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Marvel does not support the troops
2007-08-09 09:11:00
It looks like Marvel has once again sunk into offending America again. In one of their latest crossover connected comics, Silent War #6, they depict US troops as suicide bombers:Now, in the story, a select group of soldiers who are primed and ready to die at the command of their superior are exposed to the Mists and given temporary super powers that doom them to die. These soldiers are sent to the moon to battle the Inhumans who can honestly take people who?s insides are being torn apart by energies they were never meant to have. One guy?s head pops off, at which point the soldiers surrender and are taken into custody by the Inhumans. One of these soldiers wasn?t exposed, however, and instead carried explosives.As the soldiers are escorted to holding cells, Maria Hill personally activates ?KISMET? from a control room watching the fight go down and when the soldier is on target, she doubles over, stutters out a ?God Bless America? and explodes, killing herself, the rest of her squad ...
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Crossovers are costing way too much
2007-08-09 09:02:00
Okay, I'm back in the saddle now after such hard work! Thanks also to some of my visitors for leaving me at least three things during this time that I can try and make use of. The first one is this item on Newsarama about how crossovers and "event"-driven comics are costing the buyers a considerable amount of money when you add it all up in total. For World War Hulk, it's close to $125 dollars! Readers shouldn't have to spend that much money for all these books that may turn out to be underwhelming and anti-climactic in the end.
More About: Ross , Crossovers

Eleventh Comic Book Carnival
2007-08-06 11:01:00
Welcome to the August 8, 2007 edition of the comic book carnival. I'm posting it two days early because I'm still tied up at special work for the Man, but I should soon be done. Until then, here's the latest we've got.I against Comic s presents I Own Every Single Issue of Dani Moo- er- "New Mutants" and More Steve Rude Love! posted at I Against Comics.Blogzarro presents The 20 Greatest Spider-Man Villains posted at Blogzarro.Frank Bellamy Checklist presents Marv Wolfman and Frank Bellamy posted at Frank Bellamy Checklist Blog.Hube presents Mutants, civil rights and fundamentalism posted at The Colossus of Rhodey.Kleefeld presents ComicsPro On Vairant Covers posted at Kleefeld on Comics.gameguy presents Giant Robot Storage posted at secretundergroundlair.com.Alan Smithee presents Evil Orko posted at Jamie_Cosley, saying, "From Blindwolf Studios alumni Jamie Cosley. Because we all knew Orko was evil."Rickey Henderson presents Introducing our Newest Feature: Musical Accompaniment! p...
More About: Carnival , Book , Blog Carnival , Vent

Golden and Silver Age legends at the SDCC
2007-07-30 21:04:00
Hello to all visitors! I'm still tied up with some important business, and it'll take until next for me to resume blogging, but for now, here's a story from the San Diego ComicCon featuring some great folks from the Golden & Silver Age, Allan Bellman, George Gladir, Lily Renee Phillips and also Mel Keefer, who were together with Mark Evanier on one of the panels. They were met with warm applause.
More About: Legends

May be busy for several days
2007-07-25 06:16:00
I'm going to be doing extra work within the next two weeks that may keep me away from the keyboard, so I have no idea if I'll be able to update as often as I'd like to. Stay tuned until then, and I hope I'll be able to make time to do some more write-ups within that time!
More About: Days , Busy

The Marvel stamp designer
2007-07-24 04:43:00
The San Diego Union Tribune has an interview with Carl Herrman, one of the art directors for the US Postal Service who's worked on the designing of the new Marvel stamp commemorative series and who'd also worked on the designing for DC's own stamp commemorations earlier.
More About: Stamp , Designer , Stam

Japanese comics and vocabulary
2007-07-22 17:29:00
From this article in the SGV Tribune, it sounds like Japanese manga may be ahead of American comics in some respects: they provide interesting vocabulary in their pages:Kaplan, the test-prep company, and publisher TOKYOPOP partnered on three Manga novels, released in early July, that included vocabulary words such as "exculpate," "sanctimonious," and "unfetter." The words are underlined and are defined in a box on the same page.Exactly what comic books, both for the young and old alike, can use.
More About: Comics , Vocabulary , Bula

The things that are enabling comics to be hindered today
2007-07-22 16:59:00
This is a little list of things that, IMHO, are responsible for leading to poor quality in comics today: Editors who force mandates/edicts and crossovers upon almost an entire line, which leads to a lot of "developments" that are in poor taste, and/or don't suit the characters, and are just plain implausible, adding nothing positive whatsoever. Editors who choose the writers - and artists - according to their popularity in a specific genre and with specific audiences, but not according to if they understand what makes the book work. (And if it's artists we're talking about, regardless of whether their artwork is dreadful a la Liefeld.) Writers who knee-jerkity go along with the plans of the above, which puts their devotion and dedication in doubt. Marvel zombies, and also DC zombies, who buy what they're told to by those doing the promotion, regardless of quality, and regardless of whether the assigned writers are doing a bad job, implying that they don't think for them...
More About: Comics , Today , Things , Thing

Stark differences between Marvel/DC sales again
2007-07-21 21:30:00
Once again, there's an amazing difference on display in sales, about how Marvel continues, no matter the low-ranking quality of any of their books now, to maintain [relatively] big sales, World War Hulk being the main example of the moment, whereas DC is falling way behind with a lot of their stuff just now. As Amazons Attack has shown, crossovers, at least at DC, may be starting to backfire (via Newsarama blog).A reasonable explanation for this difference, why Marvel is selling relatively well, even if it's far behind what comic sales were like up to the early 1990s, is because, simply put, they long ago succeeded in garnering a zombie base that DC never managed to maintain, whom some people tend to describe as "Marvel zombies". It may have once been a kindly phrase, but now, I've got a feeling that it could all change to something way different.This is something that's going to have to be taken issue with, about why Marvel - but also DC - zombies are undermining story quality ...
More About: Sales , Differences , Difference , Ferenc

Just what the world needs
2007-07-20 14:07:00
Scripps-Howard News Service gushes over NBM Publishing's "Treasury of Victorian Murder" and its latest entry, "The Saga of the Bloody Benders", which is set in Kansas during the 1870s. And the article really caps itself with a manhole cover when it says:One thing's for sure: If you think the serial killer is a modern phenomenon, think again. Only in the 19th century, as rendered by Geary, murder was a lot better looking.We have enough cruelty, sadism and murder galore going on in comics already as it is, and I think that enough is enough already. But the real problem here is how blatantly they sensationalize the talk of murder. Murder is NEVER a good looking act, it is one of the sickest, ugliest acts humankind can commit. That line there above is pure bottom-of-the-barrel sleaze. And that's probably the main reason why I wouldn't dare run the gauntlet of buying books like those.Nothing is good about murder. Not in fiction, nor in real life. Bleah.
More About: World , The World , Needs

Article featuring Joe Sinnott
2007-07-19 19:05:00
The Red Deer Express of Alberta, Canada, has an article about a new book by Tim Lasiuta called Brush Strokes With Greatness that does a special tribute to artist Joe Sinnott , who'd been one of Marvel's most notable artists/inkers in the past few decades, having joined in the 1950s to work with Stan Lee on the thriller comics he wrote and edited at the time, and then becoming an assistant to Jack Kirby on Fantastic Four in the Silver Age.
More About: Article , Artic , Feat , Inno

Important elements for a successful GI Joe movie
2007-07-18 15:57:00
With the success of the Transformers movie, that's doubtless what's led to a possible GI Joe movie being in the works.* And if there is to be one, then here's what's needed for it to work: It should be set in modern times. The main adversary should be Cobra. They're the most recognizable and formidable nemeses of GI Joe for many years now. Cobra should be portrayed as the terrorist gang of conquestors they are.Cobra Commander should be wearing his hooded mask with a snake on it, which makes him look appropriately evil. The filmmakers should not stray from the subject of terrorism under any circumstances, and should deal with it as meat-and-potatoes as a semi-sci-fi concept like this can. They should make sure to include Cobra's self-named battle call, because for them, it reflects their own terrorist unification perfectly. They should likewise make sure to include GI Joe's own battle call, "YO JOE!" There should be plenty of advanced weaponry on hand to see, fo...
More About: Movie , Elements , Import , Element

Red Sonja now subject of a court battle
2007-07-16 20:11:00
The female counterpart of Robert E. Howard's Conan the Barbarian, both of whom were stars in comics from Marvel for many years, is now the subject of a court battle in Delaware over who gets the rights to ownership of the merchandise and revenue. The article also gives a little history over how the She-Devil with a Sword came to be:The lawsuit was filed in April 2006 by Red Sonja LLC, shortly after Paradox Entertainment issued a news release announcing it had completed a deal with Howard's estate to acquire the rights to all of Howard's work, including Red Sonya with a "y."That Red Sonya appeared in the single 1930s short story "Shadow of the Vulture," in which she is described as "a tall, Russian warrior woman who carries a saber, a dagger and two pistols," and who lived in Vienna in the 16th century and fought invading Turks....According to court papers, the birth of Red Sonja with a "j" came around 1973, when one of the authors of Conan the Barbarian comic books was looking ...
More About: Battle , Court , Subject

Another mainstream goof-off
2007-07-16 06:07:00
This article from the Post Star of Saratoga Springs about two brothers hosting the city's first comics convention might've had something going for it, until towards the end, as I realized, it took a turn into the superficial, and blows like a flat tire:Carrara, of Greenfield Center, said he thinks people like comics because they are "fast-paced, have identifiable characters and they can be filled with timely, relevant information or they can be the exact opposite and provide an escape."With all of these powers combined, Carrara said, comics are becoming increasingly mainstream.Even Captain America's funeral was prominently featured in mainstream media outlets such as USA Today, he said.Oops, once again, it sounds to me like a case of publicity at any cost. Another letdown is that it doesn't ask if current offerings are as good as what was put out years before. And thanks to that, the article falls flat on its face and has no impact by me.Besides, isn't USA Today's own news cov...
More About: Mains

Superheroes as society's mirror
2007-07-14 20:12:00
The New York Times (registration may be required) would like us to think that the way a new exhibition on the evolution of superheroes at Montclair Art Museum is being displayed does reflect society, I'm sure, but, the following parts really cast a shadow of a doubt over just how honest this exhibition is:The show is about as up-to-the-minute as a comics fan could hope. It begins with the birth of Superman in June 1938 and ends with the death of Captain America in March 2007.Boy, putting that on display has got to be reason enough not to go visit! Because if that's what they're going to consider "art" then something's got to be wrong here.More recent developments continue to underline how superheroes reflect political realities, whether it?s the Justice League?s questioning President Lex Luthor?s decision to invade the fictional nation of Qurac in 2003 or the continuing schism among Marvel?s heroes after being ordered to register their identities and abilities with the governmen...
More About: Mirror , Superheroes

Mark Waid may have set the path for Flash ruin?
2007-07-13 07:35:00
In this replies to this preview for All-Flash #1, I made a discovery via one of the replies that tells that Mark Waid may have led to the Rogues' tarnishing:Back during Waid's run, he killed the Rogues off once, restored them when Rogue Fandom begged the point, then inactivated them all with the Replicant storyline. In interviews he was always vocal about not feeling the Rogue's Gallery was a worthwhile enemy for Wally.Waid's use of the Rogues Gallery during his run was certainly minimal, and this could explain why. But while it's not like William Messner-Loebs used them much either, he didn't disrespect them. Here's an example of an early form of writer's disdain for what made a book like this entertaining when it first began.Waid may not have tarnished the Rogues, but he certainly may have set the path to its happening.Is Rogue Fandom going to beg the point again? Come to think of it, is Impulse fandom going to do something similar?
More About: Ruin , Lash , Path

Rob Liefeld is just like Kenny on South Park
2007-07-12 20:27:00
He just keeps on coming back, this latest time for a revival of Youngblood, one of the first things Image Comics published when he co-founded them. But then, part of the reason for that is because, strangely enough, he seems to have some kind of an eerie following that's willing to shell out their money for his awful penciling. Fortunately, I'm not fool enough to be one of that gullible bunch.Update: almost forgot, but, surely for Image, this isn't doubling back on some of the pointless tripe they were trying to move away from after a couple years? Apparently, they figured that, with the inexplicable following Liefeld seems to have, it now makes little difference.
More About: South Park , Park , South , Kenny , Like

DC's new Zuda website
2007-07-10 23:32:00
This has been spoken about for a few days now about how DC is launching a website called Zudacomics whose purpose is to look for new talent, here being in webcomics.It's certainly an interesting idea, but, why not search for talent in scriptwriting for their own mainline of books, done by people who can understand what it takes to make the characters work, and who've got more respect for them than today's own writers? Oh, right, because of how they're deliberately limiting themselves to all but a few select writers, that's why.
More About: Website

Don't forget the villifications, bud
2007-07-09 21:45:00
Interesting to see that the comics columnist of the Colorado Springs Gazette actually agrees with those who find repetitive deaths horrid:I agree with those fans who say, enough is enough. Sure, death doesn?t stick a lot of times in comics. Even so, I?m getting tired of DC bumping off characters. Every character, after all, is someone?s favorite. And the drama seeps away when death becomes routine. Live and let live, I say.Maybe his saying so is better late than never, but that won't excuse him of his dishonesty and sugarcoating the whole affair in Identity Crisis three years ago. In fact, is he sorry for how dishonest he was when he pulled that dumb stunt? Otherwise, what's his justification for saying he's in agreement over pointless deaths?And I do wonder if he would also agree with anyone who finds cheap and sensationalized villification of veteran characters like Jean Loring, instead of offering them new development as cast members of their respective universes, terrible. Ot...
More About: The V , Forge

Graphic novels may be an opportunity for booksellers, but not if they're ma
2007-07-08 19:29:00
24-7 PressRelease publishes an article about how graphic novels could be an "explosive opportunity" for booksellers. Unfortunately, they send their whole arguement here down in flames with the following:Subject matter of the new genre runs the gamut from adult titles like Fun Home or Mom's Cancer to teen reads like American Born Chinese and Identity Crisis.Well well well, what a clever attempt at disguise - not! American Born Chinese may be a title suitable for teen/family, but Identity Crisis is only for the most perverted adults with a mind like a teenager. Putting a grisly book alongside one that's for the family and trying to pass it off as a teen book is dishonest and disgraceful.Another disgraceful mainstream article that does little more than to mislead the public, and families.
More About: Novels , Opportunity , Graphic Novels , Graphic , Unity

Comics for adults
2007-07-08 18:37:00
Here's an article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch about comics aimed at adults, at least one that's published by Fantagraphics.
More About: Comics

But what about the fictional ladies?
2007-07-08 07:38:00
The Colorado Springs Gazette spoke with Louise Simonson, who'd spent at least two decades as a writer in the field, about DC Comics Covergirls, which she's an editor of, but I can't help but wonder if some of what she says here is being used by the newspaper as a superficial apology for what misogyny exists there today. At the end of the article:Just as superhero comics appeal largely to male readers, they?re also created largely by men. But Simonson, who now focuses most of her attention on writing children?s books, said she never felt out of place in comics.?Back when I was working on Superman, we were treated as a team. I don?t think I was treated any different from the guys.?But what about the women of the DC Universe? And the Marvel Universe? Any woman who'd worked in the comics medium over the years could surely be diplomatic for the sake of good relations with otherwise appalling people, or the writer, whom I'm not forgetting glossed over Identity Crisis, chose to water ...
More About: Ladies , Dies , Adie

Student Operated Press talks about DC's women, but is far from accurate
2007-07-07 23:18:00
Here's an article from the Student Operated Press that discusses DC's femmes. It may make a point about how many girls are treated as expendable compared to their male counterparts, but, there's still a lot of shortcomings in here. One example: it talks about howThere have been 5 Green Lanterns of Earth--- none of them female.That's not entirely true. Jade, daughter of Alan Scott, while her power is more metaphysical unlike her male counterparts, is still in some ways a GL, but she was offed by an uncaring editorial. And while there may not have been more female Lanterns on earth besides her, there have been a few alien members of the GL Corps such as Katma Tui, who was slain by Star Sapphire in 1988, and Arisia, who's luckier to have been brought back. Surely they don't count?Overall, it's a very iffy article that shows that even some student newspapers don't exactly have a full grasp on all the details about comic books. And why is this page built using a frameset for the ...
More About: Women , Rate , Accu

Under Straczynski, Mighty Thor could become a mighty bore
2007-07-06 12:23:00
But of course, it's not like Scripps-Howard News Service, in all their fluff-coatedness, are going to admit that it's possible. J. Michael Straczynski is writing the latest Thor relaunch, but his work on Fantastic Four was so awful that it wouldn't surprise me if his work here were just as underwhelming, if not more so. His "Sins Past" story in Spider-Man was so bad it needs no further mention.As for Thor, seems they've made a costume alteration here:Thor's outfit has been altered a bit, thanks to writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Olivier Coipel. Simons describes the new look as "warrior's garb -- something that a warrior might wear into battle."Coipel added, "JMS wanted something closer to the 'Lord of the Rings' designs, without getting too far away from the classic costume. So I interpreted it as something not too 'superhero,' but more 'heroic fantasy.'"Even if it's not too far removed from Thor's classical outfit, that doesn't mean it's good. What if the b...
More About: Under , Trac , Mighty

I wonder if we'll be seeing more like this?
2007-07-05 09:07:00
In Teen Titans #47, we're treated to an oh-so colorful scene of Robin bashing Jason Todd in the groin. Of course it's not like this hasn't happened before in comic books, but this, with the accompanying sound effect word ("boof") seems incredibly tacky and superfluous. Jason may be a jerk, but if he's not literally a crook, then what's the justification here? I thought the idea of bringing him back was so that they could improve him as a character. Guess I, and anyone who thought so before, were wrong.No matter what age group is reading books like this, the above is not something we need to see, and leaves me feeling frankly insulted, since it's like they're trying to bombard me with yet more shock tactics. Ick.
More About: Like , I Wonder

Happy 4th of July
2007-07-04 17:13:00
Today is the Fourth of July , and I'd like to wish everyone a happy and joyous celebration!
More About: Happy

If Supergirl #20-21 are crossover tie-ins, it may be ill-advised to buy the
2007-07-03 12:13:00
Almost two months ago, when it was told that Tony Bedard was going to be the writer for Supergirl , that alone did seem like great news, didn't it? But what wasn't clear to me at the time was just how many he'd be writing. I did a search and found that Bedard went onto CBR's board and said it'd be three issues. And to make matters worse, I noticed that issue #20 and issue #21 were connected to two crossovers, Amazons Attack and Countdown. Then I started to frown.I know that some out there were surely excited by the news, but if this is how it's going to be, then that's why I suspect now that this may be a very cleverly orchestrated trick: buy an acclaimed writer's work but at the price of its being part of a crossover!Well that's why now I'm starting to feel dismayed, and if I were you, Superfans, I'd suggest holding back from buying those issues due to their crossover status, certainly because one of them is part of an awful x-over like Amazons Attack. I think I can see w...
More About: Crossover , Ross

We don't need more Eclipso
2007-07-03 09:50:00
It would seem as though DC is continuing to depict Jean Loring as an Eclipso-possessed villainess, in Countdown #43. If so, that's another reason why not to get the book. Once again, I'm disgusted.And the writer who did that one at the Pulse and said that Day of Vengeance is "pretty good" should be ashamed of himself. He is no true fan of DC Comics, IMO.
More About: Ipso

Revivals in name only
2007-07-02 09:37:00
A few months ago, I read some news that DC is going to launch a new series of Infinity Inc (there's a bit about it over here) that's got little to nothing to do with the original Justice Society spinoff, but instead stars some minor characters who never really appealed to me to begin with. And that sums up a problem with some recent items they've done: they've got little to nothing to do with the original series.The first example could be their recent miniseries of the Secret Six. When the strikeforce by that name first appeared in 1968, in a brief series written by E. Nelson Bridwell, they were a bunch of covert spy-like operatives led by a leader whose codename was Mockingbird. And while they may have been set in the DCU, they skirted around a lot of the sci-fi elements you'd find in other series, and were more stand-alone and independent as a concept. The concept was revived in Action Comics Weekly in 1988, with a new team introduced that was initally led by one of the older...
More About: Viva , Revival

Marvel's latest marketing trick
2007-07-01 19:10:00
They're going to publish Amazing Spider-Man almost weekly, while doing away with two other titles (Sensational and Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man). Augie DeBlieck says that:Marvel is making THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN into a book that publishes three times a month, while doing away with the other two monthly Spider-Man titles.You're not overthinking it to believe that this is mostly a cheap publishing stunt. I don't mean "cheap" in a condescending way. I mean it in a very real way: it won't cost Marvel any more to keep the same number of creators around to produce the same number of books each month. In the end, slapping the same title on the cover of each book is a big win for their bottom line.Marvel will sell more comics, overall. I'm sure they're working on a way to divide the work and the continuity so that the book flows seamlessly from one story to the next. They're going to make a show of NOT just printing three books a month in a seemingly-random order with the same tit...
More About: Marketing , Trick , Late