only what you need

Before we get into anything else, Fabulous Killjoys preview pages are loose. If that isn’t your thing (i.e. if you’re me), then the FPI blog has thoughtfully provided this Art for Art’s Sake to please you (and this one from Multiversity is pretty great, too: Klaw, Hobbes, and Archer all in the same post?!) though The Comics Journal’s Cartoonist’s Diary (Faith Erin Hicks rocks out with her locks out) is the discerning choice. Alternatively, out in meatspace Brown, Vieceli & Duffield prettied up the London Tower, ever-lovin’ Nate Cosby has all you Sandman novices covered, and best of all (pause for effect) Head Lopper goes on sale this week. I’ve been waiting for that one. Lop on!

I lead with the treats this week because the Big 2 news ain’t great. Particularly for Legion, Dial H, Threshold, and Demon Knights readers, but arguably for non-superhero fans in general? Unless summer’s wave of Trinity War crossovers can provide the genre-transcendent progressive comics they’re hankering for… but the smart money ain’t on it. Not wanting DC to be all alone in Cancellation Land, Marvel terminated She-Hulk, but that couldn’t hide their growing Hunger for the comics market. And James Robinson left DC, which is sad, but nothing compared to Tom Scioli leaving comics (noooooo!). The upshot is that despite ComicsAlliance not being around to comment, Multiversity had a good old think about where DC is going wrong, and where they’re going right. Oh, and this is what Infinity looks like. Nice work, but after this preview I’m holding out for the Vamps.

Its not comics, but the full trailer for ABC’s S.H.I.E.L.D. series is up! Wired gets forensic on it, while I’m thinking the ADHD Axe Cop cartoon (voiced by Parks & Rec’s Nick Offerman, no less!) is the real tantaliser.

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was an award solely aimed at recognising ”the contributions of writers that have yet to receive their proper due”? There is! On the topic of recognising and supporting creators, please check out Pioneers Press, they’re an inspiring outfit who make great stuff, and they could do with your support. Alternatively, you could back this Kickstarter by Jarrett Melendez, which has no redeeming social value at all, an accusation often levelled at Dennis the Sullen Menace, but never, nay NEVER, at Comics-as-Poetry. I’ll be buying this sci-fi anthology, Suspect Device (great name, right?).

Spend some time with royalty this week, or if your prefer, with the court Wizard as he waxes lyrical about comics’ long-running soap operas (well, he would, wouldn’t he?). More usefully, the guy whose art stole last week’s dreams has a walkthrough and process post on When Worlds Collide, and Steve Lieber disavows us writers of all that “comics has an unlimited budget” guff. Eric Stephenson is always worth spending some time with (especially as this interview reminded me I still have DeConnick & Rios’s Pretty Deadly to look forward to this year), and Fraction’s teasing Satellite Sam pages…  whaddayathink? Chaykin fans wanna sound off?

I love a Good Dog, almost as much as I love these cool Music/Comic mash-ups. But what I really love is finding out other people take even longer than me to put a blog post together! Worth the wait? That’s up to you, but I know you’ll like this introduction to Mike Del Mundo, who must be one of the most versatile artists in comics right now.

I leave you, as I often do, with a question: Is “Batman” Dumb?

And that isn’t even the most disturbing question to be asked about the Caped Crusader this week. Beware the Orange Hand.

This is why the Internet seemed so “sexy.” It was not that pornography was available online. It felt and looked sexy because people and their ideas could co-mingle and mutate. A scientist sharing his new research would be challenged and provoked. A philosopher posing a new idea would be forced to defend it. Nothing was safe, and nothing was sacred—except, perhaps, the idea that everyone shared an equal opportunity to give voice to his or her opinions.

As more people turned off their TV’s and migrated online, the question for influence professionals became clear: how do we turn this communications nightmare into a traditional, dead, and controllable mass medium?