I know I did.

Damn you Scalped – you find a new way to break my heart every time.

There’s a strange emotional weight tied to each and every issue of Scalped. I don’t know if I’ve put it there having grown attached to pretty much every character Jason Aaron and R.M Guera has introduced me to. (Yes, even Diesel.) Or rather is it because I feel some sort of guilt having derived so much pleasure from watching all these characters self-destruct.

This volume starts with a beautiful story of survival that shows that true love can exist in some of the most barren worlds, and then goes to show that sometimes it can’t. This volume focuses on what’s not said – making use of the caption boxes that really hasn’t been seen since Daredevil: Born Again.

Scalped has transcended from being a crime comic to being a character study of the highest caliber. This is something that happened with HBO’s The Wire, while it may have been a police procedural at the beginning The Wire quickly became a microcosm about living in a corrupt society. The same can be said of Scalped. There is so much more to Scalped then the ‘hook*’ of the series. It’s the best thing being put to paper right now.

The boys over at ComicTwart are giving their take on Preacher. Take a look at Declan Shalvey knock it out of the park:

I’m thinking that fellow twarter Nathan Fairbairn should do a quick pass with the color on that thing. It could easily be a print**.

And finally.. because it was brought to my attention when I was looking at Dennis Culver’s interpretation of the Batman Incorporation I realized that he took his basis for the Batman-From-Japan from Cliff Chiang’s version of the “Science Ninja Hero Batman” costume designed as part of a Justice League/manga amalgam:

Dennis Culver's Batman Of Japan

and Cliff Chiang's sketches

I’ve never wanted to read something so bad before.

Well, at least – this week.

And that’s it for me. See you next week!

*Spoiler: Think Departed meets Sopranos on an Indian Reservation.

**That I would buy.

Twilight Zone #84, Gold Key, June 1978

There are many collecting strains within the comic book collecting hobby. First appearances, first issues, publishers, titles, battle covers, love triangle covers, risqué covers, comics mentioned in SOTI, variant prices on covers, variant covers, etc, etc, etc. Another popular collecting strain focuses on the creators. Good artists and writers earn large and devoted followings over their careers.

First published works by the likes of Jim Steranko, Jim Lee, Alex Ross, John Romita and etc. are all denoted in the Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and all trade for a premium compared to the issues around them. Fans and collectors are seeking out these issues.

Not many creators can even hope to approach the importance of Stan Lee or come close to attaining the God-like reverence of the late great Jack Kirby. Not many, but there are a few, and Frank Miller is one of the few. Frank Miller’s first published work in comic books was his artwork in the story “Royal Feast” in Twilight Zone #84, published by Gold Key in June 1978.

Frank Miller is a comic book industry giant, he’s a living legend. Miller’s body of work is stunning. Batman: Year One (1987) and Batman: the Dark Knight Returns (1986) completely changed the direction of the whole Batman property. The Daredevil: Born Again story from 1986 (Daredevil #227 – 233) has often been called Marvel’s greatest story arc!

Frank Miller waltzed into DC and totally revolutionized their most popular character. To this day all Batman stories are measured against Miller’s groundbreaking work from 80s. At around the same time Miller takes a second rate Marvel character and produces some of the best stories Marvel has ever published (lifting Daredevil into the A list of Marvel characters).

Feeling limited by what he saw as censorship at Marvel and DC Miller took his talents over to Dark Horse Comics. Over the next decade he produced the comic book masterpieces Sin City and 300. Both of these properties went on to become huge feature film successes. Sin City and 300 pushed the boundaries of comic book storytelling and demonstrated the formats potential for successful adaptation into other media.

The 40^th edition of the Overstreet Price Guide shows $30/$48/$65 as the splits at the 8.0/9.0/9.2 grades.

Strengths that make this comic book a good long term investment are:

• Twilight Zone is a collectible title, the late 70s issues are scarcer and in demand
• Collecting creators is a popular collecting focus
• High grade CGC Census as of this post only consists of 4 copies graded at 9.2
• Frank Miller’s important contributions will only grow in stature as time goes by

Reimagination of the Day: Redesigned comic book covers — part of an ongoing series by British graphic design Steven Finch (AKA Fonografiks).

Watchmen; Fantastic Four; Hulk; Daredevil: Born Again.

Pretty awesome stuff.

An Example of Joe Rosen's work

Todd Klein reported today that long time letter Joe Rosen passed away. Rosen had lettered everything from Captain America, Spider-Man, The Incredible Hulk, The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones, and X-Factor. He was one of the original letterers from The Stan Lee/Jack Kirby Marvel days alongside the Simek Brothers, Artie & Sam. Todd Klein had these kinds words to say: “I never met Joe, but admired his work… I liked him best as the letterer of many of Frank Miller’s DAREDEVIL stories such as [Daredevil: Born Again]. I appreciated his work, and thought it was smart of him to retire when he was ready and able, unlike some of his contemporaries who kept going until the end. Hope his final years were good, and may he rest in peace.”

In Todd’s comments two industry legends chimed in with praise for Mr. Rosen. Danny Fingeroth left this message: “Joe was simply the best, both as a person and a letterer. A truly class act. Having him letter a script always made it 25% better than it really was.” While Roger Sterm commented: “I am so sorry to hear this. Joe was indeed the best. I never knew the man, but he made us all look good.”

As for me, I’d like to take a second and really talk about the impact that Daredevil: Born Again had on me when I read it. A lot of praise is thrown at that title for good reasons, Miller’s script is the best he’s ever written, Mazzuchelli elevated his artwork to give us the first ever “widescreen” comic – you can see his fingerprints all over Bryan Hitch’s Authority Run – but what always really stood out for me was the beauty of the lettering. It was that simple statement in it’s cryptic typewriter font that really drew me in: “My name is Ben Urich and I’m a reporter.”  The fact that there were three narrators, or really two narrators as the Kingpin, Karen Page and Murdoch’s thoughts were often switching from first to third narration, colour co-ordinating each thought only really helped me become totally immersed in that world.  Many letterers have copies this device, sometimes it worked, sometimes it doesn’t. But for me, I’ll always be truly greatful for the work that Joe Rosen did in that story.

Thanks Joe!