To the internet.

Fuck Yeah Comics Relationships is a tumblr account that I can go to only rarely, because it would never do to build up a tolerance.  But, for when times are tough and continuity makes you want to bang your head against the pointy parts of your desk, it’s a must.

I don’t, as the kids say, ‘ship these people.

Or these people:

Or these people:

(I guess it’s Draw People Standing In Ankle High Water Day.)  But the point is, it’s a tumblr that always brightens up my day.

As I talked about in my article about NYCC ’10, I decided to make use of Artist Alley after three years of passing it by. The question was, what did I want out of it? Asking for a sketch of just a comic character wasn’t enticing enough for me. I needed something just a little extra.

Therefore, I came up with the Venom Plus Prop Challenge, based on fulfilling my own typecast. Each artist would be tasked with drawing Venom along with another object. Any object. What will the prop be? That’s up to the artist his/herself. I had a lot of fun with this and got a good pile of sketches out of it.

Let the showcase begin.

Venom with Lobster Bib
by Todd Nauck

Venom with Handlebar Mustache
by Jacob Chabot

Read the rest of this entry �

Top Cow First Look Volume 1 TP is a five dollar trade with six first issues of upcoming Top Cow series.

If you want some incentive to pick it up, here are some keywords:
-Afua Richardson
-Marc Bernardin
-Adam Freeman
–Genius #1

Pick it up or word is bond Cheryl Lynn is gonna come to your house while you sleep and punch you in the stomach.

Check out this preview, courtesy of Top Cow:

I wrote it up for CA a while back.

So Commissioner Gordon is getting a back-up in Detective Comics.  I think the art, by Francesco Francovilla, looks great.  And I’m excited to see the finished book.

One minor quibble with the picture, I really doubt that Gordon would have anything that reminds him of the Joker on the wall of his bedroom.  We’re talking about the guy who tortured his daughter and killed his wife.

Commissioner Gordon is one of the characters I’ve always wanted to see more of.  The trouble is, I don’t really know what that ‘more’ should consist of.  Jim’s position involves management of a lot of intersecting cases, but at the same time he shouldn’t get involved in any of them.  And it would be hard for his character to do stuff that didn’t involve getting sucked into some past traumatic memory.  I think this would have been cooler if he were still a retiree and went around solving cases like Matlock.

Still, this is something that I think will really set Detective Comics apart from the . . . eleventy hundred (?) other Batman books out there.  (Not that I’m opposed to that.  I’m a Batperson.  If anything there should be more books.)  Any ideas for what kind of stories would work for Jim?

The solicit for this:

Comics superstar David Finch takes full creative control (both writing and illustrating!) on this brand-new Batman monthly series! Joined by the best of the best – Scott Williams – on inks, this new series is sure to be on everyone’s must-read pile! Delving into the more supernatural and esoteric areas of Gotham City, the 6-part storyline explores the horrific murder of one of Bruce Wayne’s childhood friends…and the terrible ramifications the brutal crime has on Batman’s life!

I have only three reactions to this.

1.  How do they keep finding new iterations of ‘Batman,’ ‘Dark,’ and ‘Knight,’ to use for comic book titles?

2.  PleasenoHush.  Please, oh please, no Hush.  Let this childhood friend stay dead.

3.  Great art, though.

An online discussion about Spidey Super Stories led to someone making the joke about how Sesame Street and Marvel share continuity and how he’d like to see the Venom symbiote latch onto the Cookie Monster. We all had a laugh, but a guy named Carl the Shivan decided to go the extra mile. What followed is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

Venom Nom Nom is brought to you by the letter V.

And I love it.

The best thing to emerge from Blackest Night? Read the rest of this entry �

Cinder! No, not this Cinder, I mean the one created (I assume) by Eric Wallace and Fabrizio Fiorentino for their upcoming run on Titans. This excerpt is from Titans: Villains for Hire Special, which introduces the team to the DC Universe and readers by interspersing their motivation stories with shots of Ryan “The Atom” Choi getting murked. Here’s Cinder’s origin, featuring art by Sergio Ariño (I think–the title card is unclear on who did what, but it definitely isn’t Mike Mayhew or Fiorentino). She has the power to… well, if you’ve ever played Killer Instinct, she’s basically Cinder from that, but with boobs and a mad-on for child molesters. Read on:

Possible punchlines:
-Never trust a big butt and a smile.
-If you think she’s bad, her sister Glacius is ten times worse!
-Doctor, I’ve got this burning sensation…
-She’s cute, but I heard she burns through her boyfriends like nobody’s business.

I liked Wallace and Fiorentino’s Ink. Thought it was pretty clever, and a good read overall. But Titans… might have to give that one a miss.

I pretty much had the same reaction as Deathstroke to this scene, too. “…huh.” Volcano Vagina, man. What’re you gonna do?

I almost don’t want The Return of Bruce Wayne to come out.  I almost want them just to release snippets of it forever.  As anyone on this site knows, comics are incredibly frustrating.  There are many more ways to disagree with someone’s take on a book, situation, or character than there are ways to agree.

And yet there are times when being neck-deep in comics trivia, continuity and drama pays off because it gives you the right background you need to fully experience moments of pure joy.

That’s pretty much how I feel whenever bits of The Return of Bruce Wayne are released.  This psychotic little series makes me happy whenever I see it.  I don’t usually care, even a little bit, about variant covers, but look at that one.

I just want to pinch his cheeks and say, “Arrrrr,” like some demented motorcycle revving up.  Having the actual series come up seems like it could just spoil everything.

But before we begin?  Anyone know how Batman got from charred corpse to flying in a metal spaceship?