Flashback Universe Blog

Honor Brigade: Space Fight!

2012-05-21T07:23:00.000-04:00

For whatever reason, I seem to get a lot of emails that basically run like this...

...Hello, I am going to start my own comics with a cohesive super hero universe, but it's going to be different than Marvel and DC because I'm going to put the fun back in the comics...

I'd say, for most people, that email is probably about as far as they ever get. Very few actually deliver on their promised goal. That's because putting together a comic is very, very hard. It's not only expensive, but you also have logistical issues to deal with (artists schedules, lettering, publishing, ect...)

So, when I see someone actually succeed in their goal as well as writer Tom Stillwell and artist Jethro Morales have in Honor Brigade: Space Fight #1, I am summarily impressed!

I discovered this comic while looking at comic book projects on Kickstarter.com and I was lucky enough to be able to be able to get a pdf version of the comic for the modest donation of $5.00. This was the first time I had ever heard of The Honor Brigade, but apparently, Tom has been working with his own universe of characters for quite some time over at www.honorbrigadecomic.com where he has other comics and graphic novels available for purchase.

You never know what you are going to get with self-published comics. Sometimes, it's just the 88th incarnation of Spawn or Batman with little to no innovation. I'm happy to say, that's not the case here. Honor Brigade is comic that reminds me of the best of the off brand comics I remember from the glory days of the industry. If you told me this was a lost Ultraverse or Valiant comic from their publishing heyday, I could totally believe it. In all honesty, it has the feel and pacing of the legendary Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League.

Check out this Giffenesque exchange between Toyboy and Lightning Rod (click to read at full size)

The plot is straightforward enough that if gives Stillwell the room to introduce a dizzying array of characters to the reader without getting bogged down in back story. I sense that Stillwell, like myself, understands his audience doesn't need each and every characters origin spoonfed to them in the first outing. What we want is to see the archetypes interact in a fun and engaging way, and The Honor Brigade delivers on that in spades!

In many ways, this comic reminds me of Invincible. Not in its level of violence, but in how it plays superheroes straight and never tries to parody the genre or slip into meta textural commentary. The art also has the same light touch that makes Invincible easy to read. Morales has a style that is clean and simple, yet dynamic enough to make the pages fun to look at. He also does an amazing job giving each and every character a distinct look and feel which is quite a task when you are dealing with the huge cast that Stillwell has dreamed up!

If my review still hasn't swayed you, you can always read free samples at HonorBrigaded.com for yourself. Do yourself a favor and check it out!

- Jim

Pierre vs The Avengers

2012-05-16T06:01:00.001-04:00

Editor's Note: As promised, Pierre has found some time in his animation schedule to give us his thoughts on The Avengers. - Jim

Avengers Assemble! The classic Avengers rallying cry is missing from the movie. And the absence of these two words sum up what was missing for me in the Avengers movie. If it was a more classic take on the Avengers, I might be one of those who think this is the best movie ever made, but there is too much Ultimates in the Avengers movie for my taste.
That kept the fanboy in me in check and allowed me to see that movie without some rose colored lenses - although I did see it wearing some 3D lenses.

Don’t make that mistake! The 3D in that movies is pointless. Just as it was pointless in the Captain America and the Thor movies. Dark movies + 3D = NOT A GOOD IDEA!!! So do yourself a favor, don’t see that movie in 3D unless you really have too.

Is it a bad movie?? No. Absolutely not. Is it a great movie??? I don’t think so either. It is a good action flick with a pretty basic plot (villain wants to conquer the world, An unlikely group of Heroes get together to stop him) and some fun moments.

Let’s start with what I did not like:

Although the Ultimates elements did not come as a surprise. Previous films already had some Ultimates elements (Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, Ultimate Hawkeye in Thor), so it was no surprise that this film felt more like seeing the Ultimates then the Avengers. If I was a fan of the Ultimates, I most likely would not mind it. But I am more of a classic Avengers fan. The first part of the movie feels pretty much like “The Adventure of SHIELD (guest starring the Ultimates)”.

Give me a Hawkeye wearing his trademark purple suit and some Skrulls as opposed to some Chitary, and I would have been a happy guy. That is one of the things that I love about the Avengers cartoon, although the animation is awful, Hawkeye is Hawkeye in that show.

And I did find it tedious how they had to slowly reintroduce all the characters. I thought that was the point of the previous films to introduce all the characters. But I can understand how they wanted to play it safe and introduce all the characters for those who may not have seen the previous films.

I read online how they had to cut out about 2 hours from this movie. And that does not surprise me. A lot of time I thought that the transition from one scene to the next was off somehow, . As if something was missing in between. So I can only guess that we can expect an extended version of the movie at some point.

And can someone explain to me Banner’s “secret”?? How he is always angry?? If he was always angry, wouldn’t he always be “the other guy”??
I don’t get it.

And now what did I like about that film?

The first time I saw Cap, Iron-Man and Thor together, I had goose bumps.
Loved every frame with Steve Rogers/Cap. Can’t imagine anyone else in the role now. The same with Tony Stark/Iron-Man.

Loved Loki. You could feel the venom dripping from his mouth. And when he gets people to kneel, loved it. And Thor and Bruce Banner the 3rd were pretty good too.

Other then being pretty, I did not care much about the Black Widow. Oops, this is supposed to be about the parts that I like. Sorry. ;)

The movie had some good action scenes and some fun moments with the characters. The scene when Hulk grabs Loki and goes “bang” “bang” “bang” with him was priceless.

And whenever Cap throws his shield, I really get a kick out of it. When I was playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance, I would use Cap and I loved throwing his shield around.
This movie is a must see for any Avengers/Marvel/Comic fans. And from the looks of it, Marvel will make a gazillion dollars with this movie. So it would seem that Marvel’s gamble paid off.

Now if only Warner/DC could make that darn JLA movie now. ;)

(Note: This poster comes from Daniel Morpheus. click to see full size version. )

Until next time.

Pierre

Flashback Mail Bag

2012-05-13T20:45:00.001-04:00

Today, I'm going to reach into the Flashback Mailbag and answer some readers questions:
Question 1. Are you going to make any more comics?

I hope so! As fortune would have it, Gentleman Jerry Hinds has recently had time in his busy schedule to get back to working on his Flashback Two-In-One story. Here's a finished page he sent me the other day (click to see the full size)

So, when we get all the pages completed, I'll begin the process of lettering Chris Sim's script and there will finally be another Flashback Universe comic. :)

After that, hard to say. My perspective on comics has changed a lot since I started Flashback Universe. My original goal was two fold.

One, I wanted to create the world's first comic specifically formatted for CBR/CBZ (digital) format. In that, I was successful. Many of the techniques and transitions Pierre and I pioneered with our original Flashback Comics have since shown up in other comics with Mark Waid doing the best job in pushing this envelope.

Two, I wanted to create a comic that gave readers the same rush they might experience reading their first classic Silver Age Marvel comic. I was really more interested in emmershing readers into a world populated by a myriad of colorful characters than an ongoing narrative. I never really had a long term plan for the FBU, and it shows.

With that said, I still love comics as a medium, and I'm constantly coming up with ideas and helping other people with their projects, so I don't doubt I'll soon be working on something. I just might not involve FBU characters. The one thing you can bet on is it will still retain a lot of the classic bronze age sensibilities in one form or another. ;)

Question 2: What's up with Pierre?
He's been working on a new animation project. As those things run, they tend to work at a breakneck pace which keeps up at all hours. As it is, he's doing good to answer an email here and there. He's also got a new website to help promote his animation and illustration skills which you can check out here:

Fortunately, he managed to squeeze in some time for the Avengers and has written a review which I will be posting Wednesday!

Question 3: What do you think about the current Digital Comics market?

I get the sense that sometimes people are asking this question to see if I feel vindicated that so many of my predictions have seemingly come to pass, but in all honesty, the digital market sort of depresses me.

As it stands now, Comixology, sort of have a lock on the digital market. There are a few (1?) other companies out there but the biggest contender for competition, Graphically, sort of threw in the towel a month ago. To make matters wore, as of last week, Marvel announced they were going exclusive with Comixology. And let's be honest here, with 65 million downloads, Comixology deserves their spot in the sun.

Unfortunately, if you are small independent publisher, I think you're going to find the way their app highlights comics from the Big Guys on their main screens limits your ability to sell your comic. Check out this screenshot. Did Moonstone Publishing have a new debut this week? How would you know?

That's not how I was hoping things would be. I was hoping that the digital age for comics would help level the playing field as far helping introduce readers to new and diferent comics. What it feels like now is a digital version of the Diamond Catalog.

I wanted a world where non-techie types could create a comic, upload it to some marketplace where people could discover it via their interests in similar comics (like how Amazon suggests items for you.)

Well, I guess I can hope we eventually get there. :)

Have a great day!

Ten Random Thoughts About the Avengers

2012-05-06T13:07:00.001-04:00

Thanks to the insistence of good friend Trey Causey, I braved the crowds and saw the Avengers Friday night, and I am happy to report it is well worth seeing. It was perhaps the most fun I have had at a movie since the first Iron Man. (Prior to that I might have to go back to the first Pirates of the Carribean.)

I have a lot of thoughts about the movie, so I'm going to enumerate them to try and keep myself on task.

1. Disney has got to be happy!

Disney originally bought Marvel for $4 billion dollars (a sum that sounds cheap in these days of tech companies snapping up smaller companies for patents.) Avengers looks to be on track to beat all box office records (some estimates have it possibly opening with $200 million domestically.) When you add the money Disney will get from liscensing and DVD/Blu-Ray sales, the Avengers may well help them recoup a large portion of their initial investments just by itself.

2. Joss Whedon has got to be happy too!

If Serenity cast a pall on Joss Whedon's movie career, then the Avengers has given it new life. I've always liked Josh Whedon's dialogue style, which Scott Simmons (another friend of mine in attendance Friday night) boiled down to "...where all the characters are one and a half times cleverer than real people..." In other words, it's a style where you get the idea everyone had time to think of the best quip or retort possible before saying their next line. It's not the best reflection of real life, where time and emotions often interfere with communication skills, and because of that, some people that style of dialogue is a bit too precious or artificial. Still, considering the type of movie this was, I think it fit perfectly. Like Scott, I think Captain America got all the best lines.

3. I wonder if Mark Millar is happy?

When Mark Millar introduced his Samuel L. Jackson looking Nick Fury in the Ultimates, I was originally put off by the character. One, because I hate it when comic characters are phototraced from pictures of real people (I find it jerks you out of the medium.) Two, the change of race for the character seemed unnecessary. However, for the purposes of appealing to a larger demographics, that racial switch out really panned out for Disney didn't it? ~~I wonder if it was a conscious move to use that version of Nick Fury on Disney's part?~~ Updated since Trey reminded me that Nick Fury actually started showing up prior to Disney owning Marvel.

4. The smaller line up of the Avengers works better for movies doesn't it?

I've always felt that in the comics that the way the Avengers can consist of 5 (and even 4!) heroes makes it a team that has never really stacked up, powerwise, against the Justice League (unless you count the Aquaman led team back in the 80's)

However, for a movie, a smaller team really works well. If there had been another two characters to deal with, it would probably cut down a good bit on the great character moments Joss Whedon put in the script. Something for DC to consider, eh?

5. What was Loki's plan on the Helicarrier?

I had to go to the restroom, and I think I missed something. What was all that about exactly?

6. This movie may have saved the Hulk franchise.

I saw over at Bleeding Cool that Mark Ruffalo has signed a 6 picture Hulk deal with Marvel and based on audience reaction to the Hulk scenes, it looks like the time is right to relaunch that franchise. I feel the key with the Hulk is is to remember that he is not just a raging brute, but that he can also be a bit childish at times. This gives writers innocence and indulgence aspects of the character to explore. (Like this scene from the classic Len Wein/Herb Trimpe era)

It's not something that is played up in current Hulk comics, but I believe it is vital to fully exploiting the wish fulfillment aspect of the character. It would also be a much needed source of humor for any resulting movies.

7. Aliens are the new Ninjas

I guess it's just a by product of action movies that they have scores of creatures for the heroes to fight. Sometimes we get clever variations on the them like the Nazi zombies in SuckerPunch. Still, I do grow weary of the meaningless hordes.

8. Is this a history making/game changing movie?

In discussing the ensemble cast of this movie, I was struck by the notion that this was the first time that characters from successful movie franchises had ever been gathered together all in one movie. As I thought on it more, I realized that's not necessarily true, as back in the heyday of the Universal Monster Movies, we saw this classic picture:

Since then, there have been a few other dalliances in combining an assortment of fictional characters in a movie (Murder By Death, Aliens Vs Predators, Freddie vs Jason and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) but none of those had the combined star power this movie had. With the success the Avengers is having, will we see this formula repeated? And if so, what grouping (outside of the DC Universe) would lend itself to such an ensemble?

9. The Spider-man trailer looked better than the Batman trailer.
'Nuff said.

10. The Loki at the Opera scene!

I haven't seen a lot of people comment on this scene, but with its use of Local Music and eschewing of dialogue during this part, it felt like a tip of the hat to the classic opera scene from the Godfather 3. Tom Hiddleston stole the movie as Loki, and this moment highlighted just how well he was able to portray the character even without talking.

Anyway, if you haven't seen this movie, do yourself a favor and go!

- Jim

A Valiant Return for XO Manowar

2012-04-28T13:14:00.000-04:00

Last year (June 2011), it was announced that many of the original Valiant Univerve comics characters would be returning to comic shops this Summer including XO Manowar, Harbinger and Archer and Armstrong.

I don't know that I talked about this news here as previous returns of the Valiant characters have been less than spectacular. Also, I had my doubts the marketplace would receive them any better than it did Jim Shooter's recent Dark Horse foray with Solar, Man of the Atom. Don't get me wrong. I love the old Valiant comics (at least a certain era of them) but how many failed attempts have we seen to revive old comic properties in the last few years?

However, Bleeding Cool had this bit of promising news about the order of the first issue of the new XO Manowar series:

X-O Manowar #1, the debut title from the new Valiant Entertainment, has received over 42,000 preorders

The timing on this couldn't be better as this issue will be coming out the week of Free Comic Book day and the weekend that the Avengers movie will (hopefully) be driving tons of lasped comic book fans to their local comic shop.

Anyone else looking forward to checking out this first issue?

- Jim

Top Ten Off Brand Superheroes

2012-04-22T18:43:00.000-04:00

Based on glowing recommendations from Pierre and a new appreciation for the storytelling in The Walking Dead, I started reading Robert Kirkman's Invincible from Image Comics. I'll won't go into a in depth review of the series here today but I will say I enjoy it.

I had been putting off reading the series because I think in my later years, I have developed a prejudice against Off Brand Superhero comics. I think a lot of that is due in part to the wave of Youngblood and (later) Authority clones we have seen in recent decades.

However, that has not always been the case with me, and over the years, I have tried out a lot of Off Brand Superhero comics. Here is what I consider my Top Ten Favorites from decades past with a few honorable mentions at the end. For the sake of this article, I am defining Off Brand Superheroes as Spandex wearing characters. How many are you familiar with and who would you add to the list?

No 1: Nexus by Steve Rude and Mike Baron

While this series sometimes meandered during story lines, there is no denying the brilliance of Steve Rude's artwork. And Mike Baron often took the stories in some fun and unexpected places.

No. 2 Dreadstar by Jim Starlin

This might seem like a bit of a cheat to put this here, as some people might categorize this title as Space Opera or Sword and Planet. This series is Jim Starlin in his prime on a series he put a lot of thought into. Along with Nexus, this is one of the longer running series on this list with a lot of amazing crescendos throughout the run.

No. 3 The Elementals by Bill Willingham

Before he became a multimillionaire ;) writing Fables for Vertigo, Bill Willingham created his take on the Fantatic Four back in the 1980s. Great artwork and zippy storylines made this a fun title to read. Unfortunately, financial problems with Comico resulted in a mess later.

No. 4 The Strangers by Steve Englehart and Rick Hoberg

The Ultraverse brought us a ton of great titles. This was such a great setup. Strangers on a subway car all get superpowers due to an unexplained power bolt and later we get a mystery as someone seems to be killing off members of the group.

No. 5 The Futurians by Dave Cockrum

As with many titles on this list, this group had a bouncey publishing history. Still, Dave Cockrum's signature design style always made it worth reading when you could find it.

No. 6 Next Men by John Byrne

This should probably be up higher in the list, but sometimes John Byrne's plotting just leaves me cold. However, if you are even remotely a fan of John Byrne's work in any form, I would strongly suggest sampling this series.

No. 7 Grendel by Matt Wagner (writer) and others as artists

This title spanned multiple versions and eras of the title character as it kept going so it's a bit hard to really review as a whole per se. I will say that it is perhaps the finest examination of the enduring influence of heroic legends and the permutations that can develop around such myths.

No. 8 Doctor Mirage by Bob Layton and Bernard Chang

Like the Ultraverse, Valiant produced a lot of great comics during their short tenure, so it was hard to pick a favorite easily. To be honest, XO Manowar and Harbinger were really the two I liked best from that line, but Doctor Mirage fits my prescribed definition of an off brand superhero better. I've always liked the focus on the relationship between Doctor Mirage and his wife in this series. It sort of reminded me of the banter between Nick and Nora Charles in the Thin Man series. Also, even back then, it was easy to see that Bernard Chang was a real superstar.

No. 9 The Justice Machine by Mike Gustovich

I remember this series being full of some really clever ideas (the facist planet the series takes place on is named Georwell) and plot twists at the time, but finding issues was sooooo hard. Later incarnations would vary in quality (so much so that in one later volume, events in a previous volume were openly mocked.)

No. 10 Next Man by Vince Argondezzi

Is there anyone besides me that remembers this series? Probably not. Even my memory of the series is vague, but what I DO remember is that the art was a wonderful facsimile of Jack Kirby's style at a time when most comics were shunning that style.

Honorable Mentions:

Here are a few that I also liked but didn't make it into the top ten.
Division 13 by Dark Horse

There was only one issue of this published which was a damn shame as it struck me as one of the cooler comics to come out of the Dark Horse Comics Greatest World. If I had to describe it, I would say it was Ultimate Challengers of the Unknown with a bit of Suicide Squad tossed in. Other series (X and Ghost) would have much longer runs, but they didn't captivate half as much me the way this first issue did.

Southern Knights by Henry Vogel

I only got one issue of this (because that was all I could find) but I really liked it. In writing this article, I discovered you can buy them digitally (from DriveThruStuff ) so I may try a few more issues in that format.

Tiger-Man from Atlas Comics

Here is an oldie but goodie from Atlas comics. Interestingly enough, this savage claw bearing character had a lot of attributes that would later make the Wolverine so popular. If only Atlas had known.

DNAgents by Mark Evanier

I think I got one or two issues of this, but it just didn't compel me to follow it. I think it came at a time when the Teen Titans had been big for so long that a host of imitators from the Big Two burned me out on teen teams. I also remember being a bit chagrined by the number of crotch shots in every issue. Oh how did we survive without Comics Alliance to save us from such things back in the day? ;)

Well, that felt pretty all inclusive, but I would be delighted to hear from any of you guys as to which of your favorite off brand superhero I missed!

Have a great day!

- Jim

Ditko's Design Sense

2012-04-16T07:15:00.000-04:00

I was recently listening to a Podcast about the Lee/Ditko Silver Age Spider-man run, and it got me to thinking. People rightly acknowledge how fluid and dynamic Ditko's art was, but rarely do I hear them say anything about his design sense. As a conceptual designer, comparing him to what his peers were doing at other companies, he really thought outside the box in a number of ways. I would like to go over some of these over the course of a few articles here in time, but will start with Spider-man's mask today.

With the classic web-head look, I think Ditko introduced the concept of the completely masked Superhero (at least at Marvel, if not for the Silver Age in general) Is there another superhero whose faced is completely hidden in a Silver Age comic at the time?

The only one I could come up with was Iron Man, and Spider-man precedes him by almost a full year. It makes for a striking visual with the exaggerated eyes and lack of mouth to give you insight into the character's thoughts.

While it might be arguable how much this fully masked designed played into the popularity of the character, what is important is how much it adds into the transformation of Peter Parker into Spider-man. It completely removes any signs of the callow boy we are first introduced to at the beginning of the story.

The full face mask is also is significant because it allows Lee and Ditko to compartmentalize the two characters a bit. Peter remains a young boy at odds with his world while the Web Slinger is the MAN. As Ditko himself says:

I wasn't sure Stan would like the idea of covering the character's face but I did it because it hid an obviously boyish face. It would also add mystery to the character....

~TwoMorrow's Publishing

As the series progresses, there will be times when a portion of his mask will reveal his true age to which observers are always astounded that he is just a young boy. (Like in Marvel Team Up 4 where Spider-man steals a kiss from Marvel Girl.)

This idea of the faceless character would be one that Ditko would revisit a number in his career, most notably with The Question:

And Dormammu:

Later versions of Dormammu would add a mouth and more expressive eyes, which I think was a bit of a mistake because it removed some of the mystique and unapproachability* from the character.

As to the design of Peter Parker himself, I think need to look no further than this classic self-portrait of Steve Ditko:

Have a great day!

- Jim
*Yeah, I'm not sure unapproachability is even a word, so feel free to suggest a better one.

Avengers vs X-men: An Intervention

2012-04-09T06:44:00.002-04:00

Last week saw the arrival of the first issue of the much ballyhooed AvsX mini-series - a bi-weekly Marvel Event that is going to run for the next 6 months consisting mostly of fights between Avengers and the X-men scripted by Brian Bendis.

Now, most of the backlash against this series has come in the form of fans denouncing Event styled stories in general. I don't necessarily agree with that sentiment. I think comic Events are a bit like any other type of storytelling approach - they succeed (or fail) based on their own merits.

With that said, I think AvsX is going to be another one for the Fail column and let me explain why.

First, I don't think Bendis has ever had a good handle on how to dialogue some of the more esoteric characters in the Marvel universe. For writing the dialogue of street level characters like Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Daredevil, he does an adequate job. However, anytime he has to write Thor saying something, it comes out like this:

I have this?

This is really how Thor talks these days? Even putting that dialogue in some faux Medieval font from Blambot doesn't shake the feeling that this line was left over from Die Hard 4. Is that what is passing for verisimilitude now? And I know Bendis isn't the only writer who does this (Paul Cornell is guilty of it in DC's Demon Knights) With dialogue like this creeping in at the onset, I wouldn't hold my breath that it will get better by the time we hit month 3 or 4.

Hey, that's okay, you say because this series is going to be mostly action scenes, so who cares about the dialogue?

Well, good point. Let's look at the action scenes we got this issue:

Early on, a mysterious object from space clips off the top of the building scattering all the people inside to the four winds.

Wow! People and debris falling every where! How will the heroes solve this problem? Well, Spider-man makes a giant web that somehow separates the people from the debris and saves everybody. All in the space of one panel break.

Also in this early scene, check out how Thor and Iron Man handle a problem with a Jet that has lost a wing in the middle of the city. Iron Man uses an unspecified ray blast of some sort to just atomize the separated wing, and Thor creates a magical wind tunnel to capture the jet and guide it to safety.

But Jim, you remind me, that's okay because comics are all about heroes using far fetched solutions to solve problems! Well, you may have a point, but I think the far fetched solutions in Silver Age Superman were often clever parts of a larger story with a twist to them. Here we just get one panel with no attempt to even rationalize the physics or abilities involved. With Thor, you can say it's magic and just sort of shrug, but that nonchalance has been expanded (by the writer) onto the Spider-man and Iron Man scenes as well. It's perfunctory at best and lazy at worst.

Well, that's okay, because while Bendis may be weak on action scenes, he will come through on the fight scenes.

I wouldn't bet on that. Check out this scene where Cyclops is just beating on Hope for reasons that are a bit unclear.

Now, it's implied that he's training her for self defense here. However, if Cyclops is supposed to be seriously training Hope, wouldn't some form of martial arts be more effective? This scene, which runs several pages, resembles a bar fight as recounted by a guy who wasn't there. Like Thor's dialogue, there isn't any suggestion of a style other than Street Level 101.

But, but...Bendis writes good character interaction scenes.

Well, I guess you mean like this one with Mopey Wolverine who is the best at what he does (as long as what he does is exposition.)

As I said, what seems to be the marketing rallying cry of this series is the battles that are to come in each issue. However, writing awe inspiring (or clever) battle/action scenes isn't really Brian Bendis' strong suit. This has long been a complaint leveled against Bendis by many different comic reviewers and podcasters so I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. So, if you still feel compelled to buy this mini-series, go for it. Maybe the next one will be better. ;)

What I predict will happen is that somewhere around July or August we will see a lot of buyers remorse as those fans who bought into the hype with this series start to realize it just ain't that good.

- Jim

Minimum Wage Comics

2012-04-02T05:31:00.001-04:00

So last week I started reading the first incarnation of Batman and the Outsiders, and it got me thinking. Not about Mike Barr’s stories or Jim Aparo's adept art, but rather about the price, which was only .60 cents.

In 1983 (the date of publishing) you could buy 5 comics for an hour’s worth of minimum wage ($3.35 an hour).

As that was all I was making back then at the various jobs I was able to get at the time (Amusement park employee, Used Book Store clerk and Cafeteria worker), that economic relationship would have been of critical importance to me at the time.

Now, however, with the price of comics running more like 2.99 to 3.99, you can really only buy, at best, 2 comics for an hour’s worth of work at minimum wage. I wonder if that relationship (5 to 2) might not be proportional to the amount of comics sold now?

Meanwhile, movies [ http://boxofficemojo.com/about/adjuster.htm] have stayed in line with minimum wage, more or less, over the years.

So, in the 80's, the value of a movie and 5 comics were about equal with each other, whereas now, movies have the edge. (Unless you prefer 3D movies, which I think are a horrible waste of money, but that's a topic for another post.)

NOTE: I've heard that publishers used to keep the prices of comics artificially lower in previous decades than they do now. Can anyone confirm this?

- Jim

A Monster Called Continuity!

2012-03-25T13:19:00.000-04:00

There is an article in the Toronto Star featuring some candid thoughts from Marvel's main talent scout C.B. Cebulski wherein he explains why Marvel has begun double shipping so many comic titles of late:

We found, and part of the reason for this increased shipping, is that, there’s a larger growing disparity between best-sellers and mid-sellers and low-sellers. There’s good sellers and medium sellers but the lower sellers are selling lower, lower and dropping. And those were always miniseries or one-offs or things that don’t count. And what we’re finding now is that fans want things that are part of the continuity. They only want the main titles. They want Amazing Spider-Man, they don’t want Avenging Spider-Man.

I find this quote indicative of a trend I've been seeing which is the people buying comics now are getting more single (narrow?) minded in their buying habits. What used to work in the last decade (spinoffs of successful titles like Avengers and X-men titles) is now failing because the mish mosh of continuity that exists in 5 different Avengers comics tells this current generation of readers that the story doesn't matter.

And when you basically selling your comics solely on the principal that the story matters and this event will change everything you know about the Marvel Universe! then reader apathy is a death-knell.

So to combat this, Marvel has decided that since readers will only follow one comic continuity for Spider-man, then they will simply publish multiple issues of the chosen title.

That sounds bad to me. Aside from sounding like a stop gap solution that doesn't really address the real issues causing shrinking sales, it means that Marvel will be less inclined to produce comics which tell stories alongside their current continuity.

And I think people forget that stories can work like that. Fans tend to think of things as In Continuity or Out of Continuity but I think some stories can exist alongside continuity. When I used to read Marvel Team-Up back in the 70's, I never cared if the story I was reading was paying attention to regular Spider-man continuity (and often there were nods to what was going on in the other titles) All I cared about was did the issue I was reading follow the last issue I had been reading? Simply put: Was the internal continuity consistent?

For example, if Man-Wolf showed up at the end of Marvel Team-Up 36 one month:

Then I was expecting to see him in Issue 37.

Outside of that, I didn't care how closely the title was tied into events in Amazing Spider-man.

A lot of comic fans seem to want to take an all or nothing approach to continuity, believing that a tightly policed continuity makes for a good comic universe. I don't know how true that is. Yes, it's good if Green Kryptonite works the same way everytime Superman encounters it, but tight continuity is easier to manage in done in ones. When you have the same character in multiple tiles with long ongoing stories (like Wolverine), then continuity becomes a logistical monster. It's no wonder editors ignore it.

With that, I will leave you with today's free comic, a monster of another sort: Frankenstein!

- Enjoy!

Adventures Into Fear

2012-03-18T18:29:00.001-04:00

Last week saw a bit of good news for fans of Bronze Age Muck Monsters with the revelation that Marvel was going to publish a lost Steve Gerber Man-thing script.

From Marvel's Website:

INFERNAL MAN-THING, a three-issue limited series beginning in June, will present the final Steve Gerber Man-Thing tale, a previously-unknown story that until recently remained only a wishful thought in the hearts and minds of his devotees. To illustrate such a landmark series, Marvel has brought in the equally-acclaimed Kevin Nowlan.

I've always been a big fan of Man-thing, but over the years, he's never had the same success as his spiritual brother Swamp Thing. I think part of that has been that Man-thing, as a concept, doesn't play quite as well in Marvel's superhero filled universe as DC's version. There are only so many stories you can tell where Spider-man teams up with a character who doesn't say anything and burns the villain in the end. Swamp Thing, on the other hand, isn't mindless and has the advantage of being able to talk from time to time.

Also, much of Swamp Thing's longevity is no doubt due in part to the drastic shot in the arm Alan Moore gave the franchise. That coupled with his two movies, television series and cartoon give DC's bog beast stronger roots in readers minds.

Regardless of the reason, the various attempts to bring back Man-thing have been less than successful. Like the 90's version:

On the flip side, Jeff Parker has been using the character in some interesting ways in Thunderbolts, proving once again that in the hands of a good writer, even characters with some limitations can prove compelling.

Thinking on the news, I wondered if we might finally see an Adventures Into Fear Marvel Masterwork? There are two Man-thing Essentials, but I think the old stories deserve to be collected in color. Here's my mockup of such an edition.

Keeping in the theme of Muck Monsters, here is today's appropriate Free Comic. Airboy Comics 9, with the first appearance of The Heap!

Enjoy!
- Jim

With a single magic word...

2012-03-11T15:22:00.000-04:00

Well, congratulations to DC and Geoff Johns. They managed to shake me out of my extended break by giving us a small glimpse of their plans for revamping Captain Marvel into a new Grim and Gritty version.

Now, in all fairness to DC and Johns, the description of the series doesn't really say that the new version will be grim and gritty, but man, look at that picture. And here's a snippet of the description from the New York Post article on the subject:

“We changed his name [to Shazam] for a lot of reasons,” said Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns. “One of them is that Shazam is the word most associated with the character, so we just felt it made sense — a lot of people already thought that was his name, anyway.”

Actually, I would argue many people associate the word Shazam with Gomer Pyle...

...but let's skip that for now.

Here's the thing, WHY did DC think the Captain Marvel franchise really needed to be revamped in this fashion? Weren't they happy with the way the Jeff Smith Monster Society of Evil grahic novel came out?

At the time, it seemed like they were. And it still is lauded as a great example of a kid accessible graphic novel, so I kind of thought they would continue down that path. I even said I had positive hopes for John's version of the character a few months ago.
It appears I was wrong. :\

Anyway, enjoy today's Free Comic Monday which features another version of Captain Marvel which will undoubtedly be more lighthearted and enjoyable than anything we are likely to see in the near future.

[ Captain Marvel 01 ]

A quick word about my return to blogging: Posts on this site may be more infrequent or a bit less substantive than they have been in the past. That will be for a couple of reasons:

Currently Pierre is busy with an animation project
There are familial duties I must attend to on a weekly basis that take up quite a bit of my time (the original reason for my extended break)
And I have grown accustomed to a life outside of blogging.

I will try to have at least one good post for you each week, but sometimes, you may just have to settle for a hastily typed out rant on why modern comics suck or some such foolishness. ;)

- Jim

Extending The Break

2011-11-27T11:42:00.001-05:00

For various reasons, some professional and some personal, I will have to extend my Thanksgiving Break for an indefinite amount of time.

Thank you,

- Jim

Thanksgiving Break

2011-11-20T17:43:00.001-05:00

With deadlines looming and this being a short work week, I'm going to take a week off from posting to get caught up on projects and try to enjoy the holidays.

I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

- Jim

Pierre reviews The DC Universe Online

2011-11-17T05:43:00.001-05:00

Sometimes Pierre is hard at work on an animation project for a Canadian studio. Sometimes he is working on artwork for people like the recent horror story he worked on. Then sometimes, he is just playing games to relax. Today, Pierre tells us what he thinks about the DC Universe Online which he recently just started playing.

When DC Universe Online was first released, all the signs were pointing towards that it would be free to play before long. Heck even BEFORE it was released. For a MMORPG, there is no way that it had enough content for people to pay $15 a month. Also, the options to customize your character was limited at best. As more details about the game leaked out, it soon became obvious that only extreme DC fans would pay $15 a month to play this game.

I know a few full time gamers (I used to say professional gamers, but their lack of skill made me realise that although they were playing 80 hours a week, most of them weren’t very good), and for full time gamers, they would go through DCUO’s content with multiple characters in 2 weeks, maybe 3 weeks at most. Even casual gamers would take about one month to go through DCUO’s content. So how could Sony/DC expect people to pay $15 a month for DCUO??

If they had released new content on a regular basis, maybe people would have stuck around, but their first new content (War of the Light) was just released not that long ago. There is no way that people would pay if there was just that little content added.

So since November 1st, DCUO has been free to play. And like many, I was curious about it. So I did download it to try it out. I downloaded both the PS3 and the PC version of the game. But I mostly played the PS3 version so far. Why both?? I prefer to play on PS3 nowadays, but none of my PS3 friends are playing DCUO, and I have a few friends who play or will play on the PC.

No, I did not download it November 1st, I waited 2 weeks. I did not really have the time to try it out. And I expected that a LOT of people would try it out that first week, and I was pretty sure that Sony would never be prepared for the rise in traffic that DCUO would get. And even more when two weeks later, they still have a tough time adjusting themselves to all the new players that they have now. From what I read, it seems that they had 1 000 000 new players the first week they went free to play alone. I wonder how many more they got since then? And now, I am one of them new players. I don’t have much time to play, so I only played a few hours to get a feel of how the game works.

What I mostly did so far was play around with the character creator. In my book, the more options you have to customize your character, the better. DCUO is lacking a little in that department. It is somewhat limited and is missing some key elements.

I wanted to play as Batman, or Batman from Earth 53 or something, but that was not really an option. It seems that they went out of their way to try and prevent people to make their own Batman or Superman characters. But I will get back to that.

So I created the next best thing, Le Fantome (The Phantom in French).
And I made something that looks pretty close to the character.

Then I played around with the character creator and created Spider-man (either the 616 or the Ultimate version), Cyclops (his original costume and his “all new all different” one), Angel (at least 3 versions of his early costumes), the Punisher, Moon Knight, Colossus, Hawkeye, Storm Shadow, the Spectre, Invincible, and I have seen many Deadpool, Hulk, Iron-Man in the game, and despite DC’s best efforts I have seen many Nightwing, Robin, Green Arrow, and Superman, and others that I fail to mention. Somehow, it seems easier to make Marvel or other non-DC characters.

So after playing with the character creator, I tried the game itself, and it was fun. It is a game of button smashing, so if you guys expect a game with lots of strategy or with a deep story, you will be disappointed. But so far, it is a fun action game. But I only played a few hours, so maybe later in the game things are different. We will see.

The GOOD
It is fun to visit Gotham or Metropolis and see Superman, or to get a call from Oracle. If you are like me and miss the DCU already, you will get a kick of seeing them characters once more. And it is fun to fight the DCU villains like Brainiac, although early on what you see are actually his drones, but still you know that Brainiac is in there somewhere. ;)

The environments look nice, and it is fun to climb building or to jump from building to building. If you make yourself a Spider-man character, you will have lots of fun.

Lots of action! Sometimes, it is overwhelming when you get caught into a crowd of henchmen. But you will not run out of bad guys to fight.

The BAD
Not being able to play as Batman or Superman or any other DCU characters (unless you manage to create yourself a Nightwing645 with the character creator).

When I first heard about DCUO, not being able to play as a DCU character made NO SENSE. Why play DCUO then??? If you are going to play a generic character, why not play Champions or City of Heroes instead?? Why bother with DCUO then??

The argument is that it would be silly to have a 1000 Batman running around.
Really?? As opposed to Batman Inc?? Heck early on they go out of their way to introduce players to the multiverse and that there are infinite Earths. Why not allow players to play Batman from Earth 666 or something?? And if DC were worried that there would be too little diversity, you already see a LOT of the same characters over and over. So you might as well see a lot of Batmen.
Although now they have added the Green Lantern, Red Lantern, and the Sinestro Corps that you can be a member of as far as I understand. So that is a step in the right direction.

How about adding other DCU factions that you could be a member of??
How about being able to play as a member of Checkmate?? Or the Darkstars??
Heck you could have a thousand of those and it would not matter.
Also, there are only 2 cities, Gotham and Metropolis.

Did they really expect hardcore players to have enough of them 2 cities?? Even for a casual gamer that is not that much. You have to wonder what they were thinking. If they were adding one new city every month, Maybe that would make sense, but it took what, 6 months?? More??? For them to release their Green Lantern add-on. Ouch! (And I don’t even think that it adds a new city. Or does it add Coast City?? I could not find any info about this.)

The UGLY
Sometimes you have to wait 10 minutes, 20 minutes, as much as 45 minutes to play. It is not a problem at 3 AM, But between 5 PM to 10 PM, the waiting time can be long.

On the PS3 there are sound glitches - A lot. Too often, I lose the sound completely, or sometimes only a few sounds remain. It is not game breaker, but it can get annoying. Especially if Oracle gives you a call to explain to you your next mission and you can’t hear her. I hope they fix that soon.

Getting stuck in doorways - Sometimes, characters remain standing still right in the middle of a doorway blocking the way for everyone else. That can be annoying. There even was a time when one character was blocking one doorway, and two others blocked the other doorway trapping tree of us. Not fun when that happens. I hope they manage to find a way to fix that soon too. And as far as I can tell, there is NO Daily Planet in Metropolis. I have no idea why this was omitted, but that seems, odd to me. Although maybe it is there and I just did not see it yet??

So overall, it is a fun action game that will allow you to do a lot of button smashing on the PS3 or a lot of mouse clicking on PC. I might pay $10 for the Green Lantern add0on at some point. I would love to play a member of the Sinestro Corp.

So if you pass by Gotham and see Le Fantome prowling on a rooftop, come by and say “Hi”. ;)

Until next time.
- Pierre

The Dubious Return of The Twelve

2011-11-13T17:55:00.001-05:00

So, last week it was announced that Marvel were planning to finish The Twelve the J. Michael Straczynski grim and gritty Golden Age revival book which he abandoned in mid story so that he could go to DC and revitalize Superman and Wonder Woman (which he also abandoned.)

For those of you new to this blog, I have a love/hate relationship with Straczynski's writing. He seems determined to match every good idea he has with a worn out *shocking* idea from the 80's. If you have ever seen the final episode of M.A.S.H., that's pretty much how every JMS comic runs - hoary TV tropes served up with a dash of 60's pop psychology, but without the charm or humor of M.A.S.H.

A friend gave me the first Twelve graphic novel, which again, had some good ideas about it, but the scene with Rockman was one of those camel/straw moments, so I won't be picking up the new issues.

And thinking about it, I wonder about the wisdom of continuing this series anyway. Check out these numbers on from when the series was coming out regularly and JMS still had the glow of Spider-man and Thor about him...

92. TWELVE
12/07 Twelve #0 of 12 - 20,218
01/08 Twelve #1 of 12 - 40,199 (+98.8%)
02/08 Twelve #2 of 12 - 32,403 (-19.4%)
03/08 Twelve #3 of 12 - 32,729 ( +1.0%)
04/08 Twelve #4 of 12 - 29,729 ( -9.2%)
05/08 Twelve #5 of 12 - 29,876 ( +0.5%)
06/08 Twelve #6 of 12 - 29,303 ( -1.9%)
07/08 ---
08/08 Twelve #7 of 12 - 27,585 ( -5.9%)

Here is the sales numbers on The Twelve Spearhead

12 Spearhead 13540

Spearhead was a single issue spin off that came out May 2010. It was written by Twelve artist Chris Weston, whose artwork on the series has been great the entire time and proved to be an excellent writer on this one shot.

If you average out the last issue of The Twelve and Spearhead, you get 20K - which some people are calling Marvel's new cancellation point. Are retailers going to do that math? Or will they go check back on their old orders of the series to see how many they sold 4 years ago? Probably not. It's just a very different marketplace now. Today, The Twelve has to deal with readers that are a little bit disenchanted with JMS and a lotta bit more interested in the DC 52. Still, for some reason, Marvel felt like revisiting the Twelve was a better bet than continuing Alpha Flight. Go figure.

Anway, with all that said, today I'm revisiting another team up tale from the Golden Age: Prize Comics 24 which features the Prize heroes (Yank and Doodle, Green Lama, Doctor Frost and the Black Owl) vs Frankenstein.

[ Prize Comics 24 ]

- Enjoy!

10 Things About: Giant-Size Spider-Man 2

2011-11-11T07:42:00.001-05:00

You gotta love those Giant-Size Marvel comics! Check out the first time Spider-man teamed up with Shang - Chi, Master of Kung Fu!

1. Hello Karate Kraze! Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting back in the 70’s weren’t they? That was a special time when martial arts still had this cool factor about them. During the 80’s and 90’s, with the overuse of Ninjas in every comic, martial arts became less of a neat character attribute and more of clichéd afterthought.

2. Ross Andru – we miss you! One of Marvel’s workhorses, I don’t think Ross Andru has really gotten the recognition for his work on Spider-man in the 70’s. Check out how well the action and storytelling unfolds on this page.

3. Bronze Age Fu Manchu While I’ve always liked the idea of Fu Manchu in the Marvel universe, he never seemed to be as much of a mover and shaker as Dr. Doom or The Mandarin. He was more on the level of Kingpin in that his appearances were usually confined to the pages of Master of Kung Fu. Still, it's cool to see him here.

4. Shang – Chi’s costume When using characters with martial arts skills, artists have the challenge of having to find a way to make the classic Gi interesting on a comic book page. Sometimes, you end up with less than interesting costumes (like Karate Kid’s first uniform.) Not so with Shang-Chi’s costume. The use of red and yellow make it stand out while still keeping it from looking too much like a superhero costume.

5. Chapter Two – Cross and Double Cross Remember when comics used to have chapters in them? That was great because dividing a story into chapters forces the writer to have something happen in each chapter. You can bet a comics not going to be a slow decompressed multi-issue snoozer when it’s divided into 3 chapters in one issue.

6. Shang Chi vs Spider-Man Starting on page 15 till page 20 we get 5 pages of awesomely choreographed superhero fight scenes as only the bronze age could do it! Both Len Wein and Ross Andru outdid themselves here with this fight scene. And for those of you keeping track, this is the THIRD fight scene we’ve had in this comic so far! Imagine THAT in today’s slow moving, talking head comics. Even when modern comics do have a lot of fight scenes they have devolved to using generic ninjas and robots most of the time.

7. Chapter 3 – The Deadly FEET of Kung Fu Observe out the fancy footwork on this page. Of course our heroes realize they need to team up to defeat Fu Manchu. Together they storm his inner sanctum which leads us to our 4th fight scene in the comic.

8. The Imposing Figure of Black Jack Tarr! This is a guy who is really needs his own mini-series!

Wikipedia has a full rundown on him: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Jack_Tarr but he’s essentially a sort of Dum Dum Dugan for Denis Nayland Smith’s Nick Fury. Smith is straight from the Fu Manchu series but Tarr was created for the Marvel series to provide a colorful supporting character. He apparently appeared recently in something called Ultimate Human by Warren Ellis, but since my eyes bleed dark ooze anytime I read anything written by Warren Ellis of late, I avoided it.

9. Falling Down! More evidence that Ross Andru was the man. Notice the interesting use of perspective in the side panel.

10. Fu Man Who? Something intrinsic to the Bronze Age is that moment when characters sort of get shook up by some revelation that what they thought was a fictional world or character is indeed a real one (Dracula, The Frankenstein Monster, Captain Marvel) Here Spider-Man deals with is post-modern existential dilemma when he discovers he shares the same universe (for now at least) as Fu Manchu.

And so ends another great Bronze Age classic!
Have a great weekend!

- Jim

What's Pierre Been Up To Lately?

2011-11-09T06:21:00.002-05:00

I asked Pierre what he's been up to while I've been busy on other projects and this is what he said:

A couple of weeks ago, we had a screening where we saw on the big screen a few scenes of an animated 3D movie with them 3D glasses that I worked on last spring. Although I fail to see the appeal of seeing movies in 3D, the movie should look nice visually, and I really liked the music. But there is still a lot of animation and post production work to do. So we will have to wait and see for the final look of the film.

This will be my second feature film. Hopefully, it will have more success than the first film I worked on (Heavy Metal 2000). ;)

Sadly, I can’t really talk about it yet. I don’t know when the film will be in theatres yet. It will be in theatres very late 2012 at the earliest, but odds are that it will be released in 2013.

But one project that I can talk about, is some comic book work that I did recently. It’s a short story for some horror anthology that was released around the time of the All Hallow’s Eve. ;)

But it is in an arcane language, so sadly for most of our Flashback Universe readers, you guys may have a tough time reading it. ;)

You can see the cover here;

http://lafabriquedeshorreurs.com/

And if you click on the cover, you will see 3 pages from the story that I drew. It is a nice short story that has some fun moments.

I always find it strange, because when I think of my style, the last thing I think of is “horror”. But this is the second time I get asked to work on some horror comic, so maybe there is something that I don’t see??? ;)

There should be a second issue in December. I will give you guys more info when I can. I also did a Commander X pin-up that you should be able to see also in December.

Commander X is the type of project fans of the Flashback Universe will enjoy! You can get more info here:

http://jaypiscopo.blogspot.com/2010/12/commander-x-mas-is-on-way.html

Being asked to make the Commander X pin-up made more sense to me since it had a very retro feel/flavour to it. Although Jay Piscopo does some nice work on his own, . So I fail to see why he needed me.

But what can I say, I never say no when people offer me money. ;)

But seriously, it was a fun pin-up to make. Can’t wait for you guys to get the chance to see it.

And to end this blog on a Halloween related note, for Halloween this year, I decided to try out the movie Twilight, to see what all that “Twilight” phenomenon/craze is all about.

And that picture that I saw on Facebook pretty much sums up my thoughts on the film;

Hope you guys had a fun Halloween. ;)

Until next time. ;)

-Pierre

The New King of Comic Sales

2011-11-07T05:59:00.000-05:00

What a difference a few days makes. Last Monday, I was talking about Marvel's Day and Date Digital announcement. I thought that news would keep Marvel in the spotlight of the comics blogoverse for a while, but Friday DC stole Marvel's thunder when Bleeding Cool revealed DC outsold Marvel for October.

And for the most part, the comments (over a hundred so far) are very positive and congratulatory to DC. It seems that most readers are glad to see DC succeeding with the relaunch.

Some naysayers are talking about how things will return to normal (ie: Marvel going back to the top sales spot) in a few months, but I wouldn't count on that.

For one thing there are quite a number of new DC projects coming up in the 2nd wave of the relaunch including these titles:

A new JSA book
A new Captain Marvel book (spinning out of the Justice League back up series)
Watchmen 2
Grant Morrison's Multiversity
Batman Inc. (Which I was really enjoying until the hiatus)
World's Finest (or some Batman/Superman team up book)

With those titles on the horizon and the current line doing so well, I think Marvel will have a hard time dethroning the new king of the charts. Marvel's usual strategy of countering with new versions of Avengers, Spider-man and X-men have all been played out. This current overturning actually takes place in a month when Marvel released their new Wolverine and the X-men 1, which came in behind Incredible Hulk 1 (which just goes to show how much clout that franchise has lost due to overexposure.)

Here is a chart of the top ten for October. Looking at it, the number of $3.99 comics is a little dismaying. Also, if you know someone who paid $4.99 for Fear Itself 7, please give them my sympathy. :D I've heard nothing but disappointment about that series. It appears to have been a Toy Pitch gone bad.

1	JUSTICE LEAGUE #2	$3.99	DC
2	BATMAN #2	$2.99	DC
3	ACTION COMICS #2	$3.99	DC
4	GREEN LANTERN #2	$2.99	DC
5	FLASH #2	$2.99	DC
6	DETECTIVE COMICS #2 [*]	$2.99	DC
7	INCREDIBLE HULK #1	$3.99	MAR
8	WOLVERINE AND THE X-MEN #1	$3.99	MAR
9	FEAR ITSELF #7	$4.99	MAR
10	SUPERMAN #2 [*]	$2.99	DC

With that, I present today's Free Comic, featuring another sort of King. The Boy King! from Clue Comics 5

- Enjoy!

Comments on Marvel Going Digital Day & Date

2011-11-04T06:11:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Gizmodo (a tech blog I follow in my google feeds) had an exclusive article that broke the news that by April, Marvel will make all of their published superhero titles available digitally on the same day as they hit the retail shops.

Now, to be honest, I suspect this move doesn't surprise anyone who is a regular reader of this blog. Once DC did it, we all sort of knew it would only be a matter of time (months) before Marvel followed step.

What I've found the most interesting are some of the comments from comic fans on the news. For the most part readers seem to be very happy with this news (as expected) and the usual Greek chorus of people screaming they will never read digital comics seems no where in sight. There are a few people who have posted some interesting thoughts:

From the iFanboy comments:

WeaklyRoll says:

[ What's next? A ] digital only series...?

gobo says:

Now hopefully Marvel will start doing a wait one 1 month/$1 off price drop

Jdudley says:

Marvel really needs to pull the “drop prices after 4 weeks” move. As of now, it’s completely unclear when the digital price of marvel’s books will go down to 1.99.

I have to imagine it’s a man-hour issue. Going full-line day and date requires quite a few new employees and/or shifting job descriptions. I’d wager that the recent staff layoffs at marvel have something to do with this momentum shift. Still, this is a good milestone for digital. I think that the digital marketplace will HAVE to ultimately force marvel to smaller price points, but that won’t necessarily happen immediately. Once the company is settled into digital releases and slightly less reliance on the sales of increasingly expensive printing… the prices really SHOULD come down.

Nerd_Raaage says:

“…now Marvel have crunched the numbers, and protection of the direct market has given way to desire for more revenue.”

It’s not Marvels responsibility to protect the direct market. Nor do I believe that it was ever their intent. Their responsibility is to maintain their existence and profitability. The best way for them to do that is to maintain their customer base by providing a quality product, at a reasonable price, in the manor that best meets the needs of the customer.

I fully support small businesses…when the relationship is mutually beneficial. The closest ‘local’ comic shop is a two hour drive for me. There is no benefit for me in making that drive to purchase comics or to pay extra and wait a few days on a delivery service.

My thoughts are, yeah, the next step will be a Digital Only comic much like how Marvel had three Direct Sales titles back in the 80's (Micronauts, Moon-Knight and Ka-Zar.)

I also think that we will some eventual price competition between both companies in the digital realm. Eventually, someone is going to figure out how to keep track of the stats of how things are selling on Comixology - or Comixology will offer up the stats themselves.

Finally, I keep seeing people saying it's silly that digital versions are the same price as the paper versions, and while I too doubt the economics involved in production in both areas could result in similar pricing, I don't think $2.99 is too much to pay for a digital version. For one thing, you don't spend any gas getting it. Also, I'm paying a little bit to avoid the disappointment of going to my comic shop and discovering they didn't order enough copies so I wasted a trip.

Have a great weekend!

- Jim

Pierre Speaks About Thor Books

2011-11-02T06:00:00.002-04:00

Today, Pierre gives us his thoughts on two recent collections of Thor comics

I had fun watching the Thor film when it first came out in theatre. The film was far from perfect, but it had some fun moments. Whenever I watch it again, I still get Goosebumps when Odin whispers to the hammer “Whoever holds this hammer, . If he be worthy, shall possess the power of Thor”. That or Loki calling Thor “The Mighty Thor” with all the disdain and venom in his tone that only Loki could manage. Those have to be my favourite moments in the Thor film.

So while I had a good time watching that film, I can’t say that I am a big Thor fan. I enjoyed his appearances in the Avengers comics, I liked the character well enough, but I rarely bought the Thor comic itself. So I pretty much ignored the Ultimate Thor comic when it first was released.

Not being one to usually buy a Thor comic, and not much of an Ultimate fan, I saw little reason to even check this comic out when it was first released. But then some time ago, I saw the Ultimate Thor HC for $12.99 CAN. So I figured, “What the heck, at worse I will have some Pacheco artwork to look at”.

I usually am a fan of Pacheco’s artwork, but was not too thrilled since he has been back at Marvel on the Ultimates. But I kind of like some of Hickman’s work as well, so I was curious to check out how well they worked together.

And I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised.

Despite knowing where the story leads to, there were a few nice twists and turns that I did not expect. There were a few nice surprises in this tale that I enjoyed. And I liked Pacheco’s artwork despite his attempt to be Bryan Hitch sometimes. I prefer by far the approach he had when he was drawing Avengers Forever.

But overall, it was worth it. I would never have paid its original cover price of $19.99 US/$22.50 CAN. But at $12.99 CAN?? It was worth it. To me, the Ultimate Thor HAS to be the one we find in The Mighty Thor Omnibus by Walter Simonson and Sal Buscema.

Yes there were some great Thor comics by Kirby, by John Buscema/Tom Palmer, or by DeFalco and Frenz/Breeding, but the Omnibus by Simonson and Sal Buscema HAS to be the ultimate tale with the character.

No, not the ultimate tale, that is wrong somehow, the Ultimate SAGA with the character. Heck they even did a pretty kick-ass job recoloring the comics for the Omnibus itself.

I wonder why that omnibus was recolored and not the Wolverine Omnibus or the Secret Wars Omnibus or the upcoming John Byrne FF Omnibus?? Although they have recolored the upcoming X-Men Omnibus by Claremont and Jim Lee.

So will Marvel start to recolor all of their Omnibuses?? Or will it be a once in a while occasion??

When Simonson started his Thor run many winters ago, I was not too crazy about it. I thought his work looked weird, especially compared to some John Buscema/Tom Palmer Thor comics that came before that. It took me some years to get used to Simonson’s work. Heck it’s only when I first saw some black and white artwork by him in various publications that I started to appreciate the graphic approach that he had in his work.

The same thing happened with Mignola. I had to see some black and white artwork by him before I was charmed by his work and could start to appreciate it.

So I pretty much missed Simonson’s Thor run initially and would only later start to get some TPBs of his work. And only once I got the Balder the Brave Marvel Premiere HC would I realise that Sal Buscema had worked with Walt on this run.

So once the Thor Omnibus by Simonson was announced, you can be sure that no force on Earth would keep me from getting my hands on it. ;) As you guys probably know by now, I am a HUGE Sal Buscema fan. So it is a special treat whenever I find some tales by him that I never saw/read before.

But this Omnibus is a wonderful book not only because I was able to read more stories drawn by Sal, but for many other reasons as well. The new more modern coloring fits well with the artwork from past decades. So each page is beautifully drawn and recolored to have the best of both eras. It includes the first appearance of Beta Ray Thor and the Balder the Brave mini-series.

And there are some nice extras at the end. Some nice character sketches, some promotional artwork, and some pin-ups. It is truly a great book. And it is HUGE!! It is like 100 000 pages thick, okay, okay, it is more like almost 1200 pages, but that still is a lot of Thor pages. I can tell you, you will give yourself a tendonitis lifting the darn thing.

So the ONE drawback is that you will need to read this at home on some sort of table. There is no way you can carry this around and read it on the bus, or read it in the bathroom while doing your business. You will need some proper support to comfortably read it. But each pages, each panel will be 100% worth it.

It is a Mighty book that any Thor fan, any Marvel fan or, heck, any comic fan should own. So if you want to be pleasantly surprised by a recent comic, give a try to the Ultimate Thor. You probably can get the TPB for fairly cheap by now.

But if you want to read a Mighty SAGA of EPIC proportions, then you MUST read what is truly the Ultimate Thor SAGA in The Mighty Thor Omnibus by Simonson and Sal Buscema. You will not regret it. I guarantee it.

Have a good day.

Paper Comics Walking DeadWatch

2011-10-31T06:09:00.000-04:00

This weekend I was shocked as my Sister-in-law, who has not set foot in a comics shop in over 25 years, explained to me how the Comixology website works! Here's what the deal was:

She's been watching Walking Dead on TV
Gina (my wife) loaned her the first Walking Dead Graphic novel.
A friend on facebook (someone from her high school days who still reads comics) told her how to get more issues on Comixology

Since then she's bought over 80 issues of the series from the website and is currently caught up on the entire run.

AND because she was buying her comics from the site, she found out about the DC Relaunch and is now buying Aquaman, Justice League, Animal Man, Green Lantern and Green Lantern Corps.
She asked me to recommend some other titles, so I suggested Y, The Last Man and the new Wonder Woman.

I mention all this because whenever I post one of my sidewalk rants about how paper comics are going to practically disappear soon, my critics always like to counter by suggesting that the process will be a slow, steady decline which might take decades. What those naysayers always forget is that sometimes things happen, like a Walking Dead television show, that causes a huge tidal wave of interest in digital comics. These unexpected (by my critics at least) paradigm shifts in turn cause other jumps in the process (like DC making a Y, the Last Man movie) which perpetuates the accelerated decline.

That may seem like an awful lot to extrapolate from the random buying habits of my Sister-in-law, but as card games go, Marvel/Disney have yet to make a grand play, so let's keep watching.

With that, I present today's Halloween themed Free Comic:

Weird Terror!

- Enjoy!

High Rez Review | Daredevil

2011-10-29T13:24:00.000-04:00

Today, Caine brings us another Hi Rez Review. This time of the first story arc of the newly relaunched Daredevil.

The man without fear (Daredevil) is bringing fun back.

Let me just get this out there: I wasn't a fan of the Bendis/Maleev 4 year run on Daredevil and I'm happy to say that Mark Waid and Paolo Rivera's run hits the ground running 180 degrees in the opposite direction story wise.

Mark Waid has done an excellent job of taking everything that's happened to Matt over the last six or eight years: quantified it; keeps what he likes; and respectfully leaves everything else alone like a sleeping junk yard dog. Those story elements haven't been thrown away or removed from cannon they are just no longer the focus of the book and are clearly in Matt's (and the supporting characters) history.

The first issue opens up MacGyver style where Daredevil ends one mission and starts another as Matt Murdock in Matt's own corner of hell's kitchen: the court room. He takes on the legal defense of an innocent man that only Matt believes to be innocent but he'll need more than Foggy Nelson and a good honest judge to prove it. Don't forget the world still feels as if there may be some truth to the rumors that Matt Murdoc is Daredevil - who recently went insane and might be responsible for several deaths in the Shadowland incident.

Matt's powers and abilities as well as Matt's personality under the Daredevil mask, are put to good use in the story. Mark Waid has re-established Matt as as solid individual dedicated to a mission. Mark has captured a Matt Murdock that's not been seen for a decade or more, he's shed a lot of Matt's darker pshycological aspects (I don't want to label them as I've not read DD in a few years because of them). There's a lot more dare than devil in DD these days.

While Mark has shed plenty of what's been done to Matt as of late, it's not been forgotten or dissapeared completely. That would be cheating (like a reboot or relaunch of sorts huh DC?) so Mark embraces it and those elements serves to enhance the story.

The second issue (as well as the third) is structured very similarly to the first with Daredevil having to answer for his crimes of the past via a unique pop quiz delivered to him by another superhero and only once he's passed it (sort of) can he be allowed to move forward and continue with the legal case that consumes his mission for justice. Let me just say that Mark Waid is the master of the one page character introduction and he uses the technique in all three issues.

While Daredevil is slightly put off guard at the start of the test he's not helpless and it doesn't take him long to figure out who's testing him. It's a man in the Marvel Universe "with a heart beat like none other in the world". ~Mark Waid

Mark is able to use the test to share new aspects of both the characters and instantly remind us the reader that Daredevil has a large history of doing good in the Marvel Universe and is interconnected to several of the heroes of the even though he's never been a mainstay of any particular team book.

As the issue rounds out to the end Mark again finds a way to keep Daredevil of guard in a very unique fashion, if this keeps up I imagine it to being similar to Ron Marz's promise to never have Green Lantern craft the same thing twice while ring slinging.

This is an awesome scene, easily one of my favorites.

Once again as issue three opens the single page intro (or recap - or both) is used really well here. Mark infuses a single page with enough dialogue to remind us of who Daredevil is, why hes currently in the perdicament he's in, how much history he has with the Marvel Universe, and how much lighter his outlook on life is now a days.

The true villain is finally revealed, and we the readers see how this villain's actions effect both the street crime Daredevil is dealing with as well as the court battle tangling up Matt and DD's lifes on all sides.

This issue has a lot more action in it. The court room/ street battle ratio is flipped with issue three in that the street battle is favored and it's moved to the front of the book so that the court room can be in the back. Like an ending of sorts. A happy ending? We'll you'll have to read it to find out.

I can't recommend this book enough. It's a light read, but one not done in five minutes (I always hate that). It's a fun read that will leave yo laughing. It's an action packed adventure captured very effectively in 2d and not surprising it's just damn good.

~Caine

Kickstarting Comics

2011-10-26T06:22:00.001-04:00

I am continually intrigued with Kickstarter, that site where people post details about an upcoming project (comic, movie, book, etc...) and implore strangers to contribute to the costs of the project in return for some a perk (your name in the credits, original artwork, ect...)

It sounds almost too good to be true. If you make your goal, you get your money. So, after months of begging your facebook friends to contribute, if you asked for $5000, and you end up with $8000, you're golden. Like the project by Travis Hanson who is working on a graphic novel called Travis the Bean which looks like the sort of thing I would really enjoy:

The flipside is if you don't meet your goal, the people who pledge don't get billed and you end up getting nothing. For contributors, it's sort of a no lose situation and I've contributed to quite a few projects myself. Still, there are plenty of projects that don't meet their goal. Like this one Pierre sent me via email. This guy was was trying to get a set of Bronze Age homage called Magnet Comics funded.

He was asking for about $20K and only got $637 (which because it was short, means he didn't get anything.)

I think the key is to set a low goal, but then if your goal is too low, how do you publish the project?
Anyone out there have any personal experience with Kickstarter? Either as a creator or a contributor?

Also, I'm not really interested in making paper comics or graphic novels, so I wonder if people contribute to digital comic projects? I'll have to search the site some more and see if I can't get some meaningful statistics.

- Jim

Marvel - All Winners or All Losers?

2011-10-24T05:59:00.000-04:00

So...in case you haven't been following the comics news-a-net lately, Marvel seems to be showing signs of what I like to call, Ef Upedness lately. It's that point in a company's lifespan when you start to see the writing on the wall that indicates you need to get the hell out of there because it might not be around for long.

First, they have been laying off an alarming amount of staffers even after reporting a profit for this quarter.

Second, among the layoffs were employees in the Digital division? (Yeah, that's a smart place to trim, cuz that whole digital comic thing is just a fad.)

Third, and less harrowing, but still telling, they cancelled the All-Winners Band of Brothers mini-series in mid run

Over at Blog@Newsarama.com, this commenter summed up my feelings pretty well:

Hawk_Fan Says:
October 22nd, 2011 at 10:03 am
I am annoyed by any of these titles being cancelled, but it doesn’t surprise me. The one that REALLY gets my goat though is ALL-WINNERS SQUAD: BAND OF HEROES There are 7000+ people that are reading that mini And enjoying it) with more waiting for the trade.

If Marvel cannot complete a commitment to the fans (they comitted to a mini-series, its not like anyone expected an on-going!) by producing just 8 issues then they should not be in business. I understand low sales causing an on-going (or what was thought to be up-graded to an on-going) to be cancelled but to canceo a mini-series is both lazy and un-professional.

As noted, there are 7000+ fans who want to see the story completed asnd, for a mini-series the sales figures have not been bad!

Now, I'll be honest, I wasn't buying All-Winners Squad because, well, y'know (Modern Comics Suxors) but I have to agree with Hawk_Fan. There is something particularly suspcious about Marvel pulling the rug out from under a mini-series that only had 3 more issues to go.

I've gone on record on the net several times about having my doubts with this whole Disney/Marvel thing. Disney just doesn't strike me as a company that see the value in owning a comic book company. Disney comics sell very well all across the world but even then, Disney just liscenses out the characters to other publishers. When I was a kid, I read Disney stories published in Gold Key Digests

More recently, Disney comics have been published by Gemstone and Boom! My daughter read the Fairies of Pixie Hollow published by PaperCutz

I know a creator who works on Disney comics who has told me face to face that Disney has no interest in the comic book business. And why should they? Disney makes more money off of Movies, Toys and Theme Parks than Marvel could ever imagine. A comic that sells 100K is a big deal to the comic world, but to Disney, that's not worth getting out of bed for.

So, at the end of the day, when Ike Perlmutter has to explain to his new bosses how Marvel missed their quarterly expectations, I can see how he might end the explanation with..."But we are looking for ways to trim costs..."

Perhaps I should start a Marvel Comics Deathwatch?

Anway, as far as All Winners Squad goes, none of the old Golden Age comics are in Public Domain, so for today's Free Comic, I present All Good Comics 04.

- Jim