Brendan McCarthy makes me long for a world where he ran a comic company:

The WORLD of SHAKY KANE! Ah, now that’s a book I would buy instantly.

And a good art book on Jamie Hewlett (not just Gorillaz, but everything - from Atomtan onwards).

How about a collection of Philip Bond’s stuff: Cheeky Wee Budgie Boy is surely ripe for a reprint.

And a Mick McMahon extravaganza… I’ll have that too!

The Art of Frank Bellamy anyone?

Maybe even a new edition of SWIMINI PURPOSE might be called for…

Some eccentric millionaire, please make this happen.

Well, that didn’t take long. From this week’s Cup o’Joe over at MySpace:

Zeb [Wells] returns for a story in July’s Brand New Day: Extra! Special. Then after that Zeb will be leaving Amazing for the foreseeable future. Much like Bob Gale, we knew Zeb would have limited time, so we were thrilled to have him help us with the launch, but due to his schedule on Robot Chicken and some other projects, he’s just swamped. Zeb’s been such an integral part of relaunching Spidey and we’re going to miss him terribly, but on the bright side, he’s still going to be involved as part of the brain trust which is great news.

That’s a shame; Zeb’s arc was my favorite to date… What I don’t get is, is Joe also saying that Bob Gale is off the book as well, or just that we shouldn’t expect him to be that involved…?

If you can be in California next Wednesday and want to have dinner with Geoff Johns, you just may be in luck:

Popular comic book writer Geoff Johns (Green Lantern, Infinite Crisis) will be signing at the Sunnyvale-based Comics Conspiracy on Wednesday, April 30th from 2pm-6pm, in support of his new comic book release, DC UNIVERSE: ZERO. Co-written by Grant Morrison, with art by George Pérez, Tony Daniel, J.G. Jones, and many more, this issue serves as the springboard for the upcoming FINAL CRISIS mini-series, as well as many DC projects throughout 2008 and 2009.

…A Comic Book Legal Defense Fund dinner raffle will follow the signing. The CBLDF was founded in 1986 as a 501 © 3 non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of First Amendment rights for members of the comics community. Five lucky fans will win the opportunity to have dinner with Geoff Johns, and all money collected for the raffle will be donated to the CBLDF. Comics Conspiracy owner Ryan Higgins will match the amount generated by the raffle. “I’ve been a supporter of the Fund for many years, and hope to continue to raise money for this important organization,” Higgins said.

So, let’s see - You get to meet Geoff, buy a comic book for 50 cents and have the chance to enter a draw for a good cause. I’m trying to see where the “lose” is in this whole thing…

The fans at Millarworld wonder about the new guard of writers at Marvel:

Well, lately we are seen new writers taking over mostly of Marvel’s output.

Matt Fraction, Marc Guggenheim, Christos Gage, Fred Van Lente, Jason Aaron, Mike Benson, Gregg Hurwitz, Duane Swierczynski, Brian Reed.

Do you think these new guys are the future of Marvel, shaking up the Jemas era of Bendis,Millar, Ennis, Straczynski and Jenkins? Or are they just adding to the legend?

Is that the legend of the Jemas era, or of Marvel…? Nonetheless, the other posters are also feeling the love… kind of:

“I don’t think this crop will have the freedom to shake things up the way the Millar/BMB crop did, but I’d love it if they were afforded the opportunity.”

“Whether these chaps will eventually surpass Millar/ Bendis/ Jenkins/ Ellis/ JMS/ Loeb et al is a tricky question to answer. The ‘old guard’ have a pretty solid fan base, and are big names - certainly enough to sell books on their name alone. I don’t think any of the new writers have that credibility as yet, other than Fraction and Aaron arguably. Time will tell.”

“Fraction is the future of comics! Jason Aaron close behind. they’re both produced nothing by comic book excellence with alarming regularity! …Guggenheim: meh. he’s the new Jeph Loeb -only he resembled current crappy Jeph Loeb instead of old-times cool Jeph Loeb. shame.”

“Marvel ain’t crap until they hire ME! ME ME ME ME DAMMMMMN YOUUUUUU.”

Wizard talks to Geoff Johns, Brian Michael Bendis and Jim Lee about the last decade and a half of comics, and what’s next:

If you could collaborate with each other, what would be the dream project?
BENDIS: Well…I want to do Avengers with Geoff. I think that Geoff needs to do Avengers again. I would like to collaborate with him like that.
JOHNS: I’d love to do that. That would be awesome.
BENDIS: And I would like the three of us—and I’m not starting sh– again, I promise you that’s not why I’m saying this—but I’d love if the three of us could create an inter-company crossover event. The next logical step, if there were no rules or laws, would be for us to create the greatest inter-company multi-tiered 12-issue crossover that has ever existed on the planet. So that’s what I want. “Only that.”
LEE: And I’d like to draw one issue of that. [Laughter]
BENDIS: Oh great, it doesn’t exist and it’s already late.

…oooooooooooooooooooo:

While all good things must come to an end, all lame things must end as well, so it is with a heavy heart that I am closing the doors on Dave’s Long Box.

One more reason to hate ABC, as Dave Campbell put away his long box for one final time. First Darkseid dies and then this? Double-U Tee Eff, world?

The crossover that nobody knew about from NYCC: Marvel editor Tom Brevoort on a DC panel!

This was Sunday morning, and I had an hour to kill before hosting PRIZE OR NO-PRIZE, Marvel’s tirivia giveaway panel (which was well-attended and a lot of fun, as usual. One of these days, I’ve got to get around to writing some all-new questions for the thing.) At their last convention, DC had closed out their programming with a sort of round-robin discussion with a group of fans. I’d read about it online somewhere and was mildly curious—it sounded more like a Marvel panel in terms of its tone. So, since they were doing it again at the NYCC, I thought I’d stick my head in, get a sense of what they were doing, and maybe cause a little trouble.

But the second he saw me step through the door, DC honcho Dan Didio pointed me out, and ushered me up, asking if I wanted to join the panel. In the blink of an eye I found myself sitting alongside a row of DC editors and staffers, talking about comics I’d read in my formative years. It was quite surreal, kind of like stepping into the Negative Zone or something.

Don’t worry, though - The cheap shots don’t stop coming:

I had to dash out as soon as the panel ended, so I didn’t really get a chance to speak with the other panelists. But they seemed like a bunch of relatively-nice individuals. It almost makes me sad knowing what we’re going to do to their market share with SECRET INVASION.

Almost.

Uh… zing?

On Tuesday, 15th April, the London Institute of Contemporary Arts presented a one-off event entitled “Live at Kirby Plaza” in which some of the field’s most prominent “Kirbyologists” discussed the life of work of one of, if not the finest, comic artist who ever lived - Jack Kirby. Even casual fans will undoubtedly know Kirby as Stan Lee’s co-creator on a vast array of Marvel’s most popular characters, as well as the creator of the DC-owned New Gods property.

Oh, to have been in London… if only to have heard things like this:

Speaking on cassette, Kirby himself related a story about turning down an illustration job for NASA’s space program because they wouldn’t allow him to go into space as payment.

From Brian Michael Bendis’ report of his current NYC trip:

the avenger line ups are locked down. and all my story beats approved. spider-woman is officially on the schedule. alex [Maleev] got another gig on top of it.

Alex asks:

Can we tell them what we gonna do?

Bendis:

NO!!!!! its the big last page of SI reveal. its the whole show, man!!

…before adding:

in a million years, you’d never guess this what alex and i are doing.

Sounds like a challenge, collective web hive mind. Don’t you agree?

The optimistic Comic Bloc starts wondering what other DC books are about to hit the chopping block:

“Quite a few books being cancelled from DC. What do you think is next? I’m scared for Jonah Hex and Blue Beetle, and I don’t see Infinity, Inc. staying long.”

“Didio says Hex pulls in enough in trades to make it worthwhile to keep publishing it. I think they’ll limp it along for another two years or so, certainly until the movie comes out and they see what sort of effect it has on sales. Blue Beetle is on the fence and Infinity, Inc is almost certainly DOA.”

“Sadly, I think two books that I really love but are dealing with some creative team changes (Checkmate and Blue Beetle) were already doing poorly in sales, but with the changes, I think the deaths of these books in close at hand. Pretty sad times.”

“Yeah, BoP is showing the signs. It hasn’t reached critical yet, but the continueing slide is worrisome. But my guess is if it gets canned, it’ll be canned next year.”

“What’s cancelled next? Checkmate. Before the end of the year. I don’t know what’s keeping Infinity, Inc. going, really, but I’m willing to support it until they cancel it. It is getting kinda weird though. They keep cancelling books but they’re not really launching anything to replace them. Kinda makes you wonder.”

“Looks like it’s time for another DC Implosion! Back in the 70s DC cut tons of titles all across the board at the same time. Could happen again.”

“Not for nothing, Jake, but I’m not a huge fan of speculating about books being cancelled. Sometimes that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy - if people think a book is about to get the axe they’re less likely to give it a try. I’d hate for something I said to turn away a potential reader that might help keep a book afloat. I do hope both DC and Marvel start giving their low sellers a little more rope. I really think it takes time to build an audience for anything that isn’t tied to one of the big franchises. I had planned to jump on board All-New Atom, for example, with Remender taking over, but probably won’t bother now that it’s getting the axe. Likewise I’m enjoying The Order quite a bit, but it’s being axed before really having a chance to find its sea legs.”

Wait, the Atom hasn’t been announced as being cancelled, has it? Is that some kind of ironic joke about self-fulfilling prophecies…?

Want to see how Alex Maleev works his magic? On the Bendis Board, he takes a cover from pencils to finished painterly genius. It’s a really nice cover, and process wonks like me will love it.

It had to happen; a Millarworld thread about DCU Zero turns into a thread where the board confronts its Marvel bias:

“DC Universe Zero… Yes . . . DC has officially lost the plot . . . ”

“kinda sounds that way”

“I don’t see how [DCU Zero] implies that DC has ‘lost the plot.’ The idea is that this one shot ties off some loose ends while setting the tone for the rest of the year. So you’ve got Superman and the Legion, and you’ve got the Salvation Run villains, and you’ve got a bunch of super-heroes flying toward…um, something (which is really what they do like 90% of the time so it’s not a big deal). I don’t get the point of this thread except that it’s now “in” to bash DC even if you don’t have a good reason.”

“The problem is DC doesn’t know how to actually DO it anymore. It’s more like going through the paces and hoping the pieces fall into place. In this case they had one plan…that sucked…they had another that sucked..and no they have DC Universe Zero. What ever, Didio needs to be fired and replaced with some one who reads comics, likes them and has at least managed one person successfully in the past.”

“[T]his board more and more has become a Marvel-only board, where bashing DC is seemingly required even in threads having nothing to do with DC — see ‘Secret Invasion #4 thread’, where most posters cannot compliment Marvel without complaining about DC.”

“I dont think the board is pro-marvel. marvel just right now happens to be producing better books then DC.”

“That’s like saying that Fox News doesn’t lean right, it’s just that Republicans are perfect and Democrats are stupid and hate babies.”

“This is a pro-Marvel board….? Guess you haven’t read the Ultimates 3 thread, the Iron Fist gets a new creative team thread or the old Spider-Man: One More Day thread then… I think this is a ‘good comics’ board. Bad comics, from Marvel, DC, DH, Image or whoever tend to get (justifiably) mauled. Good comics get promoted and their praises sang…Isn’t that how it should be?”

Most realistic comment comes from Ryan Rushing, whomsoever he may be:

“It’s true, this board is basically a Marvel Board, and I am sure this will all change when Mark goes over to DC. It makes sense.”

If you suspected that Norman Osborn was messed up, real-life psychiatrist Tim Stevens would agree with you:

The client can be combative during sessions, but this reserve is usually trumped by his own self involvement. Put simply, he likes to talk about himself too much not to disclose personal history. Unfortunately, his recollections are a bit problematic. For instance, Osborn is quite open about having faked his death several years ago. However, he can only say he spent the years everyone thought he was dead “out of country.” Similarly, while he can acknowledge exposing himself to an experimental serum that gave him abilities beyond typical humans, he often blames his mental illness on what he describes as a “ritual” that ended with him receiving madness as his “gift”. This particular story has been unsubstantiated and nothing to date has made this writer believe it is the base cause of any of Osborn’s difficulties.

The Marvel Video Games blog starts a series on Iron Man games from the past:

If you know your 20th Century Iron Man games, you know they fall into one of three categories: 1) As part of a team of Super Heroes beating the crap out of evil, 2) as a fighting-game character or 3) sharing the spotlight with some dude from Valiant Comics you probably wouldn’t have otherwise heard of.

Apparently, those games? Not so great:

The NES version of “Captain America and the Avengers” had nothing to do with the arcade semi-classic of the same name. Rather, it was a 2D action-platformer akin to “Castlevania” and “Ninja Gaiden,” but with Cap and Hawkeye. Not a bad game, necessarily, but certainly Iron Man’s personal low point in video game history.

Why? Well, he and Vision were essentially the unplayable Princess Peaches to the other two’s Mario brothers, held captive by the Bowser known as the Mandarin. I’m surprised we’re never told, “But our Iron Man is in another castle!”

INT. JJJ’S OFFICE—DAY

He tosses a stack of photos at PETER PARKER. They’re awfully nice photos. Maybe a little too nice.

JJJ: Dogs catching Frisbees in the park … Some fat old geezer playing chess … Autumn leaves.

PETER: I was thinking maybe the Bugle could show another side of New York for a change—

JJJ: Parker, if I believed for one second those pictures were an accurate reflection of this town, I’d hang myself from the top of the Chrysler Building.

Want to read Michael Chabon’s original script for Spider-Man 2? Well, McSweeney’s have it for your enjoyment:

Chabon was the third of four screenwriters assigned to the project; he ultimately received shared “screen story” credit. As far as we know, this script hasn’t been seen anywhere else, and it won’t be seen here for long.

Is DC wasting their best fictional asset? Posters at Comic Bloc think that may be the case:

I’ve always seen superhero comics as a narrative genre: that means that I’m not really interested in concepts which are proposed just “for the sake of showing them”, but I’d like that every idea, storyline, character, etc., had its own development and identity. I sincerely think that practically everything in comics must find its own voice; should not it be like this, a lot of concepts would become simply meaningless.
At the end of 52, when the concept of multiverse was re-integrated in continuity, I was full of enthusiasm; in particular, after that I read Grant Morrison’s interview in which he stated that he would have liked to make of every earth the basis of a distinct comics line (or something like that). The idea was pretty strong, and was reinforced by subsequent interviews to Waid, Rucka, Johns, etc.
I must say, sadly, that one year later these good proposals have not been realized; on the contrary, I think that Countdown wasted much of the multiverse’s potential.
Countdown has been probably the worst way to use the concept of the parallel earths. All the maxiseries does is showing alternate versions of already seen heroes, but it’s all pretty void; there is no real development to the characters, the world they inhabit, etc.
Just think about the Nazi Superman of Earth10: all we see in Countdown is an Aryan Superman which is not much more than the nth variation on the theme of “Evil Superman”.
We never really know anything about Earth10, or about the “Wagnerian” revamp of it Morrison talked about. And the same thing can be said about practically all the remaining earths.
In conclusion, one year later, the only earths which have had a bit of a development have been Earth-8 (the Lord Havok one) and Earth-9 (the Tangent one).
I really hope that DC invert this tendency (because I think that the responsibility of this is certainly not the writers’): how I would liked to read a noir story (not necessarily a whole line of comics, of course!) by Greg Rucka on Earth-4!

I have to admit - I kind of feel as if the multiverse has been treated pretty poorly in Countdown. And, if the rest of the Comic Bloc thread is a good indication, I’m not alone:  (more…)

How do you feel about J. Scott Campbell? Some of the Millarworld posters are conflicted, but consistently over the top:

“Heh. I think it’s funny. If this dude applied himself he’d be the biggest comic artist in the world. Seriously, over Frank Miller, Mad, Jim Lee, anyone! It’s pure self destruction for him to not throw down. Goofy goofy shit, but what can you do?”

“I agree, he could be the greatest artist alive, he’s gifted, but he does not publish. Quesada & Loeb have been avoiding the Amazing Spider-Man question for months because nothing has been done. It’s sad.”

“I think that when JSC has the time to work at his best is when he is truely innovative, take a look at Danger Girl, the camera angles and panel composition used, it really took the whole ‘Image style’ to the nth degree and his ‘eye for a shot’ is unique. I don’t think JSC will be a ‘regular’ comic book guy, ever, but when he does come to the table he certainly brings his whole game. Despite the wider reaction to Wildsiderz, take a look at the book and art itself. Pretty amazing stuff. He just ‘gets’ what he is doing and to be honest, I’m kinda glad we don’t see too much JSC on the shelves, kinda makes the wait worth while.”

“[H]e could be one of the greatest, but I think for most of his career, he’s been considered as one of the best, which is by no means an insult or slap against his talents.”

What made them talk like this? That would be Campbell’s Secret Invasion cover.

Shwicaz wonders about internet cliches:

Going through comic message board is sometimes illuminating in ways I never thought possible.

Apparently, if you are explaining why you like a certain writer/character/creator/company to someone who does not like said writer/character/creator/company, you are now an ‘apologist‘ WTF?

People complain that writer’s ignore past ‘continuity‘….but, if a creator uses past continuity to tell a new story, that creator is now guilty of ‘retconning‘

… Any male writer who shows a female beaten up/attacked in their book is ‘misogynist‘. If a woman in a book dies in a particularly brutal fashion, as part of a plot device, comic fans complain this is yet another case of ‘women in refrigerators‘

I know I am missing so many more…..what are the others…?

Luckily, the rest of the Bendis Board have things in better perspective: (more…)

Comics Should Be Good, CBR’s pet blog, starts a series of posts about the 100 best runs of comics ever. Considering that Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Library is only #100, you do have to wonder what #1 is going to be…

Whatever happened to Marvel B0y? Am I the only one really wondering that? For a couple of weeks, it was all “It’s a Marvel plant!” “No, it’s not!” “Their blog has been deleted!” “Now it’s back!” and then… nothing.

Don’t get me wrong; I know that Secret Invasion is out and (s)he served his/her purpose of getting people to talk about the books and everything but I feel oddly robbed that there was no last minute flameout or anything…