Kate Beaton will be hanging out at Strange Adventures this Friday, December 11th, from 5 to 7pm.
We're giving away prints of a couple of her strips, so come early!
If you don't know who Kate Beaton is, get educated, fool!
Check out her rad webcomics, then come meet her in person!
On their Source Blog this morning, DC Comics announced a new line of ongoing graphic novels called Earth One that will feature “the most powerful heroes of the DC Universe, with their first years and earliest moments retold in a standalone, original graphic novel format, on a new earth with an all-new continuity”. Now, I like the idea of a series of ongoing graphic novels, provided the price is right—like, maybe no more than $10-12 a book for 100 pages or so. Geoff Johns and Gary Frank are doing Batman: Earth One, which I’m sure will be worth a look—those guys are on a bit of a streak lately—and J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis will be handling Superman: Earth One. I’m not a big fan of either creator, so that doesn’t do much for me. However, it does even less for me considering the fact that this new, updated origin for Superman has been announced while yet another new, updated origin—by Johns and Frank, no less!—hasn't even finished yet! To add insult to injury, that currently-running series, Superman: Secret Origin, is pretty much the only Superman title I have any interest in reading right now. When said story is the umpteenth retelling of a story everyone and their dog knows by heart, what does that tell you about the quality of the line these days?
Here’s the problem, as I see it: the first modern redo of Superman’s origin was released in 1986, as the six-part miniseries The Man of Steel, written and illustrated by John Byrne. Seventeen years later, Mark Waid and Leinil Francis Yu revamped Supie’s early years yet again in the twelve-part Superman: Birthright, and now, only six years after that, Superman’s beginnings are being chronicled once more in Secret Origin. This mini should wrap up in early 2010, and all signs seem to be pointing towards the fact that the Earth One books will ship later that same year (although, I’m going to be realistic here and say 2011 is probably more likely).
So, let’s do the math: The Man of Steel drops in 1986. Seventeen years after, Birthright arrives in 2003. 2009 brings us Secret Origin, a mere six years later. Then, in 2010 (or so), Earth One will endeavour to tell the world pretty much the same goddamned story, only one, maybe two years later! At this rate, I expect yet another revised origin story to be announced before Earth One has even shipped. If these trends continue, DC Comics will be publishing an ongoing monthly series of continuously revamped Superman origin stories before Obama’s first term is up.
This is the kind of thinking that makes me nervous for DC’s future. When they're not busy squeezing more and more money out of an existing, shrinking fanbase (hello, JSA All Stars!), or stretching what might have been a nicely self-contained storyline into a yearlong, multi-title event (I’m looking at you, Blackest Night and New Krypton), they’re resorting to repackaging all-too familiar stories. Maybe if the monthly books were better and more accessible (like, say, the Johns run on Action Comics or Morrison and Quitely’s terrific All-Star Superman), DC wouldn’t need to worry about making a new line that is accessible. After all, how can you possibly beat this for a re-telling of Superman’s origin?
There you have it—four panels, eight words, and we’re off to the races. People want to buy Superman comics when they’re good. They don’t give a damn about continuity or format, and they already know his origin story. Creating a new line like this is almost like admitting defeat, or acknowledging that the regular line of books is hopelessly polluted with confusing continuity and conflicting backstory. It’s a short-term, desperate solution. I wouldn’t have a problem with a line of graphic novels that told new, self-contained stories featuring the DC characters, books that maybe linked together to form larger stories in a shared universe that is occasionally mentioned but never dwelled upon. And who knows? Maybe Earth One will become that. But by promising us a heaping dose of same old-same old right off the bat, it’s off to a shaky start.
"Okay, everybody, calm down! Silence I say! This meeting of the Captain Tootsie Revenge Squad is hereby called to order! There's no old business to attend to, so let's move on to inducting our latest member! I believe that we should begin by introducing ourselves, and as chairman I shall go first!"
"I am the feared Dr Narsty! I love make small children unhappy! I would venture to say that I am Captain Tootsie's arch nemesis, having come closest to defeating him by depriving him of his precious Tootsie Rolls! Oh, if only those rotten, meddling children hadn't been around to pull the cork out by it's string! Curses!"
"I also shouldn't have included a string in the first place! Augh! I'm too angry to go on... Spies! Take over!"
"Guten tag. Ve are Hans and Schmanz, Cherman schpies from ze Vorld Var II."
"Ja, ve ver azzined to make schure zat Amerika vas not hidink zecret veapons in der schmall towns!"
"Zadly, der Kaptain Tootsie schowed opp und kecked our Ärsche!"
"Ja, he schtomped us into schnitzel!"
"Me, I'm Red, Red the Terror. I never even knew I was up against Captain Tootsie 'til it was too late."
"See, I'd just busted out of the clink and I figgered I'd follow the standard pattern: tie up a fat kid and live in his house for a while. Things were going great - I found a fat kid in record time and the house was real nice - pink walls, yellow polka-dot coitains, the woiks."
"Next thing I know... Whammo! I didn't even get a chance to dress up in the kid's mudder's clothes!"
"Monster Man is next! Monster Man tell you all about time me met Captin Tooty."
"Monster Man still not know what happen. See, me have perfect plan:"
"Me spend week and week planning. Push child, open bank! Then me take monies to store for soft fruit and trail mix!"
"Monster Man still wonder how went wrong."
"Favourite theory involve sun spots, weather balloon. Too complex get into right now - Monster Man send you Powerpoint him work up."
"Worst part whole thing always having listen to candy talk all time."
"Serious, it like him have man from Marketing in him ass. Kid not know about balance diet? Him have question authority some day."
"Yes, well put, Monster Man. Just another reason that all children should be locked in a small room filled with bees."
"So now you know our stories and our reasons for hating Captain Tootsie as much as you do. We'll go through things like membership fees and the weekly 50/50 draw to pay for the water cooler later. For now, I'd like to fomally welcome you to the Captain Tootsie Revenge Squad..."
"...KILLER BEAR."
It's true - people have been giving me delicious free food like it was going out of style, and if there's one thing that a full Johnathan does not do, it's get around to writing things. I'd resist, but... pork and clams. Pork and clams!
Before the delightful review section of the evening begins, I have a contest to direct you to: one Patrick Wensink is celebrating the release of his book Sex Dungeon For Sale by having what I consider a bang-up contest. First, it's a colouring contest, which is nice because you have to demonstrate a little skill. Secondly, the prizes:
Tales Designed to Thrizzle – by Michael Kupperman
Fool- By Christopher Moore
AM/PM – By Amelia Gray
Help! A Bear is Eating Me! – By Mykle Hansen
ALL AUTOGRAPHED. Now, I'm sadly not familiar with Amelia Gray or Mykle Hansen, but Michael Kupperman and Christopher Moore are two of my very favourite creators, so I can imagine that I'd like all four of these equally. Head on over to Patrick's web site for more details. You can get a taste of his writing there as well - I had a chance to read Sex Dungeon For Sale this week and had myself a very good time. Check out the story "My Son Thinks He's French", which was tied with "Jesus Toast" for the position of John's Fave Story of the Book. If there's a common theme to the stories in this collection, it's represented in this one: the world is behaving strangely and the characters are taking it at face value. I'd venture to say that it's JOHN APPROVED.
R13 No. 2
They really had me at “human skull-infused robot fights monsters”, but the guys behind R13 aren’t going to just sit back and rake in the Johnathan-dollars on a bare minimum of effort, oh no. This issue features the beginnings of a hint of an origin for my favourite skull-bot, with entirely unexpected ties to Classical Greece, to boot!
Nice touches this issue: R13’s skull moves around and looks at people inside of that crazy dome, which I hadn’t picked up on the first time around, and which is both very humanizing and very creepy. Plus, this issue features Echidna, one of the most underused of mythological menaces. Dare we hope that Typhon might put in an appearance later on?
So: a solid book from a brand-new studio. If you derive any enjoyment from the “big guys punch monsters” school of supernatural comic then you should give this one a go. Plus, mine came with buttons!
Batman Unseen No. 5 (of 5)
Dave made a crack about this being more akin to “Batman Unread”, which is a shame, because it was a) really fun and b) came out, like, weekly and so was this great guaranteed good time with my Wednesday book purchase. And now, finally, we’ve gone beyond Batman fighting an invisible man to Batman being an invisible man.
Invisible Batman was jut about as entertaining as I had reckoned he would be, but what I hadn’t banked on was that this was an iteration of the Dark Knight Detective that really make me think. Specifically, I was thinking about the logistics of fighting homicidal maniacs while naked, because of course that’s the real downside to many forms of invisibility. I have to say that even if I was the GD Batman I wouldn’t come within a kilometer of your average Gotham villain without a very sturdy cup, invisibility or not.
That's right, Rachelle. This issue features naked Batman fighting another naked man. How do you like that?
Batman Confidential No. 38
In contrast, this is a Batman comic that is sucking. Not all the time, but this arc… sheesh. I bought the last issue because Lady Blackhawk was in it and was certainly going to bring some fun and this issue because Blackhawk himself was making an appearance - sore disappointment in either case. Lame lame lousy lame story, bad rendition and characterization of a great character (both of them, though Zinda Blake much more than Blackhawk), rehashing of a plot that was handled better in Birds of Prey…Bleah.
World of New Krypton No. 10 - I’m really enjoying this as an exercise in interstellar diplomacy and an exploration of an alien society, plus the only place to read Superman right now. Who would have guessed that Adam Strange would be the latest character to become ubiquitous?
North 40 No. 6
I just wrote yet another review of an issue of this comic where I basically just shouted “Flying kid vs. Lovecraftian octopoid god-thing! Civil War flashback! Super-powered rednecks!” I think that this is a perfectly valid way to praise a comic that I love, but it has occurred to me that just listing the high points of each issue might not be as effective at conveying just why you should be checking this out as I’d like it to be.
See, Aaron Williams and Fiona Staples invested the first three or four issues of this series establishing just how effed-up and interesting things had gotten for the people of Conover County as a result of the reality-warping accident in issue 1. Personalities, factions, locations and relationships have been established, generating a very effective and highly creepy stage for the plot to play out on. It’s Good vs. Evil on a field of Ignorance, and this issue begins expanding the scope of the story beyond the borders of the county.
Plus: revolver-based sorcery!
Oh, poo. I just found out that this was issue 6 of 6. Hopefully, it's going to be like Chew or B.P.R.D. and just have a lot of miniseries, but the prospect of never reading this again makes me sad.
King City No. 3 - I'm writing this just after the stuff that I wrote about Sex Dungeon for Sale (that's right, this is all done non-sequentially and it still manages to be disorganized) and so my food-based lethargy is still a problem. Keeping it short and easy for my hip-happy fingers, King City is a) well-written, b) delightfully (as opposed to frustratingly) complex and c) very funny from foreground action to background detail, but without sacrificing good meaty story on the altar of the joke. Very very very good times.
Jonah Hex No. 50 - Jonah Hex drawn by Darwyn Cooke. A treat for the senses! Sense. A treat for the eyeballs! If you're going to read one Western comic this year, this should be it. You should read more, though.
Tales From the Beanworld Book 3: Remember Here When You Are There!
Will you look at that: the first new Beanworld stories since the Nineties. Unless maybe that comic last Christmas was new, which i kinda think it was. So the first new Beanworld stories in a year.
This reemergence of Larry Marder and his world is a source of never-ending delight to me. For years all I had of the Beanworld was one skinny little Eclipse collection of the first three or four issues - I barely hoped to get to read the rest of what had been produced, let alone anything new. And yet a couple of nights ago I sat back and read the continuing adventures of Mr Spook and Professor Garbanzo and the Pod'l Pool Cuties, occasionally heaving great sighs of contentment. What a time to be alive!
As Erica takes great delight in pointing out, the Beanworld is extraordinarily strange, but I have to say that that is one of the reasons I love it so. If you've never given it a try, do yourself a favour and flip through the collections the next time you get a chance - if you end up getting into it, you'll thank me.
I don't make a secret of how much I love Zorro. He's exactly like Batman except Spanish and, y'know, first. Zorro is a fictional character so cool that Bruce Wayne, an even cooler fictional character, decided to base his whole life on him.
So I was pretty excited that Disney has released the complete series (two seasons, 78 episodes) of the black and white Zorro television show that ran in the late 1950s. The DVDs are part of Disney's stylish Disney Treasures series. The Zorro DVDs, divided into two sets: season 1 and season 2, come in fancy black metal boxes and include fancy collectors pins and postcards. They also include a long-winded introduction by Leonard Maltin, but fortunately my remote control includes a skip button.
The Zorro series is like the 1950s Superman series starring George Reeves, except it isn't boring and the action scenes are awesome. The opening sequence also features a bit of animation, which is pretty neat given the era. The song is awesome too. I like that it ends by repeating the word 'Zorro' to the point where the word loses all meaning.
If you are unfamilar with the character for some reason (which means you HAVEN'T been reading the fantastic Dynamite comic series written by Matt Wagner and drawn by Francesco Francavilla despite my frequent suggestions to do so), Zorro (Guy Williams, aka Professor John Robinson from Lost in Space) is actually Don Diego de la Vega, a wealthy young man who has just returned home to California after studying abroad in Spain. A large part of his studies involved sword fighting (spoiler alert: this will come in handy later). When he returns he sees that the people of California are being ruled with an iron fist by the evil Captain Monastario. He decides that it would be a good idea to pretend to be a useless fop during the day, and transform himself into the dashing Zorro at night to fight the injustice he sees around him. This works out pretty well.
Both Zorro and Monastario are played by attractive actors, which adds to my enjoyment when they are fighting each other. In the third episode of the first season they get into a big whip fight and just start whipping the shit out of each other. You can see it around 5:45 of this colourized clip:
Because this show holds up really well, is beautifully restored in black and white, and these are probably the only DVD box sets that Batman would own, I highly recommend.
A few weeks back, I mentioned how the Masters of the Universe live-action movie from 1987 was, in essence, the closest we’re ever gonna get to a New Gods movie. This isn’t my theory, by the way—former comics great/current comics crackpot John Byrne said as much in a Next Men letters column some years back, and MOTU director Gary Goddard confirmed Kirby’s influence in a letter printed in a later issue. A recent installment of the excellent Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed even discusses the connections between MOTU supporting character Zodac and New Gods mainstay Metron. I first saw the MOTU movie on cable in the Eighties when it was fairly fresh, and my only familiarity with Kirby’s New Gods characters would have been their inclusion in Kenner’s Super Powers toy line a few years before that. However, watching it again after having familiarized myself with (some less charitable souls might say becoming obsessed with) Kirby’s crazy mythology, the parallels were unavoidable. Let’s have a look at the similarities, shall we?
There’s even a surly cop played by James Tolkan (Principal Strickland from Back To The Future) who embodies the “Terrible” Turpin role. Like Turpin, he doesn’t care for all this cosmic hoo-hah, he just wants to put the bad guys behind bars.
Living Between Wednesdays is a place for people who love comic books and superheroes.
