Random Crap

I have been very busy this past month with taking a drawing class at a local Community College so that has not left me a lot of time to surf around to my local haunts and gather up information for this month's article. There are just a couple of things I want to hit upon really quickly.

R.I.P.

On June 23rd legendary Comics Artist and arguably the best artist in the business, Gene Colan, died from complications of liver disease and a broken hip. He was 84 years old. Everyone who I have read on Twitter and elsewhere had nothing but great things to say about how he was such a kind person and how his artwork really influenced their careers. As a budding comics artist myself (at the age of 34) who can barely get a decent still life down on paper, he represented the pinnacle of what a comic book artist should do. In a world where all of the new fans are worshiping the likes of Todd McFarline and Rob Liefeld as the pinnacles of artistic greatness in comics, I think all fans should go back and look at comics art from the 1940's until through the 70's to see what good art is like. As a T-shirt I once saw at a convention said, "Know your Roots" and had a picture of an Atari 2600 on it. The only thing that really annoys me about this whole thing is that when that auction was going on a few months ago, I did not get off my cheap ass and bid on something. I know it would not have helped his health any, but it would have made me feel better about helping someone in need.

The Whole DC Reboot Thing

I have decided to set aside this month to talk about the DC Comics reboot that is going to happen in September 2011. For those of you not savvy to the comic book subculture or have not been watching the television news recently, DC Comics has decided that the latest multi-book crossover, Flashpoint is going to shake up the DC Universe so much that all of the titles are going to restart from issue ones starting in September. What does this mean? I only know about three things that are going to happen. One in the books themselves and the other to the numbering of the books and one in the sales of the books. First, the big thing that is going to happen is the dissolution of the marriage of Superman and Lois Lane. I think DC will take the high road and not pull an equivalent of the Amazing Spider-Man "Brand New Day" and have it broken up by DC's version of the devil. That would just look silly and not be original. Second, two of the longest running comic books, Detective Comics and Action Comics are going to be reset to issue #1 after running over 700 and 900 issues respectively. I have seen a lot of fan reaction to this and everyone says "They'll go back to legacy numbering after a major milestone." That may be the case for Marvel books, but I think the editorial staff of DC has made a decision to restart everything from issue one and keep it that way. Third, Dan Didio said that if sales of the new books are not going well, then they will be canceled after the current storyline is up. Also DC announced that most issues will have six issue story arcs so that does not give a lot of people time to get invested in them and they (DC) can move on to another title that may or may not sell any better. DC has a line of fifty-two books slated for release in September and here's a list of the books and their possible creative teams: (Titles in bold are books I'm going to give a shot. Comments below) JLA#1 by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee Action Comics #1 by Grant Morrison and Rags Morales Superman #1 by George Pérez and Jesus Merino Superboy #1 by Scott Lobdell and R.B. Silva and Rob Lean Batman #1 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo Detective Comics #1 by Tony Daniel Batgirl #1 by Gail Simone, Ardian Syaf and Vicente Cifuentes Batwoman #1 by J.H. Williams III, Haden Blackman and Amy Reeder Catwoman #1 by Judd Winick and Guillem March Red Hood And The Outlaws #1 by Scott Lobdell and Kenneth Rocafort Batwing #1 by Judd Winick and Ben Oliver Nightwing #1 by Kyle Higgins and Eddy Barrows Batman And Robin #1 by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason DC Universe Presents #1 by Paul Jenkins and Bernard Chang Green Lantern #1 by Geoff Johns, Doug Mahnke and Christian Alamy Green Lantern Corps #1 by Peter J. Tomasi, Fernando Pasarin and Scott Hanna Green Lanterns: New Guardians #1 by Tony Bedard, Tyler Kirkham and Batt Red Lanterns #1 by Peter Milligan, Ed Benes and Rob Hunter Animal Man #1 by Jeff Lemire, Travel Foreman and Dan Green Swamp Thing #1 by Scott Snyder and Yanick Paquette Legion Lost #1 by Fabian Nicieza and Pete Woods Birds Of Prey #1 by Duane Swierczynski and Jesus Saiz Teen Titans #1 by Scott Lobdell, Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund Savage Hawkman #1 by Tony Daniel and Philip Tan Blue Beetle #1 by Tony Bedard and Ig Guara Supergirl #1 by Michael Green and Mike Johnson Wonder Woman #1 by Brian Azzarello #1 and Cliff Chiang Fury Of Firestorm #1 by Gail Simone, Ethan Van Sciver and Yildiray Cinar Aquaman #1 by Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis Mr Terrific #1 by Eric Wallace and Roger Robinson Flash #1 by Brian Buccellato and Francis Manapul Green Arrow #1 by JT Krul and Dan Jurgens Justice League International #1 by Dan Jurgens and Aaron Lopresti Captain Atom #1 by JT Krul and Freddie Williams II Grifter #1 by Nathan Edmondson and CAFU and BIT Legion of Superheroes by Paul Levitz and Francis Portela OMAC #1 by Dan DiDio and Keith Giffen Batman: The Dark Knight #1 by David Finch All-Star Western #1 by Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Grey and Meridat. ( Vigilante #1 by Darwyn Cooke inside?) Justice League Dark #1 by Peter Milligan and Mikel Janin Demon Knights #1 by Paul Cornell, Diogenes Neves and Oclair Albert Frankenstein: Agent Of SHADE #1 by Jeff Lemire and Alberto Ponticelli Resurrection Man #1 by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning and Fernando Dagnino I, Vampire #1 by Josh Fialkov and Andrea Sorrentino Voodoo #1 by Ron Marz and Sami Basri Static Shock #1 by John Rozum and Scott McDaniel Hawk And Dove #1 by Sterling Gates and Rob Liefeld Sgt Rock And The Men Of War #1 by Ivan Brandon and Tom Derenick Stormwatch #1 by Paul Cornell and Miguel Sepulveda Deathstroke #1 by Kyle Higgins, Joe Bennett and Art Thibert Suicide Squad #1 by Adam Glass and Marco Rudy Blackhawks #1 by Mike Costa and Ken Lashley It's good to see some books like Static Shock and Captain Atom get another shot at being published. It is also good to see that they are putting some Wildstorm titles out there as well, but how well are books like Grifter and Voodoo going to sell since they have been out of the public eye for so long? It's not like I walk into the comic book store every week and find someone looking for back issues of Grifter. Stormwatch has a chance because they are going to have Martian Manhunter in the book and everyone loves the choco eating green Martian. Two books by Gail Simone, a writer that I just found recently after reading a lot of her posts on the internet. It was like having my eyes opened to another thing that I never thought about before. (It was the June issue of Secret Six where Bane gets to hook-up with a teammate.) Two of the books I am giving a shot to are anthology books because if I don't like the story then I'll wait a few months and they will have new story come out. JLI because it has got to have the pizzazz of the book from the 1980's and OMAC because I have always been curious about the character. Of course this means that Brother Eye is still in existence and that means more than likely Maxwell Lord is also still alive. DC is shooting to have 80 titles out every month (not including trades or alternate covers) and that will include all DC, Wildstorm, Kids and Vertigo titles. That averages about 20 titles a week for a four Wednesday month (16 if it is a five Wednesday month) so here's hoping that DC Comics can keep up this ambitious schedule. I'm just thankful that Grant Morrison is only on one book and not a lot of Batman related books like Batman and Robin as well as Detective and Batman proper.   That's all for this month. Come back next month to see what I have to say.

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