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Tuesday, November 30, 2004
This Should Have Been a Series
From What If (vol. 2) #41.
For those of you wondering how Keef Riffhard can survive in space with no protective suit keep in mind that Keef has lived through a lot worse that this in his life. At this point flying into space doesn't even count as a "high" to him anymore.
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Monday, November 29, 2004
Batman: Drama Queen?
On Saturday I attended a midnight showing of the 1989 Batman film directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton as The Bat. I had seen the film on TV and VHS previously but seeing it on the big screen and judging it by its own merits instead of comparing to certain Batman comics (like the Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers run or Frank Miller runs, both influences on the film) I came away thinking that it is one of the better superhero movies, although not without its flaws.
I don’t want to go over what are good and bad about the film. Instead I want to write about an observation about Batman that was crystallized for me during the film. Its one thing about the world of this fictional character that I think the film got really right. That is the over-the-top, operatic motif of that is so much to Batman. Basically there’s a lot about Batman that only seems to be there because it looks cool on a comics page, a movie screen or your television.
In the film this is rationalized for the Joker character when he declares himself a “homicidal artist.” If the carnage he creates is meant to be art then it makes sense that he would have silly things like a gun with an absurdly long barrel or a loud purple and green car that matches his wardrobe. But what about Batman himself? The idea of scaring the criminals he goes after leads one to the big black costume but does everything else have to have a bat-motif? Seemingly every gadget he uses, his car, many of his sidekicks they all have some kind of Bat-thing going on. You’d think he’d come up with something with a wolf or alligator theme just to throw people off. It all comes back to that scene of a man who wondering how he’ll fight crime only to be inspired by a bat crashing through his window. It looks awesome but if you thinking about it too much (and it seems I have) it doesn’t make a lot of sense.
I must say that what’s great about an impressive Batman story. If one is really good it’s easy to let go and enjoy the fact that you get a superhero story with all these cool visuals. I love the look of the Silver Age stories where all of these huge objects are just lying around Gotham City, many of them ending up in the Batcave (God bless you Dick Sprang). If it’s used dramatically the Batsignal looks awesome. You’ll be so impressed you won’t think to yourself “wouldn’t a hotline be easier?” Of course in the 60’s television show they did have a hotline and even then it couldn’t be any phone, it had to be a red phone that flashes as well as rings. Batman might get pegged as a more down-to-earth or street-level superhero than Superman or Green Lantern but I think there’s enough bizarre things in Batman’s realm to refute that.
Another part of Batman that I do have a problem with is that here’s this rich guy who goes around in a psycho-sexual get-up and beats the crap out of people poorer than him without anybody, or most people at least, connecting the two different identities. I wish there were more instances of Batman realizing that the real criminals are those that Bruce Wayne meets in the boardroom or the politicians he comes across at upper class parties. They’re the ones who cultivate this environment that drives so many in the lower class parts of Gotham to crime. Then I realize how much of a stinkin’ liberal I am and go back to my Al Franken Show mp3s and Molly Ivins books.
I suppose some days you just can’t get rid of a thought.
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Sunday, November 28, 2004
Rock ‘n’ Roll Will Never Die
Recently in the blog world Joanna has gone over the awkward at best re-launched Doom Patrol which goes for an old-fashioned style of storytelling, as did the JLA story that preceded the title. Further back we get Dorian’s response to Bob Layton on the subject of Future Comics, a company whose sole purpose was to create superhero comics as if they were coming out in 1979. Now I must say I am someone who prefers to read superhero comics from the sixties and seventies than the ones coming out today, at least for the most part. Hell, I like reading the books that Doom Patrol’s John Byrne used to do. So does that mean that I’m all for a superhero book coming out right now that purport to return to a classic era of superheroes?
No I am not.
The reason comes to down to this. I believe the worst thing a creative person can do is refuse to evolve. In the case of Future Comics, John Byrne and others we get creators who hit it big decades ago and apparently don’t feel they have to improve the skills they used in creating comics back then. To them and many of their fans the problem isn’t they fact they haven’t changed, the problem is the fact that the rest of the world has. One can imagine Mr. Layton sitting in his office bellowing “I am big! It’s the comics that got small!” If we were going by sales there is actually truth in that. Alas, if we were going to take a cold hard looking at the contracting world of comics the fact that there aren’t a lot of books like Iron Man #128 around would probably not be the biggest concern.
This is not to say we need creators who are going to jump on every bandwagon that the spin people at Marvel and DC try to sell us. It goes much deeper than that. We need creators who believe that their best work is ahead of them. That everything they’ve done before, no matter how good it actually is, needs improvement and the goal is to keep improving at all costs. They need to tell stories that only they can tell and to utilize all of their skill and imagination. While I stated that we don’t need bandwagon hoppers, there are certainly enough already, we don’t need creators who are afraid of being influenced by those younger than they are. All that critical thinking and work is not as easy as sitting pretty atop Wizard magazine’s Top Ten I’ll admit. The reward comes when you find you aren’t someone chasing after the glory of being on that fabled list long after everyone has forgotten your name.
Now I mentioned that I prefer superhero books from decades before I was born. I may be young but I am an old soul. That is because in the older superhero books I choose to read I feel I am experiencing a level of creativity that I don’t feel I am getting today, even in the very same titles of those older books. The best example of this would be the first 102 issues as well as the first six annuals of Fantastic Four. This was a book where one can read Jack Kirby and Stan Lee coming into their talents. More importantly perhaps, it is a book that lived and died on what crazy concept those two were going to come up with next. There seemed to be no limits on what stories Stan and Jack would create for the book other than what they could think of. Lee says in the documentary Comic Book Confidential that before the FF he was at the end of his rope in terms of wanting to be in the comic book industry. His wife suggested that he’s got nothing to lose so why not do superheroes how you want to do them? It’s that type of thinking that leads to great works. Look at the comic book industry today, especially at superhero books sold through the direct market. I believe the Bob Dylan lyric that is “when you’ve got nothing you’ve got nothing left to lose” comes to mind.
This might be why I prefer my current superhero books to be original material, although I would never reject all corporate-owned comics and characters out of hand. Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughn and Tony Harris is one example. In fact, comparing Vaughn’s work in Ex Machina and Y the Last Man to what he turns in with Ultimate X-Men is a great argument for more new concepts. Hard Time by Steve Gerber and Brian Hurtt is another example in what I’m looking for. Gerber is even from the same generation that Byrne and Layton are. So is Howard Chaykin, whose newer works like Mighty Love and Challengers of the Unknown show that he isn’t interested in doing American Flagg over and over like some past-his-prime vaudevillian repeating the same jokes to decreasing crowds. My favorite book currently Sleeper by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. The main character is an original creation by Brubaker but it does take advantage of the Wildstorm Universe and features characters created by Alan Moore and Jim Lee. Yet I feel that Sleeper is one of the best example of two artists coming up with something that they are really satisfied with because they get to touch on most, if not all, of the subjects and ideas they want to do in a comic book. It’s that feeling that attracts me to the book.
As always the place to go for more personal and creative output is away from The Big Two and onto those dusty racks your retailer keeps for Cerebus phone books and a few other smaller books that nobody remembers ordering. Not known for superhero stories, the world of alternative comics do offer perhaps some of the finest examples of what I’m going for. Dean Haspiel’s Billy Dogma might be the best superhero created in the last few years. Gilbert Hernandez has proven to be better at capturing the fun and whimsy of sixties DC and Marvel with new work like his mini The Naked Cosmos, “The Big Picture” in Luba’s Comics and Stories #4 and just about any story featuring the character Roy. And as always no discussion about the last stabs of imagination in superhero books today would be complete without mentioning the twin gods Grant Morrison and Alan Moore (who actually was mentioned previously but who’s counting). The fact that those two can give us the work they do for the companies they do it for is probably spoiling us.
When you are staring at a blank page you can write or draw anything you want on it. I ask why not put down what’s important to you, something that only you can offer the world? It’s not going to roll in the cash that’s for sure. But at the end of the day you’ll be happier knowing that there’s more thought and passion going into your work than simply putting out another comic for another month so some company that doesn’t give two shits about you can keep the hold on a copyright. What’s the harm in at least trying it?
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Saturday, November 20, 2004
Hiatus? But we're not tasty!
I'm sad to say that I don't have much to post here for right now except to tell you that I will be taking the following week off as I housesit for my Dad. Once I come back I'll have essays and funny stuff for all. It will only be a week, so don't worry. I'm sure this small lack of any Brill Building content won't cause many to go into shock.
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Friday, November 19, 2004
Blurbin'
I'm not delusional, folks. I know this blog is not exactly the nexus of the comic book industry with people waiting with baited breath for my next post. Sometimes I daydream, though. I daydream that perhaps some publisher, and it can be any publisher, would use a quote taken from my blog and put it on the cover of a comic book in hope that the power of my words will move units. These quotes, or blurbs as the term may be, are not always easy to pick out from the tangled mess that my posts tend to be. So to make it easy for any and all collections editors out there looking for copy to fill the back cover of whatever book you're putting out soon I give you these ready-made blurbs:
“An exciting and fun look into the lives of four young heroes and the forces that threaten them. Don’t miss.”
“This is first book in a long time that reminded me why I like comics in the first place.”
“When I showed this book to my Grandma and she burst into tears I knew it was something good.”
“Never before had Batman’s passion, sense of justice and skill at bovine husbandry been so brilliantly illustrated.”
“If you just happen to have $1,700 lying around might I suggest you buy this book one hundred times.”
“This is Sub-Mariner book that will put the Pacific Ocean on the map!”
“Who invented gunpowder? The woman who wants to make guns look pretty…and she couldn’t have done it without this book!”
“This comic may not be the cure for cancer, but it will cause cancer!”
“After this comic hits people will no doubt be saying the name ‘Adolph Hitler’ a lot.”
“Imagine a movie written by Paddy Chayefsky, directed by Orson Welles and starring Peter North. Now, ask yourself why a comic is being compared to a more successful and accessible industry.”
“Larva’s not in the brain! Monkey McMerry is in the brain!”
“A brilliant parody of the right-wing values that seem to have a grip on those who aren’t thinking hard enough. Chuck Dixon has done it again!”
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Thursday, November 18, 2004
The Passion of the Jordan
From Chase #9 Written by D. Cutris Johnson, artwork by J.H. Williams III and Mick Gray.
That's right folks, in the DCU there's a bio-pic of Hal Jordan starring Mel Gibson. Who wants to bet it's too long, too violent and has its own rabid and crazed followers?
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
A Message From the Past
Can ads in old comic books predict the future? Not a common theory I admit but I have found something in the pages of Special Marvel Edition #11 (itself a reprint of Sgt. Fury #13) that just might be on to something.
The image posted above might look like our current president but it's from an ad for the Locksmith Institute that appeared in the pages of a comic book from 1973. That's not all though. Check out the top part of the ad. Seems our presidential doppleganger has a "security" problem. Homeland security maybe?
Investigating the whole ad we find perhaps other predictions.
Seems Joe (a name not far off from George) has been laid-off, in debt and is looking for work. This is not an uncommon situation for many people in Geroge W. Bush's America.
In the second panel Joe and his girlfriend Jane (I guess, the character development in this ad leaves one wanting) decide that an education from the Locksmith Institute would be a good idea, what with all the violence today. Didn't the Bush Administration decide not to renew laws outlawing certain types of guns? I'm sure that will have no negative effects on the violence in this country.
Here we see Joe get the feeling he's got a personal instructor right there with him. Could that be Dick Cheney guiding him along? Is it the oil lobby that act like an "invisible hand" in what seems like a lot of Bush's decisions?
Joe will "get all the jobs" he wants with his new education is being a locksmith. Does the include president even if he hasn't had a lot of experience in government? Hmmm, that one's stretching it a bit. That being said "electric key machine" would be a good name for a band. That is if you decide to start a band in 1966.
The ad ends with Joe finding success as a locksmith. As long as people are afraid of the world out there Joe will be profiting. Now that doesn't sound like early-21st century United States at all.
(A hearty Brill Building thanks to Dorian for helping me with the scans here)
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Monday, November 15, 2004
The Fastest Angry Man Alive
Here's the thing folks, I like you. I pretty much like most people who read my blog and anybody who participates in the comics blogosphere as a whole. That is why I am going to spare you.
You see, as a comics blogger I must opine upon the DC solicitations (not so much the Marvel ones) lest my license get taken away. Well I studied too hard to get this comics blogger license and I'm going to keep it dammit! I'm just not going to keep you away from anything important you need to do. The reason is because I am going to write what is probably the shortest post about these wacky solicitations you'll find (although this fucking preamble isn't certainly not helping me any). If you find a shorter one let me know, I would love to read it.
This will be short because I will simply be going over what I like in these here solicits instead of whining and complaining about whatever Batman book coming out. Like I've got something important to say about Batman, right. So here we go:
Grant Morrison working with JH Williams III totally rules.
Paul Pope doing an OMAC story also totally rules.
Any new issue of Sleeper is a good thing.
Everything else is, at best, non-essential.
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Saturday, November 13, 2004
Hard Time
They hurt you at home and they hit you at school
They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool
Till you're so fucking crazy you can't follow their rules
A working class hero is something to be
-John Lennon, Working Class Hero
So I won Ken’s contest for the first Hard Time trade and I’ve decided to talk about it here. Is that cool?
Over the course of three days I’ve now read all ten issues of the series that have been published. I can say to you that this series (which is be put on hiatus with issue 12 but is getting brought back, hopefully under the Vertigo banner) is probably one of the best comics out there and certainly one of the best being put out by a company like DC. An odd concept to begin with, a teenager named Ethan Harrow is sent to jail with a 50 years to life sentence finds out he has superpowers, it just might be touching on some real important truths about the human condition. Of course if the sales stay shitty and the title is ultimately canned will it ever matter?
Hard Time is created by Steve Gerber, written by Gerber and drawn by Brian Hurtt. Hurtt has previously been known for his work on Greg Rucka’s Queen & Country, a series I must say I am completely unfamiliar with, and here his artwork is perfectly competent. It reminds of a little of what Pia Guerra does on Y the Last Man. That is creating a clean, simple look for the book that allows the plot-heavy series to get itself across to the readers clearly. I think Hurtt really shines when the one little bit of the fantastic sneaks into the book, Ethan’s “ghost-self” emerging. The good news is that’s a part of the book that will probably come out more and more. Hurtt’s covers for the book are also some of the most striking on the stands now.
It’s Steve Gerber’s storytelling skills that are the main draw of the book. Gerber’s best known creation is Howard the Duck. While some people know the character as the star of “the worst Lucasfilm movie before those Star Wars prequels” the original comic might be the best stuff Marvel has ever published. Reading Essential Howard the Duck I was struck by the fact that a corporate-owned comic could be so philosophical, creative and personal all at the same time. It will probably stand as the greatest thing Gerber has ever done. There are more pieces of work that attest to Gerber’s talent such as his work with the Man-Thing character in Adventures into Fear and the character’s own book, the Vertigo book Neveda, the Superman mini-series The Phantom Zone (which Mike Sterling has gone over), his run on Defenders (David Welsh praised it here along with other books) and other books. Check out Gerber’s own website for a full list of everything he’s done. In fact I believe that if he didn’t give up comics for a long while and go into television, Gerber would find himself in a position where he would be mentioned in the same breath as Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. The talent and imagination is certainly there and his inferences into human nature might be superior. It’s those inferences that bring me to the great series Hard Time.
The series for me is about how societies at large tries to muffle those with gifts for the creative and/or are the type of troublemakers that ask questions of those in charge. Ethan Harrow is that type of person, or is growing up to be at least. He's smarter than most people twice his age, he isn't scared of authority figures and seems to always have the feeling that something isn't quite right. His power to create this kind of “ghost” out of his own body seems to me to be a physical realization of his desperation to not just get out of jail. It's also a realization of his deperation to get out of a world that makes things harder for any person willing to realize their own personal gifts and stand out. Ethan is at just the right age where he’s willing to question everything and realize that those in charge are not always those who have all the right ideas. The book’s setting of a jail allows Gerber to really reinforce the idea of how suffocating the world can be for a teenage too smart for his own good.
The setting also allows Gerber to come up with a diverse and interesting ensemble cast that improves the story greatly (it struck me how sad it is that it took a book to be set in a jail for there to be a mainstream book that has an interesting racially diverse cast). Many characters seem to play real well against Ethan. His elderly cellmate Curly is a glimpse into what the future might hold for Ethan if he decides to give up in the face of oppostion. The small-time drug dealer Turo is letting the atmosphere of prison corrupt him so he’ll be worse when he gets out then when he came in, another precautionary example for Ethan. Probably the most interesting foil for Ethan was the penitentiary’s Christian demagogue Gantry. To Gantry, Ethan’s powers were an affront to God. It’s probably because of my Catholic upbringing (it was a completely normal Catholic upbringing. Which is to mean it was complexly Hellish) but this really spoke to me about how the powers that be will see even the simplest deviation from the norm as a threat and will try to snuff it out as early as they see it. I really hope the book follows this theme further along as Ethan’s powers develop (right now he’s just discovered the meditating mood he has to be in to unleash them) and the lives of everyone in the book will be changed by this young boy’s abilities.
I really hope the book’s re-launching will get more people to read this book (and hey, you can still get the trade for less than ten bucks). It’s a comic that’s smart, has something to say and executes it just right. If you haven’t already I urge you to sample the book. Every issue is pretty much a good jumping on point as it’s paced not unlike a serial television show like The Sopranos or Lost with a “what happened before page” starting every issue. So go buy the comic, won’t you?
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Thursday, November 11, 2004
A Nerd Made Good
There will be some real content on this blog real soon (promise!) but for right now I want to point you to another blog. Patton Oswalt, one of the funniest stand-up comics out there today and co-star of The King of Queens, talks new comic book day. He mentions that Wednesday at a comic book store in LA is a good chance to spot celebrities and he's not too far off. Hell, Dorian and Mike have stories of meeting celebs at their store and they're in Ventura.
Also, if you're in the LA area Oswalt and Brian Posehn are filming a pilot for Comedy Central on Nov. 17. All the info is on the front page of Oswalt's site. I plan to be there...will you?
EDIT: I found this interview from 2002 with Oswalt about comics. He talks about writing his JLA one-shot as well as collaborating with Ed Brubaker. I was disappointed to see that DC spiked a Batman story that featured a Robert Evans-like Batman. Oswalt's Robert Evans bit might be one of the funniest things I've ever heard.
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Tuesday, November 09, 2004
My Cell Phone Reception Sucks, But Whatever
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When There is No More Room in Hell
Waddaya mean lame tie-ins?
It’s always good to learn from other in your field and this post is inspired by two bloggers that are a Hell of a lot better at it than me. Tom Spurgeon at his site The Comics Reporter wonders why certain questions aren’t being asked of the comic book industry. Dorian at goes over the ”zombie” type customers one can find at your local comics hut (if you have a local comics hut, which brings us back to one of Tom’s questions). The questions of Tom’s that I want to go over concern the bad habits of comic publishers and the problem of too many comics (if you arrive to the conclusion that that is a problem). Reading those and the rest of his questions I thought “but what am I, a lone fan, to do?” Then I realized that while I may not know the inner-workings of the comics industry from the business side, I do know what it is like on the fan’s side. Reading Dorian’s thoughts about some fans I wondered “is this a case where the bad habits of publishers are perpetuating the bad habits of customers and vice-versa?” Then I stopped going over things in my head and I thought writing something down would help.
I don’t have a problem with someone really liking what the like and being unashamed of it. Be it a household name like Batman or a B-level superhero like Firestorm, there are certainly worse things to get into. What I don’t get is the “zombie” consumer who buys comics that he or she knows are bad. To extend the discussion to films for a moment I know Star Wars fans who admit their distaste from the last two films yet freely admit they will see the new one coming out, probably on opening weekend. It’s that behavior which I feel is sending a very bad message to publishers and is partly responsible for such phenomena as the flood of X-Men and Batman books on the market (this discussion will pretty much focus on Marvel and DC although they are hardly the only culprits when it comes to flooding the market).
I feel uncomfortable with labeling those who display such behavior with the ghoulish-but-comical name “zombie” when I think “addict” is much more truthful. There’s a completest mentality where a collection lacking even one issue where Nightcrawler or Barbra Gordon or Forbush Man appears in is seen as a problem and one that can only be fixed by spending money on a product for one reason and one reason only: it has that appearance of Nightcrawler or Barbra Gordon or Forbush Man that you need so badly. It’s a weird little habit that many of us fall into. I know I do sometimes. I’ve often had the desire to own everything Grant Morrison worked on. Thank goodness I’ve been talked out of buying full runs of Skrull Kill Krew. It’s seems to be a quest that is as expensive as it is unrewarding. If I did end being the Man with the Largest Grant Morrison Collection at best I would impress literally hundreds of people for literally tens of minutes.
That’s just the thing. I’d be spending money (and not just small amounts of it) on comics without caring if I felt they were a good read. Instead I would be spending money so that it would calm down my neuroses about missing a few Grant Morrison comics and only then for a while. Neuroses like that are alive and well in many comic book fans. I fear that is what sells a lot of comics and is the reason why publishers know they can flood the market.
Publishers are probably keenly aware of this and know that they can get some money out of even the lamest franchise tie-ins. Dirk Deppey has this humorous inference on the X-Men world:
After all, you could basically say that Chuck Austen's entire run on Uncanny X-Men was devoted to proving once and for all that you could throw a typewriter and a few sheets of paper at a trained monkey, illustrate the results, and the hardcore X-fans would still eat it up and ask for more. Oh, they'd whine and moan on message boards from time to time, but the consistency with which they'd nonetheless drop money on each new issue made their cries of alleged anguish ring more than a little hollow.
It means more bad comics out there for you and me. Everybody works less (if at all) for a guaranteed amount of sales so why even take a chance on something that could be better, even a better franchise tie-in? There’s the fear of what someone with barley any knowledge of comic books looking at the Graphic Novel shelf at Barnes & Nobles would think. At this point, though, I’m more concerned if someone who is a fan realizes what kind of game is going on and just gives up. I could hardly blame the person.
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Sunday, November 07, 2004
Pure electricity...in my pants
What's that? That's a screen shot from the forthcoming episode of Justice League Unlimited coming to your TV screen Dec. 4. Want some more (spoilers ahead, of course)?
The Ultimen
Apache Chief of the Ultimen with the JLA
The Wonder Twins
Er...Batman looking
My friend Reid downloaded the episode and provided the screencaps. The show has already aired in Canada and you might be able to find it through Bit Torrent (I belive the episode is called Ultimatum). Apparently the Ultimen are based on the old Super Friends characters Samurai, Black Lightning, Apache Chief and Wonder Twins. No word if Harvey Birdman shows up as Apache Chief's lawyer.
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Shulkie
Are you guys all on the edge of your seats with the news from Wizard World: Dallas? Yeah, me niether. There was this bit of news that struck me. It concerns the only Marvel book I'm really interested in:
She-Hulk will end with issue #12, and relaunch with a Runaways-style marketing push.
Um...okay? We haven't seen that Runaways-style marketing push with Runaways yet, have we? I mean I'm glad the book isn't outright cancelled but I can't imagine She-Hulk making inroads to the younger audience Runaways is trying to reach (hey kids, do you want to read about Champion of the Universe? Y'know, from Marvel Two-in-One Annual #7?) I guess I'll have to wait and see.
Also, there's a Nick Fury book coming out. If it's not written by Garth Ennis I don't wanna know.
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Saturday, November 06, 2004
From Crumb to Clowes
While at the TCJ board I found this thread on The New Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Stories: From Crumb to Clowes edited by Bob Callahan. From the thread, Norton employee John L. DiBello the book should hit stores around Nov. 15.
The contents according to Amazon.com:
A panorama of some of the most creative and subversive art of our times, this one-of-a-kind anthology celebrates the artistry and insight of comic book art, graphic novels, and graphic journalism from the 1960s to the present. Classics such as R. Crumb's I Remember the Sixties, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's Spider-Man saga "The Final Chapter" (from Spider-Man #33), and Dan Clowes's Caricature are featured, plus new sequences of work by Chris Ware and Ben Katchor created exclusively for this volume.
Other sections include work by Gilbert Shelton and Paul Mavrides ("The Death of Fat Freddy"), Harvey Pekar and R. Crumb ("Jack the Bellboy and Mr. Boats"), Carol Tyler ("Labor"), Stan Lee and Jim Steranko ("The Strange Death of Captain America"), Stan Lee and Jack Kirby ("The Hate Monger"), Bob Kanigher and Joe Kubert ("Enemy Ace"), Will Eisner ("Izzy the Cockroach and the Meaning of Life"), Rick Geary ("Farewell to Charlie Chaplin"), Kaz ("Dream of the Pork Rinds Fiend"), Charles Burns ("Robot Love"), Gary Panter ("Jimbo"), Art Spigelman ("The Honeymoon" from Maus), Frank Miller with Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley ("Born Again" from Daredevil), Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons ("Dr. Manhattan" from Watchmen), Neil Gaiman with Charles Vess and Malcolm Jones III ("A Midsummer Night's Dream" from The Sandman), Joe Sacco ("Hebron"), Jaime Hernandez ("Locos"), Gilbert Hernandez ("Pipo"), Dori Seda ("The Do-Nothing Decade"), Eddie Campbell ("Nobody Left at the Café Guerbois"), and more. The book is divided into four main galleries: Underground Comics, Silver Age Super Heroes, A Raw Generation, and Dark Fiction and Deep Fantasy, and includes a special supplement of four-color work by Lynda Barry and others as well. In his lively introduction Bob Callahan celebrates the achievements of American comic book art from the late 1930s to the present. An indispensible collection. 100 color, 300 b/w illustrations.
It's not unlike the McSweeney's book in that it's a sampler of comics that won't be new to long-time comics fans but will be for those who are unfamiliar with comics. Unlike the McSweeney's book, which was all modern alternative comics, this will include superhero and underground comics as well as alternative work.
Like many of you reading this I already have a lot of those works. Still, I can't resist having Charles Burns, Jack Kirby, Eddie Campbell, Frank Miller, Will Eisner, Rick Geary and others between two hardcovers. I don't think there's ever been an anthology of comics that has had quite this range of comics in it. The fact that it is all black and white also makes me interested. I do want to see the Watchmen excerpt in black and white as I felt the coloring of the book was its real low point.
They are no longer in print but if you can track down the older Smithsonian books, A Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics edited by Michael Barrier and Martin Williams and Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics edited by Bill Blackbeard (a name I've come to associate with excellent reprint books). I've only read the Comic Book one that reprints many Golden Age books, the latest of them were Harvey Kurtzman EC books. The reproductions are much better than what's found in the DC Archives books. It's much closer to what you find in the Chipp Kidd/Art Speigelman Plastic Man book or the Les Daniels books. I found it at two local libraries, so perhaps you can too. Of course, you'll be able to find this new book in most bookstores soon.
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Congrats to Tomine
Yep, that's Adrian Tomine illustrating the cover to the Nov. 8 issue of The New Yorker (this is the biggest image of the cover I could find. If anyone knows where a bigger one is please share). I'm always happy to see one of my favorite cartoonists illustration work in magazines and here it looks like he hit it real big.
Like so much on this blog, found via TCJ board.
Permanent Link: 5:29 PM |
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Friday, November 05, 2004
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Old Comics Meet Current Politics
I got this from Superman Through the Ages. It's a great site where you can read this story, amongst others.
Also, Haloscan is apparently being silly again. When it says there's zero comments there might be some, the post before this for example. Grrrr...technology is evil in so many ways.
Permanent Link: 5:02 PM |
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I'm a Horrible Fanboy
Seeing how the only thing I look forward to from Marvel are their collections of older stuff I was quite pleased to see Neilalien link to this Marvel Masterworks thread that goes over upcoming Marvel collections. I like the Marvel Visionaries: Steve Ditko book (finally, Squirrel Girl and Speedball in deluxe hardcover!) as well as Essential Doctor Strange Volume 2. Looking at the thread I find some more collections that look nice to me and perhaps to you.
BLACK PANTHER BY JACK KIRBY VOL. 1 TPB
ISBN: 0-7851-1687-7
$19.99
136 Pages Trade Paperback Color
Collects: Black Panther (1977) 1-7
ESSENTIAL TOMB OF DRACULA VOL. 4 TPB
ISBN: 0-7851-1709-1
$16.99
592 Pages Trade Paperback B&W
Collects: Stories from Tomb of Dracula Magazine #2 and #4-6; and Dracula Lives! #1-13
BEST OF THE FANTASTIC FOUR HC
ISBN: 0-7851-1702-2
$29.99
360 Page Hard Cover Color
Collects: FANTASTIC FOUR #1 - "The Fantastic Four,” FANTASTIC FOUR #39-40 - "Battle of the Baxter Building,” FANTASTIC FOUR #51 - "This Man, This Monster,” FANTASTIC FOUR #116 - "The Alien, The Ally and Armageddon,” FANTASTIC FOUR #176 - Impossible Man by Roy Thomas and George Perez, FANTASTIC FOUR #236 - "Terror in a Tiny Town,” FANTASTIC FOUR #267 - Sue loses the baby, MARVEL FANFARE #15 - Barry Smith Thing story, FANTASTIC FOUR #347-349 - "The New Fantastic Four,” FANTASTIC FOUR v3 #56 - Ben is Jewish, FANTASTIC FOUR v3 #60 - Imaginauts.
ESSENTIAL THOR VOL. 2 TPB
ISBN: 0-7851-1591-9
$16.99
584 Trade Paperback B&W
Collects: Thor 113-126, Annual 1-2
Also, while I probably won't pick them up it should be noted that Luke Cage gets an Essential volume and the X-Men Age of Apocalypse storyline gets a hardcover. This follows in Marvel's policy of "every damn thing we've put out gets put in a trade paperback."
I am left with one question, where is Essential Man-Thing?
Permanent Link: 8:38 AM |
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Dan Clowes: Commercial Whore
Dan Clowes teams up with Oscar-winning documentarian Errol Morris for this Apple commercial. You even get a glimpse of his artwork, although I think it will probably scare anyone viewing the commercial at home waiting for something like The Apprentice to come back from break. Maybe that was the point?
via The Comics Journal message board.
Permanent Link: 8:10 AM |
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Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Evan Gets It
Some might be tired of hearing post-election moaning and groaning and I can see why. I'm just posting this because I love Evan Dorkin. The man is one of my favorite artists (and one of my favorite bloggers). Preach it, man.
© Evan Dorkin 2004, www.houseoffun.com. Milk & Cheese TM Evan Dorkin.
Permanent Link: 6:37 PM |
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It's Times Like This I Turn to the Simpsons
This coming from one of Scott's favorite Threehouse of Horror episodes.
KANG: It does not matter which way you vote. Either way your planet is doomed. Doomed. Doomed.*
Is this blog getting too political? Are people bugged by that? I really thought of combining comics and politics in this blog in some way but...I don't know. There's a lot about comics I love but for right now I don't want deal with them. I don't want to deal with anything except a ticket out of this joke of a country.
*And because everything on the internet needs an explanation, I didn't post this quote because I thought Kerry was as bad a Bush. I posted this because I feel no matter how many of my fellow Kerry-supporters got out and voted the small-minded rule America and managed to re-elect one of their own.
Permanent Link: 6:17 AM |
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Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Last Gasp
Remember to vote. And when you vote just remember this:
If this was a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator.
-President Bush on Dec. 18, 2000
Permanent Link: 10:16 AM |
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Monday, November 01, 2004
The American Ruse
The following post is political. Who gives a fuck?
I could tell you that I feel that Bush is too dangerous to be dog catcher, let alone president. I could tell you that the Kerry/Edwards ticket is better for the country by virtue of the fact that we will get rid of the likes of John Ashcroft and Dick Cheney. I could say all this but will it matter? Can the United States of America truly be free from the grip of conservatism, both the religious and "free market over all" kind, so that ideas like stem cell research and a living wage for workers aren't an uphill battle?
More often I feel like America is acting like an ignorant giant trampling through the world making everything worse for itself and others. Not just when it comes to Iraq but also when I look at things like the Kyoto Treaty and the Bush administration's ideas on how to fight AIDS in Africa.
Bush might win tomorrow (or more accurately, he might "win" tomorrow like he "won" the 2000 election) and I wonder if perhaps this country deserves a president like him. One that lacks any compassion for others that can't help him first, if that. One who takes things at face value and seems to not approach life with any sense of skepticism. That reflects a lot of Americans I see. A lot of those Americans are raising future generations to go through life the same way.
I'm the first member of my family to be born in this country. The endeavor had its charm but ultimately I think it was a mistake. I don't plan on staying in this country after I'm finished with my education. That's not a particularly happy sentiment because there's a lot I love about this country and there's a lot I love about living here. I just don't want to be dragged down with the bastards and I feel like the bastards are too powerful. They've been too powerful since before I got here.
Permanent Link: 6:31 PM |
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