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.

A Lot of Copies

A picture from next year's release of The Watchmen movie. Looks really good. DC has reportedly printed over a million copies of the paperback of the series. I can't recall that any of the big super hero movies like Batman, Spider-man or Hulk sold that many extra copies of their comics and Watchmen is doing it based just on its trailer. Does this mean that this movie is going to be a big hit, I'm sure DC and Warners was worried since outside the comic community Watchmen isn't as big a name as Batman or Spider-man. It's going to be interesting to see what happens.

And In This Corner...

The big summer match up between Marvel and DC. I have to say that this is the best issue of "Final Crisis" so far and it's made me decide to pick up the next issue...probably. I'm still on the fence on this series. I read an issue and seem to be more lost than when I started it. I'm really not a big fan of the current DC universe so maybe this book isn't for me.

On the other hand I am enjoying "Secret Invasion" quite a bit. While I think the previous two issues kind of were drug out and could have been combined into one issue, this issue the action starts moving again. But I have to ask, what was the point of the space ship that landed in the Savage Land with all the Marvel Heroes from the 70's. It seems like they all were skrulls, so what were they up to? And didn't the previous issue of SI end with Captain America? Did I miss something? Still I am enjoying this series and really like what they're doing with it.

Gaiman On Batman

From San Diego Comic Con: Neil Gaiman is going to write a two issued Batman story entitled "Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader?" It is slated to come out at the start of next year. Andy Kubert will do the artwork. This follows shortly after the ending of the current Batman R.I.P. storyline, so does it mean anything?

Milestone Joins DC Universe

From San Diego Comic Con: Milestone Comics will merge itself into the DC Universe. The Milestone Comics were created in the 90's by Dwayne McDuffie, Christopher Priest, Denys Cowan, Michael Davis and Derek T. Dingle. Milestone Media was a separate company but DC Comics published the new series. At that time the Milestone universe was also a separate universe from DC, but they still had a few cross overs. Now the Milestone Universe will be part of the DC Universe.

Barry Allen Returns As Flash

From San Diego Comic Con: DC Comics announced that they are bringing Barry Allen back as the Flash in a mini series entitled Rebirth. The creative team is Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver, the same team responsible for Hal Jordon being brought back as Green Lantern. Where that leaves Wally West they wouldn't say. I'm not really sure how I feel about this. I'm not reading too many DC Comics now, but I will probably be interested in at least picking up the first issue of this mini series and see how it goes.

Giving Fans A Bad Name II

The heirs of Superman writer and creator Jerry Siegel were awarded the copyright to Action Comics #1. Now what all this means legally is for better minds than mine to figure out. There's still a lot to be figured out, it seems that they only have the rights to what appeared in that first issue, so where does that leave characters like Lex Luthor and others that came in later issues? Where does that leave DC as far as publishing Superman comics? Lots of issues to figure out.

What to me is almost shameful is the reaction of a lot of fandom to this decision. Instead of celebrating the win of one of the creators of one of the most famous icons in the world these fans are worried what this might mean to their daily fix of Superman. They are calling the Siegels greedy for wanting what should be rightfully theirs. People are claiming it would be all right if it was Jerry Siegel winning the award, but since he's dead that would be kind of hard. Why shouldn't his family share in some of the riches that Jerry's creation brings in.

A contract was signed is what is used to side with Warners. They didn't have to sign the contract, they wanted the quick money. Well, it wasn't that much money, even for the time. What they wanted was to get their character in print. At that time no one had any idea what a comic book character could achieve. If there were any ideas they probably would have imagined things alongside what comic strip creators achieved. Even though comic strip artists sold their rights they could end up making a lot of money and work on the strips they created for years.

If anyone thinks it is fair for two naive, young creators signing away their life's opus without knowing what they are doing is missing the point of characters like Superman, who represent the good guy looking out for the little guy.

Dave Stevens Dies

I remember when I first saw Dave Steven's work. It was in the back pages of a Pacific comic, Mike Grell's StarSlayer. Like everyone reading it I was blown away by the artwork. The story that went along with this artwork proved pretty good too. Pacific published a few more chapters of the strip which was of course The Rocketeer and it was finally finished and collected by Eclipse Comics. Than Comico got a go at the series for two issues. It finally ended up with a final issue at Dark Horse Comics.

I'm not sure if Dave was the first to start championing Bette Page or just at the start. In the Rocketeer he created a character that was a stand in for the former pin up queen Bette Page. He was a big fan of hers and latter became a friend and helped her.

Dave Stevens was not a fast artist. From what I've read he would labor over a single panel, working till he got it perfect in his eyes. Unfortunately the comic industry is not set up for such a painstaking artist and he did little more work. He made his living doing commissions and illustrations for others.

When I first saw Dave's work it was an exciting time for the comic book industry. The direct market was just beginning and it seemed like there was an infinite multitudes of possibilities for the industry. Marvel and DC were no longer the only comics that people wanted to read. New companies were appearing almost overnight. Pacific, Eclipse, Comico and more were publishing a lot of new exciting comics.

Dave's art and writing seemed to reflect that excitement. There was such a love for the medium in his artwork. His stories were fun to read. Everything didn't have to be doom and gloom. You could have fun in comics.

My sympathies go out to his friends and family.