I’ve written about Persepolis and Marjane Satrapi in the context of the current protests in Iran, but someone took it a step further and rebooted (remixed?) Persepolis to reflect the current situation.

I have no idea if Satrapi is involved in this project, but I do find it interesting that a completely new story can be made by moving some panels around and changing the captions. Aside from my interest in it as a political document–and the way comics can carry a message more potently than a simple news story–it is also an exercise in figuring out the weight of the message carried in the images vs. in the text of a comic.

Y’know, I think a lot of people have gotten so wrapped up in this myth of Megan Fox (which goes hand in hand with the myth about Michael Bay, by the by), that no one seems to realize that she’s a real human.

And a comics geek to boot.

On Jimmy Kimmel last night, the Transformers actress revealed that she once wanted to become a comic book artist, before she became, to quote some CGI artists, “impossibly hot.” Not only did she draw a picture of Jimmy Kimmel (which was not half bad), but she also gave some love to Witchblade, Fathom, and Gen13, not to mention a shout-out to onetime Amazing Spider-Man cover artist J. Scott Campbell.

I’ll be honest — I wasn’t expecting that from her. She’s got a sense of humor, and a little bit of awkwardness regarding her sex appeal, and, well, it certainly makes her seem a bit more approachable. (Unless Especially if you’re this guy.) What say you, Rama readers?

In addition to being a cartoonist and musician, James Kochalka also has a passion for what he calls “obsessive compulsive narcissistic twiddling” to insert himself into a hacked version of the classic video game Super Mario Bros.

The video game blog Offworld has posted Kochalka’s mod of the classic Nintendo game in which you can play as Kochalka himself. Game on!

“As a novice cartoonist, his salary ran from $6,000 to $20,000 a year”: Wednesday’s Chicago Tribune had a brief profile of Tiny Titans writer/artist Art Baltazar, with a local-cartoonist-makes-good sort of angle.

“For better or for worse, Tim Burton’s Batman changed the movie business forever”: Scott Mendelson lists the seven ways in which the Burton’s Batman changed filmmaking and moneymaking in the film industry for The Huffington Post. The occasion? The 1989 film is 20 years old this year. In other news, Oh my God I am so old!

“Ironically, this ass-kicking lesbian is a reinvention of a character originally created in the 1950s to reassure a nervous American that Batman wasn’t getting it on with Robin”: New England paper Bay Windows devotes a healthy amount of ink to the debut of Batwoman as the new star of Detective Comics. Dan DiDio is quoted several times throughout, and man, is it nice to see a J.H.Williams spread running alongside a news story about comic books, instead of some goofy drawing of Barack Obama meeting Spider-Man or sword-fignting Sarah Palin. (Not sure about that “Pow! Bang! Dyke!” bit in the caption, though)

“Out,  out! And a gay!”: Alright, I admit it—that made me laugh. Here’s another “Hey, did you know Batwoman is a lesbian?” story, this one from The Dallas Voice. Greg Rucka is interviewed, as is Richard Neal, the owner of Zeus Comics, where Rucka is doing a signing today. Okay, just one more and I’ll quit linking to Batwoman stories: Rucka was also interviewed by The Dallas Morning News, in a meandering Q-and-A that mentioned another Dallas signing he was doing (That one happened last night though).

“Now open your eyes and think about the worst possible Michele Bachmann comic, ever”: Wonkette’s Riley Waggaman did not much care for False Witness: The Michele Bachmann Story, which he felt had too many facts, and was thus more like a “graphic adaptation of the Daily Kos.” I would question his judgment on matters comic book-ical, given that he writes for a politics, gossip and satire site, however, he did wear a tophat while reading it, and I make it a rule never to argue with anyone in a tophat. They obviously know what they’re talking about, or they wouldn’t be wearing a tophat.

Mez-itz 6″ rotocast vinyl collectibles that are cool by design.

seriesOne of Mezco’s designer vinyl line presents Hellboy & Abe Sapian. These figures, based on the character designs from the film Hellboy 2:The Golden Army unleash the potential of the Mez-itz designer figures. Applying the essence of these dynamic heroes onto the canvas like Mezitz vinyl Mezco produces something exciting and original.

These two figures are exclusive to Toys R Us and ToysRus.com.
They can be purchased at

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3684540

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3684541

or at your local Toys R Us retail location.

Oh, it’s that time of the year again — convention season! Where fans cosplay, publishers make annoucements, and those who think they have the chops to work in comics full-time brush up their portfolios.

Well, if you’re looking to cast a wide net, here’s a publisher to add to your list: Viper Comics, publisher of How to Be a Serial Killer. What’s unique about this? Both artists AND writers can apply!

If you’re an artist, you know the drill: download this script here, and draw the heck out of it! Writers, there’s a bit more rules here: keep your original characters in the drawer, and instead write five comic-pages with an existing comic book character, in comic script format. And for Pete’s sake, make sure you have all your contact information on every page!

Both writers and artists should note that the publisher will only accept one entry per person. If you’re not hitting the convention, you can also e-mail Viper at contest09@vipercomics.com by July 27th!

Sidewise, an online comic by Dwight MacPherson and Igor Noronha which is in this month’s Zuda competition, has unveiled this new trailer for the comic:

All I can say is, while I’m pretty new to the webcomic, that’s a pretty slick trailer from a motion comics standpoint. Is it weird that I think this looks more put together than the BET Black Panther cartoon? What do you think, Rama readers? While I can’t endorse the comic over its competition (there’s so many to choose from!), you can read more about this time-traveling steampunk comic here.

[Tip of the hat to Steve Ekstrom for showing me this]

The above panel is a portion of one from this week’s Justice Society of America #28, written and pencilled by Jerry Ordway and inked by Bob Wiacek. You can’t tell by the way I cropped it, but The Spectre III there is drawing a portal in the air with his left hand, in order to transport the various JSA members with him. Power Girl notes that she hopes they’re not going too far, or else she’ll wish she’d have gone to the bathroom first.

Which naturally got me thinking—Holy crap, I bet it’s hard to go to the bathroom when you’re wearing a superhero costume! And Power Girl has got it super-rough.

A lot of superhero costumes seem like they’d be awfully cumbersome to get in and out of enough to, um, go, but some have it a lot easier than others. The Flash and Superman have such remarkable speed they can probably zip back to their home bathrooms and back without anyone even noticing. Iron Man has a system built into his suit, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Batman, who thinks of everything, probably has a catheter system built in to his costume which leads to a bottle hidden in his utility belt. As for Aquaman, I’m pretty sure he used to just say he had to be immersed in sea water every half hour just so he could go in the water.

But poor Power Girl! First, her costume is a one-piece thing, so I guess he has to wriggle out of the neck hole, or maybe there’s a zipper in the back of front for getting undressed…? Either way, seh’s gotta take her whole costume off to pee. And that cape probably doesn’t help matters; that’s gotta go before she can sit down, right? And I imagine she’d want to take the gloves off too. What a pain! Power Girl really needs a two-piece suit, akin to Wonder Woman’s.

You know who else probably has a hard time relieving himself?( Well yes, Penance. I’m pretty sure he just wears an adult diaper now though). Spider-Man. His costume is two peices, so he doesn’t have to take the whole think off every time he has to pee—and with all those stops at the cofee bean, he probably has to go constantly—but  where does he go to pee? Does he swing back to his apartment every time? Because he can’t really use public restrooms in his Spider-Man costume, not being a wanted man and everything, and he’d certainly be vulnerable just, like, swinging in to the men’s restroom at a restaurant or the public library or something. Sure, he could always find a private corner of a rooftop where no one ever goes, but public urination is a crime, and Spidey doesn’t really strike me as the lawbreaking kind.

Word just hit my desk that the British sci-fi series Razorjack is being given the limited edition treatment. Razorjack was a series by Watchmen colorist John Higgins in which he wrote, drew & colored that was published first by himself and later by Com.X. With a regular edition collection of the series just released by Com.X, this limited edition comes courtesy of British specialty publisher Foruli Publications.

According to Foruli Publisher Matthew Higham, there will be two limited edition box sets of Razorjack, the first of which being a “Deluxe” edition hard bound 96 page book in a exquisit handmade solander case. It will be accompanied with an original painting by Higgins and a hand pulled 8 color screenprint with 24 carat gold leaf — which each signed by Higgins himself, and limited to 15.

The standard edition comes with the book in a standard slipcase, with the hand-pulled 8 color screen print and signed by Higgins and is limited to 45.

If you’re a fan of Higgins or Razorjack or know someone who is, this would make a mighty fine Christmas present.

It reads like a headline from The Onion, but it’s not: Screenwriter Zak Penn, who’s handling the script for 2012 super-movie starring Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, talked at the Los Angeles Film Festival recently about the difficulties in writing the script for a movie that has to tie into preceding movies made by other filmmakers:

“They’re doing Captain American and Thor first, and then Avengers is coming out… They want to see that they’re all connected… I’m taking a meeting next week with the Thor and Captain America people, and we are all going to get together, and I will see what is going to happen… We all have the best intentions, and it still might suck.”

Before you get your Underoos in a bunch, just relax. He’s not making a prediction about the film’s quality, he’s merely warning about the possible outcome for a movie that has to be so heavily coordinated in order to even be made. On the other hand, Penn did have various roles in writing Last Action Hero; Inspector Gadget; Elektra; Fantastic Four; X-Men 3; and The Incredible Hulk; so you can draw your own conclusions.

Story source courtesy of SCI FI Wire; the snark is all mine.

I was pleasantly surprised by this week’s Gotham City Sirens #1, which featured a so-so but not awful story and fantastic artwork. This was by far my least favorite part, though:

That’s a portion of a panel near the end of the book, wherein a character named “The Broker,” an evil real estate agent with evil customers, is leaving the book’s protagonists in the abandoned cat shelter he just sold them, and is apparently talking to classic Batman villain Jervis “The Mad Hatter” Tetch (In the previous panel he answers his cell phone with a, “Hell-oo, Jervis! I’ve lined up something very special for you.”

Note that last bit, “best of all, just down the street from an all-girls academy.”

The implication being, of course, that The Mad Hatter isn’t just a crazy, colorful criminal obsessed with stealing various hats for his hat collection, and/or obsessed with Lewis Carrol’s Alice books, and/or a mad scientist who has perfected mind control through super-science hats. No, he’s also an honest-to-goodness pedophile.

(more…)

By the beard of Odin! Can this be true?!

Comixtreme has reported that Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski will be concluding his epic run of Thor in September, with Thor: Defining Moments Giant-Size #1.

This book was not in last week’s previews, but Comixtreme says that this new solicit — which will be in July’s issue of Previews — declares that Defining Moments will be Straczynski’s bow from the series.

This may signal a shift for Straczynski, who ended his exclusive contract with Marvel in February of 2008 to pursue some writing opportunities with DC Comics. Thor, while critically acclaimed by many, has also been a perennially late title, so a creative shift may put the book on a more frequent schedule.

We have to go back — to the toy store!

Bif Bang Pow! has announced it will be unveiling a line of Lost action figures and bobble heads at the San Diego Comic Con.

At the Entertainment Earth booth, you can have your very own Benjamin Linus bobble head, at $17 including tax!

“The twists, turns, and multiple threads that characterize Lost give rise to a host of distinctive and unforgettable characters. These characters lend themselves to the creation of unique figures and accessories that have terrific fan appeal and serve to memorialize this exceptional TV series,” said Jason Lenzi, CEO of Bif Bang Pow! in a written statement. “We’re thrilled to be bringing new bobble heads and poseable action figures to market in the vein of what Bif Bang Pow! has done with licenses in the past. As always with Lost and Bif Bang Pow!, expect the unexpected!”

This figure will be a Comic Con exclusive, limited to only 1,008 copies.

If you like what you’ve read so far (c’mon, how can you not?) totally check out more super cute comics at:www.sosuperduper.com!

While Iran is still wrapped in turmoil and the world watches more and more via the Internet, sometimes green Twitter avatars don’t seem like enough. It’s hard to figure out what you can do that might actually help.

Via Becky Cloonan, Marjane Satrapi has reached out to the comics community and asked that people sign a petition to the secretary general of the United Nations, asking for support for the Iranian people and an end to the violence.

Dear Friends

To all who beleive in freedom and dememocracy
Please sign this petition to United Nation to stop the violence, arrestations and torture in Iran.
The situation is really really bad.

Please forward it to whoever you know
Best and lots of love
Marjane Satrapi

The petition is here if you’re interested.

Well, let’s see here. I’ve been taking stock of the column, and I’ve come to the realization that we aren’t doing a lot of BRIANSTORMING here! I mean, it’s what this thing is CALLED, for goodness sakes. So, put on your Gallagher ponchos everyone, I’m going to start flinging out some weird stuff just to see it on the internet. And remember, there is no such thing as a bad idea in brainstorming, because if you only have one bad idea, you aren’t doing it right! HA!

BIDDING. Boom. There’s an idea. Any of you in internet land a contractor? See folks, in the construction world ( or military technology world, eep ) contractors bid on projects. The people who can do the best job for the least cash get the gig, or so the theory goes. This principal could apply to professional digital comics. Anyone of the major comic publishing companies could do this. All they need are: some character they aren’t using, and some serious legal work. We’ll use DC as an example (though such a big corporation could be a bad choice), because I see them as being the closest to being able to do something like this (with zudacomics.com). First they’d set up a comic community sight for discussion and networking among amateur talent (something like zeroes2heroes.com). Everyone gets a profile/portfolio page, and starts making nice and getting creative teams together. Then DC would post a job or twelve on the main page like BRIANIAC AND FRIENDS, AQUAMAN YEAR 100, or YOUNG ALL-STARS BACK TO SCHOOL EXTRAVAGANZA. Any property that just couldn’t get a spot on the newsstands, but could still draw an audience.

And then the amateurs just go crazy coming up with pitches and sample pages submitted by internet forms, each team claiming they can do it cheaper than the last. At the end of the day, the poor chumps that have to go through the submissions come up with a couple they like and run them past the higher-ups. A month later, the new creative team on AQUAMAN YEAR 100 is announced and starts cranking out X number of pages Y times a month. They sell the comics over iTunes or their own website for a buck-a-pop for desktops and mobile devices, then collect the successful ones in trade. Boom. Comics become cheap, disposable entertainment again without affecting the print market at all.

Now, I’m not a big-city lawyer, or a media empire big wig. I’m sure there are 17 obvious reasons why the couldn’t work as presented. But hey, it’s an idea, and ideas are currency in the age of information.

OH and don’t forget about the B:DC June Challenge ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT!

Agree, disagree? Questions, comments? Love poems, hate lymerics? Want to congratulate me on a sweet new logo? Email: latino.kyle (at) gmail (dot) com.

-Kyle Latino

By Bon Alimagno

Do you believe in $1.99 comics? It’s a simple question, right? Yet we all seem to be trapped helpless in a world where the average price of a comic book creeps ever upward toward $4. If someone had figured out how to stop the momentum of this oncoming train, he or she would’ve done it by now.

It’s a dilemma we’ve wrestled with for a while as we considered the pricing of our next Vampirella comics, a four part monthly miniseries, Vampirella: The Second Coming. You see, this September marks the 40th Anniversary of Vampirella and we knew we needed to do something special. When we examined the character’s place in the industry we felt that Vampi wasn’t where she should be, firmly lodged in the Top 100. Simply put, Vampirella’s fan base wasn’t as large as it once was, and definitely wasn’t as large as it should be. We needed to broaden the pool of support.

So we set a goal: break back into the Top 100 for the first time in years. But we knew what we were up against. Even armed with a stellar, game changing story by Phil Hester and art by future star Daniel Sampere, we faced an army of torch-bearing doubters and critics. We needed to do something radical, something that would break through the pollution of hype and nonsense that fills your daily intake of comics news and assorted mumbo-jumbo. So we put our money where our mouth is: we’re pricing every issue, yes, EVERY ISSUE, of this miniseries $1.99.

So again I ask: Do you believe in $1.99 comics? Because $1.99 comics is not easy, it may prove impossible. It is quite frankly a matter of faith. We need you to believe in us and we need to believe in you. You need to believe that we can deliver a high quality, thought provoking, riveting story for half the price you may now be normally paying. We need to believe that you will give us a chance, that the now old saying is true, “If you build it, they will come.”

Because we need you, each and every one of you. I know we haven’t made it easy over the years to be a fan of Vampirella. We’ve done our best and if we’ve fallen short in your eyes it’s not because we set out to do so. But now we want you back.

As is said, this isn’t easy. Most comic book readers don’t think about how much money goes into making a comic book, even before printing costs. I won’t go into it since it’ll probably scare you off and make you wonder how any comic in this day and age can make money. But when confronted with this difficult choice, we made the decision that we feel would bring us new readers, even with sacrifices on our part involved.

Frankly I don’t think many companies can do this, certainly not Marvel and DC. We can do it because our staff is incredibly small, cutting overhead costs. We can do it because we don’t make most of our money through comic book sales in the direct market, but through trade reorders, online sales through our website, Vampirella.com, on eBay and through our fan club – though we know none of that would be possible without a foundation set in the direct market. And perhaps most importantly we can do it thanks to talented and creative people who are willing to work with us and within a limited budget because they believe in what we are doing.

With all of that the rest is simple: use the so-called slimline or Fell format (20 pages, self-cover with subtly thinner paper stock), publish with four covers and a 1-in-40 retailer incentive and hope for the best. This could backfire of course, backfire royally. But we have faith in our product and we have faith in you. In the coming weeks I’ll talk more about Vampirella: The Second Coming. If the price has at least got your attention, then when I start talking about all that you’ll get for it, we hope we’ll have won you over.

We teased this last week with a promotional piece inspired by Shepard Fairey’s oft-copied HOPE poster of Barack Obama. Sure, associating yourself in any way with our new president has become a bit of a tired, yet effective, means of grabbing attention. But for us publishing $1.99 comics is a statement of hope – for our product, for our fans and for the comic book industry as a whole. Now it’s time to turn hope into action. Go to your retailers and tell them about what we’re doing, ask them to order you a copy. Join our Facebook fan page and our twitter (@realvampirella) and help us spread the word. Let’s see – together – if the comic book industry really does believe in $1.99.

See you next week… for another surprise…

Bon Alimagno is Director – Publishing & Editorial for Harris Comics, publishers of Vampirella.

This week kicked off with some interesting news, with Wizard CEO Gareb Shamus announcing that the ailing entertainment company would be assuming the reins of FunFare, a toy magazine aimed at younger children.

Yet at the same time, we’ve also heard reports of even more layoffs, in addition to general complaints about Wizard’s online store. With competition looming in the convention department, and Wizard’s staff and funds shrinking to the point of consolidating into one New York office, what’s the company’s next step?

You may be surprised, but apparently it’s taking over a new convention — in Toronto.

According to the Beat, Wizard has announced that it has purchased the Toronto Comicon. “We’ve always had a strong following in Canada, so buying the Toronto Comicon is something that allows me to give back to our fans. These attendees are known to be serious collectors and comic industry followers,” Shamus said in a press release.  “I am thrilled to offer the guests, celebrities, artists, dealers and exhibitors to our Canadian audience for the very first time.”

Peter Dixon, the former owner of the con, will be “intimately involved” with the new management, who are scheuled to debut the all-new, all-different con in 2010. But with Wizard’s shrinking fortunes, is this a sound reinvestment strategy, or a Hail Mary in the face of opposition from exhibitors like Reed and websites like, well, us? What say you, Rama readers?

The library is a great place for readers to discover comics, and it’s a great place for comics readers to check out things that they want to try without spending their hard-earned cash. I’m looking at comics that I find in the New York Public Library system.

Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite is a collaboration between writer Gerard Way and artist Gabriel Ba. Apparently, it’s a big deal that Way, who has a rock and roll band, has written a comic. I must admit, I’ve heard not even a note of Mr. Way’s band; the praise heaped on his comic, however, did catch my attention and I figured I should check it out.

And I’m glad I did; this Way kid has some pretty serious comic book chops. Apocalypse Suite introduces seven children who are born under exceptional circumstances, with unusual powers. A scientist adopts them all and raises them to be the world’s saviors against a threat that he considers imminent. Decades later, the threat has never manifested, “dad”’s passed away, the public seems to dismiss the group, and the “siblings” are fractured and mostly incommunicative.

The character stuff is all pretty obvious if you’ve read a few superhero comics. The bad boy and the square-jaw constantly needle one another, yet learn respect before it’s all done. The one who seems most harmless is, of course, the most dangerous. Umbrella Academy is a heavily plot-driven comic, and fortunately, Way’s dialogue is sharp enough to keep the characters engaging if unsurprising throughout the wild, twisted ride that he’s set them on.

Ba’s strong art carries across all of Way’s great ideas – an orchestra whose oeuvre will destroy the Earth, the hero’s moon base, the outlandish villains, the striking character designs. Each issue is a fast-moving lark, an upbeat, humorous rollercoaster ride of sci-fi dizziness. Way’s not recreating the superhero genre: he’s just having an exceptionally good time with it, and so will you if you come across Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite at your local library.