paul dini
DC relaunch scorecard: DCnU or DC No?
Green Lantern #1, by Dave Johnson
Although it seems like DC’s big relaunch announcement came out an eternity ago, it actually took the publisher less than two weeks to roll out the 52 titles and their creative teams for the big relaunch/reboot/overhaul coming in September. Now that the cats are out of their respective bags, I thought I’d see where various creators and characters will land after the reboot.
So I went back through DC’s August solicitations to see who was writing or drawing what, and tried to map everyone to their post-relaunch project — if they had one. However, looking at DC’s August solicitations, there seem to be several fill-in issues, so where appropriate I tried to map the most recent ongoing creative teams to their new projects (for instance, I consider Gail Simone and Jesus Saiz the regular creative team for Birds of Prey, even if they aren’t doing the last two issues before September hits). Keep in mind that I just went through the ongoing series and skipped over all the miniseries … of which there are a lot, what with Flashpoint winding up in August.
It’s also worth noting that although several creators didn’t appear in the “big 52″ announcements, that doesn’t mean their tenure with DC is necessarily over — some, like Frazer Irving, have said they have future projects that haven’t been announced. So I tried to note where creators have talked publicly about their post-relaunch plans with DC (or lack thereof, as the case may be). The same could probably be said for some of DC’s characters as well. Or, as Gail Simone said on Twitter: “Again, September is NOT THE END. There’s still plans for characters that we haven’t seen yet.”
So let’s get to it ….
- June 12, 2011 @ 04:14 AM by JK Parkin
Paul Dini, Joe Quinones working on Zatanna/Black Canary team-up
Paul Dini has a long history with DC’s resident magic woman Zatanna, and it looks like a long-gestating project will see him team the character with Black Canary. The girl-centric comics blog DC Women Kicking Ass picked up this scoop while walking the floor of the Boston Comic Con from none other than the artist himself, Joe Quinones.
Titled Bloodspell, the book is set to debut in 2012. The blogger recounted the plot as told to them by Quinones, saying “The book begins with a back story where an 11 year old Zatanna meets a 16 year old Dinah Lance. And the two don’t get off to a good start on this trip to Mt. Everest.” Here’s two pages from the project that Quinones had on display at the con.
- May 12, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Arrant
What Are You Reading?
Stumptown
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? This week’s guest is Alex Segura, executive director of publicity and marketing at Archie Comics. But we’ll always know him as the guy who founded The Great Curve, the blog that would one day morph into Robot 6.
To see what Alex and the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, click below …
- April 3, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Top Cow holiday specials join forces to form one super-mega special
Top Cow Holiday Special
Last week Jingle Belle creator Paul Dini said on Twitter that the previously solicited Jingle Belle special for this year was canceled, but the content would be combined with the Top Cow Holiday Special.
“Low preorders necessitated the Jing titles to be combined into the Top Cow special,” he later told an inquiring fan. “Ironically preorders shot up after that.”
According to Top Cow, the two former single issues, along with a lot of other material, will now be one graphic novel.
“Jingle Belle and the Top Cow Holiday Special (both single issues) were combined this year and will appear as the Top Cow Holiday Special OGN,” said Top Cow’s Christine Dinh. “It’ll be a flip book of both new issues.”
The graphic novel will arrive in stores Dec. 22, just in time for Christmas. Dinh said the 96-page OGN will retail at $12.99 and will include the content from The Top Cow Holiday Special #1, Jingle Belle: Grounded #1, the previously released Jingle Belle: Santa Claus vs Frankenstein, a 4-page preview of Marc Silvestri’s new project September Mourning and additional bonus material. You can check out a preview of some of the Jingle Belle artwork here.
- December 7, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
What Are You Reading?
New Avengers #1
Welcome once again to What Are You Reading?, where you’ll hopefully find something to add to your summer reading list. Our guest this week is Chris Arrant, who you may know from his comic book journalism work for Newsarama, Comic Book Resources and various print magazines for Marvel Comics, or from his comic book writing, which includes Female Force: Princess Diana, Tori Amos’ Comic Book Tattoo and 24Seven Vol. 2.
To see what Chris and the rest of the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click the link below …
- June 27, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Paul Dini’s Jingle Belle returns as webcomic
Jingle Belle
Quick Stop Entertainment is hosting a webcomic starring Paul Dini’s Jingle Belle; the first one went up last week, and a Christmas Eve story will be posted Thursday. Dini also says Belle will return in 2010 with “more winter fun.”
- December 21, 2009 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Shades of Gray(son): Rounding up June’s Bat-books
Grumpy Old Fan
So there I was in the spring of 1988, a college freshman buying snacks at the local convenience store, when I saw Amazing Spider-Man #300 sitting on the magazine shelf. I knew artist Todd McFarlane had helped make the book pretty popular, and I had fond memories of writer David Michelinie from his earlier work on Iron Man and Avengers. Accordingly, I stuck with ASM through the end of McFarlane’s run (in #325), and never gave much thought to Spidey’s two other regular titles. Spectacular Spider-Man and Web Of Spider-Man might have been great reads, but for whatever reason, I just wanted the “headliners,” Michelinie and McFarlane.
I suspect the same is true these days with the Batman line. Yesterday’s releases of Detective Comics #854 and Gotham City Sirens #1 close out the first month of the Big Batman Relaunch. The Grant Morrison-written Batman And Robin (drawn initially by Frank Quitely) has drawn the most attention, with much of the rest going to Detective‘s Batwoman lead (written by Greg Rucka, drawn by JH Williams III). Each of these high-profile creative teams has been charged with producing new-reader-friendly stories, and thereby building an enduring foundation of loyal consumers.
- June 25, 2009 @ 02:13 PM by Tom Bondurant