Click to make big.

Those cheers you heard from Europe and Asia in the night? Those were the people that caught this week's Nitroglycerin before you did, kemosabe. Do you want to see what all the hype is about? Do you want to know why grown men in Uzbekistan weeped tears of pure joy at the mirth contained within? Use one of the convenient links below!

• Below the fold at the BOOM! Studios website.
  
• Supersized over at Birdie's WebComicsNation page.

Speaking of Birdie and I and the fact we like working together, we've got a new project that I've made vague allusions to in the past. Well, it's going to go live Friday with the usual comics marketing mindset: a poorly-written press release that'll be sent to the Newsarama, CBR, and The Poughkeepsie Sentinel. Here's what the logo looks like:


Doesn't that intrigue you? Make sure you come back on the day of launch (again, Friday) to check out the first installment of our new, non-promotional strip that takes a glance at the inner workings of the comics business from the ground level.

From Michael Kupperman's The Scaredy Kids In "Gangway For Murder"

Kiss creates comicbook company
Rock group rolls on shingle
By PHIL GALLO

'Kiss 4K'
After 34 years of a comicbook presence in rock 'n' roll, Kiss has created a comicbook entertainment company.

Platinum Studios and Kiss Catalog, the company run by Kiss leaders Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, have partnered to create the Kiss Comics Group, which will kick off with a book, "Kiss 4K," and eventually venture out into platforms such as mobile, online, film, television and licensed merchandise products.

"Kiss 4K," the story of the transformation of Simmons, Stanley and other Kiss band members from rock stars to world-protecting warrior spirits, will debut as the world's largest comicbook, priced at $50. It will be the first comicbook-based property to simultaneously launch all of its merchandise in the U.S., France, Germany, Italy and Spain.

Eventually, a new Kiss comic involving characters King of All Beasts, Demon, Starchild and Celestial will appear weekly online at Kisscomicsgroup.com. "Kiss 4K" will be unveiled at the Wizard World convention in Los Angeles in March.

The second title is expected to be "Kiss Girls," which features four teenagers who "talk about shopping and are about as dysfunctional as anyone until something happens to them and they get to wear the Kiss makeup and look good doing it," Simmons said.

Simmons and Platinum Studios founder and chairman Scott Rosenberg started discussions about creating the joint venture at the 2005 Comic-Con.

"Kiss Comics Group and Platinum Studios -- they are the same as we are," Simmons told Daily Variety. "This is a company not burdened with corporate considerations. It's all about the one-on-one."

Signatures Network and Dell Furano will be handling worldwide licensing for Kiss Comics Group. Characters from Platinum Studios' library of more than 3,800 will appear in the Kiss books.

Kiss has had a comic presence for nearly 30 years. Band started with Marvel in 1978 and in the '90s issued comics with Stan Lee, Todd McFarlane and Dark Horse.

Platinum Studios has more than a dozen of its projects in various stages of production at several film studios, among them "Cowboys & Aliens," "The Darkness" and "Unique."

From Variety

January 31, 2007.
These are the comics.
Below are my picks or whatever.
Pre-reviews Go!

DC Comics

OCT060288 DOOM PATROL VOL 5 MAGIC BUS TP (MR) $19.99>
NOV060237 SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY VOL 4 TP (RES) $14.99

Any week with two Morrison trade paperbacks is a good week for me! I understand why the Seven Soldiers trade is late, but the delay on th Doom Patrol volume has me curious. I wonder if it had anything to do with the Charles Atlas suit.

(Seriously, at this point, can't they give the Charles Atlas people like $9 for the rights to use his likeness? Throw in a snack pack of Doritos if they get tough.)

OCT060173 SUPERMAN BACK IN ACTION TP $14.99

Hey, I liked Up, Up, And Away an awful lot - is this material fun? It looks fun. There's a big bad Alien in it and stuff. Somebody tell me.

Marvel Comics

NOV062369 DEFENDERS INDEFENSIBLE TP $13.99

A fine, fine little series that even if it's played for comedy, manages to keep all the characters involved more "in character" than they've appeared during the latest major crossover. Yes, it's Dormammu and his sister freaking out again, but there's a real epic feel to this that a regular Marvel title has not had before.

NOV062366 IRON MAN EXTREMIS TP $14.99

Remember how I made the blah blah blah about Iron Man a while back? This is how I'd like the character to be done. Yes, it's Ellis.

Yes, I think he's better than most, most of the time.

Other Companies And Junk

JUN063099 BEASTS HC $28.95

Fantagraphics' Jacob Covey works with dozens of creators to compile "a classic mythological menagerie, comprised only of creatures that were thought at one time to actually exist" and it looks fantastic from what I've seen. I'll have a review up for it in the very near future, I'm pretty sure.

NOV064130 GARFIELD BLOTS OUT THE SUN $10.95

BECAUSE HE IS FAT.

DO YOU GET IT???

Jesus, Jim Davis. Just off yourself or let the strip die already.

OCT063032 VAULT OF MICHAEL ALLRED #4 (OF 4) $6.99

You know, I've bought and enjoyed all of these (egocentric, to be sure) scrapbook-type things for Madman and I really hope they're not included in the forthcoming Gargantua collection.

NOV064014 DOC SAVAGE DOUBLE NOVEL VOL 3 $12.95

You should read these. Yes, you should.

That Infamous Newsarama Image That Has Many People Spaffing Themselves?

Whatever, DC. Just make some more damn comics I want to read. See below for a handy reference on how to handle inter-character conflict. Thanks.



Originally used here.

Click to Embiggenify.

That rubber mask is must be for the sort of guy that wants
to pose as Woozy Winks after a very bad night

Back from Las Vegas, where hands were shaken, bets were placed (I walked away with a tidy profit from roulette, actually,) and maybe, just maybe some deals were made.

Vegas is an odd city, and that's only if it actually qualifies as such. Cities to me have a strange organic flow about them, something that places like London, New York, and San Francisco exemplify. Vegas is, due to its arbitrary mini-environments, anything but organic - it's more of a development with a population of 1.7 million. I'd call it an urban experiment, but it's obvious that whatever scientist is supposed to be watching it has wandered off for a tea break.

Sorry about the lack of updating - wireless was sporadic at best and frankly, I thought spending quality time in Star Trek: The Experience (Klingon Encounter rocks, Borg Invastion 3-D is mostly stupid) and catching up with Svea and her folks was more important than ruining your minds.

Anyhow, I've returned. How are you? You look good! No, really. Have you lost some weight?

Art by, of course, Jamie Hewlett. Image taken
from some issue of Deadline that's reprinted in the
Titan Tank Girl trade paperbacks.

From Spider-Man: Blue, a Jeph-Loeb written project
I like a little bit more than I should.

Swiped from Lark's MySpace page.

As much of a Wednesday tradition as changing our underpants, Birdie and I present to you another exciting installation in the ongoing promotional webcomics saga, Nitroglycerin. It's available in two formats, as usual:

• Supersized in the Archives.
  
• Below the fold (and with an extra in-joke this time!) at the BOOM! Website.

Go, enjoy.

Posting's going to be kind of light for the rest of this week - I've got some work-related things to do in far-off locations and I'm trying to kick a cold to the curb prior to my 6AM departure on Thursday, so I'm spaced on various combinations of vitamins, poultices, pills, and salves.

Speaking of pills - when did they decide that Tylenol Cold "caplets" needed to have some sort of sugary coating on the outside? I nearly gagged on the "Cool Burst Sensation" that flooded my mouth last night. The reason I take my cold medicine in pill form is because I can't use the syrups without puking, mostly because of their horrible taste. The "Citrus Burst" that was attached to my daytime-use drug was equally horrifying - the sort of thing I'd associate with having stuck my head into a machine dedicated to making rancid Skittles. Horrible, horrible, horrible.

Art by Jaime Hernandez, taken from the inessential-yet-fabulous
Private Stash collection from Buenaventura.

Diamond Shipping List

What I'm picking is below.

Please note: I usually drop my regular titles just to make
this shorter. Do any of you care about those?

No?

Good.

Previews Publications

DEC060007 PREVIEWS ADULT VOL XVII #2 PI
DEC060003 PREVIEWS VOL XVII #2 PI
DEC060005 PREVIEWS VOL XVII CONSUMER ORDER FORM #2 PI

Already?!? Jesus, time's flying.

Dark Horse Comics

JUN060044 PENNY ARCADE VOL 3 WARSUN PROPHECIES TP $12.95

This should be just about the point where Gabe's art ticks upward in quality dramatically. Once a man takes away his day job and starts drawing full time, things happen, I guess.

DC COMICS

OCT060228 SHOWCASE PRESENTS BRAVE & BOLD BATMAN TEAMUPS VOL 1 $16.99

Want to get a sneak peek of what you're in for with this volume of Silver Age Cuckookiness, slappy? Check out the first of the "regular" Batman team-up issues on this very site!

Man, I'm really nice to you people.

Other Companies

NOV063511 HOW TO BE A COMIC BOOK ARTIST $4.99

They hired me to do this, but thought asking $5 for a single page that read "Just draw what I fucking tell you to, dammit!" was a bit much.

SEP063175 NINJA TALES #1 $6.99
JUL062993 TAG #3 (OF 3) $3.99

BOOM! Studios did not pay me for this placement.

They pay me to keep the multiple laundering accounts in the Caymans in my name. I do the placement as a bonus.

(I do really like Tag, though, and think that the Tales books allow the market to have a high-quality pop-culture anthology versus a more intellectual/artistic approach.)

DEC063545 WIMBLEDON GREEN GREATEST COMIC BOOK COLLECTOR I/T WORLD HC $19.95

I love Wimbledon Green. I know it's the fluffiest of Seth's works, but there's a sense of joy in it, some heady, bizarre combination of Uncle Scrooge and Jimmy Corrigan that captivates me.

Unlike John Byrne, I love Wikipedia. Not as an information resource of value, really - mosty because it's a handy way to catch up on comics series that I may never have finished. After finding out from Teletraan-1 that Circuit Breaker from the Marvel Comics Transformers series was used as a character in Secret Wars II so the company could claim ownership, I followed a link over to the wiki entry about that series. This in particular made me smirk:

Secret Wars II went far beyond any previous crossover by having minor and major tie-ins with nearly every other title in the Marvel Universe. Some tie-ins consisted of little more than a cameo by the Beyonder. A collector trying to own the "whole" story would need to have purchased nearly 42 comics in less than a year. Though the story could be understood by reading the main mini-series alone, the number of tie-ins was controversial at the time. Also some readers criticized the series for its meandering storyline and its perceived philosophical clumsiness. The series was a big sales success however, and most comics which linked with it saw a modest rise in sales. It paved the way for subsequent large crossovers such as Inferno, and Fall of the Mutants.

Wow, a whopping 42 issues in your massive Marvel crossover. Is it just me, or does that seem really quaint in the wake of the 100+ mark Civil War is hitting? The only crossover I've ever really cared about, Invasion!¹ hit the 30-issue mark, but it featured a strong core that you could read on its own and pick up whatever titles tickled your fancy without feeling like you were missing anything critical. That'd be what I call a marked contrast to Civil War, where the (to be fair, written well enough to be almost justified) revelations for Reed Richards's behavior don't take place in the main title, but over in Fantastic Four. That's clever on Marvel's part. They're basically saying "So, if you were wondering why a main character in this story flipped out and was suddenly building interdimensional prisons and rounding up his pals to put in them, go read this other comic," and people are replying with "Here are my pennies, my good publisher!"

Good for them as a business; shame on them as a group of storytellers.

---

¹Yeah, I like DC 1,000,000 but only for the main story - the non-Morrison stuff leaves me pretty cold, excluding the Young Heroes In Love and Hitman stories.

From Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane #4 | Art by Takeshi Miyazawa
That should clear your palate if you've read the previous entry featuring Jinmen Juushin's The Family Zoo. If you've not, then scroll down at your own risk.

Random Link:
Did you know you can watch ten full episodes of Starcade, the video-game game show of the early 80s, online? Well, you can! Show 62 features two things of note: host Jeff Edwards hating his job more than usual and the Sega Star Trek arcade game, the basis of a few of my favorite childhood memories. There's also the appearance of Astron Belt in show 102 - the video game that cribs footage from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan's Genesis Demonstration sequence as well as a cameo by the Enterprise as it moves into warp.

Yes, I am a nerd.

(The flash player may take a moment to load, but it's so worth it.)

Before you continue, please note that this is a very adult
comic featuring topics and subjects that most readers will be
actively uncomfortable with.


Click to read Jinmen Juushi's The Family Zoo.

By clicking the above link, you agree to not hold me
responsible for what happens to your brain. Also, you'll
have to read right-to-left, as this scanlation is in the
traditional Japanese formatting.

Yes, I'm sorry. No, I won't do it again.

From The Eternals #3

[Warning: this gets pretty nerdy. I mean, like, more than the usual amount.]

So, Tony Stark, then. Before Crank started the other night, I was forced to sit through a series of previews for films of dubious merit. There was a loud, overlong trailer Saw III, of course, which I hope is the last, definitive statement in films that involve 90+ minutes of slow torture of various cast members, along with a preview for Employee Of The Month, a Dane Cook vehicle that seemed to involve 90+ minutes of slow torture of the audience. What caught my eye and happened to stop the fast-forward process was a glimpse of the direct-to-DVD animated feature, The Invincible Iron Man.

I'm not really a purist about these things, but it appears that instead of following a tried and true origin story that's been updated with only the most modest of tweaks, writer Greg Johnson and director Frank Paur have gutted a major theme for the character and instead have Tony Stark creating armor for the purpose of kicking around some spooky Chinese ghosts. That's not right in the slightest, people. This change, pretty much ruins the appeal of Iron Man for me in a very specific way.

Iron Man, as a comic or film or novel or video game or whatever, should be about more than a guy in a fancy suit of armor that beats up other (generally also armor-suited) guys. It should be about one man - Tony Stark - having his eyes opened wide and spending the rest of his life making up for years of unethical business practices. There's more to the character of Tony Stark than being a rich drunk who likes to tinker with gadgets. Some people - Warren Ellis and, shockingly, John Byrne (whose origin story for Iron Man was folded into Ellis's Extremis), to name two - get this. Tony Stark, as a character, should be a driven combination of Bill Gates and George Clooney: a handsome, charismatic, socially-minded technocrat determined to leave the world a better place than he found it.

The most acclaimed stories featuring the character have always featured Tony Stark battling some aspect of himself, be it his creations (Armor Wars) or alcoholism (Demon in a Bottle) and this proves that there's more to the character than simpleminded slugfests, if only for a few issues at a time. There's been a sporadic uptick in quality of late - I think Ellis's Extremis, as a collected work, nicely encapsulates a great deal about the character in a continuity-void sort of way. Joe Casey and Frazier Irving's The Inevitable carried some of the old-school Marvel flavor and a sense of history while managing to show Tony Stark as a more mature, well-rounded man who finds the parade of supervillains in his life inconvenient. I also found the first issue of Adam Warren's Hypervelocity miniseries to be great fun and feel that he's more than up to the task, especially as he's a premiere technofetishist.
It makes sense that, hand in hand with the technocratic/futurist thing, I there should be a liberatarian bent to the character that opens up multiple story possibilities for the character. He's consistently seen that governments misuse technology and probably wouldn't trust them. Of course, this would nullify things like the questionable decision to become Secretary of Defense as well as his entry into the horribly mismanaged Civil War event. In fact, I think it'd be much more interesting to portray a conflicted Iron Man siding with Reed Richards (who actually managed to justify some of his actions in the latest Fantastic Four) out of immediate concern for human life and then raising his voice when things like "Negative Zone Prisons" and "Cybernetic/Clone Thor" got brought up in the conversation.

Somebody (and I can't find who - Paul O'Brien, maybe?) described Iron Man as "Batman with Bluetooth," and I can see some similarity there, even in such a pithy phrasing. That's the sort of workable direction I could see the character going in without the extremes that we've had of late. What do you want out of Iron Man? Some people say the character is beyond saving at this point thanks to the latest Marvel crossover, others hold out hope that it's all about Loki or a Skrull or The Hatemonger or whatever. What could Marvel do to make you want to care about the character (again, or for the first time)?

As part of my whole "Watch A Lot Of Action Movies To Make Sure I'm Not Nicking Anything Substantial While Writing Cover Girl" program, I watched last year's Jason Statham tour-de-force, Crank. It's simultaneously supremely entertaining while being the most misogynistic, sexist, racist, and homophobic movie I've seen in a long time. In my eyes, it was so over-the-top in its stupidity that it may have been the work of cinematic savants. I quite liked the camera work and casual use of special effects. There were some truly inspired moments in those areas: Statham reading subtitles for dialogue being spoken, a building physically bulging because of a fight inside, and especially the first two or three minutes, shot from the central character's point of view while he fumbles through his apartment.

Because of the plot's nature, there's no time to waste - there's a well-done information dump that allows the viewer to be almost completely up to speed and by the ten minute mark, truly ludicrous things begin to happen. I love this technique when it's properly applied and this movie applied it so very properly, indeed. The only moments I really balked at are the infamous Chinatown A-Bit-Too-Close-To-Rape Sex Scene and a bit of hand trauma that probably has more to do with my taste in violence than anything else.

Still, better than anything I've seen from Michael Bay, and at around 90 minutes, an object lesson to filmmakers of that ilk - sometimes, less truly is more. Also, he's a bit of beefcake, that Statham. While I'm firmly in the "I Like Girls, Thanks" camp, I can see exactly why people go a bit squishy for him.

---

Nice job ruining the big reveal of the latest issue of 52 right on the cover, DC. Sure, by the fifth page, it'd all come out, but it was still more than a bit annoying. I'm the tiniest bit peeved my Jack Knight Starman theory was wrong, but at least the fact that at least one member of a certain, preferred-by-me incarnation of the Justice League lives on can keep me from writing angry rants to Dan Didio.

Also, Animal Man. Huh.

Even also-er, the big reveal for the series that was "hidden" in this week's DC Nation column? Wasn't bringing that thing sort of the point of Infinite Crisis and The Kingdom? Or did I just read too much into those events?

[EDIT: That's spoiled in the comments for this post, if you care.]

---

I read this week's Fantastic Four and actually really enjoyed it, even if the discussion of Isaac Asimov made me wander off for a bit. I've never taken to that man's writing, despite the fact he's among the top three or four influencers in my preferred genre. Much like the (also very iconic) Heinlein, the second people bring him up and start using a certain tone, I glance around for a handy exit. Of course, I have the feeling I'd be doing that a lot around the "real" Reed Richards.

Anyway, nice bit of damage control by McDuffie in this issue, managing to humanize Mister Fantastic quite a lot after the havoc wreaked on the character by Millar. It felt like a fill-in, but a decent enough one that (hopefully) means good things are coming.

From The Spirit #2, written and drawn
by Darwyn Cooke

Bonus Link
Chris Sims provides a look at the reasoning behind this decision.

Click to read The Gospel Blimp, one of
the many Spire Christian Comics drawn by
Patsy Walker and Archie artist
Al Hartley.

Previous Complete Stories:
Jimmy Olsen becomes "The Human Octopus" | Alex Toth draws "The Alien Within Me" | Batman fights Eclipso in The Brave And The Bold #64 | Batman and the JLI go overseas in "Bialya, My Bialya!" | Wonder Woman becomes a gorilla in..."Wonder Woman -- Gorilla!" | Jack Kirby provides art as The Challengers of the Unknown triumph over "The Man Who Stole The Future!" | Lois Lane has to deal with "The Monster Who Loved Lois Lane!" | Jack Kirby also arts up "I Found The City Under The Sea!" and "The Lunar Goliaths!" and the Fighting American story, "Operation Wolf!" | Space Cabby gets a new ride in "The Luxury Limousine Of Space!" | "Little" Joe Little is "The Three-Foot Sleuth!"

• If you're anything like me, you've been wondering to yourself "When, oh when, will someone draw Batman, Savage Dragon, Wolverine, Hellboy, and Mega Man in the same piece of art?"
  
  That's why I'm happy to show you this.
  
  
• I got used for a pullquote for Jeff Lemire's new book, which I will not stop selling you people. It's in the current Previews - order it!
  
  
• This dude really loves Michael Bay. A lot.
  
  
• Creepy, Fetishistic Marvel Solicitation Of The Year, And It's Only January:

  ULTRON IS BACK and, yes, now he's a she. What?? Ultron's a girl?? It's Ultron as only Frank Cho can bring it. And the Mighty Avengers haven't had a moment to get to know each other before they are thrown into one of the most epic adventures in the history of the Avengers.

  If you were really wondering what a booty-tastic version of Ultron would look like, please make sure you send me your IP address so I can block you from ever, ever viewing my website again.
  
  
• The Life of an EB Games Clerk is never easy. You have to click on the thing to read the strip for some reason.
  
  
• BOOM! writer Michael Alan Nelson gets to talk up Fall of Cthulhu with Wizard. He's one smart cookie.
  
  
• Four pages of a current Fantastic Four book that didn't make me want to cry out in pain? Check them out here. The solicit copy says JMS is writing, the credits on the first page say McDuffie, so I think I see why I enjoyed the bit of banter. (I do hope page 5 features, say, a jumpgate to the Negative Zone or something, though...)
  
  
• One of my oldest internet friends, Lucy, has been blogging for a little while over at Yellowpop, but I'm just now getting around to linking to her. She's funny, snobby, and covers Asian pop culture, cooking, and making her husband grow a handlebar mustache with equal aplomb.
  
  
• Respect to Waid and Perez for their continuity skills. See below.
  From the upcoming Brave And The Bold #3
  For reference: Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3
  (Thanks to The Comics Nexus for pointing that one out.)

Owing to various technical difficulties, this week's Nitroglycerin is only available on the BOOM! Studios site, in its usual spot just below the fold. Don't ask why, just read it there.

DC's got a few really nicely put-together covers for April:

They're also offering this completely amazing book that I'd consider near-essential for the discerning Batman fan.

THE ORIGINAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF COMIC BOOK HEROES VOLUME 1: BATMAN TP

Written by Michael Fleischer
Art by various

Everything you ever wanted to know about DC's Dark Knight - and so much more - can be found in this amazing volume, brought back into print for the first time in 30 years!
Originally published in 1976, this extensive volume - the first in a series - includes everything you could want to know about Batman, his allies and enemies, weapons in his war on crime and his adventures from the 1930s to the 1970s!
Advance-solicited; on sale May 23; 416 pg, B&W, $19.99 US

I've got the original 1976 edition of this, along with the Superman and Wonder Woman volumes and they're great fun. Fleischer takes a slightly too-serious tone with the characters that makes the first appearance of, say, Egg-Fu into a thing of comedy gold. I presume they'll do the other two books if this sells well enough, so get crackin' on the preordering, bucky. (The Superman one was, oddly enough, called The Great Superman Book, but they all follow the same format.)

Despite the federal holiday,
there's no delay in what Diamond is shipping
this week, so be there on Wednesday.

Here's what jumps out on this week's
list, at least to my myopic view of the
medium. (And it is a medium,
Betsy, not a freakin genre.

Yeesh.)

DC Comics

OCT060164 BATMAN YEAR ONE HUNDRED TP $19.99

This visceral, beautiful Elseworlds is the most fun I've seen anyone have with the character in the past few years besides Morrison. Yes, it takes place in that dark future that we've seen about a million times now, but there's a spark and wit to Pope's Batman that makes it into a truly interesting setting.

NOV060234 SPIRIT #2 $2.99

Let's see if this book has a sophomore slump. I doubt that it will, but one never knows.

OCT060174 SUPERMAN EMPEROR JOKER TP $14.99

OK, who was asking for this? Is it the same person that really wanted to read an Our Worlds At War omnibus? (God, that story had entire chapters that made no sense, even when collected in one place with plenty of contextual moments. Also, it failed to have the Harley Quinn special, which is an appalling error because it featured she and Jimmy Olsen on the run from bad guys. That was more than a bit decent and quite funny, I thought.)

Yes, that's very good value-for-page-count, but still...it'd help if it were any good.


Image Comics

NOV061861 SILENCERS TP $14.99

Van Lente! You've loved Action Philosphers and never caught up with his other material, but now's your chance!

No, it's not the series written by Fred Van Lente, but the Image site sure didn't help me find it out. That's a poorly-designed wreck that ain't helping them at all.

That Van Lente book is good, mind.

Marvel Comics

OCT062210 MARVEL VISIONARIES JOHN BUSCEMA HC $34.99

Like the man's work? This is nigh-essential: The Incredible Hulk, the devastating Dragon Man, the epic end of the gods themselves... none of it was too much for Big John! One of comicdom's most acclaimed creators takes center stage in this genre-spanning gathering of greats! Nick Fury vs. Hydra! Thor vs. the Silver Surfer! The origins of Wolverine and Dracula! The twilight of the Masters of Evil! Includes crime, horror, romance and western work from the pre-Marvel era! Plus: rare Silver Surfer stories unseen for decades! Collects Crime Fighters #4; Western Outlaws & Sheriffs #60; Strange Tales #22 & #150; Tales To Astonish #85-87; Avengers #41-42, #75-76, #277 & Annual #2; Silver Surfer #4; My Love #2; Fantastic Four #111-112; Thor #200; Dracula Lives #3; Marvel Spotlight #30; Epic Illustrated #1; Wolverine #10 and Marvel Shadows & Light #3

That's a lot of comics (over 360 pages) for cheap-ish. Amazon has it for a substantial discount if you felt like saving a few more shekels - $23 and change.


Other Companies

SEP063256 GI JOE SNAKE-EYES DECLASSIFIED HC $29.99

Sure, you could get a ton of vintage John Buscema-drawn comics, but why, when you can read GI Joe adventures in hardcover?

Sheesh. I like GI Joe as much as the rest of the 28-35 demographic, but this is an example of the "prestige" hardcover format being used. It's like having a Hershey's kiss wrapped in gold foil with a silk ribbon extending from the top.

FEB063205 LOVE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE #6 (MR) $5.95

This is a bit late, innit? Still, of the current Oni romance comics that are coming out, this is certainly a superior choice.

NOV063394 SIMPSONS COMICS #126 $2.99

This is your thrice-yearly reminder that the Simpsons comics are, in general, better than the series has been of late.

NOV063713 SQUARECAT COMICS VOL 1 GN (O/A) (MR) $9.95

I got Volume 2 last week and it's the perfect "read a few strips before turning out the light" comic. I don't want to read these en masse, but I think that Jennifer Omand does a decent enough job in the short autobiocomic format, much like Julia Wertz's Fart Party. As is probably expected, you can read the strip online at the Squarecat Comics website.

OCT063736 VILLAINS VOL 1 THICK AS THIEVES TP $12.95

I've mentioned this series just once before, where I described it thusly: ...a very well-done thing that takes place in the same sort of world as Powers without having uselessly elliptical dialogue and it manages to make a point pretty consistently. In other words, it's not selling anywhere near as much and the target audience is probably going to miss it entirely.

Now you don't have an excuse. A fine, fine comic. Make sure you order it if your shop doesn't have it.

Now to pay tribute to my corporate masters...

BOOM! Studios

OCT063250 CTHULHU TALES 2ND PTG #1 $6.99

Reprinted for good reason - before I even had anything to do with the company, I gave this high marks. I love the Tales format and wish more stores would get behind this sort of effort.

NOV063404 WHAT WERE THEY THINKING MONSTER MASH UP ONE SHOT (O/A) $3.99

If your shop didn't order this remix comic featuring some work from me the first time around, now they can get it and you can take me with you to the bathroom! Isn't that the point? Anyway, I did four stories in the darned thing, but both Joe Casey and Johanna Stokes bested me, the latter in particular - I still grin when recalling a few of the lines from her story "Hats Off."

NOV063403 WHAT WERE THEY THINKING SOME PEOPLE NEVER LEARN ONE SHOT (O/ $3.99

This WWTT book features a delirious John Rogers-written story that can't be described. Hilarity in a handbasket, with a nice red on the side.

SEP063170 STARDUST KID #5 (OF 5) $3.50

This title started at Image, and moved over to BOOM! for the last two issues. Now that it's wrapped up, I think that they'd have to put together a decent trade for it, especially with Abadazad being a bit of a hit in the bookstore market.

I think next week sees the new What Were They Thinking?!? book, with my first "complete" comics story being contained in the Cthulhu Tales: The Rising one-shot coming on on January 31st. So there you go.

From the 2003 San Diego Comic-Con


Morrison explains magic in 50 words or less in
this out-of-sync video, also from SDCC 2003.

From Fantastic Four #263
I rather suspect that John Byrne is poking some fun at comic creator Neal Adams's rather...colorful theories about the expanding earth and a "new model" of the universe.

Outside of seeing the man not wash his hands after using the restroom at last year's Comic-Con, this theory is how I define the man's past decade. That's a bit unfair, isn't it?

Related Links
Wired magazine talks to Adams about his theory in 2001 | Adams expounds on his theories on the Skeptics Guide podcast | Paleoblog talks about Adams | Wikipedia entry on the Expanding Earth

---

¹Bully, being a stuffed bull and therefore having much more in the brain department than me, points out that "Alden Maas" is an anagram for "Neal Adams."

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(This one's a bit better.)

With pages as glorious as this, I wonder why. What a great comic, even if it's completely non-continuity¹. Bullseye is killed by The Hand so he can come back as a super zombie assassin and murder a recently-revived Elektra? Sold! Miller and Varley pulled out all the stops with this and part of me wants to say I prefer this over anything else they've done together shy of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns, which had Klaus Janson's nigh-perfect inking holding down the fort.

---

¹I go with the "fever dream" theory that's been presented by some people in the past, but that's probably just so I can comfortably have it in the little Marvel Universe in my head.

1. I think that for a debut work, Jonathan Hickman's The Nightly News is a stunning-looking comic. There's a real sense of design and control in that book and it jumps off the shelf. I'm glad to see another talent who's got a radically different style making an impression in the North American comics market. However, it seems a real shame that neither the editorial team or Hickman apparently read Brian Wood's Channel Zero prior to putting the thing together.
   
   
2. Boy, Agents of Atlas had one of those smart, surprising endings that I just love to see pop up in a mainline Marvel book. I was reminded of Iain Banks, actually, because it was a reveal that felt perfectly in place while deviating from my expectations. Kudos to Parker and Kirk on this one.
   
   
3. While I'm talking about Jeff Parker, I'd like to say he's the only writer I'd want to see replace McKeever as writer on Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. I think he and David Hahn would make a nice team and maybe (since he's got so much copious time) Parker could draw the occasional issue, too. Yes, that is what I want. Somebody make that happen.
   
   
4. 52 fatigue has finally hit. Everybody else is saying "Yes, they're finally ramping up towards that ending!" I'm thinking "Christ, just let it end!" I knew what I was getting into with a 52-issue weekly series, but outside of the occasional bit (such as Luthor gloating on New Year's Eve), it's gotten tiresome. The fact that Animal Man's death didn't even make me pause is probably worth consideration. Seeing a character whose title under Morrison was one of the things that truly energized my brain when it came to the possibilities of a superhero book die should gut me - it didn't. Honestly, I've probably had a more emotional response to correcting a typo, and that's sort of depressing.
   
   Or, you know, as depressing as a non-reaction to a corporate-owned superhero character's death can be...
   
   
5. Yes, there's a lot of in-print or easily-available comics material on the site¹, but the real gems on X-Y-Z Cosmonaut's CosmoBlog are the odd bits from the nooks and crannies of Marvel and DC. The site recently spent some time celebrating black superheroes, so you can get all the Jungle Adventure stories featuring Black Panther² and some Brother Voodoo action before checking in with The Falcon and Black Goliath. Heck, one new-ish entry gives you all the opportunity to read DC's Atari Force, one of my personal favorites.
   
   I don't particularly like reading comics on the computer - I prefer to have the tactile experience for a number of reasons - but for catching up and archival purposes, these are excellent. Note that the site uses Rapidshare, a service I have previously described as "odious" and will this time add "needlessly complex."
   
   
6. Personal-ish note: I've gotten a chance to check out layouts and pages from Cover Girl #1 and Walter Pax makes my script sing. I'll be shocked if there's not some major imprint interest in him after this. We're chugging along on (if not ahead of) schedule so far and #2's script should be finalized this weekend. One of the things that's made this work for me is getting feedback from Andrew Cosby, who really nails what makes something pop a bit more; two minor changes he suggested in issue #1 made me go from "pretty happy" with the thing to "immensely proud."
   
   I'm sure that feeling will go away with the first review, but I've enjoyed the buzz in my head.

---

¹So, please, for God's sake, don't download them or at least consider purchasing the hard copies once you've read a few issues of something and liked it.

²Seriously, where's my Essential Black Panther?

(Good stuff starts at about the three minute mark.)From the YouTube page:

The Jet Man, Yves Rossy, a former Swiss military pilot, designed and built a deployable 3-meter wing, holding kerosene fuel for 2 jet engines fixed to the tips and attached it to his back. Rossy launched from an airplane and flew for 4 minutes, traveling over 100 mph, landing by parachute.

You can find out a bit more over at Rossy's website.

(Also: the first person to point out that Iron Man goes a lot faster than 100mph is going to be reminded that he's currently portrayed as a boot-licking government toadie willing to sell out his friends. And that he's completely not real at all.)

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(Yes, it's ugly, but I did it in like a half-hour. Maybe I'll do more.)

This has been a message from Doctor Victor Von Doom.

We now continue with our regularly scheduled programming.

(See also.)

Two bits of genius from "space coyote," who certainly likes to hide all possible details about him/herself:

The Simpsonzu | Futurama: Super Happy Fun Show

I would watch either of these in a heartbeat. You should also check out their ongoing comic Saturnalia, which is just plain awesome.

(Thank you, Ren.)

From an column entitled "Comic strips should mirror everyday life":

I guess my problem is that I want comics to be more believable. If this were real life, Beetle Bailey wouldn't always have a hat over his eyes. And Dagwood Bumstead wouldn't dash out of the house and run into the mailman. After smacking into Mr. Beasley at the front door hundreds of times over the years, wouldn't you think Dagwood would wise up?

Play "Burning Spear" by S.O.U.L.

Wednesday means New Comics Day means New Promotional Comic Strip For BOOM! Studios Day, so make sure you visit the BOOM! Studios page (and look below the fold) or Benjamin Birdie's WebComicsNation page (to view it super-sized) and check out what happens when I mock two of the nicest people I've met that work in the televisual and cinematic media.

Coming in late (and I think it should serve as a handy reminder that the next volume will be on the shelves in the next few weeks) is this review of several BOOM! titles, including What Were They Thinking: Monster Mash-Up. Here's the friendly-to-my-ego bit:

What Were They Thinking: Monster Mash-Up #1 is another of those comics where they take old comic stories and re-mix them with new dialog. It's pretty much the standard stuff you'd expect, and would be completely forgettable if not for blogger Kevin Church's "Hairy Grrls," in which a frustrated narrator to the story is the real star, with laugh-out-loud bits in nearly every panel. Worth the $4 for those seven pages alone.

OK, so, it's been a while since I've done one of these and as both Marvel and DC dominate this industry and have enough ad revenue at any given moment to choke a particularly large donkey, I'm sticking with the smaller companies, which will include Image and Dark Horse just because they're there. Are you ready? Do you have your copy of this month's Previews at hand and a pen to demark suggestions I have that you feel contain an extra bit of merit?

Then let's begin.

Dark Horse

New BPRD series, page 25. This is the one I'm moving to trades on, but I can still state that the series is well worth some consideration for the Hellboy fan who's a bit lost between series.

There's a new Aliens novel on page 28, written by Diane Carey, whose Star Trek books I devoured in my wayward youth. This one, titled Cauldron involves - get this - a spaceship adrift with those pesky Xenomorphs on board! And, in a shocking twist, things go horribly awry and those little buggers lay waste to everything they see. Seriously, would it kill anyone to write an Aliens story set at, I dunno, Laguna Beach? I would probably pay cash to read such a thing.

Following up on that is a $15 hardcover collecting the first three issues of Matt Wagner's Grendel (page 29.) Ye gods - I understand how the work's loved by all and deservedly praised, but how about we get a logically-numbered reprint series that lets those of us who only have a few Comico issues here and there get the series in softcover?

Page 39 features Space Pinchy. I do not know what Space Pinchy is, nor do I want to.

Image

After The Cape, on page 140, smacks of that old-school Bendis-when-he-drew-too vibe and there's not a bit wrong with that. I'm going to wait for this to get a collection (and find out if it's any good,) but it's got pretty, high-contrast art and the previews I've seen indicate that the dialogue is good. I just worry about, y'know, the story.

For those of you who were waiting to pick up the two series I flogged the hardest in 2006, Phonogram and Casanova, there are trade paperbacks solicited on pages 149 and 148, respectively.

ADV
Page 213 has an ad for Gunslinger Girl, about preteen female robots trained as assassins in the depths of Italy's ancient ruins. Despite the sheer overwhelming weight of similarity this has to many other comics, there's something about this that appeals to me - is this manga any good? I've seen a trailer for the manga and that seemed to be up my alley, but I like to start with the source material first whenever possible.

(This attitude is what keeps me from seeing Mail on DVD until I've got at least two or three volumes under my belt.)

Amaze Ink and Slave Labor
Two early series by Gene Yang, whose American Born Chinese was given a justified nod for the National Book Award, are featured in trade paperback format on page 217. While I'm not the biggest fan of either Gordon Yamamoto And The King Of The Geeks or Loyola Chin And The San Peligran Order, it's really interesting to see the quantitative leap in craft the author took.

BOOM! Studios
There's two new series on page 236, both of which I'd most likely pay for if they weren't sent to me anyway as appeasement. Hunter's Moon is written by James L. White, who scripted the biopic Ray and sounds like the sort of thriller I appreciate - a man dealing with a terrible conundrum in a hostile community. There's also Left On Mission by Chip Mosher and Francisco Francavilla, a spy story about a man forced back into service with a mission featuring a target he'd much rather miss.

Dynamite Entertainment
You know, they revive Savage Tales, launch a new zombie book called Raise the Dead, and I still don't have my fucking American Flagg reprint collection that was solicited in 2004.

Just putting that out there.

[EDIT: I want to apologize for that. I was confusing Dynamite Entertainment with Dynamic Forces and though they share many things, editorial and having to work with another company on handling the American Flagg reprints is not one of them.]

Drawn & Quarterly
John Pocellino's understated, possibly brilliant comic folk art gets a large collection with King Cat Classics, featured on page 272. Yes, it's $30, but it's also a hardcover 384-page tome that covers the span of his career so far. Possibly the book of the month.

Fantagraphics
Page 276, Gilbert Hernandez, original graphic novel, Chance In Hell. That's all you need to know, really.

Griffin
Nick Bertozzi's The Salon features Picasso, Gertrude Stein, and others attempting to solve a murder mystery in turn-of-the-century Paris. It's on page 281 and it sounds like a ripping yarn worthy of some sort of look.

[Edit: Garth reminds me in comments that this is the book that was excerpted in the comic at the center of the Gordon Lee case, which refuses to die.]

Gullywasher
I've talked about how much I loved Danica Novgorodoff's A Late Freeze in the past and now that it's available through Diamond, you don't have an excuse. It's also on page 281, so make sure you tell your retailer that yes, you'd like that $6.50 piece of newcomer-smelling comics goodness.

That sounded pretty dirty. Sorry, Danica!

Hyperion
Out of the Center for Cartoon Studies comes page 283's Houdini: The Handcuff King by Jason Lutes and Nick Bertozzi (him again!). I'm a sucker for this sort of thing - Carter Beats The Devil is one of my favorite novels - and with the quality attached, I figure this is a no-brainer at $17.

IDW
I'm glad to see there's a trade collecting the first Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse series, as Ben Templesmith has become much better than the Ashley Wood-a-like he started off as. I've heard from a few people that this is a good read, so I've made note of it on page 287.

However, a $75 slipcase that holds all of the "rarest covers from Transformers: Beast Wars: The Gathering" is worthy of so much scorn that I may have to go purchase a backup drive to keep track of it. That's on page 289, if you care.

Oni Press
OK, so page 306's Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen Of Alpha Squad 7 looks like a bit of a hoot, and it's got lots of things going for it. There. I said it. I'll probably even buy it.

Page 306 also features an intriguing-looking graphic novel called Wonton Soup by James Stokoe. My notes here from first glancing at it, read as follows: Future space chef vs space ninjas? O YS. So I'll be getting that, I guess.

Yes, I was probably drunk when I made that note.

Pantheon
Alias The Cat (page 308) is Kim Deitch blowing the lid off the story of a mysterious masked crimefighter in early Hollywood who either took the persona of, or was a film and comic strip star. It sounds like a bit of a giggle.

Picturebox
The Trenton Doyle Handbook is artist Trenton Doyle Hancock's take on a Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe-style book featuring his characters and their complex mythology. Joe Rubenstein's involved, too, which means that his money is where his mouth is - that man delineated so much of my youth.

Tokyopop
Page 319 has a new work by Brandon Graham, whose Elevator I couldn't praise enough. King City is the titular locale, full of "spy gangs, alien porn, and reasonably priced diners," and our lead Joe (who has a cat that become anything) tries to make his way in it. This is the first of three volumes and based on Graham's earlier work, I'm saying this is a must-read.

Top Shelf
Page 336 features two books of note. Jeff Lemire's Essex County Volume 1: Tales From The Farm is one of the best books I read last year and I'm glad to see that it's finally coming out through a publisher that consistently brings interesting new talent to the fore. Lemire's going to go places and I'm glad to get to watch him rise. (Yes, I am totally trying to become back-cover bait with that, but it's legitimate praise. I think Lemire's a bright star in a cloudy, possibly-too-arty firmament.)

Jeffrey Brown gets another $5 of my money with Feeble Attempts #1. As much as I enjoy his longer material, I think he really works best in confined spaces and this collects odds and sods from his work.

Very Dynamic Comics
Book with Pictures #2 comes out, continuing Sina Grace's story of Melissa, a comic shop employee in Los Angeles and her trials and tribulations. This is on page 340 and from the previews I've seen, this manages to avoid being too inside baseball.

Viz
Pages 342 through 352 pass by as a high-cost blur of paper. Should I read Drifting Classroom? Signs point to "yes," but I need a bit more justification.

Wow, that was pretty painless. Once I yank the big two out, it's almost fun to write these posts. Maybe I'll even do another next month.

AUSTIN, Texas - Marvel Comics recently announced that it has abandoned its prior policy regarding gay or lesbian comic characters, leaving many parents concerned about the content in their kid’s comic books. The new policy states that a character's sexual orientation will no longer determine the age rating given to that particular series. Previously, any Marvel series featuring a homosexual character would be given a "MAX" rating, indicating that the material was not appropriate for young audiences.

With the most prominent comic book company lightening up its rating system, how can parents be sure their youngsters won't get their hands on age-inappropriate material? In comes actor Stephen Baldwin. He may seem like an unlikely candidate, but Baldwin has created a kid-friendly Christian-based graphic novel series, Spirit Warriors, as part of his Livin It movement.

In Spirit Warriors (Broadman and Holman, $9.99), six radical teens meet the war zone of good versus evil to save their crumbling city from the devilish elder Seiko. Mysteriously orphaned at a young age, these heroic rebels are called to pierce the darkness with amazingly uncommon strengths.

Baldwin became a born-again Christian after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and put his newfound faith into the Livin It youth ministry movement, where he combined his passion for extreme sports and ministry in order to share his faith with America's youth. Not only does Livin It include a series of three books in which extreme sports athletes share their testimonials, but also includes DVDs, a clothing line and live demo tour.

Alan Moore fan creates MySpace profile for the grand wizard of comicdom.

Alan Moore's daughter comments:

(via the always-worth-a-moment LinkMachineGo.)

Bonus Completely Unrelated Link
It's nice to see that Mike Gagnon of Open Book Press isn't going to let an expose of his business practices prevent him from sending out meaningless press releases.

God, I miss The State.

Lots of things are shipping this week.
It looks like I'm only getting a select
few things, which is nice. I'm sure I'm
missing an indie title or a STAR order
or something, though.

DC Comics

OCT060229 SHOWCASE PRESENTS JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA VOL 2 TP $16.99

I'm not sure why I'm getting this - I really didn't enjoy the first one because I don't quite have my nostalgia-vision tinted that way. Probably just being completist.


Marvel Comics

NOV062362 CHAMPIONS CLASSIC VOL 2 TP $19.99

I'd prefer to get Essential Champions with the same amount of money, actually. Still, the combination of Mantlo and early Byrne is hard for me to resist. I really do hope the Jim Shooter story involves a lot of people introducing themselves in awkward ways.

NOV062367 FANTASTIC FOUR BOOKS OF DOOM TP $14.99

I think I may have ordered this, just because I like Brubaker enough to justify $15 for six issues of decent-looking comics. Of course, part of me just wants DOOM to remain DOOM and kind of avoid any further exploration of his past, instead focusing on his ways to benefit mankind with his steely grip.

What the heck are you cats and kittens getting, anyway? Make me hep to the beat.

Here's some sneak-peek concept art by Cover Girl artist Walter Pax. He's part of the same Brazilian stable that Rafael Albuquerque calls home and I think it looks great - there's a touch of that thing Rick Mays does with faces that I just love. When I get some inked work up, I'll show that off, too.
No, Rachel is not wearing a belly shirt through the whole series.

That's the sound of The Middle Man illustrator and Johnny Crossbones creator Les McClaine joining the burgeoning anti-ape discrimination movement. With bright stars like him in their corner, surely our simian friends will shine a light on the diversity that should form the fabric of our media culture.

Mike Sterling appears to have his heart in the right place as well with this post that begins with a truly heinous scene of carnage, one that we've seen played out thousands of times in comics and movies and I wish him luck on what looks to be a hard-fought campaign.

Finally, Koko The Gorilla has some words for all of us:

...for joining the crusade. It is good to see that someone else out there understands the injustice that's being perpetrated every month in comics across this country while the big media corporations profit at the pain and suffering of minority characters. What's really disgusting is when comics have the chance to rectify what damage has been done by a film series and they perpetuate the stereotypes further. Just take this bit from issue 22 of Marvel's Planet of the Apes Magazine, written by Doug Moench and drawn by Alfredo Alcala.

If these gorillas were gay or hispanic, there'd probably be a dozen petitions over this single panel.

If you thought this portrayal of primates was horrifying in its simplistic, over-the-top jingoism, check out this panel from earlier in the same story, this time drawn by Rico Rival - the brave warrior ape Aldo continues to speak like a child throughout the comic. Obviously, it's not good enough to have a bloodthirsty speaking ape on the page, but they have to make them talk in bastardized pidgin so they're perceived as an idiot by the readers. That's just great, Marvel. Ape shall never kill ape or speak in proper sentences, apparently.

I bet you thought the GeishaGrrls were bad, didn't you?
And if you are going to claim that things are getting better in the comics industry and they'd never make these mistakes again, I'm going to refer you to the final page from the first issue of the Revolution on the Planets of the Apes comics series that came out in 2005 and 2006.

That's what I said while reading this piece of discriminatory violence porn.
What.
The.
Fuck.

I swear, all of these creators are on crack. Look at that above page again - 30 years of so-called "progress" and that's the best they can manage? I'm disgusted to the point where I've seriously considered walking away from comics, and until Andrew posted, I felt I was the only person who ever noticed this ridiculous twisting of everything I learned to hold dear as a kid, when I was reading Curious George while clutching my favorite sock monkey.

Again: this is a comic aimed at kids.

For decades, comics have treated primates as second-class citizens and I, for one, am tired of it. If they're not an offshoot of an existing character (like Beppo), they're a villain or savage that requires betterment at the hand of the oligarchy that calls itself superhumanity. For every Detective Chimp (note how they have to have "Chimp" in his name like we couldn't figure it out), there's a dozen Titanos and Gorilla Grodds written by white males who remain constantly out of touch with what's really going on out there in the world.

These so-called creators have obviously never looked at the research of scientists like Jane Goodall or heard of Koko the Gorilla. Instead, they use stories of freak gorilla attacks that were most likely caused by humans goading them into action. Just like their writing about any minority group they don't understand, the writing in these stories is appallingly lazy and plays to the most hoary of clichés concerning a group they don't care about and will probably never care about.

The panel above, from a story called "Captain Marvel Battles The Apes Who Could Make Fire" that appeared in Captain Marvel Adventures #114, demonstrates that this problem has been going on for years and judging by the cover of this week's Justice League Unlimited (a comic that's supposed to appeal to children, for God's sake!), there's no sign of abating. It's a sad state that I feel needs to be addressed if we're really going to see true diversity in the comics medium.

(I'm sure Roy Thomas explained this away.)

Let me write All Star Krypto.

After a brief hiatus due to holidays, we're back from outer space (more than a bit late, yes, thanks to a product that rhymes with Fladobe Fillustrator deciding it didn't want to work when asked) with that look on our face and a brand new Nitroglycerin, which is available on the BOOM! Studios homepage below the fold as well as on Birdie's WebComics Nation page. In it, you see what happens when we let inmates run the asylum.

OK, inmate, really. But the results, I have to say, are fan-fucking-tastic.

Jim Mahfood is among my favorite creators due to his energy-filled, graffiti-influenced art. His new minicomic, Ask For Janice is a 16-page exploration of that most influential of hip-hop albums, Paul's Boutique by Beastie Boys, and what a perfect little thing it is. Using Dan LeRoy's 33 1/3 book about the album's recording as a basis, Mahfood lets the reader meet the principal players, get a glimpse into the condition the band was in before recording started as well as the actual process itself and, most enjoyably, give a track-by-track synopsis of the record. These rundowns include oddball facts, historical references, and dissection of the samples used and are the sort of trivia that sends a serious music nerd like myself back to the recording and the sources to further appreciate what the Dust Brothers did with this album.

Mahfood's graphical sense works perfectly here - humor and funk create an appealing bouillabaisse and this pamphlet ends up feeling like a terrific museum exhibit. Recommended? You betcha.

Ask for Janice is available in a limited edition of 200 for the low, low cost of $10 from Mahfood's online store.

Peter Schilling, "A Different Story."
Check out that "True Faith" bassline.

• I finally got around to seeing Tetsuya Nakashima's Kamikaze Girls The movie bills itself as "The extraordinary adventures of a Lolita-look aficionado and a tough biker gang chick," but I'm going to describe it as "Fight Club meets Hello Kitty meets Clueless" and that's not a bad thing at all. Go watch the trailer and then put it on your Netflix queue.
  
  
• Pal J Ho has gone and done what I was telling him to do for ages - gotten himself one of them sketchblogs that all the kids are talking about. Knowing him, it's going to have a more-than-healthy amount of 80s pop-culture junk, but he's just so darn good that I can't complain overmuch.
  
  
• Wal-Mart is selling shirts with an SS symbol on them.
  
  
• Last year, I laid into Open Book Press's Mike Gagnon because I had the distinct feeling he was more into making press releases than actually, you know, publishing comics. Turns out I was right: Newsarama's Ryan McLelland has an excellent piece of journalism up about one creator's miserable experience with the man.
  
  
• Shane Bailey starts blogging again with a simple truth about marketing in comics.
  
  
• Flickr obsession of the moment: the Northern Ireland Political Murals Pool.
  
  
• I have no idea what this is selling, but I don't care. I want a dozen. (Thanks to Garth for this one.)

Doop!


Doop!


Doop!


Doop!

Comics come to your shop on Thursday.
Here are some picks and things worthy of note.

DC Comics

JUL060145 ALL STAR SUPERMAN #6 $2.99

Yes, it's completely blown its bimonthly schedule because Frank Quitely demands a certain (probably unattainable) level of perfection from himself. I don't mind - it's close to a platonic ideal of a Superman comic for me, much like the Up, Up, And Away story from last year.

NOV060272 MIDNIGHTER #3 $2.99

It's not groundbreaking, but I really am enjoying this one. It's nice to see Ennis do a semi-serious take on Gay Superpowered Batman.

NOV060189 SUPERMAN CONFIDENTIAL #3 $2.99

For some reason or another, I thought this first arc was supposed to be 3 issues, but it looks like the fourth continues this story. There's also a strange lack of issues solicited after that one, at least on the DC comics site.

Image Comics

OCT061858 JACK STAFF VOL 3 ECHOES OF TOMORROW TP $16.99
SEP061795 KANE VOL 6 PARTNERS TP $16.99

Get your Grist on.


Marvel Comics

AUG062033 CIVIL WAR #6 (OF 7) $2.99

Eat it, left coast! Eat it!

NOV062300 IRON MAN HYPERVELOCITY #1 (OF 6) $2.99

Adam Warren + Iron Man = A Fanboy Dream, at least for this guy.

NOV062310 NEWUNIVERSAL #2 $2.99

I'll read this in the shop; I like Ellis an awful lot, but the first one read like a cliche factory working overtime.

AUG062066 PUNISHER WAR JOURNAL #2 CW $2.99

I love you, Matt Fraction. Thank you for this.

Comics

OCT063471 SCARFACE SCARRED FOR LIFE #1 (MR) $3.99

Normally, I would mock, I really would. However, John Layman's a heck of a nice guy and while that may not be enough to convince most people to buy a late-to-the-game sequel series for a movie whose protagonist we saw riddled with a truly ludicrous amount of firepower, the art by David Crosland looks fantastic, especially with the coloring job on them by...someone whose name I can't recall. Give it a gander.

SEP063176 X ISLE #4 (OF 5) $2.99

Yes, they pay me, but I have to give the usual plug for the stuff I really like. So, here it is: I like X Isle a lot. The end.

Today's Wall Street Journal features an puff piece about Virgin Comics with the hackneyed headline "Holy Heroes of Indian Lore, Batman!", (I'm sure that link will go dead tomorrow if you're not a subscriber). As with most things written from an "outside" perspective, Shefali Anand's also manages to make the mistake of acting like manga and anime are some strange subsect of their respective mediums:

The U.S. comic-book business had roughly $550 million in sales in 2005, and has been enjoying a renaissance the past few years. The resurgence is driven partly by the influx of Japanese "manga" comic books and "anime" animated features, as well as characters like Pokémon and Hello Kitty. Since 2001 sales of manga comics in the U.S. have grown from roughly $10 million to $20 million to an estimated $155 million to $180 million at the end of 2005, according to pop-culture Web site ICv2.

I know it's hard for someone who works for the Wall Street Journal to understand just how small a pond the comics game in the US is, but certainly this should have gotten a second glance:

Comic-book distributors say Virgin's new projects are off to a surprisingly good start. While the standard new comic rarely goes for a reprint, some of Virgin's titles have had "virtually unprecedented reorder and reprint sales," says Jim Kuhoric, purchasing director at Diamond Comic Distributors, one of the largest distributors in the world. Three of Virgin's four India-themed titles have made it to the top-300 ranking of best-selling comics for November, published on ICv2's Web site. "I've been surprised at the strength of some of their titles," says Milton Griepp, editor of ICv2.

Wow, top 300, huh? Turns out that their top-ranking book is John Woo's Seven Brothers, which clocked in at #192 with sales of 9,878 - the same as Simpsons Comics, but only 471 copies ahead of Chris Sims's favorite book, Tarot, witch of the Black Rose. So, in other words, Seven Brothers only sells about 5% more than a Jim Balent book for shutins with a serious swords-and-needle-nippled-tits fetish. Congratulations, John Woo and Garth Ennis. You have achieved a dizzying high in the industry.

I also take some umbrage with this passage:

Another boost for the industry has come from Hollywood, which has turned to comic books to create movies in recent years, such as "Spider-Man" and "Superman," as well as some lesser-known comics like "Constantine" and "V for Vendetta."

No, those movies don't convert people to comics. Talk to any retailer and you'll see that there's not really a corollary unless they've done a bit of hard-selling and, in fact, some report lower sales on books like V For Vendetta after the adaptobots crank out typically lackluster Hollywood claptrap. I think every reporter who writes about comics and uses this line needs to be told once and for all that the real reason that DC and Marvel are selling more comics of late is thanks to incestuous projects like 52 and the innumerable Civil War tie-ins.

Despite my hope that Virgin Comics succeeds, if for no other reason than their offerings showing a bit of diversification for this industry, I have to say that this is shoddy reporting, most likely the result of visiting a few websites, firing off two or thre eemails, and rewriting a press release. While this probably covers one's ass with the boss and makes the subjects happy with your efforts, this sort of writing creates an at-best incomplete picture of the medium.

From Ambush Bug Nothing Special.

Here, have the trailer for the Filipino Batman and Robin movie, based on the Adam West series. This may be my favorite version of The Joker in film.

Yes, ADD Theater inserted their logo on that screen in the middle.
Bah.