Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer

Written by Van Jensen

Drawn by Dustin Higgins

Published by Slave Labor Graphics

Who knew Pinocchio was such a badass? Well, he is in this 128 page graphic novel. Just released in time for Halloween, “Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer” is a treat combining horror and humor. This isn’t coming from the Disney “Pinocchio” either but a far more earthy version in keeping with the original 1883 tale by Carlo Collodi.

This Pinocchio has a sort of Scott Pilgrim energy to it. When his father/maker, Geppetto, is killed by vampires, that seals the deal: a wooden puppet vampire slayer is born. All he has to do is tell some lies, watch his nose grow and then snap it off to instantly dispatch any blood sucker. And if he needs back up, there’s always his faithful surrogate dad, the other carpenter, Master Cherry. With his own modified machine gun, “The Monsterminator,” he’ll get anything that might try to get away. And no cute cricket in a top hat here. This cricket gets routinely stomped on within an inch of its life.

Dustin Higgins sure knows how to create a world. His live wire brush work is crooked, jaggy and sharp. The buildings themselves have character. And he is certainly in tune with Van Jensen’s writing as each balances the laughs with the spooky stuff. Within this world, tension mounts and the vampires do feel like a real threat.

Speaking of Scott Pilgrim, there are hints that we may see more of a growing boy’s life in future installments. In this first book, Pinocchio is caught in a bashful moment as he chats it up with a girl he is sweet on. But, of course, he is mostly concerned with killing vampires.

By the end of the book, there have been a whole lot of changes and a whole lot of issues dealt with so it will be interesting to see what happens next. “P:VS”  began as a one panel gag by Higgins and was transformed by Jensen into a full-fledged serious, yet funny, work.  One thing is for sure, the creative team of Van Jensen and Dustin Higgins are two to keep an eye on. You can pick up a copy here.

It’s been a couple of weeks now since The Perhapanauts Halloween Spooktacular #1 hit the stands, and while the Blog@Newsarama already reviewed the book, along with a handful of other Halloween books, just after its release, my regular commentary feature with writer Todd Dezago had to wait while I tracked a copy down. You see, here in the Great White North of Upstate New York, it’s often impossible to find books that are doing well, even if they haven’t technically sold completely out in the rest of the country.

Anyway, enjoy some questions with Todd Dezago. It’s Halloween, and this book (which he implies might become a Perhapanauts yearly thing) is akin to the “Perhapanauts Treehouse of Horror,” with guest artists and at least one story that has such a different tone that while it’s technically in-continuity, it feels very standalone. There’s also, in the spirit of the holiday, a rather ominous little hint that Todd leaves out there for regular readers to ponder…!

Blog@Newsarama: So…Big’s on Facebook? Does the Chief have a problem with that?

Todd Dezago: Big’s got a private account, so I think it’s okay. Also he’s got another one listed under a pseudonym so that he can really surf around. I don’t think they ever worry too much about what Big does anymore–not with Choopie around.

Blog@: What’s his profile picture look like?

TD: The picture on his private account looks just like him. The fake one has a picture that looks a lot like Walter Cronkite.

Blog@: So do you know what the plans are for the next year or so? Should we look forward to another Spooktacular issue, whether or not the next arc is completed by then?

TD: We hadn’t really planned on making the Halloween Spooktacular an annual tradition, but we received a lot of nice reviews on it and readers seemed to like it, so…

Blog@: What’s the deal with everyone trying to eat Choopie this month? Two of the stories have something trying to chase and eat him!

TD: Chupacabras are, apparently, very tasty! I can’t say from experience though. I’ve eaten lots of things, but never a chupacabra.

Blog@: And at the risk of deteriorating into Seinfeld: What’s the deal with the second story?–they’re worried about Big’s footprints attracting attention even in the mounting snow, but Choopie’s aren’t suspect?

TD: I think by the time they called Choopie in, they were a bit exasperated and needed a new game plan. Also, Choopie’s feet in snowshoes would/could look like a little kids. Big’s snowshoes would need to be about three feet long/wide each!

Blog@: It’s interesting–I don’t know that we’ve seen that kind of weakness in Arisa before, and Hamerskold stepped right up. Was that just him being in his element a little, or is he learning to be more of a team player?

TD: Hammerskold’s motivations for helping out are all about his secret attraction to Arisa. (you DO remember his finding feelings for her when he ‘felt’ her kiss back in the Annual, right?) He’s actually been doing a lot of things that seem out of character because of this. He doesn’t know what to do with it.

Blog@: So–Hembeck is awesome. How’d that happen?

TD: Fred and I are old friends–from away back! I love Fred and loved his work long before I knew him! For years we played volleyball together on a mostly comic guys volleyball night in Woodstock. That guy has a killer serve!

Blog@: Is it bad that I still prefer Craig’s interpretation of the characters?

TD: Well, they are Craig’s characters…Though Craig and I are always so excited whenever somebody–ANYBODY–does their version of the Haps! We love to see new interpretations and styles! And that we are so lucky to have such talented friends helping us out is just awesome!

Blog@: Clearly some of the script was done with Fred in mind–the Fred-pop. But the whole tone was pretty all-ages friendly. Was it all written for him?

TD: All three stories for Fred, you mean? No, they were stories that I’d been dreaming up for a while and just handed them to the artists I felt fit the mood of the story best! And then they bring their own mood and it all falls into place perfectly!

Blog@: When will we see the ‘Haps on iTunes? I see the first two issues of Tellos so far (and the first one’s free, people!), but no ‘Haps yet.

TD: It’s not? Hmmm…I’m sure it’ll be up there soon. It’s s’posed to be. Being that I don’t have an iphone, I really haven’t been following the releases of these apps and downloads. I guess I’d better get one and get on-board, huh?

Blog@: Is there a timeline for this issue? Obviously it happens either before the events of “Triangle” or after the next arc, since the gang’s all here…!

TD: Here’s the thing…Going all the way back to “First Blood,” I’ve tried to have the main stories go by in a continuous stream, each arc picking up the moment that the last one ended. That has turned into a monster now that it constantly biting me in the ass! You ask–and I do too–where do these other stories fit in? If Arisa is lost in limbo somewhere, how is she in the opening to Choopie’s Halloween story? Or the Tatzelwurm story? So here’s the deal–they all happened “before”. Sometime earlier when things were good and everyone was around and no one was dead yet.

Qops.

Blog@: Will we get to see a little more of the boss-man in the next arc? With the bald head and the glasses, he reminds me of Skinner from The X-Files.

TD: The Chief? Oh, yeah, there’s a lot more to the Chief that we haven’t even touched on yet…

Blog@: How many friends has Big got out there in the world? He’s got his Shaman, and Nessie, so far…!

TD: Big has a few notable friends out there in the real world and you’ll see more of them pop up as time goes on. He may not be able to stroll around in public, but the internet affords him a wide range of contact out there in the intellectual world! Stay tuned!

Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four vol. 3
Written & Illustrated by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Published by Marvel Comics

Man, I really appreciate that Marvel’s putting these old classic Marvel titles in affordable, quality editions. I appreciate why people like getting a giant chunk of story in the Essential or Showcase format, but I strongly prefer a color edition that represents the work as it was intended to be seen (“intended to be seen” is a loaded phrase, I admit, but the approach to the line work does change when the artist expects the work to be seen in black and white). So to my mind, Essential equals unacceptable, and the traditional hardcover Marvel Masterworks/Archive is, with very, very few exceptions (see Eisner, Will’s The Spirit), beyond what I’m willing to spend. But $25 for eleven issues of classic Stan n’ Jack, that’s a good deal and as long as Marvel has Stan n’ Jack Fantastic Four or Thor issues to publish, or Stan n’ Steve Spideys, I’m aboard.

As for this, the collected edition of the second ten regular issues and the first annual, Marvel Masterworks: Fantastic Four vol. 2 is – summing this up is harder than I expected; let’s say – intriguing. If you’ve read any amount of Silver Age comics, particularly DC stuff, you can really see why these issues blew people’s minds. The taunting between Ben and Johnny is extremely subversive in comparison to anything that had been done before, and the characters’ ability to exhibit less-than-heroic traits gave them a palpable humanity rarely shown before in adventure comics.

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“I adore what I do and don’t think of it as just a job. It is what I breathe, it is intrinsic to my being”: That’s Hana Hajjar, “Saudia Arabia’s lone female cartoonist,” talking about her profession in this nice feature on CNN.com. You can see a slideshow of Hajjar’s work there, and much more of it on her website.

“Crazy Dudes Wanted to Fly to Denmark to Murder Old Man Over Cartoon, of All Things”: Gawker had probably the best headline of all the coverage of the plot by two Chicago men to kill the Danish Muhammad cartoonist.

“Not your average wiggly things”: Check out this National Post feature on Drawn and Quarterly’s recent collection of R.O. Blechman’s work, Talking Lines. I plan on writing a full review at some point in the near future, but in the mean time I will say it’s an excellent book, and one I hope you’ll take the time to look at soon.

“Costume possibilities are endless with a simple cape”: Need a last-minute Halloween costume? This article from The Orlando Sentinel makes a good case for starting with a cape and making a simple superhero costume from there. If it was good enough for Superman…

“That’s… different”: Savage Critic Brian Hibbs did a good job of expressing why “Dark Reign” has been less than satisfying for me, in large part because it seems like a branding exercise rather than a story, a new status quo in which nothing ever actually happens—dark or light—as the whole Marvel line simply waits around for the next Secret Invasion-sized event. He did so while expressing some admiration for Dark Reign—The List: Punisher #1, in which something pretty big and pretty dark does happen. Also on Savage Critics, Sean T. Collins defends The Dark Knight Strikes Again. Let the record show: I loved that series (I could have done without all the newscaster segments, but otherwise, I thought it was pretty damn great).

Changes in store for The Comics Journal: The venerable comics magazine’s next issue, November’s #300, will be its last on the current schedule and in the current format. In the future, the hard copy of TCJ will come in “expanded semi-annual editions, each customized to fit its content.” Meanwhile, TCJ.com is going to massively beef up its content. You can read the company’s official press release on the changes here.

How often do Ivan Reis and Johnny Ryan draw the same exact thing in the same exact week?: This week’s Blecky Yuckerella strip on Fantagraphics’ Flog! Blog has Blecky doing to her pal Wedgie just what the Silver Age Atom did to the Golden Age Atom in the pages of Blackest Night #4. Weird.

Also, does it even mean anything if the artist in question has only drawn like five different stories in that career?: Heidi MacDonald finds the phrase “best work of his career” kind of annoying when its used to hype up an upcoming project.

Spider-Man: The Short Halloween

Written by Bill Hader and Seth Meyers

Art by Kevin Maguire

Published by Marvel Comics

This one passed me by when it first came out earlier this year. As a special Halloween treat, let’s look back at this delightful one-shot. How often is it that you have “Saturday Night Live” veterans writing a superhero comic? Is it possible that Bill Hader and Seth Meyers are the first? I think so but I’d be happy to learn that there’s like some Chevy Chase script about Wonder Woman out there or maybe Al Franken’s take on Wolverine.

Hader and Meyers opt to be respectful and even include a reverential recap on how Spider-Man got his powers just in case you’re from some other planet. The story finds Spider-Man in typical fashion, pursuing a baddie. But that’s perfectly fine as we ease into some offbeat and often hilarious writing. It’s easy to see that Hader and Meyers love comics and the people who read them. The title itself, “Spiderman: The Short Halloween,” is a geek in-joke referring to Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale’s “Batman: The Long Halloween.” And the story, well it’s not some obvious satire. No, it’s actually a little masterpiece involving mistaken identity and, in the bargain, a clever juxtaposition of the weird world of superheroes and us average citizens.

In some ways, you feel like you can’t cross a line with Spider-Man. Peter Parker is as average as you can get. He’s forever fighting for his well-earned cash from The Man, J. Jonah Jameson. Who can’t relate to that? And, as Spider-Man, the guy gets no respect. What’s not to love? Hader and Meyers appear to feel the same way and give you a story where Joe Average gets to take center stage and we consider his problems. And the villains, they’re average too. Actually, they’re below average. And Spider-Man is totally enmeshed in this.

You can really take this mistaken identity thing to new heights. What happens is that the real Spider-Man is quite accidentally knocked out while confronting a third-rate wannabe villain. At the same time, a drunk in a Spider-Man costume, who happens to have a great Spider-Man costume and a credible build, is being hauled around by two of his buddies after a Halloween night that has gone wrong. As the drunk Spider-Man careens down a corner and collapses by a dumpster, the real Spider-Man heroically falls out from the sky and crashes into a heap nearby. So, the buddies haul the real Spider-Man into their apartment. And the awkward villain makes off with the drunk Spider-Man to show off to the rest of his crew of lame baddies.

I love it every time New York gets to be a character in a Spider-Man story. I  prefer the offbeat and the more domestic and talky stuff and how it can play off the superhero stuff. That’s always been an important part of Spider-Man and it’s carried off here with a lot of authentic dialogue and some very natural action. For example, the drunk Spider-Man’s life is a mess with his girlfriend ready to leave him. Finally getting past his friends, she is more than ready to go through “the talk” with him as he lays on a couch. Having said what she needs to say, she feels some regret and goes to kiss his hand. And, with perfect comedic timing, that’s when Spider-Man’s webbing shoots into her face. It’s a scene done with such skill since it’s so in the moment.

What keeps the writing so in the moment too is the amazing art by Kevin Maguire. His realism mixed with cartoony flourish is a perfect match. From the start, you know that Fumes, the clumsy villain, is more like us than Doctor Octopus. He has that face. And the guys out on the town with the drunk Spider-Man, elicit sympathy. You’ve been in that same cab with these guys as they agree with their pal that’s he’s Spider-Man– or at least you feel like you have.

How often does comedy mix with comics? Well, within superhero comics, there’s some of that in the current run of Marvel’s “Strange Tales” which includes Peter Bagge’s hilarious sendup of The Hulk. Of course, superhero comics can have a sense of humor but strictly comedic, not so much. Then again, it all depends on where you look, like for instance, “The Metal Men.”

That said, comedy is certainly as viable as anything else in comics. As reported here at Newsarama, American Original’s Jeff Katz, in connection with Top Cow, will gather a lineup of star comedians to create their own comics. They will be collected into graphic novels under the series title, “Comedy Death Ray.” It will be an impressive roster including Sarah Silverman, Zach Galifianakis, Patton Oswalt, Bob Odenkirk, David Cross, Paul Scheer, B. J. Novak, Janeane Garofalo and another SNL talent, Fred Armisen. The proposed first four issue run is scheduled to come out this winter.

“Comedy Death Ray” probably won’t have that much to do with superheroes. The series editor, comedian/writer Scott Aukerman, is more of a fan of stuff like Dan Clowes’s “Eightball” and Peter Bagge’s “Hate.” But maybe he’s read “The Short Halloween.” If so, that’s a good thing since it’s a great example of comedy writers writing comics.

Hope everyone has a safe and fun Halloween.

Find out more about Global Freezing here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or at ComicsByEgg.com.

He’s a hard man to find. And occasionally, a harder man to talk to. He’s the Caped Crusader, the Dark Knight Detective, the owner of the Hammers of Justice . . . he . . . is . . . BATMAN. And he’s the last interview that we have in our series of iconic heroes commenting on the costumes based on their images. This time, we had to expand out a bit, as Batman’s partners and rogues gallery has inspired a fair field of costuming. We met atop a wind-swept rooftop in Gotham, pictures in hand, to find out what The Batman thinks.

NRAMA: Thanks again for meeting.

Batman: Keep it short. Crime is impatient, and justice doesn’t like to wait.

NRAMA: Wouldn’t that make them both impatient?

Batman: . . .

NRAMA: Nevermind. How about we start with your enemies?

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Television and video, you say?

We’ve got it in spades this week.

First of all, online animation series The Gloomers have released their first-ever Halloween special. Starring Scott Spiegel, the writer of Evil Dead II, the Halloween episode is (as the rest of the series, apparently) a razor-edged sendup of old-school Hanna Barbera animation style with a contemporary and slightly twisted sense of humor. I’d never heard of the show until the Halloween special came out, but the new episode is pretty sweet. There’s a lot of fun to be had in this episode and, eventually, I’ll probably work back through the archives now that I’ve seen the kind of absurd humor they have in store.

Second—and even cooler, in my estimation, but with the possibility to go horribly wrong—The Hollywood Reporter has a story that the Britcom Being Human, which revolves around the day-to-day lives of a werewolf, a ghost and a vampire, has been optioned by Syfy for an American treatment. Obviously, there’s a pretty checkered history with American networks trying to adapt British television, with stinkers like Kath & Kim and the abortive Spaced remake (seriously? Will Sasso?), but there’s always NBC’s The Office to consider—and the reality that even just a few mentions on mainstream American television could bring a decent-sized audience to the good, British version of a show whether the original sucks or not.

The Warner Brothers Home Video weekly e-mail newsletter just hit, too, which offers fans a shot at up to 40% off all DC Comics products at the Warner Brothers website. It’s mostly notable because of the nice little piece of accompanying art that came with it, featuring characters like Guy Gardner and the black Firestorm. I recently bought a t-shirt at Wal-Mart that had Kilowog and Mr. Terrific on it; I have to say I’m loving how DC is promoting its not-so-mainstream properties these days. Anyway, the sale might be a good place to pick up that four-movies-in-one-box Batman DVD for eleven bucks or a couple of the recent direct-to-DVD DC movies.

And last but not least, Smallville has been in the news quite a bit this week; after a producer confirmed for fans that they’re hoping to get a tenth season for the “adventures of Superman when he was a boy” show on the CW network, Hawkman Michael Shanks has a great interview on the Huffington Post today, where he discusses the upcoming Geoff Johns-scripted episodes of the show. In it, Shanks mentions that he’ll be the re-incarnated Egyptian Acrcheologist, Carter Hall. He has wings, he has a mace, and yes, he will be using both, flying and doing some damage.

Smallville producers have been hitting the Internet this week, saying that they’re lobbying the network for another season after this one’s over. It first came out of a Michael Ausiello column at EW.com (after all, what doesn’t these days?), but it’s now been confirmed a few other places. Our own Lucas Siegel put the question of whether a tenth season of the show was a good idea to ‘Rama Readers over on Twitter, to mixed responses.

A lot of people only wanted to see more Smallville if it meant Superman would finally actually appear on the show. “Not unless they allow some ‘tights & flights’,” said a reader who goes by pibdgardel on Twitter. User troyrobbins agreed: “Only if he officially becomes Superman – the whole show is a build up to Supes and we need to see the payoff.”

Meanwhile, hyacinthe718 spoke pretty definitively for the fans who aren’t interested in more seasons of the show, saying “please, please let it f*@!@ end!” RockyShields agreed, adding with a sentiment that echoed a lot of other readers that the show should have ended or changed concepts: “The show should have ended after season five. Or renamed it Metropolis.”

This is, of course, just the beginning; Lucas has promised more polls like this, and fans should follow@newsarama and @newsaramablog on Twitter for more to come.

Great Odin’s raven! Reports are coming in all over from Worst Previews to MTV concerning Academy Award winner Sir Anthony Hopkins will be portraying Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki’s (Tom Hiddleson) father, Odin, in Kenneth Branagh’s Thor adaptation.

This news comes just over a week after the Robert DeNiro and Jude Law casting rumor is put to rest, much like an Odinsleep.

I personally couldn’t think of a better casting. Now, there were rumors of an actor by the name of Brian Blessed originally playing Odin, but I just love this idea. He joins an already well-rounded ensemble, along with Natalie Portman as Jane Foster and Jaimie Alexander as Sif.

Filming is to start January and Paramount Pictures will release the film on May 20, 2011.

Fantagraphics recently announced that they’ve struck a deal for seven (7) new books with writer/editor Greg Sadowski, who was responsible for Supermen!: The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-1941 and a couple of B. Krigstein-related works for the publisher.

The books will be published one a season, so seven of ‘em is really planning ahead, and should carry them through to fall of 2012 or so (I don’t even have my next seven blog posts planned yet).

Here’s what they have planned at the moment…

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Greetings, Blog@teers — have we got some news for you!

For the past six months, a webcomic has been featured by Ain’t It Cool News and CNN, celebrated for its action, characterization, and respect for the blaxploitation films that inspired it. As its creator notes, it’s Super Fly meets The Equalizer, the step-child of Shaft and Rip Kirby, a love letter to the Black action films of the 1970s. For some, it’s street justice like you’ve never seen — and for those on the run, well, all that’s coming their way is a WORLD OF HURT.

And in keeping with our mission to deliver the best and the brightest to you, our readers, we are proud to announce that WORLD OF HURT will be making its second home at Blog@Newsarama, as the latest in our weekly webcomics series. We sat down with writer/artists Jay Potts about the comic, his blaxploitation inspirations, and what the future holds for Isaiah “Pastor” Hurt.

Newsarama: Jay, just to start out with, can you tell new readers a little bit about what World of Hurt is about?

Jay Potts: WORLD OF HURT is a weekly, black & white serial adventure webcomic that is my personal love letter to the Black action films of the 1970s and the Golden Age of newspaper adventure strips.  It is set in the early1970s in the city of Pointe Blanc, a fictional version of San Francisco and Oakland, and follows the exploits of a Black troubleshooter named Isaiah “Pastor” Hurt.

Nrama: In terms of getting to know you a little bit — what’s your background been in terms of comics? Is World of Hurt your first one, or have you been building up this?

Potts: I’ve been drawing since the age of four and have been a comic book fan for just as long.  However, it wasn’t until I entered the graduate program in Sequential Art at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, GA in 1997, that I received any formal instruction.  What I learned there about storytelling and composition, and the exposure to an incredible range of talent, was truly eye-opening.

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Joe and Azat
Written & Illustrated by Jesse Lonergan
Published by NBM

Cartoonist Jesse Lonergan traveled to Turkmenistan with the Peace Corps, and his experiences there are filtered through exaggeration, fiction and personal creative whimsy to craft Joe and Azat: the story of a young American cartoonist Joe and his unlikely friendship with an idealistic Turkman named Azat.

Joe and Azat is a fairly surprising work. Joe’s raison d’etre for being in Turkmenistan, his mission with the Peace Corps, is referenced only obliquely, and the country’s political circumstances get even less page time. Joe and Azat is the tale of two young men’s culture-clashed, and culture-crossing, friendship.

To anybody with immigrants in their life, Joe’s experiences with Azat’s family will ring immediately true. Lonergan’s ability to show Azat’s meddling mother, drunken brother and idealism about capitalism works because he doesn’t cast any judgments. Every character is delivered with warm humanity, building the palpable reality of their existence.

I appreciated how Azat, overwhelmingly defined by his naïve love of capitalism and his unreasonable expectations for marriage, provides a range of personality. He embraces his opportunity to befriend Joe, he looks for the silver lining in his stumbling business ventures, and he believes fully that he’s found the love of his life. Joe’s dissociated window into Turkmen society allows us to peer into their world with a healthy degree of skepticism, but also an eye toward learning

Lonergan’s depiction of Azat’s mother, a what-will-the-neighbors-think immigrant mother, treads effectively (as Art Spiegelman lamented his own ability to do in the latter pages of Maus) the fine line between cliché and cliché-truth.

Artistically, Lonegran’s bigfoot cartoon style suits his upbeat, affectionate writing style. Occasionally, characters are difficult to distinguish; the thickness of Azat’s brother Merdan fails to come across, leaving the reader confused as to which sibling is angrily berating Joe and which is doggedly devoted to him. Actually, it’s obvious which is which, but the confusion does lead to some momentarily jarring sequences.

Joe and Azat is a warm, humorous comic, solidly crafted, and well worth picking up if you’re at the comic shop this week and find an extra $11 in your pocket.

There’s something I’ve been thinking about for a while now, that yesterday’s issue of Blackest Night reminded me of, and intensified my curiosity about.

If you’ve been reading DC’s superhero line for long, you know that the company has been actively promoting their Blackest Night miniseries and the surrounding story event for well over a year now.

If you’ve been reading Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern work, you know that he’s been writing his way toward this story for a very long time, perhaps as long as he’s been writing Hal Jordan stories.

As the event grew closer, it became apparent that some of the high profile characters the company was killing off were being killed off precisely so that they could return as undead Black Lantern.

Certainly Martian Manhunter and Aquaman were killed for this purpose, but how far back has DC been killing their characters with the expectation that they’d come back as zombie Lanterns in Blackest Night and then, perhaps, stay back once Hal Jordan is able to harness “white light of creation”…?

But what about The Question and Ralph Dibny, killed during the course of 52? Or the Freedom Fighters, Pantha and all the Infinite Crisis casualties? Or Max Lord, Sue Dibny and Blue Beetle II?

There are two relatively minor characters, both villains, that I was kinda shocked DC actually killed off, and I’ve been wondering and worrying about ever since Blackest Night started returning the dead.

That would be Monsieur Mallah, the intelligent gorilla who wears a beret and bandoliers and speaks with a French accent, and The Brain, who is just an evil brain that lives in an evil-looking gumball machine-esque support system.

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It’s time again to interview one of the heroic icons of comicdom regarding their representation in the land of Halloween costumes. With a little help from Daily Bugle photog Peter Parker, we were able to round-up some time with our friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

NRAMA: Thanks, Spidey!

Spider-Man: This isn’t just going to be a hatchet job, is it?

NRAMA: No. Why would you think that?

Spider-Man: I haven’t had the best relationship with the press. I stop a robbery, and the Bugle says, “Spider-Man: Robbery Suspect?” I rescue kids from a burning building, and it says, “Spider-Man: Arsonist?” Then there was that time I rescued the sheep from the collapsing 4H building.

NRAMA: What was the headline?

Spider-Man: I’d rather not talk about it.

NRAMA: Well, then, let’s start with the costumes . . .

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As Bowie might have put it, “We can be sparkly, just for one day.” According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Twilight”, the first film adaptation in the “Twilight Saga”, will get a one-day return engagement to theaters on November 19th. That’s one day prior to the debut of the second film, “The Twilight Saga: New Moon”. The first film will get play on around 2,000 screens, though the sequel will open even wider.

“Twilight” studio Summit Entertainment regards this as a wise move. “Despite the first film already being on DVD, fans across the nation have been calling out to see the film once again on the big screen, and the studio is honoring their request,” Summit was quoted as stating in the THR piece.

Clearly, this isn’t the first time that a move of this type has been made. Nevertheless, this, along with recent brief engagments for the first two “Toy Story” films and “This Is It!”, makes one wonder if so-called micro-releases or micro-engagements might be a shot in the arm for studio bottom lines.

If you had a film that you’d like to see on the big screen (again, or for the first time) just for one day, what would it be?

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!

Fans of Craig Ferguson got an intersting surprise Tuesday night, when award-winning author Salman Rushdie alluded that he would be taking his talents toward sequential art.

Here’s a highlight, from ICv2:

Ferguson asked, “Do you ever think, “Oh, I’d quite like to write a book with just pictures and stuff?”

Rushdie answered, “Yeah, and actually I got asked recently if I’d like to write a graphic novel. I was kind of keen on it. When I was a kid I was a real comic book nut. I could tell you a lot about superheroes.”

Considering big-name writers like Stephen King and Orson Scott Card have been getting a piece of the comic book pie with Marvel and DC, this isn’t a huge stretch. And with Rushdie’s most famous work — Midnight’s Children — being almost a mix of Heroes and the Umbrella Academy in terms of it’s premise, this could be a big deal indeed.

And speaking of Ferguson and super-heroes, he just did an Aquaman bit with Tim Gunn. Seriously.

Batman has always been known by his many trademark moves: the Batmobile, the fact that HIS PARENTS ARE DEEEEEEAAAAAAAAD, the grapnel, the being prepared for everything… and his trademark vanishing act at the end of a conversation. Well, except this instance that Topless Robot found, which gives Batman an epic fail in his usual ninja exit.

Oh, Bats. “I found some evidence.” Smooth move, Bruce.

Private Wars
Written by Greg Rucka
Published by Bantam

Greg Rucka’s Queen and Country wasn’t like most comic book series. Another comic serial about a British spy would likely be a superficial pastiche of James Bond clichés, but in the hands of Greg Rucka, Queen and Country was a taut, psychologically challenging, procedure-oriented game of political maneuvering and morally debatable (in the best sense) international intrigue. And the heaviest emphasis was on the personal demons endured by the series’ lead agent, Tara Chase, as she coped with the internal stress of assassinations, carefully planned missions gone awry, and the loss of several colleagues.

The series took a strange twist, in my opinion, when Rucka chose to write a novel about one of Tara’s missions (A Gentleman’s Game). The comic book incarnation went on hold, returned briefly, but felt slightly off-kilter when it did, as if too much tragedy had confronted Tara beyond its pages and she didn’t quite fit back into the format. Rucka’s most recent foray into Tara’s life, the prose novel Private Wars, however, finds Tara’s life and adventures slipping comfortably back into the world of the unadorned written word.

Private Wars concerns itself with Tara’s efforts to lift a potentially sympathetic political figure out of Uzbekistan. It might be an easy job, except there are divergent political agendas at work within the British government, and Tara’s effectively going against U.S. expectations for the region.  As might be expected from Rucka, it’s a tense read, dramatic and tragic.  There’s nothing within that rewrites its genre, but it’s all delivered by a dedicated craftsman who understands pace and character.

As he’s done in the past, Rucka stuffs Private Wars with complex personal agendas, crafty political gamesmanship, and surprising plot twists. In anything, he’s probably outdone himself this time. Tara’s reasons for being in Uzbekistan aren’t what she was told, and when things go to hell, she quickly finds her entire mission turned completely upside down.  Similarly, her boss Paul Crocker has sent her on a mission he didn’t intend for, and he finds himself attempting to turn a political minefield to his own advantage.

Probably the most interesting writing Rucka’s able to pull off is switching up allegiances effectively and convincingly. CIA rat Aaron Tower turns out to be an okay guy when you’re on his side. Incoming Uzbeki president Sevara Malikov never truly leaves behind her manipulative, self-serving ways, but she offers glimmers of humanity in the guilt she tries to hide when dealing with her family, as well as in her capitulation to U.S. demands to improve humanitarian conditions. Only ex-KGB operative Zahidov skews ever-so-slightly toward simplistic comic book villainy, and even there, Rucka imbues him with a palpable nationalism, a recognizably overzealous sense of pride, and a more sad devotion to a love that won’t be returned to him.

Still, Rucka’s best work comes from the comparison and contrast of Tara Chase against her initial rescue target, Ruslan Malikov. Single parents, both widowed by the murder of their partner, Tara and Ruslan are both torn from their children, driven by regret and rage, and their final scene together leads one to wonder: is there any real difference between them? That human angle adds depth and human connection to Private Wars’ racing plot, leaving readers not only breathless, but hopefully moved and with something much more human than your typical thriller.