This Week In Comics: 11/23/2005

[Clayface]

Welcome to This Week in Comics for November 23rd, 2005 - November 29th, 2005!

This is the place to discuss the comics you've bought this week, whether it be a brand new title or old back-issues. We also welcome and encourage talk about comics in general - news you've read on comic news sites, the state of the industry in general, upcoming issues you're excited about, etc. All we ask is that you please use spoiler brackets in the event that your comments get too detailed concerning a particular storyline. This way the book won't be ruined for anyone who hasn't read it yet.

For a list of the new items shipping this week, please consult Diamond Comics' Shipping List (http://www.diamondcomics.com/shipping/shipping_112305.txt).

To find a comic book store near you, check out the Comic Shop Locator Service (http://csls.diamondcomics.com/).





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Highlights of the Week!



Ace the Bathound's Picks:



http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/med/13/13070.jpg (http://www.darkhorse.com/profile/preview.php?theid=13-070)..http://www.onipress.com/covers/offroad.jpg (http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=5834)


Perhapanauts #1 (of 4)..........................Off Road OGN......




randomguy's Pick:


http://www.forbidden-planet.co.uk/acatalog/SHK02.jpg (http://www.marvel.com/catalog/showcomic.htm?id=3032&format=comic)

She-Hulk 2 #2...





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[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

For the Bendis fans out there: the man himself speaks to Comic Book Resources (http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=6235) about Ultimate Spider-Man and Powers. Chow down.

For those of you wondering what the fuss is all about the current Captain America, Newsarama.com has all that you need to get you up to date (http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=50223), either saving you the bucks the trade would cost you or costing you those same bucks if you say, "Hey, that sounds pretty good."

DC (and everybody else) month-to-Month sales numbers for October 2005 (http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=36;t=004466;p=1#000000). Easily the most impressive numbers come way down at the bottom for The Walking Dead, and I think those numbers are rather richly deserved. Other than that, it's all Infinite Crisis all the time, with nice steep drops in books coming after the crossover's done. It also seems that the fanboys I overheard in the Friendly Neighborhood Comic Book Shop talking about how Cool Wonder Woman was now that she kills people were not the exception to the rule, given the boost in sales for her title.

Generation M #1 preview (http://www.buzzscope.com/reviews.php?id=5227) posted at Buzzscope.com. How this ties into House of M, Son of M, or the head of MI-6 (http://us.imdb.com/gallery/mptv/1230/Mptv/1230/9455_0068.jpg?path=pgallery&path_key=Lee,%20Bernard%20%28I%29) is utterly lost on me, so I'm not sure how excited Marvel Zombies should be about this.

On the DC side of the fence, we have a number of previews for comics you can pre-order next month and shipping in February (http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=6234): Batman: Year 100 #1, Thunderbolt Jaxon #1, American Way #1, and Warlord #1. Totally cool of DC to give you the chance to check out the borderline books before the pre-order cycle starts, in the hope of boosting pre-orders.

As all the US CBC readers know, and probably most of the non-US readers do, tomorrow is the Thanksgiving holiday, so no BPoL tomorrow. Friday isn't looking good either. However, there's no reason why I have to be the only one who does these things, so if you see stuff that comes up and want to note it here and babble about it, go for it! A nice first start would be when the Nov 30 previews go up at Mile High Comics (http://www.milehighcomics.com/firstlook/).

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!

-- Ed/Ace

[rggkjg1]

V FOR VEDNETTA - this is without a doubt the "pick of the week" for me. i've only read part 1 so far and i'm really enjoying the story. unfortunately i get distracted while reading it because i keep thinking "there is no way the movie can sucessfully adapt this." i really hope the movie will be good, but now i dont have high expectations for the film. maybe we should be relieved the watchmen movie will most likely never get made.

ROBIN #144
VIGILANTE #3
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #526
CAPTAIN AMERICA #12
PUNISHER VS BULLSEYE #1
JLA: EARTH 2
SUPERMAN ARCHIVES VOL. 1

short but sweet: nothing really spectacular in this week's releases. :sad:

it was the annual blackfriday sale at stormwatch comics and it was awesome. me and david got into the cutlass around 11:45 pm to embark on a historic journey. the radio was set to 102.9 and queen's "we are the champions" began. yes indeed, me and david are the champions. followed by "another one bites the dust". it seems like they play all the good music late at night.

the store opened at 12 am and was so packed people were flowing outside. i had dificulty finding a parking spot for a moment. everything was on sale at insane prices. me and david got so much stuff our "jargon" box was almost over flowing. david won the raffle to get some money off your order after saying out loud "i'm glad they lost". since every one got a chance to win. we'll i lost, twice. but i'm a winner at life and thats whats important.

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

The post-holiday-weekend crush of news and an appointment that will take up most of this afternoon adds up to an early BPoL today, with a possible follow-up depending on how much linkworthy stuff shows up between now and then. Be sure to check TZ News (http://news.toonzone.net/) for other comic-related news, including the New York Times coverage of Infinite Crisis and House of M.

Speaking of turkeys:


unfortunately i get distracted while reading it because i keep thinking "there is no way the movie can sucessfully adapt this." i really hope the movie will be good, but now i dont have high expectations for the film.
If you compare the GN as a whole to released plot details for the third act of the film, those expectations will probably sink even lower. It really astounds me how all the people involved in the project could miss the entire point of the story so thoroughly. For me, V for Vendetta the film went from being a "could be cool" movie to the crap pile with precipitous haste.

The other turkey-powered link comes courtesy of Neil Kleid's humor column at Buzzscope.com, where it seems something's gone afowl at the Marvel solicitations department (http://www.buzzscope.com/features.php?id=1200).

Big mess of Image Comics previews at Comic Book Resources (http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=6239). Might be fun to play "late comics bingo" there to see how many of these Wednesday releases were originally scheduled to come out far, far earlier.

And speaking of late comics, it turns out that Dynamite Entertainment has acquired the rights to do Lone Ranger comics (http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=50622), both as new material and as reprints of older comics. As much as this news excites me in the abstract (the Lone Ranger is cool and I'll kick you in the shins if you say different), I'm not too jazzed that it's D.E. doing it. Their Marvel Red Sonja reprints are so late that they may, in fact, be pregnant. How's about getting the stuff you've already TAKEN PEOPLE'S MONEY FOR out before grabbing new licenses, huh? One thing's for sure, though -- we're in for some mighty fine Lone Ranger artwork as they make billions of variant covers for comics that never seem to show up.

Who, me? Bitter? Nah.

OK, no more turkeys. This article at Newsarama.com gives an exhaustive (and I do mean Exhaustive) history of Batwoman (http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/Batwoman/BatwomanHistory.htm). While I appreciate the time and effort that went into this and have gained a new appreciation of what Batwoman brought to the table, I'm also getting the occasional weird vibe that the writer loves Batwoman in ways that are not quite wholesome.

Meanwhile, someone posts a report of the Mid-Ohio con (http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=50587) which seems to turn into "The Peter David Show." However, it's worth it if you want to read what PAD has to say about the Hulk and his new X-Factor comic.

Big interview with Roger Stern at Comic Book Resources (http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=6238). 'Nuff said.

Recently, Diamond Comic Distributors changed their terms of service, requiring a minimum dollar value of orders, with orders below that number getting cancelled, even after solicitation. It was speculated at the time that even the smallest press publishers should be able to make the cut-off point. However, Claypool just proved that speculation wrong, since they're asking people to pre-order Deadbeats, Elvira, and Soulsearchers and Company (http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=36;t=004474).

Another article pushing/previewing Dezago and Rousseau's Perhapanauts (http://www.comicon.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=36;t=004471). While I thought the first issue suffered from a severe problem of "tell not show" for several long stretches, it was fun enough that I don't regret pre-ordering the rest of the series based on the amusing solicitation text. The letter column alone is nearly worth the price of admission.

The Fourth Rail recommends Tom Beland's True Story Swear to God (http://www.thefourthrail.com/features/1105/recommended6.shtml), proving their excellent taste.

Comics Should be Good has a new Urban Legends post (http://goodcomics.blogspot.com/2005/11/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-25.html), including facts about the Crimson Fox, the quantity of cheesecake in the latest Bulleteer comic, and the plot to a movie lifted from the U.K.'s 2000 A.D.

Finally, one for the Comic Book Science files: Spy Detecting Gerbils (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1415469.stm). The article is actually rather old, but it's new to me (and came in courtesy of a post about dog translation hardware (http://www.defensetech.org/archives/001966.html)).

Hi-yo, Silver! Awaaaaaaayyyyyyyy!!!!!!
(http://www.endeavorcomics.com/largent/lr1.html)
-- Ed/Ace

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,

Hey, where is everyone? It's almost New Comic Book Day and ain't nobody here 'cept me and Clayface and rggkjg1.

For that matter, where's the news? Following up on one link from yesterday, Mark Evanier explains it all about the Claypool situation (http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2005_11_28.html#010619), and Peter David makes a far more personal plea (http://peterdavid.malibulist.com/archives/003563.html) (or at least a reprint of the press release), seeing as Claypool's Soulsearchers and Company has been one of his most consistently paying gigs and all.

Maybe Claypool needs a Hollywood sugar daddy. Seems to be working for Speakeasy Comics (http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=6241), as Adam Fortier of Speakeasy is happy to explain. I wonder how much this deal with Ardustry affected the move of Rocketo from Speakeasy to Image.

Ben Raab gets interviewed by Newsarama.com about Living in Infamy (http://www.newsarama.com/Ludovico/Raab_Infamy.htm), a mini-series that focuses on a town of ex-supervillains in the Witness Protection Program. Preview pages included, and issue #1 is hitting stands tomorrow. While I'm doing previews, Buzzscope.com has a bunch of previews for comics hitting stands tomorrow (http://www.buzzscope.com/features.php?id=1179), including the new Iron Man mini-series from Joe Casey. There's also a preview of Mouse Guard (http://www.newsarama.com/ASP/MouseGuard/MouseGuard01_Pre.htm) at Newsarama.com, which looks like a terminally cute book about mice with tiny little swords.

Randy Lander of the Fourth Rail takes a look at Jay Hosler's Clan Apis TPB (http://www.thefourthrail.com/reviews/snapjudgments/112805/clanapistp.shtml), which is part story and part science lesson, and gives it the big ol' thumbs up. You won't look at bees the same way again, that's for sure.

Finally, Augie De Bleick mostly agrees with me about Perhapanauts (http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=pipeline&article=2320), and also points out that the Marvel Monsters HC coming in February is oversized, which changes it from a bit of a gyp into something I may buy after all. Yes, I liked them that much.

EDIT: I think we had a thread on this earlier, but someone has listed the religious denominations of several comic book superheroes, supervillains, and supporting cast members (http://www.adherents.com/lit/comics/comic_book_religion.html). Unfortunately, they seem to have forgotten Thor, of all people.

-- Ed/Ace

[rggkjg1]

If you compare the GN as a whole to released plot details for the third act of the film, those expectations will probably sink even lower. It really astounds me how all the people involved in the project could miss the entire point of the story so thoroughly. For me, V for Vendetta the film went from being a "could be cool" movie to the crap pile with precipitous haste.i groaned and rolled my eyes once i found out that the matrix creators and directors where the men involved of the v for vendetta film. i'm one of the few (where i live) who thought the matrix was a piece of crap (this had to be one of the worst movies i've ever seen) and a complete waste of time watching it. i'm gonna have to question my intelligence if i go and watch it again. but, i didn't want to hold that against the wachowski brothers since (at the time) i had not read the story yet and in various interviews they talked about how they loved the graphic novel and wanted to make a really good adaptation. well. were in now now and i think i'm gonna hate the wachowski brothers even more if v for vendetta turns out to be the piece of crap it's looking to be. i can see why alan moore wants nothing to do with the film. i wouldnt either if i was alan moore.


Hey, where is everyone? It's almost New Comic Book Day and ain't nobody here 'cept me and Clayface and rggkjg1.nobody got anything because they want nothing to do with all the infinite crisis and house of m tie ins. ;)

[Ed Liu]

Howdy,


i can see why alan moore wants nothing to do with the film. i wouldnt either if i was alan moore.
Well, Moore has never really had much to do with film adaptations of his work. He has never actively prevented anybody from doing one, but thinks that he wrote these things to be comics and to work in the comic medium, and that trying to adapt them for films is essentially creating an entirely different work. Things came to a head when someone sued 20th Century Fox over League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which is when Moore declared that he was not taking any of the money from the movie adaptations from then forward. He's given the money he got for Constantine and V for Vendetta to the artists.

Not that he doesn't have choice things to say about V for Vendetta the film. This Lying in the Gutters article (http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/index.cgi?column=litg&article=2153) is probably the best capsule history of Moore vs. Hollywood. It was also written when Rich Johnston was flirting with an "investigative journalism" style, and much of it has been corroborated by other sources.

-- Ed/Ace