Have a Spooky Halloween!
BOOOO!
BOOOOOOOOOO!
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
FOO!
BEHOLD: obtained from the eBay, a magnet of Sluggo with a bat ‘n’ ball:
I have another eBay-obtained Sluggo magnet coming in the mail, and there may be more yet to come. Watch this space for all the latest Sluggo magnet news!
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DON’T TAKE YOUR EYES FROM THIS SPACE. EVER.
Comics Interview was a fine mag, each issue stuffed with interviews with comic creators, publishers, showbiz celebrities, and even the occasional fan. Some of the interviews included in this debut book include Steve Gerber, Keith Giffen, Berke Breathed, Joe Kubert, Walt Simonson, Don Rosa, Matt Wagner…man, there’s a lot of them. Just go to the site and click on the animated book cover-thingie and you’ll see the contents yourself.
I have to admit it never occurred to me that those old Comics Interview zines should be collected into a more permanent form, but it sure seems like a good idea and I’m glad its being done, rescuing all these interviews from obscurity. Maybe this’ll lead to more zines being collected…c’mon, complete Comic Reader!
And in Halloween-ish webcomic news…Cool Jerk‘s Paul Horn joins Kevin Church in a weeklong zombie-riffic adventure in The Rack. People live…people die, and The Rack will never be the same!
Hey, it’s a new Previews catalog (November 2010), follow along in your own copy, you know the drill:
p. 138 – Infestation #1:
p. 145 – This guy:
p. 216 – Sarah Palin Versus The World:
p. 243 – Darkwing Duck #5 Long Beach Comic Con Get-A-Sketch Variant:
p. 254 – Kevin Smith’s Kato #10:
p. 267 – Nancy Is Happy: Complete Dailies 1942 – 1945:
p. 269 – The Overstreet Hall of Fame NYCC/Fan Edition:
p. 278 – Cursed Pirate Girl The Collected Edition Vol. 1 TP:
Anyway, Aaron hurriedly pointed out this solicitation to me when he spotted it, in some desperate attempt to stave off his death at my hands. Only if it actually arrives, my friend…only if the book actually arrives.
p. 324 – The Woodstock Generation Trading Cards:
…That sounded funnier in my head.
p. 326 – Deadpool Icon Black Hooded Pullover:
p. 330 – The Joker Dark Detective #1 Military Green T-Shirt:
OR
Meg Whitman’s campaign sure took an ugly turn.
OR
In retrospect, Rand Paul probably shouldn’t have handed these shirts out to his supporters.
OR
I knew those Obamacare death panels were gonna be trouble!
p. 331 – Blade Runner Replicant Gray T-Shirt:
p. 332 – Star Wars A New Hope Luke Ceremony Jacket Prop Replica:
p. 332 – World of Warcraft Murloc Green Zip-up Hoodie:
p. 344 – World’s Greatest Heroes Retro Action Figures:
p. 345 – 8-Inch D-I-Y Toy Truck:
p. 349 – Harry Potter Ultimate Dueling Battle Trainer:
…Those of you waiting for a Hermione version of this toy can just keep on waiting, you weirdos. Go “wave your wand” somewhere else.
p. 362 – Iron Man 2 Movie Mark V Briefcase Suit Prop Replica:
At least, I thought that for a split second. Surely I’m not alone in this.
…
Dammit.
p. 366 – Star Wars Commando Cody “Order 66” 1/5 Scale Resin Statue:
These Joe Gill & Sam Glanzman 1960s Hercules comics are something else. I’m not overly familiar with this comic, aside from repeatedly seeing its covers at the shop, but it looks like the series is mostly played straight, with the very occasional bit of seemingly uncharacteristic dialogue:
The…shall we say, informal presentation of the sound effects are kind of charming:
Man, now that’s action:
Also, never forget the hydra. I realize a giant monster with multiple heads would be pretty easy to forget, but c’mon, focus here, people.
So I posted that pic from a Batman comic featuring Bill Sienkiewicz’s inks over Jim Aparo’s pencils, which resulted, as some of you noted, in a seeming mismatch of artistic styles. Aparo’s clean lines (some samples of which you can look at here) are fairly well overwhelmed by Sienkiewicz’s much looser and scratchier style, but not always to poor effect. I thought I’d run a handful of panels and sequences from the book to present more examples of this particular collaboration. I’m no art critic, so my comments are mostly limited to “DUH, HERE ART, YOU LOOK,” so please excuse my lack of informative presentation.
While the faces from the previously posted panel looked a bit…off, to those of us used to Aparo’s usual illustrations of those characters, I like this portrait of the Penguin:
The action sequences in the book come across okay, like this one:
Batman looks a little awkward in this panel, but I don’t know if that’s a layout problem or a finishing issue:
This last panel from the story is quite moody and effective, I think…Nightwing’s a little on the wrinkly side, but crimefighting ages you, man:
So some of you folks might remember that I’m a member of The Bureau Chiefs, that gaggle of bloggers, professors, and rapper-lawyers responsible for Fake AP Stylebook, the popular and hopefully humorous Twitter feed. And some of you may also recall that, as a result of that feed, we got a book deal.
Well, now I am finally allowed to announce that the book, titled Write More Good, will be out in April 2011 from Three Rivers Press. And it’s not just a transcript of jokes from the Twitter feed, though a few of those are there — the majority of the book is all new material. Plus, the foreword to the book is by legendary film critic (and Fake AP Stylebook fan) Roger Ebert, which I think is pretty darn cool.
The book is not yet available for preorder from the usual places, but I’ll let you know when it is.
By the way, speaking of the Twitter feed, it just hit its one year anniversary, so we’re having a contest, sponsored by Zazzle (which is also offering 10% off anything from our Zazzle store through the end of November if you use the super-secret code FAKEAPZAZZLE during your purchase).
Please excuse the commercial interruption, pals, but I’m pretty excited about all this and I’ve been dying to share it with you. (Also, I came up with the title for the book, which the Bureau Chiefs gang and the publisher all liked, so I’m pretty proud of that, too!)