The News Blog of Comics Culture
Tweet I caught up with longtime DETECTIVE COMICS and BATMAN artist Dustin Nguyen at WonderCon to find out about the L’IL GOTHAM phenomenon, a regular series that started as digital only from DC in October 2012 (having formerly appeared in annuals in 2009), casting the heroes and villains of Gotham City in a stylized mode [...]
TweetOn March 30th, WonderCon attendees got treated to a bonus feature in a Spotlight panel with Ann Nocenti, Jim Lee acting as her interviewer. The two had so much shared history that they reminisced about the “good old days” at Marvel as well as plunging into the current artwork that most impresses them on their [...]
Tweet I’ve mentioned Lala Albert here before but she continues to fascinate with her disturbing but compelling mythology of three eyed women. Much concerned with myth and alien life, her work can be seen in Vice and on her website. Her day job involves designing textiles such as this. Alvert is interviwed at Berserker Magazin [...]
TweetSpider-Man is hands down one of the most popular characters ever to leap from the pages of Marvel Comics, and is even a strong contender for one of the most popular comic characters produced by any comics publisher. He’s also displayed a particular trademark flexibility in successfully taking to the silver screen and flourishing through [...]
TweetFree Comic Book Day is coming up, and Marvel have today revealed what their release is going to be – Infinity, by Jonathan Hickman and Jim Cheung. This looks like a prelude to the oft-rumoured cosmic event Marvel will be running in Autumn (why have just one event a year?). However, strangely enough there’s no [...]
Let’s start the year out with a return to comics’ original sin: Daniel Best reprints Truth, Justice, & The Corporate Conscience by Steve Gerber, an article from WAP, a creator’s rights newsletter published in the 80s by Gerber, Steven Grant and Frank Miller.
Gerber, for those who don’t know, was a very influential writer for Marvel in the 70s who eventually sued for ownership of a character he co-created, Howard the Duck. He lost the suit, but never the anger. He died in 2008.
TweetThe last day of New York Comic-Con was a day of relative peace and tranquillity, unless you were Dan Slott in which case it was a day of being chased by an angry mob whilst cackling like Machiavelli. It’s the day when people settle down, explore the booths which haven’t sold out, get their final sketches and [...]
TweetBy Steve Morris As spotted by Jarrod on the CBR forums (hi Jarrod!), a Mike Perkins fight sequence from next week’s Astonishing X-Men #55 clearly pays tribute to a previous fight sequence drawn years ago by Alan Davis for Uncanny X-Men. As you can see in the images below, Perkins has taken aspects of Davis’ [...]
TweetBy Steve Morris I suppose the smart-arse answer to that question would be “Disney”, but this actually refers to a teaser released today via Diamond (of all places), and features another of those one-word slogan teasers Marvel are loving right now. This time round the word is “Superior”, the creative team are not mentioned, and [...]
After Mark Waid’s “Four Panels that Never Work” comic was seen just about everywhere yesterday, one might have been forgiven for thinking that given the fourth-panel poke at Geoff Johns penchant for mutilating heroes, Waid and Johns must be feuding or something. However, Waid showed up in the comments at Robot 6 to answer questions and revealed that it was merely a friendly rib:
My essay on Marvel and DC as dedicated safe spaces for male-focused entertainment got quite a bit of talk going, which is the best possible reaction to any essay. Several very smart people wrote rebuttals, and these posts also generated very thoughtful comment sections.
It would almost be self-aggrandizing to praise Noelene Clark’s recent women in comics piece in the LA Times, since I”m quoted so extensively in it, but I’m happy to say that the bulk of the cartoonists she spoke with were also proponents of the idea that I often promote here: women have already had massive, historic success in the comics industry, and at this point those outlets that aren’t adapting to the wave of female readers and creators are truly out of step with the times, and not the trendsetters.
Creators, talent, architects, makers…maybe we should just call them the Bullpen.
I’ll make it short and sweet: creators have to create. Marvel and DC no longer allow them to do that, except within rigidly proscribed guidelines. And the Paolo Riveras of the world are going to have to move on. It might not be too long before the Big Two are just steppingstones to get your name out there for even bigger things.
At iFanboy, Josh Flanagan brings up an issue that we often mention at BarCon:Are There Any Superstar Comic Artists Left?:
This year, vote for a REAL change. Vote Loki!
Tweet You could settle for petty tyrants who steal a vote here and there or block uncontroversial legislation out of mere partisan spite, but why not think big? Pretensions of altruism and benevolence are for the weak and dishonest, promising virtues never achieved. This year, vote for an honest villain – a supervillain! Admit the [...]