QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE 11-07-07

QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE 11-07-07
(Support striking Writers Guild members! Bring ‘em comics!)
By John Judy

ASTONISHING X-MEN #23 by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday. Maybe this book can go monthly now that Joss has all that extra time….

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #8 by Brian K. Vaughan and Georges Jeanty. Buffy versus Faith. The cover looks like Faith’s water-boarding The Buffster. Maybe she wants to be our new Attorney-General?

CAIRO HC by G. Willow Wilson and M.K. Perker. An original slam-bang action thriller set in Egypt’s largest city. Contains magic!

COUNTDOWN AND FRIENDS by Whoever Drew the Short Straw. Remember when weekly comics making their ship-dates was a good thing?

CRIMINAL #10 by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. A big finale in this awesome noir that keeps Daddy from getting a life. Highly recommended.

DARK TOWER GUNSLINGER BORN PREMIERE HC by Peter David and Jae Lee. Marvel heard a rumor that some of you still had money.

FANTASTIC FOUR #551 by Dwayne Mac Duffie and Paul Pelletier. Okay, it’s a time-travel story but it has an awesome last page. Enjoy!

GROO: HELL ON EARTH #1 of 4 by Mark Evanier and Sergio Aragones. The Wanderer battles the ultimate global warning in a humorous, fantastical way. From the guys who brought you MAD Magazine and “Welcome Back Kotter” among other things.

IMMORTAL IRON FIST #10 by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and David Aja. Like reading a really good kung-fu flick. Recommended.

NEW AVENGERS ILLUMINATI #5 of 5 by Brian Michael Bendis and Jim Cheung. In which we finally learn which one of Our Heroes is not who he appears. “Skrull! Cough! Cough!”

SCALPED #11 by Jason Aaron and R.M. Guera. This noir Western set on an Indian reservation has all the right people raving. Check it out and see why. NOT for kids.

SUPERMAN #670 by Kurt Busiek and Rick Leonardi. It’s the end of “The Third Kryptonian!” Because there’s only FIVE OF THEM on the cover, not including The Character Formerly Known as Superboy-Prime! Sigh…

UNCANNY X-MEN #492 by Ed Brubaker and Billy Tan. Everyone’s looking for the Killer Jesus-Mutant! What a caper! Can a week ever have too much Brubaker? Not in my house, bub!

Y THE LAST MAN #59 by Brian K. Vaughan and Pia Guerra. It’s the next to last issue of this amazing series. If you haven’t read it before now is the time to start plowing through the trades. On a par with Neil Gaiman’s “Sandman” for depth and imagination. Highly recommended.

www.johnjudy.net

KAL exhibit somewhere down south

KAL, from our northern neighbor city Baltimore, has an exhibit of cartoons up at Duke University. See "Work of Editorial Cartoonist Goes on Display at Duke: Decades of contentious political cartoons by Kevin 'KAL' Kallaugher will be displayed at Duke starting Nov. 7," Thursday, November 1, 2007

Articles in today's papers - Bee Movie and Spider-Man game

Two Bee Movie reviews in the Express (an AP one) and the Examiner and Bumbling 'Bee Movie' Needs More of Jerry"

By Desson Thomson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 2, 2007; Page C01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/01/AR2007110102491.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/01/AR200711
0100906.html
Spider-Man: Both Sides Now
Washington Post Friday, November 2, 2007; Page WE54

Hero novel review in Metro Weekly

Metro Weekly is actually one of the free papers that I don't regularly pick up, mostly because it doesn't run comics, but the new issue has this book review in it - "Heroic Exploits: Delving into the life of a young, gay superhero, Perry Moore's 'Hero' is a wonderful combo of reality and fantasy," by Tim Plant, Metro Weekly November 1, 2007.

Nov 10: Persepolis at AFI Silver

The animated film based on Marjane Satrapi's book at 8 pm in Silver Spring on the 10th. 1 showing! Geez.

Articles in today's papers - Bee Movie and Dethklok

The Post's got "The Bee in His Bonnet: Jerry Seinfeld's New Flick Began as a Joke but Made Him Busy as a . . . You Know," by William Booth, Washington Post Staff Writer, Thursday, November 1, 2007; C01.

Over in the Onion, a Cartoon Network band is profiled in "Brian Posehn Interviews Dethklok" [expanded version online], by Josh Modell, Onion November 1st, 2007.

Erik Evensen, author and artist of Gods of Asgard

For the online only interview, see "Visiting Valhalla: 'Gods of Asgard'," by Christopher Porter, Express October 31, 2007.

Patrick McDonnell report by guest columnist

Guest columnist Miron Murcury returns with the following report on Patrick McDonnell's appearance in Alameda, CA.

Good Humorist News

October 25, 2007. Newspaper cartoonist Patrick McDonnell spoke in Alameda, California at Books, Inc. McDonnell, the writer and cartoonist of MUTTS introduced his newest picture book, HUGS. The story features Jules the Kitten who travels the world hugging everyone he meets. He spoke on behalf of the East Bay SPCA.

After a few moments with HUGS, McDonnell from the audience suggestions drew the MUTTS characters on a 2X3 foot sketch pad. The quick sketches will later be auctioned by and for the benefit of the East Bay SPCA. For further information please contact: alindquist@eastbayspca.org

McDonnell asked for questions from the enchanted audience.

'Who inspired you?'' A lady asked.

''Charles Schulz. I wanted to be Charles Schulz.'' McDonnell answered without hesitation. He went from Peanuts to spinach, pointing out the delights of Popeye and Krazy Kat.

''Will Eisner was a teacher of mine at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.'' He continued, ''I was an illustrator before becoming a newspaper strip cartoonist.''

Asked about Winsor McCay, he drew special attention to 'Little Nemo, So Many Splendid Sundays' edited by Pete Maresca.

''It was like seeing Little Nemo for the first time.'' McDonnell said in praise of Maresca's award winning book.

A member of the audience asked, ''You seem to have really shot to national prominence after your appearance in ARF. Will you be contributing to future issues?''

McDonnell, chuckling humorously, thanked editor Craig Yoe for his big break.

''Yes, I will be in the next issue of ARF.'' McDonnell revealed, ''Craig had the great idea of having today's cartoonists complete a Milt Gross multi-panel cartoon gag. I am one of the contributors.''

Click to find out everything about ARF, the unholy marriage of Art and Comics and to see McDonnell's contribution.

McDonnell will be a guest speaker at the Charles Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, Saturday, October 27, 1-3pm. He was tickled, (my interpretation of his excitement, disbelief and sense of awe), by the temporary mural sized reproduction of Schulz's homage panel featuring MUTTS characters.

After his talk McDonnell graciously signed books for the enthused crowd adding small character sketches at purchasers request.

The official Patrick McDonnell web site.


Photo c. 2007 MMurcury

--Miron Murcury

Ohio State Cartoon Festival Report UPDATED 2

The Ohio State University's Cartoon Research Library's tri-annual Festival of Cartoon Art wrapped up yesterday. I was there for the three days.

I'll fill this in with some photos (which are going up on Flickr now) and reports as I get time. And energy. But co-pilot Charles Hatfield and I had a great time.

Thursday, October 25th began with three academic panels in OSU’s hotel across from the very, very large football stadium. None were of particular interest to me although several – Wanzo on Black comics, Conners on Caniff’s growth as an artist, and Yesbick on George Carlson were engaging. Unfortunately there was no lunch break built in and Charles and I had skipped breakfast. The two of us, accompanied by Tom Inge, snuck out and missed the end of the second and the beginning of the third panels.

Bob Harvey spoke on Caniff for an hour. This was an overview of his early career and the differences in Caniff’s adventure strips, especially his art, from others of the time.
After Bob’s talk we adjourned across town to the Thurber Center Gallery, next door to the Thurber House where the New Yorker cartoonist grew up. One of their volunteers had covered her car with cartoon repros and drew quite an audience.

The Gallery had a small exhibit of original art from the Great Lakes branch of the National Cartoonists Society. The room filled rapidly so I headed for the food table promptly. Washington Examiner cartoonist Nate Beeler is from Columbus and was there with his girlfriend Eve. He introduced me to Mike Thompson and Nick Anderson and I got the three of them to sign Bush Leaguers, the book based on the AAEC exhibit that was in DC this summer. Rob Rogers put the book together and also signed it for me. We talked shop a little bit, discussing the difficulties of putting together an exhibit. Martha Kennedy, ass’t curator at the Library of Congress was there as well, and with Charles, we drove back to the hotel to hang around in the bar. John Jennings and Damien Duffy from the U of Ill Chicago joined us and hung around after we left around midnight.
Arnold Roth

Mort Walker
Friday, October 26th - Registration was far too early, but ran smoothly. A lovely breakfast was put on by the Renaissance hotel which was recently renovated and had a very reasonable rate for the conference. It also has an original Chihuly glass chandelier hanging in the bar. The morning opened with Brian Walker offering a quick overview of the state of comics prior to Caniff. I think this was adapted from his book on comics before 1945. This was followed by a panel with Bob Harvey, Pete Poplaski, Arnold Roth and Mort Walker telling anecdotes about Caniff. I’ll try to recall and add in some of them.

P. Craig Russell was on next and talked about converting Wagner’s Ring of the Niebelung opera to comics. He was fascinating, especially when discussing his attention to layout (which he told me later was the most interesting part of comics for him). Without examples, it’s hard to do justice to his talk, but one page – when Odin realizes the sword that will end his age has been forged, made an excellent example.

Nate Beeler, Eve and his brother Adam took me to North Market by the Arena, a former meat market now converted to stalls for food and antiques. A giant Peanuts bin held pumpkins at one stall and I bought a Herb Gardner “The Nebbishes” mug at another. Bob Harvey id’d the strip for me off the top of his head, and it only ran from 1959-61.

I caught the tail-end of Ted Rall’s talk on graphic journalism where he was talking about travelling through the ‘Stans for his book. I’d seen a similar version of this one before. Jessica Abel’s talk about storytelling was somewhat disappointing. She showed a couple of panels from her Artbabe comic which she said didn’t work, but not any examples from her more successful La Perdita.

Buses then took people to OSU’s campus. I started in the Cartoon Research Library tour. The Library sits in the basement of the new Wexner Center. A good sized reading room was filled with tables and lined with glass-fronted shelves, one of which held the current issue of the International Journal of Comic Art. An exhibit of mylar-encapsulated pieces from Caniff’s papers lined the walls and included juvenilia, a fan letter from John Steinbeck, and art by Hal Foster and others drawing Caniff’s characters with their own.
In the stacks, row after row of movable aisle shelving was filled with reference books, cartoonist’s collections and lots of manga. File cabinets along one wall held biographical files – a quick check revealed that Nate Beeler’s got a slim file. A couple of file cabinets held files by subject. To be honest, I expected more reference files like these. But the flat files, or map cases, had a massive amount of original art and there were a lot of them. A new digital camera that will shoot oversize artwork was shown to us a pride and joy.

The Caniff exhibit in the other building included a reception sponsored by Bone cartoonist Jeff Smith and his wife Vijaya Iyer. This is the first time I’ve seen roast beef wrapped around a sweet pickle. The exhibit gave one plenty of opportunity to view Caniff’s originals, including the death of Raven Sherman. Two cases of Caniff licensing rounded out the exhibit as did a small sub-exhibit of tear sheets of other comic strips influenced by Caniff.

October 27th – Dragging a bit by this point, I lingered over the hotel breakfast and had a pleasant conversation with Jan Eliot, the ‘Stone Soup’ cartoonist. She told me about finding a patron to help her set up her own publishing house, Planet Nine.

As a result of lingering, I missed the beginning of the publisher’s roundtable. One of the questions was interesting – when asked about the prevalence of scanned comics, defined by the questioner as ‘piracy,’ Scholastic Books editor David Saylor said piracy is evil. Gary Groth demurred and said that he viewed it as advertising. He thought most people prefer the experience of a book, especially with the increased attention to book design. I must say that I agree with Gary.

Frank Stack gave an overview of his underground career, focusing on his anti-religious work, The New Adventures of Jesus. Stack spoke lovingly of his deceased wife, showing us some pages where he drew her into the story, and he still seems to be pining for her.

'Curtis' cartoonist Ray Billingsly spoke very briefly and then took questions. Billingsly appears bitter about the arc of his career, imputing a lack of books and animation deals to racism. Having spoke to Jan Eliot, who is white, earlier that morning about her difficulty in getting books, I’m taking his points with a grain of salt.

Mike Peters could have been a stand-up comedian. His talk about how he became a cartoonist was hilarious. "Little Mikey" as he was unfortunately known in St. Louis due to his mother's TV show was sent to a Catholic (!) Military (!!) school, usually attending summer school, and was flunking out of college until one of his teachers suggested that he do cartooning for all of his arts classes. He had the audience rolling on the floor as he recounted this and raced the clock to show some cartoons.

I missed Nick Anderson when Tom Inge and I went in search of a book store which proved not to be very interesting.

Paul Pope's got a fashion line coming out from DKNY. He was asked to do something with camouflage so he drew moth wings that will be reproduced on cotton clothing. Pope's talk was fascinating - he really thinks about his work and articulates his point of view clearly. He talked about his influences in silver age comics and record cover art too. When he started taking questions, I rushed out and bought his book Pulphope from Adhouse books and got him to sign it.

Alison Bechdel’s always an interesting speaker. On her art technique, she said she eschewed Photoshop and did coloring for Fun Home on a vellum overlay. I asked her about her next project. She said it’s another memoir of her life as a young adult lesbian, but she’s having trouble getting it to gel. I also asked if ‘Dykes to Watch Out For,’ which has been dark for years and that I attributed to the current political climate. She said she’s gotten back to doing the strip twice a month and also thinks that it’ll be lightening up.

At the cocktail party, I was able to tell Roy Doty of ‘Wordless Workshop’ how much I appreciated his work. I didn’t win anything at the banquet raffle. In the bar that night, I got to speak with Brian Walker about the difficulties of putting up exhibits, eavesdropped on Mike Peters telling a story, spoke with Bechdel about her appearance in DC next week and met Bill ‘Foxtrot’ Amend and political cartoonist Cullum Rogers. I can hardly wait for three more years.

Cartoonists Mike Thompson and Mark Anderson have blogged about it as well. Anderson was blogging live (!) during the talks and is well worth reading - he's reminded me of lots I forgot. He's got 3 pages up. Also, he posted a link to part of Mike Peters' talk on Youtube.

Oct 31: Halloween comics giveaway

I'll be handing out the three Halloween Ashcans available this year - Little Archie "The House that Wouldn't Move"; Iron Man Halloween Ashcan 2007; and Uncle Scrooge "Hound of the Whiskervilles" by Carl Barks. If you're in South Arlington, stop on by.

Richard Thompson and the Secret History of Comics

I'm in some boring training at work so I brought in I'm with Stupid by Gene Weingarten and Gina Barreca. Lo! and Behold! It's illustrated by RT. He used to illustrate Weingarten's column in the Post Magazine, so I guess this was a natural.

Steve Niles interview in The Onion

Scott Rosenberg's got an interview with Steve Niles who writes 30 Days of Night the latest comic book to become a movie. I imagine this is only in the paper copy since it's a local story. Also there's an article on food to eat while watching, It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

The Nebbishes

One of my finds in Columbus is this mug by Herb Gardner of his comic strip, The Nebbishes. Bob Harvey identified the strip for me just from Gardner's name, and Allan Holtz's Strippers Guide said it ran Sundays-only from 1959-1961. So this can't be too common.

Oct 29: Good Ol' Charles Schulz on TV

9 pm on Channel 22 and 10 pm on Channel 26 - for more details on the PBS American Masters documentary, see "Schulz: The Good and The Grief", By Megan Voelkel, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, October 28, 2007; Page Y05.

I got to meet Mrs. Schulz this weekend - in fact I shared an elevator with her - but she was mostly talking with my buddy Charles. I couldn't call her Jean either, although she invited us too.

DC's own Pop Mhan at DC's Zuda Comics

Randy T. reports:

DC's own Pop Mhan is one of the competitors at DC's Zuda Comics webcomic competition thingie:

In anticipation of the launch of Zudacomics.com, DC Comics announced today the ten entries in the first ever Zudacomics.com competition. These webcomics are diverse in both their subject matter and tone, spanning a wide variety of genres— from horror to western to fantasy. Aspiring creators and comics fans alike will be invited to vote for one of the ten comics to continue as a regular web comic on the site. The competition winners will, in turn, receive contracts to create a year’s worth of their comic for the site.

“If Zuda Comics are to have common traits they’re quality and diversity”, said Ron Perazza, Director, Creative Services. “For this first competition we selected people from different creative fields, both within and outside of traditional comics, based on the strength of their concepts. It was a bit of a creative experiment but the results were fantastic. This is going be a tough competition!”

The first Zudacomics.com competition features the following webcomics:

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Title: The Dead Seas
Writer/Artist: Pop Mhan
Summary: Legions of undead controlled by Necromancer warlords destroy life as we know it, plunging the Earth into a futuristic Dark Age. But it’s adventure and romance on The Dead Seas as a swashbuckling young pirate named Devin teams up with an adventurous crusader name Luna. Armed with the secret of Pandora’s Box, they set out to destroy the Necromancers and save the world.

Nov 11 Brad Meltzer in Rockville

Brad Meltzer's appearing on November 11th at 11:30 on Sunday at JCC of Greater Washington
6125 Montrose Rd., Rockville, MD.

QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE 10-31-07

QUICK REVIEWS FOR COMICS DUE 10-31-07
(Happy Halloween!)
by John Judy

ACTION COMICS #858 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. It’s Frank’s first issue as we begin the epic “Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes!” For legal reasons a certain “Boy of Steel” can no longer be officially acknowledged. Don’t ask. No really, don’t. They’re listening….

APOCALYPSE NERD # 6 of 6 written and drawn by Peter Bagge. A darkly comic mini from the creator of HATE. Disturbing fun. Why wait for the trade?

BATMAN #670 by Grant Morrison and Tony Daniel. “The Resurrection of Ras al Ghul” begins here! Guaranteed to be gross and kinky, Morrison-style!

BIFF BAM POW #1 by Evan Dorkin and Sarah Dyer. A too-infrequent comics release from the Dorkin-Dyer team, filled with humor, action, and old school comics madness! These guys are always worth a few shekels! Recommended!

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER LONG WAY HOME SC by Joss Whedon and Georges Jeanty. The first collection of “Season Eight” from the giant hand at the swirling birth of the Buffy-verse himself! Recommended!

COUNTDOWN #26 by Everyone Who Was Available. Plus a bunch of COUNTDOWN cross-overs. If you’re anticipating a long wait for the Great Pumpkin you may want to collect them all. Or not.

CRIME BIBLE: THE FIVE LESSONS OF BLOOD #1 of 5 by Greg Rucka and Tom Mandrake. Who cares what this book is about? It’s called “THE CRIME BIBLE!” And it’s by Greg Rucka! Starring the new Question! This week’s Must-Have!

DAREDEVIL ANNUAL #1 by Ed Brubaker and Roy Allan Martinez. The return of the Black Tarantula (who’s actually Latino, but why split hairs?), plus DD gets the flu! If you’ve enjoyed DAREDEVIL these past few years this one will not disappoint! Recommended.

DC INFINITE HALLOWEEN SPECIAL #1 by Lotsa People. Thirteen tales of terror as told by the inmates of Arkham Asylum! Ya gotta look, right? Right? BOO!

ESSENTIAL WEREWOLF BY NIGHT, VOL.2 SC by Various Creators. Yeah, sure, why not?

IMMORTAL IRON FIST VOL.1 SC by Ed Brubaker, Matt Fraction, and David Aja. Collecting issues #1-6! Best Iron Fist ever! A sure-fire hit for all fans of quality martial arts epics. Recommended!

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA #10 by Geoff Johns, Alex Ross, and Dale Eaglesham. The team keeps growing, but the big “What If?” is wrapped up in last issue’s arrival of the future Superman from “Kingdom Come.” Very cool. Geek nirvana.

MARVEL MASTERWORKS: ATLAS ERA STRANGE TALES VOL.1 HC by Various Legends. Presenting horror comics as they were meant to be: 1951, Pre-Code, and fresh from the grave! Recommended for Halloween and all year round!

PERRY BIBLE FELLOWSHIP: TRIAL OF COLONEL SWEETO HC written and drawn by Nicholas Gurewitch. Award-winning cartoons from a guy being favorably compared to Rod Serling and Bill Watterson. Gotta look!

SHOWCASE PRESENTS TEEN TITANS VOL.2 SC by Bob Haney, Nick Cardy, Neal Adams and Others. Classic Silver-Age stories, fun for all ages, hilarious for those who were there back then. Recommended.

SPECIAL FORCES #1 of 6 written and drawn by Kyle Baker. The words “Kyle Baker” are all you need to hear to know that this one’s a mandatory purchase, but to sweeten the pot: It’s an Image mini about a group of differently-abled recruits for the Iraq war. Pulled straight from true headlines about our government recruiting the autistic and the criminal in time of war, this one goes where few but Mr. Baker dare to tread. Highly recommended!

X-MEN MESSIAH COMPLEX ONE-SHOT by Ed Brubaker and Marc Silvestri. The beginning of the latest fall-out from “House of M.” There’s a new mutant in the house and everybody wants to find it. Good premise. Let’s see the follow-up.

www.johnjudy.net

Nov 9: Roz Chast at Politics and Prose

7 pm for a new childrens' book.

Postcards review

Andrew Wheeler reviews Postcards in "GRAPHIC NOVEL REVIEW: Postcards edited by Jason Rodriguez" at Comicmix. Postcards was put together by DC's Jason Rodriguez.

Nov 8-9 PEN/Faulkner Presents: Graphic Novels Party and Program

Obviously - I'll be there.