Empty's Theme Park

haniemohd:

I found out today that the mere sight of an elephant in the wild can being tears to my eyes. Yes, I am such a wuss, but I am animal-loving wuss - so there.

Anyways, that aside, here’s a fan art of Jamie McKelvie’s redesign of Captain Marvel, the title now held by Carol Danvers, formerly Miss Marvel. How cool and elegant is that outfit? For some strange reason it makes me want to hum the Saber Riders theme song.

mckelvie:

So it was just announced at Wondercon that Kelly Sue DeConnick will be writing a new ongoing Captain Marvel (formerly Ms. Marvel) series, with Dexter Soy on interiors and Ed McGuinness on covers. I had the privilege of designing Carol’s new costume. Our idea was to give her a kind of swash-buckling costume that invoked a sense of her history as an Air Force officer. Her hair is slicked back at the sides when in costume - so her Kree-style helmet can form when she needs it.

Can’t wait for the series to launch! I love Carol Danvers, and Kelly Sue is one of my favourite writers. More details here.

So this was announced this weekend.  It’s pretty significant, since at present, Marvel Comics doesn’t have any titles focusing on a female lead character.  There’s been a lot of bad press in the comics industry recently about the lack of strong, female characters and a lack of female creators behind them.  I think a lot of it is attributed to sales…..meaning, if those kind of books sold, they would sell them.  However, I think in a lot of cases, those books aren’t given a chance to find their audience…..and the way they are written and presented may not particularly appeal to women readers.  In this case, they’ve taken a strong female character (formerly Ms. Marvel), who has a power set that makes her something of a Superman analog, and are giving her the title Captain Marvel, which has traditionally been held by a male character.  As you can see from the character design, she’s not striking a sexy pose, isn’t wearing a skirt, and doesn’t have her breasts popping out.  This is promising.  Add to that the fact it’s going to be written by Kelly Sue DeConnick, and I’m hopeful.  

What remains to be seen is if it will sell.  I hope it does, and even though I recently announced my intentions to claw back my purchase of monthly issues, I think this book will be one of my exceptions, as if I can contribute in any way to showing an appetite on the part of consumers for this kind of book, it’s a small price to pay.  I hope this book garners a lot of attention and leads to more like it in the future.

…

Title:  Blacksad
Writer:  Juan Diaz Canales
Artist:  Juanjo Guarnido
Publisher:  Dark Horse
Genre:  Crime / Noir / Anthropomorphic

Have I Read It?:   Yes

Suggested For:   thejohnblog

Synopsis:  [via Amazon]  Private investigator John Blacksad is up to his feline ears in mystery, digging into the backstories behind murders, child abductions, and nuclear secrets. Guarnido’s sumptuously painted pages and rich cinematic style bring the world of 1950s America to vibrant life, with Canales weaving in fascinating tales of conspiracy, racial tension, and the “red scare” Communist witch hunts of the time. Guarnido reinvents anthropomorphism in these pages, and industry colleagues no less than Will Eisner, Jim Steranko, and Tim Sale are fans! Whether John Blacksad is falling for dangerous women or getting beaten to within an inch of his life, his stories are, simply put, unforgettable.

Comments:

This book comes from the European market.  It was collected and translated and released to the North American market a few years ago. It is, in a word, amazing.  Most notably, Guarnido’s art is simply gorgeous.  It may be my favourite book in my collection from a visual perspective.  You really have to see it to truly appreciate the craft.  The perspectives and the detail put into the environment really enrich the story.  It’s also a great little noir detective story with a twist….namely that all the characters are anthropomorphic animals.  That’s not to say that this is a childish story, though.  This is intended for adults only.  

I buy comics every week.  I relapsed back in 2006.  It started with one.  I just hadn’t bought one in a long time….about 10 years.  So I walked into a store, found one that caught my eye, and made a purchase.

Today, I usually pick up anywhere from 4-8 issues a week.  It’s starting to become a little much, since I’m not really driven by the “collector” mentality anymore.  These days, it’s really all about the stories.  Now part of the problem I’m running into is that to buy the “single issues”, in large part you have to order them 3 months in advance.  That means, a lot of times, you get the issue, and you’re like, “Meh.  That was mediocre.”  Considering a comic costs between $3- $4 these days, that type of occurrence really grinds my gears.  So, I’ve been seriously considering cutting back my single issues entirely and switching exclusively to the collected trade paperbacks (a.k.a. graphic novels).

Holy fuck, I’ve just bored the tits off of 90% of you already.

See, with the paperbacks/hardcovers, you get a bigger piece of story at once, and you generally know what you’re getting before you commit to buying it (i.e. it’s been reviewed).  And I’m not chained to a weekly obligation.  If funds are light, I just don’t buy a book that week.  Truth is, some weeks I barely have any time to read.

All that being said, there is still a part of me that enjoys the nostalgia of comics….the thrill of hunting down an issue or flipping through musty pages and getting ink on your fingers.  So I’m thinking of trying to track down a line of books that were known as the Best of DC Blue Ribbon Digests.  They were released from the late 70’s to the mid-80’s. I have fond memories of reading those books as my grandmother had a number of them at her house where I stayed often (including a whole week when I had the chicken pox).  I read those books cover and cover, time and again, and they probably are why I became the comic book nerd I am today.

The photo above is one of the digests that I distinctly remember reading at my grandmother’s house.  It had some wacky tale involving a red and blue Superman (if you weren’t able to deduce that from the picture).  I think hunting some of those books down may be my new fix for comics nostalgia, while making the transition to the trade books for newer content, to unclutter my closet and ease the strain on my wallet.

This post has been brought to you by “messing around on eBay”.

kateordie:

Working up the nerve to write this comic was hard. Stopping (once I got started) was even harder.

We, as people, sometime struggle.

It’s good to remember that you don’t always have to face things alone.

The Life of Johnny Cash in Four Frames by Scott Chantler

Commission by Mike Del Mundo

timetravelandrocketpoweredapes:

Supercut by Dina Prasetyawan

[Threadless/Flickr]

I love when artists play with pop culture.

…

Title:  Asterios Polyp
Writer:  David Mazzucchelli
Artist:  David Mazzucchelli
Publisher:  Pantheon
Genre:  Fiction

Have I Read It?:   No.

Suggested For:   btothed

Synopsis:  

[via Amazon.com]  The triumphant return of one of comics’ greatest talents, with an engrossing story of one man’s search for love, meaning, sanity, and perfect architectural proportions. An epic story long awaited, and well worth the wait. 

Meet Asterios Polyp: middle-aged, meagerly successful architect and teacher, aesthete and womanizer, whose life is wholly upended when his New York City apartment goes up in flames. In a tenacious daze, he leaves the city and relocates to a small town in the American heartland. But what is this “escape” really about? 

As the story unfolds, moving between the present and the past, we begin to understand this confounding yet fascinating character, and how he’s gotten to where he is. And isn’t. And we meet Hana: a sweet, smart, first-generation Japanese American artist with whom he had made a blissful life. But now she’s gone. Did Asterios do something to drive her away? What has happened to her? Is she even alive? All the questions will be answered, eventually.

In the meantime, we are enthralled by Mazzucchelli’s extraordinarily imagined world of brilliantly conceived eccentrics, sharply observed social mores, and deftly depicted asides on everything from design theory to the nature of human perception.

Asterios Polyp is David Mazzucchelli’s masterpiece: a great American graphic novel.

Comments:

I don’t have too much to say about this book because, well, I haven’t read it.  But about 2 years ago it was the darling of the “literary” comic book industry receiving countless accolades including 3 Eisner Awards.  I can’t say specifically why I chose to recommend this particular book to Bruce, (I don’t even know if there are any puns in it!) but he was the one I thought of immediately.  As with any of these recommendations, the best scenario is that the person finds the summary intriguing and in line with their tastes and decides to give it a shot.  If not…..no harm done.  And maybe it’s flashed across someone else’s radar too…

europeanspacerace:

TCAF

Edit: Who I want to see - 1st draft of bigger names (i.e. bound to add more once I’ve done further research):

- Gabrial Ba and Fabio Moon (artists for the amazing official poster above)

- Jeff Smith

- Ross Campbell

- Scott Chantler

- Koyama Press

- Emi Lennox

- Brian Lee O’Malley

Really, really want to go to this.  Ugh.  Wish I lived closer to Toronto (like I used to!).  The artists for the poster pictured above are the creator’s of Daytripper which I recommended for Julie and which also happens to be one of my favourite works.