This Is "Getting It Right"?

OK, I just read this after someone linked to a review savaging Joe the Barbarian #1. The review, in turn, linked to an interview with the artist. What caught my eye was this exchange:

Murphy: I have gotten a lot of comments on that post. And in person, people will tell me that I’m controversial—which I’m not. When I think of true controversy I think of MLK, Rickard Dawkins and Karl Marx. But I understand what they’re getting at. In the context of comics it is, for some reason, considered controversial for someone to blow the whistle when part of the industry isn’t working efficiently.

For younger guys, I can understand them being timid. They’re hitting cons and meeting their favorite creators—often times artist, editors and companies whom they grew up admiring. For a newbie to rock the boat is risky. But there are a lot of established guys who have really great styles which almost guarantees them work for as long as they want it. And I’ve sat among them at shows and heard them complaining, and I always wonder why they don’t make their thoughts public. Their readers are thirsty for information on how to become a professional, so why not give them a list of people, companies and situations to avoid?

...

And as far as “the press” goes, you’re a perfect example of someone who’s doing it right. When I first met you, it was in Atlanta after an hour of telling a room full of students about my negative experiences with DC. I didn’t hold back at all, basically given everyone my hate-list of certain people at DC. So when you came up and told me you were at Robot 6 I thought, “great, now he’s gonna print all that shit I would have never said in an interview.” But then you told me that all that stuff would be off the record, which I of course appreciate. It’s more rare to find someone who takes it seriously and who genuinely wants what’s best for everyone. You could have easily gone for the ratings and the drama and spilled all the beans but you didn’t.

So, someone burying public statements in order to not lose a creator as a future contact for interviews and what not is an example of "doing it right" when it comes to being willing to blow the whistle on parts of the industry not working efficiently? He's relieved and appreciative of a journo who's first instinct was NOT to share Sean's whistle-blowing? Wow.

I'm A Dumb Ass (A Review Of CAIRO)

Yup. I make no argument against it. I really am.

Before getting too happy about that admission, you might want to know why I'm saying such a thing about myself.

I just finally finished reading CAIRO. I bought it shortly after it came out. I think I pre-ordered it purely on the basis that it was written by a muslima.

Sometimes I procrastinated in reading it. Other times, it got lost in piles of stuff in the living room or bedroom (I live in a cluttered hell of my own creation).

I found it to be an enjoyable read. Not all of the characters get a chance to be fully fleshed out, but they all get at least enough to serve the story.

One of the difficulties I had with it is, as a muslim, I've often thought about writing stories that use the fantastical elements of Islam. But I always cringe at how it tends to come out so weak.

I say weak because the concepts are not my own, as they come from Islam. I say weak because it often feels like I'm writing an Islam Primer, because I'm explaining concepts to a hypothetical reader that are so basic and common knowledge to any muslim.

Ms. Wilson shows me, with CAIRO, that it is my thinking on the subject that was weak. I was looking at it as if I was representative of the majority of the audience when I'd clearly be in the minority. Being a muslim, I believe that I may not have been as wowed by some of the elements of fantasy on display in CAIRO as a non-believer may have, but it did clearly demonstrate to me that what many would refer to as Islamic "mythology" can be utilized for a story sold to a mainstream audience without it being filled with cringe moments.

I was still pretty conscious of the moments where the reader had to be brought up to speed on some basic ideas regarding spirituality and mysticism in Islam. That's where the "I'm not really the intended audience" realization has to kick in and get me to get past it without losing/wasting any of the story's momentum.

Morality plays are another thing that often make me cringe. They're so hard to pull off with any subtlety. When they involve faith (and particularly your readers' chosen faith), the degree of difficulty is increased. And here's why I felt the need to write about this book (however ineloquently) tonight and felt like a dumb ass for having waited this long to get around to reading it.

I wept.

I wept at the same moment that tears streamed down Ali Jibreel's face.

I wept at the minimalist (yet direct) way that a talented muslima articulated a wish that so many a believer has had.

I wept as I had, in no small measure, my faith renewed. Inshallah, I'm not the only one.

It was then that I realized that maybe I was more this book's audience than I thought.

Cameron Stewart For Batman & Robin Co-/Fill-In-Artist

Sketch found over on Cameron's blog (and via tweet he sent out a few days ago). There's, also, an Umbrella Academy related sketch in his recent postings.

Scalped #31 Cover By Jock (B/W Version)

Jock shared the cover via Twitter this morning and, as a fan of his work, I thought I'd pass it along.

Holy Crap! Literally.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sam Mendes (director of Jarhead, Road to Perdition & American Beauty) has been named as the director for the PREACHER feature length film that Columbia just picked up the rights to make.

No writers are attached yet, but Mendes will apparently start the search some time after his new film (Revolution Road) is done with post-production tweaks.

While there have been other stops and starts to Preacher hitting the big or small screen, this might be the best fit creatively and commercially. Here's hope this winds up in a theater near you in a couple years.

FYI: I didn't mean the "crap" in the title in a derogatory way, just as a synonym for "stuff". I would have used "shit", but it seemed a little harsh for a title.

(hat tip to MTV Splash Page)

Fourthman Reviews: Young Liars, New Dynamix & Comic Book Comics

by Lee Newman

Young Liars #1
Published by Vertigo
Written and Illustrated by David Lapham

As far as I know, the only thing I have ever read by David Lapham is issue one and two of Spider-Man: With Great Power.... I know that he is famous for Stray Bullets and some mystery graphic novels, but I haven't read any of those. This book isn'[t exactly making me rush out to read any of his other work.

Here we have the sordid romance of Danny Noonan and Sadie Dawkins. It is very well written with a keen eye on dialogue. Problem is I don't like the characters and it seems to me the events that are set in motion at the end of this first issue are just deserts.

The art does nothing for me either. It is competent enough, it has that adult cartoonist style to it. The lines are strong and consistent, but while it is more polished then say Black Hole, it lacks the emotional power of something like Blankets. It just leaves me kind of "meh".

In a sense this is the anti-Vinyl Underground. Both have characters that I despise. This one is superbly written, the other not so much. Liars is not pretty, Underground is gorgeous. Yet based on first issues alone, something about Underground has kept me compelled to keep reading, this one... I may just thumb through issue 2.

"Ultimate Comics, we have more comics then your shop has!"

The New Dynamix #1
Published by Wildstorm
Written by Allen Warner
Art by JJ Kirby

A comic book about missing Super Heroes. Seems like there is one of those every other week these days. Here the twist it is a character we haven’t seen in a while, Black Halo, is going to figure out what is going on. We also have the Sword and a new hero named Love Rocket.

I was unfamiliar with even the old characters here. Probably has something to do with me missing the Image years of Wildstorm. There has been an awful lot happening in the Wildstorm Universe as of late. Armageddon and Revelations. Horribly late titles and oh yeah, apparently it is part of the DC multiverse now. Great books like Welcome to Tranquility are on hiatus. It all leaves one scratching their head, saying “what’s going on?”

That is exactly the feeling I had reading this book. Not knowing who anyone was bad enough, but it all just kind of happens. There are long soliloquies in word bubbles, but they don’t ring true as dialogue and more often than not, they don’t really help the story progress. There is an interesting enough premise, a super powered being takes a kid hostage during a super powered being crisis. This guy wants Black Halo to come out of hiding, but it doesn’t turn out the way it was supposed to. Wow, when you say it like that, it just seems that much more derivative.

The art is weird. The character designs are nice enough and Kirby has a strong line and sense of action. However, he has an uncanny knack for choosing to put the weirdest expressions on the faces of his characters. It is a little unnerving.

All in all, if I weren’t a junkie and didn’t have a near limitless budget for comics, I would probably give the second issue a pass. However, I know that second issues are sometimes capable of turning a series around. So here’s hoping it comes out on a light week and doesn’t end up in the back up pile.

"Ultimate Comics, we have more comics then your shop has!"

Comic Book Comics #1
Published by Evil Twin
Written by Fred Van Lente
Illustrated by Ryan Dunleavy

As you may be able to tell, I absolutely love comic books. They are my favorite form of entertainment. Through the years, various writers and artists have found a myriad of ways to take this medium and tell any number of different stories. From the simple beauty of Little Nemo In Slumberland to the complex prose/graphic design fusion of Jonathan Hickman's work, there is simply no other flight of fancy that elicits the same joy and excitement from me.

This particular endeavor by the genius's behind Action Philosphers is especially appealing to me. While their previous book was intriguing, it was a niche book in a niche segment of entertainment. While the idea of that book appealed to me, I heard about it a little late and never got around to checking it out. For the second time this week, I am compelled to read an earlier work becuase of the strength of a first issue. This book is just what the title implies, it is a comic book about comic books. To be more exact, it is a comic book history of the medium. It picks up the story in October 18, 1896 (the day William Randolph Hearst started publishing The American Humorist) to the dawn of the Golden Age. It is an informative and often hilarious look at the early years of the funny book.

Dunleavy employs a cartoon style for much of the book. The genius here is that he mimics early forms of comics. This adds to the heavily researched work by Van Lente and actually shows the thought and care given this project. It also sheds a glimpse into just how much the art form has changed over the years.

I've thought about this one for two days now. It really impressed me more than any other comic I have read recently (except for Dave Sim's absolutely incredible Glamourpuss) and while some may disagree with me, I think it is a perfect comic book in it's fusion of words and pictures to give us a history like none other before it. It is a unique achievement and something the creators should be proud of. For me, it is the best comic book of this week.