Where have we been?

Crikey, two months can pass pretty quickly these days.

I'm trying to figure out the future direction of this site, in the last few months it started to feel a bit arbitrary. I know what I don't want the site to be. I don't want the site to be a comic-book news site, I don't want it to become a review site, I don't want it to be solely a soap-box site and I don't want it to become a glorified advert for stuff I sell in store.
There are hundreds of comic blogs out there which are called blogs, but could just as easily be entrys on a comic forum.

So, while I ponder the future of www.acrossthecounter.co.uk, I leave you with a comic strip of Scott Pilgrim that you probably wouldn't have found otherwise.


(Click to enlarge obviously, if any one of you leaves a comment saying it was too small to read, then may Matt Fraction turn up at your house and rewrite all the dialogue in your favourite comics in his recently acquired - yet already tired - faux-Ellis style)

Return to Oz

Most of this weeks comic reading time has been spent re-reading Preacher. This has always been one of my all time favourite titles, and re-reading it has been an excellent experience as I have noticed so many new things about it. I have changed so much as a person since the last time I read it, it almost reads like a different book in places. Whether it's reading the Bill Hicks tribute which was completely lost on me the first time round, or learning how to read "arse-speak" so I can tell what Arseface is singing (Wonderwall by Oasis incidentally, then later Breakfast at Tiffanys), the book has kept me just as interested - if not even more so - than when I was reading it in monthlies all 5-6 years ago.

So I figured, if I've had this much fun revisiting an old favourite, why not do it with more. Here's how my list is looking.

Grant Morrisons New X-Men - to call it anything less wouldn't do it justice. I wasn't a fan of this when it was coming out, but I have a feeling I am really going to like it second time through as I am less bothered about "what X-Men should be" and more interested in reading a good story.

Transmetroplitan - Because I have only read it the once, shockingly.

Sandman - The new Absolute edition is just around the corner and re-coloured. I don't think I ever finished this series first run through so they'll be some new stuff for me too.

Ennis' Hellblazer - The definitive Contantine to my mind, and Ennis at his absolute finest. Even better than Preacher, but not as accessable to the new reader.

Y The Last Man - only five issues left. When I have the entire run, time to do it all.

Fables - About time I returned to Fables Town, probably the first four Tpbs or so.

Dark Knight Returns - See if I have warmed to it yet, I've never been overly impressed with this groundbreaking series.

Batman No Mans Land - The Tpb exorcised the gumph from this epic series, boiling it down to the essential storylines.

Bendis' Daredevil - Because it was just so, so good.

We3 - Stupid amounts of fun.

So there we have it, what about you people - what have you been meaning to go back to and re-read?

Why V would never work.

Because if you have 163 other channels of sitcom static or sports, who's going to notice the truth being said.



If it is the truth. That's for you to decide, don't spam my blog with pro-Bush or anti-Bush sentiment.
I am merely using life as a metaphor for comic books, no-one should do the opposite (besides, comics are for kids).

The WSU.

Do you remember the rebirth of the Wildstorm Universe?

Although nearly everyone missed it when it started, people soon began to take notice of The Authority and Planetary by the (then) still fairly obscure, yet industry-wide respected Warren Ellis (because as a Time survey revealed this week, who you drink with is more likely to advance your career than anything else).
Although neither book hit the crazed inflated sales heights of title's like WildCATs and Gen 13 from the original Wildstorm / Image launch, both books grabbed a load of attention, kicking Ellis' career off to even greater heights, re-establishing Bryan Hitch as an A-list creator and putting John Cassady, Mark Millar and Frank Quietly on the map. So much so that I really don't need to tell you what they've work on since you probably know.
Both book's have re-established the super-hero industry. Some people will disagree with this; but they did. Authority caught everyone's attention, and as Millar says during his bow-out: "even the people who didn't like what we were doing followed suit".
All good things must come to an end. Due to some poor executive decisions, Authority eventually faded away into poor sales and obscurity, although along the way it spawned the succesfull albeit hollow "Kev" spin-off series (how this one-joke, piss-take turned out to be the best thing about the Authority over the last years is anyone's guess).
Planetary of course is still going on, produced by on semi-irregular schedule by it's original creator's, and as we speak is rapidly heading towards it's conclusion. In many ways the title is a victim of it's own success, as both creators became such important players in the industry that they weren't able to produce the book on a regular basis, which in turns has affected sales. Thankfully the integrity of the book has never suffered, and I am sure will be considered one of the classic Tpb collections in the years to come, alongside Preacher and Transmet.

Over the years I have been a massive fan of Wildstorm. Gen 13 was the first non-Star Wars comic I put on my pull list, and both Authority and Planetary pulled my attention back away from the big two, during a period where I was pretty much only reading Marvel and DC it was a breath of fresh air. So it's nice to see the big Worldstorm launch treating the properties the way they should be respected, with some heavy A-list creators coming on board.

The initial line up consists of several titles, these are the ones I've found most interesting.

WildCATS
Jim Lee makes his triumphant return to Wildcats, and he's bringing along an impressive new collaborator: superstar writer Grant Morrison! The man who redefined the JLA and Superman — and created groundbreaking works The Invisibles and WE3 — now brings his considerable talents to the Wildcats.

Authority
The WorldStorm rollout continues with the return of the most dangerous super-group on the planet! Grant Morrison, the universally acclaimed writer of All Star Superman, Seven Soldiers and Wildcats brings his talents to the new bimonthly series THE AUTHORITY, featuring art by Eisner Award-winner Gene Ha (TOP 10)!

Midnighter
Garth Ennis presents The Midnighter, returning from a mission in war-torn Afghanistan, is accosted as he enters the Carrier. Something is terribly wrong; these unseen assailants take him down too easily and then drag him though the teleportation door to an unknown location. After regaining consciousness he is given a cryptic choice: either kill a mass murderer or die! Art by Chris Sprouse.

Not to mention Gen 13, Stormwatch and Deathblow, which all hold varying degree's of interest and at least one selling point each.

So all in all, excellent talent and three books to definitely check out. It looks like someone has really taken the time to make sure this Worldstorm relaunch event is going to be big business, and something that will catch the attention of the entire industry.

With the financial backing and support of DC and Warner Bros, what could go wrong? All they need is a killer title to launch the series, something to hit the ground running and build momentum for the entire line, show people that thing's are going to be done properly this time around, and look at the killer titles above, any of the top 3 could launch this universe and show people what to expect.

Instead, the line was launched this week, with the following:

Wetworks
Fan-favorite artist Whilce Portacio's legendary special forces team returns in classic fashion, aided and abetted by acclaimed writer Mike Carey (HELLBLAZER, LUCIFER)!

This is not a bash on Mike Carey (although I have never been the biggest fan of his work, I know a lot of people are). Just because I don't like a guy, doesn't mean no-one else should.
I've never been a big fan of Whilce Portacio, I remember him doing weird thing's with peoples necks (in his art, not like, in the street), and something about him going mental. He also did fill in's on some of the Heroes Reborn stuff which left me less than enamored. Still, he was one of the early Wildstorm guys, so it's only right that he should be here.
I've never read Wetworks before. Until now:

Reading this was the comic book equivalent of a shrug.
I'm not going to just do a review because there are a million sites and blogs out there who do reviews and I like to think this site is a little more than that. The writing and art were solid enough and the story made sense to a complete novice like me - without having a forced patronising run down of all the characters and their powers - yet was still not enough to warrant be caring enough to pick up issue 2.
To summarise, the comic is alright. You know what though? Marvel Team-Up was alright. Robin is alright. Birds of Prey is alright. The first issue of an entire Universe reboot needs to be a little more than alright.

And thus my point still stands: Why this book? Out of the titles available they decide to start with this? Personally, I would have started the launch with a bang with WildCATs - you can't really get a bigger selling point than those two creators, and from that people might have decided to check out the rest of the line, which is exactly what books like this and Stormwatch need if they are going to break the 30k mark.
I can't see anyone picking this up and thinking "I must get the entire line", I guess most will flick through it at the comic shop and just decide to wait 'till WildCATs.

Anyone have any ideas why this came first?

"There were other casualties too"

Got to make this quick today, otherwise none of you lot get any comics in November.
Yeah, it's paperwork day.

Morrison on Batman
Sorry Ryan, looks like he is off fairly soon, the Previews for December show Ostranger on the book for at least 4 issues.

Lost Girls
16 chapters out of 30 done and dusted, I only picked this book up yesterday and only meant to flick through it last night, but before I knew what was happening I was engrossed, and not just because there were tits on the page.
I've been really looking forward to this book, it became apparent to me a few weeks ago that the 10 copies we ordered for the store were not going to ship to us. so I paid ACTUAL cash - full price too - out of my pocket. Haven't done that for a while I can tell you.
Glad I did though, as we are already on a third printing of this book with no sign of a UK release, it's always good to have first printings if possible.
So far, it's been an excellent read, albeit one that I won't be able to share with many of my housemates or my friends because 1) it's just porn and 2) there are male gay bit's in it, shock horror (funny how most guy's I know don't consider two women going down on each other to be gay)!
Lot's of things have already been written about this book by people much more eloquent than I, but I would like to comment on the format of the book as it is so interesting, and controls the pace of the story nicely. 30 chapters comprising of 8 pages each, broken down into 10 chapters per hardcover, all collected into one nice big slipcase. A very interesting format which must have been at times bitterly constraining, however it has oft been said that writing within self-imposed boundaries sometimes leads imaginative and freeing writing.
Just a great read.

Pride of Baghdad
Another book I would have quite happily paid full price for (the perks of working for a comic shop mean I didn't have to, but it also means my take home wage is shite, rough with the smooth and all that).
This is definately a book I am going to lend out time and time again, until it comes back to me broken and battered, but loved by all.
I must get this out of the way, when I first started reading I was feeling large levels of parralels to The Lion King, and not just because there are Lions in it either. The cub in the story is drawn so much like Simba on the first few pages it's untrue, and then in a flashback to the jungle we see a character who has remarkable similarities to Scar, down to the fact you could almost hear Jeremy Irons.
However, these fears are unfounded, as all the characters find their own voices before the book is done to become much more whole, complex characters than the two-dimensional morality pawns that Disney created.

Dead Rising
I know, not a comic.
But you know what, this is my site and I have to piss and moan and vent somewhere, today: this is my soapbox.
For a while I couldn't make up my mind whether this was a great game with really shit bits, or a shit game with really shit bits.
After struggling through the entire game, AND overtime mode to get the true ending (shit cut scene where the main character seemingly give's up, followed by white text on a black screen saying "actually, he did get out") I have come to the following conclusion:
This is a shit game with some really shit bits.
Don't get me wrong, there are some great moments, but they are few and far between and you have to face an increasingly more frustrating save system and annoying as fuck boss battles.
The first thing you need to realsie, the threatening army of the un-dead drop like flies. You can dispatch a zombie with a quick smack round the head by a 2" by 4", or a couple of stabs with a knife, one slice of the katana ar by running them over with a trolley.
Any human you encounter in the game though, can survive multiple bullet head shots, a couple of chainsaw slices and several stab wounds before dropping. And I thought zombies were supposed to be the threat.
Case in point: The SWAT team, I shot one in the head 12 times with a sniper rifle befor he dropped. 12. That's amazing. It actually takes less punchs to kill one. In fact, the big end of game boss you have no weapons for and have to dispatch with jumping kicks, which is probably a blessing in disguise, had I had, weapons I know doubt would have shot him oop-side the head 15 times without causing any damage and not known why.

There are some good points to the game, but remember I am telling you these now to ease the blow of the save system which I will recount for you in a paragraph or so's time.

The sheer scale of the game is amazing, I have seen upwards of 150 zombies on screen at the same time. The game has pushed towards 200 zombies at times and I have noticed a bit of slowdown which is discouraging for a next-generation console, but fuck it - the 360 is out now and the PS3 seems to be a fable doomed never to come into fruition.
The other thing to love about the game is "moments", every person playing this game will have a different experience, or will take a certain boss down a different way, or will have a story about saving one of the 64 survivors which is unique. GTA3 was a game built around peoples "moments", it's these non-linear differential's that make the game worth talking about in public.
A great moment for me was when I was fighting Cletus, the psychopath holding the fort at the gun store. As you can imagine, the gunstore is quite a strategic place to have access to, so disopatching Cletus is well worth doing. It took me about 8-9 attempts to kill him; learning his attack pattern, the best way to wear him down, how many times to shoot him etc...etc...
It was becoming quite annoying, and after using 30 sniper bullets I had the guy down to his last bit of energy, coincidentally I was also down to my last piece of energy thanks to his uncanny ability to make his bullets bend around solid objects. Realising I was out of bullets, I picked up the store display I had been hiding behind, ran at Cletus and swung wildly (I may have screamed at the tele too) as a last ditch attempt to kill the fucker. It worked, and saved my cordless pad from flying through the TV in frustration.

Incidentally, the wireless pad is an odd piece of kit. I kind of prefer a wire, and have quite a few times moved the pad in such a way as to free the wire which isn't there from a trapping that didn't hold it.

The game is silly fun, and most things you can use to kill a zombie, golf balls, skateboards, coat hangers, The Golden Axe (good enough for Death-Adder, good enough for you) and footballs. the first time you drive a car through a thpusand odd zombies is gauranteed to make you smile.
If you make it that far.

The main quest is determined by being in certain places at certain times, but thanks to the incredibly simple minded and non-play tested save feature, this can become a chore. It is wholly possible to save your game mid-mission, finish the mission and then be told that you have failed the next mission (it doesn't tell you why, but it's because you weren't in the right palce to activate it at the right time, cheer's Capcom). When this happens, the only option is to start again from the beginning, I know this, because it happened to me.
You only have one save file through the entire game, no staggered saves, no mission selction when you have completed the game, and the saves come few and far between. The amount of times I scraped through a boss battle only to be finished off by a simple, lone zombie.
The simply addition of save's post mission / boss, or even a second save file would have made all the difference in this game.

If you love Zombies and you own a 360, then go for it. If you are thinking or buying a 360 just for this game like I did. Don't.
Hell, at least I am ready for Halo 3.

Free Comics

Kinda.

Three Vertigo debut issues - DMZ #1, LOVELESS #1 and AMERICAN VIRGIN #1 - are available now as free downloads from here.

Random Comic News and Reviews

QUOTE OF THE WEEK (shamelessly yoinked from Lying in the Gutters, blatantly):
"I am GLAD this asshole is dead. Sorry for his wife and kids, but relieved they are in no further danger from his lunacy!" - John Byrne on the death of Steve Irwin.

How would Bryne like it if I said I wish he'd die so he'd stop making crappy comics? Well there you go, I just said it. No more Blood of the Demon or Atom, and my X-Men / F4 collection might increase in value. I can't see a downside (other than wishing someone was dead). Can anyone?

Anyway, comic goodness.

Thor - confirmed series written by JMS. Obviously I am going to think this is a good thing as I am a JMS whore? Thoughts, people? Artist is yet to be announced, expect to see a return of Don blake and the rebuilding of Asgard after the events of Thor Dissassembled.

Supermarket - Excellent read, Brian Wood does good yet again. For those of you who skipped on Couriers and Cous-cous Express, this is what you were waiting for. More defined and with a stronger protagonist, not to mention a healthy dose of Wood social commentary. Check this out when the Tpb arrives.

Nightwing - Thank christ that was the last issue by Bruce Jones. I know DC originally planned to kill Nightwing during Infinite Crisis, maybe that would have been a mercy killing compared to what we've had instead. Hopefully Marv Wolfman coming onto the book will help lift the character back to where he should be.


Exterminators - Just to reiterate on a review Ryan wrote a month or so back. Exterminators is a fantastic comic, and all fan's of good quality comics (especially Vertigo) should consider this a must have, this means all you Preacher fans.

Grounded - After having heard a few good things about this Image series, I decided to check out the Tpb. Although it wasn't bad I got half way through, and haven't had the drive to pick it up and finish it. The story consists of a kid, whose parents are massive superheroes, being sent of to a school for superheroes in training, but he is the only kid at the school who has no powers.
I'm sure I saw this when it was a Disney flick?!?

Damon Lindeloff / Ult. Wolverine Hulk - Had a lot of people ask about this one lately. No, you haven't missed issue #3, it still hasn't shipped.
However, Marvel and Damon released a press release today explaining and apologising for the delay, but it came with the threat "THE FOLLOWING LETTER IS FOR RETAILERS! ONLY IT IS NOT INTENDED TO BE POSTED ON THE INTERNET. Anyone found doing so will be removed from receiving the Marvel Mailer."
Thanks a lot guys, you give us an explanation but we're not allowed to pass it on to the fans, the people who actually make both us and you money.
(The Marvel Mailer is a newsletter where we find out about schedule changes and ordering information for rush release variants and second prints - obviously being excluded from that would not only fuck us over, it would mean you guys miss stuff too).
To summarise, there is no real reason for the book being late other than the writer hasn't done his job yet. Which isn't a massive shock when you think about the track record of people who predominantly work outside the comic industry.
Although he does manage to compare his miniseries to Watchmen. Hmm.

I Might Stick with Runaways a Bit Longer.

Might. Might?

Joss Whedon??? - Thank you very much Marvel.

Should be a new number 1 really, but as long as it doesn't take six months between issues as happened with Fray and Astonishing X-Men I will be a happy man, we all know Whedon can work to a tight schedule after his work on Roseanne, Buffy and Angel, so let's hope this monthly series remains a monthly series.

I'd better reorder the digests so all the Serenity crowd can get up to date.

Art by Michael Ryan, presumably not the UK-based mass murderer.

I just don't Carey.

Wow, just wow! What a comic. I am talking about last week's All-star Superman, utterly fantastic.
I am slowly crawling through last weeks comics after spending the weekend at a party, wherin I got to talk to Liam Sharp about when he met Stan Lee and other geeky things like that. Lot's of fun and I found out lot's of juicy thing's about the industry and people working in it that I can't repeat here because, well, I'm not Rich Johnston. But I am falling dangerously behind on my comics, which hasn't been helped by the fact after reading ASS (hah! ass.) #5 I feel like leaving it a few hours because whatever I read next will invariably feel shit.

And it did.

Luckily it was probably always going to feel poo because it's written by Mike Carey.
I am talking about ult. F4 #33 (? I think?)
I know that may be generalising a little, but I am strugling to think of a Mike Carey project I have enjoyed.
Hellblazer = better than Azzarello, but still weak.
Ult. F4 / X-Men = I couldn't be arsed to finish reading.
Lucifer = didn't read.
Ult DD / Elektra = arse, where was greg Ruck? Damn exclusivity contracts.

Am I missing soemthing? Because Marvel are treating him like royalty using him to take over from Mark Millar on Ult. F4, after a truly excellent and very underated run on the title.

What title was the break-out work for Mike Carey? What title of his do I absolutely HAVE to read? Does anyone know? There has to be a reason for him to be so high up that he can join the elite of Bendis, Millar and Ellis on the Ultimate titles.

Does anyone have the answer?

Also, has anyone out there read Losers? As it's one of the few vertigo comic's I haven't read.

Long live the King.

Confession time - I have never been a huge Jack Kirby fan. I guess mainly because when I got into comics, the King was dead, and like most things the work that impresses most is the first work you come across.
Heck, I have always been a bigger follower of writer's than artist's, there are only a handfull of artist's whose work I follow religously. Mike Weiringo, Gary Frank, Humberto Ramos, JrJr, and Steve Dillon to count a few. It's a different industry now, people are reluctant to follow artists after the whole Image / McFarlane / Cliffhanger debacle of the '90's.
But I digress, I've never been a fan of the Kirby. The picture above however, has somewhat changed my opinion. Enjoy.

A crisis of faith.

So here's the thing...
I need to cut down my comic collection.
I don't HAVE to, and I suppose I don't really NEED to, but I should.
I am NOT getting married, I DON'T have a nuerotic bitch girlfriend forcing me to sell, I DON'T have a kid on the way or any of the usual crap that comes with people cutting down on their comic collection. Nor is this a knee-jerk reaction to a Marvel and DC publicity stunt. Let me try and explain.
I love my comics, I really do, maybe a little too much. No, really, it's gotten crazy and I'm trying to cage the beast, the problem is the beast has been free for too long.
But the question I ask myself is; Do I really need 3 copies of Kingdom Come or The Authority? Do I really need a full set of Preacher first prints when I have access to my Tpbs, not to mention my girlfriends copies of said Tpbs? Not to mention the the fact that I can always read shop stock.
What's doing it is that my weekly comic bill has reached the £50-£60 retail mark, obviously I get stuff wholesale, but still, we're talking £2,500 a year of stuff that could sell in the store. But I could live with that bill if it wasn't for the fact that so much of the stuff I buy is superfluous, I mean I have at least 5 Absolute edition HC's coming in the next six months, and all but one of them are stuff I already own in one format or another.
It's hardly like I'm talking about stopping comics, they are a huge part of my life and will always be, but christ I have 2 BOXES of Iron Man comics - that's not sane.
You may have noticed this is very much train of thought ranting, indeed at this point I have no idea if this is a ramble to myself or something that I intend to post on the site - after all, I don't want to come across really negative and put people off buying comics as that's a Gerald Ratner approach to business (you're all too young for that obscure reference).

I am more split over what to do with this than Spidey is in civil War (see, always the geek).

The other thing which is contributing to this is the sheer volume of variant covers I have dropped into the bad habit of buying again. No matter what I will always buy Spider-man variants as that is my mainstay superhero (most of the old breed of comic collectors have a mainstay, whether it be Daredevil, Superman or Batman, that they stay with through thick and thin, it's an oldskool way of thinking but one I have always loved. Bear in mind 10-20 years ago very few people followed creators), but I have to get out of the habit of buying HC reprints as well.
Those of you have seen my tattoo's know I love The Transformers (they're more than meets the eye you know), but this latest IDW run has really killed it for me. Thankfully they've calmed it with the variants now, but some of the comics I have 8 different variant covers for, ranging from £2.20 up to £100 in some cases. Very few comics in my collection are worth £100 to me except early Spidey's, and to be fair I'd rather have the cash than every cover of Prime looking pretty much the same as he always does.

More cases for the prosecution:
*I just bought the variant cover box set for Gen 13 Issue #1 (10 years old!!!! Shit) for the bargain price of £21 - but do I really need another 14 Gen 13 comics.
Fucking Michael Turner Civil War covers, I don't even like him anyway so why have I got them???
*I like Fables. I want to re-read Fables. I want to lend Fables to my comic buddies but I can't, because they are all buried in coffin boxes trapped behind a mountain of plastic robots in my toy room. If I sold the originals I could buy the tpbs, and probably have a bit left over.
*Street Fighter? Why the fuck do I buy Street Fighter? Sure, it's a well done title and a lot of fun, but I'm not really that big a fan of Street Fighter to warrant buying it every month.
*It's not like I am going to cut down on my reading, I have access to everything I want through the store, so why not buy the things I really want and get rid of the things I am NEVER going to re-read (like electric-era Superman for example).
*I can't move in my house anymore. I have 24 boxes in my toy room, 20 boxes in my attic, 8 boxes waiting to be sorted and another 3 boxes waiting to be read. It's long past the point where I've worried over the structural integrity of the house under the weight of all the comics. I've only been collecting 10 years, imagine what my house will be like in another ten if I don't do something about it now.

Cases for the defence:
*What if the comics rocket through the roof in price and I regret selling them? The Iron Man movie might make my 2 boxes of comics hot shit (yeah, right). What if HBO get a Preacher series and the first prints go through the roof? But it's not like I was buying the comics for speculative reasons was it? Well, no, but there has always been a part of me that has considered my comics a retirement plan, but over the years they have bcome more of a ball and chain than anything else.
*Get real man, no-one will want to buy your electric-era Superman comics, they were shite. Might as well keep them for all the money you'd get.
*eBay is a pain, takes ages and you have to pay a percentage.

Gah!!!

I don't know what to do, obviously it makes more reason to streamline than to keep going like I am. Hell, if I keep going like this I am going to end up resenting the comics I love.

Advice people, I need your two cents here.

CIVIL WAR DELAYED

In information released to comic book retailers Tuesday {I never fucking got anything}, Marvel has {surely that should be have?} announced that issue #4 and 5 of their hugely successful Civil War series are being delayed.

Civil War #4, originally scheduled to be released tomorrow, is now scheduled for September 20th. Issue #5 and all its variants, originally scheduled for next month, is now scheduled for November 15th.

And because of the nature of the storyline, the delays in the main series will affect the related and tie-in titles, like Civil War: Front Line.

In the announcement, Marvel wrote:

“Over the next few weeks, the Civil War proper title and a few of the tie in books that are closely related to the story in the main book will be shipping later than originally planned. In an attempt to accommodate the creative team of Millar and McNiven and keep the artistic integrity and high standards of the event, we will be shifting the following titles:
CLICK HERE
“The need for these shifts came about as the September [for November shipping product] Marvel Previews #37 was going to press and we were not able to make adjustments,” reads Marvel’s explanation to retailers. “The December Marvel Previews will reflect the changes and additions. At this point we do not anticipate further changes to the schedule. We apologize for the inconvenience but feel that this is in the best interest of the quality of the event and for retailers to continue to realize the immense sales for these books. We are announcing these shifts early enough in the hopes that retailers can adjust their buying patterns for the next few months. Also, we hope the addition of a few more key Civil War titles will make up for any lost sales that result from these moves.”

Look for more information regarding these changes as it becomes available.

----------------------------------------------------------

From a retailers point of view.

I'm just glad we got so many people into DC and Tpb's over the last two years, a few years back we were depending on Marvel solely and this kind of mess could have put us under, thankfully our customers have broadened their outlooks and we sell as many copies of Scott Pilgrim and Fables Tpbs as we do most Marvel titles.

But...we are still going to feel the sting on this big time, we had 104 copies of Civil War #3 in total, which is the most we have every ordered on a Marvel title, a lot of people have been reticent to add the newer titles like Moonknight, Ms Marvel, Martian Manhunter, Creeper etc... because all their comic money is going into Civil War.
And I don't even mind waiting for Civil War if we HAVE to, but its how this is going to affect the Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-man titles which is going to piss me off the most, these titles are our bread and butter titles.
But what really pisses me off is that I have to find out about this through Newsarama, no e-mail sent via Diamond explaining the situation. If I was an internet retard I would have no idea about this, I'm sure many retailers are hearing about this through there younger internet going customers. How do you think that makes them feel Marvel? Like idiots maybe?

And how does it make you, the consumer feel?

Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie's Lost Girls

"In countries like the U.S. and Great Britain, we exist in a wholly sexualized culture, where everything from cars to snack food are sold with a healthy slathering of sex to make them more commercially appealing. But if you're using sex to sell sneakers, then you're not just selling sneakers, you're selling sex as well, and you're contributing to the sexual temperature of society. You're going to get people who, unsurprisingly, become overheated in that kind of sexual environment, and if they attempt to assuage their desires by resorting to the widely available medium of pornography, they're going to have their moment of gratification, and then they're going to have a much longer period of self-loathing, disgust, shame and embarrassment. It's almost like a kind of a reverse Skinner-box experiment, where once the rat has pushed the lever and successfully received the food, then he gets the electric shock." - Alan Moore

God damnit I am really looking forward to the Lost Girls HC. In the last year I have become a real big fan of Alan Moore, this weekend I (finally) read the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen SC's and was very impressed by the quality of the work, all of the characters have real fucking character and serve a real purpose to the story. I can see the LOEG joining the hallowed ranks of Watchmen, V for Vendetta and Promethea as books I always come back to.

Obviously, an awful lot has already been said on the subject of Lost Girls, and I am not going to add to it until I have sat down and read said title, instead I will point to a few places that cover it quite well.

HERE

AND HERE

MORE HERE

AND FINALLY HERE

ASTRO CITY

ASTRO CITY - there's a book that not enough people read. The premise sounds done to death: A city filled with super-heroes and super-villains playing out power fantasies and morality tails. Hardly original is it?
Well thats because we are just looking at the surface of the book, if we scratch a little deeper we will see the real purpose of the book, and the pitch becomes this: Imagine you are Kurt Busiek, life-time comicbook fan and succesful longterm creator. For all your earnt respect in the industry, you are not going to get the chance to write long, defining runs on EVERY comic-book character (the way he did with Avengers for example), and even if you could pick and choose a different title every month there are some stories that the powers-that-be wouldn't - or should I say couldn't - let you do.

The solution? Create your own 'verse.

"Astro City is set in a world where superheroes have existed since at least the 19th century: the first public hero, Air Ace, appeared during World War I. Busiek, Anderson and Ross have crafted a complex world with a huge cast of characters, many of whom have extensive backstories sketched out which are revealed as the series progresses. Some characters somewhat resemble characters from DC Comics or Marvel Comics universes, though the link tends to be inspirational only, revisiting archetypes common to many characters from comics, pulp fiction and myth, rather than any one-to-one correspondence.

The series is an anthology that focuses on different characters living within Astro City and the stories are usually narrated from a first person perspective from the story's protagonist. Some issues of the series are one- or two-part stories, while others run as many as seven issues in an extended arc.

The essential hook of Astro City is that it explores the reactions that people - both ordinary people and the heroes and villains themselves - have to living in their world. For example, in the first story, the character Samaritan (who resembles Superman) reflects on his life during a typical day, in which he spends almost all of his waking hours flying around the world to help people, and never has any time to enjoy the sheer physical sensation of flight. Other stories involve a date between two high-profile heroes, the initiation of a "kid sidekick" hero, the efforts of a reformed supervillain to find a life outside of prison, a superhero being driven away from Earth by his "love's" attempts to expose him, and the life of an innocent bystander in the days after having been held hostage by a supervillain." (sourced from Wiki for expediency)

Through this universe, Kurt Busiek has an outlet for all the loose story ideas that just wouldn't fit into a Marvel or DC universe. Sometimes focusing on the big boys of the superhero universe, who are little more than metaphors of existing characters (First Family = Fantastic Four), and sometimes focusing on how the big cosmic events affect the little people (you imagien being a shop-keeper in the middle of Infinite Crisis).

Time was, this title was a multiple Harvey and Eisner award winner, so why don't we hear high praise about the title anymore?

Is the book still relevant? Is the book still needed? I sat down to read the latest 5 issues to find out (and to catch up, boy am I behind on some of my reading).

Astro city: The Dark Age Vol. 1 # 1-4

The Dark Age is a 12 or 16 issue Maxi series (Sue me, I can't remember), split up into three (or four) 4 issue arc's, purely to give the creators chance to get all the issues out on time with a regular artist and without intermitent shipping - two things that destroyed Rising Stars and stopped it being heralded a classic.
The first volume of "The Dark Ages" focuses on two brothers (racist!) who have both grown up to resent super-heroes, but while one has turned to a life of petty crime, the other one has the opposing view of "we don't need them" and has joined law enforcement as a police officer.
The story is nicely paced - with lovely art by regular artist Brent Anderson - with plenty of twists and revelations to keep the reader turning one page to the next, the cameos by established Astro City regulars help keep the story grounded and an interesting sub-plot add's to the history of the First Family, but seen through the eyes of regular folk.
The way the story is constructed in this first arc is fairly reminiscent of "Marvels", which I'm sure many of you remembered was written by Kurt Busiek. All in all this was good, solid story-telling, but didn't really show us anything we haven't seen before.

Astro city Special: Samaritan

A complete juxtapose for "The Dark Ages", this completely self-contained interlude / special focuses on two men: Superman allegory "Samaritan" and his arch-nemesis "Infidel", which is slightly akin to you or I renaming ourselves "Fucking Wanker" but roll's of the tongue better and contains a dose of irony.
Infidel hit's all the major cliff notes of being a major super villain: Self made millionaire, off the chart intelligence, a somewhat cavalier approach to life and has grown accustomed to a somewhat debonair lifestyle. And of course he wants to rule the world or destroy it, delete as appropriate.
What is unusual avbout this book is the hero and the villain have stopped fighting. After their cross purpose fighting had played out across all of time, space and reality causing the end of the world and beyond, the two realise a stalemate has been met and set about recreating the universe together (otherwise, what the hell are they fighting for).
As the story is told, the stalemate is still in place and the two characters meet up once a year to check in and keep an eye on each other, as each one hopes to convert the other to their way of thinking, so together they can change the world the way they see fit.
Intelligent, fun, crazed superheroic goodness, this is the kind of story I have come to expect from Astro City.

To Conclude:

Is Astro city still cutting edge and relevant? Yes and no.
The thing is, when Astro city was first printed, comics were in a bad way. The speculator craze had super-inflated the industry putting valiant and Image in an elevated position of power and Marvel and DC were lagging behind. Variant covers, foil embossing, re-launchs and hot artwork were the emphasis for the entire industry, and as supply and demand has it marvel and Dc tried to match suit with the latest stupid gimmick or headline grabbing idea. Spider-man was a clone, Captain America got a metal costume, Batman was replaced by Azrael, Superman died, wolverine went feral and all the while story-telling and chaaarcter values dropped to one side, out of view of comic book professionals.
So it's no wonder when Astro City (curiously printed by Image) came along, and did what everyone else USED to do, only better and intelligently, it's no surprise that industry professionals stood up and took notice, garnering the attention of Wizard magazne and the various award commitees.
Fast forward to present day. Thanks to books like Astro city, Planetary and Authority paving the way, super-hero comics are better than they have ever been, with even the most basic super-hero premise being re-invigorated with fresh ideas and ground-breaking storylines. The emphasis in the industry - for the first time I've ever known it to be - is on the writer.

So while Astro City is no longer the cutting edge book it used to be, the final statement is simply: "Astro City, your work here is done...but feel free to stick around and enjoy the party".

"When too much of a good thing is a bad thing" or "How I learnt to stop worrying and love multiple genres."

If Hollywood is the barometer of success for the western world then super-heroes couldn't be much hotter. Comic books, despite selling in much less quantity then in previous years is still near enough a 400 million dollar industry, and that's not counting the movie / DVD side of things. Super-heroes are hot right now, it's a fact.
Unfortunately, with that simple truth comes another one: supply and demand. If people think they can turn a buck by simply copying the current trend rather than trying to do something new and original, they will - of course - follow the path of least resistance. That's why 1977-1985 saw lot's of Sci-fi flicks like "Flight of the navigator" and "Last Starfighter", and why "American Pie" triggered a slew of like-minded clones.

Case in point: "Sky High" and "My Super Ex-girlfriend".
All films like this do is dilute the pond as they try to grasp onto the succesfull "formula" of comic book movies.
Let's be fair, for every Spider-man, Batman Begins or Ghost World there is a Catwoman, Elektra or Man-thing. Our soda is being watered down but we are expected to keep drinking it.

As long as money is being made, our comic films will keep getting made. But like the 1987-1995 Batman film franchise proved, it can all go wrong far too quickly. We are only ever one "Waterworld" comic book equivalent away from it all going to shit.

Unless...
...is it possible? Could Hollywood have stopped looking at comic book movies as genre pieces? Surely by now Spider-man and the Batman Begins movie franchises are judged by there own merits and not just lumped into the same stock as The Hulk? Sam Raimi and Chris Nolan are both making intelligent, thoughtful movies that the mainstream AND comic puritans can both appreciate, rather than the smash / crash / pow affair of Schumachers campy Bat-romps.
We all know Cronenbergs ignorance about the existence of "A History of Violence", and I find it hard to believe that "Constantine" was green-lighted because Spider-man 2 took £200 million on its opening week.

When you look at the great comic book movies of the last decade, you have your Blade Trilogy, Road to Perdition, Mystery Men, V for Vendetta, Oldboy, Men in Black, X-Men, Battle Royale, and Superman. Over the next few years we have Iron Man, Sin City 2, 30 Days of Night, Torso, Spidey and Bat's sequels, Scott Pilgrim, and Ghost Rider all to look forward to.
The only discernible pattern is that people in Hollywood are paying attention to the old funny-books, judging each one by it's own merits regardless of genre or subject matter, publisher or country of origin, language or creator.

So if Hollywood - with one of the most inbred, blinkered, backward looking, keeping-up-with-the-Jonesses, pathetic money grabbing viewpoints of anyplace, anywhere on the planet - can judge comics individually...

...why can't most comic fans?

It's all about Scott.

I post this at the risk of us looking like a comic movie site.

Scott Pilgrim: The Movie?

And of course, if you haven't read SP yet, then why not?

Heath Ledger is The Joker.

Official Press Release

BURBANK, CA, 31 July 2006 - As a follow up to last year's blockbuster Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan is set to direct Warner Bros. Pictures' The Dark Knight, written by Jonathan Nolan, based on a story by Christopher Nolan and David Goyer. The film will be produced by Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan. Additionally, Christian Bale will resume his role as Bruce Wayne and Academy Award nominee Heath Ledger has been cast as The Joker. The announcements were made today by Jeff Robinov, President of Production, Warner Bros. Pictures.

Christopher Nolan revamped the Batman franchise in 2005 with the immensely successful Batman Begins, starring Christian Bale in the title role, which chronicled the early years of the superhero. Nolan first garnered attention from critics and fans in 2000 with the groundbreaking drama Memento, which he wrote and directed. He went on to direct the thriller Insomnia, starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams, and recently wrapped production on The Prestige, with Hugh Jackman and Bale.

Bale was most recently seen in the ensemble cast of Terrence Malick's The New World. His other credits include Little Women, Portrait of a Lady, Metroland, American Psycho, Laurel Canyon and Steven Spielberg's Empire of the Sun, which was his first starring role.

Ledger most recently earned Oscar Golden Globe, BAFTA and SAG Award nominations and won the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Ennis Del Mar in the award-winning drama Brokeback Mountain. His other credits include Casanova, Monster's Ball, Lords of Dogtown, The Brothers Grimm and The Patriot.

"Chris' unique vision is what made Batman Begins such an outstanding film and we could not imagine anyone else at the helm of The Dark Knight," said Robinov. "We also can't wait to see two such formidable actors as Christian and Heath face off with each other as Batman and The Joker."

"I'm excited to continue the story we started with Batman Begins," added Nolan. "Our challenge in casting The Joker was to find an actor who is not just extraordinarily talented but fearless. Watching Heath Ledger's interpretation of this iconic character taking on Christian Bale's Batman is going to be incredible."

Production is set to begin on The Dark Knight in early 2007.

Nolan and Ledger are represented by CAA.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Comments and thoughts people?
My thinking is simply that I have faith in Nolan and the production team, and the best thing we can do is wait and see. Having said that, Heath Ledger doesn't seem the most obvious choice.
But neither did Reeve, Rourke, Routh or Keaton for there respective comic movie roles, as long as Heath doesn't have Cesar Romero's fucking moustache I will be happy.

-------------

Ryan - Just thought I would add this from the Newsarama Blog, gotta love Photoshop

GENERAL COMIC + LIFE UPDATE -WHAT I'M READING WATCHING AND ENJOYING

GENERAL COMIC + LIFE UPDATE -WHAT I'M READING WATCHING AND ENJOYING

Thunderbolts - I stopped getting this comic when they re-booted it as a "Marvel fight club" circa #76 - I didn't even read it during that period. when the title re-started I was curious but the title didn't hold my attention. I am reading it now purely for the civil war tie-in (as I am a completist whore like that) and it's reminded me how much I used to enjoy the characters, but no matter what they do with this title I know it will never reach the peak it did during those first 25 issues.

Books of Doom - Not so much of a re-telling of Dr Doom's origin more of an expanding and clarification of what is actually continuity canon and what isn't. It focuses more on his tie's with the gypsy community, Latveria and his Oedipus motivations. Reminscent in style of JMS's Stange miniseries, as Brubaker continues to impress at Marvel.
Almost enough to make me want to catch up with my x-Men.

Persepolis ; The complete edition - Both parts (or all four parts if you collected the original French editions) of this excellent bio-mic chronicalling the authors upbringing in war-torn Iran have now been collected into one handy-dandy package. The small touches and off-beat focus is what makes this story great, my attention was drawn less to the rapes, bombings and deaths and more to the Kim Wilde western obsession and the fact her friends had all the Star Wars figures - it's a side of Iran you never think existed and shows starkly how things have changed in the last 25 years. enlightening stuff.

Scott Pilgrim vol. 3 - More of the same, with a book of this quality that's never a bad thing.

Superman Returns - fucking ace movie although I didn't aprove of Jimmy Olsen swearing (hypocrite!). I will get into a review of it soon, but I don't want to spoil it, and lets face it everywhere has their two cents on this movie. I liked it, you might not. But I don't understand why the hardcore comic frat whinge about it.

Deadwood - Only three episodes in and this show inspires me to write better villains. Just a solidly written show by the guys who bought us Sopranos. Very much recommended.

Lost - And I wish I'd never found it. Big pile of balls, but what do you expect but an idiot-fest from the peep's who bought us Alias?

24 series 5 - yeah, now this is how I like my crap TV shows. It is shit, but I love it.

The Amazing Spider-Girl - great to see it has anpother series and all as I really love this book, but I have a pile of the last 26 issues to get through before the relaunch. Better get reading.

Civil War - I love this series to pieces. Okay, I thought some of Spidey's dialogue was a little off in Issue #3, but that can be explained as his nervousness. It's handling a series that very easily could fall flat on its face with enough rteverance to pull it off, and pull it off fucking well. Hat's off to Millar.
Cheap Plug time: We still have some of the Ed McGuiness variants left at £2.50 each, but they are only available to our Standing Order customers on a first come first served basis.

52 - Another great series. I know a lot of friends in other comic stores have a hard time selling this, but its one of our best ever selling books when you consider its a weekly title. No Superman, bats or WW and still our customers buy it. Good work guys - you have better taste than most.

Transformers comics - As with everything TF related, over-exposure is killing it. Some issues have 7 issues, forcing me to order silly amounts just so I can get variants, which is detrimental to the store. And with 4 different monthlies thats a lot of fucking unsold copies. Fuck IDW and fuck their variant cover ploicy for breaking my complete TF run, but I cannot justify 75 copies of a mediocre book for a shit variant cover.

Reprints - Three months ago it was DC, now its Marvel turns. Regular priced variant reprint covers are the name of the day for all the titles that have sold out. Civil War, Wolverine origins, She-Hulk and more - reprints that make sense enabling fans to join in the hype and not wait six months for a tpb - good work Marvel.

Tpbs - Bad work Marvel. Not only are some titles coming out far too quickly (a week after the comic in some cases); Marvel are killing interest with shit "Premiere edition" Hardcovers featuring a measly 6 issues for £18 - this puts the customer off as they know it will be in Tpb in 6 months for £5 less, and by the time the six months have passed, its been so long since the issues were talked about on the 'net and in Wizard, people have forgotten and no longer care. At least when DC do a Hardcover like Infinite Crisis it looks damn impressive, means a lot to the DCU as a whole, and they keep it in print for a year or so before swapping out to Tpb.
Of course, DC aren't perfect, £18 for the Jim lee Superman and Green Lantern Rebirth (6 issues each) was a bit much.
While on the subject of Tpbs, Marvel are seriously overcharging again. £18 for six issues of Excalibur which shouldn't set you back more than £7-8 in back issue form? £14 for a six issue mini that would have cost £13.20 in 1st prints. Reel it in Marvel, or Tpb will never be a viable market..

Green Lantern spin-offs - I don't know if I can be arsed to be honest. They seem to be gathering in a pile of un-read-ness. I don't mind the ongoing, I wouldn't say I love it, but I'll stick with it for the foreseeable, but Ion and GL Corps? They might go the way of the following pretty soon...

Ms Marvel - Stopped getting. There's nothing wrong with it, it sell's well, reads good and is a hell of a lot better than it has ANY right to be but I get enough stuff and something had to give. Maybe its just me, but I can't get my head around the concept of a Ms. Marvel ongoing.

The New DC / One Year Later - stop with the fucking branding already! Oh, they have. well stop with the new titles. IMHO Shadowpact, OMAC, Secret Six, Blue Beetle and Checkmate are all a bit lacking. I guess for a lot of guys who are new to the DCU they are wicked, (and with Infinite crisis we gained a LOT of new DC readers) because the newcomers feel like they are getting in on the ground-floor and something they know a little about through IC, but for an old-school DC fan like me, they don't do much. put it this way: When Spectre is your best new launch and its a 3-issue mini you are doing something wrong.
Even WW and Flash feel lacking compared to pre-1YL. But for every poor title there is an excellent title, like the new JLA or Superman.

That's enough for today. More soon and I will add pictures tomorrow.

HTML PROBLEMS

It might be apparent to many that I have NO idea what I am doing with HTML, so in the course of re-designing this site, it might go a bit funny for some site visitors.

As it stands, the page is fine if viewed using Mozilla Firefox - and to be fair if you don't use firefox; why not?

But the site looks quite gammy if viewed with Internet Explorer. Bear with me, it will get better.

Variant Covers - a discussion.

So, what do you people think of Variant Covers?

Personally, I have no problem with them. If a variant cover is a nice image and it's of Spider-man or Transformers, then 9/10 times I'll be a sucker and go for it.

Professionally? I fucking hate them. I can see they are an underhanded sales trick with nothing more in mind than inflating sales, and I am quite happy to make my money with them. But they are a real headache. Espceially as Marvel don't list them during the initial ordering phase.

Case in point: Neil Gaimans revisioning of "The Eternals".

Neil Gaiman can sell a book, DC know this, Marvel know this, we know this. This book was always going to sell in good numbers, but more improtantly for Neil's work, this will have a long, healthy book-shelf lifespan with mass-market appeal. The comic will pay for itself, the Tpb however, will be a nice cash-cow for Marvel.

I was initially going to order about 15 copies of this title, as I thought a lot of people (myself included) will wait for the Tpb. So I went with 15.
Then a few weeks later I got a Marvel mailer, and it said "John Romita Jr Variant cover for the Eternals. 1:20". Meaning in order to receive 1 variant I have to order 20 regular. What the hell, its only 5 more than I was going to get, and one of our customers is a MAJOR JRJR fan so it was a guaranteed sale.
Then a week or so later, they anounce that a "super limited John romita Jr Variant Cover Sketch Edition, 1:50". Quite a leap, but the JRJR fan will most likely want it so it keeps a regular happy, and this way we can order another of the 1:20 covers anyway, so what the heck.

Weeks pass, then the order comes through. We have about 30 copies sat on the shelf not doing much, except gathering dust and making it look like I don't know what I'm doing. I've always wondered if customers see a lot of copies of a book, do they wonder "Ah, the retailer has faith in this book. This must be a good book." or do they say "Ah. A turkey, this book must be a turkey. It's just sat there not being bought."
In truth, the customer is probably happy shoping for the things they know they want, and are quite happy to ignore quantity.

So the book sells fairly well, the regular JRJR fan buys the variant covers, we put one on the wall at a reasonable rate all is good.
And then we notice there is a third variant (or a fourth cover), which I had better get for the regular. Even though the cover isn't by JRJR it's become a completist thing now, so I contact the old distributors hoping to order at least one copy.
Andy at Diamond: "Ah, the Coipel Variant. Limited to only 10 per account".
Now remember, I only want one...
..but only ten per account! I must be able to sell all them and make a profit, surely. I place the order, it seems silly not to take full advantage, after all, it's an incentive, right?

So, that's a total of 63 copies of Eternals #1, a title that I had only intended to order 15 copies of.

I'm sure there is a point, or a moral to this. Somewhere.

ALL-STAR COMICS; HIT OR MISS: OPPOSING VIEWS.

Ryan Says:

So the All Star line has been with us for almost a year now, well nearly past a year, meaning that All Star Batman And Robin The Boy wonder is possibly the slowest comic I’ve ever read, 4 comics over a year. Yet they both sell well, regardless of release, but does commercial success mean critical success?

The whole premise was never aimed to be the ‘ultimate’ DC line, I’m not even sure if DC would ever need it. I mean we have a crisis of some kind every 10 or so years, retconing elements of the past and starting again, while not at the beginning, at an easy place to jump on. I think an ‘Ultimate’ line could be done, and well too, but this was never meant to be it

So what is the All Star line?

Essentially it’s where DC can pair up some of it’s ‘A list’ creators with the icons of DC, without them having to abide by the laws on continuity.

We’ve got Jim Lee and Frank Millar on All Star Batman And Robin The Boy Wonder. Hit or miss?

Well in terms of actual story, we’ve really got no where. Batman has kidnapped Robin after his parents we’re murdered, and then left him to eat rats in the Batcave like a good little sidekick.

But is it entertaining? No question, we have been given some of the funniest dialogue from a Batman comic in an age, with characterisations that really play on the reader’s perceptions of the Batman history along with fantastic art. I’m still undecided if my love of this book comes from me wanting to witness the train wreck if Millar ever meant this to be a serious comic, or if Frank is writing it as a critique on the Batman people thought he was writing in The Dark Knight Strikes Back, as in a this is the Batman you were reading, he was not the Batman I was writing.

Either way it’s a fun comic in my book.

And we’ve got Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely on All Star Superman. Hit or miss?

Hit all the way and there is no doubting it, again a comic plagued by delays, but in far less time it has hit the 4 issue mark. As we looked at a few blog posts ago, Morrison is paying tribute to the Silver age, it’s not a parody like Batman, but rather a homage to all the ‘wacky’ stuff that came out of the 60’s and 70’s. The story itself is shaping up nicely, written in a way that every issue can be appreciated singularly, but even more when read together. Were being told the story of the Death of Superman, but through the issues we are touching on seemingly ever aspect of Superman’s History, so far, his relationship with Lex, the man he is, his love of Lois and his friendship with Jimmy. I think when this is over we’re going to be left with a comic that touched on everything important to a Superman comic, but in a very fun and enjoyable light hearted way.

The arts pretty fantastic to, with careful attention paying off when you see all of the Easter eggs that have been laid out for the observant.

This book is no doubt a success, with it allowing any reader to come in and enjoy Superman effortlessly.

Line wide have the All Star books been a success?

To me, certainly. They’ve offered things that couldn’t be found in the DC line before them. And while ASBARTBW may have its faults, I believe that it’s a highly enjoyable read that may perhaps read better in trade. Whilst ASS, has proven that a mainstream Superhero book can offer a complete story each issue in the current comic medium. But they’ve both offered reads that don’t require the reader to know the past of these two Icons, something that whilst not completely the ‘Ultimate’ line, embodies the reasoning behind it.

Personally I can’t wait for the next All Star book to launch

Sid Says:

When DC first announced the All-star line, it was in answer to Marvels Ultimate line. They stated it categorically, and even though since then they have said that its meant to be different than the Ultimate line, only an idiot wouldn't want to recreate the success of the Ultimate line.
If there are four marketable icons in the history of comics, they are Spider-man, Batman, Superman and (loath as I am to admit it) Wolverine. Followed very closely by Wonder Woman and The Hulk, if only for their TV shows.
The question has always been: "How do we make these characters appeal to the masses, not just 60,000 core fans?" The answer from Marvel was easy: make them more assessable by starting again, make them easy to find, easy to read and with a branding that people can trust. After all, there really isn't much difference between any brand of Corn Flakes, yet Kellogg's far outsell there closest competitor due to one thing: branding. Like it or not, advertising and marketing are the defining parts of our culture today.

Within a year of the Ultimate line up starting, there was an Ultimate Spider-man graphic novel in every comic store, every Borders, every Ottakers, on Amazon, in Wallmart, just about everywhere you would expect to find reading material. With a second volume just around the corner and an imminent Ultimate X-Men Tpb due.
Comics shops had thirteen issues of Ultimate Spider-man, all written and drawn by the same creative team, whom are still on the book even, 98 issues in. Ultimate Spider-man was a vastly different character with today's ideologies but the same core values that always made him a hero. We saw firsthand why Uncle Ben was a great guy, Osborn was his first super-villain Spidey faced - not the Chameleon and Peter even sat down and revealed his identity to Mary Jane, his high-school sweetheart.
These new tales of Spider-man were perfectly crafted to fit in with the forthcoming "Spider-man" live action film, giving casual fans a place to continue the story without having to learn 40 years of convoluted back story.

Within a year, we were six issues into a tight X-Men run by legend in the making Mark Millar, where he had established a core team with a bad-ass attitude, perfect for fans of the previous years X-Men movie, which was becoming a bankable franchise in the making.
By the time Spider-man and X-Men 2 hit the cinemas, there was quite a selection of Ultimate novels on the market for the discernible comic reader.

I guess one of my main points is that any fuck in a suit can throw a load of money at Frank Miller and make a "best-selling" comic appear. But it takes someone who really gives a shit about the industry to recognise talent in Mark Millar - who at the time was working on Superman Adventures and Avengers-bashing on the Authority- and Brian Michael Bendis - who was infamous for his work on Torso and Goldfish. Marvel used unbankable creators, taking a risk and making stars with their own voices for a new generation rather than using pre-established creators. Imagine if Marvel had gone with the All-star creators of John Bryne and Chris Claremont?

What has the All-star line done in a year. 8 issues between two series? That's pathetic.
What was there in book stores for newcomers when Batman Begins hit? What can we, the retailers, recommend to fans of Superman Returns? Man of Steel? Birthright? And then what? What do they lead into?

And what is All-star anyway?

What's All-star if its not Grant Morrison and Andy Kubert on Batman? Or Geoff Johns and Richard Donner on Superman? And these examples are both core universe DC titles. How can All-star Wonder Woman compare against the current creative team?
And All-star to whom exactly? Non-comic readers? Of course not. The entire line is built of the premise that pre-existing fans will want to read these comics because we are selling them on the names of creators they already know. Kids and new readers will not check the creators names on a Tpb in Borders, because the name will have no real relevance to them. At best, the All-star line could be great for bringing back some older comic fans who haven't read anything in a while.

So the question is, will newcomers come to trust the brand All-star? Probably not, and here's why.
When they finally get into Tpb, neither book will feel like you are getting in on the ground floor of something amazing and revolutionary the way the Ultimate line did. Okay, its a tough call on whether or not to start at the beginning, and everyone on the planet has a vague idea of both Supes and Bats respective origins, so do you need to start with the origins? Probably not. Yet the All-star line feels pre-established, like you are coming into a story halfway through, always missing that all important first chapter, which isn't so much of a problem if you are an established comic reader, but if you're a newcomer - kind of important.
The other thing that will affect quality is the changing of creative teams. Frank Miller and Jim Lee are only confirmed for a measly six issues, and by the time that's happened what will have progressed in the story? At best, they have driven from a circus to the Batcave, talked a bit, and Robin will get a costume. Mark Millar stayed on X-Men for 32 issues (with the exception of 2 fill-in issues), and really helped establish the universe before he left to do another Ultimate title, and its very like Bendis and Bagley will break Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's record for consecutive issues on a mainstream superhero title.

So the next question is "Why do I hate the All-star line so much?" The answer is: I really don't. I love the line even if it has been marred by variant covers and retailer incentives to inflate numbers (something that the Ultimate line has really downplayed) and despite not knowing if they are in a shared universe or not.
Sure it's flawed, but the stories keep me interested, and as mentioned earlier on my site: AS Superman is a fantastic read. But are they GAINING new readers on comics the way Marvel acheived it on the back their movies?

I think not.

All-star Comics. Not a hit, but certainly not shit.

These are all my opinions based on the facts as I know them. The proof of the pudding will be - of course - in the long term Tpb sales.

Transformers The Movie Teaser Trailer

Who is this Transformer???

GO HERE

Spider-Man Unmasking - Good or Bad?

If only the answer was as black and white as Venom's costume.

Like so many things in life, the true answer lies somewhere in the gray.
While I love Civil War and all its tie-in's, and can easily say just two issues in that I much prefer it to last years "House of M", and while I can honestly say I am really enjoying the concept of Spider-man unmasking for the new story line possibilities it opens up, I have to go against the idea if only for one simple reason:

It won't last.

Whether it takes one year or ten years, this will be undone. Even if they have to wait till Joe Q's dead (and no offence to the guy, but he's not looking like a candidate for "healthiest guy of the year"), someone will undo it.
You name one thing that has happened in Spider-man that has stuck which wasn't the status quo when the series began?
The Death of Gwen.
The death of Norman Osborn.
The black costume.
The "return" of Peter's parents.
Spider-man being the clone.
Peter Parker losing his powers and retiring.
The Spider-baby.
Aunt May dying.
MJ dying.

What's next? Spider-mans marriage??? According to Joe Q this will be going the way of the dodo soon. Most people didn't like the Gwen / Norman affair, will that suffer a Superboy punch too?

Even the little things like the end of MJ's modelling career, Sandman reforming into a hero (and Avenger no less) or Peter's job at the school seem to be ignored / retconned eventually.

So here we see the deep-seated problem with Marvel, and in many respects DC too. They refuse to let their characters progress. If Marvel had their way Peter would still be unmarried, working for the bugle (or attending school) trapped in a frustrating love-life as the little geek that sometimes can.

Now the argument has been made that as the characters are ICONS, they belong to every generation so it is unfair for the characters to evolve, as it denies the next generation of these icons. Which leads us into another massive flaw of American comics, but also their greatest quality.
In any other country, the guys who create the characters tell the story, and when they die, the stories die with them. Sounds great in theory as it means the purity of the characters is dictated by their creators throughout the years, and as the creators grow and evolve so can the characters (Cerebus the Mysoganystic rant) or they can press a status quo reset button at the end of every issue (like Tin Tin or Asterix).
But to do that would be to deny the world Dark Knight Returns, Mark Waid's Fantastic Four, Ultimate Spider-man, Joe Kelly's What's So funny about truth, justice and the American way?", Ennis' Hellblazer run. Hell, even the irreverent Nextwave wouldn't exist.

So what is the solution?
The only way I can see it is separate continuities with an eventual end.
Think about it. It's not too dissimilar to what DC do with there Crises every 20 years or so. There is what Alan Moore thinks of as Superman (crazy zany silver age stuff), our generations Superman (for arguments sake, the John Brynes Supes) and now we are seeing the start of this eras Supes as part of One year Later.
Why not let Spider-man evolve, have kids and eventually turn the series into Spider-girl. If you want to read the adventures of Spider-man in school, there are hundreds of back issues and the Ultimate series to get through. Wouldn't it be nice to see the conclusive tale of "your" Spider-man before you die? Because lets face it, when I am dead and gone, Spider-mans stories will still be continuing, which is great and all, but I have put a lot of time and money into Spider-man, I would like to see how it all works out for him. Its why I like "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" even though I hate silver age Superman.
Wouldn't it be cool to see the DCU head towards Kingdom come before a reboot? Wouldn't it be nice to see Nightwing take over as Bats, even if its only for ten twenty years and then a new Batman series starts for the next generation, maybe even lead it into Batman Beyond

Would it make any less sense having two different continuity running then having all the What Ifs, Elseworlds, LOTDK, Unlimiteds, Ultimate, All-star, Classifieds and the core universe's running concurrently?
It would take a little getting used to to start, and without the right labelling it would be a bitch for newcomers to the industry, but you only have to look at the branding of the Ultimate books to see that it can work, if approached properly.

With this idea, its not so much a retcon as a newcon.

See, and you thought the question of Spidey's unmasking was a simple one.

At the end of the day, I will keep reading Spider-man regardless if his identity is public knowledge or not, because I love Spider-man and I love comics. But every time we make fake promises to the non-comic world, like we did with the Death of Superman it causes mistrust. 1 million people bought the Death of Supes in Superman #75, and 95% of them thought the ending was a cop-out.
I still get people coming into the shop seeing Superman comics and proclaiming "isn't he dead", only to see their interest and sanity drain away as I try to explain how "he wasn't really dead...".

Of course, this separate continuity thing wouldn't work for everything. I can't imagine a Preacher or Watchmen reboot every 20 years without tasting vomit at the back of my mouth. But for the more Iconic characters, it would be a way of taking risks and keeping the characters iconic for every generation. Its exactly what Chris Nolan did with the Batman film franchise, or what Bendis did with the Ultimate series.

So, although a lot of people would hate the idea initially, historically, its already been proven to work.

So, in conclusion: If Marvel keep Spider-mans identity revealed for the rest of this versions life span, without it being a dream, hoax or imaginary tale; I will be a happy man. But it they just retcon with a random issue (say Amazing Spider-man #587) just because a new writer doesn't like it; then its shit and flawed.

But having said that, a good story is a good story, right? Marvel have publicly stated that they won't let continuity get in the way of a good story.
Wasn't that DC's policy in the '70s and 80's? And didn't that lead to a crisis?

No-one said the solution would be easy.

Spider-man 3 Trailer

CLICK HERE FOR THE TRAILER

In other news, Superman returns opens in about 3 and a half hours, here in the UK though, we have to wait another two weeks.

Superman / Batman compared to All Star Superman: The similaritys and differences.

Ryan Says:

So originally I sat down to comment on both of these articles of yours and then it slowly dawned on me that actually they're kind of linked, not just through inclusion of the man in red and blue.

I read Superman/Batman for 8 issues total, the best thing that came out of it in those issues? The Robin and Superboy team up and saying that it wasn't fantastic, it had Superman and Robin fighting in battle suits, enough said. It gave us a better look into the new Toyman (how many of these guys are hanging around now, it must be a least three), I think this incarnation has only been brought up again in Sam Loeb's 1 issue. Then I read the first issue with Supergirl, and then I dropped it like a rock, missing all of these subsequent issues you've been talking about. Though I have scanned through a copy every now and then, just to see what was happening.

But here's where it gets interesting, I'm sat here with my all star #4, and reading it, it is clearly a silver age homage, no getting away from that, it takes these old concepts and then just makes them readable. From reading this we know that this comes from Morrison's writing rather than the reintroduction of the idea, because as you said Loeb did it in Superman/Batman, and it just wasn't any good.

Superman/Batman
'Along the way, Jeph Loeb reintroduced another un-missed silver age facet of Superman lore: multiple colour Kryptonite with there own effects on Supes. great.'

All Star Superman
'It's fantastic fun isn't it? I mean, really? There are just tons of ideas, and its all filled with a sense of wonder and freshness that hasn't been seen in comics since, well, the silver age when it was all new and fresh'

-For anyone who's yet to read ASS#4, the issue was based around Superman being exposed to black kryptonite which made him all evil and junk.

So in your opinion is the concept of multicoloured Kryptonite just plain bad, or does it rely on the writer?
Are silver age concepts to far out to ever be used seriously now?

I'm thinking at the moment that it relies on the book, the all star line is a ramped up action film in every way, it's a line where you can get away with these concepts, just look at 'All Star Batman and Robin The Boy Wonder'- and that's a mouth full.
But then again wasn't that what Superman/Batman was originally meant to be? It should never have been in continuity, which would have helped it no end.

I think that Superman/Batman has been the inferior predecessor to All Star Superman, it had all the concepts, these big ideas, but when tied into continuity and an arced story structure it fell flat on its face. Jeph should have written an Elseworlds tale and left it at that.
All Star Superman manages to soar with these silver age ideas, and I think a large part of this comes through the format of the book. It's almost the fell format again really (well slightly), you can read any issue and get a complete story out of it, but there are elements we learn in each issue which build towards the end of the story. So as wacky as any of these issues are, the pay off comes in the book you buy, not in a 6 issue arc, and I think it's that which makes the All Star Superman the comic it is.

Other notes
I might take a look at Superman/Batman #27 next time I'm in.
I can't remember which colour eyes were which Luther
Looking at one of those covers it really dawns that Turner can't draw feet.

As for any thing that I noticed in this weeks comics I bought, after only reading a couple the big thing that stuck out again was 52, not in a good way. Well if you're really anal anyway.
Start Rant
In the last few issues the 52 letterers have been working their socks off, and as have the writers, giving little newspaper clippings significance with real text. But with this issue we are again back to the 'hg hjg jhvbiuag oiuywe ihirug iugqu' text below the headline. It probably doesn't bother anyone else, but I think that if the 52 writers (or shadow writers) are working on a website full of new articles each week, they could at least write some main body text for a newspaper featured in the actual comic.
End Rant

Sid Says:

"So in your opinion is the concept of multicoloured Kryptonite just plain bad, or does it rely on the writer?
Are silver age concepts to far out to ever be used seriously now?"

Excellent question, and straight away on your first post you have nailed an inconsistency in my text. Way to make me look shit.

Well, a big fat "no prize" goes to you for answering the query yourself. The thing that makes the quirky nature of AS Superman work is the freedom that comes with a non-continuity title. It has a wonderful way of taking all the really shit silver age concepts which didn't work well in the basis of a shared universe, and making them work.
In one self contained issue Grant Morrison has proven that multi-colored Kryptonite can be used to good effect, much like Mark Waid proved with synthetic red (or crimson) Kryptonite way back in JLA.
Grant Morrisons approach to the sillyness of the silver age Supes is miles apart from the Jeph Loeb approach, because Morrison's knows its being silly, wearing its campness on its sleeve for the entire world to see. A far juxtaposition from the riddled with in jokes, Bat-mite / Bizarro action / adventure romp which is Superman / Batman, which is supposed to be set in the DC universe. Are we really believing these are the same characters who've been put through the emotional ringer in Infinite Crisis? You absolutely nailed it when you said that Supes / Bats should have been out of continuity, but wasn't the whole point of (both) Crises to stop multiple world and dimension hopping stories?
Good comparison with AS Superman to Fell, they are very similar but at the same time completely different.

Onto your other points:

"Looking at one of those covers it really dawns that Turner can't draw feet." - You could have omited the word "feet" and had just as accurate a sentence.

52 Newspaper text - You know, I am just so impressed with the quality of 52 I can live without reams of prose, if only to speed up my reading time. It looks like the 52 series is going to be broken into kind of mini-story arcs liek 24, each interlacing and leading into the next issue. Textbook "How to Write the DC way" - Denny O Neil would be proud (the big racist).

And now my rant, also about textual inaccuracies. Does anyone else think its odd - or at least a tiny bit convenient - that a race as advanced as the Kryptonians used the same base concept of a 26 letter structured alphabet? Wow, how geeky a question was that?

New Site Contributor

I said changes would be-a-coming, and it helps the continual evolvement of this site and to keep me on my toes. So with great pleasure I introduce you to new site writer Ryan Grant.
Ryan has been a frequent commenter, someone who has his own strong tastes and opinions on comics, many of which contradict my own. So it should keep things interesting, and in many ways its taking a step backwards to what the site was when Sam and I first formed it: A place to talk about comics and to have intelligent discussions about them.

Welcome aboard Ryan!

Superman / Batman? Superman / Shat-man more like.

You know what you never hear people talking about? How shit the Superman / Batman team-up title is.
It is though. The reason people don't mention it is because it sells so well. I might be hurting my pocket here because its one of our biggest DC sellers, but you know what? It needs to be said.
Lets look at the facts. (I say facts, these are from memory so don't quote me)

Issues 1-6
The best run on the title. Superman and Batman team up in the first of 25 tiring dual-monologue issues to fight the combined evils of Kingdom Come Superman (albeit for altruistic purposes) and a mad, bad Luthor. Nothing much really happens for a six issue story except pointless exposition, but the striking bold art from Ed McGuiness, and the fact that he's finally doing a monthly title again keeps people from noticing the lacklustre story contained within as people are too busy grinning like fools at Batman's swirly elbows. After all, people have been waiting AGES to see E=MC2 draw Batman after his appearances in the Emporer Joker storyline, another pointless and shit "is it elseworlds or not" story written by Jeph Loeb that people mistakenly confused for a good story due to the pretty pretty art and the fact that Joker was in it.
The story ends with a crazed Luthor announcing a crisis is coming. A great cliffhanger, but is this our Lex, or is it Alexander? Hang on, which one has what colour eyes? I've got confused. Still, nice battle suit Luthor, haven't seen that since...oh, the last Crisis.

Issue 7
Fun romp with the late Superboy and Robin as they battle against the evil forces of Pat Lee's poor artwork.

Issue 8 -13
Another in a long line of Jeph Loeb "I miss the silver age" ret-con. Supergirl returns, the original; Kara. she is from Krypton, from Argo city, related to Superman, just like the dead pre-crisis one. The story limps from a to b with shitty Michael Turner artwork and cover, as Supergirl struggles with her dark side and its revealed that she is somehow more powerful than Superman. Then Darkseid kills her, then brings her back. Superman is possessive, Batman disagrees with his handling of the situation, Wonder Woman shows up and takes her to an island full of lesbians, who all appreciate her mini-skirt just as much as anyone else but are less likely to date-rape a (pre-legal) teen.
And just having the words pre-legal teen in a sentence will do wonders with my sites search engine ratings.
Along the way, Jeph Loeb reintroduced another un-missed silver age facet of Superman lore: multiple colour Kryptonite with there own effects on Supes. great.

Issues 14 - 19
Another great artist wasted on a piss poor story. Carlos Pacheco struggles to tell the convoluted story of another dimensions superman and Batman, who kill people for fun. You know what? this story line made no sense to me at the time and I know if I reread it, it wouldn't be any clearer to me, so I am just going to skip the entire thing and focus on the fact that a) it's 4 am, b) I should be asleep, c) I probably won't sleep, I'll probably just read some comics instead and d) when it gets this late I forget how to use capitals.
To summarise, nice art. What story?

Issues 20 - 25
Wtf? Why are the Ultimates in this? Is this supposed to be funny?
The idea of any comic using an alternate world equivalent of the JLA or Avengers is so overused, and just doing another world version of the Ultimates is THE SAME FUCKING THING. Learn a new trick.
The story is so pointless, it actually makes the art quite forgettable.
I think Myxlzptlk is in it, and it references Emporer Joker, an unsubtle nod that only really meant anything to Jeph Loeb.
Is this a way to end your career at a company or what? And frankly, it doesn't bode well for the Ultimates 3 series, if the first story he used those characters in was a shitty story for a different company.
Maybe I'm wrong? did anyone get anything from the first 25 issues of this series?

Issues 26
Pretty decent single issue to be fair. It's a hard one for anyone to slate because it's in memory of Sam Loeb, Jeph's son who died of cancer far too young. It touched nicely on the Superboy / Robin dynamic which was nice to see, as it almost got lost in the shuffle of Crisis and OYL.
A veritable smorgasbord of artists save this book from its original plan of using Pat Lee for the entire thing. Thank god that didn't happen.

----------------------------------------------

So, I've done something different here. I try not to just openly slate anything without putting a positive spin on things (except spider-man The Other, but fuck them, they did that to themselves), as I really hate to be another negative comic fan.
As tempting as it is to leave this as a hate filled rant, here comes the positive spin.

NEW CREATIVE TEAM! See ya Jeph.

Issue #27 shipped today, with the new creative team of Mark Verheiden and Kevin Maguire. Maguire is a competent artist when given half a chance (despite having to redraw one Wizard cover like, 13 times) and I think all he needs is a book to really showcase his work. Mark Verheiden came from nowhere (okay, a little place called Hollywood where he worked on Smallville) to do a small, and excellent run on thepre-Johns/Busiek relaunch Superman.
Their work on Supes / Batman could be brilliant, but I've spent so long typing I'm too tired to read now, we'll have to see tomorrow.