SOLDIER OF LOVE.

Damn you, free association!

(And yes, I realize that’s the Indigo sigil, etc. It’s just the first thing that hit me. Besides, “Soldier of Compassion” wouldn’t be nearly as catchy.)

Over at Comic Book Resources, Tony Daniel tries to explain the recent re-emergence of the Writer/Artist at DC Comics (Daniel, David Finch, JH Williams III, Scott Kolins and Jeff Lemire being the main suspects):

For the last decade or so, the industry has been writer-driven. But as an artist, and also a writer, I know the art needs to be good inside the book. That’s what’s going to help sell the book, especially to new readers. You want them to open up the book, or see view the digital file on their mobile device or what-have-you, and say wow! This is a visual medium, first and foremost. That seems to have been forgotten.

Yes, we need great stories and great writers. But when people think comic books, they think of the characters jumping off the page. They think of amazing images, larger than life heroes and villains and details. So if you have an artist who writes well, you then have someone who has those types of creative sensibilities that could hopefully translate to a winning combination.

Firstly: Good writers can’t have creative sensibilities that allow them to take advantage of comics’ visual dominance? Secondly: Have comics really forgotten that they’re a visual medium? I’m not sure that’s even vaguely true; even just looking at the mainstream superhero market, I can think of a lot of books that are all about the art, occasionally at the expense of the writing (Hi, Thor). But nonetheless, Daniel is at least making an attempt at addressing the issue, and perhaps a look inside the mass mindset of DC editorial these days, as well.

Personally, I’d assumed that the rise of writer/artists at DC was due to both Bob Harras’ ascendance to Editor In Chief (Letting artists write worked out pretty well for him at Marvel, after all) and it being a potential carrot to use to get hot artists moving over from Marvel, where I can’t think of any writer/artists who perform both duties on the same book (Sure, they have Jeff Parker, Jonathan Hickman and other creators who do both, but almost all of them have been pushed towards one role and not both). But what do you think?

The sixth season of the longest running sci-fi show on television is premiering Saturday on BBC America (concurrent with the UK!). I’m speaking of course about Doctor Who. Once a week I sift through the millions of Etsy listings to find the best in geek chic for Blog@ readers. And I’ve been waiting patiently to do this one. Last week I found some wacky Portal related objects on the crafting site but this time around, it’s all about the Doctor. And his companions. And his enemies. And the TARDIS. Yes, it’s a special extended edition of Etsy Made Me Do It. (I apologize to your wallets in advance.)

Without further ado…ALLONS-Y!

There’s been a lot of Doctor Who novelization over the last 47 years, not to mention a good number of DVD releases. Well how would you like to hold them up in style with these Doctor Who bookends? They’re pretty epic if you ask me. User TheophilusSaxe made them out of hard engineering-grade plaster with a resin TARDIS and felt bottom. Just $49.99. Or, if you’d prefer just to stare at something awesome that serves no other purpose, check out his Doctor Who dioramas: Ice Box, Knock knock who’s there, and Boxed Lunch, $19.99 each. (more…)

Thor premiered for some folks over the weekend and their verdict is in.

On the whole, the reviewers are unanimous, Thor rocks. I won’t post any spoilers here but beware if you click through to the individual websites.

Empire Online gives the Marvel film four out of five stars saying Thor, “is tremendous fun, and further proof that Marvel Studios knows how to handle its back catalogue.” The reviewer also added that Chris Hemsworth, “comes into his own, adding new layers of humility and humour to his blustering God Of Thunder,” when he comes to Earth.

Of the Aussie actor, The Hollywood Reporter had this to say, “[Director Kenneth] Branagh may convey a lofty intellect to the Shakespearean interplay of feuding fathers and sons, and co-stars Anthony Hopkins and Natalie Portman the actorly gravitas. But the 6-foot-3 Hemsworth adds the winning ingredients, bringing a lusty Viking charm to his rumbling Olde English line readings, a towering physicality and biceps that look forged in a furnace. Verily, he is ripped.” Though their simplified review is, “The hammer-hurling god of thunder kicks off this superhero summer with a bang.”

IGN, giving it 3.5 out of five stars writes, “Thor may be the proverbial fish out of water here, but we’re thankfully spared many of the goofy things that come with that oft-tread movie territory. Thor understands Earth and humans; he’s just a little out of step with our customs and tech. Judging from the taser and hospital clips that have been released, you might think the film is chock full of physical comedy, but happily they are just a few moments in an otherwise straightforward Thor tale.”

Although the consensus was that Thor was a great film, the reviewers did take time to mention a few slight missteps. IGN for example said, “The biggest problem with the earthly story line isn’t its tone or setting, but rather the brevity of Thor’s stay there. He’s basically in town for the weekend and in that time he learns the error of his ways? … Exile ain’t what it used to be.”

THR said, “The arrogant warrior Thor’s great conversion, central to the plot, is unrealistically lightning-quick and the movie’s dramatic arc falters amid the constant shifts between earthly and celestial realms.”

Most reviews mention there is a lot of story to cover in the time-span given (especially for developing the Thor/Jane romance) but besides that, Thor succeeds. And yes, the film does give some onscreen time to connecting itself to the larger Marvel universe (as if we didn’t already see that coming).

Thor thunders into theaters May 6.

From Captain America and the Falcon #209, by Jack Kirby and Frank Giacoia, colors by George Roussos):

(Apologies for the bad scan, it’s from the sizable Captain America by Jack Kirby Omnibus.)

From Captain America and the Falcon #210 (again by Kirby, Giacoia and Roussos):

It’s not just me that finds it both surreal and ridiculously amusing that, not only does Sharon Carter put her hair above national security, but that the next issue, Jack Kirby pays that joke off with her boss complimenting her, only to be brushed off by a newly hard-ass Sharon, right? Also, what’s with the boss offering to pay for her new hair-do? I feel like there’s some in-joke going on here that I’ll never quite understand.

For your approval, from this weekend’s Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, OR:

Before you write that pic off as just another cosplayer doing their cosplaying thing: Underneath that helmet is Portland, OR mayor Sam Adams, doing his bit to support a local organization called p:ear, which supports homeless kids through education and arts-based programs by agreeing to appear in a costume that is the result of an online contest held by the Alter Egos Society. Adams has also declared that April is officially Comic Book Month in Portland for the last few years, in support of Stumptown and the local comics community in general. Consider the nerd-politic bar raised, just a little bit.

(Photo from Flickr, by Sarah Mirk).

Shall we do a spoiler jump straight away, to ensure that everyone who has somehow avoided the news can stay avoided? (more…)

Hey, remember that time Rob Liefeld and Mike Mignola collaborated?: No? Well, Liefeld does, and he has some neat images to share too. Now I kinda want to see Liefeld draw Hellboy and the BPRD gang…at least on a cover or pin-up, anyway.

Something I will never get sick of seeing: Jaime Hernandez drawing Wonder Woman. Why oh why did DC ever cancel Solo, their greatest idea for a comic book series ever? Can you imagine a Jaime Hernandez issue of Solo?

Is Johnny Ryan a better concert poster designer, or a better concert line-up assembler?: You decide! (Link not safe for work, obviously…or is saying that after already saying “Johnny Ryan” considered redundant?

Big Questions will be a big book: In fact, I think I’m going to have to ask a carpenter to come over and add a few feet on to my Drawn and Quarterly bookshelf, and maybe reinforce it. As the first of these pictures shows, the book will be even bigger than some of D+Q’s awfully big books.

James Kochalka is a very good dancer: Check out his moves in this Beyonce video (For his song entitled Beyonce, that is; he’s not a back-up dancer in an actually Beyonce video, although I would kinda like to see him performing in something like this). In other Kochalkappenings, this American Elf strip is a nice demonstration of how adulthood is pretty much the same as high school, only interminable.

Abhay Khosla is pretty much the best: The latest evidence.

“I remember them from drawing them so intently as a child that my hand remembered drawing them more than I remembered them”: That’s Vicki Scott, from  a neat little video interview thing she and Bob Scott, the artists involved with that new Peanuts comic I reviewed the other day. Returning to characters you used to draw as a kid every once in a while is a really cool, really strange experience. Every few years or so I’ll sit down and spend a few hours just drawing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or Uncle Scrooge or Batman villain The Scarecrow over and over.

“Yeah, new guys, I can do that like breathing. I can piss new guys out like a race horse with Charlton rates”: That’s Evan Dorkin imagining the thoughts running through Jack Kirby’s head when he sat down to make Captain America Annual #4, which featured Magneto hanging out with a pretty lame-o Brotherhood of Evil, which included guys like The Peeper and The Lifter. Well, when you create some 5,000 characters in the space of 40 years or so, they can’t all be Doctor Doom, you know?

Get ‘em George Takei!: Add the Star Trek actor to the list of people who think moving the setting of Akira to the U.S. (and thus casting non-Japanese actors) for a live-action film adaptation is a pretty dumb idea. While I admit being attracted to the sheer insanity of casting twenty-something white guy Robert Pattinson and 30-year-old white guy Justin Timberlake as Japanese teenagers Tetsuo and Kaneda, if they don’t land Pattinson while he’s still  a chick-money magnet, I can’t imagine this going over well at the box office or in film reviews. How did the “whitewashed” and/or Americanized live-action big-screen adapations of Godzilla, Dragon Ball and The Last Airbender go over, in terms of both money and popular esteem?

The 2011 season stood out as the most successful summer in recent history for the DC Bullets. Despite a first round playoff loss against the eventual New York Media Softball League champions, Wall St. Journal (congrats to them on back-to-back championships!), the Bullets’ 8-2 mark in league play tied for the league’s best overall record. And the Bullets’ overall 16-5-1 mark is easily their best tally in memory.

Along the way, many highlights:

* Larry Ganem’s six innings of perfect pitching against Vanity Fair

* Allison Dugas’ two-out, game-tying hit in an extra-inning victory over Wall St. Journal

* a spectacular, Willie-Maysesque, over-the-shoulder catch by Nel Yomtov during a showdown with High Times

* an Independence Day-weekend showdown against the Daily Show that will go down in Bullet lore for the number of pounds every player sweated out during the game

* and a comeback-player-of-the-year performance by Joel Press, after surgery hobbled his previous summer.

But probably the biggest accomplishment was simply the team’s steady defense and offense, consistently limiting the opposition’s rallies while relentlessly keeping pressure on their defenses.

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It was bound to happen eventually, right? Either way, this may be the best translation of a superhero to live action ever.

(Video is a promo for next week’s Smallville episode but no real spoilers therein.)

Was that great or what? The promo just aired and I already see fans who were clueless about Booster’s arrival on the series complaining about it. Personally, I love it. Is the choice to bring in a new character this late in the season an odd choice? Maybe, but it’s a Geoff Johns episode so you know it’s going to be great. Plus, Booster Fan Club t-shirts make a cameo!

Eric Martsolf plays Booster, aka Michael John Carter,  in the episode titled “Booster” (oh he’d be grinning from ear to ear if he really existed), which also stars Blue Beetle. Actor Jaren Brandt Bartlett is playing Jaime Reyes and Sebastian Spence plays Ted Kord.

“Booster” premiers next Friday on the CW. And don’t forget, dial 1-800-BOO$TR if you need a really tan hero to save the day.

I’ll admit, for all the horror stories and failed ventures, I can never bring myself to fully dislike Jim Shooter. It’s mostly nostalgia; His Secret Wars was the introduction to a lot of Marvel characters for me, and he was the guy in charge of Marvel when Claremont was in his X-Men prime, Byrne was doing Fantastic Four and Walt Simonson was teaching everyone how to do it on a monthly basis with Thor. Surely that gives him some credibility, right? If nothing else, it definitely makes his $1.98 Storytelling Lecture worth reading. A series of three posts transcribing a 1994 version of what Shooter calls “boot camp” for new creators, it’s a weirdly fascinating view into how Shooter sees storytelling:

Little Miss Muffet–introduce the character. Sat on a tuffet eating her curds and whey–establish the status quo. Along came a spider–introduce the disruptive element. Sat down beside her–build suspense. Scared poor Miss Muffet–climax. Away–resolution. Now you know the basic building block of entertainment. Is that all you need? No. Little Miss Muffet is a story, it fits the basic building block, it is however a lousy story. You don’t know anything about this girl, you don’t know anything about the spider. It gets old pretty quick. But we can make it better.

Just bring in Frank Springer to pencil and we’ve got another Dazzler: The Movie on our hands…

The original series of Doctor Who lasted 26 seasons, from 1963 to 1989. Thanks to his ability to regenerate his body when he’s close to death (as long as it’s not damaged too greatly and death isn’t instantaneous), the Doctor displayed 7 different incarnations over those many adventures. With the exception of a TV movie in 1996 that introduced the 8th Doctor, the TV show did not return until 16 years later in 2005 when we met the Doctor’s new 9th incarnation.

The first four incarnations had a strange dress style, a mixture of Edwardian and Victorian touches with a flair for the ridiculous. The 5th, 6th and 7th Doctors comprised what later came to be known as the “costume era”, wearing strangely stylized outfits decorated by question marks. The 8th went back to a more classic, slightly steampunk look before later (as we recently discovered) adopting a leather, Naval jacket.

The new series Doctors have gone for more modern looks but have each maintained a style that has made them stand out in many environments. So let’s take a look, shall we?

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In case you were thinking that DC was gambling a lot with 20 titles for an alternate-world story like Flashpoint, today’s “Flashpoint Friday” posts on The Source may have caught your eye. Specifically, the part where they essentially said that it’s not just an alternate-world story:

Dan Jurgens: There will be lasting effects.

Adam Schlagman: Wait until you see the end. Oh boy, does it matter. Plus the emotional context will register with all DC fans for all eternity.

Dan Abnett: We can’t talk about that yet. But oh my god…

Jeff Lemire: Because, unlike past events, this one REALLY does change everything.

Scott Snyder wraps the post up with the clearest quote:

It’s just a great tale, really imaginative, epic, with lost of twists and turns… But if you’re looking for a “will it change the DCU,” the answer is definitely yes.

The question is now, will this be a post-continuity-”No More Mutants” or yet-another history-gets-rewritten-instead-of-restored changing of the DCU? For those keeping track at home, that’s already happened in Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, Infinite Crisis and Final Crisis, so I guess everyone in the DCU should be used to it by now…

As reported on The Beat and elsewhere, Tokyopop will be shuttering its U.S. operations on May 31st.

Founded by Stu Levy in 1997, the publisher found success in the market by riding the cultural tidal wave of manga. Tokyopop was a key enterprise in spreading the form in the states, bringing over hits like “Sailor Moon” and attracting attention with the likes of “Battle Royale”. The publishers troubles in recent years have been well-documented; as of February, only six full-time employees remained.

Levy himself posted a commentary, noting ” I’m very proud of what we’ve accomplished – and the incredible group of passionate fans we’ve served along the way (my fellow revolutionaries!).”

Note that the German office will remain open, and that other media projects continue. Find the official Tokyopop PR after the jump.

As for you, readers, what do you have to say? Tokyopop memories? What does this mean for manga in America? Comics in general? Let us hear you.
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This looks awesome: Fantagraphics’ Flog blog shares a nice illustration piece by Tony Millionaire, for a book that sounds almost as awesome as the Millionaire piece looks.

Brian Hibbs on recent events: I enjoy reading Savage Critics ringleader Brian Hibbs’ posts on new comics, like this one on recent events like Fear Itself and “The Death of Spider-Man,” because he responds to the works not just as a fan (I liked this, I didn’t like that) or a critic (this was good, this was bad, here’s why) but also as a retailer. After all, he’s the guy who has to try and sell this stuff to his customers.

“Anyway, this was the most fun I’ve had in years and I’m really grateful for the response to it so far”: Artist Kevin Nowlan discusses his work on Hellboy: Buster Oakley Gets His Wish, a one-shot released this past Wednesday.

Doubleshot of Sims: Comics Alliance’s Chris Sims discusses “The Best, Worst and Weirdest Alternate Superhero Deaths In Comics” in light of Ultimate Spider-Man’s ultimate death, and joins forces with one of my personal favorite artists for a comic book that never happened, Fear Itself: 1942.

“Maddening ouroboros of self-reference” is actually  a pretty good way to describe it: The Seattle Times reviews two recent episodes of the Batman: The Brave and the Bold cartoon. Part of that entails just counting off the crazy amount of allusions to what sounds like the entire history of Superman and Batman comics. I should note that critic Andrew A. Smith means “maddening ouroboros of self-reference” in a good way.

If you’re a Marvel reader, you’ve probably taken note of the name Rob Williams as of late, as he’s responsible for an increasingly growing chunk of the publisher’s output. H’s writing the currently unfolding miniseries Skaar: King of the Savage Land, imminently taking over the ongoing Daken: Dark Wolverine series, launching a new Ghost Rider ongoing this summer, anchoring miniseries The Iron Age, and, as announced earlier this week, helming three issues of Fear Itself: Uncanny X-Force, starting in July (Whew.)

But like many British comic book writers, Williams has a rich background working with Rebellion properties like long-running anthology 2000 AD. And he’s returning to those roots in Judge Dredd Megazine #311, with a story cheekily titled “The Walking Dredd.” As you may guess, the plot involves Judge Dredd being bitten by a zombie. The comic’s illustrated by Brendan McCarthy, who also has Marvel experience — specifically, last year’s trippy three-issue miniseries Spider-Man: Fever.

Judge Dredd Megazine #311 is out in the UK May 25, and stateside a month later. More images, courtesy Rebellion, are after the jump.

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The first trailer for Rise of the Planet of the Apes (geez that’s a mouthful) from director Rupert Wyatt has officially hit the internet. These ain’t your Tim Burton primates…

Is anyone else sincerely creeped out by those things? Honestly, the people at WETA (Lord of the Rings, Avatar) are amazing. I find it hilarious that Andy Serkis is playing yet another primate (he depicted Kong in King Kong) but he’s actually bringing that chimp to life exceptionally well.

“The main thing we’re trying to do is create these completely believable ape characters and treat them completely in a live-action sense,” senior visual effects supervisor Joe Leterri told Empire Online who have some breakdowns of the visual effects.

“This actually grew most directly out of what we were doing on Avatar, but here we brought the motion capture completely onto the live-action stage. We had to hide all of the motion-capture cameras all over the live-action sets. And so we could have Andy Serkis, and any of the other actors playing the apes in the set with the [non-ape] actors actually performing.”

Serkis also spoke about the chimpanzee he plays named Caesar. ”Kong was purely a gorilla, so I went all-out to to make that work and play the psychology and DNA of a pure gorilla,” he said. “But this is much more mercurial and ‘shifting sands’ in terms of who this creature is, because he’s brought up with human beings, and then he’s inherited this drug which has enhanced his intelligence, so you have to almost forget he’s a chimp, really. We’ve been experimenting with treating him much more as a human being, really. It feels more like a human drama story.”

Rise of the Planet of the Apes also stars James Franco, Freida Pinto, John Lithgow, Brian Cox and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy from Harry Potter) and will swing into theaters August 5. The official website, ApesWillRise.com, is now live.

The writers of the Captain America movie, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, are apparently already thinking about the sequel and trying to work out just what kind of story it will be. Talking to MTV’s Splash Page blog, Markus said,

This is the fun part — when we can say, “Hey, we can do this!” and everyone says, “Yeah!” No one says anything negative at this point in the process. We have a million great ideas and haven’t thrown any of them out yet.

Luckily, they can stop brainstorming now, because I can tell them what the next movie should be in just one word: Madbomb.

Yeah, that’s right: Social unrest, grand epic scale and Cap saving America as only he can. What else could anyone want, really? Marvel Studios: You know it makes sense.

I have no idea why I am so resistant to the idea that The Dark Knight Returns might be adapted into an animated movie, a la All-Star Superman. Is it because I thought that the animated version of A-SS replicated the action but missed the heart that made the original so special? Perhaps, but Dark Knight Returns is a shorter work than A-SS and also more weighted towards the action in the first place, so that might not be a problem. Maybe it’s that I can’t imagine DKR not being censored in some way, considering its content and what we’ve seen in the other animated movies… but perhaps I’m just being cynical about that. So why does it seem like such a bad idea?

Maybe it’s because it seems completely unnecessary. Has the world been crying out for this all along and I’ve not been paying attention? I feel the same way about this as I did the movie Watchmen: Isn’t the comic enough? Can’t something just be great as what it is, and the creators of the adaptations come up with something else, even if it’s something featuring the same characters? Unless Frank Miller somehow gets involved with this rumored animated version, I fear disaster (or worse, disasterous boredom) for this plan.

There’s another setback for Warner Bros. in the lawsuit with the estates of Superman co-creators Joel Shuster and Jerry Siegel. A judge has rejected Warner Bros.’ attempts to open documents that reportedly show an agreement between the estates not to make further copyright deals with the studio.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, “the documents are said to also contain a formula for how the two estates will share proceeds on Superman once they successfully terminate Warner’s rights to the lucrative franchise.”

“The documents are said to be “consent agreements” between the Siegel and Shuster estates and their existence came to light during settlement discussions during the first phase of the Siegel trial,” said THR. “Once [Joanne Siegel's lawyer Marc] Toberoff mentioned the presence of these agreements, Warners almost immediately demanded the documents be shared. During the first trial, Toberoff successfully got a judge to agree that those documents were protected by attorney-client privilege.”

The fighting, which has gone on for more than ten years now, doesn’t seem to have an end in sight. Last year Warner Bros. had argued that the agreement itself was a violation of the Copyright Act and could not be kept under wraps.

“The prior case, however, didn’t address this particular situation,” said THR, “where the heirs of the original creators apparently agreed to negotiate together, and not grant future interests to anyone, including Warners.”

The opinion, issued by U.S. Magistrate Judge Ralph Zaresky on Monday, doesn’t “settle the question of whether such an agreement does in fact violate copyright law, but says that Warners’ assertion that it is illegal does not necessarily make it so.”

Got all that? Warner Bros. has until 2013 to try and win this battle, that’s when they’ll lose specific rights to the famous, and lucrative, character.