Writer: Grant Morrison

Penciller: Rags Morales

Inker: Rick Bryant

Colourist: Brad Anderson

Letterer: Patrick Brosseau

Cover: Rags Morales and Brad Anderson; Jim Lee, Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair (variant)

Publisher: DC Comics

Last week the second wave of DC’s New 52 hit shelves, among them the first issue of the relaunched Action Comics as penned by star writer Grant Morrison. This week we’re taking a look at the first issue of DC’s most renowned series.

The Road So Far…

Action Comics #1 is part of the DC 52 relaunch, placing the “Man of Steel” in his early days as a superhero in Metropolis. Considered “Year Zer0″ by DC co-publisher Dan Didio, Action Comics offers one of three takes on the Superman character, running alongside stories from different eras as told in Justice League and Superman.

What’s the Story?

Superman makes his entrance in the opening pages of Action Comics #1

High on a rooftop amid the towering Metropolis skyline, a crooked business man named Mr. Glenmorgan is paid a visit by the “Superman.” The Kryptonian hero takes him and holds him high above his head with one arm as the Metropolis police department makes their way to the rooftop to stop him, ordering Superman to put Glenmorgan down. In defiance he steps off the edge of the skyscraper and drops him, hurling down to the city streets far below in quick pursuit. Catching him before he hits the ground, Glenmorgan admits to his crimes once caught, scared witless as the police arrive on the streets and demand Superman desist. He again defies the authorities and speeds off, proclaiming “catch me if you can” as he speeds away. Deep in a hideaway, Lex Luthor and General Lane discuss the arrival of Superman, specifically how they can stop him. They continue to watch a live feed of a tenement building primed for demolition, one with families still residing inside. Thankfully close by, Superman interjects and prevents a wrecking ball from destroying the building, saving every citizen in the process. After telling them to leave quickly, Superman is confronted by a squad of street tanks which attempt to apprehend him. After a failed attempt, Superman grabs the same wrecking ball from the construction equipment and destroys one of the tanks. With the soldiers looking on from inside the other vehicle, the apartment dwellers gather around Superman to protect him, allowing him to get away easily. He arrives back to the rooftop of his apartment building and quickly changes into his “Clark Kent” clothes, running into his landlord as he makes his way down from the roof. He pays his rent, and continues into his room to call in a story to his editor. He instead calls his best friend Jimmy Olson, who’s with Lois Lane, and warns him not to board any trains as they’re wired not to stop. Lane, in search of her story, brushes off the advice and continues onto the train which begins to pick up speed without a hint of an imminent stop. Superman arrives and stops the train, which pins him up against a building much to the delight of Lex Luthor.

Superman and the cops disagree over how to handle Mr. Glenmorgan

Upon discovering Action Comics was to function as “Year Zero” for Superman,  I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the distinction or what it could mean for the types of stories that could be told. With the possibility of it simply being another origin story, instead Morrison’s book places us six months after Superman’s arrival in Metropolis. Clearly on the wrong side of the law in the eyes of the authorities, Morrison’s story defines Clark Kent/Superman as someone who contrasts the corruption of modern society with his own ideals of right and wrong. I enjoyed Morrison’s ultra-vigilante take on the character, which spliced in very rudimentary but effective heroic elements that recall classic superhero tales of simple acts of crime fighting such as catching crooks and saving lives from certain danger. It’s a far cry from the epic-scope of modern superhero stories which typically pit the hero against a world threatening antagonist, and more attune to the Smallville television series . This issue was particularly well paced, noting its storytelling elements which allowed the plot to be told without feeling overwhelmed with the weight of the relaunch. Considering some of the other titles released thus far reek of editorial mandating, Morrison was able to tell a story which avoids that pitfall, helping making it a very successful first issue that enables its accessibility to new readers, while still succeeding as a retro-superhero tale for older readers.

Mr. Glenmorgan flirts with heart failure before Superman catches him

The Pretty, Pretty Pictures

I enjoyed much of Morales’ work in this issue. I feel like the first page of the book was a nice way to introduce the character visually, opting to use two identical panels in the beginning of the story, their dissimilarity being a streak of red across the left side of the second panel. In the proceeding panels on the page, Morales drew Superman crouching with only his cape visible, his back to Glenmorgan and his associate; quickly he stands up and turns towards them, his eyes burning red. The following pages were also nicely done, depicting the cops’ arrival to the rooftop where they find Superman holding Glenmorgan high above his head, pleading to the officers to save him. The artwork takes snapshots of the scene, displaying Glenmorgan screaming for his life, the cops pointing their guns at Superman, and then Supes smiling defiantly at them before taking a step backwards off the building’s ledge. The Glenmorgan portion of the story ends as the cops try to grasp at Superman’s cape, while Clark flies down to save Glenmorgan from death, catching him at the last moment and then landing on the ground. Morales did a great job of adding personality to the scenes, whether it’s adding shadows to the buildings as they hurtled towards the ground, the blurring of surroundings as they speed to their destination and finally once they hit the ground, the road below is destroyed under the impact of Superman’s strength. Morales’ work is impeccable throughout the issue, offering some high-grade work from beginning to end. The entire train sequence towards the end of the issue was nicely done, displaying Clark at the front of the train causing it to crumple. The pages then look at three different viewpoints of the events; from an office building as the train hurtles towards the building’s windows, from outside the train as it crashes through the window and disrupts their work day, and then inside the train as Jimmy and Lois hold on for dear life. Every page of the issue is well done and expertly coloured by Anderson. Some of Morales’ character faces are a little rough or strange, but it’s a small sticking point for artwork that is otherwise fantastic.

Final Thoughts

Although the relaunch offers plenty of opportunities for books to fall flat, Action Comics succeeds in providing a solid reading experience that is nicely complemented by outstanding artwork. Of the three books I’ve read from the relaunch, Action Comics is easily the best, which considering this is one of the flagship books, it’s surely a good sign that this book is off to a good start.

DC Co-Publisher Dan Didio addresses fan questions at the DC 52 Panel at Fan Expo

Hundreds of DC fans congregated on Aug. 27 at Fan Expo for a packed, standing-room-only panel featuring DC’s brightest creators, but while many of them were on hand to talk about their new projects, the panel announced a new title scheduled for release after the 52-relaunch.

During the panel, DC co-publisher Dan Didio teased fans that there was one other title in the works that hadn’t been announced yet, before turning it over to James Robinson for the project’s official confirmation.

“As you know there are other books planned after the 52, I’m doing the Justice Society of America,” Robinson proclaimed amid roaring applause. “We’re actually bringing back Earth-2 as well.”

Robinson said fans can expect to see a lot of characters flying around and simply fighting crime on the streets.

Didio confirmed that they didn’t want to make an announcement right away because they wanted to have the right teams in place, and it’s something they had been discussing within the last week.

Artist Nicola Scott will be joining Robinson on the title.

The New 52

Each creator in attendance also spent time talking about their part in the relaunch, such as Francis Manapul who promised not only a fast and fun Flash title, but one that really explored what it’s like to be Barry Allen.

“A lot of the things we’ve had to do is devise ways to stop him,” said Manapul, who’s creativity has been tested throughout the process.

He said one of the exciting parts of the project has been delving into Barry Allen’s mind in such a way that readers are also sucked into his world and can look at it from his perspective.

“What’s it like to be the fastest man alive?” he said. “We really want you to relate to a guy that can do a million things at once.”

Manapul jokingly promised the series’ action to get bigger and bigger until he runs out of ideas, but assured fans he has a lot of fun things planned for the title over the next year.

Tony Daniel spoke next about his work on the new Hawkman series, promising some very action packed, violent stories.

“He’s going to be chopping people’s heads off,” he said. “He’s going to be killing his opponents.”

Daniel noted this rendition of Carter Hall is going to be flying around carrying both a mace and an axe, leading to some violent battles with his nemeses.

“He’s going to have some pretty intense foes who are only going to be stopped by that type of weapon,” he said, noting some large monsters and aliens as potential villains.

He said his version of Hawkman is very gritty, but also very smart and different from any other version of Hawkman we’ve seen so far.

“I’m really excited about it,” he said. “I’m really happy to see this book come out.”

Francis Manapul looks at a copy of Flashpoint #5 with a young fan as Shane Davis answers a fan's question.

Dan Didio then turned fans’ attentions to Action Comics.

“When we looked at Action Comics, we tried to find everything we thought was the core of the Superman character,” Didio said, using Grant Morrison’s All-Star Superman story as a template for what they’ve tried to do with the version of Superman featured in the Action Comics relaunch.

Didio said Action Comics will essentially tell the origin story of Superman, chronicling his move to Metropolis and how he came to be Superman, including very early costume designs reminiscent of Smallville’s Clark Kent.

“So much of the DC universe is built around who Superman is. With Action Comics, it’s really basically issue zero,” Didio said, stating the comic’s stories take place well before both the Superman and Justice League stories.

He said it’s a stage in his life where he feels very alone, without his parents to guide him while trying to adapt to life in a new city.

“The story is about how Clark Kent develops as a character,” said Didio, who added we’ll also see the development of the costume and what it means to Clark.

Tony Daniel took the panel’s helm again to talk about his work on the Detective Comics relaunch, and is very excited to be working on a Batman title featuring Bruce Wayne underneath the cowl.

DC Executive Editor Eddie Berganza fields questions from fans during the DC 52 panel.

“This is my first time writing Bruce Wayne,” he said. “There’s so much history there. I’m extremely excited to be writing Bruce Wayne stories.”

Daniel said many of the stories will be solo arcs featuring Batman, Alfred and Commissioner Gordon as the three primary characters, while also introducing a new love interest to the mix that isn’t Catwoman. He additionally noted that they’re trying to maintain large story ideas for the characters with an immediate pay-off for readers.

“We’re going to have big character concepts in short story arcs,” Daniel said, noting he’s aiming to create “hardcore” Batman stories. “We’re going towards something big and powerful next year.”

Daniel teased that the first issue of the new Detective Comics has one of the best cliffhangers of the relaunch, which Manapul quipped will literally “blow your face off.”

Additional Notes

• DC Executive editor Eddie Berganza confirmed Sinestro will be taking care of earth in the new Green Lantern title, and that he will be working with Hal Jordan. He compared the team dynamic to that of the Lethal Weapon movies where the two main characters don’t like each other and don’t get along, but they need to work together out of necessity.
• The Animal Man series is poised to be a very dark rendition of the character, which will explore not only his own powers but those developed by his daughter, and how that impacts Animal Man and his family. Fans should expect some crazy, dark things coming out of the first issue.
• Didio’s OMAC series will focus very much on the idea of control, analyzing how much control you really have in your life; perhaps we find we don’t have as much as we’d like to think. Didio hinted that Brother Eye will play a central role, and the title character will be troubled with the idea that something is manipulating his every move. He also praised Keith Giffen’s artwork on the series, while Giffen himself believes the work to be the best of his career.
• James Robinson spoke about his 12-issue Shade maxi-series, which will delve into the history of the character across three different eras, working backwards towards the late 1800s where we will discover the origin of the character in the final issue. He said he’s looking forward to having Shade travel around the world to different locations. Robinson is really enthusiastic about the project and hopes fans like it because he would like to tell more Shade stories in the future.
• Didio confirmed the follow-up to Superman Earth One will shift along with the new 52. Didio said they’re going with the dorky Clark Kent, but that he will have a love-interest that isn’t Lois Lane. The book’s artist, Shane Davis, confirmed Parasite will be the main villain in the sequel, and that J. Michael  Straczynski wanted to explore a fresh look at the character and that they really have some really cool stuff planned with him.
• Barbara Gordon is Batgirl. Didio confirmed though that characters like Cassandra Cain, Stephanie Brown and Speedy will still have places in the DCU.
• The new Firestorm series will feature both Ronnie and Jason as Firestorm, but with the added twist of their becoming something greater when they merge together.
• Booster Gold will star in Justice League International, and will become a Canadian citizen.
• “This is about the long-term health of DC Comics,” Didio said of the 52-relaunch.

Leave your comments below.

I have faith in Morrison.. not so much the rest of them.

Beautiful cover by Cliff Chiang

So the DC Comic Solicits were released yesterday to a big underwhelming thud.

It’s not that there weren’t any interesting ideas shown; see the wonderful solicit for Wonder Woman. It’s just I’m underwhelmed with a sense of not caring. I think my main problem is, for the most part I’m only seeing four – maybe five writers whose voices I feel are incredibly unique.

Back in film school, we learned about ‘auteur theory’ – which as Wikipedia puts it: “auteur theory holds that a director’s film reflects the director’s personal creative vision, as if they were the primary “auteur” (the French word for “author”). In spite of—and sometimes even because of—the production of the film as part of an industrial process, the author’s creative voice is distinct enough to shine through all kinds of studio interference and through the collective process.”

Morrison, Lemire, Snyder, Simone and Azzarello. These are people who I feel are Auteurs in comics.

I’m not saying that the rest are terrible writers…what I’ve read of Kyle Higgens has been pretty fantastic and Peter Milligan is one of my favourite writers when he’s on. It’s just a lot of the writers presented seem to be basic journey men. People who are presented with a status quo maintain and story beats to accomplish. Obviously I don’t know that this is the way it’s going to be, but it sure does feel that way.

There’s a story out there about how when Marvel was looking to start up the Ultimate comic line, Bill Jemas was looking for suggestions on who should start-up the line:

Welcome to the 1990s.

In 1999 Bendis, Millar, Ennis and Morrison were unique voices in comics. They were Auteurs of the comic book set.

I don’t really see any a lot of that when it comes to DC’s relaunch.

I’ve gone on record before about not really ‘getting’ Geoff Johns. I think that probably has more to do with not connecting with the same comic book era. Johns only wants to write the heroes he grew up reading, which is understandable, but I feel that it’s a comic book creators duty to build rather than scale back.

Every single character revamp that’s come out so far has seemed really…90s. That’s really the only way to describe it. I don’t have much attachment to most DC Characters outside of Batman and late additions like The New Gods (and cast offs) – but a lot of the choices DC seems to be making kind of harkens towards being ‘what people think kids think is cool’ rather than good and genuinely exciting ideas.

I think if DC really wanted to make a big splash, they’d have looked at more writers like Cullen Bunn, Kathryn Immonen, Matt Kindt or Nathan Edmondson whose ‘Who is Jake Ellis?’ is currently one of the most interesting high concept books on the market. It’s great that he’s writing Grifter, but I’d much rather have his voice on Detective rather than Tony Daniels’ who seems content to retread minor plot points from better stories – which of course kind of seems like DC’s MO for the last few years anyway.

I have a feeling that a year from now they’ll be another event that ends with the old universe and the new DCU being split into two worlds – giving us a Ultimate-esque Earth 2 line…

On other DC is missing the point news: the new Catwoman solicit is arguably one of the worst things I’ve ever read.

Look, I really like March's art.. but she's getting a pearl necklace here.. isn't she?

It reeks of sexism and completely misses the point on the character. If you haven’t read Darwyn Cooke/Ed Brubaker/Cameron Stewart’s revamp on Catwoman a few years back, you’re doing yourself a severe injustice. It’s not only one of the best crime series ever written, it also made Selina Kyle the most interesting female character in the DCU.  Editor’s note: unfortunately they’re all out of print.  For shame DC.

The solicit sounds like a bad caption on a 1950s B-Movie than anything representative of the character growth she experienced during that time. Is it too late for Winnick and Joshua Hale Fialkov to do a switcheroo? Hell, Cameron Stewart has proved his writing chops and definitely has an affinity for the character – why not bring him on?

And finally…to end on some good news. Brian Wood, writer of such amazing series as Northlanders, The Tourist and DMZ has put up  a free download of the entire 132-page Public Domain 2 artbook.  It’s about 115 megs, nicely high res, and has beautiful art – especially for those of you who, like me, like drawings of architecture.

Currently re-reading: Groo the Wanderer, Amulet and Urasawa’s Pluto.

_________________________________________________________________________

Having finished re-reading The Invisibles last week, and then having re-read the re-coloured Casanova put me in a strange mood. The two books are very much similar – not in tone, or execution – but in the fact that they’re both everything that the respective writers love/fear/influenced by/sexually attracted to/etc put down to paper.

While both of those comics have their issues, I realized that I want to see more of these types of comics. I’m not saying that I want more hi-concept sci-fi stories I just want more quasi-personal works from creators that tend to make their living scripting the adventures of our favourite caped crusaders.

I think this is my major issue with Geoff Johns.

via Let's Be Friends Again!

Nothing about his works speak to me on a base level. I’ve never read anything by him that made me relate to him in any way shape or form. The closest may have been parts of his Flash run – specifically when he made Central City a stand-in for Detroit, but even that devolved into a hackneyed parody after a while. Johns’ writing is serviceable, there’s nothing about him that really makes me identify with him as anything but a fan of comic books from his youth. There’s no growth there. Being the safe keeper to comic book characters is a pretty thankless job. I get that. Hell, Johns has done an amazing job in that respect, I just think that it’s time to actually push yourself as a writer and give back to the medium that you obviously love.

There’s that wonderful statement by Warren Ellis as he was wrapping up his 12 issue run on Thunderbolts:

“I’m okay with painting other people’s houses for short periods, because I’m good at it and it pays well and on nice days it’s fun. But I never ever confuse painting a house for owning that house. And if I spent every waking hour painting other people’s houses, I wouldn’t be able to build houses of my own.

The more creators who only took on housepainting as a part-time gig, the healthier this medium would be.”

I guess I just want him to take a risk. I mean, it’s not like it could really hurt him at this point. Hell, even Bendis takes time away from writing the Marvel Universe to give us Scarlet and Powers.

In case you weren’t aware the relaunch of ‘Dark Horse Presents’ comes out tomorrow. Check out this list of creators who are contributing: Howard Chaykin, Neal Adams, Richard Corben, Carla Speed McNeil and Frank Miller, who previews Xerxes, the long-awaited prequel to 300.

Yeah, that’s some huge talent right there, but for me the biggest name belongs to Paul Chadwick and the return of Concrete.

The hook of the series is that of the adventures smoothed down version of the Thing (Concrete is a liberal speechwriter’s brain transplanted by aliens into a concrete android body) who instead of trying to discover and explore pseudo-scientific worlds, chooses instead to travel Earth and do all the things that his new body allows him to do. Once you get past the whole alien abduction and indestructible body it’s really just the story about a timid, gentle and thoughtful man taking command of his life and doing everything he’s ever read about. Chadwick is known for his beautiful clear line style and photo realistic backgrounds which really helped sell me on the series when I personally suspected that it would devolve into horrible science fiction tropes.

Luckily, that never really happened.

Instead you get some of the best short stories this side of Adrian Tomine.

Really pumped for this, should be a pretty good week.

I would have to agree with Shelly though in that there are not nearly enough comic book vendors at the convention. There are plenty of places to perhaps find that rare trade you’re looking for, and a few vendors such as Hairy Tarantula,  Paradise Comics or Pendragon are selling back issues. Each was scarce on recent material though, while there wasn’t nearly enough memorabilia; I really wanted to find a couple of DC Universe Mattel action figures, but alas they were not to be found. Well, there was this one thing I found but I’d rather not talk about it because it gave me 75 reasons to pout. Ultimately there was a good variation of vendors, but not enough of them. If you’re looking for something specific you may not find what you’re looking for.

On the lighter side of things, I stopped by the Kill Shakespeare booth and chatted with Anthony, Conor, and Andy for a little amidst the literal droves of people stopping by to check out the booth. I’m looking forward to talking to them Sunday about recent events, issues, and what’s next for them. Interviews with those guys are always fun. I also sat in on Francis Manapul’s Q&A session earlier Saturday afternoon. The encounter was very laid back for the 45 minutes he spent fielding questions from fans on a variety of subjects from working with Geoff Johns, his earlier work with Top Cow, up to his desire to work with all-star writer Grant Morrison. On that note he offered a funny anecdote when he said he’d love to work with Morrison but wasn’t sure if he would be able to understand his scripts. Overall Manapul held a great Q&A centred around breaking into the comic book business and even shared his aspirations to write later in the year.

Other than that, it was a fairly low brow day for me despite the bustling crowd of people. I chatted with local Toronto artist Marvin Law for a while, catching up with him for the first time since Hobbystar’s Toronto Comic Con back in November. It was cool to chat with him for a few minutes and find out about his wrestling based web-comic which you can find here.

Sunday promises to be another decent day. I’ll be talking to the guys from Kill Shakespeare, hopefully chat with some more friends throughout the day, and hopefully get a good deal on a particular item of interest. Stay tuned to Comic Book Daily throughout the weekend for more coverage from Wizard World Toronto.

It makes more sense now than it did my first read through – and no drugs were needed. It’s a mind state comic, you have to read everything but not really take anything at face value. It’s a long way from the ‘every-word-matters’ Morrison that wrote The Return of Bruce Wayne or the rest of the Mexican Train that was Batman & Robin.

I wonder if this has to do more with the fact that, according to Cameron Stewart, he usually sends detailed issue outlines without dialogue, allowing the artist to design the page and laying essential dialogue afterwards.

Similar in scope to what Stan Lee did, but y’know, trusting the artists sense of storytelling.  It’s especially evident that he’s forsaken using caption boxes in some stories.

I really don’t know what Morrison’s scripts are like and if there’s anyone out there that has access to some of his new ones and some of his old ones I’d love to see them. I’ve managed to read quite a few comic book scripts and it seems like everyone writes them differently. The ones that seem to speak to me the most are by guys like Brian K. Vaughan and Neil Gaiman, whose styles are quite different, Gaiman is more conversational. Vaughan is more focused with dialogue, setting up each page as its own four act structure, usually ending each ‘act’ with a pithy line or joke or something.

I know that talking craft is probably boring to most people, but I think I’m going to try to interview as many comic book writers as possible this year and talk to them about what their process is in regards to writing.

Unlike screenwriting there doesn’t seem to be any rules to obey. What’s frowned upon? What’s encouraged?

I‘d like to toss a big thank you to Kevin Boyd for pointing me in the direction of Emily Carroll. Holy shit is she talented. There’s this sequence she’s adapted from Márquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude (specifically ‘The Death of Jose Arcadio‘) that is absolutely breathtaking in its sequential narrative – that begins with a stationary ‘shot’ that then tracks a tiny thread-like trail of blood through the village.

Pretty damned cool. Just so you know Madame Carroll anything you put out I will purchase.

I’ve been putting all my Joe Sacco books next to my bed in preparation of something. I think the travel bug has hit me and I feel the need to experience something different. Sacco’s books tend to humanize areas that are currently being painted as being dangerous and inhospitable by the media.

Anyone here know good books for people who want to read about real-world places that aren’t North America? I’ve managed to track down most of Vittorio Giardino‘s Max Fridman – and am always looking for something in that vein.

At what point do you have to stop asking for people “…to recommend you things like” before you have to make them yourself?

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.

For those of you unaware of my undying love of Brian McLachlan, I thought I’d give you an update. Over at his blog he posted some movie posters he found while on a trip to a parallel earth. Obviously I’d say take a look at all of them, but here are the ones that I’m going to go on a hunger strike until they are made.

Any movie that features both Warwick Davis & Sticky Fingaz needs to be made.

Okay, confession time: as big as a Paul Pope fan I am I have not read THB. I’ve had the rare opportunity to pick up issues here and there, but I’ve always wanted to wait until it’s collected to really get into it. Last year, when I got to meet Mr. Pope at TCAF, he mentioned that he was hoping that the collected edition would be out within a year or so. So far no sign of that or Battling Boy. That’s why a large part of me seriously hates Forbidden Planet. Why do they post excerpts from THB? All it does is make me realize what I’ve been missing out on.

Seriously, take a look at this amazing page from Motor Race – an homage to the great Guido Carpax:

Stunning stuff. So what do you guys think? Should I just cave and try to track down some of the back issues? Let me know in the comments below. Especially if you’ve read it – let me know what I can expect.

Hey Adult Swim! Let’s make Derek Charm’s Hanna Barbara inspired Seven Soldier’s happen.

Look at the adorable expression on Frankenstein! Those Sheeda will never stand a chance!

I tend to write off Adam Hughes as a cheesecake artist. I believe this is because I wasn’t into comics when he was doing interiors and he’s mostly known for drawing the curviest covers for the curviest women. I also sort of resent that he popularized the whole ‘Catwoman ALWAYS unzips her costume to show off her cleavage’ which sort of misses the point completely when it comes to the current incarnation of her character.

That said though, the greatest thing Hughes ever did was basing his Selina on Audrey Hepburn. Sure it looks completely anatomically incorrect that Hepburn would be rocking Double Ds, but that doesn’t stop Hughes from having some of the greatest facial expressions on covers.

Not sure who compiled it but I found it via Suicide Blonde. There’s a lot of fun expressions on those covers. I think that if he built Selina more like Ms. Hepburn (she’d look like this) it would actually make more sense for a character that is supposed to be lithe and agile. Catwoman was one of DC’s best books. From Brubaker’s run to Pfeifer’s. It was written well, didn’t rely on any of the quasi-sexist crap that was standard throughout the Balent era that came before it. Did it have a large female following?(If you know tell me in the comments please!)

Hey Dan Hipp,

If you make it, I’ll buy it. Anything you do, I’ll buy.

So, I’ve asked a whole bunch of questions today. I’m very quizzical. I’ll leave you with one other question: Who is one talent that CBD has thus far ignored completely? Let me know in the comments below!

]]> http://www.comicbookdaily.com/columns/suddenlymaybe-im-full-of-questions-2/feed/ 0 http://www.comicbookdaily.com/columns/suddenlymeanwhile-thirty-three-2/ http://www.comicbookdaily.com/columns/suddenlymeanwhile-thirty-three-2/#comments Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:58:16 +0000 Peter DeCourcy http://www.comicbookdaily.com/?p=12340

“I thought we had moved on from a time when a non-white Anglo-Saxon character might be seen as unusual.”

- Writer David Hine addresses recent controversy over the introduction in Detective Comics of Nightrunner, a French Algerian Muslim recruited by Bruce Wayne to be part of Batman Inc.

I talked about it briefly last Tuesday and I figured I’d put some more thoughts down to better clarify my position. What I want to read in superhero comics is something completely different; and what I’ve noticed that no one, with the exception of Grant Morrison, is doing is showing up what other cultures’ superheroes would be like.

I feel we’ve explored every faction of North American superhero, now I want to see how the notion of a brightly clad, super-powered ultra-beings would be shaped and/or would affect that specific city.

The one thing that I’ve really enjoyed about Morrison’s Bat-run has been the moments when he’s shown Batman’s effect on other cultures.

I had a friend who lived in Japan for a few years: she said that the wonderfully crazy thing about Japan was that they were all obsessed with American culture. They’d mimic it, but it was like one thing got left out and that’s why we see these beautiful things like those crazy game shows and fashion that’s a blend of three different styles that we’d never think to do. (Just the idea of a Gothic Lolita isn’t something I could possibly imagine until I was informed by a customer.)

What I enjoyed about characters like Morrison’s Super Young Team or the current Knight and Squire mini-series is that we’re getting traditional Superhero stories told through the filter of a different culture.

I guess what I’m getting at is not that I want to read more than just the traditional “white Anglo-Saxon superhero”; I want a superhero whose raison d’être is influenced by something foreign than everything else.

Just for fun by Clemente Sauve

R.I.P Clement Sauvé. You had so much more to give than 33 years and it’s a true shame that we won’t get to see you continue to grow as an artist. Kevin Boyd of the Shuster Awards writes with far more eloquence than myself about this amazing artist down far too early.

Farel Dalrymple, artist of Pop Gun War and Omega the Unknown, is a pretty damned great artist. Check out his Batman below and tell me you wouldn’t want to see him take a crack at the character:

If you’ve followed his work at all you know that he’s very adept at drawing cityscapes that are both incredibly realistic, but fantastical at the same time. I’m looking forward to more creator owned work for him, and I hold out hope that one day he might re-team with his Omega the Unknown cohort Jonathan Lethem to do an adaptation or graphic novel similar to “Gun, With Occasional Music“, a book that I think Dalrymple could knock out of the park.

Up Next Week: I write about the authors I’d like to see tackle which comic book properties!