The Digital Comics Debate Heats Up!

Video uploading is taking longer than I expected (which is what happens when you are borrowing a crappy Clear Wire connection from a neighbor and are legitimately so broke you can't even afford to go to the coffee shop), but that doesn't mean we don't still have content. Okay, the content is technically borrowed, but hey, you get what you pay for.

A couple of very good editorials advocating the advancement of comics as a digital medium came out today, one from Comics Alliance and the other from Mark Waid via Comic Book Resources. Below are links to each.

Digital distribution and how it evolves is something the entire industry is watching. Expect to see more content about it here, as well as in my column at Broken Frontier, in the coming months.

Comics Alliance

Mark Waid

Pull List - 3/3/2010

BOOM! Studios

Incredibles #6 - Mark Waid, Landry Walker & Marcio Takara

Dark Horse

Buffy Season 8 #33 - Brad Meltzer & Georges Jeanty

DC Comics

Detective Comics #862 - Greg Rucka, J.H. Williams, III, Jock & Cully Hammer
First Wave #1 - Brian Azzarello & Rags Morales
Jonah Hex #53 - Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti & Billy Tucci
Sweet Tooth #7 - Jeff Lemire

Marvel Comics

Girl Comics #1 - Devin Grayson, Laura Martin, Ming Doyle, Molly Crabapple, et al.

The Surfing the Bleed Review - Incorruptible #1 by Mark Waid & Jean Diaz

Incorruptible is the companion title to Mark Waid's newest exploration of the superhero archetype, Irredeemable. If you're not familiar with the books, Irredeemable is Waid's exploration of what happens when a Superman-like hero finally reaches his breaking point and Incorruptible is what happens when that hero's arch-nemesis decides to "go straight" in an effort to stop him.

Incorruptible #1 is a fantastic flip side of the Irredeemable coin. While it suffers from the unfortunate failing of many first issues (it seems to go by far too quickly), it still succeeds in offering a good introduction to the characters who appear to be the central focus of the book. Chief amongst those characters is Max Damage, a villain of the worst sort who appears to be the only man alive capable of standing up to the Plutonian, Waid's villainous Superman analog, and living to tell the tale.


Damage is a character with immediate impact. From the first moment you see a supporting character react to him (a method Waid uses to great effect to quickly paint a picture of Damage's previous life) you want to know more. There is depth to this man, there are layers, more so, perhaps, than there are even to the Plutonian himself. What Waid has done with this first issue is tap into the Superman/Batman dynamic that made Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns such a successful look into the possible future of these godlike figures. While the situation is certainly different (The Plutonian is no government stooge and Max Damage is no aging hero), the core of Miller's premise is there; casting Superman as the villain responsible for the ailing state of the world and Batman as the only man on the planet capable of stopping him.


To hammer this analogy home, Waid has even given Max Damage, his flawed Batman analog, his very own underaged sidekick and grizzled police veteran to aid him in his attempt to go straight. These are no shining beacons of justice, however. Robin here is cast as Jailbait, the overtly sexual, underaged female Bonnie Clyde to Damage's Clyde Barrow. James Gordon is represented by Lieutenant Armadale, a dirty cop trying to reform. And really that's the point of Incorruptible; reform. Max Damage isn't perfect, neither are Jailbait nor Armadale, but they're trying, which is more than can be said for the Plutonian.

There is more hidden beneath the surface of Incorruptible, a surface capably rendered by artist Jean Diaz (whose style is close enough to that of Peter Krause, Iredeemable's penciler, that a very consistent world is being built), but I don't want to ruin it all for you.

If we're to judge a book by its first issue then it would appear that Incorruptible is a story well worth investing in. What Waid is doing is along the lines of Kirkman's Invincible, Moore's America's Best Comics and Busiek's Astro City. He's showing us a world full of walking gods and high adventure, a world of vast potential and deadly greed, a world full of larger than life heroes and nasty as hell villains. In short, it's all stuff we've seen before, but with Iredeemable and now with the inclusion of Incorruptible, Mark Waid has done what those creators before him also did so successfully; he's turning our pop mythology on its head and giving us a new world to explore.

So let's go exploring.

Five Page Preview of Mark Waid's Incorruptible!

MARK WAID’S NEW SERIES
INCORRUPTIBLE
HITS SHELVES
12/16!

MARK WAID WAS EVIL
MARK WAID
IS
INCORRUPTIBLE!

The Flip Side To This Year’s Break-Out Smash Hit IRREDEEMABLE!

A New Ongoing Series That Asks The Question:
What Happens When A Villain Becomes A Hero?

FIRST LOOK! – 5 PAGE PREVIEW

What happens when a villain becomes a hero? Find out on December 16th when BOOM! Studios' new series, INCORRUPTIBLE, the flip side to Mark Waid’s super hero epic IRREDEEMABLE, hits store shelves! Written by Waid and sporting sensational interior art by Jean Diaz (WONDER WOMAN), INCORRUPTIBLE features A & B covers by John Cassaday (ASTONISHING X-MEN) and Tim Sale (BATMAN: LONG HALLOWEEN) with a C cover by Jeffrey Spokes.

INCORRUPTIBLE showcases super villain Max Damage, who had an epiphany the day The Plutonian destroyed Sky City. That day, when The Plutonian turned his back on humanity, Max Damage decided to step up. Now Max Damage has changed his name to Max Daring and turned from his formerly selfish ways to become… INCORRUPTIBLE. The flip side to this year’s break-out smash hit IRREDEEMABLE, INCORRUPTIBLE examines the hard, difficult road to changing your ways and making a difference in the world.

“Buckle yourselves in and prepare for one of the best titles you’ve seen of this or any year,” said BOOM Marketing Director Chip Mosher. “And while you don’t need to be picking up IRREDEEMABLE to enjoy this new series, INCORRUPTIBLE continues Waid’s complex study of caped morality at the end of the world.”

About BOOM! Studios
BOOM! Studios (www.boom-studios.com) is a unique publishing house specializing in high-profile projects across a wide variety of different genres from some of the industry's biggest talents, including Philip K. Dick's DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?, The Henson Company's FARSCAPE, and the original Mark Waid series IRREDEEMABLE. BOOM! recently launched its youth imprint, BOOM Kids!, with Pixar's THE INCREDIBLES, CARS, and TOY STORY, as well as Disney's THE MUPPETS, DONALD DUCK, UNCLE SCROOGE and WALT DISNEY'S COMICS AND STORIES. This year, BOOM! Studios celebrates its fourth anniversary.

The Surfing the Bleed Review - Incredibles #3 by Mark Waid, Landry Walker and Ramanda Kamarga

Issue three of BOOM! Studios ongoing The Incredibles book by Mark Waid, Landry Walker and Ramanda Kamarga offers a fun, fast-paced finale to the current Jack Jack-fueled storyline that is sure to delight comics fans of all ages.

The script, penned by Waid and Walker, is a thing of streamlined beauty that balances the exposition with enough humor and sweeping action to keep things moving at a brilliant pace. The pair also inject the book with a fair helping of superhero tropes, playing a familiar game with their own set of rules and in the process creating a book that will please longtime superhero fans while offering a good jumping on point for new readers.

The pair of Waid and Landry are joined again this issue by Ramanda Kamarga. Like Marcio Takara before him, Kamarga captures the energy and aesthetic of the original animation while remaining true to his own style. And it's a style that compliments the action in Waid and Walker's script perfectally. Every big action sequence, every facial expression, every nuance of costuming or power represenation is conveyed with serious skill by Kamarga.

The story in issue three closes up the Jack Jack illness storyline and ends with a cliffhanger that leaves readers craving more. And really, that's what I think is best about the BOOM! Kids line, The Incredibles especially. While there is plenty of value to be found in the kids offerings from the Big Two (Marvel, DC), it could be said that the one-shot format employed for most of their books does little to engage young readers in a manner that will keep them coming back for more. Not to sound too mercenary, but one of the most important aspects of publishing comics for kids is making sure that they keep reading the comics you're publishing and in the proccess create a new generation of comic readers. The best way to do that is to give them a book that embraces the traditions of the medium by requiring that they come back each month to get the next installment of the story. BOOM!'s The Incredibles title does exactly that, and that's what makes it the best introduction to superheroes you could possibly give a young reader right now.

If you haven't checked it out, the first volume by Mark Waid and Marcio Takara (The Incredibles: Family Matters) is available in collected form now. With the first volume out, the second volume wrapped up and the third ready to start soon, (oh, and by the way, Christmas and Hannukah are coming up) this is a great time to introduce your favorite superheroes to this great offering from BOOM! Kids.

Baltimore Comic-Con Recap: Day Two

Day Two (Sunday) - Sunday started off a little slower than Saturday had. We were all nursing a day of con funk and a night of drinking, so we all resigned ourselves to being a little late, Jon and I more than everyone else. Jay wanted to hit a couple of panels and get some shopping done in time to head out kind of early (he had a family obligation) so he took Jason and Dean down to the show and Jon and I hung back to have a hearty breakfast. By hearty breakfast I mean Bob Evans. This was my first trip to a Bob Evans and I must say, as far as hangover cures are concerned, it's pretty damn good.

After a breakfast the size of the greater D.C. area at the Bob Evans, Jon and I headed into the city. We were expecting traffic and parking problems due to the Ravens game at 1:00 o'clock that day, but it ended up not being a problem at all. Once inside the con I split up with Jon and found a quiet corner of a panel room to work on my questions for Jason Aaron. Once the questions were prepped I headed straight to the booth Jason was sharing with Matt Fraction and Jason Latour and sat down for our interview.

The interview went great, despite my technological failure. Jason's interview was the first one I'd done in person and I had to do it without a recorder. I tried using my phone's recorder, but the ambient noise was so overwhelming that there was no way to pick up his responses. It didn't occur to me till much later that I could have just videoed the entire thing. I soldiered on and the interview went great. Jason was a great guy and he had some great responses for my questions.

Once the interview was over I really only had one more thing I felt like I had to do; meet Mark Waid. Mark Waid is one of my top two favorite comic creators of all time. For me, Denny O'Neil and Mark Waid define superheroes. Getting the opportunity to shake his hand and thank him for the effect he's had on me as a fan and a creator was a very important part of this trip for me. So I headed over to the BOOM! table and introduced myself. As brief as the meeting was, it was very successful. You never know what people with a fair amount of celebrity are going to be like. When you respect someone creatively, you have a tendency to build them up in your head, and unfortunately the reality of the person can sometimes be a disappointment. That is not the case with Mark Waid. I told him that Kingdom Come was the book that got me back into comics as a teenager, that I'd been a huge fan of everything he'd done as a creator, that I had a ton of respect for BOOM! Studios and most importantly, that he was my largest creative influence. Mark Waid is the reason I want to write comics. His reaction? Extremely positive. You can tell that the man really loves the medium and the fans. He was so happy, so excited to hear me say those things and he was genuinely happy to meet me. He even took my card and promised to give the blog a look. That would have been great in and of itself, but as I was leaving Chip Mosher made a point to stop what he was doing, come down to the end of the booth, shake my hand and tell me thanks for supporting the company.

Maybe the above reads like some fanboy having a thoroughly fanboy moment, but it was more than that to me. Sure, it was great to meet Mark Waid and even better to have my opinion of him justified, but that's not the best part. The best part was just how comfortable I felt in that position, standing there talking to him and feeling like he treated me as an equal. Even though all I've published so far is one strip of Dean's webcomic Butterfly, Mark treated me with the same reverence he would give an industry veteran. Mark Waid loves comics and he loves that young people still want to make comics. For me, that was extremely uplifting. Chip making a point to come down and tell me thanks was the icing on the positive energy cake. It may not seem like much, but for a guy trying to break into the industry as a writer (a notoriously hard thing to do) even that tiny gesture, that brief recognition was enough to fuel my creative will for a good long while. Seriously people, BOOM! Studios are the good guys.

At that point, my con weekend was over. At some point shortly before or shortly after my introduction to Mark Waid I stopped at that giant t-shirt retailer and bought a t-shirt with the Nightwing logo. I suppose I was feeling young, headstrong and heroic, just like Dick Grayson. With business cards in the hands of creators such as Mark Waid and Walter Simonson, some memorable feedback from Chip Mosher and Bernie Wrightson (they both thought Wendigo sounded like a cool idea) and a Nightwing t-shirt (blue is my color) I felt ready to put the convention hall behind me. So I left Jay to his panels and his shopping and went back across the street to The Nest, where Jon and I spent the rest of the day watching football. Jay stopped by to show off some goodies and say his goodbyes before he got out of town and Jon and I bellied up to the bar with one of the nicest and strangest sports bar crowds I'd ever encountered. Baltimore is wacky place, but I really did like it a lot.

At the end of the convention day, Jon and I hooked back up with Dean, Jason, Danielle and Jessi and coordinated a trip down to the harbor for some food. We found exorbitant parking and proceeded to march to our destination which turned out to be a monstrous walk from where we'd parked. By the time I got to the restaurant where we were meeting some other cartoonists, I'd decided that all I wanted for dinner was two glasses of bourbon. Oh, don't get all high and mighty. I'd eaten already at The Nest.



The dinner was casual, the night air brisk. I loaned Danielle my hoodie and that bought me hugs at the end of the night, which was doubly nice since it was largely unexpected. At the end of it all we said our goodbyes, sent Dean and Jason off with their friends and Jon and I went back toward the hotel. We wanted to keep drinking (since we knew the Colts were going to destroy our beloved Titans) so we stopped into a bar that also functioned as a package store. This was the same bar, Howard's, that Jon and Jay had discovered on our first night in town. Jay was so impressed with Howard's that he actually spent the majority of this time in Baltimore trying to convince Jon that he had to convince me to forgo all activities and drink at Howard's instead. That would have been career seppuku, but I can see now why he was so adamant about it. Howard's was the most amazing bar I'd ever seen in my life.

It was all red leather, wood paneling and neon signs, with women older than your mother pulling the taps and men that could have been your grandad bellied up to the bar. It was like something straight out of a 1970s crime film, the sort of place where poker games and shady deals get done in the back room. It was beautiful, it was glorious and it was custom built for guys like Jon Burr and I. I took one look at the place and decided we had to stay and watch the game there (which I'm sure Jon knew would happen).


The patrons were nice, the staff were great, the beer was cold and cheap, the game was...well, not everything could be perfect. Jon and I got a comfortable drunk, relaxed, had a heart to heart, made some new friends and even played this arcade bowling game that defies description. Of all the things I saw in Baltimore (including the bum eating leaves off a tree like a panda), Howard's is the thing I'll remember best. It was the bar from Heaven.




The Trip Back Home (Monday) - The next morning we all rose pretty early. Jon, Jason and I said our goodbyes to Dean then got on the road. The trip back home seemed to last so much longer than the trip up had, but I suppose that's almost always the case. I did most of the driving again, which tends to be for the best on long trips. I'm kind of a control freak in the car so I always feel a lot more comfortable behind the wheel. That's not to say Jon or Jason are bad drivers. Far from it. I just can't stand riding. So I drove us most of the way home, with Jason coming in for relief when I was just too tired to go on. The trip back was a lot of fun, as exhausted as we all were. I really felt like I got to know Jason a lot better, which was nice. I'd hung out with him a few times over the course of my friendship with Dean but I'd never had enough time alone with him to really get to know him. I liked him a lot in passing and liked him even more so after getting a chance to spend some real time with him. He's a good travel partner, as is Jon. By the end of the trip I felt like I knew them both a lot better and that I was better for it.



All in all, the trip to Baltimore was a rousing success. Sure I'm still unemployed and we're still struggling for money, but at least people are starting to take note of what I'm doing and who I am. I know more people in the industry this time than I did at the end of NYCC and I'm constantly making new friends and new contacts. I've got people offering me great insight into my work, great advice on what to expect in the future and great discussion about square jawed heroics (and maybe even a little sports). So for the guys who made this possible, thank you, for the excellent travel companions, you were awesome and for those of you coming to the blog for the first time, welcome to my world. It's nice to have you along for the ride.

Baltimore Comic-Con Creator Profiles

LEN WEIN - When you take a look back at the last forty years of comic books, you'd be hard pressed to find a guy who's had more lasting impact than Len Wein. A comic fan from an early age, Wein began working for various publications in the late 60s. But his first real splash came in 1971, when he and collaborator Bernie Wrightson created the Swamp Thing for DC. Certainly more than just a one-hit wonder, Wein also contributed to the Phantom Stranger and Justice League of America and created the surprisingly enduring Human Target before moving to Marvel. At the House of Ideas he contributed to some of Marvel's most popular titles, including Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, The Mighty Thor and The Incredible Hulk, where he created arguably the most popular comic character of all time, Wolverine. But his biggest contribution has to be the revival of the X-Men after a five year hiatus, where he and artist Dave Cockrum shook up the line-up and created such fan favorites as Nightcrawler, Storm and this writer's personal favorite, Colossus. Wein eventually moved back to DC where he had a prominent career as an editor, working on successful titles like New Teen Titans, Crisis On Infinite Earths and a little book you may have heard of, Watchmen. Most recently, Wein's lent his talents as a writer to Justice League of America for DC. Bring along your old Swamp Thing comics and see if you can't get Wein and Wrightson both to add their John Hancocks to them!


WALT SIMONSON - A veteran of the comics industry for over thirty years, Simonson is best known for his time on Marvel's The Mighty Thor. Though he contributed to a number of titles over the years, including nearly three years on X-Factor that influences much of the X-Books today, most fanboys remember Simonson for what he did during his time with Marvel's Thunder God. With a style nothing short of epic, Simonson took what Kirby had done with the character and built something new and dynamic on top of it. His storytelling was cinematic, his pacing sharp and crisp, and what he did on the book influenced artists for years to come. Oh, and let's not forget that he gave us Beta Ray Bill as well. A winner of multiple awards and a well respected elder in the industry, Simonson is truly one of the greats.


MARK WAID - Mark Waid is, in a word, great. Over the years he's contributed to almost every major character in both the DC and Marvel universes and has never missed a beat. Let's just run down the list. Captain America, Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Ka-Zar, the Legion of Super-Heroes, Metamorpho, Impulse, The Flash, the JLA, and Superman. His epic commentary on the future of superheores, Kingdom Come, is considered one of the best superhero stories ever told and is often mentioned in the same breath as similar works such as Watchmen and Miracleman. Most recently, Waid has lent his talent as editor and writer to upstart BOOM! Studios where he's teaching an old dog some new tricks in his series Irredeemable. A consummate professional and one of the nicest guys in the business, you'd be hard pressed to find a better creator.

Pull List

Here's this week's pull list.

BOOM

Irredeemable #6

DARK HORSE

Buffy Season 8 #28
Witchfinder #3

DC

Jonah Hex #47
Justice League: Cry for Justice #3 (because I need a laugh)
Supergirl Annual #1
Wednesday Comics #9

MARVEL

Ghost Riders: Heaven's On Fire #2
Strange Tales #1

It's a much lighter list this week than last week, which is a relief. Last week was almost more than I could handle. It's interesting to see that Marvel finally managed to slip into the list with a book that is written by neither Ed Brubaker nor Jason Aaron (though Mr. Aaron did still find his way in).

Enjoy your books!

Grab These Books!

At last the wait is over. The best reviewer on the web has returned! Okay, so I'm not the best, but I'm not bad. And hey, you get what you pay for, and nobody's paying me anything for this. Um...yeah. Moving right along.

Since I've been away from serious blogging for a few weeks (hey, I got married, give me a break) I'm going to talk about the best stuff I've been reading during those few weeks. So without further ado, I give you Grab These Books!

Detective Comics #854 - The first issue of Detective Comics since the unfortunate death of Batman/Bruce Wayne had a lot of hype to live up to and it sure didn't disappoint. DC's decision to hold off on this much anticipated Batwoman series by the superstar combo of Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams, III in order to tie it in to the Batman: Reborn storyline seems to have been a great idea. Given the first issue, this series looks to be so stellar that it would have succeeded regardless of when it was published, but tying Kate Kane's war with the 13 Covens of crime to the current Bat-world gives the series a resonance with fans it may have lacked had it been left to stand on its own. It also serves to make Kate Kane an even more important part of the larger Bat-family than she already was. So, what makes this book so great? Everything. The art is superb and it's what everybody is talking about right now, but let me take a minute to brag on Rucka. While I'm a fan of GR, I've grown a little weary of his current run on Action Comics. Not that it's been bad, per se, it's just not gripping me the way the other three major Super titles currently are. Personally, I feel like Rucka is more comfortable with the grit and the grime of Gotham City than the shined and polished world of Metropolis. That comfort is evident in DC #854. The script is sharp, smart, warm, creepy and action-packed. In brief, it's everything a good Batman story should be. As for the art, what can be said other than, "WOW!" J.H. Williams, III may be the most talented artist working on superhero titles today, but the work on Detective is arguably the best work he's done yet. To put it in sports terms, he just graduated from all-star to MVP. I've been reading comics a long time, but I've never seen anything like the layouts in Detective #854. When you read this comic for the first time you can feel it; something new is happening here, something big. Batman & Robin, the current flagship Bat-title is so good that Detective Comics has to seriously deliver each month if it's going to stand alongside it. Judging from this first issue, Rucka and Williams, III are more than up to that challenge.

Batman & Robin #2 - Speaking of Batman & Robin, I couldn't very well write this column without mentioning the latest issue from Morrison and Quitely. This issue is heavy on the action but don't be fooled, there is some serious rumination from Dick Grayson about just how hard it is being Batman which leads to a very touching moment between he and his longtime friend, Alfred. Grant Morrison may be a polarizing figure capable of inspiring great confidence or great ire in comics fans, I feel that he understands the character of Batman better than anyone who has ever written him. It's that deep understanding of the Caped Crusader that makes this such a compelling series. This isn't just new territory for Dick Grayson, it's new territory for Morrison as well. So when Dick Grayson is struggling to come to terms with what it means to be Dick Grayson: Batman, so is Grant Morrison figuring out what it means to write Dick Grayson: Batman. It makes for a very organic, very fluid experience that I for one feel is off to a terrific start. Coupled with Quitely, arguably his greatest collaborator (Cameron Stewart being a close second), Morrison is able to create a wildly colorful and creepy world for his new Dynamic Duo to fight crime (and butt heads) in. And fight they do. Issue #2 of B & R is full of more Le Cirque D'etrange fisticuffs as Dick and Damian fight off an invasion of the Gotham police station. Teamwork is not the order of the day unfortunately and it appears that the relationship between this Batman and Robin may be more tumultuous even than the one between Bruce Wayne and Jason Todd. Of course that's the point, isn't it? Dick's seen firsthand what a failure as mentor can do, not only to Robin but also to the Dark Knight. I have faith though. Damian does come from good stock, after all.

Irredeemable #4 - Irredeemable is the best thing coming out of BOOM! Studios these days. That being said, it's not always easy to read. At this point in my life I'm coming to terms with my love of Superman and with how much the character means to me. Superman is the ultimate embodiment of hope, compassion and perserverance, so to see him (represented in Irredeemable by the Plutonian) laid so low is understandably difficult. The world that Mark Waid has created with his Superman Gone Wrong is bleak, broken and desperate. There is very little hope or compassion left. There isn't much I can say specifically about this book without giving away a lot, so I'll just tell you that, if you haven't been reading Irredeemable, it's time to start. It gets better with each issue.

The Incredibles #1 - 3 - I waited a few months to pick this series up, but I'm glad I finally did. BOOM! has very wisely taken the cream of the Disney crop (Muppets, Pixar) and made some great looking kids titles out of it. The Incredibles, written by Mark Waid, may be the one of those titles most appealing to traditional comics fans. Fans of the movie will be pleased with Marcio Takara's artwork and Waid's fun, quickly paced scripts. Takara's pencils are fantastic on this book. Often times, an artist working on a licensed property like this will sacrifice his own voice in an attempt to make everything look as much like the original property as possible. His art recalls the wonderful animation from the film while remaining totally original. I predict a very bright future for this guy. Oh yeah, that Mark Waid guy's not bad either. Waid has created a fun kids comic here that has a ton of appeal for adult comics fans as well. You can tell that he's a fan of the Incredibles and he must be having a lot of fun writing this book. Waid adds a lot to the world of the Incredibles in these first three issues without ever straying from the original voices of the characters. This isn't just a throwaway book of monthly one-shots, but a well designed storyline wrapped up in a lot of fun action and humour. While I'm a huge fan of what's going on with the DC Kids line right now, I dare say that what Waid and Takara have created with the Incredibles is the best kids superhero book on the shelves right now.

I've read a lot of other great books over these last few weeks, but the ones I mentioned above were definitely my favorites. What have you been reading and enjoying lately?

To round everything out, here's my pull list for this week.

BPRD 1947 #1
Green Lantern #43
Red Robin #2 (out of respect for Tim Drake, nothing more)
World of New Krypton #5
Wednesday Comics #1

That's it for this week. Don't forget to get down to your local comic shop and Grab These Books!

Grab These Books!

And heeeeeere we go.

Superman #688 - Mon-El continues to fill in for the absent Superman as Metropolis's appointed guardian. This is my second favorite thread moving through the Superman books right now (World of New Krypton being the first) but this issue felt a little flat to me. Mon-El briefly loses his powers, but then he gets them back, then he finds out he may still be dying? Everything, including the layouts, felt a bit clunky. Still, the New Krypton/World Without Superman stuff is compelling each month, so it's worth reading if you've been enjoying everything so far.

Green Lantern #41 - With each new issue of Green Lantern you can feel the tension building. Issue #41 is no different. The war with Larfleeze escalates and you really get the feeling that maybe some of these Green Lanterns aren't going to get out of this battle alive. The bulk of the issue is Hal vs. Larfleeze in what is as much a screaming match as an actual battle of the light and the cliffhanger Johns gives you at the end is actually pretty chilling. My only issue with this book right now is the art, which I don't think stands out, especially as compared to Ivan Reis's work on the series. But more importantly it's the colors that really bother me. I'm no color theorist, so maybe those of you out there who are can correct me if I'm wrong, but I really feel like none of the color here pops. And on a book where color is the driving force of the story, it should. That being said, it was still one of the best books of the week.

Ghost Rider #35 - If you're a fan of Tony Moore (and you should be) then you'll adore this issue of Ghost Rider. Moore gets to go crazy in almost every panel, drawing increasingly wild and disturbing images as the Skinbender blows through town. But that's about all that you get from this issue. I'm a big fan of Aaron's run on Ghost Rider, but there's just not a lot going on in this particular issue. It's important to the story because, by the end of the issue, Johnny Blaze has found the spirit of vengeance inside of himself and let the Ghost Rider out. That being said, you'd feel like a total heel if you missed the awesomeness that is Tony Moore on this issue. Grab it!

Gotham Gazette: Batman Alive - Unnecessarily "sexy" Vicki Vale imagery? Check. Tim Drake acting like a spoiled mysoginist and treating Stephanie Brown like crap? Check. An obvious set-up for other storylines we'll see in future Batman books this Summer? Check. Nothing actually happening? Check. Yeah, this definitely feels like a Battle for the Cowl tie-in. Skip it.

Batman in Barcelona: Dragon's Knight - This was the best book of my week. I picked it up not really knowing what to expect and I was very pleasantly surprised. Diego Ramos's art on the book is not his best work, but it's good enough not to take the reader out of the story. And that's a good thing, considering Mark Waid has created one heck of a neat little Batman story here. Taking place outside of the current BFtC timeline, this book sets Batman in Barcelona, re-telling the tale of St. George vs. the Dragon with Killer Croc standing in for said beastie. This is maybe the closest a Batman comic has ever come to capturing the mood of the newest Batman films, specifically the Dark Knight. You could easily see Dragon's Knight taking place sometime in between Batman Begins and the Dark Knight. There's just so many neat little additions to the Batman universe here as well, specifically the realization that Bruce Wayne keeps underground "Bat-caves" in major cities all across the world. Why does he do that? Well, it's not easy slipping all that Bat-gear through customs these days. At another point in the book, Batman is pursuing Croc through the streets of Barcelona and the people are as frightened of him as they are of Croc. "...I'm not in Gotham." Maybe in Gotham City they know and trust the Batman, but there's no reason for the people in Barcelona to necessarily. It's little things like this that make Dragon's Knight a very enjoyable Batman story. Definitely pick this one up.

That's all for that. Here's my pull list for this week:

Batman & Robin #1
Scalped #29
Seaguy: The Slaves of Mickey Eye #3
Superman: World of New Krypton #4
Irredeemable #3

Get down to your local shop and Grab These Books!

I spent the last couple of days hanging out with Dean, being relatively unproductive while I watched him being relatively productive. It's been fun to sort of watch the coloring process unfold in between glances at the TV for No Heroics (Great!) and Punisher: War Zone (Abysmal!). He and I are getting pretty close and it's awesome. It's nice to have a friend that is on the same wavelength as me creatively, but it's also nice to have someone new in my life that I can really trust. People like that don't come along too often and I'm thankful for it when they do.

As far as advances in the quest for comic stardom are concerned, I've been doing research on my Wendigo project. I'm a big fan of the Western genre in both print and screen so being able to do research for my own piece of that mythological tapestry is really rewarding. I tell you, research is a lot of fun when it's not for a fifteen page term paper. Most of my research recently has been on Native Americans and their interaction with settlers and lawmen in the Old West. Like most Americans I was well aware of how we'd treated the native people of this land, but I was shocked at the sheer tenacity and maliciousness of it. Duplicity on a grand scale, as we crawfished on nearly every deal we made with them. Pretty despicable stuff.

Anyway, research for that project is coming along nicely and I honestly think I'll be to a point where I can begin the roughs for the first script soon. At this point I'm just finding ways to flesh out the environment and the characters. Once that's done, I'll be ready to start on the scripting process. I'm excited!

So this week I only picked up a few new books. I grabbed that new Seaguy number one by Grant Morrison and Cameron Stewart. You really can't ask for a better team on a book. Morrison has become my favorite writer working in the medium and Cam Stewart is just phenomenal. His work on Brubaker's Catwoman is some of the best comic art I've ever seen. I'm going to wait to read this newest Seaguy though as I haven't read the original series. Being that I'm a completist, I'd like to read the other first.

I also picked up Flash: Rebirth which was good but not great. Ethan Van Sciver's art has never really knocked me over. Dean put it well when he commented on how Van Sciver tends to make the scenes meant to depict superspeed seem so damned static. Also, vomiting lightning is not awesome. I'll stick with it, because it's Geoff Johns writing Barry Allen, but I wasn't blown away by the first issue.

I was however blown away by Mark Waid's Irredeemable. It's the new superhero series from Waid and BOOM! Studios. Advanced reviews of the story were very favorable and I can see why. In one single issue Waid manages to build a rich world full of intriguing characters while filling you with absolute fear and dread at the thought of a superman gone mad. Really excellent stuff (as usual) from Mark Waid. There's a really great afterword by Grant Morrison in the back. It's definitely worth a look for anyone who loves Morrison or Waid.

That's about it for today. I'm off to read some more comics. Take care!