Weekend Reading: Avengers, Alan Moore, Before Watchmen, and Don McGregor
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews, Movies, Reviews, DC Comics, Marvel Comics
I once met Alan Moore, had dinner with him in fact. A dinner that included Stephen Bissette and John Totleben.
I must stress that they did not have dinner with me at my invitation - I was at the table as a guest of Gary Groth and Kim Thompson from Fantagraphics. Also in attendance was Dave Olbrich. The creative trio - currently on DC’s Swamp Thing - was on their way to NY and had stopped in at the Fantagraphics offices to meet with Gary and Kim and head for Chinese food. And I got to tag along.
I spent a couple of hours listening to Moore and his companions regale the group with story after story. At no point did I ever think of Alan Moore as crazy. In fact, I thought he was one of the smartest guys I’d ever met. He was also not like anyone I’d met either before or since. He was different, alright. But crazy? No. Weird? Hardly.
Which brings me to this:
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Avengers, Alan Moore, Before Watchmen, and Don McGregor
Advertisement
Weekend Reading: Watchmen, Shazam!, Archie and Image
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Editorials, Movies, Reviews, DC Comics, Image Comics, Marvel Comics
Watchmen! Shazam! Archie! Oh my goodness! Could a weirder week get any weirder? Oh, it can. It’s only February.
Here’s a few things to read until the Super Bowl fever hits you and, oh, wait. No one reading this cares about sports!
Well, of course DC was going to do Watchmen prequels and create more Watchmen-related graphic novels. The series will never be considered out-of-print (and now with online availability, you can get it digitally 24/7/365 so it will truly be “in print” in perpetuity). Since it’s a thing that can’t be stopped, I wish the creators well and I wish the original creators well as well (and hope they’re being compensated for the reuse of their creations). Forbes, the journal of the 1% weighs in with the “It can’t be wrong if everyone’s doing it” argument. Although Before Watchmen has to be one of the least grabby titles in modern comics history.
Michael Cavna at Comic Riffs, the Washington Post blog, collects various opinions on the coming new era of Watchmen prequels.
Here’s the Daily Beast on the behind-the-scenes soap opera at Archie. Once you realize that this is all about controlling the privately-held company, it starts to fall into place.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Watchmen, Shazam!, Archie and Image
Weekend Reading: Borders, Bruce Jones, Dick Tracy And Alan Moore
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews, Movies, Reviews, Television, DC Comics, Marvel Comics
Can you believe another weekend is already here? I can't, so I'd better post a few links and then hit the liquor store!
Let's see what's out there on the interwebs for those of us not already enjoying C2E2:
Borders: The bookstore chain just didn’t drop into bankruptcy overnight. Here’s a list of a half-dozen balls they dropped that you’d think they wouldn’t have.
[Link: Making Light]
Bruce: Comic book writer (remember his run on Hulk?) and novelist Bruce Jones ponders the future of fiction.
Return: John Zipperer at Weimar World Service reports that editorial cartoonist Lyle Lahey is back from his sabbatical, and in top form as he makes fun of Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin.
Dick: For those of you who don’t already know, there’s a new creative team on the venerable comic strip, Dick Tracy. It’s writer Mike Curtis and artist Joe Staton, and the whole thing is 3 daily panels of awesome. Hogan’s Alley interviews Staton about his new job.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Borders, Bruce Jones, Dick Tracy And Alan Moore
Comic Book Gift Suggestions For Prince William
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics, IDW Publishing
Prince William has finally picked a bride, Kate Middleton, the only girl in London without a tattoo of an old boyfriend’s name or an upskirt photo on the internet. It’s a terrific moment for the Royal Family and for journalists who can postpone writing about the economy for a few more months.
But now you have some hard choices to make. You’re a comic book fan and a fan of the Royals. So what can you give them as the perfect wedding gift? Yes, you could get them something spectacular from Harrods, but won’t the rest of England be doing that? And do they really need a new toaster or some monogrammed tea cozies?
You can’t go wrong with comics. It’s the universal language, especially if your universe’s language is in the US, Canada, Australia and the UK. So don’t panic. Here are some friendly comic book choices. Pick the right gift and you might even get a knighthood. Apparently they give them out like tiny Cadburys at Halloween.
King Aroo (Library of American Comics/IDW): The comical and fantastical adventures of a different kind of king, by the acclaimed cartoonist Jack Kent. Dean Mullaney and his crew have put together an awesome book that both Royals can enjoy while their bodyguard reads it to them.
Click to continue reading Comic Book Gift Suggestions For Prince William
The Return of Atlas Comics
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Conventions, Editorials, Independent
Some years ago, in the pre-Ultraverse of Malibu Comics the company had a chance to acquire the old Atlas/Seaboard comic book characters from two guys who claimed to have the rights.
It was very tempting at the time to pursue it – Atlas had a bunch of great characters created by folks like Howard Chaykin, Steve Ditko, Pat Broderick, Gary Friedrich, Mike Ploog, Larry Hama, Michael Fleisher, Ernie Colon, Neal Adams, Alex Toth, John Severin, Russ Heath, Wally Wood, and Mike Sekowsky and many others.
At the time, it would’ve been quite a boost to the company to acquire the characters: they had a certain brand recognition, a lot of sentimental fanboy attachment, and had only been out of the marketplace for less than 15 years or so at the time.
Once acquired, the plan would’ve been to try to round up the original creators – as many as possible - and launch a new Atlas universe that would be separate from the company’s other titles.
Click to continue reading The Return of Atlas Comics
Weekend Reading: Alan Moore, Tamara Drewe and Darwyn Cooke
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Movies, Reviews
So did you read that great interview Adi Tantimedh had with Alan Moore over yet at Bleeding Cool? I was going to write about it precisely because I disagreed with almost every comment on the site and then I discovered that a much better writer, Tom Spurgeon at the Comics Reporter, did a much better job of encapsulating my feelings. So my work here is done.
Remember all those comic book movies that people outside of comics don’t really know are based on comics because they don’t have capes and boots, like The Losers, Scott Pilgrim, Road To Perdition, etc. There’s a new one coming up next month called Tamara Drewe, based on the graphic novel by Posy Simmonds.
The trailer looks awesome and I get a Reuben, Reuben vibe from watching it. (Yes, that’s the world’s oldest reference point, but go look it up.) Tamara Drewe looks like a lot of fun and I hope it moves a few thousand copies of the graphic novel, which is also well worth reading. Here’s a nice article on the movie from the BBC.
Now let’s see what else is out there.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Alan Moore, Tamara Drewe and Darwyn Cooke
Weekend Reading: Addams Family, Little Fuzzy, Danger Ace and Louisa May Alcott
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Interviews
So your flight across the Atlantic was canceled due to volcano, and you’re stuck at home with just your computer. Why not click a few links and find out how a New Yorker cartoonist kept a diary of sexual conquests, how John Scalzi is rebooting Little Fuzzy, and Shary Flenniken tackles Alcott?
The Addams Family Man: Charles Addams, creator of The Addams Family which began as a series of cartoons in The New Yorker, became a 1960s TV series, then a couple of movies, and now a critically-reviled Broadway musical, is the subject of a detailed biography. Cartoonist Edward Sorel has a review that also chronicles some of the hot chicks of the era who hooked up with the cartoonist, including Veronica Lake and JFK’s wife. That’s right, a cartoonist got to shag Veronica Lake, and even kept a diary entry about it.
Danger Ace: Yes, you could be reading Brightest Day or Nemesis right now, but you should really try the online comic from Chad Bowers and Carl Yonder.
R.I.P. Dick Giordano
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics
I didn’t know Dick Giordano. By the time DC Comics was negotiating to buy Malibu Comics, Dick had retired. My one encounter with him was so hysterically overwrought and requires so much useless backstory about marginal players that I can only tell it at convention bars over microbrews. But I do know – or think I know – a lot of things about him. He was responsible for a superhero renaissance at Charlton Comics back in the 1960s when he oversaw Ditko’s creation of The Question and his revival of The Blue Beetle and Captain Atom as well as a number of other superhero projects.
When he moved to DC, a number of his Charlton freelancers ended up there as well, including Denny O’Neil, Jim Aparo and Steve Skeates (and under Giordano’s stewardship, Aparo and Skeates had a remarkable run on Aquaman). He co-founded Continuity Studios with Neal Adams, providing an alternative business model (and freelance work) for artists working in corporate comic books. He could edit, write, pencil and ink – he drew some of the most beautiful long-legged women in comics.
Click to continue reading R.I.P. Dick Giordano
Read More 
| The Comics Reporter
Weekend Reading: James Bama, Alex De Campi, Kids and Guns!
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials
Before going any further, let’s just pause for a minute (which is like a week in internet-time) and send some good thoughts out to Eduardo Barreto, the great comic artist who currently draws the Judge Parker comic strip. He’s ailing with Meningitis and has had to push himself away from the drawing board while he recovers. Aside from being a good guy, he’s a terrific artist and Parker is one of the best-drawn comics currently on the page. We at Comix 411 wish him a speedy recovery. Eduardo’s pal and frequent collaborator, Beau Smith, has an excellent appreciaton as well as an update over at Busted Knuckles.
Kids And Guns: One thing I’ve learned is that kids from the 1950s and 1960s loved their guns, and companies were only too happy to fill their hands with iron, okay, well, plastic and metal parts, but still. Over at Cyclops Central they’ve got an excellent post to prove that point with ads from comics books and television.
Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: James Bama, Alex De Campi, Kids and Guns!
VIDEO: Alan Moore Rocks Out With Retro Spankees
Posted by Robin Paulson Categories: DC Comics, Independent
Even though he has a musical history, it’s quite easy to forget with all of the memorable novels and comic books Alan Moore has written. Well, now we’ve got a video to help us not forget!
At a launch party for his latest fanzine, Dodgem Logic, Moore jumped on stage with a band featured on the CD accompanying the magazine, the Retro Spankees. Moore was quick with his literary style in the intro to one of the songs: “This next number, it’s about caring… about people. It’s about caring about people so that you want to… protect them. It’s about caring about people so that you want to protect them by unleashing a storm of malefic evil presences from the pit of Hell against anybody who is distressing you. This is to everybody—it’s called ‘Jonny Fortunate.’”
Check out another performance after the break!
Click to continue reading VIDEO: Alan Moore Rocks Out With Retro Spankees
Read More | Bleeding Cool
Recent Galleries
Advertisement
© Gear Live Media, LLC. 2007 – User-posted content, unless source is quoted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Public Domain License. Gear Live graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, videos, articles, blogs, forums, scripts and other service names are the trademarks of Gear Live Inc.
