Charles Soule’s writing and Marco Checchetto’s art come together well. There’s also some nice back story featuring Palpatine / Mace Windu – this five-issue series is looking good.

—–

Have you checked out Comicdom’s newest forums? Go to Panel Junkies – non-profit independent web forum for comic collectors and creators.

Web forums have fallen a little out of favour in recent years but in discussions with different people in the past year it’s apparent that a lot of us over the age of 30 still really like using forums if they’re interesting and growing.  Growth requires people to sign up, so if you want to join a brand new comics forum that’s not aligned with any news site or company, then head over to Panel Junkies here:

http://paneljunkies.boards.net 

Yes, we’re a news site and we’ve set up the forums but they are called something totally different for a reason: they’re free, not-for-profit (the ads on there go to the board provider, not us) and it’s about open discussion. Hope to see you there!

So you are a budding artist or writer that wants to have your work published.

You want to be paid for the work that you do.

Well here is your chance. XCT one of Australia’s most successful independent comic book series is creating a new graphic novel this year filled with 10 short stories from the XCT universe. We are offering 10 writers and 10 artists the opportunity to be a part of this exciting project and get paid.

So how do you get involved?

All you need to do is send an expression of interest email to xct@comics2movies.com.au along with samples or links to your artwork/scripts, as well as your page rates. Please also attach a paragraph about yourself and why you believe you would be a perfect fit for XCT project.

Good Luck!

Please note page rates may be negotiated and all payments will be made in Australian Dollars

Add in Murdock as a prosecutor and all the ingredients are there for a great series.

The result is actually the opposite: a totally entertaining, plausible story line that keeps the best aspects of the original without making it seemed forced.

A title that will be a stayer.

Take this interesting set of images and associated comment from a parent’s friend:

Letter a friend of mine’s daughter received from school today. Her Wonder Woman lunchbox features a violent super hero that does not comply with the school’s dress code.

Assuming the letter is legit (you just never know), then someone needs a solid dose of reality checking about what is violent imagery and what isn’t.

What’s your take?

[Original source of images]

But before I get onto that, I just want to put it out there that I was cynical about the whole Secret Wars / Battleworld thing from the time it was announced. I saw it as both an overt money grab and a lazy way to change a whole bunch of character relationships and storylines. I actually still think I’m right to some extent on both those counts, but given I’ve only read Secret Wars #1 up until now, it’s not fair for me to stake my claim too forcefully.

The 1872 title stood out for me as something a little different, given it was featuring the long-dormant character Red Wolf. I decided to add the title to my pull list and I’m really glad I did. Set in the Wild West of… 1872… I was expecting something a little quirkier than the more standard superhero titles and I was spot on in that expectation.

The town of Timely has Wilson Fisk as its Mayor. It’s Sheriff is Steve Rogers and its newspaper editor is Ben Urich. The town drunk is a Mr T Stark and there’s a nerdy guy called Bruce Banner as well. Get the picture? Writer Gerry Duggan could have turned the premise into a feast of in-jokes feast thankfully he hasn’t, instead focusing on the story itself and the qualities these characters bring to the situation at hand.

Nik Virella’s art is excellent, creating an authentic Western feel without overstating the case.

This is a title I’ll be buying to the end, and it’s also made me think twice about checking out some of the other new titles. Hats off to the team on this title: you’ve managed to do something fresh that will likely stand the test of time well. Not just real time: Marvel time even!

It’s coming up quick: Wollongong’s premier pop culture event run by Wollongong City Council is hitting on the 16th May. The official program for the event is on its way but all the key info is now online. You can find out which workshops you can sign up for, what stalls and clubs you can check out, and which artists you can go and hob-knob with.

Add to that the fact that Wollongong once again gets its own comic shop on the same day, and 16th May is looking like one hell of a day.

All the Comic Gong info can be seen in one place here.

So I’m pleased to hear that a trade paperback of the 8-issue series from IDW is hitting shelves on the 29th April. I’ve had a quick look through the TP and it doesn’t disappoint.

Check out the IDW website next week for more details.

The shop is definitely opening, but there’s a crowd-funding campaign underway to ensure it has a wide range of stock when it does. Am I excited? Damn straight I am. There’s nothing better than hearing a comic store is opening, let alone in the neighbourhood. Plus I’m already preparing my CV for the Sunday Jeff position

Have a read of the story over at The Illawarra Mercury or go direct to Shane’s crowd funding page right here. The team also have a Facebook page where you can get updates.

The Devil You Know begins by introducing us to the Greydon Cross, an unspecified executive at and undefined company, who comes home to find his wife and child murdered and is then shot by Satan himself. When he wakes up in Purgatory, he is met by God who describes the relationship between Heaven and Hell as somewhat mutually beneficial agreement, but Satan has been a bit of a pain lately, so he wants Greydon to kill Satan, and take his place. Greydon agrees, and dives (literally) headfirst into Hell without any hesitation – and that’s only the first eleven pages.

There is nothing wrong with packing a story with so much that it is overflowing. In fact, the first issue of any new series is going to come across this challenge. The problem with The Devil You Know is that it has so much within its first 22 pages alone, that any character comes across as a vessel for the action rather than a living, breathing, person. The murder of Greydon’s family takes two pages, and it doesn’t seem to affect him at all beyond a few swear words- in fact it doesn’t even seem to come up again throughout the next two issues at all. I’m not saying that this series has to be centered around the grief and heartbreak of Greydon losing his family, but on one page he says that “my family was really the only thing I cared about” – so even a mention of them would have been nice, considering that they are the reason he is taking on this mission in the first place.

Greydon isn’t the only character who suffers from flat characterisation. God comes across as a vessel for exposition and plot developments – without any hint of immense power or stature. Every other person Greydon meets fall into a small pool of character archetypes, like the noble savage or the tough woman, without exploring the possibilities offered by them. It feels generic and flat and doesn’t give any tension to any of the action, of which there is plenty.

What does stand out for the most part is the art. Kellik’s pencils invoke a grittier version of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, and the monster designs while fairly standard, are fun and well executed. Nunun Nurjannah’s inks and Victoria Pittman’s colouring do make the art look a little too clean in the first issue, but they begin to compliment the pencil work of Kellik nicely by the third. The action is expressive, and while it it may be hard to place the positions of the characters in some scenes, for the most part the action is easy to follow.

The Devil You Know has all of the ingredients of a great story – the art is fluid and the premise sound – but the creative team hasn’t quite found a way to put them together yet that satisfies, putting all of the courses on a single plate without letting the reader enjoy each individual bite. If the team can slow down, and place a bit more focus on character, then they could have a winning book on their hands.

You can buy the title on Comixology here.

Following the successful launch recently in Melbourne of their anthology Melbourne Comics Quarterly, the Melbourne Comics Community will be doing their first Regional Launch and it’s exclusive to the Bendigo Record Comic and Toy Fair.  Melbourne Comics Quarterly Issue 1 second print has a new cover which will be launched at the Bendigo Record Comic and Toy Fair.

Artists confirmed so far are:

SAUCE‘s Falling Star creator – Cristian Roux
That Bulletproof Kid‘s creators – Matt Kyme
From Above comic book creator – Craig Bruyn
Killeroo creator – Darren Close
Gaining Velocity and Melbourne Comics publishers and editor Alana Bruyn and Neville Howard
www.whitecatpress.com creator Dale Maccanti.

Specialist back issue dealers will also be present, as well as vinyl and toy sellers.  It all takes place on March 22nd, at the Bendigo Expo Centre, in the Prince of Wales Showgrounds, Holmes Road Bendigo, from 10am to 4pm.  For more info check out the Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/BendigoRCandTFair or email Bendigorctfair@outlook.com.

Darth Vader is everything you’d expect plus some. Vader’s personal agendas, combined with a Empire struggling to regain its feet after the loss of the (first) Death Star make for a great story. Kieron Gillen’s writing is strong and like Jason Aaron’s work on the flagship Star Wars title, replicates the atmosphere of the original movies beautifully. Salvador Larroca’s art is top notch as well, with some great full page Darth Vader art to stop and savor. The scene in Jabba’s palace with the full audience is alone worth the price of admission.

It’s been way too long since I’ve been truly excited about Marvel titles, but Darth Vader (and Star Wars) are definitely in that category at the moment.

Why are you not reading this?

Snowed in today, so project time. A file cabinet I bought for $2.00 and a stack of comics with no covers and missing pages. What I got was a super cool comic storage- took several hours, but turned out great. Wanted to share with my comic friends..

Jeff – I think you should go into business with these!

Art Kevin Enhart Newel Anderson

Colours Jimmy Kerast

Right off the bat, Satanic Hell is going to draw comparisons with Sean Murphy’s Punk Rock Jesus. Both deal with strong anti-establishment types of music – Heavy Metal for the former and Punk rock with the latter – and both deal similarly with religious fanaticism, and how the cast reacts to it. But that’s where these similarities begin and end. Where Punk Rock Jesus took a more nuanced response to Christian fanaticism, Satanic Hell simply decides that it wants to flip the bird to fundamentalist Christianity, and ride off into the sunset in a black hearse. Although the themes are completely sound in a ridiculous kind of way, the characterisations of the cast feel week, and the story doesn’t rise above feeling fairly flat.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Satanic Hell is set in a dystopic Texas, where financial woes on a state-wide scale have led to a fundamentalist sect of Christians taking over the governing body. Abortion is illegal, homosexuality is medicated and repressed and, of course, rock music is banned. Enter Satanic Hell, a three man heavy metal group – Exodus, Dante, and Death Priest – who are delivering their own brand of revolution in a series of underground shows. If that sounds completely ridiculous, that’s because it is. The entire thing has a strong pulpy vibe to it in a way that means if anyone tried to parse the particulars of how these events came about, you’re bound to find some holes, so it’s best to sit back and enjoy the ride.

The problem is that to back up a tale as ridiculous as this, it needs a strong central cast. That’s where Satanic Hell stumbles – none of its three main characters are particularly interesting, each feeling less like real people and more like they came straight out of an angst ridden teenager’s creative writing project. They never rise above the stereotypes, even so far as Dante having a fairly clichéd upbringing, and it means that the events that take place never feel like they have much weight. Again, there isn’t inherently wrong with this cast of characters, they just don’t feel fully realised yet.

That said, there are some fairly decent moments in these two issues. The scene involving two clueless Christians and Death Priest carrying the cross is fairly amusing in a ridiculous kind of way, and the show the band plays has some of Enhart and Anderson’s best art across the two issues. Helped along by Jimmy Kerast’s muted colours and use of light, their art is suitably grimy and rough. Aside from problems regarding the similar facial designs, the art is strong across the board.

That’s the main crux of these two issues – with having to build such a ridiculous world, the characterisations have suffered. But with the promise of such a world, and backed up by some solid art, Satanic Hell could flesh out into something fun, and only two issues in, it definitely has time to do so.

(Click on pic for full size)

To you sir I tip my hat – well done.

This series was making me angry largely because I felt that it was missing something essentially Sandman about it. There were some very Neil Gaiman-esque touches through the story, and some familiar themes were being re-visited (dreams of cats, Morpheus being a callous bastard and having to deal with the fallout, rules that are meant to be followed, stories within stories), but it felt like it had been written by a Neil Gaiman plot generator. All of the elements were present, but there was something genuine missing.

Or maybe I had just not been paying enough attention. So I re-read the 4 issues out to date in one sitting, to see if it was me, or if, indeed, Neil had lost the plot (so to speak).

It turns out, it’s a bit of both, I reckon.

The story makes more sense now. But I reckon I’ve put my finger on why I’m annoyed with this series, given I’m such a fan of Sandman in particular, and Neil Gaiman generally.

I don’t care about what’s happening in this series. Or why.

Sandman Overture seems to be explaining to us the events behind and the reasons why Morpheus was weakened enough to allow himself to be captured at the beginning of the Sandman series. It’s a prequel. The trouble is, I’d never really given it a thought as to why Morpheus was weakened enough to be imprisoned in the first place. I never felt that it needed explaining. So I’m not jumping around with excitement with having this particular revelation tacked onto the Sandman universe. And the revelation that The Endless have a Mother and Father (the Father we meet in issue #4) just doesn’t resonate.

So what’s good about issue #4? Well, the artwork is a real trip. Which you’d hope would be up to it, given that Morpheus, and a Cat version of himself, and some annoying blue child called “Hope” (facepalm) are visiting a City of Stars.

And there was one moment of genuine Gaiman when Morpheus referred to a star both by its present scientific name (Formalhaut), and (presumably) a title, Eye of the Lonely‘. This had me thinking. How many names do stars have? A Scientific Name? A title? Does that depend on their position within a constellation? Would that change if seen from another planet, another constellation by alien races? Would a star have a million names for each group of alien races making stories about them? Could a star tell a lot about you, depending on what name you call it by? This is the Gaiman I remember, who could explode in my head with just a provocative phrase. He’s been a bit heavy on the ‘explanation’ and a bit light on the ‘evocation’ in this series.

It’s revealed that the insane star whose madness has already killed one aspect of Dream, and is threatening the universe with its insanity, was caused by Morpheus and his delayed action over killing an alien child ages ago who was ‘a vortex, an anomaly. An Annulet’ (whatever that is), Her madness has spread and infected her whole planet, and it was Morpheus’ responsibility to kill her, and her infected world. But he couldn’t bring himself to kill the sun of the world and now it’s insane. Cosmic, to be sure, but it all feels a bit ungrounded, and convenient. And it’s starting to sound a bit like a plot from ‘Shade the Changing Man’ a la Pete Milligan (I’m so glad that is finally being reprinted!).

So maybe that’s it then. Sandman Overture is a Shade the Changing Man story dressed up as a Promethea story masquerading as a Sandman story. I knew there was something fishy about this limited series. I know Vertigo is struggling, but this pastiche? Joking aside, for all that, it’s still worth picking up, if only to see what the hell Neil Gaiman is up to with his beloved Sandman multiverse. Fingers crossed he ties it all up.

Has Neil Gaiman ‘lost the plot’? Do you care whether The Endless have parents or not? Are you a bit sick of a ‘vortex’ being the cause of every cosmic problem in the universe?

If you’d like to have your old issue featured, just send us the pic via our website, Facebook page or Twitter account.

It’s September 1970. Stan Lee is still Editor of Daredevil and EIC of Marvel. Roy Thomas is on writing duties, Gene Colan on the pencils. This one though is chosen for it’s classic cover of the era. Love it.

(Warning. This review is from a long-time Usagi Yojimbo fan. He tried to keep a lid on it. He really did.)

Stan Sakai is back after a break from looking after his sick wife, with a superb Usagi Yojimbo story. We have come to expect over the 30 years (!) Stan has been crafting Usagi stories, particular styles of stories from the master. Not so much predictable or formulated, as a welcome dip into a familiar world carefully crafted with long term appeal. Senso (War) has introduced something we don’t get to see so much in the world of Usagi.

Something unexpected: an outright WTF!

Because the way the story was developing, as much sheer fun as it was to read, the question in the back of my mind was, This Changes Everything! And I mean in a B.P.R.D. monsters now rule the world kind of way! He’s gone down a path that is impossible to back out of, without turning it in to a hoax story of some kind.

(Spoilers ahead)

Senso starts out with a battle scene between Lord Hijiki and an adult Lord Nobiyuki, so most of issue 1 reads like a welcome return to the world of Usagi after a long break. Then things get weird. Senso has read like a ‘Usagi: The End’ story, with familiar faces meeting their deaths in glorious battle. But this is all against the backdrop of the story being invaded by The War of the Worlds. Everyone in Usagi world now faces survival against the seemingly indestructible tripods of the alien invaders. Gen, Jei, Chizu, the Komori Ninja clan, all die. Even the evil Lord Hebi, faced with the depths of Lord Hijiki’s evil, dies a noble death. It looks like no-one is getting out of this story alive!

Amid the carnage, Usagi snatched a moment with Tomoe in a very Japanese exchange regarding what ‘could have been’, and the price of honour in the face of feelings for each other.

So, when faced with a larger-than-life threat to everything in Japan, even in anthropomorphic feudal Japan, there’s only one way to respond. Jump in to a giant robot suit and go toe-to-toe with the enemy. Enter…Usagi Gundam! It just keeps getting better – issue 6 is a glorious homage to every Japanese monster movie. It’s East vs West in a funny animal comic, and Usagi was enjoying every minute of it! Well, until everything crashed down after immense property damage to Edo, but that’s to be expected.

Oh, and Usagi dies. Did I mention that this wasn’t a hoax story? Or a dream? Or an imaginary story? Well, here’s the final twist. This isn’t a Usagi Yojimbo story. It’s a Space Usagi story! How does that work out? I won’t give everything away, you’ll just have to read it for yourself. Needless to say, Stan Sakai has returned to Usagi Yojimbo in style. He has mixed everything we have come to expect with some thoroughly enjoyable liberties, and tied it all up with everything making perfect sense and all is well again in Usagi world.

I’m very much looking forward to the re-launch of Usagi Yojimbo, and maybe even a few more WTF moments too.

Writing anything is always a work in progress, and writing for comics – admittedly an area which I have only truly begun to embrace in my formative years of being an adult – has taught me a lot about what I should and shouldn’t do. This week I discovered I have a tendency to make definitive statements that veer too much into the dramatic – see my final line of my Batman #13 review. Or the way I structured my review of the “Death of a Family” arc, and how I claimed that it was the greatest event ever to grace our shelves in modern comics (and that no one could tell me other wise goddammit!). I’ve learned to pare back such statements. I can’t tell you if this or that comic is a classic – it’s too soon after the fact to make bold remarks.

But there is a problem when something so good rolls around. The monthly release schedule means that often I completely forget what happened in previous issues, and sometimes the weekly releases feel like a chore more than anything. But not Batman. I have never forgotten what has happened between issues, nor have I looked at the release once and gone “Maybe I can skip it this time.” Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo have constructed such a fantastic story, time and time again, that it is very hard not making big claims. And “Endgame”? You bet I’m going to burst a blood vessel trying not to.

“Endgame” is dealing with something that hasn’t really been dealt with in recent memory – what would happen if the Joker stopped playing around? No longer seen as some kind of twisted friendship, Batman has finally become something that the Joker can no longer stand – someone he finally hates. This arc becomes somewhat of a second act to “Death of the Family”, where the Joker was acting out of some form of love by removing the things he viewed as making Batman weak. He is now plainly trying to remove Batman out of the equation forever. This Joker has become truly terrifying.

Snyder and Capulo have capitalised on the fear people have for the Joker before, but not like this. This issue highlights how this arc has become a city wide horror story, where a legion of Joker zombies are hunting down Batman thanks to an airborne version of the Joker gas. The scenes echo classic zombie movie tropes and it is always fun to see Batman move through a story that feels more at home in the horror genre.

Enough about mood and themes, lets talk about the two big developments this issue. Firstly, Batman’s investigation into the Joker suggests that he may belong to the same kind of villainy that Vandal Savage and Ra’s Al Ghul inhabit, and there may be historical evidence to back it up. This is a fascinating development, as it ties in brilliantly with the Joker over the years who should have died, but keeps bouncing back. The best part of this revelation is that in true Joker fashion, there really isn’t any definitive answer to that allegation – at least not yet. It echoes the multi-choice origin from the Killing Joke, and I think it would certainly add layers to the character if it was never substantiated.

Secondly, and this is the big one, Batman turns to the Court of Owls for help in an incredible cliffhanger. This is brilliant as it ties together their run on Batman nicely. Too many comics seem to have an amnesia for whatever small events that preceded it, so it is refreshing for Snyder and Capullo to really make this story seem like it was built from the beginning. “Court of the Owls” was a fantastic visual showcase for Capullo, and I look forward to seeing what else he brings to the table in the remaining issues of “Endgame”.

Like I said, I’m having a hard time trying not to gush over these turn of events. Really, all I can say is that I cannot wait for what happens next. February 25th cannot come soon enough.