The most important thing that happened at Comic-Con International?: Someone who does a hell of Stan Lee impression dressed up like Stan Lee, Stan Lee-ed about in front of a camera and six-minutes of gold followed. It gets great around the three-minute mark, where Fake Stan Lee starts interacting with other cosplayers. You can see a little bit more of Fake Stan Lee at fakestanlee.com. (Via Journalista)
The second most important thing?: Dean Trippe, Chris Burnham and Tracie Mauk contributed sketches of Arsenal and dead cats to David Walkin’s Arsenal-with-a-dead-cat sketchbook.
If no one dies under mysterious circumstances, it’s not a very good curse: “Mark Ruffalo Is The Incredible Hulk. Is This Role Cursed?”
“It’s just constantly raising expectations for myself…to the point where, inevitably, I must surely collapse under my own mass and become some sort of creative black hole”: That’s Alan Moore talking to the New York Times for a somewhat lengthy feature about the CD release of the spoken word version of his essay Unearthing, which is about his friend and fellow comics creator Steve Moore .
“Then, as a creative person who works with dark liquid all the time —in ink— something organically grew out of that”: Political cartoonist Steve Breen discusses his cartoons about the BP oil spill, the ones that he colored with actual oil spilled during the environmental disaster, with Michael Cavna of the Washington Post.
“I’m still on the fence regarding Silver Age Flash. I can see its potential”: After a not terribly generous review of Flash: Rebirth, Richard Cook decided to go back and look at the original Silver Age Flash stories to see if he could see what apparent Barry Allen fans (like Rebirth writer Geoff Johns) see in the character. His ultimate assessment of the Flash’s first appearance in 1956’s Showcase #4 finds the character hardly compelling, although I’m not sure I see the value in attempting to interact with a book that’s more of a cultural event/milestone within the history of a particular genre of comics. In other words, of course Spider-Man is a much more dynamic and compelling character than Barry Allen—he was created eight years later, and in some ways as a response to the Silver Age Flash and the DC Comics heroes that returned right after him. Anyway, interesting reading.
Not that the one thing has anything to do with the other, of course: Check out this headline Fantagraphics’ Eric Reynolds found. Coincidence, or…well, probably a coincidence.
July 28th, 2010 at 9:19 am
I am PRETTY sure I know how that fake Stan Lee is.
July 28th, 2010 at 10:02 am
Anyone wanting to know about Silver Age Flash should listen to the “Tom vs. The Flash” podcast.
July 28th, 2010 at 12:44 pm
I consider myself a big fan of Barry Allen, but I think what I REALLY am is a fan of his ghost. Of the larger than life figure who informed Wally’s life and career and who would pop up in flashbacks (no pun intended). It is clear, alas, that there isn’t much meat on his bones and that Johns’ retcons might be needed to make him more compelling.
That said, he was a perfect hero for little kids who want their heroes to be perfect and cool and to beat the bad guys every time. He was a hyperfast hook to hang heroics on, not really much more, and that might have been enough.
July 28th, 2010 at 12:56 pm
I’m not a Barry fan, I’m definitely a Wally guy, but you can’t beat the absolute insanity of the silver age stories.
August 12th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Simon– I agree completely. Silver Age characters like Barry and Hal are more compelling to me as monoliths who can only be accessed in memory and in the deeds of those who followed in their footsteps.