Friday, July 27, 2012
Sunday, July 22, 2012
Superman Classic: Bizarro
So I found the next installment of Rob Pratt's Classic Superman fan shorts. This is incredible.
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Tracie's Pull List - Week of July 18, 2012
BATMAN IS HAPPENING YOU GUYS. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
Wonder of wonders, I am actually attending the midnight opening of The Dark Knight Rises. I honestly don't think I've been to a midnight opening since X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Is that film to blame or is it merely a window to state my life has been in since that time. I don't know. What was I talking about? The Dark Knight will Rise at 12:01 AM on Friday (though the movie theater thinks that still counts as Thursday) and members of Comicbook Crossfire will be there, openly weeping into each other's arms. Y'know. For justice.
A 3 hour midnight movie on during the workweek would normally be a terrible idea for me, lacking access to any Lazarus Pits, but I managed to get a half day off work for morningtime sleepings SO WE GOOD.
Almost as exciting for me is the rise of another superhero in comics this week so let's talk about that, shall we...?
Monday, July 16, 2012
SDCC: Home-Con 2012 or "I want my Marvel NOW! now"
San Diego Comic-Con 2012 has come and gone with not a single Marvel NOW! announcement to be found. Disappointing. But it... makes... sense in a way? I guess? SDCC has become so much less about comics and more about movies (and video games and things people actually still spend money on). The only big DC Comics announcments were Neil Gaiman's return to Sandman (major crossover appeal) and Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained comic (movie dude does comic of his movie). Oh... and the confirmation that Stephanie Brown is in fact being replaced by Barbara Gordon in the Smallville comic. Because she's "more iconic." (STILL GONNA CALL HER NIGHTWING, THOUGH) Also they hate us.
The only company that seemed to have anything to say about comics was Image (and, I guess Legendary... which is a comic publisher founded by a movie studio). Being on their home turf in southern California, it makes sense for Image to want to make some waves (not a surfing reference, sorry). They definitely turned my head by announcing a lot of high-profile creators creating new books for the company... and strangely, most of them are folks you'd normally associate with Marvel, these days. Greg Rucka and Michael Lark reteaming on Lazarus (billed as Godfather meets Children of Men), Matt Fraction and Howard Chaykin teaming up to tackle some controversial topics, and my personal favorite, a spaghetti western from Kelly Sue Deconnick and Emma Rios. All this plus two new books from Joe Casey, a new series by James Robinson and J. Bone, and new stuff from Chris Roberson and Derick Robertson. That's a good chunk of comics from some great creators AND they're all brand new concepts/characters to boot.
The best Marvel had to offer, comic-wise, were a handful of AvX follow-ups, details on "Minimum Carnage," the breaking of my heart with Punisher: War Zone being Rucka's last run with the character, and a Marvel NOW! Point One, which appears to do much what the last Point One one-shot did, setting up new creative teams and status quos (it was a big part of kicking off AvX). The most light shed on Marvel NOW!'s behalf was the creators behind the Point One book,which could give an idea of who to look for on books in the line: Bendis, Fraction, Loeb, Spencer, Gillen, Hopeless, McNiven, Allred, McGuinness, McKelvie, and Larroca. There seemed to be heavy hinting that, much like the last Point One book, this one would include another Nova story by Loeb and McGuinness. (I'd be terribly happy if this lead to a series/mini by the team)
Now, to be fair, I'll be buying all of these books they announced (minus the Minimum Carnage event and probably Red She-Hulk). I'm all about Kieron Gillen doing an AvX: Consequences book. I'm all over Jeph Loeb and Dan Slott doing A Plus X Avengers/X-Men hugfest/makeout session. Then there's AvX Babies by Skottie Young and Gurihiru which appears to be a book created only for me. What I was really, really hoping we'd see, though, were more announcements/clues regarding Marvel NOW!. Aside from the Point One book and the list of creators contributing to that, we really don't have anything new to go on. Now, I suppose being only halfway through AvX, Marvel should want to keep the focus on that and these new follow-ups but... the timing of the initial Marvel NOW! announcement seemed like it was to prime the pump for further reveals and excitement at SDCC. But then... SDCC isn't really a con about comics anymore, is it? Not primarily. Not in the way it used to be. It's still a great event for comic fans, certainly, but it's not the same the for publishers. All the biggest announcements of the year used to come out of SDCC. Now I'm hearing that the Marvel NOW! news might be held back for New York Comic-Con in October. It makes sense, considering it's still a new-ish con that holds a bigger spotlight on publishers, taking place on the home turf for DC and Marvel, and hasn't been around long enough to become completely taken over by TV and Movies. NYCC and C2E2 appear to be where the real comics news happens anymore. It used to be SDCC and Wizard World Chicago. (the latter is now but a ghost of its former self) This is... This is fine, I guess, right? It's just the changing landscape of things. I think the timing of things and the history of SDCC easily led to a lot of anticipation and expectations for things, particularly from Marvel pubishing, that it just really wasn't the time or place for. They got some huge attention for Marvel Films (again, a home-turf announcement for that branch) and nice things from Image and the like. I guess the Fangirl in me was hoping for just a little bit more but I can choke it down and be patient for a couple more months to see just what else will come out of this mishmashy world that Marvel NOW! is teasing us with.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Tracie's Pull List - Week of July 11, 2012 (plus a "Why So Skeptical?" rant)
For the record, I loved Amazing Spider-Man. LOVED it. I've seen it twice now so I can confirm that that's not just the new movie glow clouding my judgement. It definitely resonated with me on levels I wasn't expecting and I think it's a very smartly done reboot and I can't wait to see these people come back and do it again in two years.
Now, it feels like the only thing we fanpersons have to live for in the movie world is The Dark Knight Rises, next week. I've seen weird reactions from both close friends and internet stalking victims. I thought we were all on the same page with this you guys. Remember how much we loved Batman Begins and what a glorious breath of fresh air it was for both the Batman franchise and comic book movies in general? Then remember when The Dark Knight happened and completely change the landscape and all of a sudden a dude can dress in a cape and mask and still have his movie be legitimized as art and get nominated for awards and bring in insane amounts of money? It was like the culmination of everything we've been working towards as comic fans to show people that we're not just trapped in some sort of state of perpetual childhood, that there are actually compelling stories to be told with these characters that can and should be enjoyed by everyone and not those with a predilection for people in tights.
So then what happened to where all of a sudden we're just... not sure about this Dark Knight Rises movie? Why. So. Skeptical? I hear concerns about Anne Hathaway as Catwoman which make me feel as though you've never seen an Anne Hathaway movie that didn't have the word "Princess" in it or maybe that you've just never seen her, period, or maybe don't know what beautiful, intelligent women look like. That's certaily a possibility. Then there's all this being iffy on Bane stuff which is fine I guess but I, myself, don't get it because I think he looks and sounds scary as hell. I mean, I'm sorry he's not covered in tubes full of mutant juice, dressed in a luchador outfit. That's all well and fine for comic books and Schumacher movies but that's not the world Nolan has built here. Clearly you must understand by now, there have BEEN two movies, and this is a very particular world that has been set up very carefully and there are things that don't work in this reality like they do in the comics but that doesn't make them any less valid. Nothing about these films has been about being a slave to canon. We've seen enough different versions of Batman by now to realize they all have their place, they all have validity. This is Nolan's version and it's been a danged masterpiece thus far so I have no reason AT ALL to think he'll suddenly fail to stick the landing when, if anything, he's gotten better with each and every film, Bat or not Bat.
And let's please all take a moment to remember how wrong we were about Heath Ledger. Remember that? I was skeptical once, too, and I was wrong, wrong, wrong, so you know, maybe this Nolan guy knows just what the heck he's doing so let's all stop our hemming and hawing and GET EXCITED. Please.
Oh, also there's comics out this week and I want them and two of them even have Bat Men. Read on!
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Sunday, July 8, 2012
Robb's Pick for Cover of the Month: June
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Tracie's Pull List - Week of July 4, 2012
There appear to be some sort of anti-nerd forces working against me this week. I missed my chance at getting free passes to an early screening of Amazing Spider-Man. My BROTHER got passes and didn't invite me to be his Plus One. The CBXF crew all appear to be too busy on Independance Day to sneak out and see the movie with me. AND every comic shop in town appears to be open tomorrow except the one I have my pull list with. Seriously, we are a town FULL of comic shops but the ONE that I choose to patronize the most is the one that actually decides to honor the holiday.
Harumph.
So MAYBE I'll have to go by myself or wait til the weekend to see Spider-Man and I GUESS can wait until Friday to pick up my comics. (can't make it Thursday, unfortunately...) TOUGH BREAKS. Tough breaks for Tracie who just wants to read comics and see comic book movies. I DON'T ASK FOR MUCH IN LIFE. WE AGREED THAT I COULD DIE ALONE SO LONG AS I HAD THESE THINGS.
Ah, well... at least I can still TALK about comics. ...To myself... Unless one of you looky-lous would like to chime in. WHICH YOU MAY! Chime, chime away with this week's Pull List:
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