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The Weekly Haul: Reviews for March 20, 2008

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  • March 20, 2008

After skipping town last week, I’m back with an all-new spate of reviews for this week’s comics issues. Lots of super hero fare this week, with a few studs and a whole lot of "meh."

Book of the Week: Captain America #36 — I know, I know. Not a very out-there choice. But, c’mon, this is simply the best superhero book coming out right now. Ed Brubaker sets it up perfectly to test Bucky, the new Cap, by pitting him against some serious supervillains. And we get to see how Bucky is different from Steve Rogers, for good and bad.

And while Bucky brawls his way through that challenge, the defining moment of the issue comes when Bucky can’t summon the Captain America aura to calm a riotous crowd. And, if that’s not enough, Butch Guice’s fill-in art is so good that I didn’t realize he’d replaced Steve Epting until I looked back at the credits.

Oh, and then – SPOILER – there’s that little cliffhanger that a certain dead person might not be so certainly dead.

Runners Up:

The Brave and the Bold #11 — Here’s another "can’t go wrong" series (at least until Mark Waid jumps ship). The Challengers see just how tough Megistus is (and just how crazy), then Superman and Ultraman have a zany little team-up only after Ultraman impersonates Clark and runs roughshod through the Daily Planet newsroom. The too-big, too-fun antics culminate in one of those straight-from-the-silver-age moments, when Megistus throws a Green Lantern (the actual lantern, not a hero) into the sun and turns it green. Bad news for Ultraman and Superman.

The Immortal Iron Fist #13 — I’d be calling this book the best of the week if it weren’t for a weaker than usual outing from artist David Aja. His work isn’t as polished as usual, which means it’s still decent but not great. That aside, this Seven Cities of Heaven storyline is finally coming together in a big way. What’s really remarkable about this issue is how Brubaker and Matt Fraction keep up the excitement with only a couple punches thrown. It’s a perfect setup to the big brouhaha coming down the pike next issue, and offers the line of the week when Danny finally reveals his plan to the villainous Xao: "So we can get out, you dumb son of a bitch."

(more…)

‘King of the Hill’ Parodies ‘Invincible’ Comic

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  • March 20, 2008

King of the Hill, the Emmy award-winning animated television series created by Mike Judge and Greg Daniels, gave a sly wink to comic books on their Sunday, March 16 episode "Behind Closed Doors."

The soft-satirical parody of Texas middle America found housewife Peggy Hill questioning her family’s unity. When entering son Bobby’s room, she finds him reading "Unvincible," a comic that bears a striking similarity to Image’s Invincible by Robert Kirman and Cory Walker.

This is not big, breaking news but ComicMix thinks it’s pretty cool that instead of taking the easy mainstream route of spoofing Superman or Spider-Man, the show wore its comic book fan pride by choosing one of the great indie superheroes.

Faith Based Economics, by John Ostrander

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  • March 20, 2008

333832254_1bdb784010-8275717I don’t know much about economics. It’s all voodoo to me. Unfortunately, the same appears to be true of the corporate bosses of Bear Stearns, the “hallowed” investment bank that was sold over the weekend for pennies on the dollar to JPMorgan Chase. That was made possible by a thirty billion (“B” billion, not “M” million) dollar hand-out from the United States Federal Reserve Bank to cover Bear Stearns assets that would be “difficult” to sell off, meaning the U.S taxpayer will be stuck holding that bag.

“How could this happen?!” Actually, how could it not? Bear Stearns, along with a lot of other investment banks, were using “mortgage based securities.” Essentially, as I understand it, they lent the money to the guys lending the money to the people who were buying homes. Mortgages. They issued and traded bonds that used these mortgages to secure the money for the people who bought the securities. So long as those mortgages were prudent, it was not necessarily a bad idea.

However, the guys making the mortgages invented a new category – sub-prime mortgages. Many of those mortgages were given to people who didn’t have the funds really to make the payments and weren’t going to have them. That’s okay. Just re-finance! And the “worth” of the houses being bought kept going up and up. Anyone with half a brain knew that the housing market was WAAAAAY over-priced. It was crazy.

The reason the houses and land were worth that much was because everyone agreed they were. They believed it as deeply as any Born Again Christian grabs hold of the Bible. The loaves and the fishes with which Jesus fed the multitude didn’t multiply as much or as fast as some of the housing prices. It had to be true. Shout down the un-believers and naysayers. Except, of course, it all wasn’t true.

(more…)

Full Cast Revealed for ‘Batman: Gotham Knight’

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  • March 19, 2008

Warner Brothers just sent out a press release announcing that the rest of the cast has been finalized for this summer’s Batman: Gotham Knight direct-to-DVD animated film.

Earlier, fans collectively breathed a great sigh of relief upon hearing that Batman: The Animated Series alum Kevin Conroy had signed on to voice the Dark Knight. Instead of filling the ranks with big-name stars (see Justice League: The New Frontier and Superman/Doomsday), WB picked up some lesser knowns to round out the voice talent.

Read the release carefully and you can pick up a few hints about the plot:

Gary Dourdan (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation) and Ana Ortiz (Ugly Betty) are heard in multiple segments of the six-story film as police detectives Crispus Allen and Anna Ramirez, key members of a special unit who learn to trust the Dark Knight’s motives. Parminder Nagra (ER, Bend It Like Beckham) supplies the voice of Cassandra, a mystical Indian woman who teaches Bruce Wayne to endure and manage his pain. David McCallum (Navy NCIS, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., The Great Escape) takes on the role of loyal servant Alfred. George Newbern (Father of the Bride) and Alanna Ubach (Legally Blonde) also join the cast.

The cast also features popular voice over artists Corey Burton, Rob Paulsen, Kevin Michael Richardson, Will Friedle, Jason Marsden, Jim Meskimen, Pat Musick, Scott Menville, Hynden Walch, Corey Padnos and Crystal Scales.

The bonus features on the double-disc release include a documentary on Bob Kane, a documentary about Batman’s villains, some of Bruce Timm’s favorite episodes from Batman: TAS and a sneak peak at the upcoming Wonder Woman animated film.

Batman: Gotham Knight hits shelves on July 8.

Joss Whedon on his Superhero Musical

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  • March 19, 2008

"Once more, with feeling!" No, it’s not the infamous musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but Joss Whedon is developing another musical.

This time around, the project will feature his other passion: superheroes! Whedon revealed on his blog today that during the writer’s strike he and his family wrote three 10-minute episodes of a musical intended for the Internet. And to his great surprise, they actually finished it, began preproduction and are in the midst of filming it.

Doctor Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog will star Neil Patrick Harris, best known for his role as Doogie Howser, M.D., and Nathan Fillion, best known as Capt. Reynolds on the sci-fi show Firefly. We’re tickled that the actors once again assume those titles when they play Doctor Horrible and Captain Hammer respectively. Rounding out the cast is Buffy alumni Felicia Day as Penny.

The news directly from Whedon:

So…..

The bag is catless.

During the strike I started writing a musical intended as a limited internet series, 3 episodes of approximately 10 minutes each. Writing with me was my brother Jed, his fiancee Maurissa, and my other brother Zack. To my shock and surprise, we finished it. To my greater shock and surprise, we managed (with the help of many people I’ll be praising at length soon) to drag it into preproduction (yes, just as DOLLHOUSE was given a start date two months away and all my comics were due.) And today, after a grueling week of writing everything ever while trying to be a producer, I got to start shooting. A musical.

This much I will say: It’s the story of a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he’s too shy to talk to. And I’m having the time of my life.

"DOCTOR HORRIBLE’S SING-ALONG BLOG"

Neil Patrick Harris…..as Dr. Horrible

Nathan Fillion……….as Captain Hammer

Felicia Day………….as Penny

And a cast of Dozens!

Coming soon.

-j.

 

‘Too Much Coffee Man’ Opera Gets a Sequel

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  • March 19, 2008

Too Much Coffee Man, the comic that became an opera, is returning for a "Refill."

Shannon Wheeler’s crazed series about the caffeine-fueled adventures of an eclectic group of coffee house regulars (and the barista who serves them) has always been a guilty pleasure of mine, so I was equally thrilled and perplexed by the creator’s decision to adapt the comic into an opera in 2006. The end result was a really enjoyable show and soundtrack (with hilarious supplemental video).

And now, Wheeler and the TMCM crew are returning to the stage for an operatic sequel titled "The Refill" — which, according to the PR, picks up where the first opera left off:

The Too Much Coffee Man Opera is the story of an idealistic hero, named Too Much Coffee Man, as he competes with rival Espresso Guy for the attention of a Barista. Unfornately, she has her own agenda, to be a super hero.

The second opera, titled the Refill, picks up two years later. The Barista has fulfilled her superhero dream… and she’s married a Martian. Unfortunately she’s bored. She hopes caffeine will cure her ennui and calls Too Much Coffee Man for help. Antics ensue as Espresso Guy tries to win her back by pretending to be Too Much Coffee Man.

Too Much Coffee Man: The Refill begins April 4 in Portland, OR. Details from the PR are provided after the jump.

 

(via TheBeat) (more…)

Fleen on SPLAT! and ‘Webcomics: A Primer’

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  • March 19, 2008

Over at Fleen, Gary Tyrrell has a great write-up of SPLAT!, the recent Graphic Novel Symposium, but his coverage of the "Webcomics: A Primer" panel is an infinitely interesting read.

Panel guests included Dean Haspiel, Raina Telgemeier, Rich Stevens, and Ted Rall, as well as Collen Venable, who moderated the event. According to Tyrrell’s report, the discussion hit all of the expected talking points regarding webcomics (what makes a webcomic, definition of webcomickers vs. cartoonists, etc.), but when the conversation turned to the conomics of online comics, well… let’s just say that it sounds like things got really interesting.

Rall jumped in with both feet:

 "If I were in charge of the world … I would force everything offline. All cartoonists, all newspapers, no more archives, nothing. And every cartoonist would make fifteen times as much money. Giving it away, I think it’s insane and stupid."

For those who remember the qualifications that Rall made at SPX last fall, where a similar statement was couched in terms of specifically editorial cartoonists, there was no such qualification this time. It was a blanket statement, and it was made while sitting next to one of the strongest proponents of a business model where you (quoting now) "Give away a ton of stuff, and edit down to things of value [that you can sell]."

And that’s not even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Tyrrell’s excerpts from the discussion. While I can only assume that the discussion remained civil, it certainly reads as if participants were getting a bit heated in their debate regarding webcomic economics. Even better, the discussion seems to have moved to the comment section of Tyrrell’s post, where Rall, Stevens and a host of webcomic creators chime in with their thoughts on the webcomic business model.

For anyone interested in the webcomics scene, Tyrrell’s post — and the subsequent comment thread — are must-read material.

On This Day: Josef Albers

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  • March 19, 2008

Born on March 19, 1888 in Bottrop, Westphalia, Germany, Josef Albers was a designer, photographer, typographer, printmaker, and poet, but he is best remembered as an abstract painter and theorist.

A professor at the prestigious Weimar Bauhaus for many years (from 1922 to 1933), Albers moved to the U.S. and joined the faculty of Black Mountain College in North Carolina after the Nazis shut the Bauhaus down. He took a job teaching design at Yale in 1950, and taught there until his retirement in 1958.

Albers continued to paint and write in New Haven until his death in 1976. His work is often considered a bridge between traditional European and new American art, and he heavily influenced the Op artists, among others.

 

Michael Cera in Negotiations to Star in ‘Scott Pilgrim’s Little Life’

  • Uncategorized
  • March 19, 2008

march19scott-8268792Scott Pilgrim is an awkward nerd who spends most of his days rocking out, making video game references and battling his new girlfriend’s evil ex-boyfriends.

What better to play Pilgrim than Michael Cera, who has made his name playing awkard nerds in Arrested Development, Superbad and Juno?

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Cera is in final negotiations with Universal Studios to play the titular character in Scott Pilgrim’s Little Life.

The film is being written and directed by Edgar Wright, the director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, who is also attached to Marvel’s Ant Man movie. The film is based on Bryan Lee O’Malley’s popular series of Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, published by Oni Press.

 

(via SHH)

ComicMix at WWLA: Photo Gallery – People, Places and Events

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  • March 19, 2008

In addition to the costumes, comics, movies and occasional booth babes, conventions like Wizard World LA often provide the opportunity to see a few celebrities (and, of course, give them $15 to sign a photograph). This year’s WWLA was no exception, and some of the entertainment industry’s most semi-famous people turned out for the show.

There were also some cool booths, events, panels, artists and a bunch of other things that made Wizard World an enjoyable time. Following the jump are a few images of some the celebrities, booths, panels and other sights from this year’s show.

And if you haven’t seen our gallery of costumes from Wizard World LA posted earlier today, be sure to head on over and check that out, too. (more…)

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