weekend links extravaganza

Another weekend comes around so it's time for another linkfest for those readers who have too much time or haven't caught up with comic news these past few days. As with previous installments let's start with the DC section first since we have the most ground to cover there.

PETER BISHOP COMIC BOOK WRITER


If you expected some news about the DC reboot, we'll come to that later - and in spades - but there are two more important things to cover first. There may be some people out there who haven't heard about the brilliant FRINGE tv show so contrary to what you might have heard the show is NOT just another version of the ultra successful X - FILES. Rather it's DC's concept of parallel earths transported into our real world. And to add another wrinkle there are invaders from a parallel earth who turn our earth into a test ground for their war machine.

I don't want to spoil more than that - there also will be more of that in spades later - but the show is really brilliant and has some of the best written and most fleshed out characters on tv ever. There have been some comics in the FRINGE universe before and so far I haven't read any of them but there is a new series which differs from the previous ones by the fact that it's written by Josh Jackson who plays one of the main characters, Peter Bishop, on the show. If you haven't seen last season's cliffhanger finale you shouldn't read the article but judging by the apparent enthusiasm of the production team for comics ( they went so far as to have comic artists of some reknown do variations of famous comic covers for a short scene in the parallel universe ) I'm sure it's more than a cheap gimmick. Especially since Josh Jackson affirms that I get to tell the pieces of the story that we didn't have time to tell, or just decided not to tell, last season. and Because it's a comic book, you can do bigger things than we can achieve on the show, budget-wise and scheduling-wise.

Looks like a must - read for FRINGE fans.

REMEMBER THE TITANS


While the major part of DC is busy with rebooting their superhero universe for a new audience one of the most awaited graphic novels TEEN TITANS - GAMES is just a few days away from publication. To make the wait even more difficult here is an interview with writer Marv Wolfman about the long road to get this gem finally finished. There are also some preview pages ( higher resolution ) to give you an idea how brilliant it's going to be.


It may not the best idea of DC to publish this right now because it just reminds people how good the title could be. On the other side any new incarnation of the title sucks compared to this one no matter which creative team is on it. As a fan I'm just happy I can finally get my hands on it as I'm probably going to read it again and again until the DC universe gets rebooted back to the old continuity.

REBOOTS, CONTINUITY AND NAZIS, OH MY !

And speaking about DC's continuity the nice guys over at COMICS ALLIANCE have provided some articles about the continuity changes in FLASHPOINT 5 AND JUSTICE LEAGUE 1 as well as in the first week and the second week of the new titles released so far. By yhe way, " Danger , Will Robinson ! " from here on there will be massive spoilers !


While the big news are that GREEN LANTERN CORPS 1 shares a title with a Nazi propaganda film and Keith Giffen replacing T J Krull on GREEN ARROW , more reactions are available although with varying results.

COMICBOOK RESOURCES has asked non comic readers and readers to try out DC's new titles and after the results of week 1 and week 2 it seems that the goal of bringing in new readers was not achieved. On the other side the retailer report of the first week and the second week indicate that sales are good and comicshops main problem right now seems to be keeping the new books in stock to meet the customers demand. I have to say, one of the main reasons I'm going to wait for FLASHPOINT to be released in trade is that I haven't been able to find the single issues. And I'm not sure if there will be any number 1 issues of DC's new lineup available at my comicshop once I get back from Spain.

For those of you who, like me, can't get their hands on the new DC books here are new previews of BATMAN 1 , SUPERMAN 1


SUPERGIRL 1 and WONDER WOMAN 1


and new interviews with Tony Daniel about DETECTIVE COMICS 1 , Paul Cornell on STORMWATCH 1 and DEMON KNIGHTS , Brian Azzarello on WONDER WOMAN


and Kyle Higgins about NIGHTWING .


You know what they say, that different people have different taste. So I'm not sure how " on the point " the new reviews from COMICBOOK RESOURCES are since I have read reviews on the same book that go from " brilliant " to " totally sucks " from various sources. But here are their results, so you can make up your own mind : 5 stars ( from a possible 5 stars ) for BATMAN 1 and WONDER WOMAN 1 , 4.5 stars for BATWOMAN 1 and BIRDS OF PREY 1 , 4 stars for BLUE BEETLE 1 , DC UNIVERSE PRESENTS 1 , GREEN LANTERN 1 , FRANKENSTEIN AGENT OF S.H.A.D.E 1 and SUICIDE SQUAD 1 , 3.5 stars for DEATHSTROKE 1 , DEMON KNIGHTS 1 , RED LANTERNS 1 and RESURRECTION MAN 1 , 3 stars for BATMAN & ROBIN 1 , a measly 2 stars for SUPERBOY 1 , only 1.5 stars for GRIFTER 1 and a shocking 1 star for LEGION LOST 1 and MR. TERRIFIC 1 .

DC also released the solicitations for December 2011 .

REST OF THE COMIC WORLD

In MARVEL news there is a new interview with Alan Heinberg on family matters in AVENGERS - THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE courtesy of USA Today and with Mark Waid on the lawyer side of Daredevil by Abnormal Use. New previews are available from AVENGERS ACADEMY 19 by Tom Raney, CAPTAIN AMERICA AND BUCKY 622


FF 9 by Steve Epting


and NEW AVENGERS 16.1 by Neal Adams. You can get the full Marvel preview list right here .

I have to say that I missed the point to jump on the AVENGERS ACADEMY train when amazon.de was offering the first two hardcovers at a bargain price once again. You might think that I finally learned my lesson but lately I have just ordered too many comics from amazon so I can only hope that there will be another chance to get them at a price I can afford.

And since we are on topic of previews there are also new ones for B.R.P.D - HELL ON EARTH : RUSSIA 1 , THE GUILD - CLARA 1 and BIONIC MAN 2


and you can find the full list of previews on this link .

ORBITUARIES, ODDS AND ENDS

I really have to religiously read all blogs by Terry Hooper. Then I would have stumbled over his article about the death of Francisco Solano Lopez earlier. Yes, I already mentioned it on my last post but I was already wondering why there was no mention of this on the main blog. Terry always writes about the british comics that were reprinted in the german comic magazine KOBRA and Francisco Solano Lopez was the artist on KELLY'S MAGIC EYE


and one of the artists on MYTEK.


As I already mentioned in one of my posts, this is the part of the comic news I like the least because deaths of famous people always come in threes. The second great comic artist who died recently is spanish comic artist José Sanchis, one of the founding fathers of spanish comics like Ibañez and Vazquez. His best known comic is PUMBY


which graced the pages of famous spanish comic magazine TBO ( the spanish name for comics " tebeo " is taken directly from here ) but he also created El soldadito Pepe, El Capitán Mostachete, Record Boy, Robin Robot and Don Esperpento.

el pais - fallece a los 79 años José Sanchis, creador del gato Pumby

graffica.info - fallece José Sanchis, el padre de Pumby

my logroño de cristal - fallece José Sanchis, el padre de Pumby

feco España - José Sanchis y su personaje Robin Robot

The third one is french comic artist Jean Tabary most famous for his comic series IZNOGOUD or ISNOGUD, how it's called in Germany. As an avid readers ( and fan ) of the series there is a lot I could say about it but I think it deserves a post of its own. Tempus Fugit.


I already posted two travel reports from spanish comic fans to Germany and here's a third one this time by Pedro Angosto from MAN OF BRONZE the newest entry in my blogroll. One of the things that surprised him was that german's have much more respect for Earth 2 than Dan Didio as you can see by this statue dedicated to Jay Garrick.


Last but not least we have another interview with Mark Millar on the DC reboot and KICKASS 2 , Dark Horse reprints the MAJOR BUMMER trade Tom Pallardo has an interesting entry about Technology vs Cartooning : how Steve Jobs ruined comics , ONLINE COLLEGE COURSES has a list of 12 school tv shows where no one seemed to study , Ben Morse from THE COOL KID'S TABLE takes a look at Marvel's green giant in an unusual setting in Hulk in space and the newest entry of COMICBOOK LEGENDS REVEALED serves up the usual mix of comic oddness and greatness as well as a terrific comic about the life of Florence Nightingale who really made an impact on the world. And that's all for Today.


Today's video is the newest trailer for CAPITAN TRUENO Y EL SANTO GRIAL ( Thunder Captain and the Holy Grail ) which seems to finally arrive in cinemas after many delays.



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