One of the charms of a collection of old comics (like Dark Horse’s upcoming Casper the Friendly Ghost 60^th Anniversary Special hardcover, available on November 18) is the establishing stories. These days, it’s just kind of assumed that you know who most mainstream characters are. Even characters like Magog—whose promotion from Justice Society of America also-ran to titular anti-hero had fans and critics scratching their heads earlier this year—had a pretty healthy amount of development and exposition prior to Magog #1.

The reprinted first story of Casper the Friendly Ghost, however, needs to balance giving us an establishing tale with avoiding an origin story (cherubic children dropping dead to make cute, cherubic ghosts wasn’t really in the Harvey Comics style).

That said, almost immediately in the first story, Casper befriends a Richie Rich-looking prince, who is being sought by a huge and axe-wielding executioner. In the employ of the king’s brother, he has already slain the boy’s father when he enters the story looking to kill Casper’s new friend. It’s a little dark for today’s trauma-conscious kids’ publishing market, even if it does end happily and see citizens in the streets cheering the boy’s ascension to kinghood.

A downside to collectors looking for “a Casper collection” but a boon to Golden Age purists, this book reprints the first and sixth issues of Casper’s original, ongoing comic at Harvey. So, in keeping with what was common in comics at the time, this book is full of other characters printed in Casper’s original title, like the Huey, Dewey and Louie-like mice facing off against a menacing cat in “Herman” and Paddy the Leprechaun, whose villain Gambeen could have been a template for The Smurfs’ Gargamel. Baby Huey, one of the best known Harvey backup characters, also makes an appearance in the collection.

Each of Casper’s early appearances acts as though you’re totally unfamiliar with the character or the concept, giving him a page of three dedicated to an establishing beat that tells the reader why and how he came to be leaving ghosting school in favor of seeking friends among the living.

It’s interesting to see that by the sixth issue of his series, Casper had already become an animation phenomenon (as the cover reads “Paramount Pictures’ famous star” above Casper’s name). It’s a merchandising tie-in worthy of G.I. Joe or Transformers. By then, the whole issue was Casper’s, although they still retained the original format of short, barely-longer-than-strip stories. That’s something that, by and large, Casper’s publishers would continue to do for years—although writer Todd Dezago’s upcoming Casper & the Spectrals miniseries for Ardden Entertainment will actually see the character (along with Wendy and Hot Stuff, a couple of Harvey’s other most popular properties) translated into a format that comic book readers are a little more familiar with.

Perhaps the greatest power—and danger—a huge fan of anything holds is her ability to be blinded by her adoration, losing all common sense, heaping compliments and rave reviews where none should go. And perhaps because I fear the real human potential to worship something beyond reason, I have a short list of things that have really withstood the test of time and will likely always blind me with delirious appreciation. I thought it would be wise to start my time at @Newsarama with a full disclosure of these biases. The shortness of this list does not mean I do not celebrate the genius of many, many, (perhaps too many?) things I have seen, or read, or experienced, but these and these alone blind my critical mind to the point of total idiocy and leave me immobilized with childlike wonder no matter how many times I’ve experienced them:

1) “X-Files” season 6 stand-alone episodes.
2) The running mindtrip of the 13^th floor in Louis Sachar’s “Wayside School” series that blew my mind in 3^rd grade.
3) “Werewolf Bat Mitzvah”
4) Corn-on-the-cob at summer fairs with that one spicy Cajun spicy salt on it
5) Alan Tudyk

Read the rest of this entry »

“Strip away the Hollywood glamour and shows like Comic Book I-Con are what the hobby are all about: Passionate fans and creators talking about the comics they love”: Joe Lawler of the Des Moines Register has a nice little write-up on Comic Book I-Con, which goes down today in Altoona, Iowa.

“What’s the most stupidly ambitious aspect of “XKCD Vol. 0,” the book based on the wildly popular yet still very underground webcomic”…?: Here’s an LA Times blog post profiling the plans for Randall Munroe’s XKCD hardcopy collection.

“These cartoons radicalized me, an impressionable young person, against the idea of conflict and the then-current Vietnam War”: That’s Craig Yoe in a feature story in The Oregonian, talking about the work collected in his new The Great Anti-War Cartoons from Fantagraphics. There are some real jaw-droppers used to illustrate the piece, so be sure to check it out. (A slideshow can also be seen here).

“Batman at 70″: Here’s a neat Toledo Free Press feature on Batman turning 70, and the way the city’s downtown library is marking the occasion.

Seattle vs. South Carolina cartoon battle: Seattle Post-Intelligencerpolitical cartoonist Dave Horsey drew a cartoon that was less-than-flattering in its depiction of South Carolina, and Palmetto Scoop cartoonist Mike Beckom responded with a cartoon making fun of Yankee unions. Alan Gardner will tell you all about it at The Daily Cartoonist.

As noted at Comics Alliance and elsewhere, Scott Kurtz is not someone that you invite to an event lightly. We did a little digging, and were able to find a few other responses that Mr. Kurtz has written to invitations over the years.

From: Maddy Palmer
To: Scott Kurtz

Dear Mr. Kurts,

I hope you are well. I like your comic. I am celebrating my fifth grade graduation this weekend. Since you are my favorite webcomic guy, I would like to invite you to come. I have one extra ticket since my parents are divorced and Daddy is in Haiti with his secretary. The event will be at Abraham Lincoln Elementary in Urbana, Illinois. Can you come? I love PvP.

Thank you,
Maddy

Read the rest of this entry »

Ready for news on some over-the-top costumes and violence grounded in the all-too-real world?

KICK-ASS. The movie site — IamKick-Ass.com — is now up via Lionsgate, and a trailer will be out in 8 days. The film — based on the Mark Millar/John Romita Jr. comic of the same name — is due out April 16.

[Hat tip to Tim]

Cartoon Network is going live-action, and it’s taking Paul Dini with it.

The Gotham City Sirens and Streets of Gotham writer has also been working on a live-action series called Tower Prep, which Variety announced today has been ordered by Cartoon Network. (Perhaps no coincidence — Cartoon Network is owned by DC Comics’ parent company, Time/Warner.) This series, along with Unnatural History, will be the first live-action series — but after the high ratings the live-action Ben 10 movie made, it makes sense for the company to get lightning to strike twice.

Tower Prep is about a rebellious teen who wakes up one day trapped in a mysterious, inescapable prep school. By teaming up with his fellow students/inmates, this series looks like a long term caper.

What will this mean for his comics writing, however? I know that there was a brief skip in his Batman titles, with Scott Lobdell and Chris Yost filling in for Sirens #3 and Streets #5. That said, (A) I don’t know how many episodes other than the pilot that Dini will be writing, and (B) Dini has proven through his work on Countdown and Detective Comics that he is built for speed. More info to come when we get it!

Okay, maybe not the whole universe — just the world of Wizard.

Comics Alliance has reported that Scott Kurtz has done more than just throw down the gauntlet with the convention/magazine company — Laura Hudson likened it to the Daken versus Punisher battle, in which Frank gets literally cut to pieces. I’m not sure if I entirely disagree.

Here’s some highlights from the PvP creator, who Wizard unfortunately called “Kurt”:

Your conventions are total horseshit, so it’s wise to stop branding them with the name Wizard. But no amount of polishing is going to make me want to attended any of the 5 turds your company is going to crap out in 2010, especially when you schedule them against other shows in some bullshit dick measuring contests that serves no other purpose but to fracture an already dying industry that I have nostalgic ties to.

Remember Mike Wieringo? Remember how you guys only cared about him when he was the “hot artist” for a window of time and then you quickly forgot his name despite the fact that he was producing some of the best work of his career on Fantastic Four with Mark Waid? And then remember how after he died you had the balls to name one of your panel rooms the Mike Wieringo room? I will eternally hate everyone associated with your company for that. For eternity. For Jack Kirby’s version of Eternity where the concept is embodied as a giant man made up of the universe. That’s me, hating you for the Mike Wieringo thing. Forever.

Whether you agree with Kurtz or not, these are definitely some harsh words, especially regarding an invitation to next year’s Anaheim Comic-Con — already controversial, since it’s scheduled on the same weekend as competitor Reed Exhibitions’ C2E2 in Chicago. What say you, Rama readers? Give us your thoughts!

Despite some advances in gay and lesbian comics — one could make an argument about Batwoman or the Question, or recent developments with Rictor and Shatterstar — it’s a topic that doesn’t always get a lot of in-depth examination. What about the history of other GLBT characters in comics?

Well, we have an answer for you, as our very own Brian Andersen has sent us a link to The A-Z LGBT Comic Book Character Superlist — “an alphabetized listing of over 260 LGBT characters from comic books (including superheros, supervillains and supporting cast characters).”

Right now the profiles are fairly short — but they do also link to articles on Wikipedia, Gay League, and Pink Kryptonite. Give the site a look.

The Hero Initiative has sent us more images of its Wolverine project, in which artists take on the Adamantium Avenger on a blank cover for Wolverine: Weapon X #1. But check out this awesome cover by Josh Medors here:

Medors, who has been battling cancer for several years, is a prime example of how the Hero Initiative can help creators in financial and medical need. The piece is currently on auction now on eBay — as are many other products from Hero — and you can bid on it here.

So that someone could spend a day of his life hastily assembling an Archie story filtered through Jack Kirby’s New Gods comics. That someone was Adam Prosser, and you can read his whole story in all its shouty, punch, funny hat-wearing glory here. (Thanks to Johanna Draper Carlson, from whom I totally, shamelessly stole this link).

Doom Patrol #4 hit this week from DC. In this Blackest Night crossover, dead members of the second incarnation of the Doom Patrol (from the “Showcase” issues in the ’70s and the pre-Morrison ongoing of the ’80s) rise and attack the original members. However, one significant change has been noted. Josh Clay, aka Tempest, has always been a “blaster”. That is, his power set involved the ability to shoot energy blasts, and the ability to fly derived from said blasts.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting story up about the swarm of producers and agents on game and toy lines — mentioning, for example, that Hancock’s Will Smith was producing a movie on the game Risk — but one particular sentence really stood out:

J.J. Abrams, who created the TV show “Lost” and directed this summer’s “Star Trek” film, is in discussions to produce a movie about Japanese toy line Micronauts, which Hasbro just acquired.

Micronauts, originally a Japanese toy line, has had its fair share of comics, with Marvel producing 59 issues of related comics, Image producing 11, and Devil’s Due completing three. In their original comics incarnation, they even teamed up with Nightcrawler and the Fantastic Four!

Power of — Smallville! Shape of — awesome hair!

Operation Save Clark Kent has more images of the Wonder Twins’ debut on Smallville, for the upcoming episode “Idol.”

Be warned — there’s also a picture of Clark and Lois in a church that, for some strange reason, made me feel they were reenacting a performance of the Laramie Project rather than a Superman-related show.

[via io9]

Find out more about Global Freezing here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or at ComicsByEgg.com.

Nexus Archives vol. 9
Written by Mike Baron
Illustrated by Steve Rude, Paul Smith, Neil “Spyder” Hansen and Adam Hughes
Published by Dark Horse

The greatest superhero comic of all time hits one of its most controversial eras in this volume, which collects issues 53-57 and issues 2-4 of the concurrently published Next Nexus miniseries. Among Nexus fandom, the first fifty issues are nearly universally beloved, and rightly so. Baron and Rude create a universe far more complex and nuanced than that of any other superhero comic, stuffed to the gills with immigration concerns, energy shortfalls, religious zealotry (and they were writing these stories twenty-five years ago!), massively complex moral quandaries, enticingly realized alien culture, political parody as good as any you’ll find in the papers, and yes, awesome and bombastic action sequences.

Nexus Archives vol. 9 deals with war and assassination. It shows presidential politics and the struggles of humanitarian missions. Angry little girls are confronted by dedicated younger ladies, and sci-fi military antics abound during the chaotic assassination attempt on Sundra Peale. Capitalism runs out of control. It’s a superhero comic, with plenty of balls and a brain, and it’s a rare breed that manages to have both.

Despite alternating issues of the standard Nexus comic and the Next Nexus spin-off (ironically, classic Nexus artist Steve Rude is the illustrator on the secondary title, not the main series), the story flows quite smoothly in this Archive. Credit to Mike Baron, who deftly juggles the war on Ylum, as well as Ylum’s presidential election, the blindly vengeance-driven quest of the replacement Nexuses, and ex-Nexus Horatio Hellpop’s establishing of a medical clinic for the impoverished of Flatlandia.

Operating as an ensemble piece more than ever before, Nexus moves quickly between scenes, giving readers snippets of conversations and high points of action. Baron’s clearly a believer in starting the scene as late as possible and ending it as early as possible, because there’s not a wasted panel here. While Next Nexus focuses on Horatio’s clinic and the immature, desperate rage of the Loomis sisters, Baron still offers peeks into the political climate of Ylum. When Nexus deals with Zeiffer Meird’s assault on Ylum and Sundra Peale, mentions of Horatio’s quest are frequent. Baron juggles all the balls extremely effectively. Nexus is a title whose consequences are always on the minds of its characters.

His writing of Lonnie Loomis, the objector to the Loomis sisters’ vendetta, is some of his most convincing. The conflict and denouement between Sundra Peale and the Merk (a fitting irony to the assassination attempt on Sundra herself) is both surprising and effective, and the pages devoted to Tyrone and Dave continue to round out the picture of Ylum society. Horatio’s story is quieter, slower, and more difficult, but such is the condition of missionary medical work, and Baron deserves credit for giving time to the emotional cost of the work on our hero.

Steve Rude and Paul Smith handle three issues of material each, so you know the comics look great. Rude’s the visual architect of the Nexus universe, and Next Nexus gives him plenty of chances to shine. Multiple missions for Stacy and Michana Loomis as they establish their tenure as the new Nexus, each building their legitimacy as a threat to Horatio – the man who killed their father. Rude’s work is a little too slick to handle the sickly masses of Flatlandia, but he exhibits his usual élan when drawing the lush palace of Ursula X.X. Imada on Procyon or the brutal executions perpetrated by the Loomis sisters.

Paul Smith’s work doesn’t match Rude’s design work, but Smith, even then, was a precise cartoonist, setting scenes with clarity and keeping the drama high on each page. Spyder’s clumsy pages show some talent, but it’s very raw here, offering a passable if uninspiring penultimate chapter to the book. Adam Hughes, like Smith, an artist who went on to much higher profile work but showed talent from the very beginning, handles the finale, and his illustrative prowess is obvious from the get-go. He doesn’t provide the backgrounds and trappings of Smith or Rude, not yet, but the character work is very strong and clearly a sign of better work to come from Hughes.

This volume also introduces one of my favorite Nexus characters: Stanislaus Korivisky, the man who replaces Horatio as Nexus (after the Loomises prove untenable). Stanislaus is only glimpsed here, but his respect for Horatio and the responsibility of his position is well handled, setting up some of Baron’s most compelling character work ever over the next two or three volumes of the Nexus Archives.

Nine volumes into the series, the quality remains very high. Steve Rude’s art is going to be sorely missed in the coming volumes, but Baron’s scripts remain politically and socially relevant, dynamically paced, gilded with exciting action but woven with dozen of threads of human existence. No exception to the rule established by previous editions, Nexus Archives vol. 9 is a true must-have comic for fans of intelligent sci-fi and/or superhero adventure.

Earlier this week MTV’s Splash Page brought “exclusive” news that novelist S.E. Hinton will be joining the throngs of popular prose writers moving into the hot new medium of comics. Hinton will be working with Bluewater Productions, the company that published some comics based on Ray Harryhausen creations and concepts, but is probably best known for those weird “Female Force” biography comics that seem to generate plenty of mainstream media coverage every time an issue is announced.

Splash Page and Bluewater’s home page both have some covers and details, so head on over there for to take a look (My immediate reaction, you ask? Yuck). It sounds like the relationship will begin with Bluewater adapting some of Hinton’s pre-existing works, before writing “an entirely new title created specifically for Bluewater” in 2010.

I understand why comics publishers are so eager to accept the contributions of proven prose authors, what with their name recognition and their large audience of non-comics readers who would theoretically at least follow them into comic shops, but part of me still thinks there should be some kind of hazing ritual involved. Like Salman Rushdie will be allowed to write an original graphic novel, but first he has to write and draw his own minicomic to be published at a photocopier in a Kinkos, or Stephen King can develop a Vertigo ongoing, but only after a couple issues of Brave and the Bold.

I think I know the perfect title for Hinton’s hazing.

Are you ready to see Red light up and Walk Hard?

Well, the Hollywood Reporter’s Heat Vision blog has announced that John C. Reilly (of Walk Hard fame), along with Weeds star Mary-Louise Parker, are joining the cast of Warren Ellis and Cully Hamner’s Red.

Parker will play the romantic interest to retired agent-on-the-run Bruce Willis, while Reilly will play a paranoid retired CIA agent.

Warner Home Video has announced that it will be releasing an anthology of short traditional and CG anime films for Halo Legends.

Similar to the Animatrix or Batman: Gotham Knight, this eight-episode anthology will have work from Ghost in the Shell’s Production I.G., Cowboy Bebop’s Bones, and Dragonball Z’s Toei Animation.

The anthology will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray on February 9, 2010.

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!

“It’s everything, Evey. The perfect entrance, the grand illusion. It’s everything. And I’m going to bring the house down.” ~ V

Just over twenty years ago, one of Alan Moore’s seminal works finally concluded, starting off in relative obscurity and — aided by the runaway success of Watchmen, completed three years earlier in 1986 — made Moore into a legend. It was subversive. It was brutal. It was a love letter to truth, justice, and the Anarchist way — it was violent and vicarious, volatile and visionary.

It was V. V for Vendetta.

And as his masked terrorist hero proclaimed — “Remember, remember, the 5th of November” — we’re going to Dial V for History and look back on this groundbreaking work, and its effects on Moore and the comic book industry as a whole.

Rewind to 1981. Alan Moore has yet to strike paydirt with Watchmen, which would go on to be one of the most celebrated and well-known graphic novels of all time. Instead, take a look back to the creation of a black-and-white British anthology that would go on to make history: Warrior. With editor Dez Skinn, Warrior housed many of Moore’s great works, including the subversive superhero epic Marvelman.

But the very first issue of Warrior — headlined by Axel Pressbutton, the Psychotic Cyborg — had a cloaked man with a Guy Fawkes mask along its spine. “V for Vendetta.” It was a short first chapter, but it was effective: Evey, a munitions worker so desperate she’s decided to sell her body on the streets. Unfortunately, her first solicitation happens to be a Fingerman, one of the corrupt policemen in a totalitarian England. She is only rescued from rape and worse by the intervention of V, a masked terrorist whose dispatch of the men is as brutal as it is inventive.

Read the rest of this entry »