Comics on the Rack, Quick Picks for Comics Due 04-07-10

COMICS ON THE RACK

Quick Picks for Comics Due 04-07-10

By John Judy

 

AREA 10 HC by Christos N. Gage and Chris Samnee.  A brain-damaged cop has to catch a serial killer!  You had me at "brain-damaged."  Highly recommended.

 

AVENGERS: THE  ORIGIN #1 of 5 by Joe Casey and Phil Noto.  Tales told out of school from the earliest days of Earth's Mightiest Heroes!

 

BATMAN AND ROBIN #11 by Grant Morrison and Andy Clarke.  Dick and Damian, still fighting…  Plus bad guys.

 

THE BOYS #41 by Garh Ennis and Darick Robertson.  Comedies of Error generally don't get too ugly unless everyone involved has incredibly dangerous super-powers and is written by Garth Ennis.  Recommended.  Not for kids.

 

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #34 by Brad Meltzer and Georges Jeanty.  Buffy and Angel are at it again.  Doin' stuff.  Maybe not for the youngsters.  Good fun though.

 

CAPTAIN AMERICA/BLACK PANTHER: FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS #1 by Chris Ungar and Chris Kipiniak.  It's a WWII adventure featuring Cap, Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos and the modern-day Black Panther's dad all gathered together to beat-up Nazis bad!  And that's good.

 

DOOM PATROL #9 by Keith Giffen and Matthew Clark.  Horrors!  The Gentrifiers have invaded!  Could be worse.  At least it's not The Developers or The House Flippers with their McMansions of Doom!

 

ELECTRIC ANT #1 of 5 by David Mack and Pascal Alixe.  An adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story about a normal happy guy who wakes up in a hospital with the doctors telling him he's really a robot.  Must. Have….

 

FLASH SECRET FILES AND ORIGINS 2010 #1 by Geoff Johns and Friends.  Flash facts!  Rogues!  Speed-forcings galore!  Recommended for those wishing to be in the know, Flash-wise!

 

HATE ANNUAL #8 written and drawn by Peter Bagge with extra material by James Whorton Jr.  It's another installment of Buddy Bradley's domestic adventures wrapped up with other miscellaneous Bagge materials and a guest piece by Whorton titled "Confessions of a Hardened Book Festival Attendee."   Highly recommended.

 

INVINCIBLE RETURNS #1 by Robert Kirkman and Various Artists.  Billed as a great jumping on point for first-time readers this one puts the I-Man back in his original threads and sets up "The Viltrumite War."  Call this one self-contained with room to grow.

 

JSA ALL-STARS #5 by Matthew Sturges and Freddie Williams II.  Stargirl gets lucky!  Sort of!  Big fights too!

 

MARKET DAY HC written and drawn by James Sturm.  The story of an Eastern European Jewish businessman in the early 1900s coming to grips with the new realities of the 20^th century.  From the creator of GOLEM'S MIGHTY SWING.   Highly recommended.

 

MARVEL ZOMBIES 5 #1 of 5 by Fred Van Lente and Kano.  You know that guy who's always the last one to leave the party?  The one who just doesn't get that it's four in the friggin' morning and everyone else has gone home, like, a long time ago and no, the couch is not open for business?  He would love this book.  In fact, he probably wrote it.  (Kidding.  It's Fred Van Lente, who's awesome but jeez, come on already…)

 

NEW AVENGERS: LUKE CAGE #1 of 3 by John Arcudi and Eric Canete.  The Hero for Hire ditches his high-flying Avengers scene for South Philly and some vendetta-type head-busting.  Forecast cloudy with a strong chance of Awesome!

 

SHIELD #1 by Jonathan Hickman and Dustin Weaver.  In a gutsy bit of Marvel Yoo retconning SHIELD has been around a long, long time and boasted agents like Galileo, Isaac Newton and Imhotep.  This kind of requires a look.

 

SPARTA USA #2 of 6 by David Lapham and Johnny Timmons.  Godfrey McClaine has returned to Sparta with tales of yetis and an urge to run the joint.  But there's a new football hero who's not running that play.  Hijinks ensue.

 

SPIDER-MAN: FEVER #1 of 3 written and drawn by Brendan McCarthy.  An epic team-up with Doctor Strange featuring the psychedelic insanity that is McCarthy riffing on early Ditko!  Gotta look!

 

STEPHEN KING'S N #2 of 4 by Marc Guggenheim and Alex Maleev. Based on a Stephen King story about a mental patient whose insanity is contagious.  (Insert teabagger joke here.)  Recommended.

 

SUPERMAN: LAST STAND ON NEW KRYPTON #2 of 3 by James Robinson, Sterling Gates and Pete Woods.  Playing Devil's Advocate for a moment, if it's just you versus thousands of people with the power of Superman and you aren't defeated right away?  You deserve to win.  Go, Brainiac, go!

 

SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGIN #5 of 6 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank.  Parasite, Metallo and Luthor!  Oh my!  Highly recommended.

 

TURF #1 of 4 by Jonathan Ross and Tommy Lee Edwards.  A wild adventure set in prohibition-era New York involving rum-running gangsters, blood-sucking vamps and a man who fell to Earth.  So who wins in a dust-up between ETs, bootleggers and the un-dead?  You do!

 

ULTMATE COMICS X #2 by Jeph Loeb and Arthur Adams.  This comic was drawn by the great Art Adams.

 

UNCANNY X-MEN #523 by Matt Fraction and Mike Perkins.  Good mutants and bad ones are looking for Hope.  Aren't we all?

 

WOLVERINE WEAPON X #12 by Jason Aaron and Ron Garney.  Wolvie and Captain America mix it up with a whole bunch of Terminatored-out Deathlok cyborgs.  Plus time-travel. Don't try this at home, kids.  Recommended.

 

WORLD WAR HULKS #1 by Many People.  Tied in with FALL OF THE HULKS which has evidently concluded on "Earth-WTF."

 

www.johnjudy.net

 

Cavna's Kells interview

The 'Riffs Interview: 'Secret of Kells' filmmaker TOMM MOORE
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog April 2, 2010

That darn Toles, continued some more

Today - a letter defending Toles from the earlier letters.

Up pastiche wins Washington Post Peeps contest

The story's in tomorrow's Magazine, or online:

For their winning diorama based on the Pixar flick "Up," Michael Chirlin and Veronica Ettle of Arlington constructed a miniature Victorian house from plywood and Popsicle sticks, and placed it atop salvaged mattress springs to give it an airborne quality."

April 6: '$9.99' animation filmmaker in town

The Post Magazine is reporting that Tatia Rosenthal who made the animated movie $9.99 will be at the Freer Gallery at 7 pm for a screening of the stop-action movie.

Former DC area comics writer Meltzer slagged by peers

Lindelof, Oswalt, other celebs gleefully trash author Brad Meltzer, USA Today's Pop Candy blog April 1 2010 - and for his birthday no less!

Brian 'Pickles' Crane visiting DC in April

In this article, "Sparks cartoonist celebrates 20th anniversary of 'Pickles' strip," By Guy Clifton, April 2, 2010, we hear "Later this month, [Brian Crane] and his wife will travel to Washington, D.C., to visit with officials from the Washington Post Syndicate and will travel to New Jersey for the National Cartoonists Society convention."

No word about what his plans are beyond this.

Secret of Kell's opens in DC, Hornaday doesn't like it

Movie review: In 'Secret of Kells,' vivid animation outweighs muddled narrative
By Ann Hornaday
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, April 2, 2010; WE24

It's at Landmark's E Street Cinema downtown.

That darn Toles, continued

More letters to the editor - click the link to read them -
Editorial cartoon draws ire, gratitude
Washington Post April 1, 2010; A14

Regarding Tom Toles's March 29 editorial cartoon:

Tom Toles is blogging

Matt Wuerker confirms my previous story that Tom Toles is blogging. Matt sent in a link to this excellent Robert Wright interview. You can read Tom's blog at his Washington Post page.

Washington Post's TR Reid on manga

I just finished reading Confucius Lives Next Door: What Living in the East Teaches Us About Living in the West by T. R. Reid (Random House, 2009), and while I love Reid when he is writing for the Post, I've got a few issues with his conclusions in this book. Or maybe even his starting premises.

But that's not the subject of this blog. Reid has 2 paragraphs on his favorite manga, coming after a discussion of Japan's view of America as crime-ridden:

While in Japan, I became a huge fan of mahnga, the ubiquitous comic-book magazines that sell tens of millions of copies every week. It seems to be conventional wisdom in the United States that Japan's "adult comic books" are routinely "adult" in the sense of being filthy, but this is not accurate. There are some filthy mahnga - so bad that stores won't carry them, and you have to buy them at vending machines. But the vast majority of Japanese comics are family fare. Some are funny, and some are serious novels - serial novels, really, like the one-chapter-per-month novels that Dickens and Thackeray used to write for Victorian magazines. I was particularly taken with the enormously popular weekly comic Section Chief Shima, about a junior executive named Shima Kosaku, who works for a giant electronics firm and fights a never-ending battle for truth, profits and the Japanese way.

In one extended episode, Section Chief Shima is dispatched to America to oversee his company's acquisition of a giant Hollywood movie studio (just like the acquisitions Sony and Matsushita had made in real life). One thing that deeply concerns the young executive is the possibility of a U.S. backlash if an Asian company buys a famous American firm (just like the reaction to the Sony and Matsushita purchases in real life). But an American-based executive tells Shima he need not worry: "The government won't be a problem, because we've already put a half-dozen ex-congressmen on the payroll, and they are lobbying for us." This exchange didn't bother me excessively, because it's probably what big companies actually do when they plan an acquisition. But it was disturbing to see what happened to Section Chief Shima personally during his stay in Los Angeles. When he sets out to see the beach, his rented Ford breaks down. When he tries to negotiate his business deal, an employee of the U.S. branch of his company sells corporate secrets to a competitor. When he walks outside his hotel, he's mugged on the sidewalk. Just your typical American business trip.

Our family grew increasingly angry at this depiction of a dirty, dangerous, dishonest America, partly because we found it hard to avoid, anywhere in Asia. (p. 208-209)

So 11 years later, I have no idea if this remains a common occurrence in manga, or views of Japanese, or even if Shima was ever translated. Reid is a good writer and a keen observer though, so I'm sorry the Post lost him as a foreign correspondent. He heads their Rocky Mountain Bureau now.

Weldon on Scott Pilgrim movie

Glen Weldon invests more time than I'm willing to in this - Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Scott Pilgrim Movie Trailer. National Public Radio's Monkey See blog (March 31 2010).

Tom Toles, beyond the cartoon

It looks like Tom Toles began blogging last week about the issues he did his daily cartoon on. I think this is a new development, but I usually read him in the paper edition. I'm not sure what brought it on either, although I think it's a welcome development.

Anime Festival at Freer and Sackler Galleries, Saturday, April 3

Celebrate the National Cherry Blossom Festival at the Freer and Sackler Galleries, Saturday, April 3 Eighth Annual National Cherry Blossom Festival Anime Marathon Meyer Auditorium, 11 AM - 7 PM Chocolate Underground, 11 AM The 2010 National Cherry Blossom Festival Anime Marathon Cosplay Contest, 1:30 PM Sword of the Stranger, 4 PM Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, 7 PM The Art of the Kimono: Trunk Show and Sale Freer Gallery Shop, 10 PM - 5:30 PM Traditional Japanese Tea Ceremony Sackler Gallery, Sublevel 2, 1 & 3 PM "Ideals of Beauty" Text-Message Scavenger Hunt Freer Gallery, 1 - 3 PM Curator-Led Tour of "Cornucopia: Ceramics from Southern Japan" Freer, 1 PM Curbside Cupcakes Delicious cherry-blossom inspired cupcakes will be available for purchase, Freer Courtyard, 1 - 4 PM SAVE THE DATE! Islamic Art for Christian Patrons: The Painted Ceilings of the Cappella Palatina (Palermo, Sicily), circa 1140 Tuesday, April 13, Meyer Auditorium, 7 PM Click here to take our survey! We appreciate your interest in the Freer and Sackler Galleries and hope that you enjoy the exhibitions and programs that we offer. Please take less than five minutes to share more about yourself with us.  find us on flickr                        become a fan                      follow @ FreerSackler

PR: Capicons Show Sun, Apr. 18th

Capicons Comic Book and Pop Culture Con

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

Dunn Loring Vol. Fire Dept.
2148 Gallows Road,
Dunn Loring, VA
10 am - 3 pm

Special Guests:
Martin Grams, Jr, Author of The Green Hornet: A History of Radio, Motion Pictures, Comics and Television
http://www.martingrams.com

Dan Nokes, Artist/Publisher--21 Sandshark Studios
http://21sandshark.com/

Also featuring
Artist Tom Arvis, Sureshot Comics
http://sureshotcomics.com

FREE admission! Door prize drawings!

Open to the public from 10 am - 3 pm. Buy, sell & trade: Gold, Silver, Bronze Age comics; Indie & Modern comics, Publishers & Creators, TV & Movie Collectibles. Non-sport cards; Videos & DVDs; Anime; Manga; Horror/Sci-Fi; figures, toys; Star Wars & Star Trek memorabilia; original artwork, posters and other comic-related collectibles.

For more info, visit www.capicons.com

Become a fan on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dunn-Loring-VA/Capicons-Comic-Book-Pop-Culture-Con/221236176794

Book reviews on Washington City Paper blog

The idea is to do these regularly...

International Ink: Hagar, Nemi, Little Nothings, and Lenore
Posted by Mike Rhode
Washington City Paper Arts Desk blog Mar. 30, 2010

PR: Submissions for The First Annual Small Press Expo Animation Showcase

More on the SPX animation newness.

Requesting Submissions for The First Annual Small Press Expo Animation Showcase   For Immediate Release                          Contact: Warren Bernard                                                                        Phone: 301-537-4615                                                                        E-Mail: warren@spxpo.com Bethesda, Maryland; March 30, 2010 - The Small Press Expo (SPX), the preeminent showcase for the exhibition of independent comics, graphic novels and alternative political cartoons, announces a call for submissions to the First Annual SPX Animation Showcase. This showcase will be presented at this years Small Press Expo, to be held September 11 and 12 at the North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center, in Bethesda, Maryland. With the proliferation of animation by both traditional animators and comics creators, SPX is providing a venue for SPX attendees  to see a wide variety of examples of this craft. There will be a series of set showings of cartoons throughout the two day SPX festival, which will reflect the myriad of different animation styles now dispersed across the Internet. All submissions will be screened and final selections made by  a volunteer committee led by Angie Ottinger and Paul Nadjmabadi. The committee is comprised of the following members of the film and television community,:                 CATHERINE TABER, Actress             Cat has lent her talents to numerous films, television shows, and video games including Star Wars: The Clone Wars (Padme), Final Fantasy 12 (Penelo), and the              upcoming Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker (Cecile).             CHAD STRADERMAN, Animator / Graphic Designer             Chad has worked on a variety of television shows as well as his own independent animation. His short, Pass It On, was shown theatrically at Spike & Mike's Sick &     Twisted Festival of Animation.                       MONZUKI, Art Blog Curator             Monzuki is a successful art blog whose mission is to "introduce Art and Design to stimulate your mind and awareness by presenting a platform for creative artists to     publicize  their talented artwork". (http://blog.monzuki.com)             DANIEL STRANGE, Director             Daniel is the director of the viral video "The Ballad of G.I. Joe" and episodes of the web series "Between Two Ferns With Zach Galifianakis." He currently has an     animated show in development with Fox.             ANGIE OTTINGER, Writer / Producer             Angie currently works in short-form and promo for television. Her short film, "The Donut King" screened at a variety of festivals, including the 2002 Sundance Film     Festival.             PAUL NADJMABADI, Editor             Paul has worked in post-production for a variety of television shows and promos. He has also worked on numerous projects as a director and cinematographer.  For entering submissions to the First Annual SPX Animation Showcase, just follow a few easy rules: 1. Fill out a submission for at http://www.spxpo.com/spx-animation-showcase-2010. 2. Please limit submission entries to no more than 10 minutes run time. 3. Submissions are due by June 30, 2010. 4. Selections for the showcase will be announced by August 11, 2010, 1 month prior to SPX. 5. If you are interested in attending SPX or have questions about the SPX Animation Showcase, please send inquiries to spxanimation@spxpo.com. SPX brings together more than 300 artists and publishers to meet their readers, booksellers and distributors each year. Graphic novels, mini-comix, political cartoon books and alternative comics will all be on display and for sale by their authors and illustrators. As in previous years, profits from the SPX will go to support the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund (CBLDF), protecting the First Amendment rights of comic book readers and professionals.  For more information on the CBLDF, go to their website at http://www.cbldf.org/.             SPX will be held The North Bethesda Marriott Convention Center in Bethesda, Maryland, next to the White Flint Metro stop. Admission is $10 for a single day and $15 for both days.

  

ICAF postponed until 2011

30 March 2010

Announcement from The International Comic Arts Forum (ICAF)

The International Comic Arts Forum (ICAF), the foremost gathering for international comics studies and scholarship, has decided to postpone its annual conference for 2010 until 2011.  

The 2011 conference will observe the 15th Anniversary of ICAF, and the Executive Committee has concluded that postponing for the 2010 calendar year will allow the organization to plan for a large and special 2011 event.

Please stay tuned for more details soon.  For interested students and scholars, the CFP will be released later this year, as will more details on the 15th Anniversary Themes, Guests, and Special Events.

Please bookmark our website:
ICAF website: http://internationalcomicartsforum.org

Any inquiries may be directed to Professor Cecile Danehy, Executive Committee Co-Chair, at cdanehy@wheatonma.edu

Tomorrow: Warren Bernard lecture on Herblock at LoC

Independent scholar Warren Bernard returns to the Library of Congress on Wednesday, March 31, to give a talk in conjunction with the Herblock! exhibition, "Declaration of Independence: Herblock: His Foes and His Editors". This event will take place in Dining Room A located on the 6th Floor of the Madison Building at noon.

Comics Riffs on Dick Giordano's death

Giordano was a great penciler and inker for DC Comics, who also became an editor there. Even if you've never read a comic book, you've seen his work because it's used on all kinds of licensed products.

RIP, Dick Giordano: Remembering a comics legend
By Michael Cavna
Washington Post Comic Riffs blog March 29, 2010