The return of Peter Milligan to Vertigo just keeps on getting better. His take on John Constantine is going to new and interesting places–not easy for a character as old as Constantine–and now with this first issue of a new ongoing series, Milligan’s teamed up with Davide Gianfelice for a nasty little tale rooted in Greek myths and stories.

Anyone familiar with the story of Oedipus will recognize the plot of this first issue, but there’s no need to bone up on your classics to enjoy this story. You do need a strong stomach and a taste for the perverse–but if you’re a Vertigo reader, you already knew that, right?

Eddie is just a kid looking for his mom, but that goes about as spectacularly wrong as it can possibly go, and he runs off to Greek Street, the part of town run by criminals and other lowlifes, and watched over by gorgeous strippers who know all the dirtiest secrets.

This first issue sets up a bunch of loose ends will probably only get more tangled before any of them get resolved, and just begins to set up its world and its rules. There’s magic here, but how much and of what kind and how it will be blended with the gritty, cruel criminal underworld we just don’t know.

What we do know is that it’s vintage Vertigo, with Gianfelice’s luscious art making even the most gruesome scenes beautiful and otherworldly and at the same time making the horror truly gripping, visceral. If this book lives up to this first issue, it’s going to be a hell of a ride.

MTV’s Splash Page picked up on a bomb dropped during a recent Damon Lindelof Q&A. Brian K. Vaughan, comic book writer extraordinaire and the man responsible for much of the pop culture, comic, and light-hearted moments (one can assume anyhow) on the last 2.5 seasons of LOST, is leaving.

“Unfortunately he has left for greener pastures,” the series’ executive producer Damon Lindelof told fans during a Q&A Session at Curzon Cinema.

There hasn’t been any indication yet what those greener pastures might be, but to get Vaughan, who was a full producer last season as well as one of the writers, to leave a hit show in its final season, those pastures must be very green indeed.

Since the breakout hit of Y: The Last Man and his run on Runaways ended, Vaughan has been content to write WildStorm’s Ex Machina as his only current comic book. He’s had a near radio-silence since shutting down his own website, BKV.TV in February, 2008. In addition to comics and TV, the writer has penned drafts of movie scripts adapting his own comics. We’ll have more as soon as we hear it.

Before I go off to find fireworks and some sort of food on a stick (which I maintain is truly American) I’m going to give a quick shout to my favorite patriotic comic book.

It’s not Captain America. It’s certainly not any of the opportunistic Barack Obama comics to hit in the last few months.

It’s Transmetropolitan.

Yes, it’s filthy-mouthed sci-fi written by the British master of filthy-mouthed sci-fi, Warren Ellis. Even so, Transmet is indisputably American the same way Watchmen is. It’s a rough-and-tumble take on American politics, through the lens of a loathsome yet idealistic journalist and his slightly less loathsome Filthy Assistants.

And it’s the only comic I can think of that actually embodies some of the good things about America (and our politics).

Sure, Spider Jerusalem’s real loyalty is to the Truth, rendered in caps to make sure you understand that there is a truth and Spider’s telling it, but he also believes in democracy, free speech, and several other things that certainly aren’t uniquely American values. So why set the comic in the USA instead of in England?

The villains, if anything, seem more American–vile presidential candidates who want to slash at the Constitution or shit on poor people. And what could be more American than taking them on headlong with little backup and nothing more than a hunch that they’re the bad guy–and ultimately succeeding? That’s really the American dream, right?

Maybe it’s just me, but I see dissent as a value to be upheld. We were founded on it, weren’t we? And so for the Fourth of July, I’ll celebrate the right of journalists everywhere to make public officials lives’ hell for fun and righteousness.

And I swear I’m not going to inject heroin into my eyeballs.

It’s almost time to go buy comics, but in the meantime I bring you linkage from across the Internets on a variety of different things.

From Splash Page, Grant Morrison talks comics with Percy Carey, otherwise known as MF Grimm, the writer of Sentences.

Comics Worth Reading has a nice review of Patsy Walker: Hellcat that makes me want to read it.

Also from Splash Page, Evan Rachel Wood and Alan Cumming are confirmed as part of the cast of “Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark,” the upcoming Broadway musical directed by Julie Taymor. I don’t know about you, but between the casting, the subject matter, and the direction, this is shaping up to be a must-see for me.

Laura Hudson at Comics Alliance puts together the top 5 Michael Jackson moments in comics.

Laura Lee Gulledge answers some questions for The Big Feminist BUT.

What happens when the quest for eternal life goes horribly wrong?

Captain America artist Mitch Breitweiser and new comics writer Patrick Stiles are finding the answer, in their new webcomic The Futurists, which has just opened on their web site, WhoAreTheFuturists.com. The series will come out about 3-4 times a month, Breitweiser says, according to his commitments at Marvel. Here’s a taste, from the first page (bigger image here):

The logline of the story: ” Set in colonial India in the late 1800’s, The Futurists is an epic tome about the quest for eternal life gone horribly wrong, the search for absolution , and the path to self destruction.” Want to know more? Mitch was kind enough to answer a few questions from Newsarama on the series.

David Pepose: I see on your web site that The Futurists is a story “set in colonial India in the late 1800’s… about the quest for eternal life gone horribly wrong, the search for absolution, and the path to self destruction.” So the first question I’d have is — what inspired this story?

Mitch Breitweiser: Patrick and I had been crafting stories since college, but  with my career taking off, and his writing talent really maturing, we felt the time was right to fully develop and publish one of our collaborations.

As for the inspiration for The Futurists, we actually sat down one weekend for a creative jam. Our previous ideas were good, great even, but they were too familiar. We wanted to take advantage of the perspective we’ve gained since our college years and create something with greater depth of character and a richer atmosphere.  Then, we threw it all out and just focused on elements that entertained us, which was far more satisfying.

(more…)

Well, if you live in Las Vegas and loved Batwoman as much as I did, then I have some good news for you.

Artist J.H. Williams III, via his blog, has announced that the Dynamic Duo behind Katherine Kane will be rocking Las Vegas on Saturday, July 11. Attendees will be able to get the special commemorative print seen above.

Ich Liebe Comics reports that the event will begin from 11-2pm at Alternate Reality Comics, and will move to Comics Oasis from 4-7pm. All proceeds from the event will go to the Hero Initiative, which helps creators in economic need.

One of my favorite things about watching Marvel superhero movies is seeing what Stan Lee is going to do in his obligatory cameo. Let’s face it, the only good thing about the first Fantastic Four movie was seeing Stan The Man playing Willie Lumpkin. Now, word has leaked out regarding who Smilin’ Stan will be playing in Iron Man 2. The info comes from Collider.com, so I’m not sure how reliable it is, especially considering they’ve admitted straight up they’ve only got one source for the news. Nor will they give any hints as to the source’s identity. That’s some bad journalism, right there. But, the news sort of makes since in context with his cameo in the first Iron Man flick, in which he played a pseudo Hugh Hefner. So if you don’t mind getting this little bit of casting info spoiled for you, click on this link to find out. If you don’t want to know, then just ignore this post and move on to the next post. I’m sure it’s a good one.

I’ve written about Persepolis and Marjane Satrapi in the context of the current protests in Iran, but someone took it a step further and rebooted (remixed?) Persepolis to reflect the current situation.

I have no idea if Satrapi is involved in this project, but I do find it interesting that a completely new story can be made by moving some panels around and changing the captions. Aside from my interest in it as a political document–and the way comics can carry a message more potently than a simple news story–it is also an exercise in figuring out the weight of the message carried in the images vs. in the text of a comic.

Y’know, I think a lot of people have gotten so wrapped up in this myth of Megan Fox (which goes hand in hand with the myth about Michael Bay, by the by), that no one seems to realize that she’s a real human.

And a comics geek to boot.

On Jimmy Kimmel last night, the Transformers actress revealed that she once wanted to become a comic book artist, before she became, to quote some CGI artists, “impossibly hot.” Not only did she draw a picture of Jimmy Kimmel (which was not half bad), but she also gave some love to Witchblade, Fathom, and Gen13, not to mention a shout-out to onetime Amazing Spider-Man cover artist J. Scott Campbell.

I’ll be honest — I wasn’t expecting that from her. She’s got a sense of humor, and a little bit of awkwardness regarding her sex appeal, and, well, it certainly makes her seem a bit more approachable. (Unless Especially if you’re this guy.) What say you, Rama readers?

Sidewise, an online comic by Dwight MacPherson and Igor Noronha which is in this month’s Zuda competition, has unveiled this new trailer for the comic:

All I can say is, while I’m pretty new to the webcomic, that’s a pretty slick trailer from a motion comics standpoint. Is it weird that I think this looks more put together than the BET Black Panther cartoon? What do you think, Rama readers? While I can’t endorse the comic over its competition (there’s so many to choose from!), you can read more about this time-traveling steampunk comic here.

[Tip of the hat to Steve Ekstrom for showing me this]

By the beard of Odin! Can this be true?!

Comixtreme has reported that Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski will be concluding his epic run of Thor in September, with Thor: Defining Moments Giant-Size #1.

This book was not in last week’s previews, but Comixtreme says that this new solicit — which will be in July’s issue of Previews — declares that Defining Moments will be Straczynski’s bow from the series.

This may signal a shift for Straczynski, who ended his exclusive contract with Marvel in February of 2008 to pursue some writing opportunities with DC Comics. Thor, while critically acclaimed by many, has also been a perennially late title, so a creative shift may put the book on a more frequent schedule.

While Iran is still wrapped in turmoil and the world watches more and more via the Internet, sometimes green Twitter avatars don’t seem like enough. It’s hard to figure out what you can do that might actually help.

Via Becky Cloonan, Marjane Satrapi has reached out to the comics community and asked that people sign a petition to the secretary general of the United Nations, asking for support for the Iranian people and an end to the violence.

Dear Friends

To all who beleive in freedom and dememocracy
Please sign this petition to United Nation to stop the violence, arrestations and torture in Iran.
The situation is really really bad.

Please forward it to whoever you know
Best and lots of love
Marjane Satrapi

The petition is here if you’re interested.

Following the success of the “Graven Images: Religion in Comic Books and Graphic Novels” academic conference, Boston University doctoral student, comics scholar and comic creator A. David Lewis has been granted a Library Acquisitions Award to create a new “Religion and Graphica” collection at the university.

The collection, which will contain works like MAUS, Persepolis, and Sandman (and one assumes, Preacher and Testament, two of my personal favorites), will be part of the School of Theology Library (OK, maybe Preacher won’t be appropriate).

According to the press release, this will be the first library collection devoted exclusively to the study of comics, and it comes in a religion department. This might seem odd, though I’ve had conversations before about the similarity of comics to religion, particularly superhero comics. They’re fables, archetypal stories that give us advice on how to live our lives, as well as part of a weekly routine–the Wednesday trip to the comic shop. Comics are reassuring, and fans often are very resistant to change in their books or their routine.

Of course, there are many brilliant graphic works that deal very directly with religion. Which ones would you suggest the library, which has already started purchasing, not miss?

OK, I know it’s a cliche for comic fangirls to have crushes on Gambit, but in the interest of full disclosure–well, you get the picture. Especially in the wake of the luscious Taylor Kitsch in the Wolverine movie, my lust has been rekindled.

Marvel decided to toy with my emotions further on this one and have Mike Carey write Gambit’s origin story. Mike Carey! I think I may have squealed out loud when I read that. It takes a lot to make me buy superhero books, but an origin story for a character I dig, written by a writer I love? Sign me up.

The only downside? Is this really the only issue we get, guys? I mean, really? You finally give us a Gambit origin story, and it’s only a one-shot? That’s such a tease.

It reflects in the comic, too. It’s not so much an origin story as a selection of flashbacks, unfinished stories-within-a-story that don’t really add up to anything. Each little section of this comic could’ve been a full book–or several books–in itself. Instead, we get a bunch of setups without any payoff, never a complete story.

It’s even sadder because the art is truly beautiful, lush settings, closeups so real you could reach through and touch them, and yes, a shirtless fight scene (thanks, guys). What I wouldn’t do for several more books with this creative team working on this character…

Dear Internet,

I bought not one, but TWO superhero books this week. That’s right, two. One from DC and one from Marvel, all balanced-like. Streets of Gotham (which I really bought for the Manhunter backup) and the Gambit Origins book. I read ‘em, and I’m going to write about ‘em, but not right now. I’m too tired. Instead, I will give you linkage to pretty and interesting things. I promise to write about them soon, though.

In the meantime!

At Comics Worth Reading, the welcome news that Thom Zahler is giving away free comics to the first 75 women who visit his booth at Heroes Con this weekend.

Also there, Ed Sizemore reviews things he picked up at MoCCA, and they’re mostly books I didn’t already talk about. (I do think he’s crazy to not have liked The Unwritten, but I realize not everyone gets as geeked for metafiction as I do.)

Via The Hathor Legacy, a rant about “Strong Female Characters” that I can totally get behind. I also find this wording problematic because it implies that female characters are normally not strong, so strong must be pointed out when it does occur. But read her post. It’s better than what I said.

Shakesville has a good rundown of the sexism in the geek world lately. Seriously, people? It’s really not that hard to figure out that girls like all the same kinds of things that guys do.

This is just kind of a short, sublime post by, well, Neil Gaiman, who does short and sublime rather well.

DC, via its blog the Source, has announced that the new ongoing creative team for Justice League of America will be writer James Robinson and artist Mark Bagley.

Robinson has some experience with the League under his belt through his miniseries Justice League: Cry for Justice, while Mark Bagley just spent the last 52 weeks drawing all the heroes past and present of the DCU for the weekly series Trinity.

“It’s a thrill to be given the reins of DC’s flagship team book and to know that my partner in crime(fighting) will be the esteemed Mark Bagley who’s dynamic storytelling skills I intend to make full use of,” Robinson told the Source. “It’s further exciting/gratifying for me that I can dove-tail the events of Cry For Justice into the main book where post-Blackest Night will emerge a new team and a new exciting direction as they get caught up in the next wave of events building throughout the DCU.”

Robinson, of course, replaced the departing Dwayne McDuffie, who reported in May that he was fired from the series.

From a production standpoint, I’d have to say that this is a pretty nice decision by DC, as Bagley especially is a lean, mean drawing machine. Based on the portrait of the now-indisposed Big Three on this cover, I guess we’ll find out what happens to Vixen and company in October, when the new team’s first issue comes out. What say you, Rama readers?

Despite big news events like Steve Rogers’ return and Wednesday Comics’ jump to USA Today, it’s still been a gloomy week for comics, due to the passing of creator Dave Simons.

But the Hero Initiative, in their upcoming publication Hero Comics, has collected one of Dave’s last scripts for their book, which will appear as a tribute page in the July book.

While Simons had yet to start drawing the page, the script is completed, and is available for you to read right here. It is very much a sort of mission statement of the Hero Initiative, which helps creators in need.

Since I didn’t have a lot of money at MoCCA, I picked up a lot of cards and free things that people were giving out. To make up for not being able to buy things from all these people, I’m sharing them with you. They certainly deserve your attention.

Carissa Halston was kind of fabulous, and kind of fascinating, and she writes plays, books, and graphic novels.

Sara Antoinette Martin draws the kind of stuff I want tattooed on me: skulls and graphic girls and puppies. Her prints are only $35! Buy me one. (Or if you must, buy yourself one.)

Evan Palmer is from Lafayette, Louisiana. I love Louisiana. He is also doing some work with Peter Gross, which is how my favoritest comic artist ever, Ryan Kelly, got his start, so you know you’re going to hear great things from this guy.

Sho Murase’s art is completely, insanely gorgeous. I really wanted one of her mini art books, but I’m just too broke.

I got a couple of preview minicomics of a book called Squirrel Machine, due out from Fantagraphics in the fall. Seriously, how do you refuse something called Squirrel Machine? It looks macabre and fascinating, sort of like a Nick Cave song set to pictures.

Bagger43 was the name on the back of this postcard with a couple of girls and a dog on the front, looking like postapocalyptic street angels ready for a brawl. Not much of a bio on the site, but the art is stellar.

Uncle Envelope is a cool art project that will send you an piece of paper art once a month for twelve months. A bunch of different artists are involved, and they gave out a little activity book at MoCCA to tease people. I like art, I love media supported by subscription…it’s a win-win.

Finally, Becky Cloonan and Hwan Cho should need no introduction to readers of this blog, but even if you don’t know who they are, you should go forth and read about their upcoming webcomic, KGB.

Todd Klein has posted on his blog that his new signed print, Drawing the Sword, will available to order starting Saturday at noon, EST.

Drawing the Sword has text by Klein drawn from L’Morte d’Arthur, one of the seminal Arthurian texts, as well as an image by J.H. Williams of Arthur Pendragon pulling the sword from the stone.

There will only be 500 editions of this print, each costing $20 plus shipping. You can read more about the creation of this print by clicking here.

I noted that now would be an excellent time to re-read Persepolis, with the crisis in Iran, and today artist-writer-filmmaker Marjane Satrapi is in the news:

Two Iranian filmmakers on Tuesday presented a document to Green Party MPs in the European parliament claiming to show that defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi had received over 19 million votes in the weekend election.

Marjane Satrapi, Iranian author and director and Mohsen Makhmalbaf, an Iranian filmmaker and Mousavi spokesman, presented a document that they claimed had come from the Iranian electoral commission.

The document said liberal cleric and former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi came second in the election with a total of 13.3 million votes, while president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came third with only 5.49 million votes.

Whether or not the document Satrapi presented was legitimate, this speaks to her commitment to her country and her willingness to speak out on her beliefs–characteristics that Persepolis readers will immediately recognize from the not-always-flattering self-portrait she drew in that book.

There’s something less self-indulgent about autobiography in comics–it’s often done in a defiantly unglamorous style, the writer-artist refusing to make her or himself prettier than they are, instead exaggerating their flaws, physical and emotional, with a cartoonist’s unflinching eye. Satrapi is willing to turn an equally unflinching eye on the countries she calls home, scrutinizing their flaws but retaining the love and loyalty.

People often complain about artists and other creative types getting too political, but it’s nearly impossible to be an artist and not deal in some way with the issues of the world, which often require a political stand. I don’t think it necessarily takes away from the work to know that the artist has views quite different from your own–I enjoy comics by several creators whom I know support ideals rather odious to me. More importantly, I think that the point of art is to comment on society, and if that means that artists occasionally feel compelled to speak out publicly about politics, that is not only their right, but perhaps even their responsibility.