Archive for February, 2006
What I Fear I’ll See at the New York ComicCon This Saturday
Francesco Marciuliano, who writes the Sally Forth comic strip, lists his fears here. Nothing new to us comic geeks. What I liked more was his response to whether he’s appearing as a guest, or just a fan:
“I’ll just be wandering the floor with Carol and our friend Corey (he of “Barkeater Lake”). King Features saves the booth appearances for their big guns, like the creator of “Andy Capp” frozen in carbonite and propped up near the autograph table.”
(via my coworker James)
Comics on your cell phone
Saw this in a press release on the PvP site:
“As part of their expanding line of comics content, GoComics, a leader in mobile entertainment announces “GoComics Books.” Fans can now read comic books on their mobile phones in the original multi-panel format with a unique, downloadable comics reader application…Titles include the new “cosmic” superhero comic GØDLAND, the geek and gamer strip PvP, and the too hip, too weird, Too Much Coffee Man. Bundled into one monthly subscription package, all stories are published in an anthology format with new pages for each title added every day.”
Huh, so Joe Casey and Tom Scioli’s GØDLAND will be on your cell phone, eh? Who’d a’ thunk it…seeing Jack Kirby on a mobile.
If you’re curious, you can check out the interface for the GoComics mobile comic books reader here.
Rodd Racer Go!!
Toby Cypress has some pretty new pages up on his blog from a work in progress entitled Rodd Racer. His works calls to mind both Pope’s Smoke Navigator and Jordi Bernet’s Torpedo. He’s also collaborating with Brian Wood on the upcoming Tourist OGN from Image. The novel’s set to come out in April.
A Scanner Darkly trailer
Over at Apple’s site, you can watch the trailers for Richard Linklater’s new movie, A Scanner Darkly. It’s an adaptation of the Philip K. Dick story, and is done in the same rotoscoping style as Linklater’s Waking Life. The movie stars Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Woody Harrelson, and Wynona Ryder. The visuals are gorgeous. The acting looks to be pretty solid as well.
Quicktime trailer here.
Official movie site here.
I was in rare Geek mode today..
and rented the Avengers video. So you wouldn’t have to.. no I actually wanted to see it. The clip I caught off of some comic site hooked me. So I bit. Avengers was always a flawed ‘What if’ story for me: What if all the Marvel superheroes formed a supergroup? Well it would be a trainwreck. God help anyone that tries to tie it altogether. The dialogue and voiceovers weren’t that great. They seemed to blow their whole animation budget on the action scenes which are the only things that sing in this direct-to-dvd. And the Hulk fight scenes will truly give that 5 year old nightmares if they rented it from Blockbuster (like I did. It was in the Kids new releases) Blood is drawn. Heroes costumes are ripped to shreds. Bodyparts are broken but alas no bone. Windpipes are hit. Explosions a-go-go. This was a slightly more convincing retelling of the Avengers origin. Slightly. I had a few ideas that would work but I’m hesitant to pitch them in a public forum. Some of them are too extreme anyway. The whole bit of Thor being an eco-terrorist wasn’t cliche by now, geesh. Give a hero elemental powers and suddenly they’re environmental. It’s good that the environment’s being touched on but bad that the environmentalist’s are always portrayed as crazed eco-terrorists.
The fight scenes are worth the $4 rental but if you wait for it to pop up at the library it’s no loss. The dvd also sports an interview with Busiek and George Perez. Who doesn’t have an ego.. I swear by Odin’s beard.
Desert Island Comics, pt. 3
Yeah, I said these posts would be weekly. But since my access to a computer is erratic, here you go…
The candles are lit, a glass of champagne rests on the edge of the tub, and the bubbles are warm and inviting. All I need now as I slip into the water is the next comic on my top-ten countdown…
#8: Fantastic Four #241
As I’ve mentioned here before, I first stumbled across John Byrne when I traded some fool in my fourth grade class a forgotten comic for his battered copy of Uncanny X-Men #127. A week or two later I found issue 129 at the Groveport Pharmacy, and have been following this guy to nearly every title published by the Big Two since. Much has been said about his abrasive personality, of which I couldn’t care less; as with any artist or musician, I’m more interested in their work than with whatever gossip surrounds them. Byrne’s work has been consistent and reliable, and if he’s had a few missteps, that’s bound to happen in a career that spans four decades. While his particular art style has never been groundbreaking or provocative, he has always conveyed a sense of depth and space which creates a distinctive sense of atmosphere to the environments his straightforward figure drawings populate. The very basic approach to drawing he employs is what suits a superhero book best; whenever someone tries to apply a fine arts sensibility to a guy dressed in tights with a magic ring, I feel like a French chef has made me a tuna fish sandwich.
This particular issue opens with guest stars Nick Fury and Dum Dum Dugan visiting the Baxter Building to make a request of Reed Richards. While tracking a UFO in past weeks, SHIELD detected a powerful energy source on the African continent near the border of Wakanda. Since the Black Panther had cut his ties with the Avengers, the FF were the ones best suited to contact T’Challa and request permission to investigate the phenomenon. During the course of the conversation, Reed explains via flashback that the UFO SHIELD observed was most likely the Inhumans’ city of Attillan as it was moved from the Himalayas to the blue area of the moon. The FF agree to investigate, and soon blast off in their FF Rocket to the African continent. Along the way we enjoy some banter as the Thing makes a referential joke about the current popular movie Raiders of the Lost Ark before the ship lands and the crew disembarks to begin their exploration. The Thing scouts ahead, only to be attacked by a group of spear-wielding natives. Then, on page 4, the Black Panther appears and calls of his troops because he recognizes Ben Grimm—
Wait a second. Page 4?!!? Surely all comic readers know that the amount of exposition detailed above—which opens with a friggin’ splash page—would need at least two full issues replete with long, drawn out dialogue and silent panels to properly relate the story in order for the reader to truly get their $6.00 worth, right?
Wrong. This comic is the most wonderfully compressed comic book I have ever read. After what has been related above, we get an audience with the Black Panther, followed by a safari, an ambush by Roman centurions and a visit to a hidden city within a mysterious plateau on the African plains. But wait, there’s more! We meet the villain who has created this Caligulan Utopia, who robs the quartet of their powers before they are treated to his origin story. A gladiator match follows, before the Black Panther reappears and Susan Storm reveals the story’s twist ending. The Roman city crumbles and our heroes escape, tossing quips as they disappear into the sunset. All in about twenty pages. The writing never feels rushed, and each and every character gets a moment in the spotlight. What would most of today’s writers do if they had to crank out a different story each month (on deadline) instead of stretching one idea out over six or eight months? Comics might actually be worth the $3 a pop we shell out for them.
Besides giving me my money’s worth with this issue, Byrne also does something sorely lacking in many of today’s comics: these characters go somewhere amazing and encounter weird shit. You get a sense of having been on a journey when you’ve read a story like this, rather than feeling you’ve watched a poorly written soap opera starring Greek gods. Seriously, do you want to read about the JLA’s deep, dark, shameful secrets, or do you want to see the world’s greatest superheroes fighting the Corn Gods of the Pandimensional Ziggurat? No contest in my mind. Someone dry Superman’s tears off on his cape and send him on an actual adventure, please.
Well, it was bound to happen
Remember all the hoopla recently around that Million Dollar Home Page? His idea sparked a thousand imitators, and so it was just a matter of time before someone tried the same idea with a comic book twist. Behold, the Wall of Comic Book Art. For $50, you can advertise your site for at least 3 years…
Monday Morning “Guess the Artist”
Welcome back. Hopefully, we’re past all the Blogger issues. This week’s page is an easy one, but if you find yourself stumped, there’s a panel in there that offers a pretty good clue as to the artist.
(click image to patriot-size)
(previous weeks: 9/12/2005, 9/19/2005, 9/26/2005, 10/3/2005, 10/10/2005, 10/17/2005, 10/24/2005, 10/31/2005, 11/1/2005, 11/2/2005, 11/3/2005, 11/4/2005, 11/5/2005, 11/6/2005, 11/7/2005, 11/14/2005, 11/21/2005, 11/28/2005, 12/5/2005, 12/12/2005, 12/19/2005, 12/26/2005, 1/2/2006, 1/9/2006, 1/16/2006, 1/23/2006, 1/30/2006, 2/06/2006, 2/13/2006)
AA Weekend Covers
Sorry, running a little late this weekend due to the many Blogger-related issues.
AWESOME
(click to enlarge)
100 Bullets #29 (December 2001) by Dave Johnson.
Honestly, I could have picked any of his covers from 100 Bullets. They’re all gorgeous in their graphic design simplicity. I especially like this one because of the juxtaposition of the painted figure against the plain line drawings, and for its generous use of white, which you hardly ever see on comic covers.
ASS
(click to enlarge)
Marvel Comics Presents #160 (August 1994) by Barry Crain.
I, um, I can’t even tell what the hell’s going on here. Is that supposed to be Ghost Rider? And that horrid, horrid coloring. Looks like the Lucky Charms leprechaun trying to figure out how to use the gradient shading tool in Photoshop.
(previous weeks: 12/3/2005, 12/11/2005, 12/17/2005, 12/25/2005, 1/7/2006, 1/15/2006, 1/22/2006, 1/29/2006, 2/5/2006, 2/12/2006)
Your week .. in sketches.
(This was actually a post from Tom. Stupid piece of shit Blogger somehow “lost” a couple of my posts from last night when Tom posted his, and then when I tried to repost mine it lost Tom’s. I swear, I’ve had more problems with Blogger than any other service I’ve ever used. Absolutely unbelieveable how buggy this crapfest of a software is. Anyway, I managed to retrieve Tom’s original post…)
Desert Island Comics pt. 2
Continuing my countdown of the ten comics I would want with me were I stranded on a desert isle, reviewed from the comfort of a warm bubble bath:
#9: Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #141
Let’s take a moment to consider that Superman comics once sold so well that a title devoted to Jimmy Olsen could hit triple digits before Jack Kirby took the reins.
This issue makes my personal top ten list simply because it’s my all-time favorite comic cover. Imagine the joy and excitement felt by a youngster in 1971 when he turned the spinner rack of comics at the drug store to find Superman and the Guardian charging at him carrying a photo of a leering Don Rickles, a comedian beloved by children everywhere. Perhaps Jack Kirby was getting stoned as research for his Fourth World hippie comic Forever People when he had the idea for this cover; the words “Don’t ask! Just buy it!” are prominently splashed across the top, suggesting he thought not everyone would see this as the obvious good idea he perceived it to be.
Of note is a detail of the cover artwork; an incongruous inking job on Superman suggests this was from the time when a shortsighted editor was bringing in another artist to erase Kirby’s pencil work and redraw Superman more in keeping with the DC “house style” for the character. I’m sure someone out there knows who the editor and artist were (or I could find out if I dragged out my Forever People tpb), but it strikes me as akin to a movie director bringing in Wil Smith to do a voiceover because Brando just couldn’t nail his lines to his satisfaction. Hopefully the guy’s still getting razzed at parties over this.
As for the comic itself: Jimmy Olsen is the little-known fourth branch of Kirby’s Fourth World comics. Everyone knows New Gods and Mister Miracle, and most will remember the Forever People when reminded, but no one seems to recall that Jimmy Olsen was mixing it up with a Darkseid-backed Intergang in this series. This particular issue features Clark Kent/Superman’s first ever sighting of New Genesis and Apokolips, as well as his first encounter with one of these characters (Lightray).
Unfortunately, the comic itself is not one of Kirby’s best moments. It starts out with a wonderful Kirby space montage right before Lightray greets the space capsule Clark Kent is travelling in. Suddenly, Parademons attack and the scene shifts to… Don Rickles arriving at the Galaxy Broadcastiong building, where he is mobbed by frenzied fans. Several pages later, we find Jimmy Olsen, the Guardian, and Don’s twin “Goody Rickels” being dumped out of an armored mobile home (really) after being forced to eat a meal laced with pyro-granulite, a seasoning thousands of times more powerful than anything served at my favorite Indian restaurant. They only have hours until their bodies combust! Guardian tracks down the armored mobile home and bursts in on the Intergang agents responsible, and the scene shifts to… Don Rickles tossing one-liners at Morgan Edge. Jimmy and Goody soon arrive and start to radiate flames, until Guardian enters with the antidote, having gotten it off panel while the reader spent time with Don Rickles. After things settle down again, Clark Kent arrives via Boom Tube, having dealt with the Parademons alongside Lightray off panel while the reader spent time with Don Rickles.
Besides the wonderful cover, this mess is saved by one line which had me laughing out loud, causing my wife to worry I might be choking: as the guardian bursts in on the villains cleaning up the deadly meal, their leader shouts “The pastry is finished, but we’re still serving hot lead!”
New storyline in Lifelike
I forgot to mention that this week marks the start of a new story in my webcomic. “Punishment” is a black and white horror story with a twist, with beautiful inkwashes provided by artist Steven Spenser Ledford.
Check it out in Lifelike and let me know what you think.
Dude, Where’s My Media? part one
This morning I turned on the channel 6 news where the report finally hit that the Greenland glaciers are melting at a excelerated rate. A report that NASA tried to supress but it looks like they relented to pressure or something. Hooray. But wrapping up the report, they completely spun it as nothing to worry about. Daaaah! This is a bigger story than that creep that killed his wife and kid. In a recent british report we may have hit the point of no return (in global warming) according to scientists. The emission reductions in the KYOTO treaty may not be significant enough to contain it.