DETECTIVE COMICS #19

Written by JOHN LAYMAN
Art and fold-out cover by JASON FABOK
Backup story art by ANDY CLARKE
1:25 MAD Variant cover by The Usual Gang of Idiots
On sale APRIL 3 • 80 pg, FC, $7.99 US • RATED T
Combo pack edition: $8.99 US

• In a special oversized celebratory issue, Batman is challenged by the “Mystery of the 900!”

This issue is also offered as a combo pack edition with a redemption code for a digital download of this issue.

Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell, Plans Revealed For Detective #19: What Would Have Been Issue 900 Of Detective Comics

THE SHADOW #13
Chris Roberson (w)
Giovanni Timpanol (a)
Alex Ross, Paolo Rivera, Tim Bradstreet, Francesco Francavilla (c)
4 regular covers will be shipped in equal ratios
FC • 32 pages • $3.99
A grisly string of random murders has left the authorities baffled, but The Shadow believes there is method to the killer’s madness. At each crime scene, eyewitnesses have spotted the spectral figure of a woman in white. Is “The Light” behind the murders, or a victim’s lost spirit? The Shadow must unravel the mystery before the killer strikes again!

When asked on Twitter if this would be longer than the upcoming “Light” arc, Roberson said he didn’t plan on going away anytime soon. This is great news for Shadow fans. Roberson has handled the cast of Masks well, but his Shadow writing stands out. The writer mentioned he particularly enjoyed writing the character in our interview last month (click here for that).  It will be interesting to see what Roberson brings to his first arc. He has written a lot of great stories and comics, but I’ve been particularly impressed with Masks. Having Chris Roberson continue on with the pulp characters will be something you can’t miss. What do you think about the news? Will you be tuning in for The Shadow vs. The Light?

Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell, Chris Roberson To Write The Shadow Ongoing

I am Yumi Sakugawa and I am a comic book artist and illustrator based in the Southern California. I am a regular comic / illustrator online contributor to Sadie Magazine and Wonderhowto.

Most recently, my comic zine “Mundane Fortunes for the Next Ten Billion Years and Other Stories” was selected as Notable Comics of 2012 by the Best American Comics anthology editors.

_____________________________________________________

Muy Mareado!, Indie Spotlight: Yumi Sakugawa

IDW is releasing a comic book prequel for Star Trek Into Darkness, called Countdown to Darkness, written by Mike Johnson with a story by Roberto Orci. It is an official prequel comic to the movie and works to bridge the gap between the first film and the second. The cover to #4, the final in the miniseries, shows a Klingon warrior with the much debated helmet. The comic comes out in April and the film in May. Could it be setting the Klingons up for a big role for Into Darkness? Time will tell. What do you think?

Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell, IDW Seems To Hint At Klingon Involvement In Star Trek Into Darkness

Marvel touts the series as giving readers a “rare glimpse into the ultimate nihilist’s early days on his far-off home planet Titan” and the life events that lead him down his path of cosmic villainy. Aaron promised that the origin story is literally that, starting with the Mad Titan’s birth. The series will have some new characters, but there will be several familiar names including Thanos’ father Mentor and his mother Sui-San. Aaron talked about the question that runs through the series:

Well, that’s really the main question of the book. Who is Thanos? When the book starts, even Thanos doesn’t know the answer to that question. It’s the pursuit of that answer that begins to take him to some very dark places. This is not a super hero story. There are no good guys swooping in to save the day here. This is the origin story of a very bad dude. A cosmic mass murderer.

This past summer I had the opportunity to speak with Jim Starlin about the first proposed Thanos origin story, and he shared his thoughts on that (you can find that here). Starlin laid down a lot of history for his creation, but Aaron will be going through pulling it all together and giving it a slight twist. Aaron is sticking to Starlin’s work and talks about how he will continue on from what has already been written:

Jim Starlin of course had already laid down a lot of the pieces of Thanos’ origin, but they were spread out in several different stories written over the course of several years. THANOS RISING combines all those pieces and also fills in a lot of the cracks. I think it’s true to Starlin’s original ideas for the character, while also expanding on some aspects of the origin, and playing around a bit with the dark romance part of the character’s history.

The series starts in April, but as of now there is no word on how long the miniseries will run. Thanos Rising will serve as an entry points for people who just found out about the Mad Titan through The Avengers, but old fans will also get something out of it. Aaron has been writing some great stuff the past few years with Scalped and his recent Thor, so it will be interesting to see what he brings to Thanos. Bianchi’s art is great so that’s an added bonus. You can read the full interview to see what Bianchi had to say about redesigning a young Thanos by clicking here. What do you think about the proposed series? Will you be picking this one up?

Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell, Jason Aaron To Write Thanos Origin Series: Thanos Rising

• It’s off to Jotunheim, the land of the Frost Giants as Bruce Banner and his lab team embark on an all-new secret mission for S.H.I.E.L.D! Caught trespassing by the local natives, they’re going to need the help of the mighty Avenger, Thor!

Waid is excited to get Simonson on the book and having the legendary artist draw Thor again. While Thor will be showing up, the question should be which Thor is showing up? Waid makes an interesting  statement about the Thor we’ll be seeing:

Why on Earth would you have the amazing Walt Simonson aboard and NOT ask him to draw Thor? The teasing question is–which Thor will we be seeing? Banner and his team of assistants build a portal to Jotunheim, land of the Frost Giants, in order to obtain a rare metal there–but in doing so, they may have accomplished something totally unforeseen!

While we’ll have to wait and see exactly what Waid means, Simonson touched on revisiting the world of Thor and how he goes about tackling the Hulk:

It’s been interesting drawing Thor and not writing him. (laughs) I like what Mark’s been asking me to draw a lot, and he has kindly allowed me to kibitz a little. My earliest work on Thor was done pretty much the same way when I did layouts for Len Wein to write on the Thor title in the 70s. I also got to draw Thor in some of the Brian Bendis Avengers recently. I’ve found it’s been a lot of fun for me to go back and revisit the old boy again.

Regarding the drawing the Hulk and Thor, there’s an essential difference in their natures I try to reflect in the figure work.
I’ve approached drawing the Hulk with a certain ‘wildness’, since he is essentially a ‘monster’ who is the unfettered version of a mortal. The shapes that make up his figure as well as the actual lines used to define those shapes can be far less restrained that they might otherwise be for a more ordinary character. In other words, the drawing technique itself is meant to suggest the limitless quality of the Hulk’s fury and power. And because of his ‘monstrous’ nature, the Hulk’s figure and face don’t require the kind of symmetry that a character like Thor needs in order to be handsome within the context of the comic. I’m also inspired by the earliest versions of the Hulk by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko where there seems to me to have been a nod to the Karloff Frankenstein monster of the early Universal horror films. All of which means I can pack a lot into my drawings to try to capture some reflection of the Hulk’s wild nature.

If you want to check out the full interview with Waid and Simonson click here. It will be exciting to see Simonson taking on Thor again. The artist did some incredibly work with the thunder god back in the day, so having him return to draw again mixed in with it being a Hulk book makes this a must get. What do you think about Simonson’s return? From what Mark Waid said do you think we’ll get a big twist with the Thor story?

Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell, Waid And Simonson Talk Indestructible Hulk

Production Weekly, who are usually very reliable when it comes to things like this, report that the film will start shooting in New York this April. New York and April, how appropriate.

Principle photography on TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, is scheduled to begin this April in New York.

— Production Weekly (@prodweek) January 12, 2013

No word other than that. I would say it’s a safe bet that some of the things that caused so much fan discord has been tweaked or completely changed. With principle photography beginning so soon, it should be no time at all until we hear some solid casting info. What do you think? Are you saying this one is out for the count or should we wait to hear what’s changed?

Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell, Michael Bay’s Ninja Turtles Movie Starts Shooting Soon

A Message from Jonathan Ross and Bryan Hitch

Okay, that’s a bold statement and possibly contentious enough to get you to read this but it’s absolutely true.

AMERICA’S GOT POWERS launches in April from Image by us, (Bryan Hitch and Jonathan Ross). We told you a bit about it in January. What we hadn’t told you until now was that issue one has THIRTY-EIGHT pages of story and is still only $2.99.

Here’s why.

Bryan says: Since I started drawing Ultimates issue one in late 2001, I may have only delivered two or three 22 page books. I’ve always pushed the story either with additional visual material to underscore what’s been written or to pump action to the level we all wanted but would never have had the room for. So I just drew it the way it felt right to do so.

Go count the pages in each issue of Ultimates, Captan America: Reborn or FF. Not many 22 page issues. I got hell of course but my deal has always been that giving the story the best work it can have is the only deal that matters. I even did some pages for free to get them in the issues.

We have taken stuff out of AMERICA’S GOT POWERS issue one, moved it around and walked around the room whistling. It should have been a 22 page first issue but there were things we felt had to be there and those scenes needed to breath. The story needed to be told properly; it ALWAYS does. So we put it back in and told the story the way we wanted to. Thirty-eight pages of it!

Normally a book this size would be at least $3.99 but that didn’t seem fair to us. It was our decision to make the first issue this big and it’s not right to ask you guys to pay extra for it. We are proud of AMERICA’S GOT POWERS, insanely proud and we want to pass that on.

Big time.

We’re just another small business like many of the retailers and we believe completely in the story we’re trying to tell so instead of putting out a 20 page issue and asking you to pay $3.99 for it, we’re giving you nearly DOUBLE that for a dollar less.

It’s had a knock-on effect though. Initially we had intended to release issues one and two in the same month, a sort of double whammy to kick-start the book. We’ve changed that plan slightly as most of that material is now in a single 38-page issue rather than two separate books.

As a result issue two will move backwards slightly into May, issue three into June etc so our team doesn’t kill themselves providing this much awesome in a single month

So we ARE still releasing what we intended to in April; the same TWO ISSUES of story but now it’s in one book and only the price of a single. We’re giving you what we said we would but at half the price.

$2.99

Boom.

And, to emphasize that boom, here’s a sneak peek at a big boom in a cool two pager from the first massive double-sized issue of AMERICA’S GOT POWERS.

Did we mention it was 38 pages at $2.99? It’s also worth mentioning that we can’t guarantee any of the other issues won’t exceed 20 pages either. Though if they do, they’ll never exceed $2.99

Enjoy the pencils sneak peek. Over the next few days, we’re going to properly introduce you to our characters and the amazing world they live in along with loads of pencils and inks from the first issue to get you excited.

Jonathan and Bryan

Agent Burgos, TWICE AS MUCH AS MARVEL FOR A DOLLAR LESS.