Fellow Bureau Chief Eugene, AKA “Adam Warrock,” has unleashed the West Coast Avengers Mixtape, featuring, yes, raps about your favorite West Coast Avengers members. Completely free, completely available for download at that link, and completely awesome. And in case you’re wondering…yes, there’s a Moon Knight song.
Dean Trippe writes a letter complaining about a senator’s mailer presenting comic books in a negative fashion. Well, to be fair, exposing a kid to Marvel Previews at that early an age surely isn’t a good idea…but still, just coming right out and saying “without education, your kids could be (gasp) reading comic books” is not exactly thinking things through very well. I mean, God forbid kids get interested in reading.
To you folks out there who 1) visit my site directly instead of just pulling the RSS feed, and 2) use some form of Internet Explorer, I apologize for the font size problem yesterday. I had an HTML tag that I didn’t close, and I didn’t notice since I’m on Firefox and that seems to correct for display errors like that, but apparently the problem caused IE, at least in some cases, to go haywire.
Anyway, I’m pretty sure it’s fixed now.
I was discussing late comics with some pals the other day, because that’s the kind of thing I do after I get a couple of drinks* in me, and the topic of Batman: Widening Gyre popped up. So I went through the records, and here are the dates of release (well, actually, the date the invoices were generated, with the comic coming out the following Wednesday):
#1 – 8/23
#2 – 9/26/09
#3 – 10/31/09
#4 – 1/9/10
#5 – 3/6/10
#6 – 7/24/10
So, eleven months or thereabouts, which averages out to about bimonthly, if one were to be charitable. Also noticed that this time around, I didn’t get the parade of complaints demanding the next issue during that extended delay between 5 and 6. Perhaps the reason is that, if one were again charitable, customers finally have learned to expect some comics to ship late.
Hmm. When Batman and Robin is only a week late, I never hear the end of it. Funny.
So I was looking at Scott McCloud’s site, and he snapped a pic of some cosplayers he spotted while at the theatre to see Scott Pilgrim…and lo and behold, at the bottom center of the pic, with the green hair and baseball bat, is pal Dana, she of cookies, cakes, andholidaycards. I guess she’s dressed as, I don’t know, Matilda or something. Hey, I didn’t read this “Scoot Pogom” comic.
Anyway, our little pal Dana is moving away and going off to big person’s school up north at the end of the week, so she’s just going to have to mail us cookies and cupcakes from now on. She’s not getting away that easily. But good luck, Dana! We’ll miss having you around, but we’ll still be able to annoy you via the Internet! Thank God for technology!
Reader JB sends along this link to a convention sketch of Swamp Thing by Bill Sienkiewicz. Pretty darn cool.
I don’t even have the words for Andrew’s latest Nobody’s Favorites. It’s a little outside the realm of comics, but Andrew wouldn’t break the format if it wasn’t for good reason.
James Marsters is returning to Smallville for that show’s 200th episode, but not reprising his role as Brainiac. He’s coming back as Legion of Super-Heroes member Brainiac 5. This is…actually pretty clever, I think. Plus, maybe we’ll get him slathered in green body paint which, it goes without saying, is a fetish for someone, surely.
Funny, but I suspect you’d better enjoy this while you can, before the nastygrams begin: Today Funky Dies.
This week’s Nobody’s Favorites by Internet Pal Andrew stretches all the way back to the Golden Age of Comics. “Golden Age” is not being used intentionally ironically, by the way.
A bit more history from the early days of the independents: a look back at the Comico Comics offices. BONUS: picture of mid-’80s Matt Wagner…SEX GOD or SEXIEST GOD?
Bully isn’t just my favorite stuffed bull…he’s the world’s most brilliant stuffed bull. Go see the secret hidden message divined from recent X-Men comics!
So Employee Aaron brought me one of these swell Starro masks from the San Diego Comic Con, and now I wear it as often as possible. Particularly when I’m working the cash register.
In other news:
Every time Chris Sims decides to say something about a Kevin Smith comic, hilarity ensues in the comments. (Widening Gyre #6 certainly is…something else, I’ll give it that. I like the general idea of it, which is “What Happens The Day Batman Lets Down His Guard,” but the execution is a bit curious, to say the least.)
“The Apocalypse came and went, and no one attending San Diego Comic-Con really noticed. When they emerged from the convention center on Sunday night to find the world in ruins around them, they realized that they had been spared for a purpose. They realized that the wasteland around them held nothing for them, least of all a return to their old lives.
So they’re trying to find a new superhero show for their network after Smallville finally leaves the airwaves. I’m hoping for Blue Devil.
So the leaked trailer for the Thor movie popped up on the Internet in the last day or so, and it’s appearing and disappearing as lawyers send out copyright nastygrams as quickly as possible. Now, I’m not saying I saw the trailer online anywhere, but if I did see it, I’d say it was surprisingly Disney trailer-esque in its ability to apparently reveal the entire content of the film. It does look like it’ll be pretty good…or, at least, I’d imagine it’ll be pretty good, if I’d seen anything I could have passed judgment on. Which I didn’t.
REMINDER: I’m still asking for your single favorite currently-running comic book series, so drop your answer into the comments on that post. Just one title, please, with an explanation or without. No idea what I’m going to do with this information, but I’ll come up with something. Hopefully.
First, it never occurred to me that there was a tie-in item of this particular type for the Superman Returns movie, though if you can dress up as Supes, I guess Lex is fair game.
Second, “Luthor” is totally misspelled on the package. I’m reasonably sure this is an official item, which makes the error fairly surprising…and I’ve also found pictures of this product with the correct spelling, so it was caught eventually, in case you were as worried about this as I was.
In other news:
Giving the Westboro Baptists any attention is a bad idea, I think, as it plays right into their hands…I don’t like even writing about them here, in fact. So I wasn’t really thrilled with the idea of the counter-protest we all knew was coming when the Westboro clan showed up at the San Diego Comic Con. But on the other hand…it’s kind of hard not to admire the guy with the “DARKSEID IS” sign. The fella(?) dressed as Futurama‘s Bender is amusing too. Pictures at the link if you want to see the hideous carnage.
“Say, Mike, what’s the last thing you were expecting to read on the Internet today?” “Well, I’m going to have to say it’s this interview with composer Harry Manfredini about his work on the 1982 Swamp Thing film!” “Wow, that was my guess, too!”
Speaking of Swamp Thing, as I so rarely do, Kevin Smith apparently revealed at a San Diego panel that Batman: The Widening Gyre began its life as a proposed Batman/Swamp Thing team-up series. Smith said about Swamp Thing, jokingly:
“He just talks like a stoner, so it’d be a lot of fun to write.”
Before any of you say anything…yes, I’d still buy and read it.
REMINDER: Employee Aaron is at the San Diego Comic Con, as is his lady friend Kempo (identifying photo of the two here), working the Arsenic Lullaby booth (#2200). Aaron is giving away free hugs, so just walk right up to him and grab him in a big ol’ bearhug. Don’t even warn him…he likes being surprised. Be sure to tell him Mike sent you!
If Superman #701 hasn’t been kicked around enough for your liking, here’s Dr. Polite Scott explaining why that one scene with Superman diagnosing that person’s heart condition is dumb.
As Scott notes (and I’ve seen forms of this criticism pop up elsewhere), the point that this whole “Superman walkin’ the country” hoohar came from guilt over being accused of not doing enough to save someone’s life. …So let’s end the issue with Superman not doing enough to save someone’s life. Sure, why not.
Also, I suspect removing “flight” from his travel options is increasing the number of Superman-preventable deaths in the DC Universe. …This whole comic is a test for potential Superman editors, isn’t it?
COMPLETELY UNRELATED: Thor is walking across the United States to get in touch with the non-divine, and happens upon a fellow with some heart trouble…resulting in the greatest sequence of comic book panels you will ever see.
Costuming for the Green Lantern movie and the Thor movie has been revealed, and lo, blood rained down from the sky, and brother did turn upon brother.
Well, I think they look okay.
Announced is Vertigo Resurrected, a series of reprints of some classic Vertigo comics, and, most notably in this first installment, the first publication of the Warren Ellis Hellblazer story about school shootings that was pulled off the schedule after the Columbine murders.
I’ve seen some inquiries here and there whether this means we’ll see the canned “Swamp Thing meets Jesus” story at long last…not holding my breath, though I’m curious what DC’s going to do when they reach that point in the paperback reprints.
(RELATED: Why DC hasn’t jumped ahead and put out reprint volumes of Mark Millar’s Swamp Thing work, taking advantage of the current amount of press he usually gets. That won’t last forever, folks, so ride those coattails while you can!
Here’s another “list of bad movies” that accidentally includes the first Swamp Thing movie. Presumably that was a typo. Especially this bit:
“The thing is, Swamp Thing the comic didn’t really get good till Alan Moore took over. The version they adapted was a mediocre comic, and so they got a mediocre story.”
Say, do you have a dollar? Sure you do. And you should use that dollar to buy this comic this week:
Why? Because Smurf comics are awesome, that’s why.
Also, as I was Googling up “smurf napper” I received the message “do you mean smurf rapper?” and even though I didn’t at first, I sure as hell do now. And here is what I found:
Bryant Paul Johnson shows us all what he thinks that China Miéville Swamp Thing comic might have been like. (Thanks pal Dave for pointing this out to me.)
Bully the Little Stuffed Bull is the single greatest stuffed animal comics blogger on the entire nerdinet, and he proves it yet again with this…well, I say “tour de force” a lot describing Bully’s posts, but seriously, how else could you describe the genius of…“What Really Happened the Night of June 16, 1973″ — God bless that Bully.
How I would have improved it: halfway through the film, Jonah Hex is whisked away from the Old West and transported into the future. C’mon, that would have been awesome.
Okay, that’s more than three links. “Three bullet points” isn’t quite as snappy. And yes, that’s a Brak Show reference. I’m not made of stone, people.
A couple of Comico’s founders, who work on the CO2 Comics site, noticed that I posted an old Comico promo kit and were, thankfully, amused by it. Also, they promise to post some other items from those early days of indie comics, which I’m looking forward to.
Due to increased interest in Jonah Hex (thanks to the movie, which hopefully won’t kill all interest in the character once it’s released), Dwayne at Matching Dragoons has put together some links to posts on his site giving newcomers plenty of background on just who this fella with the funny-lookin’ face is.
By the way, did you know that pal Ian, one of the charter members of the Associated Comics and Pop Culture Webloggers of Ventura County, CA And Outlying Environs (which is, as always, ACAPCWOVCCAOE for short) is writing the new Darkwing Duck comic book from Boom! Studios, which debuted this week? Maybe if the boy wasn’t so shy and told us something about it on his Twitter feed….
But seriously, I’m totally picking this up because Ian’s a pal and…well, I said either here or on my own Twitter feed that I’ve not seen frame one of a Darkwing Duck cartoon, and my awareness of the character is primarily from seeing him on the covers of the previous comic book appearances. But I’ll give it a try anyway. And if I end up not liking it, I’ll make Ian pay me back.
QUOTES YOU WON’T SEE ON THE EVENTUAL TRADE PAPERBACK:
“…If I end up not liking it, I’ll make Ian pay me back.”
–Mike Sterling, funnybook salesman, blog dork
It does look good, based on my quick flip-through, so I imagine Ian’s pocketbook is safe. For now.
Unrepentant Smurfs fan that I am, I’m so totally looking forward to the Smurfs movie:
Found via my favorite Star Trek-related (and Big Bill Shatner-specific) weblog/podcast, Look at His Butt, a test for a since-abandoned CGI series:
And here’s the Spock test, which uses Joe Pesci’s Not Safe for Work dialogue from Goodfellas. I would so totally have watched a Star Trek animated series with Pesci playing Spock.
If you still need to get your Shatner on, the Look at His Butt girls have this post collecting together YouTube clips of one of his Match Game appearances.
Man, I really do miss watching ’70s Match Game. I probably watched too much TV as a kid, but I don’t regret a single moment watching Match Game (sound at link). That show was fantastic.
• • •
In almost completely unrelated news: Dr. Polite Scott has put together an index of psychic nosebleeds for your perusal. You know, some dude in a comic book or movie starts using his, I don’t know, telekinesis or something, and he’s doin’ it really hard, and you can tell he’s really straining because suddenly there’s a trickle of blood from his nose. Well, Dr. Scott tells you the rest of the story, explaining just what the problems with this particular storytelling shorthand are.
That series of posts is one of the greatest things ever, by the way.
• • •
I apologize for the dependence on link-blogging over the last couple of days…it’s been one of those weeks. Hopefully I can generate a little of my own content soon instead of pointing at stuff done by other people.
