Archive for August, 2010
This is weird. The “Catwoman: Catwoman Dies” tpb refers to Catwoman’s baby daughter as “sleeping like a, well, you know” (or variations) at least four times.
The 2000s Catwoman series started out with a bang under dream team Darwyn Cooke and Ed Brubaker, then came to a workmanlike finish under Will Pfeifer. Somewhere along the way, Catwoman got pregnant and had a daughter named Helena. The end of Pfeifer’s run cleared out the baby, which I can’t argue with, storywise.
The stories themselves are pretty decent, but I can’t get past the repeating line. Is repetition just a danger of trades? Where was the editor?
(I thought there were five, but apparently I only scanned four. It’s a library book.)
The kicker is that babies hate to go to sleep. The phrase “sleeping like a baby” should refer to a lot of crying and spitting up. Amirite, Sean and Tim, or amirite?
Sure, previous editions of this feature have twisted the dagger in PANELista (and ERB fan) Brent Bowman’s back by highlighting the craptacular and not-so-good takes on one of his favorite characters. But maybe there’s some light at the end of the comic book tunnel, in the form of this solicitation from Dark Horse Comics:
JOHN CARTER OF MARS: WEIRD WORLDS
Marv Wolfman (W), Howard Chaykin (A), Murphy Anderson (A), Gray Morrow (A), Sal Amendola (A), and Joe Orlando (I/Cover)
On sale Jan 12
FC, 112 pages, $14.99
Since his serialized debut in All-Story magazine in 1912, the spacefaring adventurer John Carter of Mars has become one of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ most beloved characters. The star of decades worth of novels and comic books, he’s soon to be immortalized on the silver screen as well, in the upcoming Walt Disney Pictures major film release John Carter of Mars! In this volume, John Carter, an ex-soldier turned prospector, is transported to Mars—“Barsoom,” as it is known to its natives—under mysterious circumstances, and becomes a champion dedicated to protecting his new home and newly found love, the princess Dejah Thoris, from warring alien civilizations and a host of deadly Barsoomian beasts!
• Collecting stories originally published in Tarzan #207–#209 and Weird Worlds #1–#7.
• Featuring the work of comics legends Marv Wolfman, Murphy Anderson, Gray Morrow, Sal Amendola, Joe Orlando, and Howard Chaykin!
Here’s the cover, by Joe Orlando:
Maybe this time, Brent will find something worth reading…
Another Kirby Blockbuster! The super escape artist and the female fury herself — Mr. Miracle and Big Barda!
Sound off! Andy Bennett!
Brent is next week’s picker! Brent says: Don’t ask – just buy it!
I’m currently reading Jonathan Letham’s Gun, With Occasional Music, and enjoying it immensely. The blurb on the cover from Newsweek reads “Marries Chandler’s style and Philip K. Dick’s vision,” and I’d have to say that’s a pretty apt description. Anyway, here are a couple of great lines from the book that struck with me:
“The clouds were still bunched up in the sky like a gang on a street corner, and it looked to me like they had the sun pretty effectively intimidated.”
and
“It was a big glassful of gin, just barely haunted by the specter of tonic.”
This one is presented for the enjoyment of everyone, but I hope that Matt and Craig will delight in it even more: James Stokoe, whose Orc Stain comic I have raved about right here, posted this mind-bogglingly awesome picture of Galactus to Twitter:
Trust me, you’re going to want to click on that for the larger version.
I don’t know what to say, other than “Holy Shit, that’s amazing!”
PS. if your browser automatically shrinks pictures to fit the screen, make sure to to click the image to see it in its full almost-life size glory.
So I was perusing the sales figures for Marvel Comics for June 2010, and noticed that there are 7, yes, seven Deadpool comics in the Diamond distributors top 300 chart! Which prompted me to write something in the comments section, which I’m cross-posting here for your amusement:
You know what I wish Marvel would print more of? Comics featuring Deadpool!
If I may suggest:
Deadpool League International The Brave and The Deadpool Astro City: The Deadpool Age Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Deadpoolian Journey Into Deadpool Kevin Smith’s Green Deadpool All-star Batman and Deadpool the Sales Wonder Deadpool Society of America BPRD: Bureau for Paranormal Research and Deadpool Hack/Slash/Deadpool D.E.A.D.P.O.O.L. Sam & Twitch & Deadpool Tiny Deadpools Dead-Franken-Pool-Castle Cowboy Ninja Viking Deadpool Usagi Yojimbo Deadpooli Deadpool: The Widening Gyre Billy Batson & The Magic of Deadpool Deadpool Doo, Where Are You? The Amazing Deadpool-man Wade: Dark Deadpool Anita Blake: Deadpool Hunter …and of course:
The Walking Dead(pool)
Chris Sims, over at Comic alliance, presents 8-Bit Comics: Your Favorite Super-Heroes Reimagined For the NES. My favorite is this Cerebus screen shot:
Newsarama has a 5 page preview of PUNISHER MAX: HOT RODS OF DEATH #1, by writer Charlie Huston and artist Shawn Martinbrough. But here’s what I don’t quite understand: Martinbrough is a skilled artist who has been doing comics for a while, so why did he choose to portray the action in this car chase scene happening from right-to-left, instead of the natural left-to-right language of comics?
Popular Mechanics has a great set of photos in their Beach Art Gallery. Check out this one: “Carl Jara’s “Alien vs. Bender” won first prize at the 2010 Windermere Sand Sculpture Classic in Port Angeles, Washington. The theme of the competition was “Legends of Science Fiction.”
Over at The Beat, Heidi MacDonald has a nice wrap-up of ComicCon 2010, including her 7 lessons learned, including her proclamation: “LESSON #4: Douchebags ruined Comic-Con.”
You may have already heard the news that a US District Judge has ruled in favor of Neil Gaiman in his suit against Todd McFarlane, that the characters Dark Ages Spawn, Tiffany and Domina are indeed derivative of other Spawnverse characters that Gaiman has created, and thus he is owed monies. But the best part is reading the excerpts of Judge Barbara Crabb’s ruling, where she feminist nerds out with the best of them:
“Tiffany and Domina are visually similar to Angela and share her same basic traits. All three are warrior angels with voluptuous physiques, long hair and mask-like eye makeup. All three wear battle uniforms consisting of thong bikinis, garters, wide weapon belts, elbow- length gloves and ill-fitting armor bras.”
This week’s Character Wednesday is the black heart and bittersweet soul of Cleveland, Harvey Pekar! It was chosen by Sean McGurr, and is actually going up on Wednesday! Yeah!
First up is Steve Black, with a Time Magazine shot:
Here’s Tony Goins, with a happy moment for our man.
Rookie sensation Ross Hardy.
Sean McGurr, showing what happens when you mess with Cleveland.
And bringing it home is Affable Andy Bennett.
Tune in next week, when Andy is the picker.
“My friend Paul Krassner once asked me what I’ve been influenced by in my work.
“I have been influenced by my father telling me that my back would become crooked because of my maniacal desire to masturbate … by reading “Gloriosky, Zero!” in Little Annie Rooney … by listening to Uncle Don and Clifford Brown … by smelling the burnt shell powder at Anzio and Salerno … torching for my ex-wife … giving money to Moondog as he played the upturned pails around the corner from Hanson’s at 51st and Broadway … getting hot looking at Popeye and Toots and Casper and Chris Cristie years ago … hearing stories about a pill they can put in the gas tank with water but the “big companies” won’t let it out — the same big companies that have the tire that lasts forever — and the Viper’s favorite fantasy: “Marijuana could be legal, but the big liquor companies won’t let it happen” … Irving Berlin didn’t write all those songs, he’s got a guy locked in the closet … colored people have a special odor … James Dean is really alive in a sanatorium … and Hitler is waiting to book me for six weeks in Argentina …
“It was an absurd question.
“I am influenced by every second of my waking hour.”
– How to Talk Dirty and Influence People
An autobiography by Lenny Bruce
1963