IDW Previews: Frankenstein Alive, Alive! and Trio
Frankenstein &Trio covers
Previews for two new books from IDW; Frankenstein Alive, Alive! by Steve Niles and Bernie Wrightson and Trio by John Byrne.
Previews for two new books from IDW; Frankenstein Alive, Alive! by Steve Niles and Bernie Wrightson and Trio by John Byrne.
Roger’s Comic Ramblings: It’s a Team Sport
New Teen Titans by Wolfman & Perez
Westfield’s Roger Ash talks about some of his favorite creative teams.
Roger’s Comic Ramblings: I Have A Time Machine
Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne
Westfield’s Roger Ash tells us all about his time machine and talks about John Byrne’s run on Marvel’s Fantastic Four and Jim Starlin’s original Warlock story for Marvel.
Fifth Degree: Publisher Bait and Switch
by Josh Crawley
Picture the scene: you walk into the comic book store, scan the racks, and find a comic book — aside from the entertainment provided — that’s a pleasing little artifact. Maybe it has extra pages, or even just a cover paper stock you really, really like.
Fast forward a month, maybe two, or maybe just two weeks (this is comics, where any one of those could be on-time or late). You walk into the store and look for the second artifact in your collection. Once found, it doesn’t have quite the same luster as the first. After purchasing your little treasure and getting it home, you realize the true difference: inexplicably, the cover stock has changed. (No, I’m not going to say you have a disorder and before someone — correctly or not — diagnoses me with one, bear with me.)
KC Column: The Never-Ending Story Part 1
by KC Carlson
Though we may be inundated by it in current superhero comic books, long-form serialized storytelling is nothing new.
The idea of telling a long-form storyline as a series of chapters originally dates back to somewhere between the mid-8th and the mid-13th century. The work in question? One Thousand and One Nights, more colloquially known in English as the Arabian Nights. They are actually a series of independent stories gathered together with a framing device, but as originally told, each story was shared over a period of nights, including some kind of “cliffhanger” ending, which would be resolved the following night. Some of the more famous of the stories include “Aladdin’s Wonderful Lamp”, “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”, and “The Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor”, all of which are probably much better known to several generations of American children as the basis for three very memorable (and historically important) Popeye the Sailor cartoons.
Beauology 101: “Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on children.” ~George Bernard Shaw
by Beau Smith
This week I’m going deep into an area that I usually don’t delve into. One that makes me a little nutty when I read or hear others talking about it in heated discussions. This topic falls into the “Who is stronger, The Hulk or Superman” area. What some folks call “Fanboy Talk”.
It’s not a bad thing as long as you remember that these are fictional characters and not real folk, although some of us have been reading about these characters so long that they feel like “real” people.
Roger’s Comic Ramblings: Feeling Nostalgic
by Roger Ash
I’ve been feeling nostalgic recently; nostalgic for a time when the world made sense and people weren’t at each other’s throats if they disagreed with each other. When I’m feeling nostalgic, certain things bring me comfort – Disney films, grilled cheese sandwiches and chocolate milkshakes, and comic books. I think the recent passing of Fess Parker exacerbated my nostalgia as his portrayal of Davy Crockett in the Disney films and Daniel Boone in the non-Disney TV show were a pleasant part of my childhood.
Roger’s Comic Ramblings: Magic Time
by Roger Ash
“What the heck is magic time, Roger?”
Good question! For the purpose of this column, “Magic Time” refers when comics were magic to you. I’ve found that with many of my friends this is the time shortly after you discovered comics and they had the biggest impression on you. It’s the time when you couldn’t wait for new comic day at your local comic shop, or if you’re old like me, when you’d haunt the spinner rack at the local convenience store looking for new issues of your favorite comics. Or when you were sure every UPS truck that drove down the street had your latest shipment from Westfield. (Yes, I know Westfield doesn’t ship by UPS now, but they did back when I was a customer.)
KC Column – Creation Comforts 2
by KC Carlson
[This is a continuation of the exploration of character creation in comic books. Part one appears here. If you haven’t read that yet, you may want to. Then come back here for more.]
So far, most of my examples of character creation have been DC characters. There’s a reason for that. The folklore of the modern Marvel Universe suggests that most of the classic Silver Age Marvel characters were created by either Stan Lee and Jack Kirby or Stan with Steve Ditko. (Important, but occasionally forgotten exception: Captain America was created in the Golden Age by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby – not Kirby and Stan Lee.) Debate has literally raged for years as to which did more or who was more important, mostly along the lines of the writing vs. artwork conundrum. Chances are we’ll never know for sure, but things are about to get very interesting as the Kirby heirs are now taking certain claims to a court of law. Marvel’s new bosses may come in handy in the fight, because Disney’s lawyers define the concept of “high-powered” and have been warding off challengers to the Disney Way for decades. Woe to the Kirbys. But Jack was the epitome of the little guy standing up for himself against impossible odds, at least in the characters he drew. If he and Roz managed to bestow any of their moxie onto their kids, it could be one hell of a fight.