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October 31, 2005

COMICS 101 is in Session

David P. writes: I was reading your latest column and quite enjoying it. Especially since I actually remember and still own the first appearance of The Cadre! However, you mentioned some things that got me wondering. What is this rights squabble over Aquaman? I haven't heard anything considering his exposure in both Entourage and Smallville. Could you enlighten me a bit more about this. Also, what about some embargo with the Bat-villains? It wasn't until you mentioned it that I hadn't noticed Mark Hamill's excellent Joker popping up on JLU. Can I have more info too?

Again, thanks for the great article...your Supergirl articles made me re-read the Crisis again and shed a tear for the death of Kara...good stuff.

Thanks for the column!

Tipton: Exactly why is unclear, but it's been made known that Aquaman and Black Manta are no longer cleared for usage on JLU; logic would suggest it's because some other TV or film uses of the character are in the works. As for Batman, the line is that all Batman characters are to be reserved for usage only on the new THE BATMAN show, with WB feeling that viewers would be confused by two versions of the Joker. Pretty stupid if you ask me. However, they stopped short of demanding that Batman no longer appear on JLU, thank heavens.

Bill L. writes: Now, that I've got your attention, a couple of questions:

What do you think of "Astro City"? I managed to snag all of the collections, and read them all in a couple of sittings. I don't know how I could have missed them before- they're great. Do you know if there are plans to continue the series?

Thanks to your column, I'm slowly increasing the number of comics I read every month, but most of the new additions are all from DC. Is Marvel doing anything worthwhile?

And a geek question- do you think that when Plastic Man stretches his neck his voice changes?

Tipton: ASTRO CITY is phenomenal -- one of the best books to come out in the last decade. A new 12-issue series is currently under way.

Marvel has been losing me of late, but there are a few bright spots: the newly returned SHE-HULK, NEW THUNDERBOLTS, Joss Whedon's outstanding ASTONISHING X-MEN, YOUNG AVENGERS, Bendis’ NEW AVENGERS, and the recent SPIDEY/HUMAN TORCH miniseries, among others.

Never thought about it, but Plas’s voice probably sounds a little strained, at least.

Andy writes: Last night, I attended Jeff Smith's book signing at Wild Rumpus, a children's book store in Minneapolis. He talked about how he came to create Bone, drew big pictures of the main characters on an easel, answered some questions, then signed books and posters for a good while. He went so far as to personalize each book with a sketch of one of the characters from the story. The kids just ate him up.

Oh, and he did all this with a *cast* on his drawing hand. What a guy.

One interesting thing he mentioned was that, due to the success of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Incredibles in the cinemas, he's begun talks to bring Bone to the big screen. (He said he'd like someone with a quiet voice, like Tobey Maguire, to play Fone Bone, but hadn't thought ideal casting for the other parts.) Hope this decision works out as well as his reconsideration to publish the books in color -- Steve Hamaker did a fantastic job on the first volume.

Not that I myself need additional motivation to buy the books, but do you plan on writing a column on Bone?

Tipton: BONE is definitely on my list to write about, no question. Jeff Smith is and always has been a class act. I think the first or second year he was doing the book, I met him at Wonder Con and he was nice enough to draw Fone Bone sketches on all my original issues.

Justin T. writes: Just recently got back into comics. I’m about 25 and have read a comic since I was 13/14 even though I had subscriptions to a ton at one point (Iron Man, Avengers, Wolverine, Amazing Spider Man, Daredevil, and Flash off the top of my head). Reading through your archives and other stuff I went and picked up the 25cent preview of Hunter Killers, Ultimate X Men Book 1, and the Children’s Crusade series….

There’s a TON of stuff I’d like to request to see you take a stab at, so if you’re open to suggestions…

-Marvel “Color” series (ie; Spidey- Blue, Hulk- Grey , Daredevil- Yellow)

-Anything Daredevil. Reading up on Daredevil Resurected has really renewed my want for that mag.

-The whole confusing Ultimate series. I know its starting everything over but what are THE Ultimates, Ultimate War, Ultimate Nightmare, is there any order I should read them in, etc.?

-Avengers Disassembled. God I loved Avengers. I grew to like X Men alright but always hated the Fantastic Four… loved these guys though anything you can write up about them more than you already have would be awesome.

-Y: The Last Man. Damn this looks like such a great concept.

-The build up and death of Super Man and the ultra confusing stuff afterwards.

Then again, maybe I’d rather just buy them and find out myself (considering how limited my budget is at the moment, that might take a while)…

Anyways, your stuff is great and by far the best thing a “newbie” or guy who hasn’t thought about comics in over a decade like myself could find, any helpful response or columns would be muchos appreciated.

Tipton: The Spidey and Daredevil series by Loeb & Sale are great, but you can skip the Hulk one.

Not much for current Daredevil, I'm afraid. Nor am I a big Ultimate fan, but you can read those series in pretty much any order, saving Ultimate Nightmare for the end.

I love the classic Avengers, so me devoting any more time to writing about Disassembled seems like a waste of time, since I can't see spending that much time and energy on negativity. NEW AVENGERS has been leaps and bounds better than DISASSEMBLED, though.

Just buy the trades for the Death of Superman; that's all you need, and it's a pretty good story. I briefly cover the nuts and bolts of it in my Superman columns in the archives.

Glad you're enjoying the column, Justin. Thanks for reading.

Jordy M. writes: I just read your two-peice talk about the Crisis which I knew for the most part but it did fill things in what I would like to know is I did see a series of Superman's Funeral Comics/ What Superman is this and how did he die?

Tipton: That was in the DEATH OF SUPERMAN storyline appearing in the line of Superman comics in the early '90s. You can read about it in the Superman columns in the archives. Basically, Superman was killed by Doomsday, but he got better.

Grantley P. writes: thanks for a really informative series. I was only ever an occasional comics reader when younger but your columns have encouraged me to take a greater interest in comics. As an Australian, I was wondering what Australian characters, heroes or villians, have hit the big time? I see that Captain Boomerang is an adversary of the Flash (and the outfit he's wearing at http://www.moviepoopshoot.com/comics101/15.html) looks like a reject design for a Qantas stewardess' unifrom) but are there any others of note? (I vaguely recall a group called the "Southern Squadron" existing in the mid 80s that included a character with the worst permed mullet I have ever seen but I hope there are other examples as well).

Tipton: Sure, there's Captain Boomerang and...

and then there's...

and don't forget...

I got nothin'.

Jason A. writes: Love the column. One of the highlights of my week. You turned me on to a bunch of excellent DC stuff that I wasn’t previously familiar with like JSA and Teen Titans. However, my comment today concerns the Marvel Universe. I, like you, was pretty dismayed at the crappiness of the recent Avengers Disassembled. I thought it was, hands down, the worst thing Bendis has ever written, and I’m a huge fan of his. So then, last night, I was reading the latest issue of Dan Slott’s She-Hulk (the last issue for awhile unfortunately) and was blown away by his not-so-subtle criticism of the whole Disassembled fiasco. When She-Hulk says (referring to her defeated opponent Titania,) “It’s always easier to get noticed by ripping something apart and destroying it rather than by building on what came before.” Ouch! And then She-Hulk and her employer talk about how everything seems to have gotten darker and less fun. She asks “Will it be fun again?” And he says “Yeah, in a few months everything will be back to normal.” I was cheering. And it was all in the context of a slam-bang action story. I really think that Dan Slott understands what makes comics fun and I was pretty impressed at this critique of Marvel’s big gun Bendis. That’s my two cents. What did you think?

Tipton: We're in complete agreement. I'm glad Dan Slott just signed an exclusive at Marvel, as it means I know there will be a few Marvel books for me to read over the next couple of years.

Zak K. writes: I was wondering, where does the vast Wayne fortune come from? I thought that Batman's dad was a surgeon, not a billionaire businessman.

Tipton: As I recall, while Bruce's father Thomas was a surgeon, his grandfather was the rich industrialist, which is where the family money came from.

Ben S. writes: Scott how do you do it.. another week another fantastic column... if you ever get to put the column on hardback... I'll be camping out in line.

I just finished reading the transcript for the press conference for the V for Vendetta movie. Then I went straight to your column and read it... and wondered... will the Wachowski Brother pull this off? I wish I had a chance to find it V for Vendetta and I'm having no luck. Plus I really don't know the big payoff.. which you mentioned in your column. So being familiar with it... what's your take on it? Will it be a "For Hell" (highly overlooked increadible adaption) or "LXG" (cinematic murder by a big large check) in terms of quality?

Plus, is it just me or has DC Comics really the place to read really good comics? I mean both Marvel and DC have done their "big events" but it seems that inspite of the fan opinions DC walked away with little to no damage to their quality. But it seems that Marvel is getting all the press (Wizard should change their name to "Brian Michael Bendis is God magazine") and all they did is give ONE writer too many books and letting him dictate the editorial choices. As opposed to DC that have Geoff Johns write stories, incredible stories, with a lot of characters and LISTENS to the editors with respect for the history of the characters (Green Lantern: Rebirth is a perfect example). I know you probably don't like BMB, but am I seeing the truth, or just overreacting?

Tipton: It's not that I dislike Bendis, although much of his recent work leaves me cold, but I certainly dislike his current influence on the company. Bendis is definitely writing too many books, and I think it showed on DISASSEMBLED.

The V FOR VENDETTA movie is a giant question mark at this point, although I was pleased to hear the actor playing V say that he never takes off his mask in the film. Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky.

Nick S. writes: I just picked up the 1st appearance of Martian Manhunter. I was wondering if you had any plans to do a Comics 101 segment on him. If there's already an existing one, please point me in the right direction. Thanks so much.

Tipton: J'onn hasn't gotten his own column yet, but he's been getting some mentions in the JLA columns, particularly here:

http://moviepoopshoot.com/comics101/98.html

John H. writes: When I was in college, my roommate turned me on to the spy/espionage series "Checkmate" from DC. No real super heroes in this book, but lots of great action and the Knights had the coolest uniforms ever. I tracked down as many of the back issues as I could, and I think I've got most of the series (it only lasted about 32 issues, I think) but I was wondering if anyone ever used this incredible concept anywhere else in the DC universe. I've always been more of a Marvel fan, but the premise and characters in this series always stuck out in my mind as one of the coolest. Love the column, keep up the great work!

Tipton: CHECKMATE showed up here and there throughout the '90s (and you're right -- those uniforms rocked) but they've all but faded away these days, at least until the recent appearances in COUNTDOWN and THE OMAC PROJECT.

Jonathan L. writes: I remember one of my favorite stories when I was a kid was the earlier mentioned Earth-2 Batman getting killed....I really don't remember much about it other then some guy with shocking power killed the returning Batman. I remember that you refrenced it in a earlier column, but what happened in the second part of the story? I just remember it was suppose to be the funeral.....but I never could find that issue....

Tipton: Off the top of my head, there were some complications with making sure Batman and Bruce Wayne were publicly buried separately so as to protect the identities of Robin and the Huntress. I'd have to go dig it out to be sure. The dramatic climax was the issues you have, though.

George C. writes: You'd think the powers-that-be at DC would take a hint and spotlight more of Perez's 1980s work!

It's a darn shame that he's basically known for just Crisis on Infinite Earths and New Teen Titans when he's done so much more.

I have seen the current JLA Crisis Trade Paperbacks (the annual team-ups, not the 1985 mini-series) but haven't bitten because the stories reprinted so far are not my cup of tea. From wooden characterizations to Sekowsky's less-than-stellar art to Denny O'Neill's horrible channeling of the worst parts of Marvel melodrama, I just can't get into these books and I try to be open-minded.

(I totally agree about the "classic" Green Lantern/Green Arrow books. The only redeeming thing about those issues is the art. The continual put-down of GL and GA's political diatribes make those issues very hard to read through without pulling your hair. It's a wonder GL didn't go psycho and kill GA then. Makes a lot more sense than Emerald Twilight did! Denny O'Neill is apparently much better writing on creatures of the night than anybody that operates during the day...)

There's no question I'll pick up the trades that reprint the stories you covered in the last two columns you've done. The Perez stories are definitely issues I want to get but current prices are either too high or you can't find these comics in most stores' back-issue boxes!

Keep up with the good work on the columns!

Tipton: I think the Sekowsky and O'Neil stuff has a lot to offer, although I can also see that by more modern standards they might feel a little wooden.

Agreed, a collection of Perez's JLA stuff would be most welcome.

TV RECOMMENDATIONS

Ryall: So it seems that reader Richard S. and I both missed the bit about "jumping the shark" from an episode of ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT last season. I completely forgot about that scene, but was reminded of it by more astute readers. To wit:

Jason A. writes: Dude, when Richard S. wrote in about how introducing a cousin of Oliver Bluth would be exactly the typed of thing the AD writers would do, he said “Heck, I'm surprised they haven't figured out a way to get someone jumping over a shark.” I’m sure I’m not the only one to mention this, but they DID do that exact thing last season. Not only that, it was Henry Winkler himself who jumped over the shark! It was the shark that ate the seal that ate Buster’s hand I believe.

Brandon C. writes: In your 10/24 column, Richard S. writes, "Heck, I'm surprised they haven't figured out a way to get someone jumping over a shark. Gob, anyone?"

Actually, that's a trick they've already pulled. In the season two episode "Motherboy XXX" none other than Henry Winkler, the Fonz himself, does a little hop over a dead shark when he and Michael are talking on the docks. It's pretty subtle, but definitely intentional.

One should never second guess the crack AD team. They are ON it.

Brandon O. writes: Okay, I'm probably not the first to write in with this, but my overwhelming "Arrested" geekiness compells me. In response to Richard S., who notes:

"Heck, I'm surprised they haven't figured out a way to get someone jumping over a shark. Gob, anyone?"

They have, the mad geniuses. And not just anyone, but the Fonz himself. It happens just after they've recovered the seal that bit off Buster's hand... inside a shark. Henry Winkler's Barry Zuckercorn is there, and as he leaves the scene, he deliberately leaps over the shark's corpse. Kind of stunning, actually.

Can't wait till this show comes back.

Ryall: Yep, I just blanked on this one. Saw the episode, and as soon as I read the first e-mail reminding me of it, it fully came back. Luckily, the readers are on their game once again.

Onto other shows...

Joseph A. writes: Dunno if you're watching the World Series, but Fox REALLY wants us to watch Jailbreak to the point that the announcers are working in plugs for the damn thing into their calling of the game.

Jeez, if only Firefly had this kind of advertising.

Ryall: It still beats them sticking Ally McBeal in a dugout seat at the world series a few years ago.

Rob S. writes: Don't know if I'm loosing my mind or if its old age or whatever... but, I swear I saw Jack Nicholson on two episodes of Andy Griffith. One time, he played the husband of this couple who forgot their baby (I swear I am not making this up) in Mayberry and Opie found it and cared for it...

The other time... I think he was on trial for B and E or stealing a tv set or some such shit... and Aunt Bee (?) was on the jury. She was the only one who believed he was innocent and was proven right... I think.

I may be wrong. Its happened before...

Ryall: I'm sure you're right. Nicholson is actually very much like the character he played in THE SHINING, in that, like Jack Torrance, I think he's always been around and always will be. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a truant officer in some old LITTLE RASCALS shorts, too.

Adam J. writes: I know I'm a few weeks late chiming in on this, but let me say I prefer the old (and apparantly current) way of you doing your TV recs. I like the numerous shows with one to two line smart-ass comment format. I think between One Hand Clapping, TV Recs, the TV Pilot Review, the Mail Shoot and your news articles we all get a pretty good idea what you think is legitimately good. This version of TV Recs allows me to laugh as you make fun of the shows I would make fun of, as well as allow you to make inside geek jokes that only us hardcore geeks get (Kole looking out for red skies? Priceless.)

Ryall: Somebody else got my CRISIS joke? I assumed that only me and Tipton would've gotten that one. Well done.

More Tim McCarver Bashing

Doug B. writes: I might be able to come up with another good McCarver moment for you.

There's a story where when he was catching the immortal Bob Gibson for the Cardinals back in his playing career, Gibson was upset about something and McCarver approached the mound to talk to his pitcher.

Gibson reportedly said "The only thing you know about pitching is you can't hit it." And sent McCarver back behind the plate.

Ryall: See, nobody likes him! I'm with you, Bob Gibson.

What's Wrong with Hair Bands?

Thomas K. writes: Hi, my name is Tom (I have e-mailed you before about random shit, including TV pilot stuff) and I have a music tip for you. Sat 19th November in San Francisco (which I believe is your current residence) a band called the Arctic Monkeys are playing Popscene @ 330 Ritch. The are also playing LA on the 18th at Spaceland.

You like good music (for the large part despite your predeliction for many things kitschy, ie the 80s hair metal bands) and as a result you will love this band. Hell even if you don't you can say you saw them first. These are going to be the next UK band to take over the world and they are stunning.

It could even be a semi-regular column, with you or someone spotlighting lesser known artists.

Ryall: Ahh, yes, the idea of a new music column... it's one I've had for a year now, and had some great people volunteer, but I just haven't had the time to get it rolling.

Still, that aside, I might actually be in San Diego and no San Francisco (they're maybe 600-800 miles apart), but I did check out and download some ARCTIC MONKEYS. Good call.

I'll refrain from mentioning that I saw JUDAS PRIEST and ANTHRAX this past weekend, then, to keep from betraying any more of my hair metal past.

I am not in the band nor do I know them but this would absolutely be worth a night out on your behalf, especially seeing as you would be one of the first people Stateside to see 'em.

Anyway keep up the good work with IDW (David's Angel is good shit) and the site.

Ryall: Wait 'til you read Tipton's SPIKE.

Photos of the Week

Ryall: The cover to the January '06 trade paperback collection of one of the more purely fun comics out right now (topped only by Marvel's new SHE-HULK series), Image's GØDLAND:

Happy Halloween!

Pumpkin carving by Matt Morris

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