Archive for the 'linkblogging' Category

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Countdown (to DC’s Next Big Event)

May 4th, 2007 Posted by david brothers

Got the MySpace Countdown preview for you, get it here or just use this list:

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one
two
three
four
five
six
seven
eight
nine
ten

Uh, so, yeah, this isn’t grabbing me like 52 did? Figure I’ll give it a miss.

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7thletter! is in effect

May 2nd, 2007 Posted by Gavok

As you may have noticed, David “hermanos” Brothers is off finding a place to live in San Francisco. As I type this, I wonder if I should go for the more classic Northstar reference or just keep it current with something about Wiccan and Hulkling. It’s too late now.

With hermanos gone and Wanderer on a never-ending quest to find a soundtrack that perfectly syncs up with the movie the Stupids, that leaves me in charge. Sure, I could post a series of crappy Photoshops or talk about some comics you don’t care about, but it isn’t that simple. With hermanos’ absence, I have to fill in the void. It’s like the latest She-Hulk arc, “Planet without a Hulk”, only I wouldn’t deny sleeping with the Juggernaut. Think of all the media appearances you can make with that on your record.

Now, then. Here are some posts I figure hermanos would make if he was here:

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Bits & Pieces

April 26th, 2007 Posted by david brothers

Linkblogging again today! I’m off tomorrow so I can put some work in then.

– I am flying out to San Francisco on Sunday and staying until Wednesday! I’m apartment hunting for my move there in May. It’s fun trying to guess at your take-home pay without knowing how much the gov’t is going to ream you for taxes!

– I finally got the out of print Mr Majestic TPB. I now own each TPB of his two solo series, which is kind of a weird feeling. It took me a while to realize how much of a big Wildstorm fan I am. Anyway, the book collects issues 1-6 and the Wildstorm Spotlight by Alan Moore and Carlos D’Anda. I think that the series went on for eight issues total, but what we’ve got here are six done-in-ones plus a special. From the back cover copy: “Mr. Majestic rearrangest he solar system, repairs a temporal anomaly, gains a son, halts an intergalactic prison break, and meets the Ultravixens.”

Also from the back cover copy: “Remember when superheroes could move planets?”

The first Maj series is kind of a precursor to All-Star Superman in theme, if not in quality. Both stories take these wild silver age tropes and, rather than looking at them ironically (“Ha ha why do you need an invisible plane”) they just take them at face value. Majestic can move planets. Why? Because. It’s a pretty light and warm book from what I remember, and the team of Joe Kelly, Brian Holguin, and Ed McGuinness is the perfect fit for it.

Another choice line: “What the @#$# is wrong with you?! I’m a freakin’ nun!”

Ah, Ladytron.

batmanrobin6cvrsm.jpgI love Jim Lee’s new Batgirl design for All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder. (For color reference, see here.) It’s just all around awesome. The freckles visible under the bat-mask, the bats on the boots, and the big yellow bat-symbol work really, really well. I also love costume designs made up of just two colors for some reason, so that’s icing on the cake. I’m also really, really fond of Frank Miller’s dangly and busy way of drawing earrings. It’s funky and different. Also, is it me or is that a Daemonite head that Batgirl (who I’m assuming is Barb Gordon, if only because of the freckles and hair?) is standing on?

– 52 this week (#51, to be exact) was pretty good and paid off in all the expected ways. Buddy returning was a nice capstone to his story arc, though he now may be the most powerful thing in the DCU. I can’t imagine DC dropping the ball on that, so expect him to show up in Countdown. Also, I totally called the Mr. Mind in Skeets thing, just like 51% of the rest of the internet, but the payoff was so much better than I expected!

– Is anyone else reading and enjoying Garth Ennis and Goran Parlov’s Barracuda as much as I am? It is trashy and ugly and excellent. Barracuda has turned out to be a lot smarter than anyone ever gave him credit for and the series has been quite a ride so far. Be interesting to see where it goes!

– What’s it say about me when the most striking part of the first Outsiders trade is John Workman’s lettering? I love that man’s work. He’s got style and he’s unique.

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DC Comics– ouch.

April 14th, 2007 Posted by david brothers

From Geoff Johns’s forum:

First things first, I haven’t done any of the fill-ins because, beyond JSoA and GREEN LANTERN, I’ve leaped ahead on ACTION COMICS and am already working on the last half of 2007 and into 2008. Kurt and I are totally in sync and have laid out the plans for 2007 and 2008 and it’s always a pleasure to work with him in the same Superman-verse.

Much like WONDER WOMAN, the last chapter of LAST SON will be in ACTION COMICS ANNUAL #11 later this year when Adam’s finished with it. This, quite frankly, allows us to move ahead and get our work on Action Comics coming out monthly with the stories we want to tell.

Donner and I resume our Action run with Eric Powell’s three issue arc “ESCAPE FROM BIZARRO WORLD” which we’re already working on. I’ve seen the first several pages and Eric is doing fantastic work.

I’ve really been enjoying Action Comics, so it’s nice to see that Last Son will finish and we’ll get some Eric Powell books this year.

However, DC has thoroughly botched two launches through late creators: Action Comics and Wonder Woman.

Last Son was supposed to be six issues long. It was supposed to end this month, or maybe last month. We have seen three parts of it. The bad part is that Last Son was good and supposed to be monthly. I’m sure that the trade will be wonderful.

Wonder Woman is going to have five writers over 13 issues. Allan Heinberg, Will Pfeifer, Jodi Picoult, J. Torres, and Gail Simone. Gail is definitely an improvement, but to be quite honest I don’t know that she’s enough of an improvement. Her latest work has left me kind of unimpressed. I mean, a Barney joke in Gen13? What?

Anyway, this is a textbook example of how to screw up a big-time relaunch.

Small wonder that Marvel is beating the pants off DC in numbers. Eight out of the top ten books are Marvel, with only JLA #6 charting for DC at #6.

Something’s gotta change. DC isn’t working and OYL turned out to be a non-starter.

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I Read Comics talks 4l

March 2nd, 2007 Posted by david brothers

Yeah, so I accidentally overslept this morning, which means that I need to be out the door post-haste.

In the meantime, though, I got a lovely email from Lene Taylor of I Read Comics. She found my essay on Patriot via Kalinara and found it worth reading! It touched her enough that she talked about it on her podcast, which you may find here.

Give it a listen, and then go on to listen to her back catalog. Very good stuff!

Thanks again to Lene for featuring the post.

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Joe Questrawman

December 27th, 2006 Posted by david brothers

There is an interesting bit of discussion going on over at Blog@Newsarama over the very same comments Joe Q made that I linked a couple days ago. Click over and read it. The comments thread is more interesting than the Bendis Board reports, because a couple interesting tangents have popped up. I’m reproducing a response of my own here because, 1) just spent a long bloody time typing it up while sitting in bed, 2) I kind of like it, and 3) “Joe Questrawman” is positively inspired at this time of day night and I feel like patting myself on the back for thinking of it in my addled state.

I come in with my is-allnow-comics zen at comment 14. Read the rest of the thread, too, though. It’s got some long posts, but interesting ones. I try to present both sides equally because, even though I may give DC a lot of crap (some of it is even deserved), I still love a lot of their comics, you know? I may not have spent my time in elementary school thinking up awesome Batman stories like I did with Spidey, but a lot of the characters are near and dear to my heart.

(Spider-Man is still better, though :spidey:)

One day, I will write on this blog about things that aren’t superheroes, I promise. I think I’m still in Wally Sage/Flex Mentallo mode, though. Morrison’s good comics are like mental viruses.

Anyway, read. feel free to discuss below or over on Blog@. It’s a conversation I’m quite interested in.
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Linking it up

December 26th, 2006 Posted by david brothers

— Dinosaur Comics is one of the hands-down funniest webcomics out. Here is my favorite strip. It is a comic about the male gaze (yes, that male gaze) as explained by a neon green t-rex. The red-tinted text is the devil speaking. Enjoy!

— I’m a Wonder Woman fan for very specific stories, and Amazons Attack sounds like one of those stories! Plus, Pete Woods and Will Pfiefer are great together. I’m not sure why they’re attacking, or how, since I could’ve sworn that the Amazons disappeared to another dimension or oblivion along with the Greek gods and didn’t exist any more, but okay. I do like that Pfiefer is going to focus on the foot soldiers, though. That sort of thing has always been more interesting to me.

— Amazons Attack is a great title and I’m glad that they’re actually going to use it. It really, really needs an exclamation point, though. 4thletter!. Amazons Attack!. It’s dynamic, exciting, and cool. Very Silver Age.

— Paul Pope is one of my favorite creators. He is definitely among my ever-growing Top Five Favorite (I’m up to 150!). He has a must-read blog. He’s got a lot of Kirby-related shots up. A little bit of FF, a bit of OMAC (a little Erica in my life). Their styles couldn’t be more different, but both bring a large amount of energy into the fray. Their figures pop off the page. Pope’s OMAC story in his issue of SOLO was great, great stuff. I’ll admit that I haven’t read any of THB (much to my chagrin), but I own 100% (brilliant comics) and One Trick Rip-Off in trade, 3/4 of Batman: Year 100 (and I will buy that trade when it hits), and his issue from Spider-Man: Tangled Web. I love his indie and superhero work equally and I eagerly await everything he puts out. Anyway, read the blog. The stuff about the Batman typeface is fascinating.

— This is an odd thought, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Jack Kirby-drawn Batman. I think at the point when Kirby hit DC, Batman was enjoying the new and gritty revamp, so his style might not have fit? I’d kind of like to see his Bats.

— The 4l crew, as far as we know, are all going to be in full effect at New York Comic-con, Feb 23-25. We’ve got the hotel room booked, flights scheduled, and money saved for getting on a jet plane. See you there? Quite possibly!

— Brian Vaughan’s The Escapists, with art from Phil Bond/Steve Rolston/Shawn Alexander turned out really, really well. Excellent book and possibly my pick for miniseries of the year. Christos Gage and Mike Perkins’s Union Jack, from Marvel, was another surprise hit. It was kind of delightful in a superspy action movie kind of way. The end bit with Sabra and Arabian Knight both not being willing to let go of their prejudices, despite a grudging respect between the two, was pretty well-written, too.

— Come to think of it, Gage wrote that pretty awesome Deadshot mini from a couple years back, too. Someone give him more work. Stormwatch is a start, okay?

— Is it possible to read too many comics? I’ve consistently cut boring or bad comics off my to-read list, so my reading habits are pretty healthy, but I think I try to read everything that’s good. Speaking of good, I think we’re due for a new volume of Naoki Urasawa’s Monster any week now…

— There is a game coming out pretty soon called Arthur and The Invisibles. It isn’t the picture to the left, there, in any way shape or form. It’s based on some movie or another, but I’m so disappointed that I don’t even want to see the flick or play the game! I mean, this thing right here is what you call a killer crossover. You get in the toddlers and youngsters and the dope-smoking smelly hippie crazies! I’d see it twice, even! Arthur Read meets Dane McGowan. The world would never be the same.

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Spider-Man Reign Preview/Spider-Thoughts

December 4th, 2006 Posted by david brothers

NEWSARAMA.COM: SPIDER-MAN: REIGN #1

Ten page preview for Spidey: Reign at Newsrama. It drops this Wednesday, so be sure to get your copy!

The Newsaramites (man, those sound like insects, huh?) break out the DKR card early on, as if that’s a bad thing. Also, apparently any talk about broken bones is Frank Millerish? These kids need to get out more!

These ten pages (we’ve seen a total of… 15 out of 48 now?) look and read well. It puts the “My cupboard is bare” bit from the other preview into perspective, and the idea of nursery rhymes teaching children about pain? That’s a completely new angle to me.

To me, Spidey is the greatest hero out in pop culture. I like that he didn’t become a hero because it was the right thing (Superman) or for revenge (Batman). He became a hero because he screwed up and someone got hurt. However, he stayed a hero because he realized it was the right thing to do.

I like that. I’m not exactly in the “Heroes have to be DARK and depressing and RARRRR” camp, but I do think that when you have a great character it isn’t a bad idea to drop them into the gutter every once and a while. The contrast between how the character should be and how he is can sometimes be a powerful one.

Spider-Man: Return of the Goblin is a great example. Gobbo pushes Spidey to the edge. He taunts him about Gwen, he’s ruined Flash Thompson’s life, and then he even goes so far as to threaten the life of his own grandson, just to screw Peter over. Peter’s response? “I’ll kill you.” Spider-Man is one of the last heroes I could see killing someone (save for very specific circumstances), but in this case, I absolutely believed it. This was the dark Spider, and the dissonance between the wise cracks and “I’ll kill you” is deafening. It reminds you that he’s only human, despite his heroic actions, and humans are not perfect. They can be pushed.

Good stuff, I figure. Reign, judging from the previews, looks to be more than up to the task of making me believe in this Spidey.

But, oh man, Peter’s off-hand remark about his wife makes me think that MJ is sick or in a coma or something! Gavok did a pretty good job during his What-If articles of proving that if Reed Richards loses Sue Storm, he goes crazy and the universe ends.

What if Peter loses Mary Jane? The only thing I can think of is that you’ll end up with a very, very broken and angry Spider-Man. Good thing/bad thing? Time will tell.

Anyway, links to Marvel.com’s Spider-Man: Reign section: Issue One, Issue Two, and Issue Three. Doc Ock, the Sinister Six, Spidey back in black? Count me in.

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New Joe Fridays – Week 24

December 2nd, 2006 Posted by david brothers

NEWSARAMA.COM: NEW JOE FRIDAYS – WEEK 24, A WEEKLY Q&A WITH JOE QUESADA

Longtime readers to the blog, all one of you, know that I think very, very highly of Eduardo Risso. 100 Bullets is a true 50/50 collaboration that works out into a beautiful book. Brian Vaughan and Risso were announced to be on a book called “Logan” I think during con season 2005, but nothing was officially shown. This week’s Joe Fridays has pages and they are tops.

Really, Risso is an incredible talent. If his work on Logan is half as good as Batman: Broken City, I’m going to be sold. He does great emotions, great action, and great character bits. He also draws snarls like no other!

Anyway, scroll down past Mike Deodato’s art for Thunderbolts to see Risso’s three preview pages, uncolored. I like his take on Wolveroonie’s hair.

I’m still mixed on T-bolts. I like Ellis, yeah, but Deodato managed to make me stop reading Spider-Man after JRjr left. His art is muddy and his people ugly, and not ugly in that Quitely/Risso/Robertson style that looks good.

Check out the rest of Joe Fridays for this bit in the comics for kids section:

NRAMA: Most impactful storyline?
JQ: How about two, The New Girl in Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #6-#10. The Gwen Thing, in Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #9.

NRAMA: MVT – Most Valuable Title?
JQ: Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane.

NRAMA: MVC – Most Valuable Creator?
JQ: Sean McKeever.

Yeah, buddy. Spider-Man :love: MJ is the best Spidey book out right now, I guarantee. Don’t let anyone tell you different. And is that Firestar on the new cover there? Man! Things are looking up. I’m sad that Takeshi Miyazawa is pulling back to do only covers, but David Hahn is a good replacement. Bite Club was excellent!

Also, holy crap, Marvel Adventures Avengers (the best Avengers book out, btw) vs Ego the Living Planet, who appears to be in love with Earth? Yes! Sold!

Also, c’mon guys, read the below post 4l is for… David (and Cassandra) Cain! I need to know if I’m crazy or if it makes sense. Don’t make me beg.

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Reign of the Spider-Man

November 30th, 2006 Posted by david brothers

Kaare Andrews on Spider-Man: Reign

I’m a pretty big Spidey fan. When I get married, it’s going to be in the black and white Spidey costume. It’s kind of like a tux, right? My wife, for what it’s worth, will be dressed as Harley (“Miiiistah J!”) Quinn.

Anyway.

I like Spidey. I like Kaare Andrews. I like dystopian futures. So, therefore, I will probably like Spider-Man: Reign. The stuff Andrews has said about Spidey ring true with me, and the idea of an old, bitter JJJ finally realizing that “Spider-Man: Threat or Menace?” is not necessarily a bad thing is a great idea.

I’m sorry. So sorry. I’m sorry for all of it, my boy. We have so much to talk about.

I love it. Humbled JJJ, a directionless Spidey, I’m digging it. The cover, with Spidey grasping MJ’s gravestone? Bloody haunting. I hope they don’t do anything to hurt MJ, but if they do, I hope that it is well-written. :doom:

Four issues, 48 pages… this actually sounds kind of similar to Paul Pope’s stellar Batman: Year 100, which I also loved. Giving Spidey the Dark Knight treatment would’ve been an awful idea ten years ago, but I think it’ll work well now, in no small part because of the creator.

Looking good. I absolutely love that splash of the limp Spidey coming down to save JJJ.

(if you guys are nice, i’ll tell you about the time i plotted out a pretty awesome Spider-Man: The End. i also once figured out that spidey is somewhere between 27-29 years old, with annotations from the text, in a feverish hour or so of fanfiction and conjecture)

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