http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/12/01/previewed-february-2010/

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Diamond’s Previews catalog for books shipping in February 2010 is out, so I’ll take you on my monthly walk-through of the comics that caught my attention.

Honestly, not a whole lot grabbing me this month, which seems to be a mild theme lately. But there are still enough titles to gobble up my limited comics budget for the month.

Drawn & Quarterly’s John Stanley Library project continues, with a second collection of Stanley’s delightful tales of a little monster who just wants to go to school and make friends. Needless to say, he doesn’t quite fit in at home in Monsterville. Melvin Monster vol. 2 is $19.95 for 112 pages.

An otherwise slow month for me is almost single-handedly blasted beyond budgetary means by Fantagraphics’ bevy of offerings: Cathy Malkansian’s new book, Temperance, sounds terrific. I missed her first comic, but I hope to correct that this time around. Any comic that attempts to tackle the drive for enemies and war in humankind is worth paying attention to for its sheer gall if nothing else.

Kim Deitch, one of the most imaginative, creative and perpetually trippy cartoonists in comics history, has a new collection. The Search for Smilin’ Ed promises to uncover more aspects of 20^th century pop culture while offering a bizarre and mind-bending journey through human experience. This title is probably the #1 must-have of the month, and an early contender for some Best of 2010 lists (like mine).

From Fantagraphics’ reprint section, Roy Crane’s Captain Easy, Soldier of Fortune: The Complete Sunday Newspaper Strips vol. 1 should be hitting shops. I swear they solicited this a while back, so hopefully we’ll actually see it this time. I’m looking forward to it. Two new Love and Rockets collections are also hitting stores. My one complaint about these repackagings of old L&R material is that I’m sometimes unsure of what stories are in what volumes. The Gilbert book here, The High Soft Lisp, is a Fritz-focused edition, obviously, but I’m not 100% sure if the material has already been part of the Luba or Palomar hardcovers. The solicit promises new material, so you can add The High Soft Lisp to my list though. From Jamie, the new edition of Penny Century compiles the previous volume of the same name and the delicious Whoa Nellie trade into a single book, matching the format of the recent reissues. Yeah, it’s a redundant purchase for me, but I like the format and I like condensing books into as few covers as possible. I’ll take one.

But Fantagraphics isn’t the only publisher with an offering I noticed. IDW’s previous attempt to collect the acclaimed GrimJack comics series didn’t get very far with me. Despite its legendary status, I found the comics only a slice above good, and the hefty price tag on each volume wasn’t justified. The new GrimJack Omnibus, bringing together eight back-up stories that ran in Starslayer and the first thirteen issues of the proper series, provides the huge page count (400!) and affordable price ($24.95) that I look for in my trade paperbacks. Trade paperback division at comic book publishers, take note!

World War 3 Illustrated #40 ships from Top Shelf, edited by Seth Tobocman, and featuring the theme “What We Want.” Some of today’s best political cartoonists offer constructive theories on what can be done to improve existing conditions throughout the world.

From Dark Horse Comics, The Book of Grickle looks interesting and offbeat. That certainly rates a page-through, and I’ve searched a long time for Jerry Robinson’s The Comics: An Illustrated History of Comic Strip Art. A revised edition, chronicling strip art from 1895 to 2010, is scheduled to hit stores, advance solicited for April. That’s a definite, must-have.

I’ve been somewhat wary of the direction of the Superman titles, but Superman: Codename Patriot will probably get a look. I’m similarly unsure, but certainly tempted by the ginormous Wednesday Comics collection; with contributors like Kyle Baker, Joe Kubert, Walter Simonson and Paul Pope, and well received serials such as Supergirl and Kamandi, I’m intrigued. Maybe not quite $50 worth of intrigued, but we’ll see…

Supporting the NextWave: Agents of H.A.T.E. Ultimate collection serves two purposes for me. One, it’s a good comic – I borrowed it from the library when it was in two separate trades. Two, it supports my contention for thicker trades. Being a Howard Chaykin fan, I’m slightly interested in Dominic Fortune, but unlikely to actually buy this one.  Here’s hoping the library comes through on this one.

http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/12/01/twas-the-night-before-wenesday/

http://blog.newsarama.com/?p=13231

It may be the night before Wednesday, but this week Tuesday night might as well be Monday night, seeing as how tomorrow isn’t New Comic Book Day after all. I hate when that happens…makes me wish I knew a time-traveling superhero who could take me back in time to vent my frustrations on the original cause of the new comic shipping delay.

Of course, if I could time-travel, I guess I could just skip ahead to Thursday and read my new comics…

Anyway, join me after the jump for a look at some of the books coming out this week…on Thursday, not Wednesday. (Assuming you live in the U.S. If not, I have no idea what’s going on where you are).

365 Samurai and a Few Bowls of Rice: This $17, 390-page black-and-white trade paperback by J. P. Kalonji tells the tale of an Edo-era swordsman in all full-page splash panels, and it is just gorgeous looking. Seriously, look at this preview. Wow, huh? God, I hope I have $17 in change under my couch cushions…

Beanworld Vol. 3: Remember Here When You Are There: More of Larry Marder’s incomprable Beanworld. This will cost you $20 for a 185-page black and white hardcover, complete with an introduction by Jeff Smith.

Blackest Night: The Flash #1: The Flash is an odd character to feature in a Blackest Night miniseries, particularly one launching the week after Blackest Night #5. He’s been pretty central to the story so far, so we know exactly what he’s been doing between #0 and #5, and #5 ended with a pretty strong cliffhanger in which the character is hovering between two very different fates. It’s a cliffhanger that will almost certainly have to be resolved in Blackest Night #6. This three-issue miniseries is written by Blackest Night/Green Lantern writer Geoff Johns though, so surely he’ll be able to deliver a Flash tie-in that makes sense in the context of the bigger story. Johns will be re-teaming with his former Flash artist Scotty Kolins (It’s kind of too bad this is launching before The Flash: Rebirth, which is set before Blackest Night even begins, concludes though). The other big Blackest Night tie-in this week is Blackest Night: Wonder Woman, which should be interesting given the state Wonder Woman was in on that last page of BN #5. It’s by former Wonder Woman writer Greg Rucka and Secret Six artist Nicola Scott.

Black Widow and The Marvel Girls #1: Paul Tobin and Salvador Espin launch a miniseries that seems to be about the Black Widow Marvel Team-Up-ing with various female Marvels. In this issue, it’s Amora, The Enchantress. The cover implies that it’s actually just a comic book about boobs though.

Empowered One-Shot: Adam Warren’s serial graphic novel series Empowered is one of the very best superhero comics being produced today, and if you’ve yet to start reading it, Dark Horse has a nice sample available this week. This comic book format book is a $4, 32-page black-and-white book taste test almost certain to get you hooked, so if you’re hell-bent on avoiding Empowered, proceed with caution. Short preview here.

Fall of the Hulks Alpha: I’m not terribly interested in the latest Hulk goings on, since they will include a heavy dose of Jeph Loeb influence, but this early portion of the event/story is written by Jeff Parker (whose work I quite like), drawn by Paul Pelleteir (whose work I quite like) and will feature The Leader, M.O.D.O.K., Dr. Doom, The Mad Thinker, The Wizard and The Red Ghost (who are, like, most of my favorite Marvel villains). Marvel, I fear I will be unable to resist giving you $4 for this thing, no matter how hard I’ll try to resist.

Hulk: Winter Guard: The High Moon team of David Gallaher and Steve Ellis take on the Russian superhero team that appeared very early in Jeph Loeb’s Hulk series. I’m not sure how exactly this storyline will tie-in to current Hulk business..all I do know is that one member of the Winter Guard is a talking bear named Ursa Major. That’s usually enough for me, although this has kind of a weird format. It’s $4, but will also contain a reprint of an old 1992 Hulk story by Peter David and Dale Keown to help soften the blow.

Iron Man Vs. Whiplash #1: Marc Guggenheim, Phillipe Briones and Marko Djurdjevic pit Iron Man against Mickey Rourke.

Jonah Hex #50: Artist Darwyn Cooke returns to join regular writers Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray for an oversized (forty-some pages, $4 price tag) anniversarry issue.

JSA All-Stars #1: In one of those peculiar moves that make those of us who watch the company from the outside cock our heads, DC is launching a second JSA title just as the franchise is at its lowest point in years, and stocks the line-up with the least popular characters on the team. Writer Matthew Sturges and artist Freddie Williams II are the creators taking up the challenge of making this crazy thing work. The first issue is over-sized and priced at $4; future issues will have a back-up story. (Is there a primatologist in the house? What sort of monkey is that supposed to be on Cyclone’s shoulder? Did her old monkey just have a baby or something?)

Misery Obscura Photography of Eerie Von (1981-2006): Waitaminute, this isn’t a comic book…

MySpace Dark Horse Presents Vol. 4: Christ Dark Horse, settle down will you? Here’s another great release from the publisher this week. The latest paper version of their online anthology features work by  Mike Mignola, Joss Whedon, Jo Chen, Farel Dalrymple, Guy Davis, Dough Wheatley, Eric Powell, Chris Onstad, Kate Beaton and others. It’s a $20, 165-page trade paperback, and if it’s like the first three volumes, there’s going to be at least a couple of really great stories in it.

One Model Nation: Artist Jim Rugg joins writer Courtney Taylor (of The Dandy Warhols) for original graphic novel about Das Model, a rock band that lead the youth of Germany in a “violent, well-dressed revolution” against their repressive state in an alternate history 1977. Guaranteed to look great, it’s an $18, 145-page book.

Popeye Vol 4: Plunder Island: Prior to Fantagraphics’ awesome collections of E.C. Segar’s awesome comic strip, this was the only storyline from Thimble Theater I’d ever read before…in The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics. Does that mean it’s some sort of classic? It should be; it’s fantastic. Anyway, the latest collection is $30 and 170 pages, and, like the first three volumes, it’s beautifully designed and so big and sturdy that it’s practically seaworthy. Look look look!

http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/12/01/war-machine-101/

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Darren Franich over at PopWatch has an interesting article on James Rhodes, aka War Machine. He mentions how during the time he was reading Iron Man, Rhodes was actually under the armor and he thought that Tony was his replacement. I can empathize with his confusion since during that time, a lot of heroes were being replaced with more (at the time) interesting looking costumes. Batman became Mecha-Batman, aka, Jean-Paul Valley. Superman had Steel, Superboy, Cyborg Superman, and the “Eradicator”. Kyle Rayner became the new, and at the time, last Green Lantern.

Though of course Rhodes’ gig as Iron Man didn’t last, and Tony Stark donned the armor again, but Franich gives Rhodes some serious character props and runs down some highlights in the character’s history including his MAX series U.S. War Machine and his playability in the “Marvel vs Capcom” video games.

I believe my first experience with War Machine was more than likely him being on the Iron Man cartoon. I’m currently not reading any Iron Man books, but I keep being told I’m an idiot for passing up what’s going on in Invincible Iron Man. I love both Don Cheadle and Terrance Howard as actors (namely Cheadle’s portrayal as Sammy Davis, jr from The Rat Pack and Howard as Dee Jay in Hustle and Flow).

The reveal of the Iron Man 2 poster has me terribly excited and I’ve heard rumors that the trailer will be attached to Sherlock Holmes, which opens up on Christmas Day.

http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/12/01/review-superman-the-complete-animated-series-on-dvd/

http://blog.newsarama.com/?p=13237

Going backwards from the recent release of Justice League: The Complete Series on DVD, Warner Brothers has also released Superman: The Animated Series in a 7-disc collector’s edition. While the series wasn’t as long-running or beloved as either Batman: The Animated Series or Justice League/Justice League Unlimited, it’s certainly well-done and it’s certainly part of the DC Animated Universe that fans are so crazy about.

That said, Warner probably would have been better served, in terms of stoking the memories of fans and reviewers, to have released the cartoons in the order of their initial airing—Batman, then Superman, then Justice League. Going from Justice League, back to Superman, really kind of hurts the credibility of the Superman show. The first episode—an origin story that tweaks the history to make Brainiac partially responsible for the destruction of Krypton—feels pretty standard, and the changes they made to the appearances of Krypton and the Kryptonian people felt awkward and silly. While commentary tracks on the disc cite a desire not to ape the movies and to be singular and original in their designs, you almost kind of long for a sterile ice-planet.

Of course, I’m a Post-Crisis fan anyway, and the Krypton used here resembles more of Geoff Johns’ post-Post-Crisis, return-to-the-Silver-Age Krypton. It’s not the “original,” and it’s not the Reeve version…it’s its own, fairly clever, interpretation of the myth but visually not all that interesting.

Certainly, though, it’s nice to hear them talking about the “meaning” of Superman. In the days before Kingdom Come, these creators are sitting around in the pilot asking “What is the story about?” At one point, they say, Superman was the great immigrant story, and then it was the love triangle…so after the marriage, what’s it about? Maybe it’s a condemnation of the early episodes of the show that they don’t have an answer.

While it’s certainly not as good as Justice League, it should be noted that Superman: The Animated Series is a necessary middle step, creating a segue between Batman’s “terror that flaps in the night” and giving the animators a chance to work with powers, rockets, alien worlds and all the other comic book tropes that they would need to take that next step.

http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/12/01/bringing-up-spider-baby/

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Fan rage sense, tingling!!

While many of us were either eating turkey, traveling, or both, I saw an interesting statement made by Joe Quesada over at his Cup O’ Joe column at the end of last week, when asked about stage three of the Brand New Day revamp of Amazing Spider-Man:

Well, I think it’s pretty obvious that MJ is going to be back, so that’s going to open a whole new can of worms with respect to relationships the characters will have or won’t have. Should I even say the word “baby”? Should I use that word? I’ll just put that out there: Baby. Mary Jane. Baby. Mary Jane with a… yes, baby. I’ll stop there.

Unless Joe Q is doing his own spin on “Ice Ice Baby,” this could be the start of something huge. Will this be a sore point for pro-MJ readers in the room? Almost assuredly: considering Spidey has had three close calls with children — once at the end of the Clone Saga, the second time at the end of J. Michael Straczynski’s Days Past storyline, and the third hinted at at the end of One More Day — there are going to be some intense feelings about Peter Parker and his would-be family.

For fans of Mary Jane, this could be interesting — is she pregnant? Was she ever pregnant? Is it Peter’s? Highly unlikely in that last regard. Could it be the whispered deal she made with Mephisto finally coming back into play? If Mephisto is involved with Dark Reign like we’ve previously posited, this could be the continuity chickens comin’ back to roost, y’all. What do you think?

http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/12/01/aw-yeah-blogversary/

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Can you believe how time flies? At least for me, one year and more than 1,000 posts later, it feels pretty much like this:

That’s right, a Bryan Lee O’Malley sketch of Scott Pilgrim high-fiving Superman, courtesy of our pals at Let’s Be Friends Again. Because that is just how Scott rolls.

And for all our readers who have stuck with us — and for those who have joined up in the past year — thank you for being a part of the Blog@Newsarama family!

http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/12/01/world-of-hurt-the-thrill-seekers-episode-9/

http://blog.newsarama.com/?p=13232

(Click the image above for a larger version of the strip.)

WORLD OF HURT - The Thrill-Seekers - Episode 9: “The Cover Up”

I have no real insights to add to this week’s edition, except to say that it was a bear to cram everything I wanted, and needed, to say into this edition.  I also think I did a fairly solid job in establishing who Det. Haworth is, and where he’s coming from.

If you’re curious about the latest episodes, remember, new strips of WORLD OF HURT - The Internet’s #1 Blaxploitation Webcomic are posted every Wednesday at www.worldofhurtonline.com.

- JEP

http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/12/01/comic-creators-going-back-to-school/

http://blog.newsarama.com/?p=13234

No, this isn’t some plot for some sort of reality show that resembles Billy Madison or anything like that. Comic creators Jim Starlin (The Infinity War, Death of the New Gods) Ron Marz (Witchblade, Green Lantern), Matthew Dow Smith (Dr. Who, Sandman Mystery Theatre) and Terry Austin (Uncanny X-Men, Dr. Strange) visited Woodstock Day School in Woodstock, NY and gave a presentation on how comics are made. From the script, to pencils, to inks, coloring and lettering.

I mean, how cool would it be if comic legends showed up at your school? Especially when you were a kid? There would be no words. What’s even cooler is that Starlin and Austin produced a Spider-Man drawing just for the event.

Starlin’s pencils with Austin inks, including Austin hand-lettering a couple of balloons that Marz thought up. Copies of the drawing were given to all the 5th and 6th grade students, along with autographs from the creators. Austin also brought along about a dozen large head sketches he had drawn, ranging from Marvel and DC heroes to the Simpsons, Popeye (who he is a huge fan of) and Bullwinkle, then invited the audience to identify them. To top it off, free Archie comics were handed out to the young readers.

“I try and do things like this whenever I can, whether it’s talking to teachers, librarians, or kids in school,” artist Matthew Dow Smith explains. “Sometimes, I feel like we spend a lot of time focusing on the fans who already read comic books and not enough trying to get people interested in the medium. There are a lot of kids interested in comics, a lot of them are already drawing their own comics in their schoolbooks, so it’s good to reach out to them and give them some pointers and encouragement.  Not to mention it’s an excellent excuse to hang around with guys like Ron, Terry, and Jim, who I really look up to.”

“Everyone loved it and had an excellent time! My favorite part was when Terry Austin was showing us his drawings of comic characters and we had to guess who they were. Then he gave us free comics!” said Ian Krause, age 11. “I was surprised to learn that some of the guys could do a whole comic all by themselves — write, draw, ink and color!”

“It was a great experience because the kids were so attentive. A lot of them said they were reading manga, so the language of storytelling was already familiar to them,” said writer Ron Marz. “Some had even started writing and drawing their own stories. It gives you hope that there actually is another generation of readers coming up, as long as we can provide them with material they’re interested in reading.”

This idea is just tremendous. Who knows what sort of inspiration these guys put in some already budding minds. So, readers, think about this: who would you have loved to have visit your school from the comic medium when you were eleven or twelve?

Here are the things that I have to say over twitter today:

20:30 when i finish work, i'm pretty sure a good part of my brain has been churned to mush. It makes good excuse to act like a bimbo after. #

This is an automatic update; via LoudTwitter.

http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/12/01/they-said-it-wouldnt-last/

http://blog.newsarama.com/?p=13229

One year ago today, my team and I assumed the posting duties for Blog@Newsarama. There might have been some doubt from some quarters, but any real investigation into our traffic would indicate that we’ve been doing just fine all along. I’m quite proud of the group, and I think that they do a great job. On this one-year anniversary, I just wanted to take time to say, “Thanks, guys. Don’t forget that I really appreciate you all.”

Regular readers, please offer a round of applause for the gang, wouldn’t you? Oh, and before I forget . . . Caleb is waaaaay too nice to be Lee Marvin, but I’ll take John Cassavetes anyway, since you never know when someone might shoot you in the back.

Thanks for reading. We’re far from finished.

• 09:11 @FallenEarth Can you use multiple trial keys on a account? my trial expires today, and I was hoping my connection would improve soon. #
• 09:13 @Sypster How do you check if its partial view or not? I don't use an RSS Reader, so I have no idea about those things. #
• 09:19 @Sypster ah. Lemme go see if my wordpress blog is doing okay then. #
• 10:46 Just found a nice sword-slashing anime series that's not too heavy. It's called The Sacred Blacksmith. Anyone heard of it? #
• 11:48 @pasmith You mean, I can solo the book quests I've been unable to do currently? OMG. Shoulda bought Mirkwood. :( #
• 11:49 @holamargarita Get well soon :D #
• 12:27 @pasmith well, maybe they'll clarify it when the expansion goes live. #

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I promised Helga and sugarcages that I am going to make something similar to their Dealbreakers entries and I didn't realize that it is such a hard list to do.

I am proud of myself at the thought that hmmmn, the boys I date aren't cringe-worthy at all(!). Perhaps I could even say that I dated catches more than misses. Unlike my sister (sinabsolution), whose dating lists include possible losers and future stalkers, mine aren't at all. I have a much-better history of the heart, my mother used to congratulate me for this fact. I date the ones you could present to your mother, just so you know.

The history of my heart has been a pretty good one. I do not know if I know what I actually want but there are some things that I steer away from, like the following:

1. Spits in public
Uhm, no.

2. Wears the "I am Smarter Than You" Badge
I only date people who are "better" than I am in some way, call it a fascination with talent. So I don't see their point why they have to compete with me with the little things like comparing his and my IQ or who's a better English speaker or who's better in Biology.

3. Bitterness About Your Past Relationships
If I sense any bitterness in you about any of your past relationships, i.e. you don't like their current affairs, you don't like their friends, you think their current significant others are ugly, etc., then I do not know how to deal with you. If you think you're so much better than them, then please explain to me, double-spaced-Times-New-Roman-12-complete-with-related-literature, why you are not together with them anymore.

4. If You Are Clearly Not Over Your Past Relationship/s
Move(ing) on.

5. You Look Too Clean-Cut and Ordinary
I am pretty sure I cannot sustain a fascination with you if you are much too similar with everyone else. If you do not stir my imagination as much or anymore, well say hello-nice-to-meet-you to someone else then.

6. You're Younger Than Me
I try to steer away from people who are born later than 22 November 1985. I like people who are emotionally mature. And if the idea is true that boys are less mature than girls, then clearly your birthdate tells me so much about you.

7. You're Too Much of an Extrovert
I wouldn't like you laughing too loud with your 22 friends. Ick, too many people = not for me.

8. You Like Fashion Too Much
I have girl friends, you know. I do not like to get fashion advice from you.

Come to think about it, the list can expand more but I think it would filter the demographic too much if I write about them all.

Our door wreath greets you hello and advanced Christmas


I think my way of romanticizing things is getting icky, even for my own taste. It makes me seem like I live a mundane, boring life without anything to think about except these silly, little, uninteresting things.

( Read more... )

I wonder what all of you will be doing for Christmas?

http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/11/30/warner-archive-brings-some-forgotten-animated-movies-to-the-market-this-month/

http://blog.newsarama.com/?p=13228

The Warner Archive—which as far as I can tell is a label created by Warner Home Video specifically to combat the “It’s not available on DVD” excuse for piracy—is offering a few animated shows this month; these are pretty stripped-down offers, with literally zero special features and not even interactive menus (they’ve got just a generic Warner Archive menu), this is a way to get some low-cost, perfectly legal copies of little-known and little-circulated older material.

Yogi’s First Christmas, a 90-minute feature from 1980 that featured Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy come to Yellowstone Park (yes, that’s what the sign says—not Jellystone) and wake up Yogi Bear and Boo Boo from their hibernation with a raucous Christmas party. There’s a cantankerous, creepy, bearded man in red and white who’s kind of an anti-Santa Claus, who provides most of the movie’s conflict when he tries to terrify the partygoers and thereby lead to the sale of their lodge (and thereby keep them from having future parties) in order to get rid of the loud, cheerful singers outside his mountaintop abode.

Yeah, it’s a little Grinchy. If you can ignore that, all the better.

Yogi is, of course, an odd duck as a character. The “Wacky Races” program that he and a lot of the other Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters were featured in for years established a bit of a universe for them, not unlike “Looney Tunes,” even though the H-B characters rarely interacted in their own (mostly solo) short adventures. Seeing these characters all sitting around, and not having to be introduced to each other, is a little strange—and of course seeing characters like Cindy Bear and the Doggies, fourth-tier characters at best, interacting with relative headliners like Yogi Bear and Huckleberry Hound, seems a little off-kilter, but not as much as it would be if Yogi and Boo Boo hadn’t already been established in the minds of the audience as members of the whole “Wacky Races” gang.

The animation is better than what you see on a lot of today’s cartoons, of course, as the Hanna-Barbera animators of the ‘70s and ‘80s were pretty decent…but with no real effort put into packaging the release, it just LOOKS old. The color hasn’t been remastered or anything, and it’s pretty washed out. The musical numbers are kind of generic and grating (and, according to Wikipedia, some of them are just reworks of stuff from a Casper Christmas special filmed and aired shortly before Yogi had his), but it’s overall a fun watching experience for its intended audience: young kids, or those who like the characters enough to want to watch a 30-year-old, made-for-TV Christmas special.

A little more intriguing is The Flight of Dragons, a feature-length cartoon featuring the voices of James Earl Jones, John Ritter and a handful of other notable TV actors from the time and based on the children’s book by Peter Dickinson. I myself had never heard of either, but it’s a charming little movie. Again, not great (or it probably would have gotten a little more notice)…but good fun. It kind of reminded me a bit of “The Last Unicorn,” which by the look of the animation and the sound of the music, probably came out around the same time as this one originally. The basic premise of the flick is that you’ve got a world on the precipice of making the decision: will we follow the ways of science or magic? The dragons here are depicted as having been an actual, vital part of the world in the days before the Age of Reason. There are also fairies, elvish sorcerers and other supernatural characters who interact as equals with the dragons—they aren’t the ordinary, troublesome dragons from most myth, instead more like the one you see in “Shrek”—used more for transportation and companionship, like horses. The story revolves around four brothers (all of different races) who are wizards and who each control a different element (the old standby earth-water-wind-fire dynamic), and who must work together to save the world of magic…by disappearing from the visible world altogether.

It’s an interesting story—and one that I could see being a big hit with the “Land Before Time” crowd—so I’m a little surprised that it never caught on and that there hasn’t been at least an attempt in the past to release this animated movie to DVD. Both of them are available at Warner Archive’s website, or on some of the major online retailers, although from what I can tell the Warner Archive product isn’t available in most brick-and-mortar stores.

http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/11/30/13226/

http://blog.newsarama.com/?p=13226

During the week of November 30th, Graphic NYC teams with SMITH Magazine for Harvey Pekar Week, taking a look at the former file clerk’s career from American Splendor to The Pekar Project. There’s a series of events, and more information can be found at www.NYCGraphicNovelists.com.

“Also this week, Graphic NYC will be enabling commenting, so we look forward to hearing what our readers think.” Kushner says. “Pekar Week has been a ton of work to put together, and we’re excited to share all of the great content we’ll be posting throughout the week.”

Here are the things that I have to say over twitter today:

12:50 Clearly, this long weekend does not have any weight on my workload whatsoever as I have work at 130pm. #

17:30 useless trivia: every time i pass by new york cubao, i sing to my head lcd soundsystem's "new york i love you but you're bringing me down" #

This is an automatic update; via LoudTwitter.

http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/11/30/linkaramanewsarama-150/

http://blog.newsarama.com/?p=13225

If you only click on one of these links today, make it this one: Writing for the LA Times‘ Hero Complex blog, Liesl Bradner discusses the “superheroes” of kamishibai, a sort of Japanese street theater that used large painted illustrations to help the storytellers. Some of these heroes are remarkably similar in certain aspects to the American superheroes who followed them almost a decade later. While it’s easy to look at American short stories, pulp magazines and early films to find traces of Batman, Superman and other heroes and find possible sources of inspiration, it’s harder to imagine Joe Schuster or Bob Kane hearing about Golden Bat or Pale Rider and folding elements into their later, more famous creations.

“My name is Andrew Smith, and I am a comic-book junkie.Of course I’ve always suspected it. But with ‘Turok, Son of Stone Archives’ Vol. 4, I can no longer deny it”: Here’s a nice wire service story by Andrew Smith regarding Dark Horse’s most recent collection of Turok comics. Smith makes a clever observation about mediocre comics and the pleasures they can contain, and I was intrigued to see the review start off with comparisons to the Turok videogame. I guess I wasn’t aware that it was so popular that it is the starting point for conversations about Turok now (I’m not doubting Smith; I honestly had no idea. I don’t think I’ve played a video game since the Super NES became obsolete, on account of old mannishness).

“Gene Simmons’ son has a new comic”: Yeah he does, but the first issue came out back in, like, August. What’s with the three-month delay, Toronto Sun?

“Along with Bloom County, The Far Side and a few other clever strips, Calvin and Hobbes kept the funny pages going”: Jenny Williams pens—well, types—a long, thorough review of Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip for Wired. Any of you guys read it yet? What’s the verdict?

I don’t know who designed the “Kryptonian at Heart” T shirt, but I know enough to hate them passionately: I thought Mike Sterling’s most recent “End of Civilization” post, in which the blogger/retailer/Sluggo fan notes the many horrors lurking in the Diamond Previews catalog, was even funnier than usual. I’m not sure if that means Sterling was even funnier than usual this time, or if the merchandies was more horrifying than usual this time. I hope the former, for Sterling’s sake—can a man endure much more horror than what was already in there?

http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/11/30/review-special-forces/

http://blog.newsarama.com/?p=13220

Special Forces
Written & Illustrated by Kyle Baker
Published by Image

I have no idea what to make of this comic book. I’m usually a big Kyle Baker fan, but this book has just perplexed me on every level. It’s some sort of ungainly hybrid of war comics, humor comics and Frank Miller comics, mashed together, slow roasted for a few days, and then genetically enhanced with Looney Tunes animation.

I’m not even sure I liked it; in fact, I probably didn’t, but it was such a strange reading experience that I can’t wait to go through it again to see if I can figure out what Baker’s intention was for this Frankenstein’s monster. Within pages of the book’s opening, Zone, an autistic soldier (whose military status was inspired by a real one!), and Felony, a three-time loser looking to avoid jail time, are the only survivors of a U.S. squad in Iraq. Their mission to capture the leader of an insurgency leader appears dead on arrival, but Zone – tailor-made for military life, with a single-minded focus on his objective – won’t let it go, and Felony is along for the ride.

On some pages, Baker is channeling a Frank Miller-esque noir-pastiche, with full-page splash pages and grizzled monologues turned up to the 12^th degree. Other pages, he goes into topical satire, with a rundown of the fringe benefits mercenaries in the warzone have that U.S. military lack. Torture jokes follow. It’s a book that’s so smart it wallows in stupidity, and the dichotomy doesn’t always work in its favor.

Baker’s artwork has evolved in interesting ways. He does nearly everything on computers now, and maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but it still looks its best when he’s giving the illusion of pen and ink drawings. He knows how to use shadow, and how to lay out a comic book page. His caricaturing is especially effective at depicting the outrageous cast of soldiers, mercs, terrorists, and murdering children (yes) Zone and Felony encounter. The coloring is mostly solid, although a few pages and panels have a noticeably tint that threatens to overpower the line art. Some of the backgrounds, the CG elements, don’t entirely mesh with the line art elements, as they have a hard quality that isn’t present elsewhere.  For example, when Zone and Felony chase their foe into a facility full of hidden weapons of mass destruction, the factory and missiles were clearly composed separately from the character figures.

Special Forces is an intriguing book, and there are moments throughout it that surprise and startle me.  Yet the humor doesn’t always come through, and it’s too overamped to be taken seriously as an action piece.  Sometimes a book succeeds by swerving when you least expect it, but Special Forces isn’t quite able to manage the feat.  It’s a curiosity, and fans of Kyle Baker will find a few positive moments within.  However, it’s not really a book for action fans, nor for comedy fans, so I’m not sure who Baker intended as Special Forces‘ audience.

• 09:14 On a whim, I am on wikipedia searching on info on Bob Barker, just to make sure he's still alive. #
• 09:30 yup, he's still alive. :D #
• 09:55 @Jaxom92 I hope it works out! :D #

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http://blog.newsarama.com/2009/11/30/global-freezing-strip-0036/

http://blog.newsarama.com/?p=13224

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