check the signature 🙂

Bonus: Carissa Koo, Mindy Owens, David Hermanos, Ash Aiwase, and Sara Owens. Five of SF’s best, no doubt. This one is courtesy of James Sime.

And now, I’m off to the Isotope for another Cooke signing. Seems like all of SF is coming out, so come on through if’n you like. I’ll be there. Come say hello, tell me you like my blog, and I’ll kiss you on the mouth. Note: lie.

Also, for my BHM fans– don’t worry. I wrote Sunday and Monday’s post ahead of time. They’re already on the schedule, and I think you’ll find them interesting! Or irritating. Whichever.

The image explains it all, huh? And how cool is that?

click for directions

See you there!

art from dc comics’s hitman. words by garth ennis, art by john mccreaI call my brother “son” ’cause he shine like one.
–Method Man

Just a quick one today. I’ve got a ridiculous weekend on tap, so I’m gonna have to let the images do the talking for me this time. Sorry! I wanted to go more in-depth on Natt, as I think he’s kind of an awesome character, but time is working against me.

Basically, Natt the Hat is an old friend of Tommy Monaghan’s. They were in Desert Storm together and formed a bond there that lasted for years. When they reconnected, they went into business together. Tommy would get a call for an assassination, he’d call Natt up, and then they’d go kill somebody.

The thing about Natt is that he’s a no-BS kind of guy. He’s very much straight and to the point. If it needs to be done or needs to be said, Natt says it. He’s big on doing what you’re supposed to do, but also in being honest with yourself.

Natt quit cursing when a loved one asked him not to on her deathbed. He went twenty-odd issues without saying a curse word, or at least Ennis’s censored curses. When the SAS came after him and Tommy, he quit quitting. The quitting was an affectation, something he did because it was nice and he was supposed to. But, he recognizes that when you get down to brass tacks, affectations have to go out of the window. You have to be able to do what you need to do to survive.

The scene above shows Natt’s personality perfectly. He calls Tommy on the idea that there’s an honorable hitman. Whether or not you kill cops doesn’t matter– you still pull triggers for a living. Pretending to be anything else is just window dressing. You have to be honest with yourself, and then work your way up from there.

Natt and Tommy are close enough to be brothers. They know each other very well, which is what prompts this scene. It’s a good one, and a good example of the character work Ennis did during Hitman. Yeah, Natt is from the ghettos of Detroit. Yeah, he’s a black dude who uses slang. Yeah, he uses guns for a living.

But, you know what? He’s fully realized. He isn’t a cardboard cutout. He’s got all 360 degrees that good characters have. He’s just as important to the book as the main character, and that’s a wonderful thing.

What did I do today?

I went and saw a Becky Cloonan panel. It was pretty cool, and she talked a lot about her influences. She was also asked three different times what books she likes to read. I was first, mind you. Way to go, guys– try being on time. She’s a big Gambit fan, and a friend of mine got a sketch from her of him.

After that, I saw Terry Dodson. He gave a really interesting talk on his career and how he got to where he was. He also told how he ended up having his wife be his inker, which was a little neat. Basically, she was an interior design major, but she has impeccable penmanship and line control. She apprenticed for a little while, and the rest is history.

After that, I saw Darwyn Cooke for the second time. He did a stealth signing at the Isotope on Thursday night, which was really cool. It was really laid back, plus I got my Absolute New Frontier signed. He told a bunch of very cool stories, too.

I met Dwayne McDuffie.

Let me repeat that– I met McDuffie. Pardon my fanboy, kids. I thought I saw him, but I wasn’t sure, but Howard Brown of PCS made it a point to introduce us. Do I even have to say how awesome that was?

I bought a couple of trades (Impulse: Reckless Youth and Sam Noir Volume One) and wandered the floor. Did some networking. Solidified a deal that’s the biggest thing I’ve ever done solo (I’ll talk about that next week!). Hung out with Mindy Owens, writer of the Runaways/Ultimates Saga and Spider-Man Fairy Tales, and her twin sister. Saw a bunch of people I know. Chilled at the Writers Old Fashioned table (AA90!) for a little while. Hung out at the Ben Templesmith and Antony Johnston signing at the Isotope.

Tomorrow? I’m getting interviewed (exciting!), watching a podcast panel moderated by a friend and featuring a few friends, and working the Darwyn Cooke signing.

I’ll be around. Holler if you see me!

Yeah, that’s right. I’ve got a free DVD to give away and a contest to get it done. It’s quick and easy, I swear.

1) What’s your favorite scene in the New Frontier comic? Why?
or
2) Who is your favorite DC Comics character? Why?
or
3) Who is the most underrated DC Comics character? Why?

Bam.

Post comments below. Best answer gets a copy of the DVD.

art from marvel comics’s panther’s quest. words by don mcgregor, art by gene colan.I still remember the first comic featuring Black Panther I ever read. It was Marvel Comics Presents 15. It might have been 16. I had both. Amazon tells me that the line-up was “Ann Nocenti (Author), Don McGregor (Author), Bobbie Chase (Author), Fabian Nicieza (Author), Rick Leonardi (Illustrator), Gene Colan (Illustrator), Dwayne Turner (Illustrator), Javier Saltares (Illustrator).”

Not bad for a first look at a book, huh? Nocenti and Nicieza remain favorite writers for me. The rest of the team is just as awesome.

Anyway, the storyline was called “Panther’s Quest.” It was by Don McGregor and Gene Colan. It was probably my first book by those two, as well. Double my pleasure, then. As a kid, I just remember the story being about tube-socked Black Panther being in the desert, dying slowly, and sometimes running into barbed wire and getting cut or meeting up with a big game hunter in the woods and getting shot. It was bloody, disturbing, and I didn’t understand all of it because it was 25 parts long. Back then, I got comics by trading them. Buying new ones was rare. So, I read maybe three or four issues of this storyline, only two of them sequential, and forgot about it until recently.

I looked the story up and re-read it, this time in its entirety and in one sitting. Wow, what a great story that was. It dealt with apartheid, reality, family life, how far a man will go, and how corrupt a man can get. McGregor’s script was awesomely well-written, not to mention exciting. I wish I’d read the complete story as a kid. It’s exactly what I would have needed to actually like the Panther, ’cause the Avengers books never did it for me.

A huge part of my love for this book is Gene Colan’s art. It’s gritty and realistic and really very violent, but in a way that fits the story, rather than titillates. It made a huge impression on me as a kid. I hadn’t seen art like that before. Gritty? Yeah. Violent? Yeah. But it was always done by Image guys, so it was just a cartoon. When Colan draws the Panther writhing in pain, struggling with an enemy, or collapsing, you feel it. It looks like it should, so it looks like it hurts.

This is another of those books that really needs a reprint volume. The new Marvel Classics Premiere Hardcovers would be perfect for it. It’s about 200 pages, I believe, so the page count is bang on target. I think it’s one of Marvel’s forgotten classics, if that makes sense. You can reprint Infinity War until the cows come home, but Panther’s Quest is just languishing. It shouldn’t.

I threw up a pretty hardcore preview of 16 pages at the top of this post. That’s the first two parts of the story. Hopefully it doesn’t run into fair use troubles! I just wanted to show you guys a bit of the storytelling, setup, and art.

C’mon, Marvel! Get us a hardcover of this story.

art from marvel comics’s black panther. art by mike deodato.The problem with Reggie Hudlin is that Christopher Priest ruined Black Panther.

I don’t mean “ruined” in a negative way. Priest had a ridiculously fun run and I’ve enjoyed Hudlin’s run. But, following up Priest on that book is kind of like following up Grant Morrison on Doom Patrol. When you make a book so thoroughly yours, you make it hard on anyone else who steps up to bat.

I think that Reggie Hudlin knew this, so he delivered a Panther that’s different from Priest’s. Where Priest worked the intrigue angle hard, Hudlin is working on a straightforward superheroic action movie. They’re two books that couldn’t be more different, and I kind of like that.

Reggie Hudlin isn’t afraid to try new things, either. Panther marrying Storm, a Luke Cage/Black Panther buddy movie, Skrull Civil Rights leaders, and all kinds of fun things have riddled his run. There are a few subplots going on (remember those?), but the A plots tend to be fun rides where the Panther gets to show off (or be in the wrong!) and things blow up.

I like that a lot. Don’t get me wrong, I love Priest’s Panther, but I think that Hudlin’s Panther is also very fun to read. If Priest hadn’t taken Panther on a different (not better, not worse, different) path, Hudlin’s Panther wouldn’t catch half the flak it does. There’s an expectation for a book starring the Panther now, and it’s one that Hudlin has only flirted with so far.

So, I come not to bury Reggie Hudlin, but to praise him. He’s writing a book that is aimed almost directly at the black comics reader, and I don’t think that that helps the reviews any. It took me a minute, but once Hudlin wrote the issue that began with Luke Cage thinking about what the Panther means to him, I realized exactly what he was doing.

It’s a Marvel Comic book with a black american slant. Call it a black male power fantasy if you like. It’s Hudlin drawing a line in the ground and going “Here we are. We have always been here. We are just as awesome, just as capable, and just as fun as those other guys.”

I think that Hudlin’s Panther is a fun book to have out there. It serves a good purpose, even if that purpose is just “Watch Panther fight people for 22 pages.” I’d like to think that this is a book that has appeal outside of the usual spandex demographic. I’m still buying it, which is kind of a big deal for me since I don’t like floppies much. The latest arc, with the Kirby frogs and the Skrull gangsters and Malcolm X and all was fun. Just loud, bright comics about an awesome dude doing awesome things.

There are two Black Panthers. I love both of them.

I was contacted by M80/Warner Home Video the other day, and they asked me to talk a little bit about the movie New Frontier movie. For this kind of thing, a bit of pimpery is a-okay. It’s a worthy cause. Let’s get it.

You know what New Frontier is. Don’t pretend like you don’t. Darwyn Cooke? Best-selling graphic novel? Absolute New Frontier, one of the best looking Absolute volumes? It is, basically, a story of the DC Universe if it aged in real time. It’s set post-Korean War and it’s a rocking good time. It’s probably one of my favorite DC Universe stories, in fact. It’s self-contained, easy to get into, and beautiful to look at.

Look, here’s three links so you can catch the flavor:
Absolute Cool
John Henry I
John Henry II

See that visual style? Sharp writing? Okay, now check these out.

(yes, i did raid the press site.)

Looking good, right? There’s some video, too.

Cool, right? Here’s the DVD cover.

I hate to come over all hucksterish (though they do call me Honest David), but I’m honestly psyched. I’m gonna get my Absolute New Frontier signed this weekend at the world famous Isotope Comics. Check out this superhot flyer:

The long and short of it: movie drops 02/26, it’s based on one of DC’s hottest comics, and you should probably check it out!

For those of you who want just the facts, check the press release below the jump.
Read the rest of this entry �

art from marvel comics’s black panther and the crew. art by a kubert and jh williams iii, respectively.I don’t do black music, I don’t do white music
–Eminem, “Who Knew”

Who is Christopher Priest?

Some would say that Priest is your favorite writer’s favorite writer.

Others would say that Priest was the first black editor at both Marvel and DC, in that order. He edited Spider-Man, hired Peter David, had an interesting run on Power Man & Iron Fist (which is practically the patron comic of this site, huh?), and was the source of no end of racial tension at ’80s era Marvel through no fault of his own. At DC, he wrote The Ray and served as liason for Milestone Comics. He had stints filling in on JLA, and wrote his own JLA series. He wrote Quantum & Woody at Acclaim and had a few ill-received series at Marvel after that. Excepting Black Panther, of course.

Black Panther is probably the book that most people love Priest for. He managed to successfully weave action with political intrigue, Kirby-esque plots, superheroic cameos, and romance into one cohesive whole. It wasn’t a perfect run, far from it, but Priest was never afraid to try new things over the course of his five year run. Whether it was reconciling the Kirby-era Panther with the new modern one or revealing that Panther originally joined the Avengers to spy on them, Priest was throwing out ideas at a rapid pace and hitting on almost every single one.

He’s been kind of pigeonholed as a “black writer,” but Priest is the kind of writer who could write a killer Batman or Amanda Waller book. He knows plots and he knows how to work continuity. It’s a shame that people wanted him to fit into a little box, because he can do so much.

After the last of his Marvel work dried up, Priest took a break from comics. I say “took a break” because I want him to come back.

art from milestone comics’s static #1Sorry this is late! It’s been a busy day (what’s that? I have two conferences in town this week?) and I’ve been running ragged.

Today? Today we’ve got Dwayne McDuffie.

You might have heard the name before. I mean, he was only instrumental on one of the best comic-book based cartoons ever. You might know it as Justice League Unlimited? Before that, he worked in comics. He did a few series for Marvel. Damage Control, Deathlok, you know. Books like that.

When he moved to DC, though. Wow. He started up Milestone Comics with a group of like-minded individuals and tried to set the comics world on fire. They gave us a fleet of diverse heroes without beating anyone over the head with Issues. Static was a brand new hero in the Peter Parker mold, but with the added benefit of modern day maturity.

Where Lee and Ditko had to kind of hedge their bets with regards to bringing real life issues into their book, McDuffie, Robert Washington, and John Paul Leon didn’t have to worry about that at all. In the first few issues, Static has girl trouble, gets beaten up, gets humiliated, leaves his house with murder on his mind (he chickens out), gains powers, and loses the girl. He has those teenaged problems that we can all relate to, and he reacts about how a teenager would. He isn’t always right, he doesn’t always win, and sometimes he is hilariously in the wrong.

Did Milestone set the comics world on fire? Well, they went out of business after a while, so that’s arguable. However, they did the next best thing. They set more than a few minds on fire. They showed a generation of kids that it could be done.

From Wikipedia:

Milestone provided the opportunity for many emerging talents who had been passed over by larger established companies, beginning the careers of many comic industry professionals. Among them are John Paul Leon, Christopher Sotomayor, Christopher Williams (aka ChrisCross), Shawn Martinborough, Tommy Lee Edwards, Jason Scott Jones (aka J.Scott.J), Prentis Rollins, J.H. Williams III, Humberto Ramos, John Rozum, Eric Battle, Joseph Illidge, Madeleine Blaustein, Jamal Igle, Chris Batista and Harvey Richards.

You know what? That’s a rock solid legacy. You ever meet someone who doesn’t love Milestone Comics?

McDuffie is one of the unsung heroes of comics, as far as I’m concerned. His miniseries from a couple years ago, Beyond, was a great little spotlight on a few forgotten Marvel characters. His run on Fantastic Four was not only years in the making– it showed a remarkable grasp of character work. Characters sounded exactly like they should, and the jokes were actually funny. His recent Damage Control miniseries is off to that same start.

When he came to DC, he was put on JLA. Perfect fit, right? He rocked on the cartoon series and he’s got some comics clout. He did good work at Marvel, maybe he can bring some of that magic to DC?

I’ve been less than enthused with his JLA, to be honest. The writing is solid, but the stories keep tripping into Countdown crossovers and being covered up with pretty shoddy work on the part of Ed Benes and Joe Benitiez. Why grab a great writer and then weigh him down with sandbags? Why not just let him work?

Despite all this, I’m glad that he’s still in comics. He’s a great voice and, I believe, a necessary one. I just want a company to be brave enough to throw him on a name book, give him a hot artist, and let him go wild. I’m willing to lay 2.99 a month on the fact that we’ll get something hot.

Static made #5 on my top black male characters in comics a while back. That’s for a really good reason.

(i snuck this article in under the wire, huh? whoops.)