Well, Lockjaw and The Pet Avengers may not want to add him to their legion of animal heroes yet, but this week you can spend some time with the porcine parody of Spider-Man, thanks to the release of Peter Porker: The Spectacular Spider-Ham Vol. 1, a $20, 145-page collection of Spider-Ham stories by the likes of Steve Skeates, Tom Defalco, Mike Carlin, Fred Hembeck, Mark Armstrong and others.

What else is on the menu this week?

Artichoke Tales: Megan Kelso (The Squirrel Mother) returns with her most ambitious work to date, a $23, 230-page hardcover about three generations of a family amidst a civil war in a world a lot like our own—save for the fact that the people there seem to have artichoke leaves on their heads instead of hair. You can download a preview here.

Batman: Return of Bruce Wayne #1 2nd Printing: So I take it there’s still a market for second-printings of popular comic books? I guess there must be, since I always see second printings on the Diamond shipping lists, but it strikes me as rather odd given how quickly every thing gets collected these days. Return of Bruce Wayne is just a miniseries, after all, and will be one-third of the way over by the time this issue is reprinted (And it will be half over next week, when #3 ships). Are there that many folks who didn’t think they’d want it the first week it was released, and decided they couldn’t want a couple extra months for the trade? Well, I guess there must be. Anyway,  speaking of trade collections and Grant Morrison-written Batman comics, Batman: R.I.P. is availagle as a $15, 225-page trade paper back this week.

Billy Hazelnuts and The Crazy Bird: Prolific Maakies cartoonist and Sock Monkey creator Tony Millionaire’s long-awaited second Billy Hazelnuts graphic novel finally arrives. In this adventure, Billy attempts to reunite a just-hatched owl chick with its mother. It’s a $20, 105-page, digest-sized hardcover. You can download a preview here.

The Book of Mr. Natural: Fantagraphics is having a pretty damn huge week (and there’s a couple more swell-looking books below). This is a $20, 130-page hardcover collection of classic R. Crumb comics. Preview here.

Brightest Day #4: According to co-writer Geoff Johns, the story of the new Aqualad begins with this issue (I’ve got some thoughts on Aqualad II here, if you’re terribly interested).  It’s by Johns, Peter J. Tomasi, Ivan Reis, Pat Gleason, Ardian Syaf, Scott Clark and Joe Prado, and you can see a preview of it here.

Conan: The Spear and Other Stories: This $15, 130-page trade paperback collects five King Conan-era comics written by Timothy Truman and drawn by Paul Lee. Preview here.

Joker’s Asylum: Harley Quinn #1: It sounded so simple. There are five week’s in June this year, and there are five issues of Joker’s Asylum, a kinda sorta miniseries (although each issue is given its own #1 because DC thinks you’re stupid, apparently) with a different creative team focusing on a different Batman villain each issue. It was going to ship weekly, which would  mean one issue on each Wednesday in June, right? Well, something went wrong somewhere, and no issues of Joker’s Asylum shipped last week, but two issues of it will ship this week. Isn’t it weird DC managed to ship 52, Countdown, Trinity and Wednesday Comics without that ever happening, but it happened with a little five-issue miniseries? The Harley Quinn issue is written by James Patrick and drawn by Joe Quinones, and Joker’s Asylum: The Mad Hatter #1 is by Landry Walker and Bill Sienkiewicz.

Little Adventures in Oz Book 2: This is a new, $10, 136-page collection of Eric Shanower’s Oz stories, including “The Forgotten Forest of Oz” and “The Blue Witch of Oz.”

Meatcake: This $23, 240 softcover collection includes the best of comics creator, character and all-around renaissance woman Dame Darcy’s first decade of Meatcake comics. You can download a 20-page preview here.

New Avengers #1: In the wake of Siege, Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen’s New Avengers ongoing has been canceled to make room for…New Avengers, by Brian Michael Bendis and Stuart Immonen? Oh comics, how  you confound me! This issue unveils a new line-up, which, judging by one of its many covers, includes a member of the Fantastic Four and, according to the solicitation, a member of the Dark Avengers. It was originally solicited as a $4, 32-page book, but there’s also a back-up so…count the pages before you buy it, I guess?

PunisherMax: Kingpin: I haven’t read a bad Jason Aaron story yet, so I’m assuming the writer’s work on Marvel’s swearing version of The Punisher with Steve Dillon is pretty top-notch. Has anyone read the stories collected herein, the first five issues of PunisherMax introducing Wilson Fisk to the Punisher’s Max-iverse, who can either confirm or deny its quality? This is the premiere hardcover collection of the material, so it’s $25 for 120 pages of  Punishing and, um, Kingpinning.

Temperance: This is the new graphic novel by Cathy Malkasian (Percy Gloom). I read it a few weeks ago, and it’s easily one of the best comics works I’ve experienced so far this year. It’s an extremely ambitious story set in a fantasy world that explores the various ways in which war and fear can tear people apart while knitting communities together. It’s occasionally touching, occasionally scary, always thrilling and remarkably complex. I hope to review it in this space sometime soon, but I’d like to give it another read or two before I attempt doing so. In the mean time, allow me to at least wholeheartedly recommend it. It’s a $23, 240-page hardcover, and you can download a preview here.

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!

The last year or so has been an interesting one for Denzel Washington who, as one of the most respected actors in the country with a repertoire of mostly dramas and the occasional thoughtful popcorn flick, took on a tepid remake of The Taking of Pelham 123 and followed it up with The Book of Eli, a Hughes Brothers-directed romp through the not-too-distant future (next Sunday, A.D.), where Washington plays a Man With No Name-style nomad who treks through a Mad Max-style post-urban frontier carrying what is apparently the only remaining copy of The Bible.

Like last year’s The Invention of Lying, The Book of Eli takes religion to task for the way it divides and deludes the populace–but in this case the fact that it’s blamed mostly on the people being led rather than those doing the leading kept it from drawing the kind of ire from organized religion that Ricky Gervais’ mediocre comedy did (or at least as far as I’ve seen; maybe it did get lambasted a bit and I just missed it).

It tries to be too many things, and that’s its only real downfall; The Book of Eli can’t decide if it wants to be a thoughtful drama with little bits of action thrown in, an action thriller with as may gallons of blood spilled as dollars made at the box office (that’s about 95 million), a martial-arts movie with spectacular and shocking fight scenes or something else entirely. Washington is terrific, though, and doesn’t have that haggard, grizzled look that so many great actors get when they take a genre role–that “I’m mailing it in and hoping the special effects can make up for me” look. Mila Kunis nearly matches him, which is shocking since…well, since he’s Denzel Washington and she’s the irritating chick from That ’70s Show. She has a definite screen presence that extends beyond the generic warm charm she exuded in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and it serves the film well because she manages to be just barely unable to keep up with Washington–just like her character as she follows him through the American wasteland.

All in all, the flick is entertaining and while I think the Hughes Brothers thought a little too much of their final twist, it’s still a pretty enjoyable one. Other than a lack of focus, the biggest challenge that the movie faces is a Return of the King-like inability to just wrap up already. There are at least four distinct end points in the picture, and the one they finally go out on is just a step too far for my taste.

The Book of Eli is released on DVD and a Blu-Ray combo pack today; it’s certainly worth checking out, even if I can’t say “Go buy it!” with total confidence.

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

“If Marvel is the Communists, cutting off the intelligentsia and making all things mediocre and equal, DC is America, where it’s every man for himself and this is a free country as long as you pledge allegiance to the flag”: On his blog Death to the Universe, Matt Seneca talks about the universe comics of Marvel and DC, and some of the specific problems inherent in each, all while working his way to reviews on the latest issues of Spider-Man: Fever and Batman. Great stuff.

As a get rich quick scheme, selling Batman sketches may not be the way to go: After hearing how much money Tim Sale makes on commissions, Gabrielle Bell considers and quickly abandons her plans on learning to draw Batman, in part two of her journal about her traveling in France. Laura Park respond in this drawing, showing what a dedicated, if hands-on, model Batman is. (Links both totally stolen from the Flog blog)

Hey, what time is it, Jonathan?: “Time to Wax Enthusiastic About Blacksad”

“The rise of the critic-proof movies?”: C. Robert Cargill speculates on a few categories of critic proof movies—that is, movies that can turn a profit no matter how scorching the reviews are—and “superhero movies based upon popular franchises” are one of ‘em, as are Twilight and “’80s toy commercials event films,” of which there are only, what, three so far?

“Currently, Jonah is starring in the best Western comic book I’ve ever read, an eponymous monthly written by the team of Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, and drawn by a variety of top-drawer artists”: In preparation for the new movie, Andrew A. Smith writes about Jonah Hex, interviewing Hex comic co-writer Jimmy Palmiotti and mentioning the new Hex original graphic novel in the process. Smith is apparently on a first-name basis with Hex too, so don’t mess with him.

Ramona Flowers sure dated some cute evil guys: Have you seen the posters for the Seven Evil Exes of Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World? I had not until this weekend, when I saw ‘em on The Beat.

Tom Spurgeon ins’t looking forward to this X-Men/Dracula thing: Or is he? Great headline, either way.

Oh hey, Neil Gaiman is right: The Metamorpho strips he did with Mike Allred look a lot better collected in the new Wednesday Comics collection, as Alex Carr demonstrates in this review of the book. I’m not entirely sure how I feel about that, given that one of the unique strengths of the project as a weekly was that it seemed to be anti-collection, but I’ll be happy to revisit it in its newer, more permanent format someday.  Heck, maybe those Teen Titans strips aren’t so bad now either…?

The comic book community has lost another great. Al Williamson has passed away at the age of 79.

With a career that spanned four decades and who helped break other legends such as Mike Kaluta and Bernie Wrightson break into the industry, and who influenced the likes of Frank Cho and Dave Gibbons, we truly have lost one of the best.

He was the recipient of two Eisners for Best Inker in 1996 and 1997, as well as was a Hall of Fame Eisner in 2000.

From his comic strip Secret Agent X-9, to his Star Wars adaptations, and his legendary work on Flash Gordon, his legacy lives on.

City of Spies
Written by Susan Kim & Laurence Klavan
Illustrated by Pascal Dizin
Colored by Hilary Sycamore
Published by First Second

This book is a pure delight.  In 1942, Evelyn and Tony are ten years old and full of imagination.  Evelyn doodles her own comic strips, Zirconium Man and Scooter (the sidekick bears an uncanny resemblance to Evelyn herself), and Tony’s always on the lookout for Nazi spies. Of course, the duo eventually uncovers a real Nazi plot and have to save the United States, over the skepticism of the adults.

Illustrator Pascal Dizin brings a Tintin-like line to the proceedings.  Clean, open illustrations, densely fitting an average of ten panels onto each page, carry the story with warmth and humor.  Dizin’s character designs are strong and unique, easily identifiable in different outfits or in shadow, and he’s able to create a cityscape that convincingly captures a clean ideal of 1940s New York.  The panel-to-panel progressions move confidently and easily.  Moreover, both Dizin’s line work and Hilary Sycamore’s color operate in an understated manner, finding a strong balance between the two.  Dizin’s strong designs and character acting carry all the wonder and wit of the script, and Sycamore’s flat, natural coloring complements the upbeat nature of the narrative. Also, the dot-style coloring used during Evelyn’s comic book sequences wonderfully suits the nostalgic nod to comics of childhood whimsy.

Susan Kim and Laurence Klavan’s script attains the warmth and imaginative quality of the best bits of childhood escapism.  Evelyn and Tony’s imaginative misadventures carry a large portion of the book, explaining why the adults do and do not believe their story of Nazi spies, and their antics manage to be sufficiently silly to entertain the youngest readers without being so juvenile as to bore older readers.  In short, they’ve crafted a true all-ages adventure, an imaginative delight.

City of Spies is aimed at your children, if my estimation of our primary readership’s age is even slightly accurate, but its creators, using sharp dialogue, engaging plot twists and strong artwork, have crafted a tale that all but the most cynical readers will delight in.  It comes with a full Blog@ endorsement.

I think this is just good timing as I was having a conversation with a friend of mine about how cool this would be as a show, and lo and behold, DCE is going to try it.

A few hours ago, CCO of DCE Geoff Johns had tweeted about a live-action Blue Beetle show featuring Jaime Reyes. “We have a live-action test of Jaime Reyes’ scarab activating his suit. It. Is. Awesome.” Johns went on to state, “Blue Beetle’s going to appear in most of the Brave and the Bold’s this year and we’re hoping to develop a live-action show. Fingers crossed!”

Honestly, I would love to see this show. Newsarama mentioned earlier that Cartoon Network has expressed on branching off into more live-action programming, and I think this would be a great addition to a Friday night line-up of sorts.

So, Rama readers, would you be interested in a Blue Beetle series?

This month’s The Gold Exchange is a little late—but there’s a good reason that we’ll get into later. Co-writer J.M. DeMatteis returns to us this month, discussing Booster Gold #33 and our hero’s trip to the past, where he dons the ol’ collared shirt and rejoins his pals in the Justice League International. Heading to the recent past, Booster makes a beeline for the JLI embassy, where hopes to find physical evidence of Maxwell Lord’s existence that’s unaffected by the worldwide (apparently, from this issue, universe-wide) mindwipe Lord performed to make himself disappear from everyone’s sight and memory. Before that, though, readers got to see Booster take down a supervillain and dress down a superhero in the person of the Justice League’s Cyborg, who ran afoul of Booster by referring to the JLI as “screw-ups.”

As a side note, that particular monologue delighted me not only because the JLI deserves protecting, but because the character went so far as to refer to the current Justice League as “the REAL Justice League,” a pretty bizarre and terrible reference given that the current JLA book is horrible and full of mediocre characters.

The Gold Exchange: So–The Boppy thing. Rip’s father is, as we know, from the 25th Century and the girl who says he looks like her grandfather, she’s from the 30th. Any chance we’ll find out that those people in #31 were really “supposed” to die and that Rani made it out because she’s essential to the Time Master legacy?

J.M. DeMatteis: To be perfectly honest, the only thing I was thinking about when I came up with the “Boppy” gag was just that…a fun joke for Rip and Rani.  I wasn’t thinking about any deeper connection.  That said:  Hmmmm… (more…)

Over at Evan “Doc” Shaner’s blog, he has a post from about three weeks ago with a rendetion of DC’s Marvel family, sans the Wizard.

“If you follow me on Twitter, you know that I spend at least half of my time thinking about Captain Marvel and the whole Shazam-verse,: says Shaner on his blog. “This is the first time I’ve drawn Mary Marvel, but I’m a big fan of the whole cast. I’d really love a chance at the book someday.”

Probably one of the coolest all-ages books out there right now is Billy Batson and the Magic of SHAZAM!, and while the creative team is spoken for at the moment, what say you readers: do you think Shaner has the bolts to be on a Captain Marvel book?

Hey, Rama readers and Potter-heads! Check out this Harry Potter commission done by Ming Doyle at last week’s HeroesCon.

Now, Ming Doyle is not really a new name to the world of comic art, but she’s been getting a lot of attention lately. She’s been featured numerous time over at Project: Rooftop, where she actually won the Grand Prize for the Superman: Man of Style competition. She has a very unique style of  line work and design aesthetics, which can be see more of at her website. I think her style captures the mysticism of Harry’s character and would love to see her tackle Hogwarts sometime down the line.

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

Although he wasn’t the first patriotic U.S. superhero, Captain America is considered by many to be the best. And he is most certainly the most recognizable, with a basic design that has lasted 70 years now.

Born in New York, the child of two Irish immigrants, Steve Rogers was on his own by the time he was in his late teens. As World War II began, Steve became a test subject for Operation: Rebirth, a program intended to create a super-soldier through chemical and radioactive means. The experiment was a success and Steve was now operating at the peak strength, endurance and agility a human being can possess. Originally intended to be just the first of many, Nazi sabotage ensured that the full secret of the super-soldier serum was lost and Steve was now one-of-a-kind. He was given a colorful costume and asked to be a rallying symbol, taking on the name Captain America, Sentinel of Liberty. Alongside his young partner Bucky Barnes and other superheroes of the era, Cap fought against Axis agents and other menaces.

Strange circumstances led Steve to being lost in suspended animation for decades, waking up soon after the rise of modern superheroes. He was discovered by the Avengers and joined their ranks. At various times, he served as the team’s leader, proudly shouting the battle cry: Avengers Assemble! After recent events, Steve has turned over the mantle of Captain America to another. Now, he fights for justice in a new way as an international trouble-shooter, a super-soldier who also commands a team of Secret Avengers.

So let’s take a gander at the different looks this patriotic hero, and those who have followed him, have worn. Join with me as the battle cry goes out: “Avengers Ensemble!” (Sorry, couldn’t resist.)

(more…)

(If any of you were wating with bated breath for my thrice-weekly linkblogging all morning, I sincerely apologize. You wouldn’t believe the number of orphans I was saving from burning buildings these last few hours).

“Etta Candy, Wonder Woman’s chubby sidekick, has a father named Hard, a mother named Sugar and a sister named Mint”: After reading through the new Essential Wonder Woman Encyclopedia, Matthew Brady offers  a post entitled “Ten things I previously did not know about Wonder Woman.” No offense to the many fine creators who have worked on Wonder Woman comics over the years, but my own personal all-time favorite Wonder Woman reading experience was reading the 1976 Encyclopedia of Comic Book Heroes Vol. 2: Wonder Woman by Michael L. Fleischer. All those zany Marston/Peter Golden Age stories are awesome in comics form, but they are even more awesome read in dry, encyclopedia-like summary. I haven’t read this newer version yet, but it sounds fairly awesome as well. I definitely think the Wonder Woman franchise could use an “It all really happened” take a la Grant Morrison’s Batman run…

“Whoa! An Avatar 3-Way!”: Matthew Brady also noticed a rather clumsy-looking instance of prudish editing of Peter Bagge’s recent Vertigo book, Other Lives. Note how rough that second panel looks compared to the first. That’s pretty lame, Vertigo. (Hey, I wonder what “Avatar 3-Way” will do for our hits? Welcome, perverts who saw James Cameron’s movie about tall, nearly nude deer-cat people who have interspecies tail-sex with everything!)

At the very least, Bully should be short-listed for running Marvel Comics….: It’s not just you Jubilee, I really hate him too.

Douglas Wolk on recent comics in the NYT: From Action Philosophers to Weathercraft.

It ain’t Grant Morrison being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer and a hologram in the Situation Room, unfortunately: CNN.com interviews Grant Morrison about the latest issue of Batman for an article entitled “Batman’s past, present, future collide.” Raise your hand if you’ve read Batman #700 yet—Okay, what’d you think? Most of the reactions I’ve heard so far have been disappointed ones, focusing on the rushed production and the extra $1-for-the-contents-of-a-slush-pile-of-unused-art gallery at the back. (I haven’t read it just yet myself, and am now wondering if I should).

“The show wasn’t simply there to entertain you, it was there to teach how three—four, I suppose, if you counted Outer Space—societies needed to work together to make their environment work, thrive and survive”: That’s Neil Kleid talking about the show Fraggle Rock in this feature story in the comics writer’s hometown paper. Klied is writing a story in an upcoming issue of Archaia’s new Fraggle Rock comic, and the Teaneck Suburbanite used the occasion of Kleid moving from more adult fare into an all-ages comic as a springboard for a story.

Speaking of Fraggles…: Here’s a short feature story from The Detroit News on the Kids Read Comics convention.

Wow, Marvel really does develop new series just to annoy DC!: When I first heard of the new Hawkeye and Mockingbird series from Marvel, I made a joke about its surface similarities to the since-canceled Green Arrow/Black Canary series (Super-archer and blond lady with a bird-themed name couple sharing a book and title). When I heard that Marvel was having Sean McKeever write a new teen super-team with Young Allies, I figured it was a good opportunity for fans to test just how much editorial interference McKeever dealt with during his Teen Titans run, since those comics were terrible but, from the outside looking in, all one can do is conjecture over whether McKeever had just suddenly stopped being good at writing comics or if behind-the-scenes factors were dragging him down. Anyway, Tom Brevoort himself explicitly compares Hawkeye and Mockingbird to a DC comic (Rise of Arsenal rather than Green Arrow/Black Canary…but still!) and says Young Allies is “like what you wanted Sean McKeever’s Teen Titans run to be!” Come on man, lay off the trash talk—some of us actually want to read a Johns and Fracton-written Green Lantern/Iron Man comic!

“The same, but Worse”: NYT film critic A.O. Scott writes about the prevalence of franchises—both successful ones and failed attempts at them—to celebrate the dawn of summer. Obviously superhero movies get quite a few mentions.

Wilson
Written & Illustrated by Daniel Clowes
Published by Drawn & Quarterly

Wilson is a jerk.  And that’s why he’s a whole lotta fun to read about.

Daniel Clowes latest book, Wilson, chronicles the most recent of Clowes’ socially abusive misanthropes.  The broad, open humor makes it perhaps his most accessible book to date.  Each page operates as a one-page gag, placing Wilson is a situation where he plays off another person or even off himself, revealing the depths of his antisocial extremes. Dry and sardonic, Clowes’ wit manifests itself through Wilson’s rants about how people in society behave, diatribes frequently undermined by Wilson’s own behavior and his lack of self-awareness.

While each page operates as a unit, setting up and delivering a witty moment, Clowes weaves an ongoing storyline about Wilson’s heretofore unknown family through the entire book, building a series of astonishing life discoveries, each of which fails to pierce Wilson’s self-absorbed blowhardiness.

Clowes isn’t necessarily asking readers to connect with or care for Wilson’s unveiling family; rather, he’s showing the world as Wilson sees it, as a reflection of himself.  Whether tragedy or happiness occurs, Wilson’s reactions are the same, put-upon and irritated.

Experimenting stylistically more for his own amusement than any story purpose, Clowes brings a different visual interpretation to each page in Wilson.  Some are played straight, while others showcase deformed or minimalist versions of the cast.  Clowes, as an illustrator, handles each style with ease, fitting it into his precise grid layouts and accompanying it with his acerbic dialogue.

Maybe that doesn’t sound like much fun, but it really is.  It’s sharp and surprising, and you’ll see more of yourself in Wilson than you really care to admit.  And where you don’t see yourself, you’ll find snippets of people you know.  It’s very bleak humor, but painfully funny nonetheless.  If you know Clowes’ work from projects such as Ghost World, he’s both playing with similar themes, yet also showcasing new approaches and insights.  The social inadequacies of man remains a recurring motif, but Clowes plays Wilson with a more humorous touch, perhaps reminding us that it’s better to laugh than to allow the Wilson’s of the world to ruin our day.

Since I know y’all can’t live without your weekly softball update, the Bullets were rained out Thursday evening, trailing Scholastic 3-0  in the second inning when the downpour became too intense to drive all but the most hardcore player (that would be Schlagman, who will never get the mud stains out of that shirt) from the field.

The team returns to action next Thursday, on their home field, North Meadow #2 in Central Park, against Wall St. Journal.  The Bullets toppled the 2009 New York Media Softball League champions 15-11 back on May 8th.  Come check out the action if you’re in the neighborhood.

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!

There’s been an awful lot of talk on the Internet recently regarding whether or not the role of Spider-Man can be played in the next movie by someone who isn’t Peter Parker-white, spurred on by Community‘s Donald Glover’s campaign for the role (Certainly a lot of you had a lot to say on the matter).

But what does Spider-Man’s dad think of all this? Well, he was apparently only too eager to offer his opinion, as Spidey co-creator and long-time writer, editor and publisher Stan Lee  sought out Rick Marshall of MTV’s Splash Page to talk about the issue.

You can read Lee’s thoughts, and listen to them, here.

If you know Stan Lee at all, you won’t be the least bit surprised to by how politic and upbeat he is abou the whole thing, with nothing but kind words and uncontroversial statements. He doesn’t want to influence Marvel or the movie makers because they’ve done such a great job wihtout his advice already, he thinks Glover is a wonderful actor and he thinks anyone should be allowed to audion for the role (Anyone? Danny Glover? Stan Lee? Dan DiDio? Kirsten Dunst? Wow, if they cast Kirsten Dunst as Spider-Man, then that would alleviate a good chunk of my concern regarding the need to reboot).

He does note that while originally white Marvel characters have been played by black actors in the movies before—Kingpin in Daredevil, Nick Fury in the Iron Mans—Spidey’s already much, much, much, much better known than either of those characters in the general public, which would make the move seem awfully off to an awful lot of people.

Anyway, there (“there” being MTV’s Splash Page). One of Spidey’s co-creators has some concerns, but thinks Glover’s great and should at least be able to audition.

Now what does Spider-Man’s other dad think? Someone get Steve Ditko on the phone pronto!

I, Zombie #1
Written by Chris Roberson
Illustrated by Michael Allred
Colored by Laura Allred
Lettered by Todd Klein
Variant cover by Darwyn Cooke

I would describe this book as eccentric.  Which should really come as no surprise if you’ve read previous Mike Allred comics.  The offbeat sense of humor works for it, and of course, it looks great.  However, it’s difficult to find a focus in this first issue, as our protagonist Gwen is clearly being prepped for some adventure and conflict.  I can’t quite recommend I, Zombie at this point, but keep it in the corner of your eye.  It might have something.

American Vampire #2-3
Written by Scott Snyder & Stephen King
Illustrated by Rafael Albuquerque
Colored by Dave McCaigLettered by Steve Wands
Variant cover by Bernie Wrightson (#2) & Andy Kubert (#3)

The debut issue held some promise, but precious little of it has been unearthed so far.  The biggest issue is that Skinner, the enigmatic protagonist, simply isn’t very interesting.  Dark, mysterious, absurdly self-assured – not much new there, y’know?  Pearl, the would-be movie starlet whose life was shattered, and has been resurrected by Skinner as part of the new breed of American vampires (no problems with sunlight, but apparently very lethargic on moonless nights), makes for more compelling reading, as her motivations are direct and instantly appreciable.

Albuqueque’s still tearing it up on the art side, and each issue’s second story, Stephen King’s potboiler origin of Skinner, isn’t anything new, but it’s a solid Old West horror riff.  I’m interested to see how Snyder develops Pearl’s story, as it’s the most compelling aspect of the book thus far.

iZombie #2
Written by Chris Roberson
Illustrated by Michael Allred
Colored by Laura Allred
Lettered by Todd Klein

Man, Mike Allred – this guy is a really superb comics illustrator.  He employs great layouts like the two-page spread of Nemia giving her vampire cabal a dressing down, and he’s one of the best in the business at capturing how clothing lays and folds on the human form.  You can read the character acting clear as day without melodramatic overacting, and his characters, every single one of them, are cute as buttons.  Even the mindless shambling zombies.  Granted, Allred’s been doing excellent work since the earliest days of the Kitchen Sink Madman series, but he just keeps getting better and better.

Roberson’s script moves a little slowly, but he’s establishing an interesting and diverse cast of well-meaning monsters, monster hunters and computer IT specialists.  Add to the mix Gwen, a zombie who must eat a recently deceased brain once a month or become shambling, sans-intelligence monster, but who also inherits the knowledge and memories of her latest meal – and she thinks this latest one might’ve been killed.  So there’s a lot of groundwork being laid.  It could move a little more quickly and hopefully Roberson can pay off some of this establishing material, but it’s beautifully drawn and colored, laid out and lettered perfectly, and chock full in interesting, quirky cast members.

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