I posted a column over at GutterGeek last week explaining that Matt Kleinert and I are going to start an ongoing column/conversation focused on the DC Comics superhero work of Grant Morrison. We’re starting at the beginning and reading systematically through all of Morrison’s work in an attempt to put the larger mythology together. Today I kicked off the conversation with a look at Arkham Asylum. Please feel free to drop in and work through it with us. Oh, and Happy Halloween.
From The Comics Journal #81: Gary Groth, Dwight Decker and Peppy White speak with the longtime publisher of Mad Magazine and EC Comics, in an absorbing and comprehensive interview.
A while ago I took a look at Wednesday Comics, the 12-week project designed to put DC characters in serialized stories meant to resemble, through their 14″ x 20″ pages, the continuing adventure strips of old Sunday funnies sections. The title’s second iteration, a hardcover compilation, assembled all chapters of all 15 stories, many done by industry stalwarts.
Back then I pronounced the collection an artist’s showcase and tried to support that by focusing on a trio of best uses of the novel form and the single, surprising worst. I thought it could stand as my final word on the subject.
And then I started to dream.
Moving away from the tilled fields of DC’s trademarked characters, Grant Morrison appears to be writing himself a screenplay. Luckily, in Joe the Barbarian, he’s supported by Sean Murphy who provides the imaginative storyboarding and the flamboyantly attractive cinematography.
This is the first part in a series of videos by Gavin Lees called “The Craft of Comics.”
In The Comics Journal #300, Frank Quitely (We3, Flex Mentallo, Batman and Robin) spoke at length with Dave Gibbons on new innovations in creating comics digitally. Of particular note was their enthusiasm for Wacom’s Cintiq pen display which they had both used to great effect in their recent work.
In the following video, Quitely demonstrates how he uses his Cintiq to improve his workflow with traditional media and takes us through some of the preliminary steps in creating a cover for the relaunch of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents for DC Comics (see the finished version above).
Lees’ “Craft of Comics” series continues on Wednesday, Aug. 11, with the first of a two-parter featuring Jamie Grant.
Copyright lawyer Marc Greenberg discusses recent developments in the Superman case (Siegel v. DC) and the Jack Kirby estate’s claims against Marvel Entertainment, in a presentation for the Comics Arts Conference. Recorded on Thursday, July 22. (Downloadable MP3 audiofile, 10.7MB.)
Wednesday Shop Talk
A few weeks ago, the last issue of Justin Gray, Jimmy Palmiotti, and Amanda Conner’s run on Power Girl shipped. I was looking forward to that issue because I truly enjoyed almost every bit of that book, but I hated that it was the last issue featuring that creative team. The whole point of the Power Girl series (a creatively peaking, truly collaborative artistic team directing a great character with worlds of potential) seemed to have vanished after the publication of #12. After having just read #13 (written by Judd Winick) tonight, I can say with regret that my suspicions were accurate. As good as Sami Basri’s art is, this series should have ended at 12 issues. The fate of Power Girl has gotten me thinking about DC’s track record when it comes to periodical publications. As it turns out, 12 is about as close as it gets to a magic number for this company….
Last year, Brian Azzarello pitched a project to DC that would hopefully change many of the reservations that today’s comics readers have about these characters. Azzarello and artist Rags Morales created a world outside the main DC Universe (Earth-1 or whatever it’s called these days) where many of the pulp characters to which DC still had legal rights could interact—work together, fight each other, or just talk—in a contemporary narrative way. I hesitate to call the First Wave world modern, because it’s not….
In theory, the pulp fiction genre is a natural fit for the comics medium. Many of the action/adventure and detective characters who became popular in comics during the late 1930s and 40s were based on prototypes developed in the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 30s. Despite these connections, though, pulp heroes have never fared particularly well in comic books….
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