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Green Lantern Corps Annual #2: a trio of great stories
2007-04-01 16:42:00
Here's another item from within my collection I'm going to write about, this one the Green Lantern Corps Annual #2 from 1986, which features a trio of short stories told by 3-4 different writers.The book begins with Steve Englehart's framework story featuring Sinestro in jail on Oa, which at the time was turned into a prison planet where intergalactic criminals could be kept. He's trying to make it seem as if he's got connections to some kind of space-lord out there, and that by telling some great stories, he can win a get-out-of-jail-free card. All the other convicts on his cell block are mighty annoyed by him, but along he goes and proceeds to tell a couple of short stories about occurances in the history of the GL Corps.We first start with one written by Mindy Newell, about a Han Solo-like soldier of fortune named Penn Maricc hanging out in one of these intergalactic bars who's approached by mysterious figures who ask of him to undertake the daring mission of rescuing an al...
More About: Stories , Great , Stor , Tori

Another astute observation on how Capt. America "ended"
2007-03-10 18:31:00
I hadn't noted this previously, but in Peter Sanderson's latest op-ed on Quick Stop Entertainment, he makes a good point about how Cap "ended" his career in defeat:The end of Civil War, in which Captain America decides he is wrong for fighting for the freedom of his fellow superheroes, and an already infamous Civil War: Frontline sequence in which a woman self-righteously denounces the Captain for knowing nothing about America since he doesn?t waste time on YouTube (Say what? I would think Cap keeps himself rather busy continually saving the lives of this woman and other Americans over the course of his career. This woman?s attitude smacks of ageism. This suggests that 21st century Marvel regards the original Captain as a dated character. ??He hasn't been living in the modern world and the world does move," says Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada.? in the CNN report.And here I think of Captain America as representing American ideals, which have endured for over two hundred years,...
More About: Another , Astute

Dan Buckley sounds like he's parroting DC's excuses
2007-03-04 18:30:00
The New York Sun has an article about NY's ComicCon, that tells a bit about the problems comic books have sunk into, and which does tell something that's more or less on the mark (Hat tip: The Beat blog, which also mentions the Mercury News article I looked at earlier):Video games and movies are being launched at the Con and the guests of honor include Stephen Colbert, Stephen King, and Wes Craven, but comic books are the main event, specifically superhero comics published by Marvel (weighing in with 44% of the marketplace) and DC (weighing in with 34%). How do two companies control such an enormous slice of the pie? By bumming everyone out. In recent years, Spider-Man has killed Mary Jane with his carcinogenic spidersperm. Batman has become a single parent. Captain America and Iron Man are hashing out national security issues by hitting each other in the face while rounding up unregistered superheroes and sending them to a Gitmo-style prison camp after a superpowered September 11...
More About: Sounds , Parrot , Excuse , Like , Excuses

Edgier material may boost publisher's revenue today, but endangers future o
2007-03-01 10:09:00
The San Jose Mercury News talks about a comics store manager whose clients have gotten older as the past two decades have gone by, and also about the creeping violence that's running the risk of keeping the younger crowd out. Unfortunately, it also runs the risk of sensationalizing:In 1989, the average age of a customer at Joe Field's comic book store in Concord was 18.Today , it's almost 30. Moreover, Field estimates that buyers under 18 account for less than 20 percent of his sales.Field's experience at his shop, Flying Colors Comics, is anything but unique. The comics business has learned to survive and grow by appealing to adults instead of kids. And that has opened the door to increasingly mature and edgy material, some of it within famously mainstream comics.In recent years, for example, many DC Comics stories featuring Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman have been influenced by the 2004 "Identity Crisis'' miniseries, whose unsettling plot included the rape of another super...
More About: Future , Mate , Danger , Revenue

Capt. Carrot reappears again in miniseries
2007-02-28 14:29:00
I see that Dan DiDio has decided bring Captain Carro t and his Amazing Zoo Crew back again, in a miniseries that'll be released in another few months.I have only to hope that this'll be better than what Geoff Johns did a little over a year ago in the pages of Teen Titans when he exploited the Zoo Crew for a pathetic "commentary" on the state of comics today while continuing to wallow in it himself.
More About: Again , Pears , Ears

Too many recruitments from Hollywood has led to lateness
2007-02-26 13:27:00
The Star Ledger's website in New Jersey has a brief item about Wonder Woman #4 Vol. 3 that's coming out...yep, belatedly, and that's what's in discussion here:Over the past few years, comic book publishers have been falling over themselves to enlist Holl ywood talent to write their books. Both Marvel and DC have signed up their fair share of screenwriters, TV producers and film directors, most of the time with positive creative results. The one drawback to these relationships, especially with this week's "Wonder Woman," is chronic lateness.Allan Heinberg is a busy man. While executive producing the hit show "Grey's Anatomy," he's been trying to, unsuccessfully, write a monthly issue of "Wonder Woman." While he had a few lateness issues on his last book, "Young Avengers," it was nothing compared to the near glacial pace of his current "Wonder Woman" run. Since relaunching the book in June 2006, Heinberg has only managed to turn out four issues, the most recent of which hit stan...
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Geoff Johns continues to overload on violence
2007-02-19 21:39:00
This week, we make the discovery that, in re-launching JSA as a full title with a boolean included, Geoff Johns is undermining the entertainment value with plots that feature more increasingly violent assaults and murders. And while neo-nazis like the ones featured in issue #3 are some of the worst villains around, that still doesn't mean that we need to see a mother and child being sent to the great reward in a sea of red juice. Bloodletting certainly isn't needed in order to prove that the villains are the cannibals they are.This also brings me to note something I noticed in some of the Johns-scripted books I've read. As the Savage Critics blog says:*As the non-maimy parts of this book show, Johns has a good handle on characterization and the clever hook. But I kinda doubt he'll ever really develop those traits to any significant extent now because this is the kind of stuff that keeps him at the top of the charts.I think they've hit upon something there. For example, it was s...
More About: Violence , Over , Load

An anti-Semitic and racist comic book in Korea
2007-02-12 13:34:00
One Free Korea reports about the Simon Wiesenthal Center's research on a Judeophobic and racist comic book called "Monnara Iunnara". The North end of Korea may be where this kind of prejudice mainly stems from, but even the South end has problems with racism too. The blogmaster for OFK, who's familiar with some of the Wiesenthal staff, presents the press release rightfully slamming the abominable book right here:We were shocked to recently learn that a book from your very successful series, Monnara lunnara by Professor Lee Won-Bak is replete with classic hateful and dangerous antisemitic caricatures and themes. For your information I am inclosing a few of the most notorious, for they echo Nazi canards like those found in Der Sturmer and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion by recycling various Jewish conspiracies like Jewish control of the media and money, Jews profiting from war, and even the alleged reason for the 9/11 attacks was that, ?Jews use money and the media as weapons in...
More About: Comic , Book , Semi , Racist

I'm going to switch to the new Blogger mode soon
2007-02-02 16:15:01
I realized that in time, it would have to be done, and so soon, I'm going to switch to the new, updated Blog ger version soon that uses tags and various other more advanced features.I certainly hope that, when I make the switch to the new mode, that it'll turn out well. I know that there are some people who've experienced errors and such on their blogs when switching before being able to get things sorted out properly again. So, here's to hoping that I'll be able to manage the switch when I do it.
More About: Mode , The N , Switch

Thanks for ruining the Flash, DC
2007-02-02 16:15:01
Here's the analysis of monthly sales from The Beat that I'd wanted to look at earlier, and it tells that my favorite DC comics character, the Flash , has really suffered thanks to the steps they took that I never asked for:Sales are still dropping like a stone. This is probably the most spectacular failure we?ve seen in the direct market in recent years, in terms of relaunches. DC seem to be terribly embarrassed by it; instead of following the handbook and trying to downplay and sugar-coat the book?s abysmal performance, they don?t even dare to mention it in their state-of-the-union interviews.And I'm angry. When did I ever ask for Wally West to be replaced with a rendered-unrecognizable Bart Allen? I. did. not. And I wouldn't be surprised if plenty of other people didn't either, and were rightfully disappointed that Geoff Johns would not only end his run on it, but that the previous volume would end too, as if this had all of a sudden become one of those personal vanity series ...
More About: Ruin , Thanks , Lash , The Flash

Fifth carnival edition
2007-02-02 16:15:01
Welcome to the Feb 5, 2007 edition of the comic book carnival. I'm posting it all a few days early again, partly because on Tuesday, I'll be in another town for hours. So now, here's the latest entries.Brohans presents VIDEOS: Two X-Men Cartoon Intros: Guess Which One Is German. I Bet You Can?t. posted at Brohans Video Blog. "X-Men videos"Charles Rollo presents Is anyone normal? posted at Poochy Noodles.Hube presents The Marvel Encyclopedia: Proof that proofreading is a lost art?? posted at The COLOSSUS OF RHODEY.Jason presents Which Super Hero are You Most Like ?? posted at Random Super Heroes.Elvis D presents Extreme Close-Up - 10 Thrillpill posted at Thrillpill.Joel presents What'd Batgirl Do in the Great WWIII? posted at I Against Comics.Mel Odom presents DVD Review: The Invincible Iron Man posted at Blogcritics. This is an animated movie based on Shell-Head.Photon Torpedoes presents 1970s-era Marvel House Ads posted at Photon Torpedoes.That concludes this edition. Submi...
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Wanted: new editors for DC Comics
2007-02-02 16:15:01
Lots of chatter on several weblogs over this press release by Eddie Berganza, in which he drops the ball in his appeal for a female audience for Supergirl. I'll pinpoint a few of his nosedives:When Joe Kelly took over fully with issue #9, we discussed the many paths we could take Kara in. Jeph Loeb with the incomparable Mike Turner had already created the buzz, and Greg Rucka kept your attention during his all too short run. What could Joe do? After a very serious conference call that involved Joe, our amazing penciller Ian Churchill, and my then Assistant Edit or Jeanine Schaefer (she was pivotal in giving us a woman's point of view on the character?like, can Supergirl gain some weight, please?), it was decided to have Kara just try to be a real teenager. No standard hero on patrol bit here. We were gonna make Kara a typical teenager, which meant she wouldn't listen to the grownups (in her case a guy named Kal) and wouldn't appreciate being given chores (killing Kal for her dad,...
More About: Comic , Comics , Editors , Want

We could do without this cliffhanger, really
2007-01-30 16:13:03
The Syracuse Post-Standard does its bad bit to sensationalize and certainly to sugarcoat the news about Civil War, here being about Spider-Man:Boy, Peter Parker (aka: Spider-Man ... but you knew that) just can't catch a break. First, just as he gets a little respect and security by joining up with the Avengers, he gets himself in a heap of trouble by becoming the poster boy for the government's Superhero Registration Act. As such, he's talked into revealing his secret identity to the public at a special pro-registration press conference. "Amazing Spider-Man No. 537," Marvel Comics; $2.99. Needless to say, this grand gesture, designed to inspire the undecided to come and join the team, results in Peter's personal life to be thrown into chaos. Forget about his day job as a high school teacher. No parent wants their child to attend a class where a vengeance-seeking super villain might break in and audit at any time. As for his Aunt May and his wife, M.J.? Let's just say that they...
More About: With , This , Anger , Real , Cliff

JMS insults the French on his way out from Fantastic Four
2007-01-30 16:13:03
Fantastic Four #541 is J. Michael Straczynski's last issue on the series, and having taken the time to read up about the story setup (and even to obtain a couple of panels), I hate to say, but, anyone who thinks that JMS has shown any real affection for the French is sadly mistaken. First though, let's take a look at the following couple of panels:What we have here is a case of Ben being confronted by the IRS, acting on behalf of the government over Ben's opposition to the hero registration act in Civil War by confiscating the fortune he made several issues earlier, but which, while explored in the recent, short-lived solo book he had, was never given much attention in the FF afterwards. And while Ben may have said that he was against this policy which was written as an attack on US government policy in real life, they cannot freeze his assets unless he actually did commit a crime. Nice going there, JMS, trying to paint a picture of the US government as an evil entity that acts d...
More About: Fantastic Four , The French , Insults

Frank Miller scores again on NPR
2007-01-30 16:13:03
Little Green Footballs has an audio recording of Fran k Miller 's newest commentary on NPR (Hat tip: Hot Air). And I'm glad to have bought the first of three trade compilations of his work on Daredevil from the early 1980s.Rob at Say Anything blog has some more thoughts on Miller.
More About: Rank , Core , Again

DC's World War III appears to be just another kill-fest
2007-01-27 04:10:05
I think we can all do ourselved a favor and not waste time upon this latest crossover-style farrago, because that's what I intend to do:Tomasi and Siglain further indicated that World War I II would be a ?continuity-changing event for a lot of characters,? and that it will have a life-changing effect on one major DC character in particular. They couldn?t reveal which major character?s life would undergo such monumental changes other than that it would not be Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman. They did say, though, that fans should expect many characters to kick the bucket during World War III.Sorry, but if that's all they can think of doing, then no sale. The "golden calf of death" is not something we need to have more of.
More About: Other , Just

Firestorm, The Political Man
2007-01-26 04:10:04
In the now cancelled series featuring the "new" Fire storm, the writer, Stuart Moore, injected an anti-war advertisement in the 30th issue. From Comic Glutton, here's an excerpt of the speech:When my father was young, they had a saying: "Never trust anyone over thirty." It sounds silly ? but it was a very serious response to the times. Back then, a group of older men had a stranglehold on the federal government...Today, a new group of men controls all the branches of the federal government. Men of power ... They lie to us about weapons of mass destruction. They ruin crucial government agencies with shameless cronyism, then watch as our cities flood and die. They preach morality while they steal our jobs and bankrupt our future, little by little ? all the while grabbing more and more money for themselves.Sigh. Again, another anti-war clown who won't look at any of the revelations that were made. It's been at least four years now, and still, we have writers who live in astounding st...
More About: Political , Politica , Storm , Stor

Masters of American Comics Exhibition through the eyes of a fan
2007-01-26 04:10:04
Here's an article by an attendant of the NY Jewish Museum's Masters of America n Comic s exhibition, which runs until next week.
More About: Eyes , Comics , American

What if future Marvel and DC output resembles that of 52?
2007-01-22 16:07:03
Tim O'Neil at The Hurting predicts that in the future, mainline Marvel and DC could end up resembling the weekly 52 series more than anything else, replete with gratutious storytelling. He's right to be concerned; I'm wondering if there could be a superfluous amount of crossovers that'll be hitting the audience. There certainly are more than a few "event" comics being hurled at us, most of which aren't worth the paper they were printed on, and which decidedly need to be avoided as well. Otherwise, the road to redeption will be made longer.
More About: Future , What , Hat , What If

Comic book class
2007-01-22 16:07:03
The Miami Herald talks about a fourth/fifth grade teacher who runs a class on writing and crafting stories about comic book heroes.
More About: Comic , Book , Class , Comic Book

Finally! JMS is leaving Spider-Man at last
2007-01-22 16:07:03
Man, I almost missed this news, but now that I have it available, I feel quite relieved. J. Michael Straczynski is leaving Amazing Spider-Man (link via Spider-Man Crawl Space forum):I've seen reports that the latest Wizard magazine mentioned that you're leaving Amazing Spider-Man this coming year. Is that true?I've been giving it a lot of thought, and what I've enjoyed writing the most for Marvel have been the special projects, like Bullet Points, the new one I'm writing, and I'm most especially happy with how Thor is going. So I finally felt that the best thing I could do would be to devote myself almost entirely to those projects...come up with really cool 6, 12 or 18 issue special projects, in or out of ongoing titles, or reviving titles, and keep Thor my own monthly mainstream Marvel book, so I can give all of those the proper amount of attention.The cool thing about this is that I get to play anywhere I want in the Marvel universe, I can tell whatever stories I want witho...
More About: Pide , Last , Spider man , Final

Proving, if anything, that they're still unwilling to stop s
2007-01-16 16:00:04
Proving, if anything, that they're still unwilling to stop short-changing people's wallets. This entry from Newsarama talks about at least four one-shots that may lead up to the umpteenth crossover, called - guess what? - World War Three!As hinted at ? heavily ? in the weekly 52 series (and seen briefly in Justice Society #1), sometime before the 52 ends, World War III will shake the world. Actually, the date for the war is pretty specific ? it will occur in Week 50 of 52.But ? war is big and messy. As such, it sometimes can?t be contained to one series or one issue. To get the larger picture of the war, DC has confirmed for Newsarama that there will be four one shots shipping during Week 50 as well, all tied to the events of World War III.Big, messy, and doubtless expensive too, and may even be as underwhelming as countless other crossovers of yore. Perhaps that's the reason why I'd rather refrain.It does say here though that,Along with telling of the war, and how it rages thro...
More About: Hat , They , Stop , Stil , Will

Here's another gem from my collection that I'll write about,
2007-01-15 15:59:03
Here's another gem from my collection that I'll write about, that being the tenth issue of the fondly remembered West Coast Avengers, spinoff of the Mighty A's series over on the east coast, when Ben Grimm, aka the ever lovin' blue eyed Thing, almost joined the team in California during the time he was estranged from the rest of the Fantastic Four in the mid-80s.So, we begin with the scene where Ben is taking pictures with Hawkeye and a few of the others who made up the WCA roster at the time, as Clint Barton and his then wife Bobbi Morse, aka Mockingbird, were looking for at least one more member to fill the space within a limit that had been imposed by the government at the time, where only as many as six superheroes could be part of the Avengers teams at the time (Firebird, who'd been with them a short time, had to depart). With Ben Grimm hanging out in Los Angeles at the time as part of a wrestling arena that the second Ms. Marvel, Sharon Ventura, was also involved with, Ha...
More About: Other , Write , Hat , About , Here

Another really silly comics article from Scripps-Howard News
2007-01-15 15:59:03
Another really silly comics article from Scripps-Howard News Service that's just simply lame:Let's note for the record that Marvel is not sending out press releases alerting us the gi-humongous crossover storyline holding up virtually every title has been delayed again. The final issue of "Civil War," which was originally scheduled for November and then January, now won't appear until February. Probably.In the meantime, there's plenty of "Civil War" to go around, including "Civil War: The Return" (probably of Thor) No. 1, "Black Panther" No. 24 (where T'Challa joins Captain America's guerrillas), "Blade" No. 5 (featuring Wolverine) and "Punisher War Journal" No. 3 (Punny vs. Cap). Not to mention "Ultimate Civil War Spider-Ham Crisis (featuring Wolver-Ham)" (all titles $2.99), in which Marvel parodies its own story with anthropomorphic animals subbing for the usual heroes.So let's see, the finale to this utterly worthless crossover has been delayed (they seem to refrain from b...
More About: Comic , Comics , Article , Other

The Express-Times sensationalizes Marvel's villification of
2007-01-12 15:57:02
As if the MSM's dumbing-down of their coverage of Civil War couldn't get any worse, now I have to discover that the New Jersey Express-Time s has glorified Marvel 's villification of Shell-Head:Best Villain: Iron ManAt the start of Marvel's ''Civil War,'' Iron Man vows to bring in Captain America and any other hero who joins his crusade -- no matter the cost.To prove his determination, he uses a Thor clone to kill Goliath, builds a prison in the Negative Zone for any unregistered hero and uses a guilt trip to trick Spider-man into unmasking on national television to show support for the registration act -- only to attack him when he decides he's on the wrong side.Marvel is going to have a hard time redeeming this one-time hero.And the worst part here is that they make it all sound good. Absolutely disgusting.
More About: Cat , Press , Times

Amazing Marvel Universe
2007-01-12 15:57:02
The Wilson County News of Texas has a brief article about a new audio book, Stan Lee's Amazing Marvel Univ erse , which Roy Thomas helped put together.
More About: Verse

The Fourth Comic Book Carnival
2007-01-03 03:48:02
Welcome to the January 5, 2007 edition of the comic book carnival. Let's see what entries we've got here for this month.Gavin Smith presents LAGWAFIS posted at Tempus Fugitive.sphacelate presents Comic books and Sci-fi, Hobbies that make you a more well rounded person. posted at Frankipedia.makingourway presents makingourway: My Comic Pile mycomicpile.com posted at makingourway. A posting discussing www.mycomicpile.com as a location for tracking your comic collection / inventory.Frederick Meekins presents A Review Of "Superman In The Eighties" posted at American WorldView Alert - A Townhall.com user blog.Joel Bryan presents Avengers #195: A Really Old Comic Review! posted at I Against Comics.J.K Carrier presents jkcarrier: The Avengers Project - Vol. 1 No. 8 posted at Fantasy Theater. Some history on the first appearance of Kang the Conqueror in the pages of the Avengers.That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition ofthe comic book carnivalusing ourca...
More About: Carnival , Book , Four , Comic Book

Was there that much of a score for comics this year?
2007-01-02 03:48:01
Despite what Scripps-Howard says, I can't say there was much of anything to crow over this year. And yet, they seem to think so. The latter part in this item, about crossover mania, is what really makes me groan:At both Marvel and DC, the big publishers who between them publish about 90 percent of American comics, the year was dominated by two major crossovers - stories that "crossed over" into virtually every title.At DC Comic s, the "Infinite Crisis" miniseries leaped all of the publisher's superhero series one year into the future, where readers were introduced (in many cases) to surprising new status quos, like Catwoman as a mother and Green Arrow as the mayor of Star City.That missing year, in the meantime, is being explored in the weekly series "52" - yes, a weekly series, which alone makes it big news. Weekly comics are a near impossibility, but DC is managing it with multiple artists and four writers. And so far, they haven't blown a single deadline.But does that alone mak...
More About: Comics , Hat , This , Core

Bendis bewilders
2007-01-02 03:48:01
After reading this synopsis of New Avengers #26, I'm hard-pressed to figure out: what's so great about Brian Michael Bend i s? The story sounds insulting to the intellect.That's another reason why a writer who truly understands what it is that makes the Earth's Mightiest Heroes is sorely needed, and Bendis needs to be taken off the title. Clearly, he is overrated.
More About: Wild , Wilde

Greg Rucka loses credibility
2007-01-02 03:48:01
Another little thing that almost escapes one's notice, but now, Greg Rucka , in this bizarre interview he gave to Newsarama along with editor Stephen Wacker last August, has shown why he may not be worth any decent person's time. It's what he says in the responses inserted within the same paragraph as the interviewer's, which I made sure to identify as best as possible:4) Re: Booster. Why are you messing with the JLI fans so much? (Greg Rucka: Because you make it so easy?.) I guess I should've realized that once Ted got his brains blown out it was all over. (Greg Rucka: Oh, come now?there are plenty of ?em left for us to kill. Really, give us a little more credit.) Anyway, when this is all done, can we finally get a Blue & Gold mini by Giffen & DeMatteis?Whoops! Looks like Rucka doesn't want real fandom, does he? And I guess he's only in this for the money. Certainly not the glory.I may own a little of his work, but after this, I certainly won't be in any hurry to get a...
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