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

Thief of Thieves #1

Chris Arrant

If I had $15, I’d start with Thief of Thieves #1 (Image/Skybound, $2.99). The gang at Skybound gave me an advance PDF of this issue, and I like it so much I want to hold the physical thing in my hands. Shawn Martinbrough really nails this first issue, and Nick Spencer really puts his Marvel work to shame with this story. Next up I’d get my favorite DC Book – Batwoman #6 (DC, $2.99) – and favorite Marvel book – Wolverine and The X-Men #5 ($3.99). I’d finish it all up with Northlanders #48 ($2.99). I’m not the biggest fan of Danijel Zezelj’s work, but I can’t let up now to see my long-running commitment to Northlanders falter at this point.

If I had $30, I’d dig into Richard Corben’s Murky World one-shot (Dark Horse, $3.50). Corben’s one of those “will-buy-no-matter-what” artists for me that Tom Spurgeon recently focused on, and this looks right up my alley. Next up I’d get Secret Avengers #22 (Marvel, $3.99) because Remender’s idea of robot descendents intrigues me, and then Wolverine and The X-Men: Alpha and Omega (Marvel, $3.99). I didn’t know what to expect from the first issue, and after reading it I still don’t know where this series is heading – but I like it so far. Finally, I’d get Haunt #21 (Image, $2.99). The combination of Joe Casey & Nathan Fox is like a secret code to open my wallet.

If I could splurge, I’d take the graphic novel Jinchalo (D+Q, $17.95) by Matthew Forsythe. I loved his previous book Ojingogo, and this looks to continue in that hit parade.

Berlin #18

JK Parkin

There’s a brand new issue of Jason Lutes’ Berlin ($4.95) hitting comic shops this week, which seems like a good way to spend the first third of my $15. According to Drawn & Quarterly, there are only about four issues of this excellent series left, which will give me a great reason to go back and read all the issues again in one sitting. Next on my list would be Thief of Thieves #1 ($2.99), the new Nick Spencer/Shawn Martinbrough/Robert Kirkman joint from Skybound. I’d also grab the new Conan series ($3.50), featuring the work of two of my favs, Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan. How cool is it to see the Demo team reuniting on something like Conan? Their Northlanders story rocked, so I’m looking forward to this. And speaking of which, Northlanders is coming to a close soon, so this is one of the last times I’ll be able to put it on my list here … so I’d spend my last few dollars on issue #48 ($2.99).

Based on the review Brigid gave it a few weeks ago, I’d spend all of my next $15 on Dotter of her Father’s Eyes by Mary and Bryan Talbot ($14.99)

For my splurge item this week, I dunno … The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde ($14.99) looks interesting, and there’s also the Fantastic Four Season One graphic novel that looks nice, but do I really need to spend $25 to yet again see how the FF become the FF? Probably not. No, instead I’d probably go with One Model Nation, by Dandy Warhols lead singer Courtney Taylor and artist Jim Rugg. Although I’m really hesitant to spend $25 on a graphic novel by a singer–Gerard Way notwithstanding, singers trying to write comics doesn’t always end well–the fact that Jim Rugg did the art is a great selling point for me. I missed it the first time it was published by Image, but I’d be willing to check out the new edition by Titan if, indeed, I had some splurge money to spend.

Memorial #3

Graeme McMillan

If I had $15 this week, I’d start with a book I’ve been curious about since its announcement: Conan The Barbarian #1 (Dark Horse, $3.50). I’ve never really been the biggest fan of Robert E. Howard’s fantasy hero, but the idea of Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan handling the character gets me very interested indeed. I’d also grab the first issue of the Robert Kirkman/Nick Spencer collaboration Thief of Thieves #1 (Image, $2.99), about which I’ve heard a lot of good things, and Memorial #3 (IDW, $3.99), the latest of this apparently-underrated book that I am completely in love with currently.

If I had $30, I’d also grab Kevin Keller #1 (Archie, $2.99), Batman and Robin #6 (DC, $2.99 and the best of the Batbooks from my point of view; sorry, Scott Snyder and everyone else) and Wolverine and The X-Men #5 (Marvel, $3.99), easily the best X-Book that’s been around since the first Chris Claremont run. It’s all about the creature comforts, sometimes.

When it comes to splurging, though, it’s all about the new takes on old stories: I’d go for Fantastic Four: Season One Premiere HC (Marvel, $24.99), to see how Marvel’s new line pans out; I’m unconvinced by the core concept of “retelling the origins all over again,” but the creative line-ups and OGN format makes me want this to work out for the House of Ideas.

Dotter of Her Fathers Eyes

Brigid Alverson

If I had $15, I’d spend it all on floppies, and I’m skewing young this week. Kevin Keller #1 ($2.99) from Archie is a must, of course. Up till now Kevin has been a bit too good to be true, and I’m hoping Dan Parent will at least get him into some scrapes now that he has his own series. Then I’ll take Princeless #4 ($3.99); I caught up with this series on Graphicly over the weekend because it was getting good buzz, and I like it a lot. The feisty-princess thing isn’t exactly new these days, but the creators get in some clever digs. Adventure Time #1 ($3.99) is another must-have, with the creative combo of Ryan North and artists Braden Lamb and Shelli Paroline. It’s based on some Nick show–yeah, whatever. This team can do no wrong in my book. That leaves just enough for the first issue of Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan’s Conan the Barbarian ($3.50) from Dark Horse, with change left over for some penny candy to munch on while I read.

If I had $30, I would add in Mary and Bryan Talbot’s Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes, from Dark Horse. The price looks like a typo: $14.99 for the hardcover? It’s a great story (I have already read it), layering Mary Talbot’s childhood as the daughter of an eminent Joyce scholar with the story of Joyce’s daughters and her own struggles against her family and the mores of the time. Mary’s voice is pitch-perfect, and Talbot’s illustrations really capture the era. I know it’s only February, but I’m already putting this on my top ten list for 2012.

Splurge: There’s no huge $50 collection of vintage comics calling out to me this week, but the regular comics are so good I want more. I would like to see IDW’s Archie Treasury: The Best of Dan DeCarlo ($9.99), and the first volume of Vertical’s GTO: 14 Days in Shonan ($10.95) (the prequel to the classic manga series GTO) are both calling to me. And for some stylish girls’ comics, I’ll take issue 4 of PC Cast’s House of Night ($2.99) just for Joelle Jones’s illustrations, and vol. 6 of The Story of Saiunkoku ($9.99) because it’s an elegantly drawn, charmingly written shoujo manga, and I’m really enjoying reading it.

Jinchalo

Chris Mautner

If I had $15, the new volume of Bakuman is calling out to me. I just finished Vol. 8 and am eager for more breathless treatises on how the manga industry operates. On top of that I’d also grab the latest issue of Berlin, Jason Lutes’ ongoing historical saga. Part of me feels a bit foolish for not trade-waiting on these — I tend to think the story reads better in solid chunks than piecemeal — but I’m such an impatient soul.

If I had $30; I’ll read just about anything Bryan Talbot does, so I’m definitely interested in picking up Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes. I might put it all back, however, and pick up Jinchalo, the latest wordless comic from Matthew Forsythe, a sequel of sorts to his rather charming Ojingogo.

Splurge: Casual Robert Crumb fans might be interested in The Life and death of Fritz the Cat. Jack Kirby fans will definitely be interested in Young Romance, a collection of heartthrob tales from Simon and Kirby (see my review). Myself, I might well go for the fourth volume of Torpedo, Jordi Bernet’s grim and gritty (and blackly humorous) gangster series.

Batwoman #6

Michael May

If I had $15, I’d start with the two, female Bat-heroes, Batgirl #6 ($2.99) and Batwoman #6 ($3.99) and the tangential Bat-heroine, Huntress #5 ($2.99). Rounding out my must-reads is Frankenstein, Agent of SHADE #6 ($2.99), but I’d also pick up Demon Knights #6 ($2.99), a comic that stays good enough to keep me interested if not overwhelmingly excited. The pin’s awfully close to the bubble on that one for me, but I’m still on board for now.

If I had $30, I’d add some more expensive comics starting with Conan the Barbarian #1 ($3.50). I switched to trade-waiting Dark Horse’s Conan comics a long time ago, but I’m as curious as everyone else about the Wood/Cloonan team on this. I’m also fascinated enough by Richard Corben’s work to want to try out his fantasy one-shot, Murky World ($3.50). I also have it on good authority (Diamond shipping list be damned) that the delayed Atomic Robo and the Ghost of Station X #5 ($3.50) is also coming out this week, so that’s good news. And finally, I’ve enjoyed the few episodes of Adventure Time I’ve seen, so I’d also like to pick up Adventure Time #1 ($3.99) from Boom!.

My splurge this week is another item that hasn’t been verified by Diamond, but it’s shown up on my LCS’ invoice, so I expect Jason’s Athos in America ($24.99) to be on the shelf tomorrow. Jason’s stuff is always awesome and this sort-of prequel to The Last Musketeer should be no exception.

Officer Downe

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

To see what everyone has been reading, click below …

*****

Timothy Callahan

Uncanny X-Force #1

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

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

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

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

Chad Nevett

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

The Visible Man

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

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

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

Bill Reed

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

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

Bearmageddon

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

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

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

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

Ryan K Lindsay

11.22.63

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

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

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

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

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

The Mighty Thor Omnibus

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

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

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

Greg McElhatton

Kushiel's Dart

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

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

Donald Duck: Lost in the Andes

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

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

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

Dave Richards

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

Batman: Noel

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

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

Dave Richards covers all things Marvel for Comic Book Resources.

Greg Hatcher

Kamandi

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

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

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

Rider of the Rifle Rock

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

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

Pól Rua

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

Infinite Kung Fu

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

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

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

King City #1

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

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

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

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

Kelly Thompson

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

Hinges

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

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

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

Brian Cronin

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

DMZ

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

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

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

Sonia Harris

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

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

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

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

Tom Brevoort, photo by Luigi Novi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Avengers: X-Sanction #1

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

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

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

Miles Morales

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

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

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

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

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

Avengers/FCBD 2012

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fantastic Four #600

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

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

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

Daredevil #1

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

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

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

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

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

Brevoort's Twitter photo

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

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

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

What, did you think I was going to show the panel? Go buy this book!

There is a page in FF #12 that would knock Jerry Springer’s socks off. Not in trashiness, but in the complexity of the relationships of the people on panel. Let’s see who we have here: there’s an alternate Reed Richards who came from a collective of Reed Richards..es. There is the time-traveling Nathanial Richards, his not-quite father. Doctor Doom sits collared by the machinations of alter-Reed, while Kristoff demands justice for his not-exactly father and the inherited name of Doom. Did I mention there’s a Wikipedia entry that has hinted that Nathaniel Richards might actually be Kristoff’s biological father? Yeah, wrap your head around this, because this is key: the relationships of these people on this page are why no one should be dropping this title due to the return of the Fantastic Four.

Potential spoilers for Fantastic Four #600 and FF #12 after the jump!

Last week Fantastic Four returned to publication under its full name and original numbering with Fantastic Four #600. You may have heard of this. Inside, Johnny Storm’s fate is revealed, Marvel’s first family grapples with Ronan the Accuser and the Kree armada as well as the creeping threat of Annihilus’ inevitable return. It is 100 pages of all-new story and art that furthers the goal that Jonathan Hickman started in Fantastic Four #570. It is deep, it is lengthy, it is surprising, and–to borrow a term–it is fantastic. So why is FF still on the stands? FF, short for Future Foundation, was a way to show the reader how Marvel’s first family adapts to a loss in number. Because let’s face it, they’re never the Fantastic Three for very long. No matter who leaves and who stays, they always bring the ranks up to four thanks to the immense variety of supporting characters and surrogate family in the Marvel U.

Because their supporting characters are so awesome, their villains so villainous, the stakes so high, on both personal and global levels, there is simply too much to fit into one book. Everybody loves Doctor Doom, but he can’t be in the book all the time, or else he loses something of what makes him such a great character. Being honest with ourselves, having his own book doesn’t seem to be a possibility either. Doctor Doom is simply at his best when pitted against his most enduring foes. FF allows breathing room for Doom, and other supporting characters, without crowding the Fantastic Four. This is what happens when your characters have been around for six hundred issues: you bring a lot of back story.

Like having kids.

Grade schoolers haven’t been this interesting in the Marvel U since Power Pack. In fact, a lot of kids of superheroes wind up in the gutters as they are sidelined for the more interesting adult adventures. We even skip their formative years by sending them into the future, putting them under some aging ray, throwing them in hell… man, Marvel doesn’t really like kids, do they? Stan Lee isn’t fond of teen-aged sidekicks, babies are often taken hostage, pawned off to nannies and sitters, or simply forgotten, to make way for people with their drivers licenses. Hickman has sort of broken the mold and continuously used the Richards kids as both plot points and secret heroes in their own right. Sure, Franklin and Valeria may not be ordinary kids, but having a childlike point of view on Hickman’s trademark cosmic-powered philosophy stories has enhanced the reader’s connection and enjoyment. I actively care about a couple of grade schoolers, and that’s a new one for me as a Marvel Zombie.

The Fantastic Four are a great team in which to watch characters evolve. Reed Richards has been called a futurist in the recent run of Fantastic Four comics. And so the Fantastic Four, while always scientifically minded, now have a stronger goal that unites not just them, but their family, and surrogate families as well. They no longer just want to protect the people of Earth, they want to protect mankind itself, which turns an eye to the future. Since Civil War, Reed Richards has caused more trouble for everyone as a “futurist.” No matter how much math he can do, no matter what machines he can create, advancements in technology, inter-dimensional travel, none of this tends to go well. It is ironic that an antagonist of the series is just Reed Richards himself. Sure, an alternate version, but you get the idea. The lesson to learn from this and to watch develop in the pages of FF is that you can’t control the future, you have to let it grow up on its own, and guide it to the best of your ability. The Fantastic Four will always be the world’s greatest magazine, and their heroes Marvel’s first family. The FF, and the Future Foundation as a whole, is a way for the next generation to grow into its own, without Reed’s direct hand. He can still look to the future, because it’s right beside him in the eyes of his children.

Our past is the foundation of our future. You can’t stop reading now.

Amazing Fantasy #15

Comics | While going through a box in his attic, a Grange Park, Illinois, man discovered a copy of Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance of Spider-Man, that he had bought as a kid. While other copies of the comic have fetched as much as $1.2 million, Chimera’s Comics is selling it for $12,000 due to its condition. [LaGrange Patch]

Comics | Brian Truitt profiles Marvel’s Fantastic Four, talking to Mark Waid, Tom Brevoort and Tom DeFalco about the long-running comic. [USA Today]

Publishing | Janna Morishima, formerly of Scholastic and Diamond Comic Distributors, has joined Papercutz as its first marketing director. [Papercutz]

Creators | Alan Moore discusses his friendship with Harvey Pekar: “We developed a friendship, because of a mutual love — an obsession, really — of old books. Harvey loved looking around the old tomes in my library, and Joyce told me I only enabled Harvey. They hadn’t got a spare inch of space, and Joyce would blow a fuse if he brought home a slim volume of poetry. He would smuggle them into the house by stealth. He’d slip them in among the old dusty books, and leave them there for about six weeks, then one day, walk over to the shelf and open them like they were cherished artifacts. The fact that this would take weeks showed his level commitment to great literature. He did everything short of wrapping them in plastic and hiding them in the lavatory.” Moore wrote the introduction for the forthcoming Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland, a posthumous graphic novel due in March. [Fast Company]

Art by Cameron Stewart

Creators | Andy Khouri talks to writer and artist Cameron Stewart about his work on B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth: Exorcism, part of a flurry of upcoming B.P.R.D. comics due out next year. [ComicsAlliance]

Creators | Author Marc Singer discusses his book Grant Morrison: Combining the Worlds of Contemporary Comics. [Mindless Ones]

Creators | Just a few months after winning the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning, Mike Keefe has accepted a buyout offer from the Denver Post. Keefe plans to “semi-retire” and will continue to draw cartoons for the Cagle Syndicate. [Comic Riffs]

Commentary | Alex Woodward looks at Steve Duin and Shannon Wheeler’s Oil and Water. [Gambit]

Review | Manga newbie Jeff Jackson Ian Johnson reads Breathe Deeply, a new indy manga from small publisher One Peace Books that mixes medical ethics, suspense, and wistful romance. [Comic Attack]

Analysis | Kristy Valenti looks at Osamu Tezuka’s use of theatrical techniques and motifs in two very different books, Princess Knight and The Book of Human Insects. [comiXology]

Fantastic Four #600

(Please note: Clicking on just about any of the links in this post will take you directly to spoilers for Fantastic Four #600.)

This week saw Marvel revert back to the original numbering for their flagship title, Fantastic Four, as they released the 600th issue of the “World’s Greatest Comic Magazine.” The $7.99, 96-page comic contains five stories, all written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by a variety of artists, including Steve Epting, Rick Magyar, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Ming Doyle, Leinil Francis Yu, Gerry Alanguilan and Farel Dalrymple.

And just like they’ve done in the past, Marvel spoiled one of the plot points from the book in order to get mainstream media attention. One of the plot points, anyway; when Hickman was asked on Twitter about a particular article that contained a major spoiler, he replied, “… I haven’t read that article, so I’m not sure ‘which’ spoiler is being spoiled.” Yep, this comic book is just packed.

Here’s a sampling of what folks have been saying about Fantastic Four #600:

David Uzumeri, ComicsAlliance: “The 96-page issue #600 not only progresses a large number of Hickman’s ongoing storylines, it also adds a number of new wrinkles, catches the new or returning reader up on the saga so far, looks gorgeous, and is somehow still a bargain at the whopping retail price of eight dollars for a single issue of a comic book.”

David Harper, Multiversity Comics: “There are five artists that work on this issue, and all of them completely nail it. Each of them have wildly different skill sets and styles, but each of them are perfectly attuned to the story they are working on and Marvel/Hickman/whomever deserves massive props for doing just that. Each artist has specific strengths that work particularly well for their individual story, and it makes them pop all the more. Really, this book is worth $7.99 just for the efforts of Epting, di Giandomenico, Doyle, Yu and Dalrymple.”

Fantastic Four #600

Nick Budd, Top 5 Comics: “It’s a wallop of a story, the perfect example of the Marvel Universe being a shared land of stories tethered together. Hickman connects things that have not only been happening in FF, but also with books like The Mighty Thor. You also get to see the proceedings happening from every point of view imaginable, be it from the good guys to the bad guys to the guys that are treading water in the grey area. Hickman doesn’t leave a man behind or out of the equation.”

Jesse Schedeen, IGN: “Most of the actual story progression comes in the lead segment from Hickman and artist Steve Epting. This portion marks the first part of “Forever,” as the FF, Avengers, and X-Men have banded together to fight back a Kree invasion force. Interspersed with this epic battle are scenes of a showdown in Latveria and turmoil in the Baxter Building. In some ways, this segment highlights the primary flaw of the series since the shift from Fantastic Four to FF. It lacks heart. There isn’t much focus on characterization or team interplay. The battle itself is somewhat underwhelming, with the necessary sense of danger never really becoming apparent. Epting’s art is generally solid and well-constructed, but thee are certain non-FF characters he seems to struggle with (particularly Iron Man).”

David Pepose, Newsarama: “The last few chapters are shorter, little more than brief interludes, but contain some of the best moments of the book. Ming Doyle’s touching, and haunting rendition of the Inhumans is all too short, and it’s always excellent to see Leinil Yu taking on a character like Galactus, but perhaps the most stand out of the last three chapters is Hickman and Farel Dalrymple’s story of Franklin Richards and Leech, as they tear through a fictional universe of Franklin’s creation. This is perhaps the most intriguing of the plotlines foreshadowed, but it’s Dalrymple’s terrific art that sells the story. He captures the childlike wonder, and somewhat sarcastic tone of Hickman’s hilarious script without getting bogged down in juvenile or immature tropes. It’s less like a comic, and more like a storybook, but that’s exactly what the story needed.”

“Bad Man” Mark McCann, Bad Haven: “The final short is perhaps the most leading, hinting at something BIG for the Four should things ever go awry. Farel Dalrymple does an excellent job on pencils as we follow Franklin Richards and Leech into a Universe of Franklin’s own creation in a tale, that while child like and entertaining also posits the question: What would happen if the most powerful mutant in the world turned evil? And for all it’s innocence, this tale is actually the most terrifying.”

Doug Zawisza, Comic Book Resources: “As anniversary issues of comics go, this one is different from the norm (or perceived norm) in that it doesn’t waste any time navel-gazing. This issue does very little to celebrate the stories leading to this anniversary point and blazes full speed ahead to what is going to happen or is currently happening. It breaks the mold of preconceived anniversary expectations, but that’s pretty much the preconceived expectation for Fantastic Four stories from Jonathan Hickman. This issue is yet another entertaining, fun read from Hickman and company. It’s burdened by a hefty price sticker, but that is easily justified away once you realize that you’re getting ninety-six pages of new story. That makes this issue quite a deal by comparison. That is something to be thankful for.”

Blackest Friday

ComiXology has a bunch of digital comics for 99 cents today. DC Comics is holding a Blackest Friday sale, allowing you to buy each issue of the Blackest Night crossover for 99 cents each. Marvel has Jonathan Hickman’s Fantastic Four issues on sale for 99 cents, while IDW has their Star Trek comics on sale.

Dark Horse is running a pretty amazing digital comics sale for Black Friday only: A megabundle of all the single-issue Star Wars comics available in their digital comics store, over 130 issues altogether, for $100. That’s 3,274 pages of Star Wars comics, in case you’re counting, and it’s $166 less than you would pay if you bought them all separately.

They have also figured out how to run a doorbuster special digitally: On Cyber Monday (Nov. 28), the first 500 customers through their checkout will get a 50% discount. There’s a $20 minimum, and the deal runs for 24 hours beginning at midnight PST on Nov. 28; you’ll also need a coupon code, which is provided at the link.

Khepri Comics is putting comics on sale and helping to save the cheetahs, with different sales all weekend and into Cyber Monday:

Fri 25 Nov – Black Friday – Please Enjoy 40% OFF HARDCOVERS with coupon CHEETAH40FRI
Sat 26 Nov – Small Biz Saturday – Enjoy 50% OFF SELF-PUBLISHED with coupon CHEETAH50SAT
Sun 27 Nov – Adjectiveless Sunday – Enjoy 40% OFF CREATOR-OWNED with coupon CHEETAH40SUN
Mon 28 Nov – Cyber Monday – Please Enjoy 40% OFF EVERYTHING with coupon CHEETAH40MON

Midtown Comics has comics, graphic novels and statues on sale.

Things from Another World has steep discounts going right now for selected items, plus $10, $5 and $1 doorbusters.

Chuck BB is holding a Black Metal Black Friday Super Brutal Blind Art Sale, where you can buy pages from Black Metal and get a sketch for $50.

Top Cow will have stuff in their online store discounted all weekend …

…as will Aspen Comics.

Jeff Smith’s Boneville site is holding a signature sale through mid-December, where every book ordered will be signed by Smith.

Fantagraphics minicomics

Don’t forget about Fantagraphics special mini-comics offer through their online store.

Mimoco has all their designer flash drives for 25 percent off, which include drives based on Batman, Green Lantern, Star Wars and more.

Threadless is holding a $10 T-shirt sale this weekend, so you can get those cool robot shirts by Ethan Nicolle, Becky Cloonan, JR Goldberg and Jhonen Vasquez for cheap.

MattyCollector has a ton of action figures on sale, including some of their past San Diego Comic Con exclusives and several Justice League Unlimited packs. Plus, the Rockers!

For more deals and bargains, check out the lists at The Beat and ComicsAlliance. And if you’ve seen any that I’ve missed, please post them in our comments section. Happy shopping!

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).

Point One

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 first get the third issue of my favorite New 52 title, Batwoman #3 (DC, $2.99). Seriously, J.H. Williams III is hitting a home run on every outing here when it comes to my tastes. Although the writing isn’t up to the level of Greg Rucka’s time on the book, it’s close and only bound to get better. Next up I’d get Point One #1 (Marvel, $5.99). I think this format–an extra-size preview book for what’s coming next–is an interesting experiment, and I’m intrigued most by the Nova story, but also interested to see what the others do. Third would be Uncanny X-Force #17 (Marvel, $3.99), to get the one-two punch of Rick Remender and Jerome Opena. Iceman as a bad guy? I dig this.

If I had $30, I’d get Wolverine #18 (Marvel, $3.99) because I love Jason Aaron and Ron Garney teaming up, and seeing them bring in Fat Cobra from Immortal Iron Fist is oddly perfect for the book. Next up would be my comics weak-spot, Top Cow’s Pilot Season book–Pilot Season: Anonymous #1 (Image/Top Cow, $3.99). After that I’d pick up Fear Itself #7.2 (Marvel, $3.99) despite the fact I wish Coipel was drawing this. Lastly would be Kirby Genesis: Silver Star #1 (Dynamite, $3.99) because I love this lesser-known Kirby creation and the artist on this, succinctly named Johnny D., looks worth watching.

If I had the time (and money) to splurge, I’d get the Simon & Kirby Library: Crime hardcover (Titan, $49.95). Lately I’ve had a keen interest on Jack Kirby’s lesser-known work during the 1950s and this seems to fill in a lot of the gaps for me. I’m excited to hold this in my hands and see what surprises it has in store for me.

Graeme McMillan

Silver Star

If I had $15 this week, I’d throw a bunch of it Marvel’s way, with the first issue of Battle Scars ($2.99) and the massive Point One ($5.99) filling up the majority of my budget quite nicely. Well done, House of Ideas. I’d also grab Dynamite’s Kirby Genesis: Silver Star #1 ($3.99), the first (of many, apparently) spin-offs from the enjoyable Busiek/Ross/Herbert series.

If I had $30, then I’d redress the balance a little by grabbing the third issues of some DC books: Demon Knights, Legion Lost, Green Lantern and Batwoman (All $2.99) would make my cut this week, with IDW’s Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes #2 ($3.99) rounding out the haul.

For splurging, there’s really only one choice from my nostalgia’s point of view: Marvel’s Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus Vol. 1 oversized hardcover ($125) is kind of a must-have, what with it being my third-favorite FF run ever (Behind Lee/Kirby and Simonson). If only they’d offered it for $44.44 …

Chris Mautner

Princess Knight

If I had $15: No question, the first volume of Osamu Tezuka’s Princess Knight would be the first and only must-buy item on my list. This is one of those “Man, they’re never going to translate this series, are they?” books and I’m kind of awestruck that Vertical is taking a chance on it, even given the fact that they’ve become the Tezuka publisher of choice these days. It’s not that it’s such a controversial book as that it’s early Tezuka, which is sunnier, sweeter and less bizarre than the late period stuff they’ve been printing lately. At any rate, I’m excited to get this.

If I had $30: I’d find an extra $5 and pick up a copy of De Profundis by James Jarvis, an intriguing enigmatic comic about a pointy-nosed artist that wanders through an abandoned city before encountering a mysterious priest who gives him a commission job. I flipped through this at SPX, and while I didn’t have the extra cash to pick it up then, it did look like a worthwhile purchase.

Splurge: Again, an easy choice for me — the second volume of Jacques Tardi’s Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec from Fantagraphics. I’m on a big Tardi kick right now, having just recently read the first Adele collection, and am eager to experience more.

Michael May

Frankenstein

If I had $15, I’d spend most of it on my usual series: Demon Knights #3 ($2.99), Frankenstein: Agent of SHADE #3 ($2.99), and X-Men Legacy #258 ($2.99). I was lukewarm about the first issue of Huntress, but I liked it enough to check out the second one ($2.99). And though I’m not familiar with PC and Kristin Cast’s Harry Potter/Twilight mash-up House of Night, I like the art previews I’ve seen from Dark Horse’s adaptation ($1) and certainly wouldn’t mind paying a buck to learn more.

If I had $30, I’d add Reed Gunther, Volume 1 ($14.99) to read about my favorite bear-riding cowboy.

There are a few splurge items that caught my interest this week, but near the top of the list are The Zombies That Ate the World, Volume 1: Bring Me Back My Head! ($24.95) for the Guy Davis art and The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, Volume 2 ($24.99). If I had to pick one thing though, I’d get the Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus, Volume 1 ($125.00) because I’ve been wanting to read those stories for decades.

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

Brilliant

Graeme McMillan

It is, thankfully, the last week of September which means that, if I had $15, I only have one more week of new launches from DC to pick out potential favorites, Sophie’s Choice-style. This week: Aquaman #1, Flash #1, Fury of Firestorm, The Nuclear Men #1, Justice League Dark #1 and Superman #1 make the cut (All DC, all $2.99 each).

If I had the chance to add some more money to take that total to $30, I’d go for some Marvel books: Brian Michael Bendis gets well-represented with Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #2 ($3.99); New Avengers #16.1 ($2.99), his “new readers jump on” issue with art by Neal Adams; and Brilliant #1 ($3.99), his new creator-owned book with Mark Bagley. Here’s hoping I’m in a suitably Bendis-y mood when I read all of these ones.

Splurgewise, it has to be Habibi (Pantheon, $35), Craig Thompson’s new graphic novel. I know a few people who’ve had a chance to read it already, and everyone has made it sound like a large leap ahead from Blankets, and something almost worth the many-year wait it’s been since his breakthrough last book. I’m really looking forward to this one.

Habibi

Chris Mautner

If I had $15:

There’s a lot of good, big-name books out this week, starting with the fourth volume of Love and Rockets ($14.99). Rumor has it that Xaime Hernandez’s contributions to this issue are even more exemplary and emotionally devastating than in Vol. 3, which seems almost impossible, but I’m eager to find out either way.

If I had $30:

I’d at least take a look at Kinky and Cosey, a South Park-esque gag strip from NBM, authored by one Nix, about whom I know nothing, but the online samples intrigue me.

Splurge:

Graeme already mentioned Habibi – I’m only a third of the way through it now, so I can’t really comment on the book yet. Frank Miller’s Holy Terror is also out this week ($29.99), but David Brothers’ review has put me off on purchasing the book, at least for now. That leaves either Matthew Thurber’s delightfully surreal saga 1-800-MICE ($22.95), Marc Bell’s equally strange and charming Pure Pajamas (an odds and sods collection of various comic work) ($22.95) or Brian Ralph’s first-person zombie apocalypse tale, Daybreak ($24.95). All are really worth getting, it’s just a question of which to buy first.

Holy Terror

Chris Arrant

Fifteen dollars in my pocket, and I’d still only have room for one of this week’s New 52 from DC: Flash #1 (DC, $2.99). Francis Manapul is a big-time artist, and seeing DC giving him the reins as writer-and-artist is an interesting play that I want to see work. Next up would be another #1, but not from DC: Brilliant #1 (Marvel/Icon, $3.95). It’s good to see Bendis doing more creator-owned work, and bringing in Mark Bagley is a novel idea, especially considering Bagley’s style is synonymous with super-heroes; I think the only non-super-hero book he did was The Pulse back in the day. Next up would be two installments of ongoing Marvel epics: Wolverine #16 (Marvel, $3.99) and FF #9 (Marvel, $2.99). Aaron threw me for a loop revealing a new brood of kids for Logan, and meanwhile FF is turning into the book I’ve always wanted for Marvel: smart-ass kids in over their head. Somehow, I think Kirby would get a kick out of this, too.

If I had $30, I’d double back and bet it all on DC with five #1s: Superman #1 (DC, $2.99) for George Perez; Voodoo #1 (DC, $2.99) for Sam Basri’s art (despite Voodoo being my least favorite Wildcat); All-Star Western #1 (DC, $3.99) for, well, everything and everyone involved; Aquaman #1 (DC, $2.99) to see this Hail Mary pass of revitalizing this guy; and then Blackhawks #1 (DC, $2.99) because I’ve been pining for years they bring this team back in a meaningful way.

If I could splurge, I’d still be in a jam, as there’s two big graphic novels I want to get this week. I’d have to choose Frank Miller’s Holy Terror (Legendary, $29.99) over Habibi just because of how curious I am to see what Miller is doing here. For Habibi, I’d put it on my pull list and swing back next week.

Superman

Michael May

If I had $15, I’d split it between DC, Marvel and a smaller publisher. From DC I’m extremely curious about Superman #1 ($2.99) to see how Lois Lane is handled beyond the couple of pages we’ve already seen. I love the idea of team of magicians using the Justice League name, especially one where Zatanna and John Constantine get to interact on a regular basis, so I’m all in for Justice League Dark #1 ($2.99).  From Marvel, I’d grab Spider-Island: Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #2 ($2.99) because Shang Chi, and X-Men Legacy #256 ($2.99), because I’m enjoying being reminded how good Mike Carey is for that book. Finally, I’d grab Moonstone’s That Man Flint #0 ($1.99) for some groovy super-spy action. Casanova‘s already scratching that itch too, but I’ve got room for more.

If I had $30, I’d quickly add the more expensive All-Star Western #1 ($3.99), which only got left off my $15 list because I couldn’t afford it. I’ve been wanting to jump on to Gray and Palmiotti’s Jonah Hex for a long time and that Moritat art looks very cool. Then I’d also get I, Vampire #1 ($2.99) because I like Josh Fialkov’s stuff. I wasn’t thrilled with Warren Ellis’ first issue on Secret Avengers, but I’m willing to give it another shot, so I’d also grab #17 ($3.99). I’d top off the pile with Abe Sapien: The Devil Does Not Jest #1 ($3.50) because Abe’s awesome.

There’s way too much to splurge on this week. I can’t not mention Habibi, but there’s also a new collection of All-New Batman: The Brave and the Bold ($12.99), Archaia’s Weird Western The Grave Doug Freshley ($19.95), and that Kamandi Omnibus ($49.99). If I had to pick one thing though, I’d support Marvel’s reprinting John Byrne’s Alpha Flight by buying Alpha Flight Classic, Volume 2 ($29.99). Any effort to get those stories out of my closet and onto my bookshelf is extremely welcome.

George R.R. Martin

Talk about your harmonic nerd convergences: John Hodgman spoke with George R.R. Martin about Marvel Comics in yesterday’s episode of public radio’s The Sound of Young America. In one corner: George R.R. Martin, author of the epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire and its #1 New York Times–bestselling latest installment A Dance with Dragons, executive producer of the HBO television adaptation Game of Thrones, and inspiration for Dynamite Entertainment’s own comics adaptation A Game of Thrones, whose first issue debuts tomorrow. In the other corner: John Hodgman, nerd-friendly writer, comedic cultural commentator for The Daily Show, and “I’m a PC” guy, filling in as the radio program’s guest host. The topic: One of Martin’s first pieces of published writing, a piece of fanmail published in Avengers #12 in 1964 when Martin was 16 years old.

Hodgman used the letter, which entered wide Internet circulation a few weeks back, to kick off the interview. And he was probably kidding around when he asked Martin to explain why his 16-year-old self believed Avengers #9 to be superior to Fantastic Four #32, as his letter had argued. But once Hodgman jogged Martin’s memory by reminding him that Avengers #9 marked the debut of Wonder Man, Martin knew exactly why he liked the issue so much. His explanation to Hodgman is a solid exploration of why the early Marvel superhero comics were so groundbreaking for the genre — and in offering it, Martin seems to come to the realization that that issue had an impact on his own writing that resonates with him to this day. (For readers of the book or viewers of the show, the influence will be obvious.)

Read a transcript of the relevant section below, then listen to the entire interview.

[George R.R. Martin:] I liked Wonder Man. And you know why? [Laughs] Now it’s coming back to me vividly! Wonder Man dies in that story. He’s a brand new character, he’s introduced, and he dies. It was very heartwrenching. I liked the character — it was a tragic, doomed character. I guess I’ve responded to tragic, doomed characters ever since I was a high-school kid.

[John Hodgman:] Especially those who might die at any minute.

That’s right. Of course, being comic books, Wonder Man didn’t stay dead for long. He came back a year or two later and had a long run for many, many decades. But the fact that he was introduced and joined the Avengers and died all in that one issue had a great impact on me when I was a high-school kid.

I imagine it was pretty surprising, in a comic book at that time, to see a whole story arc resolve tragically in that way in one issue.

Yes. It’s hard to understand, I think, from the vantage point of 2011 exactly what was going on in comics back in the early ’60s. The Marvel comics that I was writing letters to were really revolutionary for the time. Stan Lee was doing some amazing work. Up until then, the dominant comic book had been the DC comics, which at that time were always very circular: Superman or Batman would have an adventure, and at the end of the adventure they would wind up exactly where they were, and then the next issue would follow the same pattern. Nothing ever changed for the DC characters.

The Marvel characters were constantly changing. Important things were happening. The lineup of the Avengers was constantly changing. People would quit and they would have fights and all of that, as opposed to DC, where everybody got along and it was all very nice, and of course all the heroes liked each other. None of this was happening. So really, Stan Lee introduced the whole concept of characterization [chuckles] to comic books, and conflict, and maybe even a touch of gray in some of the characters. And boy, looking back at it now, I can see that it probably was a bigger influence on my own work than I would have dreamed.

(via Westeros)

Casanova: Avaritia

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 Mautner

If I had $15:

I’m very excited to read Casanova: Avaritia ($4.99), the first new Casanova storyline in what seems like a dog’s age. There’s something about this series that seems to bring out Fraction’s best, perhaps it’s the mere fact he’s working with Fabio Moon and (this time around) Gabriel Ba allows him to rise to the occasion. That and The Boys #58 ($3.99) will probably round out my initial purchases.

If I had $30:

I’m curious about Seymour Chwast’s adaptation of The Canterbury Tales ($20), given that his adaptation of Dante’s Inferno garnered some attention, but in reality, I’m saving my money to get Like a Sniper Lining Up His Shot ($18.99), the latest Jacques Tardi book from Fantagraphics, another hard boiled (and ultra-violent) noir in the same vein as West Coast Blues, which is not terribly surprising considering its the same writer, Jean-Patrick Manchette.

I should also point out that the final volume of Mome is out this week and easily the best volume of an already excellent series, featuring stellar work by folks like Eleanor Davis, Josh Simmons, Chuck Forsam, Tim Hensley and more. A steal at $20.

Splurge:

My splurge of the week is easily Cats, Dogs, Men, Women & Clowns: The Lost Art of William Steig. Though he remains a popular children’s author, thanks largely to Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and Shrek, Steig is often overlooked by cartoonists, which is a mighty shame. This book collects over 450 never-before-published cartoons, along with anecdotes from Steig’s widow.

Graeme McMillan

Action Comics #1

If I had $15 this week, there would be no way I could avoid the New 52 hitting stores with its first full wave, picking up Action Comics #1, Batgirl #1 and Stormwatch #1 (Each DC Comics, $2.99) with something between eager anticipation and fear of disappointment. That would also describe my feelings about Casanova: Avaritia #1 (Marvel, $4.99), Matt Fraction’s return to the series that made me a fan, after many projects of his that have had the opposite effect.

If I had $30, the DC mania would continue with Animal Man #1 and OMAC #1 (Both DC Comics, $2.99), two reboots of one-time favorite series that have one creator getting me excited, and one making me nervous. More nervous-making than exciting, I find myself drawn toward Rich Veitch’s The Big Lie #1 (Image, $3.99), which is already finding itself described as a “truther” book, but… Veitch can be worth reading when he’s got his satirical hat on, so I’ll probably pick it up.

Splurgewise, my Kirby-love is mixing with the same love of gimmickry that makes the OMAC revival fascinating as soon as I see the hardcover collection of Fantastic Four: The World’s Greatest Comics Magazine (Marvel Comics, $34.99), the Erik Larsen-led attempt to imagine how Kirby would’ve continued on the FF if he hadn’t left the book back in 1970 (Other artists include Bruce Timm, who does a mean Kirby homage, Keith Giffen, Bill Wray and Steve Rude). I’ve never read it, but the weirdness alone seems like a siren song, drawing me in…!

Michael May

If I had $15, I’d dig into some New 52 series that have my attention. I’m picking up Action Comics #1 ($3.99) to see if Grant Morrison really has something new to say about Superman: The Early Days, but I’ve seen that time period covered so often that I’m skeptical. He needs to grab me with this issue to get me to buy the next. I’m more excited about Batgirl #1 ($2.99) and Static Shock #1 ($2.99), series about two characters I know I like by writers I love. Finally, I’d add The Spider #2 ($3.99) from Moonstone because the first issue was awesome.

Atomic Robo: Ghost of Station X #1

If I had $30, I’d add some issues that I’ll end up buying in collected editions anyway later on. Like Chris and Graeme, I’m excited for new Casanova with Avaritia #1 ($4.99). And of course I want the new Atomic Robo: Ghost of Station X #1 ($3.50). I’d round off the pile with bear-riding cowboy Reed Gunther #4 ($2.99).

I’m waffling between three different splurge items this week. First Second’s Bake Sale ($16.99) looks wonderful (and delicious), but my son and I just started reading Amulet, Volume 1 and found it nearly impossible to put down, bedtime be damned. That makes Amulet, Volume 4: The Last Council ($10.99) very tempting even though we’ve got a couple of volumes to catch up on first. I think though that my mad money would go to the new edition of Astro City: Life in the Big City ($17.99), because I haven’t read that story since it came out in single issues and I’ve been wanting to reacquaint myself with Astro City for a few years now.

JK Parkin

New Avengers Annual #1

I was thinking it would be really easy just to say I was going to try all the relaunched DC titles coming out this week, but that would cost me more than $40, which is outside my spending limit. And besides, the first issue I’m most excited about this week isn’t even published by DC — it’s New Avengers Annual #1 ($4.99), featuring the stunning debut of the Revengers! This is sort of the perfect storm for me, as I’ve always loved Marvel’s annuals, I’ve got a soft spot for Wonder Man and I enjoy seeing old C- and D-grade characters get a makeover. That leaves me $10, which I’d spend on three of the new DC titles — Swamp Thing #1 ($2.99), Animal Man #1 ($2.99) and Static Shock #1 ($2.99).

If I had $30, I’d add a few more New 52 titles to the pile — Hawk and Dove #1 ($2.99), Batwing #1 ($2,99) and Stormwatch #1 ($2.99). I’d round it out with Punisher #3 ($2.99) and Morning Glories #12 ($2.99). Because, y’know, man can not live on relaunched titles alone …

There’s a lot to choose from this week, both on the comic front and the splurge front. For my splurge, I’d be hard-pressed to pick between Americus ($14.99) by MK Reed and Jonathan Hill, and The Hidden by Richard Sala ($19.99).

Spider-Man can be on every team!

So, yeah, it looks like Fantastic Four, one of the most important comics to come from the House of Ideas, will return for its 600th issue. A momentous occasion to be sure, as a little less than a year seems to be about enough time for people to understand Johnny Storm’s place on the team, what makes the Fantastic Four different without one of its founding members and, hopefully, we’ll all appreciate him a little more now that he’s … well, on the cover. Gotta wait for the issue to be super-sure, but let’s give the boys in the Bullpen the benefit of the doubt and say that the Human Torch is back to stay.

Technically, he’s been gone for nine months, an auspicious amount of time as the rest of his team has somewhat given birth to an absolutely new idea: the Future Foundation. A sort of in-house Illuminati, if you will; the same old adventuring team paired off with its greatest villains, looking to safeguard all their interests at once. The white-and-black uniforms don’t really do that idea justice, do they? That’s a lot of gray area to be working with. And in the end, it was all masterminded by a little girl named Valeria.

The Richards’ kids have their own plot, their own motivations and their own secrets to keep. These two supporting characters have taken a lot of the center stage, both in Future Foundation and even in Fear Itself (seriously, go read Book Five and tell me these kids don’t deserve their own title). Franklin’s been around for years, an interesting new generation that actually was born and grew into an independent character as we read. He’s like the child actor who grows up and gets his own prime-time TV show.

Tell me that’s not cool. Tell me that seeing background or supporting characters step into the foreground and, sometimes, even get their own books is not a masterful trick of storytelling. Writer Jonathan Hickman wasn’t telling the story of the Death of Johnny Storm, he was telling us of the Rise of Franklin and Valeria. And now when November hits, Future Foundation stories will have gotten their foundation, so to speak, and support themselves as their own title while the newly reformed FF can go have a different style of adventure.

More about character balance, the size of your supporting cast and M.O.D.O.K. fighting Nazis after the break …

Character balance is difficult to maintain, not just in writing or artistic display, but in editing and publishing a book. The guy whose name is on the cover better be in the book or readers have a right to be angry. But on the other hand, sometimes the name on the cover requires a lot of help to keep up his reputation. Take the Punisher: Without someone to punish, he’s an angry guy with a gun going nowhere. Peter Parker could take a day off and his everyday life and struggles are enough to keep me entertained for 28 pages or so. But with Frank Castle, no one wants to see him do laundry. We want uncompromising justice. Certainly this spreads out more on the Marvel characterization map and, as Ray Stevenson said at the Comic-Con before Punisher: War Zone, was released, “No one should want to be the Punisher, but you should be glad he’s there.” So some of my favorite Punisher stories have been from the perspective of the hunted, the cops who show up after the scene went down, the one wronged voice in the night looking for someone to punish those who have done them wrong. The Punisher flourishes in a supporting cast, as everything he can’t be is reflected in the lives of those he comes into contact with. We can see more sides to him if we get more perspectives and, through those perspectives, we come to relate to him more.

from Hulk #38

Have you ever read a book with a main character you hate? My guess would be yes and that it, at one time or another, was an X-book. Readers seem pretty divided on those, and the sheer abundance of characters makes for a variety of your favorite characters getting never enough screen time. So you pick up an issue from time to time, hoping that Character A is just on the cover and Character L is the guy who has all the panel time.

Personally, I just can’t bring myself to like the Red Hulk. Not only does saying ‘Rhulk’ make me feel like a bad episode of Scooby-Doo, but Jeph Loeb’s introduction of him and my fond memories of the real Thunderbolt Ross from pages past don’t jibe and makes the current story, while masterly crafted by Jeff Parker, still taste a little sour. On the other hand, I thought Hulk #38 was ingenious enough for me to purchase and take home. Surprise! It had very little Red Hulk actually in it, and the two villains of his current adventures, Zero/One and M.O.D.O.K., take center stage and all of this rests in the backdrop of Fear Itself. Pummeled off screen thanks to the events of Fear Itself (tell me you’re reading this), M.O.D.O.K. and Zero/One meet in the rubble of Washington, D.C., where Nazi mecha roam the streets. Seeing that they have a common enemy and would rather conquer the world themselves than let these old gods have their way, they band together to destroy everything for the new science regime. It’s a little wacky, to be sure, but honest: After all, villains never like anyone else stealing their show. M.O.D.O.K.’s glee at killing Syn’s mechatroopers, Zero/One’s stand-off, that weird Black Fog guy lurking in the edges, all get their time in the spotlight while the Red Hulk is off-screen. I may not want a M.O.D.O.K. ongoing (or so I tell myself), but seeing him get some great moments and further the plot is far better to me than watching the Red Hulk punch someone.

nope, not from an Iron Fist book, from Iron Man 2.0 #6

And then there’s the Fear Itself tie-ins in Iron Man 2.0, in which the Immortal Weapons head to China to try and stop the Absorbing Man and Titania from getting one of the hammers of the Worthy. Between everyone and the hammer is a mythological creature known as the Monkey King, a formidable opponent to them all. In fact, Iron Man 2.0 #7 ends trying to lure you into following this story in the new Monkey King #1, due out in September. I think poor Rhodey has been done a disservice in this one, as not only has his more traditional moniker of War Machine been kicked off the cover — Iron Man 2.0 does not make me think of James Rhodes, sorry folks — but he’s been bombarded with a sudden and certainly non-traditional supporting cast, facing a foe that has apparently already has won (Avengers Academy says that Creel got the hammer), and it looks to be promoting a book that has nothing to do with his modus operandi. So, to recap: An originally supporting character (Rhodes) who earned his own title joined another supporting cast (the Immortal Weapons) to fight villains whose victory was assured in other comics, all to introduce a guy who will be getting his own series in September.

Sometimes background characters can go too far and drown out their title’s star. It’s a shame, and speaks more to me of editorial than any specific writer’s faults; if a book isn’t doing well, a few guest stars might liven it up. Too many guest stars and you have no idea what you’re reading. Like I said, character balance is difficult for everybody in the creative department, so seeing Hickman, Steve Epting and Tom Brevoort find a smooth transition from major cast to minor cast, weigh them both equally and then find two different titles so that the most story can be told to all of us, well … it’s pretty fantastic.

Hello and welcome once again to What Are You Reading? This week our special guest is Von Allan, creator of the self-published graphic novel series Stargazer. The first volume is still available, while the second one is due in shops in October.

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

*****

Michael May

The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde

I finished The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde. After the thrilling first issue, I got bogged down in the middle two issues wondering about the point of the story. This is the problem with a lot of Jack the Ripper stories. Thanks to From Hell‘s searing the case into my brain, I’m familiar enough with it to know its beats and see then coming. That means that I have time to pull the story apart and look at the details: What’s different about this version? Does it have anything new to say? Ultimately, I decided that Mr. Hyde does. By combining the Ripper story with Jekyll-and-Hyde, it lets each comment on the other. Dr Jekyll’s theories about the separation of good and evil helps explain the Ripper’s actions, while the Ripper case in turn offers a real-life example of those theories at work.

Unfortunately, the mini-series wants to blur the lines between good and evil. An example of this is that there’s no visual distinction between Jekyll and Hyde, but the story reinforces the idea in other ways too. While I appreciate the ambition of that goal, I think it’s kind of misguided for this particular story, which would seems to be all about the separation of those two natures. That’s what Jekyll’s serum was supposed to do in Robert Louis Stevenson’s story and if there’s ever been an example of a purely evil human, Jack the Ripper is it.

By the final issue though, the story’s weaknesses don’t matter very much. It ends with a strong climax that made me forget the themes I’d been wrestling with. The story’s strength is in its two, lead characters: Hyde and Inspector Adye. Their relationship and conversations are fascinating and I wanted to see both of them survive to the end of the story. As I approached the conclusion, that’s all that mattered to me.

I also read the first two issues of BOOM!’s Elric: The Balance Lost. I think Elric fans will enjoy it. The problems I have with it are the same problems I have with Moorcock’s stories: not enough focus on Elric – whom I find fascinating – and too much on the other incarnations of the Eternal Champion. An advantage the comic has over the novels though is that it makes the non-Elric incarnations more interesting to me by doing the work of visualizing them and their worlds for me. I never spent a lot of time doing that in the novels because I was too busy wishing we could get back to just Elric.

I also appreciate The Balance Lost‘s including a new incarnation of the Eternal Champion from our world. Not only does that give new – or, in my case, extremely lapsed – Elric readers a character through whom to learn about Moorcock’s Multiverse, but it allows Moorcock’s ideas about Law and Chaos to play out in a real-world setting. While I think that Balance Lost is heavy-handed (many will disagree with me though) about how it assigns Law and Chaos to particular political groups in the US, it’s still interesting to see those groups’ agendas carried out to their ultimate conclusions. It also invests me in a very real way in the struggle to maintain balance between those two forces.

Brigid Alverson

Anya's Ghost

I finally got around to reading Anya’s Ghost, by Vera Brosgol, and I was blown away by it. Brosgol’s simple, rounded style belies the sophistication of her story. Anya is every teenager, uncomfortable and awkward, wishing she could be normal, like one of the cool kids. A chance encounter with a ghost seems to be the answer to her prayers, but then the ghost takes over and things get ugly. The ghost story is pretty good, but what Brosgol is really writing about is growing up, pushing away the things of your past and then embracing them again, realizing that the others you envy are as scared and troubled as you are, and most important of all, learning empathy for others. The art and writing are top notch, and I really hope this book will catch on with high-schoolers the way Smile did with the middle school crowd.

I was fortunate enough to get an advance copy of Matt Phelan’s Around the World, the story of three travelers who traveled around the globe at the turn of the 19th century: Thomas Stevens, who did it on a bike, Nellie Bly, who did it for the publicity, and Josiah Slocum, who did it solo in his sailboat. Phelan’s style is both simple and complex: Despite the exotic subject matter, he eschews complicated backgrounds filled with local color, but he will devote three panels to a single double-take, and he often follows a conversation with a reaction shot. The section on Stevens was my favorite, because I enjoyed his little sketches of Stevens falling off his penny-farthing bicycle in a number of acrobatic ways. My advance copy, alas, is in black and white; it looks like Phelan will use a fairly muted, pastel palette for the book, which suits his linework. It’s highly entertaining, and I can’t wait to see the finished version when it comes out in October.

Tim O’Shea

Incredible Hulks

The Incredible Hulks #634: Intrigued to see where writer Greg Pak is taking Bruce Banner/Hulk before he ends his long run with the character. One has to wonder if Amadeus Cho will appear anywhere after this (I’ve grown to like the character). Also add Pak and artist Paul Pelletier to the list of creators I would love to see write Doctor Strange (he guest stars in this arc).

The Iron Age #3: Note to Marvel editor Thomas Brennan: You just worked with Louise Simonson, an experienced writer with an ability to write solid characters. Go find a monthly book for her. I love seeing Louise Simonson writing in present day comics, but I want more than these “flashback” homage assignments (Simonson also wrote for DC’s current retro project).

Red Robin #16: An interesting coda to the series, which always had Tim Drake dancing with a darker path. I was surprised to see him leaning seemingly toward the darker path at the end of this issue. Not the satisfying end I had hoped for, but still an effort to give Drake’s character some closure on a major front.

Marvel Adventures #17: Paul Tobin remains the master of done in one storytelling that makes this comic a must read for me. I loved his approach toward Black Widow in this issue, particularly the bluntness with which she deals with Nick Fury.

Black Panther: The Man Without Fear #522: I never imagined that in the chaos of the Fear Itself event, writer David Liss could find a way to inject a smidge of humor in the book, but he does. Also, this series is at its strongest when artist Francesco Francavilla is on board (as he is with this arc). I cannot wait to see how Liss ends the Hate Monger arc with the next issue. Extra points for the usage of an engaging supporting cast.

Batgirl #24: Good lord, Bryan Q. Miller finally writes a DC Comics series coda completely worth reading. Not only is almost everything wrapped up, but he uses Black Mercy as a means to reveal the vast possible arc scenarios that might have occurred if the series had continued. And the read is even more enjoyable if you check out the DC Women Kicking Ass guest post that Miller wrote this week (and we previously linked to, of course). Of all the possible scenarios, I wish we had gotten to see a time travel team-up between Babs, Cass and Stephanie during WWII with the Blackhawks.

Von Allan

Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four #307-323 (written by Steve Englehart, Pencilled by John Buscema and Keith Pollard, inked by Joe Sinnott). Due to the 50th anniversary of the Fantastic Four, I decided to pull out some of my old comics and dip my toes into some FF stories. I had been recently re-reading the first Fantastic Four omnibus that my wife had given me for a Christmas gift a few years back, but the anniversary along with Marvel’s teasing of the return of the Human Torch made me wistful for Englehart’s run. Why? Well, Englehart had crafted a series set in “real time” as opposed to “Marvel time.” In other words, readers were seeing real evolution in the Fantastic Four for the first time in a long while. Things weren’t static, and this is actually the reason why I picked these comics up off the shelf at the time. I was curious to see what these changes would mean and Englehart didn’t disappoint. Issue #307 sees Reed and Sue walk off into the sunset to raise Franklin while ol’ Blue Eyes takes over running the team. Issue #308 solidifies the new FF as Ms. Marvel and Crystal hook up with Ben and Johnny (though that issue also sees the unfortunate Fasaud storyline and that was an early bump along the way). Later issues are stronger as the team begins to jell and has a number of cosmic adventures in true Fantastic Four fashion.

Are these perfect comics? No, I don’t think so. Englehart overly uses caption boxes and it gives the narration a “heavy” feeling that I don’t think has dated well. The same could be said for his use of thought bubbles. While I actually miss the use of thought bubbles in contemporary comics, in this case their use overly-dramatizes certain sequences and gives the stories more of a “soap operish” feel that didn’t work well for me. That said, the freshness of the team and the sense of evolution is unmistakable and that DID speak to me. The departure of Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman is poignant (though admittedly not nearly as much as Alan Moore and Curt Swan’s “Whatever Happened To the Man of Tomorrow?”) and that freshness also gives the creative team a chance to explore both old friends and foes and show them in a new light. I’m certainly not saying that real time stories are the end all and be all of good comics, but stories like these show how well it can work when it’s done well. And make me wish that Marvel had never stopped evolving.

The Mighty Thor Omnibus (written and illustrated by Walt Simonson). I actually have many of these issues as periodicals, but I couldn’t resist picking up a copy of this to be able to read, especially after I learned that Simonson had kept all of his art boards and this edition was put together from new scans before being re-coloured by Steve Oliff and his Olyoptics Color Shop. These are, to my mind, truly fantastic comics. Walt Simonson’s respect and love for the character (spelled out in some of the early letter pages that are sadly lacking from the Omnibus edition) is apparent from the get-go as are his feelings for the Norse myths. His Thor is a wonderful fusion of the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby 60s Thor and the best that the Norse myths have to offer. It’s funny; Marvel’s Thor is one of those characters that’s tricky to do well. When he’s not up to snuff the stories are these weird hybrids of Shakespearean dialogue mixed with heavy melodrama. Simonson’s run is the exact opposite and his entire run (even the frog!) works very, very well. What’s also interesting to me, in this era of decompressed storytelling we find ourselves in, is how each issue stands on its own and yet is still part of a bigger overall story. There’s no feeling of padding it out.

Since I’m also a big fan of Simonson’s art, his work on Thor is amazing. Thor “feels” cosmic and there’s a very strong contrast between the scenes set in Asgard versus the Earth-bound scenes set primarily in New York City. His penciling and composition is great, but his inking is just unbelievable. Strong and bold but always with a clear purpose in mind. Great stuff.

Another aspect that makes Simonson’s Thor a cut above almost anything else is the lettering by John Workman. His lettering is stunning throughout Simonson’s run and it does exactly what good lettering is supposed to; engage the reader without confusing them. The balloon placements make sense and Workman leads your eye throughout both panel and page without confusing you or forcing you to read balloons out of order. It’s intuitive. His use of sound effects (something I’m normally not crazy about) works well here, too. His approach shows, to my mind, how much lettering is a part of good storytelling.

The one criticism I have is the colouring. My sensibilities are old-school and I suspect others will disagree with me here but what the heck; as much as I like a lot of what Olyoptics does, I just find there’s something missing in the Omnibus colours compared to the original issues. The colours are a bit garish and over-rendered to my mind compared to the more muted colours that were displayed in the original issues. I suspect Oliff was trying to balance the original colouring with current sensibilities, but it doesn’t work perfectly for me. Does that mean it’s bad? No, no. Far from it. For my tastes just not as good. Oh, and I should add that the omnibus has brilliant blacks, especially when compared to the original issues, mainly due to the better quality of the actual paper and printing process.

Speaking of colouring, I was also recently re-reading Shaolin Cowboy (issues #1-7, written and illustrated by Geof Darrow). The colourist here is Peter Doherty and his colouring is absolutely fantastic. Really stunning stuff. Burlyman chose a terrific paper to print Shaolin Cowboy on and Doherty’s colours really come to life on its texture. There’s a beautifully muted sense to them that didn’t over-power me and yet they still remain rich and vibrant. Often times paper used for comics and graphic novels is very slick and the colours are almost overpowering as a result. At least to me. In the case of Doherty and the Cowboy, the colours and interior paper work together extremely well. Better, I think, then the colours on the slicker cover stock for each issue. I should add that Darrow’s “ligne claire” style really works well with Doherty’s colour sense and palette.

Darrow’s storytelling on Shaolin Cowboy was also very, very good. What’s interesting to me is that the comics that draw me back and make me re-read them are the ones that have the strongest storytelling. Dave Gibbons is a natural. So is almost any Jim Shooter comic; he seems to bring that out of his illustrator collaborators. And, of course, Jack Kirby was probably the greatest. Darrow’s Shaolin Cowboy is, I think, top-notch for this. Very strong storytelling, especially considering how peculiar the actual story is. The plots get weirder as the story progresses (oh, hell, they’re weird from the get go and just get weirder), but despite that his storytelling is clear throughout. Lastly, Darrow’s inking is great. He mixes thin and thick contours and your eye knows exactly what the focus is on each and ever panel. No confusion, no fuss and no muss. You know what to look at and why. Brilliant.

Star Brand

Continuing on the storytelling front, I finally got my hands on Jim Shooter and John Romita Jr.’s Star Brand run that also came to an abrupt end when, as I mentioned earlier, Shooter was fired from Marvel. At the time, the New Universe did not grab me as a reader. I was perfectly happy with the current universe, thank you very much, so the idea of a “new” one was not appealing. Well, in hindsight, at least with Star Brand, I was wrong and reading this series was a very pleasant surprise. Romita Jr.’s storytelling is top-notch; he establishes everything clearly and I was never confused in any of the issues. ‘Course, that’s not really a surprise since Romita Jr. is one of the best storytellers in comics. Shooter’s writing here was also very good, and Shooter and Romita Jr. really work well together. Everything is smooth and clear and, when I mentally compare this to some contemporary super hero comics, I’m surprised at how much I prefer a comic like this.

I did find the story a bit rushed in the first issue. A lot of things happen very fast; Shooter’s establishing as much as he possibly can right away and I think some of that could may have waited ’til issue #2. I suspect trying to get a new line launched probably meant that he wasn’t taking any chances, but the story worked better on a re-read then the first time through. Still, for a comic from this era (circa 1986), it’s pretty good stuff and holds up very well today. Certainly more adult in tone and characterization and it’s a shame that things all went to hell at Marvel shortly after the series launched. Being a fan of his later Valiant books, I think the echoes between Star Brand and Valiant are also pretty strong.

“I really want to draw an arc of Fantastic Four some day,” tweeted  artist Chris Samnee. That’s all. As you were. ”

What followed was an outpouring of support from comics fans on twitter, as well as more than a few comics pros. Fantastic Four/FF Colorist Paul Mounts tweeted “You on FF at some point?YEEESSSSSS!!” and was joined by several Marvel creators and even a few Marvel staffers. After the outpouring, Samnee half-jokingly tweeted again saying “Wow. Apparently a lot of you wanna see me on FF too. Anybody have an in at Marvel? ;P”

With news this week that Marvel was bringing back the Fantastic Four title while also keeping the abbreviated FF series going forward, Samnee might get his chance and more than one comics fan might get their wishes come true. To the right is a sketch Samnee did awhile back of the team in tribute to Mike Wieringo.

On his blog this week, Brandon Graham shared this recent commission in which he redrew (and updated the dialogue to) a page from Fantastic Four #9. The uncropped version and the original Lee/Kirby page are in that link, but if you want to skip the NSFW parts of his blog, he’s also got handy direct links to both pages.

Reed and Sue Richards and Ben Grimm, by Phil Noto

In honor of the 50th anniversary of the Fantastic Four, Phil Noto offers an amazing “snapshot” of Sue and Reed Richards and Ben Grimm taken early in their career. In case you can’t read the caption, it says, “Sue and Reed Richards (also pictured, Benn Grimm) at dinner hosted by Robert F. Kennedy, 1965.”

Fantastic Four #1

As Marvel’s Senior Vice President of Publishing Tom Brevoort notes, 50 years ago today, The Fantastic Four #1 debuted, beginning a 102-issue run by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby — an unfinished issue was completed in 2008 — and giving birth to the Silver Age of Marvel Comics.

Given Marvel’s recent legal victory in the bitter copyright battle with Kirby’s heirs, the anniversary is undoubtedly a bittersweet milestone, but an incredibly important one all the same. Happy 50th to “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” and the Marvel Universe as we know it. And thank you, Lee and Kirby, for the Fantastic Four and much, much more.

Fantastic Four: Season One

To help celebrate its 50th anniversary next year, Marvel will publish a line of graphic novels featuring current creators retelling classic superhero tales. Called Season One, the initiative marks the company’s first entry in recent history into original graphic novels.

“We’re hoping to introduce folks who have never read any of these characters to these characters in this format, and also provide an interesting and illuminating story for people who have read a lot of Fantastic Four and Daredevil,” Tom Brevoort, Marvel’s senior vice president of publishing, tells USA Today. “If you want to dip your toe in the water and find out the essence of what Marvel is all about, here is a nice place for you to start in big, sizable, meaty chunks.”

The first wave will feature: Fantastic Four: Season One, by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and David Marquez, due in February; X-Men: Season One, by Dennis Hopeless and Jamie McKelvie, in March; Daredevil: Season One, by Antony Johnston and Wellinton Alves, in April; and Spider-Man: Season One, by Cullen Bunn and Neil Edwards, in May. A second wave will debut soon afterward.

Season One isn’t a relaunch or an Ultimate Universe-like initiative — “”Everything you know about them, everything that’s existed for the last 50 years still exists and is still there,” Brevoort says — but neither is it a mere retelling of the characters’ origins. “These are individually new stories,” he says, “even though they’ve got bits and pieces of old and formative origin stuff in and around them, as well.”

Visit USA Today to see a preview of Fantastic Four: Season One.

Dale Eaglesham's Variant Cover: Alpha Flight 2

Today marks the release of the second issue of Marvel’s new Alpha Flight eight-issue miniseries. Given how committed and enthused the creative team of writers Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente (on evidence in the two writers’ May 2011 CBR interview) along with artist Dale Eaglesham are about the project, I hope it becomes a regular series, quite honestly. To mark the release of the latest issue, Eaglesham agreed to an email interview. I never tire of conducting discussions of this type, where I can find out the approach an artist takes in certain scenes or with particular characters. If you’re as much a fan of this latest incarnation of Alpha Flight as I clearly am, do Eaglesham the favor of following his marching orders (detailed in the last part of this interview) so that the book can hopefully become an ongoing. In addition to discussing Alpha Flight, I was pleased to learn more about the local charity that Eaglesham supports: Refuge RR, a local animal refuge.

Tim O’Shea: Your art clearly meshes well when in collaboration with writers like Van Lente and Pak, it seems like they give you opportunity to stretch the boundaries of what you can do as an artist. For example, in the shocking reveal of issue 1, I was struck by the flock of birds flying behind Heather. Was that something specifically requested in the script or was that totally your idea?

Dale Eaglesham: That was actually my idea. It was just a casual symbol I put in there, referring to lost freedom, for Mac, but also for the whole country. It foreshadows what’s coming for Alpha Flight and Canada, and creates a sense of foreboding. You know when all the birds fly away, there’s danger nearby… I love when I get a big shot like that, it allows me to add layers to the art.

I add lots of little details, but other than that, I stick pretty closely to the script. What you see on the page is usually exactly what Fred and Greg called for. These guys make a really great team and have lots of good ideas. For the big tsunami double-page spread, for example, I was having trouble deciding what angle to take. The shot I eventually used ended up being more dramatic as a result of back-and-forth discussions with them.

O’Shea: How do you see your art benefitting most from being inked by Andrew Hennessy and colored by Sonia Oback?

Eaglesham: Drew is one of the best inkers for my art, he’s doing an amazing job. We’d worked together before, at CrossGen mostly, and I’d always wanted to work with him again. He’s incredibly skilled and so easy to work with. The only problem is that I haven’t been able to get out of the habit of doing full pencils, as I’d been doing those ever since I got to Marvel. I’m still waaay over-finishing and I’m sure it must drive him nuts.

Sonia has also been great to work with. She uses a lighter palette that I really like, with a lot of subtlety. She works really hard and produces intricately nuanced coloring, and she’s very good at form sculpting. We have a great team going here!

O’Shea: I loved that issue 1 featured some of the character sketch redesigns that you worked up for Alpha Flight. Clearly the biggest impact you had in redesigning was with Marrina, how long did you pursue the multiple looks before settling on the final approach for her? Also in the sketchbook, you acknowledge that Sasquatch is “trickier to draw than he seems”. Care to elaborate on what some of the challenges are in drawing him?

Eaglesham: The tricky part is to somehow draw him in a way that doesn’t make him look goofy. Also, he has all these different hair lengths and styles. You want to get them all “just right” while somehow making him cool, not silly-looking.

As for Marrina, there was a LOT of negotiating for her. We must have exchanged forty e-mails over the course of several days. Here are some of the exchanges:
“That first is soooo over the top! Love it. Maybe go with that sans the seaweed mink and exposed knees?”

“I like the flared pants. They actually seem practical to me, too — I’m thinking those flaps/flares are stiff enough to give her extra power when swimming.”

“I LOVE the mermaid bell bottoms!!! Do we want to put in segmented lines in the fins (you know the kind that you see on swordfish back fins)?”

“I do like the bell bottoms too — but I also like the ripped pants. Punk is early 80s, after all…”

It was a lot of fun, and as a result Marrina’s one of my favorite characters. She and Puck seem to draw themselves, they’re just not work.

O’Shea: Speaking of Puck, Marvel has already released a preview of issue 2 that reveals the return of Puck. With a character like him in the mix, which characters allow you the opportunity to introduce more whimsy into the mix–Puck, or the snarky faux flirtation between Walter and Aurora?

Eaglesham: I’d say Puck provides more levity for sure. But what I love about this book is how varied the characters are. For example, you have the iconic in Guardian and Vindicator, the majestic in Snowbird, the edgy in Marrina, the playful in Puck and Sasquatch, and the sexy in Northstar and Aurora. You just can’t beat that. I love this team.

O’Shea: Of everyone on the creative team, you seem to have striven the most to reach out to Alpha Flight fans, setting up a message board home for the creators to communicate with the readership. How much has that been of help while working on the issues, hearing what potential readers’ hopes and expectations are?

Eaglesham: I guess what’s helpful there is seeing just how loved these characters are. The book has a devoted following, and that’s really great to see. I’m also learning a lot through the questions that are being posted there. These people sure know their AF lore! Fred’s hard to beat on that score, though. As he teasingly wrote to a member on there, “My friend, if you are going to try to out-nerd me, don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.” But I have to add that the message board wasn’t set up to help us – it was set up as a treat for the fans, a place where both creators and fans could all share their excitement about this book.

O’Shea: In a recent post over at the message board, you acknowledge you play a certain kind of music when you draw fight scenes (other types of music for other scenes). How did you first discover a certain kind of music helped you when drawing certain scenes?

Eaglesham: A long, long time ago. In the early days, I think I did it subconsciously. Then I remember reading an interview with Devin Grayson where she mentioned she made different tapes or CDs for different characters. That’s when I started being more deliberate about my music selections. I have lots of different iTunes folders for various moods. Mind you, I don’t always “match the music to the scene” – sometimes I just listen to whatever I feel like listening to!

O’Shea: On a recent Marvel podcast, it was mentioned that your wife, Louise, has been of immense help on Alpha Flight (translating dialogue into French, for example). Does this mark the first time she’s helped you on a particular project, or is she constantly lending a hand when you need it?

Eaglesham: Lou’s been interested in my work and helping in any way she could since we first started going out together, in 1989! Now 22 years later, I don’t know what I’d do without her. She does the scanning, the mailing, and all the admin work… she keeps me on schedule, she manages the website and the forum and the Facebook page… she helps Fred and Greg with the French translation (she’s a translator by trade) and with some of the research when they have trouble finding something online. All on top of her own work. Fans have actually known her since she started posting on message boards as Wolfie, about 10 years ago.

O’Shea: OK, I restricted most of my questions to your current work, but I have to ask one question about your great run on the Fantastic Four, how hard was it to draw all those different Reed Richards?

Eaglesham: It was HARD! Making them all different and interesting, while having them all be recognizably Reed… Yeah, that was a challenge! I’ve had a lot of positive comments on the Multiple Reeds, so it was nice to know the work was recognized and appreciated.

O’Shea: One goofy question, based on this tweet, do you have TV on in the background when you are drawing, or cannot you afford such distractions as you work?

Eaglesham: A TV while I work? I can’t imagine. I’d never get anything done. Actually, you may be shocked to know that we don’t have TV reception at home, and we choose not to get cable. Sometimes I feel like I’m falling out of the loop, pop-culture-wise, but TV’s become so mindless, that most days I think it’s the right move. We get recommendations for great series, like The Big Bang Theory, and we buy those on DVD to watch at our leisure.

O’Shea: In the intro to your sketches in issue 1, it was mentioned that you’re trying to help raise funds for your local animal shelter, if you’d like here’s a chance to tell Robot 6 readers about your efforts.

Eaglesham: Every year, in May, we hold our Comics for Charity event in our hometown. Fans come from Montreal, Ottawa and even as far as Québec City, to support us. I do sketches, we “sell” our old comics for donations, this year we sold a print of a Guardian sketch that I’d drawn, plus we auctioned off the original. We absorb all the costs of holding the event, and we remit every single penny to Refuge RR, a local animal refuge. Hopefully I’ll get the numbers right, but I believe they have about 400 animals on their huge farm. About 75 of those animals are horses that were abused or abandoned, or headed to the slaughterhouse because their owners couldn’t race them anymore or couldn’t afford to keep them. It costs the Refuge about $1200 a year per horse, so we try to raise enough each year to at least pay for the care of a couple of horses. We raised $3380 this year. We also want to plan a “build day” later this summer to help them fix their fencing and build a shelter for the smaller animals.  Help them out if you can, they desperately need it.

O’Shea: Anything you’d like to ask or say to the Robot 6 readers (or any ground we did not cover that you’d like to discuss)?

Eaglesham: I’d like to thank them for supporting Alpha Flight, and encourage them to pre-order their copies. If enough people reserve their copies in advance, this book could become a monthly!