The name of this new weekly column is "New Comics I'm Excited About!" because I just don't blog about comic books...I'm also a fan and go to the comic shop every week to pick up my stack.

Let's look at my pull list for this week...

PICK OF THE WEEK:

I chose Strange Adventures from Vertigo as my pick of the week not just because of the content, but the fact that I'd really like to see more anthologies like this and Dark Horse Presents on the stands. These books often serve not only as forums for familiar creators to let loose and try something new (Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso's "Spaceman"), but edgy indie talents who deserve more exposure to get their work out there (Kevin Colden's “Postmodern Prometheus”). Books like Strange Adventures are the cauldrons from which we might all get those exciting new concepts, characters and talent fans are always requesting instead of the "same-old, same-old" -- too bad it's only a one-shot, and here's hoping DC puts out more of the same in the future. Read more...

Tags Archaia, DC Comics, Image, Marvel Comics, Vertigo

Writer Scott Snyder has been having a pretty good year at DC and Vertigo. As the co-creator of American Vampire he’s been getting a lot of attention for his spin on the evolution of the vampire mythos, and he’s currently at the helm of DC’s second-longest running title, scripting the adventures of Dick Grayson in Detective Comics.

Over at Detective Snyder has set up the goal of trying to give the Gotham underworld a rethink with Dick under the cowl. To Snyder’s mind, Batman’s villains are reflections of his psyche—Joker, Two-Face, and the Riddler are all somehow mirror reflections of who Bruce is as a character. “We’re focusing on a story about the way that Gotham, now that Dick Grayson is Batman, is sort of changing itself to be a better enemy for him. It’s almost like anyone who takes on the cowl Gotham will throw their worst nightmares at them.” This current storyline is in its 4th part, with the fifth and final issue of the arc occurring in issue #875 which hits shelves on March 30th.

Issue 875 also has a standalone story by Snyder with art by Francesco Francavilla (Scalped, Fear Agent, Black Beetle) featuring the return on Jim Gordon’s son, James. Apparently the character hasn’t been seen in comics since he was a small child and Snyder hints that his return will have ramifications for the Detective cast, with everyone—from the Commissioner, to Barbara, to Dick—harboring an intense fear of the now-adult James. Read more...

Tags American Vampire, Batman: Gates of Gotham, C2E2, DC Comics, Detective Comics, Scott Snyder, Vertigo

Getting into a comic book mid-way through its run is hard! So we’ve made it easy for you: in just five short minutes (or less), we’ll get you caught up on a comic book you need to pick up tomorrow… Today! Oh, and in case it wasn’t clear: spoilers on.

Fables should be one of the easier titles we’ve had to cover for the Five-Minute Recap. Sure, Vertigo is releasing its one hundred and third issue this Wednesday, but the central premise is simple to explain: every character from every story ever lived together in a fantastical land, until driven out by the Adversary, a terrifying being who forced them to live in our non-magical world with regular people, (also know as “Mundies.”)

Though this is still true, writer Bill Willingham made a seismic change to the series in issue seventy-five, when the Fables finally beat the Adversary, revealed to be a bitter, angry Geppeto (yup, the carpenter from Pinocchio) and regained control of their Homelands. Rather than end the series here – the original plan – Willingham decided to see what would happen next… Which turned out to be very, very bad for our fantastical friends. With the Adversary out of power, magical items that were previously protected were left without guards, and various beasties got loose.

The worst of these is Mr. Dark, an actual, physical representation of the fear of the dark given life. Mr. Dark sucks the life essence from Mundies, and likes to eat their teeth, which is gross. And though he was beaten in combat by the Fables once before, he wasn’t beaten down for good. Teaming up with the bitter, angry wife of Jack Sprat, Mr. Dark has gone on a journey back to the Homelands to take revenge on the Fables who still live there.

Meanwhile! Jack Sprat’s wife is in New York City, which has been turned into a smoke filled, grey wasteland filled with stumbling zombies who go about their days ignoring each other, doing nothing but their sad little jobs. So in other words: every day in new York. Just kidding! Sort of.

The rest of the Fables are split between two locations. One is The Farm, a secret place upstate for Fables who can’t mingle with human society (Snow White can hang out in Times Square, but the Three Little Pigs might have a problem). The other is Haven, a kingdom in the Homelands where refugee Fables, and goblins who defected from the Adversary’s army live together in harmony, protected by the magic of their king, Flycatcher (long story). Read more...

Tags Bill Willingham, Fables, Five Minute Recap, Vertigo

Welcome to Crossovers We Want to See, a fairly self-explanatory recurring feature in which we pitch the meeting of a pair of characters or teams from different comic companies. Playing editor, we'll dream up writer and artist combinations and basic story points.

Xombi & iZombie
Written by John Rozum and Chris Roberson, drawn by Mike Allred and Frasier Irving

The world has zombie fever and why not? Zombies are the perfect bad guys. They're pure engines of evil that no one feels bad about killing. However, not all stories of the undead follow the George Romero model, some branch out and do their own thing. Xombi, a former Milestone comic now integrated into the main DC Universe follows David Kim, a scientist kept alive forever thanks to nanite technology that he developed while Vertigo's I, Zombie stars Gwen, a zombie who eats freshly dead brains once a month and finds herself compelled to take care of their unfinished business. The former launched this week by writer John Rosum and artist Frasier Irving while the first six issues of the latter—written by Chris Roberson and drawn by Mike Allred—are collected in this week's I Zombie Vol 1 Dead To The World. Read more...

Tags DC Comics, iZombie, Milestone, Vertigo Comics, Xombi

I don’t know about the other attendees, but for my money, the most interesting revelation at the Vertigo panel was that the DC Imprint’s Editor-in-Chief, Will Dennis refers to artist Sean Gordon Murphy (Joe the Barbarian) as the “honeybadger of comics.” Oh, yeah, and Murphy will be providing covers and art for this summer’s WWII-set mini, American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest, where all hell breaks loose when a group of Romanian scientists attempt to find a “cure” for vampirism.

Also on hand at the panel were writers Chris Roberson (iZombie, Cinderella), Matt Sturges (Jack of Fables, House of Mystery), Jeff Lemire (Sweet Tooth), and artist Chrissie Zullo (Cinderella: Fables are Forever, Madame Xanadu) to talk about the slate of upcoming titles from Vertigo. There weren’t a lot of new titles announced but there were some interesting developments coming for existing titles.

Read more...

Tags Chris Roberson, Chrissie Zullo, ECCC, Jeff Lemire, Matt Sturges, Vertigo Comics, Will Dennis

Welcome to another installment of Creator’s Commentary, where we talk with comic creators about their work, digging into their books, sometimes page-by-page to learn more about their process—think of it as director’s commentary, but you know, for books.

This month’s issue number 19 of Jeff Lemire’s post-apocalyptic odyssey Sweet Tooth comes as something of a change of pace, as story switches its focus from leads Gus and Jepperd to fellow survivors, Lucy, Becky, and Wendy. In an even bigger change Lemire shares scripting and art duties on this issue with indie collaborators Nate Powell (Swallow Me Whole), Matt Kindt (Superspy), and Emil Lenox (Emitown), as the plot switches to flashback mode and the three characters reveal how their lives were impacted by the plague.

Mr. Lemire was kind enough to join us in digging into some of the secrets of this issue—so if you picked it up this week, follow along!

****WARNING: PLOT POINTS AND INFORMATION OF AN ARTISTIC NATURE WILL BE SPOILED BELOW!****

MTV Geek: [Pg. 1] How did you decide to place the emphasis on the ladies of the cast this month?

Jeff Lemire I felt like all three characters needed to be fleshed out a bit more before we move forward. Because so much of the plot revolves around Jepperd and Gus, I hadn’t had a chance to do that yet, and they really need to be developed a bit more before [the next arc] “Endangered” Species moves forward. As the book progresses into its second half these three characters will play an increasingly important role.

Geek: [Pg. 3] The first panel in this page by Nate Powell—the outstretched hands of the homeless man—is a really arresting image. In fact, isolated limbs are kind of a motif throughout his piece. To what degree was that a conscious element of his script?

JL You’d have to ask Nate. Truth is I let them each do whatever they want, figuring I would bit up on what they laid down and run with it later. We talked very briefly about his idea and about focusing on Lucy’s “trust issues.” I love those hand images he did though… very visceral and effective.

Geek: [Pg. 4-7] With your collaborators this month, how was the script handled, exactly? Did you give them any notes or beats to hit with each character? Read more...

Tags Jeff Lemire, Sweet Tooth, Vertigo, Vertigo Comics

Midtown Comics in NYC's Times Square was buzzing and packed at 6pm on a Friday night, as I headed in for the very first Midtown Comics Book Club. The retailer was featuring newly hot American Vampire scribe Scott Snyder, with a focus on the recently published first collection of his Vertigo series. The Book Club wouldn’t start until 6:30pm though, so I spent a little time browsing, figuring I could pick up some recommendations from friends, and then set up early to cover the event.

At about 6:15pm, I decided it was enough dilly-dallying, bought the books in my hand, and asked he guy behind the counter where the Book Club would be held. He paused for a second, and then said, “Downtown.”

Oops.

You see friends; Midtown Comics has three locations in Manhattan, including a recently opened downtown space with an alcove for events like the Book Club. But on auto, I had headed to Times Square, and now had fifteen minutes to travel the equivalent of half the island. Thank goodness for the MTA actually running on time for once, as I only missed the introduction, and was all set up by the time hosts Thor Parker and Zoe welcomed Snyder up in front of the packed crowd.

Read more...

Tags American Vampire, DC Comics, Midtown Comics, Scott Snyder, Vertigo Comics

There’s no denying it: vampires are still hot. We thought they’d go away, or at least retreat into their coffins for a while. But the entertainment consuming public can’t get enough of the evil blood-suckers. Like most things, though, comics have been publishing tales forever about vamps, from Tomb of Dracula, to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Here are ten of the best vampires from comics:

10. Cassidy

An Irish Vampire, Cassidy is bitten by a “hag” in the comic Preacher, and turned into a blood-sucking monster. Or rather, a mostly hard drinking, kind of a-hole-ish monster who sometimes sucks blood for fun, or if people annoy him. Cassidy learns to be honorable over the course of the series, and even settles down to open up a bar; but we like him best when he’s just being a lovable drunk.

 
9. Zechariah

Read more...

Tags 30 Days Of Night, Preacher, Vampires, Vertigo

There’s a long history of literature about literature, and perhaps a large chunk of that list is made up by comics and graphic novels. But even in this sub-genre, The Unwritten from Vertigo has slowly been gaining a cult following for its deep, layered world, impressive visuals from artist Peter Gross, and complex characterizations from writer Mike Carey.

Ostensibly the story of Tommy Taylor, a real-world Harry Potter stand-in (actually a Christopher Milne stand-in, as we’ll find out in a bit) who turns out to be a similar path to his fictional counterpart, The Unwritten has gotten deeper and more complex with every issue, while continuing to examine just what it is about writing that’s a little bit like magic. On the eve of the most recent issue’s release, we chatted with Carey about what makes his characters work, where the series may be going, and what other books he considered essential reading:

MTV Geek: You’ve played with a number of pieces of literature throughout the series, but the current arc is the first one to really fully embrace a book – specifically Moby Dick. Why is that? What’s important about Melville’s novel as a starting point?

Mike Carey: There are a lot of different answers to that question.  We always intended for Tom's encounters with books to get more and more hands-on and direct, leading to the point where he actually enters a narrative.  When we were auditioning for possible books that would work in that context, Moby Dick stood out for several reasons.  One was that we both liked it a lot.  Another was a passage in both the book and the movie where Ahab is talking about the power that lies behind the visible, observable world.

Peter sent me that as a clip from the Gregory Peck movie, and it chimed in so well with what we were doing in The Unwritten, that we both felt we had to go with Moby Dick.  Then, later, when we started to talk about other fictional whales, we realized how many possibilities Moby Dick opened up - particularly the revelation in #23 that Tom has been looking in the wrong direction the whole time.  There's another whale lurking in the background here, besides the usual suspects...

Geek: Particularly with Tommy, it feels like you’re playing the long game with his character. He’s accepted that magic exists, and that he’s in a book, but he’s still kind of, well, a dick. Most comics create some sort of catharsis for their characters every issue, so what’s it like to create one in the long view?

MC: I think Tom's changing as we watch him.  He was a fairly passive-aggressive guy when we first met him, letting events carry him along and feeling sorry for himself.  But the cataclysm at the Villa Diodati triggers something in him, and we start to see both a courage and resolution that was hidden before and a compassion that he wasn't allowing himself to feel.

So I guess I'd argue that there *are* cathartic moments for Tom along the way.  It's true, though, that he's more of a slow-burn than some comic book protagonists - and his relationships with Lizzie and Savoy take time to reveal themselves.  His relationship with his father, too, come to that.  He's a little bit like Jessie in FAKER in that you ultimately come to a good understanding of what turned him bad.  That's not the same as a free pardon, but it makes a difference. Read more...

Tags DC Comics, mike carey, the unwritten, Vertigo

Getting into a comic book mid-way through its run is hard! So we’ve made it easy for you: in just five short minutes (or less), we’ll get you caught up on a comic book you need to pick up tomorrow… Today! Oh, and in case it wasn’t clear: spoilers on.

Jeff Lemire’s Vertigo series Sweet Tooth takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where most of the world’s population has been killed off by a mysterious virus. At the same time – and perhaps not so coincidentally – any children that were born came out with varying amounts of animal features. Some have antlers, but otherwise look normal. Others are full on animals standing on their hind legs. So far, no one knows how the two are related, or what’s causing any of this, but the key might lie with our main character, Gus; a.k.a. Sweet Tooth, because he loves chocolate.

Why is Gus so important? Because over the course of the past eighteen issues, we’ve found out that not only is he older than any other animal child, but like Kyle XY before him, he has no belly-button, meaning he’s probably been bred in a lab, not born of woman like the other animal children. [Side-Note: Should we have specified that this article contained spoilers for the first season of Kyle XY?]

Gus has no knowledge of this, though, as he was raised in a cabin in the woods by a crazy religious nut that said he was his father, but may turn out to just be the scientist who created him. When his “Dad” died, Gus disobeyed the only directive given to him, to not leave the woods. Once out though, he encountered a man best described as Clint Eastwood on ‘roids (or an older Punisher, who Jeppard was actually based on). His name is Jeppard, and like thousands of old men without a heart in apocalyptic worlds before him, Jeppard is finding that he still has something to believe in, and that’s Gus.

Read more...

Tags DC Comics, Five Minute Recap, Jeff Lemire, Sweet Tooth, The Five Minute Recap, Vertigo Comics