Comic Books

Here's a 1971 TV special celebrating highlights from Disney's live-action traveling show, DISNEY OIN PARADE. One of my most popular posts was an early one about my parents and I seeing the show live at the Cincinnati Gardens. I do NOT, however, remember this TV celebration.

Here's a brief little foreign language documentary on the unique cinematic stylings of Czech filmmaker Karel Zeman. Zeman's short films and features made from the late forties on combined live action, illustrated backgrounds, animation and other special effects in ways similar to those Terry Gilliam would adopt on MONTY PYTHON"S FLYING CIRCUS. A genius!

Welcome on and all to Phoenix Comic Con! It opens in forty-fuve minutes. But here are a few shots from set up… The Bleeding Cool Fan Awards are there tomorrow, 6pm. Come join us.. . My first Young Loki of the show! You know, with the heat outside I could happily wear one of these. Josh Adams gets his name on the banner! Not as big as his Dad’s of course, there’s a seniority at play here… Okay I probably have to buy one of these… Oh yes, and it’s hot out. Thank goodness for the sprays outside the Hyatt! Setting Up The Phoenix Comicon – Booths, Dolls And Cosplay

While it's sad to see Geoff Johns leave GREEN LANTERN after spending nearly a decade expanding the universe, he at least left us with shockingly impressive swan song. If you haven't read GREEN LANTERN #20 yet, go do that right now. It's well worth the cover price. This Tuesday we asked which Johns story was your favorite and the results are now in.Over 200 Viners voted and one arc rose above the rest: 'Sinestro Corps War.' Earning 40% of the votes (including mine), it's easy to understand why this one blasted apart the competition. While 'Rebirth' is the superb story that kicked off Geoff's time with Hal, 'Sinestro Corps War' is widely considered the go-to tale once you're hooked into the cosmic ride that is Green Lantern. This adventure is nothing short of an epic blockbuster filled with countless jaw-dropping moments, plenty of familiar faces and some truly exhilarating action. Sinestro's might is on full display here and at the end of the day, this is absolutely considered a must read.Here's the poll results:Agent Orange 2%Blackest Night 31%Brightest Day 3%Rage of the Red Lanterns 4%Rebirth 9%Rise of the Third Army 0%Secret Origin 5%Sinestro Corps War 40%War of the Green Lanterns 4%Wrath of the First Lantern 0%Other 2%Personally, I'm a sucker for the Arkillo/Kilowog rivalry and adore the insanely powerful attack which concluded it. But what's your favorite moment from the story, Viners? Speak your mind below!

Green Lantern #20 Who’s your Green Lantern writer? If you started reading the series in the ‘60s, odds are it was John Broome. He didn’t write every Green Lantern story of Hal Jordan’s first decade, but he was there for the character’s introduction (in September-October 1959′s Showcase #22), and he lasted until March 1970′s Green Lantern #75. If you joined the Corps in the the ‘70s, your Green Lantern writer was Denny O’Neil, who had already written a few GL stories before getting the regular gig with the landmark Issue 76. He guided the feature through some rocky patches — including the book’s cancellation, its time as a backup feature in The Flash and its 1976 relaunch — before finally taking a bow with June 1980′s Issue 129. The ‘80s saw a parade of writers, including Marv Wolfman, Mike Barr, Len Wein and Steve Englehart (and in GL’s time as an Action Comics Weekly feature, Jim Owsley/Christopher Priest and Peter David). Each made his own contribution, be it Hal’s exile from Earth, John Stewart’s star turn, the Guardians’ sabbatical, or the enigmatic Lord Malvolio. The early ‘90s belonged to the neo-Silver Age stylings of Gerard Jones, and the balance of the decade was all Ron Marz and Kyle Rayner. Starting in 2000, Judd Winick took on Kyle for three years, then Ben Raab wrote a few issues, and Marz came back for one last crack at his creation. And since then, it’s been all Geoff Johns. For more than a hundred issues (counting specials and miniseries), Johns has been pulling together various bits of Lantern lore and weaving them into a multicolored tapestry that spans the Emotional Spectrum. It ends in this week’s Green Lantern Vol. 5 #20, which (if you count the two-issue War of the Green Lanterns miniseries that closed out Vol. 4) would also have been the 500th issue of Hal’s original series. Penciled by Doug Mahnke and inked by committee, with a handful of pages drawn by various art teams, it’s a handsome issue that still might not make a lick of sense to a newcomer. I’m not sure I know exactly how things went down, and I go back to the O’Neil days. However, that might not matter for readers of Issue 21. If you’ve seen the house ads for the four (with Larfleeze, soon to be five) Lantern titles, you know who survived, and you’ve gotten big hints that a couple of them are in new positions. In Issue 20, Johns restores some old relationships, revives an old rivalry, and even offers a glimpse at the future. Maybe that’s just his parting gesture to the various Corps. Maybe it’s even a nod back to the Alan Moore prophecy that informed so much of Johns’ early GL work. This issue was for the longtime fans, and if they’re not entirely satisfied, at least they got closure. SPOILERS FOLLOW! See, for me the thing about Volthoom was that he was just too nebulous a threat. The Sinestro Corps and the Black Lanterns were these monstrous armies bent on destruction. The First Lantern just went around forcing our heroes to relive painful moments from their pasts. Sure he’d imprisoned the Guardians and wanted to enslave all life in the universe, but throughout “Wrath of the First Lantern” that never seemed like his main purpose. When his minions were fighting Simon, Guy and B’dg on Earth, that was exciting; the rest just felt like filler. Paced a little differently, it might have been an interesting divergence from constant combat, but instead it made me long for the combat. This issue wasn’t much different. At one point Volthoom gets the “spark” he needs to start rewriting history — something Hal tried to do back in his Parallax days, which I thought would get more play than it did — and Kyle notes that “[h]e’s taking apart the Life Web. History is coming undone.” That sounds nice and cosmic, and it is preceded by a decent-sized panel showing the universe in Volthoom’s hand. However, the actual unraveling turns out to be just a couple of lines of dialogue. To be sure, there are many Big Moments in

Posted On Today at 05:09:16 pm EDT by Blargh [Reply] [Quote] [New] Oh and here's the link: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/62532

Posted On Today at 05:08:27 pm EDT by Blargh [Reply] [Quote] [New] Sony says they have no interest in selling their rights to Spider-Man. The only outside studios that have Marvel licensing rights are to the best known properties (F4, Spidey, X-Men) and none of those studios are ever going to give up rights as long as the films succeed. And even though some of the films haven't been critically acclaimed, they've all made a whole lot of money.

And why it’s a stupid fucking idea. Yeah, I said it. Okay, kids, gather ’round the warm glow of your computer screens while Grandpa Burgas goes off on one of his tirades, which he always does when he forgets to take his meds. Just stay back, let him go on for a while, and eventually [...]

… to look at any successful geek as Manifest Destiny rather than a crew lucky enough to have found an escape hatch seems … unhealthy. It just all seems so unhealthy. Worse, it seems like sales. And — who do people think PAYS those guys? Who do they think runs those guys’s careers? Have you ever seen a movie executive? Have you ever been around AGENTS? (I don’t recommend it). Do people think that the creative personnel are really running the game and calling shots? That’s not true of nearly every creative enterprise I know, certainly not pre-internet at least. If you’re not a person who can say No in their life, then I don’t care who’s lined up to kiss your ass. Heck, it’s certainly not true now — this generation of nerds is churning out Star Wars movies and Marvel bullshit for corporations that keep nerds like pets. – Abhay Khosla, poking holes in the popular notion that nerds and misfits will inherit the earth. As he’s wont to do, Khosla pokes a lot more holes than just the part I’ve quoted there, but I pulled that section out because it directly mentions comics. The Big Dream for comics creators used to be working for either Marvel or DC, but that’s changed. It’s still a dream for many and I’m not putting down anyone who’s working for those companies or would like to, but it’s no longer the dominant goal that it once was. More and more creators are jumping ship at the corporations to pursue their own projects with their own characters, at least partly for the reason Khosla mentions: they want to be able to run the game. But as Khosla also points out, there are limits to that even with creator-owned comics. The comics themselves can be completely controlled by the people making them, but the game changes when those stories are licensed to other media. A huge part of the creator-owned dream is making that big movie or TV deal and getting to keep the money from it instead of accepting whatever portion Marvel and DC choose to let you have. But when that deal is made, the creator is back in cahoots with a corporation that now has final control over the project. Robert Kirkman and The Walking Dead is as a big a success story as we’re likely to get, but even Kirkman doesn’t call all the shots on that show. I don’t claim to speak for Kirkman or suggest how he feels about that, my point is that in the best possible case, the dream of making a gazillion dollars while retaining full creative control in comics isn’t in any way realistic.  What’s realistic – but only for those willing to work really really hard at it – is making a living in comics. Maybe even a good one. That could mean giving up some control if a movie deal comes knocking, but there’s nothing wrong with that. I remember Mike Mignola’s attitude when he first sold the rights to a Hellboy movie. I don’t have an exact quote, but he basically said that he was happy for the check and that whatever happened with the movie wasn’t any of his business. It reminds me of the famous story about Raymond Chandler where someone asked him what he thought of Hollywood ruining all of his books. He took them to his study, pointed up to the shelf where they all were, and said, “Look, they’re there. They’re fine. They’re OK.” That’s a noble goal for creators, isn’t it? To make a good living telling stories that they own and can be proud of. The dream of reaching the top and looking back down at all the people who picked on you in high school isn’t just sad, it’s bogus.

We’re used to Age Of Ultron and Batman topping the Advance Reorder charts at Bleeding Cool, as retailer decide to top up their orders ahead of the comics being published. But Free Comic Book Day and the release of Regular Show #1 and its sell out have seen The Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys and Regular Show #2 and #3 turning the heads of retailers who suddenly want, want, want.  The Green Lantern Rings promo also hits Green Lantern Corps #21. The first issue of appeal of Dream Merchant has impacted on the second issue, and everyone’s getting excited about Si Spurrier’s Six Gun Gorilla. Savage Wolverine #6 and Guardians Of The Galaxy #3 are also picking up steam. And as with last week, Marvel’s decision to slash the wholesale price of the previously published Art Of Marvel Studios hardcover has seen retailers go nuts deep for that volume… TOP 25 ADVANCE REORDER COMICS/GRAPHIC NOVELS/TPs Description SRP Supplier AGE OF ULTRON #10 (OF 10) $3.99 MAR BATMAN #21 $3.99 DC TRUE LIVES O/T FABULOUS KILLJOYS #1 (OF 6) $3.99 DAR REGULAR SHOW #3 MAIN CVRS $3.99 BOO GREEN LANTERN CORPS #21 $2.99 DC SAVAGE WOLVERINE #6 NOW $3.99 MAR GUARDIANS OF GALAXY #3 NOW $3.99 MAR THANOS RISING #1 (OF 5) 2ND PTG BIANCHI VAR NOW $3.99 MAR REGULAR SHOW #2 MAIN CVRS $3.99 BOO DREAM MERCHANT #2 (OF 6) (MR) $3.50 IMA UNCANNY X-MEN OMNIBUS HC VOL 01 NEW PTG $99.99 MAR SIX GUN GORILLA #1 (OF 6) $3.99 BOO DANGER GIRL GI JOE HC RED LABEL ED $0.00 IDW IRON MAN BY KURT BUSIEK AND SEAN CHEN OMNIBUS HC $125.00 MAR SAVAGE WOLVERINE #6 X-MEN 50TH ANNIVERSARY VAR NOW $3.99 MAR PROPHET TP VOL 02 BROTHERS $14.99 IMA SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN HC VOL 01 $34.99 MAR JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK TP VOL 02 BOOKS OF MAGIC (N52) $16.99 DC THOR GOD OF THUNDER #9 NOW $3.99 MAR BATMAN LIL GOTHAM #3 $2.99 DC AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #16 NOW $3.99 MAR HE MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE TP VOL 01 $14.99 DC INHUMANS BY PAUL JENKINS AND JAE LEE HC $39.99 MAR FATALE TP VOL 03 (MR) $14.99 IMA SUPERIOR SPIDER-MAN HC VOL 01 DM DITKO VAR ED $34.99 MAR TOP 25 REORDER COMICS/GRAPHIC NOVELS/TPs Description SRP Supplier ART OF MARVEL STUDIOS HC SLIPCASE $150.00 MAR BATMAN HC VOL 01 THE COURT OF OWLS (N52) $24.99 DC SAGA TP VOL 01 (MR) $9.99 IMA WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM TP VOL 01 (MR) $59.99 IMA WALKING DEAD TP VOL 02 MILES BEHIND US (NEW PTG) $14.99 IMA ADVENTURE TIME TP VOL 02 $14.99 BOO WALKING DEAD COMPENDIUM TP VOL 02 (MR) $59.99 IMA WALKING DEAD TP VOL 01 DAYS GONE BYE $14.99 IMA AVENGERS VS X-MEN HC COMPANION AVX $99.99 MAR HAWKEYE TP VOL 01 MY LIFE AS WEAPON NOW $16.99 MAR WALKING DEAD TP VOL 04 HEARTS DESIRE $14.99 IMA AVENGERS VS X-MEN TP AVX $34.99 MAR IMAGE FIRSTS WALKING DEAD CURR PTG #1 (MR) $1.00 IMA MANHATTAN PROJECTS TP VOL 02 $14.99 IMA BATMAN HUSH COMPLETE TP $24.99 DC BATMAN TP VOL 01 THE COURT OF OWLS (N52) $16.99 DC ADVENTURE TIME TP VOL 01 $14.99 BOO BATMAN HC VOL 02 THE CITY OF OWLS (N52) $24.99 DC MARVELS IRON MAN 3 SLIPCASE HC ART OF MOVIE $49.99 MAR WALKING DEAD TP VOL 06 SORROWFUL LIFE (NEW PTG) $14.99 IMA MANHATTAN PROJECTS TP VOL 01 SCIENCE BAD $14.99 IMA PETER PANZERFAUST TP VOL 02 HOOKED $14.99 IMA BATMAN THE KILLING JOKE SPECIAL ED HC $17.99 DC BATMAN #20 $3.99 DC WALKING DEAD TP VOL 16 A LARGER WORLD (MR) $14.99 IMA PRODUCTS Fabulous Killjoys, Regular Show, Dream Merchant And Six Gun Gorilla Rise Up The Advance Reorder Charts