When it comes to superheroes and beards, there’s not a whole lot of overlap.

Sure, there’s Hercules, and there’s Odin — goateed folks like Tony Stark and Oliver Queen just don’t make the cut — but otherwise, the number is pretty sparse. But Croatian illustrator Vanja Mrgan is looking to bridge that divide, with his site, Beards and Bellies.

You wouldn’t know it, but underneath that beard, Batman has another fist. (Or a Whirly-Bat.) It’s some pretty funny stuff. Go ahead and check out the rest of the images here.

Don’t worry, the artist of Green Arrow: Year One isn’t having a feud with Ollie Queen.

According to Jock’s Twitter feed, apparently his drawings of the left-leaning superhero were co-opted by the Home of Green Arrow and Friends… a web site which supports the far-right British National Party, which a particular anti-immigration, anti-minority bent. (I thought the above image was appropriate — if Ollie found out about this, he probably wouldn’t leave that tree for a week.)

“i’ve emailed the site and i’ll be letting DC’s legal dept know,” Jock added on Twitter. “this is leaving a horrible taste in my mouth….”

I can imagine, whatever your politics, that Ollie probably wouldn’t be thrilled with his likeness going here either, with gems like, “wake up people or we are going to go the way of the Christians of Kosovo, the Red Indians, Incas, Australian aborigines and wind up as dead as a Dodo. The harsh fact of nature is this.  Land belongs to those who occupy and hold it, not give it away.” Ugh. We’ll keep you posted if anything changes.

Could this be the start of an online paradigm shift?

IDW Publishing announced this week of the creation of their very own storefront app for the iPhone and iPod Touch, in conjunction with iVerse Media. iVerse has helped translate a lot of comics to the iPhone, including Atomic Robo, Frank Frazetta’s Death Dealer, Neozoic, Proof, and, of course, IDW’s Star Trek: Countdown, which came out in conjunction with the hit J.J. Abrams film.

“We’ve spent the past several months building and refining these apps and creating a large catalog that includes both classic series and fresh stories,” Jeff Webber, IDW’s ePublishing Director, said in a statement. “IDW has one of the most diverse collections in comics, and it now fits in your pocket!”

The app, called IDW Comics, currently holds 10 free comics, with more than 200 comics available for purchase. The company says the site will be regularly updated with new releases. Currently, they have books up as recent as Jennifer Love Hewitt’s Music Box, which only came out about three weeks ago.

For me, IDW — the first company to have their own storefront app — has a fairly interesting idea. While larger cities with numerous comic shops have greater flexibility in terms of getting their comics out, those in smaller towns have their own sets of difficulties: understaffed shops, delayed availability of books, and sometimes an enormous distance between stores. With companies like iVerse and comiXology beginning to trickle books to iPhones — albeit at a decent delay — and digital download programs such as Longbox on the horizon, could simultaneous print and online distribution be the next big thing? Sound off, Rama readers!

Once he was a Loser — and now he’s one of Odin’s right hand men!

Marvel announced today that Idris Elba (who will be in the upcoming Losers film) will be joining the cast of Thor as Heimdall. In the comics, Heimdall stands as the guardian of Asgard’s Rainbow Bridge.

With all the hubbub surrounding the recent casting of the Warriors Three, is there anyone else left to be cast? With Kenneth Branagh behind the wheel, I’m curious to see how this thing shakes out.

The film is due out in May 2011.

For comic book film lovers, sometimes the Blu-Ray debate is a tough one. On the one hand, Blu-Ray is becoming more and more prevalent due to the PS3 — on the other hand, though, why give up your existing DVDs to buy a more expensive Blu-Ray copy of the same thing?

Well, for at least some of these genre offerings, Warner Bros. is offering a compromise with their DVD2Blu program — trade in your DVDs for their Blu-Ray counterparts for a discounted price.

Relevant titles for our crowd include A Clockwork Orange, Constantine, Dark City, A History of Violence, Golden Compass, Lost Boys, The Orphange, Pan’s Labyrinth, A Scanner Darkly, Superman 2: The Richard Donner Cut, Superman Returns, The Shining, and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Esther Inglis-Arkell read what looks like this past Wednesday’s Justice Society of America 80-Page Giant #1, and she did not enjoy the section by Jen Van Meter and Justiniano (pretty nice looking art, though!).

During that scene, Cyclone and Power Girl talk about how cool Power Girl’s costume is, and how, in fact, it is not at all sexist or unusual in anyway that there’s a big cleavage window in it…in fact, that’s the best part because of the way it unsettles criminals and blah blah blah. Inglis-Arkell then rattles off all the other explanations for Power Girl’s sexy costumes, and the sexy costumes of her female crime-fighting peers she’s read. None of which seem to include “Just because the person who designed it thought it was sexy, okay?”

Seriously, go read Inglis-Arkell’s post. Then come back and we’ll talk more, okay?

I can’t disagree with anything she said in her post; she’s dead-on right. If I had anything to add, it would be that the writer’s doing the justification of the costumes almost never have any real control over those costumes, and probably think they’re doing something valuable by finding a reason for explaining a costuming choice that sounds better than “Some guy 20-65 years ago though this was totally hot, and wondered if his editors would let him get away with it.” (That doesn’t make it any less irritating though, especially for a character like Power Girl, who is given explanation after explanation for her cleavage window. The first one of these speeches you read is never as annoying as the second, third or fifth).

Oh, and I should note it annoys me whenever a writer tries too hard to explain a goofy or silly element of a superhero comic, costuming or otherwise, in a way that writer thinks sounds more “realistic.”

For example, in this week’s Flash: Rebirth, Geoff Johns has a character mention that Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick where’s his totally boss soup-bowl hat because it reminds him of the helmet his father wore during World War I.

No, he wears it because he always wore it, and he started wearing it because it looked cool. (Oh, and the Roman god Mercury probably had something to do with that). Whether or not you think Power Girl’s costume looks cool or is sexy, the person who designed it certainly did, and the editors and artists responsible for dressing her since agreed and kept it. Some things about super-comics don’t need to be explained, and when a writer tries to explain them, they only draw attetnion to them and draw attention to the fact that the writer is struggling with their work.

Nothing knocks one out of a super-comic faster than the writer acknowleding that they’re not really fond of or don’t really get super-comics.

Gotta get back? Back to the past?

Well, Samurai Jack won’t disappoint — because he might be hitting the big screen in 2011.

Frederator has an interview up with series creator Genndy Tartakovsky, saying that he is teaming up with J.J. Abrams for a “2D/stereoscopic 3D production” of the legendary samurai. What’s more, IMBD has an announcement suggesting a 2011 release date! If that’s true, color me excited — Samurai Jack was an awesome show, probably with the best theme song on Cartoon Network. What do you think?

“New Moon” and all things Twilight is a much-debated subject. Already talked about here, here, and here, it opens the floodgate for debate on numerous things such as whether or not author Stephenie Meyer can form a simple sentence, to why her lead character, Bella, is a poor role model for young girls.

Or whether you’re Team Edward or Team Jacob.

Whatever the debate maybe, you can’t deny this spoof is possibly the funniest yet.

Keep ‘em coming, Itsjustsomerandomguy and gal!

The Twilight phenomenon is nothing new. It’s just the apotheosis of a sort of pop-cultural nosferatu makeover that has been chugging along since Anne Rice sent moody young romantics swooning with Interview With a Vampire way back in 1976. Purists may scoff at the melodrama and angst that have been infused into the sinister vampire archetype by authors like Stephenie Meyer or Laurell Hamilton, but nowadays, the real paroxysms of angst are coming from tormented horror fans who can’t stop moaning about the sparkling Nu-Vampire paradigm. Still, whining sourpuss fans should take heart. If you hunt hard enough, there are still plenty of counterpoints to the new moon that is rising, and even stories that integrate elements of the romanticized Nu-Nosferatu in a way even anti-Twilight curmudgeons can appreciate. Consider the following suggestions a sort of prescription for the current vampire epidemic going around, a treatment regime of literary inoculations and cinematic antidotes that can help you survive. (more…)

In 2004’s Green Lantern: Rebirth, Geoff Johns had some pretty difficult challenges to wrestle with. Not only did he need to bring the late and outdated Hal Jordan character back to life—no easy feat given the nature of his death and afterlife at the time—and convince readers there was any point to doing so at all, he also had to come up with a solution to the contentious Green Lantern fan issue of which of the many characters to have the name should be the Green Lantern, and what to do with the rest of ‘em.

I thought Johns’ “Everyone wins!” solution was rather elegant. He simply made all the possible contenders Green Lanterns, and DC found books for all of them to appear in, even if the main Green Lantern monthly could only star one of ‘em. It was a solution facilitated by the fact that the Green Lantern concept has so long included an army of Green Lantern characters all over outer space—if there were going to be at least 3600 Green Lanterns, surely there was room for four or five Earth men among them, right?

Johns’ current Rebirth series, in which he’s again working with artist Ethan Van Sciver, faces similar problems, although they’re magnified.

Once again Johns has to convince readers that a late and outdated character needs to be brought back to life, but Barry Allen had been dead far, far longer than Jordan, and his replacement Wally West “took” better than Jordan’s replacement Kyle Rayner.

And once again, he has to figure out what to do with the other possible contenders for the name, if Barry Allen were to come back. Unlike Green Lantern, The Flash doesn’t have a built-in army/team component to the concept though, so pluralizing The Flash won’t come quite as naturally, if that is what Johns is intending.

The Flash: Rebirth is only five-sixths over at this point, but it seems as if the final status of all the Flashes was revealed in this week’s issue (additionally, several big DC storylines, most notably Blackest Night, are set after the conclusion of Flash: Rebirth, and have thus offered pretty strong hints). Also, we got a look at what they may be wearing from now on.

So after the jump, a badly-scanned image of a two-page Van Sciver-drawn spread, and some thoughts about the characters on it…and the clothes they’re wearing. (And, um, “spoilers,” obviously).

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Last month, we sat down with some of the icons of comics to discuss how they felt about how they were represented in Halloween costumes. This month, with Thanksgiving fast approaching, we thought that we’d risk humorless tweets and reach out to ask what our heroes find themselves thankful for this year. We begin with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, the Avengers, as they gather at the Infinite Mansion. It turns out that after some tinkering with a leftover device of Kang’s, they were able to round-up Avengers past and present. We begin with Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, The Wasp (Janet Van Dyne), Hank Pym, and the Hulk.

NRAMA: Thanks for agreeing to speak with us. Cap, Hulk . . . nice to see you again.

Captain America: You too, young man.

Hulk: Hi, Blog Guy.

Iron Man: Which one of you is asking the questions?

NRAMA: Excuse me?

Thor: Pardon friend Iron Man. The Armored Avenger hath been in his cups all morning.

Iron Man: That’s a lie! I started last night. Nothing says Thanksgiving like Wild Turkey!

Wasp: Oh boy.

(more…)

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!

(Click the image above for a larger version of the strip.)

WORLD OF HURT - The Thrill-Seekers - Episode 6: “Calling One In”

For the longest time, this was my favorite strip.  I even put it on the back of my business card, with re-worked dialogue.

Here we get to see one way in which Pastor cashes in the favors that are owed him.  Also, this is my first opportunity to really expand on the world in which Pastor operates.  I had the idea that Pastor may have a connection inside a Nation of Islam-esque organization.  Detoxing junkies was one of the community services the Nation Of Islam engaged in during the 1960s and 1970s.  (They may still do it.  I’m not sure.)  I wanted Pastor to come across as familiar with them by use of the traditional Islamic greeting, but his use of Brother Omar’s birth name suggests a certain casual dismissiveness, too.  If space had allowed, he was going to be a lot MORE harsh, because I wanted to include dialogue to the effect of “Keep him under wraps.  I don’t wanna find him on the corner sellin’ bean pies!”  See, now I’m really gonna get in trouble…

Incidentally, I completed this strip faster than any other, because I was heading to Houston to celebrate my brother’s birthday, and I was determined not to miss my deadline.

Remember, the latest episodes of WORLD OF HURT - The Internet’s #1 Blaxploitation Webcomic every Wednesday at www.worldofhurtonline.com.

- JEP

What happens when the government assembles the greatest creative minds — from chemistry to creative writing — to devise end-game scenarios?

The answer is Unthinkable — and Mandalay has just picked it up.

The Hollywood Reporter has announced that producers Peter Gruber and Cathy Schulman have picked up the property, written by Mark Sable and illustrated by Julian Totino Todesco. On BOOM!’s side of the fence, Ross Richie and Andrew Cosby are also on board for the project.

This is not the first time that a BOOM! Studios property has been picked up by Hollywood: Universal has picked up Talent, Tag, and 2 Guns, while CBS snagged Station and David Entertainment has acquired North Wind. Still, this series was one of the highest-concept books of 2009, so Sable has definitely earned this great news. What say you, Rama readers?

So after seeing yesterday’s post about the first look at Smallville’s Hawkman, a lot of the comments skewed towards the negative. While I feel the jury might still be out on that one, only one thing’s for certain:

THAT is how Hawkman is supposed to look. This piece, drawn by The Mighty’s Chris Samnee, is just freaking awesome. Get the right colorist on this guy, and a Samnee Hawkman might just sell gangbusters. What say you, Rama readers?

“The Winter Men” is a patchwork quilt of observations and red herrings that takes the spy thriller to new heights of eccentric fun. It’s one of those stories that starts out about being one thing and ends up embracing everything. Meet Kris Kalenov, the main character in “The Winter Men,” he is your guide into the underworld and beyond. It’s a new world order since the collapse of the Soviet Union and Kalenov is no longer a star player in a Soviet secret weapons program. He has become a Moscow cop, usually full of vodka and, at the start of this tale, is keeled over drunk on a sidewalk covered in snow.

I did not discover “The Winter Men” when it was a comic book but, considering it’s production delays, including its switchover from Vertigo to Wildstorm, it’s understandable that it  somehow slipped by me. Luckily, I did not have to experience any long waits between issues and got to read this new collected trade in one sitting. This is a good read anytime and anywhere but I also see it as perfect inflight reading. Aren’t spy thrillers very popular in airport bookstores? I believe this to be so. It’s because you’re out of your element and open to adventure.

One big thing about “The Winter Men” is that it gets you way out of your element. It’s like “Goodfellas,” one of the best movies about gang life, all about wiseguys and getting whacked. “The Winter Men,” is all about Russia’s new Mafiya and its biznessmen and getting under the right roof. There’s also something akin to “Watchmen” going on in the background, a uber-man that was once the pride of Mother Russia, but it’s Kalenov and his rough and shady bunch, that will have you delight over this convoluted plot as you would in, say, an Elmore Leonard novel.

“The Winter Men” has a real attitude about it too. It promises the world, heroically keeps up with its ambition and, if it falters, shrugs like a good world-weary Russian. Kalenov, our drunk Moscow cop who once was so much more, would prefer to just live quietly and make do with his less than perfect marriage. But too much has happened in the past and it can’t be ignored. “We once filled the sky with heroes…but now they’ve fallen to earth…” That is an intriguing refrain that is looped throughout the book. Within the span of the first few pages: hints of the Soviet super-hero program, a woman is shot, a child is kidnapped and Kalenov is picked up from the snow and enlisted to solve the crime of the century, although he doesn’t know that yet.

All this reminds me of any number of very good television series that, from the narrative, the characters and the production value, are clearly a cut above. And these shows usually make big promises and it’s okay if they don’t deliver on all of them since it’s the world that the characters inhabit that’s most rewarding. I think of shows like, “Life on Mars,” at least the American version, or “Life” or “Dollhouse.” In fact, it’s interesting to consider if these shows would have done better in finding an audience if they were less about process and more about results but, then again, these shows are primarily about attitude. The promises they make, real or not, can be legitimate fuel for the story’s engine.

Another connection to “Watchmen,” I think, is the group of heroes that Kalenov originally belonged to. Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, the line-up is recalled by Kalenov in a regular loop throughout the book: Drost, the soldier; Nikki, the gangster; Nina, the bodyguard; Kalenov, the poet; for a total of four, or five, if you include The Siberian. There’s even a sepia toned photograph of the gang in much happier times: Nikki has just told a joke and it has The Siberian in stitches. Along with the irony, it’s those details, the atmosphere and texture that this book thrives on.

There are a couple of scenes that come to mind. And, like everything else here, the writer and artist team of Brett Lewis and John Paul Leon tackle it with gusto. One has Kalenov and Nikki creating a disturbance in a McDonald’s so that they can unbolt from the floor a plastic table and chairs console to take home. The employee desperately tries to convince an irate Kalenov that the mayonnaise does adhere to city regulations with “well above the forty percent fat requirement.” Another good one has Nikki in the middle of a full-on turf war with other soft drink vendors. Informing the mayhem and murder are quotes from a self-help best-seller like, “Lose Control to the Maximum.”

Perhaps your reading of “The Winter Men” will find it keeping to all its promises and even holding the answer to the meaning to life. God knows, it is certainly within its reach. If you find fault, some blame, maybe a good bit of it, can go to the fact the series was cut from a promised eight issues down to six. There are parts to the story that do appear truncated. And the ending does seem to come all too quickly. However, the fact remains that this comic is really about the quirk and it’s all there for you to enjoy.

“The Winter Men” collected trade releases on November 25.

Hope you enjoyed this installment of Comics Grinder and I welcome you back for more. You can always check in too at the Comics Grinder site.

It’s almost that time of year again.

The Project Fanboy Award, or PFA, nominations have been announced..and…wait. You haven’t heard of Project Fanboy?

Understandable. It’s an up and coming award (next March at Megacon, it would be its third year), but is slowly making the rounds. As I recently moved to Florida from Atlanta, I’ve gotten to know the people behind the scenes and their passion for the industry rivals even my own. Newsarama actually won “Best Comic Book Website” at this past year’s ceremony, and I was there to pick up the award.

Recently, Blog@ sat down with Sebastian Piccione as he talked a bit about himself, the PFA’s, and his respect for the independent book scene.
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Like Jack Kirby? Like Nazi-killin’? Like Quentin Tarantino? Then check out this image from Superpouvoir:

That’s right, some covers to Inglourious Basterds, Kirby-style. Over on CHUD, Martin Duhovic has claimed authorship for the images — no word yet if these covers are actually going to a real project. What do you think?

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!

(Click the image above for a larger version of the strip.)

WORLD OF HURT - The Thrill-Seekers - Episode 5: “Confession Is Good For The Soul, Bad For The Jaw”

In this strip, I think I finally started to gain my footing.  It’s a poor artist who blames his tools, but it’s an even poorer artist who keeps using cheap tools.  I started using a real Red Sable Kolinsky #2 brush, instead of brushes with cheaper synthetic fibers, so I think the lines came out much smoother and more controlled.  I wasn’t super happy with the car, but I was pleased with the flame effects.  If I had the chance, I would re-draw that last panel.  Pastor’s nose drives me crazy in that one.

As far as the writing and art goes, early on I realized I had to trust the audience to make the closure with what is occurring.  As to the fate of Alicia Patterson, I believe what is implied is much more powerful than what is stated, or drawn, because I rely on the imagination, and dare I say, complicity of the reader to generate that closure of events.

Remember, the latest episodes of WORLD OF HURT - The Internet’s #1 Blaxploitation Webcomic every Wednesday at www.worldofhurtonline.com.

- JEP