Christmas
What Are You Reading?
Uncanny X-Force #1
Welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Robot 6 crew has been enjoying on the comics front. Today our special guest is our friend Ron Richards, one of the co-founders of the popular comics website iFanboy.com. To see what Ron and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
- December 12, 2010 @ 01:14 PM by JK Parkin
Gift suggestions for every taste | Vintage X-Men game, Brown’s cat cards
Wolverine by Dan Panosian
Brigid did a round-up yesterday of various holiday gift-giving suggestions, so I thought I’d follow suit with some that I’ve seen lately.
• The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is auctioning off original art by Paul Pope, Eric Powell, Gabriel Hardman, Tom Fowler, Dan Paosian and many more, as well as lunch with Chew writer John Layman in New York next week.
• I remember shoveling a whole bunch of quarters into the X-Men arcade game back in the day; my friend Mike and I beat the game as Nightcrawler and Wolverine. If you have an Xbox fan in your life, they too can fight the Blob, Magneto and more in side-scrolling action, as the game will be available on Xbox Live Arcade Dec. 15. The PlayStation Network, unfortunately, won’t get it until February, so you’ll have to find something else this holiday season for the PS3 fan in your life. Joy to the world! The game will hit the PlayStation Network Dec. 14!
• Khepri Comics is selling Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon’s Atelier, a comic they created to sell at conventions.
• Comics creator Ben Towle has a 20 percent off sale going in his web store, where you can purchase original art from books like Midnight Sun, signed copies of Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean and superhero commissions.
- December 9, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by JK Parkin
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Thor: The Mighty Avenger
Welcome to our weekly “Food or Comics?” feature, where we set certain hypothetical spending limits on ourselves and go through the agony of trying to determine what comics come home for Christmas dinner and which ones stay on the shelves, sitting cold and lonely through the holidays. So join us as we run down what comics we’d buy if they only had $15 and $30 to spend, as well as what we’d get if we had some “mad money” to splurge with.
Check out Diamond’s release list for this week to play along. Because of weather issues, shops on the West Coast won’t be getting everything; Brian Hibbs has a list of what to expect in his store in San Francisco, which should give you an idea of what is and isn’t showing up out here.
Brigid Alverson
If I had $15…
No question, I’d get the first trade of Thor: The Mighty Avenger ($14.99). Back when I read superhero comics, The Mighty Thor was one of my favorites, and I’d love to revisit the character without getting tripped up by all the continuity I missed. This series has gotten great word-of-blog, particularly since it was canceled, and that has me curious as well.
- December 7, 2010 @ 04:00 PM by JK Parkin
Top Cow holiday specials join forces to form one super-mega special
Top Cow Holiday Special
Last week Jingle Belle creator Paul Dini said on Twitter that the previously solicited Jingle Belle special for this year was canceled, but the content would be combined with the Top Cow Holiday Special.
“Low preorders necessitated the Jing titles to be combined into the Top Cow special,” he later told an inquiring fan. “Ironically preorders shot up after that.”
According to Top Cow, the two former single issues, along with a lot of other material, will now be one graphic novel.
“Jingle Belle and the Top Cow Holiday Special (both single issues) were combined this year and will appear as the Top Cow Holiday Special OGN,” said Top Cow’s Christine Dinh. “It’ll be a flip book of both new issues.”
The graphic novel will arrive in stores Dec. 22, just in time for Christmas. Dinh said the 96-page OGN will retail at $12.99 and will include the content from The Top Cow Holiday Special #1, Jingle Belle: Grounded #1, the previously released Jingle Belle: Santa Claus vs Frankenstein, a 4-page preview of Marc Silvestri’s new project September Mourning and additional bonus material. You can check out a preview of some of the Jingle Belle artwork here.
- December 7, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading?
The Walking Dead, Vol. 12
Hello and welcome once again to What Are You Reading?, where the Robot 6 crew talk about the comics and graphic novels that they’ve been enjoying lately. Our guest this week is Jason McNamara, writer of The Martian Confederacy and its upcoming sequel, First Moon and Continuity.
To see what Jason and the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, click below.
- December 5, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | Detective Comics auction, comics prices and anti-piracy bill
Detective Comics #27
Comics | A copy of Detective Comics #27 bought for 10 cents by Robert Irwin in 1939 sold at auction Thursday for $492,937. It’s not a record price for the first appearance of Batman — a CGC-graded 8.0 copy fetched more than $1 million in February — but the $400,000 that the 84-year-old Irwin will make after the commission fee is subtracted will more than pay off the mortgage on his home. [Sacramento Bee]
Digital piracy | The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday unanimously approved a bill that would grant the Justice Department the right to shut down a website with a court order “if copyright infringement is deemed ‘central to the activity’ of the site — regardless if the website has actually committed a crime.” In short, Wired’s Sam Gustin writes, the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act “would allow the federal government to censor the internet without due process.” [Epicenter, AFP]
- November 19, 2010 @ 08:55 AM by Kevin Melrose
11-year-old receives pre-Christmas shopping spree thanks to Kids Wish Network
Bryson Michaelis
This story about Bryson Michaelis, an 11-year-old Cincinnati boy with cancer, getting a shopping spree at Rockin’ Rooster Comics & Games right before Christmas is cute, heart-warming and heart-breaking all at the same time. Michaelis took home $700 in merchandise, including some cards and comic books that he gave to his brothers for Christmas. Kids Wish Network helped make it happen.
- January 7, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by JK Parkin
Robot 6′s holiday haul
The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics
The holidays are a time for family, food, fun and, of course, the spirit of giving. I thought I’d check in with the members of the Robot 6 crew to see what comic-related gifts they received this year, along with any they gave as presents. Feel free to share anything comic-related you gave or got this year as well.
Tom Bondurant: I got The Toon Treasury of Classic Children’s Comics (Abrams Comicarts), selected and edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly. A good bit of Carl Barks Duck work, from what I can tell. My parents gave it to me.
- December 28, 2009 @ 08:54 AM by JK Parkin
‘This is for Doctor Girlfriend, so really sing it from the heart’
Christmas with the Moppets
We’re supposed to have the day off, but I’d feel guilty if I didn’t point out that Jackson Publick and Doc Hammer continue their holiday tradition this morning with a Venture Bros. Christmas song.
This year it’s The Monarch conducting the Murderous Moppets and Henchman 21 in a rendition of “The Chipmunk Song” as a gift for Dr. Mrs. The Monarch. My favorites are still 2005′s “Hard Candy Christmas” and 2006′s “Venture Aid 2006,” but this one’s still pretty good (they’re all available for listening at the link).
- December 25, 2009 @ 05:48 AM by Kevin Melrose
Happy holidays from Robot 6
by Kevin Colden
We’re winding down for a long winter’s … weekend here at Robot 6. With the Christmas holiday upon us, the team will be taking a well-deserved break for a few days as we spend time with our other offline family and friends. We’ll be back next week, of course, where in addition to our regular blogging shenanigans, you can expect to see a few special year-end features and other fun stuff as we begin the countdown to our big one-year anniversary.
Before heading off to stuff our faces with eggnog and Christmas cookies, though, you’ll find a collection of holiday-themed links after the jump. Think of it as a special Christmas Eve version of Comics A.M.
So on behalf of all of Robot 6, have a great holiday and stay safe. We’ll see you next week.
(Artwork above: I Rule the Night artist Kevin Colden shares happy holiday wishes).
- December 24, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
Send Us Your (holiday-themed) Shelf Porn!
JK's Christmas Tree
Rather than be our usual shelf-porny selves this time around, we thought, in the spirit of the season, we’d see if anyone had any special comic-themed holiday decorations they’d like to share. We put a call out and low and behold, we actually got some responses! Well, two responses, actually.
The first is from Publishers Weekly (and The Beat) contributing writer Kate Fitzsimons. The second comes from our own Robot 6 Leader Supreme, JK Parkin. We’ll start with Ms. Fitzsimons’ offerings, as she’s got her tree all nice and spiffied up for the occasion.
- December 23, 2009 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Bye, bye, mince American pie
Olde-timey kids never passed up a chance to get their mince on
Thank God for slow Festivus news days. When else would we find the time to read a fascinating article on the rise and fall of the mince pie? The Chicago Reader‘s Cliff Doersken blows my pumpkin-loving mind with his eye-opening essay on what was once considered “the monarch of the pies.” A spiced beef-based concoction, mince pie was the holiday staple and home-cooked favorite of this great nation throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries — despite the fact that pretty much everyone admitted the ingredients were unhealthy, disgusting, and even psychologically damaging. I’m totally not kidding.
Best of all, for Robot 6′s purposes at least, the piece is accompanied by a selection of vintage newspaper comics that prove what a pop-cultural staple the mince pie once was. I’d say something about newspapers themselves following mince pie into the gullet of history, but that’s hardly in the holiday spirit, so I’ll just say the article’s a feast for those hungry for lost Americana and leave it at that.
(Hat tip: Matthew Perpetua)
- December 23, 2009 @ 08:50 AM by Sean T. Collins
Paul Dini’s Jingle Belle returns as webcomic
Jingle Belle
Quick Stop Entertainment is hosting a webcomic starring Paul Dini’s Jingle Belle; the first one went up last week, and a Christmas Eve story will be posted Thursday. Dini also says Belle will return in 2010 with “more winter fun.”
- December 21, 2009 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | ComicsAlliance and Periscope’s 12 Days of Christmas
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtledoves
AOL’s ComicsAlliance blog has teamed up with the creators at Periscope Studios this holiday season to reimagine the classic Christmas carol “The 12 Days of Christmas.”
“Every day until the 25th, we’ll be posting a new illustration from a comics creator at Periscope Studio that reinterprets the days of the traditional carol as comic book parodies,” writes Laura Hudson. Today’s post features the above image by Andreas Schuster — which is kind of an “Oh my god, are they really doing what I think they’re doing?” moment — while yesterday’s featured Ben Bates replacing the fabled partridge with another type of bird. Be sure to check back between now and Christmas to see what the rest of the Periscope crew comes up with.
- December 16, 2009 @ 08:52 AM by JK Parkin
Oni’s The Sixth Gun Christmas yarn kicks off Tuesday
The Sixth Gun
Oni Press has announced that they’ll be running a “Christmas yarn” this December on their website’s blog. Called Them What Ails Ya: A Christmas Yarn, it’s an illustrated prose story by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt, creators of the upcoming Oni title The Sixth Gun. The story is set in the same world as the supernatural western book, and will feature “medicine shows, magic tonics, outlaws, cannibals and bona fide Christmas miracles.”
Look for the first chapter on Dec. 1. The ongoing Sixth Gun comic series starts in May.
- November 26, 2009 @ 10:04 AM by JK Parkin