Now to be fair the beginning of my run here started with a man named Joe Quesada.

My podcast TATANS managed to snag an interview with Joe and Pete DeCourcy (who was EiC at the time) asked if he could have the text version of the interview. We agreed if Pete would take photos and it grew out of that.

And by “grew” I mean Pete would occasionally badger me for more articles and we just decided to make a column out of it. So here’s my favorite moments and a few predictions:

Favorite Interview: Max Brooks

Without a doubt, Max Brooks has been my favorite interview. I’ve been lucky enough to chat with him twice and he is generally awesome to deal with. Polite, funny and a solid writer, the first interview I did with him for my podcast, we had a back up plan. You see, unknown to a number of people out there, Max is the son of Mel Brooks. Not knowing what kind of guy Max was, we decided that if Max was a jerk, the interview would turn into a one sided discussion about how Blazing Saddles is awesome. Luckily, Max is far from being a twit and the first interview went off great. The second interview (the text portions summed up for this site) was even better as we were used to Max’s humor and Max remembered us.  GI Joe Hearts and Minds was just about to be released and he was very proud of his work (rightfully so as it was a solid mini series). He even was able to quote Roadblock.

I’m just curious what happened to the secret graphic novel he talked to us about was?

Interview That Scared Me: Andrew Vachss

pic from www.protect.org

I had been a huge fan of Vachss’s when I got word about his graphic triptych haiku book , Heart Transplant, I used it as an excuse to try and set up an interview with him.

Then I got the interview and I went into panic mode.

Mr. Vachss is a best selling author and probably one of the more nobler human beings on the planet. His novels finance his career as a lawyer where he represents children for free. His entire literary career is about the mission; Protect the kids from the abusers, make the abusers pay as hard as possible in the legal system.

Andrew Vachss is in many ways the closest to a real life Batman as you’re going to get.

So when I heard his voice on the other end of the phone I almost hung up. I summoned up the courage and continued with the interview I requested. I think it’s a good interview but it suffers a little bit from being awestruck and one piece of bad information I had researched but otherwise I accomplished the four things:

I did an interview with Andrew Vachss.

I got the word out about a project I thought was definitely worth it. (Speaking of which, if you haven’t checked out Heart Transplant yet, you should)

I ended up getting a preview copy of his latest book, The Weight (a great read and available in paperback in Nov).

I made a very awesome contact.

Favorite Twitter Moment:

Favorite Convention Moment: Geof Darrow at Fan Appreciation

So here’s the scenario. Geof Darrow is one of the most unique artists working in comics. He is the kind of artist any good writer would do a lot of dirty things to work with, myself included (oh what I wouldn’t give to write something for Geof to draw… like even if it just involved rabbits and clowns, I’d come up with something awesome). Darrow was going to be attending the Fan Appreciation convention that Hobbystar was putting on last year. Geof doesn’t have much of a web presence so I had no idea how to contact him to set up an interview.

But I had an idea Andrew Vachss and his people would.

Vachss had worked with Geof on a few occasions (most notably a Shaolin Cowboy pulp novel that sounds like five shades of awesome) and out of anyone I knew might be able to tell me how to get a hold of him, it was Vachss and his team at The Zero.

So I dropped Andrew’s people an email and shortly after I was in touch with Geof Darrow.

For a man of such talent, it was great to find out he’s a nice guy to boot.

Geof had some of the best stories I’ve ever heard. If you ever get talking to him, ask him about the Hanna Barbara Polish Pencil Sharpener. Geof was kind and generous with his time and spoke to my girlfriend about her knitting. We spoke a lot about upcoming projects including the return of Shaolin Cowboy and we also just talked a bit.  I’m hoping he’ll make his way back here as he has a sketch book I’d love to purchase that’s currently sold out.

Guy I’m Glad I Met Early In His Career: Fred Kennedy

With any luck and justice, Fearless Fred Kennedy will be a name more people know in comics over the next two years. Why do I say this? Am I sucking up? Are we buddies? Am I looking for a spot on Teletoon at Night? Nope. Fred has impressed me from the get go with both his skill as a writer and just his general passion for comics.

Kennedy is a successful radio announcer and voice over artist. It’s how he makes his living and pays the bills. Big Sexy Comics probably doesn’t do that which means Fred does comics because he LOVES them. You’d be amazed at how far passion will get a person. I think his work on Big Sexy Comics various books is not only a great indicator of his talent but of a writer with a lot of range and I think it would do Marvel or DC a lot of good to take a look at him.

And for those who doubt my prediction anyone remember some comic called Battle Pope? Weird little comic that I think eventually went to Image…wonder what happened to the guy writing that… oh right… that was Robert Kirkman.

Favorite Convention Moment: Speed Up

This occurred during the trip to the 80′s toy show a few months back. We were on the 400 south bound.

Ryan Parent: “You know… I haven’t seen the GI Joe movie.”

Ed: “WHAT! Get Out…wait…” turns to Tall Ryan who is driving “Speed up.” Turns back to Ryan P, “Now… get out.”

Many Thanks

Two years is a long time for a weekly column and honestly if it weren’t for the following people, I probably would have dropped it.

Thanks go to the entire Blue Beetle crew both new and old. Without my Wednesday visits, I might run out of columns. This also goes to the members of the Blue Beetle Diners Club.

Thanks to various members of the Nerd Mafia who nicely re-tweet about these posts or like them on Facebook especially Alex James (who has been my sounding board for many a column).

Thanks to John Pollock and Wai Ting of The Fight Network and music gurus supreme, Alan Cross and Jeff Woods. Over the past two years, whenever I’ve had a question about doing interviews in terms of format and style, they’ve been my go to guys and have patiently put up with my nonsense.

Thanks to the staff of CBD especially Ed, Walter, Pete and Scott who put up with me at cons and the fact my columns sometimes look like a five year old wrote them.

And special thanks to Gen, who puts up with my nerdiness more then she should have to and she does it with a smile.

Two years and now on to year three! I think this is the year where I get to do a soft re-boot and become some what grittier with massive shoulder pads.

Okay not so much the comic book series…not that What If was terrible mind you, I’m speaking more of the question What If as opposed to the comic book What If.

…okay, now I’m sort of confusing myself…. maybe an example is in order.

As regular readers know, one of my other passions beyond comics is music. I’m a very big fan of a Manchester band from the late 70′s early 80′s named Joy Division.

Joy Division were not huge in their day but their music was amazing and on the eve of their North American tour, the band’s lead singer and lyricist, Ian Curtis, killed himself.  Subsequently the band didn’t tour and reformed under the name New Order (which you may be more familiar with). Joy Division became kind of a cult band but an incredibly important one. They influenced a ton of music styles. Bands like Nine Inch Nails, The Cure, U2, Interpol and a ton more were heavily influenced by them. There is a very solid argument to be made that Joy Division were one of the most important bands in rock in the past 30 years.

But, what if Ian Curtis hadn’t committed suicide?

How much would this have changed things? Would :goth” music have come around the same way? Would Manchester been as important to alternative music without Joy Division? Would they still have been as influential as they were or would something have gone differently?  For those curious, music guru Alan Cross did an excellent episode of The Ongoing History of New Music that included his theories, highly recommend searching it out.  And speaking of which, Corus, why on Earth did you let the man go?

And comics are no different.  There are a ton of real life stories regarding comics that are unpublished, creators that left books prematurely, books that mysteriously ended.

In today’s column, I going to throw out one major What If along with my ideas on what would have happened next and a What IF for you to all discuss and play along at home with (and please leave feedback in the comments, this is a topic I intend to return to every once and a while)

What If Image Hadn’t Been Formed?

Essentially, Image was formed by artists who wanted control of their work (as well as possible ownership of their creations) from Marvel. Marvel said no and these artists walked and formed Image Comics.

But what if Marvel went “you know what guys, let’s work out a deal” and then went a head and worked out a fair deal for all of those involved. I know it’s a bit of a stretch but play along.  Editor’s note: it happened a decade earlier with Jim Shooter’s push at Marvel to form Epic and its line of creator owned books.

How would the comic universe been different if the Image founders had stay put? I think certain things still would have happened, here are the bullet points.

Erik Larsen still would have gone on to do Savage Dragon and not with Marvel, but through a company that was starting to experiment with superheroes, Dark Horse Comics. In the end, Dragon would have been the few survivors of the line (Dragon, Ghost and this quirky sort of super hero book called Hellboy) and still running decent numbers to this day.

Todd McFarlane’s run on Spider-Man would have continued a lot longer with less editorial interference and the book would have gotten a little weird. Eventually Todd would end up back at DC working on Batman again but this time with Frank Miller as writer for six issues. Todd would eventually take over the book for another five issues. In the meantime, Todd uses the very decent paychecks and connections he’s been grabbing to set up a toy company. This company sets up a partnership with Toy Biz (Marvel’s owner) for a line of Marvel figured that knocks everyone’s socks off.

Jim Lee would have stayed on X-Men for a while but eventually moving over to Wolverine where he introduces a new character, Grifter. Grifter catches on with the comic buying public and gets his own series which gets the editors thinking.  After a few years, Lee is given an opportunity along with Joe Quesada to give a shine to Marvel B list characters in a line dubbed Marvel Knights. Quesada helps lure in filmmaker Kevin Smith to work on Daredevil while Lee achieves what is almost thought impossible and convinces Alan Moore to come into the Marvel fold with a new Captain Britain book for 12 issues. This good will leads to Neil Gaiman coming to the company with the reprint and return of Marvelman.

And for you Moore purists out there, just remember he wrote issues of Spawn, a Violator mini-series and Youngblood, not to mention his ABC line was originally a Wildstorm project (or according to Liefeld an Extreme Studios project that became a Wildstorm project) which became a DC project when DC bought the studio. This is not necessarily as out there as it seems.

How different would the rest of the comic industry landscape have been? With no Image rivaling the big two, did anyone step up to fill that gap? I’d like to think Valiant Comics would have but I think they still would have had to deal with the same issues. I think Dark Horse’s superhero line probably would have done better as well but ultimately would have collapsed into a few titles.

When Image was created it did prove there were other like-minded creators out there, would a different group of artists try to pull something similar off?

Now, here’s one for you at home to play with. I look forward to reading you responses and including them in a follow-up column. You ready?

What If Steve Ditko Hadn’t Left Marvel?

What is fact that for reasons known to a very select few, Steve Ditko left Spider-Man and quickly left Marvel Comics thereafter for an extended period of time. But what if he hadn’t left? What if he had been given a little more freedom? Would Marvel have stayed more or less the same or would something very different have happened?

Feel free to post your thoughts at the bottom or if you have any other ideas for What If’s for me to explore, feel free to post those as well.

Anyhow, I’ve decided to talk to something that at one point or another we have all loved.

Toys.

Well, specifically the toys that are related to comics.

Now I should say right off that bat, I am not a hard core toy collector of any sort, not that I have anything at all against toy collectors. I just figure that I already collect comics and getting another addiction as bad would not be a great idea. I don’t collect any particular toy brand or anything like that, my collection is pretty scattershot.  The two things that the pieces in my toy collection have in common is that 1) They are usually based around a comic that I love and 2) I think they look cool.

It’s honestly as simple as that.

Here’s a look at some of my favorites. (apologies, the pictures below are not of MY personal toys.  Unfortunately those are currently sitting in boxes ready to move into their new home)

Hulkbuster Iron Man (from Iron Man 2 line)

Figured I’d start with my latest acquisition. I happened to be in a Real Canadian Superstore and saw this gem for… TWO BUCKS.  I could not pass it up. On a whole, the sculpt is pretty good for the small-scale of the figure and had a lot more detail then I initially figured at first glance. I really like the slightly muted color scheme they used for it as opposed to an all out shiny paint job which to be fair is more accurate in terms of the comics but…damn it looks cool.

Sin City’s Marv and Marv in Electric Chair (McFarlane Toys)

I love both these pieces. I know there have been other versions by other companies but nothing has really captured the essence of the comic then the first versions from McFarlane’s toy company. The Electric Chair Marv in particular.  Yes kids, feel like you’re part of the Basin City penal system by throwing the switch and frying Marv for his crimes.  I seem to recall there was a bit of backlash in regards to that but isn’t that always the way? There is a distinct possibility the woman won’t let me display this one. Okay, maybe either of them, the standard Marv figure came complete with severed Kevin head.

Optimus Prime (original G1 Transformers)

I got this for my fifth birthday.  I love it despite the fact that mine’s a little beat up. Every time I look at it I get a reminder of what I was like as a kid… about 200 lbs lighter and bit less jaded.

Captain Britain (Minimates)

I’ve always thought the style of the Minimates was cool but there wasn’t one that screamed out to me until Pete pointed out this one. Captain Britain (current costume) has possibly my favorite costume in the Marvel universe and some how this Minimate captured it.  I know of two other Captain Britain figures from different lines (one from the current Captain America toy line) both have more articulation, both are bigger scaled but yet this is the one that does it for me. Sometime good things do come in small packages (I’m here all week, try the veal).

King Conan (McFarlane Toys)

This was a figure that was bought with a mysterious amazon coupon I got for some website that I wrote for and folded. It’s the best free toy I have ever gotten. If anything ever showed Conan as he was written, this was it. It captures both his size and power as well as King Conan’s boredom of being king. The entire sculpt is just awesome. The entire Conan line from McFarlane was solid (as I have a few other pieces in my collection) but this one is probably my favorite and one of my favorite toys ever.

I don’t tend to buy a lot of the Omnibus/Absolute format hardcovers.

I tend to believe that comics should be able to be read without causing spine damage to the reader.

That being said, the minute Pete DeCourcy opened up his copy of the Walter Simonson Thor Omnibus, I knew I had to have a copy.

Simonson’s run on Thor is up there with Miller’s Daredevil run for me. It’s a truly unique take on the super hero version of Thor and in many ways Simonson went for absolute broke with his run that turned into pure story telling gold.

For instance, let me point out something that I don’t think has been really articulated this way.

One of the major points of the run is the introduction of Beta Ray Bill. Beta Ray Bill is an alien who is vaguely a humanoid horse hybrid who has the good enough warrior soul to lift Thor’s hammer and get Thor’s powers and costume.

That’s right, when you break it down, Beta Ray Bill is a horse alien that dresses like Thor.

And despite it’s apparent ridiculousness, Beta Ray Bill’s entry is not only incredibly well written and a character design that really stands out but honestly, it’s just plain awesome.

And that was Simonson’s main gift on Thor.  He had the amazing ability to take the absurd and turn it into awesome. Thor fights and then befriend a horse alien, awesome. Thor fights some weird green monster from way back in the Lee/Kirby issues, awesome. Thor spends three issues as a frog, still awesome.

Now as regular readers are probably aware, I delve back into the comics from yesteryear from time to time, with mixed results. Sometimes they stand up, some times it’s a pretty big pile of poop.

This time, it’s definitely the former.

Simonson’s Thor is both a product of its time and manages to surpass it. In terms of writing, there tends to be a LOT of dialogue compared to those of today, yet in the setting of Thor, not only does it not seem dated, it would feel wrong without it.

The storytelling itself is pretty epic. Battles are fought but there is a gravity to them. Lives are in danger as opposed to seeming like they are in danger. Actions have consequences. If I were to compare it to something, I’d say Lord of the Rings is probably the best comparison thematically.

Art wise… WOW.

Now here’s where purists might have a problem.  For this Omnibus edition, the comics were digitally re-coloured.  This means they look a bit different then the originally did. For some, this means this edition is drastically altered from the original and therefore not as good.

While I can see that logic I can also say that those people are wrong… and possibly insane.

I have always loved Walter’s art, especially on Thor, but the re-colouring on Thor has taken what once looked great and turned it into something that looks amazing or possibly beyond that. It makes every pencil line seem more like what they were intended.

Before

To use a film analogy, this isn’t Star Wars Special Edition, this is Blade Runner Final Cut.

After

There is only one bad thing about this Thor book.

Okay there are two things.

It’s heavy. I mean really heavy.  I’ve rigged up a system in my bed of a pillow pedestal in order to read it comfortably.

The second problem is one that is completely my fault.

I have no idea what Walter Simonson is up to.

Someone asked me, what Walter has written since this run on Thor and I’ll be honest, I had drawn a blank.

When I got home and I began reading Thor again, I began to remember how good a storyteller Simonson is. He did a great run as artist on X-Factor (written by his wife, Louise) and a pretty solid run on Orion (Pete pointed this one out to me; it had an incredibly Darkseid vs Orion fight in it which begs the question, why isn’t this in trades? (Editor’s note: Orion, Gates Of Apokolips.  Also check out his run on Fantastic Four.)). But what is he working on now? As far as I can tell, his last major work was on a World of Warcraft series from Wildstorm (which after re-reading Thor, I want to check out).

So I’m going to throw this idea out there. Dark Horse. You have the rights to a large amount of Robert Howard properties.  Can we please have an issue with art by Walter Simonson?

Back to the main point.  While the weight and size of the omnibus may frighten of some, if you are a fan of fantasy and or comics, the Walter Simonson Thor Omnibus is highly recommended reading.

Next week, I have two of my discs fused.

GF's first words when seeing the book "My, nice Bible you've got there."

More on that when I finish it.

Beyond my love of comics, I also have a love of film. I’m especially a big fan of action flicks. So between the love of comics and the love action films, it’s no wonder I look forward to the various comic book flicks of the summer season.  With that I thought I’d take a look at the films so far as well as some thoughts on the world of comics this week.

Thor

Loved it.  I thought this was as good as you could possibly expect. It was a good way of introducing Thor’s world to those who are already intrenched in the Avengers film continuity.  I loved the cameos, I rather liked the story, the direction was great, the only the only thing I thought stunk was the 3D.  As in, I paid for 3D and got very little for my extra bucks.  I had the same problem with The Green Hornet so ever other film this summer can blame these two films for not getting my extra 3D cash.

X-Men First Class

I’m not sure if I liked this more than Thor but I really liked First Class. The casting was incredibly well done and Michael Fassbender is more in line with the Magneto I had always imagined.  I rather like Ian McKellan but Magneto was always shown as a robust youthful sort of shape even as an old man.  Of course in the comics he’s been de-aged by various means a bunch of times… but back to the flick.  Continuity wise, First Class doesn’t make a huge amount of sense even in terms of the film series (if you were comparing it to comic book continuity… good luck to you) until I realized that Bryan Singer produced it.  They applied the same method Singer used on Superman Returns; anything other than the first two films doesn’t count.

Green Lantern

I’m not a huge Green Lantern fan by any stretch of the imagination but the second batch of trailers convinced me to check it out.

Well that and the woman likes Ryan Reynolds.

So we went and saw it at the drive in with the second feature of The Hangover 2 (which sucked by the way) so no worries of the 3D over tax on this flick.

Over all, I enjoyed it.  It was very much an origin film and suffered from many of the problems that origin films have but I did enjoy it. Except the end. I’m not going to spoil it but it really felt like a scene was missing when Hal asks for the Guardian’s help to save his plane. But DC did one thing right that I’m amazed Marvel or DC hadn’t done it before.

After the credits were over, there was an ad for Green Lantern comic books.

How simple an idea! It was like DC was saying “Hey kids! Like Green Lantern but don’t want to wait two years for more adventures? Read THESE!”

I really hope they continue with this idea and that Marvel and the other comic book companies pick up on this. Dark Horse, for instance, doesn’t have a lot of films in the works but wouldn’t it be great for them to have that title card show up at the end of the film? It be a great way for these smaller companies to get a little more press for their buck.

Now, apparently this under performed at the box office opening weekend it did do well enough for a sequel.  Remember, Batman Begins did do well but The Dark Knight hit it out of the park.

In Other News

Powers Pilot Gets A Cast

I used to really love powers but I lost interest the minute the main characters became super powered. But I rather like the idea of this as a TV show, especially if it’s NYPD Blue with super powered suspects. Jason Patric as Walker is not my first choice but he is a great actor that could do the part justice.

Ultimate Spider-Man Dead

Yup, apparently Ultimate Peter Parker is dead and we have a new Ultimate Spidey on the way.  I’ve read a couple of interviews with Bendis where he mentions that the idea is Parker’s death inspires a new Spider-Man to take the job.  It’s an interesting idea and twist. Ultimate Spider-Man has been the only consistent Ultimate book in terms of quality since the line launched.  Must admit, I’m curious to see where this goes. As to who the new Spidey is, my first guess is Ultimate Moon Knight.  If that’s not correct, it’s probably a woman.

Chaykin on Avengers 1959

It’s been a while since a New Avengers’ story arc held any interest for me but I must admit a pre-Avengers Avengers with Howard Chaykin on art duties has grabbed me. I will have to check out the trade. I recently re-read American Flagg and it’s still as a terrific read.

Box of Transformers Awesomeness!

Bleeding Cool showed off the promo box they got in conjunction with the release of the new film. Hey Hasbro! Where’s my box? I review movies too! (pouts)

This was filled with swag. I love swag. Where's my swag?

And now something completely not comic booky but I have to share.  I just learned Nirvana’s Nevermind turns 20 this year.

Holy crap, I’m starting to feel old.

Until next week, keep your chins up.

I usually write the column in one shot and then go away for a few hours and come back and edit before setting it to post.  This week, I’m going to write and add as the week goes on up until Wednesday night (regular posting time for me so the editors have time to make sure I’m doing an ok job).

Monday

Anyone else remember Virgin Comics?  I scored a great find in Silver Snail’s discount bin. I had picked up a few issues of Guy Ritchie’s Gamekeeper when it originally came out but missed the later half of the series. I found the hardcover for $5.  Great story and fantastic art.  My hunting online has turned up an omnibus edition from Dynamite that contains the second mini as well as the first which I may pick up.  Apparently my hardcover is a limited edition of 1500 … no idea why. Anyone know if Dynamite picked up the rights to all of Virgin’s books or just this one?

Lot of DC rumors floating around today.  Apparently Batman Inc will be back next year (HURRAY!) and rumors have sprouted bring George Perez on as writer and artist of Superman. I guess DC can sort of hear me because last week, Perez was my third (unprinted) choice to take over Wonder Woman.  But to have him write and draw Superman would be interesting.

E3 is on this week so my brain may become distracted by video games… YAY HALO 4!!!

Tuesday

More DC news, the best of which is Paul Cornell writing The Demon in a book called Demon Knights. I was hoping my yellow-skinned rhymer would be back and DC couldn’t have selected a better writer for him. And more integration for Wildstorm as Voodoo from Wildcats is getting her own title.  Five bucks say she’s not stripper anymore.

Ed Campbell has reported on his blog that Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is in talks to play Roadblock in the sequel to the GI Joe live action film. Great casting but this might mean the film won’t film for a bit as Johnson has already expressed an interest in being part of the next Fast and Furious (the current sequel made a crap ton of money) as well as his return to pro wrestling (for at least Wrestlemania next year where he will face John Cena).  The bright side? Maybe they can write a film worth watching this time.

Wednesday

The DC relaunch machine is turning it up a few notches. Grifter has officially been announced as has Static Shock. Rob Liefeld is on Hawk and Dove (at least for one issue) which will be nice to see in a nostalgic sort of way.  Red Robin’s new costume in Teen Titans is six shades of terrible. I’m not so sure why this idea works for The Falcon but not Tim Drake but it doesn’t. Urgh. I imagine that’s the new Raven in the background unidentified and the chick with weird 90′s armor/mechanical arm stuff is probably the new Beast Boy…er woman…er…something.

I'm sure I have an Image Comic circa 1994 that looks like this....

The interesting thing is the fact that Marvel seems to be letting DC’s media barrage run it’s course as opposed to sending out news of their own. I imagine however that Marvel is going to gear up for Comic Con even harder than they might have before.

Marvel, if I could suggest something that might make a dent. Moore and Gaiman’s runs on Marvelman might be a good suggestion.

Fan Expo has announced they’re bringing Martin Landau to Toronto. Yeah, I know, not very comic related (in terms of my column) but the dude was in the best Tim Burton film ever (and one of my all time top 20), Ed Wood. For those of you who said Big Fish, Beetlejuice, Batman or Edward Scissorhands, you are wrong.

For the two of you who said Willy Wonka… I’ve got a 2×4 with your name on it.

(At this point I have to put on pants and leave for the Blue Beetle Dinner Club… whether I was in my boxers or just wearing shorts, I’ll leave to your imagination.)

Man… if you are ever in Barrie, Ontario, buying comics, head over to Big Bone BBQ… highly recommend the pulled pork and the smoked chicken wings.

At the comic shop the talk turned pretty quickly to the DC relaunch. The customers that spoke of it just felt that despite DC’s reassurances, that this whole relaunch would eventually fizzle and go away much like Heroes Reborn. Moat people groaned at my joke that the regular DCU would return in an event titled “Crisis on something or another” but conceded that I was probably right.

And there you have it.  A half a week of talking of comics.  I kind of liked this style of column and may try it again in a month or so.

I’m writing this on Tuesday.  The day of the big DC announcement that they are rebooting the DC universe.

52 titles starting with a new Justice League #1 on August 31.

In the New World, Everyone Wears A Collar

And to this I say… eh.

While I can appreciate the initiative and to be perfectly honest, I could care less about the fanboy uprising that’s taking place across many a message board and twitter account, I do have some issues with what I’ve heard and let’s be honest, we haven’t heard much.

Okay let’s start about what we do know.

This is a reboot. By the letter and press releases and stories that have slowly been floating out of the interwebs we gather that the characters are going to be “modernized” and updated for today’s readers.  I think it’s safe to assume some stories will be kept as cannon and others will be dropped completely. Geoff Johns and Jim Lee are doing Justice League #1 and there will be a total of 51 first issues coming.

…and that’s kind of about it.

My problem with all of this?

It’s a cop-out.

DC has a long continuity and you know what a good writer does with it?

Writes good stories.

Gail Simone, Grant Morrison, hell, Geoff Johns himself, have all done rather good stories USING continuity to create them. Grant Morrison adapted some of the silliest ideas in Batman history and turned it into gold.

I’m not saying you have to use continuity, just semi ignore it or work around it.

Don’t get me wrong, I think this will have a big boost of sales for DC… for a while.  I also worry about the kind of picking and choosing aspect of the reboot. Is Blackest Night still included? If so, what changed?

I’m also curious how this affects the Earth One projects.  With this kind of revamp of the whole DC line, is Earth One even needed? Was all of the Wonder Woman changes now for not? And where does this leave Morrison Multiverse project?

Another change that I’m pretty sure is a safe bet is further integration of DC’s other lines in the DCU proper.  We know Wildstorm was shut down with that being a future plan. Now we have a perfect space to do it in. I bet we see a bit more of Static and the Milestone characters as well as all of the Vertigo characters that were headed back.

About two minutes after I read the Comic Book Daily post about the reboot. I was in conversation with Kevin (one of the Blue Beetle Dinner club members) about it.  I was a little surprised by his response as Kevin is very much a DC guy.

“…As a longtime DC comics fan, I haven’t been this apathetic about their line in a long time. Brightest day just fizzled for me, so this announcement piques my interest.”

Which is a very valid point.

If Kevin’s thoughts are the same as the majority of regular readers, this reboot might not only bring casual readers in (especially with the day and date digital releases) but old school readers as well.

Overall, the news of this reboot didn’t really surprise me. We’ve seen signs that this was coming for a while now, especially with the recent listing in previews.  I’d be surprised if certain comics (ahem… SUPERMAN) don’t move towards their current or planned movie counterparts in terms of design and style.

But wow, am I going to be ticked if this cuts off Morrison’s Batman run off at the knees.
Guess we’ll find out in August.

The one good thing about this whole deal is that DC will be shuffling up the creative teams on various books. Rumors state that we’ll see Morrison on Superman (not a bad choice and not much of a surprise) but if I could make a few suggestions… keep in mind, these are my suggestions not anything I’ve heard unless stated.

Max Brooks on something! Max’s G.I. Joe mini series, Hearts and Minds, was one of the best comic mini series of the last few years.  He has a good sense of humor but has a good sense for story, I’m amazed he hasn’t been picked up by one of the big two. Something team based with a bit of humor, maybe a Titans book or Outsiders.

While I would love to see Gail Simone back on Wonder Woman, Pete suggested that Greg Rucka be brought back on.

Kevin had an interesting idea of bringing in Jim Starlin on to a Green Lantern book of some sort.

The one thing that this whole reboot does have going for it is the potential to really shake up creative teams.

The one thing I hope doesn’t happen is Crisis on Whatever to reset the reset.

First up was Thor on Friday night.

The first marvel flick of the year and lucky me my girlfriend was dying to go. Since we hadn’t gone to the theater for a while, it became date night.

First off, well done to all of the people involved in Thor.  I’ve always stated from the beginning of this Avenger’s film build up that Thor was a tricky beast; it is both the most complicated super hero film of Marvel’s cannon (because you kind of have to take Lord of the Rings and smash it into a superhero film) and weirdly enough, the least important.

Man I can hear the Thor fans screaming now, let me explain.

Thor’s movie being a success wasn’t that important. It gives The Avengers a hand but really if Thor had done dismal, it would have been a blip on the radar. The Avengers still would have continued and Thor still would have been it.

But luckily, the film is very well crafted; solid story, great direction, good acting and most importantly it was fun and felt like Thor.

And out of all the little nerd fan service in the film, my favorite bit was Walt Simonson sitting at dinner at the end of the film.

It played well and certainly better than many other origin films.  I’d love to see another Thor film and I’m very much looking forward to Captain America and The Avengers because of how good a flick this was.  It should be noted that my girlfriend also loved it… but she’s a little nerdy too so that might be a moot point.

I followed my mainstream comic evening with a huge left turn into indy land with TCAF.  Now I imagine if you follow this site you’ve read a ton of raves and reviews about the event but here’s the thing: I’m not really an indy comic guy.  And I’ve never been to TCAF.

Out of all the comic book related event in our province, TCAF (the free one) is the one I’ve never been to.  It’s not that I’m against indy comics or web comics (in fact, I think they play a very important part in comic book culture), I’m just not huge into them, so essentially I went Saturday as an observer rather than a participant.

TCAF is incredibly well put together, especially for a free/volunteer event; volunteers are helpful, maps are well laid out as are schedules.  Panels are very well put together and moderated.  I love seeing all the tables or artists known and unknown beside one another.  The thing that I took from the artist’s floor was that I didn’t see an artist or creator who wasn’t smiling.  That’s a pretty telling sign if you ask me.

I managed to catch a few panels. I will say, TCAF has a definite one up on Hobbystar in this category.  Some of the panels were at a bar!  I got to hear professionals talk about comics and drink beer and eat poutine.  How awesome is that?

This first panel I entered was about web comics.  About four minutes in I realized it was aimed at children.  I felt very creepy so I left.

The next panel over at The Pilot (a bar so much less children) was for the cartoon show Adventure Time… which I had never seen but my colleague, Nic from Bite Daily was a huge fan of.  Must admit, after the panel I wanted to check it out. It’s a bizarre cartoon but fun.

Following that was about Canadians Keeping the Canadian Identity While Working in A Global medium… or something. On the panel was Darwyn Cooke, Ray Fawkes, Kathryn and Stuart Immonen, and Jillian Tamaki. Darwyn once again cemented himself in my mind as one of the wisest and funniest men in comics. An interesting panel filled with many anecdotes about American’s slight lack of Canadian knowledge as well as issues I hadn’t thought of in terms of a Canadian working in an American company.

I also was lucky enough to get The Outfit signed by Mr. Cooke which made me incredibly happy (as it was one of my favorite comics from last year).

After that panel I happened to run into the one and only Kevin Boyd from The Shuster awards.  While Kevin would not reveal the status of my lifetime achievement award, we did have a nice chat.

All and all a great experience and I will definitely try and make more time in my schedule for TCAF next year. As I said above, I’m not huge into indy comics but they are an incredibly important part of the industry.  They provide a wide variety in comics that is needed in order to keep the medium growing. I love Mythbusters, I pretty much watch it every time I see it on. But if there was no other choice beyond Mythbusters, I’d be annoyed.  Hell even Glee has its place… to be mocked.

Web comics as well.  While some see quick and easy reads, there are many that are a longer narrative format.  It should be also noted that web comic creators were and are still well a head of the curve when it comes to online comic delivery.

A great time was had and I hope to make a repeat next year.

*Personal note: Many of you might not be aware but I’m also heavily involved in a podcast called TATANS. We’ve just created a brand new fan page.  Check it out and be sure to check the podcast too.

A year or two ago, it was Christmas time, I was in The Blue Beetle and I was looking for something new to try out.

“Have you read Criminal yet?”

“Well…no…”

Pete looked at me like one looks at a sad child.

“Dude… here.” He handed me the first trade, “Merry Christmas.”

Now while it was a kind Christmas gift on Pete’s part and in reality I believe he had no intention of doing this on purpose, but like many a good drug dealer, the first taste is free.

The rest you pay for.

I fell in love with Criminal and bought the rest of the series and the trades are automatically filed in by pull box when they come out.

Which brings us to two weeks ago.

I walk into the store and Pete already has a stack of trades at the desk waiting for me.

“Here ya go. These are mine. Read them. Bring them back when you are done.”

The trades were for the DC Vertigo series, Scalped.

Now I own the first trade previous to this but had a few issues with it (which I will detail later) and never bothered to follow-up with the subsequent trades.

Man did I miss out.

Scalped is the story of Dashiell Bad Horse, a man who can kick ass and uses nunchucks to get his point across. He has come back to the rez of his childhood and ends up working for local crime boss and tribal council leader Lincoln Red Crow. Red Crow is in the midst of opening up a casino on the rez and Dash has been hired on as the muscle.

Did I mention Dash’s mom, Gina, and Red Crow used to be part of the same protest group for Native rights?

Or the fact that Dash is actually an undercover FBI agent whose boss has a vendetta against both Red Crow and Gina?

Don’t worry about the spoiler’s, this is all in the first issue which if I’m not mistaken, can still be downloaded for free from DC.

Where the series runs the best is the added layers or story and plot that is going on.

But be warned, Scalped is definitely not a cheerful comic. There are moments of humor and laughter but by the end of the High Lonesome and The Gnawing story arcs, you might wonder how much deeper will the desperation of the characters sink.

And while elements of the story are obviously a bit on the fictional side, if you know anything about how life is for many Native’s in our country alone, you know a good chunk of it, sadly, isn’t that far-fetched.

Written by Jason Aaron with art mainly by R.M. Guera (there are some one shot stories here and there throughout the series), Scalped is incredibly well written and while the art took a little while for me to get used to, it fits perfectly the tone of the book.

Characters like Dash and Red Crow aren’t caricatures of Natives on a rez. They feel real. Red Crow for instance is a man who has most assuredly done a lot of horrible things over the years and knows that he will some day have to answer for those things but there is a bit of nobility to the character that despite the fact he’s murdered and destroyed lives and despite the fact that he has benefited from these acts, his greater goal is to help his people.

Dash too is multi faceted. We know he was forced to leave the rez at 13 by his mom sending him away. We know he was a solider in Kosovo and now works for the FBI. But we don’t know exactly why he’s undercover other than it involves his boss finding him in jail in Alabama.

Now what’s my one complaint.

The paper.

R.M. Guera’s style is very heavy on the blacks and on the inks. It fits perfectly for this type of story. Unfortunately the paper that the current run of Scalped trades is printed on is not particularly good and makes the art somewhat murky and at times hard to follow. A book this good deserves an up grade to a better printing. Maybe we will see that if a hard cover is ever announced.

If you’re a fan of crime comics or shows like The Wire or The Sopranos, Scalped is well worth your time to invest in. My only problem with it now is do I wait for better looking printings, do I just buy the next trade or do I buy the whole thing right now?

Comics… they can be as bad as crack I tell you.

*I will be around TCAF Saturday afternoon and will be checking out a number of the artists and panels. If you see me, please feel free to say hi.

So we are at the end of the year and I thought it was time to do a bit of reflection. In this week’s column, I’m going to take a look at all of the rumors and ideas I’ve reported on and see how I did. To be honest, I think I ended up with a lot of wrongs or sort ofs but hey, can’t be right all the time.

January 7, 2010

In that column I reported about how Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 4 seemed to be postponed. Little did we know at the time that the project would be canned completely and instead production on a reboot would begin…

January 11, 2010

They day I talked about said reboot. My feelings are still pretty much the same. I still think a reboot on Spidey is way too soon and nothing they’ve set up so far interests me.

February 4, 2010

I discussed my suggestions on how to do a new Superman film. While it has yet to be seen how many of my ideas might well end up being similar to the film it does appear that Superman might be an unknown actor; I still think Routh should be given another go.

February ?, 2010

I’m not sure if this was a Just a Thought or a piece I was asked to do and if so why it got posted the same day as the Superman column (I have a feeling it has something to do with the new formatting of the site may have jumbled certain dates) but I discussed the rumor of Watchmen 2. Glad to say that this rumor never came to fruition and it appears that the movie idea of Watchmen 2 is currently dead. Yay for small miracles.

February 25, 2010

I mention the solicits for Suicide Squad. Still waiting on those.

April 15, 2010

We discussed the treasure trove of unseen Jack Kirby material for his stint with Ruby Spears’ animation. Nothing has been said about it since; no announcement of a book, comics, cartoons, movies or even a quick “We’re working on it.”. Curious to see what eventually happens to this material.

June 10, 2010

I went over a ton of predictions on what would be announced over the summer convention circuit. So far none of them have come to be but to be fair, my call that Swamp Thing would show up in Brightest Day may still occur, that series isn’t over yet. I’m also very surprised that no one has picked up the rights to The Shadow, especially DC. Although I’m told DC has at least looked into it.

July 15, 2010

Reported on Ed Norton not getting the Hulk in The Avengers and how I didn’t think Mark Ruffalo would make a good Banner. Well guess I’ll see sometime in 2012 when The Avengers hit’s screens with Ruffalo smashing things.

And that was pretty much it for rumor mongering for the year. But what about next year? Will first off, CBD’s own Pete DeCourcy is doing a cameo as Ant Man in The Avengers. He told me to keep it quiet but he should know better. When you’re at the Blue Beetle, please feel free to ask him for his autograph.

Beyond that, it’s quite right now. I hope you’ve enjoyed this year’s round of Just a Thought, honestly I love writing the column and working with Comic Book Daily so I don’t think we’re going to stop anytime soon. Besides I have the goods on all my editors…they don’t have a choice.

Hope you have a happy and safe holiday season and I will be back next week with my selections for favorite comic of the year.

That’s right, selections. Multiple.