Not much news wise so I cannot justify a really long opening. You may now breathe a sigh of relief.
She’s A Manea…oh…Manhunter. Damn, So Close to A Hall & Oates Reference
There’s a new Manhunter in the DCU… and she’s about to attract a lot of attention!
So who is the woman who’s taking on the venerable name? We went to Manhunter writer Marc Andreyko to get some info about the new series and its star.
Stalk the villains to Newsarama and learn them the law. Booyah!
I really like the look of the art, both cover (Lae Lee = genius) and the interiors by Jesus Saiz. I also notice that this first issue will feature Copperhead, who seems to be all the rage right now between this and appearances in Nightwing. A spinoff book on the way, perhaps. (By the way, is he completely snake-like now because of Underworld Unleashed, or has he just evolved from a man with snake costume to a snake man? Just curious).
However, what interests me more is how this fits into DC’s new edict of a “tougher†DCU. I am very much looking forward to how fan reaction will shake down on this one as, for some time now, DC has been praised for making well made comics that were also “fun.†Not fun in the slapstick (or Slapstick) sense of the word, but fun as in delighting in superhero-ness and the bright primary color approach associated with that. Meanwhile, Marvel seemed to have drifted more the other way. Now with the X-Men’s costume returning, the return of a bazillion X-related books, and other switches at Marvel compared to DC’s “tougheningâ€, are they switching approaches? Color me intrigued.
Vaughan Speaks to AICN, The Quality Leaves Me Babbling in Jealousy
Howdy, folks, Cormorant here!
You guys heard of this Brian K. Vaughan character? Comic book writer type? You should have by now, ‘cause this is definitely his year. He’s still hard at work on his break-out Vertigo comic, the post-apocalyptic Y: THE LAST MAN, but Vaughan’s not the kind of guy to be pigeonholed. He’s shown a decidedly non-Vertigo understanding of superheroes in projects like ULTIMATE X-MEN, MYSTIQUE, and even the R-rated supervillain book, THE HOOD. He also gave Marvel its smartest, funnest book of 2003 with RUNAWAYS, equal parts Harry Potter youth adventure and Marvel Universe road trip.
Last week he upped the ante once again with EX MACHINA, a ballsy mixture of sci-fi, superheroes and indie politics. When the opportunity presented itself to conduct an e-mail interview with him about that and more, you’re damn right we jumped at it! Vaughan was generous to a fault as he answered, in his words, the “ten billion goddamn questions†we sent him. He discussed series old and new, gave me the evil eye when I brought up “writing for the trade”, waxed metaphorical about sex with Barbara Bush, and challenged me to a game of CRIMSON SKIES.
We start with some warm-up questions and move quickly to the New and Exciting…
New and exciting? New and exciting?! Oh my god, what could it be?! Find out at Ain’t It Cool News
I’d like to write a lot about this interview, but I just can’t. It is SO good that, perhaps, it has completely melted my brain. I don’t know. All I do know is that I have picked up two interviews with comic creators from Aint It Cool News and both have been excellent. They took a long look at the creator’s work and question not just the now and the future, but things that came before it as well. I commend AICN for another great interview with an excellent creator.
Seriously, just read the damn thing. So good!
DC Visits Neverwhere
It’s been a novel, a BBC miniseries, and now, Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere will move to comics, in the form of a miniseries from DC.
Gaiman quietly confirmed that DC is working on the miniseries at his blog, and when asked by Newsarama, DC confirmed that the project is in the works, with more details to be released soon.
At one time, it was rumored that Michael Zulli would be illustrating, though DC did not confirm, or name an artist.
Follow the NotARoad to the NoSuchStore, take a left and go straight until you hit Un Avenue and you’ll find Newsarama God…the lengths I will go for a bad joke…
You have to love (no, seriously, you HAVE to) how bombastic and over the top the bookflap is. “If Tim Burton reimagined The Phantom of the Opera, if Jack Finney let his dark side take over, if you rolled the best work of Clive Barker, Peter Straub and Caleb Carr into one, you still would have something that fell far short of Neil Gaiman’s NEVERWHERE.†What?! Don’t get me wrong, I got this book stripped when I was working at B. Dalton all those years ago at Westfarms Mall. (Sadly, that is not nearly as dirty as it sounds. “Stripping†in the bookselling industry means to tear the cover off a book or magazine that is not selling and sending it back to the publisher for a partial refund. The book or magazine left behind is then either tossed, donated, or, more likely, plundered by a bookstore employee. And here we endeth the bookstore lingo lesson.) It was entertaining. I liked the whole magic kingdom just underneath our feet touch. It reminded me a lot of Magic Kingdom For Sale: Sold by Terry Brooks (genius writer of fantasy, by the way. If you want something on par with Tolkien read Brooks’s original Shannara series. Great stuff), although far darker.
That being said, Barker, Straub, and Carr all rolled into one? That sounds like me sarcastically riffing on my writings from eighth grade. “This is like Crichton meets Grisham meets Clancy, and then they all had a baby with James Joyce…that’s how genius this is.†The lesson here is: there is smart self-promotion and then there is…well…self promotion that becomes parody. Neverwhere book flap, meet parody.
Because I Know You Love It: More Manga News!!!
Forthcoming titles include the international bestsellers Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne and Tenjo Tenge, as well as titles by Tajima Sho-u (who created the character designs for the anime sequences in the film Kill Bill: Volume 1) and Fujii Mihona’s Gals! (the basis for the popular anime series SuperGals!)
A press release confirmed more details about DC Comics’ upcoming manga line, CMX including the hiring of Jake Tarbox as the CMX Group Editor. The first three releases are Madara by Tajima Sho-u and Otsuka Eiji, Mekakushi no Kuni by Tsukuba Sakura, and EROIKA YORI AI WO KOMETE by Aoike Yasuko. Other titles in the line include: Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne, Gals!, TENJO TENGE, 9 Banme no Musashi, Swan, MONSTER COLLECTION, and AKUMA DE SORO.
So yeah, that’s all I have to say about that
The Overlord Does Something Besides Pimp 144anima? Shock, Horror!
In the comic industry, there are many different types of comics that you will find on the shelves. There are the really good titles that sell really well, the not so good titles that sell really well, the not so good titles that sell pretty poorly, and then there are the critically acclaimed series whose sales numbers are a travesty to justice. Ed Brubaker’s Sleeper falls squarely in the last category. As one of the two writers of Gotham Central though (the other being Greg Rucka), Ed is no stranger to critically acclaimed series that don’t sell anywhere near their potential.
Launching last year, as an intended miniseries, to very little fanfare, Sleeper took the comic news world by storm. With its no-holds-barred storytelling, its fascinating characters and setting, and its gritty yet emotionally charged art, Sleeper caught the eye of just about every critic in the industry and sent them into a frenzy. The catch? The general comic buying public either didn’t listen or didn’t care, and Sleeper languished toward the lower levels of the comic selling charts.
Now, after some crazy (yet ingenious) promotions, more critical attention than I’ve ever seen directed at one title, and a couple of rushed trade paperbacks of the entire first series, Sleeper is back for round two with Sleeper Season Two, which picks up the story several months after the end of Season One.
I caught up with Ed this past week and had a chance to talk with him about Sleeper’s rising sales numbers, corporate promotions, and of course Season Two.
Head right on over to our backyard at 411mania and be sure to play nice with other kiddies.
It is good to hear some optimism about Wildstorm’s future from Mr. Brubaker. Obviously, they aren’t have nearly the difficulties of, let’s say, CrossGen, or Marvel back in the day, but that does not mean morale does not suffer. With Brubaker in good spirits after the cancellations, it tells me Wildstorm is probably on solid ground in that department.
I won’t talk anymore about this interview since it would be pretty self-serving (it is our website after all). Daron does a bang up job though, so check it out.
Free Comic Book Day Awaits
Yes, time flies when you’re having fun, and here at Free Comic Book Day Headquarters (or, as we like to call it, “FCBD HQâ€), we’re all about the fun. We make it, we package it with pretty colors, and we deliver it to you FREE. It doesn’t get much better than that!
Check out Comixtreme for all the day’s events.
Yeah for free comics. Yeah for comic book promotions. Hell, yeah for all things comics. What kind of lobbying do we have to do to get this declared a national holiday?
TAKING AIM AT THE GRIMACE
Well, as far as I am concerned, 411mania is the best comics site on the web.
–Dan Hughes
As far as I am concerned, you are the smartest e-mail writer I’ve had on this column. Then again, I could be biased.
And thus endeth a short edition of News and Views. Have a great week and enjoy the Fourth of July this weekend. GO AMERICA!
If you had half as much fun reading this column as Un Gajje did making it, well, then Un Gajje had twice as much fun making the column as you did reading it.
