Beware the ides of March

Today´s ( and in fact the next few days ) post is going to be another post where I cram various topics into one post like I have done in the past. And I guess I´m still doing so I´m not sure why I deemed this intro necessary. So let´s get on with it.


MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, EH, I MEAN SCHISM

So, Today I bought another german comic, X - MEN SONDERHEFT SCHISMA : GETRENNTE WEGE which is not ( as the cover suggests ) the brilliant X - MEN SCHISM miniseries but rather the german edition of X - MEN PRELUDE TO SCHISM. I can pretty much understand why they went with the cover by Alan Davis since I myself wouldn´t slap any of the original covers of the prelude miniseries on a comic I wanted to sell.

The german comic has 100 pages for 6.95 EUROS which is a good price but unless you are a really dedicated hardcore fan of the X - Men or the ultimate completist you really don´t need this comic. According to Marvel this is The prelude to the X - Men Event of 2011 ! What does it mean to be a leader ? What does it do to a person ? What do the choices you make mean about the person you are ? This is a story that delves into these issues and will give an X-Men reader what they need to know about their favorite mutants - before everything changes !

Sadly the comic doesn´t deliver on any of those counts. The story doesn´t have anything to do with SCHISM and rather feels like one of those " shelved " issues Marvel used to have ( and probably still has ) for the event an issue was delayed. Then there were finished comics in a drawer that had nothing to do with current continuity and could be inserted anytime. Like those shelved comics the PRELUDE TO SCHISM doesn´t have anything to do with it and really is only a waste of time.


If you are one of those guys who likes the parts in an action movie best where people are just standing around and talking a lot then this is a comic for you. Because that´s what you get here. A lot of standing around, a lot of talking and a lot of recap of ancient X - Men history. During the whole story some undisclosed threat is approaching but it never is specified which threat that is and it´s not like there is something coming in SCHISM that you could foretell or forsee from this miniseries.

The whole premise of the story doesn´t make any sense like Paul Jenkins wrote it without knowing what is going to happen in the big event it´s leading up to. The recapping of X - Me history is rather sketchy and arbitrary and not very well done. Another thing that bothers me is that in almost every story involving Magneto they come up with a different name for him. His name is Erik Lensherr, dammit. Can´t writers do their homework ?

Now this could be saved by good art but like the writing it´s subpar, mediocre at best. Even though it´s cheaper than the US trade your money is better spent by getting the hardcover from amazon which is now sold for the same price as the trade 14.95 EUROS. And you have Carlos Pacheco, Frank Cho, Alan Davis, Daniel Acuna and Adam Kubert on one of the best x - events of the past years. Highest recommendation.


THE CATWOMAN´S MEOW

In my last post I mentioned DC sexing up Catwoman ( yes, in the all butt edition ) and I wanted to illustrate the point a little further. Of course at this point everybody knows about Catwoman´s on - panel sex acts with Batman in the first issue of the New 52 series in which she didn´t wear much clothes either. DC seems to be bent on playing her character in that way for the time being which you can see on one side by her depiction on some of the covers that really needs no further explanations.


And for everyone who wants more than just some nice pictures there´s the Bishoujo Catwoman figure that really empahsizes her most prominent features.


You can find an in - depth ( no pun intended ) analysis of the figure on this post . Now don´t get me wrong, I´m all for superheroines strutting their stuff but I´m getting some weird vibrations from DC´s mixed signals to fans. One hand is teasing me with pin up Catwoman, the other hand is covering up my Power Girl from head to toe. It´s either totally scizophrenic or DC is trying to cover all the bases while feeling the desperate need to do things different.

I´m not reading the new CATWOMAN book so it´s only speculation but maybe they want to go back to her past as a prostitute which wouldn´t be the first time they go back to it as chronicled by Comicbook Resources Abandoned and Forsaken entry on it . It´s really an interesting read and you can find many other fascinating storylines that were nixxed like Magneto being Xorn, the death of Aunt May or Prometheus going from majorly brilliant and unbeatable supervillain mastermind to pushover milksop and back again in their archive .

A HORSE IS A HORSE, OF COURSE, OF COURSE, AND NOBODY MAKES OUT WITH A HORSE, OF COURSE, UNLESS THIS HORSE ...

Speaking about weird stories and archives, I already mentioned in one of my posts that I was kind of hoping that now as DC seems so desperate that it restarts all titles with a new number 1 and is rehashing old storylines ( not to speak of old 90´s Image Comics art ) they would also return to the whacky stories of the Golden Age. As an example I cited one article of the I LOVE YA BUT YOU´RE STRANGE series about Golden Age Superman´s inaproppiate sexual fixation on his cousin Supergirl.


Well, Supergirl was of course not exempt of some inaproppiate stories with weird sexual implications like ANOTHER STORY WHERE SHE DISGUISES HER SO SUPERMAN CAN PLANT A WET ONE ON HER , HER AND WONDER WOMAN GIVING UP BEING SUPERHEROINES BECAUSE IT WAS TOO MANLY and THAT TIME SUPERGIRL MADE OUT WITH HER HORSE . So I guess DC can only blame themselves for all the jokes about Supergirl and her horse. By the way, the horse ALSO MADE OUT WITH LOIS LANE in another story. You can find the full extend of depraved and weird comicbook stories of Yesterday ( and maybe Tomorrow ) in their archive .

THEY SAY THIS CAT LUKE CAGE IS A BAD MOTHER...

Today I went over the latest solicitations for Marvel and DC ( yes, I know I´m way behind with it ) when I came across this DEFENDERS cover.


And looking at it I had the idea that Pam Grier would have been a cool choice for Misty Knight in an HEROES FOR HIRE movie. She played the tough cop / private eye in COFFY and cult classic FOXY BROWN and she could deliver the action sequences. As a bonus she´s really hot and she has taken off her clothes a few times in her movies.


Of course that would mean that you would cast Richard Roundtree, Mr. Shaft himself for Luke Cage. I mean is there anyone cooler than Shaft ? I don´t know how much getting rid of the stache would affect his performance ( maybe we could keep the stache since they made Kingpin black in the Daredevil movie ) but I can just see him as the hero from the hood who ends up behind bars, unjustly convicted for a crime he didn´t commit. Now that I think of it HERO FROM THE HOOD does have a certain ring to it. I think I better copyright that before somebody else turns it into a comic or movie.


So the next question who is going to play Iron Fist. Keeping with the time period and the talent available I would like to say Bruce Lee but since Daniel Rand is not really asian looking Bruce Lee would have to play Shang Chi ( in a guest appearance of course ).


As Iron Fist we could either take David Carradine who took over Bruce Lee´s part in the original KUNG FU series or one of Bruce Lee´s pupils, the young Chuck Norris.


Then we also need somebody to play Daniel´s father for which Steve McQueen would be great. He could be the overarching father figure and he would only appear in the first part of the movie and then die a tragic death. So you wouldn´t have to pay him that much money and actors just love to play a great death scene. Dying in a movie is one sure way to get an Oscar.


As for Coleen Wing I would probably go for Raquel Welch. Not really original you might say ( especially coming from me ) but she looks good, is athletic enough to do the action parts and I don´t see somebody like Sophia Loren or Doris Day playing the part of swordwielding dragonlady.


You know, for the life of me I can´t understand why, with all the comic movies Marvel is doing they haven´t done a HEROES FOR HIRE, IRON FIST or THE DEADLY HANDS OF SHANG - CHI MASTER OF KUNG FU movie.

They are doing all these expensive movies where you need tons of special effects instead of doing a martial arts movie that would be much easier to do. And don´t tell me martial arts wouldn´t rock in 3D. We´re talking about IN YOUR FACE KUNG FU, dude ! On the other side, now that Disney has made Marvel their bitch they wouldn´t do a decent fight movie anyway. The end product would be something like " The greatest fighter is the one who can defeat himself ! " B.S. or worse.

Still, if it was up to me just take IP MAN´s Donnie Yen as Shang Chi, GREEN HORNET´s Jay Chou as The Cat, Beyonce as Misty Knight ( definitely with the afro ), TEKKEN´s Christine Monteiro Kelly Overton as Coleen Wing, Michael J White as Luke Cage, SMALLVILLE´s Green Arrow Justin Hartley as Daniel Rand, Russel Crowe as Papa Rand, Tony Yah as Steel Serpent, Ken Watanabe as Lei Kung the Thunderer and Mark Dacascos as Yü Ti and make the damn movie.

You know, apart from Steve McQueen and Bruce Lee you could even take my cast from above and make a HEROES FOR HIRE movie that takes part 20 years later. Of course this is only a mental exercise. So, if it was up to you, who would you cast ?

SO YOU SAY IT´S NOT SUPERHEROES IF IT´S EUROPEAN ?

I was just catching up on my reading of the excellent blog COMICBITS ONLINE when I found this interesting article on The Improbability of the British Super Hero .


Now, european superhero comics are something that interests me very much and not only because I published one of the few german superheo comics to this very day.

If this doesn´t interest you you might better skip this whole part. I never understood the idea that " only american creators can do superhero comics " that is propagised not only by american people but also by people in Europe, most often when asked why they don´t make superhero comics. There is this idea that superheroes MUST always be skyscrapers and always be in America. That european creators can´t do good superheroes.

Well, this is the greatest piece of s - word on a stick I have ever heard. What about the british invasion ? Not to bring the big guns but maybe you´ve heard about this little comic called WATCHMEN that´s only ..... well, possibly the best superhero comic there is. And it was done by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Who surprisingly are not american. I mean where would the comic industry be Today without the works of Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Warren Ellis, ( to some extent Garth Ennis ) or the art of Brian Bolland, Alan Davis, Brian Hitch, without such works like WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE MAN OF TOMORROW, FOR THE MAN WHO HAS EVERYTHING, THE KILLING JOKE, V FOR VENDETTA, ANIMAL MAN, SWAMP THING, PREACHER ?


And that´s just those british guys. As a paisano form Spain I´m always happy to see some spanish artists dab in the superhero pool and I even got the book with all the spanish artists working on superheroes. Carlos Pacheco, Jesus Merino, Salvador Larocca, Ramon Bachs, I could be name dropping like crazy. But you get my point.

American comics have always had european creators or creators who don´t come from America and even when you get to the Who´s Who list there are a lot of gys from abroad on it : Jose Luis Garcia Lopez, George Perez, Mike Deodato Jr, hell, we even got people like Jordi Bernet or Jose Ladronn doing superheroes. Heck, John Byrne and Dale Keown are from Canada, Canada I say !


So where do people get the idea that superheroes can only be done by american creators ?

I don´t know. When we began the long odyssey that future generations would come to know as POWER FREAKS we heard the same thing over and over again. It´s impossible to do german superhero comics. Now it´s more like : It´s impossible to do more than one issue of a german superhero comic. And I´m sure if our number two had ever come out it would now be it´s impossible to do more than two issues of a german superhero comic. But the thing remains that most everybody we encountered thought it was impossible to do a german superhero comic and take the comic seriously. Not make a gag comic or a parody or a funny superhero comic.

And the thing is most people couldn´t really explain why they thought it was impossible. Most people just accepted it as fact and never bothered to try if it really was impossible. Well, now that POWER FREAKS didn´t go as planned people took that as proof that it was impossible from the start but they also can´t deny that the impossible happened. We published a german superhero comic that was a serious comic and the universe stopped. The laws of physics were negated and for that point in time we had bested fate. Which are the moments an artist lives for.

Okay, end of my longwinded rant but you see I don´t give much credit to this urban comic legend that superhero comics can only be made by american creators / people / comic companies. For years I´ve been a huge fan of Paul Grist´s JACK STAFF ( who also worked on an issue of CAPTAIN AMERICA, and that as a british artist ) and I especially love JACK STAFF because it´s NOT an american comic.


I love it for the british setting but also for the rich history of british comics that are part of this universe with Paul´s own versions of MYTEK, ROBOT ARCHIE, EYE OF KELLY, STEEL CLAW or SPIDER. Those were british comics but they also appeared in the german KOBRA magazine so I guess the nationality of the product was not that specific if german readers could also enjoy it. So what´s my point ? Don´t let people tell you what´s possible and what isn´t. Especially when it comes to superheroes there are a lot of things that are taken as facts but which have no real evidence to back it up. And if you want to do superhero comics, no matter if you´re from England, Spain, Australia, India, Afrika or the planet Krypton just do it.

By the way, one thing that I´m still hoping for in JACK STAFF is one of my dream crossovers : SPIDER vs SPIDER - MAN. Paul Grist already has a SPIDER - like character in the books so it´s not impossible to do his version of the wallcrawler and let those two butt webheads. Although it would be a bit confusing in the german version since The Spider was called Spiderman ( without the hyphen, that´s why the distinction is so important ) in Germany.


SEEMS IT ALWAYS RAINS IN NORTHERN PORTLAND

Here´s something else from COMICBITS ONLINE, this time it´s a clip about the local comic scene of Portland which seems to be a fertile ground for independent comic companies like Dark Horse or Top Shelf or small press comics in general. Maybe a nice town to visit, it´s got good public transportation but don´t forget to bring your umbrella.



And speaking about the comic industry, this sums it up really nice ( also found on COMICBITS ONLINE thus making it a perfect hattrick ).


Last but not least, here´s a funny strip and I can´t remember where I found it :


As one of the few blogs that travels in time - since I´m probably writing this after most people have read this post - I can´t end the post without a Doctor Who related clip ( I´ve currently made my way to the second season ) so here´s the Tardis taking off for the first time. Next time we´ll be going over some comic news that have piled up in the meantime.



New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN : top ten posts / more posts of interest

I can´t believe it´s happening again

Somehow the month of February keeps creeping up on me. Last year January was over before I even realized it and this year it happened again. At least I managed to write three posts, last year I only managed to do one before February got me in his clutches.


For days I have wanted to write a new post but I´m just so busy, busy, busy with other stuff. I can´t even get around to read my new comics and I got marvelous stuff like Roger Langride´s SNARKED and Jim Woodring´s CONGRESS OF THE ANIMALS on my " to read " pile.

THE WALRUS AND THE CARPENTER WERE WALKING CLOSE AT HAND

I´m a big fan of Roger Langride ever since I saw his art on THE BIG BOOK OF URBAN LEGENDS but I have to admit, to my shame, I have neither read his MUPPETS nor his THOR comics although I have heard that they are marvelous. Anyway, when I got the FREE 0 issue of SNARKED by one of the online comicshops where I place my orders I just had to get it ( it´s smaller than the regularsized 0 issue which only costs one buck ). As somebody who read Lewis Caroll´s ALICE books and enjoyed them immensly I couldn´t let this opportunity pass to read a comic about some of the characters that appear in his books like the walrus and the carpenter ( the two lead characters ), the chesire cat, the gryphon and maybe even a snark.


As usual I missed the initial start but I was lucky enough to get the first 4 issues from the same online shop that sent me the 0 issue. If you want a comic that you can read together with your kids, this is it. Especially if you have already read the Alice books with them or watched the Disney adaptations.

interview with roger langride about snarked / snarked 0 preview

snarked 1 preview / snarked 2 preview

snarked 3 preview / snarked 4 preview

And since we´re on the subject of Alice, a few years ago I bought the english version and I got the SIGNET CLASSIC pocket edition which is not only pretty cheap ( 3.95 $ for Alice´s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass ) but also has the original illustrations by John Tenniel which are simply brilliant. I´m sure you can get a copy at amazon or at good bookstores.


One last thing about Lewis Carrol : he never answered the riddle why a raven is like a writing desk. People always come up with their own answers but in german it has always been pretty obvious. The raven has feathers which is Federn in german and a writing desk has pens which is Schreibfeder in german or in short Feder. What´s more a pen used to be called Federkiel because before metal pens could be manufactured people used feathers from birds, the quills. Which is still the same word for the feather of a bird and the feather you use for writing. So, if the writing desk in question is a rather old one it may contain real birdfeathers to write. Ergo : the common thing about the raven and the writing desk is they both contain feathers which can be used for writing.

alice in wonderland resource page

the walrus and the carpenter wiki / the poem / audio version

MY NAME IS MUD AND IT´S ALWAYS BEEN

Another series where I missed the beginning is MUDMAN by Paul Grist which is even less pardonable ( am I making up words again ? ) because I have mentioned the book once or twice on this blog and how much I was looking forward to reading it since JACK STAFF is on hiatus. And then I go and miss the first two issues. But there is hope. It seems I was not the only one who missed them so they are going back to press and the reprints of issue 1 and 2 hit stores the same day as issue 3 comes out.


Which you may have already read on ComicBits Online right here on the blogroll and which - of course - everybody reads religiously.

THE AVENGER HAS LOST ITS SHINE, THE MAGIC IS NOW DRAINED

Last month I spent a bit much on comics so this month I have decided to stay away from amazon - which lasted exactly five days until I found the third volume of AVENGERS ASSEMBLE by Kurt Busiek and George Perez for 23 bucks. Normally it sells for 35 dollars and most comicshops don´t have it anymore so I took the chance even if I don´t like ordering from other sellers as amazon. I already ordered two trades from the " used " section and I had to make the experience that what most people consider " in good shape " is what comicfans throw into the half price off bin. But this time it really arrived very fast and in good shape so another one for the collection. It has some fill - in artists, and a big part are issues of THUNDERBOLTS but this run is just gold. Now I only have to find the first two parts.

I´m already flipping through the pages every night before going to sleep and if I can´t find the first two volumes in hardcover I might not wait any longer. I´ll just whip out the single issues and read the whole run again. Which I already did twice. And there are still some things I forgot. Like that Triathlon didn´t join before this storyline and that his first mission was when the Avengers went up against Kulan Gath to help Silverclaw´s Mom who was a goddess. By the way, Silverclaw was one of my favorite new Avengers and Triathlon could even outbitch Hawkeye. Totally Airwolf, that run.


Speaking about George Perez, there is some good news about the new 52. DC doesn´t seem to know what to do with high calibre artists like Mr. Perez but he doesn´t have to toil on such titles like SUPERMAN anymore. After months of only doing the covers and the layouts it´s up to a full issue of SUPERGIRL before WORLDS´ FINEST starts. One of the second wave of new 52 books the series stars Huntress and Power Girl ( Yes ! ) and the art will be provided by Kevin Maguire and George Perez on alternating storyarcs.


So it looks like I will add a new DC title to the list while at least one old title will be eliminated. After the really brilliant JUSTICE LEAGUE - GENERATION LOST I couldn´t wait to read the new JLA spin - off title but the whole new 52 deal threw a monkey wrench into the whole thing.

After issue 5 it´s clear that while it may be possible that the group will find its own groove this is not the Generation lost team and never will be. Such interesting characters like Blue Beetle and Captain Atom are missing and quite frankly I´m not interested in waiting another year to see if it can achieve a fraction of its former brilliance.

For the time being RESURRECTION MAN is still on the pull list although I don´t know for how long. The whole restart of what was once an original concept as another one of those heaven / hell conflicst didn´t really improve the title as well as Fernando Dagnino inking himself. Somehow his art looked better with somebody else´s inks.

WHERE DO THE LITTLE ROBINS COME FROM ?

I don´t remember exactly where I found this but I found the ad that appeared in FANTASTIC FOUR 132 odd :


So, the Wayne School wants to help young students over 17 to finish High School at home ? Yeah, I bet. And there surely is a little extra special for those who have no family and good grades in sport and criminology. No obligation. Sure.

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING BORROWED.....

Here are a few more cool things I found while surfing, most of them pretty self explainatory :







Of course every " Odds and ends " section isn´t complete without a few top 10 lists and here are three that were send to me. Yes, it seems that I have finally reached the point of semi - fame where people expect me to be influential.

Be that as it may true or not, I´m happy for anybody who sends me stuff and if you want to see something mentioned or published here just send it ( as long as it´s appropiate ). Today´s top ten list comes from newbie BUISNESS INSURANCE and although I don´t know anybody on this list I´m sure in these financially unsure times we can all appreciate 10 tv financial experts worth watching .

DOCTOR STRANGE, I SUPPOSE ?

I´m not sure how long this post is going to get ( as I´ll surely add a thing or two in the next days ) but I can´t finish without mentioning the newest happenings at the DOCTOR WHO front. After I have now run out of new episodes I decided to get back and this time waaay back to the very first Doctor played by William Hartnell.


Yep, the Doctor´s fetish with strange headgear starts early on.

But before that I watched the DOCTOR WHO tv movie from 1996 with Paul McGann as the eight Doctor and Eric Roberts as The Master. Or Dr. Strange like I like to call him for obvious reasons. Somebody on the set must have been a huge fan of Marvel Comics.


Now the movie was supposed to re - start the franchise as well as introduce it to an american audience but in hindsught it was probably best for all involved that it crashed and burned so completely. Otherwise we wouldn´t have gotten the brilliant restart in 2005.

And it´s not only that they obviously eliminated anything from the movie that might be too frightening for kids ( which has always been part of the appeal of Doctor Who ) or objective to parent groups, and also really bad acting from most people involved. The Doctor himself doesn´t do too much and for something that´s supposed to introduce a whole Who - niverse it doesn´t explain anything. Watching the movie I knew some of the important things, like who The Doctor is, part of the history of The Master, what planet Skaro is, the TARDIS and so on. And still I had some problems following the story because there were some things that were only in this movie and even they weren´t explained. On top of that they had to include a love story with the companion which isn´t how this normally works. Daphne Ashbrook isn´t exactly unattractive but of course she´s a Doctor too.


So it shouldn´t surprise anyone that it wasn´t the huge success everybody hoped it would be. For more about the movie just watch it ( it shouldn´t be too hard to find on the interwebs since a techno analphabet like me could find it ) and then listen to the DOCTORWHOCAST episode that analyses it much more in detail.


By the crimson bands of Galafrey, begone foul creature !

Since a big part of Today´s post was about Alica in Wonderland and the walrus and the carpenter here is the Disney version of the poem.



New to the blog ? Everything you need to know about TALES FROM THE KRYPTONIAN : top ten posts / more posts of interest

again with the comic news

Man, sometimes it just seems the gods are against me when I´m writing this blog. Especially the gods of the internet since first all pages from Comic Book Resources are constantly reloading and now blogger was out of order for an hour.


So I won´t be able to put all the news I wanted into this post because it´s already later than I originally planned. I know I should start on the post about the GRATIS COMIC TAG comics rather sooner than later but the last few days I tried in vain. Somehow I just couldn´t bring myself to do it - first I was waiting for a comic order and then I just wasn´t in the right mood. The weather is pretty shitty at the moment which is just peachy keen for wine growers but tough nookies for the rest of us. So I decided to post some news I found interesting, comment - worthy or just weird.

30 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE AND COUNTING

I´m not the only one who recently celebrated an anniversary and although it´s not a birthday I just had to post the link to Alan Davis´ panel at the Comic Con International about his three decades in the american comic industry. The just recent recipient of an CCI Inkpot Award in comic art talked about how he began his comic work as part of the british invasion, why he´s happy his CLAN DESTINE is not fully integrated in the Marvel universe and confirmed that he´s doing an upcoming 5 issue storyarc on CAPTAIN AMERICA. Alan Davis has always been one of my favorite artists and it´s still a mystery to me why he hasn´t reached the superstar status at Marvel he so clearly deserves.


If I haven´t already posted it here´s the link for his website

And speaking about Alan Davis and the so - called " british invasion " of american comic books there was a panel at the Comic Con International in San Diego with Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, Dave Gibbons, David Lloyd, John Higgins and Alan Davis.

FOR GRIST´s SAKE

Another happy news bit involving a british comic artist is the new MUDMAN series by Paul Grist. After self - publishing for much of the 90s, Paul Grist brought two critically acclaimed original titles to Image Comics in 2002 : the crime drama KANE and then the eclectic superhero series JACK STAFF. Recently, Grist has been using his sparse, signature style to develop a new superhero that will be introduced to the world this November with the debut of MUDMAN.


" This is my ' Back to Basics ' superhero comic," explained Grist. " It's not about alien menaces or cosmic powers ( though they may pop up once in a while ); it's all about growing up and finding your way in the world, and how the decisions that you make can affect others. In a way, it's probably the most autobiographical comic I've ever done. But with added mud. "

" Paul has been one of my favorite creators since writer Robert Loren Fleming turned me onto KANE back in the 90s, " said Image Comics Publisher Eric Stephenson. " His style looks deceptively simple, but he's a master of his craft, capable of some of the cleverest storytelling in comics. It's a big thrill for me that Paul's part of Image, and I can't wait to see what he does with MUDMAN. "

I still have a bit of catching up to do on JACK STAFF but since THE WEIRD WORLD OF JACK STAFF is already on it´s sixth issue I´ll probably have to wait till the trade comes out. I have to admit I have no idea on the status of the series - if it´s finished, canceled, on hiatus or going strong. Closing the gaps in my KANE collection is a entirely different beast because it probably means I have to get some trades so I will have some material twice. Not that that´s not already the case but I´m still a bit hesitant on the issue.


On the other side since there are not that many single issues available it´s probably my only option to invest some money into the trades and give away the redundant issues for free - once I finally manage to re - read the whole KANE run and do the big megapost on the series.

So in the meantime it´s nice that Paul Grist´s art keeps popping up in the likes of Captain America 616 ( my vote also goes for contributions to the new Dark Horse Presents and Rocketeer Adventures by Mr. Paul Grist ) but with MUDMAN we have a new series we can sink our teeth into.

NO NEED TO FLOG A DARK HORSE

And speaking about the new DARK HORSE PRESENTS so far 2 issues have been out with a third to be released any day now and so far the track record is pretty impressive. Issues 1 and 2 had contributions by Frank Miller, Paul Chadwick, Neal Adams, Harlan Ellison, Howard Chaykin, Richard Corben and Michael T. Gilbert.


While Neal Adam´s BLOOD serial has divided comic fans ( I really like it and can´t wait to see in which direction he goes ) Paul Chadwick´s new CONCRETE short stories are one of the main pulls of the book. He shows that he hasn´t lost his magic touch and how much you can really tell in short 8 page vignettes about everyday life.


Another high point are the pages by Richard Corben and while the story hasn´t wowed me so far the art is something you want to project on a wall to enjoy it during your lunch break.


Add to that interesting, surprising and captivating stories about an out - of - shape contract killer, an ex - cleaner who tries a new life as a bike courier, what may be the weirdest interpretation of Batman yet


and a girl with magic powers ( about which her parents are not too thrilled ) and you have a roller coaster ride of comic stories that hits every part of the emotional spectrum.

With 7.99 bucks it´s in the upper price segment but with such high profile creators and 80 pages ( which is going to be bumped up to a whopping 100 pages for the third issue at the same price ) without ads it´s worth it. Especially when issues 3 and 4 add such great artists like Dave Gibbons and Sergio Aragones to the mix. Here are some previews :

issue 1 / issue 2 / issue 3 / issue 4

JUST WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS OUT

While there are many deserving candidates in that category like black Perry White ( say what ? ) and the new black / latino Ultimate Spider - Man ( ditto ) this week´s WHAT THE F - WORD ?!? award goes to the apparent return of Osborn´s Dark Avengers in NEW AVENGERS 18.


DARK AVENGERS was one of my guilty pleasures because while bitching that the sudden jump from issue 1 with 48 pages for 4 bucks to issue 2 at the same price with only 22 pages was too hard to keep the readers hooked - I kept buying it. This book surprised me because it turned out better than I initially gave it credit for. I knew the art would be mindblowing but the writing just pushed the whole " Suicide Squad done right " concept of the series into new levels of excellence.

Especially the way Osborn turned mentally imbalanced Superman - analogue The Sentry into putty was just incredible. The book had a definite ending and if it´s now back thanks to the original creative team of Bendis and Deodato it´s worth a look even if it´s only half as good as it´s previous incarnation. And even if we have to deal with Skaar and Hawkeye as new team members from the look of the preview image.

IT´S HARD OUT HERE FOR A PIMP

And keeping with the weird Brian Cronin´s newest installment of I LOVE YOU BUT YOU´RE STRANGE brings us the unforgettable tale of how Luke Cage went to Latveria because Dr. Doom tried to skive him out of 200 bucks he owed him in which Luke uttered the immortal words : " Where´s my money, honey ? "


Now this is not the only time Victor the Terrible tries to walk without paying as he did the same thing in an issue of DAMAGE CONTROL. It seems those monarchs and heads of state are all to busy to bother with such mundane things like paying their bills. You know that Dr. Doom never did an honest day´s work by the way he´s surprised Luke Cage went to all that trouble just for 200 bucks. I bet there are some people who would wrestle with Dr. Doom for that sum.

I also wonder if Luke Cage using the words : " Where´s my money, honey ? " is a not - so subtle hint that he may have also worked as a pimp. Be that as it may this storyline alone is reason enough to get your hands on THE ESSENTIAL LUKE CAGE. Yep, Doomsey it´s payback time and you will find out how Luke Gage plays it, witch !


And with that we end Today´s post though I hope to continue Tomorrow for all who want to know what´s up with black Perry White. As we had kind of a british flavor to the post the video is from one of my favorite BBC tv series.


The second part of DOCTOR WHO´s current season starts on the 27th of this month and here´s the trailer.



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