A New Dawn Awaits...The DC Relaunch

Swamp-Thing #1

This is it. It’s DC-Day in the wild, wonderful world of comics. Today is the day that DC relaunches its entire line of comics and I could not be more excited about it. There are an array of opinions out there that range from the outraged, nay-saying, fanboy, to the completely disinterested, to the lukewarm, to the ecstatic. I fall somewhere towards ecstatic. Because of my excitement for this bold change, I feel compelled to regurgitate some of my initial thoughts on the relaunch. I’ve espoused this opinion while I was working at Discount Comic Book Service, on my podcast, on other podcasts, and on message boards. I still stand by it.

To date, I have been reading comics for twenty-five years. I consider myself lucky to have spent a good portion of those twenty-five years reading DC comics. Obviously, DC has been publishing for much longer than that. So long, in fact, that the idea of a relaunch is not new for DC, and angrier fans are deluding themselves if they think otherwise. This marks at least the third relaunch in DC's history (the first being the introduction of the Silver Age with Showcase #4 and the second being Crisis on Infinite Earths). 

DC's Relaunch - Bold New Direction or Wasted Opportunity?

Love it, hate it, or couldn't be more indifferent to it, even the most casual comics fan is probably aware that tomorrow, August 31st, officially marks the debut of the so called "DCnU", the line wide reboot of DC's comics properties. For months, the online comics community has been buzzing about it. Some people, um...let's say resistant to change...even bothered to protest about it at San Diego a month or so ago. DC has reported that several titles have garnered orders in excess of 100,000 copies, a number which, in 2011, is likely to give them the big chair at the market share table for the first time in a loooong time. I heard that mainstream news organizations have been roused to write about it; my extensive research (which consisted of typing "NY Times" into Google) confirmed that this is so. So this is a good thing, right? Well, maybe.

REVIEW: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1

A-hal-right! After a brief hiatus to get my teaching bearings set straight, I am back in the saddle. Damn it feels good to be talking about comics again.

Even more important than my triumphant return to the blog is that last week marked the return of one of my all-time favorite comics series. It’s a series and group of characters that colored a very large part of my childhood, and as college student reminded me of the amazing spirit of independent comics. It’s a series that is one of, if not the, most import comics of the past forty years. Last week Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Casey Jones, and, the greatest of them all, Raphael returned to the comic book page in a brand new ongoing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series from IDW. “Journalistic” (HA!) objectivity aside, I have not been this excited for a new comics series in a long time… this is particularly true because of the involvement of Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman.

Digital Comics - Why I love them...

For my inaugural posting here at A Little Nonsense, I wanted to do something that is near and dear to my heart: Digital Comics!

Due to my background, I'm pretty interested in the business of comics. Not at the retail level, but the bigger, macro level where it is obvious that the industry has significant problems with their current business model.

There are lots of edgy things to say about digital comics and many of those will find their way into future posts. Honestly, I tried to write some of those, but they didn't come out right without first giving some grounding in my basic thoughts about digital comics.

Where is that goober?

Hey everyone!

As I'm sure you noticed, I have not posted anything new since last Monday. Sorry about that. But I have an excuse!

Last Tuesday I was offered an opportunity to teach some college courses here in town. It's an opportunity that I absolutely could not turn down and I am thrilled to be doing it. But! Here's the catch: classes started today. So with only a couple of days to get all of my affairs in order and adequately plan for the classes, I had to take a brief break from blogging.

I should be back on track this week and will resume regular posting as soon as I am able...there will be a new update no later than Friday.

Again, my apologies for the lack of content. I hope that you all understand!

Punch-Up!

Back in 2009, maybe it was early in 2010…yeah. 2010. I met a writer by the name of Frank Cvetkovic at S.P.A.C.E. in Columbus, Ohio. I had invited Frank to be a guest at my convention, which was just barely two months after S.P.A.C.E. and picked up a copy of his self-published comic, Skottie Rocket.

After that, you’ll have to forgive me but, in my brain, my time line is a little mixed up. It was either at Summit City Con while I was chatting with Frank, or when I ran into him again at Mid-Ohio Con that fall that he told me about his then forthcoming webcomic, Punch-Up. I thought the premise was pretty cool and I promised Frank that I would read it, and I did.

I was not disappointed.

It Came From The Long Box! -- Weird Mystery #2

Rummaging through some old back issues this afternoon, I came across a copy of DC’s Weird Mystery #2. It looks just like a back issue should—at least one suited for reading. There are cracks on the spine, some minor staple separation on the saddle stitching, a little tear on the bottom, multiple creases on the cover,  yellowed pages, and it smells of old paper. Absolutely perfect.

Weird Mystery, for those who may not remember the book, ran as two stories per issue (like a lot of comics at the time) and had stories that were in the vein of what DC was producing with The Witching Hour, House of Secrets, House of Mystery, Weird War, Sinster House, et al. Each story is short horror, sci-fi, or suspense vignette that often had an O’Henry type ending, or one similar to The Lady and The Tiger, and is usually more than satisfying for the reader. In Weird Mystery the stories are hosted by the character Destiny and savvy fans will recognize this format not just from the DC/National books listed above, but from the Warren Magazines, EC Comics, Charlton Publications, Atlas, and on and on. It was a pretty standard format that we, as modern fans, don’t see that often any more (or at all).

Shades of Gray: An Informal History of The Life and Work of Gray Morrow (1)

This is an introduction for this series of blog posts.

Ever since I read his, albeit limited, work on Man-Thing, I have been a Gray Morrow fan. Later, when I first encountered his work for Warren Publications, is when I became a bit more of a devotee of his work. It would be disingenuous for me to say that I have devoted as much of my time to Morrow’s work as I have Steve Ditko’s, but he ranks right up there in my pantheon of favorite artists with others like Wally Wood, Jack Davis, Kirby, Harvey Kurtzman, and so on. Truly an unsung great.

So, being a huge fan of Morrow’s work, you can imagine my excitement when I learned that Gray and I hail from the same city. Gray Morrow grew up in the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana. I grew up in very nearby Churubusco, but the rest of my family and my social life existed in Fort Wayne and that is the city that I now call my home--basically, if you're from 'Busco, you may as well be from Fort Wayne. It’s difficult to not be excited by the fact that someone whose work you admire so much shares your home town. In big cities, it likely has a far less significant impact than what the majority of us, that exist in small cities and communities, would experience. It’s a point of pride in many ways. Someone whom I admire, in a medium that I’m passionate about, has a common heritage. It’s cool.

The Isle of 100,000 Graves

Before I begin this review, I need to be upfront with you about something. It’s at least a little difficult to write this review dispassionately or in any manner that could be considered objective. I think that will be something that I will struggle with, and struggle with often. Especially when it comes to Jason. Sorry, that’s just the way it’s going to be. There. I got that out of the way.

I first came across the work of Norwegian cartoonist Jason when his graphic novel, I Killed Adolf Hitler was solicited for pre-order. I believe that was in 2007. I ordered the book, it was released on time and I consumed it immediately. I loved every single page of that book. I still do. Because of I Killed Adolf Hitler, I have gobbled up every other title that Jason has released in the U.S. through Fantagraphics, as well as his work on Marvel’s Strange Tales. To date, I am yet to be disappointed. Incidentally, I Killed Adolf Hitler was an Eisner Award winning title.

 

There’s something wonderful about Jason’s cartooning. It’s a very simple looking, clean, style and has an incredible sense of comedic timing. He has a set cast of characters and those characters take on many different roles throughout all of his work…perhaps characters is not the right word. More like, physical templates? There’s nothing particularly ground breaking about his page layouts, but they tell his stories effectively. Like his overall line and style, his layouts are deceptively simple looking.

Deceptive is the key word in that last sentence. While the overall package of his work appears simple, it’s really, very subtly, complex. The subtly complexity is most emphasized by his characters. Each of his characters are terrifc actors and with the slightest gesture, or non-gesture, they convey their emotions and reactions to the reader in relatable and compelling ways. In simple 4, 6, and 9 panel grids his layouts encourage the eye to move at a pace appropriate for the action on the page. By the time the story is all said and done, Jason has usually made you laugh with his wry wit, feel compassion, awkwardness, joy, and he often leaves you with at least a modest sense of existential despair. Each story has its own wonderful feeling and is often very touching in spite of the sense of dread that may loom over it. Every story is a roller coaster ride and worth reading more than once.

50 Years of The Fantastic Four!

Fantastic Four #10

Welcome to A Little Nonsense! What better way to kick off this new comics blog than by celebrating the birth of the Fantastic Four!

Fantastic Four #46

According to Mark Evanier, it was 50 years ago today that the first issue of the Fantastic Four hit newsstands and it’s hard to imagine comics being the same without it. It was also an issue that kicked off a historic 102-issue run from Jack Kirby and Stan Lee…a tenure that that no Marvel creative team would top until Brian Bendis and Mark Bagley did it on Ultimate Spider-Man. 

Fantastic Four #48

There’s something intangible about this book, like many other Kirby works, that make it something more and set it apart from any other superhero title coming out at the time. Sure, Jack definitely brought over a lot of elements from his incredible (and often underappreciated) Challengers of The Unknown work at DC, but the FF has a certain raw energy and excitement to it that few other titles had at the time. And it remained that way consistently for 102 issues. The concepts and characters were exciting and inventive and  the way that Kirby’s pencils brought them to life is seldom topped—when it is it’s usually by Kirby, himself. Like Ditko’s horror work and Wally Wood’s science fiction stories, Jack Kirby’s FF issues are something that every art and comics fan should experience and nothing that comics could live without.

Thanks, Jack.