Over on her blog, Gingerbread Girl artist Colleen Coover takes us step by step through the design of a cover for her short story a male/male romance titled Home Port. Coover has a nice, fluid style, and the drawing comes together pretty quickly, but it’s interesting to see how she keeps on toying with it after that.

She also talks a bit about using photo references from the web: “Now, it’s important to note that I did not just trace these photos directly, or stick ‘em in a Photoshop filter or anything like that; that would be a violation of the photographers’ copyrights. I drew from them as one would from a live model–to place the features in all the correct proportions and angles–but I made significant changes.”

As I mentioned last week, the T-shirt site Threadless has unveiled the four designs for the fourth round of their “Comics-On Tees” series, this time with a theme of “Monkey Around.” The comics are written by Chris Roberson and feature artwork from Colleen Coover, Mike Allred, Chris Samnee and Francesco Francavilla.

Check out all four designs after the jump, which you can buy individually or as a set for $79.

*****

Mike Allred (front and back):

Colleen Coover:

Chris Samnee:

Francesco Francavilla:

by Mike Allred

The folks the social T-shirt site Threadless are gearing up for a fourth volume of their “Comics-On Tees” line, where they ask a writer and four artists to design shirts that tell a story. Although they won’t be officially announced until Jan. 30, they did reveal the creator involved and teased some artwork from the shirts. And based on what they’ve shown so far, it looks like the theme this time revolves around monkeys.

Volume 4 is written by Chris Roberson of iZombie and Superman fame, with designs by artists Mike Allred, Colleen Coover, Chris Samnee and Francesco Francavilla. You can see some of Allred’s artwork above, and Francavilla’s after the jump.

Justice League #1

Publishing | Four months in, the DC Comics relaunch seems to be a success. The most recent sales figures show Justice League #1 selling more than 360,000 copies since August, and Batman #1 and Action Comics #1 selling more than 250,000. By contrast, Marvel’s strongest seller was Ultimate Spider-Man #160, which was in the 160,000-copy neighborhood. These figures seem to reflect sales in the direct market only; it would be interesting to see how many digital copies have been sold. [The Hollywood Reporter]

Awards | Nominations are open for this year’s Eagle Awards. [Eagle Awards]

Retailing | San Francisco retailer Brian Hibbs shares the top-selling graphic novels in his store for 2011, by units and by dollars. [Savage Critics]

Retailing | Christopher Butcher looks back on the events of the past year in the comics store he manages, Toronto’s The Beguiling. [The Beguiling blog]

Commentary | Mike Gold explains why the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a terrible idea. [ComicMix]

Comics | Enough with the best-of lists: Ron Richards presents his lovingly compiled list of the worst things in comics in 2011. His No. 1 point stands in stark contrast to The Hollywood Reporter piece: Overall, sales are dropping. [iFanboy]

Gingerbread Girl

Comics | Tom Spurgeon continues his holiday interview series, talking to Rina Piccolo, Steve Bissette, Colleen Coover, Todd DePastino and Robot 6′s own Chris Mautner. [The Comics Reporter]

Comics | The Houston Chronicle covers the arrival of its own local superhero, the Scarlet Spider. [Houston Chronicle]

Publishing | Jim Shooter recounts his time at Broadway Comics, as well as dealings he had with the World Wrestling Federation when Valiant had the rights to produce wrestling comics: “VALIANT, as you may know, was forced into a license to do WWF comics by my corrupt partner Steve Massarsky, who represented both Leisure Concepts International (the WWF’s licensing agency) and VALIANT. Can you say ‘conflict of interest?’ Massarsky made a ton of money personally by making a deal with himself with utter disregard for what made sense for VALIANT, and I was stuck with actually producing WWF comics.” [Jim Shooter]

Creators | Christopher Irving and Seth Kushner profile Legion of Super-Heroes writer and former DC Comics president and publisher Paul Levitz. [Graphic NYC]

Brilliant #1

Creators | This profile of Mark Bagley covers his entry into comics and his collaborations with Brian Michael Bendis on Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man and Avengers Assemble and their own Brilliant. [Creative Loafing]

Creators | Ron Marz reports he raised $500 last month for Toys for Tots by selling signed comics to fans. [Messages from Marz]

Creators | Guest-blogging for Whitney Matheson, Grace Bello interviews Tony Millionaire. [Pop Candy]

Creators | Kurtis Wiebe discusses Green Wake, The Intrepids and his new series Peter Panzerfaust. [The Outhouse]

Craft | Colorist Matt Wilson explains how he went about coloring a page of Wonder Woman #4 that presented some challenges. [SeeEmWhyKay, via Blog@Newsarama]

Commentary | Filmmaker and blogger Becki Burrows interviews Paul Gravett, author of many books on comics and graphic novels, most recently, 1001 Comics to Read Before You Die. [Paul Gravett]

Commentary | David Uzumeri makes the case for why The Flash is “the most visually inventive book of the [DC Comics] relaunch”: “The first hint of this came when DC began promoting the first issue’s title page the promotional rounds, an absolutely gorgeous piece of work that integrated the design sense of the logo into not only the artwork but the actual storytelling. Manapul drew Barry Allen disarming an army of mysterious sci-fi marines in a breathtaking clockwise sequence that was immediately readable despite its complexity, guiding the eye in a circle across a sequence where the Flash basically hands all of these dudes their butts in a series of small panels within the letters of his own name. Then it kept getting better.” [ComicsAlliance]

Commentary | Sean Kleefeld examines the world view of One Piece and wonders if some of the folks at the Occupy protests were there because of Luffy and the Straw Hats. [Kleefeld on Comics]

Review | Rob Clough reads Seth’s The Great Northern Brotherhood of Canadian Cartoonists. [The Comics Journal]

Daryl Gregory

The Avengers #4 (Not the comic stuffed in 'Lil Daryl's stocking)

Every Christmas, comics would show up in my stocking. They’d be rolled up, which I’m sure breaks the heart of every collector out there, but it didn’t bother me much. Comics were for reading. For some reason, my mother thought I liked Thor. I wasn’t a Thor guy, except when he was hanging out in the Avengers. I was, and still am, a Captain America super-fan. How could my Mom not know this? But every year I’d get a couple more Thor comics.

Fast-forward 35 years. I’m the official stocking-stuffer in the household. My wife is the queen of holiday organization, but the stocking assignment has always been mine, primarily because it’s the kind of job you can give to a procrastinator. I can run out on Christmas Eve and grab everything I need: gum, iTunes gift cards, candy bars, extra batteries… and comics. See, my son is 15, and he IS a Thor guy, so I usually try to round up something Asgardian for him, as well as a something with Atomic Robo or Axe Cop. I don’t understand the clothing my daughter is asking for (an “infinity scarf” sounds like something Dr. Who would wear), but by gum, I do know my son’s taste in comics.

And by the way? The comics never actually get inside the stocking, but sit there on the mantle beside it. Because Christmas tradition be damned, I’m not rolling them.

Jeff Parker

Okay fine, I’ll tell an embarrassing one. A few years ago I was renting a house here in Portland and indulged one of my vices I haven’t been able to shake: trash dumping. Not in the woods or anything horrible like that, but in any open dumpster that someone left unlocked- I can’t help it, I hate having lots of trash around and can’t wait for garbage pickup sometimes!

Anyway, I had just gotten rid of a bunch of boxes at a nearby apartment complex’ dumpster during the holidays and Christmas morning I answered my door where an angry apartment manager held up an empty box from Dark Horse that had once contained comps of something I’d done for them- with my name and address clearly labeled. I had to laugh at myself for getting busted by such a stupid slip up, and I told the guy I’d go back over there and pull my trash out. He let me off the hook because it was Christmas and a ‘don’t do it again.’ I wonder what other mysteries he’ll be out solving this holiday season?

Remember kids, using other people’s dumpsters is WRONG. (wink!)

Fred Van Lente

It’d probably be getting Watchmen under the tree the year the TPB came out and reading pretty much in one sitting (in robe and PJ’s) for the rest of Christmas Day. I don’t remember if I got to Exploding Vaginal Space Squid before turkey.

Young Romance

Colleen Coover

One year Paul [Tobin, her husband] gave me my favorite Christmas gift EVER. It was a medium-sized box, and when I opened it there was some packing material, beneath which were fifteen romance comics from the late 60s and early 70s! I thought I’d died and gone to cheesy comics heaven. But then under all those comics was more packing stuff, and under that: ANOTHER TWENTY ROMANCE COMICS!!! Just the best.

Jane Irwin

My best Holiday-related comics memory is from right after Thanksgiving 2002, when Paul Sizer, Pam Bliss, Matt Feazell, Layla Lawlor, Sean Bieri and I all got together during Mid-Ohio Con and created a “Comics Passport” minicomic where fans could collect autographs and stamps from all of us and end up with a neat little personalized book. Sean hand-pulled the covers with his Print Gocco, and we each contributed a sketch. It was a really neat concept — it got fans of one creator introduced to the rest of us, and we had a lot of takers — but the very best part was that working on the passport together caused Paul and I to finally notice each other, after about five years of attending the same conventions. The rest, as they say, is history — we’ve been happily married and making comics together for over seven years now.

Paul Sizer

Here’s my memory. Not as mushy as Jane’s, but hers was pretty good!

Age 10: the marathon experience that was the opening of presents at Grandma and Grampa’s house was well under way. Two hours (out of five) in, my brain was ready to explode from boredom. Then, I opened a present from one of my uncles; How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way. History was forever altered. I don’t think I actually saw any of my other presents that year. I still have that book somewhere in my stacks.

Chris Schweizer

Through most of middle and high school, my sister exhibited a distaste for reading.  When she was a kid, she read voraciously, as did the rest of the family; when we moved to Kentucky (I had just turned eleven; she was nine) she fell in with a group of girls for whom reading was a very low priority, and, being a preteen girl in a new place and in want of friends, she naturally followed suit.  What I assume began as affectation became character, and by the time she was in middle school you couldn’t get her to crack open a book unless there was a grade attached.

There was one clear exception – newspaper comic strip collections.

My dad and mom both had picked up comic strip books since I was very little.  Our house was stocked with Peanuts and Pogo books well before I was born, and it was my dad’s first Calvin and Hobbes trade, likely brought home within days of its release, that cemented my love of the form, and my desire to contribute to it.  My dad was an ardent C&H and Far Side fan, and my mom bought For Better of Worse and Cathy.  We had stacks of others, usually the 1950s minimalist humor strips that still run today, but these paperback-book jobs were haphazard and gathered in no particular order from garage sales, not like the pretty horizontal Andrews McMeel deals that lined our bookshelves by series and in order of release.  When Watterson and Larson retired, our influx of books didn’t halt; if anything, it increased.  My mom and dad both became big fans of Dilbert (which, though oft-criticized, I still quite enjoy).  My favorite contemporary strip when I was in middle school (and a chunk of high school, until Zits came along and gave it a close run for its money) was Bill Amend’s Foxtrot.

Wrapped-Up Foxtrot

Though it may not be evident upon glancing at my comics, Foxtrot has likely had more influence on my storytelling than any other comic.  I consumed Amend’s dialogue pacing with such fervency and regularity that writing dialogue in anything but an Amend-patter-pattern would be entirely unnatural to me, and my dialogue pacing determines everything on the page, including the composition of the images. Oh, yes, Foxtrot was my favorite.

My sister felt the same.

My dad couldn’t resist picking up the Dilbert books as they came out, but the Foxtrot books waited until Christmas.  Why?  My parents, ever eager to stoke the fires of advanced literacy in their daughter, ALWAYS GAVE HER THE MOST RECENT FOXTROT BOOK. Without fail.  Every year. Her.

This would not have been a problem, in general.  We were a fairly communal household when it came to books, and what belonged to one generally ended up being passed around.  But as she grew older, my sister became increasingly aware of my intense desire to spend time with Amend’s newest masterpiece, and she began to use this to her advantage.  I’d have to trade candy for the privilege.  I’d have to give up a gift of greater value.  When I became able to drive, chauffeur duties became a bargaining chip.  Sometimes, just to get my goat, she’d refuse me entirely and hide the book, leading me to search, sometimes for days, whenever I found her absent.

“Well,” you might say, “You could drive and likely had a job.  Why not simply go get your own copy?”  The idea truly never occurred to me.  Getting my own copy when my dad or mom or sister had one which I could (in theory, at least) read?  It made no sense.  Even now, away from home for a decade and more, I still don’t have duplicates of books that my dad has.  The new Fantagraphics Peanuts collection?  You’ll not find a one on my shelves.  The big Calvin and Hobbes collector’s set?  Nope.  I make do with my old A/McM paperbacks.

I have, to be fair, stolen a good number of my parent’s books for my own collection – I consider it a child’s prerogative, and will not begrudge my own children such luxury when they someday fly the nest.  But, though they sit not in my sister’s house in Alabama but at my parent’s in North Carolina, I have not taken the Foxtrot collections.  Whereas taking from my dad is hardly stealing (sorry, dad), taking from my sister would be.  So, by virtue of Christmas tradition, I live more or less Foxtrotless, save the occasional bumper compendium snagged at a Borders failsale.

Elizabeth Breitweiser

My husband, Mitch, has a good one. Christmas of 1992, Mitch age 13. His dad gave him his very first comic book, Spider-Man 2099 #2. As soon as he pulled it out of his stocking and flipped through the pages, he knew he wanted to be a comic book artist.

This year will also be one for the memory book. Mitch surprised me by sneaking our little family, fat cat and all, into the holiday issue of Journey Into Mystery #632. What a treat!

The Breitweiser Family in Journey Into Mystery #632

Erik Larsen

My recollections are both Marvel-related. I can remember having two different people give me a copy of Stan Lee’s Origins of Marvel Comics as a kid and I can recall getting money from my parents to buy gifts for other members of my family and blowing part of it on a copy of Rampaging Hulk #1 (the b&w magazine) and getting some grief for doing that.

Mike Allred

When I quit a career in broadcasting in exchange for a budding comic book career, the first few years were hard going.  But Christmas time brought a few moments of splurging, and Laura would justify getting me hard cover collections of classic comics.  I still have those, and they are every bit as priceless to me as the original pulpy beauties they reprint.  Later, after Madman started taking off, she started scoring me original comic book art for Christmas gifts.  The ultimate collectable from the ultimate wife.  Laura is the best thing about Christmas and comic books.

Van Jensen

G.I. Joe

When I was 4 or 5, there was nothing cooler in the world than G.I. Joes. It’s fair to say I spent months in the lead up to Christmas poring over the Sears and JC Penney catalogs looking at the Joe toys, trying to decide which ones to ask for (we lived far from any toy stores, so the catalogs were all I had). Christmas morning, I know I had a couple of Joes waiting for me under the tree. But despite all of my excitement for the toys, I can’t recall which ones I received. All I really remember is that I also got my first few comics: issues of MAD, Captain America and Larry Hama’s G.I. Joe. I still remember the stories from those issues—Roadblock was arrested!—even though hundreds of readings long ago disintegrated the copies into dust.

MK Reed

On a New Year’s Day about 10 years ago, I was working in a ski rental shop at a small ski slope in New Jersey with my bff. They’d been very insistent that we come in on New Year’s bright and early, but it was in the 40′s and the snow was all melted. With few customers and little to do, we started putting together the shipment of kid’s skis that were waiting to be assembled, and when rentals employees called to see if they should come in, we said yes, not realizing that at a certain point the managers made an announcement that the slope would be closed in the afternoon because of the weather. (There was no speaker in the rentals room, nor supervision, nor heat.) We accumulated some boxes from the skis & bindings, and so my bff & I decided to set up a city of boxes and live out a Godzilla/Rodin fight to break them down. Within a minute of the fight’s beginning, the laughter and cheering of a dozen onlookers alerted a manager who showed up to see what all the noise was about. As he yelled at us for not leaving, we protested it was impossible for us to hear the announcement, and that no one had told us to leave or stop more employees from coming in. During the entire argument, we kicked & stomped down boxes. We were then criticized for being inefficient in box-waste removal, which everyone jeered at. Then we got to leave work early!

John Arcudi

Terminator

It was long, long ago — right about when I became a full-time comics writer.  In fact, it was exactly then.

I was back in my home town visiting my father for the holidays when I got a call from Dark Horse publisher Mike Richardson.  I don’t remember how he got my father’s number (we had only communicated through my home # back in Brooklyn) but he did.   I’d been writing part-time for a few years, working a variety of day jobs, hammering away on scripts at night.  You can do that in your 20′s.  Just 8 page stories here and there, nothing regular.  Anyway, Mike was calling to offer me a series (Terminator) which would require a full time writing schedule from me, meaning I would have to quit my day job.  Seems like an easy decision in retrospect, but there was no “retrospect” then.   Still, I knew what I wanted, and so did Mike.  I remember what he said very clearly: “You want to be a comics writer, John, then be one.”  He was, of course, right.

Yeah, not something easily forgotten, to say the least.

Mark Andrew Smith

This is a Christmas story that happened to me last year.

Living in Taiwan they do not celebrate Christmas.  You’re on your own, and you try to make the best of things.

I went to a Taiwanese Bar with my friend Paul and we are going to order some hamburgers.  We sit down and there’s a drunk guy in the bar who speaks poor English that wants to talk to us and says the same thing over and over again, the guy is kind of scary, and I just nod to be polite, hoping he’ll leave.

In Taiwan there are street dogs everywhere. This black stray dog goes into bar and just starts humping the crap out of the guy’s leg.  He’s drunk and can’t do anything about it.

Meanwhile all of these Christmas songs are playing while the dog is going at this guy’s leg nonstop with his face so happy and his tongue hanging out of his mouth and it almost seems to synch up to ‘it’s the most wonderful time of the year’.  The dog would go away and then come back and hump this drunk and incoherent Taiwanese guy’s leg.

It went on for a good 30 minutes with the music playing like it was out of a film.

I turned to my friend Paul and said, “This is it, this is our Christmas Eve. Eating a hamburger and watching a dog go to town for 30 minutes on a drunk Taiwanese dude’s leg.  Merry Christmas Paul.”

Janet K. Lee

Duncan the Wonder Dog

Last year, I desperately wanted a copy of Duncan the Wonder Dog for Christmas, but could not find it in Nashville. My LCS couldn’t get it for me in time for the holiday; I had waited until too late to ask. So I tweeted about my great sorrow, my failure to acquire Duncan the Wonder Dog, to several hundred of my closest internet friends. Like you do.

Well, the amazing folks at Malaprops Bookstore in Asheville, North Carolina, were listening. They have one of the best graphic novel sections in the US—not only in my opinion, but according to the fine folks at Publisher’s Weekly—and they sent me a copy of Duncan. It was a Christmas miracle under my tree. I sent them a bunch of home-made ornaments as a thank-you. Best part: the book was every bit as wonderful as I wanted it to be.

Charles Soule

In March 2009, my first published work, Strongman, appeared on shelves (from SLG Publishing, a fine group of people if ever there was one.)  The Christmas before that, I was home to visit my family in Michigan – in Grand Rapids, specifically, at my dad’s house.  I had some advance copies of Strongman with me, and I intended to give a few to my siblings and my father as Christmas “gifts.”  Yes, I know that’s pretty dubious as far as gift-giving goes.  I might as well have given them a framed picture of myself.  Signed.  (Hmm… maybe I’ll do that this year.)

Anyway, I got everyone something “real” too, but I was (and still am) very proud of Strongman, and wanted to share it with them.  On Christmas morning, everyone opened up their stuff, oohed and aahed and thanked, and we moved on to the customary post-gift breakfast.  Good stuff.  Traditionally, my family will go to a movie Christmas afternoon, or do something else as a group.  That year, we trooped out to see The Spirit, god help us.  My dad declined to come with us, which was weird – we weren’t all together that much over the year, because my family is scattered all over the country, and normally he’d hang out with us the entire day.  He decided to skip the movie because he wanted to stay home to read Strongman (or possibly because he’d read a review of The Spirit, but I choose to believe he wanted to read the book.)

My siblings and I saw the movie, came home, and my dad and I talked about my first published book for a while.  He was a comics reader from childhood, and introduced me to them – my first comic was a Fantastic Four he bought me, and I use to read his tattered T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents issues in his old bedroom when we’d go to visit my grandparents when I was little.  So, he knew what he was talking about, and he had some good things to say and some critical points to make.  It was amazing.  One of my favorite Christmas memories of all time, not just comics-related.  Unfortunately (putting it very mildly) that was the last real Christmas we got to spend together, but that afternoon we had no idea that bad things were looming on the horizon, and we just talked.  I have a million memories of my dad and books, but it’s hard to top that one.

Ryan Stegman

Spawn #39

My comics-related holiday memory is the issue of Spawn that had “Santa Spawn” on the cover. That is easily one of my most remembered comic book covers ever. It hit me at the time when I had just decided that comics were what I wanted to do and I just stared at it forever wondering how the hell someone could draw something that cool.

I also remember reading that issue. It’s hilariously cheesy, but in the best way possible. It’s like every Christmas related kids movie with the sappy ending. But the stuff leading up to the ending was insane violence and Spawn looking badass. What more could you want?

Corinna Bechko

This time of year generally means two things at our house: comics-related presents and wicked deadlines. Usually the gifts are special edition books or maybe rare action figures, while the deadlines are always urgent and seldom as nice to look at.

Last year I wanted to get something extra special for my husband Gabriel Hardman though, and after much hunting I found an original page from The Tomb of Dracula #14, drawn by Gene Colan and inked by Tom Palmer in 1972. I carefully wrapped my treasure up, convinced that I had scored a great bit of comics history.

Meanwhile, Gabriel was hard at work penciling and inking Hulk. The holidays are always hectic when you’re a freelancer, so when he was asked to do an extra “point one” issue on top of his normal workload something had to give. He agreed to pencil the book, but wanted someone else to ink it. And who did that someone turn out to be? None other than the legendary Tom Palmer. So in a nice bit of symmetry Gabriel now has an almost 40 year old Palmer-inked page hanging on his studio wall as well as his name next to Tom’s on a book from 2011.

Nick Dragotta

My favorite holiday recollection was the time Howtoons went to the Kipp Bridge Charter School in West Oakland to teach 8th graders how to make snow globes through our comics. We projected the cartoon up on the wall and then just laid out the supplies. The kids were pretty stoked you only needed a peanut butter jar, water, and glitter. The decoration we left to their imagination. The results were pretty fantastic. I also remember it being freezing that day, and we all wore our winter coats the whole time while inside the classroom.

Shawn Crystal on The Cartoonists Holiday

It’s dark outside, and cold. My two kids, Zoe and Zac, are tucked snuggly into their warm beds. My wife, Stephanie, sits watching Family Guy while wrapping presents.

I wish I were there, home with my family… relaxing.

Instead, I am at my studio, working tirelessly under the relentless pressure of a tight… VERY tight, deadline. This is my life, the life of a cartoonist. We don’t get down time, vacations, or holidays. We work when we have work. We relax when we don’t. The lucky ones are constantly working.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not complaining. I’m just painting a portrait of what a cartoonist’s life is like.

Crystal art from Deadpool Max XMas

When I was a young wide-eyed child with a head full of dreams, my biggest wish was to be a professional comic book artist for Marvel. Every Hanukah, I asked for drawing supplies, comics, and Marvel related toys. As I grew older, I wished for books on storytelling, cinematography, anatomy, and photography. Always focused on the big wish, to draw for Marvel. Decades later, here I am, doing just that.

I didn’t just wish for this lifestyle, I worked hard to achieve it. I was focused and driven to draw comics. I don’t think many of us (cartoonists) truly understood the demands of this job before we had it, but that doesn’t matter. It’s a damn cool job to have.

It’s a bittersweet time for me.

I miss being with my family, but I LOVE that I am drawing comics.

On the day of Hanukah, I’ll be busy frying Latkes and grilling steaks. Passing out presents to my family while shoveling Belgian chocolate gelt into my mouth. I’ll be full, happy, and half drunk.

So, I’ll get some downtime…even if it’s just for a day. After that, I’ll promptly return to my studio, ready to grind while I listen to Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast.

To my family, I love you. Without your support, I wouldn’t be able to do this. My job asks a lot of you. You work with me to make it all happen. I’ll see you soon, with a table full of food, and presents to pass around.

To all the cartoonists, my brothers in arms, fighting the good fight in the trenches of publishing…you’re not alone during these cold nights. You’re making comics, and you worked hard to be able to do this. Take a moment to enjoy your success. Soon you’ll be with friends and family, doing your thing. Only for a short while though, there’s a deadline waiting for you…. and he’s a nasty lil bastard.

Did I mention that I run the Sequential Art dept. for SCAD Atlanta as well? That’s another story for another time.

Atomic Comics inventory

Retailing | The inventory Arizona retail chain Atomic Comics, which abruptly closed its four locations in late August amid the bankruptcy of owner Michael Malve, will be sold at auction Jan. 3 Jan. 10 in Phoenix, both live and online. Known nationally for its in-store signings, innovative marketing and sheer size, the 23-year-old chain gained international exposure last year when its name and logo were featured prominently in Kick-Ass, the film adaptation of the comic by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr. Photos of the inventory to be liquidated can be found on the website of the auction company. Update: The date of the auction has changed to Jan. 10. [Sierra Auction Management]

Publishing | Tom Spurgeon continues his yearly holiday interview series by talking to Tom Neely, Emily Nilsson and Virginia Paine about the future of Sparkplug Comic Books. [The Comics Reporter]

Publishing | Tim Stroup, co-founder of the Grand Comics Database, recently dug up some old comics sales figures from the 1940s; John Jackson Miller analyzes them and reaches an interesting conclusion: “comics may be reaching far fewer eyeballs, but it’s a more profitable business to be in today.” [The Comichron]

comiXology

Digital | ComiXology CEO David Steinberger talks about the development of comiXology, including his initial inspiration, which was to create a way for people to see new releases and create pull lists via the internet. [Mashable Business]

Publishing | Tina Anderson, who publishes her own graphic novels, had a good year in 2011, and she provides an interesting view of the business end of self-publishing from the author’s perspective—not just how big a share of the sales she gets but also what it’s like dealing with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other distributors and retailers in terms of efficiency, accuracy, and benefit to the creator. [Gynocrat, Ink.]

Retailing | The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs spotlights the comic shop Comics N’ Vegetables’ win of the Will Eisner Spirit of Comics Retailer Award last summer. [The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs]

Batman #4

Creators | Scott Snyder discusses his run at Batman, in particular this week’s issue, which he says is “one of the emotional keystones of the entire run.” [USA Today]

Creators | Drew Friedman discusses his latest book, Old Jewish Comedians. [Heeb]

Commentary | Matthew Meylikhov makes the case for buying Gødland. [Multiversity Comics]

Commentary | Patrick Smith reviews the first two issues of Action Lab Entertainment’s Princeless. [Spandexless]

Commentary | Alyssa Rosenberg explores questions of magic and mental illness in Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover’s Gingerbread Girl. [ThinkProgress]

Education | Mohammed Yohan profiles a high school graphic novel course in which students not only read graphic novels but create their own. [my.hsj.org]

Wet Moon

Hello and welcome to a special holiday edition of What Are You Reading? Actually it’s just a normal edition of What Are You Reading?, because changing the font color to red and green, and adding twinkling lights around the border just made it harder to read.

Our special guest this week is Andy Khouri, associate editor over at ComicsAlliance, where he drops comic news and commentary on a daily basis.

To see what Andy and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.

Tim O’Shea

Batgirl #4

Batgirl #4: While I’ve been generally pleased with the new Batgirl by writer Gail Simone, it has not impressed me to the degree of say Mark Waid’s Daredevil…until this issue. And oddly it was a simple line of dialogue that caused me to pause and stop to stare at the page. Batgirl had just saved a couple and when he checked on the victims, the man said: “Because of you, we get to see our kids again. Thank you.” Rarely in a comic these days do the folks that the heroes rescue get any lines. The fact that Simone devotes story space to a small moment like that speaks volumes to how great a writer she is. And then the end of this issue has a reveal that’s a doozy.

Avengers Academy #23: For the past half year or so, series writer Christos Gage has shown that no such thing as the status quo in terms of the Avengers Academy cast or infrastructure. This latest arc involves time travel and it is interesting to see snippets of Gage’s larger view of the Academy-verse. Added bonus? Gage taps into the old Rom series to use a character in the present Marvel universe.

The Shade #3: This is the last issue with Cully Hamner on art. I am so bummed, but wait-who is on the deck for next issue? Darwyn Cooke and J. Bone, wow. Nice consolation prize, I’ll admit. Robinson’s penchant for shifting from historical period bits to present day is in full effect (and to my enjoyment). The art of conversation is something that made the original Starman series so delightful, and that art is alive in The Shade. Another bonus that might entice longtime Starman fans that have not picked up this series yet? This month’s cover is by Tony Harris. Still not moved? Next month’s issue involves two words: Times Past.

The Ray #1

The Ray #1: This comic held me in its sway until the last panel, which had a blip of violence I just do not need to see in a non-mature readers comic. I say this as a warning, it’s likely that folks who play a lot of video games or have a penchant for horror films will not be shocked. But when the villain from this issue puts his fist through a human head and you get to see it from a side angle, it’s just too sickening for my tastes. It’s visceral and likely the exact impact the creative team wanted. Do not get me wrong, it’s one misstep in an overall strong first issue, I just do not wish anyone to be surprised. I am a huge fan of artist Jamal Igle (and an equally supporter for writing team of Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray). I am 99 percent positive on this book, however, particularly the impressive manner that Palmiotti and Gray establish a unique supporting cast with a few scenes.

Marvel Adventures #21: I really do not know the rhyme or reason of this current all ages book, a few recent issues were reprints, but best I can tell this installment has two new stories, one written by J.M. DeMatteis and the other by Jen Van Meter. Van Meter’s Hulk story very much had the Bill Bixby TV show vibe to it (which works in the limited space she had and for the all ages audience). As much as I enjoyed it, I found myself shocked at how great the Dr. Strange/Captain America team-up was. I never thought that patriotism and mysticism could be mixed in a story, but DeMatteis proved me very wrong. I really hope the Strange/Cap artist Wellington Alves has more assignments down the road for Marvel, particularly given his strong eye for layout.

Batman: The Brave & the Bold #14

Batman: The Brave & the Bold #14: I really appreciate when DC or Marvel does a story like this in the holidays. Rather than going with the Christian-themed tale (which as a Catholic, of course I dig), this Sholly Fisch/Rick Burchett tale partially focuses on the story of Chanukah and has the fate of a neighborhood shul (synagogue) as the center of the story. For parents, aunts and uncles looking for a small holiday gift that might interest a kid in comics—please snag this.

Resurrection Man #4: For Christmas, Santa, I would like this Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning-written comic series to have a nice long run. The fight scenes in this comic are intense, but not in a disturbing sense—and I just love how Fernando Dagnino utilizes distinct panel choices—as well as his approach to the book’s lead character, Mitch Shelley.

Black Panther #526: This book may be cancelled, but it is still entertaining the hell out of me. Last issue I complained about the murky qualities of the coloring obscuring Shawn Martinbrough’s art. I am happy to say this issue’s coloring of Martinbrough by Felix Serrano is much more complimentary. And writer David Liss is really hitting his stride pitting Panther against the Kingpin, which makes for great storytelling.

Brigid Alverson

Level Up

This is a rarity for a First Second book, but Level Up has a terrible cover. I know it relates to the subject matter, gaming, but it’s drab and plain, while the story itself is quite imaginative. Written by Gene Luen Yang and illustrated by Thien Pham, it’s a twist on the Asian-American stereotype of the pushy parents who only want their kid to go to medical school. The hero, Dennis Ouyang, just wants to play video games, but his parents don’t get it at all, and he never has a quarter to play Pac-Man, let alone the bucks to buy a Nintendo system. On the day of his father’s funeral, as Dennis is about to graduate high school, he buys a game system and becomes completely absorbed in gaming. What happens next made me think he was having a psychotic break, but it’s really a fantasy tale–a group of angelic creatures emerges from a card his father had sent him years ago and nudges him toward medical school. Yang and Pham do a nice job of teasing out the nuances of Dennis’s dilemmas, his changing friendships, and his slow realization of the right path–and how his past has unexpectedly prepared him for it. It’s a quick read and a good one.

It would be easy to miss the fact that Jim Henson’s The Storyteller, a new anthology from Archaia, is based on the television show of the same name. If, like me, you weren’t watching a lot of TV in the 1980s and never saw the show, you could read the whole book and not realize it. It’s true, one of the stories is based on an unproduced Storyteller script, but aside from that, there doesn’t seem to be any mention of the show, which is odd–I would at least expect to see an introduction explaining the genesis of the book. Never mind, though, because this is a great little anthology of folk tales adapted and illustrated by some of the most talented comics creators around: Roger Langridge, Colleen Coover, Jeff Parker, Marjorie Liu, among others. This being an Archaia book, the design and production values are superb, and while it’s an all-ages book, there’s a lot here for older readers to appreciate.

Andy Khouri

Wet Moon by Ross Campbell

Wet Moon

I’m a little ashamed to admit that I didn’t even know this existed before all five volumes showed up in the mail recently, but Ross Campbell’s Wet Moon became over the course of one rainy night one of my favorite comics series. There is no high concept hook to this story of variously gothic and geeky and gay girls (and some boys) attending art college in the American south, it’s just completely based on the fairly large cast and their complex relationships with each other. Light on melodrama but heavy on emotion, humor and character development, I’d say Wet Moon is a soap opera but in the best possible sense of that term. Campbell makes each individual truly that – an individual, and I found that as soon as I’d completed one volume (digest-sized paperbacks from Oni Press) I had to immediately start on the next one to see what happens next–not in the sense of a plot or cliffhanger, but just because I came to really enjoy hanging out with his characters. I read five books in just a couple of nights.

But what impressed me most about Wet Moon–and the sort of thing that I find myself caring more about with comics and film–is how Campbell created such an immersive world. From page one, you’re taken in. The uniqueness of the character designs, the details in the locations, the style of dialogue–everything about Wet Moon pulls you in, as opposed to being the sort of narrative you sort of observe and contemplate on some intellectual level. As much as I wanted to keep reading the narrative, I think I liked just sort of living in the world of Wet Moon even more. I can’t wait for the next book.

FreakAngels by Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield

FreakAngels

You’ve got 12 kids all born on the same day and all possessing increasingly amazing powers like telepathy and telekinesis and teleportation and so on, and they operate as a gang in a post-apocalyptic London. Each character as a specific talent–agriculture, mechanics, security, etc.–and they work together to protect the citizens of their neighborhood from marauders and other threats from around the city while insulting each other in the best Ellisian tradition.

FreakAngels is remarkable in part for Duffield’s great artwork, particularly his often gorgeous background renderings and ability to make you understand how something like a bicycle-pedal-based flying machine might work. Indeed, FreakAngels spends quite a lot of time exploring the notion of getting on with life in a post-apocalyptic society, where cleverness and innovation would be crucial to survival when there’s no electricity or other resources upon which the world has become dependent. Duffield is amazing at depicting these kinds of lever-and-pulley kinds of things in a way that’s easy to understand and actually quite nice to look at.

Like Campbell with Wet Moon, Duffield makes FreakAngels into a time and place that is utterly specific to itself, and I found myself getting a visceral thrill from visiting that world (the book’s leisurely, perhaps manga-like pace helps immerse you in it in a very cool way). But what keeps you there are the FreakAngels themselves, who’re among the most vivid characters Ellis has ever created, and of course the mystery at the heart of the series: who are the FreakAngels and what did they do?

FreakAngels has been completed and is available in six trade paperbacks or hardcovers.

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

Graeme McMillan

It’s a slow week, this week; if I had $15, I’d use it to catch up on some recent enjoyments like Action Comics #3 (DC, $3.99) and OMAC #3 (DC, $2.99), two of my favorite titles from the New 52 relaunch–OMAC in particular has been a really weird and wonderful joy–as well as the final issue of Marvel’s great and sadly underrated Mystic revival (#4, $2.99). I’d also see if the parody-tastic Shame Itself #1 (Marvel, $3.99) lives up to its potential, because “Wyatt Cenac + Colleen Coover” sounds pretty promising to these ears.

That said, if I had $30, I’d put Shame Itself back on the shelf and pick up Tharg’s Terror Tales: Necronauts & A Love Like Blood (Rebellion, $19.99) instead, a collection of two 2000AD horror serials illustrated by Frazer Irving (One of which is written by John Smith, a favorite writer of mine from the days when I was reading 2000AD regularly). It’s early work from the artist, but what little I’ve seen of both makes it look well worth buying.

When it comes to splurging, I have to admit that the Joe The Barbarian Deluxe Hardcover (DC, $29.99), but I think if I had extra money, I’d just pick up some more individual issues: BOOM!’s Peanuts #0 ($1) and Betrayal of The Planet of The Apes #1 ($3.99) and Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men #1 ($3.99) and Villains For Hire #0.1($2.99), amongst others.

Brigid Alverson

No Longer Human

If I had $15: For the second week in a row, Vertical gets first dibs on my money; last week it was Drops of God, and this time I’m lured by the first volume of Usamaru Furuya’s No Longer Human. This book is a personal favorite of Vertical marketing director (and former blogger) Ed Chavez, and Ed’s picks are always stunning. Based on a semi-autobiographical novel, No Longer Human is the story of a young man who cannot shake his own alienation from the rest of the world. It’s supposedly a great work but also depressing, so to shake off the blues, I’ll spend my last $3.99 on issue #2 of Roger Langridge’s Snarked. His charming rascals-and-the-princess story is sure to bring a smile back to my face.

If I had $30: I’d go for a little more silliness with James Kochalka’s Dragon Puncher #2 ($9.95), the followup to his eminently silly Dragon Puncher #1. Kochalka does silly with an edge of surreal that makes it absolutely delightful. I’ll cut that up with American Vampire #20 ($2.99), and wind up with the first issue of the Peanuts ongoing comic, which is priced at a recession-friendly $1.

Splurge: There are a lot of temptations on this week’s list, but I’m leaning heavily toward Abrams, which has some interesting collections out this week. Government Issue: Comics for the People 1940-2000s is a collection of government-issued comics by the great (Will Eisner, Walt Kelly) and the obscure. It looks like a steal at $29.95. Somewhat pricier at $55 is The Someday Funnies, a collection of the Rolling Stone’s comics section that features a different set of iconic creators–Art Spiegelman, R. Crumb, Harvey Kurtzman. Also a must have for me. And finally, I’ll stagger over to the Dark Horse section and grab the original graphic novel Hellboy: House of the Living Dead ($14.95), which sends our eponymous hero south of the border for a fight with a Frankenstein monster–a perfect post-Halloween treat.

Chris Mautner

Ganges

If I had $15: I managed to pick up a copy ahead of time, but Ganges #4 seems to me to be the obvious choice for the $15 and under crowd, continuing everyman Glenn Ganges’ attempts to get some shuteye. This time he attempts to find a really dull book and the results are hugely entertaining.

I’d also at least peruse through John Marz’s Heaven All Day, about a lonely factory worker and an abandoned robot whose lives intertwine, which looks interesting.

If I had $30: I’d get Usumaru Furuya’s No Longer Human, for all the reasons Brigid mentioned. I’m really happy to see Furuya get some love on these shores, as I’ve admired his work since the Secret Comics Japan anthology came out from Blast Books all those years ago.

Splurge: That Joe the Barbarian anthology is certainly on my Amazon wish list, and that Abrams anthology of government-issue comics looks intriguing as well, but my splurge money this week would have to be spent on Color Engineering, Yuichi Yokoyama’s neon-pop colored collection of short comic adventures, and Someday Funnies, a mind-boggling anthology, literally decades in the making, featuring contributions from just about every major cartoonist of the 1970s, like Harvey Kurtzman, Jack Kirby, Moebius, Rene Goscinny, and on and on and on and on. This could well be the great lost treasure of the ages. Or not. I can’t wait to find out, though.

Michael May

Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes #1

If I had $15, I’d go back for a couple of series I’m enjoying and try three new ones. Action Comics continues to exceed my expectations (especially in comparison to the gloominess of Superman), so #3 ($3.99) is an easy decision in spite of the price. I’m also enjoying Avengers 1959, a series that Howard Chaykin is especially perfect for, to I’ll grab the third issue ($2.99) of that as well. I guess I missed the first issue of Fear Itself: The Fearless so I’ll need to find some money for that, but #2 ($2.99) is definitely going home with me this week. I didn’t read Fear Itself, but I’m fond enough of some of the characters in The Fearless that I’m going to want to at least check this out. Finally a couple of new titles from BOOM! have caught my eye. I love their Planet of the Apes ongoing, so I’m eager to see if they can nail it again with Betrayal of the Planet of the Apes #1 ($3.99). And having just watched It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown on Monday, I’m also excited about Peanuts #0 ($1). A big part of me just wants to read the Fantagraphics collection again, but for a buck I’m happy to see what cartoonists Ron Zorman and Vicki Scott have in mind.

With $30, I’d add another new BOOM! series (they’ve got a lot of cool stuff this week), 7 Warriors #1 ($3.99) because I love comics about ass-kicking women. IDW’s Jack Avarice is the Courier #1 ($3.99) kicks off what sounds like a fun, weekly comic for the month of November, so that’s mine too. Then I’d top off the pile with a couple of X-Men books because X-Men: Regenesis reminded me that I’ve been wanting to learn more about the Dani Moonstar character. She’s in New Mutants #33 ($3.99) and–according to Regenesis–will also be on Cyclops’ team in Uncanny X-Men #1 ($3.99).

There’s a lot to splurge on this week. Dragon Puncher, Volume 2 ($9.95) sounds fun (and inexpensive). 30 Days of Night: Night Again ($17.99) pairs Joe Lansdale with Sam Keith on a horror comic and that’s a combination I’d want to read with or without a recognizable brand in the title. Nordguard, Volume 1 ($19.95) is about a team of anthropomorphic sled dogs, and that also sounds cool. My top pick though is influenced by my recent mainlining of the last three BPRD books. I’m all about the Mignolaverse right now, so the Hellboy vs Frankenstein’s Monster story in Hellboy: House of the Living Dead ($14.99) is what I’m craving.

Chris Arrant

Fear Agent #32

If I had $15, I’d spend the first little bit on the bittersweet finale of Fear Agent, #32 (Dark Horse, $3.50). This long-running series was made longer by the delays in the final arc as the creators were pulled away for work at Marvel, so I’m glad this Wednesday to finally get it all. I’m just as excited to find out the ending as I am to have a complete collection to re-read over the weekend. Next up would be another creator-owned book, Robert Kirkman and Ryan Ottley’s Invincible #84 (Image, $2.99); I’m still not sure about the Viltrumite-living-on-Earth vibe (I never liked Alien Nation), but I’m willing to give this duo the benefit of the doubt for a while longer. Finally would be a double-shot of DC’s New 52, Action Comics #3 (DC, $3.99) and Animal Man #3 (DC, $2.99).

If I had $30, I’d snag a third DC book–Swamp Thing #3 (DC, $2.99)–before buying the auspicious new #1 of Uncanny X-Men (Marvel, $3.99). Count me in the camp as one who things the renumbering is ill-advised, and factor than in with the nonplussed nature of Greg Land’s current work and yet I’m still buying this just to see what Kieron does with it. His finale of Uncanny X-Men caught me off-guard with how good it was, so he’s got my money here. Last up would be Kevin Huzienga’s Gagnes #4 (Fantagraphics, $7.95). I’ve been waiting for this one awhile, and glad to see it. $7.95 might seem like a lot for a 32 page book, but Huzienga’s craft really makes it worth it. It’d also be an ideal palette cleanser in case I read some unexpectedly bad books.

If I had the cash to splurge, I’d go for DC’s Joe The Barbarian Deluxe Edition(DC/Vertigo, $29.99). Yes I have it in singles, but I’m the type that’d re-buy things like this in a more lasting edition because it looks good and so I have an excuse to give away my singles to someone who might dig the series.

JK Parkin

Six Guns #1

If I had $15, Ganges #4 ($7.95) would be at the top of my stack. I think the third issue of Kevin Huizenga’s series was either at the top of my list of favorite comics of last year, or at least very near the top, so this is one of my most anticipated releases not just for this week, but probably this year. I’d also get Andy Diggle and Davide Gianfelice Six Guns #1 (Marvel, $2.99); the Daredevil: Reborn team reimagines several of marvel’s Western heroes in a modern setting, and based on their track record I’m looking forward to it. I’d round it out with Animal Man #3 (DC Comics, $2.99).

If I had $30,. I’d add a bunch of my regular ongoing favorites: Swamp Thing #3 ($2.99), Boys #60 ($3.99) and New Mutants #33 ($2.99), and would then add the Our Love Is Real one-shot ($3.99) if I didn’t already have it in digital form. But what the hell, we’re assuming I live in a hypothetical world where I can only spend $30 on comics anyway, so let’s pretend I didn’t have the money to download it previously. Can we also pretend I’m a viking?

Splurgewise, my peers have mentioned a lot of nice stuff, so I’ll just point out the second volume of Super Pro K.O. ($11.99), the follow-up to what proved to be a fun first volume by Jarrett Williams.

Thor

The good folks at Portland’s Periscope Studios are holding a fundraiser for Sparkplug publisher Dylan Williams, who is dealing with a serious illness. Several of the artists who work out of Periscope, including Jonathan Case (who painted the showdown between Thor and Galactus you see above), Steve Lieber and Colleen Coover, have contributed artwork to an auction to benefit Williams.

You can find all the available pieces on Periscope’s eBay page.

Nate Cosby has posted some artwork by Jennifer Meyer, Colleen Coover, Tom Fowler, and Roger Langridge from Archaia’s upcoming Jim Henson Storyteller anthology. (That’s the Langridge piece, above.) For a bit more on the project, check out Cosby’s Wondercon interview with our own Tim O’Shea.

Gingerbread Girl

Hello and welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading? Our special guest today is Emily Stackhouse, creator of the award-winning minicomic Brazilianoir and her latest, Miner’s Mutiny.

To see what Emily and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.

*****

Tom Bondurant

Showcase Presents Green Lantern

Back at the end of the year, I got all superior about DC’s solicitation of Showcase Presents Green Lantern Volume 5, because apparently it didn’t include all the GL backup stories from The Flash, back when Green Lantern itself had been canceled (gasp!) following the Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams run. Therefore, when SCPGL #5 came out this week, I was pleasantly surprised to see those backups finally collected. So thanks, DC, for that!

I’d read those short stories before, but I’d forgotten that they start out with Hal Jordan unemployed and literally living out of his car. Talk about your “trek across America” — he’s sleeping in the woods, cooking Green Arrow’s chili recipe over a campfire and fighting aliens almost on the side. In fact, one story (“The Powerless Power Ring,” by O’Neil and Adams) finds Hal’s ring going goofy, apparently because he put the wrong mushrooms into the chili. Another, “Yellow Is A Dirty Little Color” (by O’Neil and Dick Giordano) loses a certain plot point in the black-and-white reprint, but it’s still a lightweight little puzzle which alert readers will probably figure out before Hal does. Eventually, the backups will shift to an extended outer-space serial, Mike Grell will come aboard as penciller, and the groundwork will be laid for 1976′s Green Lantern revival — but for now, it’s nice to see Hal in a more offbeat setting.

Some of the best superhero-comics news I’ve read in a while came at the end of Justice League: Generation Lost #24 (written by Judd Winick, penciled by Aaron Lopresti, inked by Matt Ryan), when the follow-up ongoing series was announced. JL:GL has been tremendously entertaining pretty much since it started, but I really
did not expect these characters to continue as a team after this miniseries. JL:GL sets up the conflict between the new JLI and its familiar enemy pretty well, too, with the bad guys essentially adopting a concern-troll posture. That should give the ongoing series a nice political/satirical edge (not that DC needs any more political edge these days…). Even with this dangling plot thread, and with a big nod to Wonder Woman‘s altered timeline, JL:GL worked nicely as a standalone superhero adventure. Winick and his rotating roster of artists did a great job keeping the stakes high and bringing the characters to life, and I hope that spirit continues into the regular series.

Tim O’Shea

FF #2

FF #2: Worth the read for a scene where Invisible Woman steps between Doom and Thing, in a manner of speaking. It’s crazy that Dragon Man is actually becoming my favorite supporting cast member. Sidebar: Have we just forgotten that whole “Ben can become human” plot element now that it got Johnny killed?

Action Comics #900: Positives: Cornell’s use of the character of Death in this issue. Negatives: snippets of Gary Frank drawing his version of Superman (or as I like to call it “constipated Christopher Reeve”; seriously why do people like Frank’s version of Superman, it creeps the hell out of me). In general, though, I have never enjoyed the Doomsday character and I long for a day the character is forgotten. While the Lex Luthor aspect of the story was a satisfying conclusion, the rest of the milestone issue smacked of useless filler, especially the Richard Donner co-written piece.

Secret Avengers #12 and #12.1: This book has seem to lost its way to a certain extent, and it appears that Brubaker has no interest himself in seeing the story to its end, given that he’s leaving the book. Brubaker wrote 12, then Nick Spencer wrote 12.1–and if 12.1 is a harbinger of what’s ahead for the book, I actually consider this a good jumping off point. I will revisit the book when Warren Ellis takes over the book.

The Incredible Hulks #627: I think I would enjoy an ongoing series with Bruce Banner as a James Bond-type hero, as shown in this issue. It’s interesting to see writer Greg Pak focus on the “inventive genius” aspect of the lead character.

Captain America #617: An interesting issue that reminded me of the old Marvel Triple Action reprints that were done back in the 1970s, given that you’re given a Winter Soldier narrative, a Black Widow/Sharon Carter team-up and a focus on Steve Rogers (guest starring Henry Gyrich). Bonus points to Marvel for getting Chris Samnee to draw the Steve Rogers leg of the issue.

Brigid Alverson

Literature! Unsuccessfully Competing Against TV Since 1953

I took the opportunity to download Dave Kellett’s Literature! Unsuccessfully Competing Against TV Since 1953, a compilation of strips from his webcomic Sheldon, after he offered it for free download to encourage Eisner voters to read it. It’s up for Best Humor Publication, and it certainly is a worthy contender. Sheldon is one of the most consistently funny gag comics on the web, and it’s funny in a smart, often sarcastic way without ever being mean. This e-book is particularly funny, and I laughed out loud, literally, at a number of the strips. My one complaint is that there seem to be a lot of Lord of the Rings jokes, but I suppose the fault is really mine for not having read it. And this is the only place outside of my immediate family circle where I have seen anyone poke fun at T.S. Eliot. (Let alone bring the Hulk into it.) If I were an Eisner judge, I’d give it the nod based on that alone.

I have been slowly catching up on all the awesome comics I picked up at MoCCA, and this week I settled down with a slim, self-published volume titled The Hookah Girl and Other Stories by Marguerite Dabaie. It’s a memoir of growing up as a Palestinian Christian, within the immigrant community in the U.S., as well as a meditation on all the contradictions and labels that come with that identity. Dabaie starts the first volume with a set of paper dolls that embody each of those stereotypes‹Muslim girl in full hijab, suicide bomber with vest full of explosives, I-Dream-of-Jeannie seductress, starving artist. The stories touch on things that are familiar to immigrants in general — scary relatives, peculiar customs, native foods‹but there is also an interesting comic about Leila Khaled that presents her as an interestingly complex individual. This book left me wanting to see more, and I hope there is a full-length graphic novel in the works. If there isn’t, there should be.

Emily Stackhouse

For the last, longer than I care to mention, I’ve been reading the Marion Zimmer Bradley Arthurian novel The Mists of Avalon. Started out great, but boy, is it dragging on! This is all very disconcerting because I just got back from Portland’s Stumptown Comics Fest and came home with quite a loot! I’ve only just barely been able to crack into the overwhelming stack of comics on my nightstand. Here’s what I HAVE been able to squeeze in and thoroughly enjoyed…

The Yellow Zine

Yellow Zine by Roman Muradov
This guy is definitely one to watch out for. This is a small collection of his current (beautifully drawn) strips. This little book is everything I love about a zine-style book. Honest, heartfelt, disturbing and endearing. I love when a self published work is able to speak great big truths while simultaneously saying, but don’t take any of this TOO seriously.

Glamazonia The Uncanny Super-Tranny by Justin Hall
I LOVE Glam! This is a book I picked up from Stumptown and only now was able to sink my teeth into. This is a collection of Glamzonia’s outlandish stories written by Justin Hall and drawn by a handful of Bay Area artists. I love how San Francisco this book is. I love how absurd and raunchy it is. I love the pink interior pages. I love the underlining social message of it all. Yes, it is time for a Tranny Super heroine! Fabulous.

Mister Wonderful by Daniel Clowes
In terms of Dan Clowes recent work, I enjoyed Ice Haven and Wilson more than Mr. Wonderful. Which isn’t to say I did not enjoy it, I did, very much. However, it seemed very straight forward and reality based as opposed to some of my favorites of his (Like a Velvet Glove..) which tend to be very meandering and odd, to say the least. Mister Wonderful is odd though in its earnestness. Truthfully, I’m a bit disarmed by it.

GingerbreadGirl by Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin
I was lucky enough to booth right next to these two at Stumptown. This book was truly the star of the entire convention. I’m pretty sure they sold out all their stock and for good reason! This book is fantastic. It’s the kind of book any comic fan would pick up and have to buy simply for the design alone. The story is bizarre, the artwork is gorgeous, I cannot wait to continue reading this book!

Martian Confederacy vol. 2 From Mars With Love by Jason McNamara and Paige Braddock
These two have done it again. This is such a great follow up to the fun and adventurous vol. 1. Jason McNamara’s storytelling is always an inspiration, and Paige Braddock’s artwork is the kind of seemingly effortless style that drive artists mad with frustration. It’s a sci-fi love story, so I’m happy with that, but it’s also a totally engrossing page turner. Fun and excitement on every page!

MoCCA on the East Coast, Stumptown on the West Coast—the past two weeks have been busy ones for comics creators and fans alike. I made it to MoCCA, but the grass is always greener on the other side of the country, and it looks like there was a lot to see—and buy—at Stumptown. Here’s a sample of the offerings, starting with Dylan Meconis’s slew of tiny watercolor paintings, above.

Vera Brosgol had her newest minicomic, What, Were You Raised by Wolves?

Larry Marder offered a peek at the next Beanworld graphic novel.

Michael White had handmade stuffed versions of Chester, the pig in Amity Blamity.

Top Shelf had advance copies of Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin’s Gingerbread Girl, and Coover and Tobin were there as well!

Uncanny X-Men First Class #5

Apparently at Taco Bell you don’t have to decide between food or comics (insert your own beefy lawsuit joke here). The fast food chain has teamed up with Marvel to provide four different comics with its kids meals.

According to Marvel, each book includes an 11-page story with a one-page Mini-Marvels backup story. Each cover is a reprint from an existing Marvel title. Looking at who’s doing the comics, it may be worth a run to the border; I’d brave a burrito for the team behind Atomic Robo‘s take on Iron Man vs. MODOK alone. (Speaking of which, colorist Chad Fidler posted some pages from the Iron Man comic online).

Here are the details:

X-Men

11-page story:
· Writer: Alex Zalben
· Artist: Tom Grummett
1-page backup by Colleen Coover
Cover by Roger Cruz, a reprint from Uncanny X-Men First Class #5

Fantastic Four

11-page story:
· Writer: Paul Tobin
· Artist: Craig Rousseau
1-page backup by Colleen Coover
Cover by Steve McNiven, reprint from Marvel Knights 4 #1.

Invincible Iron Man

from Taco Bell's Iron Man comic

11-page story:
· Writer: Brian Clevinger
· Artist: Scott Wegener
1-page backup by Colleen Coover
Cover by Brandon Peterson, reprint from Invincible Iron Man #2

Avengers

11-page story:
· Writer: Joe Caramagna
· Artist: Derec Donovan
1-page backup by Colleen Coover
Cover by Scott Kolins, reprint from Marvel Team-Up #4

From "Gingerbread Girl"

Gingerbread Girl, the upcoming graphic novel by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover, will debut today in serialized form on Top Shelf 2.0, leading up to its hardcover release in May. New installments will appear each Monday and Friday.

Announced in July at Comic-Con International, Gingerbread Girl follows the night in the life of 26-year-old Annah Billips, who may or may not have a missing sister named Ginger. “At heart,” Tobin told Robot 6 in August, “it’s a strange bird of a character study focused on the main character, Annah, with a changing group of narrators (including a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a magician, a pigeon, a thug, a store clerk, a doctor, an English bulldog, and many more) searching for the truth behind our ‘Gingerbread Girl,’ who believes that her mad scientist father extracted a part of her brain (the Penfield Homunculus) and used it to create a sister for Annah.”

The 112-page graphic novel is already available for pre-order for $12.95 at the Top Shelf Productions website.

LOEG goes to Carnaby Street

Mark your calendar and start saving your pennies: Top Shelf has announced its entire 2011 lineup, in chronological order, and it’s going to be quite a year. In addition to a varied line of adult graphic novels, the indy publisher is greatly expanding its children’s line and inaugurating a “Kids Club” website just for those books. Some highlights:

League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Vol III): Century #2 – 1969, by Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill: The latest chapter of Moore’s epic moves to 1960s London, the epicenter of psychedelic cool. Due out in July.

Any Empire, by Nate Powell: Powell won an Eisner Award two years ago for Swallow Me Whole, and now he’s back with another book about the secrets of childhood, this one focusing on violence in suburbia. Also due out in July.

Incredible Change-Bots Two, by Jeffrey Brown: The catalog text describes this as “a nostalgic tribute not only to Saturday morning cartoons but also to Jeffrey Brown’s Incredible Change-Bots One,” which is as good a reason as any for fans of the first book to pick up the second. Watch for it in March.

Gingerbread Girl, by Colleen Coover and Paul Tobin (who we interviewed last summer about it): This sounds like a pileup of wackiness, with multiple narrators following a young woman, trying to see if her mad-scientist father used part of her brain to make her a sister. Due out in May.

Okie Dokie Donuts (Story 1): Open for Business, by Chris “Elio” Eliopoulos: Trouble in the donut shop! Chris Eliopoulos is an animator for the children’s television show Yo Gabba Gabba, and you can see his webcomic The Bravest Nino at the Top Shelf site. Due out in June.

And, for those who can’t get enough alternative manga, another volume of AX! There’s a lot more in their catalog, so go, read, and plan!

Batman Loses

Sometimes you just have to tell a Batman story. Over at Unauthorized Comics, Ulises Alfonso Farinas has done just that, in a tale called “Batman Loses.” Check out more of his art here. (Via Super Punch)

And second, over on her blog, Colleen Coover shares a two-page Batman and Robin tale of her own. “Unofficial, unsolicited, unsanctioned,” she writes. “Done for fun, because comics.”

Gingerbread Girl

During their panel at Comic-Con International last month, Top Shelf Productions highlighted several projects they’ll publish next year, including Gingerbread Girl, a new graphic novel by the husband-and-wife team of writer Paul Tobin and artist Colleen Coover.

The duo, probably best known for their respective work at Marvel right now, took the time to answer a few of my questions about the new project, how they collaborate and what else they’re working on.

JK: What’s Gingerbread Girl about?

Paul: At heart, it’s a strange bird of a character study focused on the main character, Annah, with a changing group of narrators (including a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a magician, a pigeon, a thug, a store clerk, a doctor, an English bulldog, and many more) searching for the truth behind our “Gingerbread Girl,” who believes that her mad scientist father extracted a part of her brain (the Penfield Homunculus) and used it to create a sister for Annah.

Colleen: The book explores the reasons for Annah’s emotional distance, too.

JK: Did you have fun coming up with the different voices for each narrator?

Paul: Very much so. I tried to make each of them very distinct, and to vary their knowledge levels. One of the narrators, for instance, is a thug who really doesn’t care about Annah or the mystery. He just wants beer. Anything besides that is completely secondary to him… an afterthought. Another narrator is an eminent neurologist who sees things entirely in medical terms. Another narrator is a pigeon that… isn’t very smart. The whole crux of the mystery plays with these different voices, so it was very important that they be distinct.

JK: Did you come up with the idea together, or did one of you “recruit” the other to work on it?

Paul: The idea was mine, and I “recruited” Colleen to work on it. She would probably use a different word than “recruit.”

Colleen: You didn’t exactly say “Wife, Do This Thing,” though. I mean I wanted to do it, you know? We love collaborating. Gingerbread Girl is the most recent book we’ve done together that wasn’t superheroes.

JK: Speaking of which, you’ve both been pretty busy at Marvel lately. What made you decide to pursue an original graphic novel?

Paul: Certain types of stories need to be your own. This wouldn’t have worked within the context of anything but a creator-owned project. Beyond that, I started in the indy field, and I will always want to straddle the fence. Writers that choose one type of writing, or one company, always seem a bit strange to me. Be loyal to the writing… not the genre.

Colleen: And you just like to mix things up sometimes, so you don’t get bored of doing the same thing always.

JK: How do the two of you collaborate? Does Paul write a full script and then pass it to Colleen, or is it more organic than that? I’d imagine having the writer and artist under the same roof would have some advantages.

Paul: I always work with full script. I know, of course, the types of things that Colleen likes to draw, so I skewed things in the direction of her tastes.

Colleen: Although he does like to throw me a curve ball and have me draw something out of my comfort zone every once in a while, just to keep me on my toes! Which is awesome because it helps me grow as an artist and storyteller.

JK: How did this project land at Top Shelf?

Paul: We’ve always had an immense amount of respect for Top Shelf, and it was always in the back of our minds to collaborate with them some day. And Chris Staros and Brett Warnock have been longtime supporters of Colleen’s work, so they were feeling the same from their side. Then, after Colleen and I moved to Portland we ended up living just a few blocks from Brett… and our “inevitable” timeline was considerably shortened.

Colleen: This is a very Top Shelf kind of book, I think. It’s more of a “Contemporary Fiction” story than a “genre” piece, and that’s what they do best.

JK: Are there plans to serialize it online before publication?

Paul: Absolutely. We’ll be putting it on Top Shelf’s swanky website a few pages at a time over the course of several months. We’re really excited about the advantages of online serialization… there’s something about a series of bite-sized bits that makes the end result all the more savory.

JK: What else are the two of you working on, separately or together? And do you any other creator-owned projects in mind after this one?

Paul: I’m currently working on Marvel Adventures: Spider-Man, and Marvel Adventures: Super Heroes, and Conan for Dark Horse, and another soon-to-be announced project for Dark Horse, and a new ongoing title for Marvel, and two other unannounced projects for Marvel. And… uhh… I think that’s it. I’m also mulling over a new creator-owned project with Colleen. Most definitely.

Colleen: My four-issue backup in Thor & the Warriors Four, which teamed up the Power Pack with Hercules, just wrapped up. And now I’m writing and drawing another short piece for an upcoming book at Marvel, while contemplating what I want to do next for an independent project.

JK: You guys weren’t at Comic-Con. Why did you decide to stay home this year?

Paul: Because the SDCC is an enormous Godzilla-sized cat that likes to sharpen its claws on what vestiges of sanity we have left. Also, deadlines just weren’t permitting this year. With all of our various projects we couldn’t take the week off before the con (necessary for preparation) or the week of the con (necessary because, duh, the con) or the week after the con, necessary for recuperation and settling bar tabs.

Coover's Hercules the Olympian Babysitter

In 2004 I was fortunate enough to interview Colleen Coover–during her Small Favors days/on the eve of the creation of her and husband Paul Tobin’s all-ages Banana Sunday. I enjoyed her art then, but never hoped for how effectively Marvel would tap her fantastic style for many of its books and characters.  Much to my delight, it seems like Coover’s reputation and fanbase is growing larger every day. Last week saw the release of Girl Comics No. 2, which featured a two-page opening piece by Coover as well as a Shamrock eight-page adventure drawn by her (and written by Kathryn Immonen). We briefly discussed it, as well as her other current Marvel work (such as the Hercules back-up tale in Thor and the Warriors Four)  for this brief email interview. I look forward to down the road when Coover flexes her “writer muscles” (as she calls them).

Tim O’Shea: Marvel’s keeping you busy at present. How did the Hercules the Olympian Babysitter story land on your table?

Colleen Coover: The book’s editor Jordan White asked me to come up with a Power Pack backup story for a four-issue mini series. I was flipping through Bullfinch’s Mythology one evening, and I came up with the Hercules story when I woke up the next morning. At the time I didn’t know that the Alex Zalben’s main story was a team-up with Thor, titled Thor & The Warriors Four, so it was a happy coincidence that I used one of Marvel’s other mythological characters!

O’Shea: Speaking of Hercules, can you single out a scene that was the most enjoyable for you to draw?

Coover: It was great fun to draw the flashback of little baby Herc throttling the pair of serpents that Hera had sent into his crib, and her sour face later when adult Hercules has bitten his thumb at her as he sets out to perform his Labors.

O’Shea: The fun that you inject in your art is more than just putting a smile on the characters’ faces. Can you talk a little bit about how you inject Coover-iness (aka joy) into your characters?

Coover: It’s all about cartooning and acting—thinking about how the body language of a character tells the reader what’s going on in their head. When I’m cartooning a figure I often think of their skeletons being made of rubber, which gives them a little more “bounce” and liveliness.

O’Shea: That being said, despite the innate charm and warmth to your approach, I wonder if there are any Marvel characters that defy the Coover powers (for instance, have you ever tried to do a Coover-fied version of Thanos)?

Coover: We shall see! I did draw perhaps the cuddliest Man-Thing ever. And even the zombies in my backup for one of the issues of Models, Inc. were kinda cute. I have to think my biggest challenge will be the Red Skull, if and when that happens.

O’Shea: To what extent do you contribute to the remaining Girl Comics (2 and 3) issues? As a reader, can you single out creators that you’re looking forward to seeing in the Girl Comics project?

Coover: I did a two-page intro for each of the three issues, all in the same basic format of 12 panels on one page and a full splash on the next. And then I drew an eight-page story starring Shamrock, written by Kathryn Immonen and beautifully colored by Elisabeth Breitweiser. I believe that story is to be in issue two. I’m looking forward to seeing Louise Simonson and June Brigman reunite for a Power Pack story!

O’Shea: I greatly enjoyed your Redwing story in the recent Tails of the Pet Avengers one-shot–any interest in more Redwing stories?

Coover: Thanks! Joe Caramagna wrote that piece, and it was a hoot to draw all the motorcycle chasing and birds flying around. The Pet Avengers is always fun to work on—I think it’s one of those books that even “serious” comics readers allow themselves to enjoy for the sheer fun of it!

O’Shea: Is Marvel trying to coax you into a regularly monthly assignment or are they and you content to stick with shorter miniseries assignments as your schedule permits?

Coover: I like to mix it up a lot, so it’s nice to be able to hop from book to book. I certainly wouldn’t have the speed as an artist necessary to do a full issue every month! But lately I’ve been working out my writer muscles, and I’d eventually like to write for other artists, so we’ll see how that goes in the future.

O’Shea: You recently went down to Texas for Free Comic Book Day–how did that go?

Coover: AWESOME. Paul and I had never been to Austin before, and Randy Lander of Rogues Gallery was a terrific host to us. The fans were great and the kids were all so polite!

O’Shea: How did the pinup of Dan DeCarlo’s Jetta come about?

Coover: I’ve been acquainted with the editor Craig Yoe for a number of years, and when he asked me to be a contributor, I jumped all over it!

O’Shea: What’s on the horizon for you?

Coover: Paul and I are working on cover designs for our graphic novel Gingerbread Girl, which is going to be published by Top Shelf sometime late this year or early next.

Enter the Heroic Age

Welcome once again to What Are You Reading? where we ask, “If you were stuck on an island with the smoke monster, what would you bring to read?” Yes, that was my lame attempt to make today’s edition topical. Sorry. Let’s just write that off as me being really excited to see the end of Lost.

This week our special guest is comics retailer Randy Lander, who you can find selling comics at Rogues Gallery Comics & Games in Round Rock, Texas or blogging over at Inside Joke Theatre. To see what Randy and the rest of our merry castaways have been reading, click the link below …

*****

Brigid Alverson

Foiled

Just by chance, I’m reading two books about high-schoolers that mix real life and fantasy elements. Foiled, written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Mike Cavallaro, is the slicker of the two; it is published by First Second and is in full color, with a very deluxe feel. Yet I think the other book, Gene Luen Yang’s Animal Crackers, has the better story.

Foiled is clever and elegantly carried out—it’s the story of a girl who is a misfit in school but very into fencing. When she winds up with a super-cute new guy as her lab partner, she thinks of their budding relationship in terms of fencing moves. Aliera, the lead character, is the sort of independent, self-confident girl that grownups like me like to read about; she’s a good role model, a comfortingly mature teenager. The problem is that the story shifts halfway through from a fairly realistic high-school drama to a fantasy tale: Aliera goes on her first date with Avery, the cute guy, and as she is standing in Grand Central Station, she puts on her fencing mask and suddenly sees a host of fantastic creatures. Unfortunately, Yolen has given the reader no hint up till then of what will happen. It’s simply too abrupt a break, and in a deeper way, it doesn’t make emotional sense. Aliera is a great kid, but a hero? I didn’t see enough to convince me of that.

Animal Crackers also mixes an imaginative fantasy world with high school life, but the fantasy elements come in early and are better integrated. The book consists of three of Yang’s early works, all loosely connected by overlapping characters and situations, plus a bonus story at the end explaining how these comics came to be in the first place.

I like it that Yang’s characters aren’t the stereotyped good kids of young-adult literature; in the first story, a bully and a nerd team up to fight animal crackers that have come to life. Yang moves beyond the standard archetypes and makes his teens quirky enough to be interesting. He also invents fantasy creatures who send spaceships up people’s noses in order to tap into the unused portions of their brains. The other long story in the book is about a girl who meets a mysterious stranger in her dreams, but the spaceship-up-the-nose motif continues as well. Yang touches on a lot of common themes—hatred, forgiveness, elitism—but he doesn’t treat any of them simplistically. His fantasy characters are an integral part of each story from the beginning. While Foiled threw me for a loop halfway through the book, with Animal Crackers I knew what I was dealing with from the beginning—a witty blend of fantasy and high school life.

Michael May

Ex Occultus: Badge of Langavat

Ex Occultus: Badge of Langavat is an occult-investigator comic by Robert James Russell, Jesse Young, and Sandra Lanz. It’s cool that they’ve done a lot of research into the creatures and legends that appear in the book, but the thing about occult-investigator stories is that it’s not the creatures and legends that make them good. It’s the investigators. I’ve seen plenty of werewolf stories, what I haven’t seen is Your Characters fighting werewolves. And unfortunately, I didn’t get to know the hunters in Ex Occultus enough to learn if I like them or not. The two Scot highlanders trying to rescue a bunch of kids from a castle full of werewolves certainly know what they’re doing and are really tough in a fight, but I got little sense that they were real people with personalities. It’s a cool concept; it just needs a lot of work in the execution.

I picked up the first collection of Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam! to read for bedtime stories, but decided that first we’d need to read Jeff Smith’s Shazam!: The Monster Society of Evil. The language was a bit more than I was ready for (not awful, but “ass” – for instance – isn’t a word that gets used a lot in our house), but it was a lot of fun introducing these characters to my son. He was totally fooled about Sivana’s being a good guy and the revelation that Mr. Mind was a tiny worm was shocking to him. There’s a lot to love about the story: talking tigers, crocodiles, and bugs, weird monsters, giant robots; a mysterious wizard. I wasn’t sure how I was going to like Mary Marvel as an elementary student (I’m so used to her as a pre-teen), but Smith had great instincts about that too and Mary’s completely adorable. David and I were both sorry to reach the end of the book, but we’re happy to have Mike Kunkel’s version to follow it up with.

Chris Mautner

Like Brigid I also read Foiled. If anything, however, I liked it even less than she did. Which is a shame and a bit surprising, considering the talent involved.

Artist Mike Cavallaro tries hard to maintain reader interest — mixing up layouts and perspectives — and he has a nice, cartoony style. But it can’t overcome Yolen’s awkward, leaden prose. Her heroine speaks like no teenager — or really person — I know, or would want to know for that matter. She seems less like a person than an amalgamation of character traits. The late third act intrusion of fantasy into the material doesn’t do much to jazz up the material either. If anything, it upsets the applecart even more — all that only to have the revelation be yet another “you are the chosen one who must save the magical world of ZiderZee crap?”

The whole time I read this book I kept thinking to myself, “You know what I’d really like to read? A manga about a young girl who knows nothing about fencing, but joins her school club on a whim, finds out she really likes the sport, and through pluck and determination becomes one of the best in her school and goes on to compete the big national finals.” I’d much rather have that slate of cliches than what’s presented here.

Tom Bondurant

First Wave #2

This week I finally caught up with a couple of DC’s “First Wave” titles, namely Doc Savage #s 1-2 and First Wave #2. Having read the Batman/Doc Savage Special and First Wave #1, I found the idea behind “First Wave” appealing, but in practice it’s hit or miss. For one thing, I am not that familiar with Doc Savage or the Avenger beyond just knowing that they exist — so to me, these books cry out for the basic expository grounding an omniscient narrator (for example) might have provided. The Doc Savage issues (written by Paul Malmont, pencilled by Howard Porter, inked by Art Thibert) tell a decent story about an old enemy of Doc’s using lightning to attack him and his infrastructure, but it might have been more meaningful had I known how all these things fit together. I’m also finding Porter’s storytelling to be more challenging than it was on JLA, and I say that as someone who genuinely liked his JLA work. Art is not a problem on First Wave, because Rags Morales is doing some really great work. However, issue #2 also suffers from who-is-that?-itis. I will probably stick with First Wave, but I don’t feel like I missed much with Doc Savage.

Last week’s War of the Supermen #2 featured some really ugly art (especially the faces) from Eduardo Pansica and Wayne Faucher, so I was not especially looking forward to this week’s issue #3. And indeed, it’s not perfect, because Zod’s army comes across as this unstoppable force which essentially brings Earth to its knees. It may
therefore be a stretch to show them beaten back in just 22 pages, as must happen next week. Even so, I thought this issue (written by Sterling Gates and James Robinson, pencilled by CAFU, and inked by Bit) was an excellent piece of setup, specifically for the last page. This whole miniseries is essentially a larger-scale version of Superman II, and issue #3 ends on its version of “would you like to step outside?”

Finally, I’m pretty pleased with Phil Jimenez and John Wells’ updating of the old Michael Fleisher Encyclopedia Of Comic Book Heroes Vol. 2, here called The Essential Wonder Woman Encyclopedia. It’s the same format (and approach) as Bob Greenberger’s Essential Batman Encyclopedia from 2008, but it may be more comprehensive and — with no disrespect at all to Mr. Greenberger — more readable. Now, that might be because I don’t know as much about obscure WW characters, and (ironically) I don’t know as much about the Earth-1 Wonder Woman. I’m tempted to say there’s just not as much Wonder Woman material as there is for Batman (or for Superman, whose Essential Encyclopedia comes out in August). Still, it’s the kind of book I can open to any random page and find something interesting. The one drawback, which was true as well for the Batman volume, is that it only cites first appearances, and not specific issues beyond that. This surely cut down on its length, but it makes it less than ideal as a reference work. Still, I’d rather leaf through this thick book than spend all my time looking up comics online….

Tim O’Shea

Origins of Marvel Comics

I bought Origins of Marvel Comics for some of the exquisite art (such as Lee Weeks’ Hulk and Marcos Martin’s Daredevil), but also to amuse myself with how Fred Van Lente summarized characters in the span of one page (and Fred does a great job). Believe it or not, this comic marks the first time I have ever gotten Wolverine’s full origin. I skipped all those infernal and myriad “origin” tales that Marvel has done over the years with Wolverine, because they never seemed to interest me. So now, more than 10 years after everyone else, I know that Logan is really a guy called James Howlett. My life is complete. Thank you, Marvel. Oh, but back to the Hulk origin–does anyone get the impression that Bruce Banner has been looking for a way to cure himself of being the Hulk (as his origin page says). The last time I remember that being a focus was when the Hulk was a TV show with Bill Bixby.

While I’m partial to issues of the kids Batman: The Brave and the Bold written by Landry Walker, this month’s issue by Sholly Fisch is a blast. Fisch gives us a week of Batman’s team-ups which includes appearances by Metamorpho; the entire Green Lantern Corp; Merry, Girl of 1,000 Gimmicks; Jonah Hex; Bat Lash; Hawkman; The Demon; The Inferior Five; The Creeper–plus (and I don’t know if this character has shown up in this comic series before) a cameo by Chief Miles O’Hara (a character from the 1960s TV show).

Kurt Busiek back in the Marvel universe is a nice treat–his take on J. Jonah Jameson as politician in the Age of Heroes #1 (of 4) is as good as Mark Waid’s (that’s a compliment). He even gets to write the Avengers for a second. This issue also has Paul Cornell & Leonard Kirk on a Captain Britain & MI:13 two-pager (anyone else think there might be a miniseries with this team down the road? I hope so). And while it’s only a one-pager, anytime Dan Slott and Ty Templeton team up on anything I am happy.

Girl Comics #2 is a great read for the Colleen Coover art by itself. But you also get a comedic crank call by the Thing to Doctor Doom in a two-pager by Stephanie Buscema in which she’s a great writer as well as an artist. I almost bristled at the $4.99 price tag, but I reminded myself that the Trina Robbins text pieces alone make the buy worth $5. If I haven’t convinced you its worth reading, I’ll just give you one more good reason: Jill Thompson drawing the Inhumans–and it’s funny.

Sorry to see that Phil Hester’s Anchor came to an end with issue 8 this month. But by Hester’s own admission he had originally conceived the project as a six-issue miniseries or standalone graphic novel, so it actually in a sense went beyond his initial expectations. Kudos to BOOM for giving the story a try and providing Hester a chance to wrap up the tale in the way he wanted.

Graeme McMillan

Wednesday Comics

I’m having one of those weeks where I feel very lucky to be on the DC comp list, having received and now working through the collected edition of Wednesday Comics, as well as the reissued Stuck Rubber Baby and an advance copy of Dark Rain, the new New-Orleans-Heist-During-Katrina graphic novel from Vertigo. The hardcover Wednesday Comics is amazing, and almost overwhelming in terms of size (The pages are actually slightly smaller than the original newspaper, but the hardcover format somehow makes up for that. Don’t ask me to explain it), but the glossy paper really makes the artwork look amazing and the collected format makes stories that seemed underwhelming in the original run read very differently this time around: the formalist play of Gaiman/Allred’s Metamorpho is more obvious, and Ben Caldwell’s Wonder Woman is much more legible, which’ll hopefully help people realize how good it really was all along. I know it’s almost $50, but it’s a really, really great book. I’m only partway into both Stuck Rubber Baby and Dark Rain, but enjoying both very much – which I expected from Howard Cruise’s memoir, but Mat Johnston and Simon Gane have happily surprised me with Dark Rain, which is fast-moving, funny and not even vaguely as exploitative as I’d feared.

Randy Lander

Enter The Heroic Age
This is a great teaser for Marvel’s new books, a bunch of short stories that serve as prologue for the new Thunderbolts, Hawkeye & Mockingbird, Atlas, Black Widow and Avengers Academy. In particular, my second favorite story here was Jeff Parker’s take on the Luke Cage-led Thunderbolts, which looks like a lot of fun, taking into account the character’s jailhouse roots as well as his modern-day Avenger mainstay status. Since Hawkeye & Mockingbird are my two favorite characters at Marvel, and I loved what Jim McCann and David Lopez did with them in New Avengers Reunion, my favorite story here was their teaser intro for their new ongoing Hawkeye & Mockingbird book, picking up where New Avengers Reunion left off. I can’t believe I’m actually getting this series, I’ve been waiting for something like it since about 1985, I think.

The Killer Modus Vivendi by Matz & Luc Jacamon
If you haven’t read the gorgeous European comic The Killer, published by Archaia Studios, do yourself a favor and pick up the two hardcovers. It’s one of the best crime comics I’ve ever read, a story of a hitman told from the point of view of the hitman, and while it’s got plenty of violence and anti-social behavior, it’s really about the psychological underpinnings of someone who kills for a living as much as it is the details of how he does his jobs. Fans of The Professional in particular should check this one out, as it has a similar vibe, and the artwork is just spectacular. This series picks up where the two hardcovers left off, with the Killer coming out of retirement for what looks like a messy, politically-connected job.

Orc Stain by James Stokoe
Speaking of gorgeous artwork in the European vein, James Stokoe mixes European lush backgrounds with the frenetic energy and detail of manga to create one of the best fantasy comics I’ve ever read. His invented language for the orcs is a lot of fun, his lead character is a roguish misanthrope and it’s really a perfect cross between fantasy and crime capers, with an off-beat sense of humor and some of the best chase sequences I’ve ever seen in comics.

Codename Knockout

Codename Knockout by Robert Rodi, Louis Small Jr., Yanick Paquette, Amanda Connor & Al Rio
A blast from the past, I’m not entirely sure why DC decided to print this Vertigo series from the early 2000s back in print, but I’m going to speculate it might be because of some similarities to F/X’s hilarious Archer cartoon, and regardless, I’m not going to complain. Rodi’s sexy, funny series about the agents of G.O.O.D., represented by the gorgeous Angela Devlin (whose mother is head of G.O.O.D.) and her handsome gay partner Go Go Fiasco as they battle the forces of E.V.I.L. (run by Angela’s dad) only ran for about 24 issues, but it was good for plenty of laughs and sexy spy action at the time. I’m glad to finally get the chance to revisit it, and would highly recommend that anyone who is a fan of Archer or Danger Girl do the same.

The Question by Dennis O’Neil & Denys Cowan
Volume 6 reprinting this gritty series from the ’80s just came out, and now, one of the holes in my ’80s comics reading is finally plugged in. These six volumes reprint 36 issues of reporter and crimefighter Vic Sage and his battles against the thoroughly corrupt Hub City, O’Neil tackles crime, politics, mental illness and corruption among various other social issues. Since it’s comics, these heady issues come with kung-fu, sex and shootouts. With a great cast of supporting characters, including an embattled mayor who is Vic Sage’s on-again, off-again lover, and a backdrop that makes Gotham City look like Metropolis, The Question is melodramatic noir and social fable all that the same time, and it deserves its great reputation as one of the best comics of the late ’80s.

The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard
My prose reading habits are shameful these days, I only manage to read about a dozen books this year, but thanks to Justified, my innate love of Elmore Leonard’s work and the recent Red Dead Redemption, I finally ponied up the cash to pick up this anthology of Elmore Leonard’s western stories. It includes the famous 3:10 to Yuma, but there are 30 stories total in here, representing Leonard’s short story work in the western genre. I can’t wait to dig in.

Spider-Man Marvel Adventures

As we noted a week or so back, the Marvel Adventures line will relaunch in April with Spider-Man #1 and Super Heroes #1–both written by Paul Tobin. Given how much I already enjoyed Tobin’s approach on the line, I was curious to get his take on the relaunch. We also got to cover a lot of Marvel Adventures ground, as well his current miniseries work (Spider-Man & the Secret Wars as well as Black Widow and the Marvel Girls), and amazingly enough, even Bing Crosby works his way into the discussion.

Tim O’Shea: From a writing standpoint, do you look to change your approach to the Marvel Adventures line, as the series reboots? For example, Invisible Woman has been at the forefront of recent Super Heroes issues, will her role remain prominent?

Paul Tobin: We’re not looking at these as reboots, but rather as relaunches. We’re very comfortable with the changes we’ve done to the Marvel Adventures line in recent months… in fact it’s those storylines, and the response they’ve garnered, that convinced us to move forward and relaunch the titles completely. Marvel and I are quite focused on making these stories sing… and we wanted to draw attention to that. So… bottom line, we’re continuing with what we were doing, and now doing it EVEN BETTER. And I love Sue Storm as a prominent character… so there she will remain.

O’Shea: Of issue 19, you wrote “in this issue where I think I really began to get a handle on this title”–what was the breakthrough moment for you in getting that handle?

Tobin: For a writer taking over a new title, there’s always a time period where you move from MAKING characters talk and interact, and then LETTING them talk and interact. It’s a changeover where suddenly the characters have lives and desires of their own… when they’ll let you know when you’re using them wrong. Sometimes I can feel a character staring up from a page and saying, “Yo! Paul! I would NEVER say or do that.” At that point, I always feel more comfortable with a title. Issue 19 was that way for me. I think it was Nova finally understanding his own place, and letting me know how he felt about being an Avenger. He was the final piece of the puzzle.

O’Shea: Can you promise me that Vision will be a regular in the new Super Heroes Marvel Adventures title, I love your approach toward him in particular.

Tobin: I can’t PROMISE anything, but I will say that I love the Vision, and my current plans for him are not small. I like his personal quest.

O’Shea: Who can I thank for the idea of building Avengers Headquarters around the old Barbershop/SHIELD office?

Tobin: That would be me. You can thank me. I had a stack of those old Strange Tales comics, given to me by a cousin, and that barbershop always struck me as the most wonderful thing… a secret base in a barbershop, accessed by the barber chairs.

O’Shea: In the Spider-Man Marvel Adventures universe, can you tease folks as to who you hope to feature prominently in the supporting cast–and where you’re wanting to take that series in general?

Tobin: Sophia “Chat” Sanduval will remain important. Emma Frost will definitely be around, even as her reasons for being around change. A member of the Torino crime family is definitely going to be featured. Gwen gets romantic. There’s a certain clawed mutant that I love writing. As to the direction I’m heading, I love working with what it means to be Spider-Man… the effect on Peter as a person, in his relationships, his life. And I also like to occasionally see those effects from different eyes. We’re dealing with a time period shortly after Peter becomes Spider-Man, so a lot of it is new to him… he’s having to make some rather pressure-filled decisions about putting on the suit, and just where it is that his responsibility ends.

O’Shea: How hard has it been to write a title that works for both kids and older readers? Did assistant editor Michael Horwitz and editor Nathan Cosby help you in keeping that broader audience appeal tone to the books?

Tobin: It’s actually not very difficult at all. I write so that I’ll enjoy it, and so that my wife (artist Colleen Coover) will enjoy it. All my life, in everything I’ve ever read, it’s been evident if a writer cares about what he or she is doing. In my own case, I’m very enthusiastic about these titles, and as long as I keep it that way, I think that the appeal will be there. I guess I don’t really write in order to appeal to a specific audience… I just write to tell the best stories I can. And yes… Nate and Michael help me quite a bit. I recently did an entire issue of breakdowns and sent it off to Nate, and he sent the whole thing back with a note that I’d gone off course. And he was absolutely correct, and I dumped the whole thing and went on to write my favorite issue so far.

O’Shea: Recently on Twitter, you asked followers: “Trying to decide what “lost” Marvel characters need love.” Is that a question posed for your Marvel Adventures work or for your upcoming work on the Hercules and Hulk titles?

Tobin: Neither, really. I just love talking about comics. I suppose at some level I might be thinking about reviving some characters, but for that particular tweet I was just curious about who people miss, and who they’d like to see more of. Some of the answers surprised me. It was fun. Several people mentioned one of my favorite “lost” characters, too… so it was gratifying.

O’Shea: In terms of your upcoming Hercules/Hulk work, what can you tell folks about this?

Tobin: Not much, at this point. I’ll be doing some shorter stories for both these title. Really excited by them. It’s always nice to expand into other areas, and in this case I’m working with some of my favorite writers at Marvel, and it’s been a blast. Honestly, though… I think ANYWHERE I work at Marvel these days, the writing is amazing. Between Parker and Van Lente, Brubaker and Bendis, Fraction and Remender (Rick’s work with Tony Moore is SO much goodness) I honestly can’t remember a better time for writers. I’ve lived through some BAD times in comics… the current age seems like the payoff.

O’Shea: In teasing issue 2 of the four-issue Spider-Man & the Secret Wars, you wrote it’s an issue “wherein I answer two problems that vexed me for years in Secret Wars. … I would have needed 1000 pages to answer the first question, and only one panel to deal with the second.” Two questions about your two questions–what were the questions? And did you growing up were you more of a Marvel or DC fan, in other words, did you come to the Marvel Adventures assignment knowing about the complex and rich Marvel continuity to play with for your new stories?

Tobin: Secret Wars # 2 is out, now, so I don’t want to spoil it by over-explaining it. And I grew up a Marvel fan, though with great respect for DC characters. When I write Marvel characters, I have a pretty good memory bank of how I think they should act and interact. I’m not quite as solid in the DC area. I suppose I could learn. Lots of amazing artists on that side of the fence, and Batman and Catwoman are two fantastic characters. I love characters with that “pulp” feel to them. Spider-Man is the same way for me.

O’Shea: The original Secret Wars was a 12-part series (plus the plot threads that played out in each Marvel ongoing series)–you’re pulling off your own Marvel Adventures version of the Secret Wars in only four issues, how challenging was it to tackle the plot in four issues?

Tobin: Very challenging. And we’re by no means tackling the entire plot… that would have been way too much material. Instead, what editor Nate Cosby and I wanted was to choose several moments and deal with them in greater depth, and also to explore the untold stories… what might have been happening off stage of the original series. Nate and I brainstormed about what moments were most deserving of further exploration… knocking heads surprisingly little.

O’Shea: You’ve gotten to work with a wide variety of Marvel artists in your myriad projects, can you single out favorite scenes or artistic approaches among your various collaborators?

Tobin: Ramon Rosanas was amazing on my Age of Sentry material. That was (I think) the first time I ever used Blonde Phantom in a story… and since then I use the art from that story as Blonde Phantom reference for artists who work with her in my Spider-Man material. Patrick Scherberger is ALWAYS up for huge battle scenes… especially ones of cosmic proportion. Matteo Lolli fills out the streets of New York so beautifully… as does Christian Nauck, who is on some of my upcoming material. Salva Espin draws such beautiful women… so he was perfect for Black Widow. Chris Samnee drew EVERYTHING beautiful, and I hope for further chances to work with him. And… of course… I’ve worked several times with Colleen Coover… and that’s always just an amazing experience.

O’Shea: With Black Widow and the Marvel Girls, how did you decide who Widow teamed up with in each issue?

Tobin: We picked from a group of possible characters. We definitely wanted characters that speak to the Marvel audience at every level… comics and movies and what-have-you. And we wanted a mix of characters who work really well with Natasha… like Ms. Marvel and the Wasp, but then we also wanted some characters who fit really strangely with Natasha… like Storm, and definitely the Enchantress. It was really fun to match the Black Widow with the Enchantress: a strange pairing really catapults me as a writer.

O’Shea: Anything I forgot to ask you about?

Tobin: My hat. You completely forgot to ask about my new hat. It’s “Bing Crosby” style. I’ll be a better writer now.