Life in 4 colors: July 2009

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Marvel Buys Marvelman

The San Diego Con is underway as I type these words. So far the big news out of the Con is that Marvel Comics has bought the rights to Marvelman (published previously in the States as Miracleman). The rights have been tied up in a legal knot for years, but Marvel has bought the rights from the original creator of Marvelman, Mick Anglo. It'll be interesting to see what Alan Moore thinks about all this. Marvel claims to be in talks with all the former writers and artists discussing the character, but it's reported that one of the reasons Moore refuses to do any work for Marvel is that they sued back in the day and made the name change from Marvel to Miracle a necessity. Hopefully we'll see a good hardcover reprint of the old stuff. Moore's take on the character is brilliant.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

More on Wednesday Comics

I haven't picked up the second issue yet, but I loved the first issue. I'll talk more about each story, but have to add that I really liked the Supergirl story.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Wednesday Comics Out This Wednesday

I'm really excited about this comic. It's done like the old Sunday Comics in the newspaper. The lineup includes:

• BATMAN, WEDNESDAY COMICS' weekly cover feature, by the Eisner Award-winning 100 BULLETS team of writer Brian Azzarello and artist Eduardo Risso
• ADAM STRANGE, by writer/artist Paul Pope (BATMAN: YEAR 100)
• METAMORPHO, written by New York Times best-selling writer Neil Gaiman with art by Eisner Award-winner Michael Allred (Madman)
• THE DEMON AND CATWOMAN, written by Walter Simonson (Thor, MANHUNTER) with art by famed DC cover artist Brian Stelfreeze
• DEADMAN, written by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck, art by Dave Bullock
• KAMANDI, written by Dave Gibbons (WATCHMEN, GREEN LANTERN CORPS) with art by Ryan Sook (Buffy The Vampire Slayer, ARKHAM ASYLUM: LIVING HELL)
• SUPERMAN, written by John Arcudi (The Mask) with art by Lee Bermejo (JOKER)
• WONDER WOMAN, written and illustrated by Ben Caldwell (Dare Detectives)
• GREEN LANTERN, written by Kurt Busiek (TRINITY, ASTRO CITY) with art by Joe Quiñones (TEEN TITANS GO!)
• TEEN TITANS, written by Eddie Berganza with art by Sean Galloway
• SUPERGIRL, written by Jimmy Palmiotti (JONAH HEX) with art by Amanda Conner (POWER GIRL)
• HAWKMAN, written and illustrated by Kyle Baker (PLASTIC MAN, Special Forces)
• SGT. ROCK, written by Adam Kubert (SUPERMAN: LAST SON), ilustrated by legendary comics artist Joe Kubert
• THE FLASH, written by Karl Kerschl (TEEN TITANS YEAR ONE, THE FLASH: THE FASTEST MAN ALIVE) and Brenden Fletcher, illustrated by Karl Kerschl
• METAL MEN, written by Dan DiDio with art by Ian Churchill (SUPERGIRL)

Each issue will be $3.99.

I NEED ARTISTS!

I've made mention of the fact that I once did a little writing in the comic world and would like to attempt another go at it. But being a writer in comics without an artist puts you at a severe disadvantage. I've talked about my search for artists before on this blog and will bore you with results or lack of results in the future.

In the day when I first made my attempts at finding artists one of the best places to discover said talent was the Comic Buyer's Guide. They were weekly than and ran a classified ad section in the back that for mere pennies on the word I could advertise my plight. And what's more I had people, no not just people, actual artists, answer. I met Ron Wilber, who illustrated the run of Lizards in CRITTERS. I met other artists.

Nowdays CBG is a monthly. (I'm assuming, I hate to say this but I haven't seen an issue in a long time) and I'm not even sure if they still run a classified section. Back than there just seemed to be more places to advertise for the need of an artist or writer. You would think with the internet there would be even more oppertunaties to find a working partner, but if there is I must just not know where to look.

So in addition to this blog (and the others) I've started another blog. This one is geared towards finding an artist. It's called I NEED ARTISTS! A Writer In Search of Artistic Colabration. My ten cent description of it is:

Imagine this blog as my resume for interested artists. I have plenty of ideas that could fill up a lot of comic books, but what I don't have are artists to help bring those ideas to life. Thus this blog is born. In it I will attempt to chronicle my brief and meager existence of a somewhat published comic book writer back in the day. Any interested artists (or publishers) can contact me at JohnH985@yahoo.com.

I recently posted a short story that I did with the wonderful artist Craig Boldman. Craig today is the writer on the Jughead comic.

Go check the site out. Better yet, if you know an artist tell them to go check it out

Twitters and Mayhem

Tyrese Gibson is an actor and musician and now he's getting into comic writing. Coming from Image comics in August is MAYHEM by Tyrese Gibson and co-created by Mike Le and Will Wilson with artist Tone Rodriguez. Mr. Gibson is taking advantage of his large Twitter following and urging them to go out and pre-order the comic. After starring in the new Transformers movie Mr. Gibson has a lot of people out there following him, so even if a small portion of that can be turned into readers of his comic book it should be a big help. I don't know if this is the first effort on Twitter to help sell a comic or not, but I'm all for taking different approaches to getting the word out there. I'll be interested to see how it works and if it makes a difference. From the word over at THE BEAT it's got a lot of people interested and has even convinced some store owners to order a few copies of the comic that they normally wouldn't have.

I'm for anything that can help get the word out and that is unique from the normal paths. The comic industry needs to find alternate methods to publicize their work. As an industry the comic book business seems to advertize mainly just for itself. Unless there's a big movie pushing the comic, you don't really see a lot of pr being driven towards people that aren't already picking up the latest issues of their favorite comics.

Granted a lot of Transformers fans might be into comics, but Mr. Gibson's apparel goes way beyond that. He's a singer and actor with a lot of diverse material under his belt, so it's a good bet that a lot of his fans may not be a comic buyer. So hopefully with his twittering it will introduce some of these fans to comics and maybe even persuade them to go give them a try.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Recent Purchases

I used to be a once a week buyer. I used to be there on Wednesday without fail, waiting for the new shipment of comics to be put out. Now I get there whenever I can. Very rarely will I make it within a week's time of my last visit, sometimes a month will go by before I can make it. But I also don't try and buy every comic that comes out anymore either. I'm a lot more selective in what I buy. I figure if I buy a comic and after I get home I don't want to read it, than that's a comic that I won't be picking up the next trip to the comic store.

I picked up a few comics on this last trip. I've already talked about Batman and Robin and Detective Comics, so I won't repeat that here, except to say both are excellent and you should pick them up.

The New Avengers: Bendis is what pulled me back into Marvel Comics with his run on Daredevil after I had pretty much given up on it. His run on the Avengers has been so hit and miss. Part of the problem is that with all the events lately the Avengers seems to be just a spin off on whatever big even is going on. But this issue is Bendis at his best, setting up a new Sorcerer Supreme.

Daredevil: Still one of my favorite comics. I've been a fan of Daredevil almost since his inception. But the last few years have been my favorite version of the man without fear. I think it's better than Miller's run since Bendis and now Burbaker have been on it.

Echo: I was a fan of Terry Moore and his Strangers in Paradise, but in the end I wasn't that satisfied with that series. This series has suffered none of what I found wrong with that series. This is in fact one of my top comics that I pick up. I can't wait to see where he's going with it. And while I'm not sure what the frequency of its publication has been, I do know it's been pretty reliable.

Captain American: Reborn: Very well written and drawn but pretty much just a set up for the next issue. Not sure how I feel about the fact that Steve Rogers wasn't shot and killed now, he was shot with a gun that threw him a time statsis, where he now is tumbling through time. But than we all knew that Steve Rogers was coming back. (Not that I mind that, I am a big fan of the Steve Rogers Cap and am looking forward to his re appearance. Even though Burbaker did a good job with Buck as Cap.)

The Boys and Herogasm: Not for kids, but I love this series. Ennis is another writer I either really love and the opposite. And I'm loving this.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Maybe it was just me but I found some of the transitions between scenes to be confusing. I had to go back and re read some pages to figure out where I was supposed to be. Still it's Buffy.

Detective Comics: This was the second half of Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert's "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" I am a big fan of Gaiman but this book really didn't do it for me.

Bring Back Supergirl!

When I picked up the first issue of this title I didn't realize it was a limited series. And sadly now all six issues have come and gone. But this is still one of my favorite titles of the last half year. This was such a fun read. DC please bring this version of Supergirl!

Batman and Robin

In the previous post I mentioned how much I'm liking some of DC's comic again. My favorite right now would have to be the new Batman and Robin comic by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly. I am loving this comic.

I think very highly of Grant Morrison as a writer, but just as there is a lot of his stuff I think is some of the best comic writing out there, there is also a lot I don't care for. His most recent work on Batman and Final Crisis I didn't care for. I tried to read Final Crisis but gave up after three issues.

But this series is GREAT! I love it! Everything about it is so good. Frank Quitely brings the pages to such a life. This is the type of comics that makes me think of how I felt when I was a kid and reading comics.

Within two issues this has become one of my favorite comics out there right now. It's one of those comics that I can't wait for the next issue to come out.

Batwoman

I've never made a secret in these posts about my current dislike of most DC product lately. But recently I've picked up a few titles and have to report back on how much I am enjoying them. The first I want to talk about is Batwoman.

I know this character was introduced a year or so ago in the pages of 52. I never read an issue of that maxi series, so I had no idea of the character. Of course I had read and heard of all the buzz about her. That she was a lesbian. At the time that seemed to be what the whole point of the character seemed to be. I'm too much a fan of Greg Rucka, who was one of the creating voices behind the character, to believe that to be true, but that's all that was talked about. That she was a lesbian.

Now, however long ago since she was introduced, I'm not really sure because like I said I haven't been too involved in very many stories at DC for the past few years, they're bringing her back. It seems like the fuss of her sexual orientation has died down somewhat.

Instead of giving her own book they're putting her as the lead feature in Detective Comics. I had no plan to pick up her debut in the title, but when I was at the comic book store I saw the cover and was intrigued. The cover and the interior art is by JH William III and all I can saw is that it is incredible! The cover reached out and grabbed me. I picked up the issue and flipped through it. The art was so good I couldn't put it down. I love the red that is part of her costume, it makes the costume jump out at you.

I still didn't know how the story was, but I am a big fan of Greg Rucka's novels so I was at least hopeful. I was pleased overall, by both the art and the writing. Even though I know nothing of Batwoman's past or origin I was pulled into the story and found myself liking the character and wanting to know more about her.

I will definitely be continuing with this series. If they can keep up the quality of this issue they'll have me hooked. I really like this so far.