Yesterday DC’s Source blog had a post entitled “Paul Cornell Steps in as New Action Comics Writer.” That was pretty surprising, given that Marc Guggenheim was just announced as stepping in as the new Action Comics writer, with June’s Action Comics #890 being solicited less than a month ago as the debut of “dynamic new creative team of Marc Guggenheim (Amazing Spider-Man) and Pete Woods.”

I’ve really enjoyed all of Cornell’s comics-writing work that I’ve read so far, particularly his unfortunately short-lived Captain Britain & MI13, which featured a terrific balance of character drama, humor, superhero action and zaniness…pretty much the exact formula of content I’d like to see in my Superman comics.  So Cornell coming on to Action sure sounded like good news to me.

The exact wording of the announcement does give me a bit of pause though. From The Source post:

“I’m very bummed to be missing out on this chance to work with Marc who I think would have kicked some serious butt on ACTION. The story he pitched began to evolve into something quite different, something Marc knew would be great, but he had concerns about whether he was the man to write this tale. Rather than do a disservice to the book, the readers and himself, Marc decided to step away from ACTION, and we both know that sometime in the future, we’ll be collaborating on Superman for sure.

“With Guggs out of the picture, there was only one person to turn to, one writer who could bring this book to those Guggian heights while still making it his own—Paul Cornell. Shockingly, he accepted the challenge. In the short time we’ve been working together, his enthusiasm has blown me away!

Happily, no sooner had Marc stepped off than another editor swooped in to work with Marc on a project that will be announced in the near future.”

Does that sound like the story Guggenheim was intending to tell on Action Comics didn’t quite fit in a serial, 22-pages-a-month, should-sync-up-at-least-loosely-with-the-other-Superman-books book? Or that Guggenheim’s story didn’t fit with the Superman story that the editors and/or other writers wanted to tell in Action, and rather than force him to do it against his will they hired someone else?

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The New York Times has a great article about Ruby Spears/Sid & Marty Krofft productions’ plan to develop some long-lost Jack Kirby concepts. Kirby apparently created scores of new characters while working as an artist for Ruby-Spears animation in the 1980′s, and the art on display in the piece is supposedly only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.

The article showcases some wonderful, and very 1980′s, character concepts from the king of comics, including what appears to be a superteam of stage magicians, a female, super-villain-fighting Indiana Jones archetype, and a wonderfully off-the-chain, purely Kirby team called “The Gargoids”.

Apparently, there are crates of old Kirby stuff archived by Ruby-Spears, and whether or not Kirby’s legendary status is enough to propel these inventive, but decidedly idiosyncratic creations into the mainstream, is up in the air. At the very least, this stuff could make a kick-as coffee table book.

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

So the Eisner Award nominations have been announced, and there was much rejoicing.

In a year that saw a number of high-profile mainstream projects nominated for awards, including James Robinson’s unbelievably horrible Justice League: Cry For Justice earning him a Best Writer nomination, indie comics saw far less representation than usual in the industry’s equivalent of the Academy Awards. That didn’t stop James D. Hudnall, a conservative blogger who served as a judge this year, from taking issue with a similar accusation, made a little more colorfully, by The Beat. The blog claimed that “indie comics really got shut out almost completely this year, aside from the almost obligatory Kevin Huizenga nomination.” While plenty of non-Big Two books were nominated, they were largely from outfits like Boom! Studios and Viz Media, neither of whom can credibly be called “indie” anymore.

Hudnall, an employee of conservative activist and media provocateur Andrew Breitbart’s “Big Hollywood” blog, responded in the comments thread that “It seemed to me, as a judge, we favored indy comics. In fact, I made a point of doing so.” He also noted that many of this year’s nominations came from publishers who weren’t traditional comics publishers, and so whose status as “indie” may be tenuous but who weren’t part of the comics establishment. “The judges were almost uniformly uninterested in brands or publishers. I know I wasn’t. I just looked at the quality of individual work,” said Hudnall in the same comment. (more…)

In the 1950’s, French film critics like Andre Bazin and Francois Truffaut came up with an idea called the “auteur theory” of film. Auteur theory basically says that film, an undeniably collaborative medium, should be evaluated and analyzed in terms of strong individual creators or “auteurs”. Anyone whose creative presence is so strong it dominates the making of a film can be an auteur. Auteur theory is important because it helped legitimize film criticism. At the same time, even the theory’s strongest proponents knew it was kind of a hustle. No movie is really the product of just one person, no matter how talented they are. Auteur Theory was a means to an end, an extremely helpful fallacy. The theory took hold and crossed over into mainstream criticism where it thrived because it indulged a very popular idea: The idea that nothing of artistic worth can ever be created by committee, and that only focused, singular visionaries can produce good art.

So, what does all this have to do with comics? Comics are now deep in an era where the concept of the celebrity creator has entrenched the idea of auteurism very deeply into the medium. Characters that were once infinitely bigger than any one writer or artist often find their popularity (and sales) dependent on the comings and goings of hyped talent. (more…)

A source close to Bloody Disgusting it reporting that Brandon Routh has been cast in AMC’s Walking Dead series.

His role is unknown yet, but I’d love to see this guy take over TV land. There’s no denying his charisma and good looks and his acting skills. So what do you think readers and WD fans, who do you think Routh will portray? Should he be cast, he’ll join Andrew Lincoln as Rick, who was announced earlier last week.

And God is it glorious.

This print will be available this weekend at C2E2, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy drooling over this piece now. It’s pretty much everything I would want out of an Avengers roster and THEN some. I had the pleasure to see Canete work on the original for the print at MegaCon of this year as a commission fro Tim Townsend.

The thing is, Canete actually did two of these. “He actually laid it out in blue line and finished the piece right there at the show,” explains Townsend on comicartfans.com. “Whats totally insane is that the paper he initially used wasnt taking the ink so he totally STARTED OVER from scratch and still managed to finish it at the show.”

Now, I know blog@ just mentioned Canete’s blog, but this piece by itself warranted some extra attention.

Looking for more Marvel Misfits or Wolverine: Prodigal Son? Unfortunately, MoCCA resulted in some saddening news: Del Rey Manga has cancelled the two titles, leaving an uncertain future for Marvel’s manga lineup.

Deb Aoki had the scoop, after a fan let her know that Raina Telgemeier told her that she might not see a follow-up to the X-Men Misfits story anytime soon. Aoki did some digging, and got a surprising reply.

“Wow! News travels fast! @goraina and I super disappointed since it was written as a 2-part story and it will be unfair to readers,” Misfits’ Dave Roman confirmed on Twitter. ”We only found out last week. We still don’t have a lot of the details beyond it being a cost of licensing vs. profits issue.”

Meanwhile, Anthony Johnston — writer of Wolverine: Prodigal Son — said on his blog that his series was also cancelled.

“It’s a great shame. I was very pleased with the second volume, and Wilson’s work for it was even better than for the first… Unfortunately, the simple truth is that not enough people bought them.” Johnston said. “Despite WOLVERINE being praised by readers and selected for two library YA lists, despite MISFITS making it onto the New York Times bestseller list, and not least despite all the efforts of Del Rey themselves and our editors there, there just weren’t enough readers to justify the costs. This is, sadly, more common than you might think in comics.”

No word yet as to what might happen in terms of any other manga titles, whether this line is slated for a Marvel Adventures-style soft relaunch, an Ultimates-style rejiggering, or if it’s simply going the way of the now-defunct Tsunami line. What say you, Rama readers? Are you going to miss these books?

No, no they are not: “Are Comic Books Dead?”

Gross: Bully The Little Stuffed Bull points out Jubilation Lee’s secondary mutation, which hasn’t generated as much discussion among X-fans as The Beast’s or Emma Frost’s secondary mutations.

How many villains are too many villains in a superhero movie?: Geoff Boucher wonders aloud if three villains are too many for Iron Man 2 at the LA Times’ Hero Complex blog, and Jon Favreau addresses the challenge. Personally, I’ve always believed there was a two-villain rule, in which any superhero movie with two villains is at great risk of failing, and the more villains added the greater the risk. Iron Man 2 might be okay though, because only one of its three seem like they’ll fit into the traditional supervillain role. Also in the LA Times, David Ng posits that Richard Wagner is ultimately responsible for the current superhero boom in pop culture, and talks a bit about how The Ring cycle influenced comics book superheroes. The piece includes a slide-show of Ring-inspired super-characters, including a few who may surprise you.

“It’s a comic book, but it delves into some very interesting stuff, both psychological and philosophical”: That’s Cube and Splice director Vincenzo Natali talking about how great Swamp Thing is and how much potential there is for a Swamp Thing movie, as reported at MTV’s Splash Page.  Noted SwampThingologist Mike Sterling reacts to the news here, and has some strong words for the commenter who dared question the quality of the first two Swamp Thing movies.

Speaking of Sterling…: His latest Sluggo Saturday entry revealed that Nancy’s little friend has the same retirement plan as many bloggers.

Culture Corner
Written & Illustrated by Basil Wolverton
Published by Fantagraphics

If you’re a Basil Wolverton fan, you’ll want to pick this book up.  If you’re not, or are mostly unfamiliar with his work, Culture Corner is not the ideal place to start.  Culture Corner was a half-page gag strip created by Wolverton for various Fawcett comics publications, including Whiz Comics and others.

Each half page has Wolverton’s narrator, Croucher K. Conk, Q.O.C. (Queer Old Coot), introducing a daily dilemma – the need to trim unruly eyebrows, how to prevent the loss of a hat on a windy day, how to cure flat feet, etc.  After presenting one or two comic possibilities that fail for similarly comic reasons, Wolverton solves each problem with an even more outlandish possibility.

Culture Corner is one of Wolverton’s earliest professional works, begun in the mid-1940s.  As such, the gags aren’t as fully developed as later, legendary Wolverton strips, and the freakish figures he’s famed for haven’t yet achieved their full gory glory.

It’s a Basil Wolverton strip, though, so Culture Corner still looks great, and is packed full of outrageously exaggerated anatomy and grotesquery.  The gags may have some humor for younger readers, but there’s not much there for adults.  Given the lack of existing original artwork, Fantagraphics’ reproduction is quite good.  The right-hand sheet shows a strip as it appeared in Whiz or a contemporary, while the left page reproduces (when available) Wolverton’s original sketch of the same strip.  There are few variations between the two forms, though the occasional editorial interference or self-impelled revision does offer some minor insight into Wolverton’s creativity.

The pencil drawings appear clear and clean, showing readers just how developed Wolverton’s line work was at the beginning of his career.  The published strips have color runs and misprints, as well as heavy, primary color schemes (universally) common to comics of their time.  The printing, however, is good throughout.  Wolverton fans will certainly appreciate having this material in as good a form as presented here.

The book also includes a section of rejected (by Fawcett or Wolverton himself) strips in pencil form, a must-have for Wolverton aficionados.

Culture Corner remains a curiosity in comic book history, rarely remembered, rarely seen, but Basil Wolverton’s status as an important figure in humor cartooning is unimpeachable.  Thus, anybody wanting to understand the development of the medium and the evolution of comedy cartooning should pick up Culture Corner to see how Wolverton began the road to comic book legend.  Most of the strips have never been seen by today’s readers, and the sheer number of unpublished penciled sketches makes this book a true rarity and a must-have.

On the Odd Hours
Written & Illustrated by Eric Liberge
Published by NBM

Eric Liberge’s graphic novella operates as a story of a young man finding his way in life, while also serving as a tribute to the power of art.  On the Odd Hours’ protagonist Bastien, a young, deaf man, shows up for an internship at the Louvre museum in Paris, and finds himself apprentice to a night watchman with the most unusual job.  The objects de art in the Louvre possess souls, full with lament or pain, joy or intent.  To protect the artwork, the essence of each artistry, painting or sculpture, must find occasional release.  This task falls to the night watchman.

Bastien, full of anger for the world, battles his own frustrations and temperament, as well as difficult relationships with his girlfriend and best pal.  He’s seeking a place to belong, where he won’t be frustrated by his handicap, or more appropriately the pity that accompanies it.

That’s two paragraphs to give you some idea of what occurs in On the Odd Hours.  Eric Liberge’s delivery carries the book’s intent over mostly effectively.  One major distraction comes from Bastien’s deafness.  To communicate the use of sign language, Liberge resorts to multiple-hands-in-every-panel.  The effect of sign language is achieved, but the panels also feel overly busy and fussy as a result.  Liberge might have been better served to use the multiple-hands tactic only occasionally, while allowing readers to intuit that the word balloons are communicated via sign language.

Despite that detail, Liberge’s illustrations are very strong.  Detailed and moody, each page swirls with dark colors, and Liberge’s strong character work enables readers to immediately emphasize with Bastien and those around him.  He also presents effective likenesses of each artwork that Bastien interacts with, including a flirting Mona Lisa.  Occasionally Liberge allows the surface effects, colors, lighting, designs – particularly when depicting the souls of the artwork – to overpower the page.

Bastien’s character arc develops slowly and precisely, building to an effective and surprising climax.  A strong ear for dialogue helps present the supporting cast as three-dimensional persons in Bastien’s life.  It’s an interesting comic book experiment, but Eric Liberge delivers on most of the high concept’s potential.  On the Odd Hours isn’t necessarily one of the first comics I’d recommend to a read, but it’s an interesting book nonetheless.

I gotta give credit where it’s due, and I’m HARDLY referring to myself by taking credit for having a role is this development. Last Thanksgiving, I called into question how DC Direct had to date failed to come up with any relevant product based on the “New Krypton” storyline found in all the Superman books for over the last year.

With a little help, I broke down four well-rounded waves of characters, heroes and villains, to best represent this ongoing storyline in action figure form. Well, in February, DC Direct finally came through and solicited the first of what I hope is AT LEAST three waves of figures. I’m not going to lie to you, Superman: New Krypton Series 1 more than exceeded my expectations. There’s not a stinker in the bunch.
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Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Emma Caulfield has teamed up with Popcult to start off a Chicago signing tour in conjunction with the first issue of her new webcomic, Contropussy. Curious as to the dates and times? Have no fear:

Wednesday April 14 Contropussy Issue One debut

6 – 8 pm

Challengers Comics

1845 N. Western Ave. 2R

Chicago, IL 60647

http://bit.ly/dqhiC8

Thursday April 15th Meet and Greet

7 – 9 pm

Sunda

110 W. Illinois Street

Chicago, IL 60654

https://store.popcultivator.com/product_info.php?products_id=3

Friday April 16 C2E2 Devil’s Due booth

2 – 3 pm, 4 -5 pm

Saturday April 17 C2E2 Devil’s Due booth

12 – 1 pm, 3-4 pm

Sunday April 18 C2E2 Devil’s Due booth

11 – 1 pm

You might have heard this story by now that was posted over on Clifford Meth’s blog. If not, allow me to share my rage.

Legendary artist Gene Colan was mugged and some art was stolen, leaving Colan with an injured shoulder and now in the care of his son and daughter. It sounds like it was pre-meditated because I don’t think random thieves would take art.

The police are involved and if anybody has any knowledge or has seen the art (Nathaniel Dusk and Star Wars-related pages), please contact Meth’s website. In the blog, he mentioned that he talked to Colan and that “he is in good spirits, as always”. Though Colan may be all right, a callous act like this leaves me enraged. You want to mug an 83 year-old guy? Really? Wow, whoever did this must be a REAL bad-ass.

Pathetic.

I wish Gene Colan a speedy recovery, and swift justice on the low-lifes who did this.

[Update: Gene has been released from the hospital and is doing fine. I just got off the phone with Dark Horse editor and close friend to Gene, Shawna Gore and she has assured me that the subtext in Meth's original post was to be as vague as possible, but to report it as a mugging is inaccurate. The police ARE still involved about the missing art, and any information to the situation is still helpful to Gene and his family.]

“The choice to sell comics in a store is a private decision; housing them in a library is a public one”: Shaun Huston has a pretty interesting article about comics in libraries, dealing with some of the peculiar problems comics can confront librarians with, like how to catalog and shelve them.

“Publishers are seeking out and working closely with popular prose novelists to turn their bestselling novels and prose stories into a wide range of derivative comics works”: Publishers Weekly has a pretty thorough trend piece on comics publishers adapting prose works into the comics media, contrasting the two approaches—straight adaptation vs. expanding the fictive “universes” with new stories.

Now that’s a New Look Batman: Here’s Gene Ha’s variant cover for an upcoming issue of Batman: The Widening Gyre, featuring Bat…man?

Meet Mr. Rosenose: To promote their latest John Stanely Library volume, Melvin Monster Vol. 2, Drawn and Quarterly has posted an entire story on their website.

“Can ‘Iron Man 2′ beat ‘The Dark Knight’?”: Oh my God, what if they had cast Robert Downey Jr. as Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight?! How much money would that have made?

Many fans apparently failed to appreciate the significance of KGBeast’s resurrection: At Comics Alliance, Chris Sims gives Blackest Night his patented crayon-drawing-and-computer-lettering “in 60 seconds” treatment.

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!

Please click on the image to enlarge to FULL SIZE

WORLD OF HURT – The Thrill-Seekers – Episode 38 – “Straight Right”

It wasn’t until I posted this strip that I realized how much the final panel reminded me of  Kevin Maguire’s classic “ONE PUNCH!” panel from Justice League International.  It wasn’t intended as an homage, and certainly not a swipe, but when I was going for an impactful image of Ned being laid out with a punch to the face, even I after nearly 30 years of reading comics, I can understand how that shot bubbled into my head:

New strips of WORLD OF HURT – The Internet’s #1 Blaxploitation Webcomicare posted every Wednesday at www.worldofhurtonline.com.

- JEP

Forget the Oscars, the Emmys, and the Golden Globes — because it’s officially Eisner season!

Comics Beat has the official listing of this year’s nominees, and they are definitely interesting. The Unwritten and Irredeemable get several noms each, and Chew (I dig this series so much) gets a well-deserved nomination for Best New Series.

Meanwhile, David Mazzuccheilli gets some just praise for Asterios Polyp, ranging from Best Graphic Album to Best Writer/Artist to Best Coloring to Best Lettering… he’s a one-man band. He’s also trailed by Darwyn Cooke for Parker: The Hunter, nominated for Best Adaptation, Best Graphic Album and Best Writer/Artist.

Check out the full list below the cut — and sound off!

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Ready to see comicdom’s favorite atomic-powered robot run in glorious animation? We can’t wait — which is why when we saw that the Fictory had some production stills for their upcoming animated Atomic Robo short, we were psyched.

If you click on their production blog, there’s a lot of other cool images as well, ranging from a 3D-ified logo to a maquette of a Helsingard robot (or my personal favorite — the details on Robo’s flight jacket). The short is due out later this year.

Blackest Night is finally over. Like a lot of super-comics readers, I spent a lot of time and a lot of money following the event/storyline over the past year. I believe it “officially” ran about nine months (not counting a few years or foreshadowing and build-up in writer Geoff Johns’ Green Lantern), and although I missed large swathes of the mega-story—only reading the main series, Green Lantern and the tie-ins featuring characters I was interested in and creators I liked—I’m afraid to add up how many pages that is and how much money I spent on it.

I’m not complaining, mind you, I’m just noting that I spent a pretty significant amount of my superhero comics reading life over the past year with Blackest Night.

Just to get it out of the way here, I thought the main parts of the series constituted a fairly successful story. I was pleased that they managed to get the whole thing out on time with a single art team (even if it meant over-relying on splash pages), and that it managed to surprise me despite all the time I spend hanging around Newsarama and reading interviews, Twitter accounts and press releases on the Internet in general.

The Johns-written portions at least made for probably the best DC story of this type since DC One Million, although I wouldn’t call Blackest Night great comics or anything. Much of the dialogue was flinch-inducing, like most stories of this sort there was no conclusion and I thought the last issue was extremely disappointing.

But hey, I’m hard to please. To get a better sense of Blackest Night itself, the eight-issue miniseries itself, devoid of all the tie-ins, I sat down and read all eight of them cover to cover and back to back yesterday. While doing so, I found myself with some questions: Some big, some small; some nitpicks, some matters of personal curiosity.

In fact, I had seven questions. Wanna try and help me answer them?

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