As usual, Jog did it better than I was going to:

Almost every ‘superhero’ page in this comic is like that, often crashing across double spreads for maximum exhibitionism. It’s not enough for Batwoman to take on a gang of villains; inset panels must transform into red-tinted lightning bolts raining from the sky. Perversely, it’s not a quick read at all, since these vainglorious layout do everything to grab your attention as soon as you turn the page and force you to linger on their contours, even as, say, a panel of Batwoman getting into costume is shaped as an arrow, guiding you to the next image in a way that draws screaming attention to the obvious act of reading in sequence.

I may have some thoughts later, but I enjoyed Batwoman’s first issue.

Newsarama has DC’s advance solicits for September up, and there’s a couple of interesting bits.

THE WEB #1
Written by Angela Robinson; co-feature written by John Rozum
Art by Roger Robinson & Hilary Barta;co-feature art by Tom Derenick & Bill Sienkiewicz
Cover by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau
Variant sketch cover by JG Jones
Spinning out of August’s “Red Circle” event from superstar writer J. Michael Straczynski comes the new ongoing adventures of the selfish rich-boy hero the Web, and the mysterious-undying Hangman. Writer/director Angela Robinson (D.E.B.S.) and artist Roger Robinson (BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS) spin the tales of The Web, a man who has only recently come to understand the burden of true heroism. He’s fighting crime on his own terms, and for his first mission he’s hunting down the men responsible for killing his brother!

TEEN TITANS #75
Written by Felicia D. Henderson; co-feature written by Sean McKeever
Art by Joe Bennett & Jack Jadson; co-feature art by Yildiray Cinar & Júlio Ferreira
Cover by Joe Bennett & Jack Jadson
Variant cover by Andy Clarke
Come celebrate our gala 75th issue with an all-star cast of Titans past and present! Joining this issue for the extravaganza is new ongoing writer Felicia D. Henderson, a co-executive producer on TV’s hit show Fringe! Don’t miss this start to a fresh new take on DC’s premier teen team!

No, the interesting bit is not the annoyingly vague sell copy. “Our hero has a mission! Our team has a fresh new take, which is unlike the other new takes we’ve had over the past four years! Fringe! Comics!”

Felicia D Henderson and Angela Robinson are both black women. Felicia Henderson, in particular, gets a whole gang of goodwill from me just because she wrote for Fresh Prince, Family Matters, and, to a lesser extent, Moesha.

My question is– is this the first time Marvel or DC have employed two black female writers? Is it the first time they’ve employed one? Comics historians, do your duty.

(The rest of the solicits are snoozles.)

For today only, apparently, the new Mos Def record is only four bucks on AmazonMP3. AmazonMP3 is basically my choice for getting mp3s online. It’s easy, fast, and the prices are great. There’s always a great sale on, usually a 50 Albums for $5 deal, and then there’s one-offs like this.

The album itself, other than being a good deal for 4 bucks, is about 45 minutes of distinctly Mos Def music. It isn’t so much that he’s been moving away from hip-hop so much as interpolating a lot of his own influences and creating a sound that’s kind of like neo soul, kind of like rock, kind of like jazz, but undeniably hip-hop.

I don’t know if Mos has a radio hit on this one. I hesitate to call this a personal album, but it sounds like one he made because he wanted to, rather than to simply get on the charts with a hit single and finance another house or wife. One song is entirely in Spanish, which is an interesting choice and vaguely reminiscent of “Umi Says” from Black On Both Sides, while others feature non-standard beats or cadences. “Auditorium,” featuring Slick Rick, features a long beat drop between Mos and Rick’s verses, as the song essentially fades out and starts over, creating an interesting sound. The guest appearances are kept to a minimum. Talib Kweli shows up for History, Georgia Anne Muldrow sings on Roses, and Slick Rick on the previously mentioned Auditorium.

I don’t know that I have the vocabulary to accurately describe what I like about this album, but I do like it. At four bucks, it’s an easy risk to take. Worst case, you can give the DRM-free mp3s to a friend who might like it more than you.

Check the video for Casa Bey, courtesy of NahRight and MySpace:
Mos Def – "Casa Bey" – The Ecstatic – 6.9.09

While I’m on the NahRight tip, here’s a few more links:
–Mighty Mos Def: The Underground Album, a collection of some of his early-ish work
–Mos Def on the streets of Osaka kicking acapellas
–Mos Def Casa Bey acapella
(CurrentTV is really going in, I’ll have to start paying more attention to their coverage.)

The Black SuperHero Blog has a post up on “Superhero,” a short film about a young boy who finds an amnesiac dressed as a superhero. Here’s the summary from National Film and Video Foundation South Africa:

A white amnesiac finds himself stranded in the middle of an arid landscape dressed as a superhero. He’s assisted and spurred on by a young black boy who wholeheartedly believes that he is a superhero. But as the man’s memory returns he discovers that he’s been anything but a hero.

It’s a short film, and I’m definitely interested in seeing more of it. Hopefully it’ll get an online release or something soon.

This came out a couple weeks ago, and I actually saw it when I saw Terminator Salvation, but here’s a link to the trailer for The Surrogates, an adaptation of the graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele, courtesy of Top Shelf Productions. If you don’t want to click (lazy!), you can press play on the video below. I can’t decide if this trailer or the trailer for the movie that had Mike Tyson singing (what was that called?) was the best part of Terminator: Salvation (ka-zing!).

The Fresh Air Fund has, as its header states, been “serving children since 1877.” They do charity work, essentially, and they have a great drive going on this month. Any gift given between now and June 30th will be matched dollar-for-dollar. So, if you donate ten, the needy get twenty. If you donate one hundred, that’s two hundred in the pot.

Click through and give them a look. Their about page has fact sheets and all for you to go over so that you can see what they’re all about. If you feel led to give, give.

Click through, this is basically the best swine flu joke out there.

-We’ve got a few entries in our Uncharted 2 multiplayer beta code contest. Click over and check it out if you’re interested in getting into the beta!

-If you haven’t listened to the first Fourcast!, click here to go its page or here to subscribe in iTunes. To those of you who’ve listened– thanks!

-Speaking of podcasts, we’re recording the second Fourcast! this Saturday. We’re soliciting ideas and questions for the show. Is there something you want us to talk about? Some question you’re dying to ask? Some obscure trivia you want to test us on or whatever? Want to call me out on the carpet for saying that Hal Jordan has a dumb-looking face? Post it down in the comments and we’ll try to work it into the show.

–Emily Warren, colorist for Marvel and other companies (I know she’s done some work for Zenescope) has a sketch blog. She’s not just a colorist, of course– she has a few pages of sketches and finished pieces up there to check out. Go look.

My problem with most comic book apparel is that it’s ugly. It’s all ugly faces, awkward logos, faux faded, and completely lacking in any real design sense. Graphitti Designs is a tremendous offender in this respect. It looks like kid clothes.

Freshness Mag posted about a neat bit of comics apparel yesterday. From their site:

Italian comic strip creator, Hugo Pratt, swept the world in 1967 with the Corto Maltese comic series, featuring an eponymous adventurer-sailor, Corto Maltese. Tying in with the current exhibition at Musée National De La Marine, Colette replicated two models (court and length) of sailor jackets donned by protagonist, Corto Maltese. These sailor jackets are included in the Fall/ Winter 09 Hugo Pratt Corto Maltese collection which is on preview at Colette from May 25 to May 31.

The wool sailor jackets are exact replicas of the coats that Maltese wore, in a vintage faded black. The forearm is adorned by a navy and gold ribbon pipping and the underside of the collar has Corto Maltese’s name embroidered in cursive. On the inside, a patch featuring Maltese’s profile portrait is sewn to the coat. The nautical inspired winter jacket is tailored and smart, and there are more styles to choose from the collection. Other items include a longer wool sailors coat, a bomber-inspired jacket and a t-shirt. The pieces are now available online at Colette.

A couple of images:

This is the kind of thing I prefer to something that just says “HEY WORLD I READ COMICS LOOK AT ME AIN’T HAL JORDAN AWESOME?” I hate it, but I’d rather see someone wearing a jacket designed like Hal Jordan’s Dad’s Bomber Jacket That He Almost Died In rather than a shirt with Hal Jordan in a circle. A gym shirt that says “PROPERTY OF XAVIER’S” is much better than something with the ’90s-era X-Men logo on it, or any X-Men logo, really.

I don’t know that I’d ever wear this jacket, but it’s nice to see some comic fashion that actually tries to be fashion, instead of a twenty dollar t-shirt with a logo on it.

Colette’s site is here.

Early this week, Matthew Brady linked to a great lecture on Katsuhiro Otomo by Kentaro Takekuma. Click through, give it a read.

I’m a big Otomo fan, in part because Akira was one of the first anime I ever watched. The anime led me to the manga, which led me to the (awesome) colorized Marvel/Epic versions, which in turn led me to the (slightly less awesome) Dark Horse reprints. I’ve got three of the hardbacks Marvel and Dynamite Forces put out in the ’90s, even. I’d love to get the ones I’m missing in hardback form, but finding those seems to be pretty tough.