The Rack | Staff Picks for the Week of April 16, 2008

Woo-hah!

Fuck comma yes period:

INVASION TP
Written by Keith Giffen & Bill Mantlo
Art by Todd McFarlane, Bart Sears, P. Craig Russell, Joe Rubinstein and others
Cover by McFarlane & Rubinstein
The massive 3-issue miniseries from 1988 is collected for the first time! In this universe-spanning saga, the deadly but emotionless Dominators have come to Earth to wipe out the threat posed by metahumans. But what is the real reason for their attack?
Advance-solicited; on sale August 27 – 256 pg, FC, $24.99 US

I’ve mentioned this several times, always in the most superlative terms. Buy it.

My only statement concerning the Eisners.

Congratulations, Jeff. I’m very happy for you.

(OK, yes, Parker, you too. That is a damned handsome volume.)

(And you too, Fred.)

Thumb Sucking Linus: Peanuts In Japan

• It reads left-to-right, meaning that it was never flipped for the Japanese market. The back cover is the same as the front, but with flipped art and no Japanese.
• However, the biographies of Schulz and who I presume are the translation team are at the beginning of the book, which is the opposite of how these things are generally done, at least Stateside.
• I love the little character introductions, especially the fact they use images from the strips themselves instead of static poses. Linus is placed first, I assume, because in Japan he is viewed as the true lead in the strip: an intelligent, philosophical young man dedicated to improving himself, even in the face of adversity that was personified by his sister, Lucy. (Or, you know, his name’s on the book, so…)
• They don’t translate Schulz’s dialogue in the strips themselves, instead using subtitles. At first I had some elaborate theory about the value of calligraphy in Japan and how respected Schulz’s lettering may have been, but then I saw the ad for the English Conversation School in the back and things got a lot simpler. The teaching power of comics! Hoorah!

• My friend Jenn has a neat post about a Peanuts train bag made by Sanrio. Sanrio owns the rights to the Peanuts characters in Japan, but I can’t find very much information about merchandise outside of eBay.
• Here are some (frankly, rather weird) Peanuts Puzzles from Japan.
• AAUGH.com has a list of foreign editions that seems incomplete. Thumb Sucking Linus isn’t listed, but A Mean-Sister Lucy, Gloomy Charlie Brown, and my favorite, Go! Go! Snoopy. (There’s another that you can file under “Really Strange And Frankly Uncomfortable”: Wanna Get Marriage, Lucy.)

I love branding efforts like this.

AYRE FORCE Invades 2008 NY Comic Con:

Based on real people, AYRE FORCE reveals the hidden activities and past of Bodog’s billionaire founder, Calvin Ayre, as he leads a covert operations unit composed of Bodog Music artists Bif Naked, Jason Darr and Nazanin; Bodog Fight mixed martial artists Tara LaRosa, Jorge Masvidal and Trevor Prangley; and Bodog Poker players Evelyn Ng, David Williams and Josh Arieh. Ayre and the AYRE FORCE have been engaged in a years-long war with pharmaceutical magnate Janus Winter, attacking the illegal operations of Wintercorp all over the globe. Now, Janus has upped the ante by unleashing his genetically engineered, superhuman children on Calvin and his team, intending to put an end to the war between the AYRE FORCE and Wintercorp once and for all!

At some point, somebody should take Calvin Ayre aside and say “Stick with what you know.” You know, like losing your own domain name and barely dodging legal bullets. Not comics. Please, God, not comics.

The Rack | And The Wisdom To Know The Difference

Grmbmr.

I nearly put this on GOTI, but I may actually want this person to stay on the internet.

At least he knows his audience:

SUPREME POWER 1-18 FULL RUN (Individual issues, not TPBs). COMPLETE. MINT. THE MARVEL MAX (ADULT) VERSION OF THE SQUADRON SUPREME AS RE-ENVISIONED BY J. MICHEAL STRACZYNSKI (BABYLON 5, AMAZING SPIDER-MAN), WITH ART BY GARY FRANK (HULK). THE SERIES FEATURES FULL ON NUDITY WHEN POWER PRINCESS, ZARDA, AWAKENS FROM HER SLUMBER AND STARTS KILLING PEOPLE WHILST IN THE BUFF. A 1ST FOR MARVEL. Check out my other auctions. I combine shipping for $1 each additional lot. Shipping includes tracking & insurance.

Thanks for the link, Casey!

Now this is a Superman cover.

Yep, I know that feeling.

Let’s all go to a signing…

I designed this simple flyer for Comicazi’s upcoming signing. The print version’s in black and white, but I wanted to do one that could be posted on the web, too.

So that’s what happened to it…

This collection was originally solicited for November, 2004:

AMERICAN FLAGG! ARRIVES THIS JULY!
Long-awaited AMERICAN FLAGG! collection comes this July!

This July, Howard Chaykin’s AMERICAN FLAGG! arrives for the series’ 25th anniversary in its much-anticipated hardcover definitive edition.

“This hardcover goes well beyond my wildest initial expectations,” Chaykin said. “The past few years consisted of remastering and restoring every line of every panel on every page to ensure this is the best edition possible. I have been extremely fortunate to have both Image Comics and Dynamite Entertainment working hard on this hardcover, and they have made me, as a creator of one of my most personal works, as happy as possible. I couldn’t be happier.”

In AMERICAN FLAGG!’s dystopian future, America and its corporations have fled the Earth for the relative safety of Mars. Their abandoned planet has been ravaged by war and a recently fired television star, Reuben Flagg, becomes its reluctant champion. The award-winning series’ first fourteen issues will be collected in a definitive edition hardcover designed by Chip Kidd and contains Chaykin’s never-before-seen sketchbook and an all-new, 12-page story written and illustrated by Chaykin, all book-ended between an introduction by THE AMAZING ADVENTURES OF KAVALIER AND CLAY author Michael Chabon and an afterword by ALL-STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN artist Jim Lee.

Image Comics Publisher Erik Larsen stated, “Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg! was one of the series that defined the 1980s. Chaykin on American Flagg! –Simonson on Thor — Miller on Daredevil — Alan Moore on Swamp Thing — that was the good stuff. Chaykin’s book explored mature themes not common in comics at the time and the intense mix of satire science fiction, coupled with his amazing art was applauded by readers the world over. Fans have been patiently waiting for this but we wanted this to be the definitive collection.”

“The old adage of good things come to those who wait will prove itself again, once retailers and fans have the book in their hands,” Dynamic Forces President Nick Barrucci added. “This is one of the first projects in which we were involved as a publisher, and it’s taken longer than any other project. Reconstructing the pages has been harder than anyone of us could have imagined. We’ve all worked together and are bringing a piece of history to the fans and retailers, as this is Howard Chaykin’s seminal work. Once we were finalizing the restoration, and realized we could have the Hard Cover in stores for the 25th Anniversary, we decided to add more content by adding issues #13 and #14, the epilogues to the first 12-issue novel, to this collection. This collection will have a lot of material in one package, and, we hope, that when fans and retailers hold it in their hands, they will appreciate the blood, sweat, and tears we all put in to this book, to get it as right as possible.”

The AMERICAN FLAGG! hardcover will be available in stores and then also at the San Diego Comic Con in July 2008. The first softcover volume (collecting issues #1-6 and the new story) will arrive in September with the second volume (#7-14) arriving in Winter.

That’s a bit of a delay, what?

The Rack | Sachs and Violens

The chef on the right is my favorite chef ever.

From FoodKeeping, a pamphlet that came with
your new Frigidaire Refrigerator in the 60s.

A sudden moment of clarity vis-a-vis comics.

From the Associated Press:

CBS Axes Reality Show After 1 Episode

NEW YORK (AP) – The secret talents of celebrities will remain hidden. CBS is axing its new reality show “Secret Talents of the Stars” after only one episode.

The first airing Wednesday had former “Star Trek” actor George Takei singing “On the Road Again.” Only 4.6 million people tuned in – and thousands tuned away as the hour continued.

The reality show also had Clint Black doing standup comedy and Mya tap-dancing. Danny Bonaduce is among the celebrities whose secret talents will be kept to himself.

CBS officials say news programming is expected as a temporary replacement.

(Emphasis mine.)

Edited To Add: I feel I should point out that this post was more “a moment of clarity” in regards to how much time I spend on what is the niche-est of niche media, not a “Oh my god, why aren’t comics doing numbers like that!” This post was meant to be taken much less seriously than others seem to have interpreted it. I thought a singing Mr. Sulu would have indicated that, but apparently not…

Ten Songs I Would Pay Good Money To Hear Performed In A Black Metal Style.

1. “Nine to Five” by Dolly Parton
2. “The Reflex” by Duran Duran
3. “I’ll Make Love To You” by Boyz II Men
4. “Red Red Wine” by UB40 Neil Diamond
5. “She Drives Me Crazy” by Fine Young Cannibals
6. “Since U Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson
7. “Chains Of Love” by Erasure
8. “Mexican Radio” by Wall of Voodoo
9. “I Wanna Be Sedated” by The Ramones
10. “Careless Whisper” by Wham

Kevin Reviews His Weekly Singles #04

Castle Waiting Volume 2 #11
It takes something mighty special to make me spend $4 (minus my discount) on a twenty page comic about setting up a bowling alley and women’s underwear without griping.

Criminal Volume 2 #2
Honest and for true? The best regularly-published comic on the stands. Brubaker seems eager on this series and each issue shows that he’s honing his craft further and further in in near-microscopic ways. Throw in Sean Phillips’s art and an engrossing cast of intertwined characters and you’ve got the sort of addictive comics that I always read first, no matter what else is in the pile.

Doktor Sleepless #6
It’s funny. The comic I initially dismissed as Ellis attempting to find that Transmetropolitan magic again is now its own strange beast. The cartoonish, alter-ego of John Reinhardt at first seemed like the nihilistic, Web 2.0 version of Spider Jerusalem, but this this issue’s big reveal showed that he’s much, much more ambitious and less human. Tight scripting by Ellis makes the information dumps bearable while Ivan Rodriguez’s art improves with each issue. Shame that the inks or whatever used by Avatar mean that the book still smells like my inkjet printer got infected with Ebola and went fully septic.

Ganges #2
Oh, thank god this finally came in from Diamond, who have apparently decided to hire lobotomized gorillas to handle their packing for my shop as today’s shipment also included six copies of Showcase Presents: Superman Family Volume 2 that were ordered back when the book actually came out.

Anyway, it’s a fantastic comic, as I’ve come to take for granted with Kevin Huizenga. His easy segue from the surrealistic beginning to a Coupland-esque meditation on living and working and playing during the first dot-com boom is the sort of moment that stands out: a casual device that’s been done elsewhere thousands of times before, but one he makes feel entirely new without any cheap flash or self-importance.

Suburban Glamor #4
I was originally going to review this for Comic Book Resources, but then I realized that my relationship to McKelvie (one in which we taunt each other horribly before turning our ire on Gillen) meant that I’d probably not be objective enough for my tastes. Still, it’s a very good wrap-up that 1) could have been two issues, really, with some proper fight scenes and a bit more oomph to Astrid’s choice and 2) has an final moment that made me feel something like…happiness? Joy? It was weird, I actually got a little lump in my throat. I have to read more downer comics like…

Young Liars #2
Or is that supposed to be David Lapham’s Young Liars? Anyway, we get a flashback to Danny’s life three years ago life and even with the references to Spoon and the captions informing us that this takes place in 2005, this feels very much like a 1970s piece in that the kids are just a bit off and the tone seems to belong more to drive-in cinema than modern comics. Still, it’s engaging as hell and manages to hit all the usual Lapham buttons without coming off as a photocopy of what he’s done before. There may be bonus points associated for the use of Suicide’s “Frankie Teardrop,” one of my favorite songs ever.

A preview of my latest spec script.

I reviewed Aqua Leung’s first volume.

And you can read about it over at Comic Book Resources.

The Rack | No, Uwe

I guess this is my official "first" con appearance as a professional.