My New Comics

This week's best cover is The Black Coat: "...or give me death." #1, Ape Entertainment. Sorry for the low-res image.

She-Hulk #19, Marvel Comics.

The Walking Dead #38, Image.

The Black Coat: “…or give me death.” #1, Ape Entertainment. Unfortunately I missed the 1st miniseries “A call to Arms” but The Black Coat looks like it’s my kinda story. It’s set in 18th century New York on the eve of the American Revolution. Steampunk, gothic horror, spy thrillers and historical narrative collide into one gooey adventure series.

Battlestar Galactica #11 (based on the new show), Dynamite Entertainment.

Red Sonja #23, Dynamite Entertainment.

Ninja Scroll #10, DC Comics.

Back issue: Fall of Cthulhu #1, Boom Studios. (My shop found me a copy and a good thing they did as they skipped me the first time.


I also started picking up Previews. I got tired of missing gems from smaller comic companies.

-Swinebread

8 things about... me?

I’ve been tagged. This time by Heidi Meeley

Here are the rules:
- Each player starts with eight random facts about themselves.
- Those who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight facts and post these rules.
- At the end of the post, choose some people to get tagged and list their names.

1. I’ve been to Haiti… no, I wasn’t there for any kinda’ Vodoo stuff, but I bet it would have been a lot more interesting if I had gone there for that.

2. I was born without wisdom teeth. That’s right! No oral surgery for me.

3. I’ve been inside Dark Horse Comics Corporate office… twice!

4. Swinebread is a name I created long ago when I played the sequel to Sid Meier's Pirates!... Pirates! Gold

5. I did some acting on stage in my younger days.

6. The oldest comic I own is Airboy Comics v6 #11 from1949.

7. I secretly enjoyed the Smurfs when I was in jr. high

8. I worked as a cab driver for one night.

And thus I tag… Dean Wormer, Lady Bug, and Akronbey. I would tag overdroid but he can be kinda a dick about these sorta’ things... or maybe he's just really busy?

-Swinebread

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

Howdy folks… I’ve been busy…

I did get around to watching Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. The verdict? It’s OK. This film is certainly much better than the first one, although the plot is very predictable. Most of the fun really comes from watching the heroes (and villains) use their powers (duh). I didn’t expect much, so I wasn’t disappointed. I’ve tried to make my peace with the film version of the Fantastic Four that Tim Story brought to the screen. For the most part it’s easier to do with this sequel.

One of the main things to keep in mind about Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is that this is a family picture. The creators of the FF film franchise recognized that the Fantastic Four team was actually a family of sorts and so decided to make the films family friendly. While other superhero flix have gone for the dark and broody this one goes for light and funny, as you could probably tell from the commercials. There is the threat of the world being destroyed by Galactus but by sticking together, the Fantastic Four save the day with humor and resolve (awhh). In many ways the thrust of the plot reminded me of those live action Disney movies from the 1970s.

Another aspect of the film is the idea of the heroes as celebrities. While this has been touched upon in other superhero movies, FF2 takes it to the next level with stalker paparazzi and the 24-hour celebrity news cycle. While not an important part of the comic, this aspect of the film does, I admit, help ground the FF movie in “our” reality.

When it comes to the actors and they characters they portray, the big winner in my book is Chris Evans as the Human Torch. The hothead from the comic stories is fully realized on-screen with his performance. Despite never having heard of the FF before the first film, Evans “gets” Johnny Storm. Michael Chiklis also does a good job with his version of the Thing. While most of the rest of the cast is acceptable a few problems crop up, namely Jessica Alba as the Invisible Woman. She works her butt off and is Ok in the action sequences, but simply put, she is miscast. Part of it is the fact she doesn’t look right for the part. Her and Evans don’t look related. Seasoned actors could overcome this (think Edward James Olmos and Jamie Bamber in BSG) but the dyed hair and wild blue contacts just aren’t enough. Her maturity level also doesn’t match up with Ioan Gruffudd as Mr. Fantastic. Even my SO, who knows nothing about the FF and American superheroes in general, told me there was something wrong with her portrayal.

Another rough spot is Doctor Doom, which is frustrating because I think that Julian McMahon is capable of providing the megalomaniacal genius from the comics. In my opinion, he’s just being poorly directed. I did feel that his plots and plans in the film were more about the accumulation of power and so that aspect of the character was much more Dr. Doom-ish. I had a revelation recently that the villain we’re really getting in the in FF is Lex Luthor, or perhaps the Lex Luthor that should have been in the Superman films.

At least it wasn't the Hulk!

Here is what I liked in no particular order (spoilers):

Liked the Silver Surfer and his alien nature.

Stan Lee cameo

Chris Evans as the Human Torch

Johnny Storm switching powers with the rest of the team

Dr. Doom steals the Silver Surfer’s board

Laurence Fishburne as the Surfer’s voice

Movie takes place in various locations around the globe

Andre Braugher as General Hager

The fantastic-car shows up

The Thing’s new brow made him look more like the thing in the comics

Plots are laid for future films but are not shoved in your face

Some funny jokes

Here is what I disliked in no particular order (spoilers):
Showing all of the Silver Surfer’s best scenes in the trailers

Sue’s whining while the world is threatened

Predictable

The Japanese scene at the end was poorly done

We didn’t get to see Galactus (although, I admit, he might have looked silly if he did show up)

Jessica Alba as the Invisible Woman

Dr. Doom is still not there yet

Surfer’s CG could have been better

Missed Opportunities (spoilers):
At one point Sue switches powers with Johnny and gets his flame powers. That’s it; Jessica Alba should have been Frankie Raye.

Maybe Laurence Fishburne should have done the voice of Dr. Doom

Still didn’t really get to see Latveria


-Swinebread

Stan Lee on "To Tell the Truth"

This has been on youtube for a while, but it sure is interesting to see Stan in a younger man's clothes, not too long after he wrote most of the stories he's famous for.



-Swinebread

My Blog Is Rated...

Thanks to Ami Angelwings, I discovered a site that rates your blog based on content.

My blog is rated PG

Mingle²

It is because I wrote about Zombies... Hey what about Spiderman's Jizz? That's not good enough for even a PG-13?

My New Comics

This week's cover is Savage Tales #2, The Richard Isanove version.

The Mighty Avengers: Most Wanted Files #1, Marvel Comics. No, I haven't started reading the Avengers again. This is another one of those Official Handbook to Marvel Universe supplements.

Fall of Cthulhu #3, Boom Studios.

Savage Tales #2, Dynamite Entertainment. Featuring Red Sonja and other stories from the Hyborian age.

Shadowpact #14, DC Comics.

-Swinebread

They had a nice round of classic comic sillyness on last week's Photoshop Phriday at somethingawful.com

here are a few samples:






-Swinebread

Who Wants To Be A Superhero?

Don’t forget, It's coming back for a second season on July 25, 2007. Who Wants To Be A Superhero?

Here’s the trailer to remind you why the first season was so good... for many different reasons.

Randomness

I finally started reading my trade paperback copy of Wasteland from Oni Press. It’s a black and white post-apocalyptic comic set a hundred years after the big wet (an unspecified disaster). I’m enjoying it so far, but I’m also quite the sucker for post-apocalyptic stories. The art is slightly cartoony, but the grayscale helps keep it serious. Also, Oni Press is another homegrown comic company from Portland.


Finished reading The Chronicles of Conan volume 12 by Roy Thomas and Sal Buscema. It includes the tragic end of Robert E. Howard’s Queen of the Black Coast. Very fitting for me, as Vol 8, which had the first half of Queen of the Black Coast, got me started buying these Conan comic collections. You can read my original review of Volume 8 here. If you are a Conan or a sword and sorcery fan, do yourself a favor and pick these up. I am now personally convinced that Conan the Barbarian is the best mainstream comic from the 1970s. This is due to the heavily researched legwork by the writer and the fantastic drawings by the artists. I can’t wait for next collection due in Novmember.
I also finished reading Who Fighter by Seiho Takizawa. It’s a trade that collects a few one off manga stories. I enjoyed it quite a bit. From the backcover:

the first story in this anthology, "Who Fighter," is a play on the legendary "Foo Fighters," the nickname given to the mysterious, UFO-like fireballs that were sighted by World War II pilots. An ace Japanese pilot manages to shoot one of the fireballs down . . . or does he? As ominous signs and visions begin to follow in his steps, the bewildered pilot wonders if he's lost not only his memory of the incident–but also his very mind! The second story, "Heart of Darkness," is Takizawa's unique take on the Joseph Conrad novel that inspired the film Apocalypse Now. A Japanese war hero, Colonel Kurutsu, has gone rogue, setting up his own private kingdom deep upriver in the jungles of Burma. A young captain, sent to execute Kurutsu, finds that the true reasons for the Colonel's "desertion" are very different from what he was told

I wish Mr. Takizawa would have created a continuing series for who fighter, as the concept was very engaging and weird War is another of my favorite genres.

Hey, I also wanted to give a heads up as the Stargate: SG1 series finale airs this Friday. I’m gonna’ miss it because of work, but SciFi should rebroadcast later. It had a good run with really strong shows in the middle seasons.

-Swinebread

My New Comics

Another light selection. This week's best cover by default is Tag: Cursed #4

Tag: Cursed #4, Boom Studios.
Ed continues to track the path of the Tag curse across the United
States - and actually finds an end to it! Keith Giffen's dark horror franchise continues, barreling to its terrible conclusion...

The Chronicles of Conan Vol 12 trade paperback, Dark Horse Comics. Reprints of Marvel's Conan the Barbarian 91, 93-100. Continues the Bêlit storyline that fans know culminates with Conan’s greatest tragedy. Man, I love the John Buscema art in this comic

-Swinebread

Mercury Studios is now… Periscope

Portland’s homegrown comic artist collective changes its name from Mercury Studios to Periscope. They’re getting a new space and adding room for more artists. From here:

Mercury Studio, the largest studio of freelance comic book creators in North America, announced today that it has a new name: Periscope. This follows a move to a new space overlooking downtown Portland, long known as a major hub of the comics industry.

"We often invited creators from all ends of the field to come by and work," explained Jeff Parker, a Periscope member best known for his writing at Marvel Comics. "As we were looking to move to a larger space, Steve Lieber suggested we go ahead and invite some of them to have permanent desks. Now we're a fairly thorough cross-section of the comics industry."

"We can really pool resources and let our skills cross-pollinate," added founding member David Hahn. " Now it's common to see a major emerging talent like Colleen Coover swap tips with an established veteran like Ron Randall, or Jesse Hamm assisting Matthew Clark in between his own graphic novels."

New member Dylan Meconis describes the varied workweek of the new assemblage. "We're doing storyboards, editorial illustration, theatrical and animation design. On any given day, there can be a dozen different projects going on here- and of course, comics!"

With all the talent and industry credit in one shop, it’s another example of why Portland is the west coast epicenter for comic books. As noted from a recent Oregonian article here:

...this quirky little studio occupies an important place in the multimillion-dollar comics industry: One editor once joked that if all Mercury's members were to fall sick, at least one major comic-book company would be forced to shut down…

…With so many comic-book artists living in Portland, it made sense to try to band together and share the cost of studio space, so they could get out of the house, so they could stop being so lonely, so they could, as member Ron Randall puts it, "come back to the world."

The first location they chose for the studio lasted a little more than a year before problems with the building forced them to leave. A year and a half ago, they moved to their current space at Southwest Fifth and Stark.
Although some of the early comic book studios, such as the famous Eisner-Iger studio of the late 1930s and early 1940s, were built around the idea of a roomful of artists working like an assembly line on a single comic (to the point that "many of the older artists today don't even remember the books they worked on," says Schutz), all the artists at Mercury work on their own projects, and in wildly different styles.

I had the pleasure of interviewing several Periscope (Mercury Studios) members for my documentary Portland Comics and I get a little fanboy pride out of knowing that so many great talents of the industry live and work right here in “small” Portland. With Periscope’s expansion and name change it looks like this hometown comic book Renaissance might just continue for quite a while… and that suits me just fine.

-Swinebread

Let’s Watch a Popeye Cartoon!!!!!!!!!

There was a time when local TV Station’s had local children’s programming. It usually involved awestruck kids sitting on bleachers watching loony tunes and Popeye. Low budgets and corny hosts ruled the day but they were fun in their own simple way and it was one those few chances for a child to get his or her shot at 15 minutes of fame. When I traveled to a new city as a grade-schooler, It was very important that I check out local kids cartoon show so I could compare it to my hometown version.
Since I grew up in Portland, Oregon, The Ramblin’ Rod Show (1964- 1997) was the local cartoon program. It aired in the morning right before we went school. I remember sneaking out of my room on cold winter mornings so I could watch the heavily buttoned Rod Anders sail in on his boat, chitchat with the kids, and yell, “lets watch another cartoon!” Sometimes, as Portland was a small market, you might even see somebody you knew. One of the big parts of the show was the smile contest, if you won, and every kid wanted to win mind you, it was a dream come true as you would get a free bottle of Pop Shoppe Pop or a silly toy.

I was actually on The Ramblin’ Rod Show twice. The first time was for my birthday. It was an amazing experience for a kid. I sat on the upper (stage) left corner and actually talked to Rod, or rather he talked to me and I fumbled out some lame answers. The Chucky Cheese characters came out and sang us a song (which I can still sing almost word for world), and I got a yoyo. Luckily that yoyo took the sting out of not being the smile winner. A few years later, when I was older and cooler, *chuckle* my Cub Scout troop went on the show. I proudly wore my scout uniform, but alas, it didn’t help me become a smile winner for my second appearance, although, the recognition from the other kids at school smoothed things over.

I took away many things from the show, including an appreciation of golden age cartoons, but the big lesson I learned was that TV wasn’t live, i.e. it was recorded. Before I went on The Ramblin’ Rod Show, I could never figure out how all those kids’ parents let them go to the TV station so early in the morning. Being at KPTV in the afternoon and seeing myself on TV the next day opened my eyes to the way the world of TV worked. I also learned that shows were “edited” as we didn’t’ get to watch all the cartoons in the studio like we did at home, though we cheered for all of them to appear after Rod’s famous call.

Coming across some clips on youtube reminded me of many moments long ago and made me realize that The Ramblin’ Rod Show formed a very special part of my childhood.


Update found a site here with a complete show and bloopers!

-Swinebread

Superhero Supply Company

Pandabonium tipped me off (thanks) about a store in New York: The Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. Yes, there’s a place to get a kinds of crime fighting gear from utility belts to waving capes. It’s actually the second store, the original first appeared in San Francisco but with a pirate theme. That kinda’ figures doesn’t it. While everybody having a ball picking out his or her favorite crime fighter garb, the patrons might discover that the store itself has an alter ego as an all-volunteer writing center.
From here

By July, the Brooklyn Superhero Supply Co. was open for business, and walking inside, visitors were not disappointed. There were in fact capes and other superhero costumes; there were ropes and grappling hooks for scaling buildings; there were invisibility potions and X-ray goggles; and there were cans filled with anti-matter. But why sell superhero supplies? Is there really a market for that sort of thing? Well, the answer (and could there really be a better answer?) is that they are selling superhero supplies to support 826NYC, their non-profit writing and tutoring center, which is housed in the back of the store.

The writing center opened its doors in September 2004 to students in the area aged six to eighteen with the express goal of helping them improve their writing ability. 826NYC offers free writing workshops, publishing projects, and one-on-one drop-in tutoring Sunday through Thursday. Moreover, they host field trips for entire classes to visit the writing center for workshops on topics like storytelling or bookmaking, or for meet-the-author events where kids can ask solicit advise from published writers.

Again New York is proven to be the epicenter of the Superhero, but this time it’s accessible to the average person… and folks needing help with their writing.

He's Got Vulcan Blood

Now if you want the that extra bit of realism roleplaying a Vulcan, try large doses of sumatriptan. from here

A team of Canadian surgeons got a shock when the patient they were operating on began shedding dark greenish-black blood, the Lancet reports.
The man emulated Star Trek's Mr Spock - the Enterprise's science officer who supposedly had green Vulcan blood.

In this case, the unusual colour of the 42-year-old's blood was down to the migraine medication he was taking.

The man's leg surgery went ahead successfully and his blood returned to normal once he had eased off the drug.

Freaky!

-Swinebread

My New Comics

Howdy Folks! We got a bigger haul than usual. This week’s best cover is Raise the Dead #3.

Battlestar Galactica: Cylon Apocalypse #4 (based on the old show), Dynamite Entertainment.

Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born #5, Marvel Comics.

Jonah Hex #20, DC Comics, Dynamite Entertainment.

Marvel Zombies VS. Army of Darkness #4, Marvel Comics.

Raise the Dead #3, Dynamite Entertainment.

Battlestar Galactica #10 (based on the new show), Dynamite Entertainment.

The Lone Ranger #6, Dynamite Entertainment.

The Incredible Hulk #106 Variant, Marvel Comics. I Had to find out what happened to She-Hulk!

Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Mystic Arcana #1, Marvel Comics.

Impulse Buy: Black Summer #0, Avatar. The prez and the vice prez get taken out by a superhero.

Impulse Buy: MPD – Psycho #1, Dark Horse Comics. I haven’t read it yet, but I think I made a mistake picking this one up. It’s really not my kinda stuff. Well, I can always sell it to Powell’s.

I also ordered a book too. The Spider: Robot Titans of Gotham by Norvell Page. The Spider is one of those pulp heroes from the 1930s. I’ve read about him, so I figured it was time to actually read some of his adventures.

-Swinebread

‘Polish Anne Frank’ Comes to Light in Discovered Diary

I actually learned about this from the Newspaper rather than from TV news or the Internet. AP report Via the NY daily news here

the diary of a 14-year-old Jewish girl dubbed the "Polish Anne Frank" was unveiled on Monday, chronicling the horrors she witnessed in a Jewish ghetto - at one point watching a Nazi soldier tear a Jewish baby away from his mother and kill him with his bare hands.
The diary, written by Rutka Laskier in 1943 shortly before she was deported to Auschwitz, was released by Israel's Holocaust museum more than 60 years after she recorded what is both a daily account of the horrors of the Holocaust in Bedzin, Poland and a memoir of the life of a teenager in extraordinary circumstances.

Apparently her diary was kept by a childhood friend all these years but was finally released when it’s value as a historical document was realized. Check the link and read some of the quotes from her book. Even these small snippets are very moving. Considering the impact that Ann Frank’s diary has had, this is an enormous find. Another voice speaks from beyond the grave.

-Swinebread

It’s official… Jericho Season 2

An open letter from CBS confirms it’s coming back for season 2.
Originally posted at TV GAL

To the Fans of Jericho:

Wow!

Over the past few weeks you have put forth an impressive and probably unprecedented display of passion in support of a prime time television series. You got our attention; your emails and collective voice have been heard.

As a result, CBS has ordered seven episodes of "Jericho" for mid-season next year. In success, there is the potential for more. But, for there to be more "Jericho," we will need more viewers.

A loyal and passionate community has clearly formed around the show. But that community needs to grow. It needs to grow on the CBS Television Network, as well as on the many digital platforms where we make the show available.

We will count on you to rally around the show, to recruit new viewers with the same grass-roots energy, intensity and volume you have displayed in recent weeks.

At this time, I cannot tell you the specific date or time period that "Jericho" will return to our schedule. However, in the interim, we are working on several initiatives to help introduce the show to new audiences. This includes re-broadcasting "Jericho" on CBS this summer, streaming episodes and clips from these episodes across the CBS Audience Network (online), releasing the first season DVD on September 25 and continuing the story of Jericho in the digital world until the new episodes return. We will let you know specifics when we have them so you can pass them on.

On behalf of everyone at CBS, thank you for expressing your support of "Jericho" in such an extraordinary manner. Your protest was creative, sustained and very thoughtful and respectful in tone. You made a difference.

Sincerely,

Nina Tassler

President, CBS Entertainment

P.S. Please stop sending us nuts : )

The fans did it. I'm sure the cast and crew are really happy as well.

-Swinebread

Jericho Fans go Nuts… Save the Show?

It seems that Jericho might get renewed after all. Thanks to a tip from Dean Wormer, this newsie item from TV Guide lays out the down low here.

Multiple sources are telling me that CBS is thisclose to sealing a deal to bring Jericho back for at least eight episodes, possibly at mid-season

I knew there was a big letter and email campaign from the fans but I took little notice as these things rarely work. Plus, I think I ignored the whole thing as I didn’t want to be disappointed. But this time the fans took some inspiration from that show itself and sent CBS truckloads of peanuts. See in the final episode of Jericho one of the characters references General Anthony C. McAuliffe famous line “Nuts” from the Battle of Bastogne, as inspiration to defend their town. So Fans of the show began buying huge loads of Peanuts from Nuts Online to send to CBS. Jeffrey Braverman of nuts online was amazed at the response.

Braverman thought about one of his favorite television shows, "Lost," and how he would feel if suddenly ABC pulled it off the air like CBS did with "Jericho." That's when he realized his company would do whatever they could to help fans of "Jericho" make a statement with its "Nuts to You, CBS!" campaign. And Tuesday morning, the network's New York offices will have more than 1,000 pounds of peanuts -- enough to make more than 2,000 people quite satisfied -- sitting in its mailroom.

from here

According to this thread at TV.com they're up to 38,000 POUNDS or 19 TONS O' NUTS already! Wow, that’s alotta’ nuts. CBS is coming to the realization that they blew it by putting Jericho opposite American Idol. If the show does come back, it’s very cool that desperate situations both real, the soldiers of Bastogne, and imagined, the defenders of Jericho, motivated it. Regardless, My hat’s off to the fans. It looks like you may have done it.

-Swinebread

Dreaming of Swords and Rayguns...

I had a weird dream the other night. It started out with Conan the Barbarian (not the Arnie one, but the John Buscema one from Marvel Comics) and me battling our way through some ancient back alley. We were probably in a Turanian city like Aghrapur or Zamboula as there was sand everywhere. I’ve been readin’ a lot of Conan lately, could you tell? Anyway, we were fighting some nefarious, robed rogues on a dark street, with me mostly bobbing and weaving so Conan could do his slaughter thing, when our surroundings changed. The sword and sorcery street morphed into a modern version and the thugs were gone.

The two of us looked at each other with befuddlement before we jogged to the end of the street to get our bearings. When we rounded a corner we ran into a group of what looked liked beggars. They had tattered; dirty clothing and a few were deformed. I quickly noticed that they weren’t actually begging but bartering with each other, using all manner of junk from makeshift wagons. I paused, looked at Conan and then looked around and noticed that we weren’t in a modern city but in the remains of a modern city. Recognizing this to be some sort of post-apocalyptic world, I grilled an old man (it’s always and old man isn’t it) for details. He told me that a huge battle was raging outside the city between the forces defending the city and a group of super-mutants. …Super-mutants?!

Well, being the protagonists of my dream, Conan and I set out for the desert. The rest of the story is kinda’ hazy, but we immediately linked up with an armored group of what looked like the Brotherhood of Steel from Fallout. Their commander showed me a small device that had a digital readout, showing the progress of the battle via a hex grid. It looked a lot like a computer strategy game. I don’t really remember the rest, but I think Conan and I left for the “front” to engage the super-mutants with me feeling a lot more useful in this world than in Conan’s Hyboria. At this point I woke up and realized: “Hey, I had a Conan / Fallout crossover.
It’s strange because I don’t usually have such direct dreams about pop culture. Usually, if they’re interesting at all, my dreamscapes have to do with creepy investigations, beachfront environments or urban excursions. This particular dream is the first time I’ve ever “interacted” with any kind of comic book character, like Conan. I’m thinking it must be because another collection of the Conan comics is on the way (here). Dark Horse has been doing an excellent job reprinting the old Conan the Barbarian series with new coloring. Also, a possibility is that Mongoose Publishing is releasing the 2nd edition of the Conan RPG. I’m pretty excited about that too.

As for Fallout… well, I’ve always been a big fan of post-apocalyptic stories and both Fallout and Fallout 2 are my favorite computer games. I had recently gone on youtube and watched some of videos from the game. I guess I was kinda’ nostalgic so that’s why I must have dreamt about Fallout. Supposedly Fallout 3 is in the works, but who knows when that’s coming out. The guys making it sure don’t.


When comes to the crossover aspect, the only thing I can come up with is… I want a Fallout comic books series. Think about it. I really enjoy both the new and the old Conan comics currently being published by Dark Horse. Conan’s adventurers occur in an incredibly detailed fantasy universe. Fallout, by comparison, has this amazingly rich, visually engaging retro-futuristic world. It just begs for a comic series. I think that a comic company could make some serious cash on it as long as they stayed true to the computer game’s themes. Also, another aspect might be that I’ve always wanted to run/or play in a nice long post-apocalyptic campaign. Conan’s got a good tabletop RPG, so I’d like something compatible for Fallout. Darwin’s World comes close but… I just haven’t gotten around to it.

Anyway, my dreams were back to normal last night as I had an excursion through a city that couldn’t make up its mind if it wanted to be New York, London or Frankfurt.

-Swinebread

My New Comics

Not much this week
This Week's cover by default is Wrath of the Titans #1.

Wrath of the Titans #1, Bluewater Productions. That’s right! This is the comic sequel to one of my childhood favorites: Clash of the Titans. See, old Ray Harryhausen never got to make the sequel he planned despite the fact that Clash of the Titans made money. But now, through comics, we get to see what the next story would have been. Check out Bluewater Productions site here.


52 Vol 1 trade paperback, DC Comics. I wanted to see what all the hype was about even though I know the big surprise at the end… Well, come to think of it, maybe that’s why I picked it up. Also, from now on, I’m gonna’ buy these big events and miniseries from the big two (Marvel and DC) in TPB form only.

-Swinebread

Comic Book Storytelling Shifts

Update: Sorry folks the NY Times put a filter subscription on this story. Dam, I wish I had copied more of text to this post. Live and learn...
This has been out for a few weeks but this item from the NY Times is kinda interesting (see here).

But now it is the comic-book industry that is grabbing ideas from movies and television — in this case not necessarily stories or characters, but the way Hollywood does its work

There’s a new storytelling approach in comic land. Taking a cue from Hollywood, Comic book companies are embracing a season mentality for their stories. This makes sense for properties like Dark Horse’s Buffy comic, which is basically season 8, but its’ also being applied to the regular superhero comics as well especially with big events like DC’s 52. Since movies and TV have been strip-mining comics for ideas for years it seems only natural that comic companies would borrow profitable storytelling models from other forms of entertainment. Also, management of the comic process includes the new role of executive producer, although the comic book version really doesn’t have a title at this point. But, essentially, creators are being hired to perform this very job for many comic book series. It appears to be paying off too.

Who would have though of it: if the comic guys put more time and thought into the interweaving, continuity heavy storylines, they would make more money and produce better stories… Heck, many of the writers work for Hollywood anyway so why not.