Comic Book Resources

Blackest Night vs. Siege: Place your bets!

Blackest Night #7

Siege #2

They say nice guys finish last, but when event comics will finish is anybody's guess. The demands of a high-profile series around which entire shared universes revolve can play havoc with scheduling. Naturally, editors and publishers love to maintain the artistic quality and consistency (and sales levels) provided by the big-name writer-artist teams that tend to lend such books a sense of "this is a big deal." On the other hand, they need to get books out on time so that other series whose storylines depend upon what happens in the event can proceed as planned -- and so that they don't end up alienating retailers and readers. But these same readers and retailers can end up just as irritated if they get the sense that the creators are being rushed, or if fill-in artists aren't up to snuff. It's a tough row to hoe.

With his front-row seat for a variety of events this decade, including Avengers Disassembled, House of M, Civil War, and Secret Invasion, Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort knows this better than anyone. So it was with an obvious mix of boldness and trepidation that he made the following prediction on his Twitter account:

It's height of hubris time: I'm willing to bet that SIEGE will wrap up before BLACKEST NIGHT does.

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Flash's Rogues are no match for Johns and Manapul

"Reverse Flash" by Francis Manapul

In one of those good news/bad news types of announcements, DC Comics announced today that Geoff Johns and Francis Manapul's run on Adventure Comics would end with January's issue #6 -- which is too bad, as I've really enjoyed the book so far -- as they prepare to work together on The Flash.

According to Alex Segura over at The Source, their first "high-octane and mysterious" storyline is titled "The Dastardly Death of the Rogues." He added to stay tuned for word on the new creative team for Adventure Comics.

(Picture above is from Manapul's deviantART page. Here's a look at a Flash sketch by Manapul that he shared on Twitter last month).

Update, Sept. 9: And the new Adventure Comics writer is Paul Levitz. Details here.

Arby's unleashes JLA paper toys on humanity

JLA bobbleheads

And the papercraft kits just keep on comin'. This time it's a set of JLA-themed bobblehead dolls, created by Matt Hawkings of Custom Paper Toys. Better yet, these will be available in Arby's restaurants this week for a limited time with the purchase of a kid's meal. The dolls include Superman, Green Lantern, Flash, Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl and Bizarro (not pictured). You can see more detailed pictures of the figures on Matt's Flickr page.

(found via the Ephemerist)

Stunning sagas, alternate realities

Grumpy Old Fan

Marvel tends to revisit its past with a specificity that DC doesn't duplicate. In projects like World's Greatest Comic Magazine!, What If?, the current X-Men Forever, and (apparently) the upcoming Clone Saga miniseries, Marvel not only spins new stories out of particular points in continuity, it attempts to give particular creative teams the second chances at closure which the fates denied them. Of course, DC does quite a bit of looking back itself, but most of the time it's not facilitating such second chances. Still, there are certain points in DC's publishing history which seem to ask for their own "what if" moments; so I'm going to talk about a few of those today.

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Send us your shelf porn!

Welcome to this week's edition of Send Us Your Shelf Porn. Today we're joined by Douglas Nasluchacz of Riverside, California, who has amassed an impressive collection of comic-related memorabilia over the past 30 years. Rather than waste time on an intro, let's jump right in ...

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Flash:Rebirth to run six issues

Flash: Rebirth #3 variant

DC Comics announced yesterday on The Source blog that Flash: Rebirth by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver will run six issues now, versus five. They also shared some info on the fifth issue:

In issue #5, which will be solicited in the June Previews, the greatest threat to face the Flash Family in decades stands revealed. Plus, a new hero will take on an older speedster’s role. And Barry Allen faces having to once again sacrifice his life to save all that he holds dear.

They don't mention a reason why the mini-series was extended, but maybe someone will ask about it in the next Geoff Johns Prime on CBR ...

I feel the need...

Grumpy Old Fan

Today’s topic is The Flash: Rebirth #1, discussed at length already but hey, I'm on a schedule.

Because I’ve talked about the second coming of Barry Allen a fair amount, and because I haven’t exactly been a fan of the idea, you might be able to guess how I feel about the new miniseries. In fact, it’s been harder than I expected to pull together my thoughts.

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Towards A Modern Superhero Canon: "Flash Of Two Worlds!"

Grumpy Old Fan

[In case you were wondering, my coverage of the new DC solicits will appear here next week.]

If this superhero-canon stuff focused on influence, and not craft, I imagine there would be little argument that “Flash Of Two Worlds” (from The Flash vol. 1 #123, September 1961) would definitely compete for the top spot. It kicked off the era of the DC Multiverse (1961-1985); and it remained an important milestone in the shared universe which followed. Still, although we’re not talking about influence here, I think “FOTW” has earned a spot among the best superhero stories for its approach to DC’s first “intergenerational” team-up.

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