Archive for April, 2010
A new book, “Bowling Alone,” claims that joining a group cuts your risk of dying the following year by 50 percent.
The thesis of the book is that Americans know their neighbors less, and join fewer civic organizations.
This one’s for our resident Robert E. Howard fan extraordinaire, Brent: Conan vs. Rune
The BWS cover is pretty to look at. The comic itself, although I’ll freely admit I haven’t read, probably wasn’t worth the paper it was printed on. But then again, this was in the 90s, and Marvel had just spent a ton of money buying Malibu comics, so maybe they felt obligated to do something with that publisher’s catalog of characters. Needless to say, that didn’t last long, and the Malibu characters were promptly mothballed away.
The Brave & The Bold #124
Did I not just say in my last post that I had been unable to find this particular issue? Once again, Bell, Book & Comic comes through for me. I found it while browsing for some Aparo Batman at Gem City last week, and got it for mere pennies. I swear, I could never set foot in my local comic shop as long as I get to see these guys at conventions twice a year.
Team-up books frequently provide oddball stories given the unlikely pairings of characters shoehorned into their twenty-odd pages. This issue is the champion of such books, giving us a Batman/Sgt. Rock adventure that gets taken to strange new territory when artist Jim Aparo has to become personally involved. Rock is cool, but I almost wish this could have been a straightforward Batman/Aparo team-up, just so I could see Jim’s name with a cool logo design on the cover.
I thought this would be some sort of time travel story or maybe an imaginary tale. It was actually jarring when Rock steps into the picture on page three and he and Batman start comparing notes on the case they have both been investigating. Checking the first page again, I was reminded that this issue was published in 1976– so Rock could have conceivably been in his late 50′s or early 60′s, not yet retired from the service. He proves that he’s pretty spry for his age, as the old coot takes a significant amount of punishment from the bad guys before the story is over but still retains his cat-like reflexes and his gift for conducting interrogations.
The pair are pursuing a terrorist group which has stolen a shipment of super-rifles the military has developed. Facing a high-tech crime wave, the pair join forces to tackle the daunting task of tracking down every missing weapon. Their investigation has just begun when the scene switches to the studio of Jim Aparo, still in the process of drawing the issue– when a couple of terrorists invade his home, steal the script, and order him to draw Batman and Rock getting killed by a booby trap!
Aparo escapes, taking refuge in a friend’s house, where he can draw our heroes escaping the trap. From here the chase is on, as the terrorists keep rewriting the script to kill Batman and Rock while Aparo, on the phone with writer Bob Haney, keep devising wildly improbable escapes for them. Will Batman and Rock find the terrorist leader before the villains track down Aparo and force him to draw their death scene?
Aparo lucks out, as Bob Haney provides the characters with a trail of clues that lead them to the villains just as they are approaching the house where Aparo is hiding. Batman and Rock take out the terrorist hit squad, capturing their leader who happens to have on his person a list of all the members of his organization and the location of the stolen super-rifles. Even more remarkable is the fact that Jim Aparo drew the climactic four pages of the comic in a little over twenty minutes (story time). All the pantywaist artists working in the trade these days who can’t meet a deadline should take note.
Just a reminder that the 11th annual S.P.A.C.E. (Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo) will take place in lovely Columbus, Ohio this weekend, April 24 & 25. The location this year is the Ramada Plaza Hotel on Sinclair road. Admission is a mere $5 a day, or $8 for a weekend pass.
(poster by Tom Williams)
I’ll have a table, alongside many of your favorite PANEListas. Be sure to check out our latest anthology, PANEL: The Movies. It’s our 15th volume, and it’s bigger and better than anything that’s come before it.
I’ve been on a bit of a Kevin O’Neill kick lately. I just finished reading one of his lesser-known books, and while I work on an actual review, here’s something to whet your appetite: 7 covers by the bizarre, utterly unique, impossible to imitate Kevin O’Neill.
Click each cover once, then click again to view the larger version.
(Have a favorite series of your own? Or an artist? Character? Submit your own set of 7 covers by sending me small files (i.e. 72 dpi for the web) to ferret at ferretpress dot com and include “7 covers” in the subject line. Also, let me know if you have a blog or website you’d like me to link to.)
Tim Gunn interviewed on superhero fashion
Part 1 of an interview with Project Runway’s Tim Gunn about superhero fashion.
He comes out in favor of the Golden Age Batwoman suit, but he wishes JH Williams could draw it. He’s a big fan of the Spider-Man suit, and says Power Girl “owns” her costume.
This past Friday night, Wendy, Hanna, and I drove down to Ohio University to catch Ben Harper in concert. This was my 4th time seeing him live, but the first time with his new band, Relentless 7 (the previous shows I’d seen were all with his long-time band The Innocent Criminals). Although he sprinkled in a few of his classic songs, for the most part the show featured the new material off of his latest album, White Lies for Dark Times.
The show started with just Ben on stage, playing a few solo songs, including a powerful rendition of Excuse Me Mr. But once his band joined him, it was time for straight up rock n’ roll. While the sound and lyrics were undeniable Ben Harper, it was definitely a different show than when he was touring with The Innocent Criminals. Whereas before he’d cover a lot of musical ground by playing rock, blues, gospel, reggae, and other genres which infuse his songwriting, this show was all about bringing teh rock. Loud, audacious, full of fire and energy. Of particular note was Jordan Richardson on drums. Holy crap, that guy was fun to watch! His kinetic energy and the sheer exuberance was a perfect match for Ben’s own intensity.
Hanna was waiting for her favorite song, Fly One Time, but alas they did not play that one. He did, however, belt out one of my favorites, Better Way, full of equal parts righteous anger and soulful hope. As for Wendy, every song is her favorite, so she was in heaven.
Actually, she may have even transcended heaven as far as a concert experience goes, since she got to meet her favorite musician ever. Here’s how it went down: like the bad parents that we are, we completely forgot to bring a pair of ear plugs for Hanna. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anywhere to buy a pair at the show. But right before the show started, Wendy went to use the restroom. On her way out, she saw a handwritten sign on the wall with the schedule of when the bands were supposed to go on, and the words “dressing room” with an arrow pointing around the corner. So of course she turns the corner and runs straight into Ben Harper. She can’t remember the small talk that ensued, but at some point she mentioned that she’d brought her daughter to the show and without missing a beat he replies “very cool, does she need ear plugs?” So he goes back to his dressing room and brings Wendy a couple packets of disposable ear plugs! We told Hanna she’s not allowed to throw them away, no matter how grody they get 
New York-based band Alberta Cross opened the show. Their blend of rock/blues/folk was enjoyable, though I can’t say that anything really stood out in my mind to the point where I’d want to track down their CDs.
It was a fantastic show, and a fun start to the weekend. Can’t wait until he swings by our fair state again.
…burns at the Man-Thing’s touch!
This one’s for Craig…
Via the cool Giant Size Marvel Comics blog (as pointed out to us by Andy), here’s an image of the Man-Thing by Art Adams:
Here’s a shot of Panel: Movies, our 15th anthology. Lovingly packaged in a DVD case, with outer cover design from Andy Bennett and inner cover from Brent Bowman. Weighing in at a whopping 68 pages, with contributions from 14 of Central Ohio’s best up-and-coming artists. It’ll be available for purchase at SPACE, the Small Press and Alternative Comics Expo, on April 24-25, for a mere $5.
Indie Spinner Rack’s got a gem from this year’s MOCCA: a group panel discussion on comics (influences) with Paul Pope, Kyle Baker, Frank Miller, Jamie Hernandez, and Dean Haspiel. I wish more cons had panels like this. (Knowing full well how rare it is to get a panel of artists like this in one room.)
There’s something to be said for the old coloring techniques. While I’m happy I came across a Simonson FF collection, I was taken aback what a truly horrid coloring job some of those books wrought. Really bad. This is where those Fort Thunder kids get their color sense from. The covers are more hit or miss than I remember. The above sample is one I’d get nailed on if I tried to show this to an art director. I still remember this one arm that was rendered with a weird blue blob on top. No explanation or misprint. At the same time, I’m annoyed by the recolored front cover on the collection.
Maybe Andy can correct me but about the same time, you have the brilliant coloring going on in the old Moore Swamp Things. The coloring is less harsh and the mix of drawing and xeroxed photo collage is bang-on. They take the limitations of the time and work with them.
In 1989, Dark Horse began publishing Cheval Noir, a reprint anthology of mostly European comics. In its pages, readers were introduced to the works of such creators as Philippe Druillett, Francois Schuiten, Phil Elliot, Andreas, David Lynch, Jacques Tardi, Moebius, and many, many more. The striking covers were by a mix of Western and European artists. It was hard just picking 7, but here are ones that I find truly striking:
From L to R, top to bottom: Leo Duranona, Mike Mignola, Yoshitaka Amano, Matt Wagner, Moebius, David Mazzucchelli, and Jean Giraud (Moebius):
So, I posted about The Asylum’s “A Princess of Mars” the other day, and Brent expressed some hope for an upcoming Disney version.
I gotta say, I don’t see Disney getting John Carter of Mars right.
They’ll probably deep-six the Confederate angle, which is OK with me, and they can probably get the chivalry right. But dang, an integral part of John Carter is the fact that he stone cold kills motherfuckers dead.
I don’t see the Mouse really doing a fighting man of Barsoom. I picture something more like Aladdin.
We may have to be satisfied with Antonio Sabato Jr.
One more thing: I forgot to post the trailer the other day. Behold: