The Promotion, by Rob Schamberger

Last weekend, the CBXF gang had a chance to meet many cool comic book creators at Kansas City's Planet Comicon. From the traditional Superhero comics to Westerns, to Horror… you name it, Planet Comicon had it all. I really try to be an open minded reader when it comes to comics, but I'll be the first to admit that a book about pro-wrestling was nowhere close to my radar. But there I was, listening to Tracie speak with her friend Bruce McCorkindale, when I discovered something very unique. "The Promotion" by Rob Schamberger. 
 
Once Rob saw I was curious about his product, he immediately showed his passion and knowledge of the subject. He told of Kansas City's rich history of Professional Wrestling coming up from the carney strongman acts and how it evolved into a mysterious club where its members had unspoken rules, secrets, and a samurai-like honor system. Based upon the beautiful cover artwork and his energetic story about some of his in-depth research on the subject... he totally sold me. So I gave "The Promotion" a try. Man I was glad I did.

"The Promotion" is a fictional story about a wrestling circuit run by "The Alliance" and located in Mid-America. It feels timeless, like it could take place in the Mid 70's or could be taking place today. There is focus on a handful of characters around the "squared circle" as it weaves a tale about people in and out of "The Ring". Rob feels like he really did his homework and created a gritty, down to earth, behind the scenes tale of the dirty world of Professional Wrestling. "The Promotion" is dingy and not afraid to step out of the ring as it tosses you into the turnbuckle.

Rob, sold me all 3 issues of "The Promotion" and I found myself flying through them. I enjoyed the story, but the best hook to me was the drawn panels and painted tonal values. Despite the pages being in black and white, you knew many times you were looking at bright red blood. All three books were beautifully illustrated and an entertaining read. If you'd like to see more of "The Promotion" and its art check out this link: thewrestlingpromotion.com or see Rob's website at: comixperience.com.

OCW - Week 1 : April

Each week we choose an obscure character and our team of artists & comedians will post their interpretations sometime the following week (Or later). We love getting submissions, but we can't guarantee we'll post them all. If you'd like to contribute, please email a jpeg to: Comicbxf@yahoo.com.  Check the blog later this week to see the next OCW!

In Brightest CGI, In Marketing Blackout

A common complaint that's been made on Comicbook Crossfire of late is that the upcoming GREEN LANTERN film has had a puzzling lack of marketing push behind it. Especially when compared to Marvel's THOR and CAPTAIN AMERICA that make up this summer's cinematic superhero extravaganza. There was a surprising lack of any sort of presence amongst it's comic-spun competition during the Super Bowl and no new footage has shown past the lukewarm teaser trailer shown in November. The relative silence coming from WB/DC regarding the film was enough cause those of us at CBXF to wonder if the studio was even trying and our faith in the franchise was beginning to weaken, as though it were exposed to the yellow impurity.

Well, The Los Angeles Times has finally offered up an explanation for why GREEN LANTERN's light has yet to shine. Though the film is just near 3 months from arriving in theaters, the 3D and CGI effects work is reportedly so extensive, there wasn't enough footage ready for public consumption. Apparently the studio was aware of fans' relative disinterest in the teaser trailer and they prefered to hold off until they had more of the CG work completed.

While it's been mildly frustrating to fans (or... what... just us?), the logic is sound. It's always frustrating when the masses jump to negative conclusions when presented with unfinished CGI work in trailers. I, myself, have learned to withhold judgement on effects until I've seen the completed film. And, really, if WB wants to reignite fans' excitement regarding the GL film, it probably is best to hold out until they have footage that will really give the best impression of Hal Jordan's $200 million first flight.

The report says that we can expect to see a new trailer accompanying THOR in May.

Smallville's Blue and Gold team

Smallville has finally revealed their Booster & Beetle and I for one... am disappointed. "Why?" Monty asks? Many of us feel Smallville has "Jumped the shark" of sorts and what's it matter that there is one more bad episode with cheap cameos? Well, first off Smallville is about to leave, and I was counting on the Blue/Gold team to be a high point. Something to cling to. Smallville has recently had some great "fanboy" moments... and I hoped this would be one more. I really don't want an episode of the Gold Power Ranger and a villain of the Mighty Morphin' type! Want to learn more, click here. To see the ComicAlliance.com story.

OCW - March week 4 : Ratcatcher

Since I gave a slight upgrade to Frogman, I also decided to upgrade Ratcatcher to Mouse hunter as well.

Issue 27: Nerds of Prey (Fight ME on the Floor!)

OCW - March week 4 : Ratcatcher

This has been one of the most fun and productive weeks for us at Cbxf. We opened up a new Facebook fan page (address coming soon), ventured to Kansas City and hit this year's Planet Comicon. And on top of it all, we still have this week's OCW (Obscure Character of the week). Forgive us as we play catch-up and slowly filter out all the pictures, podcasts, & stories. In the meantime, this week's OCW is Ratcatcher and Jon Frank's illustration below beautifully nails this odd, gas masked wearing, Batman villain. Nicely done Jon!

Jon Frank's Ratcatcher

Planet Comicon 2011

Gail Simone along with Tracie's Gus Beezer!

OCW - December (belated) - Gus Beezer

In honor of Gail Simone's appearance at Planet Comicon, this weekend, I thought I would finally get around to posting my Gus Beezer drawing from several months back. I do still intend to color it up proper one of these days, but the occasion just seemed appropriate and I haven't posted any OCW art in quite a while.

Looking forward to another fun Planet Comicon field trip with my Comicbook Crossfire Compatriots.

Convention Time & We're Heading to Kansas City!

This weekend is Convention time for Comicbook Crossfire and our annual trek to Kansas City's Planet Comicon is looming. This will be our 3rd year as Comicbook Crossfire at the convention and the line up looks better than ever. As always we hope to get some great interviews, see some awesome Cos-play costumes and pick up a lot of loot! Specifically on our agenda…

CAPTAIN AMERICA TRAILER

OCW- March 20

Sorry this so late, to be honest I almost
forgot to draw.. uh... what's his name...
Uhm, ok, so I lost the email with his name...
so I couldn't look the OCW up this week,
but I remember it was some sort of alien
space wizard.

so yeah, sorry.

Boxed Avengers

Tracie... these are the cool costumes I was telling you about. You can see more here: AVENGERS

OCW - March week 3 : Urthona

I loved this character! Urthona!!

OCW - March week 3 : Urthona

 

Jon Frank's OCW: Urthona!

"Urthona for President!"

OCW - March week 3 : Urthona

Jack Iron's Urthona

Urthona!!! Some weird, old Dr. Strange villain... None of use knew who the heck this guy is. But dang, he's unique... and a perfect OCW!

Costner is in!

I for one am on board. Kevin Costner will be a great Pa Kent! Gotta have faith people! :) Diane Lane and Henry Cavill, and there is news also that its a reboot! Clean slate... no real estate villians!

Lost and Found (Bonus)

Which alternate reality to I have to travel to to get this abandoned Roger Stern/Frank Miller DOCTOR STRANGE comic?

"Lost and Found" or "Resurrection Men (and Women)"

A post from "The Blue Saint" got me to yapping about the resent string of unpublished comic housecleaning that's been going on at Marvel and DC lately and I thought I'd open it up into it's own entry.

The remark was "Do you want to know what from Marvel does has me excited, 15 Love. I would love to see an ongoing mainstream romance, untapped market there. The thing is Marvel ****ed themselves with price, $5 is too high. This and other experimental titles should be priced at $2 for about 20 pages of content, you to willing to risk something if you want to expand the market. Hell you could even re-purpose these and other stories by putting them in a magazine. With that you could even have it on sale outside the Direct Market."

I'm totally on board with you in regards to 15 LOVE. I was on board when the dang thing was first announced back in 2003 when Marvel launched their "Tsunami" imprint. I like Andi Watson quite a lot and enjoy Tommy Otsuka well enough and a tennis romance comic from a major American publisher sounded wonderfully risky. I know that sort of thing sells like hotcakes in Japan and I'd love if our comic market could sustain titles dedicated to cooking, fishing, card games, sports, and all the other subjects and genres foreign publishers can support.

Frankly, I assumed that when Tsunami fizzled, the book would never see the light of day.

Funny enough, a friend and I were just discussing 15 Love and other "lost" comics just the other day and BOOM Marvel surprises us with this announcement. While the price point may not seem like the sort of thing to bring in new readers, I don't think they're counting on the Direct Market to be the main audience with this. They're clearly going to make better business with the trade paperback, much in the way they've been able to sustain all the literary adaptations like Oz and the Jane Austen comics through their TBP business. They're just burning through the 6 already completed issues by bundling them together into 3 double-sized comics, much in the way DC has been clearing out their inventory lately by releasing lost/abandoned comics in giant-sized specials like BATMAN: ORPHANS and TEEN TITANS: COLD CASE which were both clearly meant to be minis, years ago. (in Orphans you can tell exactly where each issue was supposed to end)

It's fine with me, though, because at least we get to see these books, rather than let them lie in a drawer collecting dust for years. And maybe 15 Love will do the sort of business as a TBP to encourage Marvel and other publishers to give another look to publishing something as different as a tennis romance comic. (which happens to star a revamped Millie The Model)

I assume a lot of this is the result of both Marvel and DC recently having moved to new offices. That's always the fun part about moving, when you're packing everything up and discover all of this crap you forgot you had. Which then leads DC to pring a long-lost Bernie Wrightson Batman comic and finally complete the notorious Wolfman/Perez TITANS: GAMES graphic novel and Marvel gives us the Tsunami title that seemed forever lost.

Now where's that long-completed Alan Grant and Frank Quitely LOBO book?

You Had To Be A "Big Shot," Didn't You

Marvel has previously teased a line of relaunches they were branding as "Big Shots," taking three of their street-level characters and putting them under new #1's by new creative teams.

Until today, the only creative team that had been announced was that of Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev bringing a potentially unusual take to MOON NIGHT.

This morning, rumors took flight that the remaining creative teams would consist of Greg Rucka, Marco Checchetto, with Laura Martin on THE PUNISHER followed by Mark Waid and Paolo Rivera on DAREDEVIL.

I've never been a regular reader of The Punisher. I can probably count on one hand the number of Punisher comics I've purchased. Nothing about the character--or at least, my perception of him--clicked with me and I had plenty of sad mutant comics to buy. But Rucka writing Punisher? That would do it.

I've probably paid Moon Knight even less attention than I have The Punisher (though I've liked having him in SECRET AVENGERS) but I'm an easy mark as far as the Bendis/Maleev team is concerned.

Waid writing Daredevil is surprising to me. I can't think of any time I've ever seen him write the character and Daredevil has been primarily handled by crime writers for much of the series following Kevin Smith's Marvel Knights relaunch. Will Mark Waid bring the character back to his lighter, swashbuckler/superhero beginnings? It would be a refreshing change of pace from how miserable Matt Murdock's life became up to and during "Shadowland." I'd been a Daredevil reader for the entirety of the series since Smith's relaunch but Shadowland just about broke me. Broke me enough that I opted not to buy the DAREDEVIL: REBORN mini that followed it, opting instead to wait for a discount trade later on, if it turned out the series was worth my time. Waid and Rivera would definitely be enough to bring me back to the fold with DD.

Official announcments are expected to be made this weekend during the "Cup o' Joe" panel at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. Presuming these are, in fact, the new creative teams, what are your thoughts?

Are you willing to give these "bigs" a shot?

(Source: Bleeding Cool)

Sandman to live action... still on

Yesterday it was reported that DC would no longer be trying to develop a live-action translation of Morpheus. Well tonight I stumbled onto the news that Geoff Johns and Neil Gaiman are still in negotiations to make this happen. I know I'm skeptical, even scared that they'll mess up what is one of the greatest/most beloved run of a comic series, possibly of all time. But news that both Geoff and Neil are working on this makes me very excited. I have a lot of faith in both names and trust that they'll keep what makes the Endless so powerful and epic in the world of comic literature. Plus, it couldn't be worse than what I'm hearing about the Wonder Woman TV series. If you'd like to read more on this, Click here. (JACK, I'm also very curious your opinion... please feel free to post your comments below!)

OCW Frog-Man

Frog-Man was my choice this week. Never read a book with him in it, but always thought he looked cool in the Marvel Handbook. "Top O' Tha World, Ma!!!"

Dr.G

Captain America Movie's Red Skull

Never in a million years would have thought I'd get excited about this villain. "A Nazi, with a red skull for a head, who's had a history of being ho hum sometimes". But damn, Hugo Weaving looks totally bad ass as Captain America's greatest enemy. I know this picture has been out for a while, but I ran across it again tonight... and wow. I just had to share some thoughts. Lets hope the Wolf Captain America doesn't make an appearance in this summer blockbuster.

Brightest Day "I have a theory..."

Once again, Tracie and I have found a conversation worth sharing. A possibility for the climate to Brightest Day. Care to add your theory? Email us your opinion, or comment below.

Robb - I HAVE A THEORY….
I think... I know who the ultimate “earth” hero will be at the end of Brightest day… I think. That Brightest Day Aftermath cover/issue has a few clues… along with events in Brightest D proper and Green Arrow. (And a certain Firestorm book I had been reading in back issue form) Again, purely a theory… but an educated guess.

Tracie - Oh yeah? You think it ties back to the Ostrander Firestorm books?

OCW- March 13- Frogman

OCW - March week 2 : Frogman

What if Frog-Man had a run in with Green Arrow and felt he needed to reconnect with his frog roots. (Just like Catman)

OCW - March week 2 : Frogman

Frog-Man by Jack Irons

OCW - March week 2 : Frogman

 

Frog-Man by Jon Frank

Poorly Drawn Conclusions- Turn off the dark

Your script sucks.
The music is awful.
Your actors are dropping (literally)like flies.


It's the director's fault.

Geeky Music!!!

Love Comics? Love Sci-Fi Movies? Love Pop Culture... and you Love Music?
Some pod casts I frequent have really been pushing for their listeners to check out these bands. Some I've heard of, others are new to me. But I'm doing my part. Check out these sites and "Rock Out with your Long Box out!"

H2Awesome : Check em out here!
Kirby Krackle : Check em out here!
Adam WarRock : Check em out here!

Korra from The Last Airbender Sequel

Tracie just sent me this email link with some first looks at the Avatar, the Last Airbender sequel. Its set 100 years after the events of the original cartoon and looks awesome. Its no secret that I loved Avatar... and I can't wait to have that Airbender taste quenched! Check out this link to learn more: Korra from The Last Airbender Sequel

Friendly Fire -Audio Podcast - Episode 2

Tracie, Matt, and Robb discuss Brightest Day, other current comics, and

Matt reveals his nerd fortress to Tracie for the first time.

OCW - March week 1 : Captain California

Hero High was an influence to me early on. It was my first exposure to Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family, and introduced me to the most ridiculous heroes ever to be put into cartoon format.

OCW- 3/6/2011-Capt. California

As a teenager in the '80s at Hero High Captain California
had great success. Nearly 30 years later, like his
namesake, Cap'n Cali is broke.

OCW - March week 1 : Captain California

Jon Frank's Captain California

OCW - March week 1 : Captain California

 

Jack Iron's Captain California 

Cover of the Month: February

Each month, I'm gonna pick which cover stood out to me. This month... Batman and Robin #20, drawn by Patrick Gleason is just sweet. I love the angle and deep shadows. And never in a million years would I guess that Black Manta would be cool... David Finch is helping make Aquaman cool. (almost)