Let me guess: the comics fan in your life already has all the books you can think to get them and they don't need more; worse, you are the comics fan in your life and those shopping for you have no idea what to pick up in a comics shop or online. Solution? Something classy that they almost certainly don't have or to which they can easily be directed: alter-ego prints by Danny Haas on Society6.
The attractive Spidey sample to the right is a personal fave but there's really only one that doesn't work for me somehow. Almost all of them show great taste in art and design and they are easily recognized by anyone who's consumed popular culture in the last several decades. The purchase options are varied, too: everything from an iPhone skin for a few bucks up to a framed 26"x38" print for many, many more bucks than the iPhone skin. Way too hip to display anything other than stretched canvas? They've got you covered, though I note that not all options are available for all designs. Haas has a bunch of different pieces and by no means is he the only artist on that site. I particularly like the various riffs on popular culture being done by artist Powerpig though I confess that the name does elevate an eyebrow.
Oh, honey, my feet are still tired. I have finally administered myself enough medicinal martinis to get back in the game, though, and I have to tell you I had a pretty freaking fabulous time at Dragon*Con 2011. I did take pictures and you remember that part where I said my phone camera was good enough? Yeah, not so much. Next year I'm sucking it up and taking the real camera. That I am already thinking about next year should be taken as a sign of the kind of time I had, though: a very good time, indeed. The Rainbow Flag Party was packed and lots of queer cosplayers were happy to pose for your intrepid reporter; the gaming track was fantaaaaaaaaaaaastic OHMYGODSOMUCHFUN and I only got in one shoving match with other Con-goers which, given my redneck roots, I count as something of an accomplishment.
Read on for the skinny on this year's trip! Oh, and here's an early caveat: the con staff themselves were extremely and very personally rude to me this year so I feel no real compulsion to be nice for niceness' sake. Every opinion expressed in this post is (a) mine alone and no one else's and (b) as honest as it gets.
According to Big Shiny Robot!, six more DC reboot covers have been revealed by someone fiddling with URLs to see what they could see. Included in their list is a cover for Batwoman #1, which they take as confirmation that the J.H. Williams III co-penned ongoing is really going to happen after all. Given the theories I've seen in which people claim the reboot is an opportunity for DC to kill this title while no one's looking, I think that would be mighty nice.
One problem: isn't that the cover we've already seen for the various earlier launch dates of Batwoman #1? It's also distinct from the others by virtue of having credits and the logo already on the page. Yes, it shares some design elements with the (really beautiful) cover for Detective Comics #1 and there's a way to read that as a hint or tribute or allusion or other signal of some sort, but I think that's drawing an exceptionally long bow. I hate to break it to BSR and their friend with the probing fingers but I don't think that image is news; I think that image is old news.
I would love nothing more than to be wrong about this and I will celebrate my error in the streets if this title gets confirmed and launched.
["6 More DC Relaunch Covers Leaked!" - www.bigshinyrobot.com]
Everyone is all atwitter, on Twitter no less, about this whole DC Universe reboot that's happening in September. What probably shouldn't surprise me any longer - and yet I always find it baffling - is how capable folks are of developing extremely strong opinions in the absence of substantial information about a topic. We've all heard the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory and in this case it seems to be in as full effect as in any other: people are saying rude things about publishers, creators and one another with maybe even a little more abandon than usual. When you see a popular comics creator re-tweet some random person's criticism of the opposing publisher in a near-vacuum of actual data about the topic at hand it's... well, frankly it's just a bit silly.
The Boyf and I snuggled up on the couch Sunday evening to watch the two-hour/-episode premiere of NBC's new superhero show The Cape. It is an extremely rare occasion, in the TiVo era, that we sit down together and watch something while it's happening.
There are plenty of ways in which this show had a bumpy start, and there were times when it made me roll my eyes, but I plan on watching the next episode pretty much as soon as we have it. That's a rare thing for me, someone who likes a few shows but probably only watches five hours of TV in an entire week. War & Peace it ain't - it's not even the best live action superhero television I've ever seen - but it's got a lot going for it, not least of which is Our Hero's smile, that much more delectable in HD.
Read on for more of what I liked - and didn't - about NBC's The Cape!
I am going to be the first to say that I was scared of this book. Greg Rucka's writing really defined the revamped Batwoman and while J.H. Williams III's art was clearly the other integral half of the spectacular reaction that bubbled out of every issue of her all-too-brief run in Detective Comics I was not quite ready to trust that the artist could also write her.
This introductory and very short issue - thin, and transparently an advertisement for the whole retouched Bat-clan as much as it's a re-debut of Batwoman herself - doesn't tell us much that's new, doesn't do anything other than refresh our memories about some of the basic details of Kate Kane's past, but good grief is it good to see her back on the printed page. I had no idea I missed this character so much. It's always thrilling to open a book and see Batman peering over a modern-day parapet at the top of the page but I got straight-up goose flesh when my eyes hit the bottom of the same page and I saw Kate Kane's signature borderline-psycho smirk. I'll say it: I got misty. I very nearly shed a tear. J.H. Williams III may still be a better artist than writer but that doesn't mean he's a bad writer; it means that he is a freaking amazing artist.
What? A review of six issues of Zatanna? Well, not really - at least, not issue-by-issue. Rather, I wanted to sit down and get out some thoughts about the first story arc in this book, as Zatanna is easily in my top five favorite DC characters and I was extremely excited when I found out she was getting a book of her own.
The executive summary is that this book feels really Bronze Age: a little dark, a disturbing criminal story, a kind of ridiculous soap opera-y start and an ending that just sort of happens; and yet, the gay assistants and the high camp are really, really enjoyable. It's a fun book and it has only made me love the character more.
Rubber Justice tweeted a little while back about the ComicBookQueers podcast and I started following them on Twitter with the intention of listening in. Last night I finally got the chance and chose to start with their It Gets Better episode, in which they discussed the comic books that helped them cope as queer kids coming to terms with their own identities. I really enjoyed the episode, and it's gotten me hooked on their podcast. I really do recommend their show to you, even if they do make fun of my native South. (It's not that I disagree with them, it's that I don't like having competition for the job of making fun of my native South.)
The point of this post isn't to review their podcast, though; I have mad love for our fellow prognosticators and I recommend them utterly without reservation. Rather, it's that their podcast got me thinking about how comic books influenced - via a circuitous route - my own coping strategies growing up gay in a rural, conservative and openly hostile environment.
Just what you've always wanted, folks, Wonder Woman is getting her own makeup line! What's that? You couldn't care less? Well, I'm hardly the makeup-wearing type myself, but I think the announcement speaks volumes for where the Amazonian stands in contemporary culture.
Wonder Woman certainly has a degree of social prominence; Most Americans can identify her, even if they're pulling from memories of the Lynda Carter TV series, and she's definitely a member of DC's Trinity- where, like Superman and Batman, she was important enough to get dragged into Blackest Night's tie-ins and then left to her own devices once the event concluded. But her comics aren't respected quite as much as her compatriots'- she has no spinoff titles, she's not part of DC's "Earth One" graphic novel incentive, and worst of all, she has no movie.
Though by 2011, she'll be right there on the Macy's racks alongside Britney Spears perfumes and Cyndi Lauper-sponsored watches. I fear that Wonder Woman is especially vulnerable to comics' ever-growing integration into the mainstream. Not that this is a bad thing, the girl could certainly do with more exposure, but if all this publicity works as planned and Diana is catapulted into the spotlight as a symbol of righteous womanhood, where will the new fans go who want to explore her in original form? Perhaps she'll expand into multimedia more as a pop element, a feat that even Superman couldn't accomplish. Batman has arguably been able to escape comic-tropes and expectations only recently though his Nolan movie incarnations- I think Wonder Woman and her mythology might be DC's prime candidate for attracting attention now that comics are only just the springboard for a character's fame.
Am I the only one who thought that when I saw the futuristic T-shaped mask he's wearing here, as he sells some kind of high quality audio laptop? The rest of the outfit works pretty well too!
Really, pretty self explanatory. This shot was released along with a USA TODAY article about Kenneth Branagh and Chris Hemsworth, and how the production team wanted to make sure they were ready for Comic-Con.
Large version of the picture below. Chris has definitely put on a LOT of muscle for the role.
DC Universe Online, the long in-development MMO, was given a release date yesterday of November this year. The game, developed by Sony Online's brand-new Austin studio, will be available for the PC and PS3 and allows fans the ability to fight alongside (or against!) a wide cast of DC heroes. It's an exhaustive list, but screencaps and videos have shown the likes of Superman, Batman, Nightwing, Robin, Flash, Green Arrow, Wonder Woman, Green Lanterns Hal and Jon, to name a few. The villains cast stretches on just as long with Solomon Grundy, Lex Luthor, Sinestro, Bizarro, Riddler, The Joker, and Doomsday.
Character creation will require you to align yourself to a side and take on missions through communication with Oracle to gain XP, which can be traded in for powers and armor. Your equipment seems to play an important role in leveling up, as tech demos have shown players gaining a power boost after defeating mission boss Harley Quinn and plundering her hat. While most demonstrations show custom characters with funky, spiked armor, the powers gained through your spoils can be absorbed, allowing you to ditch the jester cap and fight crime in nothing but your undies, if that's your thing.
Early reports show disappointment in the game's overall polish despite the creative efforts plugged in directly from DC. Jim Lee contributed to character design, and Geoff Johns acted as scriptwriter, which sounds like a proper deal for me, given that most missions are centered around fast and loose villain-beat-em-ups. Fortunately, we'll be able to try it out for ourselves before the holiday season, and more details will surely emerge at the upcoming E3 and Comic-Con screenings.
Review: Stormwatch #1
Stormwatch #1, the first of DC's new 52 to feature LGBT characters (before the reboot, at least) is out to add a new cosmic dimension to the post-Flashpoint universe. There isn't much to be said for our beloved broship yet (though the last page shows a handshake between Apollo and Midnighter and promises a "Big Bang"), but the issue is a great gauge for whether or not you'll want to stick with the series to see the romance purportedly unfold....
