This Week’s New Comics: July 4, 2012
This week’s list of new comics in stores is sponsored by Manhattan Comics and Comixology. Buy new comics now!
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Category: News
Emily S. Whitten: Making Lunch Breaks Everywhere More Fun Since…Now?
What I’m about to tell you may seem shocking, given that you all must think my entire week is taken up by laboring over each of my beautiful, wonderful, perfectly polished and amazingly insightful columns (really, they’re good enough for framing, every one), and that’s 100% true. But I’m an excellent multi-tasker (it’s one of my secret superheroine powers, along with the Gift of OCD), and so at the same time as I am cogitating about, compiling, and composing said columns, I’m also magically working a regular 9-5 – or sometimes 10-6, Odin and all his Asgardians bless flex-time.
So, like some of you other folks out there who are concerned with paying the bills and all that nonsense and thus have desk jobs, I sometimes spend my lunch time stuck in front of my office computer with just a few free minutes to obtain sustenance and enjoy a mini-vacation from Work. Sometimes I think to myself, “Hey, now would be a good time to catch up on the news, maybe see how that health care reform thing is going to affect me or something.” And then I laugh at such a silly idea, and I go read webcomics.
Just in case this is something you’ve never tried on your lunch break, let me tell you that it’s infinitely better than reading the news, and studies (to be cited when I make some up and post them on respectable-looking science websites) have shown that it improves both your mood and your good looks. In fact, if you read webcomics at every lunch break, by about three weeks in you’ll be a Happiness Guru and also look like Angelina Jolie or one of these other fine ladies. Which is maybe too bad if you’re a guy, but them’s the breaks.
Since I’m a veteran webcomics-at-lunchbreak reader, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share some of my favorites with you. These aren’t necessarily super-secret cutting edge webcomics – some are quite popular and you’ve probably heard of them before, and some have even been around for years – but really, the internet is so big and full of things, I have to think at least some of you haven’t encountered some of these before. Maybe? Anyway, they’re some of the ones that make me happy so I wanted to share.
So here’s a little bit about each one, and, to help you avoid Archive Panic, three random favorite entries for each so that you can quickly see whether they might be your kind of thing. Enjoy!
XKCD is “a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language,” but I don’t think that does it justice. Randall Munroe somehow manages to encompass every topic at some point or another while keeping a coherent tone, and even has some ongoing characters and mini-storylines going in what is, essentially, a bunch of one-shot comics. Sometimes it makes me laugh, sometimes it makes me nod in agreement, sometimes it’s profound and makes me think, and sometimes I even learn math and science-y things from it. Win! Make sure you hover your mouse over the comics for added fun.
Three favorites:
Hyperbole and a Half is a blog by Allie Brosh; and, okay, it might not exactly be a webcomic in the traditional sense. But it is a series of stories told with graphic accompaniment (of the amazingly-funny-in-Allie’s-hands MS Paint variety) and it’s extremely hilarious, so I’m putting it on the list. It pretty much consists of Allie sharing about her life and childhood; and if that sounds rather mundane to you, give it a read and you’ll be in for a surprise.
Three favorites:
The Alot is Better Than You At Everything
This Is Why I’ll Never Be An Adult
The Oatmeal is a site which features both comics and quizzes, and which you may have seen in the news lately. I mostly go for the comics, but on the other hand I have also fallen prey to quizzes like, “How Many Justin Biebers Could You Take In A Fight” (16!) which are fun too. The art is sometimes grotesque but conversely also sometimes adorable, and the comics are often insightful (oh, professional web design; how I remember all of your myriad headaches) or educational (Nikola Tesla facts, yay!).
Three Favorites:
How a Web Design Goes Straight to Hell
8 Ways to Prepare Your Pets for War
A Softer World is sort of hard to describe. It pairs photos with a few lines of text to great effect. I’d call it quirky but that might imply it’s always fun, which, honestly, it’s not. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it’s poignant, sometimes it’s joyful, and sometimes it’s bleak and sad or nonsensical or twisted or downright disturbing; but maybe that’s what makes me like it? Whatever the case, it’s always interesting.
Three favorites:
I can contain it, if I have to.
Oh! Oh man, we should bring an old-timey lantern!
The DM of the Rings is summed up succinctly by its author – “Imagine a gaggle of modern hack-n-slash roleplayers who had somehow never been exposed to the original Tolkien mythos, and then imagine taking those players and trying to introduce them to Tolkien via a D&D campaign.” I’ve never really played D&D but I’m fairly familiar with it, and that (and/or a decent understanding of human nature) is really all you need to get a laugh out of this one (and the accompanying notes, which are also a fun read). It’s kind of tricky to pick “favorites” since this one’s a tightly continuous story, but here are three anyway.
Three Favorites:
pictures for sad children is cynical and sort of bleakly terrible but also sometimes funny and pretty addictive for some reason I can’t really explain. it starts out with a story about “PAUL: who is a ghost.” and it’s sort of sequential but not always. and then it changes to one-shot comics that aren’t really connected. and it is kind of written in disjointed sentences, and the author mostly doesn’t know what capital letters are. give it a try.
three favorites:
later you will regret putting trash in your ears
The Non-Adventures of Wonderella is all about Wonderella, who’s, you know, kind of like Wonder Woman, if Wonder Woman were a bit more…human? Rude? Boozy? Valley girl? Interested in shopping? Politically incorrect? Whatever you call her, Wonderella’s having fun in her own way while (sometimes) saving the day, and it makes for fun, if sometimes absurd, reading.
Penny Arcade is mostly about video games and gaming, with frequent geek culture commentary, and features the dry and self-deprecating wit of its two completely awesome creators. It’s been around for yearrrrs but that doesn’t mean it’s old news. It always makes me smile.
Three favorites:
The Adventures of Twisp and Catsby
Bonus Comic!
Which isn’t actually a comic. Okay, I’m cheating here, but for those of you who are able to watch YouTube at work (read: not me, WOE), here’s a fun video thing you really need to check out on your next lunch break.
I’m a Marvel…and I’m a DC started out as a video parody of the Mac/PC commercial, and evolved into its own awesome collection of stories and series videos. For more sequential stories, check out the After Hours and Happy Hours playlists or other playlists; or just tool around the videos that strike your fancy, because they’re all awesome.
Or, just check out my favorite (of course) <a href=”
Rorschach and Deadpool.
Hope I’ve brought a little joy to your lunch hour! And of course, there are a lot of other great webcomics out there too, including a bunch I’m sure I haven’t heard of. What’s your favorite? Tell me in the comments!
And until next time, Servo Lectio!
WEDNESDAY MORNING: Mike Gold, Bourne on the Fourth of July
Celebrate “Amazing Spider-Man” writer Dan Slott’s birthday at Manhattan Comics
The Amazing Spider-Man comes out in theaters tomorrow– and it also happens to be the birthday of Amazing Spider-Man writer Dan Slott! Celebrate it at Manhattan Comics with cake, signings, and sales!
Dan will be at Manhattan Comics, 10 E. 23rd St., 2nd floor, New York, NY between 12 and 1 PM tomorrow, July 3rd. Stop in and say hi!
RECOMMENDED NEW PULP READING FROM SUPERHERO NOVELS
SuperHero Novels included a nice selection of New Pulp books as part of its Recommended Reads section at http://superheronovels.com/2012/06/30/live-in-the-link-age-07-01-12.
AMAZING STORIES TO RELAUNCH JULY 1
For Immediate Release
AMAZING STORIES Relaunch Prelaunch Launches July 1, 2012.
Hillsboro, NH
Amazing Stories, the world’s first science fiction magazine, will begin its return to regular publication this July 1st with Volume 0, Number 1, the Relaunch Prelaunch issue.
All kinds of wonderful things have been happening at Amazing Stories over the past several months and some of them have prompted a change to the overall plan for Amazing Stories return.
As some of you may recall, I was planning on beginning the funding effort following the presidential elections in November. I’d originally wanted to go for the whole enchilada all at once and scale back from there as necessary.
Recent developments have caused me to accelerate certain aspects of the plan and to modify my approach to launching.
Now the plan is to break the project up into smaller pieces and fund those individually. Instead of scaling back, we’ll be building up.
This change has been engendered by a very exciting recent development that will both strengthen Amazing’s brand and create a revenue stream. The details of this development will be announced the weekend of July 14-15. The announcement will take place at the San Diego Comic Con (CA) and Readercon (MA) conventions.
I felt that it would be foolish to waste such an opportunity and decided to create the Relaunch Prelaunch issue of Amazing Stories so that there would be somewhere to go and something to look at when the announcement was made,
Since I had already gathered a fair amount of material for the blog, I decided to put it all together and create an issue of the magazine with it. The content ranges from reminisces on Amazing from Robert Silverberg, Barry Malzberg and Patrick L Price, to fiction by Jack Clemons (all of which is being reprinted from earlier renditions of the magazine) to an extensive series of round-robin interviews with 13 of the Book View Cafe authors – Maya Bohnhoff, Brenda Clough, Chris Dolley, katharine E. Kimbriel, Sue Lange, Vonda McIntyre, Linda Nagata, Pati Nagle, Phyllis Radford, Deborah J. Ross, Sarah Smith, Jennifer Stevenson, Judith Tarr and Dave Trowbridge and some (short) editorializing from me.
I think there’s plenty of good stuff there that will be released throughout the course of the month. Anyone who hears about Amazing Stories from the announcements (I’ll be sending it out to you all as well) will find several pieces to read when they visit and the promise of more to keep them coming back. And this will not be the last Relaunch Prelaunch issue; I’ve already started getting stuff in for the next one (an essay on Tarzan & Burroughs from John M Whalen) and more on the way (though I am not anywhere close to the three-months-out I ought to be). Hold on to your fiction, but if you’ve got an interesting article, interview, review, feel free to send it inI. I’m not paying and I can’t promise I’ll use it, but….
It now seems that the time to pull out all of the stops has arrived a few months earlier than I had originally anticipated. I am now putting together the outline of a Kickstarter (or similar) crowd-funding plan and presentation that will be released in the next couple of months.
In order to make it all work I will need everyone’s help.
So what can you do?
Nothing if you’d prefer. Or you could:
Visit the site. Share it with your friends. Comment on something you find here. Link to it. Sign up on the Facebook page. Sign up here.
Say nice things and think good thoughts.
The more Amazing Stories resembles a going concern, the easier it will be to obtain the funding and the closer we will all be to seeing what we want to see, the return of Amazing Stories!
The website and blog can be found here: http://www.amazingstoriesmag.com/
The Facebook Page is here: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Amazing-Stories/267141773319031
I have plenty of space on the site to help promote and publicize fellow travelers. If getting a spot up on Amazing’s site will help you promote the magazine, please send your artwork and link or get in touch so we can put a plan together. I’m happy to do what I can in return for your support.
And finally
Thank You All for your support, your kind words and your good wishes.
Steve Davidson
First Look at Alex Cross
Cross has been an international best seller for writing machine James Patterson and now we have the first trailer for the film adaptation, coming October 19. The film stars Tyler Perry, Edward Burns, Rachel Nichols, and Jean Reno and was directed by Rob Cohen, who conscripted the adaptation with Marc Moss and Kerry Williamson.
The official synopsis reads: ALEX CROSS follows the young homicide detective/psychologist (Tyler Perry), from the worldwide best-selling novels by James Patterson, as he meets his match in a serial killer (Matthew Fox). The two face off in a high-stakes game of cat and mouse, but when the mission gets personal, Cross is pushed to the edge of his moral and psychological limits in this taut and exciting action thriller.
Manga Friday: CBLDF Contributes Additional $10,000 to Ryan Matheson’s $75,000 Legal Defense Costs
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund is pleased to announce that thanks to the support of its contributors, the organization has disbursed an additional $10,000 to Ryan Matheson to help pay off the $75,000 legal defense costs that he incurred defending himself against false charges brought by Canada Customs in a case involving manga comics on his laptop computer.
Earlier this year, charges against Matheson were dropped in a case where Canada Customs illegally detained and wrongly charged the American with importation of child pornography for humor and fantasy manga on his laptop. The CBLDF came to Ryan’s aid in 2011, providing substantive and financial support for his case, including arranging expert testimony that contributed to the charges being dropped. With this most recent disbursal, the CBLDF has provided $30,000 to Ryan’s $75,000 legal defense costs. Last year, Canada’s Comic Legends Legal Defense Fund contributed $11,000 towards Ryan’s defense. CBLDF seeks contributions to help pay off Ryan’s remaining $34,000 in legal expenses.
In a message to CBLDF supporters, Matheson says, “Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to the CBLDF! The donations raised so far have given me enough financial stability to finally get back on my feet and live my life normally instead of worrying about money so much. It’s really encouraging to know that there are so many people out there that want to help stand up for comics and manga. I used to feel so isolated and alone but now I’ve realized that the comics and manga community is definitely one that cares about the things we love and is willing to stand up for our rights. Your donations really do help a lot and I am so grateful for all the support I’ve received so far. Thank you!”
After a search of his laptop in 2010, Canada Customs wrongfully accused Ryan of possessing and importing child pornography because of constitutionally protected comic book images on that device. This case represented a severe disruption in his life, including a two-year period during which he was unable to use computers or the internet outside of his job, severely limiting opportunities to advance his employment and education. Ryan suffered extreme mistreatment at the hands of Canadian authorities, and was subjected to abusive treatment by police. Matheson’s cruel and unusual punishment included being denied food and blankets, and not being allowed to contact the American Embassy. Matheson was even told by police transporting him to prison that “if you get raped in here, it doesn’t count!” The defense detailed these and other abuses and outlined that the comics at issue are constitutionally protected in the United States, the client’s home country, contributing to the charges being dropped earlier this year.
This summer, Matheson will be appearing on panels at San Diego Comic-Con and Otakon to discuss his case, where CBLDF will also be distributing literature advising convention goers of their rights.
CBLDF Executive Director Charles Brownstein says, “The CBLDF is elated that our efforts have made a difference in Ryan’s case, and we’re grateful that our supporters have generously contributed to our efforts to pay off expenses tied to his legal defense. We are moved by Ryan’s courage in speaking out on his case, and look forward to working with him this summer as we go on the road to help raise awareness of how comics and manga are still being targeted by the authorities. We’re glad that his case had a positive outcome, but comics are still vulnerable to attack. It is our hope that our efforts will help prevent others from suffering the same fate that befell Ryan and his family.”
Please make a donation to CBLDF to help the organization continue to pay off Matheson’s legal defense costs and to support their important work raising awareness of the rights facing comics and manga readers. To learn more about Ryan’s case, please visit the CBLDF Case File R. v. Matheson, which includes the original defense documents, and special advisories for travelers crossing borders with comics books.
Marvel Expected to Announce Guardians, Big Hero 6 Films at San Diego
Marvel Studios is expected to announce the highly anticipated Guardians of the Galaxy movie at Comic-Con International. The film, according to Latino Review, will be their second 2014 release, completing a roster of films now dubbed Phase Two.
The time- and star-spanning team was first created by Arnold Drake and Gene Colan, appearing in the try-out title Marvel Super-Heroes #18 (January 1969). While never earning a title of their own, they went on to be recurring guest stars in a variety of titles all through the 1970s.
Under writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, a new incarnation of the Guardians have been a focal point of their cosmic stories, beginning in the Annihilation: Conquest stories. That particular cycle of stories ended a year or so back, paving the way for a new cycle, expected to be written by Brian Michael Bendis.
The new cycle of stories was teased with the arrival on Earth of Nova in the pages of Avengers vs. X-Men #1 followed by his digital exclusive story.
Meantime, Marvel has been registering domain names and laying claim to Guardian trademarks in a wide variety of merchandise, tipping their hands that such a feature was in development. It was even mentioned as one of several second tier properties being considered for later this decade but clearly it was a feint.
Marvel Comics has mastered the slow news leak, providing tips and nods in a certain direction, leading up to the not-so-surprising news announcement. You can trace this back to Joe Quesada badmouthing Peter Parker’s marriage to Mary Jane Watson at least a year before the eventual One More Day storyline that altered the Marvel reality.
Over the last few months, Marvel has been teasing that things are about to take a dramatic turn as one creative team after another have announced wrapping up storylines and paving the way for a freshening of the Marvel Universe. Several Thanos titles were announced for this September including two by Jim Starlin the character’s creator.
With The Avengers completing Phase One, the second cycle of films begins in 2013 with Iron Man 3 to be followed in November by Thor 2. For 2014, Captain America 2 was previously announced for April 4with a TBA on the books. (Sony, meantime, has Amazing Spider-Man 2 pencilled in for May 2 and Fox has saved July 18 for another X-Men First Class Sequel). IMDB already has a placeholder page awaiting confirmation.
While there’s no word on which members of either version of the team will be used, we’re looking forward to Groot and Rocket Raccoon being a part of the cast. Apparently, Thanos will be the Big Bad to tie things together with his arrival hinted at with a sighting of his Infinity Gauntlet in Thor and his cameo at the end of The Avengers. Latino’s piece speculates Thanos will appear in Guardians which will be the final film prior to 2015’s The Avengers 2.
Meantime, Marvel’s corporate masters, Walt Disney, just revealed this afternoon that they are working on their first Marvel animated property: Big Hero 6. The timing is interesting in that the Previews catalog out yesterday contains a new Big Hero 6 project from writer Chris Claremont.The team was introduced in 1998’s Sunfire and Big Hero 6 from Steven T. Seagle and Duncan Rouleau.
Planned for 2014, the blog says in part, “I promised my Bothans that I wouldn’t reveal much about the Marvel project that Walt Disney Animation Studios was working on, that I would only allude to it until something else broke about it. Well, now a website has let the cat out of the bag. Remember that I mentioned that the property would be unlike anything the Mouse had done before? I also mentioned to some that inquired about it, that Marvel owns 4000+ characters and everyone was thinking it was an animated Iron Man or X-Men or even “Power Pack.” Well, it’s not. It’s not one of the top 100 or 200 characters even. The actual title is much more obscure than most people know. In fact, most comic book fans will not even know the title, or most of the characters. So, what is the title/characters that Disney is adapting into an animated film?”
BEN BOOKS ANNOUNCES BOBBY NASH’S LATEST- EARTHSTRIKE AGENDA!
PRESS RELEASE:
EARTHSTRIKE AGENDA, the new novel by celebrated author Bobby Nash is now available in paperback and ebook formats at Amazon as well as Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and more.
You can purchase the Earthstrike Agenda in paperback and ebook format at the following:
BEN Books Direct paperback
Amazon paperback
Amazon Kindle ebook
Smashwords ebook (Multiple formats)
Barnes and Noble Nook ebook
DriveThru Fiction ebook
Barnes and Noble paperback
COMING SOON!
About Earthstrike Agenda:
HUMANITY HAS GONE TO THE STARS.
Earth, once barren and decimated by war and the depletion of natural resources has been reborn.
Today, Scavengers prey on small mining towns and colonies. The United Planetary Alliance Marshal’s Service seems unable to stop these raids. They are outmanned and outgunned, but is the only law on many colonies.
Newly promoted Captain, Virgina Harmon takes command of her first starship, the Pegasus, the latest ship built to solve the Scavenger problem. Plagued by nervousness over her first command Captain Harmon is rocked by the news of her mentor’s murder. Just days before he was to report to her aboard the Pegasus as chief of engineering.
In Earth orbit, a science station becomes a target. An enemy has a plan to use the Space Lab facility as a means to claiming Earth.
In deep space, the United Planetary Alliance city-ship Ulysis welcomes aboard a high-ranking officer with a special mission for the crew. Those plotting against the Alliance are preparing to make their move and their first target is the Ulysis.
Meanwhile, in the deepest regions of space an enemy has returned. An enemy seeking vengeance.
EARTHSTRIKE AGENDA
Whoever controls Earth …Wins.
Visit BEN Books at http://BEN-Books.blogspot.com
Visit Earthstrike Agenda author, Bobby Nash at www.bobbynash.com
Visit Bobby Nash’s Amazon Author Page at www.amazon.com/-/e/B002QJ8QQS
