Leave Your Spandex At the Door 14.08.07

News

Welcome back.

This is Leave Your Spandex @t the Door, often weekly, from the man who put the ‘Geek’ in ‘Greek’.

For those keeping count (that means me), this here is the 96th column in our series. I’m going to try a new format for the column, taking the focus away from advance and bullet reviews, in favour of opening up our possibilities. The old favourite features, like the Panel of the Week voting, the Hot Grade, the Currentlies, the Roundtables, the PreviewScopes and the Interviews are staying, with new surprises coming soon.

What else is new? LYS@D now has its own blog on Blogger/Blogspot. This is updated daily, with reviews, polls, random thoughts, news, videos and commentary. Be sure to check the page out and subscribe to my RSS feed.

This week in comics…

DEATH OF A GREAT ARTIST


Yesterday the amazing artist Mike Wieringo passed away from a heart attack at age 44. I was shocked from the news, as Mike was so young and full of passion for his life and his work. I’d like to pass my condolences to his family and friends.

Over at Newsarama, Karl Kesel, Todd Dezago and Mark Waid talk about Mike. Waid and Dezago were the two writers he worked with for most of his career, on Tellos, Fantastic Four, Sensational Spider-man and the Flash.

Mike always loved comics and spent almost every day talking to his fans through his blog and posting a daily sketch for them. His last sketch was his own creation, Tellos, on Friday.


MATT WAGNER AND CHRISTIANITY IN THE DC UNIVERSE

An excerpt from Matt Wagner’s panel from WizardWorld Chicago:

Talking about Jason Todd coming back as the Red Hood, Wagner wondered why there are Christians in the DC Universe since there are so many people that come back from the dead, rendering Jesus’ resurrection as not out of the ordinary.

This of course is a very valid point. So Jesus Christ came back from the dead two thousand years ago. Superman did that 5 years ago, Donna Troy does it every month, and even the Green Arrow came back from the dead once. Resurrection should have lost its currency by now.

The problem of course is worse over in the Marvel Universe, where half the population has at one point died and come back to life (some Thanos crossover bru-haha) in the 90s.

VOTE FOR PANEL OF THE WEEK

Each week I’ll be posting the 3-4 most memorable panels from the week and putting them up for a public week-long vote. The winning panels gets posted on the sidebar and earns boasting privileges over lesser panels…


A. COUNTDOWN #37

Look, Ma! I’ve got a hand up my ass!

B. GEN13 #11

The AuthoriTeen version of Jack Hawksmoor

C. ULTIMATE X-MEN #85

Rug Burn

D. X-FACTOR #22 – Endangered Species back-up

Power-packed

INTRODUCING THE BAT-UTILITY PURSE

Didn’t the original Bat-Woman actually carry something akin to this?

Accessorising gone Bat-bad

(photos courtesy of Newsarama blog)

WIZARDWORLD CHICAGO 2007 NEWS ROUNDUP

What we Learned and what we Thought about it:

(links courtesy of Newsarama)


HITCH IS A LIAR: MILLAR/HITCH ON FANTASTIC FOUR

It’s the ‘Misdirection of the Year Award. Checking the previous teasers about the new title, they were always followed by ‘Bryan Hitch confirmed it’s NOT the Fantastic Four’.

The interview makes me hopeful for a good run, especially saying that they will try new ideas and locales, instead of just bringing back the Frightful Four, Dr Doom and Galactus (mr McDuffie, I’m looking in your general direction).

Who else chuckled at Hitchy proclaiming this will be a monthly? Honestly now… I’ll adopt a ‘wait and see’ attitude here.

What I really hope here is for an actually significant run in terms of sheer issues produced. Millar hasn’t stayed on a title for more than 12 issues, other than Ultimate X-Men. The last Fantastic Four writer to give us a significan run was Claremont and it wasn’t even a good one. And the last time I seriously enjoyed a Fantastic Four run was Scott Lobdell’s three issues of Heroes Reborn.

‘Wait and See’

DC’S NEW KIDS COMICS

Right there is the biggest mistake on DC’s part. ‘Kids’ titles, instead of ‘All Ages’. Kids don’t really like being talked down to. And where are the digest collections to get these comics into their hands anyway. Anyway:

The direct animation-linked comics (JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED, TEEN TITANS GO) are being scrapped (amen) and replaced by some new concepts:

TINY TITANS by Art Baltazar (creator of the horridly boring, but cute PATRICK THE WOLF BOY), which again looks too cute to resist, with that distinct mini-Marvels appeal. I’m sure it will do wonders in merchandising.

BILLY BATSON AND THE MAGIC OF SHAZAM by Mike Kunkel (HEROBEAR) which follows thematically from Jeff Smith’s excellent recent mini.

SUPER-FRIENDS which actually uses the JLU cast? I’m not going near that.

FRANCIS MANAPUL NEW LEGION ARTIST

A Top Cow alumni to follow up after the super-talented Barry Kitson? Disgraceful I’m sure Leonard Kirk was available and a wiser choice. Manapul is apparently also ditching most of Kitson’s designs and replacing them with a mix of old and new in Image 90s style… Cosmic Boy and Saturn Girl’s costumes say it all. Btw, no Supergirl!

GENNDY TARTAKOVSKY & BLAXPLOITATION LUKE CAGE

The image really says it all here. G.T. is the infamous creator of Dexter’s Laboratory and Samurai Jack. Now I’d love to see a Cage cartoon in this style! This is “a new four-issue mini-series that puts Luke Cage at the center of ’70s-style butt-kicking action”.

Hey, as long as he has a ‘fro and is sporting that tiara, I’m there!


COUNTDOWN: ARENA

A 4-issue mini in the popular ‘YOU decide’ format. What it is, essentially, is a fan-voted vote between different versions of popular characters from different Elseworlds projects. Like seeing Kingdom Come Superman, versus Superman Red Son and True Brit Superman (just as an example). The winners of the fan voting will win the in-comic battle and make it into Countdown.

It’s more ‘DC versus Marvel’ than Jason Todd, I’m surprised the interviewer didn’t bring up that connection instead.


SI SPURRIER ON SILVER SURFER

I met Simon in a recent signing in Manchester and he explained just how he pitched this project, putting in every crazy idea he could muster, to make the book completely un-pitchable and unpublishable. Then Marvel green-lit it. It should be fun, I won’t spoil anything beforehand.


LIEFELD DRAWING KILLRAVEN


Sweet Jesus WHY!?!

We’re above and beyond pointing out the obvious glaring anatomy mistakes, the crimes against perspective and the widely-spread foot mutation.

Liefeld is probably not the worst artist in existence, or the worst artist in the business. I’d describe him as simply untrained and undisciplined. What is annoying to me is how this obviously amateur artist can consistently find high-profile work in the industry’s top company and attract the most competent writers to produce scripts for him to wreck. After all ,this guy has drawn for every major name in the business, from Jeph Loeb to Joe Casey and from Robert Kirkman to Alan Moore himself!

Marvel at more preview art over at NEWSARAMA

THE GAY X-MEN PERSPECTIVE

That is to say, the Gay perspective on X-Men, courtesy of the Boy Blunder over at GayGamer.net

Boy Blunder is replying to the recent bigoted hacker attack on the popular queer website, using the x-men as a modern analog for queer nation and other groups of people who are sometimes gated for simply being different. I couldn’;t have said it better than B-B, so I’ll simply quote him here:
“The most important lesson I learned from comics though relates to hatred. I learned that any group that is sufficiently different is a target for ignorance. Skin color, sexuality, mutant abilities, whatever the cause, if you are different, you will be hated. You see, gay people tend to love superheroes because we get it. We know what is like to hide your True Identityâ„¢. The need to blend in, the protection of banality. But it is a lie. We are different, and we’re hated because of it.
I also learned, largely due to Stan Lee, that the responsibility for dealing with hatred directed at me is in my hands. I could rant and rage and take matters into my own hands, like Magneto. In truth that probably could accomplish some good. Or, I could choose to be like Charles Xavier and the X-Men. I could choose to love and defend those people that hate me. This really isn’t altruism, in my opinion, it is about what I allow to consume me. I choose love over hatred.
I have no idea if they will catch whomever did this. In many respects I don’t care. But I can promise you this, if anyone anywhere hates me for what I am, my response is simple. Let’s go have coffee and talk. Explain to me where you’re coming from, and I will attempt to do the same. Its okay to disagree, and we’ll probably not change each others minds. But I will not react to hatred with more hatred, only love and coffee.
”

Xavier would be proud, BB :)

EGO-MAN, DEFENDER OF ONLY HIMSELF

PEARLS BEFORE SWINE regularly bridges the gap from absurd puns to cultural commentary, and from running gags to moments of sheer sarcastic brilliance. No wonder it’s my favourite strip.

(And no wonder it’s done by a Greek, eh? ;) )

Nothing you need to know to enjoy, apart from the two protagonists: Rat (a self-absorbed, cynical, basically evil and apathetic, well, rat) and Pig (a dumb pig)


CAREY AND GAIMAN NOMINATED FOR BRITISH FANTASY AWARDS

Mike Carey’s ‘FELIX CASTOR: THE DEVIL YOU KNOW’ and Neil Gaiman’s ‘FRAGILE THINGS’ are nominated for the August Derleth Award in the Novel category and the Collection category, respectively, in the British Fantasy Society Awards.

The Awards are awarded annually since 1971, and the winners will be announced on the 23rd of September.

I’m only one third of the way through Carey’s FELIX CASTOR novel, but the delay sis solely due to the troublesome mr Potter! FRAGILE THINGS is on my shelf waiting its turn to be read, behind ANANSI BOYS.

Best of luck to both our british faves!

GAY SUPERHERO PORN: BACKSTAGE PASS

Some people have taken this blog’s name too literally…

These photos are making the rounds of the Blogosphere this morning, and the thought in my head is,

How can I get my hands on the actual footage?

The Story: dirtbikers catch some weird terrace activity going on, finding a quintet of costumed do-gooders with a camera getting… ready for action! Robin snogging Super-boy, spider-man on his knees for Venom and Robin indulging in a special crossover…

Aaaaand on that happy note, that’s a wrap for this week! I’m waiting your comments and feedback through email to Manolis@gmail.com. If you self-publish your own comics or represent an Indy comics company, add me to your press release list, and I will run your news in this space every week.

Manolis Vamvounis
a.k.a. Dr. Dooplove


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ah, the good old Dr Manolis, the original comics Greek. He's been at this for sometime. he was there when the Comics Nexus was founded, he even gave it its name, he even used to run it for a couple of years. he's been writing about comics, geeking out incessantly and interviewing busier people than himself for over ten years now and has no intention of stopping anytime soon.