Free Comic Book Day Preview: Love & Capes #10

Thom Zahler was kind enough to send over advance copies of Love & Capes #10, which will be given out during Free Comic Book Day this Saturday, May 2nd at participating retailers nationwide. Love & Capes is one of my favorite indie titles and consistently a pleasure to read: it’s part serious, part satire, and always clever, funny and very insightful. In this issue, Abby has decided that the best way to know more about Mark is to become more like Mark, so she's found a way to become just as super as he is. What will happen when the Crusader gets a partner? Just be sure not to call her a "sidekick"! All of this, and more, in the latest installment of comicdom's favorite heroically super romantic comedy! Pick up Love & Capes #10 on Free Comic Book Day and make sure not to miss the full page ad for Mid-Ohio-Con 2009 featuring Chris Giarrusso’s fantastic Mini Watchmen on page 27 of the book. To find participating retailers and additional information about Free Comic Book Day, check out the FCBD web site.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Rogues' Gallery

Today's edition of the New York Post features an article on the cast of characters in the forthcoming X-Men Origins: Wolverine motion picture. Out Friday, the movie goes back two decades before the first X-Men film, chronicling the back story of Logan from a wee lad just discovering his erupting-claw power to the horrifying experiments that turned him and his mutant friends into living, breathing weapons of mass destruction. The paper notes that for a notorious loner, Wolverine's got an awful lot of company in his new movie which is a jam-packed tangle of mutants. Check out the online edition of the New York Post for the full article, which includes profiles of John Wraith, Wolverine, Sabretooth, Deadpool, Emma Frost, Cyclops, Gambit and Sliver Fox. Marvel also has lots more about the much-anticipated movie at their X-Men Origins: Wolverine movie hub at Marvel.com. Check it out!

Spider-Man 1967: Episode 4

Courtesy of Marvel.com, which is now making full episodes of select cartoons available online, Saturday Morning Cartoons is proud to present episode 4 from the immortal classic 1967 Spider-Man cartoon. In The Sky is Falling, the Vulture is terrorizing the city and Spider-Man sets out to defeat the winged menace. In Captured By J. Jonah Jameson, an inventor creates a robot to capture Spider-Man for J. Jonah Jameson.

The Pull List: Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Now I’m as excited as the next Wolverine fan for next week’s release of X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but it think that Marvel is taking their capitalization on the movie’s hype to extremes with the so-called Wolverine Art Appreciation Variant covers that they’re slapping on so many titles this month. Marvel already gets enough flack for spreading Wolverine too thin across so many titles, but at least the character is actually in all those books! Marvel’s most commercially successful mutant is nowhere to be seen in the pages of Hulk #11, Incredible Hercules #128, or many other titles featuring Wolverine variant covers this month. Hurm…. Although I didn’t buy any Wolverine variant covers this week, there was plenty of other goodness on the shelves to keep me busy:

Amazing Spider-Man #592
Arkham Asylum #1 (One-Shot)
Astonishing X-Men #29
Batman: Brave and the Bold #4
Battlestar Galactica: The Final Five #1
Dark Reign: Elektra #2 of 5
Detective Comics #583
Hulk #11
Immortal Iron Fist #25
Incredible Hercules #128
Justice League America #32
Jungle Girl Season Two #4
Kick-Ass #6
Messiah War: X-Force #14
Mighty Avengers #24
New Avengers #52
Red Sonja #43
Sgt. Rock: The Lost Battalion #5 of 6
Terminator Salvation #0
Thor #601
The War That Time Forgot #12
Wolverine: First Class #14
Wolverine: Origins #35

This week I was most looking forward to Immortal Iron Fist #25, which continued from the cliffhanger at the end of issue #23. The exploration of the history of the Iron Fist and the legends and lore of the other heavenly cities beyond K’un Lun has been great, and added a lot of depth to Danny Rand’s character. Sgt. Rock: The Lost Battalion #5 was also among my most anticipated comics this week. Billy Tucci has done a fantastic job with this series that shows his true passion for the character and his stories. In the “guilty pleasure” category this week was Jungle Girl Season Two #4. After seeing the cover take shape with multiple posts by artist Frank Cho in his Comic Art Fans (CAF) gallery, I really had to pick up the finished version.

Check out the full list of the week's new releases at the Diamond Comics web site.

Giant Hello Kitty Invades New York!

I was walking down Park Avenue in New York yesterday afternoon and something fantastic caught my eye. Yes, it was a giant Hello Kitty sculpture! Now I’m not really a Hello Kitty fan, but I love it any time I see a larger-than-life display of anything cartoony out in the real world – especially right smack in the middle of New York City. Lever House is known for its public exhibits of prominent contemporary art that have included work by such well known creators as Barnaby Furnace, Sarah Morris and Damien Hirst. The current exhibit by artist Tom Sachs features the 20-foot Hello Kitty pictured above along with a smaller Hello Kitty and two bunnies. Aptly described by the New York Times as a lampoon of the traditional serious monument, I couldn’t help but smile when I saw Hello Kitty looming up over the hedges by Lever House as if she was ready to embark on a rampage of cuteness.

Last Call for G-Man Advance Orders

Fans of Chris Giarrusso's work - and we know that there are many such fans in the ranks of the MOC-BLOG readership - should note that there’s still time to order G-Man: Learning To Fly! This Wednesday, April 22nd, is the last day to put in your advanced order for the new G-Man: Learning To Fly digest! How to let your comic shop know you want to pre-order Chris Giarrusso's latest collected masterwork? Simply download this PDF order form, print it out, fill in the appropriate info, and hand it to the guy who works at your local comic shop.

G-Man: Learning To Fly is a 96-page full-color digest published by Image Comics, retailing for $9.99. It collects the previously sold-out G-Man one-shot, the G-Man Christmas story from the Image Comics 2005 Holiday Special, all of the G-Man Comic Bits comic strips, and the Mean Brother / Idiot Brother comic strips. It’s written and drawn by the guy who wrote and drew Mini Marvels. It’s exactly like Mini Marvels, but with different characters. Check out Chris G's web site for more on G-Man and his other great work.

S.P.A.C.E. 2009 this Weekend in Columbus, OH

This weekend, comic book fans and sequential art enthusiasts from across the country will converge at the Aladdin Shrine Complex in Columbus, Ohio to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Small Press & Alternative Comics Expo (S.P.A.C.E.), an annual event that’s become a staple for comic book aficionados and serves as the perfect introduction to newcomers to the medium of sequential art. S.P.A.C.E. will bring together dozens of artists, writers and publishers in a preeminent showcase for the exhibition of their independent comic books, graphic novels and other literary art forms. S.P.A.C.E. offers a forum for the creators, readers, and publishers of comic books to meet and explore the boundaries of art & literature in a comfortable atmosphere as well as offering a central locale for the discovery of new creative talent.

In addition to the general exhibition, there will be panels, lectures and open forums on the sequential art form. The show will feature an exhibition of original pages from Carol Tyler’s soon to be released graphic novel You’ll Never Know Book One: A Good and Decent Man, published by Fantagraphics Books. The exhibit of Carol Tyler's work is on Saturday only. Go to http://www.uc.edu/News/NR.aspx?ID=9697 for additional information on the book and other projects of Carol’s. Also Los Angeles Times Book Prize nominee, Nate Powell will be at the show. His graphic novel Swallow Me Whole is the first graphic novel to be nominated since Art Spiegelman's “Maus” won the Fiction category in 1992! Go to http://www.topshelfcomix.com/news.php?article=410 for more info on Nate Powell and his work.

S.P.A.C.E. takes place this weekend from 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Saturday, April 18th and 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Sunday, April 19th & 19 in the Aladdin Shrine Complex Multipurpose Room located at 3850 Stelzer Road in Columbus off Interstate 270 near the Easton Town Center. Admission is $5.00 for one day and $8.00 for the weekend. Additional information about S.P.A.C.E. 2009 including the show’s outstanding list of exhibitors, premiere comics and programs can be found online at: http://www.backporchcomics.com/S.P.A.C.E..htm. Mid-Ohio-Con 2009 is proud to be a sponsor of S.P.A.C.E., so keep an eye out for our advertisement in the program book and our Mini Watchmen poster by Chris Giarrusso. Enjoy the show!

Tech Watch: Two-Way Wrist Radio?

I was out in Las Vegas for the International CTIA Wireless Conference last week, so I got to see a lot of awesome new wireless devices that were unveiled at the show. In a sea of amazing new technology, the coolest thing I saw at CTIA was the GD910 Watch Phone from LG Electronics. For any kid who grew up reading Dick Tracy and dreaming of a Two-Way Wrist Radio, this device is as good as it gets. As described by CNET, the LG Watch Phone looks to be a must-have for the spy or spy wannabe in your life. It has a touch-screen user interface, three side-mounted buttons, Bluetooth, a speakerphone, and even a full-blown music player and it’s water resistant. I haven't seen details on when the GD910 will be released or how much it will cost, but it'll be interesting to check it out when it hits the market.

Back Issues: Uncanny X-Men #168

Uncanny X-Men #168 was the second X-Men comic that I ever bought. (Don't worry, I'm not going to write that X-Men #169 was the third X-Men comic that I bought and so on and so forth.) This one is just significant to me because I was hooked by issue #167 and definitely thrilled to find #168 on the spinner rack at my local Store 24 shortly thereafter. 25 years later, with Uncanny X-Men now past issue #500, I haven't missed an issue. My interest in many other comic titles has come and gone and come again over that period of time, but X-Men has always been a constant. Admittedly, there are times that I considered dropping the title since it has been through some pretty dark periods with certain creative and editorial teams over the years, but I love the characters and their universe, so I've slogged through the bad times and always enjoyed the good.

This issue was essentially a breather after the galaxy-hopping 6-issue Brood Saga that culminated with issue #167. After that wild and woolly adventure, the X-Men definitely needed some downtime. Wolverine heads off to Canada, ostensibly on vacation, although it turns out to be a hell of an adventure as detailed in the groundbreaking Wolverine limited series. Cyclops and Nightcrawler head off to see their girlfriends while Professor Xavier, Lilandra, Colossus, Storm, Kitty Pryde and Illyana remain at the Xavier Mansion. With many of the principal characters otherwise occupied, the main story told in this issue is about Kitty Pryde's attempt to get herself reinstated to the X-Men after being unfairly demoted to the ranks of the New Mutants at the end of X-Men #167. It's a story somewhat reminiscent of X-Men #143, in which Kitty fights a N'Grai demon while left alone in the mansion. However, unlike that issue which seemed to underscore her sidekick status as a lucky amateur, this issue demonstrates her growth and development both as a person and a superhero and solidifies her status as a full-fledged member of the X-Men.

For me, this issue was all about Kitty Pryde. After being demoted to the New Mutants, she spends all of this issue trying get herself reinstated to the X-Men. It's a hard fought effort waged on multiple fronts as she tries to prove herself to Professor Xavier. While Kitty's logic, passion, cooperation and flattery was initially wasted on Xavier, she easily won my admiration and I'm sure that of legions of other fans. She was smart, pretty, spirited, older - well, relatively older since I was 11 and she was 13, she had super powers, a pet dragon and could totally kick ass. She was unattainable and I was completely ensorceled by her. In short, all the makings of a perfect crush. From that issue forward, Kitty was one of my favorite things about the X-Men. I suppose that she continued to serve the sidekick role to some extent, since she was the youngest member of the team and provided a character that young readers could relate to, but she was also an established character in her own right. Moreover, the juxtaposition of her innocence, vulnerability and optimism against the increasingly dark and dangerous world in which the X-Men lived was a great dynamic. I'm glad that she found her way back to the X-Men – albeit briefly – in Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, which was a thoroughly enjoyable title that brought back a lot of the joy of reading the Chris Claremont/Paul Smith X-Men that I first read as a kid.

As I've written about in previous entries, one of the things I've enjoyed most in comics over the years is the interpersonal relationships. Dynamic action, amazing fantasy, shocking surprises, incredible art, etc. are all good, but it's the characters themselves and their interactions with one another that I really enjoy as part of the equation. There's something about these characters living actual lives under these extraordinary circumstances that really intrigued me as a kid and continues to draw me to comics today. I think that Spider-Man has always been the purest example of how important the interpersonal and other out-of-costume activities are to the success of a comic character. It's no secret that fans were drawn in by the fact that the Peter Parker lived in the real world: Having to deal with money problems, the poor health of his Aunt May, a tyrannical boss at work, and trying to win the affections of Mary Jane or Gwen Stacy, while also being able to soar above it all and solve his other problems with his fists as the Amazing Spider-Man. It's in this vein that the out-of-costume activities of the X-Men as a family and as friends provide a compelling balance to their heroic activities. For me, the best scenes in this comic aren't with Kitty battling the Sidrian Hunters, but Wolverine and Nightcrawler debating whether Kitty should be on the team, Cyclops heading to the Caribbean to see his girlfriend Lee Forrester, Nightcrawler surprising his girlfriend, Amanda Sefton, and the budding romance between Kitty and Colossus. The X-Men truly seemed like a family back in those days and I think that some of the X-Men titles today could benefit from a better balance between all-out action and character and relationship development.

True to form, Chris Claremont takes advantage of the downtime in this story to set the stage for multiple plot lines that would play out from here. Of course, I already noted that Wolverine heads north to Canada for a great saga that had already been told in the Wolverine limited series. Remarkably, Wolverine is actually gone for the next three issues, returning to the X-Men in issue #172 when the team meets him in Japan for his wedding after the end of the Wolverine limited series. It's hard to imagine Marvel's editors allowing Wolverine to be away from an X-title for three consecutive issues these days, but it was done to maintain continuity at that time and made for a very effective story. Claremont also lays the ground work for the forthcoming introduction of the Morlocks, the return of Mastermind and the supposed rebirth of Phoenix. While I enjoy having multiple X-titles to read every month these days, there certainly was something great about having a single writer stuffing all his best ideas into one monthly title back in those days with only the occasional limited series. The amount of detail and multi-layered complexity in Claremont's X-Men stories were amazing and definitely stand the test of time. The poor condition of some of the original comics I bought back in the 80s that have been read probably a hundred times are a testament to that.

The Pull List: Wednesday, April 1, 2009

I was traveling on business last week, so I didn’t get the week’s new comics until I got home on Friday. I made a valiant effort to find a comic store in Las Vegas, but they were all so far from the strip that I wasn’t able to sneak away in between meetings. It was definitely worth the wait because there were a lot of great new titles released. Among the most-anticipated books last week was Flash: The Rebirth #1 by Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver. With Barry Allen’s return in the wake of Final Crisis left in the capable hands of a dynamic creative duo, I’m confident that this title will be a winner. 2008 is shaping up to be a great year for fans of Johns and Van Sciver with Flash off to a strong start and Green Lantern: Blackest Night coming along in the near term. My pull list this week included:

Agents of Atlas #3
Amazing Spider-Man #590
Astonishing Tales #3
Avengers/Invaders #9 of 12
Black Panther #3
Captain America Comics #1
Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #2 of 5
Destroyer #1 of 5
Dr. Doom and the Masters of Evil #3
Flash: Rebirth #1
Franklin Richards: April Fools! #1
G.I. Joe #4
Invincible Iron Man #12
Justice Society of America #25
Marvel Assistant-Sized Spectacular #1 of 2
New Avengers: The Reunion #2 of 4
New Mutants Saga
Secret Warriors #3
Teen Titans #69
Teen Titans Annual #1
Thunderbolts # 129
War of Kings #2 of 6
X-Men: First Class Finals #3

In addition to all the other goodness, there were two pleasant surprises from the Marvel Universe this week: Captain America Comics #1 and New Mutants Saga. Not unexpected as if I hadn’t read Marvel Previews for April many months ago (you know I did!), but unexpected in that they were both surprisingly good. With Captain America Comics #1, I was worried that there would be more objectionable retconning of the Captain America legacy. Instead, the book was a carefully crafted and very enjoyable story that could easily become part of the Steve Rogers origin. New Mutants Saga was one of the best Saga books thus far with a great synopsis of the book from the team’s first appearance in Marvel Graphic Novel #4 through the end of the original series. After reading it, I had to break out my bound volume of New Mutants 1-25 and read the saga all over again.

Check out the full list of the week's new releases at the Diamond Comics web site.