Archive for April, 2005
Cheap Marvel 64-page digests
Think of this as a companion piece to Matt’s “Marvel Essentials” post below. Via Newsarama, details on a new venture from marvel:
“In July Marvel is offering six new dollar digests to the direct market with a suggesting retail price of $1.00. These b&w, newsprint 4-7/8 x 6-9/16 are not Marvel’s standard digest format. Each volume is 64 pages and according to the publisher contains approximately three classic Marvel Comics stories, some perhaps abridged to fit the format.SPIDER-MAN: AMAZING FANTASY DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects AMAZING FANTASY #15, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1, #2FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST FAMILY DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects FANTASTIC FOUR #1-#3AVENGERS: ASSEMBLE DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects AVENGERS #1-#3SPIDER-MAN: DOCTOR OCTOPUS DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #3,#4,#5HULK: HULK SMASH DOLLAR DIGEST
Collects HULK #1-#3X-MEN: CHILDREN OF THE ATOM
Collects X-MEN #1-#3″
Not sure what the “perhaps abridged to fit the format” comment means…
Geekery, #1
My friend Andy Bennett got me thinking about this with his mercilessly stinging comments about Moon Knight a few days ago. I may not be able to interest anyone in this with the possible exception of Mr. Craig Bogart, but hopefully a few of you will chime in.
Since the appearance of Ultimate Moon Knight in Marvel’s July solicitations got me hankering for an “Essential Moon Knight” collection, I thought I would post my list of top 5 most wanted Essentials. I’ve read a lot of mixed opinions about the Essential line–people don’t like the black and white repro, people can’t read the black and white repro, the newsprint sucks, and so on. But I love them for several reasons. The first is that for around $15.00 you get 400-500 plus pages of fantastic silver age comics in a nice phonebook sized block. The second is that the black and white ain’t always great, but it does the job and frankly I think some of that old Kirby, Ditko, and Romita stuff looks GREAT even with no color. And third, these Essentials often reprint some really fun comics that might never have made it into a Marvel Masterwork or a trade paperback, like Ant-Man, Monster of Frankenstein, Tomb of Dracula, Human Torch, Supervillain Team-Up, and the upcoming Essential Defenders.
So, without further ado, here is my top 5 list of Essentials I’d love to see Marvel put out, in order.
Yes, I wrote “put out.” Heh heh.
#1-Essential Deathlok the Demolisher
#2-Essential Adam Warlock
#3-Essential Ghost Rider (although with the Nic Cage movie I think there must be something in the works for this character)
#4-Essential Moon Knight
#5-Essential Champions (could be done in one!)
So what are your dreams, if you like the Essentials?
Through the looking glass
A couple of apologies and one non-apology:
1. I deeply, deeply regret criticizing the art and story of the “Oz/Wonderland Chronicles” preview. I haven’t seen the whole thing, and I was in a bad mood when I saw the preview. It was definitely a more professional package than most of the other stuff I bought last week.
2. I kind of wish I’d used a little less heat in my comments, or done it in a slightly less public way. I sometimes forget just how public this forum is.
3. I apologize that I missed the “preview” badge. I’m not trying to insinuate I was somehow tricked into buying this. I just didn’t look that closely at it.
The truth is, I didn’t look too closely at most of the things I bought at SPACE. I spent upwards of $60 on indie comics last weekend and came home with a shopping bag full of them. I support the small press as much as I can, in terms of green American money.
At least half of my haul was stuff I’d never heard of. I bought a number of books that I frankly didn’t think I was going to enjoy. That’s how much I love this medium. I want to see as much of it as possible, and I want to see as many people do it as possible. I have nothing but respect for anyone who does something creative and puts it out there — regardless of what some guy on an Internet message board might think. That’s why I’m a little embarrassed that I publicly called out another creator.
The non-apology is this: I continue to believe $2.99 is way too much to ask for a preview. But while I appreciate Heying’s offer to refund my money, it’s not necessary. Just put out a completed project at next year’s SPACE.
The business of Marvel
From a news blurb over at ICv2:
“Marvel Enterprises was the most dramatic gainer in the annual License Magazine list of the Leading Licensors in 2004, moving from #69 in 2003 to #4 last year. The worldwide retail sales of its licensed products rose from $189 million to $4 billion. In addition to building licensing streams around its movies, Marvel plans to develop sub-brands, including Spider-Man and Friends for pre-schoolers, and Marvel Babies for infants.”
To recap:
4 billion dollars.
Marvel Babies.
The top 3 licensors, by the way, were Disney, Warner Brothers, and Nickelodeon, in that order.
(via Fanboy Rampage)
Archive of classic comic book ads
Check out this cool site. It’s a repository of tons of classic ads from the pages of comic books. Hostess ads, old Atari 2600 game ads, toy ads (sea monkeys, Evel Knievel, etc.) and other goodies.
There’s even a section featuring subscription ads for Marvel and DC comics. Cool stuff all around.
Here’s one for Mr. Kish. “To me, my board!”
Jeff Smith’s cocktail party
The Beat writes about the swanky party Scholastic threw for the launch of the color Bone graphic novels.
“BONE auteur Jeff Smith got his moment in the sunny room last night, when Scholastic, publisher of the color Bone, threw a cocktail party for Smith in their dining room, known as the Greenhouse. The place was all dolled up with Bone blow-ups and books, and after a wonderful unseasonably warm New York Spring day, it was the perfect place to unwind with a glass of chardonnay and a crab cake. In attendance, journos, booksellers, library types, and some cartoonists, including Paul Pope, Frank Miller (weathering all the hoohah, and gearing up for a trip to Cannes in a few weeks, where SIN CITY will be screening in competition), Mike Mignola, Kyle Baker and wife Liz, Dean Haspiel, Josh Neufeld, Alex Robinson and Kristin Siebecker, Mike Dawson, Dave Roman and Raina Telgemeier, whose Babysitters Club graphic novel revamp will be out next spring. Cartoon Books Vijaya Iyer and Steve Hamacher were also on the scene.”
They also post the remaining dates from Smith’s signing tour, which solicits this classy comment from a reader:
“I think it is pretty shitty that he is signing at Midtown Comics, undercutting by one day Jim Hanley’s Universe, who has been promoting Smith’s New York appearance for months.”
Comic fans. Gotta’ love ‘em.
SPACE 2005: Still crazy after all these years
The main thing that struck me at this year’s SPACE was how familiar it all seemed. I felt like I had to hunt harder for things I hadn’t seen before. I was unable to buy two comics, “Whisp” and “Arsenic Lullaby,” because I already have all their stuff.
That makes me feel good.
The best way to describe SPACE is “uneven” — the quality varies widely from table to table, even from page to page. You see good page design paired with poor rendering skill. Crackling dialogue with no pacing. Faces with no bone structure underneath, arms that don’t fit quite right into their shoulder sockets, and so on. Self-referential gags that refer to a self no one’s ever heard of.
It’s hard to find a common thread through such a diverse show, but the theme that cropped up most often was insanity. “Plastic Farm” depicts a man’s slow descent into madness, as does “An Open Place.” “Whisp” shows the nightmare world of a group of people locked in an insane asylum, addicted to a drug that lets them see the future. “Blow” was a tone poem about a baddd-ass blaxploitation hero/jazz trumpet player.
If I were to pick a second thread, it would be Jesus. In addition to his star turn in Bogart’s “Divinity Crisis” piece, the Wonderful Counselor got cloned into five G Force-style heroes in “Jesus 5,” and His cross is auctioned off on Antiques Roadshow in the new “Jape.”
The two books that sum up SPACE for me are “Happy Town” and “Dead End.” “Happy Town” depicts — well, I’m not so sure what’s going on there. “Happy Town” creates its own world and thrives in it, as do the best of the indies.
“Dead End” is about a fellow named David Stonebridge, who for some reason has a long nose and is colored blue. That’s the first problem, as the blue coloring doesn’t come off well in a black-and-white book. David has adventures with a group of offbeat superheroes called the Suicide Club, in addition to dealing with life as an Azure-American.
Each issue is 8 pages. Individually they’re not enough to grab me, but four or five at a sitting is always an enjoyable reading experience. “Dead End” just published a 25th issue, a stunning accomplishment for a small press book.
That’s the thing about SPACE. The books are short, amateurish and uneven, but patience pays off.
Blue Beetle weekly comic?
I found this link via a post on Mike Sterling’s Progressive Ruin (which has a ton of other Blue beetle links as well).
Anyway, check out this page on Steve Englehart’s website, where he briefly talks about a weekly comic that DC was planning a while back, with Blue Beetle as the feature story. The book never came to be, but Steve has artwork from one of the 4-page chapters that he wrote. And what makes it interesting is that several artists were “trying out” for the job, and so he has art for the same exact story from both Deryl Skelton and Chas Truog, side by side.
I’ve always loved seeing how different artists interpret the same exact script, and this is a good example. I just wish Steve had also included his script, so we could compare the final renderings to the original story. Still, worth checking out.
And I’d love to hear from you guys which set you liked more…
Tom Peyer’s blog
Tom is a funny, funny man. Check out this post titled “The news, explained with comic book covers,” wherein he uses old DC comic covers to make commentary on recent news events. My favorite is the Swamp Thing cover for the Britney Spears pregnancy!
Update: another post on the same topic, this one being the Justice League edition.
Random thoughts on Marvel Comics shipping in July
(note: for the full solicitations, go here.)
Ultimate Spider-man #79 and 80 debuts the ultimate universe version of Moon Knight. Based on this cover, all I can muster is “meh.”
Daredevil vs. Punisher 6-issue limited series, written and drawn by David Lapham! May be the only Marvel series I’ll be picking up this year.
The Mighty Marvel Hype Machine (TM) solicitation for G.L.A. #4 (that’s the Great Lakes Avengers, bud):
“See? We weren’t kidding. Someone DID die in GLA#1. So maybe now you’ll believe us when we tell you that this issue doesn’t just signal THE END for the GLA… but for the ENTIRE Marvel Universe as well! Hmm… Okay, maybe not the ENTIRE Marvel U…. But everybody who doesn’t have a monthly book or plans for an upcoming mini-series– all of THOSE guys could go! We mean it!
Hey, if Wolverine can kill off the Hornet and Northstar as afterthoughts, don’t think we won’t take out everybody else! Grrr!”
I usually like Kaare Andrews’ work, but his cover for Amazing Spider-man #522 is kinda…ugly. What’s up with that mask, and the sterile looking architecture? You’ll have to go look at the larger size image to see what I mean.
Daily Musings: The End
For those of you who cared about my daily musings, I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that there haven’t been any for about a week now. And this post is to make it official. I’m ending my attempt at daily musings.
I started this little self-challenge on my birthday last year, November 3rd. My goal was to “write original content every day, including weekends and holidays, for a full year. Not links to funny websites or Newsarama articles, but actual essays, personal thoughts, or simple musings. At least one every day.” And I did, with varying levels of success, for 162 consecutive days.
Yes, there were times when I missed the daily deadline and had to catch up with double posts the next day. But still, all things considered, I think I did pretty well in keeping with the spirit of the challenge.
But sometimes, life throws a lot of unexpected things at you and you find yourself in a position where you have to make some calls. I did have fun with the musings, and it was also a good learning experience in short-form writing, quick thinking, and general awareness of my daily activities. But it was also time-consuming, and at times drained away my energy from writing comics, hanging out with friends, or spending quality time with Wendy.
The last time I posted a daily musing was a week ago, about the death of the father of one of my best friends. And it made me realize that in the big picture, there were many more important things in my life than worrying about a self-challenge. So for now, it’s the end of the daily posts.
Thanks to all of you who encouraged me in this particular endeavor. And thanks to everyone who participated in fun, spirited discussions in the comments section of some of my musings. Keep on checking out the blog. We’re not going anywhere.
unrealized Moscow
“The Architecture of Moscow from the 1930s to the early 1950s. Unrealized projects.” A great collection of Soviet-era architectural plans that never came to be.
Below, the The Aeroflot Building. D.Chechulin. 1934
(via boingboing)
The Connies: SPACE 2005 edition
Early on Saturday a young woman picked up “I Love You More Than Anybody,” possibly drawn by the black heart on the cover. I saw her face fall as she read through it, dismay mounting as the pages turned. Finally she put it down with disgust and walked away. That’s why the first Connie goes to me:
* Dale Carnegie Award for achievement in winning friends and influencing people: This is a rare two-time award in this category.
* “Beds are Burning” Award for burning the Midnight Oil: Tom “Late Night” Williams, up until 2:30 a.m. putting together “Panel:Myth.”
* Captain Planet Award: Steve Black, who made sure his table was recycled by passing it along to Craig Bogart and Chad Lambert after he left.
* Amber Frey Award for best witness: Tie between Dara Naraghi, who caught the show on film, and Geoff Tolle, who’s compiling a small press archive.
* Led Zeppelin Award: Andy Bennett, who cranked it to 11 for his free-as-a-bird “Myth” cover.
* Crazy Jerry Award: Craig Bogart, who offered “Ineffables” 1-3 for the low, low price of only $1.
* Whoomp! There It Is Award for best tag-team: Matt and Ione, small press partners and excellent hosts.
* Dolemite Award: Chad Lambert, who pimped “Point Pleasant” into a sold-out run.
* Obi-Wan Kenobi Award: Dan Barlow. Although the Big Bald Kid could not be with us, he was there in spirit with Midgard Comics. Honorable Mentions: Dennis Murphy and Tim McClurg.
* Tammy Wynette Award for standing by your man: Tie between Elizabeth and Dreama. I think Elizabeth was there longer, but Dreama was carrying Lil’ Dreama.
* Heather Locklear Award for best guest appearance: Tie between Sean McGurr and Tim Fischer. The Founder swung by to see his old crew Saturday afternoon, and McGurr came down from Urbana.
* P. Diddy award for best media empire: Ray Scott. Last year he came to SPACE with nothing. This year he had four books, most of a movie, some board games and the Ghetto Coloring Book.
* Howard Dean Award: That guy who got on his table to announce the results of his raffle.
* Tenacity of the Cockroach Award: Matt Feazell, who’s apparently been doing “Cynicalman” since 1980. Twenty-five years of cynicalness? Somebody give this guy a hug. Honorable mentions: Pam Bliss, Suzanne Baumann, J. Kevin Carrier.
* Madonna Award for best transformation: Jeff Manley. His previous work dealt with a floating kiwi, zombie George Clooney and other madness. His current series, “Manley Days,” is a daily webcomic journal of married life.
* Kermit the Frog Award: Christina Wald, whose cover for the new SlamBang anthology came out an uneasy green.
* REM Award: Donovan Cater, with another fine episode of “Null & Void, Cater was once again Automatic for the People. Which is kind of ironic, if you read his comic “Why I Hate People.”
* Keep on Truckin’ Award: Jim Coon, who brought out issue No. 25 of his “Dead End” series.
* FedEx Award: “Big-Breasted Vampire Death.” Boy, did this one ever deliver. Honorable mention: “Americanjism.”
* Spoonful of Sugar Award: Mike Indovina, whose “Satyr” book brought Greek mythology to the next generation.
* Friend of Dorothy Award: “Fatal/Romantic” a collection of stories that mix manga, fantasy and androgeny. Honorable mention: “The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles.”
* George W. Bush Award: “The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles.” With its glossy exterior but empty interior, this was basically a big rip-off.