Green Lantern. (A tad too fanboy “serious” for my taste)
Wednesday comics. Great fun, with some classic rendition of characters. Continuity? Who cares. (And if the story’s good enough, it will be PUT INTO continuity)
I bought a new prose book, called “More Digressions”. It’s kind of obscure, a small press thing from Mad Norwegian, but it had a foreword by Harlan Ellison, so I figured what the heck. The author’s not bad–he had some downright crazy things to say about “Star Wars”, but he’s pretty funny. Got a way with a phrase. I think I might look for some more stuff from him.
I also bought the “Showcase Presents: Bat Lash”, but I haven’t read it yet. I hope they don’t make it a trend, cutting the size of the book in half but not reducing the price a full 50 percent.
That writer of Digressions has the reputation of being a thin-skinned curmudgeon. But I hear he’s good to his family, so he must not be all bad.
Green Lantern, World of New Krypton and one that has just shot completely out of my head – that’s not a good sign …
Anyway, Green Lantern. IIRC Hal Jordan has worn, out of the emotional spectrum, Red, Orange, Green and Blue (He might have had a yellow ring too, but I’m not positive.) What I’m wondering is, are they setting him up as the counter to the Black Lanterns? After all, black is the absence of colors while white is a mixture of them all. Will Hal Jordan end up as the White Lantern? Or am I being just too Power Rangers here?
We hadn’t thought of that, the white Knight, could be…
I’m wondering if they’re setting up Sinestro for a similar fate, especially given Hal’s vision in the last issue . . .
You noticed that too, huh? I think you’re right about that. I can see few other reasons why GL would have had those rings worn in some of the other stories. And YES, during the Sinestro Corps War, Hal did wear a yellow ring.
Good theory, but you’ve got it backwards. Black every color mixed together, while white is the absence of color.
No, he had it right.
No reply button on Fuller’s post, but, from an artistic standpoint, try mixing up the basic colors of paint on a pallet, you’re not going to get anything resembling the color white. I certainly didn’t agree with every art teacher I ever had, but they, and I, all agree, white is the absence of color.
Oops! Just went out and did some research and realized that when dealing with light white is the presence of all light in the spectrum as would be the case when wielding power rings. Artistically speaking, it is the other way around. Context will get you every time!
PAD, slightly on/off topic here: are you headed out to SDCC this year, and if so, do you have your schedule yet?
Didn’t come out this week, but I just finished Sir Apropos ( my shop finally got issue 2) and wanted to say I liked it very much. Will there be a second series?
Thanks
Wednesday Comics 1 was very entertaining. If it were just a little cheaper, I would call it “awesome” and a must-read, but at $4, it’s probably a little pricey for some. Still, if you can afford it, try it. It looks great and generally reads well. Still too soon to say where the strips are likely to go story-wise, but most are very promising.
Red Robin 2, like the first issue, is really better than the somewhat odd premise behind it. But Yost and Bachs handle Tim Drake very well and seem to be setting up a story that will stand on its own and offer a bit of an alternative to all the Batbooks in Gotham.
I’m being THAT GUY, the one who is throwing logic (of a sort) at Wednesday Comics. It’s 16 total pages. Each page is 4 times larger than a regular comic, thus 64 pages for $3.99.
.
And the collection of talent is stunning.
.
But, yes, it can be argued that there isn’t enough content for 4 bucks.
I picked up two collections of material that I had mostly read before. The first is MORE DISGRESSIONS. I’ve read most of the columns elsewhere — either here or in CBG — but it’s fun revisiting them. (BTW, can anyone tell me who’s on the cover, left to right?)
And on the substantially sillier side, I got TWISTED TOYFARE THEATER vol. 10. This one has everything from the Secret Skrull Invasion of Megoville to The XBox 300 (Master Chief and 300 Halo characters battle the god-king Mario). Woot!
Pretty sure that the people on the cover are, from left to right, Sir Apropos of Nothing, Fallen Angel, Violens, and Sachs. (All Peter David characters that he actually owns, and so can authorize Mad Norwegian to use on the cover.)
Oooh, new TTT volume–gotta pick that up and move some more Toyfare clippings to the recycling bin. (Yes, I clip and save Twisted Toyfare Theater, at least until the strips make it to the trades.)
.
The XBox 300 2-parter is quite possibly the best TTT strip ever–old school and new school gaming crammed together into a hilarious 300 parody. I don’t play Halo, but if I did, I would periodically announce that my occupation is to “make bang bang with my gun”.
.
Chuck
X-Men: Forever and the second TPB from the Giffen/DeMatteius/Maguire run on Justice League International.
“X-Men: Forever” has taken me back to the early 90’s with Claremont’s original take on what would have happened if he’d stayed on after X-Men #3. (Or as close to original as possible.) I can handle bi-weekly. $4 a pop…not so much. Ah well…
I’d like to see Marvel hand over PAD a Hulk book in the same style; allow him to publish what he had planned for the title before he left. Get Perez or Keown to come on for an arc or two…
Delighted though I am to finally see another BID collection, I can’t help but wonder if the essays from 1994-2000 will ever see the light of day again.
I thought WEDNESDAY COMICS looked promising, though I want to know who thought we needed to see Adam Strange as if he’d been written by Edgar Rice Burroughs? Though I’m not complaining about Alanna’s outfit.
BLACKEST NIGHT should be called DARKEST NIGHT, but people might think it’s a Batman title. I’m kind of intrigued from the prologue. And, if it will stop the revolving door of death at DC, I’ll be happy. (I know, the door’s also busy at Marvel. I’ll take what I can get./9
As for Dark Reign at Marvel, well — anyone else remember when an appearance by Norman Osborn was a rarity? Or seemed like it? After he unmasked in AMSM #39 (one of the great Silver Age stories IMHO), we had the story in SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #2 (the magazine, not the comic book), the drug storyline in AMSM #96 – 98, and the Death of Gwen Stacy story in AMSM #121-122, where Osborn also apparently died. Then, we didn’t see him for a LONG time! We had some “fake” goblins (Harry Osborn and Ned Leeds), but Norm stayed dead — and I kinda wish he’d stayed that way.
I hope, within the next year or two, someone points out that Osborn REALLY doesn’t belong in the company of Loki, Dr. Doom, etc. He’s a good foe for Spider-Man, not for the Fantastic Four.
But then, that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.
I think that there is a lot of evidence in various Dark Reign stories that Norman will find out the hard way that he is NOT in the same league with Doom, Loki and Namor. In “Dark X-Men” #1, he clearly has no idea of what Namor is up to. Loki has been playing him on several different fronts, and the only reason Doom isn’t actively bringing him down is that he expects Osborn to self-destruct.
All things considered, Osborn should count himself lucky if he ends up getting his ášš kicked by Peter Parker, Steve Rogers, Tony Stark or Nick Fury — they’d let him live! The Cabal members…not so much.
Kim,
I’m right with you about Osborn, and I’m glad to see some of the writers giving that attitude to characters, namely Namor. Sure, Namor is always mean to people, but he’s progressively getting less and less patient with Osborn. I’d be thrilled with the whole Dark Reign thing ending with Namor finally saying that enough is enough and snapping Osborn’s neck. Though I guess that would be to close to being like poor old Max getting offed by Wonder Woman.
The second Green Goblin was actually Harry’s therapist followed by Harry himself. The next person to be called the Green Goblin was a hero and thankfuly short lived.
Ned Leeds was actually never the Hobgoblin. It was revealed in Hobgoblin Lives that Ned had been set up by the real goblin, Roderick Kingsley.
Actually, you have that backwards; Harry witnessed his father’s death, and decided to become the second Green Goblin to avenge him. Peter defeated him, and convinced him to seek mental help; Harry’s therapist turned out to have a criminal streak, though, and became the third Green Goblin (thinking that everyone would assume it was the still-unstable Harry.)
Total agree
Further flipping through back issues proves you right!!! Ha. I blanked out. Thank you for the correction.
I picked up Green Lantern, Batman, Amazing Spider-Man annual, and Red Robin.
Oddly, each of those books I picked up on account of the writers. Pat Oliffe phoned in the annual, which is unfortunate, because when he puts his mind to it he’s one of the most solid illustrators I know of. Mark Bagley’s good, but I keep asking myself why Peter Parker’s in a Batman costume. The artist on Red Robin wasn’t terrible, but he really ought to pick a style and stick with it. Some panels were well-rendered, while others were little more than inked sketches. Jarring, to say the least.
Sorry, I gots nothing bad to say about Mahnke. GL 43 was chilling. The Mahnke shocked US, for a change.
Marc Guggenheim’s writing style seems to remind me of a certain writer, one who has written Spider-Man before, who also gets the humor of Spidey down, one who also knows when to turn on the pathos, the gravitas, one whose name isn’t popping into my head.
Meh, it’s probably JMS.
Geoff Johns is Kurt Busiek in disguise. I don’t know that we’ve ever seen the two of them together at the same time. Johns uses his nigh-encyclopedic knowledge of the DC Universe to good effect, retelling the origin of Black Hand, but with his own creepy tidbits, giving the tale a whole new angle with which to drive his juggernaut of marketing mayhem: Blackest Night. However, looking at all the DC Direct Green Lantern figures standing on my bookshelf, I may be biased. In fact, calling me Geoff Johns’ bìŧçh would not be totally out of line.
Chris Yost’s name is showing up on more and more books lately, and I’ve yet to determine if that’s a good thing. Red Robin has the seed of a good idea, but so far it has yet to sprout into a good story. We get it. Tim’s convinced Bruce is alive and looking for him. Move on. You’re approaching Bendis-like levels of decompression here.
Hmmm. Apparently, I wanted to rant. So sorry.
Not really.
Buy Green Lantern. Buy Blackest Night. Support my master, Lord Johns.
THE UNWRITTEN #3 was a good read. If you want to try an alternative to super-hero books, see if you can find a back issue of #1. Vertigo solicited it to fans for the introductory price of $1.00 Harry Potter fans, literary types, and fans of horror stories would probably enjoy it.
I agree.
Carey and Gross (from Lucifer) are doing a great work. It’s a mystery tale but we have pieces of information in each issues, we’re not kept in the dark for the sake of it.
And, the literature side of the story is very interesting without being boring. I really like this series so far.
So don’t wait for the TPB, not when Vertigo made the effort of a 1$ first issue !
I’m on the fence about the content of GL #43. We need to get more children back into mainstream comics, so I’m usually against the really explicit violence that a lot of mainstream books show (and Johns is a huge offender here). On the other hand, Blackest Night is essentially a zombie story set in outer space, and zombie stories are *supposed* to be ultra gory, so for once the gore is not entirely gratuitous.
DC puts out 7 or 8 titles for children. They don’t sell. Some comics stores don’t even carry them. Tiny Titans is the best of the bunch, and it sells less than 9000 copies a month.
.
Marvel puts out the Marvel Adventures line. BOOM! is putting out a line of Disney/Pixar comics. Other companies are putting out a few comics for kids. And of course Archie puts out comics aimed at the younger crowd, yet I seldom see those at comics shops.
.
The problem is that the adults aren’t buying them for the kids. And that’s not just a current problem. A few years ago, when comics were still $1.50, I saw a guy refuse to buy his kid a Sonic comic book while he was buying a $5 or $6 car magazine for himself. How selfish, and how shortsighted.
I agree with everything you said except that it would be awfully hard for anyone to say Tiny Titans is best when Kunkel’s doing Billy Batson and Shazam.
Hollie —
.
Shazam is good, but doesn’t grab me as Tiny Titans does. My LCS guy loves the Shazam book.
.
And, unfortunately, Kunkel is leaving the book.
Actually, DC’s titles sell great…just not in comics stores. The Johnny DC line is an exception to the general distribution model DC has, in that they’re not solely distributed by Diamond, and hence, Diamond’s numbers aren’t an accurate measure of their sales.
These comics mostly sell in places like Targets, Wal-Marts, grocery stores (there are always Archies at the checkout stands of every grocery store I go to), et cetera, where parents actually take their kids on a regular basis. Which, of course, makes the lack of kids’ comics in comics stores a self-fulfilling prophecy…owners won’t take the time and effort to make their stores kid-friendly, so kids go elsewhere to get their comics fix, so owners feel justified in ignoring kids.
Which will be trouble when those kids grow up and don’t even know comics stores exist, let alone where to find them, but hey, I’m just a fan. 🙂
• 
Green Lantern. (A tad too fanboy “serious” for my taste)
Wednesday comics. Great fun, with some classic rendition of characters. Continuity? Who cares. (And if the story’s good enough, it will be PUT INTO continuity)
I bought a new prose book, called “More Digressions”. It’s kind of obscure, a small press thing from Mad Norwegian, but it had a foreword by Harlan Ellison, so I figured what the heck. The author’s not bad–he had some downright crazy things to say about “Star Wars”, but he’s pretty funny. Got a way with a phrase. I think I might look for some more stuff from him.
I also bought the “Showcase Presents: Bat Lash”, but I haven’t read it yet. I hope they don’t make it a trend, cutting the size of the book in half but not reducing the price a full 50 percent.
That writer of Digressions has the reputation of being a thin-skinned curmudgeon. But I hear he’s good to his family, so he must not be all bad.
Green Lantern, World of New Krypton and one that has just shot completely out of my head – that’s not a good sign …
Anyway, Green Lantern. IIRC Hal Jordan has worn, out of the emotional spectrum, Red, Orange, Green and Blue (He might have had a yellow ring too, but I’m not positive.) What I’m wondering is, are they setting him up as the counter to the Black Lanterns? After all, black is the absence of colors while white is a mixture of them all. Will Hal Jordan end up as the White Lantern? Or am I being just too Power Rangers here?
We hadn’t thought of that, the white Knight, could be…
I’m wondering if they’re setting up Sinestro for a similar fate, especially given Hal’s vision in the last issue . . .
You noticed that too, huh? I think you’re right about that. I can see few other reasons why GL would have had those rings worn in some of the other stories. And YES, during the Sinestro Corps War, Hal did wear a yellow ring.
Good theory, but you’ve got it backwards. Black every color mixed together, while white is the absence of color.
No, he had it right.
No reply button on Fuller’s post, but, from an artistic standpoint, try mixing up the basic colors of paint on a pallet, you’re not going to get anything resembling the color white. I certainly didn’t agree with every art teacher I ever had, but they, and I, all agree, white is the absence of color.
Oops! Just went out and did some research and realized that when dealing with light white is the presence of all light in the spectrum as would be the case when wielding power rings. Artistically speaking, it is the other way around. Context will get you every time!
PAD, slightly on/off topic here: are you headed out to SDCC this year, and if so, do you have your schedule yet?
Didn’t come out this week, but I just finished Sir Apropos ( my shop finally got issue 2) and wanted to say I liked it very much. Will there be a second series?
Thanks
Wednesday Comics 1 was very entertaining. If it were just a little cheaper, I would call it “awesome” and a must-read, but at $4, it’s probably a little pricey for some. Still, if you can afford it, try it. It looks great and generally reads well. Still too soon to say where the strips are likely to go story-wise, but most are very promising.
Red Robin 2, like the first issue, is really better than the somewhat odd premise behind it. But Yost and Bachs handle Tim Drake very well and seem to be setting up a story that will stand on its own and offer a bit of an alternative to all the Batbooks in Gotham.
I’m being THAT GUY, the one who is throwing logic (of a sort) at Wednesday Comics. It’s 16 total pages. Each page is 4 times larger than a regular comic, thus 64 pages for $3.99.
.
And the collection of talent is stunning.
.
But, yes, it can be argued that there isn’t enough content for 4 bucks.
I picked up two collections of material that I had mostly read before. The first is MORE DISGRESSIONS. I’ve read most of the columns elsewhere — either here or in CBG — but it’s fun revisiting them. (BTW, can anyone tell me who’s on the cover, left to right?)
And on the substantially sillier side, I got TWISTED TOYFARE THEATER vol. 10. This one has everything from the Secret Skrull Invasion of Megoville to The XBox 300 (Master Chief and 300 Halo characters battle the god-king Mario). Woot!
Pretty sure that the people on the cover are, from left to right, Sir Apropos of Nothing, Fallen Angel, Violens, and Sachs. (All Peter David characters that he actually owns, and so can authorize Mad Norwegian to use on the cover.)
Oooh, new TTT volume–gotta pick that up and move some more Toyfare clippings to the recycling bin. (Yes, I clip and save Twisted Toyfare Theater, at least until the strips make it to the trades.)
.
The XBox 300 2-parter is quite possibly the best TTT strip ever–old school and new school gaming crammed together into a hilarious 300 parody. I don’t play Halo, but if I did, I would periodically announce that my occupation is to “make bang bang with my gun”.
.
Chuck
X-Men: Forever and the second TPB from the Giffen/DeMatteius/Maguire run on Justice League International.
“X-Men: Forever” has taken me back to the early 90’s with Claremont’s original take on what would have happened if he’d stayed on after X-Men #3. (Or as close to original as possible.) I can handle bi-weekly. $4 a pop…not so much. Ah well…
I’d like to see Marvel hand over PAD a Hulk book in the same style; allow him to publish what he had planned for the title before he left. Get Perez or Keown to come on for an arc or two…
Delighted though I am to finally see another BID collection, I can’t help but wonder if the essays from 1994-2000 will ever see the light of day again.
I thought WEDNESDAY COMICS looked promising, though I want to know who thought we needed to see Adam Strange as if he’d been written by Edgar Rice Burroughs? Though I’m not complaining about Alanna’s outfit.
BLACKEST NIGHT should be called DARKEST NIGHT, but people might think it’s a Batman title. I’m kind of intrigued from the prologue. And, if it will stop the revolving door of death at DC, I’ll be happy. (I know, the door’s also busy at Marvel. I’ll take what I can get./9
As for Dark Reign at Marvel, well — anyone else remember when an appearance by Norman Osborn was a rarity? Or seemed like it? After he unmasked in AMSM #39 (one of the great Silver Age stories IMHO), we had the story in SPECTACULAR SPIDER-MAN #2 (the magazine, not the comic book), the drug storyline in AMSM #96 – 98, and the Death of Gwen Stacy story in AMSM #121-122, where Osborn also apparently died. Then, we didn’t see him for a LONG time! We had some “fake” goblins (Harry Osborn and Ned Leeds), but Norm stayed dead — and I kinda wish he’d stayed that way.
I hope, within the next year or two, someone points out that Osborn REALLY doesn’t belong in the company of Loki, Dr. Doom, etc. He’s a good foe for Spider-Man, not for the Fantastic Four.
But then, that’s just my opinion. I could be wrong.
I think that there is a lot of evidence in various Dark Reign stories that Norman will find out the hard way that he is NOT in the same league with Doom, Loki and Namor. In “Dark X-Men” #1, he clearly has no idea of what Namor is up to. Loki has been playing him on several different fronts, and the only reason Doom isn’t actively bringing him down is that he expects Osborn to self-destruct.
All things considered, Osborn should count himself lucky if he ends up getting his ášš kicked by Peter Parker, Steve Rogers, Tony Stark or Nick Fury — they’d let him live! The Cabal members…not so much.
Kim,
I’m right with you about Osborn, and I’m glad to see some of the writers giving that attitude to characters, namely Namor. Sure, Namor is always mean to people, but he’s progressively getting less and less patient with Osborn. I’d be thrilled with the whole Dark Reign thing ending with Namor finally saying that enough is enough and snapping Osborn’s neck. Though I guess that would be to close to being like poor old Max getting offed by Wonder Woman.
The second Green Goblin was actually Harry’s therapist followed by Harry himself. The next person to be called the Green Goblin was a hero and thankfuly short lived.
Ned Leeds was actually never the Hobgoblin. It was revealed in Hobgoblin Lives that Ned had been set up by the real goblin, Roderick Kingsley.
Actually, you have that backwards; Harry witnessed his father’s death, and decided to become the second Green Goblin to avenge him. Peter defeated him, and convinced him to seek mental help; Harry’s therapist turned out to have a criminal streak, though, and became the third Green Goblin (thinking that everyone would assume it was the still-unstable Harry.)
Total agree
Further flipping through back issues proves you right!!! Ha. I blanked out. Thank you for the correction.
I picked up Green Lantern, Batman, Amazing Spider-Man annual, and Red Robin.
Oddly, each of those books I picked up on account of the writers. Pat Oliffe phoned in the annual, which is unfortunate, because when he puts his mind to it he’s one of the most solid illustrators I know of. Mark Bagley’s good, but I keep asking myself why Peter Parker’s in a Batman costume. The artist on Red Robin wasn’t terrible, but he really ought to pick a style and stick with it. Some panels were well-rendered, while others were little more than inked sketches. Jarring, to say the least.
Sorry, I gots nothing bad to say about Mahnke. GL 43 was chilling. The Mahnke shocked US, for a change.
Marc Guggenheim’s writing style seems to remind me of a certain writer, one who has written Spider-Man before, who also gets the humor of Spidey down, one who also knows when to turn on the pathos, the gravitas, one whose name isn’t popping into my head.
Meh, it’s probably JMS.
Geoff Johns is Kurt Busiek in disguise. I don’t know that we’ve ever seen the two of them together at the same time. Johns uses his nigh-encyclopedic knowledge of the DC Universe to good effect, retelling the origin of Black Hand, but with his own creepy tidbits, giving the tale a whole new angle with which to drive his juggernaut of marketing mayhem: Blackest Night. However, looking at all the DC Direct Green Lantern figures standing on my bookshelf, I may be biased. In fact, calling me Geoff Johns’ bìŧçh would not be totally out of line.
Chris Yost’s name is showing up on more and more books lately, and I’ve yet to determine if that’s a good thing. Red Robin has the seed of a good idea, but so far it has yet to sprout into a good story. We get it. Tim’s convinced Bruce is alive and looking for him. Move on. You’re approaching Bendis-like levels of decompression here.
Hmmm. Apparently, I wanted to rant. So sorry.
Not really.
Buy Green Lantern. Buy Blackest Night. Support my master, Lord Johns.
THE UNWRITTEN #3 was a good read. If you want to try an alternative to super-hero books, see if you can find a back issue of #1. Vertigo solicited it to fans for the introductory price of $1.00 Harry Potter fans, literary types, and fans of horror stories would probably enjoy it.
I agree.
Carey and Gross (from Lucifer) are doing a great work. It’s a mystery tale but we have pieces of information in each issues, we’re not kept in the dark for the sake of it.
And, the literature side of the story is very interesting without being boring. I really like this series so far.
So don’t wait for the TPB, not when Vertigo made the effort of a 1$ first issue !
I’m on the fence about the content of GL #43. We need to get more children back into mainstream comics, so I’m usually against the really explicit violence that a lot of mainstream books show (and Johns is a huge offender here). On the other hand, Blackest Night is essentially a zombie story set in outer space, and zombie stories are *supposed* to be ultra gory, so for once the gore is not entirely gratuitous.
DC puts out 7 or 8 titles for children. They don’t sell. Some comics stores don’t even carry them. Tiny Titans is the best of the bunch, and it sells less than 9000 copies a month.
.
Marvel puts out the Marvel Adventures line. BOOM! is putting out a line of Disney/Pixar comics. Other companies are putting out a few comics for kids. And of course Archie puts out comics aimed at the younger crowd, yet I seldom see those at comics shops.
.
The problem is that the adults aren’t buying them for the kids. And that’s not just a current problem. A few years ago, when comics were still $1.50, I saw a guy refuse to buy his kid a Sonic comic book while he was buying a $5 or $6 car magazine for himself. How selfish, and how shortsighted.
I agree with everything you said except that it would be awfully hard for anyone to say Tiny Titans is best when Kunkel’s doing Billy Batson and Shazam.
Hollie —
.
Shazam is good, but doesn’t grab me as Tiny Titans does. My LCS guy loves the Shazam book.
.
And, unfortunately, Kunkel is leaving the book.
Actually, DC’s titles sell great…just not in comics stores. The Johnny DC line is an exception to the general distribution model DC has, in that they’re not solely distributed by Diamond, and hence, Diamond’s numbers aren’t an accurate measure of their sales.
These comics mostly sell in places like Targets, Wal-Marts, grocery stores (there are always Archies at the checkout stands of every grocery store I go to), et cetera, where parents actually take their kids on a regular basis. Which, of course, makes the lack of kids’ comics in comics stores a self-fulfilling prophecy…owners won’t take the time and effort to make their stores kid-friendly, so kids go elsewhere to get their comics fix, so owners feel justified in ignoring kids.
Which will be trouble when those kids grow up and don’t even know comics stores exist, let alone where to find them, but hey, I’m just a fan. 🙂