Blogfriend Cheryl Lynn was interviewed by Sequential Tart.

ST: Who gets it right, both in comics and other media? (And why is this important?)

CLE: I look at the work of someone like Khari Evans and I truly believe that he is an artist who loves drawing women. Not just women of one particular type, but beautiful women period. All races. All ethnicities. All body types. He depicts women with a variety of features and he gets those features right. And it’s important to get those features right because a girl shouldn’t have to pick up a comic and be made to feel that she is less than another person simply because she has kinky hair, or dark skin, or no crease in her eyelids. She shouldn’t be told that characters that share her features aren’t worthy of being drawn correctly. That wears away at a person’s self-esteem. It makes for an unpleasant reading experience.

Go check it out.

JIM STARLIN: FERRYMAN OF THE NEW GODS – NEWSARAMA

I’m just going to cherry pick a few quotes for you guys, okay? Bolds for emphasis.

JS: Dan’s the boss. Myself, I sort of think of this project as putting an ending to Jack’s New Gods’ saga. Since Kirby’s initial run on the characters others have presented them with mixed results. Looking back I’d say at least half of the past New Gods series have done more harm than good. So for me, Death of the New Gods is half honoring Jack Kirby, half mercy killing.

JS: Didn’t realize that was a Mother Box until hearing your question. You know they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. As for the Black Racer clue—well, the Racer was easily my least favorite of the New Gods. So no one should be surprised to learn he doesn’t last long in Death of the New Gods. Never could figure out what Kirby was thinking when he created this one. He should have been gotten rid of a long time ago. Then again, that’s just my opinion.

JS: Big plans for the Source. You’ll never guest whose father he turns out to be. No, seriously: everything you think you know about the Source is wrong. This is the part that the really fanatical Kirby fans are simply going to hate.

NRAMA: Got it. Finally, then, will this project lead to a re-iteration of the New Gods in the foreseeable future? Or do you think it is time to close the final chapter on an old idea and try a new concept?

JS: DC owns the rights to the character’s names. There’s some great names there. What do you think?

Thesis: Sometimes, it’s okay to let old characters lie in limbo. You don’t have to use them, and you don’t have to break them to make them more serious or mature.
Proof: Post-IdC DC Comics

Thesis: Grant Morrison and Walt Simonson are the only people who should ever touch Kirby’s New Gods.
Proof: Countdown-era DC Comics

Thesis: Black Racer is awesome.
Proof: JLA: Rock of Ages

Here, let me end on one more quote. Dan Didio at Comic Bloc.

DD: Yeah, we are in a position right now where we have a direction in what we are trying to do for the DCU and we have an overarching story that we’re trying to tell. I’d say about 75% of the concepts that are being created are editorially driven. And realistically, at that point, we are trying to figure out bringing in the best people for the job.

Editorially-driven comics aren’t bad. Truth: Red White Black was pitched by Axel Alonso. But, when you’re up as high as 75%, you’ve got a problem.

This is Countdown-era DC. Welcome to the FUN PLACE.

art by rad mcawesome, click for big
(write me an article rad, or else thriftie gets it. we also accept articles done in 3 or 4 panel format)

In slightly better news, Martha Washington drops this week (hoorah) and I bought like three pairs of shoes yesterday.

hermanos is off covering that E3 thing for that magazine he does, so that leaves me to hold up the fort. It’s all right because I have quite the treat. Regular readers know that I’ve been talking about the pro wrestling federation CHIKARA to the point of annoyance in the last few months. And with good reason!

Moving to the next step of fandom, I’ve secured an interview with “Lightning” Mike Quackenbush himself. Quackenbush, nicknamed “The Master of a Thousand Holds” (though to be fair, I’m sure he’s probably sorta kinda good at eight or nine more), is a 16-year veteran of the ring and is the man who co-founded CHIKARA back in 2002. He’s a wrestler, a trainer to wrestling hopefuls, occasional commentator, writer, and possibly the next surprise identity of Ronin. He’s also one of the best performers I’ve ever had the honor of watching wrestle.

A rare image of Mike Quackenbush that doesn’t involve him shoving someone’s left knee into their right ear.

Not to mention that he’s a major comic fan. So this is, you know, still on-topic for the site.

————

I know what CHIKARA is and you certainly know what CHIKARA is, but let’s play it safe and say that whoever’s reading this doesn’t know. Can you give us a little description of what it’s about and what sets it apart from all the rest?

– CHIKARA is a group of pro-wrestlers/luchadores/ninjas/ would-be-super-heroes that get together and enact the age-old struggle of “good vs. evil” within the context of a wrestling universe that permits elements of science-fiction and fantasy beyond what is currently considered “acceptable” or “mainstream” by wrestling fans at large. I hope, when the final word on CHIKARA is written, that our effect on the wrestling performance genre will be akin to the effect Monty Python had on British comedy, or Jack Kirby had on comics.

Quack as part of Eddie Kingston’s Cibernetico team, based on the first issue of Justice League International

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I’m heading from the Bay Area to Los Angeles in around 45 minutes for E3! This means that blogging on my part might be kind of sparse, but that’s cool. I’ll have to make it up on the back end.

I started up a library for the books I’ve got here in the Bay. This isn’t the whole collection, mind, I still got around 13 boxes of books left in GA. I’m getting them shipped here soon. You can scope it out at this link right here. Books.app for OS X is nice, highly recommended. I’ll update it as I go along. Only around 65 books thus far. Multiply that by, say, nine or ten, and you’ve got a pretty good estimate of how many books and how little self control I have.

Anyway!

I’m up out this piece! I’ll get up whatever I can, but no promises! If I see some cool comics games (I’ve already played Hellboy and one other, I think), I’ll drop a line here. My only plan is to see some hot games and pick up some Starburys for me and my little brother. Those kicks are pretty nice to be on the cheap.

If you’re in the LA area, drop me an email. It’s off to the right side there, on the sidebar. We can hook up and you can tell me I got bad taste in comics.

There once was a comic called Edited Crisis 04. It skewered Infinite Crisis 04 and was pretty freaking hilarious.

The #sa-comics crew got together to do another one, this time based off Sinestro Corps… when we realized that it was really nowhere near as badly written as Infinite Crisis 04. We did a get a few pages in, though, so you get to reap the rewards.

:whatup: to Edgeandchristian, Pookie_Bear, indigi, d00gz, and everyone else who helped.

One more, unrelated to Sinestro Corps but wholly related to this.

Click here to see it.

I’ve got a friend who does stunt work. He had a brief role in Pirates 3 (he was the dude with the melting tat), he mo-capped some stuff for Jet Li’s Rise to Honor and Devil May Cry 3, and so on.

He’s been working on an original movie for the past few months with his stunt crew. Yeah Sure Okay is the title and it looks dooooooope. He’s got two teaser trailers out, the second of which just went live last night or this morning. It looks great, great stunts, great fighting, great comedy.

Mailing list here.

Go check it out!

Big ups, Larry! You’re still King Hater, though.

It’s like a one-two punch, only you don’t feel the two until ten years after the one.

Friday Night Fights, round 03. Where the hits come so fast, you hear the impact ten seconds after you feel the punch.

I took a long break from these babies to do the Wrestlecrap articles, but now I’m back with quite a collection of characters. Some are a bit topical, too.

CROSSBONES

Captain America #360 (1989)

The story of the issue is part of an arc called the Bloodstone Hunt. It involves Captain America and Diamondback taking on Baron Zemo, Batroc, Zaron and Machete over some gem. That part isn’t really important.

Though I will say that Diamondback’s appearance is sort of off-putting here. Her outfit is pink spandex with a series of black diamonds over her front and back. Considering she’s in the water for most of the comic, she hangs around some people in bathing suits, and the way the pink is colored here, it looks like she’s wearing a black thong that doesn’t cover her chest. That’s all well and good, but her costume is torn in places, so now it looks like she has some nasty-ass skin disease.

Anyhow, she and Cap get away with the prize. As they leave, we see that they’re being watched.

Crossbones is so cool.

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Another update on the CHIKARA/comic connection, I’ve discussed twice before. This time, it’s Young Lions Cup V Night 3, taking after New Teen Titans #1.

Top: Super Xtremo, Moscow the Communist Bovine, Hydra
Bottom: Soldier Ant, Amigo Suzuki, Lince Dorado, Player Uno the 8-Bit Luchador

Why, oh why, does Hydra have to be Donna Troy in this? Ten bucks says those chains he’s wielding are really the ultra-light plastic kind they use in kids toys.

I was never big into the Titans, so this doesn’t do all that much for me. It is a nice little homage, though, even if the artist forgot to replace Kid Flash’s speed trail with that building’s windows.

I did go to this show and it is totally worth buying. Not a single bad match on the card. Some matches, like North Star Express vs. Olsen Twins and Jigsaw/Hallowicked/Shane Storm vs. Cannon/Sweeney/Boyer, are great enough individually to make this worth getting. I didn’t get to go to the other two nights, but I have those on the way. Sadly, no comic artwork covers.

Stay tuned, 4L readers. Tonight I should have a new installment up of Deadshot’s Tophat. Good God, it’s been a while.

And every place I go, man, people wanna come to America. They really do. I mean, they start talking about America, make your dick hard for America. You hear ’em talk, man, you say, ‘We got all that shit in America? I gotta get my ass back!’
–Richard Pryor

Captain America is a tricky subject.

He can easily be viewed as a jingoistic symbol of Yankee imperialism. He wears the flag and he’s got blonde hair and blue eyes. He is the Aryan ideal.

That’s not what he’s about, though. Not at all.

Cap represents the American ideal. He is what America claims to be on paper, if not in deed. He is what other people should strive to be.

Captain America was born Steve Rogers. Steve Rogers was a patriot. He saw a war coming and wanted to do his part. The problem is that Steve was 4F– unfit for service. He was too weak to do what he thought was right.

Someone saw potential in Steve and got him into the Super Soldier program. He was injected with the serum, which was destroyed shortly after it took hold. He’s one of a kind. He’s finally fit and able to do right.

Steve Rogers died back when Captain America was born. Steve realized that he was a symbol. He was bigger than Steve Rogers now, and he had to be better. He had to be impeccable. He fought for the government. He was employed by the government. But, he was not the government. He could not represent the government. He represented the ideal. He had to show people what they could become if they embraced the ideal. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

I wasn’t really a Cap fan as a kid. The Avengers, save for Thor and Hawkeye, were pretty much universally lame. They were made up of shrinky people, rich dudes in robot suits, robots dating humans, and other characters I didn’t really care about.

I think that my first real exposure to Cap was in the pages of a What If. What If the Avengers Lost Operation Galactic Storm? It was cover dated 1993. I’d never read the original OGS, and I wasn’t reading the Avengers, so I’m not sure how I ended up with that comic. In it, Earth gets blown up and everybody dies, as befits a proper What If. A cadre of Avengers are left behind on the Kree homeworld, where they are immediately imprisoned. Among their number is Cap.

They’re planning a public execution of Cap. Clint, in his Giant-Man costume, sneaks into his cell and changes places with him. He understands that Cap is important. He knows that he’s one of the greatest. And… Cap gets it done. He frees other Avengers, he gets the job done, and the Kree empire goes down. There were a lot of characters in here that I did not, and do not, recognize, but it was a pretty rocking story. It actually made me believe that Cap was it. He was a big deal.
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