Music About Comics Should Be Good, Too

Frankly, I blame Warren Ellis. Over on The Engine he put up a link to his new musical revue, the Apparat Programme, akin to his old Superburst Mixtapes. It's a collection of neat new music put together by people who subscribe to BadSignal.

Anyway, there's one song on there, Four Color Love Story, and it's the new greatest thing ever. It's by a band called The Metasciences, and they're quite good. (Yes, you can listen to the song at the link. Go. Do so now. You know you want to. It even mentions Sue Dibny).

For the music geeks among you, they' give off a Rilo Kiley vibe. But with comic nerdity and acoustic awesomeness.

Who Would You Base Them On TODAY?

An interesting thing about characters created in the Golden Age is that, visually, a VERY common practice by artists was to base characters upon popular (or at least popular enough) movie actors. Needed a leading man-type? Base the character's visual on a leading man actor. And so on, and so forth.

Which leads me to my question today (as I haven't tossed out a fun game in awhile), which is, quite often, people like to play "Cast the Superman movie" or whatever, but in those instances, we are basing the look on the established Superman look, which, in turn, was based upon a movie actor. What I am asking today is, if you were the artist in charge of creating the visual for Superman TODAY, as if he was invented TODAY, which movie actors/actresses would you use for the basis of:

Superman

Clark Kent

Lois Lane

Jimmy Olsen

Bruce Wayne

Batman

Wonder Woman

Captain Marvel

Mary Marvel

Captain Marvel, Jr.

Lex Luthor

Sivania

Robin

Joker

Two-Face

Catwoman

Now, remember, you don't have to stick to ANY preconceived visual here. Just who you think would be your pick for a "Mild-Mannered Reporter," etc.

And, obviously, you don't have to answer each one...hehe.

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This Chat Was Good - Tania Del Rio

You folks know how much I like to hype up Tania Del Rio's run on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, so it was quite cool to have a long chat with Ms. Del Rio. Check the transcript out here.

Infinite Crisis #1 - Critiquing a Lunch Box

Infinite Crisis #1 came out Wednesday, and I am sure that folks come by comic blogs expecting for SOME reaction to the issue, so I figured I might as well serve you up some thoughts on the comic.

First off, I did a bit on the preview of Infinite Crisis #1 a few months back, and it is really remarkable how, once again, everything that I thought was happening in the PREVIEW was, well, what happened. The first three dozen times someone said, "You can't really tell until the full product is out," I thought that there was something to it. Now? Not so much. There is just too much of a "tell" (to use gambling parlance) with these stories. Like I wrote in the bit, as soon as you saw lower-tier characters show up, of COURSE you thought that they were going to be killed off, and - shock of all shocks, they were! As an aside, being stabbed through the chest by Deathstroke or being drawn by Chuck Austen? Which event was the low point of Phantom Lady's career? I am torn.

However, when it comes down to really reviewing the comic, I find it really is not all that doable. Sure, I can point out the rampant "outside writing," like the exchange where Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman take positions just because the stories needs them to take these specific decisions. Or how odd it was to see Wonder Woman act like she now has a taste for blood. Kill ONE dude, and now suddenly, she's Wonder Punisher. Or how disturbing it is to see Bizarro used the way he was used in this comic.

But really, there is no point.

As this is really not a comic book.

It's a lunch box.

It's a pair of pants.

It's a toner cartridge.

It's a shoe horn.

It's a staple remover.

It is not a comic book, it is just a tool. A tool to get us from Point A to Point B. To "achieve goals." Therefore, critiquing it seems almost to be a fool's errand.

A pal of mine is really happy about Infinite Crisis, because finally, he feels, DC is acknowledging the Multiverse. This guy is not some nut, he isn't all "Wah! I want the Multiverse back!" He knows the Multiverse is gone, and heck, he is cool with that. He just wants some recognition of the past events. That's all. Which, I think, is not an unreasonable request. In fact, this current plot point of Infinite Crisis, you know, the unresolved plot point that Marv Wolfman left open in Crisis on Infinite Earths #12 and Geoff Johns has now picked up, is something that this guy has been begging DC to address for years.

And now he's gotten his wish.

Which, hey, to me, is fine.

But there has been a very specific reason why comics, in the past, have not been wrapped around an unresolved plot point from a comic book that came out in 1986, and that is the fact that any such story would not be about the STORY, it would just be about addressing that plot point. For years, no writer would go out there and write a story like that. Now we have Geoff Johns.

This is not to say that it is WRONG for this story to be made. It is not my cuppa, but I can understand its purpose, and indeed, if the resulting "new DC Universe" is as fun as some of the projects sound, then hey, I cannot really begrudge them it. I, of course, have severe doubts about everything post-Crisis not written by Grant Morrison, as quite often, what these folks SAY they're gonna do is a good deal different from what they ACTUALLY do, but that is something to be seen later. For now, I'll allow them some optimism on my part.

So yeah, I can understand the purpose of Infinite Crisis, but it really is not a comic book. It is a tool. A plot-driven tool. Which is great when you want something achieved, like carrying your lunch. Not so great when you want to critique something.

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I can't believe I was right!

Bwahahahaha!

I SO nailed it. Kind of.

What am I talking about? Well I wouldn't want to give away a big spoilery thing so I won't say.

Nobody could be more surprised than me that I got it. Well, I guess some people could be. Especially those who thought "no way" when they saw what I had written before.

I am now going to be insufferably smug for the rest of the day.

**Spoiler Warning!** There are spoilers in the comments on this post. Do not read further if you don't want to know about what happened in some Infinite Crisis related comics this week.

Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #20!

This is the twentieth in a series of examinations of comic book urban legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous nineteen.

Let's begin!

COMIC URBAN LEGEND: The characters in Watchmen were originally meant to be based on a defunct line of superheroes.

STATUS: True

When Alan Moore first came up with the idea that became the comic series, Watchmen, he thought that what would work perfectly would be a line of superhero comics that was not being used at the time. The comic company that Moore initially considered?

The MLJ/Archie Superhero line!

Says Moore, in Comic Book Artist #9:

That was the initial idea of Watchmen—and this is nothing like what Watchmen turned out to be—was it was very simple: Wouldn't it be nice if I had an entire line, a universe, a continuity, a world full of super-heroes—preferably from some line that has been discontinued and no longer publishing—whom I could then just treat in a different way. You have to remember this was very soon after I'd done some similar stuff, if you like, with Marvelman, where I'd used a pre-existing character, and applied a grimmer, perhaps more realistic kind of world view to that character and the milieu he existed in. So I'd just started thinking about using the MLJ characters—the Archie super-heroes—just because they weren't being published at that time, and for all I knew, they might've been up for grabs. The initial concept would've had the 1960s-'70s rather lame version of the Shield being found dead in the harbor, and then you'd probably have various other characters, including Jack Kirby's Private Strong, being drafted back in, and a murder mystery unfolding. I suppose I was just thinking, "That'd be a good way to start a comic book: have a famous super-hero found dead." As the mystery unraveled, we would be lead deeper and deeper into the real heart of this super-hero's world, and show a reality that was very different to the general public image of the super-hero. So, that was the idea.

As luck would have it, DC happened to purchase a DIFFERENT defunct line of superheroes, the Charlton heroes, and Moore took this idea that he had based on the MLJ/Archie heroes, and applied it to the Charlton heroes. This was what led to the original proposal for Watchmen, which later, due to the fact that Moore pretty much made the characters unusable after the series was over, changed to being ORIGINAL characters based on the Charlton heroes.

However, even after the changes, a remnant of the MLJ/Archie influence remained in Watchmen, as Hooded Justice is very likely based upon the Archie superhero, Hangman.

Imagine...Who Watches....The Crusaders? Coulda happened!

COMIC URBAN LEGEND: When Len Wein created the "All New, All Different" X-Men, he created Thunderbird with the intention of killing him off two issues later, which is what he did.

STATUS: False

Thunderbird was a marked man from the moment he was created.

However, it was NOT to be at the hands of Count Nefaria. In fact, Thunderbird was not meant to make it past the All-New All-Different X-Men's FIRST mission!!!

Here is Peter Sanderson discussing the topic with Dave Cockrum, from The X-Men Companion - Part I:

SANDERSON: "Now was it originally intended that Thunderbird would really be a member of the team? When was it decided to kill him off?"

COCKRUM: "Kind of at the last minute. The way this all came about was that when we were first planning out that first issue, we decided what we were going to do was have it be an aptitude test or an entrance exam or something like that. They would be sent off to rescue the original X-Men, but the original X-Men would not actually be in any danger. We figured if it's an entrance exam, theoretically, there are people who are going to flunk as well as people who pass, and so we had Banshee and Sunfire, and we were going to flunk 'em. Then we thought, well, that doesn't seem fair, we ought to have a new guy to flunk too, a new guy who's unsuitable. So that was what Thunderbird was for, to be a flunker. He was unsuitable because he was anti-social. Hah! As if Wolverine's not anti-social. But at the last minute- well, I liked Banshee and we all liked Thunderbird, so we figured to hell with it. It turned out not to be a test anyway. So we had Sunfire, who nobody much liked, go off in a huff, and we kept Banshee and we kept Thunderbird. But then we didn't know what to do with Thunderbird because we never thought him out. It was easier to kill him off than to think him out."

SANDERSON: "Was it thought that he duplicated Wolverine too much?"

COCKRUM: "He duplicated both Wolverine..."

SANDERSON: "And Colossus, with his super-strength."

COCKRUM: "Almost everybody in the group did something he did, and he seemed kind of superflous. He was fast, he was strong. I mean, he was fast enough and strong enough to run down a buffalo and pull it down, and faster than Colossus, but not as strong. The whole thing seemed pointless so we did him in."

SANDERSON: "Do you think that it was a good idea to do him in so early? I know that when the story was written, you thought that it was only going to be a quarterly book, but nevertheless, it was only the second story. Len [Wein] says it was done for shock value."

COCKRUM: "I guess it was more than anything else. We couldn't figure out what to do with him, so we figured, all right, let's kill him off. You don't often find a character that's introduced and so abruptly killed off. I imagine it did shock a lot of people. We never intended to bring him back, although we've toyed with the idea of having a younger brother show up wearing the same costume."

Poor Thunderbird. Created to die, given a reprieve, and getting the axe ANYways!!!

COMIC URBAN LEGEND: A character once escaped from X-Men custody in 1977 and did not have the plot resolved into another comic book...thirteen years later!!

STATUS: True

From that very same storyline that Thunderbird died in was the female mutate, Dragonfly. Along with the Ani-Men, she was put into lock-up (we learn later that it was on Muir Isle).

Well, in X-Men #104, during a battle on Muir Isle, two locked-up people escape. One, Mutant X, is addressed twenty issues later, in the Proteus fight. The secon, Dragonfly, is never mentioned again!



I do not know if Chris Claremont had a plot for her, but dropped it, but in any event, she was long known as one of the more prominent "dangling plotlines" in Marvel Comics, so noted stickler for details, Mark Gruenwald, resolved her story - THIRTEEN years later! - in the pages of Quasar.



In Quasar #15, we learn that right after she escaped, she was taken captive by the Stranger, which is where she's been ever since!

All wrapped up in a nice little bow!

Well, that's it for me this week!

Feel free to tell me some urban legends you have heard, and I will try to confirm or deny them!

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What I bought - 12 October 2005

Apparently some "event" comic came out today. I asked the guys at the store about it, but they didn't know anything. I guess it wasn't that important. If it was, I'd be reading about it all over the Internets, wouldn't I be?

So let's check out my purchases. The "good" comics, I like to call them.

Bonerest #4 by Matteo Casali and Giuseppe Camuncoli
$2.99, Image

Oops. Did I say my purchases were "good"? Scratch that, at least for this one. Why would I buy a Bad Comic Book, you ask? Well, it's the last issue of a three-part storyline, and I was hoping against hope that it would rescue the previous three issues, which had some intrigue but got bogged down in lousy dialogue and almost impenetrable allusions and mystery. I'm just not all that interested. This issue ends the "weird guy who claims he is offering everyone a path to redemption by doing nasty things to them" story and introduces (or continues) at least five new threads to the story, and it's just not that good. The art is neat, but it's not worth your money. Sorry, Bonerest - it hasn't been fun.

Ex Machina #15 by Brian K. Vaughan, Tony Harris, and Tom Feister
$2.99, DC/Wildstorm

One of the top five titles out there gives us what we've all been waiting for: TITS!

Okay, maybe we haven't been waiting for it, but there's a funny scene involving women's breasts. I'm sure it will all make sense in the grand context of the story. Meanwhile, it's another two-parter from our creative team. Even if you don't like this comic, you have to admire the restraint and savage devotion to packing a lot into each issue. Mitch gets a phone call from his mother, who disappeared in 1999. He tracks her down using his abilities and discovers something about his family that isn't exactly pleasant. There's a flashback to his superhero days, as usual, which will tie in somehow, I'm sure, and there's the topless woman, who bares her breasts to protest her ticket for going topless, an unintended consequence of his law allowing women to breastfeed in public. There's a revelation about what Mitch's father did for a living and how it ties into the politics of the now. This continues to be a fascinating comic, as it continues to walk the fine line of talking heads and action well. Keep buying those trades, people!

Fables #42 by Bill Willingham, Mark Buckingham, and Steve Leialoha
$2.75, DC/Vertigo

Speaking of excellent comics, Fables fires up a new storyline. Not a whole lot happens, but it's still good. Sinbad arrives as an envoy from the Arabian fables, who are being pressed by the Adversary and want asylum in Fabletown. Of course, all the slaves in his retinue cause some problems, as does the fact that none of his people speak English and nobody in Fabletown speaks Arabic. Well, one person does, but it's not the best person they could let discuss things with Sinbad. Meanwhile, Mowgli, who set up the meeting, is still tracking Bigby, and things heat up in the Mayor's Office!

The really great thing about this title is, like all excellent comic series, that Willingham has a vision for the series and keeps its history in mind. There continue to be ramifications of actions from many issues ago, and there is a sense that the characters are changing and growing. It doesn't have to be this way all the time, of course, for a series to work, but it tends to make a series stronger. Good stuff, as usual.

Gødland #4 by Joe Casey and Tom Scioli
$2.99, Image

You're buying Gødland, right? All you people who worship at the altar of Kirby and the New Gods and early Fantastic Four and won't shut up about Kamandi are all buying Gødland, right? Because it you're not, stop talking about those other titles, because you obviously don't like Kirby. Hell, I don't even like Kirby as much as everyone else, and I love this series. Name me one series where you can read glorious dialogue like this:

Friedrich Nickelhead: Tell me, Eghad ... Have you ever had one of those days when you feel like a million bucks ... pre-inflation? Look who I'm talking to ... of course you haven't.

Eghad (who wears a tank top and Elton John glasses): Contact. Bilge Bay. Affirm.

Bask in the weirdness of it all! Bask, I say! We get two fight scenes in this book (one huge, the other not so much), we get our interlude with comics' weirdest villains, the aforementioned Friedrich Nickelhead and Basil Cronus' head, we get Discordia, and we get ... the Null Field Cube! "Anti-particles that form an empty tesseract. Hypercubic geometry at its finest." Would Discordia lie to you????

Bask in the weirdness!

The Goon 25¢ Edition by Eric Powell
$.25 (duh!), Dark Horse

I'm still not sold on The Goon - it's enjoyable and all, but when I read it, it feels like there's something missing. Maybe it's my soul. It's fun enough, and there's no reason, if you bought Countdown to Infinite Crapitude for 100 cents, to pass this up when it's 25 cents, but I'm not sure why I don't love it. Yes, the rubber chicken was funny. Yes, the fact that demons don't share cake is funny. Something is missing from my enjoyment of The Goon experience, though. It's weird.

You should all buy this, though. It's a freakin' quarter, people!

Gravity #5 by Sean McKeever and Mike Norton
$2.99, Marvel

A very nice mini-series comes to a satisfactory (for the most part) end, and you should all go buy the trade. We get the big showdown between Greg and Black Death, and I don't think I'm giving anything away by saying Greg wins. It's how he wins that's always the interesting thing in these stories, plus the extraneous stuff. Spider-Man shows up and gives Greg a bit of a lesson in relationships, and Greg figures some things out about his life. I wish he had either told Lauren about his secret identity or she figured it out by himself, but such is life. This is a nice superhero book that, I'm sure, nobody bought because it's not "dark." That's a shame. It's fun.

The Iron Ghost #4 by Chuck Dixon and Sergio Cariello
$2.99, Image

My subset theme of comics this week is "Nazis getting killed and why should we care?" It will carry over into the next purchase, as well. This nice mini-series continues, as two high-up Nazis are arrested and brought in for questioning. One of the accused gets a urologist as a questioner - use your imagination. The other gets the inspector (whose name escapes me), who is much nicer (he's kind of the hero, after all). Our Ghost friend shows up and havoc ensues.

Okay, it's not much, but piece by piece we are getting a sense of what's going on, if not who the killer is. The army is not happy that they have been assigned to carry out missions that involve killing civilians (and, to be fair, the army was one of the last groups to get on board with Hitler). The police are just trying to do their jobs in a city gone to hell. The interesting theme of this book is what do you do when your society has collapsed? Should you turn to chaos, or should you try to maintain a semblance of that society? Berlin in 1945 was not a place anyone wanted to be, but certain people keep marching on, because it's the right thing to do. We don't necessarily have sympathy for the characters, since they're Nazis or at least gave tacit support to the Nazi regime, but we are fascinated by how these people react in a situation almost beyond our imagination. As Josef Meier says, "I wonder how [American] resolve would survive if New York looked as Berlin does now." Because it's Dixon, I'm sure that's a not-so-subtle shout-out to New Yorkers surviving after 9/11, but it's also a question we don't have to answer. 9/11 was one day. This is constant.

Anyway, it's intriguing. Things are moving along. Get the trade when it arrives.

The Keep #1 by F. Paul Wilson and Matthew Smith
$3.99, IDW

Speaking of Nazis getting killed, we have The Keep. In contrast to The Iron Ghost, this story takes place near the beginning of the war (April 1941) when it still looked like Germany might win. There are Nazis at a mysterious castle in Romania, and they're getting killed. Why do we care?

Well, if you ignore the Nazis, it's a nice creepy horror story. An old man is the caretaker of the keep, and he tells the Nazis that they musn't disturb the crosses that are set into the stones of the building. Of course, because they're evil Nazis, they are greedy for gold, so they start digging. This unleashes some kind of ancient evil that kills them. Go, Ancient Evil! Kill those Nazis good!

I like this book, and no, I haven't read the novel on which its based. I'm just wondering why Wilson set this during World War II with Nazis, because I just don't care that they're all getting killed. It's certainly spooky, and I'll pick up the next issue just to see what's going on, but are there any sympathetic characters?

The Middleman #3 by Javier Grillo-Marxbuach and Les McClaine
$2.95, Viper Comics

Another fun book. Come on, it has a gangster monkey in it!

That's not enough for you? And you say I have no soul? Well, we get more fun banter between The Middleman and Wendy, as Wendy tries to get information out of her mysterious partner. And The Middleman kicks ass. Oh yes, much kicking. And milk drinking. And art snobbery!

Oh, the craziness that will ensue next issue! The wacky monkey bashing that will occur! I kind of wish Wendy hadn't put her cotton shirt through the heat cycle in the washing machine, because it shrunk. Poor girl - now she's showing off her midriff all the time. Oh well. What a fun book - go find it now at fine comic shoppes everywhere!

Of Bitter Souls #3 by Chuck Satterlee and Norm Breyfogle
$2.99, Speakeasy/Relative Comics

This title continues to be intriguing, although I'm still making up my mind about it. We get another origin of our four mysterious heroes, and that's the best part of the book. The story in the present deals with the famous New Orleans serial killer known as The Axeman, and it's kind of dull. The backstory is better. Breyfogle's art continues to be the draw for me, but the story is interesting enough right now for me to keep it. After the origin stories are done, we'll see where it goes. That will make or break it for me.

Ultimate X-Men #64 by Brian K. Vaughan, Stuart Immonen, and Wade von Grawbadger
$2.50, Marvel

Hey, look! It's a meeting between two superteams and they fight over a misunderstanding while the real object of both their missions slips through! That's never happened before!

Okay, it might have happened once or twice. In this issue, the Ultimates and the X-Men are trying to stop Alex and Jean-Paul from getting into the Triskelion so they can't rescue Lorna. Instead of talking about it, they fight! Whoo-hoo!

This is Vaughan's penultimate issue, and it's a fun superhero bash. Yes, the two teams act stupid, but in a world where we can accept people with fabulous powers, we can accept that their brains might not work like our more rational ones. And the fight is a good one, so that's okay. But something bad happens to Dazzler. Boo!

This run of Vaughan's is really a good one. I'm very keen to see what happens next issue, with Magneto busting out of prison, Warren and Alison in trouble, the X-Men versus the Ultimates - it's all hitting the fan, people!

Man, that's a bunch of books. And not one having anything to do with a certain book in which a superhero based on an endangered bird that lives in California appears to get killed. How's that for my restraint?

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Current Comics Report for 10/12

This is a report about what I think about the comics of this week, based upon Diamond's Shipping This Week list, as reprinted below, with my (sometimes quite snarky, so be forewarned) comments.

The guest commentaries are going well, I think, so welcome Comic Should Be Good's own, Tadhg (who may soon actually post an entry here!!)

Certain sections of the Current Report on the 10/5 Comic Book Week contain forward-looking statements that are based on my expectations, estimates, projections and assumptions. Words such as “expect,” “anticipate,” “plan,” “believe,” “estimate” and variations of these words and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, which include but are not limited to projections of books being good, writing performance, character flaws, artistic coolness and continued title stability.

Forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Prognasticators Reform Act of 1995, as amended. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks and uncertainties, which are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual future results and trends may differ materially from what is forecast in forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including, without limitation:

• A book being better than I thought it would be;

• A different creative team on a book;

• A different type of story than I thought it was;

• Differences in anticipated and actual performance by the writer and/or artist

All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date of this report or, in the case of any document incorporated by reference, the date of that document.All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to me are qualified by the cautionary statements in this section...

NOTE: T=Tadhg, B=Brian, if there is no letter before the sentence, then it is me, as well.

Shipping This Week: October 12, 2005

DARK HORSE

FEB050061 APOCALYPSE NERD #2 $2.99

T - Ick. I don't trust any comic with nerd, geek, or dork in the title.

B - Damn...I can't think of an example off-hand to prove you horribly wrong.

T - You suck then

T - Because I can

T - But I won't tell you

B - blast

T - A title like Apocalypse Nerd sounds like it's going to be too self referential.

JUL050052 BERSERK VOL 9 TP (MR) $13.95
AUG050028 GOON 25 CENT COMIC $0.25

T - Goon 25 cent comic isn't really worth commenting on. It's Goon. It's 25 cents. Every comic blogger and their sidekick will be talking about it

B - Because it rules!

JUL050020 GOON FANCY PANTS ED HC $24.95

B - And the hardover has a great name, doesn't it?

T - The Hardcover is much more interesting

T - With a Great name. Best name for a collection I've seen

T - Fancy Shmancy edition would have been better

B - I think I've seen better

B - Or maybe I'm thinking of music collections

B - like "Greatest Near Misses"

B - or, remember the Invisibles with the unenhanced cover?

T - Yes

B - that was better than "fancy pants edition"

T - You're right

T - It was

T - But Fancy pants is so much better than Absolute, Ultimate. worthless adjective here

B - Agreed.

B - It IS a great name.

JUN050045 STAR WARS CLONE WARS ADVENTURES VOL 4 TP $6.95
JUN050046 STAR WARS EMPIRE #36 $2.99

I liked last issue a LOT. I hope this one is good, as well.

JUL050055 SUPER MANGA BLAST #56 (MR) $5.99
MAY050026 TONY MILLIONAIRE LITTLE & LARGE HC $7.95

DC COMICS

AUG050280 100 BULLETS #65 (MR) $2.75
AUG050196 ACTION COMICS #832 $2.50

T - Action Comics 832 would have been a cool story

T - During like Day of Judgement

T - or something

B - I think it will still be good.

T - The Dead rise, blah blah blah.

B - Byrne and Simone are good together.

T - What's up with all the dead coming back to life?

T - Zombie's are the new black

B - Because I think Lord Satannus is trying to get souls to fight the Spectre.

B - They brought Lord Satannus back!

T - Satanus.

B - Sorry

B - Excuse me

B - Very important character

B - Musn't add an extra N.

B - That would be terrible.

B - Worlds would crumble.

T - Hey. Satannus sounds like the lord of some kind of ancient pagan festival. Not scary at all

T - Not like Satanus

T - That Strikes fear

B - Touche.

T - I do love Byrne and with the Jurgens cover it reminds me of late '80s comics instead of mid-'90s that the rest of DC reminds me of

B - Agreed.

B - I think Byrne and Simone are the best creative team DCU has...although that is a bit of damning with faint praise.

B - Gibbons and Gleason will unseat them, I predict.

T - What about JH Williams, DC Johnson, and Seth Fisher?

B - What DCU ongoing are they doing?

T - LoDK is readable again

B - Bah

B - That is one arc.

T - Shut up

T - It's good

B - Seth Fisher IS good.

B - I will give you that.

B - Still, name me a DCU creative team better than Byrne and Simone.

B - ONGOING.

B - There isn't one.

B - And, like I said, that is not to say that Action Comics is the greatest comic ever.

B - Just that, in the DCU right now, a good book sorta stands out.

T - Byrne and Pfeifer

B - Good, but I'll take Byrne and Simone.

B - And I think so would you.

T - OKAY

T - How fucked up is it that Byrne is topping the DC talent list now, when 2 years ago we used him exclusively as a punchline

B - Excellent point. I, for one, think it is a result of him saying, "Hey, I have to make people notice me again, or else I won't be ABLE to do the books I want to do."

B - And, don't forget, Doom Patrol is still a joke.

AUG050259 ASTRO CITY LOCAL HEROES TP $17.99
AUG050184 BATMAN LEGENDS OF THE DARK KNIGHT #196 $2.50
AUG050239 BATMAN STRIKES #14 $2.25
AUG050209 BREACH #10 $2.50

T - I never read it, but Harras is writing a book and it looks more interesting than most of the other DCU stuff out currently

T - That shakes me to my very core

B - Hehe...they're giving him JLA now. For the "No JLA" arc.

AUG050282 DOOM PATROL VOL 3 DOWN PARADISE WAY TP (MR) $19.99
JUL050284 EX MACHINA #15 (MR) $2.99

T - I honestly haven't been as impressed with Ex Machina as I hoped to be. The premise sounded great, the talent made me giddy, but the execution has left me kind of cold. It has brilliant moments, but that's all they are is moments. It's much more traditional than I thought it was going to be

AUG050284 FABLES #42 (MR) $2.75
AUG050211 FIRESTORM #18 $2.50

T - Why does Firestorm look OMACian on the cover to his comic?

T - I ask only so I could use the word OMACian

B - Moore said the cover was misleading.

T - My guess then is that it is the best part of the comic, ecause turning Firestorm into an OMAC thingy has at least the potential to be cool

B - No.

B - OMAC things are dumb.

T - Yes

T - But there's something inherently cool about superheroes turned into evil slaves.

T - It's like all the JLA and Avengers go bad stories.

T - We all loved those as kids.

AUG050253 FROM EROICA WITH LOVE VOL 5 $9.99

Only 15 more to go!

AUG050215 GREEN ARROW #55 $2.50

T - My god. Green Arrow #55.

T - There's been 55 issues of a comic with one of my favorite characters ever and I STILL have no desire to read any of it

B - I liked Meltzer's arc.

B - And Scott Beatty did two good fill-ins.

T - The solicit for this one sounds fine until you get to the last sentence

B - Written by Judd Winick?

T - "Is their appearance a coincidence or poart of a more sinister plot"

T - Yawn

B - Yeah.

T - Why can't we just have single issue stories anymore?

B - But I bet we will hear some more about how great Ted Kord was!!

JUL050228 GREEN LANTERN REBIRTH HC $24.99

Finally, Johns has something to really hit us over the head with, BESIDES his plots.

AUG050216 HAWKMAN #45 $2.50

T - So I haven't read any Hawkman

T - And it's on issue 45, which astounds me/

T - But I see two Hawkmen and "Year of mystery"

T - I thought we had Geoff Johns reboot this shit to get RID of the extraneous Hawkmen

B - They brought back Golden Eagle!

T - I heard about Golden Eagle from Brad I think

B - It's hard to believe that that was NOT Johns.

B - Seems like such a Johns thing to do.

T - So is anyone who died during the Titans Hunt still dead?

B - Danny Chase and Raven's mom.

T - Memo that to Johns STAT

AUG050205 INFINITE CRISIS #1 (OF 7) $3.99

T - I have nothing to say about Infinite Crisis

T - I don't know what it's about

T - I don't know why I should care outside of "DARKEST DAY FOR THE DCU"

T - So scary

T - It's so monotonous. This constant "Universal doom" hanging over the heads of the heroes. The stakes keep getting raised, but it's so sad. At least the Buffy and Angel writers had the sense to make jokes about the constant apocalypses

B - Hehe

B - Well, that's too easy.

B - You know I'm gonna agree with any Infinite Crisis snark!

T - I know, and I didn't mean to get snarky

T -I honestly don't know anything about the comic

B - Well, you can check my take on the preview pages.

T - All I have to go on is a mediocre Lee cover and a solicit that is longer than any other solicit this month and yet, it tells less

T - At least Donna Troy is in it. My wife should be happy about that

AUG050217 JLA #120 $2.50
AUG050242 MAD MAGAZINE #459 $3.99
AUG050267 MAJESTIC #10 $2.99
AUG050193 NIGHTWING #113 $2.50

T - Nightwing *le sigh* is evil now. And the way we can tell that, his costume is now Red! If only he'd grow an evil goatee, it'd be complete. I'd crack a joke about Devin lifting story ideas again, but it's like shooting buffalo. No sport.

AUG050248 SCOOBY DOO #101 $2.25
AUG050236 VILLAINS UNITED #6 (OF 6) $2.50

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do not have Mockingbird turn out to be an alternate Luthor. ANYone but an alternate Luthor would be fine by me.

AUG050272 WILDCATS NEMESIS #2 (OF 9) $2.99
AUG050291 Y THE LAST MAN #38 (MR) $2.99

IMAGE

JUN051769 BATTLE POPE COLOR #3 $2.99
AUG051671 BONE REST #4 (MR) $2.99
AUG051733 CITY OF HEROES #6 $2.99

I am sorry, Troy Hickman, this book is lame. I will write something nice about your work, though, to assuage my guilt.

MAY051600 DARKNESS VOL 3.5 FLESH & BLOOD TP $24.99
JUL051655 GODLAND #4 $2.99

Godland is a fun book. You should pick it up.

AUG051687 IRON GHOST #4 (OF 6) $2.99

Greg likes this book. You should get it, too!

JUL051698 NECROMANCER #2 $2.99
JUL051635 RING OF ROSES TP (RES) $12.95

MARVEL

AUG051950 CABLE DEADPOOL #21 $2.99

T - Cable Deadpool. God I hate to say it

T - I really do

T - It sounds fun.

T - This is a comic I really want to hate, but it's just silly enough to make me like when everything else MUST BE TAKEN VERY SERIOUSLY.

B - Yeah, but to be fair, it is a specific KIND of fun. It is "people who have read enough comics to get the jokes" fun.

JUL051936 ESSENTIAL SPIDER-MAN VOL 7 TP $16.99
AUG051986 ESSENTIAL WEREWOLF BY NIGHT VOL 1 TP $16.99
AUG051944 EXILES #71 $2.99
AUG051884 FRIENDLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN #1 $2.99

I predict at least ONE pun. Anyone disagree?

AUG051900 GHOST RIDER #2 (OF 6) $2.99
AUG051901 GHOST RIDER DIRECTORS CUT #1 $3.99
AUG051927 GRAVITY #5 (OF 5) $2.99

T - Gravity ends. And it seems okay. It's just that I seem to keep getting it confused with Invincible. Probably just me.

B - I predict a bittersweet, but satisfying, conclusion.

JUL051844 HOUSE OF M #7 (OF 8) $2.99

T - I don't really have much to say about House of M. I could be totally wrong but it seems to me that it's another very big event that's fairly cliche for Marvel. Mutants alter reality, allows company to make tons of new figures. Why should I care about this anymore than Age of Apocalypse?

B - People cared enough about Age of Apocalypse to give it its own 10th anniversary celebration.

JAN058166 HOUSE OF M LARROCA VARIANT COVER #7 (OF 8) (PP #684) $2.99
AUG051973 LIVEWIRES CLOCKWORK THUGS YO DIGEST TP $7.99

Brevoort always wins!

AUG051940 MARVEL ADVENTURES FANTASTIC FOUR #5 $2.50
AUG051906 MARVEL KNIGHTS 4 #23 $2.99

I love Aguirre-Sacasa, but too soon, Roberto, too soon. You can't do the "write yourself into the comic" yet. Give it a couple more years, please.

AUG051930 MARVEL MILESTONES BLADE MAN-THING & SATANA $3.99
AUG051934 MARVEL MONSTERS WHERE MONSTERS DWELL $3.99

Not as good as Devil Dinosaur, which was amazing.

AUG051936 MARVEL NEMESIS IMPERFECTS #6 (OF 6) $2.99

T - The Imperfects also ends and well, it's not okay. I guess a stupid story is okay if it's a video game, but it fails as a comic.

B - Why does Marvel hate Pak? They give him such terrible assingnments.

AUG051937 MEGA MORPHS #4 (OF 4) $2.99
AUG051945 MUTOPIA X #4 (OF 5) $2.99
AUG051974 SPELLBINDERS SIGNS AND WONDERS DIGEST TP $7.99
AUG051966 STOKERS DRACULA HC $24.99

T - The Book I'm most excited about this week is the Stoker's Dracula HC. It's all old school Dracula goodness, and right after Dark Horse collected the Wolfman/Colan Curse of Dracula.

T - YAY VAMPIRE GOODNESS

AUG051892 ULTIMATE X-MEN #64 $2.50
AUG051898 WOLVERINE #34 $2.50

Why is Wolverine regaining his memories that big of a deal? Unless...will Wolverine remember the JLA mind-wiping him?!?!

AUG051977 X-MEN BIZARRE LOVE TRIANGLE TP $9.99

WIZARD

AUG052580 TOYFARE TOP 100 GEEK MOMENTS CVR #100 $4.99
AUG052586 WIZARD MICHAEL TURNER MILLENNIUM SGN HC PI

COMICS

JUL052547 7 DAYS TO FAME #1 (OF 3) $3.99
JUN052658 ACTOR IDENTITY CRISIS #7 MORALES SGN $19.99
JUN053138 ADV OF HANNO AND LORIS #2 (MR) $5.25
JUL053036 AMELIA RULES #15 (RES) $2.95

Great book.

JUN052651 AMERICAS GREATEST COMICS #13 $6.95
JUN058279 ANGEL THE CURSE #1 3RD PRINTING (PP #684) $3.99
JUL052636 ARCHIE & FRIENDS #95 $2.25
AUG052918 BEG THE QUESTION SC $16.95
JUL052532 BEST OF THE WEST ROUNDUP SP #1 $24.95
JUL052641 BETTY & VERONICA DOUBLE DIGEST #137 $3.59
AUG052717 CANNON HAWKE PRELUDE $2.50

Shouldn't this have come out BEFORE Cannon Hawke #1?

And is there REALLY that much going on about Cannon Hawke that we need a prelude to explain it?

JUN052728 CHISUJI #1 (OF 6) $2.99
JUN053071 CISCO KID GUNFIRE & BRIMSTONE #2 (MR) $2.95
JUL052948 COMPLETE CLIVE BARKER THIEF OF ALWAYS TP $19.99
JUL052944 DAMPYR #6 LAMIAH $7.99
AUG052642 DEAD EYES OPEN #2 $2.95
JUL053056 DEATH VALLEY #1 $7.95
MAR052863 DF ASTONISHING X-MEN #11 SGN $19.99
APR052855 DF ASTONISHING X-MEN #12 SGN $19.99
JUL052826 DF GHOST RIDER #1 SGN $19.99
MAY052726 DFE RED SONJA ALT FOIL CVR #2 $14.95
JUL052792 DRAGONLANCE CHRONICLES WALEPOLE CVR B #2 (OF 8) $5.95
JUL052750 ELVIRA #149 $2.50
JUL052787 EVIL ERNIE IN SANTA FE #1 (OF 4) $2.95

Makes as much sense as anything else, I guess.

AUG052723 FATHOM #4 $2.99
JUN052649 FEMFORCE #133 $6.95
JUL052970 FINDER #38 (MR) $2.95

Sad to see the floppy go. But if it works, Grist will have a place to go!

JUL052530 FURTHER ADVS OF NYOKA JUNGLE GIRL #6 $6.95
JUL052718 FUTURAMA COMICS #21 $2.99
MAR052467 GOLDEN PLATES #3 (OF 12) $7.99
AUG053513 GREEN LANTERN SLEEPERS BOOK 2 MMPB $6.99
AUG053318 GRIMM FAIRY TALES #1 $2.99
JUN053152 GRIMOIRE #6 $2.99
JUL053084 GTO VOL 1 GN & VOL 1 DVD BUNDLE $19.99
JUL052786 HACK SLASH VOL 1 FIRST CUT TP $14.95
JUL053269 HANA KIMI VOL 8 GN $9.99
JUL052990 HOW TO DRAW FURRY BY KIT FOX $2.95
JUL053059 HUNGER #5 (MR) $2.99
AUG053118 I GOTTA CATCH SANTA CLAUS #1 $3.95

What is this about?

AUG053080 JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE #236 $11.99
JUL053200 KARMA INCORPORATED #3 (OF 3) $2.95
JUL052929 KEEP #1 (OF 5) $3.99
JUN053052 KODT TALES FROM VAULT VOL 5 TP $9.99
JUL052583 LITTLE SCROWLIE #11 $2.95
JUN053033 MARS IDW S&N HC $75.00
MAY052558 MEDIEVAL LADY DEATH BELLADONNA LEATHER CVR #1 $24.99
JUN052650 MEN OF MYSTERY #55 $6.95
JUN052741 METADOCS THE SUPER ER $4.95
JUL053201 MIDDLEMAN #3 (OF 4) $2.95
AUG052681 NINJA HIGH SCHOOL #132 $2.99

I love that this still comes out.

JUN052929 NODWICK #30 $2.99
JUL052620 OCTAVIA TRILOGY $5.95
AUG053110 OF BITTER SOULS #3 $2.99
AUG052896 PERFECT EXAMPLE TP NEW PTG (MR) $16.95
JUN053140 POISON ELVES DOMINION #1 (MR) $3.50
JUN052745 SCIENCE FAIR #1 (OF 8) $2.99
JUL053270 SENSUAL PHRASE VOL 10 TP (MR) $9.99

I am inspired that they have managed ten volumes of this.

AUG052933 SEX WARRIOR ISANE XXX #7 (A) $3.95
JUL053204 SHOJO BEAT NOV 05 VOL 1 #5 $5.99
AUG053245 STREET FIGHTER ETERNAL CHALLENGE TP UDON ED $34.99
AUG053241 STREET FIGHTER II #0 PI
JUL053068 STUDENTS OF THE UNUSUAL #6 (MR) $3.50
JUL052914 SWORDS OF ROME VOL 1 THE CONQUERORS GN (OF 2) (RES) (MR) $14.95
JUN053015 THIEVES & KINGS #47 $2.95
JUL053010 TICK DAYS OF DRAMA #2 $3.95
DEC048394 TOTALLY SPIES CINEMANGA VOL 4 GN (OF 4) $7.99
APR053195 WALLY WOODS LUNAR TUNES SC (MR) $9.95

Hehe...Wally Wood rules.

AUG053047 WANNABE #2 (OF 6) (MR) $3.00
MAY052841 WITCH CLASS VOL 2 GN (RES) $9.95
JUN052977 YOUNG WITCHES VOL 6 WRATH OF AGATHA #2 (OF 3) (A) $3.95

That's it for us this week!


Feel free to check back later to tell me how off our predictions were!

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This Chat Was Good - Steve Englehart

Like a lot of you, I am a big fan of Steve Englehart's work, so I am quite pleased to tell you that the chat with Mr. Englehart last week went really well, and here is the link to the transcript of the chat.

I made sure to bring up every question that you folks wanted me to ask! There was a lot of good stuff beyond that, but, for fun, here they are:

DJ Anderson said, "Be sure to ask him about his prose novel, THE POINT MAN" (someone else beat me to it)

Greg Hatcher: Mr. Englehart, I was-- am -- a big fan of your novel "The Point Man." Is there a chance we'll see any more original novels from you?
Steve Englehart: Point man-- oddly enough...
Steve Englehart: When I wrote it, I said "I don't want to do the continuing adventures of Max August," so I never wrote a sequel. But about two years ago, I got a really good idea for a sequel that even played off the idea that twenty years had passed, so I wrote a proposal. And then completely out of the blue, I got an email from my "Point Man" editor, now with another house, asking if I had anything new going on! So there's a good chance that there just may be more along that line...
Greg Hatcher: Wow, that's great news!
Steve Englehart: There may be something to that magic stuff...

DJ Anderson said, "and his interest in Astrology that led him to so many of the great Dr. Strange and Starlord ideas."

Brian Cronin: Someone wanted me to ask you, Steve, about astrology. How much has astrology influenced your work?
Steve Englehart: I learned it for Doc and am still interested in it, but I rarely use it directly for work. That "Star-Lord" project was going to, but it never happened.

DJ Anderson then said, "I'd also love for him to add a "reading order" for not only Mantis, but Scorpio Rose, because both characters have a VERY convoluted history."

Brian Cronin: The same someone wanted to know if you could give a Scorpio Rose "reading order."
Steve Englehart: Scorpio Rose Tarot secrets would be a whole other conversation. :)
Steve Englehart: Speaking of Rose, though-- some guys have just done a film-school short with Coyote and Scorpio Rose in live action debuting in Toronto next month, but I don't yet know where.

T said, "Ask him about the Mantis obsession. Is she based on a real person?"

Brian Cronin: Another person wanted me to ask if Mantis was based on a real person at all.
Steve Englehart: Mantis was not based on anyone. I wanted a femme fatale, we were involved in Vietnam, and she appeared out of that (and then didn't turn out to be a femme fatale). Later, when Starlin and I did Shang-Chi, he was definitely based on Caine from the TV show.

We aim to please here at Comics Should Be Good!

However, be sure to read the rest of the chat! Really good stuff.

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Three 10/5 Books That I Read So That You Did Not Have To

As always, I tell you about three comics that I did not hear a lot about this week, and then I ask you all to fill me in on comics that I did not read this week.

Special All-Marvel Edition!

New Thunderbolts #13, Uncanny X-Men #365 and Powers #13 Spoilers Ahead!

New Thunderbolts #13

I have enjoyed this series as a whole, but I have found the last few issues to be less than stellar.

What scares me about this title is the way that it has almost become a niche comic book, a title that exists to fill in a very specific hole in the Marvel Comic Universe which is, specifically, "The comic that pays attention to continuity."

To fully appreciate this comic, you'll have had to have read the following:

1. New Thunderbolts #1 - To get the banter between Photon and Atlas

2. Steve Englehart's Avengers run (which you SHOULD read...and more news on Englehart later, by the by!) - To get why Speed Demon is familiar with Dr. Spectrum

3. Thunderbolts/Avengers and the later issues of Thunderbolts - To get the conversation between Atlas and Dallas

4. The last series of Thunderbolts - To know who the Fixer is.

5. Old issues of Avengers or Godzilla - To know who Red Ronin is.

6. That issue where Luke Cage and Atlas fought for the name Power Man - To know what they're talking about when Luke Cage and Atlas mention fighting for a name.

This would not be as much of a problem if the main story wasn't so, well, bland. In fact, every issue of this series HAS been like this, but they also managed to couple good, engaging stories along with the continuity stuff.

With that being said, I understand that this is definitely meant to be a sales boost for the title, so I can cut the book a lot of slack there.

In any event, the plot of the story is that Carol Danvers puts the squeeze on the New Thunderbolts, and enlists them to take down the New Avengers, because the government is nervous about the New Avengers, as they do not understand them.

Meanwhile, former Thunderbolt leader Mach IV is trying to recuperate and get back into the scene.

Nicieza does have a good handle on the characters, I will certainly grant that. Tom Grummett is a very capable draftsman, but I cannot say that, for this issue at least, ever goes beyond that level. Perhaps Erskine's inks are not helping the matter.

I like this title, so I hope the Avengers guest-starring will help sales, but I would just like to see some good stories as well.

Not Recommended!

Uncanny X-Men #365

SIGNS THAT YOUR ART IS PERHAPS GOING TO LOOK A BIT MURKY: You are inked, in ONE comic, by NINE different inkers!!

That was the case in Uncanny X-Men #365, as Chris Bachalo was inked by so many inkers that they could not even give their first names!!!

The story, really, is not all that bad. It is a pretty decent, straightforward action story, and Bachalo's art, while not helping to make the comic easier to understand, at least IS pretty cool to look at. Essentially, what Chris Claremont is doing is using his House of M issues of Uncanny X-Men to spotlight the characters he will be featuring in his upcoming New Excalibur comic book. This is because, due to House of M, he does not have access to the main members of the X-Men. So Captain Britain, Juggernaut, Nocturne and Pete Wisdom take center stage. Meanwhile, Claremont also has Meggan sacrifice herself - in a bold, yet ultimately kind of depressing manner. Bold, because she's been around for so long, but depressing because it seems like such a minor place to be killing her off, to "save the universe" during the middle of a SEPARATE crossover. Sorta like a superhero jumping in front of a bullet to save someone from a mugging while the Fantastic Four are currently saving the world from Galactus.

There is a lot of Claremont "Nepotistic Continuity" in this comic, as there are many allusions to comics he has done in the past, very similar to the Thunderbolts issue, but there is enough other action going on, and the action is simple enough that it is not really distracting.

At the end of the day, though, the story and the art do not, in my mind, work that well together. Bachalo's characters look cool, but I do not think he tells the story well. Meanwhile, the story that is being told is not all that great, either. So, while this was not bad or anything, I would have to say...

Not Recommended!

Powers #13

I liked thic comic, because while there were some serious flaws, they were very easily ignored, leaving room for some good comic storytelling.

This issue is about what happens when a superhero/villain is knocked down into a street. It shows the collateral damage that occurs when stuff like this happens. It gives Michael Avon Oeming (the Avon is so you don't confuse him with the many other Michael Oemings who draw comic books) a chance to draw a man being blown apart by a person falling from the sky, so that's good. He seems to like to draw stuff that an artist doesn't normally get to draw. And he is good at it.

Brian Michael Bendis (the Michael is so you don't confuse him with the many other Brian Bendises who write comic books) is big on dialogue, so this comic is good in that it gives him a chance for some nice dialogue, as lead Christian Walker has some good flirting going on with a witness. Bendis recently did a bravura job with the whole "Guy/Girl interraction" in Ultimate Spider-Man Annual #1, and he keeps it up in this issue. Good stuff.

There are also plenty of funny moments, like the banter at the police station, Deena's comments about her virginity, the weird state the victim's apartment is in. And there is a good cliffhanger, which seems to say that this will be an interesting storyline.

The big flaw was this sequence with this comedian doing some tired old routine. I get that he very well might be tied into the storyline, but man, was it painful to read. However, luckily, just skipping those panels did not seem to hurt the comic at all, so I would recommend doing that.

And I would also recommend this comic.

Recommended!

Now on to the books that I did not read, so I was hoping you might have read them and could tell me what I missed out on:

Casefiles: Sam & Twitch #19

Grounded #3

Walt Disney Comics and Stories #661

Thanks!

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Marc Andreyko Chat Transcript and Bob Layton Chat!

Here is a link to the transcript of the Marc Andreyko chat. It was fun, with Gail Simone and Stephen Sadowski stopping by, as well.

In addition, this Thursday, there will be a Bob Layton chat at Comic Book Resources!

Bob has had a very impressive career in comics to this point, with his long, successful run on Iron Man with David Michelinie, to his Hercules mini-series, to being Editor-in-Chief of Valiant Comics, to co-forming Future Comics, not to mention starting the Marvel series X-Factor and co-creating Huntress for DC with Paul Levitz.

The chat with Bob will be this Thursday, October 13th, at 6pm PDT/6pm EDT.

If you are already a member of CBR, then you just have to hit "Comic Chat," and then hit "vBChat Room Change" and choose to join the room marked "Bob Layton Chat."

If you are NOT already a member of CBR, you just have have to register, which is no big deal, as it's free. Just click here to register.

I hope some of you make it!!

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This Artist Is Good - Frank Espinosa

Someone used their "You Decide" pick on Rocketo, from Speakeasy Comics, and I will get around to doing a bit on that (at least the issue that I was able to get, #2, as I believe #1 is sold out). However, any bit on Rocketo would focus on the story as WELL as the art, so for now, I would like to just address how good of an artist Rocketo creator Frank Espinosa is.

Espinosa has worked in animation for most of his career, either for Disney or for Warned Bros. His most significant achievement, to this point, was probably designing the Looney Tunes stamps that the Post Office had a few years back.



Now he is bringing his skills to comic books, and his series, Rocketo, has stunning artwork.

Here is the cover to issue #0 (by the way, Espinosa has a website you can check out for more artwork...click here):



Look at that! It is almost like it is animation while being in comic form!!!

We are all familiar with the concept of "cartoony" artwork, which is artwork that looks like a cartoon. Espinosa goes even FURTHER than that, and makes the artwork almost look like it is moving!!



How he does it is his ability to NOT draw a lot of the characters. I believe there is some scientific reason that explains why the absence of a line causes our eyes to fill it in, and that filling in in our eyes must give it the appearance of almost movement.

At the very least, like the pice below...



...it gives the art a sense of depth that is uncommon...uncommon and quite excellent.



The depth is something that is quite interesting to me.

Finally, after all those pin-ups, I will share with you an example of his storyelling. You would be well-advised to think that he would not be able to keep it up in a sequential format, but then you'd be surprised to see that he DOES!

Click on the drawing for a larger version, where you can actually read it...hehe.



Espinosa also has the staple on the top of the comic, so Rocketo is read in landscape format, which only shows the dynamic nature of his art even more!!

A great artist, and I am very glad that the field of animation lost him (for now, at least), as the field of comics is greatly improved by his addition.

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Methink He Doth Protest Too Much - Fantastic Four: Flesh & Stone

Two weeks ago, in Rich Johnston's column, he reported on Rafael Marín's dissatisfaction with how his Fantastic Four run with Carlos Pachecho turned out.

According to Marín :

To set the record straight, we didn't do the whole 3 issues that were credited to us alone. They changed some dialogues, questions asked by some characters disappeared (but not the answers given by other characters), and someone made a mess of the motivations of the Super Skrull and the factions engaged in the Krull civil war that wanted to kill him. In the end, in English, it was exactly the opposite of what was really happening.

Then, out of the blue, they said it wasn't understandable, and they lumped Loeb upon us. He was going through a minimalist phase and tried to write comics in monosyllables.

No one complained about the understandability of Inhumans, where I crafted the dialogue all by myself.

In addition, Marín adds, "And let's set the record straight: I don't blame Loeb for the chaos. It was all the editor's fault, Bobby Chase, who was a useless bore that hadn't got a clue about anything, and on top of that she was sabotaging us every two pages."

Therefore, I figured I would read Fantastic Four: Flesh and Stone, which collects the first six issues of Carlos Pachecho's run on Fantastic Four, and see if it really was as bad as Marín seems to think so.

And now, having reread it, I think that he is overreacting. This is a good comic book trade. The story is not great, but it IS good, I think. The key to the story, of course, is the fact that it is drawn by Carlos Pachecho, who is on the short list of "Best Superhero Artists Today," so the art is a delight throughout the collection, but especially in the way that Pachecho tempers his modern flair with an old-fashioned character depiction, where you can just see his fanboyness sneak out and see characters drawn as Kirby would have designed them.

The fanboy nature of this series is VERY strong, and that is both of the strengths and drawbacks of this collection. Pachecho and Marin clearly LOVE the Marvel Universe. They grew up reading these comics, and they are both very devoted to recreating the spirit of the Marvel comics that they enjoyed as youths, while still giving the book a modern feel. I think that they achieved their goal in this regard.

The fight against El Diablo, the way that Spider-Man and Daredevil show up when the Fantastic Four's pier headquarters is destroyed, the way the Avengers show up for clean-up, Foggy Nelson getting a significant role as the Fantastic Four's lawyer, the appearance of/and fight matchup between the Grey Gargoyle and the Thing...these are all things that were hallmarks of Marvel Comics of the past.

Meanwhile, Pachecho and Marin also try to do changes to the Fantastic Four, and some of the changes are really impressive - like the delivery of a new Baxter Building that was produced in outer space!!! Or the Thing gaining the ability to turn back and forth into the Thing. Or Sue using her force fields as a sled like Iceman uses his ice. All nice little touches.

The DRAWbacks to the comic were as follows:

1. The Gideon corporation - the bad guys of Pachecho's art, work in the background as they develop their plan to mine the Negative Zone through purchases of the Fantastic Four's patents. This really is not a big deal, but it also was not all that interesting. In addition, part of the plot involves remaking the Trapster. Which would be fine, except the Spider-books had JUST made a big deal out of revamping him, like, a YEAR earlier!!!

2. Okay, I will admit it. The dialogue in the collection is not that great. It is not as bad as Marin think it is, but it is still not that impressive, and it definitely did NOT get any better when they add Jeph Loeb half-way through the collection. Basically, the verbosity reminds me of the stereotype of artits turned writers, which is that they try to overcompensate by having a LOT of words. Well, this collection has a LOT of words.

Marin mentions that the Skrull plot does not make sense, and upon rereading it carefully, I would tend to agree.

However, Pachecho's art is SOOOO dynamic, that at times, you almost don't NEED to read the excess captions, as Pachecho's evocative work TELLS you what you need to know just from the art.

If I remember correctly, this run got worse before it got better, in terms of confusing writing. However, for just this collection, there is enough old fashioned superhero fun (with GREAT art) that I would say that this was a good collection...although Flesh and Stone is a silly title (I know it is a good line IN the comic, where they are talking about Grey Gargoyle...but Grey Gargoyle is just one plot in a whole collection - he should not be responsible for the title of the WHOLE thing!!).

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Persepolis 2: the asparagus of comic books!

Marjane Satrapi is an admirable person, as far as I can tell. Sure, she made some horrible choices, but she often didn't have much to choose from, and she was living in exile from everyone she loved, so it's not surprising that she might do silly things. She exhibited great strength in very difficult situations, and she was able to remake herself into an independent woman who didn't need to submit to society's oppressive standards.

She wrote about her experiences, too, in Persepolis 2: The Story of a Return, which was published by Pantheon Books last year and was recently reprinted. I had heard really good things about it, and I ordered it, and buzzed through it. I haven't read Persepolis, but evidently it goes over Satrapi's early life and her flight from Iran in the early 1980s. The sequel picks up in 1984 with Satrapi in Austria, living at a boarding school run by nuns. I'm not going to go over everything that happens to her, because why would I ruin it for you?, but suffice it to say that the West is not all she thought it would be, and she begins to think maybe she'd be better off in Iran. She does return to Iran, but the West's godless ways may have contaminated her forever!!!!

This is an important story. We rarely hear about the actual normal people in the Muslim world, and the women are even less noticeable. Satrapi shows us that beneath the veil and black clothing, these are people who have dreams and desires and rebel in their own small way against the Islamic fundamentalists running Iran. We also get a sense of the horror of the Iran-Iraq War, which ran from 1981 to 1988, as Satrapi shows us how the war has affected the people at home. Soldiers are currently dying in Iraq, and it affects the people whose relatives are serving there, but there has not been a war on our soil in well over a century, so we might not understand what it's like. Satrapi shows us how it has an impact on even the smallest things.

This is also, in its way, a coming-of-age story. Satrapi has to leave Iran to grow up, and in doing so, she is exposed to Western thought and doesn't always like it. She feels completely out of place in Europe, because she is Iranian and the people in the West think of her only as "the enemy," but when she returns to Iran, they consider her a Westerner, and she is out of place there. She tries to fit back in, but she feels herself banging against the walls that the Iranian ayotollahs have put in place. In the end, she can't stay in Iran, even though she still loves her family. The Story of a Return is, ultimately, about letting go of your past.

So why don't I like it more? It's good for you, after all. It's an important story that should be heard. Nobody is shot in the head, although there are depressing parts, but the depressing parts just serve to show how noble Satrapi's spirit is. They aren't gratuitous, in other words. But it's just ... ho hum. The problem, I think, is that Satrapi isn't a terribly good writer. I mean, this is her life she's writing about, which is compelling in itself, so the book is a fascinating read. But it's awfully expository. Satrapi doesn't attempt to create a story arc, she just writes her experiences down like it's a diary. There are some funny and wry sections, and Satrapi makes the occasional nice observation about human nature, but essentially, this is "Next I did this, then I did that ..." kind of storytelling. Like I said, it's intrinsically compelling, but the writing is weak.

Satrapi also tries too hard to make her points. The characters speak like their speeches have been written for them, and although they aren't quite stereotypes, they do tread close to the line. They are all signposts along the way to Satrapi's self-realization, and it sometimes feels like they are simply saying the things Satrapi needs to react to in order for her to grow. There is too much telling, not showing, and it seems like Satrapi doesn't trust her reader to make the connections as they read.

There is a lot to like about Persepolis 2. I am glad I bought it, because it's interesting and tells a story we don't hear about very much here in the decadent West. But I'm warning you - it's good for you, but it might not go down so easy!

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