The library is a great place for readers to discover comics, and it’s a great place for comics readers to check out things that they want to try without spending their hard-earned cash. I’m looking at comics that I find in the New York Public Library system.

Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite is a collaboration between writer Gerard Way and artist Gabriel Ba. Apparently, it’s a big deal that Way, who has a rock and roll band, has written a comic. I must admit, I’ve heard not even a note of Mr. Way’s band; the praise heaped on his comic, however, did catch my attention and I figured I should check it out.

And I’m glad I did; this Way kid has some pretty serious comic book chops. Apocalypse Suite introduces seven children who are born under exceptional circumstances, with unusual powers. A scientist adopts them all and raises them to be the world’s saviors against a threat that he considers imminent. Decades later, the threat has never manifested, “dad”’s passed away, the public seems to dismiss the group, and the “siblings” are fractured and mostly incommunicative.

The character stuff is all pretty obvious if you’ve read a few superhero comics. The bad boy and the square-jaw constantly needle one another, yet learn respect before it’s all done. The one who seems most harmless is, of course, the most dangerous. Umbrella Academy is a heavily plot-driven comic, and fortunately, Way’s dialogue is sharp enough to keep the characters engaging if unsurprising throughout the wild, twisted ride that he’s set them on.

Ba’s strong art carries across all of Way’s great ideas – an orchestra whose oeuvre will destroy the Earth, the hero’s moon base, the outlandish villains, the striking character designs. Each issue is a fast-moving lark, an upbeat, humorous rollercoaster ride of sci-fi dizziness. Way’s not recreating the superhero genre: he’s just having an exceptionally good time with it, and so will you if you come across Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite at your local library.

Did Michael Bay kick Manohla Dargis’s kitten or something? I had to ask after reading the New York Times critic’s review Of Bay’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Here are some of the “highlights”:

1. The very first sentence refers to the movie as “cretinous”.

2. Star Shia LaBeouf is described as a “professional doofus”.

3. Co-star John Turturro is labelled to be “embarrassing”.

4. The reviewer strongly intimates that the script is racist, due to the personalities of some of the new characters.

5. Finally, there are more than a few condescending comments directed at the film’s intended audience.

You need to read the entire review to get the full effect.

Now, you have to expect a certain amount of snottiness and arrogance from the Times. That’s just how they roll. Today, I was talking about the review to a rather educated friend who reads the Times on a daily basis, and he compared the review to a personal attack on Bay. Did Dargis go a little too far with some of the review’s negativity? At what point does a review cross from being merely scathing to outright venomous? What say you, gentle reader?

Do you remember earlier this year when The Dark Knight was snubbed for a Best Picture nomination by the Oscars, despite being the highest-grossing movie of the year, one of the best-reviewed movies of the year, and featuring what is arguably one of the greatest performances in motion picture history? And do you remember how damn near everyone who saw the movie thought it got screwed? Well, if there was a silver lining in the situation, here it is: The New York Times is reporting that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will now be nominating ten films for Best Picture, instead of the traditional five. And it’s partly thanks to The Dark Knight.

From the article in the Times:

“We will be casting our net wide,” Sidney Ganis, the academy’s president, said in announcing the change at a morning news conference at the group’s headquarters here.

In a question-and-answer session that followed the announcement Mr. Ganis said, “I would not be telling you the truth if I said the words ‘Dark Knight’ did not come up.”

This is a pretty big deal when you think about it. How often have genre movies, comedies, and animated films gone without Best Picture nods due to the Academy’s refusal to acknowledge anything but period pieces and stuffy, bloated dramas? Yeah, the change is a few years too late, but better late than never.

I don’t know about you, but I love getting sketches from artists at conventions. And artist Cliff Chiang is one of the many artists out there who excel at it, and from the looks of his sketches he enjoys it to boot. On his blog he regularly posts the sketches he’s done at conventions, and the ones from the recent HeroesCon

shows off some real gems, including this Captain America:

Click on the link to see more of Chiang’s convention sketches.

And before you get to thinking this DC-Exclusive artist is joining the House of Ideas, Chiang is currently hard at work  at Vertigo on the graphic novel Greendale with Joshua Dysart based on a concept by Neil Young.

Artist Sean Phillips (Incognito, Criminal, Marvel Zombies) has updated his blog with all illustration of the decadent Fu Manchu. This is the latest in a line of genre illustration Phillips does to introduce the essay extras Jesse Nevin has done for Criminal Incognito.

I’m loving his crime books with Ed Brubaker — but how much for some Fu Manchu action?

Need something emblematic when you’re reading about Niko, Chase, and company? Look no further!

Marvel editor Nick Lowe has put together a theme song for the cult series, which is now on Marvel.com. MTV has a music video for the whole thing, which you can see above!

The always-excellent (and effervescent) illustrator Michael Cho has updated his blog with a new illustration of Marvel’s armored icon, Iron Man. Cho has a long history drawing Iron Man — while not professionally for a Marvel comic (yet), he admits to frequently doodling Tony Stark — and even has a seperate blog chronicling his drawings of Iron Man, and others.

Let me ask you this, readers — would you like to see Michael Cho do an Iron Man strip for Marvel?

G4 and Lucasfilms will be teaming up for an unprecedented live airing from the San Diego Comic Con!

The Star Wars Spectacular! will film at 2pm on July 25th, as a live airing of the main Lucasfilm panel from SDCC. In addition, Olivia Munn and Kevin Pereira of Attack of the Show will meet up with Lucasfilm’s Steve Sansweet as well as voice talent from the Clone Wars television show, to give their own insider insight.

Never-before-seen footage will be shown, and there will be a live table reading of a new Clone Wars script. Furthermore, Lucasfilms will also unveil Star Wars Stories, which asks Jedi lovers everywhere to tell their movie memories and other tales of fandom, to help contribute to the company’s historical archive.

You can upload your stories here (or if you’re at the con, find Lucasfilm’s camera crew) — otherwise, make sure to set your TiVo, as G4 will be hitting the convention from 4-7pm!

Digital comics purveyor Uclick just announced the release of a free Eisner Awards app for iPhone and IPod Touch. In addition go giving a brief background of the Eisner awards and their namesake Will Eisner, it also gives information and images of each of the nominated works in the 26 awards categories.

No doubt journalists like me will be using this app while sitting in on the awards ceremony itself on July 24th at Comic-Con International: San Diego. Uclick promises to update the app with the winners shortly after the ceremony.

Enough jabber — here’s the link which will launch your iTunes program.

The always-great cartooning blog Drawn! brought to my attention a recent music video which portrays our own 44th President of the United States Barack Obama as a superhero.

And here’s a link to the full video. This video was created by JibJab studios, and premiered at the recent White House Radio & Television Correspondents Dinner.

Via Topless Robot, this hilarious video from College Humor:

It seems what happens in the Titans Tower, doesn’t stay in the Titans Tower, with this picture of Batman and Starfire, courtesy of the Source.

Say it with me now: Bat-chika-wow-wow!

“It makes me glad to see, and to remember, that comics can also just be for kids”: The Christian Science Monitor has a very sweet story written by Rebekah Denn, a life-long comics reader taking great pleasure in her six-year-old son’s embrace of “the glorious fable of a man who had been exposed to cosmic rays until he could stretch his limbs like rubber, and how that man, ‘Mr. Fantastic,’ battled evil aided by his fiancé, who could turn herself invisible, and her kid brother, a human torch, and their friend Ben Grimm, an orange, rocky ‘Thing.’” Obviously comics can be so much more, but it’s worth remembering that even when all they are a couple of middle-aged-men hastily cranking out disposable trash entertainment for the children of the 1960s, they’re still something pretty special.

My Google News alert-bot must have somehow pulled this article from 1999: The Eagle Tribune reports that its local library in Hampstead, New Hampshire is going to start a collection of these newfangled things that  “if judged strictly by their covers…look like comic books. But they’re not comics.” No? Then what are they? “The books belong to a genre called graphic novels,” the article says. Ugh. I know it’s easy to point and laugh when some poor local reporter has to write some poor article about some dumb thing or another they probably neither know nor care very much about just to fill in all that blank space between ads, but…well, but nothing. I’m just pointing and laughing, I guess.  Meanwhile, here’s a nice, thorough article about Pittsburgh-based cartoonist Ed Piskor and his two volumes of Wizzywig (which I highly recommend, by the way). The article itself is great, but the headline refers to graphic novels as a “genre” (”Ed Piskor’s graphic novel creates sensation among genre’s fans”) and the caption manages to spell the name of Piskor’s book wrong in the very same sentence that it’s also spelled right. So, to sum up: This is why newspapers are currently dying their richly deserved death—they offer the very same quality of writing you find on the Internet, only slower, and not for free.

Oh God, I hope he reads the book himself for the audiobook version!: Based on the interviews he tends to give about the superhero comics he’s writing, Grant Morrison’s upcoming history of the superhero genre, Supergods: Our World in the Age of the Superhero, will probably be a pretty good read.

The Passion of St. Jameson…?: I’ve linked to some of the images of J. Jonah Jameson that comics blogger and writer Kevin Church has commissioned in the past, but I’m going to link to this new one from John Keogh as well because a) it is awesome and b) Church has a link to his whole collection of JJJ art at the bottom of the post. Go check it out, and try to pick a favorite. It ain’t easy.

Sadly, it is not my review. Rather, I direct your attention, if you care about comics lampooning semi-unknown Minnesota congresswomen, to TPM’s review.

A highlight:

Right from the cover, which has a wacky cartoonish feeling as if it were somehow pencilled by Sergio Aragones and inked by R. Crumb, you know we’re dealing with a special politician:

Personally, I’m always sort of extra fascinated by powerful, successful women–and whatever your opinion of her, Michele Bachmann is a successful politician–who spend their time arguing that women should get back in the kitchen. It’s sort of a “physician, heal thyself!” moment–I argue that women should be represented equally in the job force (and in comics) and Bachmann argues for traditional family values, yet she’s in Congress (and starring in a comic).

Also, I’d rather see more critical takes on politicians in comics rather than 100 more Barack Obama appearances just to sell books. But I’m probably in the minority on that one…

Anyway, I’d love to do an actual review of the Bachmann comic, so I’ll see what I can do about getting my hands on one.

So there’s been an article circulating around about Comic-Con Hook-Ups. I read it, felt a little weird about posting it, and ultimately decided against it. But after I read this excellent second opinion by Laura Hudson, I felt that this deserved a shout-out. A nice highlight:

Penthouse says: “I was a little surprised when my friendly neighborhood comic-book-store clerk told me she was looking forward to this year’s New York Comic Con because ‘conventions are all about the sex.’”

CA says: FALSE. Comic conventions — in New York or San Diego or anywhere else — are never “all about the sex.” Sex happens — SOMETIMES — and it may happen more often than an normal weekend for SOME con-goers, but that’s because it’s an enormous show that packs more than 100,000 people with similar interests into a convention center where they spend four days getting incredibly amped up and drinking a lot. The show is not about the fact that this SOMETIMES happens — it’s about comics… and TV shows, movies, and video games. If anything, hookups are a bonus, like the t-shirts and posters that the Marvel booth likes to toss into crowds of screaming fans.

You can read the original article (obviously NSFW) here, and read Laura’s rebuttal here. What say you, Rama readers? As someone who has hit three major cons in three cities, I don’t know if I necessarily agree with the original article, but have you guys found love underneath the big Marvel placard?

Are you enjoying Marvel’s universe-wide “Dark Reign” mega-story? If so, you’ll have no shortage of Dark Reign-branded books to choose from this week. Dark Reign: Zodiac and Dark Reign: Lethal Legion are two new three-issue miniseries that are launching tomorrow, Dark Reign: The Sinister Spider-Man kicks off a new four-issue miniseries, and Dark Reign: Elektra and Dark Reign: The Hood each ship new issues. Each book is $3.99. These are only the books that have the actual words “Dark Reign” in their actual titles; there are a couple more tie-ins shipping this week, like Dark Avengers, Dark Wolverine, Avengers: The Initiative, Amazing Spider-Man and Dark Avengers/Uncanny X-Men: Utopia. That’s…that’s an awful lot of comics right there.

And it’s only a drop in the bucket of new book’s shipping this week. As for the rest of the bucket’s contents, join me after after the jump.

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Pope Hats #1

Written and Drawn by Ethan Rilly

32 pages, 6″ x 9″, $4 US

Distributed by AdHouse Books

Everybody wants to rule the world. The characters in Ethan Rilly’s Pope Hats would love to rule over their own lives. We’re invited to see them try.

Don’t let it ever be said that there isn’t room for another comic about whining aimless youth. Meet Franny and Vickie. Two friends who have recently decided to share a house and who seem at their best when they’re not doing much of anything outside of witty remarks. The opening scene finds the two inside a KFC as Vickie eats and Franny observes, “I’m convinced that I spend an outrageous portion of my life watching you eat.” The conversations and the art work are executed with crisp panache. The thin brush lines go well with the dry wit similar in spirit to the work of Gabrielle Bell.

As the night progresses, we are privy to a callow conversation between the girls and a couple of boys, Louis and Peter. It is Vickie’s hope to get to know Peter better. Instead, Vickie gets wasted, has to leave the bar, and pukes in an alley. She is the aspiring actress and eveything must be dramatic for her. She steadies herself a little as she announces she will continue to vomit in a Boston accent. Franny is the more responsible one. She’s a legal assistant and doesn’t seem to have any interests outside of work.

They tell you in art school to create something that you are compelled to do. Anyone can draw a scene with a couple of girls chatting and maybe throw in a few other devices. Someone who is compelled to say something is going to take it further. That’s what Ethan Rilly is doing. I can sense a driving force at work. After all the cute banter, we find the spotlight falling on Franny as she discovers Vickie has wandered off in search of a boy or a hot dog in the middle of the night. Once alone, Franny begins talking to a cartoon ghost she’s spoken with before. The dialogue is funny but it can also be read as a meditation on loneliness.

Who is Frances Scarland? We know she’s what keeps Vickie together. We know she’s loyal to her job, she’s pretty mild-mannered, and she talks to a ghost. Maybe that’s more than enough for a girl of 23 or so. Maybe it’s a perfect picture of someone young who is trying to cope with an uncertain future, just a few steps away from the nearest Zoloft.

After a one page interlude depicting an old man cleaning out his yard, the last section of the book is an extended monologue of Franny talking about, what else, ghosts. Maybe this is Franny at that party she was racing on her bicycle to get to from the feature story. She had just had what she hoped would be her final talk with her cartoon ghost.

I did indeed buy two new books last week that wouldn’t normally have been on my list. Discussions of Streets of Gotham/Manhunter and X-Men Origins: Gambit here and here.

This week, I’m looking at Gotham City Sirens already, as well as my usual Madame Xanadu, Northlanders, Unknown Soldier and Wolverine: Weapon X. Look, kids, I’m turning into a superhero comics reader!

Anything else lurking out there that I’m missing?

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!

Comics Nexus has just unveiled the latest of Neill Cameron’s A-Z of Awesomeness series, which has some pretty hilarious comic-related alphabetery (see what I did there? I made up a word, and it rocked).

That’s not to say that this is the best letter — they’re all equally the best. Well, the Inebriated Iron Man (for the Letter “I,” or as some lazy people type, the lower-case L) is sick and wrong, but also funny. As is Hagar’s actions to Hello Kitty. As is the Letter J.

[A tip of the hat to Manolis Vamvounis for introducing me to this debauchery]