Posts Tagged ‘ blogging ’

…just to give you an idea of what I’m up against. I’m actually currently reading the first two, and the rest are in no particular order – they’re just sitting in the apartment waiting to be read.

I’m not buying any more books or trades until I get at least half of these out of the way!

Over on Everyday is Like Wednesday, while talking about Dan Didio’s announcement that he will be writing a monthly comic soon, the blog’s author J Caleb Mozzocco posits that today, people buy comics not for characters, but more for the creators:

Decades ago, like, before the mid-70s, I imagine, it was the characters that sold the comics, but now that the readership is mostly adult and thoroughly understands that not only are comics made by particular people, but how they’re made, that’s not always the case—in fact, I imagine it’s rare.

For example, if people used to read Disney duck comics because they were Disney duck comics, and to be particularly excited when they got “the good duck artist,” now they would look past the publisher and title and look to see if it was a Carl Barks comic or not.

Grant Morrison, Geoff Johns, Mark Millar, Brian Michael Bendis, Ed Brubaker, Warren Ellis, Jeff Parker, fans read their comics because they see their names on them, not because they can’t wait to see what Booster Gold or The Hood or Spider Woman are up to these days. And, likewise, people avoid comics by writer’s whom they don’t like.

I don’t agree. While personally if there’s a writer or artist working on a comic that I wouldn’t otherwise be interested in I’ll take a look (like this week’s Doom Patrol), if there are writers I don’t like working on characters I love, I’ll put up with them through pretty much anything.

There’s a reason I’ve got runs on books like Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers, Iron Man and Fantastic Four which are in some cases older than me – and it’s because I love the characters in those books and I’ll stick with them through thick and thin.

So I’m curious – what’s most important to you when buying a comic?

The characters? The writer? The artist? The company that publishes it?

I’ve got a poll up on the right of the blog for the next week – vote away and let me know!

I’m on vacation for a few days, headed down to Key Largo for some humidity and thunderstorms.

Talk amongst yourselves – back Tuesday!

Just a housekeeping note – you may have noticed that I’m trying out something different with the blog at the moment. It’s mainly to facilitate cross-posting from the really rather awesome Posterous, which is kind of like Tumblr but a bit more user friendly (at least from my perspective).

Anyway, my main posting column needed to be a little wider and I was having trouble adapting the old template so here we are. Still playing around with settings and stuff, so there may be more changes.

But as well as a ‘share’ button, I’ve got some easy to use icons at the foot of each post now to post to some main services – Digg, Stumbleupon, Reddit, Technorati, Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo and Google – one click posts the link, which is nice.

Over on the aforementioned Posterous, you can follow the blog (and some extra postings from time to time) at:

I’ve got another Posterous at

- which is mainly stuff that gets cross posted to my web page at www.richlovatt.com.

If Tumblr’s more your thing, you can also follow this blog there at

Now if only I could get a logo designed for the Comic By Comic Store….

No post today – taking a last minute break up to the Catskills for the weekend, so no posting.

Have a great 4th, Americans – and remember, the Force of July loves you!

Oh, too easy…

We’re moving tomorrow, and the rest of the day will be spent packing and moving some boxes myself – and I don’t think I’ll just be sitting on my thumbs tomorrow.

What that does mean is that I won’t be able to blog – especially as I’m going to be offline at home too. I should be back online from Thursday at the latest but in the meantime, browse all the good stuff in the archive down on the right, or the bloglist down on the left.

See you in a few days!

(Hopefully)

(Okay, I didn’t know what to post today and asked Twitter. One of the first to reply was Dan Faust, who said:

Blog about Jeffrey Combs, because…well, why the hell not?

That’ll teach me…)

Perhaps rivaling only Bruce Campbell in the cult actor stakes, Jeffrey Combs is a personal favorite of mine.

The Re-Animator himself has notched up an impressive list of genre credentials, not least of which is Herbert West, an HP Lovecraft creation who happens to like, well, re-animating the dead.

And who doesn’t?

Beyond that defining role, Combs has appeared in virtually every television series ever, and has had three recurring roles in various incarnations of Star Trek.

In Deep Space Nine, Combs not only portrayed greedy Ferengi Brunt, the ‘IRS guy from hell’. Brunt appeared throughout the series, mainly as an emissary of the Nagus or opposing Quark – which led to one of Quark’s best line’s in the series when Brunt stripped him of his authority to conduct business as a Ferengi: “You walk into my bar again…and you won’t walk out.”

Also on Deep Space Nine, Combs played various clones of Dominion ambassador Weyoun, one of the better recurring villains of the show (well, he’s no Dukat, but he’s right up there). Brunt and Weyoun both appeared in one episode, meaning Combs pulled double duty.

In Star Trek Enterprise, Combs played recurring Andorian Shran, originally introduced as a villain. Later, however, he became an ally of the Enterprise and per Manny Coto would have joined the permanent cast had the show been renewed for a fifth season.

As synchronicity would have it, Comb’s Shran was also used as a Guardian in the fan-made Green Lantern trailer I posted earlier this week.

Combs also played a few other roles in various Treks, apparently making him one of only five actors to play seven or more characters in the franchise. (Thanks, Memory Alpha!)

Even with all of that, the character that I remember Combs most for is still the big-gun-wielding, germ-phobic, haemorrhoid-suffering Special Agent Milton Dammer in Peter Jackson’s deeply, deeply underrated The Frighteners. Dammer’s so relentlessly over the top that he feels like he belongs in a different movie altogether but he steals every scene he’s in.

(Thanks to The Combs Corner for the pic!)

So here’s to you, Jeffrey Combs, underrated but awesome!

…things are a wee bit hectic at the moment.

On top of the usual shenanigans, we’re moving apartments over the next week or so (and, excellent timing, we have visitors from tomorrow through Sunday). This has so far resulted in the dog being a bit disturbed.

As in pee-on-the-bed disturbed.

Sigh.

So there may be no blog post today. Just warning you.

…because I can’t think of anything to post.

I mean, I need to post something about the Wolverine movie, but I haven’t written it yet.

But aside from that, I got nothing.

So let me just post a really nice piece of art by Mark Brooks and lament the non-appearance of Val‘s Cloak and Dagger book.

Oh, and the season finale of Fringe is on tonight!

Well, it’s over. Mecha Simian placed 7th out of the 10 competitors that ran in April (congrats to all the other competitors!).

There’s a few things that I’ll take away from this experience.

In my idiocy, I forget to mention a couple of other books that I follow in trades – namely…

Scalped – You know, for some reason I wasn’t sure about this when I first bought it. But damn, is it a good read. Dashiell Bad Horse returns to the Prairie Road Indian Reservation he grew up on after 15 years with a pair of nunchuks, an attitude and, oh yeah, an undercover FBI assignment to prove Chief Red Cloud guilty of murder. Red Cloud may – or may not – have killed two FBI agents back in the 70s, alongside Bad Horse’s mother, and a driven FBI agent is determined to get him one way or another. And then things start to get complicated.

I understand why Jason Aaron gets hired on the basis of this – it’s an amazing book, and the weird thing is that as the lead character fades into the background and spotlights are shone on the supporting ones, it only gets better. The fact that so much happens in one issue that is explained by flashbacks a few issues down the line makes it a stronger read in trades, for my money, but it’s definitely worth a look.

Jonah Hex – What can be said that hasn’t been said about this book? Amazing artists, old west sensibilities with a modern edge, strong writing and mainly done-in-ones – Jonah Hex is a great, great comic.

Yes, the book can be gruesomely over the top at times (issue #26 for example) and it can also be misogynistic – try and find a strong woman in these pages who isn’t either a prositute, raped or a former victim of some kind – but it’s true to the spirit of western books of the past and never fails to entertain.

And there’s that movie coming out…

I know that I put up the pull list weekly, but I thought I’d just mention things that I follow/followed in trades as well…

Preacher – Yes, I know it’s done, and I finished it up pretty much at the time the last trade first hit, but it was a great series. Sure, there are moments where it’s bugfuck-crazy over the top (see: Arseface, Herr Starr’s continual degradation), but there’s a lot of good story there.

And personally I’m rooting for a Spike/Cassidy throwdown.

Punisher MAX – The Punisher doesn’t always work for me in the mainstream MU, but Ennis’ take on him off in his own separate continuity blows me away. From the Born mini that told of Frank’s time in Vietnam through the final story, Valley Forge, Valley Forge which revisited it, it’s about five years of the best hard-bitten crime and punishment stories you can hope for. It’s also the only real time I’ve seen Frank get any character development.

In fact it’s so good, I don’t think I’ll read it now Ennis is gone – I don’t think there’s anything left to do with the character.

Fables – I resisted Fables for the longest time for no good reason – and damn, I’m sorry I did. A great (and simple) premise with exiled fairytale characters living in New York becomes so much more as the reasons for their exile become clear, and war looms. On the down side, I missed out on years of this. On the plus side, I don’t have to wait between trades!

There are a few slow trades in the group, but none that make me regret buying them.

Starman – I missed the first few years of Starman back when it first came out, and then somehow, I missed the last six months. Sure, it’d be cheaper to go back and find the single issues, but I love these hardcover collections. There’ll be six in all, and they’ll look good on the shelf.

And the sheer depth of storytelling here will have me revisiting them time and again. Great stuff.

The Walking Dead – I love zombie movies. Love them. And this book just keeps on getting better and better. There really aren’t any more words to express how good this book is. Yes, it’s gory, bloody and full of strong language…

…but it’s fantastic.

Invincible – And at the other end of Kirkman’s spectrum is Invincible. Straight forward superheroics, the book is probably the heir to early Spider-Man in terms of balancing super-heroics and soap opera antics.

I’m a few books behind, but there’s plenty to catch up on.

I pick up other stuff too – I especially love the small format Boom! trades (check out 10, Talent, Hero Squared and Tag) and the Marvel Digest sized trades – but they’re the main ones I get the trades for regularly (or semi-regularly). I’ve also fairly recently got the first trades for Swamp Thing, Ex Machina (good) and House of Mystery (also good), so I expect I’ll be following along with them soon enough…

I’ve always wanted to get into Hellblazer, but I have no idea where to start. Any suggestions?

If you’re not reading Amazing Spider-Man right now (and shame on you, OMD debacle be damned!), you missed one of the most thought-provoking comic book letters that I’ve read in years in this week’s issue.

I mean, I liked the comic as well, but the letters page was fantastic.

In it, a Serbian reader and Red Cross worker took Marc Guggenheim and Steve Wacker to task for the issue a few months back which turned the spotlight on Flash Thompson’s loss of his legs during military service overseas.

He had an issue with the fact that he viewed some of the rhetoric in the comic as one-sided, simplistic, unrealistic and unintentionally racist. Wacker had corresponded with him, and presented one of the reader’s replies, and Guggenheim replied as well.

I think some good points were raised; there is a tendency in the US media to simplify overseas conflicts down to a soundbite. There also seems to be a real reluctance over here to present the other side of the story when it comes to foreign conflicts, and to couch it in terms that seem more appealing to the public – I’ve noticed it much more over here as opposed to the BBC back home.

On the other hand, the story is told from a very particular point of view and you need to respect that too.

I hope that Marvel puts the letters page for this online, because it’s worth a read – and was probably the best thing I read last night. I’m very impressed with the company and Steve Wacker for publishing it.

Yesterday, The Source premiered a look at the Red Lanterns from the upcoming GL sourcebook, as illustrated by Doug Mahnke:

- and there, in the middle is the wee bugger we’ve caught a glimpse of before – the Red Cat Lantern!

Dex-Starr, by the way, is a very stupid name, and he shall from hereon be known as Red Cat Lantern.

Not to be confused with the Red Cat pub in Crank, St Helens near where I grew up.

They serve IPA, just in case you’re in the area, and the pub lunch is pretty good.

These past few days have seen a little bit of progress on my screenplay. I’m currently reworking the opening to make a few changes – which are already reflected in the later pages, so I’m back-filling, if you like.

The main changes are as follows:

• I shifted a funeral from the start of the screenplay to pre-story, about six months earlier. I realised that the emotions would be too raw for the rest of the screenplay with the funeral right at the start. A shame, as it was a strong opening. Ah well.
• I got rid of a character who served the same purpose as another character that I liked more.
• I need to establish the protagonist’s dictio more strongly from the start – and add more hints of true character before that becomes more apparent so that it doesn’t come out of the blue.

It’s kind of freeing, knowing exactly where characters need to end up at the end of these first few scenes, but oddly constricting at the same time.

I’ve also changed a major plot point which happened before the screenplay starts. It makes more sense this way, I think, because now it fits in better with what happens in the screenplay itself.

My main problem is that there’s a lack of conflict in these early scenes. That definitely needs to be punched up some if it’s going to draw a reader in – but I can brush that up on the next pass, I think.

I was looking back over the one word reviews I’ve been posting lately and it occurred to me that, well, it doesn’t look like I enjoy about half the comics I read.

My first reaction was ‘that’s not true!’ but the more I think of it, the more I get the nagging feeling that it might be.

Take Batman and Superman. I’m back to picking up the majority of the Batman books, and I’m enjoying Battle for the Cowl in a big, blockbuster kind of way but the last time I was really enthusiastic about Batman – and I mean in the ‘looking-forward-to-every-single-issue’ kind of way – was probably around the time of No Man’s Land.

And that, I’m surprised to see, was about nine years ago.

As for Superman – he’s probably my second favorite superhero character after Spider-Man (obviously both fall way behind Lois Lane, but that’s another story) – I’m a little unsure when the last time I felt that way was. Probably around the same time, during the 1999 soft relaunch of the books when they had Joe Kelly, Jeph Loeb (back when he could construct an almost coherent story), Stuart Immonen, Mark Millar and Mark Schultz were handling the writing. Of course, that all went to hell shortly thereafter with the godawful Our World At War storyline but hey, they can’t all be winners.

But was it really nine years since I enjoyed either of DC’s flagship characters consistently? I’m not saying I haven’t enjoyed them since then – but that’s honestly the last time that I think I looked forward to every issue of their main books.

It’s not as though there aren’t highlights at the moment; I’m enjoying pretty much everything about Amazing Spider-Man right now, Captain America continues to be fantastic, R.E.B.E.L.S is great fun, I’m enjoying John Byrne’s work on Angel: Blood and Trenches, Rick Remender’s Punisher this week was good enough to guarantee that it’s staying on my pull list for the next arc too, the main War of Kings series is awesome, I’m looking forward to Blackest Night in spite of the stupidity of the Rainbow Corps…

I guess the point is that I’m not as enthusiastic as I want to be about a lot of books these days – I may have singled out Batman and Superman but they and DC are not the only culprits. While I think that the Dark Reign status quo at Marvel is interesting, I don’t think every book needs to reflect the darkening of the MU.

A little levity would be welcome at the moment. Maybe that’s it.

Even though Mecha Simian is free online, sometimes you just need more – so over at my website, I’ve uploaded the original script for Mecha.

It’s slightly different than the final product and in it Mecha’s ship was named, but it’s there in all it’s over-enthusiastic glory!

Check it out here!

I just realised that I didn’t update when the thing I hinted at in the last post went live – but then as about five people have seen this site, I guess that doesn’t really matter too much!

Anyway, I have an entry in this month’s Zuda Comics competition - Mecha Simian . The entry, written by me, drawn by Greg Woronchak, colored by Lisa Moore and lettered by Ama Darwin, is Mecha Simian.

It’s a touching story about a cyborg monkey, his talking spaceship and a couple of big guns – honestly, if there’s anything else that makes a cool comic, I don’t know what it is.

For those not in the know, Zuda Comics works like this: ten comics are chosen from submissions (and they tend to get a lot so making the cut into the ten is a pretty big deal in itself) for any given month’s competition, then the ten face off for a month of voting by readers – and the winner get’s a year’s contract to produce more of the same comic for Zuda. Zuda is the online arm of publisher DC Comics, best known for Batman and Superman, amongst many other properties.

The actual mechanics of the ranking process are carefully shielded black magicks, but consist of voting, stars given, favoriting, comments and views.

As of writing, poor old Mecha is running in 7th place – so why not head on over, register online and vote for Mecha Simian?

I don’t generally talk too much about books I read on the blog, other than to post them down over on the right on a widget, but when I found this I had to.

One of the few authors that I always pick up on the first week of release is Lee Child. He writes the Jack Reacher series of novels, essentially action-thrillers driven by Reacher, an ex-army MP who wanders America getting into trouble.

Reacher’s one of those hard-bitten types with a strong sense of justice, an impressive array of combat skills and an inability to back down in a fight – but Child’s developed him into much more than a caricature; Reacher is so convinced that his nomadic lifestyle is right that he can’t see just how damaged he is – and maybe he never will.

The next novel in the Reacher series, Gone Tomorrow is out in the US in hardcover on May 19 – but up until that date, US residents can read the entire novel Persuader below! (And here in other formats)

Enjoy!

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