Comic Book Resources

This idea, taking the heroes from Elseworlds titles and pitting them against each other, sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.

Really? 'Cause it sounds like a hit to me. Don't get me wrong, I agree that it's a stupid idea. But the fact is, there's a huge segment of the superhero-comics-reading fanbase that LOVES that shit. Look to the existence of the CBR Rumbles board for proof.

My prediction is that it does extremely well, while being 100% shit.

Side note: How come you never put any scans in with these, Greg?

Don't get me wrong, Dan, I'm sure it will be a HUGE hit. I'm talking from a subjective angle about whether it will be any good, and from that perspective, it sounds like a disaster. But yeah, I think it will sell well.

Do you mean covers of the upcoming titles, or something like that? I've often thought of it, to spruce things up a bit. Maybe I'll do it next time ...

Does it say what issues the second volume of SCOUT covers?
(ie. # 8-14 or # 8-24)

The Nexus Archives are coming from Dark Horse because the Dude likes the job they are doing on production. The restoration of these old comics is costly and time consuming that's why they are getting the archive treatment.

Nexus Archives: I think both First Comics and Comico published a blend of creator-owned and company-owned titles. I'm pretty sure First owned the rights to GrimJack, for instance. I think a number of creators had to fight to get the rights to properties they'd worked on after First and Comico collapsed, and I think it was easier for some properties than for others.

I don't know all the details.

Anyway, I bet Eric Oliphant's comment above is probably right: Dark Horse does a good job of publishing stuff. Also, publishing hardcover collections is probably a big financial investment and Rude might not have wanted to spend the capital and time necessary to make the project successful.

Countdown Arena: The problem I had with Elseworlds is that most of them sucked eggs. I enjoyed Holy Terror, Gotham by Gaslight, Generations and the two Elseworlds Finest, but the rest of them were almost completely forgettable.

Basically, I think just taking DC characters and putting them in new settings is a fundamentally stupid idea (Batman during the Civil War? Gimme a break!), and that means creators have to work especially hard to make the book any good. The What If? approach of making a setting be a tangent off of established history or continuity is intrinsically much more interesting, since it carries some dramatic potential as part of the set-up.

I can guarantee you will not be disappointed if you get the other Doom Patrol Archives. They are a steal at $50.

Freebooters, originally serialized in BWS: Storyteller, was Barry Windsor-Smith taking the piss out of the sword & sorcery genre. It was quite funny, and, of course, the art was gorgeous.

Tom, the Scout volume collects issues #7-15.

Freebooters is delicious to look at, but none of the Stories printed in Storyteller ever got wrapped up properly, because the series was cancelled... The Young Gods book I have is really lovely, but just stops in the middle; there's a bunch of stuff from BWS explaining how the story would have finished but it's still remarkably unsatisfying. That said it's still one of the most prized books in my collection. Now, for all I know, BWS may have actually finished the Freebooters story for this collection- it's certainly been a long time since the original serialisation- but notes in the YG book suggest that this is unlikely, so that might be worth bearing in mind.

sorry, that last post was me!

That's strange, the first Scout volume reprints # 1-7, so why reprint # 7 in the second?

I haven't heard anything about that Countdown Arena thing before, but it sounds like a horrible idea. It's like they're trying to burn through their 52 Earths as quick as they can before any writer has a chance to craft a well-thought-out story about one. Same stupid thing Marvel did with their Ultimate cross-overs.

Just for the record, I believe Steve McNiven is only doing one arc on Spider-Man.

That Freebooters book has been out for a long time... I own it! This must be Diamond offering it again or something... I wonder when The Paradoxman hardcover is due out? That's the only BWS Storyteller material that hasn't been collected yet...

That Freebooters book has been out for a long time… I own it!

Is it a complete story, or is it like the Young Gods book?

I cannot express how much I would love a Paradoxman book. That was easily my favourite strip in Storyteller.

And Jog, that's a damn fine blog you have there. Digging your stuuf at Savagecritics, too.

...that would be your stuff, I don't even know what stuuf (stoooooooofff) is...

BWS's Storyteller anthology was pretty awesome. When you read it, you can't help but feel that this it was basically a love letter to the Valiant characters he was writing at the time he left that company (Eternal Warrior, Archer & Armstrong and the third, time traveling brother whose name I forget). Most of the stories/characters are pretty darn similar in look and theme to those Valiant characters. Freebooters stars Archer and Armstrong archetypes. So if you liked what he was doing at Valiant, you're gonna love this as well. The big hesitation is that the anthology was canceled after about 9issues (why is it the good stuff rarely sells?) and the story never got finished. It's good to hear that you at least get to hear (in prose) how the story was going to go. I'm really looking forward to this (despite still owning the first four Storytellers). BWS is one of my favorite artists.

Here's his website: http://www.barrywindsor-smith.com/storyteller/stt.html

I'm a little worried about Incognegro, mainly because my only other experience with Mat Johnson's writing was his Hellblazer: Papa Midnite miniseries, which I rank as possibly the worst thing the Hellblazer franchise has ever produced. The entire thing was just poorly thought out, badly paced, frequently utterly incoherent, and to top it all off, it completely contradicted every plot point of Damnation's Flame and comes off looking convoluted and awful by comparison.

Hopefully this'll be better since he can tell the story he wants to tell without the baggage of an established franchise he seemingly had very little interest in to begin with. (I believe he was quoted as saying something like he didn't actually like any of the stories the character appeared in or anything about the character's portrayal in the series itself, which raises the question of why you're even writing it.)

According to the solicit text, the Freebooters includes "a full-length chapter from the unpublished tenth issue, plus more than 50 pages of new story!" Maybe BWS had some time to finish it.

I know I'd lose sleep if I didn't fill it in.
I'm such a geek...lol...

The third Valiant time traveller is Ivar The Timewalker.

Oh, thanks David!

The Freebooters book is pretty much the same as the Young Gods book, in that it presents the nine published chapters, plus the unpublished chapters 10 and 11, a collection of abandoned subplots and stops 'n starts, a short side-story intended for Storyteller #13, an early (b&w) Freebooters story created in 1995, and more of The Party, which was a sort of metafictional farewell deal that was supposed to run in Storyteller #10-#12 (part one was in New Gods, and part three will be in The Paradoxman, whenever it's out).

There's also text pieces, including a bit where BWS addresses some of the Valiant connection... he'd first come up with the premise of The Freebooters in the '80s, and wound up using some of that material in Archer & Armstrong, so actually the influence went the other way around...

DAMN IT I'M GOING TO HAVE TO BUY THAT DAMN FREEBOOTERS BOOK THAT I CAN'T AFFORD DAMN DAMN DAMN STUPID INTERNET

Michael Rawdon said:

The problem I had with Elseworlds is that most of them sucked eggs...Basically, I think just taking DC characters and putting them in new settings is a fundamentally stupid idea...

I'm not a big DC guy, but most of the Elseworlds I've read I actually enjoyed. Superman: Red Son and Superman: Secret Identity are two of my all-time favorite stories in the super-hero genre, and I usually find regular, DCU Superman stories to be kind of boring. Same with Batman - I don't follow any of his mainstream books, but I do like some of the Elseworlds stories around the character.

Being more of a Marvel fan, I've always wanted them to do something more in the vein of Elseworlds - self-contained, alternate universe stories.

Of course, "self-contained" is a big part of the appeal. I can read an Elseworlds story, and get a complete story in one TPB - I don't have to buy 23 different books to chase the storyline all through the DCU.

By the way, none of this is meant to endorse Countdown Arena: that sounds really, really uninteresting to me. I think I'll sit that one out.

Wasn't Nexus the book for which Dark Horse bought the rights from the original publisher only to give them back to the creators?

And like others have already said, Dark Horse is continuing with the Archives because those high-production value things are easier for a larger publisher to invest in and because they're just doing a nice job with them.

Re: Spider-Man, I'd have to disagree that Salvador Larocca is slow--he's actually frightfully fast, it's just many other artists who use the kind of style he's working in now are slow. But hey, even that doesn't matter, since John Romita Jr. is joining the title, and he could probably do two issues a month by himself.

Not only is Arena going to sell really well, the book is really good. Wait and see.

There were a lot of Elseworlds that should have been good, like Speeding Bullets (Superbaby's rocket lands in Gotham and he becomes Bruce Wayne) and In Darkest Knight (Everyone gets Green Lantern rings!). These were great except they did weird implausible crap like making Lex Luthor or Sinestro into the Joker.

I think I just wanted them to be more like What If? And now What If? is more like Elseworlds.

As for Onslaught: Look, I was 17. I ate that friggin' thing up. I've always liked the idea of a flawed or even evil Xavier, I liked the mysterious buildup over a year beforehand (my first event like this), I liked the use of the Sentinels to amplify psionic power, I liked that it was suggested that this was the destruction of Manhattan spoken about in 2099 and that it closed out the Bishop mystery stuff. Things I still think are awesome: The Green Goblin series ended wonderfully, with the good GG consciously blowing up his glider and ending his superhero career to take out only one Sentinel. Onslaught knocked Juggernaut across the country and trapped him in the very source of Juggernaut's power. Nate Grey and Franklin Richards, two of the young mutants spoken of in hushed voices due to insane power levels, just kind of huddling together for support. Onslaught punched the Hulk so hard that he knocked Banner out of him. Banner wakes up and sacrifices himself like all the other heroes. I even liked the character Joseph, which provided the opportunity to examine is Magneto, given the choice now, would do the same things he had done before. Cable and Apocalypse, the monster he was sent back in time to stop, have to work together to take on a greater evil.

Plus, there's that evil Xavier, which always wins me over — every great man has a dark side, you know. And I liked that he lost his powers because even today, Xavier or Magneto losing their powers feels like a good-sized shift in status quo; I'm a little sad Brubaker gave Xavier his powers back again recently.

Afterward, the dying Hulk takes over a Florida island. Franklin Richards loses his whole family and carries a universe in a blue ball while hanging out with Generation X. Those are good stories.

Yes, it appears I am actually defending Onslaught. No, I don't care what that makes me sound like. I was glued to the main storyline and a few of the supporting crossover issues.

What can I say? I was 17.

I'll go ahead and defend Onslaught--not the actual storyline, because yeah, it was crap, but that was the brilliance of it. Onslaught and Heroes Reborn combined gave Marvel fans an object lesson. "This is what you thought you wanted; doesn't it suck?" They gave us an 'evil Xavier', a Rob Liefeld/Jim Lee vision of the Marvel Universe, darkness, "big changes", and pretty much threw the entire crappy 90s era of comics on a big bonfire, gave it a Viking funeral, and then...

"Heroes Return". The FF return, and the Thing no longer has a bucket on his head to cover the scar Wolverine gave him, Johnny's forgotten all about Lyja/Alicia, and Franklin's back to being a kid instead of his own future self kidnapped by his grandfather and returned as a grown-up. The Avengers return, and Iron Man is no longer a teenager, Thor has his powers back (and a regular creative team), the Wasp no longer looks like a freaky mutant insect chick, and everyone's forgotten all about 'The Crossing'. The entire concept of 'Thunderbolts' came out of it, and to top it all off, 'Heroes Reborn' pretty much ended Rob Liefeld's career, and who can feel bad about that?

Really, the only thing they could have done to make the event more perfect would have been to toss both Peter Parker and Ben Reilly into the HR universe, and have only one of them come back out.

In short, 'Onslaught' was like chemotherapy. Terrible, but necessary.

Nick van Eekelen said:
"Wasn’t Nexus the book for which Dark Horse bought the rights from the original publisher only to give them back to the creators?"

I believe that's how it more or less went down. Rude has said that when DH decided to stop publishing new Nexus material back in the late 90's (due to low sales, which is a sad indictment of the comic buying public when a book as good as Nexus has to be effectively cancelled...), they gave the rights back to Baron and Rude pretty much for free. The two had a falling out and sat on the rights up until last year when they apparently made peace with each other and started working on the new project.

I'm glad to see DH continuing with the Archive editions though. Those things are beautiful.

Not only is Arena going to sell really well, the book is really good. Wait and see.

Surely, we will. We don't really have a choice otherwise. But I do feel obligated to point out that most people like the stuff they work on.

Greg: Yeah, like maybe upcoming covers or stuff? Maybe it's just because I'm a short-attention-span youth, but when it's all just text, my eyes kind of gloss over it.

Also on page 122, the El Diablo trade is solicited. I have never heard of this. NEVER! What the heck is it? When did it come out?

It's a western about the legend of El Diablo who haunts the Western Plains and kills people.
There was a Sherriff with a secret and some bad guys.

Brian Azzarello wrote and Daniel Zejill drew (the guy on Desolation Jones who totally rules with everything he does - check out Congo Bill in a dollar bin near you)...

I brought two issues and wasn't blown away, but I'll get the trade for the art if nothing else.

It came out in the time between the end of Preacher and the start of Y: The Last Man - American Century, 100 Bullets, Outlaw Nation, Codename: Knockout and some book by Kelly Jones were Vertigo's output, and Vertigo was desperate for some sort of hit (and occasionally a little too cancel happy - Outlaw Nation ruled!)

Bat Lash is by Sergio Aragones and John Severin!!
That's some pedigree! I'll definitely be picking it up. I love Jonah Hex, but I've been rather ambivalent about Loveless. I'll pick it up for a while, get discouraged, and stop, but then look through a new issue and decide to hop back on. I'm not sure why--there's great art, but the story can be a little thin in single issues. Overall, I do enjoy it enough to buy it (though I happen to be in an off spell right now). Anyway, hurray for Bat Lash!