The Comic Book Thread

Anyone keep up with Blackest Night? I thought it was a pretty cool, though typically the tie-in books mucked up the continuity a bit.

I'm pretty excited for Brightest Day and for the fact that Geoff Johns & Jim Lee are now DC executives.

I'm holding out for the graphic novel version if they ever do one.

Recently read the third part of 'Siege' and 'Vengeance of the Moon Knight' #7, with Deadpool making an appearance. 'Siege' is better than I expected it to be, but Thor looks strange and I already don't like how Captain America got forced back to life to do this so that affects my perception a little. Great event for a mini-series, though. 'VotMK 7' sees some inconsistent artwork, but the banter and action between MK and Deadpool is great, and you don't have to leave your brain at the door for the story. Overall, however, this just isn't really dark enough for me for a MK story, but it's good and it's fun and it's only going to be two issues long, so..

Cap's return was a major cop out but it was never going to be anything but that. Brubaker made it sound like he had some genius escape clause but it was really just the same hokey comic book stuff we always get.

Siege is okay. To me, it just feels like a random Marvel Universe mini series though and not really an "event". The build was great though. Almost everything coming under the Dark Reign banner was really good.

What about Thor's look don't you like? The art or the actual costume? I think his new look is really cool. Much more realistic and fantasy-based as opposed to his traditional gaudy 1960s Marvel look. I hope it never goes back to that goofy look but all it will take is one nostalgic writer to make it happen.

I don't follow Moon Knight. I tried to when they first brought the book back a few years ago. David Finch is a great artist but I thought the writing was pretty bad. I bought the first two issues then dropped it.

Just picked up:
BLACKEST NIGHT (Graphic Novel - Hardcover)
BLACKEST NIGHT: GREEN LANTERN (Graphic Novel - Hardcover)
BLACKEST NIGHT: GREEN LANTERN CORPS (Graphic Novel - Hardcover)

Just read Shadowland #1.

*spoiler is below*























Bullseye had it coming. Thank God. Every street level hero has tried to off him at some point or another and he finally got it.

Awesomeness:

The Reverend Fred Phelps and his Westboro Fascist -- I mean, Baptist -- Church decided to hold one of their "God Hates Phags" protests outside of the San Diego Comic-Con this week for some reason. Well, they weren't prepared for a total Power of Geek counter-protest by the convention goers. Score: Geeks 1, Westboro 0. Go Go GEEKS!

http://video.aol.com/aolvideo/Asylum/westboro-baptist-protests-comic-con/207674901001

My fave counter protest sign: "ALL GLORY TO THE HYPNO TOAD."

"God needs a Starship"

How bout the guy dressed as Fry from "Futurama" with a sign that sez "GOD HATES SLURM?"

Fat Freddy wrote:

How bout the guy dressed as Fry from "Futurama" with a sign that sez "GOD HATES SLURM?"

These Geeks rule, these God Hates Rainbows people had no idea what hit 'em

That was awesome. The Fry & Bender costumes rocked.

Does the Rev and his people have something personal against the Comi-Con crowd too or do they just protest anywhere they can find a crowd?

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Does the Rev and his people have something personal against the Comi-Con crowd too or do they just protest anywhere they can find a crowd?

I doubt they even know anything about comics, they probably just show up anyplace where there will be TV cameras.

Fat Freddy wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Does the Rev and his people have something personal against the Comi-Con crowd too or do they just protest anywhere they can find a crowd?

I doubt they even know anything about comics, they probably just show up anyplace where there will be TV cameras.

That is my take on it too, I also feel their fifteen minutes are up, nobody paid attention to these losers during the Dio memorial and they were rightfully mocked by people dressed up as the Tick at Comi-Con, not an organzation that is taken very seriously by the media.

manny wrote:

Fat Freddy wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

Does the Rev and his people have something personal against the Comi-Con crowd too or do they just protest anywhere they can find a crowd?

I doubt they even know anything about comics, they probably just show up anyplace where there will be TV cameras.

That is my take on it too, I also feel their fifteen minutes are up, nobody paid attention to these losers during the Dio memorial and they were rightfully mocked by people dressed up as the Tick at Comi-Con, not an organzation that is taken very seriously by the media.

That's kinda what I figured, but I thought maybe I missed something in my Catholic upbringing about "Thou Shall Not Wear Spandex or Worship other Super Heroes Before Me".

Frank Zappa and Jack Kirby

Nifty article about 2 brilliant, but different, minds. The above pic wasn't just a chance meeting. These two were actually friendly neighbors of sorts. Pretty cool.

http://royalflushmagazine.com/2009/10/13/zappa_meets_kirby/

Totally random comic book note: I was in Toys-R-Us with my young'ins on Saturday and while we wandered around the store I noticed an old fashioned "spinner rack" of current Marvel Comics at the end of an aisle (where all the Marvel character action figures and other junk was). I picked up a couple and flipped thru'em, then did a double take when I saw the cover price - $3.99 an issue? Holy crap! No wonder kids don't read comics anymore, they can't afford'em!!!

Yup. $3.99 is quickly becoming the new standard price. As far as I'm concerned, comics are pretty much dead, at least as a "magazine" format.

That's why I only get graphic novels.

At the risk of sounding like my Dad, when I started buying comics they were only 50 cents a pop!!! When I quit collecting in the early 90s, the cover price for a comic was something like $1.50 or $1.75 and I thought that was outrageous. Sheesh. I'm tryin' to imagine what my usual "monthly pile" from back in the day would cost me now at today's prices... hahaha.

This is probably only interesting to me but what the hell, I thought it was cool anyway:

Long time comic book geeks (i.e. guys my age and older) might have vague memories of the short lived mid 1970s comic publisher "Atlas Comics," which was started by a former Marvel Comics exec. The story goes that when Martin Goodman (a former Marvel publisher/editor) sold Marvel Comics to Cadence Industries in the early 70s, he only did so with the understanding that his son Chip, a Marvel editor at the time, would get to stay with the company. As soon as the sale was completed, though, the new owners gave Chip the boot, so he and Martin quickly started a new company called "Atlas Comics" in the hopes of taking a bite out of Marvel's market and to get some measure of revenge. They hired a ton of writers and artists away from Marvel by paying some of the highest rates in the comics industry at the time, so everyone thought the new company would be a smash hit and would present a real danger to the dominance of DC and Marvel. However, it didn't work out that way.

Atlas Comics premiered in 1975 with over 20 (!) brand new titles, and they had major problems from the get go. Their books suffered from a lack of distribution and the company had constant personnel turnover on each of its books, with a revolving door of artists/writers coming and going from each of the various series. Sales were strong at first but quickly plummeted, and the company lasted just over a year before shutting down, becoming one of the most notorious failures in comics history at the time.

I missed out on all that drama at the time cuz I was only five years old and not a comic nerd yet. When I started collecting comics in the '80s though, the name "Atlas" was more or less a joke, and only a few of their books were worth more than a buck on the back issue market. Therefore, I used to come across Atlas stuff in comic shop cheap-o boxes all the time. As I was a confirmed bargain bin comic junkie I started snapping them up whenever I found them, and I managed to collect almost everything that they'd put out (which amounted to maybe 100 books total -- none of their series lasted longer than four issues before the company went belly up). They had some interesting (if derivative) books like "Ironjaw" (a "Conan" style barbarian character), "The Scorpion," "Phoenix" (no relation to the X-Men character, obviously) and "Targitt" (a vigilante character who predates The Punisher).

Anyway, it seems that Martin Goodman's grandson Jason is planning to relaunch the Atlas brand name and revive their stable of characters this Fall, starting with a big roll out party at the New York Comic Con next month.

http://g4tv.com/thefeed/blog/post/707484/marvels-rival-company-from-the-70s-set-for-relaunch.html

Lord only knows if this will take off as I'm sure most current comic fans don't know any of these characters/series and anyone who DOES remember them is probably retired from the comics scene, but hey, good luck to'em. I wouldn't mind finding out what happened after the cliffhanger endings of "Morlock 2001 and the Midnight Men" #3, and "Planet Of Vampires" #3, neither of which were ever resolved as the company went under before the fourth issues were released.

Anybody besides me remember this brave-but-doomed attempt to beat the Marvel Universe at their own game? Lots of info on these long-gone long underwear types can be found at this fan site, "The Atlas Archives" http://www.atlasarchives.com/index.html

I vaguely remembered Atlas Comics but I had no idea about history behind the series ( I was really young) and I never bought an issue viewing them like I did Charlton comic company a b or c rate comic book company compared to Marvel and DC.

manny wrote:

I vaguely remembered Atlas Comics but I had no idea about history behind the series ( I was really young) and I never bought an issue viewing them like I did Charlton comic company a b or c rate comic book company compared to Marvel and DC.

Yeah, they were pretty much a "B" grade version of Marvel. Hell, back in the 40s and 50s "Atlas Comics" was an early name for the company that eventually became Marvel.

Making it even more surreal, Stan Lee's brother Larry Lieber was the Atlas editor in chief and he even wrote a monthly "Bullpen Bulletins" style hype page in each comic like Stan did over at Marvel. The Atlas guys obviously wanted to be the next Marvel so bad that it was almost funny.

I don't know if I'd be interested in any of the "rebooted" new versions of their characters but if they put out paperbacks or graphic novel reprints of their vintage books I'd be all over that. I sold off the bulk of my comic collection in the late '90s and I wouldn't mind reading some of those oldies again. They were totally funky 1970s style cheez. WAY cooler than anything Charlton put out. Talk about schlock! Ugh!

I think I read about Atlas but never read an Atlas comic. I wonder how they will fair with all the indies out there now?