Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 02282021

(Convergence: Superman #2. May 6, 2015. Cover by Lee Weeks.)

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week ending 02282021.

• Hello sisters, brothers and others and welcome to another episode of your Other Comics News Parade-O-Links.  My name is Shano and I'll be your host.  I'm still getting back in the groove of "blogging".  I'm not 100% decided on when I should post these things.  Friday is probably the most logical day if I want people to actually read them but Sunday feels better.  I like the idea of you, dear reader, sitting in your favorite chair wearing your bath robe and slippers with your feet propped up on your dog "Honeycomb Salad" reading this on a Sunday morning.  I can see the waves of steam coming from your "#1 Step-Parent" coffee mug.  You still have bed head but it's working for you.  You look happy.  You look at peace.  You smell terrific.  Have you been working out? 
• We may as well get WandaVision out of the way since it's the only thing on Earth that matters. This week's episode was great but maybe a little too great?  I can't think of any other TV show that has presented an episode that so neatly gift wraps everything the audience has asked for  and hands it to them prior to the finale.  I still kind of wish the show had never broke kayfabe and was still recreating a different chapter of TV history each week.  I still hate every second  S.W.O.R.D. is on screen and I knew the boss, Whiteguy McSuburbs, was a no good dirty liar.  See, even the parts we don't like conform exactly to our expectations.  Maybe the other shoe drops next episode?  There are certainly a few more questions to answer and a few more twists left.  SPOILERS Did y'all notice which of the recurring cast were not wandering around Westview during the flashback where Wanda came to town?  

• Since comic books don't even exist and only super hero TV shows matter, let's talk about TV's other floaty character with glowing read eyes.  A new Superman TV show pilot, Superman & Lois,  premiered this week.  This is our fifth live action Superman TV show in the past eighty-three years.  I think that's more than C.S.I. (Unless you count Without a Trace and Cold Case.  Then Supes has some catching up to do.)  I don't watch much broadcast TV so normally I'd be checking this show out two or three years from now on streaming but I actually watched this thing in real time with the rest of the CW watching world.  I enjoyed it.  I like the tone of the show and I think Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch make a great Clark and Lois.  I think the kid playing Frodo has potential too. I really appreciate that Hoechlin and Tulloch are adults.  Ever since Superman Returns cast a nine year old as Lois Lane I've been warry of these things. I think the show kneecapped itself by [SPOILERS] starting with a funeral though.  The overall tone of the show is upbeat and hopeful but the funeral kind of forces the cast to mope around before we get a chance to see their default settings.  Lois really only gets one comical scene with a vending machine where she gets to act like Lois before putting on the funeral time sad face.  Maybe the cast will get a chance to outshine the script as this thing proceeds.  And that script?  Hoo boy.  Look.  This is a CW show so you just have to accept that it's going to be soap opera.  It's not for everyone.  If you're not into teen dance parties/bonfired/charity balls and each scene ending with a contemplative stare followed by a hard cut to commercial then stick with WandaVision. This show still exists in the shadow of the Snyderverse Superman.  There is a sepia tone filter over the whole thing and the Super spandex under armor still has that grim dark tone to it.  We're still missing the trunks so Superman looks like a dog standing on his hind legs. But, for a few minutes at the beginning of the show, we get a full color flashback scene with a real Superman costume.  A moving picture homage to the cover of Action Comics #1.  That was pretty great. 
• As I said earlier, comics don't even exist.  To prove this, CW/DC/Warner followed up the premier of Superman & Lois with a behind-the-scenes featurette where the producers of the show along with Geoff Johns and Jim Lee talk about how they are all geniuses who thought up every thing on the show all by themselves without the help of 83 years of comic book creators.  Over and over again they brag about how the concept of this show, Superman and Lois married with children, has never been done before.  Comics don't even exist and that's why the producers and Johns and Lee make the big bucks.  Except comic books do exist.  Superman and Lois Lane have been getting married for decades. In maybe the best Superman comics of all time, "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tommorrow?",  (Superman #423 and Action Comics #583) Alan Moore's Lois and Cark are married and have a son named Jonathan. (Clark is going by Jordan in that one so that's where Jordan comes from for those keeping score.)  Superman and Lois have been in-canon married since 1996.  And they've had an in-canon son since "Convergence: Superman" #2 from 2015 where Dan Jurgens made superpowered son Jonathan a part of the current ongoing DC Universe.  Oh, but Shano, the genius producers put a new twist on it!  In the new TV show they have two kids! Not so fast imaginary person that isn't really arguing with me, John Byrne gave Supes and Lois two kids in "Superman & Batman: Generattions" in 1999.  And my point isn't that TV shouldn't steal from comics.  No TV, please, please steal from comics.  Comics are better than you.  But don't put together a TV feature about your brilliant game changing new idea when you know damn well that comics has already done this and that you should be giving the comics creators the credit they deserve.  Especially you Geoff Johns and Jim Lee.  You have no excuse.  One of you jerks better buy Dan Jergens a new house. 
• In other moving pictures of Superman news, it appears that a Ta-Nehisi Coates written Superman movie is in the works and that it might be the black Superman a lot of us have been wanting to see at least since Grant Morrison's Multiversity.  I'm optimistic but I hope they don't rush it.  We've had four Superman movies since 2006 with the Zack Snyder Justice League about to drop in a few days.  I'm worried that there won't be much appetite for a new big screen Superman.  It's like the Andrew Garfield Spider-Man movies.  They weren't terrible, Everyone was just full up on Spider-Man in that moment. Maybe if we get through this plague and back to the communal non-butter-liquid-popcorn topping trough we'll be ready for a fresh Superman. 
• I hate to linger in the world of moving images when comics are always vastly superior but I do have to link to this Zack Snyder redemption piece if for no other reason than for you guys to see that Warner continues to be wrong in almost every situation.  The two hour blockbuster died when you fools gave one of those Tolkien movies the Oscar.  
• In our final, I promise, DC Comics related link of the week, they're playing thrash metal during musical chairs now so I can't even keep up well enough to know what any of this means. 

• I think I mentioned the new Stan Lee biography last week.  This week, Marvel great Roy Thomas provides a rebuttal.  I don't know Roy. Sure, old dudes' memories are suspect but the pages don't lie and a whole lot of the pages seem to have been written by a name that rhymes with Snack Derby. 
• Speaking of the guy that created everything of value in US history, there is a new podcast that digs into Jack "The King" Kirby. 
• Here's a neat article on another great American author, no, not Hemingway, it's our man J. M. DeMatteis and his great American masterpiece "Kraven's Last Hunt". 
• As soon as either this plague ends or the government gives me that money they owe me I"mma hit a comic store and dig through the long boxes for some weird junk like this. 
• Our man Benjamin Marra had an informative inside baseball chat with filmmaker Craig Zahler. 

THE BEST NEW COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

Once again I am apologizing to you for not having read any new comics this week.  I still have not made it to the comics shop.  I hope our good man Brian at Cavalier Comics hasn't thrown my pull list in the trash but there's still a plague going on, it's been raining and the goddamned government still hasn't given me that money they owe me. 

Nicholas Burman over at TCJ still reads the comics and writes about them though.  The most interesting comic I saw reviewed this week was probably the Savage Pencil collection he wrote about. 

As for me, I read a lot of Spider-Man comics this week. I'm getting caught up on the Nick Spender run.  I can't say that I care for it.  The jokes are pandering way to hard to an audience that isn't going to look away from Tik Tok long enough to read these comics and the art is nothing special.  They can't all be winners.  

I'm still on my orange, yellow, brown and green costume bullshit with my ongoing read throughs of Suicide Squad, Doom Patrol and the Vision and Scarlet Witch mini-series and related Avengers comics. One of the Vision and Scarlet Witch issues features guest star Power Man (Luke Cage to the youngs) celebrating what appears to have been the first Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  Always classy Quicksilver celebrates MLK Jr. Day by calling black humans and black Inhumans "dusky skins" so, I'm gonna call this one a swing and miss. 

Look friends, I know a lot of you might be interested in the first two Vision and Scarlet Witch serieses because of WandaVision so let me warn you, they are not good.  I'm not saying don't read them,  They are interesting and there is a surprising amount of stuff in the WandaVision show from those comics, I'm just saying don't expect quality.  Personally, I tend to be anti-quality in most things. I'll take weird over quality 99 out of 100 times and these comics are weird AF.  The full Steven Englehart. Just don't go into these things thinking that you are going to come out the other end a better person. 

• Before we leave, it looks like our man Francis was too busy to make a video this week so instead we'll check in on his distant cousin (by marriage) Boogie and see what's up on the Yoo Tubs and the Tick Clocks. 

• Remember pals, life is hard.  Never stop running unless it's to pick up a friend.  Read comics and chew Glorp gum every day and you'll keep on livin' until you're dead. 

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. I write comics.  Do you make comics?  Maybe you should hire me to write comics. 
p.p.s Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.
p.p.p.s.  Yeah, I do Instagram too.  Maybe if 100,000 of you follow me there I'll be as famous as the average Cambodian teenager with a milk ring collection. 

Other Comics News Parade-O-Links 12302012

(Image stolen from The Visual Exegesis.)

Here are some things I found interesting in the world of minicomics, comic books, graphic novels, small press, self publishing, zines, webcomics, cartoons, digital comics, other, etc. during the week ending 12302012:

“Spider-Man is such a whiny loser.” - Stephanie Meyer.

• This week was Stan Lee's 90th birthday.  I guess that's as good a week as any to kill (sort of but not really)  the most popular character he ever co-created.
• It was also Chris Ware's birthday this week and he is now half as old as Stan Lee.  
• Today (December 30th) is my daughter Alana Grace Smith's birthday.  World's greatest 6 year old.  
• Valerie Gallaher on why imaginary deaths carry so much weight. 
• Death in comics is not that big of a deal.  Grant Morrison was killed by a werewolf and he is A-Okay now. 
• Bald F#(%ing Eagles. 
• For no reason at all, I'd like to take a moment to say that Jim Starlin's comics are fantastic. 
• I always marvel at pictures of Brain Chippendale's studio. 
• RIP Werewolf Jones. 
• Robert Newsome has made it though Christmas alive and brought us another music and talking podcast thing. 

• Just one more day of American Elf.  (Unless Kochalka decides to do more.  Because, ya know, it's creator owned and everything and he could just wake up tomorrow and draw some more.  And that would be fine.) 
• Bully's next 365 day feature will be coloring books.  That should be fun. 
• Look people, I already talked about this last week but I'm going to go ahead and recommend  command you to buy Patrick Dean's most recent comics because he is already working on new stuff and I don't want you to get behind. 
• Here's another reminder to go to The Comics Reporter and scroll through to read all of Tom Spurgeon's great Holiday Interviews.  This week was another solid bunch and I see one with Rob Clough is up now.  I'll read it as soon as I finish typing this. 
• I had not looked at Sophie Crumb's sketchbook in a while.  Let's do that. 
• Be careful who sees your doodles. 

• Stuff I got for Christmas:  A Doctor Who t-shirt.  DC Showcase Presents The  Brave and the Bold volume one in a package labeled "from Bat-Mite".  (I bought that one for myself, used off eBay for a few dollars.  I'm Bat-Mite.)  Some clothes.  Some money.  My kids got a lot of fun things including Legos and video games and the new Batman Lego video game.  I've had fun but I'm very tired with my daughter's birthday left to go before the new year.  

THE BEST SINGLE NEW PRINT COMIC I READ THIS WEEK

(Image stolen from Newsarama.)

...was Amazing Spider-Man #700 by Dan Slott, Humberto Ramos, J.M. DeMatteis, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Jen Van Meter, Stephanie Buscema and several thousand other people.  Published by Marvel Comics and sold for the retail price of $7.99.  This comic wins my weekly "The Best Single Print Comic I Read This Week" honor by virtue of being a solid hour or so of entertainment and for being the only comic that came out this week.  Let's talk about what exactly this comic book is as the product that exists in my hands at this moment.  Well, not THIS moment.  I have to set it down to type but, ya know. Having folded and stapled as many comics as I have, I can guess the page count of a book just by holding it.  This sucker is 27 sheets of paper.  Folded in half and stapled that is 108 pages of comics.  52 of those pages are the main story by Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos.  Which, in this day and age would be considered and epic freaking graphic novel if you took out the staples and gave it a perfect bound spine.  16 of those pages are a back up story by J.M. DeMatteis and Giuseppe Camuncoli.  8 of those pages are a back up story by Jen Van Meter and Stephanie Buscema.  The rest is your cover, back pages, ads, a gallery of the variant covers, a copy of the Spider-Man-day proclamation by the Mayor of New York, a gallery of the covers from all 700 issues of The Amazing Spider-Man and a very long letters column featuring some responses from Spider-Man co-creator Stan "The Man" Lee.
The comic has been received with mixed opinions.
So yeah, this is an eight dollar comic and that is just and insane and absurd thing for a stack of paper to be.  But, I bought it.  I had read Amazing Spider-Man 699 and thought the thing was great comics.  And I loves me some Spider-Man.  I consider Spider-Man to be one of my only true friends.  There is not a point of my life in which I can remember not being aware of and a fan of Spider-Man.  He's just always been there for me.  Thanks Spidey!  So yeah, I paid eight dollars for a comic book.
In defense of that madness, it does contain 76 pages of comics.  So, that's what?  Three comics worth of comics?  Which would cost between nine and twelve dollars normally.  I spend around ten bucks on comics in a normal week.  This week I bought this one eight dollar thing and probably got more out of it than my normal ten bucks so, I'm okay with this thing.  No apologies.
And it feels nice pals.  I loves me a thick comic.  Like the big thick annuals Marvel and DC put out when I was a kid or the 80 Page Giants.  This sucker feels good.  I've said time and time again over the past ten years or so, don't give me five Spider-Man comics a month.  Give me one big thick one.  This comic hints at how right I am and how great that would be.  And now that I think about it, if Marvel could give me this much content for eight bucks every month I'd subscribe or put it on my pull list no questions asked.
Okay, so what happens in this comic and is it any good?  So the hype on this thing is that... SPOILERS ... Peter Parker dies.  Except he totally does not die at all.  He's totally not dead and I don't mean zombie.  The new Spider-Man is just the old Spider-Man with some Doctor Octopus personality added into the mix.  So, he's jerk Spider-Man.  Peter Parker's body.  Peter Parker's powers.  Peter Parker's life.  Peter Parker's memories.  And most importantly, Peter Parker's morals.  That's about 95% Peter Parker.  The real question in all of this is just what part of Peter Parker is dead?  And I think that could be a fun thing for Dan Slott to explore in the upcoming Superior Spider-Man.  I mean, I would.  This is science fiction folks.  This is a story where the hero and the villain swap bodies and or brains.  This is pure silver age comics hijinks and I enjoy it.  High five Dan Slott.  Good idea.  But again, now that you killed half of the swap duo before the standard sci-fi swap-back resolution, where did  that part of the character go and what was it?  His soul?  Is Peter in Heaven?  Does Heaven let you in if your body is totally still in better than human shape and still full of your personality?
And just a few issues into this brain swap, Peter Parker's morals and values have already taken over Doc Ock's own to the point that the villain is now committed to being  a hero and carrying on Spider-Man's legacy.  If Peter Parker's brain waves can flip the switch on Doc Ock in just three issues, by what issue do they just go ahead and push him out altogether?  At what issue does he just become 100% Peter Parker?  I'm guessing that issue will be a comic titled The Amazing Spider-Man #1.
All the fuss about this comic has been about the death of Peter Parker.  Partially because that is the gimmick that Marvel has hyped.  But I read this thing and what I see is the death of Doctor Octopus and Peter Parker carrying on with a minor jerk infection.
But enough speculation, back to the comic as it actually exists.  It's good.  Dan Slott and Humberto Ramos do a good job with this thing.  It feels a bit rushed and the intensity feels turned up to eleven but they are hitting all right notes.  All the right guest appearances are crammed in.  All the right homages to Ditko and Romita are in there.  Peter gets to have a near-death Heaven scene where all the people he thought he failed tell him he done good.  Slott knows what he's doing for sure.  This is a good Spider-Man comic.  And I mean that as more than a good comic with Spider-Man in it.  I mean that it does all the things that make Spider-Man comics good and unique to Marvel and to comics.
And I like Ramos here too.  He's not one of my favorite Spider-Man artists but I like the way he draws Spidey's eyes and  he draws the suit in action very well.  And I gotta say, that the three page sequence where Doc Ock is projecting himself into Peter Parker's memories and we see little boy Doc Ock's head on young Peter Parker's body complete with his Moe Howard hair and goggles it is effective, hilarious and adorable.  One of my favorite things in comics of 2012.  High five Humberto.  If Superior Spider-Man were Spider-Man's body with Doc Ock Moe Howard hair for a head I would buy two copies of every issue.
The coloring on this comic did not make me furious and that's about as nice a thing as I can say about the coloring in a Marvel comic.
So I enjoyed this big eight dollar thing.  Here are some more random thoughts about it in no particular order:

-This is a great jumping off point.  I hate to admit that I kind of like canceled comics.  It gives me an end to work toward as a reader and as a buyer of $1 comics at comic shops and conventions.  I like the idea of having a whole run of a thing to read through.  Not that I'll manage all 700 issues but, in theory.  So yeah, canceling comics is the absolute BEST way to make a reader stop reading a comic.
-I like periodicals and I really hate to see a periodical canceled/re-named/re-numbered just as a gimmick.  And, forget Dan Slott, forget the story, from a publishing stand point, this is a sales gimmick.  I just think there should be more pride in that legacy.   I mean, The Amazing Spider-Man as a periodical outlasted Life Magazine for F's sake.  Gone for a gimmick.
-And theoretically, a new #1 is a good way to get new readers but, would a kid that likes the Spider-Man of the movies, cartoons, toys, video games, t-shirts, lunch boxes, beach towels, etc. want to read a comic about Doc Ock driving Spider-Man's body?  That remains to be seen.  And don't give me a single drop of that 'kids don't read comics anyway' bullshit.  Kids absolutely read comics.
-Was December 26 a very dumb day to release this book?  Who goes to a comic shop to spend money on the day AFTER Christmas?  Well, other than me?  I guess it's good for Marvel in that they get the guaranteed best seller of the end of the year and maybe good for the retailers because it gives people a reason to come in the shop on a normally dead day.  I just think it would have been a bigger deal on, oh, say any other Wednesday of the year.
-The J.M. DeMatteis back up story was weird to me.  Well executed but weird.  Are those characters from the Spider-Man comics?  Was I supposed to know who those guys were and who those Squadron Supreme like dudes were.  I'm confused. Please explain it to me.
-Loved the Jen Van Meter written and Stephanie Buscema drawn back-up.  Mainly for Buscema.  She's great people.  If your comic has a Stephanie Buscema drawn back-up story in it, I will probably buy your comic.
-The cover gallery thing was kind of neat.  I would need a magnifying glass to really appreciate all 700 covers but it is neat to scan through and see the progression of the comic.  I was really shocked to look at it and realize how quickly the Todd McFarlane era started after J.M. DeMatteis's great Kraven story. In my mind I thought those were years apart but it was only three months.  Also, the covers got really awful starting with Civil War.  Ugh.
-Speaking of covers.  I got the standard cover pictured above.  I dig it.  I've spent a fair amount of time looking through all the little pictures to see who everyone is.  I don't see Howard the Duck in there and that kind of bums me out for some reason.  The black suit and or Venom get a lot of attention on the cover taking up all of the black in the the outline of Spidey's eye.  Is the black costume and Venom that big a deal to people?  Really?  I mean, I bought those first black costume and Venom comics right off the spinner rack and I thought they were cool as a kid but in the grand scheme of things, the symbiote costume is like any random Fantastic Four subplot and Venom is a villain with just nothing going on character wise.  Nothing at all.  I guess it makes sense design wise for the cover though.
-I enjoyed the letters pages.  I have no problem with Stan Lee showing up to do his Stan Lee impersonation.  I thought some of the comments from previous Spider-Man contributors and industry folks were neat.  I was disappointed in editor Stephen Wacker's comments though.  His stuff reads as dashed off and uninterested.  Not really up to the weight of the moment at all.  Drink some coffee bro.  You worked hard on the book.  Don't sabotage the thing for yourself.    
-There has been some talk about IF Doc Ock has sex with Mary Jane WILL it be rape?  Jeezis Christmas people.  They had one single smooch in this comic.  One G movie level smooch.  And Doc Ock seems to now be governed by Peter Parker's moral code so, I just don't see him raping people.  I mean, how much in-panel sex did Peter Parker ever have?  He's not Matt Murdock.  Really people?  Can we hold off on freaking out about a thing until it actually happens?  (But yeah, if he and MJ get down with her thinking that he is 100% Peter Parker that will be some gross ehSS right there.  But doesn't that sort of thing happen in at least one new Hollywood movie every Friday?  I don't know.  I don't watch movies.  Not that rape is ever okay.  Not even totally fictional impossible to happen mind swap science fiction rape.  Just say no to rape fiction people.)
-And one last thing about the cancellation of Amazing Spider-Man and the launch of a new title.  This is a gimmick. There is no denying it.  But I'm okay with it.  For one, Spider-Man comics will continue and Peter Parker will be Spider-Man for as long as there is money in the Spider-Man business.  But I'm also okay with it because I feel like Marvel uses gimmicks in an appropriate way for a publisher of comic books to use gimmicks.  Their gimmicks exist to hype and promote their story ideas.  This cancellation and this "death" and all the hype around it serve as a way to promote and bring readers to the end of a story that Dan Slott had been working on for 100 issues give or take.  I feel that the Marvel guys come up with the story first then work on the gimmick to promote it.  Which, is why Marvel, despite their horrific coloring and ridiculous prices, makes better comics than DC.  DC puts the gimmick first and the comics are just an afterthought.  Who writes them, who draws them, and where the story goes does not matter.  The product has to match the marketing.  Advantage Marvel. 

• My new years resolution is to get paid to write comics or to write about comics.  Do you know how I can make that happen?  Because honestly, I don't have a clue.  But I'd like to give it a try.  Let me know if you know how.  I've been writing about comics for over ten years now.  What you've seen of my writing has been dashed off.  It has been writing done on lunch breaks, on conference calls and way past bed time.  I've turned down a lot of opportunities over the past 5 or so years because I did not have the time but I'm ready to make the time.  I can do more.  Much more.  I have near infinite ideas but I can't take the time away from my kids and my day job to make them happen.  Unless!  Unless, there was some money involved.  So, what I'm saying is, are you a comics website, magazine, publisher, etceraer?  I am ready for you to pay me to write great things for you.  
• And finally... Happy New Year!  May your new year be filled with good fortune, good health, love and much synth trumpet. 

Oh, and one more last thing!  Did you know you can leave comments on these posts here at file under other?  It's true!  And, I'll probably respond.  Twitter and facebook killed the message boards but that's no reason why you can't argue with me, praise me or leave me recipes.  It's your intronet.  Have fun!

And that's just a taste of some of the interesting things going out there in the wonderful world of comics and things. I can't keep up with it all but I do keep up with a lot of it on twitter and I try to re-tweet the good stuff. You should probably follow me there. If you did something to make comics better this week then high-five!

Your best pal ever,

Shannon Smith

p.s. Say you want a leader but you can't seem to make up your mind. I think you'd better close it and let me guide you to my twitter feed.

p.p.s. Let's pretend we went to high school together on facebook.

p.p.p.s. Google + is another place you can read the same thing I posted here.

p.p.p.p.s. I'll tumblr for ya.