Ace's Crazy Madcap Link-O-Rama: Nov 19, 2004

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

Welcome back to the latest installment of the weird, the wild, and the whatever the screaming blue heck else I feel like putting here from around the comic book web. Unlike the News Ticker, these are meant to entertain rather than inform, so if you have a choice between pointing-and-laughing or getting really really offended, opt for the former.

Victoria's Secret models are going to appear in Gun Fu. I've been reading Gun Fu, which stars a foul-mouthed 1930's Hong Kong cop named Cheng Bo Sen who inexplicably speaks in modern-day ebonics. The latest story arc involves Nazis, killer robots, spider/monkey hybrids called "sponkeys," and the obligatory Hot Jungle Girl (who, in direct contravention to the comic book norm, is not a white chick raised by the natives). Why I was just thinking the other day, "This is cool and funny and appropriately stupid, but you know what it needs? People whose major marketable skill is looking good in their underwear." And, just like that, it happens. Life is good sometimes.

Speaking of underwear models, you can "read" Witchblade #80 for free on-line. OK, it's not much of a segue, but can anybody look me in the eyes and tell me that Witchblade's outfit isn't essentially the Most Uncomfortable Push-up Bra in the World? Especially after reading this amusing critique of Witchblade from the Comics Waiting Room blog?

And while I'm making clumsy segues, here's Nightwing writer Devin Grayson talking about Women in Comics, but on the creative side rather than on the "how did I get into this outfit and why am I not repeatedly falling out of it?" side. The interview is notable mostly for the point where she gets annoyed and starts semi-ranting about how every interview she does ends up with variations on, "What's it like being a WOMAN writing comics?"

Despite that, I think most comic fans are going to focus on the bit where she says she's, er, well endowed herself, triggering a rash of Googling for photos of Grayson.

You can't think "Women in Comics" without thinking about the Sequential Tart website (OK, maybe you can, but work with me here), which just posted an interview with Brian K. Vaughan, writer of Y the Last Man and a big pile of comics too cool for school. Y the Last Man (and some other comics) also pops up in, of all places, Ms. Magazine. Make sure you check out the comments section of the Ms. article for an almost completely inappropriate nerdboy meltdown over the term "sci-fi."

Soon, we're going to have all them icky girls all over our comic stores and THEN where are we going to be?

Back to random segues, the Brian K. Vaughan forum posted an appeal to Florida comic-book fans -- go help out a guy who quit his job at the Jungle Cruise at Disneyland to open a comic book shop. Otherwise, he'll have to go back to work for the Mouse (even if they do let them pack heat again).

While we're on the topic of Disney, how about that Disney Buys CrossGen story, huh? This site gives you the lowdown on Disney Comics worldwide (apparently, the "Duck" comics are so popular in Scandinavia that politicians make reference to them in speeches). On the flip side of the news item, this site tracks former CrossGen employees and what they're doing now, other than getting screwed over in the Disney deal because they're probably not going to see a dime of the money CrossGen owed them.

And speaking of getting screwed by the hands that fed you, the Black Panther is coming back to comics, but this time written by Hollywood's Reginald Hudlin rather than Christopher Priest, who went a long long way to make the character cool again in the 90's. Oh, well. Oddly, the story was broken by the "We Now Love Comics a Lot" New York Times.

On the other hand, the Scotland's Sunday Herald clearly didn't get the memo that there are to be no more comic book articles with titles that include the words "Biff," "Bang," or "Pow." Worse, they then let Mark Millar be both completely self-promoting and disturbingly willing to cite nearly complete fabrications as fact. Seeing a pseudo-factual claim that the US Army has soldiers who can last 2 weeks without sleep is especially distressing when things like pain rays, rigid foam sprays, and honest-to-goodness sonic cannons are real. Warren Ellis is going to work all of the above into Iron Man, just you wait and see.

(Aside #1: Just once, I want someone to base a comic book superhero or supervillain around crowd control stink bombs. "They call me...the Skunk!!!")

(Aside #2: Just to make fun of Millar some more, apparently the dude doesn't know how to order things from Amazon.com.)

I'm sure he means well, but having people like Millar on your side is why it's really hard being a liberal sometimes. And, speaking of liberal nutjobs, here's a story about Alex Ross's much-renowned Halloween Bash. "Bash" meaning "party," although I'm sure Ross and his sushi-eating, latte-drinking, America-hating, Harvard Boutique Liberal friends were doing plenty of the other type of bashing, too.

You know what would make political discourse more civilized? Trial by Combat. Nothing says, "I'm right, you're wrong" like taking up steel and crushing your enemies under your sandaled feet while you hear the lamentation of their women. That's right -- that's my segue to talk about Conan now. The Official Conan Website talked to Dave Stewart about the art of comics coloring, while Comicon.com has a Conan #10 preview.

You should all be reading Conan, by the way, or else I'm coming to your house to crush you under my sandaled feet...oh, never mind.

And speaking of swords, Mark Schultz of Xenozoic Tales and a Superman book way I'm too lazy to look up now is going to start writing the Sunday Prince Valiant strips. Sadly, he's not drawing, but with Schultz's pace, we'd be lucky to see a Sunday Prince Valiant once a month.

OK, I'm out of insane segues. I'm just going straight to the incoherent babbling now.

A while ago, Most Famous the CBC Poster randomguy pointed out a $15 hardcover of Akira Vol. 1 at Barnes & Noble. Apparently, it was only the first of a salvo, the details of which are specified in this article on Newsarama -- Trigun and Hellsing are about to get the super-cheap hardcover treatment, too. Comic Retailers Rampage while readers continue to really not care. About comic retailers, that is. Comic fans love cheap hardcovers.

The new Black Widow mini is one of those series that I didn't pick up and now wish I did, so I guess I'll just have to save, like, $20 off the price of single issues and get the trade instead. Writer Robert K. Morgan got interviewed by Newsarama about the Widow. If it goes over well, maybe we'll get a Black Widow/Mystique crossover mini-series. Spying, shapeshifting, and two hot redheads wearing skintight leather in two-fisted, gun-blazing action. Why, all you'd need are sponkeys, Killer Nazi Robots, a Jungle Girl, Victoria's Secret models, and maybe a dinosaur or two and you'll have the Ultimate Straight Male Pizza Combo.

Remember those Apple "Switch" ads a while ago? The ones that would have been more effective if Apple took the money from the ad campaign and dumped it straight to iPod and iTunes Music Store development? Apparently, Apple's ad agency filmed a TON more of them, including one by Daniel Clowes of Ghost World and Eightball fame. OK, "fame" is really a relative term -- I don't even know how many comic fans know who Daniel Clowes is.

HEY! YOU!! WAKE UP!!! OK, fine, I get the picture -- too many weird comics, not enough spandex icons. Ethan Van Sciver talks about Resurrecting Hal Jordan, while Ed Brubaker talks about Captain America (spoilers ahoy in that Brubaker article). Happy now?

Peter David talks about the revelation of the Hobgoblin's secret identity. It's an old article, but if you missed it the first time, "It's New To You" as NBC would say. A neat little article of "behind the scenes" information in the industry. For those who don't know, "Jim Owlsley" is now "Christopher Priest." I could have tried a segue from the Black Panther story, but I'm all segued out.

Les Daniels and Chip Kidd, collaborators on the excellent Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman history books, are at it again with The Golden Age of DC Comics: 365 Days. Between this and the oversize hardcover "Marvel Visionaries" books, it's a good time for comics history.

Back in the day, Fred "I Filed Indecency Complaints 50 Years Before It Was Trendy" Wertham blamed EC Comics for Everything Wrong with American Youth. The history of EC is now available in a humongo DVD package, all ready to corrupt America's youth anew.

And last but not least, your moment of Zen. Or it would be, but the Comic Book Remix is late and I gotta put this week's link pile to bed. So, instead, you get the Marvel Young Guns 2004 sketchbook preview, including the first real look at Young Avengers. Hulkling? Iron Lad? IRON LAD???? I know where I want to aim MY Pain Ray now...

Comment, question, answer, and link to your own wacky stuff, and have a great weekend!

-- Ed/Ace

 

[sKorpia]

I'm going to have to start reading up on Grayson's work now. That list of questions for male comic book writers is an excellent one and I'd love to see an interview with a male writer that covered a majority of them. Her statement on the difficulties of being a female:

That is the final and inherent contradiction of gender-bias for females, after all: to ignore it is to help it flourish, but to acknowledge it is to empower the effect it has on how you and your work are perceived by the world.

is dead on. The belief that a woman is female first and a person second is just part of the frustration.

The difference between her interview and the interview with the creators of Gun Fu is stark. Her interview focused solely on gender issues, even though she'd said earlier she'd prefer not to have it go that way. Their interview focused on the specific work they were creating, inspirations for that work, and their plans for the future. It's another one of those little addressed double-standards. I'm beginning to understand how that gender-neutral species in that one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation could view having genders as a flaw.

Great links, Ace! I'm grateful as always, though I may not say so as often as I should.

 

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

The difference between her interview and the interview with the creators of Gun Fu is stark. Her interview focused solely on gender issues, even though she'd said earlier she'd prefer not to have it go that way. Their interview focused on the specific work they were creating, inspirations for that work, and their plans for the future. It's another one of those little addressed double-standards.

I was kind of surprised/annoyed that she said what she did and didn't want to talk about right up front, and then the interviewer went ahead and asked all the questions she didn't want to deal with anyway. Unless it was an e-mail interview, in which case the interviewer is kind of lame for not even trying to send in new questions.

Late update: Comic Remix takes on Space Ghost #1 in exactly the way you'd expect.

-- Ed/Ace

 

[randomguy]

Yikes, Ace. You may have set a new record. Normally, I've got a couple of links to throw onto the pile, but I'm fresh out this week. Alas.

Props to your writing style, also. I enjoyed the way you became increasingly frentic and random as the post progressed.

I like The Ultimates, and I semi-enjoy Marvel Knights: Spider-Man, but I'll confess to not being terribly fond of Mark Millar. He has certain weaknesses as a writer that he just can't seem to overcome, and his demeanor has always kinda irratated me. I'm not quite sure how to feel about this "Captain America fights in Iraq" thing, though. I'm kind of inclined to side with Millar. On one hand, it seems vaguely tasteless, but on the other, I'm pretty sure if Cap was real, heading off to Iraq is exactly what he'd do. So yeah, I'm torn.

I can say that Warren Ellis and Bryan Hitch probably wouldn't be too happy about Mark Millar having the creation of The Authority credited to him. That much seems pretty certain.

I've never understood the appeal of Witchblade. Okay, that's not true, I understand the appeal, but it's still not something I can really appreciate. I've always found the Witchblade outfit to be skimpy to the point of self-parody. I don't now how anyone can take it seriously. I think I preferred the approach they took with the TNT series. At least that Sara Pezinni wore some clothes.

The Brian K. Vaughan intereview is valuable because it finally made me realize why The Blue Wolf would know Brian's wife in the first place. I mean, she's a playwright, Wolfy's a playwright, and we all now that every playwright knows every other playwright. Right?

The Black Panther thing is mildly annoying. I like Christopher Priest. I liked Christopher Priest's Black Panther. I like the idea of a black man writing Black Panther. Oh well. Comics can be a kooky business sometimes.

Meanwhile, the NYT's sudden interest in comic books is still perplexing me. "All the news that's fit to print" indeed.

I actually noticed the Trigun hardcover when I picked up the Akira hardcover, but I didn't mention it, largely because I have no particular fondness for Trigun. Sorry, folks. I should have at least made note of it. It's cool to hear that B & N is planning more of these, though. I'm hoping to pick up all of Akira in hardcover, and it'd be neat to have some other deserving mangas get the same treatment. Hopefully, they'll do more Ultimate Spider-Man Collection-esque releases as well. I'd love to see one for New X-Men or Daredevil.

And finally, a brief word to everyone: check out the Black Widow miniseries. It's actually pretty darned good. And with that, I've said my peace.

 

[Eddie G.]

Ace, I love you. We love you. You're the Marry Poppins of message board mods.

Speaking of underwear models, you can "read" Witchblade #80 for free on-line. OK, it's not much of a segue, but can anybody look me in the eyes and tell me that Witchblade's outfit isn't essentially the Most Uncomfortable Push-up Bra in the World? Especially after reading this amusing critique of Witchblade from the Comics Waiting Room blog?

You know honestly if you're working on Witchblade and you're trying to tell a good story you're a fool. It's a God awful comic that's only fun to on occasion read because it is so God awful for the reasons mentioned in that blog. But if you're working on a comic where breasts were more or less the concept and you're working with an artist who's not going to have actual serious storytelling or ignore the wants of sub-geeks who I thank everyone I date for not letting me become... you might as well cut loose and not even try, either that or just don't work on that comic or yell at the artist.

The Brian K. Vaughan intereview is valuable because it finally made me realize why The Blue Wolf would know Brian's wife in the first place. I mean, she's a playwright, Wolfy's a playwright, and we all now that every playwright knows every other playwright. Right?

Brian K. Vaughan interviews are valuable to everyone, I do not remember an interview of his that I've read since I became a fan of his that was not interesting and fun. AND... actually... I knew her before I actually declared "playwright" as my official writer title thing. She worked at this really awesome playwriting workshop that I went to over the last two years. It used to be my favorite geeky thing about me until this last Friday when I got a certain Wookie's autograph. The only interesting thing about the few times we talked two years ago was in the December of 2002 when she mentioned Brian possibly working on Ultimate X-men. So basically I knew about him going on UXM before a lot of people which is such a sad thing to be proud of.

 

[randomguy]

Breaking News

Thanks to Rich Johnston, I've happened upon The Journal of MODOK Studies, which I happen to think sounds hilarious. I'm considering placing an order for this thing... I mean, I can afford to part with $2.

Although I think MODOK's days of being Marvel's longest-running gag character might be coming to an end, given that Captain America & The Falcon has actually made the character kinda creepy.

 

[The Frog]

The Chicago Tribune had an article about Brad Meltzer in the Tempo section, but I can't seem to find the link. It was mostly about his work on Jack and Bobby but his comics were mentioned.