Brainstormin'!

Catch a Falling Starlog

 Ah, Starlog magazine. Before the internet, where else could geeks, nerds, and dweebs of every colour and creed get together to share their opinions on whether or not a Federation Starship could take out Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer? By the way, I’m not acting superior here—I usually gave my money to Fangoria, which was even more shunned by polite society. Anyway, some time ago, a collection of SF memorabilia made its way into Strange Adventures, and scattered amongst it were some random issues of 'Log  (as I can only imagine its diehard fans call it) from the 1980s. The allure of articles about Buckaroo Banzai and The Last Starfighter was too much for me to pass up, so I rescued them from the Quarter Bin without delay. Happily, the March 1988 issue provided me with one of the funniest letters pages I’ve ever come across. The column, or, Communications, as it was known in its heyday, featured this letter sandwiched in between an angry missive from the then-President of the Friends of Nichelle Nichols and several rave reviews for The Living Daylights:

 

I think I had the action figure of this guy--Studioplantor, was that his name? This letter is pretty funny, mostly because Masters of the Universe totally tanked at the box office, and was pretty much universally (see what I did there?) derided by the few who did see it. This guy’s opinion was, shall we say, not exactly a common one. However, much funnier is this deadpan response from the editor, which shows that Starlog is not without a sense of humour:

 

Swish! For my part, I actually like and own MOTU on DVD—sure, it’s goofy as shit, but it’s got some great designs by Jean Giraud, AKA Moebius, and a cool Bill Conti score that does its level best to sound like John Williams, which I’m sure was the idea. There’s also a pretty solid argument to be made that MOTU is the closest thing we’ll ever get to a New Gods film, but that’s a blog entry for another day. Sooner than you think, probably.

 However, the real gold is within the many letters dedicated to the 1988 surprise sci-fi hit, RoboCop. Check this out:

 

Not bad, right? Wait for it…

 

Y’know, I could be mistaken here, but last time I checked, Asimov’s Laws of Robotics were FICTIONAL, as opposed to FACTUAL, Laws of Science. Does this mean that if I, say, defy the rules from Gremlins and feed my pet Mogwai after midnight, he’ll actually turn into a scaly, mischievous monster? Or that, if I do as I’ve so often dreamed and push my Flux Capacitor-enhanced Delorean up to 88 MPH, I actually will be able to generate the necessary 1.21 Jigowatts I need to travel to 1955, where I can live out my dual lifelong dream of inventing both rock & roll and the skateboard? At least this guy acknowledges that it’s a great film, despite its flagrant violation of hard science.

 (To further prove that I am as big, if not a bigger, nerd than these folks, and am in no way mentally or biologically superior, I will admit to you that I know Vader’s Star Destroyer is called the Executor. There, I said it. )

Flip the Grip, Fileboner!

It's no secret that I have a big love on for the media of the past, especially in the form of books and comics. Part of this is due to the sheer entertainment value of it all - there's usually a reason that something has managed to survive the vagaries of time and human distractability, right? - but in addition to the content of the work there's often a completely fascinating element of trying to figure out exactly what was going on in the heads of the person or persons responsible.

Here, look at this:

For a long time, every DC comic had something like this, a little half- or full-page filler like "Flash Facts" or "Metal Facts and Fancies", possibly so that they could claim some portion of their content was educational. Of them all, I prefer "Science Says You're Wrong if You Believe That..." because it's the only one that flat-out insults the reader. These things are terrific insights into what the heck people were caring about at the time that they were written, or at least what comics writers were caring about. For example, read enough stuff from the 60s and you'll see that bit about deadly gasses from the tail of a comet coming up again and again, though nowadays it's gone the way of the classic plot to kill someone with a weak heart by scaring them to death. So were people obsessed with comets or was it just a case of writers getting as much use as they could out of a stlye of disaster with a lot of dramatic appeal?

With every one of these things you learn more about the people who wrote them, whether it be through what they felt needed to be debunked or what they were wrong about or how early they were right about something that you maybe thought was such a very contemporary bit of knowledge. I wish that I could have found the one on superstitions of the world, because it's a fantastic example of the absolute rock-solid belief in Science that characterized so many of the comics of the 50s and 60s.

Which is all a very long introduction to this:

... which I found in Lois Lane No 16, from way the heck back in 1960. What's going on here? Is this a guide? Some sort of mockery (look how funny you teen types talk.)? Heck, is it even accurate? I can't believe that there's a variation on the theme of Nerd that contains the word "boner" and has fallen into disuse.

Man, can't you just feel the attempt to figure out what the heck those crazy teens are talking about? All writing down what the copy boys say to each other and then quizzing them on it in private later?

It's okay if you don't, though. I'm not here to make sure that your experience of the world is identical to mine. No, what I'm here for is to make sure that you all know about the word hip-happy.

Hip-happy means plump!

When John Buys Comics, That is not News. But When Comics Buy John...

Hello again. You may notice that it is a day two days later in the week than usual, as holidays traditionally interfere with the delivery of comics in a way that snow/sleet/rain/etc. wishes that it could exert over the US Mail (it is at this point that, were this a stand-up comedy act, some wag would begin heckling, probably on the topic of my reviews not ever being on time any more anyway. And then burly men dressed as Bouncing Boy would toss him out on his ear). I offer no apologies, but will give a small pirate figure to the first person who sheds a tear in my presence over this fact. He has lived with me for a year, you see, and it is time for him to move on.

The Anchor No. 2

The week that the first issue of this came out I got distracted by a moth or something and didn't get around to posting anything. This is a shame, as it was a really neato comic and I bet that I could have gotten quite loquacious about it. Luckily, issue 2 is also neato.

The Anchor is similar to characters like Atomic Robo and Hellboy, being a big dude who solves monster-related problems through the liberal application of violence plus the occasional very clever idea. This specific iteration of one of my favourite archetypes is distinguished by a couple of things: first by the fact that he is less a wise-cracking smartmouth than an introspective monkish type and secondly by the fact that he is kind of two guys. See, he exists both as a monster-fighting strongman here on Earth and simultaneously as a spiritual being who guards the border between Earth and Hell. Oh, and any wounds that the latter takes are expressed on the former, leading to a number of panels where wounds spontaneously burst forth on his chest and so on. It's a good basis for a comic about monster fighting - being God's appointed warrior or whatever generally works out pretty decently as a motivation, for example.

Issue numba one featured a fairly generic ice monster ravaging Iceland (though the Anchor defeating the thing by having his Hell-body pick up a flaming demon, thus causing his Earth-body to burst into flames, was way neat), but the centaur wood-god thing in this issue is far more creepy - hopefully the trend continues. Not that I wouldn't be freaked out if a giant frog/ape thing made out of ice was rampaging down the street, but knowing that and being a bit creeped out by what's on the page in front of me are two very distinct things.

Also, the Anchor stone cold rips out his own beard with one hand, which is BAD ASS.

Batman/Doc Savage Special (One-Shot)

If you read any DC comics at all then I’m sure that you’ve noticed the previews for this comic in the back of, like, everything for the last two or three weeks. What with my fondness for the pulp magazines and so forth I must admit that I was intrigued. What I managed to completely miss was that this special was serving as an introduction to a whole pulpy-style sub DCU, and from what I see here, it could be really cool.

According to the teaser info at the back, this First Wave (is this the name of the universe? That’s not a very good name) is going to feature a lot of adventurer and vigilante types of characters - you got your Batman, your Doc Savage and his crew, the Avenger, the Blackhawks, the Spirit… I got a little bit of nerd-rage over some of the changes that they looked to be making but then took a step back and realized that I was being an idiot. Even if I don’t agree that “the only way to make EBONY WHITE work is to make the character a brash girl.” that ain’t no reason that it won’t work.But seriously, Ebony has been written successfully as a non-brash non-girl at DC Comic within the last year.

This could be really cool if it's done right, you guys. As far as I can tell, the closest thing to a super-power in evidence is going to be the Avenger’s face-molding ability, and there are autogyros and dirigibles and also cell phones and computers. I feel like there’s high potential for a major confrontation in a long-lost temple, with the villain wielding a steam-powered, back-mounted device that harnesses etheric waves and maybe also controls an ancient stone robot. If there manages to be more than four or five issues without basically every regular DCU character making a sly cameo, that is (you know, like Bruce Wayne charters a flight somewhere and the pilot is Hal Jordan and then they team up to fight some non-magenta racketeer named Sinestro. Not that that couldn't make for a fun story, but it would really take away from the whole reinvention of the DCU angle. It'd be like Tangent Light)

As for the issue itself: Good intro. Looks great, does a great job of establishing the world and its synthesis of 1930s and present day technologies and aesthetics, has a lot of socks to the jaw, etc. Doc Savage and Batman are actually Doc Savage/Superman and the Shadow/Batman, and the relationship between the two very nicely reflects those that bind the four, both in terms of inspiration and historical interaction. And really, who hasn’t wanted to see Batman wielding twin .45s from time to time? (Oops, I caught a few reviews of the book after writing that and evidently not everyone does want to see that, at least partially based on the ridiculousness of a man devoted to the pursuit of not killing having guns. But who says that this Batman doesn't shoot to kill? It would totally work with the whole pulp thing, you know it would.)

So colour me intrigued, I guess. I’m very interested to see where this goes.

Batgirl No. 4 - Ah ha! I knew that this series could be fun! Batgirl and Oracle cracking wise at each other is great, and Stephanie’s completely un-Bat-family style of fighting crime (well, maybe not completely, but she does fall over a lot more than the rest of them). I am so very glad that the whole “trying to talk the new vigilante out of vigilanting” period has passed and we can get down to some good old-fashioned crime-stomping. Now hopefully there won’t be an appearance by Cassandra Cain around issue 10 in which she demands the Batgirl mantle back because of honour and all that bullplop.

However, if Misfit shows up in that role then I will be delighted.

R.E.B.E.L.S. No. 10 - BEST BLACKEST NIGHT TIE-IN EVER.

And best twist ending to a comic in a long time. I’m highly eager to see how this wraps up.

Hellboy: the Wild Hunt No. 8 (of 8) - As I’ve said before, one of the great pleasures of the Hellboy family of titles is the changeability of the whole thing - from the very beginning there has been no such thing as a status quo, though the degree of change that occurs in each story arc has been increasing over the years. Back in the day, you might get one or two crazy revelations per storyline, with maybe one character being added to the cast or killed off or such. Nowadays, well… I personally was knocked on my ass at least twice during The Wild Hunt.

Okay, that's it for this week, as I've been super busy and haven't even read half of what I bought. Okay, substitute "eating out a lot and playing Fallout 3" for "super busy".

Wednesday Interview: Gregg Schigiel

Chances are you are more familiar with Gregg Schigiel's work than you think you are. Not only is he the writer of Marvel's current X-Babies mini-series, he is also one of the official Spongebob Squarepants artists, and he has done an impressive mountain of licensing art for Marvel, DC, Nickelodeon, Disney, and other heavy hitters. He is also known as the guy who drew me a totally awesome Namor sketch at HeroesCon '09. X-Babies #2 drops this week, and I got to talk to Gregg all about those adorable little mutants.

How did you get to be involved with X-Babies?

By accident. Yeah, I had pitched something else entirely, a couple of times, with Jacob Chabot (the artist on X-Babies), a Spider-Ham mini-series. But because of other things going on that pitch wasn’t viable. The second editor we pitched it to, Nick Lowe, asked if we had any X-Babies ideas. In that moment I didn’t, but I went into brainstorm mode and came up with the story people are reading now. I ran it by Jacob and he was on board...and Marvel liked it to. Next thing you know, I’m being interviewed on Living Between Wednesdays.

Your Spider-Ham mini-series pitch to Marvel expanded the idea of Spider-Ham to create a whole Avengers team of animals. Although that wasn't picked-up, this X-Babies series is sort of in the same category of off-beat versions of Marvel heroes. Are you a big fan of the weirder elements of mainstream comics?

Oh, it was more than just an Avengers team of animals. The idea was the reinterpret the Marvel Animals (or AniMarvels, as I was calling them) as being essentially an alternate world/dimension where every Marvel Universe character had an animal counterpart, be they Avenger, X-Man, cosmic level dude...everyone. In the pitch I explained the equivalent of mutants on this world were birds, feared and hated for their feathers and flight...that sort of thing.

I like the weirder and more playful elements of superhero comics, and it seems as more and more attempts are made to prove how grown-up and realistic comics can be, much of even the basic tenets, like costumes, code names, using super powers, have become the weirder elements.

But if a concept or character are inherently weird or different, it’s fun to play them straight. If a character is a normal or typical thing, it’s fun to take them to weird places...if that makes sense. So the X-Babies...we’re playing this one relatively straight, but letting the quirkiness of these wee X-Men exist as they would. I don’t know if any of that made sense, but there you go.

I find it really interesting that you have done a lot of work for DC and Marvel, as well as Nickelodeon, outside of monthly comic books. You have done illustration work for colouring books, children's picture books, advertising, and guide books for both companies. For our illustrator friends out there, how did you get into that kind of work?

The terrible answer is the classic “it’s who you know”. While I was at Marvel as an assistant editor
I learned quite a bit about licensing art and that whole department and did work with them (there’s a drawing of Electro I did for them years ago that still pops up pretty regularly). So that was the first eye-opener to the world outside sequential comics specifically. Then, My old boss at Marvel, Tom Brevoort, knew someone at Nickelodeon looking, at the time, for freelance cartoonists to help out with licensing work. I was put in touch with that guy and that led to a full-time position there which eventually led to me leaving there to work as a full-time freelancer.

Though for the sake of our illustrator friends out there, the lesson should be: there are other opportunities to find work drawing for a living beyond specifically comics. I realize it’s hard to even think that way, especially when you love comics. And especially when the nature, at least of licensing work, is drawing to a style as opposed to in your own, personal style.

But it’s important to know it’s out there. And I think a way to approach looking for that sort of thing is contacting art directors and such at licensed publishing houses and asking to test for specific properties (which is to say you do samples to see how well you can draw something “on-model” (which is to specs so it looks like it does on TV, for example). That’s how they determine if you make the cut and then, maybe, there’ll be work there. A lot of companies might have in-house staff for their style guides and such, but you could still inquire with them as well.

I’m not saying it’s all a guaranteed pot of illustrator gold out there, but there are opportunities, certainly. You just gotta keep your eyes and mind open.

 

Who is the most adorable X-baby?

Of the X-Babies proper, Jacob’s version of Kitty Pryde is super-cute, no question about it. Of the Adorable X-Babies, who we first met in X-BABIES #1, Jacob’s design for Stormy, as she’s called in that form, is brilliant with the pacifier and onesie. But in issue one we only showed you some of the Adorables...

What other projects are you working on now?

These days I’m working on the last chapter of my 5-part back-up comic, PIX: TEENAGE AMERICAN FAIRY, for Chris Giarrusso’s G-MAN: CAPE CRISIS mini-series, which is a really great book that I’m very pleased and honored to be a part of...the fourth issue of which I believe is on sale next week.

I’m also starting work on some books in the animated Batman and Superman styles for DC Comics’ licensed publishing group, some early-reader chapter books, as well as working on a comic for a fast food chain that’ll be part of their kids meals in summer 2010 (I can’t say which chain though, yet). There’s some SpongeBob stuff around the corner. And I’m sure there’s something else I’m forgetting...

Baby, The Reign Must Fall.

 First off, let’s make one thing perfectly clear: I don’t much care for this Dark Reign business coming out of Marvel. Even though it’s only been going on for about a year or so, it feels like about a decade, due to the crazy overexposure of Norman Osborn and his team of Dark Avengers. One week, I swear to Galactus, there was something like 18 issues that featured appearances by those jerks. I’m not exaggerating, I’m pretty sure the number was 18. Anyway, with the announcement of Marvel’s Siege event, it looks like the whole thing is coming to an end, and not a moment too soon for me. As glad as I am to see the ass end of this crossover/event/cash grab, I’ve noticed a funny thing lately—some of the tie-ins to this series have actually been pretty good. REALLY good, in some instances.  Take the series of one-shots that make up Dark Reign: The List, for example. These special issues all focus on Norman Osborn’s Nixonian “Enemies List”, and detail his plans to incapicitate or destroy those who would stand in the way of his evil plans. I scoffed at the books when they were announced, even though I was intrigued by some of the creative teams. Now, however, when all of them but one has been released (still waiting on the Spider-Man special, but Adam Kubert’s drawing it, so that could take a while), I find that most of them have actually been pretty cool. Not all, but most. Let’s have a look at these awkwardly-named issues, shall we?

Dark Reign: The List: New Avengers: See what I mean about awkward? Anyway, everything got off to a bit of a rocky start here, with this Bendis-written, Marko Djurdjevic-drawn issue that sees Ronin (AKA Clint Barton) attempting to carry out his promise to kill Norman Osborn. Not much happens here—it’s pretty much a sterling example of how today’s writers take an entire oversized issue to achieve something that would have taken a few panels in the Sixties and a few pages in the Seventies, Eighties, or Nineties. Basically, Ronin (AKA Clint Barton, but don’t get me started on that) breaks into Avengers Tower to kill Norman Osborn, but is captured instead. It doesn’t really fit with what’s going on in the main Avengers title, and it’s a pretty unsatisfactory read overall. I’m not a big fan of Djurdjevic’s interior art either—I prefer his painted covers--so there really wasn’t much here for me to begin with.

 Dark Reign: The List: Daredevil: This issue serves as a kind of unofficial issue #0 to incoming writer Andy Diggle’s run on the monthly Daredevil, who has the unenviable task of following up Ed Brubaker and Michael Lark’s outstanding run with ol’ Hornhead. Thankfully, it proves that he is more than up to the task.  This one-shot was drawn by Billy Tan, who I’m not such a big fan of, but the story made up for it. As of issue #500 of Daredevil, the most put-upon superhero in comics is now the leader of the ninja clan known as the Hand, which is not nearly as awesome as it might sound. Norman sends his pal Bullseye to keep DD and his new army of ninjas out of his hair while he consolidates his power, which, of course, involves the deaths of a lot of innocent people and even more guilt being heaped upon Matt Murdock. A promising start to Diggle’s run, for sure. His first issue (drawn by new series artist Roberto De La Torre) came out a few weeks ago, picking up directly from the events in this issue, and it shows that the book is still in good hands.

 

Dark Reign: The List: X-Men: Now this was just plain awesome. I’ve been dipping in and out of Matt Fraction’s Uncanny X-Men run, stopping in to read the Terry Dodson-drawn issues but getting the hell outta Dodge whenever Greg Land draws an arc, so I’m only sort of peripherally aware of this whole Utopia-X jazz that’s going on now. However, that did not detract from my enjoyment of this issue one bit, where Osborn uses Namor’s ex-wife Marrina, who has been transformed into a sort of sea dragon that is actually much closer to her alien origins than the humanoid form that joined Alpha Flight, to destroy as many Atlanteans as possible. Namor and his new teammates in the X-Men (makes sense that he’d join the team—after all, he’s technically Marvel’s first mutant, I think?) draw the beast into a final confrontation. Fraction seems to have a great grasp of how to write this kind of multi-character slugfest—the mutant combatants all get appropriate little introductions and cool interactions, and the way they fight together as a team is well-handled and pretty exciting to watch. Fraction’s Namor is proud, arrogant, and hates to ask anyone for help even when he really needs it, which is a combination of traits that makes him very enjoyable to read. And the art is by Alan Davis, who, unlike many of his contemporaries from the Eighties, seems to only get more dynamic and versatile with age! This was a great stand-alone read that not only made me interested in how Fraction’s X-Men run was going, but also made me want a Fraction/Davis Namor ongoing.

 Dark Reign: The List: Secret Warriors: I gotta confess, I haven’t followed the ongoing Secret Warriors title at all—the covers by Jimmy Cheung are nice, Nick Fury is, of course, supercool, but there’s not much else in the concept that interests me. I really only looked at this issue because it’s drawn by Ed McGuiness, who has a real talent for getting me to read books I would otherwise avoid like the plague (Hello, Jeph Loeb’s Hulk!). I didn’t really get much out of this issue, as it turns out. Fury and Osborn team up to interrogate a suspect who is involved with something called Leviathan. The issue culminates in a surprise assassination and several boring pages of graphic design detailing the inner workings of the Leviathan organization, which I gather is somehow connected to the old crime ring known as Zodiac. This sort of design-heavy jazz is clearly writer Jonathan Hickman’s thing, but it’s not really a great way to end an issue. However, this one-shot did pique my interest, since it featured John Garrett, the mustachioed cyborg S.H.I.E.L.D. agent from Miller and Sienkiewicz’s classic Elektra: Assassin series. I had no idea he was running around in the Marvel Universe proper again--I recall he turned up in D.G. Chichester’s Daredevil run in the early Nineties, but I have no idea where he’s been since. I may have to have a look at some Secret Warriors issues to investigate further. Also, as I suspected, Ed McGuiness draws a really cool Nick Fury.

 Dark Reign: The List: Incredible Hulk: Yes, I know these titles are getting annoying and repetitive, but I have to look at it on an invoice every time one comes out and you will all know my pain! I haven’t been following Greg Pak’s Incredible Hulk either, and sadly, this issue didn’t really make me want to start. Bruce Banner is permanently puny these days, having his Gamma radiation drained out of him by the Red Hulk in issue #600, but he’s more or less playing Rick Jones to Skaar, Hulk’s son from another planet. Ms. Marvel (AKA Moonstone) and Osborn’s assistant Ms. Hand confront Banner and Skaar, and I kind of tuned out before the end. The art by Ben Oliver was cool, but I couldn’t get into this. It feels like much more of a complete issue than, say, the New Avengers one shot, but it didn’t really hold my interest. My complete unfamiliarity with (and complete lack of interest in) the Skaar character probably didn’t help.

 Dark Reign: The List: Punisher: I keep dipping in and out of Rick Remender’s Marvel Universe-set Punisher series, but I always seem to enjoy it, so I should really get caught up one of these days. Frank Castle is using a bunch of stolen superhero tech to wage war on the Hood’s army of Osborn-affiliated supercreeps, while the Hood is using a bunch of resurrected Scourge victims to try and take the Punisher out. In this issue, drawn by John Romita Jr., Osborn dispatches Wolverine’s jerky son Daken to destroy the Punisher, and well, without ruining anything, Wolvie Jr. is, er, surprisingly successful. Guess I did spoil it, but you really need to see it for yourself. The gory finish to this issue leads directly into the upcoming Franken-Castle arc on the monthly, non-Max Punisher, illustrated by Remender’s Fear Agent co-creator Tony Moore. After the way this issue wrapped up, I definitely want to see what happens next.

 Dark Reign: The List: Wolverine: First off, this issue is written by Jason Aaron, which is always promising. Secondly, it features interior artwork by Esad Ribic, who usually paints but shows here that he’s equally adept with good ol’ fashioned pen and ink. These are both compelling reasons to check out this issue, but as a fan of Morrison’s Marvel work circa nine or ten years ago, this issue had special significance for me. Logan takes a backseat here, while the real stars of the issue are Fantomex (the Diabolik-esque gentleman thief from New X-Men) and Noh-Varr (from Morrison’s awesome Marvel Boy mini, more recently seen serving as Captain Marvel in Dark Avengers). The two Morrison creations team up to save Wolverine from a viral attack triggered when Norman Osborn tries to take over The World (the crazy environment that is home to the Weapon Plus program, also from Morrison’s New X-Men). A funny, action-packed issue that features a great odd-couple pairing and some terrific art. Also, Norman Osborn does his best Daniel Plainview imitation on the opening splash page:

 

So there you have it.  The Spider-Man issue is still pending, but it’s written by Dan Slott so I’m not too worried about it. Otherwise, not a bad crop of issues—out of the seven we’ve seen, two of ‘em (X-Men and Wolverine) were great, two of ‘em (Daredevil and Punisher) were quite good, two of ‘em (Hulk and Secret Warriors) were so-so with nice art, and only one of them (New Avengers) was, for me anyway, kind of a waste of time. Two of them (DD and Punisher, again) were quite important to those characters’ ongoing series, and three more (X-Men, Secret Warriors, and Punisher yet again) made me curious to check out a monthly title I wasn’t currently following. All in all, not bad for an event I first turned my nose up at. It’s also a pretty decent “State of the Union” kind of event, for readers curious to see what the heck’s up with the Marvel U these days. I guess the lesson here is to never underestimate the healing power of a nice cleansing Reign!

 (I’m terribly, terribly sorry for that, I just didn’t know how else to wrap this up. Once again, my humblest apologies.)