Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Direct Currents: Tuesday, September 21, 2010





DC Comics Solicitations for December, 2010


Lord Death Man of 'Bat-Manga' Gets Resurrected for 'Batman, Inc.'


The Charlton Heroes Who Inspired 'Watchmen' to Appear in Morrison's 'Multiversity'


'Superman XXX' is a Painfully Faithful Porno [SFW]


Spain's Bootleg Robin Was a Gun-Toting Badass


Green Lantern Reenters the Snack Cake Arena with Hostess Glo Balls


THE SEVEN BEST GAY CHARACTERS IN COMICS


THE SEVEN MOST MISGUIDED ATTEMPTS AT GAY CHARACTERS IN COMICS.


Yale's Law Library Awesomely Exhibits Superheroes in Court


Alex Gross's Vintage Superheroes Are Straight Out of the Golden Age


Dean Trippe Keeps it Crisp With Cool and Colorful Cartooning


W is for Wonder Woman


Dustin Nguyen's Characters Cop a Lot of Attitude


The Man Of Steel's twilight years


Bob Kessel's Square Spider-Man and Boxy Batman Art Will Squeeze Your Brain


Eric Merced Keeps His Card Art Rare But Easy To Acquire


Comic Book Legends Revealed #278



BLOGS


The Absorbascon
Pep 34: Upstaged!

The Aquaman Shrine
DC Universe Online Legends #0
Atlantis Chronicles #5 - July 1990
Atlantis Chronicles #6 - Aug. 1990
Atlantis Chronicles #7 - Sept. 1990
Aquaman Bobble Head by Funko - 2010

Armagideon Time
The Cats Will Play: Day 1
The Cats Will Play: Day 2
The Cats Will Play: Day 3
The Cats Will Play: Day 4 and Final

Atomic Surgery
The Moon Monster by Bernard Baily (1960)

Being Carter Hall
Hawkgirl Cosplayer At DragonCon 2010
JLA to Z Puzzle NOT Featuring Hawkman

Charlton vs Mighty MLJ: Thunder Agents Week
3 Items of Power
Ageles Androids
Star-Studded Teammates
Five for Fightin'
Covert Carrot-Tops

Comics Make Me Happy!
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Would all the nice characters please raise your hand?
Dragon*Con 2010 With Booster Gold and Blue Beetle!
75 Favorite Moments in DC History: Number 52
This is my brain on Mondays

Continued On 2nd Page Following
The Nightmobile
The Collection Room So Far

Diana Prince: Wonder Woman
Dragon*Con 2010 Donna Troy Cosplay

El Jacone's Comic Book Bunker
Everybody's Linking For The Weekend

Every Day Is Like Wednesday
Batman and Black Canary are just really good friends
Can't...update...
Jimmy Olsen: Pal With Benefits

Firestorm Fan
Nine pages that change Firestorm forever.
Rumor of New Firestorm Ongoing Series After Brightest Day!
Brightest Day #11 Variant Cover Featuring Firestorm

Girls Gone Geek
Five Reasons You Should Be Reading Batman and Robin
Friday Favorite: Creote & Savant

Green Lantern Butt's FOREVER!
Guy Gardner confounds J'Onn J'Onzz (fan art)

The Idol-Head of Diabolu
Dragon*Con 2010 Miss Martian & One Year Later Martian Manhunter Cosplay
2010 DC Universe Classics Series 15 Jemm Action Figure
2010 SUPERBUDDIES! & ARCHERS! by Eyz

Justice League Detroit
2010 Zatanna Cosplay (Blue & White) by DJ Spider

Kingdom Kane
The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog #38, March-April 1958

Once Upon A Geek
ACQUIRED: DC Adventures RPG – Hero’s Handbook

Pappy's Golden Age Comics Blogzine
"Vengeance Of the Invisible Men" from Sensation Mystery #110, 1952

Power of the Atom
2007 San Diego Comic-Con Captain Atom & Vixen Cosplay

Pretty, Fizzy Paradise
Button Blues

Reilly2040's Blog
Generation Lost
Green Lantern #57

Rob Kelly Illustration
From The Vault: Lex Luthor - 2004

Silver Age Comics
Let's Agree Never to Mention This Again

Siskoid's Blog of Geekery
DCH to DCAdv: Ambush Bug
Dial V for Variety

Supergirl Comic Box Commentary
Review: Superman:Last Family Of Krypton #2
Baltimore Comic-Con: Adam Hughes Commission And Other Tid-Bits
New Clip From Superman/Batman:Apocalypse



REVIEWS:

AICN Comic Reviews Shipping Week: 9/1/10

AICN Comic Reviews Shipping Week: 9/9/10

The Buy Pile 9/9/10 by Hannibal Tabu

The Buy Pile 9/15/10 by Hannibal Tabu

Comic shop comics: Sept. 1st-Sept. 9th by J. Caleb Mozzocco

Oh Boy, Reviews!: Thursday, September 16, 2010 by SallyP

What I Read This Week by El Jacone:
Monday, September 13, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010

Wednesday Is Any Day For All I Care #82 by Diabolu Frank

IGN Comic Book Reviews for 09/01/10

Todd Klein's "And Then I Read:"

BATMAN ODYSSEY 2
GREEN LANTERN 53
GREEN LANTERN CORPS 47

Newsarama's Best Shots Comic Reviews:

THUNDERBOLTS, ZATANNA, More
X-23, BIRDS OF PREY, More

4 comments:

LissBirds said...

Grant Morrison writing a Watchmen-wannabe series with the ACTUAL Charlton characters? SHOOT ME NOW. Goodbye, Vic, Ted, and Nate, it was nice knowing you. There was a reason DC's editors made Moore use analogues.

I like his justification against Moore's accusation that Watchmen's been recycled..."These stories are designed to be told over and over again." Uh-huh. Sure, Grant, sure.

The Yale Law Library rocks, btw. And so does Dean Trippe...I saw some of his art a couple of weeks ago and was really impressed.

Diabolu Frank said...

All Moore did was offer a grim n' gritty The Big Chill with the Charlton versions of those characters. It's super-heroes with a John Cougar Melloncamp soundtrack. I'd love it if Morrison's "Watchmen" was really just writing the Action Heroes like Joe Gill/Steve Ditko/Steve Skeates did 'em. Plus, a direct analogue falls apart without Peter Cannon, who DC lost the rights to years ago. Of course, Dan Didio could just announce completed negotiations with the Morisi estate at NYCC.

The one thing DC did wrong was to not use the actual Charlton characters the first time. It could have been their Dark Knight Returns, but instead, DC ran from the original interpretations to recreate the characters. I don't see that Blue Beetle would have to change one iota from Nite Owl, especially considering Watchmen was a future tale. Nightshade and Captain Atom have been much compromised and lesser characters Post-Crisis. Thunderbolt was a non-starter, and Peacemaker ended up a far less interesting, even more pathetic wretch than the Comedian. Only the Question was actually improved upon at DC.

In Morrison's defense, he's addressing Moore's recent statements that no one in mainstream comics has done anything worth reading in twenty years, and that they just keep recycling his work in absencia. Moore is so far up his own butt, he makes Morrison look reasonable. Moore seems to think he reinvented the wheel, but I'm sure you'll agree that square wasn't the way to go.

LissBirds said...

I never saw The Big Chill, but what Moore could do really well (and I don't think I've seen anyone come close) is tell a well-structured and well-paced story, and once I read Watchmen, everything else I read seemed on a lower reading level to me.

I think you're in the minority for thinking they should've used the original characters. I'm not sure if using the original characters would've given Moore enough artistic license to tell the story he wanted? Maybe he could've. But it seems kind of depressing to think that in the future, Nathaniel Adam lost his humanity completely, and The Question snapped. Then again, I thought Kingdom Come was depressing, because I don't like seeing heroes decline. And I hated The Dark Knight Returns for more reasons than one. (The storytelling being a big part of it...I found it a slow read.)

"Moore is so far up his own butt, he makes Morrison look reasonable." Ha! That's probably what the real problem I have with Morrison is: the fact that comes off as being so stuck on himself. I can't stand writers/directors/actors/artists/whatever who think they're God's gift to the world.

The weird thing is, I actually liked Watchmen. I didn't find it particularly enjoyable to read, but I wanted to get to the ending, I was invested in the characters, and I enjoyed the insane amount of detail that was in the art, like headlines were actually spelled out on newspapers lying on the sidewalk, rather that just unintelligible script like is usually done today. I actually do agree with Moore that Watchmen was on a different level than most, if not all, of the comics I've ever read before or since. I can appreciate it as a well-written book, but it's not something I'm going to re-read for fun anytime soon.

Diabolu Frank said...

Moore's technically exquisite, but soulless. His characters have a lot of thought put into them, but no heart. For me, reading Alan Moore is like watching the gears in one of Osterman's watches. I don't feel anything when I read his work, so I don't regard it highly on a personal level.

The Charlton characters have been constantly abused, and the gravitas lent by a Watchmen would have protected and defined them. Of course Moore would have been more restricted with the characters, but did the world really need Silk Spectre making a baby with her attempted rapist, or the Comedian gunning down the mother of another one of his kids after taking a beer bottle to the face? Only the most unnecessarily sordid details would have to come out. New York could be replaced by London, and a more original ending than "kill everybody but the romantic leads" would have to be crafted. All in all, I think the confinement would improve the work. From the day I first read Watchmen in 1993 until the present, my response remains the same: "That's it?" I didn't exactly rush through it that first time, either. It wasn't a slog, but it wasn't compelling, either.

Grant Morrison is so in love with himself it's sickening, but at least it's a lovely romance. Moore has more perspective, but he's still a self-righteous egotist with a persecution complex.