Recently in Comics Category

So I watched about 4 minutes of Spider-Man 3 last nite and saw him riding a 1977 Puch Newport moped! So I googled, and look what's on ebay:

I love the Threepenny Opera. I guess they did a new one, and looky, Wallace Shawn did the translation. This song is now amazing and sad and great and I've watched this 13 times today. Cyndi's hair is very 80s, and I know I'm stating the obvious but wow.
edit yeah its kinda horrible, but thats what i like
I just got the original US recording from 1954 which features a young Bea Arthur. There's a good cover of What Keeps Mankind Alive by William S. Burroughs floating around as well. I'm quite upset there doesn't seem to be a recording of this new version, especially since the new lyrics don't sound heinous and I'd love to hear what they did to Jealousy Duet.

Before wikipedia was around, if you googled spiders, this was like the 2nd result.


It makes use of some clever web stuff, and is basically an alt or dare I say "what if?" post 9-11 scenario where Al gore is president, detainee's get amazon wish lists, and slashdot is relevant. also, ecstasy bombs. I enjoyed it back in school, but doesn't look like it was ever finished. still worth a gander. over really good webcomic serial is When I Am King which won all sorts of awards, and the author was just using it as a tool to learn html and illustrator. if camel/man sex acts offend, do not read.

There are still nerdy Foxtrot strips on my Mom's fridge from my youth.

i interviewed this guy at comic con. Later on I found out he is the editor of Cthulhu Sex magazine. Ever wonder about the road not taken?

There's a reason I will never be rich or successful, and I think that reason lies somewhere in my confusion about what this ad is all about. Do people in their parents' basement really need alot of tax help? Can you write off bags & boards now?

First off watch the first 30 seconds of this:

Now looky here at the blog for Castlevania: Dracula's Curse the blog for the movie based on Castlevania III (Sorry Sam, #2 is still left in obscurity.) So it seems Warren Ellis is writing it and James Jean is doing the art direction. It's going to be animated, but the above makes me think probably not in an Eastern/Anime style, but who knows. I really like the quaity of the animation in the trailer above, but I'm sure Mr. James Jean (which sounds really funny when said aloud. Well kinda funny) will be able to do a great job.

Eric, Sam, care to fill anyone in on the Ellis and the Fables?

One of the questions I am frequently asked by people who have been reading comics for some time is "Do you remember a comic called Scud the Disposable Assassin?" To which I am always happy to reply thusly: "Oh totally! That book was great! What ever happened to it? I remember collecting every issue until one day, they just stopped coming." At which point the conversation dissolves into nitpicking nerdery about how it had ended. The reality was that Scud was set to end on issue 21, but after issue 20 was released, creator Rob Schrab's small Fireman Press went under due to rights conflicts. Then Schrab got caught up in TV and the rest is unwritten history. Unfortunately that left us readers wondering what would become of Scud, Drywall, Sussudio, Jeff, Voodoo Ben Franklin, and La Cosa Nostroid just to name few of the absolutely bizarre cast. Well our prayers have been answered by Rob Schrab himself who recently announced that he will be releasing the long awaited Scud finale! While no official release date has been announced, he has said on his website that he will try to include it in a huge collection of the entire series that will be available for the San Diego Comic-Con this year. I love shit like this, even if it is ten years late.

I was trying to only post about things I like on this site, but this...  Okay.  So House of M sucked.  I can understand a failed attempt at an epic storyline under the editorial pressures of Marvel to compete with DC's Infinite Crisis (no comment, not the place).  But this, just posted, cover to an upcoming issue of Ultimate Spider-Man is too much.  You see that person in the green and black?  Yeah, that's a character named Ronin who debuted less than five months ago in New Avengers, in a storyline that was not only boring but masterbatory in the extreme.   Spoiler-alert!  Ronin was a girl in New Avengers!  Not only that, but a girl character named Echo, created by Bendis-friend David Mack in an old, crappy Daredevil storyline (this is nothing to say of David Mack's talent, but Echo's origin tale and the subsequent stories just seemed like filler [This is also not meant to present any sort of misogeny, but a guy being a girl is what counts as a BIG REVEAL in mainstream comics.  Again, no comment.]).  So, not only did nobody care about the character in the  Daredevil or Avengers titles, but now Bendis is going to butt-plug the character into the Ultimate universe?  What a dick.  For a guy who got his start based on internet and fan buzz, he sure seems deaf to everyone nowadays.  Christ.  I thought Bendis was out of line when he shoved Ms. Marvel and Spider-Woman down our throats, but I thought that was just a guy trying to revive some characters he liked as a kid.  I get that.  But now we are looking at a writer creating an unsuccessful character in one universe and using his venues to pretty much shop it around like a carpet salesman.  Will Ronin work better in the Ultimate universe?  Maybe.  Bendis seems to write better over there anyway.  But then, he's leaving the title soon, so what the fuck does he care?  God, this really just grates on my eyes and standards...

Dear That's Plenty,

I'm drunk. I could add an "a" between those words to better convey why I have not posted in a great long while, but really, who cares? This should not be about me. Because as an avid blog reader, I don't care. Let's just read a blog and go to bed, or take a shit, or do whatever one does when they are checking blogs.
Hey!
Links!
Y is the last man on Lost!
Heroes makes Supers amazing!
The Spirit lives on!

and finally, this is the best blog I've read in Ever. Read Goodbye to Comics and tell me you don't want to either cry, or write a screenplay about it. Her ordeals aside, the style is big enough to choke addicts. All praise the coming of the glasses!

Signed,

eric

Apparently, I still blog. I didn't post about the Spider-Man 3 trailer because it was was kind of a gimme. Anyway, the international Ghost Rider trailer just debuted. No matter what haircut you give him, Nicholas Cage still looks like an 80-year old carrot. Enjoy.

P.S. Maybe they will make a Flaming Carrot movie based on the outtakes.

It's all over the nerdwire: Marvel is set to release a crossover (I guess it would be called a "mash-up" these days) Dynamite Entertainment property Army of Darkness! That's right, Ash may be set to meet Spiderman in some sort of meta-Raimi circus of brand synergy. I haven't been this excited about a crossover event since Star Trek/X-Men!

Link to the CBR article

Link to the Newsarama article

After a 4-year hiatus, Evan Dorkin's ingenious gag book, Dork, has returned with issue #11! Dorkin is probably best remembered for the violent dairy products Milk and Cheese, but this wildly sporadic series is the repository for his other gag stuff like The Murder Family, The Eltingville Club, and his Fun Strips. While previous issues have featured multi-page comedy stories, this latest issue is all about the gag strips and is all the better for it, showcasing Dorkin's tight timing and misanthropic sense of humor. Dorkin is still probably one of the funniest cartoonists still operating in comics. Most everything I've ever read by him has made me laugh out loud. Dork #11 is on stands now!

See more of Evan Dorkin's stuff, including his regularly updated blog, at the rarely updated House of Fun.

The aforpostedabout Jeffrey Brown also animated a video for Death Cab For Cutie. I remember hearing about this a while ago but I never looked it up. Until now.

I went to Amazon.com on completely work-related business, and then on the front page BAM! I felt inappropriate. I would resolve all of my intimacy issues for the woman that would wear this for me.

Everybody should be checking out The Perry Bible Fellowship. This comic has been around for a few years, and it is still one of the funniest webcomics on the 'nets. Author Nicholas Gurewitch's art is uncharactaristically skillful for a web comic, and the gags are varied enough that the strip never gets schticky. I hadn't checked the site in a few months, but I recently started again and they have changed the interface into a less imaginative, but more navigable format. So please pay this guy a visit.

Link

So you're a multi-millionaire and you decide you want to show the world how much love you have for comics. Please don't. (I'm looking at you KISS, Public Enemy, LeBron James) You're not giving anything to comics, it just makes you look like a spoiled eight-year old whose daddy owns a printing press. (And if you insist on peeing in the creative pool, cool it with the ninja obsession. It just makes your cash-in vanity project reek even more of Shaq-Fu and the Insane Clown Posse.) Anyway, take a cue from Jay-Z, who is apparently just naming his comeback (if he ever left) album after a similarly themed comic series that he enjoys. Its called class.

Link (via Comic Book Resources)

The first thing I ever posted on this site was a poorly-worded indictment of comics legend Frank Miller's sudden flag waving lunacy. And now, in what I'm sure is a direct rebuttal to that rant, Frank Miller has gone on the NPR program This I Believe and presented a short essay explaining (sort of) his regained patriotism. In honor of the 9/11 anniversary I will refrain from snarky criticism and just allow you to judge for yourself.

A Link for Freedom!

James Kolchalka may be a media super star. He's from Vermont and has great comics about elves and monkies'n'robots (which had a video I saw on the SciFi Channel one summer) and recently did a music video on a Game Boy Camera which has got some press and goddamn kotaku.

Well, nothing against Mr. Superstar and his Twinkle Twinkle Ringo Star but to drink from the cup of hubris, world (who doesn't have expanded basic cable) feast your eyes on my year old opus from Cinematech: Game Boy Camera DJ BATTLE.

Shooting this required a DVCam deck and a hacked original GBA with video out and needing an external powersource, meaning the GBA was very very tethered. Some things in order of apperance:

Now, some of you clods out there might tend to disagree, but this is the greatest comic of all time, period. The book version is also delicious. I recommend all of you who still use Old Fighting Techniques to upgrade immediately. In fact, let's go over a case study: The Crocodile Hunter was a pretty hard dude; he wrestled every manner of critter and even charmed little children who should've known better via his crazy-sounding Australian bullshit. But, in the end, his Fighting Technique was not Unstoppable. At least, not Anti-Ghost Sting-Ray Unstoppable. (Sorry to use your untimely demise didactically, Stevie, or should I say, "Mr. Hunter," but you understand.) Hope that clears everything up. You're all very welcome.

Everyone strike a heroic pose and let your hero halo shine! This Thursday (comics day is late 'cause of stupid Labor Day) sees the release of the fourth book in the series reprinting Grant Morrison?'s run on Doom Patrol. Subtitled "Musclebound," this trade is especially special because it features the origin story of Flex Mentallo, the greatest character almost no one has heard of. Flex had his own four-issue mini-series in the mid-nineties that stands as one of Grant Morrison's finest works, as well as art by the shamefully talented Frank Quitely (the supercreators of We3, and the excellent All-Star Superman. On stands now!) The mini-series follows The Hero of the Beach on a brainmelting quest to find his old friend The Fact who may or may not be preparing to end the world. Armed only with his enigmatic powers of Muscle Mystery, Flex unravels the fabric of reality to the to the gristled nugget core of superheroics. And you won't be able to find this story anywhere but eBay.

Yesterday's Mandy: Moore, Please entry (I didn't think to call it that until this morning, hindsight is a bitch) was supposed to be more of a review of Comic Life than a tribute to my BFF, Mandy, but I got so into it that I worked on it till 6:20, and if you know me, you know I stay late at work for nothing. NOTHING! Perhaps that in and of itself is my review. It's so much fun that it will make you stay late at work.

Basically, as soon as you open it up and take a gander at the interface, you already know how to use it. I mean, a computer wizzz like me knows how to use every application in the world after a quick looksee, but I'd venture to say that any goon out there can figure this one out. Here, Download your free 30 day trial, you goon, and see for yourself.

Look at the stamps. Cooooooool!!!!! (I'm sorry to see Wallflower Girl didn't make the cut).

"Remember kids, calculators AD. We make advertisements."

With all this comic-y goodness and ComicCon coming this week (and tearing my life asunder in the same way E3 did) I thought I jump on the funny books bandwagon and give ye all a look at the ads that shipped with alan moore's sublime kitsch of 1963 which are worth hunting down in their own right.

But, Wait, Kids! There, Is, More, There's, Plenty, More.

Also Fun Home by Alison Bechdel is the best comic I have ever read, and I will devote more time to it when I am more sane and less insane or less sane and more insane. But in a nutshell, hyper ocd memoir of butch lesbian in rural Pennsylvania whose father is a closeted gay. I don't want to use the word shame, but with Jimmy Corrigan (The Smartest Boy In The World) winning the Pulizter, and also so with Maus doing the same dealy.. well, this comic is better than both. Not as epic as concentration camps or shattered 5th walled as Mr. No Frog Legs, but personal, well written, well paced, and bittersweet. Like being raped by my doctor.

It's a memoir but I found it under lesbian fiction.

I love this. And I'm the only one. Unless there is is a reader of this blog who is familiar with three year old x-men creative teams. (If there is, please leave a comment and we can wed.)

Confused? Here is how it goes...

"A young boy—bookish, awkward, a dreamer—goes to see Douglas Fairbanks in The Mark of Zorro, and falls in love with the idea. A costumed hero who masquerades as a timid milquetoast, then bursts forth to battle crime and injustice with superhuman skill! Plot thickens: the boy loses his parents, shot dead in a mugging gone wrong. The crime is senseless, random. The boy’s life is shattered. He vows revenge, not on the thug that did his father in, but on crime itself. He vows he will become…

Hold on. Here’s the part you might not know. The city is not fictional Gotham but real life Cleveland. The boy is not millionaire Bruce Wayne but working class schlemiel Jerry Siegel. His father Michel, who immigrated from Lithuania in the first decade of the century, was murdered while closing his Woodland haberdashery in 1928. The police never found his killer. Ten years later, Jerry Siegel and his high school buddy Joe Shuster wrote and illustrated the first true “superhero” story for Harry Donenfeld’s Action Comics. This is not Batman’s secret origin, it’s Superman’s."

More of this and other early comic book related goodness at http://www.robmacdougall.org/ Historians don't get nearly the Rock Star status they deserve. Rob MacDougall you are a historian rock star.

Nothing really caught my eye on the stands these couple of weeks so instead of shit-talking Spider-man’s new costume (Jesus Marvel…), I’d like to gush about a title I read six years ago and have recently rediscovered: Azzarello et al’s stint on Hellblazer.

First off, forget the fucking movie. That’s all I’m going to say on the matter.

That out of the way, John Constantine: Hellblazer has for years been one of them most daring, balls to the panel titles on the market. I’m not sure that it has ever sold that well, and for a title called “Hellblazer,” it has featured more emotional hell than fire and brimstone, yet in a trick worthy of Constantine himself it has remained on the stands for years garnering some of the best talent in the industry. Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, Mark Millar, Brian Vaughn, Warren Ellis, Neil Gaiman, Mike Carey, Paul Jenkins; some of these guys made their careers based on their Hellblazer work. And those are just writers.

Anyway, for some reason one of the most outstanding creative runs, Brian Azzarello’s, gets hardly any play. Originally released around 2000, Azzarello took Constantine out of his brutally safe European homeland and drug him, body and soul, through the hateful, stinking majesty of America’s dark places. In doing so, Azzarello manages to reconcile the various portrayals of Constantine that have appeared in throughout Hellblazer’s long, dark run from cancellation.

Ever stay up late at night, your brain spinning, trying so desperately hard to remember, what was The Thing's religion? Or Phoenix's? Well, worry no more. Here is a disturbingly long list of comic book character's religions.


The Religious Affiliation of
Comic Book Characters

Ah, and...
The Thing is Jewish
Phoenix is Episcopalian

Spoilers for V for Vendetta

First off, I liked V for Vendetta, the film.
Second, I love the comic/graphic novel/sequential art doo-dad.
Third, The Pist's LP was named after a great line from the comic.

Now, let's look at this movie. Please note that this is a rant. Or stream of conciousness. Or maybe bullshit.

Sometimes in life it's hard to keep your eyes open. You walk in small concentric circles starring at your feet, and wonder why everything looks the same. You ball your fists into your eyes and say "but I can't see anything inspiring". Its time to quit being such a baby. Pry those little fists away, blink, and look up. Its time for an ART KICK! This means it's time to go look at other peoples art. Really look at it. Get jealous. Get excited. Here are some good places to start your ART KICK IN THE FACE!

I know its the zeitgeist to champion the independent small press outings in the comics world, but like boycotting Starbucks to give your dollar a voice (or whatever), spending your paycheck on the big name comics that are actually worth a damn is the best way to keep them from letting Chuck Austen write another book. Also, let us not forget that it was the superheroes that have allowed the comics biz to remain alive to this day. A Faustian bargain at best, but its all we've got. In such a small industry, I would like to believe that our dollars could still make a difference (although I also believe in the female orgasm, so make what you will of my opinions [take that ummm...Larry the Cable Guy?]). Anyway, please buy these books.

This is from our friend eric's brain:

Frank Miller Has the Crazies

Ugh.

For those of you out of the know, there was once a great comic book author by the name of Frank Miller. You’ve probably heard of him if you’ve ever asked that friend of your’s who’s really into comics for a place to jump into the world of tights and flight:

“Dark Night Returns. I know it’s a superhero comic, but give it a try. You’ll love it.”

We’ve all said it and we all mean it. Frank Miller has produced some of the most defining works of genre literature in the history of sequential art (fuck off, I like the term). From his revolutionary noir storytelling in Sin City, to his reinvention of superhero morality in Dark Knight Returns, this dickhead has blown a lot of overweight, acne-scarred minds.

And then he stopped.