…..the upcoming return of this legendary comicbook! Neal Adams’ best art ever! (Lookit how much an original in good condition can cost!) Can’t wait! 🙂
The list of 1970s celebrities on the cover (along with much of the comicbook) is here.
And anybody remember this homage ESPN magazine cover Neal did back in the day? Of course I loved it and immediately recognized it!
Not surprised at all. 🙂 MARCH 31st UPDATE: Or by this.
(FEBRUARY 27th UPDATE: And not surprised by this, either.
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Was much more interested in this. Looks like Geoff Johns is the new Stan Lee.
MARCH 8th UPDATE: And look at the NEW trailer! WOO-WOO!!!!! 🙂
And now, this:
The tearjerker point of “The End of Time” for me was Rose telling him it was time for him to go—before she ever met him! Allons-y, indeed! Yes, the two-parter suffered from the usual Russell T. Davies over-the-topness. Really, the whole story was just filling time for the last 20 minutes. And what a 20 minutes it was! Saying goodbye to characters I have known for five years now was/is/will not be easy. Yes, in years to come there will be dozens of novels, audio stories, etc., but it won’t be the same.
I can’t put into words how much I will miss David Tennant in this role. I’m glad he left, though; he will be a big Hollywood star soon, and he has to get out of the TARDIS to do that.
I will watch Matt Smith one day, but not today and not tomorrow. I will miss my soon-to-be cancelled subscription to Doctor Who Magazine. I will miss Rose, Martha, Donna (easily the best companion of the new series, and possibly one of the best ever) et. al. I will miss buying all of those Doctor Who comics starrting Ten(nant). And I will miss spending those weekends sneaking onto youtube to illegally watch my alltime favorite show of the last decade. No, Doctor and Donna, “I didn’t want to go,” either. *SNIFF* 😦
Okay, now that I’m over the shock, I can say that it won’t be too bad. Disney gets some hit movies for tween boys, while Marvel gets access to a broadcast television network and a major motion picture studio. The House That Stan and Jack and Steve Built will now be a major player. Okay, I’m over it now. Here’s some more details.
SEPTEMBER 10th UPDATE: And here’s Time Warner/DC’s response.
Not the DC miniseries. But this one:
Good job, folks! Morgan STATE, BAY-BEE! F*&k “Smallville!” LOL!
I’m not ashamed to admit that, as a kid in the mid-80s, I wanted to be Rick Redfern when I grew up. I still do. But in 2008, of course, he got laid off and had to re-invent himself as a blogger.
Meanwhile, Barbara Ehrenreich told the truth to today’s J-grads. The profession was always considered a trade, anyway. It was elevated into a profession sans license thanks to Woodward, Bernstein and the springing up of local and national television and radio newscasts. Now the vocation has become a real public utility (as in, members of the public, at best, being useful to each other), separated from “job” and “career,” and the old world ain’t coming back.
Black press veterans worked like this from the beginning. I was whining a few years back once to my friend and mentor Judy Dothard Simmons (now an ancestor) about how limited the (paid) Black (national newspaper and magazine) journalistic opportunities were (for me), and, as usual, she corrected me to the quick: “When you came along [late 1980s-early 1990s], working for a national Black(ish) magazine became a full-time job,” explaining to me how new that was. (1990-ish Newsstand Freelancer Roll Call: Black Enterprise, Vibe, The Source, Honey, Shade, Blaze, Black Elegance, The Crisis, Rappages, Emerge, Class, YSB [Young Sisters and Brothers], Heart and Soul, Code, Black Issues Book Review, Upscale, and on and on.) And now, as I see, like Simmons (and, eventually, all of us) how very temporary all of it is.
Bayou, Volume One.
Jeremy Love.
ZudaComics.com.
$14.45.
It’s common knowledge that the classic, pre-Disney-ized children’s stories of yesterdecade were, in actuality, horror tales designed to scare good behavior into children. Don’t go down that road. Don’t go into that house. Don’t chat with that talking animal, and for goodness sakes, don’t follow him!
The first volume of “Bayou” really scared me because it took the whimsical horror of “Alice in Wonderland” and meshed it with the real-life terror of Jim Crow, in all its pre-Rosa Parks grisly gore and anger. This graphic novel, written and drawn by the superbly talented Jeremy Love, has the deceptive look of a children’s book, but it’s a serious meditation on life and death, bravery and freedom, seen through the eyes of Lee Wagstaff, a tough, resilient girl who refuses to let her daddy be lynched. All because Lily, a white girl and Lee’s friend, was swallowed by a mysterious ogre in the Bayou.
The masterwork is published by DC Comics’ new online imprint, ZudaComics. “Bayou” is the first-ever Zuda book. The story is copyrighted by Gettosake, which should be very proud of itself. Once again, DC shows it has an eye for stories of great quality.
Love won five of 10 Glyph awards this year—a five-for-five sweep of its nominations. (The Glyphs are given out by the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention.) “Bayou” won Story of the Year, Best Writer, Best Artist, Best Female Character and Best Comic Strip.
Part Two cannot come to me fast enough. Hurry, DC!
 
Heroes of Film, Comics and American Culture.
Lisa M. DeTora.
McFarland & Company, Inc.
327 pp. $39.95.
 
This book is right on time because there are rumors in the electronic air that Steve Rogers, killed during Marvel’s Civil War and during the even darker days of the end of the second Bush term, will return to life this summer.
[JUNE 28th UPDATE: Yep, he’s back.]
Jason Dittmer wrote about Cap in this scholarly anthology, which seeks to examine the relationship of fictional heroes to American domestic life. The book is broad, with its 18 authors looking askew at heroes ranging from the newly-domesticated sheriff in the classic flick “High Noon” to the action engaged by a pregnant Xena, Warrior Princess. (A real-life examination of the impact of 9-11 on national discourse deals with the issue of racism.)
So Captain America, Dittmer writes, “was created [by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby in the 1940s] as a symbolic wall to keep the interior space of the nation pure.” When Stan Lee and Kirby revived him in the 1960s, the theme was “debate over the meaning of America itself.” I wonder what he would say about Rogers’ resurrection during the Age of Obama—-the rebirth of hope during the Era of Hope?
Highlights include Ronald C. Thomas Jr.’s discussion of “Rockefeller Republican” Tony Stark as an extension of his Iron Man identity (and Ol’ Shellhead, of course, being the “embodiment” of the military-industrial complex) and Marc Edward DiPaolo’s deconstruction of Batman as a restrained version of Bush(‘s War On Terror policies) or, as the author put it, “part Donald Trump, part Vampire.”
Dittmer and the other authors plow over ideas well-tread by generations of fanboys and fangirls. (Ex: As a comic, Cap works best as Cap, not Steve, and works best in a battle setting, not one of domestic tranquility.) But as a member of both the scholarly and geek camps, it’s good to see this kind of treatment.
Drums in the Global Village 