Here’s a selection of some of the more interesting quotes:

J. Michael Straczynski, who’s working with Adam Hughes on Dr. Manhattan, and Andy and Joe Kubert on Nite Owl: “Ever since Dan DiDio was handed the reins (along with Jim Lee) over at DC, he’s been making bold, innovative moves that might have scared the hell out of anyone else. At a time in the industry when big events tend to be ‘Okay, we had Team A fight Team B last year, so this year we’re gonna have Team B fight team C!’ Dan has chosen to revitalize lines, reinvent worlds and come at Watchmen head-on. It was, I think, about two years ago that he first mentioned that he was considering the idea, and he’s to be commended for fighting to make this happen.”

Brian Azzarello, who’s collaborating with Lee Bermejo on Rorschach, and J.G. Jones on Comedian: “I think the gut reaction is going to be, ‘Why?’  But then when the actual books come out, the answer will be, ‘Oh, that’s why.’ ”

Darwyn Cooke, who’s writing and drawing Minutemen and collaborating with Amanda Conner on Silk Spectre: “The nature of the undertaking is going to polarize a lot of the readership. I think a lot of people will be excited about this and there are a lot of people that will be dead against it. [...] I said no out of hand because I couldn’t think of a story that would measure up to the original — and let’s face it, this material is going to be measured that way — and the other thing is, I frankly didn’t want the attention. This is going to generate a lot of a particular type of attention that’s really not my bag. But what happened is, months after I said no, the story elements all just came into my head one day; it was so exciting to me that, at that exact moment, I started seriously thinking about doing the book.”

Straczynski, again: “A lot of folks feel that these characters shouldn’t be touched by anyone other than Alan, and while that’s absolutely understandable on an emotional level, it’s deeply flawed on a logical level. Based on durability and recognition, one could make the argument that Superman is the greatest comics character ever created. But neither Alan nor anyone else has ever suggested that no one other than Shuster and Siegel should ever be allowed to write Superman. Alan didn’t pass on being brought on to write Swamp Thing, a seminal comics character created by Len Wein, and he did a terrific job. He didn’t say ‘No, no, I can’t, that’s Len’s character.’ Nor should he have.”

Cooke, again: “I’d consider it a masterpiece if it had been able to have found what I would refer to as a hopeful note. … Again, it’s not hard to understand [where Alan was coming from], and that sort of storytelling does have an allure for young people. [But] I think the older you get, the more you look for hope or positive things. Maybe I’m just getting old.”

Original Watchmen editor Len Wein, who’s tackling Ozymandias with Jae Lee, and “Curse of the Crimson Corsair” with John Higgins: “As far as I know there are no plans for more books after this, but 25 years ago there were no plans for these books, so who truly knows? I think reboots are almost mandatory in an industry that has existed for over three-fourths of a century now. The need to inject new blood, new ideas, new approaches, is the only thing that keeps our readers coming back for more.”

“Curse of the Crimson Corsair” artist John Higgins: “The challenge is to make the stories modern and relevant to 2012 and to show what can be done with respect and consideration for the source material that has inspired so many people over the years. By adding to the mythos and not to detract from it. The Watchmen had such an influence on graphic storytelling since it first appeared and is a timeless classic. If we can create a new set of stories that can be enjoyed 25 years on, that would be an achievement and a reward in itself.”

Okay, almost seven, as USA Today has only offered a detail of one of Lee Bermejo’s covers for Rorschach (at right), his four-issue miniseries with Luthor and Joker collaborator Brian Azzarello. To make up for it, though, there’s a cover by original Watchmen colorist John Higgins for a Crimson Corsair story by he and original Watchmen editor Len Wein.

We also have a Dr. Manhattan cover by Adam Hughes (courtesy of CBR), Minutemen by Darwyn Cooke (Hero Complex), Nite Owl by Andy Kubert and Joe Kubert (Heat Vision), Ozymandias by Jae Lee (Underwire), and Silk Spectre by Amanda Conner (Entertainment Weekly). UPDATE: Now, thanks to The New York Times, we also have one of J.G. Jones’ Comedian covers.

Check out the covers below. We’ll update if more, and in some cases larger, images become available.

UPDATE: DC Comics has released hi-res versions of each of the covers, which we’ve added below.

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

Shade #4

Chris Arrant

If I had $15 I would be in comics heaven, starting with Shade #4 (DC, $2.99). I’ve loved what Cully Hamner and James Robinson have done so far, but seeing Darwyn Cooke drawing this issue knocks it up to a whole new level. It’s like seeing David Bowie sit in on an up-and-coming band’s gig one night. Next up would be the reunion of Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen in Secret Avengers #21 (Marvel, $3.99). I was halfway hoping they would break from the serious tone of the title and revisit the inanity of Nextwave, but the preview dashes that hope; still, excellent work of two guys at the top of their game. Next up would be Invincible #87 (Image, $2.99), promising an all-new level of beatdown for Mark Grayson. Lastly, I’d get Jason Aaron’s fresh take on Marvel’s mutants with Wolverine and the X-Men #4 (Marvel, $3.99). Part return to basics and part brand-new day, seeing Logan having to be the respectable one and not the plucky wildcard is fun, and the cast Aaron’s assembled is great.

If I had $30, I’d continue reading Aaron with Wolverine #300 (Marvel, $4.99). Jokes about the constant renumbering/reshuffling/rejiggering of Aaron’s run aside, it’s been a swell ride and looks to be heading up to a finale of sorts. Next up would be Batwoman #5 (DC, $2.99). Williams’ art continues to impress, and while the story doesn’t match up to his levels with Rucka on Detective Comics, he and Blackman are striving for something I haven’t been able to fully understand yet. Lastly, I’d pick up Northlanders #47 (DC/Vertigo, $2.99). Artist Declan Shalvey is an inspired get for this series, really showing off what he can do outside Marvel’s Thunderbolts.

If I could splurge, I’d dive into Eric Powell’s adaptation of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (IDW, $19.99). Putting Powell together with Twain isn’t an obvious team-up, but given Powell’s depth of work I’m interested to see how it turns out.

Hand of Fire

Chris Mautner

If I had $15, I’d probably get Papercutz’s latest Smurf collection The Return of Smurfette, which is nice to see, because I was kind of worried about her.

If I had $30, I’d put down the Smurfs book and pick up Hand of Fire, a new prose book by blogger, author and scholar Charles Hatfield about the one and only Jack “King” Kirby and his legacy. I’ll read just about anything about Kirby, and Hatfield is a great writer, so this is about as close to a must-get for me as possible this week.

While there aren’t many under $30 I’d buy this week, there are a number of splurge-worthy books, including a hardcover collection of Brooklyn Dreams by J.M. DeMatteis and Glenn Barr, a series I had slotted for a future “Collect This Now” and now shall thankfully scratch off my list; Before the Incal, a $99 prologue to Jodorowsky and Mobieus’ sci-fi epic, this time featuring art work by Zoran Janjetov; and the Steve Ditko Omnibus Vol. 2, which contains more Silver/Bronze Age Ditko goodness than you can shake your oddly gesturing hand at.

The Steve Ditko Omnibus, Volume 2

Graeme McMillan

It’s a weird week for me this week; if I had $15, more than half of it would go on IDW’s Cobra Annual 2012 ($7.99), which promises to tell the origin of the new Cobra Commander. I know, it’s a toy tie-in book, but I’ve been enjoying the ongoing Cobra series so much more than I would’ve imagined, so this one is definitely on my list of things to read, as is Secret Avengers #21 (Marvel, $3.99), a reunion for Nextwave‘s Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen and one that I really, really hope doesn’t rehash old jokes as much as let the two creators play with the medium they enjoy as much as they possibly can.

If I had $30, I’d probably grab a handful of superhero books I’ve been trying to keep up with lately: Batwoman #5, Batman and Robin #5, Legion Lost #5 and Green Lantern #5 (all DC, $2.99). Just to mix things up, I’d also see how X-Men Legacy #260.1 (Marvel, $2.99) is, and whether Marvel can continue their X-book winning streak in light of the successes of Wolverine and the X-Men, the relaunched Uncanny X-Men and the critically acclaimed Uncanny X-Force recently.

Splurge-wise, there’s absolutely no doubt in my mind: The Steve Ditko Omnibus Vol. 2 HC (DC, $59.99). I loved the mix bag of the first volume, and this second edition has the complete original Hawk and Dove. Just sit me down with this one and come back to get me in a few hours; I’ll be fine by myself.

Spera, Volume 1

Michael May

If I had $15, I’d grab my usual series, Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE #5 ($2.99) and X-Men Legacy #260.1 ($2.99) and also finish up the likable Avengers 1959 with #5 ($2.99). I’d top off the pile with the latest issues of two series that I’ve only recently fallen in love with: Batgirl #5 ($2.99) and Batwoman #5 ($2.99).

If I had $30, I’d add Demon Knights #5 ($2.99), a series I’m enjoying, but would love to see slow down enough for me to get to know some of these characters. To that I’d add Lewis Trondheim’s new book Monster Mess ($9.99).

There’s a lot of stuff I’d like to splurge on, like the first volume of The Intrepids ($16.99) and the first volume of Archaia’s Dark Crystal anthology ($19.95), for instance. I’m extremely interested in G. Willow Wilson and David Lopez’s take on CrossGen’s Mystic ($14.99), too. But if I had to pick just one thing, it would be Josh Tierney’s Spera ($19.95), about a couple of princesses and a fiery dog who have to save their kingdom.

The Score

Here’s a great way to end the week–IDW Publishing Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall has been sharing teases of various 2012 IDW projects, and today’s is, literally, quite the score. Coming in May is the third Parker novel adaptation by the great Darwyn Cooke, titled Parker: The Score. It of course follows Cooke’s adaptations of Richard Stark/Donald Westlake’s The Hunter and The Outfit, both of which feature Westlake’s famous Parker character. Can’t wait!

Any doubts regarding the accuracy of reports about DC Comics’ long-rumored plans for Watchmen prequels may have eroded over the weekend with the emergence of character art by J.G. Jones and Joe Kubert and Andy Kubert.

Bleeding Cool characterizes the illustrations of Nite Owl and The Comedian as cover art for the projects, purportedly being assembled under the code name “Panic Room,” but considering the characters’ names are written on the pages, it seems more likely they’re concept designs.

The four prequels to the seminal 1986 miniseries by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons are said to also involve Darwyn Cooke, J. Michael Straczynski, John Higgins and even Gibbons himself. Cooke, however, seemed to dismiss reports he was working on one of the miniseries, telling CBR News recently, “Ah, get out, man. That’s like three years old.”

Justice League #3

Sales | The comic book market was up more than 19 percent in November when compared with the same period last year, with comics up 23 percent and graphic novels up 12 percent. So far this year the comics and graphics novel market is up 1.87 percent versus the first 11 months of 2010. If December cooperates, this could be the first up year for the market since 2008.

DC Comics was once again the top company in terms of market share. The company took six of the top 10 spots on Diamond’s Top 100 Comics list, with Justice League #3, Batman #3, Action Comics #3, Green Lantern #3 and Marvel’s Point One #1 making up the top five comics of the month. Batman: Noel took the No. 1 spot on the Top 100 Graphic Novels list. [The Comichron]

Publishing | IDW Publishing has promoted Chief Operating Officer Greg Goldstein to president, with a focus on new markets and acquisitions. He joined the company in 2008 from Upper Deck. [ICv2.com]

Creators | Ron Marz is selling signed copies of comics he wrote, with plans to use the money he makes to buy toys for his area Toys for Tots program. [Messages from Marz]

Creators | Darwyn Cooke is again hosting “12 Days of Christmas” art auctions to benefit the Hero Initiative. [Almost Darwyn Cooke's Blog]

Frankenstein #4

Creators | Frankenstein writer Jeff Lemire says to expect a twist in Issue 7 of the DC Comics title: “You can’t sustain an on-going with monster battles. Monsters beating up monsters every month is really fun for like five or six issues, but it gets stale and formulaic to keep repeating it. The fun and interesting thing to do is to shift the tone around that time, halfway through the first year. We’ll still have the action and the adventure and the sci-fi concepts, but I’m going to focus a lot more on Frankenstein himself, his past, where he came from and how he became how he is. Build him up as a character and give some depth to him. I want to expand who this guy is and the role he plays in this larger New DC Universe. So I really needed to shift the tone in somewhat of a more serious direction. The readers need to know who Frank was and why he’s important and why they should care about him before going back to the big action stuff again.” [Paste Magazine]

Creators | The BBC’s Nick Higham talks to Art Spiegelman about Maus and MetaMaus inside Gosh Comics in London. Eddie Campbell then uses the location of the interview to have some fun. [BBC]

Digital comics | Johanna Draper Carlson reviews the iPad version of Jason Shiga’s choose-your-own-adventure tale Meanwhile: “Instead of having to be careful to visually follow the right path, the app handles all the mechanics for you, allowing you to focus on the art, story, and choices. Even when you’re reading in a sequence, you move from panel to panel via a yellow highlight, tapping whenever you’re ready to move on.” The iPad seems like the natural medium for this particular work. [Comics Worth Reading]

Digital comics | Artists Doug Hills, Joshua Hale Fialkov and Gabriel Hardman discuss how they deal with the challenge of presenting double-page spreads in digital comics. [Graphicly blog]

Exhibits | Curator Martin Brauen discusses an exhibit at New York’s Rubin Museum that features “the most complete collection of comics related to Tibet ever assembled.” [Salon]

Commentary | Comic Book Resources’ Kiel Phegley reviews a comic he found in a cereal box, General Mills Presents: Justice League #1: Unstoppable Forces. [The Cool Kids Table]

From "Watchmen"

For a while now, Bleeding Cool has repeatedly linked Eisner Award winner Darwyn Cooke with the hotly rumored Watchmen 2 from DC Comics, driving the world’s Twitterati into a Walter Kovacs-like frenzy.

But if that’s the case, Mr. Cooke is unaware of his connection.

When I spoke with the Canadian cartoonist in a recent interview about his artwork for an upcoming issue of James Robinson’s The Shade, I asked Cooke point blank if he would be working on Watchmen 2.

Cooke responded, succinctly, “Ah, get out, man. That’s like three years old.”

Now if DC Comics was planning Watchmen 2, the publisher would not want the sure-fire hit to be announced as a throwaway line during an interview for an unrelated series, so Cooke easily could have been smoking out CBR News with a red herring.

And his answer did lean toward the question being “old” news and not “no” news, so DC Comics may very well be prepping a sequel to the groundbreaking maxi-series by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. It just doesn’t appear that Cooke will be playing a role.

Which is too bad, because Cooke writing, drawing or even thinking about the characters from Watchmen, especially The Comedian, would qualify as about as pitch-perfect as you could get in terms of a creator getting on board a project that would certainly come with equal parts praise and ire, if and when it is ever announced.

Bleeding Cool contends it’s been “informed quite conclusively from a reliable source” at the publisher that the artist is among the A-list talent involved in the secretive project, which reportedly will use key characters from the seminal 1986 miniseries by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

Other previously mentioned creators include Darwyn Cooke, J. Michael Straczynski, J.G. Jones, John Higgins and even Gibbons himself.

Murmurs of DC’s desire for a Watchmen follow-up gained steam in 2010 after the departure of President Paul Levitz, believed to be the last in-house obstacle to using the Moore-Gibbons characters. The writer seemed to confirm as much last year when he revealed the publisher finally had offered to return the rights to the property — copyright and royalty issues form the roots of his legendary feud with DC — in exchange for a concession: that Moore “agree to some dopey prequels and sequels.” He refused.

Then-newly minted Co-Publishers Dan DiDio and Jim Lee said at the time that DC “would only revisit these iconic characters if the creative vision of any proposed new stories matched the quality set by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons nearly 25 years ago, and our first discussion on any of this would naturally be with the creators themselves.”

As recently as August, Gibbons addressed perennial rumors of a sequel and the possibility of the characters being transplanted into the DC Universe, telling Comic Book Resources, “It’s not something that I’d personally like to see happen. [...] What I would say is, intrinsic to the whole idea of Watchmen is that they existed in a world that was the way it was because of their existence. And I think to transplant them into another world actually removes a huge part of what is the essence of Watchmen.”

Wolverine and the X-Men

Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy at our local comic shop based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on a “Splurge” item.

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

Chris Arrant

If I had $15, I’d get one from almost every box–Image’s Invincible #85 ($2.99), DC’s DMZ #71 ($2.99), Marvel’s Wolverine and The X-Men #2 ($3.99) and independent title RASL #12 ($3.50). Not much to say about any of these I haven’t already said, except anytime Cory Walker draws a book I’d pay twice cover price.

If I had $30, I’d sneak out of Thanksgiving preparations to first get a book I was surprised I liked as much as I did, despite the last issue’s ending: Shade #2 (DC, $2.99). One thing I wasn’t amped to see was Deathstroke, but given James Robinson and Cully Hammer’s track record I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt. Next up would be the epic (in my mind, at least) team-up of Warren Ellis and Michael Lark on Secret Avengers #19 (Marvel, $3.99). Seeing Ellis boil down the concept into “Run the mission. Don’t get seen. Save the world.” Hits me right between the eyes, and this new issue’s preview has be salivating over it. Last up, I’d pay the giant size price tag for Fantastic Four #600 (Marvel, $7.99) although my patience has worn a little thin with ending the series then bringing it back for #600.

For splurging, I’d put it all down on IDW’s Parker: The Martini Edition hardcover ($75). I already have the individual books on my shelf, but getting it all under one roof plus beaucoup process sketches and conversation from Darwyn Cooke makes this a must-have for me. And I can always gift my old individual Parker graphic novels to someone else!

Graeme McMillan

Flash #3

It’s a surprisingly light week for me this week, so if I had $15, I’d go for some books that I know I liked last time around. For example, The Flash #3 (DC, $2.99); Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato are doing a great job on this title based on the first couple of issues, so I’m on board for awhile. Same with Wolverine and The X-Men #2 (Marvel, $3.99); I was surprised by just how much I loved the debut, and bringing back what seems to be Krakatoa only makes me even more gleeful about the sense of humor on display here. Peter Milligan’s Justice League Dark #3 (DC, $2.99) would round out the haul; I liked that the second issue felt much more like Milligan’s Vertigo heyday to me than much of his recent work, and I’ll happily go for more of that, please.

If I had $30, I’d add DC Comics Presents The Life Story of The Flash #1 (DC, $7.99) to my pile; I didn’t read this book in its previous original graphic novel incarnation, but I loved Mark Waid’s original Flash run, so this feels like a lost gem from that incarnation for me. And I might go for Fantastic Four #600 (Marvel, $7.99), too, depending on whether or not I was feeling up for Jonathan Hickman’s style when I got to the store; if nothing else, I’m curious about the Ming Doyle strip therein.

Splurgewise, while I admit I’m tempted by the Parker Martini Edition (IDW, $75), my heart well and truly belongs to Evan Dorkin’s Milk & Cheese: Dairy Products Gone Bad hardcover (Dark Horse, $19.99), collecting all of Dorkin’s hilarious, manic, violent strip from the 1990s; I first discovered it in Deadline way back when, and that led me to find out about Pirate Corp$, Dork! and all of Dorkin’s other stuff. He’s really one of the most underrated cartoonists around, as far as I’m concerned, and I can’t wait to get this book.

Chris Mautner

RASL #12

If I had $15: It would be a toss-up for me between getting the 12th issue of Jeff Smith’s RASL and the ninth volume of NBM’s Smurf line, Gargamel and the Smurfs, and the 29th Little Lulu volume, The Cranky Giant. It would be a tough decision, but I suspect Little Lulu would win out in the end.

If I had $30: Assuming I didn’t get those Smurf and RASL books, I’d face another tough choice between the impressive Milk and Cheese collection from Dark Horse or The New Adventures of Herge, a docudrama/biography of sorts of the famed Tintin author by L’Association co-founder Stanislas and writers Jose-Louis Bocquet and Jean-Luc Fromental. (I’d probably get them discounted online in order to squeak under my budget — sorry local LCS.) Milk and Cheese would likely win out this round, as I love those little homicidal maniacs. Merv Griffin!

Splurge: OK, but all the really cool, must-have books are in the splurge category this week (as usual). In one corner, after years and years of fits and starts and delays and promises galore is the first volume of Fantagraphics Complete Pogo collection, Through the Wild Blue Yonder. In the other corner we have the first volume in Fantagraphics other, other, other big reprint project, Donald Duck, Lost in the Andes, which collects some great stories by the masterful Carl Barks. Then, in our third and final corner, there’s Everything: Blabber Blabber Blabber, the first in a series of big hardcover books collecting everything the also masterful Lynda Barry has ever done. Any of these books would be a pick of the week on their own. All three together? Just forget about your budget this one time. Your bank account will understand.

Michael May

Justice League Dark #3

If I had $15, I’d begin with my usual DC series for the week: Aquaman #3 ($2.99), Superman #3 ($2.99), and Justice League Dark #3 ($2.99). As I think about those though, I realize that I’m reading JLD for the potential of what I think it could be and where I hope it’s going, not because I’m particularly enjoying what it is. That sounds like something I need to stop buying monthly and wait for the collection. I’ll give it this one more month before trimming it out. I’m much more looking forward to Alpha Flight #6 ($2.99), which has been reliably entertaining since it started. I’m heart-broken that there are only three issues left. Finally, since I’ve still got three bucks in my pocket, I’ll pick up another issue from a canceled series, Daken: Dark Wolverine #17 ($2.99), but that’s because it’s got the Runaways in it and I miss those kids.

If I had $30, I’d add All-Star Western #3 ($3.99), the only New 52 title I don’t mind paying four bucks for. With Justice League and Action Comics, I count pages and look at back-up material before wincing that I’m paying that much for a comic. With All-Star Western, I feel like I’m getting four bucks of value in the pages themselves, however many there are. After that, I’d add Super Dinosaur, Volume 1 ($9.99). I read the first issue and it was fantastic. Nine-year-old me was thrilled, and he largely controls my wallet.

It’s easy to pick a splurge item this week. I’ve been wanting to read a good collection of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics for decades and IDW is making that finally possible with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection, Volume 1 ($49.99).

Darwyn Cooke is coming to Long Beach Comic Con this weekend to premiere Parker: The Martini Edition, a deluxe, slipcased set of his two graphic novels Parker: The Hunter and Parker: The Outfit. Both are based on the novels of Richard Stark (actually Donald Westlake, writing under a pseudonym), and are drawn in a style reminiscent of the period in which they’re set, the early 1960s (when the 5’0s were just fading a bit and the Swinging Sixties had not yet begun), and Cooke won a fistful of Harvey and Eisner awards this year for Parker: The Outfit. He talked to me about The Martini Edition earlier this year at Boston Comic Con:

That’s a big project too because it’s very important to me — if you’re going to collect something like that, and it’s going to have a price tag like it has, it has to be incredibly special. It has to have a reason to exist, other than to take money from the reader, so I am working very hard. There will be 80 pages of extra material. We are trying to contact some of the greats in other media who have been influenced by Donald Westlake — John Boorman, the director, and Lawrence Block, one of Westlake’s contemporaries — so the book is laced with contemporaries and the whole effect he has had on other writers and film directors.

Cooke previews a few drawings on his blog, along with a limited-edition Parker print (above) that he will be signing all week long to benefit the Hero Initiative.

Marvel

Publishing | Heidi MacDonald and Tom Spurgeon offer commentary and context regarding last week’s layoffs by Marvel. [The Beat, Comics Reporter]

Conventions | San Diego City Council President Tony Young and Comic-Con International staff are working together on a “marquee event” at Balboa Park that around the time of Comic Con. While convention organizers are interested in a Balboa Park event, they don’t support Yong’s original proposal, a nationally televised parade that would kick off or end the con, saying that the logistics, traffic and crowding would be problematic. [Sign On San Diego]

Conventions | Ohio State University’s student newspaper covers this past weekend’s Mid-Ohio Con. [The Lantern]

Conventions | Digital Manga Publishing will take over the yaoi manga fan convention Yaoi-Con beginning next year and move it from the San Francisco area to Los Angeles. This is a big change for Yaoi-Con, which has been fan-run until now. [Anime News Network]

Xenoholics #1

Creators | Writer Joshua Williamson discusses his new Image title Xenoholics. [Biff Bam Pop]

Creators | Sequential Tart profiles iZombie writer Chris Roberson. [Sequential Tart]

Creators | Graphic Eye interviews Josceline Fenton, creator of the webcomic Hemlock. Never heard of her? You will — check out her art and you’ll see why. [Graphic Eye]

Analysis | Kailyn Kent places Craig Thompson’s Habibi in the context of melodrama in the latest addition to The Hooded Utilitarian’s ongoing critique. [The Hooded Utilitarian]

Review | Bob Temuka goes on record as liking Frank Miller’s Holy Terror, and he explains why, with pictures. [The Tearoom of Despair]

Review | Kate Dacey reviews Gate 7, the latest manga by the Japanese collaborative CLAMP. Executive summary: Great art, weak story. [The Manga Critic]

Comics | Sean Kleefeld posts the Captain Marvel issue of Mighty Midget Comics, a series published by Fawcett in the early 1940s in which, for some reason, all issues were #11. [Kleefeld on Comics]

"I throw him a growl I've brought all the way from Africa"

I was going to open with some snotty Wow, the holidays went by super-quickly! comment, but then I read the first issue of Justice League in seven weeks. Sometimes DC gets ahead of itself; sometimes it’s a little behind.  Happens to the best of us — sometimes you do two solicitation roundups in three weeks….

Anyway, with the January solicitations, the New-52 books each turn five issues old. Series wrapping up their first arcs this month include Blackhawks, Batwoman, Animal Man, and the Deadman feature in DC Universe Presents.  (Not to worry about the latter, because there is a lot of Deadman in these solicits.)  I’m not sure why five issues is such a wonky number for story arcs — there are five-issue miniseries all the time and they collect just fine. Still, I expected most of the New-52 books to take six issues for their introductory stories, and most of them may yet do that. Only a few books look to finish their first arcs after December’s issue #4s (Hawkman and Frankenstein, probably OMAC, maybe Batgirl), and those plus this month’s are barely an eighth of the relaunched line. It makes next month’s solicits more intriguing, I suppose.

Regardless, we live in the now (as it were…) so — onward to January!

JUSTICE LEAGUES

When I saw the solicit for Justice League #5, I thought it was another indication that Geoff Johns and Jim Lee were telling a more decompressed story, as issue #1 threatened. Accordingly, I imagined that Cyborg would be ready to go at the end of the issue, with the big Darkseid battle taking up an oversized issue #6. However, I was pleasantly surprised that issue #2 was such an improvement over #1. It moved more quickly, it brought together more of the future Leaguers, it kicked off Cyborg’s origin in earnest, and it teased another big Parademon fight. Plus it worked in a Gorilla Grodd reference, which I wouldn’t have expected so soon in the New-52 DCU. So now my mood has swung more to the manic side, and I am expecting the big fight to start in #5.

When a solicitation threatens that “[o]ne of these heroes will not make it out alive,” as Justice League Dark #5′s does, normally you think it’d be Mindwarp, the least familiar of the group. However, I then realized it could be a trick question, since that group includes Deadman — who’s not going into whatever-it-is alive….

CREATIVE TEAM SHUFFLING

I know that Tony Akins’ two-issue fill-in on Wonder Woman was planned, in order to give Cliff Chiang some flexibility, but the solicitation copy makes it sound like the issues come at least at the end (if not in the middle) of WW’s first arc. Maybe there’s some shift in the story’s tone which a different artist might help reinforce. By the same token, I can’t wait to see Darwyn Cooke and J. Bone’s guest-shot on The Shade #4.

Part of me is ready to give Green Arrow another shot, what with the three issues from Keith Giffen and Dan Jurgens and the upcoming Ann Nocenti Era, but part of me just thinks that this version of Ollie is almost too boring to fix. If anyone needed to lose his fortune, stop shaving, and go all #OccupyStarCity, it’s him.

Static Shock #5 is the first written entirely by Scott McDaniel, following the mysterious (but apparently amicable) departure of John Rozum. Walt Simonson pencils Legion of Super-Heroes #5, and contributes to THUNDER Agents #3.

THIS AND THAT

“Aquaman stranded in the desert” was actually a cliffhanger from 1985′s DC Challenge miniseries, and I want to say Aquaman killed a bird and drank its blood in order to get the liquid he needed to stay alive. Or maybe that was Watchmen; I always get those two confused. (They were both twelve issues….) Still, I bet the All-New, All-Hardcore Aquaman would totally rip out a bird’s throat with his teeth.

Considering he’s not part of the Doom Patrol, and his assistant is apparently a New-52 reworking of an old DP enemy, Robotman’s New-52 origin (as revealed in My Greatest Adventure #4) probably won’t feature the classic team. In fact, from what I saw of the New-52 Robotman in MGA #1, it looks like the Doom Patrol has gone the way of the original Teen Titans. Maybe the MGA feature is testing the waters for yet another Doom Patrol revival?

The “seduction of Damian” subplot described in the solicit for Batman And Robin #5 sounds good, although it seems like Grant Morrison covered similar ground when Damian faced his mother and the rest of the League of Assassins back around issue #12 of the previous series. Likewise, I look forward to Gail Simone’s Batgirl take on the old “female hero fights female villain who controls men’s minds” story, but I kinda want her to drop in a reference to Marsha, Queen of Diamonds.

SYNERGY

There have been plenty of guest appearances so far, but is the OMAC/Frankenstein intertitle crossover the first for the New 52? It may depend on how you categorize the connections between Superman and Stormwatch and/or Stormwatch and Demon Knights.

Speaking of which, only Hawkman can see “horrifying visions of the dead,” and so he “question[s] his own sanity?” Maybe he should talk to Grifter about that.

The solicitation for I, Vampire #5 — featuring a Batman appearance — makes me think I was right about the series’ vampires-vs.-superheroes aspect. That’s not a bad thing (apparently the original character met Batman in the pages of Brave and the Bold, as discussed below) but I wonder how much the series will go to that well.

I was surprised (synergy again!) to see Deadman figuring prominently into Hawk & Dove #5.  While they all were introduced in the late 1960s, I always associated Deadman and Hawk & Dove with different generations.  See, I keep forgetting that Hawk and the late Dove were teenagers back then, and adjunct members of the Teen Titans as well. And not to digress, but I have been thinking about the ways in which that generation of characters has been taken out of the New 52.  While I never put Hawk in that group (or the new Dove either, but I’m not sure how old she’s supposed to be), he should be there. Thus, DC hasn’t completely eliminated the Original-Titans generation from the New 52, because there’s Nightwing, Hawk, and Red Arrow. I should be satisfied with that, right?

(Again, not to digress.)

COLLECTIONS

Prior to the new I, Vampire series, the only exposure I had to this character was in the good-natured mockery of Tales of the Unexpected’s “Architecture & Mortality.” However, I have to say, I am totally ready for the omnibus I, Vampire paperback, reprinting the serial from House Of Mystery and Brave and the Bold vol. 1 #195. Ironically, while I am most interested in it as a rare example of main-line ‘80s DC doing a non-superhero story, I’m very curious to see the Batman team-up….

Hardly surprising considering the artist’s role in the New-52 relaunch, DC collects the original Karl & Barbara Kesel/Rob Liefeld Hawk & Dove miniseries (5 issues!). I didn’t read the miniseries when it came out (and still haven’t), but now I am curious to see what a strong inker like Karl Kesel did with a relatively-new penciller like Liefeld. I do remember thinking that regular-series penciller Greg Guler meshed with Kesel better.

For those who might have missed it the first time around, the Batman: Year One hardcover is well worth getting. Even if you have the original issues or an earlier collection, the hardcover (and maybe a 2007 paperback, but I’m not sure) features new coloring by Richmond Lewis which really makes David Mazzucchelli’s work pop even more. Plus, the hardcover is more durable, and you will want to look at this book a lot.

The Batman Vs. Bane paperback is a curious thing to me. The Bane of the Demon miniseries was better as a Bane story than as a Bruce-vs.-Bane rematch, mostly because it introduced Bane to Rā’s and Talia al-Ghūl, and (shall we say) gave them some non-Batman options. I don’t remember much about the Batman/Bane special except that it was a tie-in to the infamous Batman And Robin movie, and as such probably confused the heck out of anyone who might have known the character only from that. I understand that (as it happens) this paperback is meant to tie into The Dark Knight Rises, so DC is interested in the more villainous side of Bane, but it might also consider collecting “Tabula Rasa,” a nice little arc from Batman: Gotham Knights #s 33-36. Written by Scott Beatty and drawn by Mike Collins & Bill Sienkiewicz and Roger Robinson & John Floyd, it features Bane’s uneasy alliance with, and unexpected connection to, the Darknight Detective.

This month’s pleasant reprint surprise is Showcase Presents Young Love Volume 1 — more to come, I presume! — which I feel somewhat obligated to buy considering I have dinged DC previously for not reprinting its romance books. Still, I would probably have bought it anyway, just to see some non-superhero work from artists more closely identified with the caped crowd. No doubt some of the stories will be “so bad they’re good,” but on the whole it should be a fun read.

Here’s hoping that sales of the Xombi paperback — a bargain at $14.99, cheaper than the individual issues’ retail prices — are enough to make DC want more elegantly-crafted goodness from John Rozum and Frazer Irving. Xombi was just getting started when the New-52 came along, and I don’t want Rozum to have left Static Shock in vain.

AND FINALLY…

The “Batman: Black & White” line of statues has been pretty appealing so far, even if most of them are outside my price range. However, it’s going to be hard to turn down the Sergio Aragones one. What a great expression!

* * *

Well, that’s what jumped out at me this month. What looks good to you?

The Dare Detectives: The Snow Pea Plot

It’s time once again for our monthly trip through Previews looking for cool, new comics. As usual, we’re focusing on graphic novels, collected volumes, and first issues so that I don’t have to come up with a new way to say, “ Life with Archie is still awesome!” every month. And I’ll continue letting Tom and Carla do the heavy lifting in regards to DC and Marvel’s solicitations.

Also, please feel free to play along in the comments. Tell me what I missed that you’re looking forward to or – if you’re a comics creator – mention your own stuff.

Ape

Richie Rich Gems Winter Special - In addition to their modern-look Richie Rich, Ape has also re-introducied the classic version in both new and reprinted adventures. I missed the solicit for Richie Rich Gems #44 last month (which picked up where the Harvey series left off in 1982), but the series continues with not only the Winter Special, but #45 as well.

Arcana

Dragons vs Dinosaurs - I haven’t had great luck with Arcana’s books in the past, but c’mon. The title alone…

Hero Happy Hour: On the Rocks - This, on the other hand, is no risk at all. I’m a big fan of Dan Taylor and Chris Fason’s superhero bar stories and this is an all-new, 80-page adventure. Not reprints; not even a printed version of the webcomic. It’s all-new and I need it.

Archaia

The Dare Detectives: The Snow Pea Plot Collected Edition – Archaia prepares for their publishing Ben Caldwell’s Dare Detectives: The Kula Kola Caper by re-publishing the first story that was originally put out by Dark Horse.

Andie and the Alien

Archie

Archie #637 – The first installment of the “Archie Meets Kiss” story. Not quite as odd as Archie’s meeting the Punisher, but gettin’ close.

Bliss On Tap

Andie and the Alien - An alternate-history story in which an alien prevented Europeans from colonizing North America and how that affected WWII. That’s a harrowing premise and I’m eager to see how Philip and Brian Phillipson and Alex Niño (the team behind God the Dyslexic Dog) tackle it.

Boom!

Outcast #1 – Undead (but not Zombie) Conan. I can get behind that.

Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas - And my nine-year-old can get behind this. Just realized it’s written by Caleb Monroe too and that bodes well. I really liked his stuff on Hunter’s Fortune.

Dark Horse

The Strain #1 – Pandemic stories are too scary for me and zombies make me yawn, but this might just hit the sweet spot between the two.

Hellboy, Volume 12: The Storm and the Fury – The Death of Hellboy for trade-waiters.

Star Wars: Agent of the Empire – Iron Eclipse #1 – I don’t remember the last time I was interested in a Star Wars comic, but I’ve always supported the notion of using big, popular settings like that and Star Trek for other genres. James Bond in the Star Wars galaxy sounds kind of awesome just so long as it doesn’t turn into the same Empire vs. Rebels story I’ve already seen too many times.

Ningen's Nightmares

Star Wars Omnibus: A Long Time Ago, Volume 5 - Wrapping up the reprints of Marvel’s 107-issue Star Wars series. I have fond memories of a lot of those comics and have been waiting to read them all back-to-back.

Dark Horse Presents #7 – Another excellent lineup of talent from Neal Adams and Howard Chaykin to Mike Mignola and Eduardo Barreto.

Empowered: Deluxe Edition - Collecting the first three volumes (and some extra material) of the critically-acclaimed superhero spoof.

Ningen’s Nightmares - A warrior-monk fights bounty hunters, a witch, and her demon-samurai with art that reminds me a little of Mike Oeming’s.

DC

Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes #1 – Grant Morrison continues his popular, pre-New 52 Batman Incorporated story in this one-shot.

Ray #1 – Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Jamal Igle bring out the New 52′s Ray and make him fight giant monsters.

Catwoman, Volume 1 - Collecting the first issues of Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke’s much-loved time with the character.

Resurrection Man, Volume 1 - This was a fantastic series and deserving of a collection. It raises the question though: why isn’t there a New 52 Aztek comic?

Dynamite

Lord of the Jungle #1 – It’s been too damn long since we had a Tarzan comic. I just wish they didn’t feel the need to retell the origin story again.

Romeo and Juliet: The War

Voltron #1 – On the other hand, since I know nothing about Voltron (except that it’s about a giant robot, which is really all I need to know), I can do with a re-telling of the origin story on this one. So, yes, I’m a hypocrite.

1821

Romeo and Juliet: The War - Stan Lee turns my least-favorite Shakespeare play into a sci-fi fantasy with cyborgs and genetically enhanced humans. So torn.

Fantagraphics

Young Romance: The Best of Simon and Kirby’s 1940s – 1950s Romance Comics – Not only am I extremely curious from an historical standpoint, but damn it, sometimes you just wanna read about kissing.

Flannery O’Connor Cartoons - Growing up in the South like I did, Flannery O’Connor’s short stories were required reading. I had no idea she made comics too.

First Second

Mush! Sled Dogs with Issues - Sled dog soap opera! That’s so crazy it just might work.

Hermes

The Phantom: The Complete Series – The King Years – I really can’t seem to get enough Phantom.

The Hero Initiative

Justice League of America 100 Project - Great artists drawing great characters for an even greater cause.

Madman: 20th Anniversary Monster!

Humanoids

Before the Incal: Classic Collection – One of these days I’m going to get around to finally reading Alejandro Jodorowsky and Moebius’ The Incal and when I do, I’m going to include this prequel.

Muse – Terry Dodson draws the story of a beautiful (it’s Dodson; how could she not be?) governess to a mysterious family.

IDW

Memorial #1 – Magic shops are great settings for stories, but I rarely read one that lives up to my hopes for it. Maybe this one about an amnesiac girl (another favorite concept of mine, Starfire notwithstanding) will do the trick.

Magic: The Gathering #1 – I still get a little angry over the concept of a game where the advantage goes to the person most willing to spend a bunch of money on it (yeah, I’m looking at you too, baseball), but the art on the Magic cards did a great job of suggesting a cohesive world, even if I didn’t understand anything about it as I was playing. I’m hoping that this series can flesh out that suggestion while also telling a good story.

Curious Cases of Sherlock Holmes – I’m a big fan of Gary Reed and Guy Davis’ alternate universe Holmes in Honour Among Punks, so I’m pretty excited by the prospect of Reed’s doing a comics anthology of the “real” Holmes teaming up with and/or fighting Dr. Jekyll, the Phantom of the Opera, Oscar Wilde, and Toulouse Lautrec.

Image

Madman: 20th Anniversary Monster! - Madman’s already cool. He doesn’t need Peter Bagge, Kyle Baker, Peter Milligan, Darwyn  Cooke, Dean Haspiel, Los Bros Hernandez, Erik Larsen, David Mack, Mike Oeming, Paul Pope, Eric Powell, Frank Quitely, Steven T Seagle, Jeff Smith, Craig Thompson, Matt Wagner, and others to make him cooler. But he’s got them anyway.

Polly and the Pirates, Volume 2: Mystery of the Dragonfish

Last Battle - Dan Brereton does the art on this Rome vs barbarians one-shot.

Marvel

Defenders #1 – I wish this had Green She-Hulk in it instead of Red (and also that it had Valkyrie and maybe Hellcat), but it’s still a revival that’s past due.

X-Club #1 – The X-Men’s Science Team was always a cool idea and deserves a shot at its own series, but I’m kind of scratching my head over why Beast isn’t in this. Apparently it’s Second-Guess Marvel Team Lineups day.

Moonstone

Captain Action: The Complete Adventures – Including both Fabian Nicieza and Steven Grant’s runs on the series. Over 400 pages for less than $30. I’ll take that Action. (Sorry.)

NBM

Inner Sanctum – I don’t think I’ve ever listened to a single episode of Inner Sanctum, but I always get a thrill of recognition when I hear the title thanks to Bill Cosby’s name-dropping it in his “Chicken Heart” story. Anyway, if you’re going to do a horror anthology, you could do much, much worse than have it inspired by Inner Sanctum and completely created by Ernie Colón.

Oni

Polly and the Pirates, Volume 2: Mystery of the Dragonfish – Have I only been waiting six years for this? Feels like sixty. Volume 1 was wonderful and I can’t fault Ted Naifeh for only writing this one when he got someone as awesome as Robbi Rodriguez to take his place on the art. The preview pages look amazing.

Spontaneous – The mini-series that combines Spontaneous Human Combustion with conspiracy theory gets its collection.

Th3rd World

The Intrepid Escapegoat – Guys, it’s a paranormal-investigating escape artist who’s a goat. You’re welcome.

Titan

The Complete Flash Gordon Library, Volume 1: On the Planet Mongo – I’m still not sure I understand the difference between this volume and IDW’s (except that IDW’s also includes Alex Raymond’s Jungle Jim comics), but I’m mentioning it just in case there is a difference that I don’t figure out until later. Seriously though: if someone knows, please explain it to me.

That’s it for me. What did I miss?

Just in time for the long weekend, the University of Chicago Press is offering Westlakes’s The Score as a free e-book (it would set you back $14 in print) in a variety of formats: Adobe Digital Editions, Google Books, Kindle, Kobo, Nook, and Sony Reader. Since most of these readers can be installed on a PC or Mac as well as an iPad, iPhone, or Android device, this is pretty platform-independent.

If you like what you see, the publisher has 19 more Parker books for you, and they are offering a 30% discount on the e-books. Details are at the first link.

(via Teleread)

Brian Wood returns to Marvel

FanExpo Canada wraps up today in Toronto, and both Marvel and DC were there this weekend announcing various projects:

• DC Comics will relaunch the Justice Society by writer James Robinson and artist Nicola Scott. The new adventures of the JSA will be set not on the “New 52″ Earth, but on Earth-2, as they were before Crisis on Infinite Earths combined DC’s multiple Earths into one big sandbox back in the 1980s. “Everyone’s saying, ‘How can there be superheroes before the five years?’ We’re actually bringing back Earth-2,” Robinson said.
• Marvel announced Brian Wood will write for the publisher once again, in a teaser that seems to point a finger at a Wolverine project.
• Marvel’s Alpha Flight has been upgraded from a limited series to an ongoing.”We’ve got Taskmaster showing up, we’ve got Wolverine and other characters journeying north to find out what’s going on with Alpha Flight,” said co-writer Fred Van Lente. “We learn that Alpha flight’s actually a member of a super, super team called The Commonwealth of Heroes. I’m very excited about writing those characters — I love them a lot and it’s going to be a good time.” The Commonwealth of Heroes? I am intrigued. CBR has more details in an interview with Van Lente and Greg Pak, where they mention that Captain Britain and MI-13 will play a role in the Commonwealth Heroes.
• In addition to Jill Thompson, other artists working on the upcoming Shade miniseries written by James Robinson include Gene Ha and Darwyn Cooke.
• Marvel will publish a five-issue miniseries called Destroyers, by writer Fred Van Lente and artist Kyle Hotz. The book will feature The Thing, the Beast, A-Bomb, She-Hulk, Karkas the Deviant and Devil Dinosaur. “A lot of this series is about how monsters feel about being monsters and how comfortable they are with it. Hank McCoy is probably the most comfortable in his furry blue skin. He’s got an analytical mind. In this story, a colleague from his past gets murdered. That sets him on a quest to solve a mystery and puts him on a collision course with the Destroyers,” Van Lente told CBR.
• Marvel also announced the return of two more CrossGen properties — Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in December by writer Peter Milligan and artist Roman Rosanas, and Route 666 in February by writer Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and artist Peter Nguyen. Both are four-issue mini-series.

The Walking Dead, Vol. 14

Retailing | Although the 14th volume of The Walking Dead wasn’t released until June 21, it still managed to secure the No. 2 spot on BookScan’s list of graphic novels sold in bookstores that month, behind the 51st volume of Naruto. It’s the ninth consecutive month that at least one volume of the horror series has appeared in the BookScan Top 20, a run that began as marketing geared up for the AMC television adaptation. [ICv2.com]

Publishing | Darwyn Cooke has announced that the release of Parker: The Martini Edition will be postponed for a few months, and takes full responsibility for the delay. The book is now scheduled to debut at the Long Beach Comic Con in October [Almost Darwyn Cooke's Blog]

Publishing | John Jackson Miller looks at the history of comics numbering, which he traces back to dime novels of the 19th and early 20th centuries: “Comics are anomalous in American magazine publishing because most comics don’t use volume numbers and issue numbers that roll over ever year; rather, the numbers keep on going. In that, our numbering is much like that used for the cheap, disposable fiction of the earlier days.” [The Comichron]

Creators | The Hollywood Reporter interviews The Walking Dead creator and Image partner Robert Kirkman about Comic-Con International, his favorite San Diego restaurant, what panel he’d stand in line for and his first CCI: “My first Comic-Con experience, in 2001, was absolutely horrible. I was a self-publisher doing a book called Battle Pope and I got far too big a booth for the popularity of my book and ended up losing quite a bit of money on that endeavor. In general, it was an amazing experience despite the relatively nerve-wracking loss of money at the time when I had relatively no income. I met a lot of people that were doing self-publishing at the time. I also got to meet some of the creators of Image Comics and talked to Erik Larsen to for a while, which ended up leading to me becoming a partner at that company.” [The Hollywood Reporter]

Guinea Pig: Pet Shop Private Eye

Creators | Eva Volin interviews Colleen AF Venable, who is both the designer for First Second Books and the writer of Guinea Pig: Pet Shop Private Eye, a series of graphic novels that has a Pixar-like ability to appeal to both adults and kids. [Good Comics for Kids]

Creators | Jim Woodring introduces his Congress of the Animals and shows some of his preliminary sketches in a talk he gave at the Elliott Bay Book Co., captured on video by Ian Burns of Fantagraphics. [Flog! Blog]

Comic strips | Puzzled by Beetle Bailey? Check out these videos of Mort Walker explaining classic strips from the 1950 and 1960s. [The Daily Cartoonist]

Comics | Larry Cruz discusses, with pictures, the life and career of Krazy Kat, including its appeal to the intelligentsia. It’s a good companion piece to last week’s Comics College by Chris Mautner. [The Webcomic Overlook]

Manga | It didn’t start with Sailor Moon: Molly McIsaac presents a short history of magical girl manga. [iFanboy]

Creators | Two manga artists, the winners of a competition sponsored by local businesses, are moving in to an apartment across the street from a legendary building where Osamu Tezuka and a host of other manga creators once lived. The idea seems to be support a tradition of comics creators in the neighborhood. [The Mainichi Daily News]

Reviews | Nina Stone reviews the fourth issue of Joe Casey and Mike Huddleston’s Butcher Baker, The Righteous Maker: “If this issue of Butcher Baker were a ride at a fair, it would be the Gravitron/Starship 4000.” [Factual Opinion]

How-to | The Papier Boy has step-by-step instructions on turning garden gnomes into superhero garden gnomes. [Instructables]

Darwyn Cooke's superheroes with personalities

The latest round of conversation about women in comics was sparked by Adam P. Knave’s piece bemoaning the lack of women creators in the comics field (which he defines as monthly comics, obviously dominated by superheroes). Adam believes the root cause is that superhero comics have made themselves unattractive to women by portraying women solely as sex objects or targets of abuse. This led Heidi MacDonald to point out that there are plenty of women in the rest of comics, just not at DC and Marvel. And they are doing quite well, too.

Danielle Corsetto, for example. The Girls with Slingshots creator was interviewed by Carl Watkins of Guerilla Geek, and he asked her if she thought it was easier for women to break into webcomics than “traditional” comics. Her answer is revealing:

Yes, although I think it has more to do with the genre than the medium. Most comic books are aimed at boys, are serious, and have a focus on superpowers. Most popular webcomics are character-driven and have to do with the characters’ lifestyles, or observations about science or philosophy, and almost all of them could be clumped into the broad category of “humor.” While I know plenty of women who genuinely love to read about superheroes, I think that, generally, most women prefer to read (and write) about how characters interact with one another, and not how they’re gonna pulverize each other.

So perhaps it’s not just the terrible portrayals of women but also the type of story that’s being told? Saying “women like this, men like that” is a sure way to get yourself called an idiot on the Internet, and certainly there are plenty of women superhero fans, but I can see her point. There’s a coldness to superhero comics that I find off-putting, and they often bore me in the same way battle-action manga do. That sounds like a value judgment, but it isn’t: The people who read Twilight and Vampire Knight are mostly female, so it cuts both ways.

On the other hand, perhaps if more women were writing superhero comics, there would be more superhero comics that women would want to read.

In her latest column at comiXology, Shaenon Garrity has two suggestions for getting more women into the field: Start interviewing women for jobs (she invokes something called the Rooney Rule here) and hire editors — just one editor, really — who will encourage women. Her exhibit A is shoujo manga, and it’s an example that American comics publishers would do well to study:

You know why, over in Japan, there are so many women drawing manga? Because in the 1970s, an editor named Junya Yamamoto decided that his girls’ manga might sell better if they were drawn by young women rather than middle-aged men, so he hired a bunch of young female artists. Okay, that wasn’t the only reason women took over shojo manga. The other reason was that these women were all totally awesome at drawing manga. But if Yamamoto hadn’t been there to scoop up their work, they probably would have drawn less, or focused on the small-press world rather than the big publishers, or given up on comics. Instead, the manga industry got amazing artists like Moto Hagio, Keiko Takemiya, Riyoko Ikeda, and Yasuko Aoike.

Those artists revolutionized the field. Suppose the big publishers were to hire women who write and draw superhero comics that, while true to the genre, have more female appeal: More conversations, less punching, fewer dead-eyed females and brokeback poses. Throw in more accessible art and less complicated continuity (something like Darwyn Cooke’s New Frontier), and you could still make some nice solid comics that would appeal to readers like Danielle. Going back to Japan for a minute, a substantial portion of the readers of shonen manga are female, and I think that’s because shonen manga is usually more than just battles — they also flesh out their characters with relationships and personalities. The publishers know this, and they have tweaked the books a bit to make them more attractive to girls.

Why would American publishers do this? To avoid leaving money on the table. As Heidi ably pointed out, there are lots of women making comics, and they are doing pretty well (the top-selling graphic novels last year were The Dork Diaries and Twilight, both by women). Comics sales surged in the early 2000s because someone (manga publishers) finally started making comics for girls, and the girls loved them.

Recently a bunch of women creators, many of them already successful, have been drawing their own powerful female superheroes (check out Carly Monardo’s Tumblr for a good selection, and here’s Kate Beaton’s take, which has already been linked all over the Internet, including here). Like all important movements, they have their own Twitter hashtag. But these are standalone drawings and fanart, not complete stories, and they are really just critiquing one aspect of superhero comics. Developing a full suite of characters, a universe, and a story takes time, and without publishers making an investment, it’s not likely to happen. Marketing to customers who have been turned off by the product in a big way is also a challenge, as Adam points out. But the customers are out there, and the creators are working hard to satisfy them; the question isn’t whether women will make and read comics any more, it’s whether the Big Two will be left behind.

(Image source: Comicbookbrain.com)

Trailblazer

Anytime I get to talk to Jimmy Palmiotti, we never lack for projects to discuss. I can’t prove it, but I am willing to bet Palmiotti came up with at least two new story ideas while in the midst of this email interview. This Wednesday, July 6, marks the release of Trailblazer, a 48-page full-color western science fiction comic book ($5.99 [Image]) that he co-wrote with Justin Gray and art by Jim Daly. As detailed in this recent CBR release coverage, Trailblazer is “about a hired killer who turns in evidence against an employer for the murder of the woman who raised him. The government must then shield their star informant by enacting Operation Trailblazer, a witness protection program that uses not only location but time travel as well in order to keep their charges safe. As the assassin adjusts to his new life in the old west, he soon finds that no matter when or where he is the future is dead set in coming back to haunt him.” If you buy the book via Comixology, the original script is included as a bonus.

Before discussing this new Image release, we talked a bit about the impressive Jonah Hex 70-issue run (please note, for more scoop on Palmiotti and Gray’s plans for the new All-Star Western series be sure to read CBR’s Jeffrey Renaud’s recent interview with the creators)–not to jump the gun though, as issue 69 goes on sale this Wednesday (with art by Jeff Lemire). Also our discussion delves into the Palmiotti/Gray team reuniting with artist Joseph Michael Linsner on the Claws II (a sequel to Marvel’s Black Cat/Wolverine 2006 team-up) miniseries, which amazingly enough also goes on sale this Wednesday (check out the CBR preview of the first issue). Go into a comic book store this Wednesday, and bottom line, you will have your pick of Palmiotti product to buy. Palmiotti’s passion for comics and his equal commitment to meeting deadlines are two things I’ve always admired about him and that shine through in this interview. As you’ll read at the end of the interview, Palmiotti is curious to know what characters fans would like to see him work on, so please be sure to let him know in the comments section.

Tim O’Shea: You and Jonah Hex have a heck of a future together (with All-Star Western), no doubt. But I really want to talk about how amazing it was that you and Justin successfully told Jonah Hex for 70 issues. How proud are you of that accomplishment?

Jimmy Palmiotti: Very proud…and proud of the excellent work of so many amazing artists along the way. Justin and I would celebrate each and every year we were on Jonah , thinking at any minute it could be the last, but the great crew at D.C. comics always believed in us and believed in our choices and seventy issues is a huge milestone. They believed in us so much that with the new 52 books, they let us continue too do what we do best. In our minds, issue one of All Star Western is another chapter in the characters life and we haven’t missed a beat. The good news is that we are going to have a lot of fun with the other western characters in the D.C. universe.

O’Shea: What were some of the highlights of working on those 70 issues?

Palmiotti: Getting to work with some of my comic book heroes like Jordi Bernet, Eduardo Risso, Darwyn Cooke, Tony DeZungia, J.H. Williams, and so on. as well getting to writ with Justin a series that mostly consisted of done in one stories where there really wasn’t another book doing it at the time with a rotating guest list of artists. Another highlight was getting all 70 of these books out on time the first week of the month for 70 months. That in itself is a record these days…and last , introducing Tallulah Black into the Jonah Hex legacy. Honestly, the whole series was a bunch of highlights for us. In the perfect world we would have continued Jonah Hex and done all star western at the same time.

O’Shea: Will you be marking the final JH issue in any special way, or just focus on telling one good final tale?

Palmiotti: Both, the last issue is something special for a number of reasons that I will not ruin here…but in our eyes, because the book only sold a certain amount of issues, we always thought it would be cancelled any time, so we made sure each and every story being told would be great, since it might have been our last.

O’Shea: As a longtime and established inker/writer, I am always curious how you go about deciding to team with certain artists. For example, why did you choose to work with Jim Daly on Trailblazer?

Palmiotti: I met Jim while hanging out with mutual buddy Tim Bradstreet and we got along well. At the time Justin and I wanted to do this as a book and Jim was available for a really great price and we were happy to have him aboard. Jim is a solid storyteller that doesn’t depend on flash to get the story across and with Trailblazer, we needed someone that understood what we were looking for, and we picked the right man. Jim drew that actual book over five years ago for us…but we had to save up some money to actually pay for the rest of the book and get it published. These things cost a fortune.

O’Shea: How did the Trailblazer project come together–and what prompted you to take it to Image (as opposed to another indy publisher)?

Palmiotti: I have a great relationship with Image comics that has been going on for years and because every cent of our money went into this book, we wanted to retain all the rights…and not share it with a company that doesn’t have our best interests in mind. It’s also a matter of controlling the property after its release. With Image, they let us do what we want, pick when we want it coming out, and the crew there is so helpful, they really are a dream to work with. I think the world of all of them and I wouldn’t bother bringing my work anywhere else unless I actually published it myself. With all the books coming out these days, their line is one of the few aimed at adult comic fans…and that’s an important market to me.

O’Shea: What’s the attraction of mixing the Western genre with time travel?

Palmiotti: What’s not to like? We love genre mashing and it always makes for an interesting story. We have had this idea in our heads for over eight years now, so its good to see it actually get out there. This book was originally a screenplay first. One of the first we wrote.

O’Shea: Given that Trailblazer is based on one of the first screenplays you and Justin wrote I was wondering if you needed to revise it some (given how much writing experience you’ve had since your earlier writing days)?

Palmiotti: We wrote the comic to be a comic and it’s quite different in parts compared to the screenplay. Things that work in a comic don’t always work in a film and I am happy with the differences. Anyone that has worked in both understands this and has to take that into consideration when adapting any kind of work.

O’Shea: With Claws II, you get to reteam with Joseph Michael Linsner–and also get to reteam Black Cat and Wolverine. Traditionally most times, it would not seem that those two characters paths would not cross. But for you as a writer what’s the benefit of playing with the dynamics of these two characters?

Palmiotti: I think they are both at a time in the characters lives where they understand the different between work and play and we have kept that tradition alive in this second series. There is a huge amount of flirtation and we have written to Joe’s strengths in this series by introducing not only the sexiness of the characters, but also involving Killraven and his band of resistance players. Joe has out done himself on these books and don’t be surprised to see them sell out in the first week. They really are beautiful to behold.

O’Shea: Given the variety of stories you are creating in a given month, how stressful is it to try to keep the creative output of a standard that pleases you, while still keeping your sanity?

Palmiotti: The stressful part comes when the actual script leaves my hands. There are scores of people out there … artists, colorists and even editors that think I worry too much about the product…but my argument is that although a ton of comics come out each month … anything I work on has to have a certain level of professional quality to it. I feel for the people spending their hard earned money on these books and think we have to give them the best work we can each and every time out of the gate. It drives me crazy when creators are dismissive about the work and even worse when the people in charge forget that these are projects of passion. Justin and Amanda [Conner] will tell you that I can lose my mind from time to time, but I take it out on myself, not others. I treat every job like its my last and there is a price to pay for that … and my sanity can be that price…lol.

O’Shea: While clearly in demand at DC and Marvel, how important is it to you to always keep a hand in creator-owned projects?

Palmiotti: I love the big two comic companies. I have a ton of history with the characters and the people there and respect that…but honestly, I shouldn’t be called a creator if I am not doing my own thing and creating new characters. The drive to do this can be costly, but at the end of the day I think I am where I am now because I step out of the safe zone and take risks. Take for example, There would have never been a Marvel Knights deal if Joe and I didn’t start Event comics where we published our own work. Things like this make you realize that although it’s great working for the big two…when you own a character you control everything and they become your baby. It’s an amazing feeling of independence that comes along with it and I know in the end, I will be remembered for my characters long before a run on an established character. I hope…lol.

O’Shea: Any questions you want to ask your Robot 6 fans?

Palmiotti: I would like to know what books they think I would do a good job on … from any company. I am interested to see what they say… and if they would like to speak to me, one on one, hit me up on twitter at @jpalmiotti … or find the Paperfilms page on Facebook.

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

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

*****

Tom Bondurant

Superman Family #203

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

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

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

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

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

Michael May

Lois Lane and the Resistance

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

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

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

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

Brigid Alverson

Treasury of Victorian Murder

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

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

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

Tim O’Shea

IDW’s Rocketeer Adventures #1

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

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

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

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

Shannon Wheeler

Paying for It

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

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

Okko

Okko

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

New Yorker: On the Money

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

Cowboy Wally

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

Underground

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

DC Universe: The Stories Of Alan Moore

[A quick note before we go too much farther: I started writing this post before DC’s big announcement about its September-and-beyond plans. In fact, I wanted this particular post to be about something other than Flashpoint and/or line-wide reboots -- so depending on your perspective, I picked exactly the right week, or exactly the wrong week, to draw that line. In any case, it’s probably not hard to tell, from the past few weeks’ worth of posts, where I stand on current events.

[So there you go. On with the business at hand.]

Since it’s pretty much summer, and time to think about catching up on reading, let’s revisit DC’s list of “30 Essential Graphic Novels” — “best-selling titles that you must read[, ]whether you are just beginning to discover graphic novels or you are an established fan looking to expand your collection.”

The list is almost four years old, and has had a few minor updates. (Pride Of Baghdad replaced The Quitter, and Crayon Shinchan replaced Sword Of The Dark Ones.) For the most part, though, it’s the same compilation — heavy on the Batman and the Jeph Loeb, a decent amount of Alan Moore (but no Swamp Thing), a couple of Sandman books and Hellblazer, but no Wonder Woman, no Joe Kubert, and no Jack Kirby. While there are at least a couple of representatives from each of DC’s imprints, there aren’t many hints at the real scope of DC’s diverse publishing history.

Now, I understand that everyone could come up with his or her own unique list. Mine won’t be entirely satisfactory, and neither will yours. I have tried to be wide-ranging (although I have focused more on the DCU books), but to a certain extent I am more interested in exploring the lower tiers of DC’s collections. Everybody knows Batman, Alan Moore and Frank Miller; not everyone knows Jack Knight, Gail Simone, or Grant Morrison.

Another couple of caveats — I didn’t include any book that was already on DC’s list, not because I think my list is better from top to bottom, but again in order to be more diverse. Also, I think all these books are still in print, or at least available at reasonable prices.

Accordingly, in rough chronological order, here’s my alternative thirty….

* * *

We begin in the Golden Age, and I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to say these stories changed comics forever. The first books in the Superman Chronicles and Batman Chronicles series are worth your time not just for their historical significance, but also because they show how the characters have changed over the decades. While Superman went through some significant upgrades, especially in the Silver Age, to me it’s also instructive to see how quickly Batman went from “grim urban avenger” to joking father-figure. Similarly, the first (and so far, the only) Wonder Woman Chronicles sets out right from the start the vision that William Moulton Marston had for his creation. It’s not so heavy on the kink as it would be, but that doesn’t make it any less interesting.

Jumping to the Silver Age, one has to include the first Flash Chronicles. Truthfully, there aren’t a lot of “pure” Silver Age books on my list, because I’m not sure you need a lot if you just want an overview. Gardner Fox’s stories and Carmine Infantino’s pencils influenced quite a few of DC’s subsequent revamps, such that books like Green Lantern and Justice League of America tended to look and sound the same. Not that they’re not enjoyable on their own merits; just that Flash gets the nod for being first.

Another perspective on the Silver Age comes from Showcase Presents The Legion of Super-Heroes Volume 1, reprinting the venerable team’s formative years. This does have a bit more of the “Silver Age Crazy” fans talk about, because I’m pretty sure it contains at least one Legion of Super-Pets story. More to the point, it comes from the editorial office of Mort Weisinger, the man who exploded the Superman mythology in the ‘50s and ‘60s. I wanted to include at least one LSH book on the list, and I almost went with The Great Darkness Saga, but for our purposes the early stories are better.

DC history involves more than superheroes, so my list includes three Showcase Presents books which get into war comics and Westerns. Bob Kanigher and Joe Kubert are synonymous with DC’s war books, so naturally I include Showcase Presents Sgt. Rock Vol. 1 and Showcase Presents Enemy Ace. Frank Rock and Hans von Hammer are very different characters, but both series show how their senses of honor and duty are tested by the rigors of war. Showcase Presents Jonah Hex also gives us a sort of anti-hero, more ethical and moral by comparison by the lawless world around him.

Moving into the 1970s, I wanted to include the Green Lantern/Green Arrow stories by Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams, but their color collections are out of print. My reluctant substitute is Green Lantern: The Greatest Stories Ever Told, mostly because it includes the introduction of GL John Stewart from GL vol. 2 #87. That’s a highlight of the O’Neil/Adams run, although it’s not as preachy as some of the others. All of the O’Neil/Adams stories are available in black-and-white in Showcase Presents GL Vol. 5.

It should go without saying that the Fourth World needs some representation on any best-of-DC list, and readers who want an introduction have a couple of options. The two-volume paperback series Jimmy Olsen Adventures By Jack Kirby can be had for a reasonable amount, but it only reprints Kirby’s (still mind-bending) run on Jimmy Olsen. For the full New Gods experience, I’d go all-in with the first Jack Kirby Omnibus.

As with Green Lantern/Green Arrow, I’d wanted to include the seminal Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers run on Detective Comics from 1977-78, but that collection (Batman: Strange Apparitions) is out of print. In its stead, I’d recommend the first Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told paperback, which includes O’Neil and Adams’ classic “The Joker’s Five-Way Revenge.” Either that or you could wait for the big Marshall Rogers hardcover, coming in a few months.

We leave the ‘70s with Crisis On Multiple Earths Vol. 4, reprinting the Justice League/Justice Society team-ups from 1975, 1976, and 1977. The first story is an odd duck involving a couple of DC writers from Earth-Prime, but the other two are more straightforward “third-party” adventures, first with the Marvel Family and other ex-Fawcett characters, and then with the Legion of Super-Heroes. The Legion story is one of my favorites, if that helps at all.

The 1980s bring us two absolute musts, both from Alan Moore: Saga of the Swamp Thing Vol. 1, and DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore. As with Jack Kirby, it’s hard to overstate Moore’s contributions to DC’s superhero line, to say nothing of Swamp Thing’s role laying the groundwork for Vertigo. The DCU book also includes “For The Man Who Has Everything,” “Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow?” and The Killing Joke, Moore’s most noteworthy Superman and Batman stories.

DC relaunched several superhero titles in the late ‘80s, many of which proved pretty influential. Chief among these was the George Pérez revamp of Wonder Woman, the first collection of which (Gods and Mortals) tells a nice, fairly self-contained, origin story. I also recommend the first volumes of Keith Giffen, J.M. DeMatteis, and Kevin Maguire’s Justice League International, John Ostrander and Luke McDonnell’s Suicide Squad (Trial By Fire), and Grant Morrison and Richard Case’s Doom Patrol (Crawling From The Wreckage).

The ‘90s saw more experimentation from DC, although some of it was under different imprints. Static Shock: Rebirth of the Cool (by Robert L. Washington, Dwayne McDuffie, and John Paul Leon) collects the first arc of 1993′s Static, along with 2001′s four-issue Rebirth of the Cool miniseries. From WildStorm I picked the first Astro City collection, Life In The Big City. Regular DC wasn’t too bad either, represented here by Starman Omnibus Vol. 1 (James Robinson and Tony Harris), Hitman: A Rage In Arkham (Garth Ennis and John McCrea), and JLA: One Million (Grant Morrison, Val Semeiks, et al.).

Finally, the last decade has had its share of good collections. I picked JLA/Avengers, Darwyn Cooke’s first Spirit collection, the biting satire Dr. 13: Architecture & Mortality, Jeff Smith’s Shazam!: The Monster Society Of Evil, the first Madame Xanadu collection (Disenchanted), the gorgeous Batwoman: Elegy, and Secret Six: Unhinged (first collection from the current series).

* * *

Now, those aren’t all “graphic novels” in the strictest sense — many are just collections of individual issues, or samplers of decades-old series. To me, though, it seems a little disingenuous to frame a product as a graphic novel when DC is still so heavily invested in weekly comics sales.

Naturally, there are a number of series I wanted to include, but which for various reasons didn’t make the cut. These include the first Joshua Dysart/Alberto Ponticelli Unknown Soldier collection (Haunted House) and the first Planetary collection (All Over The World), both excellent intros to extra-good series which ended up in the “others receiving votes” category. I tried to stay away from hardcovers, so as to keep things affordable (thus, no Wednesday Comics), but clearly missed that goal. I really wanted to include at least one New Teen Titans book, but I think you need to start from the beginning in order to appreciate the impact of stories like “The Judas Contract” and “Who Is Donna Troy?” Sadly, those early issues have only been reprinted in the out-of-print New Teen Titans Archives vol. 1. (They’ll be reprinted in the forthcoming NTT Omnibus, but that was too pricey for me.) At least read the Terra Incognito paperback before you crack open Judas Contract, to get an idea of what regular readers went through.

Again, I’m sure there are significant omissions, but overall I think it’s a good start. The Justice League comes out pretty well, with four books; and Batman and Wonder Woman get two apiece. Superman gets three, but only if you count the Legion book and the Jack Kirby book. (Part of that is because Superman: Birthright and All Star Superman are both on DC’s list.)  Besides the Greatest Green Lantern Stories book, there are a few Green Lantern Corps stories in the Alan Moore DCU book.  Bob Kanigher and Joe Kubert get two books, as do Moore, Grant Morrison, and George Pérez. Still, it shows a nice range of styles and storytelling formats, and I think it would serve both a DC newcomer and a lifer pretty well.

Of course, by this time next year we’ll all be looking at 52 collections of the first six issues of those coming-in-September titles, and then I’ll have to pick thirty of those….

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Clip and save –  the Grumpy Old Fan “Alternative Thirty,” in alphabetical order:

Astro City: Life In The Big City
Batman Chronicles vol. 1
Batman: The Greatest Stories Ever Told vol. 1
Batwoman: Elegy
DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore
Doom Patrol: Crawling From The Wreckage
Dr. 13: Architecture & Mortality
Crisis On Multiple Earths vol. 4
Flash Chronicles vol. 1
Green Lantern: The Greatest Stories Ever Told
Hitman: A Rage In Arkham
JLA/Avengers
JLA: One Million
Justice League International vol. 1
Jack Kirby Omnibus vol. 1
Madame Xanadu: Disenchanted
Saga of the Swamp Thing vol. 1
Secret Six: Unhinged
Shazam!: The Monster Society Of Evil (Jeff Smith)
Showcase Presents Enemy Ace
Showcase Presents Jonah Hex vol. 1
Showcase Presents The Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 1
Showcase Presents Sgt. Rock vol. 1
The Spirit vol. 1 (Darwyn Cooke)
Starman Omnibus vol. 1
Static Shock: Rebirth of the Cool
Suicide Squad: Trial By Fire
Superman Chronicles vol. 1
Wonder Woman Chronicles vol. 1
Wonder Woman: Gods and Mortals