In comics news, Newsarama is discussing some mysterious intriguing teaser image DC released of some major heroes, Frank Miller will be at the New York City Comic Con (which I will be at too, with a press pass), and they also gave a link to an unintentionally funny website where the Las Vegas Police Department totally ripped off Frank Miller.
In news closer to home Brad Winderbaum's next installment of Satacracy 88 is up at itsallinyourhands.com (link to the right), and our own Mitch is now working at Marvel Comics.
For my own contribution this week I am going to recommend Spiderman Loves Mary Jane by Sean McKeever and Takashi Miyazawa. I picked these up on a whim last week and loved them. The target audience (imagined or real) is teenage girls, but it is well plotted and paced and well drawn, and fun, which is what I want out of a comic book. In a minor way, it is nearly perfect: it aims at something simple, and succeeds gracefully. On the one hand it is exactly what you expect -- Mary Jane has boyfriends, knows this guy Peter Parker at school, looses the boyfriend, wants to date Spiderman, complains to Peter about this (not knowing he is Spiderman of course), has a date with Spiderman that does not go well, realizes she loves Peter Parker, discovers Peter kissing the new girl Gwen Stacy before she can tell him, and so on. It's simple, but it's lovely and the art is cute but not too cute. You would have to have a heart of complete stone not to fall in love with this book.
Oh, and for the record, I am adding one more character to my list from last Friday: Takashi Miyazawa's Mary Jane.
First off how did a freelance teacher end up getting a press pass? haha
ReplyDeleteAs for Spidey loves MJ. I'd have to check it out. Think they have it at the local Library, but it'd be kinda outkward getting it. Me being all muscled up and macho and what not. haha..only jokin'
On subject(somewhat) What did you think about Paul Jenkins' Spider-man run? I thought he gave great depth to Spidey's villians.
dude, she's not even 17!!!!
ReplyDeletebut yeah I loved this book too as well as the Mary Jane series. The art is really clean and simple and bouncy. I'd like to see one issue get a little manga-wacky, like add in some super-d stuff. But just one issue. Maybe in flash backs. it would be perfect then.
oh wait, she might be 17. but she's not 18...
ReplyDeleteIn a similar vein... I just got the trade today for "Spider-Man and Human Torch: I'm with Stupid" written by I-know-I-keep-plugging-him Dan Slott with fun art by Ty Templeton. Aparently, each issue is set in a different era of Spider-Man and Torch's history.
ReplyDeleteAlso, preview pages for Joss Whedon's Runaways were up at PopCultureShock.com, but are now gone.
So Mitch, what are you doing at Marvel? C'mon, spill.
ReplyDeleteOT- As the next chapter in my irregular Strange Cover Tunes feature Ping33 is proud to present: The Flaming Lips performing Kylie Minogue's Can't Get You Out Of My Head (http://media.putfile.com/02-Cant-Get-You-Out-Of-My-Head)
ReplyDeleteMary Jane is one of the books that's on my list of stuff I need to check out. His blog (http://www.takeshimiyazawa.com/) has been fascinating to read as he's moved to Japan last year to attempt to become a mangaka.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to finally get the last Seven Soldiers tradee and try to read through the whole thing from beginning to end. But the big book of the week was the Hellboy Animated TP. Mignola and crew have done a good job at changing his characters for the various mediums its been in-- comics, cartoons, movies & novels. The characters and stories lend themselves well to re-interpretation. The animated Hellboy doesn't translate as well into comics as the Dini/Timm Batman did but I need to reread it again.
Last weekend, I discovered around here a Japanese market that sells original, untranslated manga so I picked up a bunch of stuff that I know there are translations for online. It's been a strange experience so far trying to decipher just what's going on in these books.
Troy-- Everyone was a little uneasy about it at first, but I was finally allowed to join the team when they realized they needed someone with my expertise to break into the Baxter Building and steal the secret plans for some facility in the Negative Zone.
ReplyDeleteAfter that, I'll be approving artwork in the Licensing department. :)
Hope to see you at Comic Con, Geoff.
Also, here is an article at Comic Book Resources that covers a lecture about Watchmen at MoCCA.
ReplyDeleteThe guy speaks a lot about the superhero genre and how Watchmen turns a lot of its tropes on their heads. My favorite: a comparison of the scene between Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre on Mars with the classic Fantastic Four scene between Silver Surfer and Alicia Masters.
Thought you'd be interested.
"Troy-- Everyone was a little uneasy about it at first, but I was finally allowed to join the team when they realized they needed someone with my expertise to break into the Baxter Building and steal the secret plans for some facility in the Negative Zone."
ReplyDeleteNow I've got this image in my head of the Punisher approving licensed artwork and shooting any pieces he doesn't like. :)
Congrats, Mitch! That gig sounds great.
Hey, congratulations, Mitch! Good luck with the job!
ReplyDeleteAs for Spidey loves MJ, that book is great. There was a recent issue that had a great scene where Gwen is telling MJ a story about Spider-Man fighting Sandman. We see the action, and because she's telling the story, Spidey and Sandman are talking like teenage girls, ending all their sentences in question marks and saying "LOL!" It's hilarious. Plus, the art for that scene was done by Rick Mays.
Miyazawa is a really good artist; I'm bummed that he's leaving the book, but it sounds like he's working to get even better; I can definitely respect that.