Sequential art—a lot harder than it looks

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Meanwhile, at Blog@Newsarama...

I have a review of Inanna's Tears.

Comic shop comics: Bonus edition

Archie #617 (Archie Comics) Ugh. That was my thought after reading this issue. My thoughts while reading this issue were mostly, Why am I even reading this? over and over.

I still don’t have a very good answer. I read the first part of the story mostly out of curiosity, and was somewhat impressed with it. In that first half of the story, Archie Andrews and Reggie Mantle were campaigning against one another for class president or something, and each of them used a photo op with one of the political stars to give the impression that they had received high profile endorsements. The book ended with President Barack Obama and Alaska’s ex-governor Sarah Palin coming to their school to demand answers.

There’s not really anywhere to go from there, so in this issue Archie and Reggie run away from Obama and Palin and the press and the Riverdalians, while Obama and Palin try to get to the bottom of it.

There’s something mildly charming about the thought of the pair taking every photo of themselves so seriously that they give personal attention to correcting the record (“Clearly that bone was photoshopped into my nose,” a patient Obama might explain while leaning over a Teabagger’s shoulder as he snickered at a picture of the president as a witch doctor labeled Obamacare), but the book’s fetishization of Sarah Palin is pretty gross, and it’s kind of bizarre to see Archie Comics hopping on the Palinspolitation bandwagon, which is currently hitched to such publishers as Antarctic Press and Bluewater.

Obama’s the president, so sure, fair game. He’s basically portrayed as a wordy smarty-pants here, and artists Dan Parent and Rich Koslowski draw him pretty accurately.

Palin, on the other hand, is drawn to look like she’s in the same grade as Betty and Veronica, given a wasp waist and pert DeCarlo girl breasts on the cover (thankfully Parent gives here a more representational nose, so she doesn’t look exactly like Betty and Veronica).

No doubt in the interests of appearing fair and balanced, writer Alex Simmons has to write Palin rather un-Palin-y, in the process elevating her status to something co-equal with the President of the United States of America and making her seem fairly smart, wise and understanding.I know Archie has been striving to be more relevant and get more attention, and that’s certainly understandable, but man, this comic book just made me feel sad for the company, for comics and for America.

Except for this one panel, where Archie reacts to the President with his shirt open and his bow tie undone like a cartoon wolf looking at a sexy lady:And hey, look, Obama is wearing a red bow tie in this scene, but in the previous scene he was shown wearing a red and blue striped not-bow tie tie. This cheap, rushed-looking, mercenary comic book does not meet my high standards of in-story continuity!

Well at least Archie Comics used the opportunity to conclude this story with a positive message or, at the very least, a funny joke, right?Ha ha ha! Reggie fell in the water and now he has vegetation on him!


Justice League #17-#19 (DC) Dustin Nguyen sure turned out a great cover for issue #19, didn’t he? I particularly like the colors chosen, like the blue for the gun smoke. The covers for #17 and #18 were just two more characters-posing-on-white-in-front-of-logos covers, featuring Blue Beetle and Captain Atom.

The interior art continues to change in style and quality from issue to issue; I like Aaron Lopresti’s the most.

As for the story, the plotting is strong, and the book’s cast has really coalesced, so that the former JLI is beginning to really feel like a team. I’m curious what DC has planned for this particular group of characters next, since the thing that’s unifying them is a particular fight against a particular villain that can’t possibly last too much longer, but there's a fairly strong implication that this cast is going to stay together for a bit.

I don’t like the fact that writer Judd Winick makes Max Lord racist. He keeps calling Jaimie Reyes “chico” and “hombre;” I’ve gotten used to the retcon that made Lord a super-evil supervillain, but him being racist? I’m gonna need more time for that. There’s evil, and then there’s evil. Personally, I’d rather read about the take-over-the-world variety instead of the real-word variety, at least in a comic like this.


SpongeBob Comics #1 (United Plankton Pictures) I am not a SpongeBob SquarePants fan. I know that it’s quite popular with kids, and has been for a while—my nieces love it, as do other, older female relatives and relations in my family.

I’ve seen parts of a few episodes here and there—enough to realize that when my nieces say I remind them of Squidward it’s not a compliment—but it’s not a TV show I’m so familiar with that I’d seek out comics featuring its characters.

On the other hand, I am a fan of R. Sikoryak, Graham Annable, James Kochalka and Hilary Barta, all of whom have stories in this first issue (as do several other creators).

So believe me when I say that this comic is a lot of fun, it’s not coming from any sort of fannish loyalty to the main character or affection for the show.

The stories vary in length, but they are all fairly straightforward gag strips, revolving around a dumb but happy and positive protagonist who happens to be an anthropomorphic sponge who dresses funny.

Like most of the other comics distributor Bongo Comics distributes, there’s an appealing freedom of interpretation given to the creators here, so SpongeBob and pals vary quite a bit in their design and rendering, which is always welcome in a book like this.

After all, if you have James Kochalka drawing a strip for you, why would you want him to try and draw like a storyboard artist for a TV cartoon, when you could just have him draw like James Kochalka? Kochalka and Andy Rementer draw the most highly personalized versions of the characters; take a look below:
Aside from their dramatic interpretations of what SpongeBob could look like, Sikoryak’s inside-front cover strip, “The Pirates’ Code o’ Comics Collectin’” was my favorite part (“Look what I found under all these ridiculous treasture maps! It’s a mint copy o’ ARR-CHIE #257!” )

If you love either SpongeBob SquarePants or good, funny comics, then I imagine this is for you—if you love both, then I know it.


Superman/Batman #80 (DC) This is a strong conclusion to a strong two-part story by Chris Roberson and Jesus Merino involving a couple different Superman/Batman teams.

Epoch the Lord of Time has escaped from the 853rd Century, placing the Batman and Superman of DC One Million in a time-loop, and then fled back to face Superman, Batman and Robin back when…well, when Dick Grayson was still Robin, anyway. They’re at the beginning of their careers, and Epoch is at his prime and armed with technology from a Grant Morrison-created setting, it should be no contest, right?

Naturally, he gets his ass kicked.

There’s not much to this straightforward little fight comic really, but it’s beautifully drawn and the story accomplishes its own modest goals successfully enough.


Tyrannosaurus Rex (Image Comics) I have a pretty strict rule about not buying $3.99, 22-page comics…which I decided to break in order to pick this up. It looked pretty cool, with dinosaurs fighting on nearly every page and, because it was a one-shot, I couldn’t imagine it showing up in a cheaper trade format any time soon.

I’m relieved to report that it’s actually twenty-four story pages long, so I guess I didn’t break my own personal rule after all!

Mark Kidwell and Jay Fotos share a story credit, while Kidwell gets the scripting credit. Their story?

Back in dinosaur times, a prehistoric village of people—they live in huts, so I guess they’re not even technically cavemen—is destroyed by a fight between a Tyrannosaurus and a triceratops. This happens a lot, as their village is in the T-Rex’s hunting ground.

In order to encourage his people to kill the beast, the village chief offers this comely, scantily clad granddaughter as a prize to whoever can defeat the “God Monster.”

Our hero goes forth with stone knife and spear, and whenever he closes in on the title-saur, some other prehistoric menace attacks it.

It’s light-hearted and features a gag ending, but well worth one’s time for Jeff Zornow’s incredible art work, which features pretty amazing, kinetic dinosaur designs, some violent, action packed dinosaur fights and some surprisingly with-it depictions (Like, this is a comic in which man and dinosaur live side by side, yet Zornow still gives the little raptor-like dinos full coats of feathers). I’d highly recommend this to anyone who thinks dinosaurs are awesome. (Which I believe is everybody, right?)


Zatanna #9 (DC) I had heard that EDILW favorite Cliff Chiang was providing art for Zatanna #8 and #9, so that seemed like a good time to finally check out the Paul Dini-written series about the superhero/stage magician.

They didn’t have #8, only #1-#5 and #9, so I picked up #9 and figured if I liked it I could maybe find #8 at the other shop I occasionally visit.

The art was predictably great, sigh Chiang’s line looking slightly scratchier, and his backgrounds and props slightly more solid, real and lived-in than some of the previous books of his I’ve read. There seemed to be a Vertigo edge to the artwork, which is fitting considering this is one of the characters DC has traded back and forth with their adult imprint over the years.

The story was fairly straightforward and free of the fannish ticks that sometimes mar Dini’s approach to this character. It involves her escaping from the clutches of an evil marionette puppet—a criminal whom her late magician father apparently turned into a puppet in order to punish him—and then listening to him tell his tale of woe and argue that turning someone into a puppet is a pretty cruel and unusual punishment.

Unfortunately, the story ends somewhat abruptly after only 12 pages, with the rest of the book being filled up by a Zatanna, Junior Sorceress short story by writer Adam Beechen and artists Jamal Igle and Robin Riggs. The back-up is fine, detailing and adventure in which young Zatanna has just gotten new braces, which make it impossible for her to talk—and thus cast spells—having to take on a criminal.

It’s cute, I suppose, and Igle and Riggs are a fine art team, but it was a real jolt to turn the page and find it, rather than eight to ten more pages of Dini and Chiang’s story. (Checking dccomics.com, I see there was no mention of a back-up in the solicitation copy for the issue; Dini-written DC comics seem to have an awful lot of discrepancies between how they’re solicited and what they end up being though, don’t they?)

It’s difficult to judge a whole series by a 12-page story segment, so I’ll pass. I can say that if all 20 pages were similar to those first 12 every issue, I’d certainly be interested in picking it up on a regular basis.

Neither Chiang nor Igle are the regular artist though, that would be Stephane Roux. I don’t really care for Roux’s Zatanna; it’s super-busty, and kind of waxy-looking. Roux did this cover, in which Zatanna’s legs have been amputated at the knees.

2011 Glyph Award nominees announced; Unknown Soldier seems pretty popular with us judge-types

The nominees for the 2011 Glyph Awards, which recognize "“the best in comics made by, for, and about people of color," were officially announced today. DC/Vertigo's recently canceled Unknown Soldier lead the field with six nominations (including Story of the Year and Best Writer), followed closely by Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca's original graphic novel Afrodisiac with five nominations. J.D. Arnold and Rich Koslowski's BB Wolf and The 3 LP's and Jamar Nicholas' adaptation of Geoffery Canada's Fist Stick Knife Gun each earned four nominations.

The complete list of nominees in each category can be found below.

What's that? Why are you reading about it on EDILW instead of a comics news site? Well, I'm part of the five-person panel who nominated the nominees, along with Jennifer Contino, Martha Cornog, Joseph Phillip Illidge and Chad Nevett, so I figured I should post this here. (Not that I nominated everything here; everyone made their own nominations in each category, and the final nominees were determined through democracy and math).

Everything after the asterisks will be a press release from Glyph Awards top dog Rich Watson, although I threw in some images and links, in case you want to pursue some of these works...

**********************

These are the nominees for the 2011 Glyph Comics Awards (GCA) for black comic books, to be presented in May at the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention (ECBACC) in Philadelphia:


STORY OF THE YEAR:

Afrodisiac; Jim Rugg, co-writer and artist; Brian Maruca, co-writer

BB Wolf and the 3 LPs; JD Arnold, writer, Richard Koslowski, artist

Fist Stick Knife Gun; Geoffrey Canada, writer, Jamar Nicholas, artist

Unknown Soldier: Dry Season; Joshua Dysart, writer, Alberto Ponticello, artist

Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty; G. Neri, writer, Randy DuBurke, artist


BEST WRITER:

JD Arnold, BB Wolf and the 3 LPs

Geoffrey Canada, Fist Stick Knife Gun

Joshua Dysart, Unknown Soldier

Mat Johnson, Dark Rain

Jim Rugg & Brian Maruca, Afrodisiac



BEST ARTIST:

Denys Cowan, Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers

Christian Dibari, Pale Horse

Simone Gane, Dark Rain

Richard Koslowski, BB Wolf and the 3 LPs

Jim Rugg, Afrodisiac


BEST MALE CHARACTER:

Afrodisiac, Afrodisiac; created by Jim Rugg, co-writer and artist, & Brian Maruca, co-writer

BB Wolf, BB Wolf and the 3 LPs; created by JD Arnold, writer, Richard Koslowski, artist

Cole, Pale Horse; created by Andrew Cosby & Michael Alan Nelson, writers, Christian Dibari, artist

Geoff, Fist Stick Knife Gun; Geoffrey Canada, writer, Jamar Nicholas, artist; based on the life of Geoffrey Canada

Moses Lwanga, Unknown Soldier; Joshua Dysart, writer, Alberto Ponticello, artist; inspired by the character created by Robert Kanigher & Joe Kubert


BEST FEMALE CHARACTER:

Aloya Rose, Unknown Soldier; created by Joshua Dysart, writer, Alberto Ponticello, artist

Nola Thomas, NOLA; created by Chris Gorak & Pierluigi Cothran, writers; Damian Couceiro, artist

Sarah, Dark Rain; created by Mat Johnson, writer, Simone Gane, artist

Scout Montana, Shadoweyes; created by Ross Campbell, writer and artist

Selena, 28 Days Later; Michael Alan Nelson, writer; Declan Shalvey & Marek Oleksicki, artists; based on the character created by Alex Garland for the motion picture 28 Days Later


RISING STAR AWARD:

Nicholas DaSilva, Dread & Alive

Carl Herring Jr. & Tod Smith, The Enforcers

Brandon Howard & Sean Mack; The Revolutionary Times

Jamar Nicholas, Fist Stick Knife Gun

Geoffrey Thorne & Todd Harris, Prodigal: Egg of First Light


BEST REPRINT PUBLICATION:

Cold Space TP, BOOM! Studios

Superman vs. Muhammad Ali Deluxe HC, DC Comics

Unknown Soldier: Dry Season TP, DC/Vertigo


BEST COVER:

28 Days Later #6, Tim Bradstreet, illustrator

Afrodisiac, Jim Rugg, illustrator

Cold Space #1, Jeffrey Spokes, artist; Juan Maruel Tumburus, colorist

Unknown Soldier #15, Dave Johnson, illustrator

Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty; Randy Duburke, illustrator


BEST COMIC STRIP OR WEB COMIC:

The K Chronicles, Keith Knight, writer and artist

Marty’s Diner, Dmitri Jackson, writer and artist

The Revolutionary Times, Brandon Howard, writer, Sean Mack, artist

Solomon Azua; Jake Ekiss, writer and artist

World of Hurt, Jay Potts, writer and artist


FAN AWARD FOR BEST COMIC:

Azrael: Angel in the Dark; Fabian Nicieza, writer, Ramon Bachs & John Stanisci, artists

Captain America/Black Panther: Flags of Our Fathers; Reginald Hudlin, writer, Denys Cowan, artist

Doctor Voodoo: Avenger of the Supernatural; Rick Remender, writer; Jefte Palo, Gabriel Hardman & Alessandro Vitti, artists

New Avengers: Heroic Age – Possession; Brian Michael Bendis, writer, Stuart Immonen, Wade von Grawbadger & Art Adams, artists

New Avengers: Luke Cage – Town Without Pity; John Arcudi, writer; Eric Canete, artist


The poll for the Fan Award will go up next month at the ECBACC website (www.ecbacc.com/wordpress). Fans are encouraged to vote for their favorite black comics from the five nominees listed, or to submit their own with a write-in choice. All write-in ballots must be sent to rich.watson@gmail.com with “Fan Award” in the subject line. IMPORTANT: The write-in ballot is ONLY for choices NOT listed on the poll. ANY WRITE-IN BALLOTS WITH ANY OF THE FIVE NOMINEES ALREADY ON THE POLL WILL BE DISCARDED AND WILL NOT COUNT.

In addition, for the first time, the GCA Committee announces the creation of the Chairman’s Award, a new award given in special recognition of a work in any media outside of comics, including but not limited to books, television, film, or the Internet, that illuminates the black comics experience in an exceptional manner, and also broadens and deepens the growing body of knowledge about black comics worldwide.

This year, the GCA Committee bestows the award to the book Black Comix: African American Independent Comics Art and Culture, by Damian Duffy & John Jennings, a reference book spotlighting over fifty different independent black comics creators from the past quarter century. The release of this book was accompanied by a gallery exhibition in New York containing artwork from some of the book’s featured artists.

The GCA ceremony will be held May 20, 2011, in the Skyline Room of the Free Library of Philadelphia, Park Central branch, as part of ECBACC, which will take place at the Crown Plaza Hotel Center City, in Philadelphia, PA, May 21, 2011.

Marvel's May previews reviewed

May is either going to be a quiet month at Marvel, or they just aren't publishing that much that grabbed my attention as being Things I Wanted To Buy, Things That Look Really Awesome To Me or Things I'd Like To Make Fun Of. Full solicits are available at Newsarama here.


AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #660
Written by DAN SLOTT
Pencils & Cover by STEFANO CASELLI
“Parental Supervision Required”
THIS ISSUE IS PACKED!!! The SINISTER SIX versus SPIDER-MAN and the FF... and by FF, we mean ALL of the Future Foundation! Know what’s not a good place for children, even super powered kids? A full-scale battle with the world’s deadliest super villains! It’s not “Bring Your Kids To Work” Day, not a field trip, and it’s definitely not a game! This is a high stakes battle and there’s no way it will end well....
You also get part 3 of the death-defying team up of Spider-Man and Ghost Rider by Rob Williams and Lee Garbett. And also this issue...our 2nd in a series of “Infested” preludes leading to this summer’s top secret Spidey event! Phew!
40 PGS./Rated A ...$3.99

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #661
Written by CHRISTOS GAGE
Penciled by ReIlly Brown
Cover by Ed mcGuinNess
X-Men Evolutions Variant by TBA
GUEST STARRING AVENGERS ACADEMY!
After his work with the new FF wraps for the week, what can the original teenaged superhero teach the worlds most at risk group of super-powered teens? Find out when Spider-Man substitutes at the Avengers Academy! But it’s far from a normal day at school when a field trip is interrupted by a vengeful PSYCHO-MAN armed with hate, doubt and fear! Guest starring the FF, Giant-Man.... and the Malevolent Marvel Monster Mayhem of MONSTEROSO!
Plus a “Day in the Life of Spider-Man” by Paul Benjamin and Javier Pulido!
40 PGS./Rated T+ ...$3.99

The covers and guest-stars here kind of intrigue me, and I like the work of all the creators on the main features, but the back-ups kinds of scare me away a bit, as I’m less sure that I’d like those.


AVENGERS ACADEMY #13 & #14
Written by CHRISTOS GAGE
Penciled by SEAN CHEN & TOM RANEY
Covers by BILLY TAN
Issue #13 Thor Hollywood Variant Cover by TBA
It's Super Hero Prom and the Sinister Six in two big issues of the comic iFanboy named the “Best New Book of 2010”! First the Academy hosts a dance like none you've ever seen, guest starring the Young Allies, former members of the Initiative...and featuring smack downs and smooch downs! Then the trainees get a crash course in big-time villainy as they take on Spider-Man's greatest foes, the Sinister Six, in a story that will have major ramifications when FEAR ITSELF hits next month!
32 PGS./Rated A ...$2.99

Hey, this sounds awfully fun! Of course, I haven’t read a single issue of the series since it started…I wonder if I’ll be able to follow along okay if I start with the prom issue…?


AVENGERS ACADEMY GIANT-SIZE #1
Written by PAUL TOBIN
Penciled by DAVID BALDEON
Cover by ED McGUINNESS
Variant Cover by CHRIS SAMNEE
HUMONGOUS-Sized Issue...Guest-starring The Young Allies!
The traps are set and the dice are rolled as the vibrantly villainous Arcade decides to rebuild his tarnished reputation...by setting his sights on the “easy pickin’s” of the Avengers Academy and the Young Allies! But when one of his teenage victims escapes, is it a setback for Arcade, or all part of a master plan to turn the entirety of New York into... Murderworld?
80 PGS./Rated A ...$7.99

This is that Arcade story that was solicited as a miniseries at one point, right? I remember it having more exciting covers than this, but I suppose slapping Spidey and Steve Rogers on it will help move more copies.


FEAR ITSELF: SPIDER-MAN #1 (of 3)
Written by CHRISTOPHER YOST
Penciled by MIKE MCKONE
Cover by MARKO DJURDJEVIC
FEAR ITSELF TIE-IN
SPIDER-MAN IS ROCKED BY THE EVENT OF THE YEAR!
Manhattan is gripped in violent panic. Peter Parker has not slept in days. Abandoning his friends and family, Spider-Man cannot...WILL not... stop if there are people to be saved. But as the opening salvos of Fear Itself take their violent toll, will Spidey have what it takes to fight his own doubts? Find out here!
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$2.99

Hey wait a minute, that title sounds kind of familiar…AAAAUUUGGGHHH! That is scary!


FEAR ITSELF: YOUTH IN REVOLT #1 (of 6)
Written by SEAN MCKEEVER
Penciled by MIKE NORTON
Cover by GUISEPPE CAMUNCOLI
FEAR ITSELF TIE-IN
With a growing sense of uncertainty and despair gripping the nation--and the world--the remnants of the Initiative program are sworn in as federal agents charged with keeping the peace. Their ensuing actions, however, threaten to plunge America's young heroes into civil war! Featuring AVENGERS: THE INITIATIVE stars THOR GIRL, ULTRAGIRL, CLOUD 9, KOMDO and HARDBALL--plus FIRESTAR, GRAVITY and some very cool surprises--YOUTH IN REVOLT brings the horror of FEAR ITSELF to the doorstep of a generation!
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$2.99

This is the first of the Fear Itself tie-ins that has intrigued me so far (a lot of which probably has to do with the fact that the details of the event’s plot are being kept so vague). I’m curious to see what Norton’s art will look like in this, as his style has changed so much over his last few projects at DC (I imagine his calibrating it to the specifics of each project).

I haven’t read any of Young Allies yet (the trade is on the list, though), and I’m going to trade-wait Fear Itself itself, so I guess it will be a while before I get to this.

Oddly enough, the sub-title appears attached to a collection also being solicited this month—Thunderstrike: Youth In Revolt. Someone at Marvel is really enamored of that phrase, I guess…


MARVEL ZOMBIES CHRISTMAS CAROL #1 & #2 (of 5)
Written by JIM McCANN
Pencils by TBA
Cover by MICHAEL KALUTA
Gather your family close, board up the doors, and heed well the tale of Ebeneezer Scrooge- a man for whom no fire could warm, whose cold heart pumped ice through his veins, and whose lips uttered a firm BAH! to any sort of happiness. Learn from his experience as he is visited by the undead corpse of his old friend Jacob Marley on Christmas Eve, and join him on his journey to Christmases past aided by another corpse intent on showing Scrooge the origin of the Hungry Death that is consuming the land. God help us, every one!
32 PGS. (each)/Rated T+ ...$3.99 (each)

The title makes this sound like it’s about the zombie versions of Marvel super-characters from the first half-dozen or so Marvel Zombies-branded books, but the actual solicitation copy makes it sound more like a Christmas Carol and Zombies sort of mash-up thing. It will be interesting to see which it is, exactly; the latter sounds like it would be much, much easier to pull off.

The artist’s credit sure doesn’t do much to instill one with confidence that it will turn out very good, however…


THE MIGHTY THOR #2
Written by MATT FRACTION
Pencils & Cover by OLIVIER COIPEL
X-Men Evolutions Variant by DAVID YARDIN
The Silver Surfer has arrived on Earth with a message: Galactus is coming! Thor is the only one powerful enough to stand against the might of the World Eater but he has been weakened from his journey to the World Tree! Loki and Sif join forces to protect Asgard on Earth, but can they manage without Thor? The secrets of the GALACTUS SEED can not stay buried for long...
32 PGS./Rated T+ ...$3.99

I see the words “GALACTUS SEED” and I feel that I should attempting a puerile joke about semen, but then when I stop to think of one, I realize I don’t really feel like thinking of one, and wonder if that’s the sort of thing I should be publishing on the Internet.

Does that mean I’m growing up…?


Hey, nice cover, Punishermax!


SPIDEY SUNDAY SPECTACULAR! #1
Written by STAN LEE
Pencils & Cover by MARCOS MARTIN
The legendary Stan “The Man” Lee and artist extraordinaire Marcos Martin bring the real world into Spidey’s world in this collection of their two-page Spidey Sunday strips, straight from the pages of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN! Get ready for a heaping helping of fourth-wall-breaking, web-swinging wonder in the Mighty Marvel Manner!
40 PGS./Rated A ...$3.99

Are there any Amazing Spider-Man readers out there in the reading audience…? If so, do I want to order this book? The “by Marcos Martin” part makes me think I do, however I’m not sure I really understand what the heck this thing is…