lois lane
Dean Trippe’s pitch for a kid-oriented Lois Lane series
Every now and then word comes out of a great idea for a comic that, for one reason or another, never made it’s way to print. This week, you’re in for a doozy.
Cartoonist Dean Trippe (Butterfly) was working with DC editor Chris Cerasi for a number of months on a new series reportedly to be part of DC’s kids line. Going under the title Lois Lane, Girl Reporter, Trippe’s proposal outlined a series of young-adult novels co-written with John Campbell and illustrated by Daniel Krall. The premise, as taken directly from the proposal to DC, was:
Lois Lane, Girl Reporter follows the adventures of young Lois Lane. At eleven years old, Lois has discovered her calling: investigative journalism. She sets out to right wrongs and help out her friends. This series explores Lois’s character, reveals her surprising early influence on the future Man of Steel, and introduces fun new elements into this enduring character’s back story.
In each book, Lois will tackle a problem or mystery affecting the members of the community she finds herself in as she travels around the country. The investigations in this series will not be mystical or supernatural (though some characters may suspect such sources), but real world problems that Lois works to set right.
After months years of delay, Trippe reports that “it doesn’t look like the current leadership of DC is remotely interested in this kinda thing” and has posted it online for posterity. Trippe is currently working on a new OGN with J. Torres called Power Lunch for Oni Press, and still hopes to get a chance on one of DC or Marvel’s superheroes in the near future.
Comics A.M. | Hero author Perry Moore found dead; more on Borders
Perry Moore
Passings | Perry Moore, executive producer of The Chronicles of Narnia movie franchise and author of Hero, was found dead Thursday in his New York City apartment after an apparent overdose. He was 39. A longtime comics fan, Moore wrote the acclaimed 2007 young-adult novel Hero, about the world’s first gay teen superhero. At one point he and Stan Lee were developing the book as a series for Showtime, but the cable network ultimately passed.
Moore was outspoken about the portrayal of gay characters in mainstream superhero comics, releasing in 2007 a “Women in Refrigerators”-inspired list of ignored, mistreated or retconned LGBT heroes. He also appeared at Comic-Con International in 2008 and 2009 on the gays in comics panels. [New York Daily News]
Comics A.M. | Joanne Siegel’s passing, Archie’s ‘quiet revolution’
An early drawing of Lois Lane by Joe Shuster, who used Joanne Siegel as a model
Passings | As Comic Book Resources reported, Joanne Siegel, wife of Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel and the model for Lois Lane, passed away Monday in California. She was 93. Although news of her death first circulated online via Brad Meltzer’s Twitter account, the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s Michael Sangiacomo had the first official report, only hours after he wrote about the installation of signs bearing the honorary street names “Joe Shuster Lane” and “Lois Lane” in the Cleveland neighborhood where Siegel and Shuster created the Man of Steel. CBR’s Kiel Phegley spoke with Meltzer, who met Joanne Siegel while researching his novel The Book of Lies. Heidi MacDonald, meanwhile, has reaction from Bradley Ricca, who’s working on a documentary about the Siegel family. The Hollywood Reporter and The Superman Super Site also have obituaries. More will certainly appear throughout the day. [Comic Book Resources]
Publishing | Acclaimed cartoonist Alison Bechdel (Fun Home, Dykes to Watch Out For) has been named the guest editor of the 2011 edition of The Best American Comics, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. [Shelf Life]
Publishing | Robot 6 contributor Brigid Alverson spotlights the “quiet revolution” at Archie Comics that finds the publisher expanding into graphic novels and digital delivery, further diversifying its characters and tackling more topical issues. [Publishers Weekly]
Black like Lois: Dean Haspiel’s favorite cover
Lois as you have never seen her before
Dean Haspiel posts his favorite DC Comics cover of all time, a crack-tastic Lois Lane comic from 1970 (with echoes not only of Black Like Me but also I Am Curious (Yellow)). Bonus: If the cover has you curious, you can read a detailed summary of the entire story arc, starting here, at Comic Books Revisited.
Turning a corner on the eternal triangle
Grumpy Old Fan
It’s Looooove Week! here at Robot 6, so initially I felt a little obligated to offer a rundown of various DC power-couples (no pun intended) through the years. You know, something about the eternal pairing of Hawkman and Hawkgirl; maybe the notion that the Earth-2 Black Canary was comics’ first “cougar” (oh, how I hate that term); or, you know, anything about Terry Long. Because in our own ways, don’t we all love Terry Long? (As I understand it, we kid because we love.)
However, today I’m not going to do that. I got up to 12 couples without any Legionnaires or Infinitors, and it was just a big mess. Today, then, let’s focus simply on the king and queen of DC’s superhero prom, the couple so nice they got married twice (on Earth-2, at least), Clark Kent and Lois Lane. Their relationship works today thanks to a change in Superman’s perspective instituted in the 1986 revamp – - a change which, unlike so many other aspects of that revamp, might never be overturned.