IT'S CLOBBERIN' TIME!

The Last Ride

2012-02-13T08:56:00.000-08:00

Mark Evanier has it right, in my humble opinion. And I recommend that you follow the donation link as well. I did.

Still Shocked About Static?

2012-02-10T08:50:00.000-08:00

Remember when John Rozum spoke out about the difficulties encountered by the NU52 Static Shock creative team? Good times, good times.

Well, the other side of that kerfluffle has decided to throw in his two cents as well. Scott McDaniel wrote a freaking' 15,000 word rebuttal to Rozum's relatively sedate post.

Feel free to take all weekend to read that.

Very Embarrassing

2012-02-08T06:36:00.000-08:00

Glommed from Giant-Size Marvel, whose archives I recommend you plunder through, because there's some great stuff there.

Atomic Robo Monday!

2012-02-06T05:54:00.000-08:00

Team Comics

2012-02-03T02:25:00.000-08:00

Be warned, ye readers...there be rants ahead.

So, yeah, new Watchmen comics. Whoo. Joy and celebration. We're going to party like it's 1986 all over again.

Or not. See, I'm one of those rare dogs that doesn't particularly like original recipe, so why would I drop coin on extra-spicy with a side order of potato wedges? Don't get me wrong, Watchmen is an important work, for a variety of reasons, but for me, once was enough. I still haven't seen the movie. By all accounts it's just the comic done in three dimensions, rather than two, with a more sensible ending. Awesome. Rock on. Not my deal.

Still, everyone else and their brother is commenting on this little imbroglio, so why not me, right? And by commenting, I mean linking.

First up, let's see what those involved have to say! Wasn't that enlightening? No? How about Straczynski's rebuttal to the rebuttal of his pre-emptive passive-aggressive rebuttal? No? Shenanigans, I say! Hey, I wonder what Image Comics has to say...oh.

Feh. Let's hear from the peanut gallery. David Brothers is his usual articulate self. Also, I happen to agree with him on this and other issues. But that leaves a bit of a bad taste in your mouth, right, all that doom and gloom? What about this? Or how about this? And what round-up would be complete without seeing what the Mindless Ones had to say?

Mostly I point to these folks because they say it better and with more force and humour than I can muster for something like this. The thing is, I want to be mad. I want to feel that passion. But I don't. Team Comics might as well be [INSERT SPORTS TEAM OF CHOICE] for me. You know what comics I buy? Daredevil, Atomic Robo,Hellboy, BPRD and Knights of the Dinner Table. That's what I buy regular-like. And when Daredevil reaches its inevitable conclusion, when Bendis gets his hands back on it because 'damn he ain't writing Avengers no more but we still got to keep him around', that one's done and gone too. It'll be me and the damn Untouchable Trio + 1, a sassy robot and Lobster Johnson. They ain't on the team. They ain't even on the bench.

This thing here? It's stupid for all the reasons listed above in them links plus a zillion. It's dumb because nobody asked for it, nobody will care in a year and nobody will buy the trades, he said portentously. It's dumb because it's the worst damn way in the world to go about sparking interest for Watchmen 2: Watch Harder, another thing that nobody wants because sucker, the first one tanked if you didn't notice.

It's dumb, because no matter how much the lone voices in the wilderness of the world-wide web cry hold and think and know, the punters will buy it and bag it and send it away to be certified, because fuck you it's a damn thing. It's a tide that's just washing right over, it's happening, and when it's done everyone that participated will be left feeling like they took a dip in the Congaree River and now they've got oil on their skin and sand in their shorts.

And it's their right to feel that nastiness, because goddamn, this is ART rightchere. This is an EVENT the likes of which the goddamn Maya predicted. DC is giving you what you want, from who you want, when you want it and you will buy it. Because you're customers and that's how this deal works, my son. Because Alan Moore is a crazy old dope-head living in a magic house and he's lacking in the self-awareness department. Because if you enjoy it, fuck this noise here and go about it. Everybody should be able to buy what they want even if what they want misses the point of the thing they love. To paraphrase Ron Swanson, that's America.

But I ain't mad.

I ain't even disappointed.

Got to be rooting for the team to be disappointed.

Atomic Robo Monday!

2012-01-30T07:07:00.001-08:00

Nice. That is All.

2012-01-25T13:00:00.000-08:00

Seriously, just put Evan Shaner on an FF Classic book or something. Glommed from hereabouts.

Shocked About Static?

2012-01-24T01:12:00.000-08:00

Static Shock was one of several old Milestone titles I picked up regularly (Hardware and Blood Syndicate being the others, if your interested), so when I saw that it was getting a new lease on life, I was intrigued to say the least.

I got over that pretty quick. Heck, I got over DC NU52 pretty quick. OMAC was fun, but repetitive. Frankenstein was concept-awesome but execution-average. All-Star Western is stuck in Gotham City: CSI Ol' Timey Edition, which was cool, but I'd like some frontier six-gun action, pleaseandthankyou. Demon Knights is still on its first story six issues in (and oh it's a good story, but c'mon...six issues?). And Static Shock was...disappointing. Not bad, but not good.

It was certainly a comic book of some form or another. Just not one for me. Which was confusing, because John Rozum is a writer I like (Midnight, Mass. was the sh*t, y'all I ain't even lying), so I was expecting something better.

So, apparently there was a reason that Static Shock was, how you say, 'uneven' in terms of quality.

Yeah. That sounds depressingly familiar, don't it? It's not the same situation, really, but shades of Christmas Past and all that.

It's a shame for a variety of reasons. But at least now Rozum is free to do something else...like a new Midnight, Mass. series.

Y'know, if he wanted. No pressure.

Look...just gimme a one-shot. I'm not begging.

...

Fine, I'm begging.

Atomic Robo Monday!

2012-01-23T01:13:00.000-08:00

SOPAdope

2012-01-18T03:00:00.000-08:00

So, I was going to talk about Colin Smith's excellently incisive essay on the first issue of Marvel-Two-in-One today, but, well, I decided to post this instead:

As well as a link to this op-ed by Aaron Colter over at Comic Alliance. Because I do like riding in bandwagons, me.

For the record, as a dude whose first novel (which isn't even out yet!) is already available on a number of file sharing sites thanks to some ever-so generous black market file merchants, I can say that, at the moment, I could give two craps about internet piracy. Stealing potential money is merely annoying. It's when you start stealing my actual money, right out of my wallet, that I get stabby. To me, SOPA is a bit like swatting a hornet with a high-calibre handgun...you'll probably miss the hornet and hit some poor schmuck by accident.

Atomic Robo Monday!

2012-01-16T12:36:00.000-08:00

You Need To See This

2012-01-13T04:36:00.000-08:00

I am not even kidding. That is awesome.

Speak, Wise One, Speak!

2012-01-11T01:09:00.000-08:00

Atomic Robo Monday!

2012-01-09T01:05:00.001-08:00

You Want Cosmic? You Got It...

2012-01-06T07:20:00.000-08:00

Galactus by Giorgio Comolo. Ganked from hereabouts. That is some sweet, sweet, Galacti right there...

Yeah, Probably.

2012-01-04T07:44:00.000-08:00

No denying it. I'd give it the ol' college try, despite the threat of a hernia of cosmic proportions. What about you?

New Adam WarRock Track-"616"

2012-01-02T07:11:00.000-08:00

Adam WarRock is starting 2012 off right, with a free-to-download sample from his upcoming album, You Dare Call That Thing Human?!?. You should probably go download that. The album drops on February 13th, so mark your calendars.

Atomic Robo Monday!

2012-01-02T01:30:00.000-08:00

Station Identification 2012-What Time Is It?

2012-01-01T10:36:00.000-08:00

A new year, a new focus. Or not, as the case may be. This blog originally started out as a sort of job application, back when I thought it might be neat to write about comics 24/7 for Comics Alliance or CBR and I wanted to have something comic-related to point them towards. Instead, as you may or may not know, I got a job doing a slightly different type of writing. Which, unfortunately meant that this blog sort of fell down the list of priorities to hover somewhere between 'go to the movies' and 'sleep' over the past year or so.

Granted, I still update fairly regularly, but often as not, it's a context-free picture. And frankly, that's probably not going to change any time soon. But I am going to give making more substantial updates the ol' college try. So, expect to see more Villains With Potential posts, more Why I Should Write The Thing posts and more comic bloggery in general for 2012.

And if not, well, it's not like anyone's complaining about the lack of yet another comic blogger on the internet, right?

A Christmas Message from the Man of Steel

2011-12-25T05:17:00.000-08:00

Countdown to Christmas-1

2011-12-24T08:47:00.000-08:00

Countdown to Christmas-2

2011-12-23T08:45:00.000-08:00

Countdown to Christmas-3

2011-12-22T08:42:00.000-08:00

Countdown to Christmas-4

2011-12-21T01:20:00.000-08:00

Countdown to Christmas-5

2011-12-20T02:18:00.000-08:00

Countdown to Christmas-6

2011-12-19T02:09:00.000-08:00

Monday Masterworks

2011-12-19T01:40:00.000-08:00

Classic.

In Retrospect, The Time Was Obvious

2011-12-16T01:36:00.000-08:00

Awesome picture by Bryan Mon. Glommed from hereabouts.

Very Nice

2011-12-14T10:33:00.000-08:00

A very nice image by a dude namedTom Raney. Ganked from here.

I'd Read It.

2011-12-12T01:25:00.000-08:00

Ganked from here.

Fin-Fang-Foom Friday!

2011-12-09T01:22:00.000-08:00

Blue-Eyed Bad Penny

2011-12-08T10:20:00.000-08:00

Then There Was That Season of 'Leave It To Beaver' That Ben Replaced Hugh Beaumont...

2011-12-07T03:18:00.000-08:00

Marcos Martin Needs to Draw Everything Ever

2011-12-06T02:48:00.000-08:00

Look at that. Seriously. It's like one of those 'follow-the-dot' drawings from Family Circus only a gajillion quintillion times more interesting.

I Mentioned This Yesterday...

2011-12-05T09:47:00.000-08:00

Bam. Daredevil fighting lions. I will take that over ninjas any-damn-day.

Swash and Buckle

2011-12-04T08:54:00.000-08:00

I'll just come out and say it...Daredevil is the best book Marvel is putting out right now, bar none. And yes, I know I'm the guy who said he hates Daredevil. In fact, I still hate Daredevil as a concept, but damn, it is impossible to hate this comic. Waid, Rivera and Martin have been killingon this thing for six issues now. It's not just the art, mind, or Waid's writing-which is always solid-but the whole thrust of the thing.

This is Daredevil as Stan Lee intended...the swashbuckling, smart-mouthed crimson crusader. The angst and grim/gritty noir-ness of the past two decades has been swept aside in the sort of back-to-basics housecleaning I'm in favor of...the darkness that the character has been marinating in is still there, but it's kept to the background in an admirably low-key fashion.

Every issue so far has been bursting at the seams with the sorts of stuff that makes a comic like this...we've got judicial shenanigans (barred from practicing law, Matt Murdock is now a consultant for people who want to defend themselves), romantic entanglements and boy howdy-do we got fights! In six issues, Daredevil has fought the Spot, Klaw, Bruiser (a new bad guy, seen above), Captain America, several lions and and a passel of gun-toting assassins. All in glorious six panel panorama. Seriously, look at the energy in that fight sequence above. You can see the movement in that-Daredevil hits Bruiser, bounces off, lands, gets tackled, wham! It flows beautifully.

And look at this:

That's from issue 4. That is gorgeous, that is. That is some damn Will Eisner sh*t right there. I could stare at that second panel all day. Even better?

Look at that. That is one of the best visual depictions of Daredevil's radar sense that I have ever seen. One panel tells you everything you need to know about how his power works. Gorgeous. Six issues of that so far. You need to go get that.

Yes, Please. Thank You.

2011-11-23T12:18:00.000-08:00

If Evan Shaner ever gets a shot at writing and/or drawing a revived Marvel Two-in-One series, it'll be like pennies from heaven as far as I'm concerned. Why, you might ask? Well, one, look at that cover and tell me you wouldn't read that bad boy to rags and tatters. Two, read the line-up he'd do if he got the chance. Three, go look at them damn concept sketches!

Need I say more?

Miracle Monday!

2011-11-21T01:40:00.000-08:00

Awesome. Glommed from here.

Fin-Fang-Foom Friday!

2011-11-18T01:41:00.000-08:00

I would like a large, framed version please, thank you. Glommed from here.

ALL-STAR PULP COMICS!

2011-11-14T01:37:00.001-08:00

Looks interesting, no? If so, read on true-believer...

Cute.

2011-11-07T09:51:00.000-08:00

Heh.

Morbidity and the Writer's Tool-Kit

2011-11-03T05:28:00.000-07:00

Interesting post over by Jim Smith over at Mightygodking.com yesterday. It got me thinking, as one does, about the writer's 'tool-kit'-the storytelling tropes that a writer uses to tell a given story. Every writer uses these tropes, though most employ them differently depending on the story and their particular style of writing, as well as on any cultural/religious/economic/political/gender/etc. biases they might possess (or wish to explore). Basically, the tools are the same, what's different is in how you use them.

Death in comics, at least in the case of the Big Two, has never, IMO, been an 'event' in and of itself; instead, it's simply another tool. Now you could argue that big-E 'events' are tools as well, and they are, though I'd argue that they belong in a whole other tool-kit, i.e. that of the promoter. But death, the death of a character...that's just another tool. In fact, it's a tool of transition. A way to shuffle the cast a bit and add to (or subtract from) the motivations of the remaining characters.

In the serial format the status quo is the starting point for any given story. The characters, by their nature, can't be changed permanently, but a short shake-up of the status quo is an effective plot device. It makes (one hopes) for an interesting story, and can be easily undone, resetting things back to their former state. Death in comics (or in any serial storytelling format, really...soap operas and comics have a lot in common) is a useful tool for inciting one of these shake-ups.

The problem is that death, like any tool, can be overused. When it becomes the standard, rather than the every-so-often, it only serve to weaken the effectiveness of the writer's tool-kit.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T06:08:00.000-07:00

Have some sexy spooktacular Satanna courtesy of Art Adams for your goodie bag. Speaking of goodies, that's not all...the first issue of Dracula the Unconquered is now available for buck! Having just read it myself, I can say it's well worth it. There's a giant raven ghost and everything. But if it's free treats of a more terrifying nature you're looking for...look no further than Emily Carroll's latest opus, MARGOT'S ROOM. A hint for readers: follow the lines of the poem and click the corresponding parts of the image.

Unconquered and Undead!

2011-10-27T00:21:00.000-07:00

As you probably already know, I do love me some Dracula. And I love Dracula-centric comics even more! Thus, I am already, whatchamightcall 'biased' in regards to the title above. Still, as politics, religion and comics journalism prove, bias is no barrier to sharing! Thus, I give you a six page preview of the newest offering from Chris Sims, Steve Downer, Josh Krach and Action Age Comics...DRACULA THE UNCONQUERED!

And after the preview, why not give a listen to this interview with the writer hisownself over at the Geekin' Out podcast?

There's Awkward...

2011-10-25T07:31:00.000-07:00

...And then there's awkward. Man up Hank. Return your homicidal death-machine of a son's hug like a real father.

Anyway, I apologize for the lack of posting lately. I've been busy with other things of late, as you can see. You should buy that, btw. The more books you buy, the more time I have to post pictures of the Thing in compromising positions. However, if you demand entertainment for no remuneration, why not stop by here and avail yourself of some of the horrible Halloween treats I've made easily available?

Who Knows What Evil Lurks On A Building Site?

2011-10-21T07:14:00.000-07:00

(Click to embiggen)

Found via Comics Alliance. The artist is David Hitchcock, who, frankly, should be drawing a damn Shadow comic, with Francisco Francavilla on covers and back-ups. Or Doc Savage. I'm easy. Either one.

This is Probably My Favorite Panel of the Year...

2011-10-18T06:31:00.000-07:00

From issue 2 of Demon Knights. Seriously, Vandal Savage is pretty much the best NuDC character going right now. Dude's just chowing down on them dinosaurs.

Friday Fin-Fang-Foom!

2011-10-07T11:00:00.001-07:00

Awesome commission of everybody's favorite Foom by Dave Wachter. Do yourself a favor and visit his site here.

Reasons Why I Should Write The Thing, Part The Third

2011-10-05T00:15:00.000-07:00

Or, 'The Return of Rocky Grimm...SPACE RANGER'.

For a time, back in the heyday of my ill-spent youth, the Thing wore a black unitard and wandered around the Beyonder-created Battleworld, getting into shenanigans. Those were good days, because they mostly involved the Thing punching aliens and Frankensteins and such.

Granted, by 'good days' I mean for the reader, because they were sh*tty days for Benjamin J. Grimm. Trapped (albeit by his own choice) on an alien world which existed only because he was there, Ben would bounce from one awkward situation to the next, facing foes that forced him to confront several unpleasant truths about himself.

And when there were no more truths to be had, when the Thing finally went home (to find his girlfriend (who was secretly a Skrull) married to his best friend (who wasn't a Skrull, but who was a douche) but that's another post entirely), Battleworld blew up. Or vanished. Or something. It was an ex-world, is what I'm saying, to misquote John Cleese.

But what if it wasn't? What if Battleworld, as close to being sentient as a planet could get without having a face plastered across its northern hemisphere, decided that it didn't feel like going anywhere? See, Battleworld was a place where ANYthing could happen. Thoughts and desires became reality to some degree, if they were focused strongly enough. So what would happen if a planet wished for a protector? A protector whose presence was necessary for Battleworld itself to exist?

A protector named...Rocky Grimm, Space Ranger. Created by Battleworld as a simulacrum of an idealized Ben Grimm, Rocky is the square-jawed, two-fisted hero the Thing always wanted to be. And with his consort, Tarianna of Leen at his side, Rocky battles the weird menaces that plague the peoples of the jigsaw world! Or, at least he did before he disappeared. Vanished. Leaving behind a populace without a hero, and a planet without a reason to exist.

Thus, Battleworld, panicked and acting on instinct, searches for the one man who can hold it together while it tries to find its prodigal son...the ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing. Sound familiar? The Thing thinks so too, but while he's trying to puzzle it out, and trying to figure out how to escape the desperate clutches of the planetary intelligence, he's got to handle all the dangers and deviltry of a planet he thought long destroyed, while trying not to fall back in love with a woman who is, quite literally, his ideal mate.

Makes for a good second issue, I think...

REASONS WHY I SHOULD WRITE THE THING:

Part the First

Part the Second

Part the Third

Three Things About the New (?) 52

2011-10-03T00:01:00.000-07:00

While I did not spend my hard-earned dosh on every single issue of the New 52, I did, in fact, read them all. For a given value of 'read', I mean. Seriously, I question the assigned monetary value of any form of reading material that takes me the length of a good sneeze to read. But that's probably a conversation for another time.

There have been many, MANY good reviews of DC's grand experiment, looking at the good and the bad of the new status quo (and isn't THAT a bit of an oxymoron?), and frankly, I don't feel like debating the artistic merits of Red Hood and the Outlaws (Hint: There are none). So this is less a critical look and more an op-ed, fair warning.

So, having read every issue, I find myself coming to several conclusions...first, aside from the looming copyright issues that necessitated a tweaking to the Superman mythos (and hence the reboot), there was no need for a line-wide restructuring. The books which seem to be acquiring the lion's share of critical praise (which does not equate to sales, mind) are, by and large, books which could have easily existed under the previous set-up. Indeed, some of them did...Batman didn't get rebooted, after all.

That last bit leads me to point the second. I understand the necessity of keeping a bit of the previous status quo in place (the best-sellers, natch), but it does make for a less than ideal jumping on point. If you're not going to start it ALL over, don't start ANY of it over. And certainly don't call it a gamble when it's more akin to popping a quarter in a slot machine.

Thing the third: You should probably buy All-Star Western. It's basically just the next issue of Gray and Palmiotti's Jonah Hex series, which was probably the best book no one was reading and features Hex just straight up wrecking shit in turn of the century Gotham City while hunting for a serial killer. How can you not want to read that?

Brutish Bottom Basher

2011-09-30T08:31:00.000-07:00

I don't even...

Free Comic-SURVEILLANCE

2011-09-28T22:03:00.000-07:00

From Bobby Nash of Lance Star: Sky Ranger fame comes this little bit of awesome. Check out this free webcomic, "Surveillance" by Bobby Nash and James Burns!

Download THE HARD ONES for Free!

2011-09-26T11:58:00.000-07:00

Action Age Comics, the guys behind Awesome Hospital and Monster Plus, have put the long-awaited first issue of their action-adventure series, The Hard Ones up as a free download on their site! Go give it a look-see!

Behold! The Doom of Mankind!

2011-09-22T07:13:00.000-07:00

Glommed from the Puffster (as I like to call him), who got it from Thomas Frisano. Click to embiggen, because seriously...that is nice.

Villains With Potential-Baron Blood

2011-09-20T02:39:00.000-07:00

Vampire? Check. Nazi? Check. Costume? Check. Ah, Baron Blood...so easy to use, so hard to get right.

Baron Blood, by virtue of continuity, comes with plenty of story attached. And by Baron Blood, I mean the first one, not Dr. Strange's brother or the anemic fellow or the blonde. I mean the skinny, rat-fanged English adventurer turned vampire-servant of the German war-machine, John Falsworth.

Now, Falsworth wasn't strictly a Nazi, per se, only working with them in order to fulfill his primary objective, i.e. screwing with England. It's a big part of his history, but one that has, I think, come to overly dominate the character's concept. Falsworth, at his base, is essentially Dracula's proxy; a sentient plague unleashed by the Master Vampire on the homeland of his enemies.

Think about that...Blood is a weapon in a war spanning centuries. His every action should be bent towards his one overriding impulse-to destroy England. Siding with the Axis was one way, but these days there are plenty of others. Consider the recent 'Vampire State' story from Captain Britain and MI13. Dracula, ever the master-strategist, had, in fact, planned for his (temporary) defeat and, in the spirit of scorched earth, resurrected his most prominent English convert, John Falsworth, who, being an Englishman of noble blood, needs no invitation to the British Isles, thus bypassing the protective spells cast on Quincy Harker's skull (I'm not explaining that-buy the trade).

Baron Blood, the ONLY vampire in England, thus becomes something of an undead terrorist, striking at England in a variety of ways-social, religious, economic. Perhaps he converts the entire population of a council estate, unleashing them on their neighbors in a tsunami of blood and fire. Or maybe he takes control of a bank manager, or a member of Parliament, etc. and employs them to cause damage in strange, specific ways, like using the bank to create a hidden fund to support super-villains, say.

Too, play with Blood's powers some...he's been augmented by strange Nazi science, so he's no stranger to mad technologies and esoteric alchemy. Imagine a Baron Blood with Deacon Frost's ability to create blood-clones of himself or others. A Baron Blood who knows the control codes for the Red Skull's doomsday weapons hidden on the Channel Islands. A Baron Blood who uses ancient magics to resurrect a demonic William the Conqueror and his corpse-army and set them to re-invade England.

Blood should be at the center of a British-based web of deceit, corruption and danger. A monster whose malignancy stretches across centuries, and whose sole goal is the utter ruination of a nation. His every plot and scheme should be bent towards bringing Britain to its knees...

Basically, what I'm saying here is that Baron Blood should be the central villain for a new UK-centric super-hero book. Seriously, just bring back Union Jack, okay? Is that such a big deal? That's all I'm asking.

The Super-Detective is on the Case!

2011-09-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

It's out! I'm pleased to announce that my novel, The Mark of Terror, is now available for purchase. You can read the official press release here, if you like, or buy the electronic version of the book here.

I'd suggest you do both. Just for completeness' sake.

Tom Morrow and His Three Days

2011-09-14T08:58:00.000-07:00

I meant to post a link to this earlier, but things have been a bit busy...regardless, a pal of mine named Tommy Hancock has posted a ten page look at a comic he worked on several years ago with artist Stephen Holcomb. Tommy's considering giving the book another go, so why not go take a look at the ten page teaser for 'TOM MORROW AND HIS THREE DAYS!' and drop your thoughts in the comments over there if you've got the inclination?

Fortier-ean Tales

2011-09-10T01:15:00.000-07:00

Doesn't that look neat? Why not go check that out? Two bucks ain't bad, these days.

Chris Stevens Again.

2011-09-09T04:18:00.000-07:00

Chris Stevens again. Dude just does good monsters, you know?

Some She-Hulks...

2011-09-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

...Just sweep a fellow right off his feet. And some rock-monsters have all of the luck. Courtesy of Jed Dougherty.

What Time Is It?

2011-09-05T07:10:00.000-07:00

I would wear that on a t-shirt, wouldn't you? Courtesy of Michael Lopez.

He Really Is Giant-Sized...

2011-09-04T09:06:00.000-07:00

Man-Thing battling-what are those? Pirates?-pirates, courtesy of Evan Shaner, who I would not mind seeing on a Man-Thing mini, let me tell you.

Suffering Seraphim!

2011-09-03T09:02:00.000-07:00

Dr. Strange done right, by Chris Stevens. I love the look of the Mindless Ones, there.

Best Thing Ever (This Week)

2011-09-02T08:54:00.000-07:00

Glommed from Comics Alliance, art by Elliot Fernandez. I dig the almost reptile-hide look he's got going here.

Dance, D-Man, Dance!

2011-08-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

I glommed this pretty little number by Rusty Shackles from the LET'S DRAW D-MAN! tumblr, which is chock full of Dennis Dunphy. More Dennis Dunphy than any man can handle, really. Do not look directly at the Dennis Dunphy, lest his awesomeness blind you.

Villains With Potential-Dr. Bong

2011-08-22T01:13:00.000-07:00

I haven't done one of these in a while, so I thought I'd start it off with a BONG! Get it? Bong? Bang? No? Too New Yorker?

Anyway, Dr. Bong. God love him, he's a useless sort of villain. If you make him edgy, you eradicate the limited amount of cool he has. If you keep him whacky, he'll be a long-term resident of comic-book purgatory. Or, as in Dr. Bong's case, you get your arms cut off by Deadpool and handed over to the Secret Avengers after an over-complicated plot involving clones.

Bong started off as a quirky Frankenstein, playing with the building blocks of creation in order to...well, nobody really knows. To get girls? It wasn't really clear. Howard the Duck was involved. It was a crazy time. Then he reappeared, having gotten himself a doctorate in psychology, which, frankly, is where he should have stayed.

There's a lot of potential there...a super-villain psychiatrist. We've seen the face version numerous times, but a heel? That has potential. Even bad guys need therapy, after all. In fact, one might be inclined to think that the baddies, on the whole, probably need it more than the goodies.

See, the kicker is that Bong is actually a competent therapist. He's just not a very nice one. Which makes him the perfect guy to help the Shocker overcome his feelings of inferiority and go on to bigger and better things. Or to help the Trapster realize his true potential. Bong, despite (or perhaps because of) his inherent ridiculousness, is a master manipulator second to none, propping up his peers in the world of costumed villainy with rousing mantras and pep-talks. He makes Mandrill realize that his Oedipal obsessions will never be fulfilled and aids the Owl in regaining focus.

Dr. Bong, motivational speaker, is available for engagements of any size. Need to get the legions of Hydra pumped? Call Dr. Bong.* Need to improve the workplace environment of AIM's Manhattan facilities? Dr. Bong is adept at improving office inter-relations.** Got a paralyzing fear of short Canadians with hygiene issues and Bowie knives sprouting from between their knuckles? Dr. Bong can show you the power of positive thinking!***

*Mind-altering drugs provided at no extra charge.

**Body disposal extra.

***Dr. Bong is not responsible for any spontaneous disembowelment, decapitation or mutilation which may occur.

He's Bluffing...

2011-08-18T01:34:00.000-07:00

Brian Hurtt's version of the iconic poker games. Glommed from here. That is a thing of beauty right there. And is that the Beyonder back there? Lovely.

Prepare To Be Boarded!

2011-08-16T01:39:00.000-07:00

Colleen Coover gets piratical with a commission for Bully, the Little Stuffed Bull, which is naut(ical) but awesome. Lucky little bull.

Ha! Get it? 'Naut'? Like naught? Get it? No?

I'll stop now.

"None of us will leave this room alive!"

2011-08-04T03:51:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a big fan of history, particularly the history of the early Twentieth Century, so you'll understand when I say that this book here looks like it'll be hitting every one of my interest buttons. Rasputin? Check. British agents? Check. Inferences of the Great Game, between Great Britain and the Russian Empire? Check. Webleys? Check. Do yourself a favor and check out the twenty page preview over at Comics Alliance.

Strange Tuesdays

2011-08-02T00:19:00.000-07:00

First off, head over to the Black Gate Magazine blog and check out this wonderful rundown on Dr. Strange by Matthew David Surridge. It's a nice long in-depth examination of his first appearance, and Surridge makes some interesting points, which dovetail nicely with my own thoughts on the subject. Definitely give it a read.

And if that's not enough, take a look at these awesome redesigns of Strange's rogues gallery by the amazingly talented Jemma Salume! Gimme MGK on writing and Salume on art and you've got me by the wallet.

Kirby Estate Lawsuit Settled

2011-07-29T05:14:00.000-07:00

So, a judge has ruled that Jack Kirby's heirs have no claim to any existing Marvel copyrights. You can view the full 50 page decision here, if you like.

Personally, I figured this was the only way this could end, disheartening as it is. Putting aside Kirby's shabby treatment by Marvel, the fact remained that he did, in fact, sign work-for-hire contracts. Now, as craptacular as those contracts were, they were the only game going then and Kirby, like a lot of creators, signed over the rights to his work and knew full well the consequences of that action.

However, I don't blame his heirs for trying it on, especially considering the outdated nature of said contracts in regards to the way work-for-hire works these days. If they had succeeded, things might have gotten interesting...

EDIT 8/2/2011: Things got interesting anyway.

It's Almost Enough To Make Me Like Wolverine...

2011-07-25T08:52:00.000-07:00

I said ALMOST. Not quite. Awesome song though.

John Buscema Had Beefy Hands...

2011-07-21T01:09:00.000-07:00

Jim Shooter is giving an interesting behind-the-scenes rundown on the history of the Marvel/DC crossovers. Also, apparently John Buscema wanted to be a butcher. Make of that what you will.

AWRF 2011 Industry and Artform

2011-07-18T07:39:00.000-07:00

AWRF2011: Graphic Novels, Comics and Cartoons from Auckland Writers & Readers Fest on Vimeo.

Interesting bit of video, especially around thirty minutes in. Well...more depressing, but still interesting.

Lovely and Ineffable

2011-07-15T05:14:00.000-07:00

Greg Rucka and artist Rick Burchett have decided to bring fun back to comics with "Lady Sabre & The Pirates of the Ineffable Aether", a new webcomic updating every Monday and Thursday. Basically, it's a fantasy steampunk action-adventure thriller sort of thing, according to Rucka and Burchett. Looks awesome to me. What about you?

Too Hot For Comic-Con...

2011-07-13T04:23:00.000-07:00

The Dwayne McDuffie tribute that Comic-Con Int'l never wanted you to see. Really says it all, doesn't it?

Yeah.

The New Warriors EP

2011-07-08T05:17:00.000-07:00

Man, I miss this comic. I bet you do too. Of course, we can relive those heady days when Night Thrasher dropped Nova off a roof and Speedball had a cat that could bounce just by listening to Adam Warrock's new EP, available FOR FREE here! There's even a damn Psionex track on there...

Every Dog Has It's Day, Sometimes Twice

2011-07-07T03:20:00.000-07:00

Hey, remember that last post? Yeah, I totally wrote two Laika stories around the same time, apparently. Who does that? Maudlin people do that. I figured since I posted one, why not the other as well...I mean, if MKG can do it on his pop-culture blog, why not me? Especially since you can read 'em as a sort of serial, if you like, with that last post being the conclusion to this bit of blatant heart-string yanking I wrote around the same time as "Test Flight". Enjoy or not.

LAIKA, UNRESOLVED

“Come here girl. Come on.”

Hand open, a few chunks of hard bread on the palm. The mongrel, a narrow featured animal, ears curving up and flopping over at the tips, wags her curled tail. There is something of the northern working dog in it, but more than a little of a rat-killer as well. Eyes like twin dollops of chocolate fix on the bread. A tongue slides out, pulls in.She is hungry. And cold. But mostly hungry.

At night, she dreams of running.

“Come here, Zhuchka. Come here my little bug.” The hand twitches, spilling bread between fingers, to plop into the snow. “Come to me.”

The dog's ribs are visible beneath its coat. She is alone. Hungry. The food is too much for her. She trots forward, paws plodding through the sludge of the streets. Gulps down the bread with greedy abandon as hands scrub her head and back.

“Good girl. Good dog.”

Excerpt from LAIKA, CONQUEROR OF MARS (Rocket House, 1957):

'The insect screeched, mandibles clicking out a hideous song of death. Laika leapt over the scythe-like talons, her paws scrabbling up the reddish-brown carapace of the beast. Her jaws snapped shut on the monster's neck and she savaged it, her weight sending the beast over backwards. It shrieked like a stuck baby and clawed at the air as Laika severed its head from its shoulders. The dog crouched over the body of her foe, muzzle coated with black, inky blood and snarled at the other insects surrounding her. The cannibal-horses of Mars clicked their mandibles and closed in...'

“Easy girl. I know you want to move, but we have to test the harness.”

The dog whined. The harness chafed her and she couldn't move. Hands reached around, over and under her, checking the fastenings and food dispenser. She licked furiously at the hand she could reach, her whine growing shrill.

She didn't like being bound up. She couldn't move. She liked to run. Run so fast she could almost fly. But she couldn't like this.

“Easy. Easy. Shhh. It's all right. Everything is all right.” Fingers scrubbed her head and rubbed her ears. Her stomach gurgled and she panted, tongue dripping.

“Heh. You are a greedy one. We just fed you, Limonchik.”

She whined again and the laughter spread among the hands. Her bowl filled with a dollop of the bland gel-paste they had trained her to eat. She gobbled it down, tail swinging back and forth. It wasn't as good as running, but it would do.

“Good girl. Good dog.”

Excert from WONDER-DOG ON DINOSAUR ISLAND (Arcturus, 1958):

'The air was as thick as soup, and strange shapes glided through the haze. Laika trotted from the remains of the pod, her harness ragged and torn, but her own body amazingly unharmed. She shook herself, panting in the heat of her tropical surroundings. A sudden shriek caught her attention. The voice of a human! Laika's tail began to wag, but her hackles rose all the same as the woman crashed through the brush, falling to her hands and knees, breathing heavily.

And behind her, death came. It was a monstrous thing, bipedal and immense, with gaping jaws of sword-blade teeth and eyes like the pits of Hell itself! The Tyrannosaurus roared a challenge and Laika responded with a snarl, leaping to the attack!'

“She can sit, stand or lay down. Beyond that, no movement.”

“Excellent. So she'll be comfortable?”

“Who can tell? She can't exactly answer us, can you girl?” Hands caught her head, pulling it up as fingers scritched behind her ears. Her tail thumped against the floor and she whined, eyes pleading. She wanted to be let loose. It was time to run. To go and fly and see. But they hadn't let her loose yet.

“She's a little tramp this one, no?”

“She just wants a treat. Isn't that right my Little Curly? A bit of beef maybe?”

Her tail thumped harder, causing her harness to jingle.

“You shouldn't give that to her. We're trying to keep her on the paste.”

“A little treat every now and then won't hurt. No it won't, will it girl?” Hands descended, fingers gripping a bit of dried meat. Her jaws snapped together, pulling it away. Swallowing it. Fingers stroked her, head to tail and throat to belly. It wasn't as good as running, but it was good enough.

“Oh she is a good girl. Good dog.”

Excerpt from THE LUNAR REVOLUTION (Sputnik Books, 1959):

'Crimson star bright on the chest of her harness, Laika bounded towards the Selenites, her barks of warning catching the insect-people's attentions.

“What-click-is-it-click-friend-Laika?” the leader of the patrol asked. Laika barked again, dancing in a circle.

“The-click-English-click-are-coming?” the patrol-leader said, astounded. Laika barked again, growling. “An-click-ambush! Those filthy-click-imperialists!”

Laika snarled in agreement...'

“Shhh girl. Easy girl.” The harness was snapped into place and she found herself unable to turn around. She did not whine, having become used to this. It happened every day, at different times but every day nonetheless. She lapped at her gel paste, unconcerned. She allowed the hands to do their work and attach her waste bag and the various other things. Every so often, the hands would rub her head or scrub her jaw.

She no longer worried about running. They always released her after a time. She just had to be patient.

“Everything is-uhm-everything...”

“What?”

“This isn't right.”

“Science isn't right or wrong. She's a dog.”

“Exactly! She doesn't understand! Look at her!”

Fingers play with her muzzle, stroking her. She sneezes and looks up hopefully, tail wagging awkwardly in the confines of her cylinder. Maybe there will be another twist of dried meat. She has not had one in a while.

“She doesn't-I can't-”

“You knew this day was going to come when you brought her in.”

“I know. I know. I-”

“Go. Go have a drink or something. I'll finish up.”

“I-”

“Go.”

New fingers play with her, stroking her softly. She shifts, trying to get them to go behind her ears the way the others did. They oblige and she pants happily.

“Good girl. Good dog.”

Excerpt from WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MUTTNIK? (Trocadero Press, 1975):

'See Spot.

See Spot in a can.

See Spot orbiting a ball.

See Spot chase the ball.

See Spot go round and round and round.

Poor Spot. She will never catch that ball at all.'

“Everything's ready.”

“How is she?”

“We've got a heater keeping her warm. Food supply is good. Everything is...”

“Good?”

“Yeah.”

She can hear them, but not see them. It is dark in her cylinder. Cold, despite the heated air blowing in. She is hungry. The paste wasn't food. She wanted a twist of meat. She tried to turn around, to get comfortable, but the harness prevented her, holding her in place. She whined, scratching at the black in front of her. They hadn't let her out in the longest time. She hadn't stretched her legs in forever.

“Is that her?”

“Yeah. She's been whining on and off for the last day or so-”

“God.”

“If it bothers you, don't listen.”

“How can they-”

“It's just a dog.”

“She isn't. She's our Little Curly.”

“She wasn't ours to begin with. She-”

“Shut up.”

She can feel the hands pressing up against the outside of her container. She whines again. The voice is soothing, despite her hunger. Despite the cold. The ache in her legs is all that remains.

“Shhh. Shhh my little lemon.”

“Good girl. Good dog.”

Excerpt from BEAST (Rhino Publishing, 1985):

'The dog was no longer what it had been. And in many ways, so much more.

It breathed heavily, its lungs now like bellows as it slid into the chill Siberian night. It's fur had fallen out in great clumps, giving way to glittering scales. It was still dog-like in both shape and gait, but distinctly unearthly now in its manner. The cosmic radiation had seen to that. No longer Laika, a Moscow mutt. Now it was something far worse.

It stood, spread-legged, in the snow-swept street and stared up at the moon. It raised malformed jaws to the sky and howled...'

“Respiration has increased. Pulse rate is up.”

“Capsule has seperated as planned.”

“How is she?”

“Still breathing.”

She can hear their voices but all she can feel is the shaking. She gives a whining bark, eyes rolling, teeth bared as the world shakes around her. Sensors rattle and shake, slapping her on the side and the muzzle. She can't stay upright. Invisible hands force her down, press her to the hot floor. And it was hot. It wasn't cold anymore. She panted. Whined. Thought of the cold streets. Of a twist of meat. She didn't want to be here. She wanted a treat. She wanted to run, to be able to move. Even just a bit.

“Shhh. Easy girl. You're doing fine.”

“Keep her calm. We're about to level off.”

“I'm trying. But she's scared-”

“Of course she is. She has no concept for what is happening to her. Just talk to her. Keep her from chewing the sensors off.”

“Shhh. Easy Little Curly. Easy. There's a girl.”

The voices stroked her ears. It was so hot. And she was hungry again. Her legs ached.

“I can hear her eating.”

“That's a good sign.”

“Good girl. Good dog.”

Excerpt from THE DOG FROM OUTER-SPACE (Children's Reader Press, 1992):

'Laika led Sandra and Nick down the gleaming steel corridors, stopping and barking each time they came to one of the glass enclosures set into the walls. Inside each, a different form of alien life was contained.

“Laika, did you catch all of these creatures?” Sandra asked, pressing her face to the glass and staring at the jewel-like plummage of the Grox of Cassiope. Laika barked proudly, tail wagging as she danced in a circle, as if to say, 'Of course! Why else would they have shot me into space, if not to chase things and bring them back?'

“Thermal insulation is loose. The cabin has been heating up steadily.”

“How is she?”

“I-I can't hear her.”

She was so hot. She lay panting, tangled in her harness. She couldn't even summon the strength to eat. The air itself felt as if it were crushing her, pushing her flat. She could barely hear the voices soothing her, whispering to her. She wanted them to pet her, but they didn't. Perhaps she had been bad. Perhaps that's why they were punishing her. That's why they weren't letting her out.

“Can you hear me, my Little Curly?”

Her tail thumped weakly. She whined softly.

“Oh my Little Curly. Oh my little lemon-dog. You are such a good girl. Such a good dog. I am so sorry.”

Excerpt from THE SPACE-RACE (Kuttner & Cassky, 2001):

'In his later years, Oleg Gazenko expressed regret for allowing Laika to die: "The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We shouldn't have done it... We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog.”

In spite of Gazenko's sentiments, Laika was memorialized on the Monument to the Conquerors of Space, erected in Moscow in 1964. Her figure is seen beside such luminaries of the Russian Space Program as Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Yuri Gargin.'

“Can you hear me, my Little Curly?”

“Cabin temperature is at forty degrees celsius.”

“Life signs?”

“Nothing for the past hour.”

“Come on. Please. Come on. Little Curly?”

“She's dea-”

“Limonchik? Bark for me. Just once. Please...”

“It was just a dog.”

“She was not just a-”

“Get him out of here please! Security!”

She could not hear them. All she could hear was her own breathing. She was cold and hot at the same time. Behind her eyes she was running, running through the streets and hands were stroking her and rubbing her and she could taste the twists of meat. She was limp in her harness. The darkness was so bright. Everything was so quiet. So quiet.

She closed her eyes as the world faded around her and dreamed of running. Dreamed of the voices.“Good girl. Good dog.” they said. Her tail thumped once.

Twice.

Everything was quiet.

Excerpt from BEYOND THE DOG-STAR (Stone Fiction, 2009):

'Laika awoke from the heat and the darkness, awoke from her dreams of running. She lifted her head, a whine of query spilling from her throat as she lifted herself up onto shaky legs. They surrounded her on all sides, glowing beings, ethereal and majestic.

“Good girl. Good dog.” They spoke as one. It sounded like the wash of waves over sand or the rustle of trees in a breeze. A whisper of scents and tastes made audible. Voices at once beautiful and inhuman. But Laika recognized them all the same.

They were human voices, after all.

And they had finally called her home.'

Every Dog Deserves A Happy Ending...

2011-07-06T02:48:00.000-07:00

Especially if you're Laika. Because good God that gets me right in the gut every time I hear about it. Apparently it gets to Nick Abadzis too, because he'll be giving Laika the ending she should have had several times over this week. If you need some cheering up (and if you read that first link, you likely do!) go give them a look.

Me, I've always been a bit of a sap where animals are concerned. So, forgive me if I decide to get in on this action in the sappiest way possible. Here's the ending I always envisaged for our brave little canine cosmonaut...it's a quick little bit of fluff I wrote when I needed a bit of cheering up. Enjoy!

TEST-FLIGHT

Excerpt From ‘LAIKA, UNRESOLVED’ (H&S, 2070):

The dog was the first test of the system.

A mongrel mutt of unidentifiable origins. A bit of terrier, certainly. She was named Laika. It meant curly. The Russians fired her into space without planning to get her back down. Later, one of the engineers would commit suicide from the guilt. Others could never look at a dog again without weeping. One or two would remain satisfied that they had done the right thing. The correct thing.

In his twilight years, Oleg Gazenko, the scientist who had found Laika on a Moscow street and adopted her, expressed regret for allowing Laika to die: "The more time passes, the more I'm sorry about it. We shouldn't have done it... We did not learn enough from this mission to justify the death of the dog.” This was a sentiment shared by many involved in the space-programs of the twentieth century super-powers. The ghost of Laika haunted the public imagination for a century-the eternal symbol of every animal victimized by man in the course of civilization.

Laika, of course, knew none of this. All she knew was that men she had trusted, men who had given her treats and scratches behind the ears had bundled her up into a confined capsule, immobilized her, and left her alone in the dark. She whined as the rocket took off, and ate her paste. It was a nutrient gruel that the Russians would vary only a little when they gave it to their human cosmonauts later. It did not satisfy her hunger and only made her thirsty. When the thermal insulation came loose, she began to grow hot and then sleepy. After a while, she simply hung in her brown leather harness with its crimson star stitched on the front. Eventually, she would cook to death in her tiny capsule before it completed its orbit and returned to Earth.

Laika would be memorialized on the Monument to the Conquerors of Space, erected in Moscow in 1964. Her figure stood beside such luminaries of the Russian Space Program as Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and Yuri Gargin. It was only fitting as she had been the first Earthling to reach space.

One hundred years later, a new system was invented and again, Laika was called upon to act as a test subject.

The Russians lost contact with Laika’s capsule four hours after take-off. Six hours after take-off, Laika died. It left the chrononauts exactly two hours to dock with the capsule, initiate a rescue operation and return up-time. A perfect test of the technology. it had everything a public relations advisor could want: Human interest, a photogenic dog, and time-travel.

Ten minutes after Laika passed out from the heat, she awoke in a cool, sterilized environment and was fed her first solid food in days by chrononaut Alexia Gazenko. An hour later, her bio-rhythms had returned to normal and she was as perky and frisky as she had been before she’d been fired into space.

Upon returning to the late twenty-first century, Laika was immediately adopted by Simon Parkwell, the scientist in charge of the PRIMEtime project. A noted proponent of animal free testing, Parkwell had chosen Laika as the test subject of his technology over other proposed luminaries such as Martin Luther King Junior, Joan of Arc, and Anne Frank. When asked for a comment in interviews he was reported to say, “What can I tell you? I’m a sucker for dogs.”

Up, Up and Away...

2011-06-27T08:43:00.000-07:00

I'm putting together a bit of a thing on Gene Colan, but it ain't done yet and I don't feel like rushing it. So instead, have this awesome fan-film made in honor of the Rocketeer:

The Rocketeer 20th anniversary from John Banana on Vimeo.

You're welcome.

Villains With Potential-Gorilla Grodd

2011-06-24T01:21:00.000-07:00

Super-Gorilla Grodd is one of those characters who, like the Hobgoblin, deserves better than what he gets. Every so often, he'll get a big push (Gorilla Warfare, Grodd of War) but it's always a weak sister sort of thing.

Grodd is to Lex Luthor as the Wingless Wizard is to Doctor Doom. He's different enough to be recognizable, but too similar to be anything other than second-rate. And a megalomaniac ape with telepathy and genius-level intelligence shouldn't be second rate.

The thing writers often forget about Grodd is that he's not just smart-he's smart. He works through catspaws and hired guns to accomplish his goals, which are, for the most part, opaque to his enemies and allies alike. No one knows what Grodd wants, except Grodd.

That's where writers stumble, unfortunately. Grodd's driving ambition is domination...but of what? The world? Gorilla City? It tends to change depending on the creative team. Sometimes he wants to turn everyone into gorillas, other times he wants political power. Thing is, none of these are short-term goals...they're all master plans. And they're all just generally sort of megalomaniacal. Luthor, Doom, Darkseid, Thanos...all the great plotters have a set end game. The reason they resonate so strongly is because we know what they want and we know that everything they're doing is directed at accomplishing that one goal. So why not Grodd?

Of course, that means you have to come up with said goal-for Grodd, I'd say stick with Gorilla City. Grodd wants nothing more (or less) than to assure the safety and supremacy of his people. He's a patriot (or terrorist), and he's at war with everyone who isn't a citizen of Gorilla City. Grodd should be the Magneto of the DC Universe, defending a small minority against a hostile (to his eyes anyway) majority.

Grodd should be using his telepathy to hide his involvement in his schemes and meeting with the UN as Gorilla City's official representative, where he'll sow discord and reap the benefits. He'll hire super-villains to attack him, in order to appear the victim of anti-gorilla discrimination. He'll assassinate his own people if they stand in his way, and kill humans without a thought. He'll fund terrorist groups and rebel organizations in the Congo, Nigeria, etc. in order to strengthen Gorilla City's position on the African continent. He'll work with the Cheetah to retrieve ancient Gorilla artifacts from private collectors and unleash the Giggling Plague on Lagos. He'll hire an assassin to strike out at King Arthur of Atlantis and then foil the attempt in order to further the possibility of an alliance.

And he'll do it all for the good of his people. Whether they appreciate it or not.

Farewell Sharif, We Hardly Knew Ye...

2011-06-23T00:48:00.000-07:00

...Or something like that. So, why did issue 712 of Superman get the ax? Well, reasons vary from a sequence involving the rescue of a kitten up a tree to a team-up with a Muslim super-hero. For my money, I think Sims at Comics Alliance gets it right...DC hasn't had the best couple of months in terms of mainstream media attention. First the Muslim Batman thing and then Superman renouncing his American citizenship and then the reboot and now...what?

See, the problem with a reaction like this is, while it makes sense from a corporate perspective (i.e. the 'no man, no problem' rule, known in South Carolina as the 'shoot first and go to Applebee's' rule), it makes absolutely no sense from any other perspective. Dig this...the solicits for this issue have been sitting quietly in full view of the public for some time now. The guard-dogs of Murrikan values apparently only get to slavering when the meat is plopped in front of them. They're too lazy to go digging for it. And DC (or their handlers at WB) have figured that little fun-fact out.

Comics ain't news, no matter how Warner Bros or Disney try and spin it. They're slow-news day or Sunday edition filler at best. Which means that DC actually made a bigger mess out of pulling issue 712 than it would have been had it been plopped down on the racks on Wednesday whenever. And even then, only those of us who read the 'trade journals' care.

But because DC/Warner is courting a fairly ambivalent media, they can't risk doing something that'll offend the 0.1% of the population who don't read comics yet still feel as if they have the option to decry what goes on in said comics. Issue 712 is, in a sense, a sacrifice to a minority whose vocal aggressiveness far outstrips its potential as a consumer of the offending material. They ain't gonna buy it now, they weren't buying before and thus, logically, they ain't no loss. Oh, granted, there'll be a few folks who feel put-upon by the presence of a [insert disparaged social/cultural/economic scapegoat] in their funny-books, and they'll drop it like it was hot, but let's be honest...that happens with any popular medium. It's like the fluctuation of the tides.

No, what DC is doing here is playing to the 'potential customer' base. It's part of the same strategy that brought us the clean slate of the reboot, only reversed. It's a publicity stunt, designed to show the vocal minority that DC is just like they remember (aside from the decapitations, revealing costumes and genocide), 'Mom and Pop and Apple Pie, why not come on down to the local internet cafe and buy a couple of issues, hey?

The question is...will it work? And if it does, what's next?

EDITED TO ADD: David Brothers, as always, puts it succinctly.

A-K-I-What's That Spell?

2011-06-22T01:02:00.000-07:00

David Brothers is writing an interesting series of semi-related articles on Katsuhiro Otomo's Akira over at 4thletter!, which is cool, because I dig me some Akira. It's sort of a perfect pre-post-apocalyptic-punk ballad about the shattering of worlds within worlds and all that other crazy jazz.

Akira is one of the few manga that I re-read on a regular basis, because of that-it's just so damn lush. Otomo builds us a whole world over the course of-what?-two or three books and then spends the rest of the time tearing said world down. Construction to deconstruction in ten easy panels. Awesome.

Anyway, go check these out. Here's the links:

"Let's Go, Doctor"

"There's Still Something You Could Do For Me"

"C,C,R"

"Right On Time"

"You'd Better Fasten Your Seatbelt, Sir"

Courtesy of Cliff Chiang

2011-06-17T13:41:00.000-07:00

Hot damn that is awesome. That is all.

Some Thoughts on the Serial

2011-06-14T01:52:00.000-07:00

A nice essay here at the Black Gate Magazine site, on the nature of the serial as it relates to comics (as well as a few other things). Very interesting, at least to me, because I think about things like this a lot.

Items of Interest

2011-06-13T06:49:00.000-07:00

Hey, remember when I wrote that big long thing about DC's 'Flashboot'? Here's some more discussion on it via The Beat-Steven Niles on what Flashboot means to creators and Brian Hibbs on what it means to retailers.

I think that I'm finding myself more interested in the potential ramifications of this move than in the rebooted books themselves, which could be construed as a bit sad, I suppose. The fact of the matter is that, as others have mentioned, of the fifty-two titles to be released, less than half of them will survive much past the Mayan apocalypse. That's not an assumption on my part...that's fact. And it's a sad one, but there it is. The weak will fall and be replaced by a new version of something terribly similar, likely after the annual mega-crossover of dubious merit.

The thing is, it won't necessarily be the stories themselves that are the let down...it'll be scheduling problems, or late artwork or the fact that only a precious few people will buy more than the first issue of any one of these titles. I mean, I WANT a good Hawkman book. I want a book about a flying Conan hitting people with history. That's just good comics right there.

But I'm a student of history. I know how this song goes, and I know how it ends. So instead of being excited because Sergeant Rock y'all!, I'm instead drawn to the more meta-textual story going on. I know that these titles won't be around long enough to get attached to, but the repercussions of this reboot? Yeah, that's going to make for interesting reading for a long time.

Evil Is Everywhere...

2011-06-10T02:00:00.000-07:00

Luckily, the Rook is here to stand in its way! The sixth volume of Barry Reese's dynamic New Pulp series THE ROOK has just been released courtesy of Pro Se Press, and it's available in electronic and print format. Head over to the Pro Se blog to read all about it! It's got some wonderful John Byrne-esque art by Anthony Castrillo and some of them there purty words by my pal Barry, so I encourage you to check it out.

Hey, Look At This...

2011-06-09T08:09:00.000-07:00

Doesn't that look awesome? That's Jim Rugg (Afrodisiac) that is. Beautiful. Want to know what's behind that sweet, sweet cover? Well, for starters, my story "Mr. Brass and the Devil's Teeth" wherein steampunk Robocop fights werewolf outlaws in Mexico. You know you want to read that, don't you? Or how about a story where Mr. Hyde (as in Dr. Jekyll and...) punches Mark Twain and tries to kidnap Teddy Roosevelt? Because, for a limited amount of time, you can get both of them. Go check it out.

Spider-'Nam '66

2011-06-08T02:11:00.000-07:00

So, you ever wonder what would have happened if Spider-Man, in dealing with all them there whatcha call realistic problems in the Sixties, got called up for the Draft? Well, Orc Stain creator James Stokoe did as you can see from this awesome fan-comic. You should definitely check it out, either at Comics Alliance or at Stokoe's site.

Return of the Revenge of the Reboot Redux

2011-06-03T04:13:00.000-07:00

So, for those of you living under a rock (or, like me, writing a book) DC Comics is once again, for the first (seventh?) time, introducing us to its universe in a 52 title wide reboot.

Color me shocked. Shocked I say! I'm perturbed, pedantic and possibly perennially puzzled about the possible pluralities of re-percussions of such a position. Only not really, because I don't actually give two shakes of Tawky Tawny's tail about the 'say hello to the new world/same as the old world (only with Jim Lee!)' thing DC has going on this go-round. I roll trade, son. And I'm a picky fellow. Starving artist, donchaknow? Limited funds. Still, let's rap on it, whatcha say?

On the one hand, taking into consideration the accompanying day-and-date electronic release, it's a fairly interesting approach for the company to take in regards to its assorted volumes of intellectual property. Releasing fifty-two titles, many of them new properties (for a given value of new-Mr. Terrific, in his current incarnation, has been around for-what?-a decade or so? More?), is a gutsy move. It's simultaneously a publicity stunt and an attempt to reinvigorate several dead-on-the-vine properties (*coughWonderWomancoughSupermancough*). Too, the day-and-date electronic release will likely see a boost in issue sales, for obvious reasons.

In the case of the former, I honestly don't think DC is expecting a big boost...they've been on the merry-go-round too long now to expect any new readers from the 'BIFF-BAM-POW! Who Still Knew They Made Comics?' school of journalism that permeates most major American media outlets that aren't the internet. And the internet (at least the bit of it concerned with comics rather than porn, politics or lulz) is more aghast than awestruck at the moment (though that could change). It might nab one or two new readers, but really it's just an exercise in covering bases.

No, for my money, it's the latter that's the really interesting bit here. Bear in mind that this isn't a full reboot in the style of the ad nauseum additions to the Crisis oeuvre. It's a select, sneaky thing. If DC's EiC is to be believed, it only affects low-selling titles (basically everything but Batman and Green Lantern at this point), which is an intriguing gambit. You simultaneously render null-and-void the more panned elements of the recent runs ('See a Man Who Can Fly...Walk.') and create that most holy of grails...the for-real, honest to God "Jumping On Point" for the mythic 'New Reader'.

Whether you believe in the beast or not, 'New Readers' are always preferable to 'Current Readers' for the simple reason that the former exist in vast, growing numbers whereas the latter is an ever-diminishing number with little variation. For DC, this is all about shifting the odds so that that potential number of new readers gets added to the shrinking number of current readers. They want to make the current reader number bigger and more stable, in other words. But to do that, they have to risk losing the current readers they already have.

It's a big gamble, but it has the potential for a lot of success. It also has the potential to blow up in DC's collective face in a variety of interesting ways. The day-and-date electronic release schedule will undercut the direct market in possibly severe ways, theoretically further weakening an already shaky set-up.

Comics retailers will need to adapt and quickly in order to stock up for a proverbial wolf winter as many comics fans go digital. If you're a retailer and you rely on pull-boxes to keep you going, now might be a good time to re-think that strategy. Then again, maybe not...after all, what do I know, right? Still, if the FLCS begins to fade off the scene, likely so too will the casual comic buyer. DC could be counting on the casual internet shopper to fill that void, but only time will tell on that score. Personally, I think that if it comes to it, it'll shake out about even.

The other hurdle is, of course, 'reboot-itis'. Nowadays a re-boot has the potential to drive away just as many readers as it attracts. For everyone who hated Superman's current direction, there's likely an equal (albeit silent) number who enjoyed it. And a reboot will only risk losing their interest. Granted that's likely a small risk as far as DC is concerned, because 'potential customers' always outweigh 'current customers' in corporate decision-making. It's not how much money you make, it's how much you could be making. This isn't a bad thing, but it's also not an especially good one, if you're a fan of bridges and not so much with the burning.

So, to sum up...it looks like on the pro column we have a fresh start and a new market to be exploited. On the con column it appears that we've got the potential collapse of a market that has sustained DC for several decades and the potential loss of customers that come with a reboot of beloved properties.

It'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out, in any event.

The Pulptress Strikes!

2011-06-01T03:37:00.000-07:00

Hey, wanna know who she is? CLICK THE LINK!

Happy Memorial Day!

2011-05-30T03:27:00.000-07:00

Friday Funnies

2011-05-27T02:32:00.000-07:00

This has been floating around for a day or two now, and while I don't find it particularly hilarious (I'll admit, I did chuckle a bit when Hawkman pulls out his script), you just might! So, here you go! Don't say I never gave you nothing...

The Directeth Approacheth

2011-05-25T02:00:00.000-07:00

Imagine It! With Your Mind!

2011-05-24T01:55:00.000-07:00

I would pay stupid amounts of sweet, sweet lucre to read (OR WRITE! Hint hint...*) a Volstagg and the Avengers series. That would be more awesome than we deserve.

* Frankly, I'd write the HELL up out of some Warriors Three if you gave me a shot...

This Man...This Emcee...This Monday

2011-05-23T01:43:00.000-07:00

Adam WarRock's new EP "THIS MAN...THIS EMCEE" is out now and available for purchase for the classy price of just five bucks! If you enjoyed last year's "THE WAR FOR INFINITY" (and why wouldn't you?) I encourage you to give "THIS MAN...THIS EMCEE" a listen! It's some sweet, sweet jazz.

&amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://adamwarrock.bandcamp.com/album/this-man-this-emcee"&amp;amp;amp;gt;This Man... This Emcee! by Adam WarRock&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt;

Fantastic Four Friday

2011-05-20T03:25:00.000-07:00

Thor Thursday

2011-05-19T03:22:00.000-07:00

WONDER-DOG WEDNESDAY!

2011-05-18T07:18:00.000-07:00

Thing Tuesday

2011-05-17T02:11:00.000-07:00