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The Best Comic of 2014

December 30, 2013 by

Ok, it’s not even 2014 yet, but I’m willing to make the call right now on the best comic purchase I’m going to make during 2014:

peanuts-artists-edition

The Schulz Peanuts Artist’s Edition is slated to hit shops in April 2014, and I for one have already put in an order. If you haven’t heard of the IDW Artist’s Editions before, they are premium hard cover beasts that show the original pencil work of the artist. I am lucky enough to own the David Mazzucchelli Daredevil Born Again: Artist’s Edition and although it cost me something like $175, it’s one of the best purchases I ever made.

The price of the Schulz edition isn’t confirmed yet but expect it to be in the vicinity of AU $150-200. Yes it’s a huge amount, but trust me, it’s money extremely well spent.

Filed Under: IDW, Other Companies Tagged With: ,

Here’s how to get married in (comics) style

December 9, 2013 by

Can anyone think of a cooler, comic-related wedding ceremony than this one?  Enjoy:

If the Hulk could have made an appearance as well, my life would be complete.

Filed Under: Humour

Ever Wonder Why Batman Doesn’t Smile?

November 24, 2013 by

It’s all makes so much sense now.

Coming via the brilliant Kerry Callen:

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I have a whole new perception of The Dark Knight now, that I’m not sure I’m going to be able to shake!

Filed Under: DC, Humour Tagged With: ,

Marvel’s Numbering Obsession

November 13, 2013 by

daredevil_1_2011_coverIt’s not often I go on a rant, so it’s probably about time. The focus of said rant is Marvel Comics, who I’ve been interacting with as a consumer since the mid-1970s. I know things have changed a lot since then, I know that financially it’s harder to make a buck out of the industry, but I still think it’s possible to not treat longer-term readers with the disdain that’s currently occurring.

Specifically, I’m talking about the numbering of issues and constant re-booting of series. It’s not a recent issue by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s one that appears to be getting worse.

I’m a huge Daredevil fan – he’s the one mainstream character I’m (dismally) attempting to be a completionist with. Which means that aside from a significant number of mini-series and one-shots, there are three volumes of Daredevil starting with the 1964 Volume 1 series that ended with #380 in 1998. Volume 2 kicked off pretty much straight away and ran 119 issues until 2009. Then there was a break of more than  a year with Volume 3 kicking off in 2011 and being very successful under the stewardship of Mark Waid.

Which is why I was little taken aback by the announcement that Volume 3 is finishing with issue #36. In fact, I was more than taken aback, I was pretty immediately angry. I was initially angry at the fact that the decision is nothing more than a highly cynical move to create another ‘first issue’ opportunity, potentially under the Marvel NOW! banner. Then after calming down a bit, I realised that DD’s upcoming 50th anniversary may be the reason for the change. My calm lasted only a few minutes when I thought about that: there’s a bunch of ways to celebrate a character’s anniversary without killing a series.

So that’s where I’d love your input: does this sort of stuff annoy you, amuse you or plain doesn’t concern you at all? Sure it’s a pretty longstanding gimmick, but it seems to be getting worse by the year.

Is there anything that can be done?

Filed Under: Marvel, Opinion Tagged With:

Mary Doe: Let’s Get It Kickstarted

October 20, 2013 by

Thanks to a tip-off from an Aussie comics colleague, we’re flagging a pretty damn cool movie project being conceived locally.

It’s sort of comics-related in that some of the team have comics pedigree, but the project itself is about making a promo trailer for a movie called Mary Doe.

Check out the promo vid asking you to fund the actual promo trailer:

The team are looking for 75 thousand dollars and they have a long way to go, so if you like what you see, why not chip in? I wish I had $2500 to pledge so I could be professionally made up as a zombie that appears in the promo trailer itself – that would have to be a ball.

Good luck to the team raising the funds.

Filed Under: Movies Tagged With:

Review: Mars Attacks Judge Dredd – Ewing / McCrea / Fotos

October 12, 2013 by

mars-attacks-dreddJust in case you hadn’t heard for quite a while now IDW have been doing some pretty amazing comics featuring two very disparate characters or franchises, with Mars Attacks Judge Dredd the latest. It’s the first time Judge Dredd has had a cross-over with another character since 2002 and it’s a fun little story that’s slated as a mini-series.

I won’t go into the story details too much except to say that Judge Dredd is in a different area of Mega-City One (the North Sectors) than he regularly works in, and is on a solo hunt. During this hunt he comes across the Martians and the fun starts from there.

John McCrea’s art is very much in the Dredd style you’d expect and Jay Fotos’ colours back the art up very nicely – both do a great job with the Martians.

In regards to Al Ewing’s writing, I initially struggled with the stereotypes exhibited in the opening scene with the Mega-Mafia meeting – it was all a little bit obvious to me. Then I reality checked myself: Dredd’s 2000AD origins were always based on larger than life stories with some pretty obvious humour, so what the hell could I expect Al Ewing to do any differently given the Martians are thrown in the mix. The Martians themselves don’t get a huge role in the opening issue but I have no doubt that changes.

Overall, I didn’t have any laugh out loud moments but there’s plenty of cheese in the story to keep you amused – the highlight for me was the name of a particular alley Dredd left two perps in for pickup. Mars Attacks Judge Dredd is a nice ride and I’m looking forward to seeing the full story play out.

And as an aside: I am so buying Greg Staples’ cover art  (pictured) for issue #1 as a poster if it becomes available!

Filed Under: IDW Tagged With: , , , ,

Five Cameos You Won’t See In Avengers: Age of Ultron

October 6, 2013 by

ROM___The_space_knight_by_OtimagLike most people I’m pretty excited for seeing Avengers: Age of Ultron, which got me thinking to some great characters I’d like to see (from either a comedic or sentimental viewpoint) make a cameo, that won’t appear in the movie unless Joss Whedon has his mind hijacked. Here they are anyway:

1.Dazzler 

She’s teamed up with the Avengers before, she has roller skates and can generate a great lightshow – surely the 3D version of Age of Ultron needs such an addition!

2. Cloak and Dagger

These guys have a potential movie in their future, so why not introduce them here? If Spiderman can’t be in the movies, then why not use some key supporting characters?

3. ROM Spaceknight

Ok, this is batshit insane but a guy can dream can’t he? I know ROM was a licensed property, but gee he deserves a huge comeback and where better than this movie?  Plus – there’ll be wall to wall silver-coloured CGI for Ultron so why not throw ROM in there?

4. Howard The Duck

Even I think this is beyond silly but had to put it out there. Maybe Whedon could finally redeem the character from a movie viewpoint though?

5. Machine Man

Hmm, I seem to have a thing about silver metal characters, but how cool could those telescoping arms and legs look?

Your turn: what cameos would you like to see that’ll probably never happen?

[pic via Otimag at deviantART]

Filed Under: Marvel, Movies, Opinion Tagged With:

The New 52 and DC Editorial Culture

September 8, 2013 by

The_DC_New_52_Timeline_of_Departures__Firings__and_Bridge-Burnings_—_Gutters_and_PanelsIf you’re a DC Comics fan, you’ll know that the past couple of years for the company have been big ones, with the New 52 launch and evolution the most notable event.

Over at Gutters and Panels, they have a great chronology of the comings and goings at DC and it makes for fascinating reading. Go have a look for yourself here.

[via NonCanonical]

Filed Under: DC, Opinion

Review – Zoe: Out Of Time #1 and #2

August 24, 2013 by

Zoe_1.0_RC.pdf__page_11_of_31_One of the highlights of running this tiny ship called the Comics Herald, is getting to review comics that I would never have potentially stumbled across otherwise. One such example is Zoe: Out Of Time. 

Written by J. Michalski and Alexander Lagos, with Derlis Santacruz on art duties and Oren Kramek on colours, on the face of it this is a boy meets girl time-travel story. And that’s exactly what it is, but it’s done in a fresh enough way to make it a fun read. Zoe is living in the year 2050 and is obsessed with a band from the 1990s and thanks to having a scientist dad who happens to have worked out how to travel in time, she heads back to 1990. It takes all of Issue #1 to set that up but it’s done in an entertaining enough way that it doesn’t make the story feel like it is waiting to start. In fact, I probably enjoyed Issue #1 more than #2 as once Zoe arrives in 1990, things get a little bit formulaic there for a while but the pace picks up toward the end.

The art is engaging and actually reminded me quite a bit of The Second Life of Dr Mirage, though on checking back on my issues of that the comparison isn’t totally valid. If I had to make a criticism of the colouring, it’s the heavy reliance of one-colour backgrounds that dominate a page or series of panels. Sometimes that’s exactly what you need for particular settings, but to me it seemed to dominate the whole book.

Overall I’ve really enjoyed the first two issues and I’ll be keeping an eye on the series. If you’re after another good independent digital comic to jump on, then give this one a go.


Find out more about Zoe: Out of Time over at their website.

Filed Under: Independents

Marvel Cinematic Universe and Fan Creations At Their Best

June 23, 2013 by

I little birdy tells me that our own Kimberley Griffiths has a quite popular blog on her hands. The Mediavengers Tumblr site has a host of absolutely brilliant fan creations showing Marvel Cinematic Universe characters appearing in mainstream media publications.

Here’s a few as a teaser but go check the lot out for yourself (click on the pic for the full-size image):

The site has had some great attention the past couple of weeks and if the quality of contributions continues I can see it going from strength to strength, but then I’m biased 🙂

Filed Under: Fan creations, Humour
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