I'm So Buying This

Jason Aaron had me at "I'll be playing with some of the cool toys Morrison created", but this cover art has me ready to stand outside the LCS a minute before the doors unlock.

SDCC '09: BOOM STUDIOS' Eureka Signing

EUREKA TV SHOW CO-CREATOR
ANDREW COSBY
&
EUREKA'S “NATHAN STARK” ED QUINN
TO SIGN EUREKA COMICS AT COMIC-CON '09



BOOM! STUDIOS BOOTH #2543
FRIDAY JULY 24TH FROM 5-6pm

July 16th, 2009 - Los Angeles, CA— EUREKA TV show co-creator Andrew Cosby and actor Ed Quinn, who played Nathan Stark, will be signing copies of BOOM! Studios smash-hit EUREKA Vol.1 trade paperback and the follow-up EUREKA: DORMANT GENE mini-series at Comic-Con '09 on Friday, July 24th, from 5-6pm only at the BOOM! Studios booth (#2543.)

Told completely in continuity, BOOM!'s EUREKA comics, based on the smash-hit Sci Fi Channel TV show, were masterminded by series co-creators Andrew Cosby and Jaime Paglia. Ed Quinn starred on the series as the fan-favorite character Nathan Stark for EUREKA seasons one and two. His other credits include TRUE BLOOD, CSI: NY, and HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2.

The EUREKA TV show recently premiered its 4th season to record setting ratings. EUREKA has been consistently the highest rated TV show on the Sci Fi Channel.

EUREKA Vol.1 is by co-creators Andrew Cosby and Jaime Paglia with script by Brendan Hay (THE DAILY SHOW) and art by Diego Barreto. EUREKA: DORMANT GENE has a story by Cosby and Paglia with script by Jonathan L. Davis (THE DUKES OF HAZARD) and art by Mark Dos Santos

About BOOM! Studios
BOOM! Studios (www.boom-studios.com) is a unique publishing house specializing in high-profile projects across a wide variety of different genres from some of the industry's biggest talents, including Philip K. Dick's DO ANDROIDS DREAM OF ELECTRIC SHEEP?, The Henson Company's FARSCAPE, and the original Mark Waid series IRREDEEMABLE. BOOM! recently launched its youth imprint, BOOM! Kids, with Pixar's THE INCREDIBLES, CARS, and TOY STORY, as well as Disney's THE MUPPETS. This year, BOOM! Studios celebrates its fourth anniversary.

Blackest Night #1 Left Me A Little Flat

I know a lot of people are raving about it (which might have led to higher expectations to fall short of, on my part). But this first issue just didn't really come close to wowing me.

A few of the reasons:

• That trademarked crossover tactic of "look, here are a few panels of what you'll have to read about in other books".
• The other trademarked crossover tactic of "look, we're launching something here that you'll have to read about in another book".
• The hurried introduction of so many bits, which is meant to demonstrate the chaotic environment but often just reads as rushing the setup.
  
• Unnecessary two page splashes.
• What feels like a lack of giving me something to grab on to about the source of the Black Lantern threat.
• Being unable to forget the real world flip-flopping on the status of certain characters between Final Crisis and Blackest Night.

What it really boils down to is that, currently, I'm already as hyped up for this event as I could be. Teasers of what will be happening (much of which has already been spoiled by DC solicitations previously) aren't going to get me foaming at the mouth for the next issue. I'm burnt out on ominous, mysterious evil forces that aren't yet being slowly revealed to the reader, especially after how disappointed I was with Morrison's Mandrakk.

Through today's practice of way too much information about future work being put in front of the eyes of internet trawling fans and the standard practice of how to open the first issue of an event, I put it down being left cold. It feels like I went in expecting the first 1/8th of the "movie", but wound up just seeing an extended "trailer". My excitement/anticipation took a shot to the nuts, even though I feel pretty confident that subsequent issues will be better at living up to expectations. It's a head versus heart thing: logic tells me that this issue is just the necessary evil of setup, but emotion tells me that it should have been able to pack in something that still wowed me. Especially after building up my expectations for so many months.

Oh Dear God No!

Someone tell me this is a joke?

At first glance, I just thought he was returning to the art chores on Batman, working with Judd Winick.

But no: Tony Daniel, the man who made Battle For The Cowl read as even more unnecessary than I had expected, is going to be WRITING & DRAWING BATMAN starting in October.

Winick just got on the book. His previous Batman run was one of the few works from him in recent years that I can't remember anything I didn't like about it. But we're losing him to get Tony Daniel handling the writing and drawing on a book that is meant to be monthly?

Ugh!

Take The Invisible Woman...PLEASE!

Found via a retweet by Kevin Church.

Justice League: Cry For Justice

I was kind of hesitant to talk about this issue, because I bagged on James Robinson pretty hard at the start of his run on the Superman titles. He has since gone on to do much better work.

Justice League: Cry For Justice is not that better work. Reading Jamie Trecker's similar feelings about the issue encouraged me to express my thoughts about it.

This first issue is so formulaic and mechanical. I have a feeling it may have been written before Robinson got his comic book legs back under him. With the painted art and how long ago this project was announced, Robinson may have written this before he had shaken all the dust and cobwebs off.

The way he starts introducing the team's characters would fit better in an 80s book, not just an ongoing series as some have noted. It's, dare I say, hack. I mean, to have all of the characters come around to saying something about justice is just really bad paint-by-numbers stuff. The concept of being proactive (as this Justice League was billed as being when the project was announced) and wanting to focus on meeting out punishment on the criminals and villais of the world doesn't have to be summed up as JUSTICE! by everyone. It feels a bit lazy to do that...and a little too "on the nose" for the book.

The dialogue is really rough, too. I think, to some extent, James forced himself into this situation with some bad choices. He to quickly differentiate the members of this new league being more EXTREME! than the members they were ditching. Green Lantern's tirade seems to, continuity-wise, come from no where. I'm referring to his level of anger with his teammates. It, also, stems from a false premise. That he brings up finding Libra and his gang for what they did to J'Onn does NOT ring true as something that the rest of the league would be against.

It, also, is not "being proactive". In fact, none of the setups show heroes taking the initiative. They're ALL responding to somewhat fresh crimes. This is, of course, not something that makes the story bad. It is a neutral element by itself. But when compared to what the series was advertised to be and how we're to believe the main team wouldn't support going after these people, it stands out in a negative way.

All the heroes seem to be demonstrating is that they're going to be like a 90s "extreme" team. In fact, you might as well have named this Extreme Justice II: Electric Boogaloo. It would make more sense than "Justice League", when you have the leader of the team ridiculing the "League" and "Society" part of team names.

Look, I'm not saying this is how Robinson is going to write the whole mini. I do have some concerns, like others, that the pacing here is off for a seven issue mini. Two issues out of a seven to just introduce the team? Ugh. But if the meat of the story was written or updated after James Robinson got back into the swing of things, I'm virtually certain that the rest of the series will be much better.

These first issues might read better when they're part of a trade, but it won't improve the tactics Robinson has chosen to use. Hopefully, there will be something to demonstrate a believable reason as to why the same bad guys everyone else is going after would want to slaughter Congorilla's tribe...and that it won't just mimic what Gail Simone did with Catman for the Villains United mini.

The artwork is neither great or terrible to me. It is more than servicable to the story. Aside from maybe one panel of Superman, there's no point during the reading where I sit up and take notice. So...all you get about it is the preceding three sentences.

If I wasn't starved for some kind of Justice League story allowed to breathe better than they've let McDuffie or hadn't seen improvement from Robinson on other titles, this issue would NOT lead me to purchase the next. In all honesty, I still might not buy the next issue, but just wait for the trade. If the second issue is like the first, I can just see myself not enjoying it and then looking at $8 paid for misery, all in an act of faith that #3-#7 will be much better.

BleedingCool.com's JLA Scoop

Rich Johnston is reporting on DC planning to make Vixen the focus of one of the JLA titles, once they get to launch the Johns/Lee Justice League of America run (which will be the book boasting Superman/Batman/Wonder Woman).

 

My take, as posted in his comments section:

 

1. The previous times they had multiple JLA series, they were all filled with B Teams of heroes, for the most part. JL/JLI had Batman for a short time. They were successful despite having characters that generally couldn't keep their own series afloat (Booster, Beetle, Capt Atom, etc).

 

2. Other times when they have followed the "start with Big Seven, then begin diluting and replacing with minor characters", there was only one series and it became known to fans as JLDetroit. They had to add Batman back to the fold in a desperate move to boost sales, but it was too little too late.

 

3. This seems like, potentially, one of the best ways to try to popularize minor characters through the JLA brand. If Robinson stays on a JLA title after Johns gets his (or another writer that Johns has an excellent working relationship with), I can really see enough interweaving of stories and characters to help keep the B Team version from scraping the bottom of the sales barrel, much the same way that Johns/Robinson/Rucka/Gates have managed to have their tide raise all boats in the Superman titles.

 

I think this could work out really well, as I imagine even the title with the "Big Three" will have some "minor" characters peppered in. This bodes well for some underused characters that never really met their potential getting a chance to showcase in BOTH of the JLA titles. If Johns' run on JSA shows us anything, it is that he loves to reach back for old characters/legacies and reach forward for some, as well (Magog, Starman, etc). Robinson has shown a flair for the eclectic selection as well, given his Cry For Justice line up. Congorilla? C'mon...who can't get jazzed to see what off-the-wall pick either writer is going to strike gold with?

At Least Somebody's Lowering Prices...

ARCHAIA UNVEILS NEW QUARTERLY $9.95 HARDCOVER PROGRAM

BEGINS WITH THE AUGUST RELEASE OF ‘THE ENGINEER: KONSTRUKT’

Los Angeles, CA (June 29, 2009) – In a focused effort to give new readers an opportunity to discover Archaia’s unique library of titles, the publisher announced today a program to offer one new hardcover every quarter for the recession-friendly price of $9.95. Kicking off the venture will be the Vol. 1 hardcover collection of the acclaimed science-fiction thriller mini-series, The Engineer: Konstrukt, which will be available this August.

Keeping with Archaia’s tradition of publishing high-quality, high-concept titles, The Engineer: Konstrukt, co-created by Brian Churilla and Jeremy Shepherd, tells the story of a reluctant hero who frantically races to defeat an ancient creature eating away at the very fabric of space and time. To do so, he must travel across dimensions and put together the scattered pieces of the Konstrukt, an old-world technology that allows the user to manipulate reality itself.

Dave Baxter from Broken Frontier says, “The Engineer: Konstrukt is yet another out-of-the-park homerun hit for Archaia…the story is very, very fun [and] wholly entertaining.”

“In the great tradition that [Publisher] Mark [Smylie] started back in 2002, Archaia is still fully committed to bringing our fans the best quality product from cover to cover. And now with the $9.95 quarterly hardcovers, we are providing the best product for the best value,” boasted PJ Bickett, Archaia President. “We are very fortunate that scheduling allowed us to start this program with The Engineer. Churilla and Shepherd are an amazing team and the book is just pure entertainment from start to finish!”

Archaia plans to release the next $9.95 hardcover in the fourth quarter of 2009. That title will be announced at a later date.

The Engineer: Konstrukt Ordering Information

To see a preview of The Engineer: Konstrukt, visit http://archaia.com/the_engineer.php.
Diamond Item Code MAY090650
ISBN: 1932386548
ISBN-13: 9781932386547
The Engineer: Konstrukt contains mild violence and is recommended for ages 10 and up.

About Archaia

Founded in 2002, Archaia has built an unparalleled reputation for producing meaningful content that perpetually transforms minds. With a slate including such popular Eisner-Award winning titles as Mouse Guard and The Killer, as well as Awakening, Gunnerkrigg Court, Robotika, Killing Pickman, Artesia and the Publisher’s latest additions of Titanium Rain, God Machine,Roddenberry Productions’ Days Missing, and The Jim Henson Company library, Archaia has become synonymous with quality content. For more information on Archaia or any Archaia titles please visit www.Archaia.com.

Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen

After hearing all the horrible reviews, I still wound up going to see it. Those reviews normally lead me to enjoy a movie more, due to setting expectations low. Since I was already not expecting much, those reviews dug out the basement to establish a new all-time low. That pretty much saved the movie for me.

For instance, I've heard the film dragged. For me, while I could see a lot that should have been left on the editing room floor, it never really made me want the film to pick up the pace. There have been complaints about not being able to differentiate between many of the Transformers, it was much improved over the last film and, where there would be confusion, there's really nothing that can be done to prevent the issues.

The one issue that there's no getting around, however, are the racially stereotyped "Twins". Two Autobots that could genuinely be considered the "Step & Fetchit" of modern day flicks. Gold teeth, slang and the whole nine yards. The problem, though, is the lack of an actually assigned race to machines. In many current movies, if you slap that particular set of characteristics on to a non-black character, you generally get a bunch of people laughing and no one crying foul. So we have "raceless" machines with these traits. That's where they obviously thought they'd be OK, but clearly where they cause their problems. Without an assigned race, interpretation will revert back to the race that the stereotype is about.

For what it's worth, though, the audience in this showing was of diverse ethnic backgrounds and the laughs at the antics of the Step & Fetchit twins were loudly coming from all over the theater. So whether actual mainstream America will make an issue of this or it will just stay with the critics and the talking heads remains to be seen.

The other noticeable bit was the generous helping of profane language. I'm not a prude, but you hear so many curse words coming from a flick that, from my understanding, is supposed to aiming for kids as well as adults, each time one pops up, it grabs your attention. Fuck, shit, asshole and pussy all wind up getting thrown around liberally.

One or both of those issues will be grabbed by a conservative values group to make hay over, I believe. I doubt that aspect will really have a negative effect on the film. I can respect the racial one being strongly objected to. But when it comes to the "I can't let my kid watch that" crowd, they generally need to realize that vetting stuff for their child's viewing is their job as a parent. On top of that, companies need to realize that those who protest on these sorts of things are often not the consumer it was made for to begin with, so they're not losing patronage of their product.