moriarty and the Hound of the D’urbevilles by Kim Newman (Titan Books): Kim Newman is one of my favourite writers. He’s an incredibly literate pop culture critic and commentator and an astoundingly skilled storyteller. He uses similar techniques to Phillip Jose Farmer (in his Wold Newton stories) and Alan Moore (in The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) in a way that’s playful, frequently funny as hell and always utterly captivating.

In this collection of short stories, we are introduced to Professor James Moriarty, a genius obsessed with the “mathematics of crime,” who has made his life’s work the imposition of pure reason onto the chaotic realm of criminal endeavor. Our point-of-view on this extraordinary criminal is Colonel Sebastian Moran, big game hunter, ex-soldier and rapacious scoundrel, as a kind of anti-Watson. Like many of his other stories, most notably the Anno Dracula series (an alternate world in which Count Dracula became ruler of the world in the late 19th Century) and the Diogenes Club (about an organization of paranormal investigators stretching from Victorian London to
Thatcher’s Britain), Newman liberally sprinkles his stories with obscure and not-so-obscure references to various historical and literary character. These don’t impede the storytelling–each story is an engaging and entertaining work of fiction in its own right–but they provide an additional layer of entertainment, where the stories can also be read as a fascinating literary game.

King City #1

King City by Brandon Graham (Image Comics): If there is any justice in the world, Brandon Graham is one name you will be hearing a lot of in the upcoming years. He is ridiculously talented, and has an undeniable style and energy. Imagine, if you can, a story that combines the freewheeling whimsy and character-driven
storytelling of Bryan Lee O’Malley’s Scott Pilgrim with the streetwise neo-futurism of Ellis and Robertson’s Transmetropolitan or Paul Pope’s Heavy Liquid or THB, and you have the world of King City. It’s a world of costumed spy gangs and giant atomic monsters, alien pornography and Sasquatch inn-keepers, but it’s more than that…

It’s a world where our hero, arriving back in town after a long stretch, dreads seeing his ex-girlfriend as he re-connects with old friends. It’s a world where a young woman worries about her lover, a recently returned war veteran whose only solace for his night terrors is a drug which may be slowly killing him, but it’s more than THAT…

It’s a comic where the creator throws in puzzles and games even, in one place, a board game all of which are actually parts of the story and serve a plot purpose. This is GREAT comics. Playful comics. Fun Comics. All delivered with a charm, verve, wit and skill that deserves wider attention. The trade paperback collection should be out in February which I’m as excited as all get out about.

Pól Rua is an artist and occasionally contributes to Comics Should Be Good!

Kelly Thompson

Warren Ellis’ Secret Avengers run (Secret Avengers #16 – #20): There’s still one more issue left in Warren Ellis’ wonderful Secret Avengers run, but he has been blowing my mind with these amazing superhero comics. With incredibly smart standalone stories with limited casts that all feel like they tie together even though they don’t depend on one another to make sense Ellis has been creating some of the best superhero comics I’ve read in 2011. It doesn’t hurt that he’s got a rotating cast of amazing artists helping him bring these stories to life. Reading this short run reminds me how great a wonderful 20-page superhero comic can be. I wish comics could do more of this and I will be decidedly sad to see this run end. I’ll be first in line for the trade when released as well – it’ll make for a hell of a strong collection.

Hinges

Hinges by Meredith McClaren: I’m been reading Meredith McClaren (artist for Jen Van Meter’s upcoming Hopeless Savages Volume 4) excellent webcomic Hinges for a while now and I am just constantly blown away by her beautiful haunting work. The mastery of craft in her pages – from the well-developed drawing style, to pitch perfect color choice, to even her stylized execution of word balloons – is just phenomenal. The story of Hinges is frequently text free, relying on McClaren’s strong artistic chops to tell the story – but even without words it’s emotional and haunting. McClaren is a major new talent in comics and I simply can’t wait to see what she does next.

Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Season 9 by Andrew Chambliss and Georges Jeanty: The first arc of Buffy The Vampire Slayer‘s new series has wrapped and I have to say, I’m pretty enchanted with it. The end of Season 8 had me frustrated and confused, but as always with Joss Whedon, he’s managed to bring things back around to a place where I’m re-engaged and highly intrigued by where he wants to take these characters that I adore. The comics have been a funny animal, since they’re able to do things and go places that the television show never could and because of that they have different boundaries and rules, but somehow, thanks to great creators and a strong guiding hand from Whedon, the characters, which are the important part in all of this, remain as fascinating and as emotionally engaging as ever. Steve Morris’ stunning covers aren’t hurting the series any either!

Kelly Thompson writes (and podcasts) for Comics Should Be Good! and reviews comics for CBR. You can also read more from her on her personal site.

Brian Cronin

This week saw the release of two noteworthy Vertigo issues, one an ending and one a beginning.

DMZ

The final issue of DMZ gave a powerful conclusion to Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli’s excellent series. Wood chose to use the “leap forward a bunch of years” approach to a finale, which I am always a fan of. I especially enjoyed how Wood decided to give the focus of the final issue to New York City itself…it was a very satisfying goodbye to the book. Much like the tributes within the comic, the subtly of the farewell worked beautifully.

As we say goodbye to the DMZ, we say hello to yet another fascinating new character in Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque’s American Vampire. One of the most impressive aspects of Snyder’s work in this series has been his ability to quickly develop compelling new characters. This was on fine display in the start of the new American Vampire storyline, where Snyder gave a brilliant take on the 1950′s greaser hood archetype.

Brian Cronin runs our sister blog, Comics Should Be Good! and was part of The Great Curve team way back in the day, before we were ever Robot 6. He’s also the author of Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed.

Sonia Harris

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diáz: I initially picked this paperback up because I liked the cover art and the grainy texture of the coating they had used on it. Then when I flipped it open, the quote on the first page is “Of what import are brief, nameless lives… to Galactus??”, which is from the Fantastic Four, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1966. How could I resist? Inside the book chronicles the life of an unattractive geeky boy and his oddly endearing family life. I’m half way through and so far I’m loving the constant references to comic books which I know and love. It gives me another way to understand the environment the author is describing and I am more involved than I might otherwise be. The book is heavily peppered with long footnotes, explaining all of the cultural and historical references the author makes, which gives the book a conversationally tangential air. So far the author has mentioned Gilbert Hernandez’ Love & Rockets characters enough that I am basically imagining this as another “Palomar” story, not so much as a visual reference but as a way to understand the mood and feel behind Diáz’ immigrant story.

JLA Vol. 3, Deluxe Edition by Grant Morrison, Howard Porter and John Dell: Along with Vol 4, this was a thoughtful holiday gift I received after I read the first two volumes of Morrison’s groundbreaking JLA run and wrote about them in my column. It is lucky I received this, since I don’t know if I would have bought the book myself as I felt like I’d just read a ton of this run and didn’t want to risk spoiling it. Of course once I started reading I was extremely happy about it. The groundwork Morrison initially laid, now builds to great effect. He continues to develop and elaborate on the storylines of the team and individual characters to the point where I found myself actually wanting to read the crossover stories that were referenced (and I usually hate crossover stories.) In amongst his complex and gloriously random storylines, there is a basic humanity to the character’s conversations which is terrifically endearing, it works to anchor and ground the fantastic stories. As it began, it continues, with Morrison giving everyone their own voice and distinctly relatable character. Now I’ve still got volume 4 to read next and I’m excited to get to it.

Sonia Harris writes her column–Committed–every Wednesday on Comics Should Be Good!

The San Diego Comic-Con is the gift that keeps on giving, this time in the form of an interview with Love and Rockets co-creator Jaime Hernandez by CBR’s Kiel Phegley. Ask anyone who’s reading the series in its book-formatted New Stories incarnation — including this autumn’s #4, which picks up where last year’s massively acclaimed “Browntown”/”The Love Bunglers” storyline left off — and they’ll tell you: Jaime’s making some of the best work of his career, some 30 years after L&R made its debut. Unfortunately, that left him floundering when it came time to come up with a story for next year’s volume:

I almost blew my wad on these last two issues. I was so proud of it, and I wrapped up so many loose ends, and I was so proud of myself. And I said ‘Okay, now it’s time to do a new issue’…and I was blank. I swear, I was blank! I was actually looking out the window, looking for something, some kind of inspiration, you know? That happens to me once in a while, but this time — I mean, big! I was just wandering around, asking my wife, ‘Do you need me to go do something out in the back yard, or…?’ I just felt like the most useless human being. It’s what I always call the post-comic withdrawal, where after I’ve just gone BANG on one issue, after it’s done, I feel so useless. I need to do something, but it’s like nothing’s there. It always comes, but I can’t make it come. It’s an organic thing with me, where it comes when it comes. Luckily, it’s always come within the deadline.

Watch the entire fascinating interview, which reveals a lot about Jaime’s creative process and his desire to do comics outside his usual “Locas” world, above.

from Mister Wonderful by Daniel Clowes

Part one-crazy-night comedy of errors, part Curb Your Enthusiasm-style comedy of discomfort, part heartwarming second-chance romance, part cartooning master class, Daniel Clowes’s new book Mister Wonderful packs a lot of delights in between its long covers. The book began life as a weekly strip in The New York Times Magazine‘s “Funny Pages” section before Clowes reformatted, edited, and expanded it for its new incarnation from his frequent publisher Pantheon. Now the misadventures of Marshall, a middle-aged divorcé with a penchant for second-guessing pretty much every word out of his own mouth, and his fateful blind date can sit comfortably on your bookshelf instead of lying in your recycling bin after the weekend’s over. And the added bonus to any new Clowes comic, of course, is new Clowes interviews.

Over on the CBR mothership, Clowes spoke with Alex Dueben, who elicited from the cartoonist a provocative take on the much-lamented demise of the alternative comic-book series (a la Clowes’s own Eightball):

Do you ever see yourself going back to “Eightball?” If not doing it the same way, then doing something like what Seth did last year when he returned to “Palookaville?”

No. I think the great thing about those early comics, “Eightball” and “Yummy Fur” and all that, was it was the pre-Internet days. We had letters pages and we were a fulcrum for this community. You felt a certain responsibility to mediate that. There’s no necessity for that at all anymore. If I was going to do a comic, I wouldn’t put in a letters page. There’s no point to it. Beyond that kind of thing, I don’t know. If I were going to do a bunch of short little comics, I might consider doing another issue, but it would never be the same as those early comics. It would have to be a whole new thing.

Most people tend to focus on the alternative comic book as a format superseded by book-formatted collections and graphic novels, but the community aspect of those series — the way letters pages and notes from the artists would lead readers to similar books and similar people who read them — was a powerful enticement in its own right, meaning that the Internet probably had as much to do with the format’s obsolescence as did perfectbound hardcovers.

Meanwhile, yours truly interviewed Clowes for The Comics Journal’s website. Here he explains the origin of Mister Wonderful, the idea for which came to him spontaneously in the middle of the phone call during which an editor for The New York Times Magazine offered him the gig the strip would eventually be created for:

We were talking about the “Funny Pages” section—I had wondered how popular it could possibly be, since nobody I knew was really talking about it. It seemed like all the cartoonists who were in it and the friends of the cartoonists who were in it were talking about it, but it wasn’t the kind of thing that was making the rounds, where everybody was talking about the latest serial fiction piece that was running in there. She said, “Yeah, people are a little confused by it.” She was very careful in the way she spoke, and she said something like, “We’d really love it if you could consider the audience.”

I remember thinking, “Oh, she means, ‘Try to make this one mainstream in a way that will appeal to the New York Times reader.’” Off the top of my head, as a joke, I said, “I should just do a romance story.” I was making a joke—like, a Sandra Bullock movie! A totally formulaic Harlequin-romance kind of a story.

And she laughed, like, “Don’t do that.” [Laughter]

But then, as she was talking during the rest of the phone call, we were going over all this other stuff, I was talking without even listening to what I was saying. I was actually thinking, “That’s a great idea! I could do a romance story!” I immediately thought, “I should try to think of who would be the ultimate, quintessential New York Times Magazine reader—a schlubby, middle-aged guy, the kind of guy I would see reading the New York Times on Sunday morning at a café in Oakland—and make him the hero of this romance.”

from Love from the Shadows by Gilbert Hernandez

Interviews with Love and Rockets co-creator Gilbert Hernandez are increasingly rare treasures. It seems the man behind the decades-spanning Palomar/Luba/Fritz saga — a story at first centered on the people of a remote Latin American village, then on one of its more irascible and memorable leading ladies, then on her irresistible but troubled sister — has preferred to let his work speak for him. So I was delighted to discover that he’d opened up again, this time to our own Chris Mautner. And in Chris’s interview with Beto over at CBR, Hernandez is not mincing words. He speaks like a man fed up with restraints of any kind — those placed on him by his early, beloved “Palomar” tales, or by his fans and critics, or by the financial limitations of professional cartooning, or by the shape of the market, or by what he sees as the timid state of contemporary comics itself. None of this all that surprising given his ever more savage, unsparing work, particularly in the “Fritz” cycle of graphic novels ostensibly adapted from the low-budget films in which the character starred, but hearing him say it all in so many words makes for a bracing read. Take a look:

Exploitation allows for madness and obsession to be explored more deeply. I’m still surprised at how many adults are intimidated by sex in comics. Many L&R readers and critics don’t know what to make of that kind of material from me, and I tried not to emphasize the movie connection at first. But it seems many readers are interested in the tenuous link to the “Palomar” world. I’m one of the few left making crazy comics, it seems….

The Fritz series frees me of any obligation to be a do-gooder cartoonist, something most regular L&R readers probably don’t want to hear. I felt straight jacketed with “Palomar” and the like after a while, really. I have a lot more going on in my imagination than I’m expected to utilize. I do enjoy B-movies and comics, from their beginnings in the 1930s to the mid-1970s. Comics I like after that are few and far between. Non-superhero mainstream comics have become so conservative and dull to me; you can see the same thing on TV these days. And indy comics are so PC and precious, I have little interest in them as well. Comics used to be a place where you could only find what they were about in comics, now comics have to keep up with movies and TV, where it used to be the other way around.

Some sweeping statements in there (trust me, there are plenty of indy comics that aren’t “PC and precious” going on right now) and some accurate statements as well (The Comics Journal’s Tom DeHaven’s review of Beto’s latest, Love from the Shadows, offers ample evidence that some readers are indeed sick of Hernandez’s turn to the extreme) and some that are probably both at the same time. I’ll tell you one thing, though: The passion on display in this interview most definitely radiates out of every panel of Gilbert’s recent work, which is among the most powerful and uncompromising of his storied career. Read the interview, read the comics, witness one of the medium’s most fearless artists at work, and decide for yourself whether it’s all for good or ill.

Batman: The Long Halloween #4

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And auld lang syne!

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne.
We’ll take a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

We’ll be calling it quits here early today, what with it being New Year’s Eve and all, but don’t worry — we’ll be back soon. This Sunday marks our second anniversary, and like last year, CBR head honcho Jonah Weiland is handing over the keys to the Comic Book Resources home page. We’ve got a lot of cool stuff lined up for Sunday, including interviews and exclusive previews, so be sure to check back around 6 a.m. Pacific, then come back all day between football quarters and movie marathons!

Happy New Year, and we’ll see you again on Sunday!

CBR News: What was it like putting together a graphic novel for the first time? You’ve made many comics in the past, but a project this large is something else.

Joyce Farmer: First of all, I didn’t know what I was getting into. Second, I didn’t really know how to write something like this. I don’t consider myself a writer. It was overwhelming, and because it was overwhelming, it took me thirteen years. I would work and get to a certain point and then get overwhelmed both by the problem of putting my parents on paper and by the problem of a book. Then I wouldn’t work for as much as a year and then I’d beat myself up that I’d figured out this wonderful book and should get going before somebody else thought of it or it wouldn’t be of interest. Because the book is set in a certain number of years, named years in the book, I couldn’t let it go on forever, although I nearly did.

It was overwhelming. I think these younger people who do graphic memoirs seem to use a lot of paper and ink to say very little and it takes them quite awhile [to say it]. I’m not saying what they say is not worthwhile, I’m just saying that they’re not as condensed as I intended to be. It was way more work than I ever thought. Every time I’d get the book to a certain point, like the first drawing, somebody would suggest something that would be so obviously needed, I would have to go through the whole book and fix it. Then later when I’m inking, the same type of thing happened.

The first thirty-five pages I threw away after they were inked. I started completely over.

Dang. Special Exits ranked #29 on CBR’s countdown of the Top 100 Comics of 2010, and as I said in my write-up, it made me cry. Please do check it out, and read the whole interview, too.

Hello and welcome to Send Us Your Shelf Porn, where fans can show off what they’ve got, so long as what they’ve got involves comic book collections. Would you like to show off your shelves? Drop me an email and let’s see what we can do.

Today’s shelves come from Chad Nevett, who reviews comics for CBR and also contributes to Comics Should Be Good. Take it away, Chad …

*****

When I moved in with my girlfriend last year, she generously gave me two shelves on both of her bookcases (so, four shelves in total). I decided to use two for comics and two for regular books, one each per bookcase. The comics shelf on this bookcase has been altered quite a bit as I moved more books from my parents’ place to our apartment. The current line-up of Hellblazer, Warren Ellis stuff, Transmet, and Preacher with the Invisibles and some Eddie Campbell and Chester Brown on top seems like the final one.

The other shelf is my hardcover shelf. This has also undergone some changes with this one being the final one. I would have it as all hardcovers, but those Sin City books need to be on a shelf to display the cool spine image. The books on the top are the four Incal collections and Come in Alone by Warren Ellis. The books you can’t see are Parker: The Hunter by Darwyn Cooke, the first two Scott Pilgrim books, Crooked Little Vein by Warren Ellis, and the 20/20 Visions collection.

Because of limited shelf space, a lot of my books are stuck in boxes still.

One of the shelves right next to my desk with a bunch of trades. Mostly ones that I wanted close at hand for whatever reason.

A shelf beneath my desk. More trades that I want close at hand, plus Wednesday Comics sitting on top.

My desk and shelves. This is where I spend far too much of my time. Sparta, USA #3 is out because I was in the middle of writing a review of it for CBR. That big mug is my 52 oz. Slurpee mug from 7-Eleven and it gets filled most days. The shortbox beneath my desk contains the ongoing books I’m currently buying, while the other box in front of the shelves contains some older books and the current minis I’m buying. Lots of CDs around since that’s my preferred way to listen to music. A cluttered (but organised in my mind) desk.

*****

Last week Dark Horse released its solicitations for April 2010, and as they popped up around the web on Thursday evening at various sites (and on Friday morning at CBR), a collective “What the hell?’ rang out at Buffy fan sites like Buffyfest and Whedonesque. The two covers for Buffy the Vampire Slayer #34 showed Buffy making out with her former lover Angel (dressed as Twilight) in one, and the two of them clutching each other passionately in the other. The solicitation text read, “Twilight has been unmasked. Buildings fall, oceans churn, and the earth moves as titans come together in a bizarre twist!”

The release of the actual covers, versus versions that didn’t give away Twilight’s identity, was a mistake, Dark Horse editor Scott Allie would say later. He posted an explanation as to what happened over on the Dark Horse web site:

Buffy and Angel, er, Twilight, sitting in a tree

Late Thursday afternoon (January 7), I got an email from Georges saying that a friend of his had called to ask if this spoiler that had leaked was really true — the uncensored covers to Buffy #34 had been released to the internet. I felt like the ground was yanked out from under me. Sierra and I just stared at each other with our mouths open. I called Georges up to confirm, and yeah, this had happened, and it was on the fansites. I don’t mention the fansites to cast blame. The blame is all with us at Dark Horse. We put a lot of energy into containing this secret, and then a colossal error was made. Our first instinct was to figure out how to retract the images that leaked, but the fact that it was on fansites told us the cat was out of the bag. Had it just been Diamond’s website, maybe we could’ve retracted it; but once an image is on the internet, anywhere on the internet, I don’t think you can ever get it back. The fact that it was on multiple sites, including many that we don’t have close relationships with, meant we shouldn’t waste time talking about a retraction.

He said they considered a plan “to try to make it look like this wasn’t really as spoiler,” but decided that was the wrong approach after speaking with Buffy creator Joss Whedon:

Because of which images leaked, and how far they’d spread, Joss felt that there was no putting the cat back in the bag. I misspoke when I told Buffyfest that the pics were posted on the fansites; they were linked with spoiler warnings. The point was, the information was out there. We discussed Dark Horse’s plan to obfuscate, and came up with another more outrageous idea. But ultimately, we both felt it would be wrong if you got this answer by accident and were left to debate it for nearly two more months, with Joss and the rest of us playing cute in interviews, only to have it all pay off with the fact that yes, you had the answer after all. We know that the readership isn’t monolithic, that you’re all going to have different thoughts about something like this, be we knew that in your shoes WE’D feel cheated and manipulated. Joss felt that owning up was the only option, that there are still twists and turns aplenty, and that this spoiler merely opens up a whole other range of questions. You can certainly disagree with the decision, but this is the truth, and this was what we all agreed upon Friday morning, when the Dark Horse team met and hatched a strategy to address this situation head on.

In approaching it head on, though, Allie says they made a mistake in not marking anything as a spoiler for fans who might not have seen the solicits or fan sites (or who purposely avoid them, as many people do). Once the reveal was out there, Dark Horse posted it very openly on Facebook and Twitter, which led to a firestorm of responses from fans — stuff like “Thanks for the freaking spoiler!!! Explain to me why I need to buy it now?” and “Thanks for the spoiler, can you spoil Hellboy next please so I don’t have to buy the issues,” as you can see for yourself at the Facebook link.

CBR soon followed up with an interview with Allie, where he confirmed it was not a ruse, and that they’d been planning for Twilight to be Angel for the last four years. CBR also took some hits from its readers for not only talking about it openly in the story itself without any sort of spoilers warning, but also for including those spoilers in the image and text that were used to link to the story on the home page.

CBR news editor Kiel Phegley posted a comment about CBR’s coverage in the forums:

While I understand that longtime Buffy fans are taken aback by the news, considering both the fact that ALL the images that hit and the new image we received for this story featured Angel prominently and that public discussion and promotion behind the reveal had already started off by discussing the facts of the reveal and not just that it happened (I mean, the Twitter tag they went with is #twilightisangel)…well, with all that on the table when we reached out to Dark Horse for an interview, it only made sense that we’d report on the news as is rather than hide it behind spoiler warnings and such.

I get that you’re angry this hit, but it hit suddenly, and we tried our best to give DH their say on the implications of the reveal without spoiling the particulars of the issues that are coming in the months ahead.

I truly believe that if you’re a Buffy fan who spends any time at all on the internet reading about or discussing the series, this would have been spoiled for you long before the issues in question shipped whether we put the image front and center or not. And because of that, we decided to go with a hook to the story that would bring in as many readers as possible, something I still stand behind.

So that’s one piece of Buffygate, and you’d think that would be enough, wouldn’t you? But it doesn’t end there, as we learned yesterday when Phegley posted a story that included comments from Bill Willingham on the big reveal. Willingham, of course, is writing the Angel comic for IDW Publishing, something Allie talked about with CBR:

One immediate concern fans may have over the news that Angel and Twilight are one and the same is exactly what that means for the character’s own canonical comic book series, which just recently wrapped its “After The Fall” continuation of his spinoff TV series for IDW Publishing. While IDW continue to tell stories with the character under the pen of writer Bill Willingham, Allie promised that Whedon had plans to reconcile both versions to make a cohesive Buffyverse. “I talked to Chris [Ryall] at IDW last night, and I’m going to talk to him today to reassure him that it all connects and it’s all going to jibe. That’s one thing we wanted to reassure him of and to make clear. This isn’t going to be some big conflict with the IDW continuity. It’s all going to be made to work.”

And here’s Willingham’s response:

Spike isn't Twilight

I would like to respond to your article of January 8th, titled BEHIND BUFFY’S TWILIGHT REVEAL, and clear up a few points, making clear that I am speaking only for myself, not IDW or Fox.

Five scripts in, and counting, on IDW’s ongoing Angel comic book series, I am not coordinating, nor have I ever coordinated stories with Scott Allie, Joss Whedon, nor anyone else at Dark Horse Comics. No one at IDW has ever instructed me, or suggested to me, ways in which I might conform my scripts to what is going on with Dark Horse’s Buffy comics, which I’ve purposely not read, specifically to avoid being influenced by them. I’ve had exactly one short conversation, in passing, with Joss Whedon, which took place years ago and had nothing to do with these matters. To my knowledge I’ve never had a conversation with Scott Allie, beyond being introduced to him, at conventions and such, though I doubt even that much contact has occurred. I have however been told, in no uncertain terms, that Mr. Whedon is not available for contact concerning anything to do with the Angel series at IDW, because he is only working with Dark Horse. So I’m not sure how Scott Allie imagines he and Mr. Whedon plan to coordinate IDW’s Angel series into their Buffy series, as is implied in the seventh paragraph of your article.

For Allie to suggest that he is in coordination with IDW, as he did in that seventh paragraph, is grossly misleading, at best. By intentionally allowing, encouraging in fact, the notion to exist among the comics reading public, that Whedon and Dark Horse are in any way steering, or influencing, the stories I help to produce in IDW’s ongoing Angel series, Allie and Whedon are committing what is tantamount to taking credit for the work of others, a repugnant practice in any business, although I understand it is all too common in some.

As long as I am writing the Angel series for IDW, I will not be coordinating stories with any Dark Horse comic, period.

CBR asked Allie to respond, and he said “I haven’t talked to Bill, but I’ve been talking to Chris Ryall, and I think we’re gonna work things out. My line about making the continuities jibe was something I’d said to Chris the night before I did any interviews, and he seemed okay with it. We never intended to go in and screw with what Bill’s doing, though.”

And finally, posted just a few minutes ago, Joss Whedon goes into a lot more detail with CBR on the spoilers, how Dark Horse can use characters like Angel and Spike in their comics, and his involvement with the IDW Angel comics … or lack of, as it turns out.

And I think that’s where we are as of today, although there are a few more links of note if you’re interested in reading further. Rich Johnston speculates in two posts that Dark Horse revealed Angel was Twilight on purpose, in order to help drive sales. Allie said in his post on the Dark Horse site that they created dummy covers for issues 34 and 35 to be used in the Diamond catalog. “When you see the catalog for April-shipping books in a few weeks, you’ll see altered versions of the two #34 covers, spoiler free. If those images had been the ones sent out, as they should have been, none of this would have happened.”

If this was really about driving sales, then wouldn’t the real covers appear in Diamond’s catalog as well, with a big headline aimed at retailers that says “Hey, buy these friggin’ books, Angel is going to be in them!”? The Dark Horse note to retailers that Rich quotes sounds like it was written after all this broke, and sounds to me like maybe they were trying to squeeze out a little lemonade now that the cat is out of the bag. I think Rich is right, though, that the end result will be a bump in sales; I know I was considering dropping the book, but I’ll stay on for a few more months to see how it all plays out. And I have a few Buffy fans in my family who have cooled on the comics, but will likely dig this news.

Speaking of issue 35, over at Splash Page, you can see the two covers for issue #35.

And if you’re interested in the actual storyline that’s led up to this development in the comics themselves, Stinky Burger Productions has a good rundown of Twilight’s appearances in Buffy thus far, as well as some questions about this version of Angel we’ll be seeing in the Buffy comics.

First anniversary? I thought. And no, I didn’t mean that in a “Wow, it’s already been a year?” kind of way. I mean that in a “Wow, it’s only been a year?”

The sheer amount of news, announcements and change that’s been rolling out over the past 365 days has been exciting and sometimes even a bit overwhelming. Companies were bought, people stepped down, legends died, titles were canceled, projects were announced, cons went to war, comics exploded onto electronic devices, new sites were launched … I mean, damn. I took a week off at the end of summer and came back to find out Marvel had been bought by Disney. I went back to Texas a few weeks ago to visit family and came back to find that DC had announced about 10,000 new projects (OK, I may be exaggerating there). I’m afraid to go anywhere now because I might miss what happens next.

It’s been a pretty good year to be a blogger. There’s been plenty to talk about.

So yeah, it was only a year ago today that we officially kicked off the new blog here at CBR. And it feels like we’ve been running at full speed ever since. If you think we’re slowing down today, well … think again. Y’see, Jonah and I did come to an agreement on what we should do for the blog’s first anniversary — due to a brief and atypical lapse in judgment on his part (I feel like I should add a Mwahahahaha! here), he’s letting us take over the CBR home page for the day. And what a day we have planned. Stick around, and you’ll see some cool, exclusive stuff sent to us by several of our friends around in the industry. Expect a couple of interviews, and maybe a special feature or three. Heck, we have so much stuff, it may be more than just one day can possibly contain, so we may have to spill some of it over into tomorrow (don’t tell Jonah).

It’s been a great year here at Robot 6 in our new digs at CBR, and I have a few miles worth of names I should probably thank. But I’m afraid if I start now it’s the only thing we’ll get to today. So to everyone who ever submitted a tip or link, or sent us your Shelf Porn, or talked with Tim, or sent us a review copy, or bought an ad, or clicked on an ad, or guest blogged, or told me how much you dig Comics A.M., or supported our auctions for Carla and Lance, or emailed me a press release, or gave me a press pass to a con, or let me look through your sketchbook, or linked to something we did, or retweeted one of our posts, or just made comics better, or … well, you get the idea …THANK YOU! None of us are in this alone.

Thanks to the folks who contribute to Robot 6 on a regular basis — I love you all. Thanks to the folks at CBR who keep the place up and running. And thanks to you, our readers, whether you’ve been here since we kicked off a year ago or this is your first time to visit the site.

Happy New Year, everyone! As always, stay tuned for much, much more …

Iron Men

Here are a few more pictures I took at the San Diego Comic-Con last week, many of which appeared on the CBR Live blog already, but I thought I’d group them all together over here. The picture above shows the four sets of Iron Man armor (Iron Men?) from the Marvel booth this year.

Speaking of the CBR Live blog, maybe you already saw these “behind the scenes” shots of the CBR Yacht. It all looks very sanitized, doesn’t it? Very clean, very polished, very … yeah. Here are a few I took on Wednesday, before the con started and everything was set up for the Boat Show videos …

I took this one as I approached from the dock … a paper mache Spider-Man was manning the helm.

And here’s another shot, this time from behind Spider-Man.

And here you’ll see some of the items that eventually became the backdrop of the videos, before they were nicely and neatly arranged for the camera.

And finally, Seth and Stephen work to ensure Spider-Man is dressed and ready for the video interviews the next day. Seth works on the site’s videos, while Stephen handles, I think, just about everything that’s site related, from editing and posting stories to doing web design to creating fancy-looking logos for the site’s blogs. He helps us out here at the blog a lot behind the scenes.

Let’s move on to a couple more CBR-related shots …

And CBR wins the Eisner! This is Jonah Weiland, moments after returning from the stage after accepting the award.

And here’s the actual award. This was my second visit to the Eisner Awards ceremony, as I went last year when Newsarama won. This year seemed to go by much faster; for one thing, they shaved about 20 minutes off the ceremony, and second, I was both live blogging it here at Robot 6 and tweeting the winners on the CBR Twitter feed. So it was nice to have something to do during the ceremony, even if cellular reception sucked and the wi-fi in the new Hilton Bayfront Hotel gave me trouble.

Also, if I haven’t mentioned it already, congratulations to everyone associated with Comic Book Resources for the big win this year!

This is the black trimaran sailboat belonging to BMW Oracle Racing, which was parked not far from the CBR boat.

Local media trucks were lined up outside the convention center on (I think) the first day of the con. Or maybe the second; I can’t remember.

A car painted up with a scene from Heroes that passed me as I was walking to the con. And I had quite a walk; I took the shuttle a few times, but it never really seemed to be any faster since it stops at so many other hotels and traffic close to the convention center is usually slow moving.

Here’s another car, this one a Honda Element painted up with Marvel characters.This was a prize in a drawing they held for folks who gave blood to the San Diego Blood Bank.

Now let’s head into the convention center …

Here’s a character from the comic Cursed Pirate Girl.

Here’s Image founder, Top Cow chief and artist Marc Silvestri.

Adam Baldwin from TV’s Chuck and Firefly signs autographs. I believe they were $30 a pop, which included a glossy photo.

The Baroness, Harley and a bunch of Cyclons.

Here’s Chip Mosher, BOOM! marketing director, right before their panel started. Read my full report on what they announced here.

And finally, we woke up one morning to find this on our door … a “Do Not Disturb” sign advertising the upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum video game. One morning we also had one for HBO’s True Blood on our door, which said something about the undead not liking to be disturbed on one side, and the other saying “Please clean our room … we went out for a bite.”

You can also follow us on Twitter for moment-by-moment updates, wisdom and fits of insanity:

• JK Parkin
• Carla Hoffman
• Matt Maxwell

And if you’re on Twitter, don’t forget to subscribe to Robot 6 and Comic Book Resources. Not only will you receive links to all the panel reports, interviews and posts coming out of the con, but we’ll also be posting other little news bits throughout the week as well on both feeds.

The Blob

This will be our last update on the SDCC ‘09 Fat Bastard Challenge before the big weigh-in at San Diego. As you’ll recall, Comic Book Resource head honcho Jonah Weiland challenged Monster Attack Network/Highwaymen/Genius co-writer Marc Bernardin to a weight loss contest, where both competitors are attempting to lose 20 lbs. before the big show.

The rules are:

• The person with the most weight loss by San Diego is treated to a $50 meal by the loser.
• They both have to donate $10 to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund for every pound of weight less than 20 they haven’t lost by San Diego.

The final weigh-in was set to take place on the CBR Yacht at Comic-Con International in San Diego on Thursday, July 23, but I think that may be in flux due to some scheduling difficulties. However, we will see this through, even if I have to drag a scale into one of Marc’s panels or interrupt one of the interviews Jonah will be doing on the yacht.

Anyway, let’s, see where our contestants stand before the big show ….

JK: How did you do this week, and where did you end up weight-wise?

Jonah: Just one pound, down to 227, but I’m neither discouraged or upset with that. The work outs have been fantastic and intense. The classes have been incredibly challenging physically. But while I’m only down 7.5 pounds since we began this, I feel different and am beginning to look a bit different. I’ve slimmed in my face and I’m using the next belt hole in, just like Marc. In fact, I’m down an entire waist size, which I’m exceedingly happy about. I’m down from a 38 to 36 waist. Looking forward to 34.

Marc: Well, as of yesterday, I was down to 242, or a loss of 14 pounds. I’d plateau’d for a bit — gone most of the week without losing an ounce — but a little cheeseburger injection helped a bit. I had to convince my system, even for a little, that we weren’t starving. Survival mode is no way to shed pounds. But those last 6 pounds will task me. Not sure I can ditch them before the Con, but we’ll see.

JK: We’re in the home stretch, and even though the con hasn’t started yet, I’m betting you guys are knee deep in it already. Are you going to stay on track between now and the weigh in?

Jonah: I’m going to try. I’ve packed gym clothes and plan to use the one at the Marriott or at least go for a jog along the boardwalk, which might be the best idea both physically and mentally. Time will tell whether I get a chance to exercise during the con, but I’m going to try.

Marc: The worst part is that I’m already in California; a couple of days in L.A. before the madness sets in. And traveling is NEVER a boon to weight loss. It’s easier to control your caloric intake when you’re preparing your own meals. But I’m at the mercy of restaurant chefs for the immediate future. And we’ll see if those butter-happy bastards will derail the health train.

Thunderbolts #137

As I’ve been following the current Thunderbolts run by Andy Diggle, particularly the subplot involving Songbird and her mission to take down Osbourn’s team, one of the questions that’s been on my mind is, “Where the heck are the rest of the original Thunderbolts?” It’s been awhile since we’ve seen Atlas, MACH-IV and the rest of that crew, and you figure if Songbird’s going to ask someone for help, wouldn’t it make sense to give her old friends a call?

Well, in issue #134, that call goes out.

As revealed in yesterday’s Cup o’ Q&A with Joe Quesada over at the main CBR site, the original team is coming back to help Songbird. Two other fans apparently had the same question that I did, and asked Marvel’s Editor in Chief about Baron Zemo — the team’s original leader — and the rest of his crew.

“It’s a great question, Steven and Mike, and I guess you can say you heard it here first,” Quesada responded. “Old school T-Bolts fans rejoice! Songbird is actually going to begin to assemble the original TBolts in issue #134. Her mission basically is to destroy Norman Osborn and his crazy pack of killers who have taken the good name of the original T-bolts. And yes, Zemo has been discussed internally, so stay tuned. We haven’t decided just yet… or maybe we have and I’m just not going to tell you. [laughs]”

From the artwork above, it looks like at least MACH-IV and Techno are back, teaming with Songbird and … well, if you’ve read the most recent issue (or even if you just recognize those bracelets) you know who they’re standing with …

Superman #221 cover by Chris Harmon

It’s been a couple of weeks since we last checked in with our contestants in the SDCC ‘09 Fat Bastard Challenge. As you’ll recall, Comic Book Resource head honcho Jonah Weiland challenged Monster Attack Network/Highwaymen/Genius co-writer Marc Bernardin to a weight loss contest leading up to the San Diego Comic-Con. Both competitors are attempting to lose 20 lbs. before the big show.

The rules are:

• The person with the most weight loss by San Diego is treated to a $50 meal by the loser.
• They both have to donate $10 to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund for every pound of weight less than 20 they haven’t lost by San Diego.

The final weigh-in is set to take place on the CBR Yacht at Comic-Con International in San Diego on Thursday, July 23.

I tossed a few questions at Marc and Jonah to see how they were doing, especially in light of the holiday weekend:

JK: It’s been two weeks since the last weigh in, and we had a little something called the Fourth of July in between then and now. Barbecue, potato salad, beer, ice cream … did you go all out on the 4th, or did you hold back?

Marc: I held back as much as I could, but there was beer to be imbibed, burgers (sans buns) to eat, and a 4th of July party that served something called Monkey Bread. Which, as I learned, basically consists of cinnamon sugar-covered munchkins crammed into a bundt cake mold and doused with a melted-butter-and-brown-sugar death goop. Ye gods, man. Evil dessert, that. So there was some weight, er, fluctuation around Independence Day, yes.

Jonah: No holding back — I’m a firm believer that vacation and time off should be spent enjoying yourself, especially so since it’s really the last break I get prior to Comic-Con. I dove in head first — burgers, hot dogs, chips, bean dip, a cocktail or 15. YOU NAME IT! That said, I did continue to exercise, even visiting with my trainer Michael Blanks the morning of July 4th.

JK: Overall how much weight have you lost so far?

Marc: As of this morning, I weighed in at 245. Just two pounds down from last week, giving me a net loss of 11 pounds. I got into jeans this morning that I haven’t seen in seasons.

Jonah: I started out at 234.5 and I’m now at 228. My weight loss has been slower than Mark’s, but I’m OK with that. The reason being is two fold — I’ve not been as strict with my diet (a bowl of Cap’n Crunch cereal almost nightly is necessary) and my exercising has built up a lot of muscle. I’ve really begun to notice the changes, too — my clothing fits better, there are muscles where there haven’t been muscles in a while, an extra notch is needed on my belt and I feel better.

That said, I did want to try to increase the weight loss a bit so I’ve added the Drenched Fit classes Michael teaches at Body Theory to my regiment. I’m still doing the weight training with Michael, but as a cardio workout the Drenched Fit classes have absolutely kicked my ass! Lots of boxing, sit ups, push ups, running, jumping jacks, lunges, etc. … you name it! Honestly, during the class I will think to myself, “What the hell are you doing here?” But the next day I can feel the results and that’s a great feeling.

JK: We’ve got two weeks before the big weigh in at Comic Con. What’s your plan for going the distance between then and now?

Marc: I think I’m probably gonna have to kick it up a notch by — perish the thought — hitting the gym. I’ve been doing this all through diet and cardio; time to add some plates of weights to the regimen. Time to pin the needle, boys. And I’m getting’ hungry, Jonah — better fatten up your wallet.

Jonah: More training and classes with Michael, augmented by some bike riding. I’ve only taken two fit classes thus far and can take two more next week, but the week of Comic-Con I won’t have that opportunity. I’m headed to San Diego the Monday before the show, so I’ll be on my own. That said, maybe I’ll take my bike down and ride up and down the board walk each day.

Oh, and hopefully there will be less Cap’n Crunch in my day, but man, that Captain’s a charming evil bastard. At least I’m eating it with Soy Milk. Damn, I know, that doesn’t help.

###

(Artwork this time comes from the always awesome Covered blog — Chris Harmon draws the cover to Superman #221)

Last week

Their motivation is:

• The person with the most weight loss by San Diego is treated to a $50 meal by the loser.
• They both have to donate $10 to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund for every pound of weight less than 20 they haven’t lost by San Diego.

We’ll be checking in with them every week leading up to the final weigh-in, set to take place on the CBR Yacht at Comic-Con International in San Diego on Thursday, July 23. Now let’s hear how they did this week:

Marc Bernardin:

So, after a week of Twitter smack-talking, toilet-papering each other’s houses, and general high school-grade antics, where do we stand in the Great Weight Battle of Our Time, the quest to lose at least 20 lbs before July 23rd, the Thursday of San Diego Comic-Con?

As of today, June 25th, I’m weighing in at 250 lbs, for a net weight loss of six pounds.

My diet plan is a simple one: Do more, eat less.

The “do more” part isn’t that hard: I’m walking to work most days, the 20-odd blocks from Penn Station on 32nd Street and 7th Avenue to EW’s bunker on 50th and 7th. I’m doing push-ups and sit-ups every night (the oldies are goodies for a reason: those two exercises will work almost every muscle group in the body, and it don’t cost nothing but time).

The “eat less” has required a rather massive lifestyle change. The accepted amount of calories your average male should be taking in per day is around 3,000, give or take. Your average fat male can take in almost double that — which is a cinch, given that a Bloomin’ Onion from Outback will add more than 2,300 calories by itself, and that’s just an bloomin’ appetizer. So I’ve taken that 3,000 calories and chopped it in half. And, thanks to a calorie counter I downloaded for my iPod from Livestrong.com, I’m keeping to about 1,600 calories per day. (I’m gonna vary it a bit, here and there, just so my body doesn’t go into starvation mode — thinking, say, I’m stuck in the Sahara and need every last erg of fat to survive the crossing.)

That’s how I plan to go from The Blob to Power Man. I’m not sure what that Weiland punk is doing, besides whining that his arms hurt from working out.

Jonah Weiland:

It’s been a week since we’ve begun this Fat Bastard Challenge and all goes pretty damn well. The quest to lose 20 pounds by Thursday at Comic-Con International in San Diego continues.

After the first week of this little competition I now weigh in at 231.5 pounds, a loss of 3 pounds since the initial weigh in. Yeah, Bernardin won this first week, but I’m not starving myself with horrid salads, bland food and rice cakes! Nuh uh!

I’m tackling this challenge primarily through exercise and small changes in diet. Truth be told, I need to change my diet a bit more to really succeed at this thing. For the most part I’ve been eating my standard bowl of oatmeal with brown sugar and raisins in the morning, a healthy lunch low on carbs, then whatever I want for dinner. Sadly, the whatever I want for dinner every night probably needs to go. As do the sweets – I have an incredible sweet tooth. I think only the LA Lakers Lamar Odom has a worse sweet tooth than I. There’s no doubt it slowed me down a bit this first week – hey, I just can’t resist a box of licorice!

When this little endeavor began, I knew I could hop on the bicycle and start riding for an hour every day. But I also knew I would need some help. I’d need motivation. I’d need a secret weapon.

Michael and Jonah

That’s me with my personal trainer Michael Blanks, trainer to the stars! I’ve seen him three times since we started this little challenge, heading over for early morning work outs at his Body Theory studio in North Hollywood. Now, I hate gyms. Especially in LA, but Body Theory isn’t a gym and it’s not your typical work out place. They don’t care if you’re rich, you’re poor or famous or not, they have one goal – to get you sweating! It’s a very warm and inviting atmosphere and if any of you live in the area and are looking to get your butt in shape, Body Theory is the place.

Michael’s been focusing on low weight, high repetition work outs with me to really get me burning calories during and after the work outs and I’ll augment that with bike rides. This past week I wasn’t able to hit the bike more than once, but the plan moving forward is to see Michael three times a week and to ride the bike for an hour three times a week. Michael would like to see me take one of their Fit classes to augment the personal training. I think I’ll definitely do that. Will that get me to the 20 lbs I need to loose? Will the muscle gain hurt my weight loss goals? I guess we’ll find out at the final weigh in, when Marc will cry and I will do a little happy dance and await my $50 meal!

Oh, and by the way, Marc, enjoy your salads.

Fat Bastard

Editor’s note: Today we kick off a series of posts about a weight loss challenge between two of the entertainment world’s finest journalists (and I’m not saying that because one of them mails me checks). In one corner, you have Comic Book Resources‘ own Jonah Weiland. In the other corner, you have Entertainment Weekly’s Marc Bernardin, who also writes comics like Monster Attack Network for AiT, the Highwaymen for Wildstorm and Genius for Top Cow. What started on Twitter will surely end with blood, sweat and tears. Or at least a lot of sweat. Now here’s Jonah to get everything started …

by Jonah Weiland

So, you’re asking yourself, what the hell is the SDCC ’09 Fat Bastard Challenge? Have a sit.

Monday, comics and Entertainment Weekly writer Marc Bernardin tweeted that he really wanted to get in better shape for Comic-Con International in San Diego and said his goal was 20 pounds. Now, I’ve been trying to convince myself to get back on the bicycle to get in better shape for CCI as well, but I needed that push. So I sent Marc something of a challenge –- the person with the most weight loss by San Diego is treated to a $50 meal by the loser.

Marc loved the idea and we began planning. We both realized that 20 lbs. in five weeks might not be possible, so we added a twist – for every pound of weight less than 20 each of us hasn’t lost by San Diego means a $10 donation per pound to the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.

The challenge was accepted and we’re off to the races or, hopefully, the gym, as there’s not much exercise involved in betting the ponies. All that was needed was a name, which Marc supplied: the SDCC Fat Bastard Challenge. You can even follow our regular updates on Twitter with the #SDCCFatBastard hash tag.

After the challenge was accepted publicly, ROBOT 6’s John Parkin wrote us and asked if we’d like to contribute updates on our progress to this here blog and maybe even do a bit of smack talk to motivate each other. Look, I’m a longtime fan of NBA star Larry Bird, one of the greatest trash talkers the game has ever seen. When it comes to competitive activities –- be it a game of softball or even air hockey -– well, I talk a lot of smack. I blame Larry. So when John offered the opportunity to further embarrass myself publicly, I figured what the hell!

Bernardin and I have both revealed our starting weights. Wearing jeans, t-shirt, socks and unmentionables, Marc clocked in at a weight of 256. Myself, wearing the same, clocked in at 234.5 (I love my digital scale). The fight is on and we even have some honorary supporters, like Leverage executive producer John Rogers who’s going to get his 220 lb. butt in gear for San Diego, too!

The weigh in will take place on the CBR Yacht at Comic-Con International in San Diego on Thursday, July 23. While I could bring my scale from home, I’m sure Marc will call foul and say it’s not a trusted scale and that we must have a brand new, neutral scale, the Switzerland of scales, that doesn’t “favor” me. Marc, look, it’s not going to help – I’m going to destroy you. (See, the smack talk has already begun).

So, Marc and I will check in periodically updating you on our progress. We’re both going to be safe about this -– no starvation diets, no diet pills, no weird Hollywood fad diets where you have to eat 10 cans of beets daily followed by an anchovy chaser. Just a mix of good eating, exercise and a little self-restraint.

I suppose I should let Marc close this out. Marc, do you have anything to say to the public before I embarrass you and start scouring the San Diego restaurant guides?

“Only that I’m going to crush my enemy, see him driven before me, and hear the lamentation of his women. Too much? Maybe. I’m not much for the smack talk, really. I’ve always subscribed to the credo made famous by the fighting men and women of the finest dirt-bike-and-dune-buggy assault force the world has ever seen, Megaforce: Deeds Not Words.

“So, suck it, Weiland. (And by “suck” I mean “drink,” and by “it” I mean “your losery tears.”)”