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

Young Avengers debuts featuring a new team. The crew includes Wiccan, Hulkling, Hawkeye, Loki, Marvel Boy, and Ms. America. Kieron Gillen writes the series and Jamie McKelvie and Mike Norton provide art.

Also kicking off is a new Deadpool miniseries that follows hot on the heels of Deadpool Kills the Marvel Universe. Cullen Bunn returns to guide Deadpool in his journey to destroy all of fictions most popular characters. First up- Moby Dick! The series features art by Matteo Lolli and Sean Parsons. Check out the solicit info and preview pages below!

Legacy isn’t a dirty word… but it’s an irrelevant one. It’s not important what our parents did. It matters what WE do. Someone has to save the world. You’re someone. Do the math. The critically acclaimed team of Gillen/McKelvie/Wilson (with added Norton Sauce) decide to reinvent the teen superhero comic for the 21st century, uniting Wiccan, Hulkling and Hawkeye with Loki, Marvel Boy and Ms. America. No pressure. Young Avengers is as NOW! as the air in your lungs, and twice as vital. It’s the book that knows Hyperbole is the BEST! THING! EVER!

• Deadpool has already killed every hero in the Marvel Universe.

• He isn’t through.

• This time…Deadpool’s gonna take most famous characters in classic literature!

• YOU NEVER KNEW HOW BADLY YOU NEEDED THIS SERIES!

Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell, MARVEL-ous Previews: Young Avengers #1 And Deadpool Killustrated #1

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.

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Muy Mareado!, Indie Spotlight: Yumi Sakugawa

If you read Frank Cho’s Dynamite book Jungle Girl, you already have an idea of what to expect here.  It takes place in the Savage Land, and all hell breaks lose rather fast.  Cho hasn’t hidden his love of Shanna the She-Devil, and it shows in his writing.  She gets some good dialogue compared to the other characters in this book. Granted, most of her dialogue is explaining the trip that the reader just saw themselves.  Savage Wolverine #1 isn’t written well, but it shows a lot of potential.  It could be a fun and outlandish book.  Cho misses a great opportunity for humor, instead going for straight seriousness.  The recent Avenging Spider-Man arc in the Savage Land used the absurdity of the land rather well.  Wolverine can’t stay in the Savage Land forever, so Shanna will have to make a trip to the Jean Grey School sooner or later, which is a situation ripe with humor.

Wolverine doesn’t fare well in this issue.  It’s clear from the start that Cho wanted this book to be a Shanna ongoing, but Marvel thought it wouldn’t sell. So Cho threw Wolverine into it so that it would sell.  He barely speaks, and narrates every little thing he does.  The reader doesn’t need to be told he just killed someone when we saw the head flying across the panel.  The narrations go away once Wolverine bumps into Shanna, which betters the issue.  If the next few issues have the same problems, maybe Marvel should bring a cowriter aboard for a while.  Help Cho get his ideas out more effectively.  If I had any control over the books Marvel published, they would have turned this into a Shanna book instead.  Wolverine has enough books, and Marvel has been succeeding recently with B and C lister books.  If the book is good, it will sell.  Also, this would be a MAX book.  Cho could pencil the nudity that he terribly wants to pencil.

At this point in Frank Cho’s career, everyone knows what to expect from his books.  Lots of dinosaurs, cavemen, and scantly clad women.  Every other shot of Shanna has her standing in a provocative position with her boobs almost hanging out.  With the story being serious in nature, the amount of boobs sticks out that much more (no pun intended).  If Savage Wolverine had been more lighthearted and over the top, the boobs would have felt natural (I seriously didn’t mean that pun either).  Savage Wolverine is one great looking comic though. Every character is very expressive and detailed, and the lush jungles are beautiful.  The contrast of wide screen panels and small panels is used well to convey the fighting.  Cho’s amazing art is going to be the big draw on this book for some time.

Savage Wolverine is going to be a bubble book for some time.  If the writing can improve, and the tone can shift a little bit, we have ourselves a great book.  But if not, we have a dud.

Savage Wolverine #1 gets 3/5.

MrComicBook, Review: Savage Wolverine #1

• 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

Cheadle knows that expectations are extremely high for the first post-Avengers film, but it sounds like he and the cast are ready for the challenge:

I hope that it performs to those levels. We did a little piece of it at Comic-Con and people went crazy. It looked great. The script is good. We’re doing a couple re-shoots next week, but I’m encouraged.

Iron Man 2 was directed by Jon Favreau whereas 3 will be handled by the aforementioned Shane Black. Cheadle praises the new director saying he had a good time with a really good cast. He said the director came up with “an interesting script” that was “a lot of fun.” When asked how he would shake things up in Iron Man 3, the actor may have let a spoiler out of the bag:

I’m not supposed to say that he kills Robert Downey Jr.’s character.  Is that a spoiler?  That would be a spoiler.  You knew that was coming.  You read the comic books.  No.  I will just say that the buddy relationship that these guys have gets tighter.  The third act set piece for the big finale is bigger and badder.  It’s just a lot more.

OK that wasn’t really a spoiler. It would be an incredible shock though you have to admit. The actor did confirm what we had only heard rumors of, that some re-shoots will take place next week in Manhattan Beach. With the stills and clips we’ve seen from the film it does look like the Rhodes/Stark relationship will be explored even further than the second film. To read the rest of the interview where Cheadle talks about his TV show, production company, and family click right here. Everything he said about Iron Man 3 and the third act set piece being “bigger and badder” sounds incredibly promising. What do you think?

Cody "The Thorverine" Ferrell, Don Cheadle Says Iron Man 3 Is “Bigger and Badder”

Alright folks glad to be back and going, this is my interview with New York Times bestselling author Brent Weeks (the Night Angel Trilogy, The Lightbringer series). I am very happy he has interviewed with me again, and that I was able to talk to him about his newest book the Blinding Knife on sale September 11th 2012. So sit back, enjoy, and comment!

Also if you don’t want spoilers be wary of what you read on here!

First off beyond everything else I’d like to say thank you for not only taking the time to answer these questions, but for reaching out to me on Twitter after I had tweeted you about your books. It’s rare for people one admires to actually reach back out when a comment is made to them any where really. I know how busy things can get, and for you to take your time and do all of this for me, as well as my site is a huge privilege.

Hi Michael — Well, thanks for your interest! It’s always a pleasure to talk to you. And thank you for giving me this opportunity to virtually chat with your site’s visitors.

First off can you give us the synopsis of where things were left off at the end of the Black Prism and where the Blinding Knife takes off?

Michael Worthan, A Moment with Bestselling Author Brent Weeks

I was given the opportunity to speak to author A.J. Scudiere at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con about her four novels, her audio-books, and her advice on how to get started as a writer! So here is of the interview I hope you folks enjoy!

“Can you explain your newest book?”

The newest book is Phoenix and it’s about a firefighter who was in a fire as a child, and in that fire he knows he lost his birth mother, but what he doesn’t realize until he’s much older is that he also lost a younger brother. So as he finds this out he goes on a search for the death certificate just to lay the past to rest. He finds that there is no death certificate and the further he goes the more he finds that things are not as they seem. So he has to figure out that the fire he was in wasn’t just a fire.”

How did you get into writing as you’re a teacher as well?

“I always wrote, when I was in third grade I had a pen and a notebook and it always seemed like a good idea to go and write an eighty page novella. So teaching was a natural fit, and I feel that both are very parallel.”

Which book was the most difficult to write for you?

“God’s Eye was the hardest to write, because I wrote Resonance and while I was shopping it around I wrote Vengeance, and Vengeance was so easy to write because I was occasionally writing letter s to agents and sending them copies of my books and so it was easy to write another book. And then they both got picked up and the publisher wanted the third book, and I started going to Cons and book festivals, and doing book signing, and trying to pay my bills as well as trying to write a third book. Trying to write a third book while trying to get a toehold in the market is crazy. And so that one was the hardest.”

How did you come up with the idea of using a full voice cast in your audio books?

“When I knew the book was going to go to audio I started to listen to a handful so I would have a better idea about audio books. I hadn’t listened to an audio book in about a decade, and I found I really liked some of them, and others I didn’t like. You get a single reader and it not only depends on the reader’s ability to act, but their ability to do voice work. A lot of times instead of characters they become caricatures, and it just comes down to nobody talks like that.  My audio guy was Stephen Rudnicki who did the Enders Game 20^th Anniversary addition. He was also looking to expand audio books, and I didn’t realize but it takes a very particular writing style and my style worked very well for them.”

To people who are trying to write and trying to become authors what advice to you give them?

“I say if you’re really getting started you have to practice. People like to sit down and believe they are going to write the great American novel on the first try, but Mike Phelps didn’t jump into an Olympic sized pool and swims the times he does on the first try. I wrote two novels before I wrote Resonance and I didn’t even try to shop them around, I was just trying to become better at my craft. The other advice I have is to not ignore the most popular advice around, it worked for somebody it might work for you. Also don’t feel married to that advice if it doesn’t work for you.”

I’d like to thank A.J for taking time out of her Con schedule to speak to me, and her publishers for setting up the meeting! It was a great experience, she was an amazingly nice person and I definitely hope to speak to her again soon.

Michael Worthan, My Interview with author A.J. Scudiere

Dark Horse digital graphic novels are now available for purchase in the NOOK Comics™ store, featuring over 100 of the company’s top titles, like Mass Effect, Hellboy, Star Wars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity, Sin City, and more!

“Making our content available on new platforms outside of the Apple iOS is an incredibly exciting proposition,” said Matt Parkinson, Dark Horse’s senior director of Marketing. “As we move into new areas and new devices, we look forward to the opportunity to find new readers. I can’t think of a better partner than Barnes & Noble, the leading retailer of digital content and media and the folks behind the number-one chain of bookstores in the country.”

“Barnes & Noble is committed to offering customers a broad array of digital comics and graphic novels. We’re excited to bring NOOK customers Dark Horse’s fan favorite digital collection of graphic novels,” said Theresa Horner, vice president of digital content for Barnes & Noble. “The high resolution of our VividView color touchscreen makes the action virtually jump off the page, and takes these graphic novels to a whole new level of entertainment.”

Starting today, the world’s Dark Horse graphic novels arrive on NOOK! Experience NOOK at any Barnes & Noble bookstore or at Nook.com. Look for more and more titles to be added every month!

Agent Burgos, DARK HORSE GRAPHIC NOVELS NOW AVAILABLE ON NOOK® BY BARNES & NOBLE

December 12, MILWAUKIE, OR – Out of print and unavailable to readers for more than three years, Dark Horse Comics is giving new life to a critically acclaimed classic with the complete collection of Brian Wood’s Channel Zero!

DMZ and The Massive creator Brian Wood launched an all-out assault on the comics medium in 1997 with Channel Zero, an influential, forward-thinking series that combined art, politics, and graphic design in a unique way. Hitting on themes of freedom of expression, hacking, cutting-edge media manipulation, and police surveillance, it remains as relevant today as it did back then.

The Channel Zero collection contains the original series; the prequel graphic novel, Jennie One (illustrated by Becky Cloonan); the best of the two Public Domain design books; and almost fifteen years of extras, rarities, short stories, and unused art. Also featuring the now-classic Warren Ellis introduction and an all-new cover by Wood, this is the must-have edition. A blistering take on media control in a repressive future America!

“Channel Zero is literally the start of my comics career, the first proper comic I ever made, and as such as informed everything that’s come after it, especially DMZ and the upcoming THE MASSIVE.” Tells Brian Wood. “It also put me and Becky Cloonan together, helping build a creative partnership that has lasted a decade. This edition here is the definitive one, including everything worth printing, including a color section that includes the original covers to the single issues.”

Praise for Brian Wood & Channel Zero:

“Wood’s message is clear enough: apathy is the real enemy, and it is harder to fight than any totalitarian government.”—Wired

“It’s about anger as a positive force of creation…Someone’s remembered what comics are for. Meet Brian Wood.”—Warren Ellis, award-winning writer of Planetary

“Dramatic Black and White visuals…Controlled sense of rhythm.” — I.D. magazine

“Your handbook for the media revolution.”—Eyeball magazine

“Strangely prescient… lucid and sharp” – Matt Fraction

“A seemingly endless barrage of powerful art” – Newtype USA

“Fascinating… this is a paranoid future Grant Morrison could not conceive of” – Comics International

The Channel Zero Collection is on sale May 30th, 2012!

Agent Burgos, DARK HORSE COLLECTS CHANNEL ZERO!

Greetings, fellow geeks! It’s been ages since my last review and I must apologize. Life (you know, that crap that happens when you’re busy making other plans, according to Lennon) caught up on me and sneaked me some nasty curve balls. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.

I’ve been meaning to write this review for weeks, but somehow I just couldn’t get myself to actually sit down and do it. Blame it on the low serotonin levels, the state of near bankruptcy or the fact that I took up a cooking blog if you want, but Marineman slipped between my fingers like, well, a fish.

The book circles around Steve Ocean (first of many aquatic puns), a marine biologist and Steve-Irwing-Like TV celebrity with superhuman maritime abilities. Steve seems to have a hard time fitting in, since he has no recollection of his childhood, and is further pushed into stardom by accidentally exposing his superpowers on live TV. Pretty standard, formulaic stuff. I won’t delve further into it, I don’t want to spoil your fun.

Being Ian Churchill’s dream (he drew his first Marineman sketches at age 8), I had high expectations about it. After all, this guy drew Supergirl like a WWII pin-up, always kept an impeccable style despite drawing with cartoonish proportions and made everything in general more enjoyable. We’ve seen Ian’s style evolve and mature over the years, from his run on Wolverine in the early 90s, to his amazing Deadpool issues in ’94 and, more recently his 2009 Aquaman special (yeah, I effing hate Aquaman, but the art was cool).

Marineman, however deviated slightly from the standard of quality we’ve seen over the years. Perhaps it’s the burden of multitasking, since Churchill’s in charge of pretty much everything in this book, but I just did not enjoy it as much as many of his previous works. This might obey a variety of factors, including, but not limited to:

• Sloppier artwork; specifically, inks. The panels in the books are large and evenly spaced, although they tend to get crammed with text at times, but each frame is large enough to accommodate a fairly high amount of detail, something that shines for its absence. The backgrounds, however, are stunning. So is the coloring.

• A simple, linear and predictable storyline. This makes it a great book to introduce to children, especially because it showcases real marine biologists and their work in the final pages. This however, makes the mature reader’s experience feel like Nat Geo for Kids. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE and DEMAND some science in my science fiction, but presented this way it makes it more palatable for younger audiences.

• While on the subject of simplicity, the utter lack of violence. And nudity. Neither of which are obligatory but, when used within the appropriate context, are valuable story telling tools.

Overall, the first 6 issues seem appropriately like a creative work in progress. I believe some kinks should have been worked out before publishing time. Namely, the attention to inking detail and the aim and scope of audiences this book would appeal to.

If you’re a parent, or a cool uncle, this would be a great book to offer to a 6 year old. It’s easy to read, it’s harmless enough in terms of language, overt use of sexuality and gore, and offers some very interesting and accurate facts on sea life.

If, however, you’re a single geek pushing your 30s (like me), be warned. While the artwork is mildly eye-catching, the story itself lacks substance so far. At least for my tastes, this is still a “meh” book, and will remain so until Churchill finally turns his sails towards a definitive direction. Should he keep it a sort of Spongebob project and aim it to younger audiences, it has my applause. Odin knows kids need learning in and shape possible these days.

Still, it has a very long way to go if Churchill tries to lure bigger fish (OK, ENOUGH!)

AlbinoDarkBeast, OUT!

AlbinoDarkBeast, AlbinoDarkBeast Reviews Marineman #1-6 (Ongoing)

The Media Meltdown 2.0 is going to be really awesome. Gear up for the new show with this epic trailer.

ZenithWillRule, Media Meltdown 2.0 Trailer