Link Thoughts! Quickie Reviews (Feb. 3/10) (spoiler: I liked Siege #2). High Road/Low Road on Edge winning the Royal Rumble (I like that he eliminated Jericho, but wonder if him winning was the right call). Wrestling 4Rs including my write-up of TNA Impact (I nearly credited myself as Chad "Hates TNA and Everything It Does" Nevett in response to the over-the-top negative reaction to my deeming last week's show mediocre and a little dull... especially since I rather liked the most recent episode...). Wrestler of the Week (I ignored all of the great promo people this week and went for in-ring delivery). The Splash Page Podcast episode 3 (in which Tim and I talk a lot and love every minute of it).

Random Thought! I reread Hellblazer: Haunted on Friday and I think what I enjoyed most this time was the stuff about London that Ellis included throughout the story.

Random Thought! I miss Permanent Damage.

Random Thought! How is there not an Essential Alpha Flight book?

Random Thought! I would buy a monthly Ultimate Iron Man title written by Warren Ellis.

Random Thought! I'd much rather buy a monthly Doktor Sleepless, though.

Random Thought! Ed Brubaker's track run on team books has me somewhat wary about Secret Avengers. But, his work with the other Avengers and Marvel heroes in Captain America: Reborn was good, so... yeah, I'll be buying it.

Random Thought! For my reputation of disliking Geoff Johns's writing, people overlook that I not only liked Infinite Crisis more than Civil War, I liked Johns's writing more than Millar's...

Random Thought! Three days ago, GraphiContent turned five... and I totally didn't write a post about it. Then again, I've been working on some stuff for the past month or so with another blogger for something related. Still, five years of that blog... only three of which actually featured a good amount of content.

Random Thought! I've listened to The Wall by Pink Floyd all the way through.

Random Thought! I've still yet to read Alice in Sunderland by Bryan Talbot all the way through.

Random Thought! For all of you complainers, it could have been worse (in your view, at least): the Sentry could have acted like a real psychopath and had sex with Ares's remains after tearing him to shreds.

Random Thought! During Siege #3, when Captain America and the Iron Patriot square off, I hope you'll all join me by putting on the Team America: World Police soundtrack and playing "America, Fuck Yeah" loudly.

Random Thought! It's snowing! Snoooooooooooooooow!

Random Thought! Zodiac is just another Last Defenders, isn't he?

Random Thought! How many issues are required for something to be considered a run on a book?

Random Thought! I'm beginning to think that "Daredevil: The End" would just be Matt Murdock as a criminal mastermind. Or a mass murderer. Or it would be 22 pages of him brooding on a ledge in the rain before jumping off. Good times.

Random Thought! My take on the Authority. It's a one-shot. In it, the members finally decide that, yes, they all hate one another and decide to kill each other. No one survives with Jack Hawksmoor and Midnighter killing one another at the end. Except none of that happened, it was all Midnighter plotting out what would happen if things continued as they were going... so he just blows up the Carrier, leaving via Door seconds before it happens.

Random Thought! I like Thanos a lot more than Darkseid.

Random Thought! Something comics and wrestling have in common: an unhealthy obsession with the past and the inability to let characters or people go.

Random Thought! The Muppet Show Comic Book is really enjoyable.

Random Thought! I love the Marvel deluxe hardcovers. The omnibi are a bit too big as far as page-count goes, I'm worried about the spines and pages falling out, but the deluxe hardcovers of around 12 or 13 issues? Perfect.

Random Thought! Why, yes, I am looking forward to Matt Fraction writing Thor!

Random Thought! Joe Casey is an interesting fella.

Random Thought! Dr. Doom could beat up Wonder Woman. Discuss.

***

Random Comments! Last week's comments got off to a slow start (I thought this feature scared people away), but there were lots, so let's dive in! (Oh, and, as always, I may edit comments (aka pick and choose which bit to respond to) as I wish. I also don't respond to all comments. I avoided the whole diversity in comics thing, for example, because, well, I don't feel like addressing said issue. Not because I don't think it important, but because I don't really have anything to say about it... Or the various Avengers teams people came up with that I didn't have anything to say about either. Did enjoy seeing the various ideas thrown out there, though.)

Bill Reed said: Just to be on the safe side, you should use "hoser" at least once per sentence. And talk about curling.

I do enjoy watching curling. Curling is pretty great. My favourite sport, though, is baseball.

FunkyGreenJerusalem said: Original Sins, Fear And Loathing, Haunted and Hard Time are all collections I'd have no problem handing over to someone to check out Constantine.
Maybe even Dark Places, as I reckon it would go down even better if you'd never read him before.

[...] Was [the Sentry's beginnings] really a Vertigo revamp of Hourman?

I think Setting Sun presents a pretty complete idea of Constantine because he is so uninvolved, but does narrate a few stories. It also gives a good flavour for the character without giving you the idea that you must read a bunch more stories. Haunted is quite good and I always appreciate something new about it every time I reread it. Hard Time would actually be my second choice since it gets across the 'HBO vibe' of the character and series best, which may get an uninformed reader interested.

And I don't have my copy of The Sentry handy, but it includes the Wizard article that outlines the project and I belive Jenkins points the project's genesis going back to an Hourman revamp for Vertigo that never happened because DC didn't want to use the character that way. I could be wrong and misremembering it, of course.

Dan Felty said: Is Sean Phillips the artist whose current output is your favorite, or is his body of work your favorite among comics artists? Or both?

Current output. Especially with Val Staples colouring his art. Criminal is fucking gorgeous.

Tom Fitzpatrick said: Random musing: My favorite scene not ever shown in comics (?): The donkey show!

I have no comment, I just wanted to post this here...

Louis Bright-Raven said: Romita Jr.'s first run on Uncanny with Claremont was plenty enough practice for him to handle Bendis' style, I'm sure.

Nick Marino said: JRjr had one good run on Iron Man, one great run on X-Men, and another amazing run on Iron Man, all of which had plenty of dialogue-based scenes. i think he'll do just fine on Avengers. hell, even his JMS Spidey work had tons of dialogue and i remember thinking how well he pulled that off. THAT'S RIGHT CHAD I'M CALLING YOU OUT!!! YOU NEED TO READ MORE ROMITA Jr.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I stand corrected. Then again, Bendis's type of wordy writing is different from the writers you mentioned since Bendis is less 'purple prose' and more 'fill the page with dialogue,' which demands a different artistic approach. I have no doubt that Romita can rise to the challenge, but do wonder how much of a fit it will be immediately.

Dalarsco said: My intro to Connstantine, other than Sandman and Books of Magic, was The Gift by Carey and Manco. I picked it up on a whim when there was a trade sale at my LCS. I started reading it regularly a few months later when Jason Aaron did his two issues.

Yeah, I think any Constantine can be a great entryway... he's a character who hasn't had too many flat out bad stories written using him. Even the lesser runs are entertaining enough, I find.

Enrique said: I like Hellblazer: All His Engines by Mike Carey. But I haven't read any other Hellblazer besides that.

I'm not a big fan of Carey's work on the book, including All His Engines. Why haven't you read any further Hellblazer stories?

azjohnson5 said: ZEPPELIN RULES!

Damn right.

Rebis said: Random thoughts sometimes beget random replies. I'm smiling about the title "strangest comment ever." Thanks. Hope you enjoyed your birthweek!

p.s. Have you been enjoying "The Great Ten"? I bought the first issue and intend to buy the rest but haven't yet . My comic shop appears to be buying so few, they sell out. Also, I like the characters, but the art bugs me.

I've been liking it. It's in that 2.5-3 star range. A decent, fun read. I didn't like the Superman parallels in the third issue much, but the concept and structure are intriguing enough. While McDaniel's finishes aren't particularly strong, I do like his energy.

Thanks for reading, people respected readers who I view as complete equals to me in every way!

13 Comments

• At February 9, 2010, Manglr wrote:

  Regarding Marvel Omibus spinal issues...

  I've got 9 or 10 Marvel omnibi at the moment, and I've learned it's not necessarily ...

• At February 9, 2010, DrewT wrote:

  Thanos>Darkseid. this is true

• At February 9, 2010, Jeff Holland wrote:

  - Matt Fraction' may be the first time I've ever enjoyed Thor - and that even includes Ellis's "Worldengine," which ...

• At February 9, 2010, Brianobx wrote:

  How many issues are required for something to be considered a run on a book?

  12- brief run

  24- decent

  36-good

  48-classic

  72 and up- ...

• At February 9, 2010, r wrote:

  I have the Death of Captain America omnibus and (although I really love the story) I can't understand why it's ...

• At February 9, 2010, Keith wrote:

  America Fuck Yeah is the greatest song on any soundtrack ever. I listen to it all the time when ...

• At February 9, 2010, Dan Felty wrote:

  I would say a run consists of simply more than one story, within a relatively short period of time (so ...

• At February 9, 2010, Dan Felty wrote:

  Oh, also, does that Criminal hardcover have all the backmatter from the single issues?

• At February 9, 2010, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  I reread Hellblazer: Haunted on Friday and I think what I enjoyed most this time was the stuff about London ...

• At February 9, 2010, CW wrote:

  IMO, a run is anything where the writer/artist is signed on to a book for an indefinite time frame. That ...

• At February 9, 2010, CW wrote:

  [quote]Thanks for reading, people respected readers who I view as complete equals to me in every way![/quote]

  You only view us ...

• At February 9, 2010, Jeff wrote:

  Sounds like someone hasn't read much Wonder Woman.

• At February 9, 2010, Adam K wrote:

  " the upcoming Invincible Iron Man by Matt Fraction omnibus"

  I never saw the word "omnibus" in the solicits for it. ...

Dearest Friends at Dynamite Entertainment,

Were you to entertain the notion of a second RoboCop comic book periodical series and wished it to be one of high repute, I would, without hesitation, recommend my good friend Bill Reed, a writer of fine caliber and excellent breeding. I am certain that he could bring infinite justice to the cybernetic legacy of the future of law enforcement.

Your friend,
Peter Weller*

*Disclaimer: The above opinions of Mr. Weller are not the opinions of Comic Book Resources or Comics Should Be Good, nor, in fact, the opinions of Peter Weller**, who has never actually met or contacted Bill Reed in any capacity, and is not, as some claims state, part machine.

** Peter Weller will return in Peter Weller vs. The World Crime League.

7 Comments

• At February 9, 2010, Mecha-Shiva wrote:

  And you have to trust a guy who can wear those sunglasses and a scarf without seeming like an escaped ...

• At February 9, 2010, The Dude wrote:

  yeah,he really pulls it off,doesn't he?

• At February 9, 2010, BrianHouston wrote:

  That look is for his new role as Lex Luthor in Nolan's Superman reboot.

• At February 9, 2010, Greg Burgas wrote:

  Weller teaches history at Syracuse these days. It's very odd. He showed up on a History Channel documentary ...

• At February 9, 2010, Deco wrote:

  I'd buy that for a dollar

  (somebody had to do it)

• At February 9, 2010, Jack Cheng wrote:

  I think he's auditioning as the Doctor for an Authority movie.

• At February 9, 2010, sgt pepper wrote:

  Give Reed the gig, or...there'll be trouble.

I'll probably give this a better review when I actually buy it and have it in my hands. Also, as I've mentioned before, I have found it harder and harder to remain objective about this series (if I ever remain objective about anything I review, that is). Is this a good issue? I'd say of course it is. Kid-With-Knife talks for a page about what makes a phonomancer, from what David Kohl told him, and then does it. Kohl tells him to find a track that's meaningful to him, and then says, "Close your eyes. And listen hard. Focus. Just feel the song. Let it sweep over you. Breathe it in. Let it possess you. And when you can feel it filling every single cell in your body ... Just ride it as long as you can." Kid-With-Knife laughs and says what you might say in that situation: That's it? Everyone does that. And then he proceeds to prove it, over 13 (or maybe 14) almost wordless pages (with some random pictograms thrown in). I feel bad about quoting Gillen here, because those are almost all the words in the comic. McKelvie and colorist Matthew Wilson are the stars in this comic, giving us page after page of our hero running through the streets having a grand time, high on the power of music. Then he reaches the club, and we loop back around to the first issue of this marvelous series, with a double-page spread that is simply stunning. And then it's over. Even though it's been over a year since the first issue came out, these seven issues still feel ephemeral, like the magic of music itself.

But that's the point. Some people here have said they don't like Phonogram, and some have even said they don't like it because of the music Gillen references. But the music is ultimately beside the point completely, because, as Kohl points out, any music will do. Gillen might be an elitist ass, Kohl might be an elitist ass, Seth Bingo might be an elitist ass, but who really cares about their taste in music? All that matters is how you make it magical. I'll tell you a story, because this is my post and who the hell's going to stop me? I own the Horse Flies' Gravity Dance, which came out in 1991. Now I have it on CD, but back then I owned the tape. In 1992 I took it to Australia with me on my five-month study abroad sojourn. I also took it along when I visited Tasmania (with three young ladies, whoo-hoo! ... okay, we were just friends, are you happy now?) for a few days. We drove all over the island, ending up in Hobart. When we arrived in Hobart my friends wanted to take a nap because we had been traveling non-stop for four days, and they were tired. I figured I'd never get a chance to get back to Hobart and I could sleep when I returned to Melbourne. So I drove to the top of Mt. Wellington, the mountain right outside of the city. It was pretty keen, and I got some great views of the city and the surrounding countryside. I had brought along my copy of Gravity Dance, and I listened to it as I drove down the mountain. On my left was the mountain, and on my right were the red roofs of the houses of Hobart. The sun was high, the temperature was fantastic, and it was a brilliant moment in my life. Whenever I listen to Gravity Dance, I'm returned to that moment, and it's a wonderful feeling. Whenever I hear "Love's Recovery" by the Indigo Girls, I think of my wedding and what a happy day it was. I know this is just memory, but the point is that music, among other things, act as markers in our lives, and that's a kind of magic. I'm the least fanciful person I know, as I don't believe in anything supernatural or otherworldly, but the idea of music as something that can transport us to someplace else or even inspire us to things we wouldn't (which is the case in Phonogram #7) isn't supernatural, it's just the rhythms of the music getting under our skins and synching with the rhythms in our bodies. That's why music is so popular, after all. It doesn't have to be the Pipettes, for crying out loud. It can be something as uncool as Billy Joel or Barry Manilow. If it moves you, it can inspire you. I can understand not liking Phonogram because you don't like the writing or the art (well, no I can't, as I'm hardly objective about it, as I pointed out above), but not liking it because you've never heard of the bands Gillen uses isn't a good excuse.

What does this have to do with the joy of comics, you might ask? Well, I mentioned back on New Year's Day that I feel bad for those people who are burned out on comics. Bill Reed, fellow Comics Should Be Good! blogger, is one of those people. One reason I don't get burned out on comics is because of stuff like Phonogram. Now, I might have more disposable income than some people and I might buy more comics than some (I don't know if I do or if I don't, hence the use of "might"), and I understand people not taking a chance on something that might suck. I buy comics I want to read, and usually I'm entertained by them, but I also read a lot of comics that don't really have much of an impact on me. I might re-read them and still be entertained, but they won't make me stop and think about things. Some comics do, however, and those are the ones that make everything else worth it. Phonogram is one of those comics. I read this thing last night and actually got angry at Gillen and McKelvie for being able to do this in such a brief space. Who the hell do they think they are? I get such joy out of each issue, each page, each panel, and even though the main story of this comic is shorter than most and features far fewer words than almost anything this side of Marvel's "silent" issues, it's still something that takes a while to read, because you want to gaze at each gorgeous panel and see how McKelvie tells the story so precisely. Much like the music these characters use to change the world, Gillen, McKelvie, and Wilson (we shouldn't forget the gorgeous colors in this series) create something that moves something deep inside us, which in turn brings joy to our lives. I read comics like this every once in a while, and every time I do, I'm thrilled that I don't give up on the medium. You can bitch about the latest big event from the Big Two all you want (unless you're Gillen, who's writing some parts of it). I'll be perfectly happy sitting here, lingering over the pages of Phonogram, thinking about all the brilliance in comics. But I may just be a weirdo.

4 Comments

• At February 9, 2010, The Dude wrote:

  Your story made a bigger impact on me than the issues of Phonogram that I've read.

  I completely understand and agree ...

• At February 9, 2010, Dr. Fleming wrote:

  Love this series. Such a breath of fresh air into the comic book scene. Can't wait to finish it.

  Now, everyone:

  Imagine ...

• At February 9, 2010, Enrique wrote:

  Really cool post. I agree that music allow us to relive moments from our past and I agree that some ...

• At February 9, 2010, Bill Reed wrote:

  Billy Joel's uncool now!? Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo *burns all his records*

In any event, Marvel has released the second Secret Avengers promo, and I think it is most likely Moon Knight. The shape works and the tagline fits (actually pretty damn perfectly, as the current Moon Knight series is ALL about Moon Knight seeking redemption). And why WOULDN'T Ed Brubaker want Moon Knight on his team? Moon Knight is awesome.

What's your bet?

53 Comments

• At February 9, 2010, Bill Reed wrote:

  I was presuming it was the Sentry.

• At February 9, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  There's no way Sentry gets out of Siege alive, let alone in a position to be redeemed.

• At February 9, 2010, JoeMac wrote:

  Sentry worked much better as a one-off limited series, and needs to be killed off.

• At February 9, 2010, Chris Katrev wrote:

  Stryfe...

• At February 9, 2010, DanLarkin wrote:

  I was thinking Cloak. But Moon Knight would be cooler.

• At February 9, 2010, Thomas wrote:

  The first one can't be the Beast because the beast only has 3 fingers and a thumb on each hand ...

• At February 9, 2010, Stefan Wenger wrote:

  Yeah, it's probably Moon Knight. Although somebody on Newsarama mentioned the Hood. THAT could be interesting.

• At February 9, 2010, T. wrote:

  Strikes me more as The Hood.

• At February 9, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  The first one can't be the Beast because the beast only has 3 fingers and a thumb on each hand ...

• At February 9, 2010, T. wrote:

  I mean, I know logically it makes no sense for it to be The Hood, but in comics we've ...

• At February 9, 2010, RJK0001 wrote:

  A stretch...but perhaps Taskmaster?

• At February 9, 2010, Squashua wrote:

  The top left part of the cape where you can see through and it looks like Starhawk's yellow angle ribbon ...

• At February 9, 2010, darknessatnoon wrote:

  I love Moon Knight. He is Egypt's greatest hero/slave. It's a disgrace that he'll have to work with Beast, though.

• At February 9, 2010, Mary Warner wrote:

  Moon Knight seems quite plausible. And he has been an Avenger before.

• At February 9, 2010, E.D. wrote:

  "Secret" implies that it won't be a public team, so I'm guessing it's a reformed (or quasi-reformed) villain. The ...

• At February 9, 2010, skfl wrote:

  Here's hoping that the image is of Cloak - Moon Knight is epically boring...

• At February 9, 2010, Van GoghX wrote:

  Squashua's spot on about the top left part of the cape thing. Rules out Moon Knight big time.

  Starhawk's a good ...

• At February 9, 2010, Scott Harris wrote:

  I'm going to go with Taskmaster also, but I can't actually see him giving a crap about redemption. I don't ...

• At February 9, 2010, Carl wrote:

  If it's Moon Knight, it's kind of an odd position for him. The wide stance, arms at the side, ...

• At February 9, 2010, Carl wrote:

  I suppose Norman could do something in Siege that send Taskmaster on a redemption run, but nothing we know of ...

• At February 9, 2010, shawn wrote:

  the hood.

• At February 9, 2010, Carl wrote:

  The Hood seems to be Bendis' pet project. He seems insistent on pushing him as a top villain, so ...

• At February 9, 2010, smkedtky wrote:

  Considering Mike Daedato (forgive the spelling if wrong) is doing the art, I'd guess SENTRY. That is a pose ...

• At February 9, 2010, chad wrote:

  Actuely i am thinking its scarlet witch trying to finaly make up for avengers disasembled and also m day since. ...

• At February 9, 2010, Bob wrote:

  It actually looks like two people in the picture to me. notice how the legs splayed out at the bottom ...

• At February 9, 2010, Eric J wrote:

  I'm thinking it's Dr. Strange. Sure the silhouette is off model, but that was the "Old" Dr. Strange, and one ...

• At February 9, 2010, Mandeville wrote:

  Hobgoblin!

• At February 9, 2010, Carl wrote:

  Actually , the pose is perfect for a goblin on a glider. Harry, perhaps?

• At February 9, 2010, Anonymous wrote:

  I thought it couls be sentry as well,but who knows

• At February 9, 2010, cactusjac2000 wrote:

  It's pretty clearly Beast.

• At February 9, 2010, Ed wrote:

  Those look like claws on the end of his/her fingers - or long nails at least. That would suggest ...

• At February 9, 2010, BrianHouston wrote:

  1. Doctor Strange

  2. Moon Knight

  3. Taskmaster

• At February 9, 2010, Amit! wrote:

  My first and second thoughts were Sentry and Strange....but Moon Knight would be a dream come true.

• At February 9, 2010, Anonymous wrote:

  taskmaster

• At February 9, 2010, Craig B. wrote:

  Didn't the Defenders have a yellow Gargoyle/Devil-type character? (The name escapes me - I didn't really collect those issues.) ...

• At February 9, 2010, Mark Black wrote:

  Longshot, but why not the Shroud?

• At February 9, 2010, jazzbo wrote:

  Dang, I figured I'd be the only one to suggest Shroud, but Carl beat me to it. I'd say Taskmaster ...

• At February 9, 2010, Roman wrote:

  Craig B.: Yes, the Defenders had a character named Gargoyle, aka Isaac Christianson. However, you're all wrong: it's really ...

• At February 9, 2010, Scavenger wrote:

  My first thought was TaskMaster, too

• At February 9, 2010, il_bicho wrote:

  i have been a bit out of the comic book world, but could it actually be magneto?

  although i like moon ...

• At February 9, 2010, bigdhusson wrote:

  This is my first post and I strangely feel the need to use it to weigh in on this. ...

• At February 9, 2010, r wrote:

  I'm guessing either The Sentry (although that doesn't see likely, with the way Siege is going) or Dr. Strange. Moon ...

• At February 9, 2010, Ortiz wrote:

  Spawn???

  Peace.

• At February 9, 2010, Craig B. wrote:

  Thanks, Roman. Glad to know my memory isn't totally gone.

• At February 9, 2010, Eric wrote:

  Seeing the cloak and the tagline, I thought it might be Scarlet Witch, but the limbs look too masculine to ...

• At February 9, 2010, Tales of the Boojum wrote:

  Wait a second... Wide stance. Seeks redemption.

  Former Senator Larry Craig!

• At February 9, 2010, Mary Warner wrote:

  I think the Taskmaster could easily work for the good guys. He'll work for anyone who pays him. ...

• At February 9, 2010, buttler wrote:

  Seriously, give it up, Sleepwalker. No redemption for you!

• At February 9, 2010, Bill Reed wrote:

  I would shit my pants with joy if it was Sleepwalker. Really, I would.

• At February 9, 2010, Nick Marino wrote:

  i was thinking Cloak, which would be awesome!!! but Sleepwalker might be even sweeter. Moon Knight... meh.

• At February 9, 2010, Papabaron wrote:

  my guesses are Justice or Borther Voodoo

• At February 9, 2010, Papabaron wrote:

  Although it looks most like Creeper

• At February 9, 2010, DavidK wrote:

  Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan, has got the right cape, and the need for redemption... on the other ...

Please note that this isn't a review of Monster but a spoiler-filled discussion of the first seven volumes.  You probably shouldn't read this unless you've read these volumes or seen the first 30 or so episodes of the anime.  (Also, I haven't yet read beyond vol 7 so I would appreciate if posters also refrain from spoiling me for further developments).

So.  Spoilers.  You've been warned.

S

P

O

I

L

E

R

S

It is hard not to love the character of Tenma.  No matter what happens to him he always appears to be on a mission to save lives -- not just with his hands in his capacity as a surgeon, but also by inspiring others through his dedication to life and belief in the inherent goodness of human beings.  Very rarely are characters who are so good also remain so likable.   However, I think Urasawa could have toned down Tenma's saintliness quite a bit.   By volume 7, there are only a few pieces of evidence that Tenma is flawed and, therefore, human.  The following are the examples that struck me as most significant.

1) His raw, unattractive rage after his first fall from grace.  He ends up spewing a bunch of self-righteous vitriol over the fact his ability to save lives using his surgical skills (i.e. which is evidence of his genius) isn't being appreciated by the people who have power over him.  He does this in his young, supposedly unconscious, patient's room whom he's just operated on.

This is a very young man's response to injustice -- he's not just angry, he's boiling over and in that moment he's only concerned with himself.  (He goes to Johan's room then because Johan's life is his proof that he did the right thing).  His anger, while justified, is completely over the top.  This obvious moment of weakness -- where he wishes all the people who screwed him over would die -- comes back to haunt him.  It becomes Johan's way of worming his way into Tenma's psyche.  Yet Tenma remains human because he only wishes this violence for a moment -- he's not a monster because he would never ever really want those men to die.

However, Tenma suffers inordinately for this one little mistake -- he suffers beyond what he should.  Now a lot of people suffer and die in this manga but there often isn't special meaning in their suffering.  They suffer because the world has some bad people in it, or they've done bad things and now are getting their comeuppance.  But they suffer because that is part of the human condition.  Tenma suffers because he's good and allowed some nasty, nasty thoughts to percolate in his head in a moment of weakness.  In other words, he's punished because he is revealed to be someone that he shouldn't be -- he's revealed that he is, in fact, human.

I'm sorry, but that is so fucked up I don't even know where to begin.  Tenma's suffering is given special status because he is special.  He's held to a higher standard and, therefore, his punishment is greater when he fails to maintain that standard.

2) His ego as a surgeon.   The moment Tenma decides to operate on Johan rather than an important elected official is not just about his sense of right as a doctor but about him.   Since the boy arrived at the hospital first and his injury was deemed more serious, Tenma tells himself he did the right thing by operating on him, rather than caving to political pressure by working on the mayor.  Tenma's also reacting to the fact that just before this occurred a working-class patient died while he was operating on someone considered "important" to the hospital.  In that instant he wasn't given a choice, i.e. he didn't know that there was another patient who might have needed him.   The wife of the dead patient ends up blaming Tenma for not being there which troubles his conscience.

Now, I'm not saying Tenma did anything wrong but he made a choice the night Johan and the mayor came into the hospital at roughly the same time.  The person he operated on lived and the person he didn't died.  While it isn't Tenma's fault that no other surgeon around was talented enough to save the other patient, he also never acknowledges that by choosing one patient over the other, he sometimes decides who lives and who dies.

This is simply a fact of being a surgeon.  This doesn't make Tenma a bad person, but his notion that by making a decision to operate on one patient rather than another he's furthering "right"...I don't buy it.  Yes, obviously doctors should triage patients according to the severity of their injury and not their class status and Tenma was right to reject pressure from his superiors to do otherwise.   Tenma, I think takes it further, so that his very identity is based on the fact he chose to treat one patient rather than another.  That seems problematic to me because either way, one patient would have died.  By hanging his sense of self on that decision being "right" he neatly side-steps the fact that sometimes the universe is cruel and you just can't save everyone.  No matter how good a surgeon you are.  In other words, a doctor is not god.

Tenma is more than just a decision to triage according to certain values of justice and right.  He is more than his set of skills.  But so long as he continues to think of himself in only these terms, he refuses to see his own fallibility.

3) The fact he cheated on a med school exam.  I mean, he's very matter-of-fact about it and it is supposed to make him endearing rather than sleazy (and it actually does).  Because Tenma is so good we're meant to see his fact of cheating not as an attempt to escape hard work, but as a sane response to life circumstances (i.e. if the game is rigged you'd be incredibly stupid NOT to cheat, a la Kirk in the recent Star Trek movie).

This is a very small, but important moment.  Tenma's former med school peer has resented Tenma for decades because he thought Tenma looked down on him.  When Gillen discovers the truth -- Tenma was cheating on the same test as he was -- all the resentment disappears.  Suddenly Tenma is just like "everyone else."  Except he never really is.  Tenma was not as obsessed with school ranking -- with being the "golden boy" -- as Gillen so it is hard to make this bit of characterization fit in with the rest of what we know about him.  Yes, it is an amusing confession and it makes us look at Tenma slightly differently (it makes him seem more flexible, less rigidly "perfect") but in the end this moment only works because we don't really believe it.  In other words, we already believe in Tenma's perfection.  One little cheating incident isn't going to change that.

4) His relationship with Eva was probably based on sex and status.  This is a may be a minor thing, but Tenma ends up so asexual when he's on the run that you can forget he used to have a sex drive and that part of Eva's appeal was the fact she was the daughter of the director of the hospital.  I'm not saying he was opportunistic, only that he was a foreigner who had been accepted into the fold which he planned to prove by  marrying into a successful hospital administrator's family.  Actually, more than being accepted, by dating Eva Tenma partly proved he could be the director's successor.  In other words, dating Eva used to be part of his idea of what made him the complete package as a doctor.

When Eva dumps him, thereby revealing she cares more for her special place in society as a hospital director's daughter than for Tenma, he pretty much gives up women altogether.  To me that indicates he might recognize his own culpability in dating Eva with the expectation of a certain amount of social and economic gain.  Once again, I want to stress that I honestly don't think this makes Tenma an opportunist.   I think it simply means he hadn't questioned why he was with Eva until she threw him away as damaged goods.

The end result of not only her leaving him, but also him realizing how easily status can be "taken" from you, seems to drive him to work and work alone.  Before he goes on the run it is revealed that his entire life has become the hospital and his work as a doctor there (not just a "surgeon," Tenma is always very much a doctor).   He no longer bothers to try to integrate his social life and his work life and not simply because Eva hurt him through her rejection.

Concluding thoughts for today:  While numbers 1 and 3 on this list are intended to make Tenma more human, I actually think it is numbers 2 and 4 that unintentionally end up doing that.  Yet each point I've made only ends up reasserting the fact that Tenma is a "special" case.   This means when Urasawa asks if it is ever justified for someone like Tenma to kill, he isn't really asking the question because the answer is too obvious.  Tenma's too good to kill.  And that becomes a big problem by volume 7.

Next up: Discussion of Tenma's doppelganger, Richard Braun, and how he is offered as an example of what could happen to Tenma if he does end up killing Johan.

8 Comments

• At February 9, 2010, Greg Burgas wrote:

  You know, I keep meaning to review every manga series I read (of which Monster is one) and then you ...

• At February 9, 2010, Danielle Leigh wrote:

  Thanks, Greg, that really means a lot coming from you! (To be honest, Urasawa inspires the think-y thoughts kind ...

• At February 9, 2010, Krill wrote:

  I really am afraid I don't see that at all. I'm not even sure what it would mean to say ...

• At February 9, 2010, Danielle Leigh wrote:

  Krill -- This is just the first part of this little argument of mine, so I kind of leave it ...

• At February 9, 2010, Krill wrote:

  I think I understand where you're coming from better now. I always took Dieter/Anna pleading Tenma not to kill simply ...

• At February 9, 2010, Krill wrote:

  I'd just like to qualify my above post by saying that the parts of Monster involved in my taking the ...

• At February 9, 2010, Danielle Leigh wrote:

  In any case, keep up the interesting analysis. Goodness knows Urasawa is worth it.

  Thanks! You hit the nail on ...

• At February 9, 2010, Luis Dantas wrote:

  Danielle, your 1) sort of puzzled me. I guess this is some sort of cultural shock at work.

  Probably because ...

I mention this only because, hey, it's an excuse to link to a fun comic book site, so why not, right?

Welcome to WordPress, Mike!

6 Comments

• At February 9, 2010, Adam K wrote:

  Ugh, what the fuck. Sims switched over to bright white too.

• At February 9, 2010, buttler wrote:

  Welcome to WordPress, Mike!

  Hope you survive the experience!

• At February 9, 2010, Bill Reed wrote:

  Sterling and Sims are jumping on this white bandwagon! I, for one, will not stand for the whitewashing of our ...

• At February 9, 2010, JoshDM wrote:

  Black text on white background makes for the best, most versatile pages. White is bright by default.

• At February 9, 2010, Bully wrote:

  Man, I don't know how you people have never seen the color white. I guess nobody is reading Moon Knight ...

• At February 9, 2010, Mikester wrote:

  "Blinding blog readers since 1969."

Today we look at Joshua Cotter's Skyscrapers of the Midwest!

Enjoy!

Skyscrapers of the Midwest is, according to Cotter (courtesy of this interview), "observations of childhood isolation and existence in the American Midwest. With giant robots."

The story follows two young boys (mostly the older brother, but the younger brother gets some attention, too) as they just live their normal lives in the late 1980s in the rural Midwest. They do not have an exceptionally hard life, but Cotter wrings all the pathos out of an otherwise ordinary existence that he possibly can.

The "giant robots" that Cotter refers to is the active imagination of both boys, who occasionally transform their normal day to day lives into tales of fantasy, like the little brother's pet dinosaur being attacked by evil beasts (which stands for the toy dinosaur being gnawed on by a dog).

The collection puts together the four original issues. Issues #2-4 had very interesting storytelling techniques.

In the second issue, part of the issue is told through the novel approach of using the standard "Sunday Funny Pages" as the storytelling device, with each different style of comic strip telling a different part of the family's life.

In the third issue, a school's yearbook is the framing device for the issue.

In fourth issue, Cotter uses the format of a late 80s Marvel comic book (complete with a separate indica) to tell the story of how the boy is emasculated by his secret crush in front of all her friends (the parody is DEAD on).

It's worth noting that the characters in the comic are not exactly human. I honestly don't know WHAT they're supposed to be, but that's not really the point, is it? In Maus II, Art Spiegelman highlighted the point that whatever you make these people, cats, dogs, mice, whatever, they're just masks - so does it matter what the people in Skyscrapers of the Midwest are? What matters is how Cotter draws them, and what Cotter does with them - and what he does with them is create a work of intermittent beauty and pain. Pretty much like real life, no?

Probably the best way to demonstrate Cotter's abilities is through a sample, and AdHouse Books quite smartly put up as a sample one of the most memorable parts of the book, where the young boy deals with a birthday present...

Pretty rough, huh?

Skyscrapers of the Midwest is filled with moments like that one - beautifully painful.

But just like real life, unless you had an incredibly difficult childhood, for all the pain and bad memories, there are bound to be some good ones in there, and Cotter highlights these as well, and even ends his tale on a bittersweet moment between the two brothers - it is clearly a matter of "savor this good moment now," because if the book continued, you just know the next page would be something totally brutal once again.

There's also a letter column where the letter answerer has some very amusing answers - that's a nice change of pace from the drama of the issues.

When my fiancée and I met Cotter at MoCCA, she mentioned how sad the scene was when the main character found a bunch of almost-dead kittens in the barn after their mother was hit by a car. He and his mother attempt to save the kittens, but they all die. So Cotter quite nicely drew her the following sketch...

Very cute.

Here is Josh's website (it appears to be down currently, but hopefully that won't be for long).

And here is AdHouse Books' page for Skyscrapers, where you can buy a copy (just $20!!!).

6 Comments

• At February 9, 2010, BrianC wrote:

  This is one of those books that just stays with me. As you said, there aren't any struggles in these ...

• At February 9, 2010, Mario wrote:

  Beautifully painful indeed. That was a harsh!

  It seems the younger brother is having a better time with the box than ...

• At February 9, 2010, Mer wrote:

  Soft kitty, warm kitty

  Little ball of fur

  Lazy kitty, pretty kitty

  purr, purr, purr

  :-)

• At February 9, 2010, T. wrote:

  I'm definitely going to give this a try. Looks good.

• At February 9, 2010, Anthony Strand wrote:

  Sucha beautiful book. There's a page consisting entirely of a bulletin the boys had drawn robots on while bored ...

• At February 9, 2010, funkmasterdre wrote:

  Uh oh. The word retard is in the scans that you posted. How long until someone writes a ...

Do you agree with Don's reservations?

4 Comments

• At February 9, 2010, TJ9000 wrote:

  I'm going to have to disagree. I know the article is about Cleveland, but I am so excited about the ...

• At February 9, 2010, Alan Coil wrote:

  TJ9000, you are assuming it will be a big show. You are also assuming that it will still be there ...

• At February 9, 2010, Bill Reed wrote:

  My problem is that I imagine Shamus will set them up to compete with cons that are running at the ...

• At February 9, 2010, Josh wrote:

  I've never been to a Comic-Con before, but I've been thinking about going for a few months. I live ...

I expect Marvel to announce "Next Avengers" by Ellis and Immonen any day now. Nextwave by any other name would smell as sweet.

(Update: A Cornell/Kirk "Avengers U.K." would also be nice. If you're gonna be milking, pick a strong teat.)

19 Comments

• At February 8, 2010, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  My experience of life has left me too bitter and jaded not to believe this will be true...because I need ...

• At February 8, 2010, Ian A. wrote:

  It's the only explanation for Immonen's whereabouts.

• At February 8, 2010, Randy wrote:

  That might explain why they just released an ultimate collection nextwave tpb.

• At February 8, 2010, Brother Justin Crowe wrote:

  If true, I have died and gone to Heaven.

• At February 8, 2010, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  I'm also hoping for a Desolation Jones/newuniversal/Fell announcement as well! ;-)

• At February 8, 2010, Spencer wrote:

  ^Now Tom you know you can't ask for everything at once, you're going to wait until never for those.

  But, ...

• At February 8, 2010, Bill Reed wrote:

  Here's your Fell announcement.

• At February 8, 2010, MisterSmith wrote:

  I think a better title for them would be the "**** Avengers." Tell me you wouldn't buy the **** out ...

• At February 8, 2010, Dean wrote:

  Damn you, Reed, why you gotta tease us like that?

• At February 8, 2010, Mary Warner wrote:

  Wasn't there an Avengers Next a couple of years ago?

• At February 8, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Wasn't there an Avengers Next a couple of years ago?

  Yeah, that was an out-of-continuity comic in the Spider-Girl universe.

• At February 8, 2010, Frank wrote:

  Really hoping that!!

  Anything with Ellis would be great, though.

• At February 9, 2010, wil wrote:

  Bring back Jack Cross!

• At February 9, 2010, Blackjak wrote:

  Here's your Fell announcement.

  Those of us following Warren Ellis and Ben Templesmith on Twitter had a really great surprise (or ...

• At February 9, 2010, Dalarsco wrote:

  Being a "rose by any other name" kind of guy, I'd be cool with Marvel taking everything that doesn't sell ...

• At February 9, 2010, Jeff Holland wrote:

  Joke all you want, I would pay good money for that.

  I would pay even better money for a Nextwave/MI:13 ...

• At February 9, 2010, fanboy d wrote:

  I've been saying for ages they should've just called MI:13 Avengers UK and relaunched it. Avengers of Atlas, anyone?

• At February 9, 2010, buttler wrote:

  We need a team that harks back to the glory days of the Avengers: the 1970s.

  With that in mind, I'm ...

• At February 9, 2010, DMZ, Mesmo, Choker, Human Target and more fight the snow to get to shops this week | Robot 6 @ Comic Book Resources – Covering Comic Book News and Entertainment wrote:

  [...] collects the entire series, along with its awesome letter columns. Also, I totally agree with Gratuitous Guttenberg, which is ...

I bought Portland Noir last year at San Diego because there's a Jamie Rich/Joëlle Jones story in it (and Rich signed it for me), but I also love Portland, as I've mentioned before, so this is a fun book. I've only read a couple of stories, but so far they're less totally noir-ish and more just crime-ish. But they're still pretty keen, and it's fun to read about places I recognize. There's a whole series of these books, from the original (set in Brooklyn) to plenty of foreign places (Istanbul, Dublin, Trinidad) to my current city, Phoenix (which I believe has come out already; it's listed as "forthcoming" in the front of the book). See if your city is represented!

I'm also slowly reading The More Than Complete Action Philosophers!, which is quite awesome. I'm reading it slowly because I've already read it, so there's no hurry. I haven't figured out which stories are new, however, because I haven't gone back to the single issues and compared and contrasted. There are new stories, though - so swears the advertising! The interesting thing about the compilation is that it's in chronological order, which the original issues were not. So some of the stories are much older than the one before or after it, and you can actually see Ryan Dunlavey get more confident as he goes along. If you've ever wondered why Brian loves Fred van Lente so much but don't feel like giving money to an evil corporate entity like Marvel, pick this sucker up. It's hilarious AND edumacational!

What are y'all reading this week? Enquiring minds want to know!

20 Comments

• At February 8, 2010, Chad Nevett wrote:

  Finished Vineland by Thomas Pynchon today. Not really in the process of reading anything else yet.

• At February 8, 2010, Spencer wrote:

  Been meaning to pick up The More Than Complete Action Philosophers! & Logicomix, being the philosophical savant that I am, ...

• At February 8, 2010, Ian A. wrote:

  I'm waiting for my HeavyInk shipment to arrive. No idea when that might be, since I'm in the midst of ...

• At February 8, 2010, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Started reading Final Crisis hardcover.

• At February 8, 2010, Greg Hatcher wrote:

  Having the time of my life reading The Spider Chronicles anthology. It is awesome in a bloody bullet-riddled box.

  On ...

• At February 8, 2010, Bill Reed wrote:

  Finishing up the Human Target: Chance Meetings trade. I've read the stories before, but now they're in one handsome and ...

• At February 8, 2010, jake wrote:

  Its good to see the Akashic Noir books getting some love. I have picked up Baltimore, Boston, DC, simply ...

• At February 8, 2010, Mario wrote:

  When Brian did his Fred Van Lente freak out a while ago Action Philosophers was the title that caught my ...

• At February 8, 2010, sterg wrote:

  The Luna Brothers Sword, volume 1 on the rec from Nina Stone. So far it's pretty frickin awesome.

• At February 8, 2010, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  I just finished George Pelecanos's The Big Blow Down, and am starting it's follow up, King Suckerman.

  They're part of his ...

• At February 9, 2010, JackKing wrote:

  Comicwise, re-reading Ellis' Thunderbolts run, after that I intend to re-read 7 soldiers, Morrison's Batman & Final Crisis.

  Novel wise, ...

• At February 9, 2010, BDaly wrote:

  I'm reading Die Verwandlung (Metamorphois) by Franz Kafka in a dual language collection of his best short stories, partly to ...

• At February 9, 2010, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  I thought the Wonder Boys movie was faithful to the book, and a very good adaptation. It's been years since ...

• At February 9, 2010, Mario wrote:

  I think that the five part Witches storyline was a good. You get some cool moments in those issues. What ...

• At February 9, 2010, Craig wrote:

  Interestingly enough, I'm also reading More Than Complete Action Philosophers! Just entered the modern chapter. Very good stuff. Fred Van ...

• At February 9, 2010, Matthew Johnson wrote:

  I had a few criticism of Action Philosphers, but overall I enjoyed it a lot. Always nice to see more ...

• At February 9, 2010, Greg Burgas wrote:

  Mike: The issue right after the crossover is a standalone story that introduces the Boxers, and it's an immediate return ...

• At February 9, 2010, Blair wrote:

  Just finished 'I'm still the greatest says Johnny Angelo' by Nik Cohn, and have just started 'Me, Cheeta' by James ...

• At February 9, 2010, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  Thanks, Greg & Mario! Good to know the crossover is an aberration.

• At February 9, 2010, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  I thought the Wonder Boys movie was faithful to the book, and a very good adaptation. It's been years since ...

Marvel released their first Secret Avengers promo, and it's pretty clearly Beast (click to enlarge).

Now it makes you wonder what Secret Avengers will be (great name, by the way). Ed Brubaker and Mike Deodato will be the creative team, so I'm guessing it almost certainly will be the replacement for Dark Avengers, in the sense that Norman Osborn, Head of HAMMER, had his private Avengers group, so this will be Steve Rogers' private Avengers group (as Steve Rogers is basically Brubaker's personal character at the moment, as Rogers' stories are spinning directly out of Brubaker's Cap run), only instead of calling them the Invaders, they went with the much more marketable "Secret Avengers" name.

Very, very cool.

77 Comments

• At February 8, 2010, schmakt wrote:

  bah. It's not Beast.

  It's a non Peter Parker Spider-Man.

  It's Miguel O' Hara.

• At February 8, 2010, Conor E wrote:

  It was Brubaker's writing partner Matt Fraction who wrote Beast out of X-Men, so that makes some amount of sense.

• At February 8, 2010, Tyler wrote:

  could be gorilla man too

• At February 8, 2010, Hunter wrote:

  I don't think it's "obviously" anyone. It could be Beast or Spider-Man or Anti-Venom or anyone like that.

• At February 8, 2010, Matter-Pooper Lad wrote:

  Hmmm. Which crouchy guy could it be? (These days every team has to have somebody who crouches down in front ...

• At February 8, 2010, winterteeth wrote:

  Wait, I thought it was Black Panther. Maybe if we could see the head?

• At February 8, 2010, Hunter wrote:

  How many fingers does Beast have lately? :-P

• At February 8, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  How many fingers does Beast have lately? :-P

  Ha!

  He currently has five meaty fingers. :)

• At February 8, 2010, Ian A. wrote:

  You sure about that, Brian? I thought he lost a digit when he got all Simba-fied.

• At February 8, 2010, Dantecat wrote:

  "solution" - this is a thinking person.....Beast it is.

• At February 8, 2010, Michael P wrote:

  They could always just send him back to the blue ape version. But I agree that it's not immediately clear ...

• At February 8, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  You sure about that, Brian? I thought he lost a digit when he got all Simba-fied.

  If he did, he has ...

• At February 8, 2010, Chad Walters wrote:

  @Dantecat

  I would imagine a thinking man would focus on the problem to come up with a solution. Focusing on ...

• At February 8, 2010, x-dude wrote:

  this is very unlikely but something about this said dr curt connors to me. the lizard in his lab ...

• At February 8, 2010, Hunter wrote:

  He's been consistently portrayed inconsistently. In his first appearances as Cat Beast, he'd lost a finger, all the way through ...

• At February 8, 2010, Paul wrote:

  I'm on the side of not seeing this as the Beast. It doesn't look nearly bulky enough, though I ...

• At February 8, 2010, Dan Felty wrote:

  OK, I can't tell at all which body part is which on the left side of his body.

  Is that a ...

• At February 8, 2010, Mr. M wrote:

  I also thought it is Beast, but time will tell. It's not Spider-man, he focuses on the problem too much.

• At February 8, 2010, ed wrote:

  dont think its beast...isnt he usually barefoot? this guy doesnt look like he is...

• At February 8, 2010, Matthew Johnson wrote:

  I'm not sure if "Secret Avengers" is such a great title... it brings back unhappy memories of "Secret Defenders" for ...

• At February 8, 2010, ed wrote:

  now that i think about it it reminds me of black panther...

• At February 8, 2010, TheRealMcCoy wrote:

  Speculate all you want, It's Beast.

• At February 8, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  He's been consistently portrayed inconsistently. In his first appearances as Cat Beast, he'd lost a finger, all the way through ...

• At February 8, 2010, chad wrote:

  beast was shown with other so called avengers to be in marvels siege promo so the image could be beast ...

• At February 8, 2010, Anonymous wrote:

  The "Secret" part is pretty reminiscent of Secret War/Warriors. Could there be some Nick Fury involvement here? God, I hope ...

• At February 8, 2010, Speculation: Who are The Secret Avengers? [updated!] « Comic Book Daily wrote:

  [...] (and by everyone I mean most forums and Comics Should Be Good) are under the impression that it’s [...]

• At February 8, 2010, Tom Daylight wrote:

  Beast again? Haven't they realised yet that Storm is the X-Men character who should be an Avenger...

• At February 8, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Speculate all you want, It's Beast.

  That's more or less my position. If I had any doubt, I'd have just thrown ...

• At February 8, 2010, ed wrote:

  if it is beast then the shadow pic is heavily edited...no visible toes or claws...and if thats the case why ...

• At February 8, 2010, karl wrote:

  i love when people make opinions about promos and upcoming storylines and are like 'oh its obviously that' or 'this ...

• At February 8, 2010, Anonymous wrote:

  "Focus on the solution, not the problem"...how is this different from, oh, every other Marvel character ever? Heh. ...

• At February 8, 2010, Ian wrote:

  "Land draws [Beast] with four fingers"

  That explains why he was written out of X-men. Land ran out of photos ...

• At February 8, 2010, Ian wrote:

  Wasn't Cap's team (featuring Cable and Iron Fist of all people) called the Secret Avengers during Civil War?

• At February 8, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Wasn't Cap's team (featuring Cable and Iron Fist of all people) called the Secret Avengers during Civil War?

  True, but I ...

• At February 8, 2010, buttler wrote:

  Hey look, the Human Fly! About time they brought that guy back.

  He's the wildest super-hero ever — because ...

• At February 8, 2010, Jeff Holland wrote:

  The Beast's finger-issues were commented on when Fraction took over X-Men, and had Beast happily explain that he woke up ...

• At February 8, 2010, buttler wrote:

  I'm sure it's mostly having grown up in the '70s, but I always think of Beast as an Avenger.

  Sure, ...

• At February 8, 2010, buttler wrote:

  I'm not seeing a head there at all, Jeff. That looks like a knee to me.

• At February 8, 2010, r wrote:

  Could it be Peter Parker? I'm thinking maybe this is about a group of Avengers who not only work together ...

• At February 8, 2010, r wrote:

  buttler- I was reading that as a head until you mentioned it as a knee! Forget my idea.

• At February 8, 2010, Raz wrote:

  That is not beast. Arms are spread wide, so the item between the arms are his head. Thats not ...

• At February 8, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  That is not beast. Arms are spread wide, so the item between the arms are his head. Thats not what ...

• At February 8, 2010, agent_torpor wrote:

  There is nothing about Beast that is "very, very cool" unless we're talking about his much-anticipated permanent-death scene that we, ...

• At February 8, 2010, Sunspot9224 wrote:

  I thinks it's Venom (Gargan). He's kinda bulky. But I'm very pleased if it's Beast. He kinda mellowed with the ...

• At February 8, 2010, fanboy d wrote:

  Further going to prove my point that if they had called "Captain Britain an the MI:13" simply "Avengers UK" or ...

• At February 8, 2010, r wrote:

  I'd love to see Gorilla Man on an Avengers team, but I would rather see the Agents of Atlas stay ...

• At February 8, 2010, Van GoghX wrote:

  Well the Heroic Age picture (I imagine it can be found elsewhere, but I saw it at: http://www.craveonline.com/entertainment/comics/article/optimism-coming-back-to-comics-96013 ) has ...

• At February 8, 2010, Van GoghX wrote:

  Wish I could edit my posts (actually, a time machine would work better and have far more applications). Here's the ...

• At February 8, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  And do note that Beast in that Heroic Age promo has five fingers.

• At February 8, 2010, jazzbo wrote:

  I hope it's Beast, but I don't think it's a sure thing. Despite him being in X-Factor while I was ...

• At February 8, 2010, Adam K wrote:

  That is so obviously Devil Dinosaur.

• At February 8, 2010, Eric wrote:

  It's Beast. Just like the Heroic Age ads weren't the line up of the Avengers. It's Beast.

• At February 8, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  It's Beast. Just like the Heroic Age ads weren't the line up of the Avengers. It's Beast.

  Exactly. Thanks, Eric.

• At February 8, 2010, sterg wrote:

  Fingers crossed that one of the new Avengers titles is GLAvengers... written by Dan Slott.

  I know that's probabl not in ...

• At February 8, 2010, Mary Warner wrote:

  I can't tell if it's Beast or not. Whoever it is has a very strange and twisted tiny foot, ...

• At February 8, 2010, buttler wrote:

  Assuming you're talking about the bottom right part of the shadow, Mary, I believe the twisted and tiny foot of ...

• At February 8, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Assuming you're talking about the bottom right part of the shadow, Mary, I believe the twisted and tiny foot of ...

• At February 8, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I didn't even know there was going to be a Secret Avengers. I'm not sure I like the idea. I ...

• At February 8, 2010, The Mutt wrote:

  That's pretty clearly a penis.

• At February 8, 2010, Black Manta wrote:

  I've been waiting since issue 211 for Hank to come back. But now they're going to spread the cool Avengers ...

• At February 8, 2010, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  I reckon it's Cyber-Frog.

• At February 8, 2010, Mary Warner wrote:

  Yeah, I can see now how it can be overlapping fingers. I tried for some time to figure out ...

• At February 8, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  But now they're going to spread the cool Avengers over three or four different titles what's the point?

  To get you ...

• At February 8, 2010, tekende wrote:

  Is that your right foot, or are you just happy to see me?

• At February 9, 2010, xmennut wrote:

  it's either spider-man or a spider-clone

• At February 9, 2010, Applemask wrote:

  Gah, another interesting book with an awesome creative team. I really need to win the lottery pretty soon.

• At February 9, 2010, Blackjak wrote:

  You're all wrong.

  It's obviously the greatest Marvel Superhero of all...

  Union Jack!

  :-)

• At February 9, 2010, azjohnson5a\ wrote:

  "Hey look, the Human Fly! About time they brought that guy back.

  He's the wildest super-hero ever — because he's ...

• At February 9, 2010, azjohnson5 wrote:

  "Hey look, the Human Fly! About time they brought that guy back.

  He's the wildest super-hero ever — because he's ...

• At February 9, 2010, Nick Marino wrote:

  like x-dude, the very first thing i thought when i saw this yesterday was "The Lizard???" seems unlikely but the ...

• At February 9, 2010, Dave Hackett wrote:

  I think Marvel has come up with a brilliant new psycho-analytical tool.

  Psychologist: Just look at this Secret Avenger Promo and ...

• At February 9, 2010, Anonymous wrote:

  Wouldn't it be fun if they made the Beast into a character who actually DID things?

  I swear, he stopped being ...

• At February 9, 2010, sowat wrote:

  I think it's Gorilla Man based on the second Heroic Age teaser.

  The Secret Avengers appear to be Hawkeye, Mockingbird, Luke ...

• At February 9, 2010, Christi Johnson wrote:

  i agree, sounds like Beast

• At February 9, 2010, Scott Harris wrote:

  Anyone else see this silhouette and think of that flash animation rap about George Washington? "If you took off his ...

• At February 9, 2010, Anonymous wrote:

  If it was Gorilla Man, he's probably have guns. Clint (Or, rather, Hawkeye) is confirmed to be a member of ...

• At February 9, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  The second promo is most likely Moon Knight.

  But since I am not positive about that one (unlike this one), no ...

The Unknown.  Mark Waid (writer), Minck Oosterveer (art). Boom! Studios.  $24.99.  Hardback, slipcover edition.

Mark Waid and Minck Oosterveer’s The Unknown starts very strong.  Strong enough that by the second page I knew that unless things really went off the rails at some point, that I would be reading straight through until the end.  And I did.  Even though I was sitting at my desk and totally uncomfortable, rather than curled up on the sofa.  It’s a pretty good book that can keep me reading the whole way through without moving to a more comfortable location.

But then again, I’m a sucker for a good detective story, especially one with a strong female protagonist.

The plot, sans spoilers, is simply that Catherine Allingham is the world’s greatest detective, and she has a new case.  Catherine quickly (and pretty cleverly) finds herself a good right hand man in James Doyle and they set off to Vienna to solve the case of, and recover if possible, a missing box.  Catherine takes the case because she believes it will put her on a path to solving the only mystery she has yet to solve – The Unknown (i.e. what comes after death, if anything).  Catherine is correct that the case is more than it seems and what follows is a madcap deadly chase for Catherine and James that involves everything from mysterious faceless killer bodyguards to high speed train fights to potentially the very door to the afterlife itself.

Waid accomplishes a lot very quickly in The Unknown introducing us to Catherine, her mission, her sidekick, and why she has this particular fascination with what comes after death, beyond the sheer challenge of it, and also why she hallucinates (or why we should all believe she does).  Yet as a reader you don’t feel like you’re being fed “the set up” because it’s so enjoyable and flowing and flawless and interesting.

The book is like that in its entirety, with the exception of one blip in issue #3 when ‘the villain’ monologues his role in ‘all of this’ and of course his plan.  It’s a trope we all see, and expect, and it’s forgivable here, but given the quality of the book as a whole I expected a bit more nuance and subtlety from Waid.

Overall Catherine is a great female character to me in that although she feels very three dimensional, she also feels like she could be a man just as easily as a woman – which is a style I tend to like when used well in fiction.  The idea that Catherine and a male character will act differently based on their individual skills and knowledge, but not so much based on their gender.  Used incorrectly of course, as we’ve all seen it done numerous times, you end up with a paper thin character that you can’t understand or get behind.  But a character built as Waid has built Catherine, serves to help you question what gender is and what makes men and women so different and so not different both within fiction and in the real world.  In the end, I like that Catherine’s dialogue (and behaviors) could generally just as easily come from a man as a woman, and yet Catherine still feels entirely specific and personal as a character.

these are the first two pages of issue #1, a nice set up for the character and the overall tone of the book.

James Doyle is also well rendered and I thought they worked well as a team – as a hero and sidekick of sorts, or perhaps more accurately as a modern day Holmes and Watson.  I particularly loved that Doyle looks like a big dumb jock and is anything but, further confounding expectations.  I also thought that in four short issues Waid really managed to not only make me care about the characters but to make me believe completely that they care about each other.  The affection on the page between the two is palpable, without ever becoming romantic or cloying.

My only real complaint with the writing and characterizations (other than the villain monologue in #3 previously mentioned) is that both Catherine and James feel a little too strongly like Mary Sue/Marty Stu tropes.  Each being a little too perfect and badass and flawless.  I mean, even Batman has a flaw (he’s a dick).  I would have liked just a little more depth in that regard.  Nobody is adventurous, and brilliant, and beautiful, and thin, and rich, and athletic, and not a complete pain in the ass to be around etc.  It’s a bit much, for both of the characters to be so perfect.  I ended up loving them anyway, but in a perfect (no pun intended there) world, I'd like them both to show just a little more reality, humanity, and fallibility.

Oosterveer’s art overall, is wonderful.  Any given page is beautiful, but more importantly the storytelling is solid and clear.  I’m one of those people that gets a bit sick of the beautiful drawings for beautiful drawings sake alone.  I’m much more interested in the writing and art working together to tell a great story, and for real clarity in that endeavor.  Waid and Oosterveer absolutely succeed in that, and as a bonus there’s a lot of beauty along the way as well.  In Gail Simone’s intro to this edition (the hardcover edition complete with built in bookmark) she makes a specific mention of Oosterveer’s ability to convincingly and dynamically render a fight with a monster aboard a train hurtling through the Austrian countryside.  And she's right to point it out, I think this is the kind of storytelling that sometimes gets lost in even good mainstream comics these day, the subtlety of storytelling sacrificed for the ‘big moments’ and I was excited to see Oosterveer manage both here without losing anything.  Most impressive to me however is Oosterveer’s ability to juggle the very real world feel of the book with Catherine’s hallucinations and the more otherworldly aspects, mixing them together nicely into a fluid cohesive world.

The lights and darks in the book are great, giving the book real depth and showing off Oosterveer as a talented inker as well as penciler.  The color palette by Fellipe Martins (with Renato Faccini and Andres Lozano helping out on the fourth issue) is strong and well suited to the dark tone of the book.

My one complaint about the art – and anyone that has read this book and knows anything about this column, knows exactly what is coming – why do I have to constantly be staring at Catherine’s boobs?  I don’t get it, and I don’t like it.  It tells me nothing specific about Catherine (I guess I can make the leap that deep down she’s really insecure and needs to show off her tits to get attention) but that leap flies in the face of everything Waid has shown me about the character, so I’m not certain he wants me leaping to that conclusion.  I personally found it distracting and a trick that is quite frankly well below this book’s caliber.  It doesn't help that the other minor female characters in the book also display heavy boobage and extremely low cut outfits whenever they show up, which tells me that this is less about the characters and more about how the artist likes to draw women.  And I'm not really a fan of that, as many here might guess.  It's certainly not over the top in a way that prevents me from being able to enjoy the book and overall I'd say the female body types presented are more interesting and realistic than the way your average plastic superheroines are drawn these days, which counts for something.  However, I can admit to being a little frustrated by it, and if I'm completely honest, I almost didn’t buy this book because of the rampant boobs and clothing choices (in part because I didn’t want to have to have this exact paragraph if I ended up writing about the book for my column).  It’s also the reason The Unknown sat on my shelf unread for so long even after I committed and bought it...nearly four months ago.

Is it a deal breaker?  Of course not, the book is good and I’m choosing to overlook it, and I'm glad I overlooked it long enough to finally start reading it, but I can’t help but wonder about the why.  Why does a book this good really need that?

Regardless of unnecessary low cut tops and boobs run a bit rampant, I definitely recommend the The Unknown to anyone that likes detective tales, adventure tales, strong layered female lead characters, or anyone just looking for good comics.

The Unknown by Mark Waid and Minck Oosterveer from Boom! Studios is available in hardcover format only at $24.99.  It’s a beautiful edition – with an illustrated slipcover and a silver embossed hardcover, but considering that the only extras beyond the collected four issues are an intro by Gail Simone, a covers gallery, and a ribbon bookmark, it’s a bit steep.

The Unknown: The Devil Made Flesh also by Mark Waid and Minck Oosterveer from Boom! Studios (which I have not yet read) is scheduled to be released in similar hardback format in June 2010, and the last issue of that second miniseries (#4 of 4) came out January 27^th, 2010, and individual issues, if not still available at your local comic book shops, issues are available directly from Boom! Studios.

13 Comments

• At February 8, 2010, She Has No Head! – Discovering The Unknown « 1979 Semi-Finalist… wrote:

  [...] She Has No Head column up at CSBG.  A review of Mark Waid’s mini-series The Unknown. ...

• At February 8, 2010, Adam wrote:

  I will have to check this out. The art is better than I expected, and I like a good ...

• At February 8, 2010, Matter-Pooper Lad wrote:

  Great review!

  And I agree with your comments about "distracting boobage." And I'm all male. But I don't like to be ...

• At February 8, 2010, Nick Marino wrote:

  "all male" as opposed to... she-male?

  Kelly, i'd love to see your thoughts on PAD's Fallen Angel v1.

• At February 8, 2010, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  If you're such a sucker for detective stories, have you ever read Waid's run on RUSE?

• At February 8, 2010, Blackjak wrote:

  This does look fun. And there doesn't appear to be that much distracting boobage in the samples that you've ...

• At February 8, 2010, Blackjak wrote:

  Oh, and on the topic of "female detective stories", did you ever read Ms. Tree?

• At February 8, 2010, Bill Reed wrote:

  Both of these Unknown stories suffer in their third acts, I think, where things tend to go supernatural, and a ...

• At February 8, 2010, schmakt wrote:

  I like the art... reminds me of early VALIANT... or maybe it's the color pallet, actually. Regardless. Looks ...

• At February 8, 2010, Kelly Thompson wrote:

  @Nick Marino: Fallen Angel v.1 is absolutely on my list...both to be read and hopefully to be reviewed here ...

• At February 8, 2010, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Ms. Thompson: Waid did the first 12 issues and then handed the book off to someone else. His ...

• At February 8, 2010, Matter-Pooper Lad wrote:

  Yes, Ms. Tree a great series. Very consistently great. The writing is stellar.

  It's not easy to track down, though. Published ...

• At February 8, 2010, Matter-Pooper Lad wrote:

  Oh, and Ms. Tree features NO gratituous boob shots! (Forgive my Freudian spelling... I swear it came out that way ...

Today we look at Paul Jenkins and Mark Buckingham's Peter Parker: Spider-Man!

Enjoy!

As is the case for most things in life, timing can be very important when it comes to how people judge a comic book run. Come on to a book at the "right" time and you can be viewed as the savior of a title. Come on to a book at the "wrong" time and your contributions are somewhat lost.

Paul Jenkins on Spider-Man oddly had a little bit of both.

When he took over Peter Parker: Spider-Man (ending the "Howard Mackie writes both Spider-Man titles" experiment), he was portrayed in the comic book press as the guy who was going to save the Spider-Man titles from a lackluster creative period (especially as he already did two notable issues of Webspinners, Marvel's "Legends of the Dark Knight" Spider-Man series).

And for about a year, that's how things went (with some false steps along the way, like Typeface), but then, just at the beginning of Jenkins' second year on the title, J. Michael Straczynski came aboard as the writer of the other Spider-Man title, and suddenly Straczynski got pretty much all of the attention.

Which is a darn shame, because that initial period when JMS took over was some of Jenkins' very best work on the title.

While Straczynski was delivering the ongoing Spider-Man narrative, Jenkins was spending time doing offbeat "done in one" stories that were based entirely on character. It was sort of like what the series Tangled Web later became, offbeat character studies, only here was Jenkins doing that style every issue!

And as has become quite evident with his longstanding, award-winning work on Fables, Mark Buckingham is a great guy to have in your corner if you want to do character-based work, as Buckingham is excellent at facial expressions and getting across emotions.

In one issue, we meet LaFronce Bennett, a young child living with a terrible, terrible mother in a less-than-ideal situation. His only outlet to keep himself sane is by talking with an imaginary friend - in this instance, Spider-Man.

Spidey keeps LaFronce's spirits up even as his mother drinks herself stupid each day and gets herself (and through her, LaFronce) involved with some pretty bad people.

Meanwhile, LaFronce's aunt and her boyfriend are trying to get custody of LaFronce, but the system is none too cooperative.

At the end of the issue, LaFronce is finally going to live with his aunt, so he likely will not be able to see Spider-Man anymore - the two have a tearful goodbye, which you need to see to fully appreciate...

In another issue, Jenkins (and guest artist Staz Johnson) turns his attention to Billy Fender, a low-life private investigator for a crooked insurance company. Fender's main job is to find out if people are committing insurance fraud, but along the way, Billy gets obsessed with the idea of finding out who Spider-Man really is.

He is obsessed, and finally, at the end, he has figured it all out!

He quits his job and heads over to the Daily Bugle to get his payday. He decides to take his information directly to J. Jonah Jameson himself. And, well, this one I won't spoil. It's a pretty great ending.

Finally, here's one of my favorite pieces from Jenkins and Buckingham's run, a bit from issue #33 involving baseball...

The basic concept behind this issue is that it is the anniversary of Uncle Ben's death, and Peter does what he always does - he goes to a New York Mets game, like Uncle Ben always used to take him to when he was a kid.

After each game (the Mets always lost), Uncle Ben gave one of his famous speeches.

Again, though, every year went by and the Mets lost and lost and lost (in increasingly absurd fashion) to the point that Peter began resenting both the Mets and his Uncle's speech.

That took us to the end of the issue, where Jenkins and Buckingham just create a scene to perfection...

That basically epitomizes Jenkins and Buckingham's run - a very cool comic, indeed.

Their run was collected into two trades, Peter Parker: Spider-Man Vol. 1 "Day in the Life" and Peter Parker: Spider-Man Vol. 2 "One Small Break."

23 Comments

• At February 8, 2010, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  Paul Jenkins made me want to read Spider-Man. I have no real affinity for the character (although I love the ...

• At February 8, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Yeah, the annoying thing, Mike, was that Ramos' guest-arc (with the Goblin) was possibly the most popular arc of Jenkins' ...

• At February 8, 2010, pmpknface wrote:

  Great stuff. :)

• At February 8, 2010, chad wrote:

  i remember how after reading both maybe next year and the story with La forte how teary eyed the ...

• At February 8, 2010, fanboy d wrote:

  Somewhat random point: All the event comics that the big two release? They need moments like these. Out of costume ...

• At February 8, 2010, Blulk wrote:

  That Lafronce story was the modern equivalent to "The boy who collected Spider-Man"

  I don't remember the issue that well, but ...

• At February 8, 2010, Gabe wrote:

  Ugh. I was just getting back into comics during this particular run and all I remember about it was that ...

• At February 8, 2010, aboynamedposh wrote:

  'Maybe Next Year' is a great issue. I always get choked up reading it.

• At February 8, 2010, Michael P wrote:

  My favorite part of the baseball issue is where Peter gets knocked out by a stray foul, comes to with ...

• At February 8, 2010, Crash-Man wrote:

  The LaFronce story is easily my favorite single issue of a comic book. It's one of the few comics I've ...

• At February 8, 2010, Matthew Johnson wrote:

  Buckingham did a nice John Romita Sr take in the splash in the LaFronce story. Very appropriate.

• At February 8, 2010, DanCJ wrote:

  @Gabe - I agree. I read the first TPB of this run and it did absolutely nothing for me.

  I ...

• At February 8, 2010, DanCJ wrote:

  Oh and don't be hating Mark Buckingham. He wasn't a great fit on this title, but he's a cracking ...

• At February 8, 2010, Bill Reed wrote:

  Agh, gotta buy these, too. Damn you, Cronin.

• At February 8, 2010, Applemask wrote:

  I love Mark Buckingham. Go read "Miracleman: the Golden Age" if you can find it. In six issues he's every ...

• At February 8, 2010, Todd Young wrote:

  i like the story with the boy, but what's up with them shaking hands left-handed?

• At February 8, 2010, Mary Warner wrote:

  I assume Imaginary Spider-Man is left-handed, just as he is Black. It's the way the kid wants him to ...

• At February 8, 2010, T. wrote:

  I have to agree with Gabe, this was just awful stuff. I hated how his stuff was just cliche ...

• At February 8, 2010, T. wrote:

  Also, I'd disagree with DanCJ and throw Civil War Frontline into the garbage file. Not only was it the ...

• At February 8, 2010, Dalarsco wrote:

  I take a middle road. Parts of Frontline were good, and parts were bad. Ignore the Cap Myspace ...

• At February 8, 2010, Sean wrote:

  Wow, I'm glad you reviewed this. I loved Jenkin's run on PPSM and the Mets issue is my favorite comic ...

• At February 9, 2010, DanCJ wrote:

  Pro-liberal slants aren't annoying. They're just common sense.

• At February 9, 2010, T. wrote:

  Pro-liberal slants aren't annoying. They're just common sense.

  Attitudes like that are exactly what makes pro-liberal slants annoying.

(Let's face it - Blondie and Dagwood think it's sexy, too. Why else would she own it unless it was to play depraved sex games with Dagwood involving penalties against the "tight end" and the "pulling guard" and where the "safety" is brought into play? Another question is - does Herb get involved too? He knows that she owns a referee outfit, as it's not the first time she's done this. And how much does Tootsie know? She's Blondie's best friend, after all! Oh, the possibilities!)

22 Comments

• At February 7, 2010, Ben Herman wrote:

  Well, they have been married since 1933. After all this time, I'm sure they have to do things to ...

• At February 7, 2010, Layne wrote:

  Maybe it's the secular version of how a nun's habit is sexy.

• At February 7, 2010, Go Fish wrote:

  I'm especially impressed that the anguish caused Dagwood, Herb and even Daisy to launch into synchronized head-spins.

• At February 7, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Isn't it weird to think that John Marshall (who is a good comic artist) has to draw like an ...

• At February 7, 2010, Tony Isabella wrote:

  I am ashamed to admit this, but, when I read this strip this morning, my first thoughts were:

  Wow, Blondie ...

• At February 7, 2010, spender wrote:

  I love it when bloggers take cartoon characters and make sex jokes about them. It's very creative and original. Maybe ...

• At February 7, 2010, Chris Jones wrote:

  You know what? Let's just say it: Blondie is hot. She's BEEN hot. This is America's shared secret.

• At February 7, 2010, Tom wrote:

  Burgas, you are a sick, twisted man.... No wonder I enjoy your writing so much.

  Also, where can I get ...

• At February 7, 2010, Alan Coil wrote:

  "I love it when bloggers take cartoon characters and make sex jokes about them."

  I find it oddly ironic that a ...

• At February 7, 2010, Mary Warner wrote:

  I'm still trying to understand the break-dancing.

• At February 7, 2010, chad wrote:

  when i read the strip this morning my first thought was finaly Blondie has revealed the secret to her and ...

• At February 7, 2010, Craig wrote:

  I am astounded that Josh Fruhlinger (The Comics Curmudgeon, http://joshreads.com/) did not seize the moment and go with the sexual-related ...

• At February 7, 2010, Torsten Adair wrote:

  MAD Magazine once printed a one-pager about three comic-strip couples at a key party: Dagwood/Blondie, Li'l Abner/Daisy Mae, and ...

• At February 7, 2010, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  Yeah, Blondie was CREATED as a sexy gal! The housewife thing came on later.

  (And for those who don't understand what ...

• At February 7, 2010, cactusjac2000 wrote:

  Heh, what's disturbing about it?

• At February 7, 2010, Mr. M wrote:

  "I find it amazing that comics fans have forgotten the origin of the strip: Dagwood, heir to a multimillion dollar ...

• At February 7, 2010, Michael P wrote:

  I'm just surprised the mailman is spending time with Dagwood of his own volition, given their usual interaction.

• At February 7, 2010, Dantecat wrote:

  Not the mailman - Herb is teh next door neighbor. They do look separated at birth, though...

• At February 7, 2010, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  Unfortunately, years of jamming ginormous sandwiches down his throat has clogged the entirety of Dagwood's body with so much cholesterol ...

• At February 7, 2010, Mary Warner wrote:

  I knew the origin of Blondie. I haven't read it, though. But I did see one early panel ...

• At February 7, 2010, Travis Pelkie wrote:

  Oh, thank God I wasn't the only one to think this when I read this this morning (in an actual ...

• At February 8, 2010, Sijo wrote:

  Blondie is one of those strips that you hardly ever think about, but that, were it to be suddenly canceled, ...

Today we look at John Ostrander's Star Wars: Legacy!

Enjoy!

Star Wars: Legacy is based around a pretty darn sound concept - set a Star War series over a hundred years after the events of the original trilogy of films, and then let John Ostrander pretty much have free reign over populating this new universe.

There are few writers more up to the task than Ostrander, who does a wonderful job creating a cohesive universe that works past just being a backdrop for the adventures of the main cast, but as a complex, dynamic group of characters and worlds that are developed enough that they can support their own story arcs separated from the "main" cast.

The "main" cast of the book is a young mercenary named Cade who turns out to be Cade Skywalker, who, like his forebears, is an important figure in the galactic struggle between the various forces of evil and good in the universe.

There is the Sith, there is a scattered Jedi and a vestigial Alliance, but there is also an interesting dynamic with the Empire splintered between those loyal to the Sith and those loyal to the current Emperor.

The Emperor even has his own group of Jedi-like troops called Imperial Knights.

If you check out Adam Hughes' covers for the first six issues, it will give you a pretty good idea of what the cast of the book looks like (Jan Duursema is the regular artist on the book and did almost all the design work for the series, but there are a lot more artists on the book than just her).

As I mentioned before, perhaps the coolest aspect of the title is that Ostrander has put so much effort into making this a fully realized universe that he quite often has stories that star various other figures who are not directly tied into the "main" plot line (which is about Cade slowly but surely embracing his Jedi heritage).

Here are some sample pages featuring a character we readers have followed through the series run, although he's only had about three appearances - first as a Stormtrooper, but after he rebels he joins up with Rogue Squadron of the Alliance...

Here's a look at the "main" characters, Cade and his two mercenary friends, as they are on a mission on Tattoine (a further twist is that Cade's mother works for the Empire, and she has even more of a twist beyond just working for the Empire, but I won't spoil it for you)....

As you can see, as is Ostrander's wont, he has a lot of strong character-based storytelling, but he does not ease up on the action, either.

Star Wars: Legacy is a well-crafted, entertaining comic that is worth the perils of investing in a "new" universe.

There are 44 issues out so far, and seven trades out so far collecting the first 36 issues, with an eighth book out this coming Wednesday (bringing you up to issue #41). So now is an opportune time to jump on to the book! You can get caught up right quickly!

20 Comments

• At February 7, 2010, loran16 wrote:

  Looks fine, but as a star wars fan, i'm a bit annoyed that Nar Shaddaa was referred to as the ...

• At February 7, 2010, Ethan Shuster wrote:

  Brian, while Duursema likely designed the characters, those are all Adam Hughes covers. They've got the trademark "HA!" and everything...

• At February 7, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  True, Ethan, thanks!

  'Tis fixed.

• At February 7, 2010, Namor wrote:

  You can't tell me that old guy (fifth cover from top) isn't supposed to look like Henry Gibson.

• At February 7, 2010, Chad wrote:

  "An Imperial Flower" a poem by Henry Gibson.....

• At February 7, 2010, Dalarsco wrote:

  Holy crap that sounds awesome! I'll pick up the trades at some point.

• At February 7, 2010, Adam wrote:

  Part of the fun of this series is that it turns the concept(s) of the original Star Wars on their ...

• At February 7, 2010, Mary Warner wrote:

  Does the line 'I have a bad feeling about this' appear anywhere in this story? It's just not Star ...

• At February 7, 2010, Adam wrote:

  For the life of me, I can't remember Ostrander using that line anywhere in the series. I also checked ...

• At February 7, 2010, Jake wrote:

  loran, you're post looks nice and all, but as a Star Wars fan, I'm a bit annoyed that you refered ...

• At February 7, 2010, High flier wrote:

  Looks pretty cool. Some of the faces look a bit wonky, but I can deal with it. As a big ...

• At February 7, 2010, loran16 wrote:

  @Jake, you are correct; however my mistake; is a spelling mistake, i'm not mixing up two different objects in the ...

• At February 7, 2010, Adam wrote:

  High Flier--

  Depends on what era you're into and how your tastes run, I guess. Dark Horse had a bit ...

• At February 8, 2010, High flier wrote:

  Thanks Adam. Ok, after doin a little research, I think I might possibly drive myself insane attempting to get into ...

• At February 8, 2010, DanCJ wrote:

  I've never got on with John Ostrander's writing. I think I'll skip this one.

• At February 8, 2010, John wrote:

  High Flier-

  If you get some free time, check out wookiepedia. It's got....well everything. If you're just interested in some Star ...

• At February 8, 2010, Ed Buskirk wrote:

  Man I wish Star Wars had been a single film, with no sequels, prequels or tie-in books or comics. Everything ...

• At February 8, 2010, Blackjak wrote:

  Glad to see this on the list!

  I have a huge chunk of the old Marvel Star Wars run, and tried ...

• At February 8, 2010, Tony wrote:

  Duursema is actually the cover artist of #4. The rest are Hughes.

  This is my favorite Star Wars comic that ...

• At February 8, 2010, Adam wrote:

  There's so many EU novels prior to "Legacy" that you could spend a small fortune on them--a fortune best saved ...

I've always encouraged my cartooning students to participate in previous years, and those experiences are documented here and here. This year it appeared things were scaled back a bit, and Hayden told me, somewhat regretfully, that they were a little jammed for space so I wasn't asked to set up a table this year.

Which was actually kind of nice, since that meant that I could simply attend the event and enjoy myself. That is something of a rarity for me when we do these school field-trip things, and it was a real treat.

In addition to Julie and myself, we also had Katrina, a cartooning graduate who has now come back to work for me as a student aide, and our friend Carla and her son Phenix. At first I'd thought we were going to be it -- even though I had pushed the finale hard in class for the entire month leading up to the event, I'd had pretty apathetic student response. So I was delighted to see that Tino, a Madison 6th-grader new to Cartooning this year, had decided to come with his grandmother.

The first part of the day was a workshop on page layout by Greg Stump and David Lasky, who collaborated on Urban Hipster.

Greg Stump I had never met, but David I knew from previous comics events and it was nice to see him again. I see his work showing up every so often in our local alt-weekly paper, The Stranger, and it always makes me smile.

The workshop itself was completely awesome and I am stealing a lot of this stuff for my own classes. First the guys led the kids through basic caricature -- how you can build pretty much any kind of cartoon figure you want through circles, squares, triangles, curved lines and straight ones.

They had everyone design their own character and the kids dug in with gusto. Here you can see Katrina and Tino leaning into it.

Then they talked about how to pace and lay out a page. For this, they used an exercise that I am totally stealing for MY next workshop.

First, Greg and David solicited suggestions from the audience for a situation to occur to their sample character. Then, a conflict, an escalation, followed by a complication or a twist, followed by a resolution. This list they then wrote on the board as a series of numbered points.

The list was:

1. A cat enters a wrestling ring.
2. His opponent is -- his own father!
3. The cat bites off his father's ear.
4. Father retaliates in kind.
5. The hand of God comes down to admonish them.
6. ...and the cat wakes up and it's all been a dream.

The end.

Then -- and this is the part that is awesome -- on the board, side by side, Greg and David each did their own page layout based on this simple script, so you could see two different artistic sensibilities at work.

This was really an amazing process to watch and I'm extremely bitter that I wasn't able to get better shots of it all.

The reason I loved it so much is hard to explain, but I'll try. One of the hardest things to get across to my students, the thing that they probably struggle with more than anything else, is the idea that comics isn't really about drawing. It's about storytelling and choices.

How do you decide which moment to draw in a panel? How do you decide what to emphasize in that frozen moment once you've chosen to draw it?

And here was a way to bring that home in a demonstration, in a way that was fun and entertaining and that involved and engaged the audience.

I am so sorry that I wasn't able to get better pictures of this, especially David's final version. Because this pointed up not only the differences between them but also why they're such strong collaborators -- Greg's take was written funnier and overall just had a denser approach to the content, whereas David's was far more open and visually striking and had funnier sight gags. One was a writer's strip and the other was an artist's. It really was the hell of a demonstration and I know everyone got a lot out of it.

Certainly, it fired up the audience. Even Carla decided to take a swing at a strip of her own.

And five-year-old Phenix was unstoppable. He churned out three or four strips starring a demon fighting a robot, narrating it all the while. "And then the demon punches him and he blows up! Because he's bad!" Then he added gleefully, "Say hello to my little friend!!" which brought the house down.

(Carla is always horrified when Phenix says that in front of people, because it makes everyone think that she lets her five-year-old son watch R-rated movies like Scarface. The truth is that Phenix is actually quoting the genetically-enhanced mobster gorilla, Spanky, from the pilot for The Middleman. Which I screened for him. So it's really my fault. I suppose I should feel guilty but the truth is that it cracks me up every time, which encourages Phenix. I'm afraid I can't feel guilty about that either. I'm going to Hell, I'm sure.)

But Phenix was having a great day anyway. He loves comics and cartoons, and he has also been learning to read. So there was a great deal of pointing at words and sounding them out going on that afternoon, and you couldn't have asked for a more supportive group of people to be surrounding him as he was doing it. I think even Jennifer and Hayden got in on helping Phenix read a hard word at one point or another, despite being as busy and frazzled as one might expect the coordinators of a citywide event to be.

The workshop was definitely the high point for us. I even persuaded David to contribute a drawing to the student scrapbook I keep, something I've been meaning to ask him for a couple of years now.

That self-portrait depicts the actual shirt he was wearing, by the way. I felt that odd fan mixture of shame and smugness at knowing instantly what it was from -- the bulls-eye in the O is impossible to mistake. It's one of the sound effects from the Adam West Batman television show.

The shirt itself is apparently available from local coffee shop Kapow! Espresso. We all wanted one.

Tino and his grandmother didn't stay for Peter Bagge's talk, but the rest of us filed into the auditorium to hear it.

We enjoyed it a great deal, but the truth is that we made it a point to get front-row seats because I was still too crippled and sore from moving the printshop the day before to even think about trying to climb the steps. Yeah, I'll admit it.

But it did give Phenix a chance to spread out on the floor. He alternated between drawing and reading one of the student 'zines I'd brought along.

(I always tell my students that their books really do have an audience, but I don't think they believe me. I wish more of them had been there that day, because the pile I had with me went smoking out of my hands as soon as the teen volunteers saw it. I am assured by Jennifer and Hayden that the books are among the more popular items in the library's 'zine collection.)

Anyway, Phenix was occupied with the zine, and the rest of us were fascinated by Peter Bagge's talk.

It was essentially a slideshow and career retrospective, talking about the origin of various pieces and the occasional fallout from the audience reaction to them. I won't attempt to reproduce it here, but he was a very engaging and funny speaker, and I'm always interested in hearing about an artist's creative process. Each slide he showed had an anecdote to go with it.

Bagge talked about how he'd decided to call his new comic Hate because his previous effort Neat Stuff was often mistaken for a kid's comic, how caricaturing musicians in the early 90s got him labeled the "grunge cartoonist" (a label that persists to this day, he says) and other things like that. It was a lot of fun.

There was a book signing afterwards, but we decided not to stay for that -- the kids weren't interested and I was still kind of a wreck from the previous day's move, so we called it a day. But despite the low student turnout, I'm still filing it in the Win column.

*

That was last Saturday. This Saturday, a few hours ago, we had another sort of Cartooning class event that I thought was pretty damn cool.

The Seattle Department of Neighborhoods does this thing every year in February called Neighbor Appreciation Day. It's a series of events all over the city designed to promote, well, neighborliness.

How did my class factor into this? Well, a few weeks ago at the Alki Art Studio, Sarah handed me a flyer and suggested I might want to mention to my students that the Department of Neighborhoods was holding their annual contest among Seattle schools to find a design for the Neighbor Day greeting cards.

I always pass along stuff like that to the cartooning students, especially if there's some kind of prize involved. And so far, every time I've done that, one of the kids has won or placed in the competition. Brianna did the winning design for the Alki Art Fair T-shirts a few years ago, last year Veronica won the contest for designing the logo for the South Seattle Crime Prevention Association... and so on.

For this competition there were over 125 entries. Twelve were chosen as winners. Of those twelve, three were from my classes.

Rahel, Marie, and Lynn. (Technically Lynn's not in my class any more, she's my high school volunteer TA at Aki this year -- but the contest was open to students K through twelve and she wanted to take a shot.)

That's three winners, out of the four kids of mine that entered. (I still feel Emma was robbed, but never mind. I'm probably biased.)

Anyway, today's event was the awards ceremony at Dunlap Elementary to honor the winners. Julie and I were there with bells on. Sadly, Rahel couldn't make it, but Marie came with her dad, and Lynn brought her parents.

It actually was quite a shindig. Catered lunch and cake, and photo ops with the mayor and other city officials.

But for us it was all about seeing the kids shine. It was held in the Dunlap Elementary School library, which meant that Marie immediately settled in with the first book that caught her eye.

And Lynn was delighted to discover that there were paper tablecloths that attendees were encouraged to draw on.

Lynn's pretty easy to please. All she ever needs to be happy is to be allowed to draw.

As for Julie and me, well, we were talking the kids up to the various parents and city officials, all of whom were impressed at hearing how the Cartooning program was "integrated into the community" (that's cityspeak for "We circulate the zines and go to shows") and I even got to make The Speech to the girls' parents, a city councilman, and the Department of Neighborhoods' Lois Maag at different times.

The Speech goes like this. "You have no idea how important it is for these kids to get this kind of validation."

"You have to understand, this is a real thing for them."

"It's not just goofing off, or doodling, or daydreaming. They take this very seriously, it is genuinely hard work, and it lifts them up like you wouldn't believe to have adults like you appreciate it as such. Thanks for taking the time."

I make that speech a lot, usually at Emerald City Comic-Con to the various student parents that decide to attend. But it was a kick to get a chance to aim it at a city councilman. (Sadly, I didn't get a shot at the Mayor, but we did briefly shake his hand and thank him for coming out.)

But for me the real high point of the day was watching Lynn and Marie bonding.

Marie is terribly shy and bookish, and I don't think she has many friends at school. I suspect she might have a slight case of Asperger's, she's often awkwardly formal when she speaks -- even to the other kids. I know she struggles with her classwork, especially math. But cartooning is something she can do, and she has been slowly blossoming in class over the course of the school year. Nevertheless, she still tends to isolate. So when Lynn invited her to come sit by her and talk, Marie was almost awed.

But all it took was that initial invite. Soon the girls were chattering away about anime and manga and getting all excited that each knew about the other's favorites. You know, just geeking and being all fangirly.

Except I don't think Marie ever got a chance to do that with anyone before. And the joy on her face was really something to see.

The other photographers were all about shooting the kids with the mayor, and I imagine those pics will end up on the net eventually. But the shot of Lynn and Marie was the one I wanted, and I'm thrilled that one turned out.

*

So those were our outings. I've often thought that of all the places I could have ended up doing this job, Seattle is just about perfect, and Saturdays like these last two are why. It's a great comics town.

See you next week.

9 Comments

• At February 6, 2010, Van GoghX wrote:

  KaPow! What an awesome event! Definitely the best part about comics becoming more mainstream. Anything that encourages reading and ...

• At February 7, 2010, Mary Warner wrote:

  Lasky and Stump really should've told the kids that 'It was all a dream' is the worst possible ending and ...

• At February 7, 2010, Kelly Thompson wrote:

  Wow Greg. What an event...or events, I should say. Reading this is really inspiring. It reminds me ...

• At February 7, 2010, Perry Holley wrote:

  Awesome suff. As always, really enjoy reading these entries concerning your students.

• At February 7, 2010, Perry Holley wrote:

  Arrgh... stupid typo AND double post.

• At February 7, 2010, sterg wrote:

  What an incredible couple of weekends. I've seen Jessic Abel do a great teaching to draw comics display, and Stump ...

• At February 7, 2010, Julian wrote:

  That reminds me of the panel at the Brooklyn Festival where Gabriel Bell and R. Sikoryak drew a page based ...

• At February 8, 2010, Greg Hatcher wrote:

  And here's the shot of Marie with the Mayor.

• At February 9, 2010, Erica wrote:

  Hey Greg -- you made our day! Calling Hayden "made-of-awesome" Teen Librarian. (I couldn't agree more, btw). So anyway, one ...

(* This is a lie. I don't scour the back issue boxes for obscure works. Sorry - I got a little carried away there. I mean, I want you to Name That Artist, after all. I can't want you to not Name That Artist, right? RIGHT??!?!?!??!?!?)

(Phew. Okay, I'm calm now. Let's move on.)

The game is easy, newcomers: Check out these panels and pages, and tell me and the world who drew them. Your reward: Fame, Fortune, Women (or Men), and the Adoration of your Peers!* What more could anyone want?

(* Another lie. You get nothing. Sorry!)

Gaze upon the artwork and let the answers fly!

Have fun guessing! Or, if you know, have fun destroying my fragile psyche! Either way!

27 Comments

• At February 6, 2010, Chris Jones wrote:

  I'm not sure who the artist is-looks a little Howard Porter-y in some places-but OH MY GOD that is some ...

• At February 6, 2010, Chris Jones wrote:

  Also, what kind of club plays "We Are Family"? And has what looks like a punk rock rendition of it ...

• At February 6, 2010, Layne wrote:

  Something about the colouring says "Milestone Media" to me...

  (It's okay if we talk our way through this, right?)

• At February 6, 2010, Liz wrote:

  It's early J.H Williams III. It's about a transsexual cop and some dude killing people. Don't remember much but I ...

• At February 6, 2010, Layne wrote:

  I think I know, but hell, I'll just wait.

• At February 6, 2010, Layne wrote:

  I spent all that time figuring out a way to embed JHWIII's initials in my previous comment because I didn't ...

• At February 6, 2010, Layne wrote:

  And yeah, the book's called Deathwish. The sort of muddy colouring was the Milestone tip off, the last panel of ...

• At February 6, 2010, Carmona wrote:

  I'm going to say it's early Tony Harris. Second guess would be Scott Kolins, but that's really going out on ...

• At February 6, 2010, TimCallahan wrote:

  J. H. Williams III

• At February 6, 2010, TimCallahan wrote:

  I have never seen this panels before, but in the Freeze! Police! panel, you can see the early indications of ...

• At February 6, 2010, Chris Jones wrote:

  Jeeeezus. Talk about your humble beginnings.

• At February 6, 2010, mike t wrote:

  yep its deathwish. love those 90s codenames! JHW has come a long way

• At February 6, 2010, Mary Warner wrote:

  Maybe the 'We Are Family' was a cover version?

  Well, I had no clue about the artist, other than that it ...

• At February 6, 2010, Bill Reed wrote:

  I don't think I've seen any J H Williams, although I have heard of him.

  For God's sake, rectify this. If ...

• At February 6, 2010, Ian A. wrote:

  Someone needs to alert Chris Sims to that epic face-kick on page 22.

• At February 6, 2010, Greg Burgas wrote:

  ...

  ...

  You people are way too good. Yes, it's J. H. Williams III, and yes, it's Deathwish. Man, I ...

• At February 6, 2010, Rene wrote:

  "Also, what kind of club plays "We Are Family"?"

  Er, A gay one?

  I don't know how the gay scene is in ...

• At February 6, 2010, Chris Jones wrote:

  That doesn't look like a gay club. That looks like a club where all the happening gangsters and young people ...

• At February 6, 2010, Dave wrote:

  Regardless of what it's drawn like, it's definitely supposed to be a gay club. From what I remember the ...

• At February 7, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  JH Williams, being a good guy and all, paid homage to his Milestone origins this week when he did a ...

• At February 7, 2010, Layne wrote:

  Not seeing the 'That's not what a gay bar looks like!'. The second panel of the third page (Not second ...

• At February 7, 2010, Hangman Jury wrote:

  It's funny how early JH Williams III looks a lot like early Tony Harris, but current Tony Harris looks nothing ...

• At February 7, 2010, Dalarsco wrote:

  My guess without reading the other comments is a very tentative Steve Pugh.

• At February 7, 2010, Rene wrote:

  It seems like there are some straight couples there too, in the panel with the lyrics. But then again, almost ...

• At February 7, 2010, oogabooga wrote:

  Chance Wolf?

• At February 7, 2010, daniel wrote:

  before i read any comments, i was thinking it looked like a cross between early tony harris and early jh ...

• At February 8, 2010, DanCJ wrote:

  It's funny how early JH Williams III looks a lot like early Tony Harris, but current Tony Harris looks nothing ...

Today we look at Craig Boldman and Rex Lindsey's Jughead run!

Enjoy!

Typically speaking, when I do these things, I'm going to try to keep them as condensed as possible. Like, for instance, I won't say "Peter David's Hulk run." I would, instead, pick a particular storyline from David's Hulk run.

When it comes to Craig Boldman and Rex Lindsey on Jughead, however, I'm going to make an exception, mostly due to the general set-up for Archie Comics. First off, they don't have extended storylines, so 50 issues of Jughead really won't advance the plot as much of, say, 10 issues of a different title, so a 100+ issue run on an Archie title is pretty similar to a 12 issue run on a different comic. Additionally, most Archie titles don't have "runs" by creators. Sure, certain writers tend to work on certain books, but, for instance, there isn't really a "regular" writer on Betty.

Jughead, though, has basically had a set creative team from issue #89, when Boldman and Lindsey first began working together on the character.

As you can see, in that issue, Boldman and Lindsey introduced one of the best characters introduced into the Archie "universe" in...well...damn...maybe in almost thirty years (depending on what you think of Cheryl Blossom, it could be even LONGER!).

That character was named Trula Twyst, a teen who was fascinated with Jughead's bizarre psyche, to the point where she was determined to "break" Jughead.

Issues when Trula show up are a particular treat.

But even when she isn't around, the book is still quite fun, as Boldman never seems to run out of inventive ideas for stories (the covers tend not to be all that descriptive of the story within, so you'll likely have to trust me on this)...

Lindsey is a strong artist - one of the sharpest artists in the Archie "house style," and as you can tell, there's not a whole lot of room for a unique artistic vision when you're working in a "house style," but Lindsey clears does what he can. He's a strong storyteller. Rich Koslowski has inked the great majority of their run, but not every issue (Jim Amash inked the most recent issue, for instance).

Just a year or so ago, the pair celebrated their 100th issue together...

The next issue of Jughead will be #200, and "sadly" (as it's not that big of a deal, of course), just like how Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle were taken off of their great Detective Comics run so that a writer known for outside comic work could do the big anniversary issue, Boldman and Lindsey will not be doing the 200th issue of Jughead (well, Lindsey will, but Robot Chicken's Tom Root will be writing it instead of Boldman).

The most recent issue was one of their best issues, with a truly inspired initial story where Trula is enlisted by a group of girls who want Jughead to stop being, you know, Jughead.

Her plan is to have each of the girls act like Jughead, as Jughead would never do something that everyone ELSE was doing. The plan works, but perhaps a bit TOO well...

Here are the first few pages from the issue...

I really appreciate how Boldman never seems to go for the quick gag. He also seems to put a lot of thought into his issues - and I love that they are All-Ages without dumbing themselves down for a younger audience.

I hope they're on the book together for another one hundred issues!!

20 Comments

• At February 6, 2010, Boots. wrote:

  If you did the maths, do you think your monthly comic book reading would be enough to qualify you as ...

• At February 6, 2010, DubipR wrote:

  Brian,

  Great of you to show Jughead.

  More all ages comics please...like some of the Boom! books or some of ...

• At February 6, 2010, Matthew Johnson wrote:

  Nice to see you branching out in this series. How about some European books or some non-fiction comics? (Or newspaper ...

• At February 6, 2010, A Year of Cool Comics – Day 36 « La bitacora wrote:

  [...] Comments below [...]

• At February 6, 2010, MarkAndrew wrote:

  I.. uh... I really, REALLY like Cheryl Blossom. I thought that an even more Veronica-ish Veronica was absolutely what ...

• At February 6, 2010, The Mutt wrote:

  Why is Jughead sad that there is a burger named after him?

• At February 6, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Why is Jughead sad that there is a burger named after him?

  Those are tears of joy!

• At February 6, 2010, Mary Warner wrote:

  I really want to see how that story turns out now.

  I feel guilty sometimes because I haven't read any Archie ...

• At February 6, 2010, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  "Nice to see you branching out in this series. How about some European books or some non-fiction comics? (Or newspaper ...

• At February 6, 2010, Mary Warner wrote:

  What European books are Marvel publishing?

• At February 7, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Nice to see you branching out in this series. How about some European books or some non-fiction comics? (Or newspaper ...

• At February 7, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  If you did the maths, do you think your monthly comic book reading would be enough to qualify you as ...

• At February 7, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  So is this Trula a good-looking version of Big Ethel, or is there more to her than that?

  Big Ethel wants ...

• At February 7, 2010, Mary Warner wrote:

  Thanks. I didn't know any of the modern Archie writers. (And very few of the old ones, since ...

• At February 7, 2010, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  "What European books are Marvel publishing?"

  The Soleil line, which by now includes the series:

  - Sky Doll

  - Universal War One

  - ...

• At February 7, 2010, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  "Heck, I even featured a European newspaper comic!"

  British is NOT European! Just ask anyone in Britain...

  Best,

  Hunter (Pedro Bouça)

• At February 7, 2010, badspock wrote:

  How about some Carl Barks ducks?

• At February 7, 2010, Mary Warner wrote:

  I guess the reason the readers are ignoring those European titles is because, like me, they have never heard of ...

• At February 7, 2010, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  Well, they were originally announced on every comics news site out there (CBR included), are mentioned on Marvel Previews (and ...

• At February 8, 2010, Blackjak wrote:

  British is NOT European! Just ask anyone in Britain...

  Too true! I think we actually get the best of both ...

Welcome to the two-hundred and forty-sixth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and forty-five.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend you check out this installment of TV Legends Revealed to find out what involvement Bill Cosby had with the Amos and Andy TV series coming off the air!

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: Barry Windsor-Smith completed a third LifeDeath book starring Storm, which he published himself when Marvel rejected it.

STATUS: True

In 1984 and then the following year, Barry Windsor-Smith and Chris Claremont joined forces for two very notable issues of Uncanny X-Men starring Storm.

The books were called LifeDeath.

Well, as it turned out,Windsor-Smith actually worked on a THIRD LifeDeath installment (I do not know WHEN he did - it appears as though it was a goodly amount of time after the initial two parts), but Marvel rejected it.

Windsor-Smith held on to it until 1999, when he adapted the material into a new comic starring one of his new characters he had introduced in his Storyteller series at Dark Horse.

The character was called Adastra.

And the book was called Adastra in Africa (Fantagraphics published it)...

Here are a few sample pages...

Boy, Windsor-Smith is a great artist.

By the way, note the heavy usage of the words "Life" and "Death."

Thanks to reader Fritz for the heads up on this one! You rock, Fritz!

COMIC LEGEND: Marvel assigned John Byrne The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones as a way to make up for displeasing Lucasfilms with their Raiders of the Lost Ark adaptation.

STATUS: False, but Based in a Lot of Truth

A couple of years back, Elliott Ruben Serrano (who you can read over at Comics Waiting Room here) wrote in to ask essentially that exact question:

Way back in the day, I'd heard that George Lucas was quite displeased with John Buscema's work on Marvel's Raiders of the Lost Ark adaptation so Marvel made up for it by getting John Byrne to produce their Further Adventures of Indiana Jones series. True or False?

The John Buscema part is very much true.

John Buscema (on breakdowns) and Klaus Janson (on finishes) did the art on the Raiders of the Lost Ark comic book adaptation, with a script by Walt Simonson.

As was often the case, the adapters were working from an old version of the script for the film, so the Marvel take differed from the actual film, but basically it was a fine, normal adaptation.

Here are three sample pages to give you an idea what the project looked like...

Lucasfilm, though, hated it.

Well, the person in charge of the comic book license hated it, at least. I don't know if George Lucas was really even that involved in stuff like comic adaptations at this point.

In any event, they did, indeed, as Elliott alluded to, give Marvel a hard time over the work.

And Byrne WAS involved in assuaging their feelings, but not in the way that Elliott heard the story.

You see, Marvel wanted to do an Indiana Jones licensed comic, which made sense, as the property was a popular one (well, Byrne wanted to do one, at least, and he was able to convince the top brass that Marvel should want to do one, as well).

But after their displeasure with the movie adaptation, Lucasfilm was hesitant. However, Marvel was able to convince them to approve the concept by explaining that John Byrne, one of Marvel's very top creators, wanted to do the comic, and he would write and pencil it (with Terry Austin inking it). So Marvel's pitch was "The book will be done by our top guy, so you know it will be good."

So Lucasfilm agreed, and Byrne did the first two issues of The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones...

And they were quite good.

And Lucasfilm? Not exactly fans.

Byrne has told the story a few times about how infuriating it was working with the licensing personal at Lucasfilm. Perhaps the funniest story involves the executive from Lucasfilm asking for the plot (which they had approved) to be edited when they were shown the final pages. Yes, when the comic was finished, they wanted to know if you could just change the plot of the already drawn pages to something else. Likely, they were so used to working with advertising where such demands were not so out of whack, but still, it showed a pretty dramatic lack of understanding for how comic books worked.

In any event, Byrne naturally did not want to work on the book anymore, so a new creative team was found.

The book still continued to be a good book, really - Archie Goodwin and David Michelinie did a good job writing the book and Kerry Gammill and Steve Ditko were fine choices for the regular artists.

But an extended run by Byrne and Austin sure would have been a sight to see! The promo art for their never-produced second arc looked amazing!

Elliott asked another question that I don't know the answer to, but I imagine it is a simple answer like "Lucasfilm wanted it changed," but when the series was promoted, it was done so with ads calling the book Raiders of (fill in the blank)...

Anyone know exactly why they changed it?

Thanks again to Elliott for the question and thanks to John Byrne for telling the story about his adventures on the Indiana Jones comic in more than a few places!

COMIC LEGEND: Gabe Jones of Nick Fury's Howling Commandos was accidentally colored white in the first issue of the title.

STATUS: True

When Stan Lee decided to add an African-American soldier to the diverse crew of Marvel's new World War II comic, Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, it was quite a major achievement for the time. There was not exactly a proliferation of African-American characters in comics at the time.

But oddly enough, when Sgt. Fury #1 came out in 1963...

Gabe Jones was...

white?!?

You see, while Stan Lee meant for Gabe to be black, Jack Kirby meant for Gabe to be black, colorist Stan Goldberg meant for Gabe to be back, the folks at the printing press figured it was a mistake, so they made Gabe white.

The mistake was corrected for the second issue...

but it was really was rushed job on #2 (like applying grays to a pink figure)...

but they were then caught up for the rest of the series, although for the next few years, Gabe was still more grey-skinned than he was brown-skinned.

He eventually even made his way to the cover of the title (he appeared before this issue on a cover - this one was just the first prominent one).

Soon, DC even took the hint, and added an African-American soldier to Sgt. Rock's Easy Company (in both instances, though, a de-segregated Army was apocryphal, as neither Marvel's Gabe Jones nor DC's Jackie Johnson would have been allowed to serve with white soldiers during World War II).

Reader Earl makes a fine point to note that while Johnson did not join Easy Company until 1965, he actually did appear in a story in 1961 well BEFORE Sgt. Rock #1 came out.

Thanks to reader Marc for the suggestion! And thanks to Earl for the fine point about Johnson's first appearance!

Okay, that's it for this week!

Thanks to the Grand Comic Book Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, last April my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)...

If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you all next week!

85 Comments

• At February 5, 2010, The Dude wrote:

  I hadn't heard about that Storytellers series. Was it any good?

• At February 5, 2010, Philip Horton wrote:

  Fascinating read as usual. Just wanted to say how I look forward to Friday evenings (I'm in the UK)

  to read ...

• At February 5, 2010, Dave wrote:

  I always knew Lucas disliked the green rabbit character (Jaxxon, or Jax for short, which he ain't) in the Star ...

• At February 5, 2010, Nick Eden wrote:

  "both characters, Gabe Jones and DC's Jackie Johnson were, of course, apocryphal"

  I think you meant anachronistic.

• At February 5, 2010, Aaron Poehler wrote:

  Byrne details his experience on the Indiana Jones book in his own words at: http://www.byrnerobotics.com/FAQ/listing.asp?ID=3&T1=Questions+about+Aborted+Storylines#65

• At February 5, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I think you meant anachronistic.

  I think I meant that the idea of a de-segregated army was apocryphal, so I shouldn't ...

• At February 5, 2010, Earl Geier wrote:

  To give Robert Kanigher his props, Jackie Johnson was introduced MUCH earlier, in Our Army at War #113, December 1961. ...

• At February 5, 2010, The Amazing Spider-Ads wrote:

  Was the X-Men issue all finished up already before Marvel rejected it? It even looks like Orzechowski did the lettering.

  Also, ...

• At February 5, 2010, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  "I hadn't heard about that Storytellers series. Was it any good?"

  The art was exceptional, but the story, well, so and ...

• At February 5, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Yeah, I liked Storytellers, but I'm a big Windsor-Smith fan. It really was most notably an art book. But boy, ...

• At February 5, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  To give Robert Kanigher his props, Jackie Johnson was introduced MUCH earlier, in Our Army at War #113, December 1961. ...

• At February 5, 2010, kevin wrote:

  Gabe looks exactly like the original Hulk in that one panel.

• At February 5, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Gabe looks exactly like the original Hulk in that one panel.

  He totally does.

• At February 5, 2010, Brian Mac wrote:

  I had that Raiders adaptation when I was a kid! I loved it!

  One line always bugged me, though. After Indy ...

• At February 5, 2010, I Grok Spock wrote:

  @The Dude, Barry Windsor-Smith: Storyteller was a great book. But...BWS never finished the run due to conflicts with Dark Horse ...

• At February 5, 2010, Ritchard wrote:

  Lucasfilm wasn't satisfied with Buscema and Janson, so they put their "top guy" on the next Indy book? Wow. Nothing ...

• At February 5, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  (As for me, I haven't read any of Marvel's Indiana Jones comics, but the combo of Buscema's old-school superheroic layouts ...

• At February 5, 2010, Layne wrote:

  Ritchard - I'd have to dig my copies out to be 100% sure, but IIRC, the Buscema/Janson pairing wasn't either ...

• At February 5, 2010, Bill Reed wrote:

  Simonson/Buscema Indiana Jones!?!? Want want want.

• At February 5, 2010, Ritchard wrote:

  D'oh! That'll learn me to double-check before commenting.

  Still, the John Buscema/Klaus Janson team sounds solid enough. I might have to ...

• At February 5, 2010, The Dude wrote:

  @I Grok Spock,Brian Cronin,Tom Fitzpatrick: thanks,guys. I'm embarassed to say that the only Barry Windsor Smith comic I remember reading ...

• At February 5, 2010, Simon wrote:

  Hey, lookit that! In the last picture it seems Indy found the Green Lantern charger! Wow! Who needs the Ark ...

• At February 5, 2010, Andrew Collins wrote:

  I had the Raiders adaption too as a kid and loved it. I haven't read it in years, so I ...

• At February 5, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Because I do love to be helpful, I just put up three sample pages from the Buscema/Janson adaptation.

• At February 5, 2010, Adam Weissman wrote:

  I noticed the same thing about the Tom Orz lettering. Did Claremont script the story?

• At February 5, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Orzechowski did, indeed, letter it, but Claremont was not credited for the script. I don't know if he worked on ...

• At February 5, 2010, Daniel O' Dreams wrote:

  I think I remember from the special features that they originally intended the second movie to be Raiders of (something), ...

• At February 5, 2010, Thomas Scioli wrote:

  Storyteller is Windsor-Smith's best comic, and that's saying a lot. As mentioned above, the art in Storyteller is jaw-dropping, but ...

• At February 5, 2010, DanLarkin wrote:

  I remember BWS talking about his "Lifedeath" sequel in an interview while he was still working on it- (maybe Comics ...

• At February 5, 2010, DanLarkin wrote:

  Any idea why Marvel rejected Lifedeath III anyway? That seems like a pretty stupid decision.

• At February 5, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I remember BWS talking about his "Lifedeath" sequel in an interview while he was still working on it- (maybe Comics ...

• At February 5, 2010, Ian wrote:

  I hated the LifeDeath stories. Already the point when X-men started to have more bad issues than good and ...

• At February 5, 2010, Layne wrote:

  See? That looks NOTHING like Alfred Molina! People who paid good money for a RotLA adaptation deserve - nay, are ...

• At February 5, 2010, Nitz the Bloody wrote:

  I'm glad that the third LifeDeath ended up adapted into Windsor-Smith's original work, because the second one was a Very ...

• At February 5, 2010, Bizen 247 wrote:

  I remember reading a Claremont interview where he lists one of his regrets as never getting to work with Barry ...

• At February 5, 2010, MechanisticMoth wrote:

  Just a note:

  You begin referencing Elliott in the second Legend as "Elliott" as his name is spelled on his ...

• At February 5, 2010, Brian Cronin wrote:

  No problema, Elliott, it's fixed now!

• At February 5, 2010, Martin Gray wrote:

  Oh, that Buscema/Janson art is yummy - tasteless old Lucasfilm. I did enjoy the Byrne work too, though - I ...

• At February 5, 2010, Tom Daylight wrote:

  Actually Lucasfilm were probably more used to storyboard artists, where they might use the storyboard to determine if something in ...

• At February 5, 2010, danjack wrote:

  Never liked Buscema on anything. My old boss at the shop i worked at agreed with me. He said that ...

• At February 5, 2010, Imraith Nimphais wrote:

  Oh Goddess! Lifedeath I and II are two of my all-time favourite Uncanny X-Men issues...and a large part of that ...

• At February 5, 2010, Snikt Snakt wrote:

  I also loved the Raiders adaptation and had the original, but as the one-shot "Marvel Super Special" w/an entirely different ...

• At February 5, 2010, Rolly wrote:

  When somebody is infuriated with licensing staff at Lucasfilm or other companies, it's personnel they have issues with. Don't ...

• At February 5, 2010, Sir Hartley McGovern wrote:

  Byrne and Austin together is awesome. They bring out the best in each other. Their artwork is really striking in ...

• At February 5, 2010, J. Robb wrote:

  Marvel: "We have our top men working on the new series right now."

  Lucasfilm: "Who?"

  Marvel: "Top men."

• At February 5, 2010, Atomic_Kommie_Comics wrote:

  John Buscema seemed like a natural for the 1930s-set Indiana Jones series considering his exceptional work on both Tarzan and ...

• At February 5, 2010, Alan Coil wrote:

  "Windsor-Smith is a great artist."

  Not is... was. Today he is just another Howard Hughes.

• At February 5, 2010, OM wrote:

  ...One thing to keep in mind is that most of the Lucasfilm licensing people were nothing more than catamites and ...

• At February 5, 2010, Atomic_Kommie_Comics wrote:

  Regarding the "gray" Gabe Jones.

  1) the color separators, not the printer, were responsible for his "bleaching" in the first issue. ...

• At February 5, 2010, Rene wrote:

  I agree with danjack that there is a somber quality to John Buscema's art.

  But that is one of the many ...

• At February 5, 2010, Eric Henry wrote:

  So has John Byrne ever claimed that his issues of Indiana Jones are the one true version of the character ...

• At February 5, 2010, John Trumbull wrote:

  I have an old issue of COMICS INTERVIEW with John Byrne being interviewed by Jim Salicrup. Byrne tells of ...

• At February 5, 2010, ZZZ wrote:

  I first started collecting comics between when the two LifeDeaths were published - closer to the second than the first ...

• At February 5, 2010, T. wrote:

  Lucasfilm wasn't satisfied with Buscema and Janson, so they put their "top guy" on the next Indy book? Wow. Nothing ...

• At February 5, 2010, T. wrote:

  Ritchard - I'd have to dig my copies out to be 100% sure, but IIRC, the Buscema/Janson pairing wasn't either ...

• At February 5, 2010, T. wrote:

  The book still continued to be a good book, really - Archie Goodwin and David Michelinie did a good job ...

• At February 5, 2010, Mary Warner wrote:

  I loved LifeDeath I, but I hated LifeDeath II. I no longer have them and it's been a very ...

• At February 5, 2010, Mark wrote:

  No offense to Klaus, but those pages looked terrible and bore no resemblance to Buscema- who, imo, is one of ...

• At February 5, 2010, Michael wrote:

  Does anybody know exactly why Marvel rejected LifeDeath III ?

  I remember hearing something along the lines of them having a ...

• At February 5, 2010, HDO wrote:

  The Raiders boulder scene should have been the splash page.

  Indiana Jones was my first comic.

  I've been a fanboy ever ...

• At February 5, 2010, danjack wrote:

  i also liked LifeDeath 1, as it was part of the normal X-story at the time. LifeDeath 2, while good, ...

• At February 5, 2010, Namor wrote:

  I do agree that this one wasn't Buscema's fault. That's all on Klaus. I had issue 2 as a kid. ...

• At February 5, 2010, MarkAndrew wrote:

  So the Indiana Jones pages that look like Ditko are actually Buscema and Jansen? Or am I reading that ...

• At February 5, 2010, Alex wrote:

  You think that's why Lucas did Howard the Duck, to get revenge?

  It was the first Marvel movie and he makes ...

• At February 5, 2010, Reno wrote:

  "Likely, they were so used to working with advertising where such demands were not so out of whack, but still, ...

• At February 5, 2010, LouReedRichards wrote:

  Not to sound too much like a contrarian, but the BWS art work looks pretty lousy to me. It hurts ...

• At February 6, 2010, Matty wrote:

  It's been a few years since I read Barry Windsor-Smith's artbook Opus Vol.1 but IIRC he talks about Lifedeath III ...

• At February 6, 2010, bbb wrote:

  Wow....not like Buscema? I would suggest Avengers 50-62, or Sub Mariner 1-8. Always felt they spread him too thin at ...

• At February 6, 2010, Frank wrote:

  Gabe Jones Mad! Gabe Smash!

  Buscema and Jansen is a unusual pairing. It doesn't even look like Buscema at all.

• At February 6, 2010, Jim Ryan wrote:

  OK, something's confusing me (no big surprise, I hear you say...):

  Lucasfilms was and is very involved in all the ...

• At February 6, 2010, danjack wrote:

  to those who have given suggestion re: Buscema. Thanks. i have seen the issues that you are mentioning, plus others ...

• At February 6, 2010, Brian D. wrote:

  bbb, there was a "Marvel Masterworks" of SGT. FURY a few years back-- pricier than an Essentials, but nice to ...

• At February 6, 2010, Rolly wrote:

  I don't think there is an Essentials of NICK FURY, since the Steranko-penned stories aren't that many. There are ...

• At February 6, 2010, Don wrote:

  I'd almost forgotten what great Byrne art looked like. Thanks!

• At February 6, 2010, Sijo wrote:

  I never liked the "Lifedeath" stories- neither the story (too grim, as if X-Men needed more of that) nor the ...

• At February 7, 2010, Storm Sunday: Superstar Roundup! « stormantic wrote:

  [...]  Comic Book Legends Revealed (#246 on Comic Book Resources) was brought to my attention because it features Barry Windsor-Smith ...

• At February 7, 2010, FunkyGreenJerusalem wrote:

  Brian Bendis did a funny strip at the back of one of his Image books, where he told the story ...

• At February 8, 2010, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  To those wondering why LifedEath III was rejected: according to BWS, the Marvel higher-ups felt the story "glorified suicide." Idiots.

• At February 8, 2010, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  The idiots being Marvel higher-ups, not those wondering why the story was rejected. Sorry if the post was worded confusingly.

• At February 8, 2010, Dave Blanchard wrote:

  >> Reader Earl makes a fine point to note that while Johnson did not join Easy Company until 1965, he ...

• At February 8, 2010, Ed wrote:

  Huh - I'm not even particularly a Buscema fan (I mean, I don't think he's bad or anything but he's ...

• At February 9, 2010, DanCJ wrote:

  Those Bescuma/Janson pages look quite poor to me.

• At February 9, 2010, coconutphone wrote:

  Marvel: "We have our top men working on the new series right now."

  Lucasfilm: "Who?"

  Marvel: "Top men."

  LOL Nice J. robb.

• At February 9, 2010, Scott Rowland wrote:

  Love Barry Windsor-Smith's art, but "Storyteller" sucked (retroactively) because it did not fulfill the promise made in the title -- ...

• At February 9, 2010, Frank wrote:

  I think the failiure of Storyteller was because I think Smith distilled his talent in three concepts instead of putting ...

Today we look at the first major story arc in Alan Moore and J.H. Williams' Promethea.

Enjoy!

One of the annoying aspects of Promethea is that the initial story arc is eight issues long. Why is that annoying? The first volume of the collected edition of Promethea collects the first...six issues. Isn't that a pain in the neck?

Anyhow, the first eight issues of Promethea are a lot different from most of the issues that follow, as the initial storyline was more about literature while the rest of the series was more about Alan Moore's fascination with mysticism (particularly the Kaballah).

While the later issues were surely interesting, I always have a soft spot for the initial arc, where Moore introduced the concept of Promethea as well as all of the various Prometheas.

Promethea is basically a living story - when someone writes about her with passion, she comes to life - either merging with the artist/writer his/herself or merging with the artist/writer's inspiration/muse.

We first meet her as a child in the past, over a thousand years ago, where her father is being hounded for worshiping the wrong gods..

We see his daughter saved...

Fast forward to the present, and Sophie Bangs is researching this literary figure Promethea who keeps popping up in various media. She she meets the widow of the last person to write about Promethea, a man who did a comic book featuring Promethea. She does not want to speak to Sophie. Well, on the way back home, Sophie is attacked by some creepy demon-y bad guys. She is then rescued by Promethea! Well, a version of Promethea, at least - an older, out of shape version. This Promethea saves Sophie, but is gravely injured in the process. She takes Sophie to hiding, but they're pretty much screwed when the demons come back, unless.....

And then, a brilliant callback to Promethea's origin...

As you can see, Moore was joined by one of the most brilliant artists working in comics today, J.H. Williams, who packs so much detail and meaning into each page that it's just a beautiful sight to see.

Over the next issues, Sophie learns about all the previous Prometheas as well as the extent of her powers.

One of the most amazing parts of the storyline is when Sophie travels to "Misty Magic Land," the land of the imagination, where ideas exist without any sort of ironic detachment or the distance that comes from age - so when a big bad wolf shows up, it's, well, a big bad wolf! And when ironic humor is used - the irony is not present, so you feel the statements as though they are true.

Throughout the first arc, Moore worked in a number of interesting literary ideas such as this. Heck, the other Prometheas themselves are products of various interesting looks at different media (one comes from faerie poetry, one comes from early 20th Century comic strips, one comes from the graphic paintings of pulp novels and two of them come from comic books).

While you "have" to pick up two volumes of Promethea to get the first story arc, it is well worth the purchase (especially as Volume 2 has plenty of cool follow-up stories, including an All-Sex Issue!).

I hope the sample pages alone should give you an idea that this is a comic that is well worth a read, if only to marvel at Williams' beautiful artwork!

14 Comments

• At February 5, 2010, Travis Pelkie wrote:

  What was also great about the ABC line was how Alan Moore took things he had just been writing prior ...

• At February 5, 2010, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  This was such a cool book. Especially in the second year, where we get to see the full experience ...

• At February 5, 2010, Weeping Gorilla wrote:

  8 issues per arc, 6 issues per trade. It's like hotdogs and buns.

  Also: Sometimes I think I don't deserve ...

• At February 5, 2010, Chad wrote:

  My favorite Weeping Gorilla: We probably expect too much from George Lucas.

• At February 5, 2010, joshschr wrote:

  I was lucky enough to pick up about 30 of the singles at a steeply discounted price, so I avoided ...

• At February 5, 2010, pmpknface wrote:

  One of the best comics ever. JH just posted the new wrap for the 2nd omnibus. I just ...

• At February 5, 2010, MisterSmith wrote:

  "One of the annoying aspects of Promethea is that the initial story arc is eight issues long. Why is that ...

• At February 5, 2010, Argo Plummert wrote:

  I agree that Promethea was a more compelling read for the first arc than it was during the rest of ...

• At February 5, 2010, stealthwise wrote:

  Huh. I never really noticed that the first collection stops mid-arc, as the whole thing reads well to me ...

• At February 5, 2010, Mario wrote:

  I guess that explains why the first volume ended on such a cliffhanger. I really enjoyed the first six issues ...

• At February 5, 2010, Ted wrote:

  I would rather my comics have a strong narrative thread

  I actually prefer it when a series will focus on exploring ...

• At February 6, 2010, Apodaca wrote:

  I guess this is the time, then, to admit that I found Promethea really boring. I felt like Sophie wasn't ...

• At February 7, 2010, Sanagi wrote:

  I wish there were two Alan Moores - The familiar one who wrote the rest of Promethea in that trippy-but-dry ...

• At February 8, 2010, DanCJ wrote:

  I have mixed feelings about Promethea.

  When it was telling a story it was great - I particularly loved King ...