Weekend Reading: Axa, Star Trek, Alan Moore and Joe Kubert
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials
Happy happy joy joy, another weekend has arrived and the internet is packed with stuff to keep us all occupied and indoors, at least until game time on Sunday. So whether you like the good girl stylings of Enrique Romero, spoilers from the new Star Trek movie (now out on DVD), or need to see a picture of Joe Kubert’s enormous drawing table, it’s like a pirate’s treasure: all down below. Let’s begin…
Enrique Romero: Pete Doree over at The Bronze Age of Blogs has a great post up about Enrique Romero, artist on two classic British newspaper strips: Axa and Modesty Blaise. No offense to Pete’s solid writing cred, but this one’s all about the art. Images might be a little NSFW, depending on where you work.
J.J. Abrams: Lance Mannion has a few spoiler-laden comments on the Star Trek movie now that it’s out on DVD. “Now, obviously I have more invested in Star Trek than is healthy for a reasonable adult. But geek that I am, I am not religious about it.” He doth protest a smidgeth to mucheth, but he writes so well on the subject, you’ll get sucked right in. Bonus: dialogue excerpts from OST.
Adrian Raeside: You don’t think of cartoonists as explorers, but Canadian editorial cartoonist for the Times Colonist in Victoria, BC, is the grandson of Charles “Silas” Wright, a member of Robert Scott’s famous expedition to the South Pole. Adrian retraced his old relatives footsteps and wrote a book about it: Return to Antarctica. His paper runs an excerpt.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Axa, Star Trek, Alan Moore and Joe Kubert
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Alan Moore Gets Librarians Fired
Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: DC Comics
Celebrated comic book writer Alan Moore has indirectly caused the demise of two Kentucky librarians all while he was at home in the UK. Talk about super powers!
Sharon Cook and Beth Bovaire claim that they were fired when they refused to lend Moore’s graphic novel The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen to an 11 year-old girl. Pulling it from her hold list, the pair felt that it was unsuitable for the pre-teen, calling it “pornography.” If they call that novel pornography, they’ve got to check out Lost Girls!
“Residents in Jessamine county do not realize that these books that are so graphic are available in the library let alone to their children,” Bovaire said.
I’m impressed that an 11 year-old knew to pick up a Moore book in the first place. Shouldn’t they be happy that she’s reading at all? I mean, let’s celebrate the fact that she didn’t request any of the Twilight books.
The Jessamine County Library Director did not want to discuss the termination, but did say that the responsibility of deciding what a child can or cannot read rested upon the parents.
Read More 
| Digital Spy
The Surrogates & Alan Moore: On Sale Now!
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials
It costs a bunch of money to make a movie and nearly as much to actually go see one in the theaters. Top Shelf has hit a fall jackpot with their comic book The Surrogates, written by Robert Venditti and drawn by Brett Weldele. It’s debuting as a movie on September 25th, directed by Jonathan Mostow, written by John Brancato and Michael Ferris and starring Bruce Willis and Rosamund Pike.
To celebrate the movie’s release (check out the trailer after the jump!), Top Shelf is debuting The Surrogates comics at iTunes, so you can read the original graphic novel on your iPod Touch or iPhone. You can get the first two issues for 99¢ and the remaining three issues for 99¢ each. If that seems like too big a risk for you, then you can just download the entire first issue—that’s The Surrogates #1—for free from the iTunes App Store. Got it?
Between now and September 25th, Top Shelf will be taking advantage of the slow fall comic book season and offering up a whopper of a sale to celebrate: lots of great graphic novels and comic booky stuff for $3 a pop and reduced prices for their prime Alan Moore books like The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Lost Girls, and From Hell. Also, Halloween is coming up, and what better gift than a copy of Johnny Boo by James Kochalka?
It’s a great time to be alive.
[Artwork: The Surrogates © Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele]
Click to continue reading The Surrogates & Alan Moore: On Sale Now!
Read More | Top Shelf
WEEKEND READING: Alan Moore, Gotham By Gaslight, Jim Mooney, Ted Rall
Lots of fun stuff on the internets lately. We’re still not done with anything Alan Moore’s ever touched, seen, eaten or smelled; Gotham By Gaslight, the classic “Elseworlds” book gets a callback; Jim Mooney makes an appearance; and an old fanboy remembers the Chicago Comic Con of 1986 when funnybook fanatics were all talking about Alan Moore, Frank Miller and the grand future of the printed comic book!
MORE ALAN MOORE: This has been linked to elsewhere but Steve Rose has a nice interview with Alan Moore, published in England’s Guardian (which is both a newspaper and a website, not some cape-clad superhero).
GOTHAM BY GASLIGHT: There’s a great internet game started by blogger Patti Abbott and her site, pattinase. Every Friday, she encourages her fellow crime bloggers to write about their favorite Forgotten Books. This week, crime blogger Scott D. Parker weighs in with an old favorite. For those unfamiliar, in Gotham by Gaslight, Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola (Hellboy) imagined Batman back in Victorian England and created a memorable stand-alone adventure involving Jack the Ripper. Parker argues that this is a forgotten book that deserves to be discovered again. You can chime in on the conversation at his blog.
JIM MOONEY: I think Jim Mooney is a vastly underrated artist who doesn’t get nearly the love and respect he should. I feel the same about Bob Brown and Ross Andru. Over at 20th Century Danny Boy, Dan Best (who’s published a book about Andru and his longtime business partner Mike Esposito) has an excerpt from his yet-to-be-published book on Mooney. From just this sample, this looks like a great book and I hope someone publishes it soon (I’m looking at you, TwoMorrows). Mooney’s career spanned decades – a lot of Batman work back when Bob Kane was still taking credit for everything, and a lot of Marvel work later in his career.
Part One is here (and has the greatest photo of a very young Steve Gerber)
Part Three focuses on his Batman work. You’ll have to click the links and get part 2 on your own!
CHICAGO COMIC CON: Jay Zilber scanned and uploaded the entire program book from the 1986 con. It’s a fascinating journey back to the old-school days of comics. It’s a pdf and the scan is a little fuzzy, but the journey is worth making.
And finally, this cartoon by Ted Rall made me laugh out loud. Have a great weekend, internets!
Artwork © DC Comics
SNEAK PREVIEW: HOWARD CHAYKIN’S AMERICAN FLAGG!
It’s back! The second volume collecting Howard Chaykin’s opus, American Flagg!, is going to be in stores this Wednesday, and you really shouldn’t miss it. For my money, Flagg! is the middle son of the three great 1980s comics; the other two being The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller and Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. American Flagg! debuted first and its satirical, sexual, sarcastic and cynical view of the future would certainly impact a decade’s worth – and more - of books that followed. (For a couple of years, 1981-1983, Miller was part of Chaykin and Walter Simonson’s Manhattan studio, Upstart Associates).
In this fascinating interview at Pink Raygun, Howard describes Flagg! as “an expression of how I felt in the 1980s. It reflected my feelings about the Reagan administration and about where the country was heading. A lot of people talk about what I got right in terms of predicting what the future would be like, but that’s irrelevant in the long run. It really was a screed about popular culture and my relationship with popular culture.”
Flagg! is the story of Reuben Flagg, a former actor who joins the Plexus Rangers when his TV career evaporates. He finds himself in a world of corruption, sex, satire, science-fiction, political intrigue, more sex, and a talking cat named Raul. The story is just as engaging and enjoyable (and dead-on timely) 25 years on.
Howard is a true multi-talent. He can write and/or draw his own projects (Flagg!, Power & Glory, Barnum), immerse himself within something as arcane and irrational as Marvel and DC continuity (like say Captain America, or Guy Gardner), or take an existing character like The Shadow and re-imagine him for a modern audience.
The official title of the Flagg! Collection debuting this week from Image Comics is HOWARD CHAYKIN’S AMERICAN FLAGG! Definitive Collection VOL. 2 Trade Paperback. This mouthful of a 256-page full color masterpiece collects issues #8-14 of the original series. Each page is beautifully designed, and incorporates the exquisite hand-lettering of Ken Bruzenak’s word balloons and sound effects.
This is comic books at its very best, and should be required reading for all. Highly recommended. (In the interests of full disclosure, I was once Howard’s editor, and I hold both him and his work in high regard.)
(Artwork: Cover to Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg! Definitive Collection Vol. 2 Trade Paperback; ©Howard Chaykin)
Watchmen Review
Posted by Todd Matthy Categories: Movies, Reviews, DC Comics
Since its trailer debuted with “The Dark Knight” we have all been waiting patiently for the big screen adaptation of the greatest graphic novel of all time. So, does it live up to its hype? When I first read Watchmen over the summer before my junior year of high school, I thought it was very cinematic and would translate well into a film. Obviously edits would have to be made, but still in the right hands it would be good. Zack Snyder is the right hand. Snyder’s adaptation is extremely faithful to the source material, some might say too faithful at times. Some scenes are lifted directly from the comic book, while others, though faithful, have some modifications. But I’ll get to those later.
Click to continue reading Watchmen Review
WATCHMEN WEEK: Watchmen Links Galore! Hurm.
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials
Yes, it’s time to go all out and turn today into a linkfest in honor of Watchmen, both the graphic novel and the upcoming movie. Some of this stuff has been linked to from elsewhere and some of you may have already seen it and read it. But there’s good stuff here and it’s worth seeing again and again.
WATCHMEN TICKET SALES: Nikki Finke at Deadline Hollywood Daily has the latest stats for the upcoming Watchmen movie, including this gem: “purchases for 124 IMAX screens now account for 1/3 of all Watchmen online ticket sales.” When you click over there, be sure to read the comments for the obvious geek haters and their funny prejudices.
BLOTCHMEN: Kevin Cannon created this as his 24-hour comic in 2008. Blortshack wakes up…hungry for plums. Not an actual Watchmen parody…that’s what makes it fun.
WATCHMEN = POPEYE + RORSHACH: Oh Scott Kurtz, you are The Genius Who Makes Me Laugh.
Click to continue reading WATCHMEN WEEK: Watchmen Links Galore! Hurm.
WATCHMEN WEEK: Where Were You in 1986? Part 2
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Interviews
Hey, Welcome back! If you’re just joining us we’re in the middle of Watchmen Week, celebrating a case of Watchmen Fever now that the movie is finally coming out. I took a little survey among my longtime friends and acquaintances in the comics industry about where we all were in June 1986 when Watchmen #1 by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons went on sale. If you missed part 1, it’s still available right here along with a much better introduction that I encourage you to click over there, read it and come back here.
If you remember where you were and what you were doing back when Watchmen #1 debuted, feel free to leave your story in the comments. And now, here’s Part 2 of Where Were You in 1986:
FRANK MANGIARACINA: I remember 1986 as an exciting–maybe even turning point–year in comics. The guys at my warehouse and stores, and me, were all already excited about the Dark Knight, which had come out earlier that year. Besides the book itself, we were also gratified by the reception it was receiving: the Chicago Sun Times had put the cover of Dark Knight #2 on the front page! Though we loved Frank Miller, I think most of us were even bigger Alan Moore fans, and I remember the early looks at Watchmen were exciting – we’d never seen anything that looked like this before. As #1, and subsequent issues, came out we all read them the day they came out, and would talk about ‘em on smoke and lunch breaks. You have to remember that in the ‘80s comics weren’t respectable.
Click to continue reading WATCHMEN WEEK: Where Were You in 1986? Part 2
WATCHMEN WEEK: Where Were You in 1986? Part 1
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Interviews
Alan Moore’s and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen #1 went on sale in June 1986, nearly 23 years ago. It’s forgotten by a lot of recent converts, but back then there were no internets to get the word out or issue spoilers or post and host endless debates. Solicitation copy wasn’t quite the artform it is today, and the Watchmen issues came out every month (more or less) – you couldn’t just order the whole thing off Amazon like you can today. There was also no “wait-for-the-trade” guarantee back then. You had to wait for each new issue to tease its way into the marketplace. If you missed an issue, you had to scramble. Moore and Gibbons had to create a compelling-enough story to hold the audience every 30 days over a 1-year period. Over at Mike’s Amazing World of DC Comics, you can see what other comics DC released around the same time. Many of them proved to be not quite as compelling.
We all have memories of where we were when great events took place. You might remember your first computer, your first iPod, your first car, the first time you spoke to a woman dressed as Silk Spectre or a man dressed as Nite Owl. Comic book industry types of the Watchmen/Dark Knight era certainly remember where they were when Watchmen #1 debuted. I asked them to share…
Click to continue reading WATCHMEN WEEK: Where Were You in 1986? Part 1
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