I interviewed Tom Spurgeon earlier this week for the column, but I’m way behind on transcribing our talk, so you’ll just have to put up with more of my meandering ditherings for another Sunday. The interview will be up next week for sure though.

One of the things Tom and I talked about was how a lot of the online comics critics/bloggers currently in production come from the same background or entry point. In other words, most of us got introduced to comics through Marvel or DC via our local newsstand, drifted over to our local comic book shop and, as we got older, branched out into other genres and styles (or didn’t as the case may be).

As a result, I think we tend to do the sort of Monday-morning quarterbacking that Jeff Lester talked about recently. That is to say, we all end up discussing and reviewing about the same “hot” comics the day after they come out, offering endless contemplations on whether they worked or not. That’s not inherently a bad thing. In fact, it can be a healthy discussion, as well as a useful tool to gage trends and mores within the comics community. But there’s a lot of other material that gets pushed to the side as a result, and I’m not necessarily talking about the latest graphic novel from Fantagraphics or D&Q.

One of the things that Tom does that I like a lot is he’ll frequently post reviews of older comics, either from his collection or that he’s picked up at your local book sale. He’s not the only one of course. Jog’s been going gangbusters with his Choked With Comics column, Shaenon Garrity’s got her Overlooked Manga Festival, and Dick Hyacinth has been offering a great critical re appreciation of Rob Liefeld of all people. And then there’s the great Dave’s Long Box.

Still, it seems as though many comics critics/bloggers (croggers?) are stuck in the now, and not providing enough of a critical reasessment of past artists and books. I’d like to see more of the latter. I want someone to make me jump out of my chair, into my car and go pouring through the back bins of my local shop. I want an excuse to go vainly searching through Alibris.

With that in mind, I have a proposal. Sometime within the month of October, I want you, assuming you blog about comics regularly, or hell, even if you don’t, to write about a long-lost comic book, series, graphic novel, artist, writer or whatever that you feel is criminally underrated or ignored (preferably the latter). The more obscure the better. Genre doesn’t matter, nor does if the book comes from your collection or not, though I would like to see folks pick something a little out of their comfort zones for this.

No prizes will be awarded, though I will link to any and all who decide to rise to the challenge. No, you just have the satisfaction that comes with providing the Internet with some intelligent critical discourse. Oh, all right, I’ll see if I can dig up a prize of some sort. Don’t get your hopes up too high though.

Last week, this column covered some reactions to the Black Canary/Green Arrow wedding. Usually I’m not one to extend the same topic two weeks in a row, but there are still some interesting reactions trickling in. Especially since this interview with Judd Winick came out on Newsarama.

Sally is upset by the interview:

But the fact that Mr. Winick’s first thought was to kill off Black Canary just repulses me. It is so wrong. And needless. And stupid. It’s BAD WRITING! And I hate bad writing. So I guess that I’ve just joined the ranks of the “I hate Judd Winick” club. From what I gather, it has a LOT of members.

Shelly, who you may remember from her positive review last week, is annoyed by the interview:

On the face of it, it’s pro-Dinah. It makes it sound as if he wanted to use her, the female character, to move things forward, rather than the guy. That should be a good thing. But his execution, the way Ollie dies, hinders rather than helps the cause. Losing Ollie was one thing; killing him and doing it the way she did, is quite another. If she’d struck a blow to the side of his head and he died, that would’ve been more fitting. But there wouldn’t have been blood that way.

MildredMilton just has a headache:

Now. How do I like them apples? Well. Better, honestly. But they’re still pretty sucky apples. Do you know why? Because “Somebody Dies” is not a story. How do people keep not getting this? A story is a mystery to solve, a problem to overcome, a new character thrown into the mix. It’s not a bunch of guys sitting around a room thinking, “Who can we kill?” It’s not, “supervillains attack the wedding so someone can die at the end,” it’s, “here’s a specific reason and way that supervillains attack the wedding.” It’s not, “people fight below their ability and act out of character, in order for someone to die,” it’s “here is the reason that people act out of character and can’t fight as well as they usually can, and here’s how we resolve it.”

And we also have a few more reactions to the comic itself.

Matthew Peterson generally liked it:

I know that Judd Winick can write Green Arrow in a manner that I enjoy, but I’ve never been 100% sold on his Black Canary. This issue gives me some hope, but still leaves me with areas of concern, especially if we’re going to see Dinah as the vengeful bride, a la ‘Kill Bill.’ Still, there are a couple of dozen beautiful character moments in this issue, a couple of “Hell, Yeahs” (Batman “coming for the fight,” as well as the male stripper sequence) and it’s a pretty enjoyable ride to the altar, with one of the few unequivocally TRUE cover blurbs in recent history (”You Wont’ Believe This Wedding Night!”) All told, we’re looking at a solid 4 out of 5 star rating, with beautiful Amanda Connor art and a nicely done surprise ending that really shook me up…

While Irrational Mad Man specifically counters reviewers who disliked the opening fight:

I guess the point I’m trying to make is that I don’t find it unreasonable that BC and GA would use an argument as foreplay, nor do I find it unreasonable that BC would slap GA if angry. This is a woman who is best known for her extraordinary skill in using violence to achieve her ends, and is known to have quite a hot temper. The idea that she would get angry with GA and use some very very low grade violence is not unreasonable, especially since she knows he can take it. Now I wouldn’t expect BC to beat the living hell out of him, or to break his limbs over an argument, but the idea that she would slap him? Not a big deal really.

So what do you think?

XSI Base has an interview with Ben Proctor, the special effects guy behind Transformers and Superman Returns. In this interview it is revealed there was an unused sequence in Superman Returns where the Man of Steel returns to Krypton:

Sadly, much of my work on Superman Returns never ended up in the final film, because at the last minute a big introductory sequence where Superman returns to the shattered remains of Krypton was dropped to help keep down the running time. But at any rate, I worked on a variety of elements for this lost sequence, including the destroyed planet itself and both the exterior and interior of a large crystalline ship which has carried Supes from earth. The interior was fully built and photographed as a translucent, glowing set which I’ve only seen in one photograph in the Art of Superman Returns book. Bryan Singer’s group has made noises about including the lost sequence in a sequel film, and I sure hope they do that so I can see how it turned out! Also cut from the release was a scene where teenage Clark Kent discovers the hidden remnants of the Kryptonian space pod which brought him to earth as an infant.

Here’s to hoping, right?

The big news this week was that Jessica Biel was in talks for the role of Wonder Woman in the Justice League of America movie. Well, now EW.com is reporting that the actress passed on the role:

EW has learned that actress Jessica Biel has decided to pass on playing Wonder Woman in Warner Bros. live-action adaptation of Justice League of America. The former 7th Heaven star had been in early talks to play the Amazonian princess. She’s currently shooting the drama Powder Blue with Forest Whitaker.

I’m not all that disappointed. While Biel is gorgeous, I don’t think she’d make a good Wonder Woman. There are also rumors that Victoria Hill is wanting to play Wonder Woman, and I think she “looks” the part more than Biel.

In other casting news:

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Wrapping up its three-day celebration of the release of Tekkon Kinkreet on DVD, Frames Per Second posts a video set to Shinichi Osawa remix of Plaid’s White’s Dream, from the movie’s soundtrack. The video is directed by Tekkon Kinkreet’s Michael Arias.

From Digital Femme:

Since its debut in February 2007, UVC: The Urban Voice in Comics has provided news, information and opinions about black comics and creators for all readers. This fall, UVC takes a closer look at a small but significant segment of the comics industry - black women.

Among the features in the November/December 2007 issue include the following:

feature articles on black women creators and industry figures, including Barbara Brandon-Croft, Spike, and The Ormes Society founder Cheryl Lynn Eaton

a listing and analysis of the major black women characters at both Marvel and DC Comics

selective listings of significant black women characters in other comics, past and present, real and fictitious

In addition, this special issue will also include articles about black women in science-fiction film and television, in animation, and as science-fiction/fantasy novelists.

For another project, Cheryl Lynn is requesting that minority (by race, orientation, and religion) women who work in the comics industry and live in the NYC area contact her.

As Dwayne McDuffie kicks off his tenure on Justice League of America, Timothy Callahan and Andrew Gardner revisit Brad Meltzer and Ed Benes’ opening storyline, “The Tornado’s Path”:

Even if the series is an attempt to move forward, it hinges too much on a convoluted legacy.

This is the dilemma of the super-hero comic in the 21st Century. Neither Marvel or DC has a continuity that makes any kind of sense (in the big picture), and yet both companies have fans and creators who are obsessed with continuity, but only the continuity that they, themselves, care about. I’m sure there are people who care about every little continuity detail, but everyone I know seems to be willing to ignore the completely ridiculous things that have happened (the Clone Saga in Spider-Man, the relative ages of various heroes, Maxwell Lord) while expecting writers to adhere to the continuity that they, the readers, care about. Continuity should matter, since it’s just internal storytelling consistency on a grand scale, but it can’t matter in the Marvel and DC universes because the continuity is already corrupt beyond reason.

The second storyline, “The Lightning Saga,” will be collected in February.

These Watchmen sketchcards by Katie Cook are the cutest things ever. Well, at least this week. You can see these and others (including DC superheroes and Star Wars), in Cook’s DeviantArt gallery.

(Via The Ephemerist)

Speaking of Death Note – and I do that a lot, don’t I? — I’ve been meaning to link to this all week: John Jakala spotlights a couple of upcoming releases, DH Publishing’s Death Note: Lethally Fun Facts, Mysteries and Secrets Revealed unofficial guide, and Viz Media’s encyclopedic Death Note, Vol. 13: How to Read.

I’d never heard of the former, but I’ll definitely be getting the latter, as it includes interviews with creators Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata and additional manga pages.

Unfortunately, Jakala points out, it’s not the deluxe collector’s set. Oh, how I want those little puppets/fingurines.

Oh, Naruto, is there anything you can’t do?

As Viz Media readies the next wave of “Naruto Nation,” ICv2.com casts an eye over the BookScan list of graphic novels sold in bookstores and discovers, unsurprisingly, that Vols. 16-18 of Masashi Kishimoto’s manga have held to top spots for all four weeks of their release.

What may be surprising is that Vol. 1 of the series, which was released in August 2003, clocked in at No. 8 at the BookScan chart for the week ending Sept. 23, an indication that the spiky-haired ninja is still attracting new fans — and in significant numbers. Naruto, Vol. 15, which was released in July, held the ninth spot.

ICv2 points out that 43 of the Top 50 slots were held by manga, including the first volume of Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata’s Death Note, which came in at No. 11. It’s worth noting that although Viz released the first volume of that series in October 2005, it, too, is drawing new readers. With the debut of the Death Note anime next month on Adult Swim, we’re likely to see the 12-volume thriller repopulate the chart.

Related: ICv2’s overview of fall graphic novel releases

The Washington Post Express talks to Laika author Nick Abadzis about the research he did for his new book:

For a work of this scope, gathering facts was both essential and difficult. Abadzis found little information about Laika, and much of what he did find hadn’t been translated. With the assistance of a kind librarian, the cartoonist dug through the British Library and culled “a few choice morsels” from some of the more authoritative books on the Soviet space program. He even visited Moscow to capture the cold, stoic character of the city.

The research also helped him capture the even temperament of the animal, whose obedience allowed the scientists to put her through some very extreme training.

“In those days, they didn’t know what kind of pressures either animal or men could withstand,” Abadzis said. “They just didn’t know; it was all experimental, all theorized.”

Showing a good deal more investigative depth and tact than some of the other news outlets covering this story, The Shore Line Times talks to not just the parent of the girl who received the comic book in question but also many of the other students and their parents, most of whom show an almost unwaivering support for the beleagured teacher:

According to several parents, Fisher, a former journalist who was at the start of his second year teaching at Guilford High School, sent them an E-mail in which he admitted he made a mistake in giving Eightball #22 to the girl. But he said he had not read it in several years and had not recalled the salacious material. His error, he said, was in not reviewing the book before giving it to her.None of this made sense to a number of students and parents, who agreed Fisher had made a mistake but praised him as an excellent, caring teacher. They all argued, with some passion, that he should not have had to pay for that single mistake with a forced resignation after the school administration led by Superintendent of Schools Thomas Forcella had completed an investigation of the entire matter.

The New Haven Advocate, meanwhile, has an interesting and surprisingly informed look at the brouhaha:

Register reporter Rachael Scarborough King shorthanded Clowes’ complexities by reporting that the comic “includes references to rape, various sex acts and murder, as well as images of a naked woman, and a peeping tom watching a woman in the shower.” Shocking stuff—though the sex and bloodshed aren’t in fact depicted, just talked about, and the nudity is part of a poignant and decidedly non-titillating scene in which a sensitive young woman is afraid her lover will leave her because of an unsightly birthmark. In any case, graphic acts of sex, murder and voyeurism can be found in countless classic works of literature, by such acclaimed writers as Charles Bukowski, Truman Capote, Allen Ginsberg, Ayn Rand, Leo Tolstoy, Gore Vidal, Nick Hornby, Theodore Dreiser, Sam Shepard, Alice Walker, Cormac McCarthy, Jack Kerouac, D.H. Lawrence, John Cheever, Thomas Hardy and Sylvia Plath.

All those writers, as it happens, appear on the official list of 2007 Summer Reading suggestions presented to students by the Guilford High School English department. So do disgraced sex-and-drugs-addled memoirist Augustyn Burroughs and bestselling erotic mystery novelist Janet Evanovich, most of whose books have a hot sex scene within the first few pages. It’s an enlightened, engrossing, wide-ranging list that might actually attract more young people to read.

Two very soon to be released, hotly anticipated (in my house anyway) books recently launched their own promotional Web sites — Adrian Tomine’s Shortcomings and Craig Yoe’s Clean Cartoonists, Dirty Drawings. Guess which one is not safe for work?

Variety reports that New Regency has acquired the film rights to Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, an illustrated novel by Hellboy creator Mike Mignola and novelist Christopher Golden.

David Goyer will direct, and the authors will write the screenplay.

Released last month by Bantam, the novel tells the story of Lord Henry Baltimore, who is bitten by a vampire on a World War I battlefield, unleashing an evil plague that destroys his family and threatens to devour all of mankind.

Baltimore will be produced by John Baldecchi and Stacy Maes.

Tom discovered this Editor & Publisher story which reveals that next Thursday, Oct. 4, will be when the Lisa Moore character in the comic strip Funky Winkerbean will die from cancer.

Longtime readers of the strip will remember that Lisa initially thought she had beaten breast cancer, only to discover the disease had returned several months ago.

The E&P story also has two other points of interest:

1) Creator Tom Batiuk is teaming up with several Ohio-based hospitals and cancer centers to set up a fund in Lisa’s name. Proceeds from the sale of his upcoming book, Lisa’s Story: The Other Shoe, will go towards that fund.

2) After Lisa’s death, the strip’s storyline jumps forward in time ten years.

Expect to see a lot of similar stories on the newswire as we get closer to Thursday. I’m actually working on one right now.

As with many of these posts, this one stems from a time I went to the comic bookstore and saw something that annoyed me. This particular time I wasn’t even looking for comic books. Instead I’d been scouring used bookstores for the sequel to a trashy novel (that I hadn’t known was so trashy when the first book was loaned to me, but now I was hooked). I hadn’t even intended to look at the rack, except the clerk who helped me navigate the unfamiliar paranormal romance territory turned out to be the biggest Teen Titans fan I had ever met. She steered me into the comic book section to point something out when my eyes fell upon the reason I just can’t get back into Marvel comics.
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Jeff Smith posts his cover art — front and back — for Say Anything’s upcoming album, In Defense of the Genre, which will be released on Oct. 23.

Entertainment reporters from the New York Daily News and The National Ledger are reporting that makers of the Spider-Man musical are looking for a “huge theater” in which to house the production. Reporters talked to Tony Award-winning director Julie Taymor of Lion King fame at the premier of her new film Across the Universe. Taymor is making the Spider-Man musical with musicians Bono and The Edge from the rock band U2.

Says Taymor in the National Ledger report:

“I’m very proud of the songs that Bono and Edge wrote. It’s a real rock-and-roll musical, so we’re not worried about that aspect. We just have to find where we’re going to do it– even if we have to do it in a tent, which we’re looking into – and when. It’ll at least be a year away.”

This news comes on top of the story that has been circulating that Marilyn Manson requested a role in the Spider-Man musical because he’s such a fan of the web-slinger. “Marilyn just asked me if he could have a part in Spider-Man. The funny thing is, he really liked the music on my new movie,” Taymor said, according to a report from Bang (via stuff.co.nz).

As Newsarama cited in April from a Playbill report, the musical was scheduled for a reading back in July to determine whether it was worth staging anywhere – particularly if it was worth staging in New York. This latest news about the search for a New York home seems to indicate it’s been deemed worthy of a spot on Broadway. But let’s hope Taymor was just joking about the tent.