I’m trying a new approach this week: Less me, more quotes.

“Also, when J.G. went out there and took the blame for lack of a better term for not being part of the book, that wasn’t really his call. It was my call, and my place to take the blame.”
- Dan DiDio doing the perceived right thing and not letting J.G. Jones fall on a Final Crisis sword for him.

” . . . there’s plenty to discuss in terms of how a book like this could have been put together, but this cover credit issue has been blown out of all reasonable proportion, and it’s too bad because the book is definitely, definitely worth owning.”
- Christopher Butcher aiming to be the voice of reason on a Chip Kidd cover credit “controversy”.

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You can check out previous installments here. Strangeways: The Thirsty will be updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday here on Blog@Newsarama.

Before we get started, just a note on Hawkman. Basically, I’m ignoring the recent Jim Starlin Hawkman Special unless/until it is referenced explicitly here. Also, it might also be the case that the altered timeline excuses somehow the events of the Special.

With that out of the way, I thought this week was pretty solid, with both stories ending on intriguing cliffhangers. Looks like lots of carnage in the issues to come — but let’s knock out this installment first!

SPOILERS FOLLOW

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Recent remarks from Dan DiDio invite us again to ask what constitutes a character’s “definitive” vision.

Almost a year ago I came to the firm conclusion that, at least with regard to DC’s characters … well, it depends. While we should look first to the original stories written by the characters’ creators, DC’s characters tend to get farmed out across multiple media platforms, and therefore are subject to more influence by those adaptations. This makes it more difficult to pin down any one interpretation (in some cases including the creator(s)) as having produced the “definitive” version of a particular character. Last November I wrote that “[t]oday those characters ‘work’ because they’ve become aggregations of details which have accumulated over the years.” These details, in turn, have replaced a “definitive” version with what I called an “ideal aggregation of qualities.”

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Dare I say it?

Dare I??

Oh what the hay!  It’s a Brand New Day after the elections and if you don’t like it, take it up with Mephisto.  It seemed as if across the globe, people watched the election results roll in with eager anticipation.  While my thoughts danced with what in Good God’s name Ultimatum #1 was going to look like, the rest of the country was looking towards a future that didn’t involve an entire universe’s peril.  Okay, maybe some of them were, who knows.

If there is one thing I have learned in my ancient years of wisdom is that there are two hot button topics that are always going to cause a stir in uncertain company: religion and politics.  No matter what you say, someone can take issue on a deep and personal level and the next thing you know: chaos.  But in the wake of the election results and the lingering haze of American politics, I’m actually reminded of a little something I heard almost two years ago from the Distinguished Competition.

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We’re proud to present the second week of Matt Maxwell’s webcomic Strangeways: The Thirsty; if you missed them, be sure to check out page 1, page 2, page 3 and page 4.

Strangeways: The Thirsty will be updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday here on Blog@Newsarama.

Ah, Election Day, when a citizenry whose collective brain has been scrambled by 24-hour news channels and poll-tracking websites finally stumbles, zombie-like, into the voting booth.

What’s that have to do with this week’s comics shipping list? Nothing, really. But as “Can’t Wait for Wednesday” is a couple of hours late, I’m pointing to the election as an excuse.

If you’re not as election-obsessed as I am, your attention may be turned to what titles are hitting comics shops tomorrow.

From DC Comics, we’ll see the final volumes of New Teen Titans Archives and The Absolute Sandman, as well as Final Crisis: Resist and the first issue of The Sandman: The Dream Hunters adaptation. Marvel rolls out the Daredevil & Captain America: Dead on Arrival and Wolverine: Chop Shop one-shots, and the first issue of the big Ultimatum event. Dark Horse, meanwhile, collects Dean Motter’s Mister X sci-fi saga.

Elsewhere, IDW Publishing releases Kevin Colden’s Xeric-winning Fishtown, Macmillan publishes the autobiographical Alan’s War, and … Chris Mautner recommends porn. Really.

To see what other titles Chris and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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The Fog Mound, Book 1: The Travels of Thelonious
Written by Susan Schade; Illustrated by Jon Buller
Aladdin Paperbacks; $8.99

The first thing you notice about The Fog Mound is that it’s an interesting mix of chapter book and graphic novel. Chapters alternate between being told first with illustrated text and next with comics. I’m halfway through the second volume now and I’m still not sure why they chose to do it that way, but I like it for a couple of reasons.

First, it breaks up the visual monotony that comes with any 200-plus-page book. Maybe it’s just me, but unless the story is the greatest thing I’ve ever read, I always find myself counting how many pages I’ve got left when I’m reading longer material. There’s just something about seeing page after page of text or comics panels that makes my eyes glaze over. I also set my DVD display to show me how much time I’ve got left when I’m watching movies, so like I said, maybe it’s me.

I didn’t have that problem with Thelonious though. Each chapter felt new and interesting because it was a different format from the one I’d just read.

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We’re proud to present the second week of Matt Maxwell’s webcomic Strangeways: The Thirsty; if you missed them, be sure to check out page 1, page 2 and page 3 as well.

Strangeways: The Thirsty will be updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday here on Blog@Newsarama.

Part of me really wanted to revisit last week’s Cage Match at Comics Comics, given that this week David Heatley replied to some of his critics. But it would have been all quotes linking to one page, a clear cheat in the process of quote collection. Plus, as passionate and cutting as the posts may have been, the comments got shut down due to an increased breakdown in civility. And yet, I find it’s still worth a visit for such interesting lines as: “The pink bars, by the way, are pretty much a non-issue outside comics circles.” (Heatley); “… sounds like something some goofy, ill-informed and hissingly defensive superhero fan would write on a CompuServe message board in 1995.” (Tom Spurgeon); “I’m so sick of diplomatic (or faux-diplomatic) defenses and rationalizations… ” (Jeffrey Meyer); and “On the other hand … it is very, very hard to respond to criticism without looking like a douchebag, and it’s even harder when your work is so tied up with your personal life.” (Noah Berlatsky).

Now having dismissed that which I did not quote but did quote, on with the actual quotes.

“So that people can afford to buy them. So you don’t have to be rich to own a painting. I think everybody should be able to own art and have it in their homes. I’m kind of against posters. I think people should have real art made by real human hands in their homes.”
- James Kochalka explaining why he creates 2-inch by 2-inch paintings

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Earlier this week Chris Mautner linked an article about a prefecture in Japan flagging woman’s manga magazines (out of 9 on the list) as “harmful”. This prompted a post on Melissa’s personal blog about the reaction to fanfiction on the Internet, and how the same mindset might be on display:

I always wondered what the PROBLEM was. (more…)

Blog@Newsarama is proud to bring you the sequel to Matt Maxwell’s first graphic novel, Strangeways: Murder Moon, page-by-page for the next few months. Check out the third page to Strangeways: The Thirsty below:

Strangeways: The Thirsty will be updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday here on Blog@Newsarama.

This week examines the reach of the Troika’s plans with a look at DC antiquity; and introduces a couple of new mysteries about the altered timeline. Let’s get on with it, shall we…?

SPOILERS FOLLOW

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FIRST STORY

“A Hope For Tomorrow” (pages 2-10) was plotted by Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza, scripted by Nicieza, pencilled by Scott McDaniel, inked by Andy Owens, colored by Allen Passalaqua, lettered by Pat Brosseau; Rachel Gluckstern, associate editor; Mike Carlin, editor.

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Welcome to the second in a periodic series of posts on my list of “canonical” superhero stories. (The original post, which includes a link to Tucker Stone’s call for such a canon, is here.) Last time I talked largely about “Beware My Power,” the introduction of Green Lantern John Stewart from writer Denny O’Neil and penciller Neal Adams. This week brings another O’Neil/Adams tale, “Night of the Reaper!” from December 1971′s Batman #237.

Now, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea — my standards certainly don’t begin and end with O’Neil and Adams. In fact, timing has placed “Reaper” at this particular point on the schedule. Not only does it take place at Halloween, but it strikes me as a fine way to remember the late Tom Fagan of Rutland, Vermont. As the man behind Rutland’s Halloween parade, Mr. Fagan helped inspire this story, as well as a few others.

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Well, the news hit yesterday that Secret Invasion #8 is going to take a little longer than expected to reach our hot little hands, about two week’s worth of delay as they promise an arrival date of December 3rd.

No big deal, right?  The book’s been remarkably on time thus far and a couple weeks shouldn’t hurt the story.  Heck, look at the delays on Astonishing X-Men or Straczynski’s Thor!  Two weeks is a cakewalk!  It just might be a little difficult for retailers who were going to be given some extra, non-classified, post-SI solicitations to make their orders from.  There’s the books like Invincible Iron Man and Mighty Avengers who are going to have to do a little shuffle of their own as they wait for the sweet release that is the end of Secret Invasion.

At this point, as the finish line looms ahead, Marvel readers need answers.  How is this all going to end?  What’s Dark Reign going to be all about?  Why is the future so uncertain?  Looking at what we know and narrowing our focus down to what’s expressly penned by Mr. Bendis himself, it’s hard to guess at what he’s getting at.  Yes, there’s an invasion of alien invaders, yes the heroes are pushing themselves past their limits to defeat an immensely powered foe (yeah, that does sound a little like World War Hulk!), but what’s this all for?  In Civil War and the aforementioned World War Hulk, the line was clear:  either one thing happens or another.  Either the Pro-Registration side wins or they don’t.  Either the Hulk destroys everything or he’s defeated.  Here, the line is less clear.

Or is it?  Looking back at the history of the Bendis Blockbuster, there’s a few things we can learn about what’s ahead for us this December and beyond.

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As I mentioned last week, we’re proud to bring you the sequel to Matt Maxwell’s first graphic novel, Strangeways: Murder Moon, page-by-page for the next few months. So check out the second page to Strangeways: The Thirsty below:

Strangeways: The Thirsty will be updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday here on Blog@Newsarama.

I’ve written enough about Halloween-appropriate books over the past couple of weeks, so I won’t highlight titles like Bernie Wrightson’s Frankenstein, or Screamland, or Cthulhu Tales #7, or Hellboy: The Chapel of Moloch.

Instead, I’ll focus on a Batman manga twofer: the collection of Yoshinori Natsume’s Batman: Death Mask, and the much-anticipated Bat-Manga! The Secret History of Batman in Japan.

If Batman, or manga, isn’t your cup of tea, there’s Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns, which further lays the groundwork for DC’s next big events. For those in a more political mood, there’s American Presidents and more biographies of John McCain and Barack Obama.

Or, while we’re on the subject of biographies, there’s always Bill Schelly’s Man of Rock: A Biography of Joe Kubert.

To see what other titles Chris Mautner and I think are worth mentioning, just keep reading. As always, let us know your choices in the comments below.

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As I mentioned last week, we’re proud to bring you the sequel to Matt Maxwell’s first graphic novel, Strangeways: Murder Moon, page-by-page for the next few months. So check out the first page to Strangeways: The Thirsty below:

Strangeways: The Thirsty will be updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday here on Blog@Newsarama.

The Dresden Files: Welcome to the Jungle
Written by Jim Butcher; Illustrated by Ardian Syaf
Del Rey; $19.95

I’m a Dresden Files n00b. Probably because I got my fill of supernatural detectives a long time ago. I still love John Constantine and Hellboy and Cal McDonald and Goon, but those are the guys who introduced me to the concept. I don’t need Anita Blake and I didn’t think I needed Harry Dresden. Actually, I’m still not sure that I need Harry Dresden, but I found out that he’s a lot more fun than I expected.

It helps me and my compulsive need to start series at the beginning that Welcome to the Jungle takes place before the first novel in Butcher’s Dresden series. It introduces the characters in an easy, natural way. Of course, it also helps that most of the characters are clichés.

I’ll come back and talk about Dresden in a minute, but the most formulaic characters are the police. Lt. Karrin Murphy is Dresden’s contact at the police department. She’s strong, smart, blonde, wears pantsuits, and though she trusts Dresden enough to hire him for cases, she rides him pretty hard. She’s the tough lieutenant from every ‘80s cop show you ever saw.

Her partner, Sgt. Carmichael, is Harvey Bullock. Or maybe Sam from Sam and Twitch. Or any other fat, balding, cynical detective.

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The new wireless router that was supposed to be plug and play? It’s not so far (yea, I know blame the operator, I do.) Took the latest issue of Spidey into the bathroom, dropped it into the toilet fortunately at a point where it was still OK to retrieve it. (Yea, too much information and blame the operator, again) But I’m not letting these small snags get me down and I have a new bevy of quotes to entertain me (and hopefully you).

The one theme I focused upon was reaction to Flash Thompson’s story in Amazing Spider-Man 574 (and strangely enough, so many folks were caught up in the final reveal, few commented on the revelation of how Flash got his nickname…) Before following any of the Spidey-related quotes, be aware many are in reviews that give the whole story away. Don’t follow the quote sources if you intend to read the issue.

Amazing Spider-Man 574

“This could just be me being me, but this story was sad and hopeful at the same time and it just felt right frame after frame, all of which leads to a bit of a shocker ending for Mr. Thompson.”
- Mike Rapin

“God bless Marvel for trying to do a good thing. But I wish they’d think these things through a tad more.”
- Mart

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