Deadpool Is Back

The last time Deadpool had a dedicated series, gas cost $1.35 a gallon. Wow, I can't even believe that statistic. I just looked that up, just now. In 2002, gas cost $1.35.

Damn... Bush sucks.

But back to the main article. Since 2002, "The Merc with a Mouth" has been relegated to supporting roles in various other series. In 2004 he was paired with Cable for the Cable and Deadpool series.

But in September, once again, Deadpool will have his own flagship series. The series, written by Daniel Way (Wolverine Origins, Gost Rider) with Pace Medina providing the pencils, is an offshoot of the Secret Invasion series. Deadpool will be tasked to stem the tide of the Skrull invasion. Does he come through for the human race? or does he have other plans?

Early indications are that Way perfectly captures Deadpool's mania and delusional self-agrandizing. Fans of the character have been waiting years to see Deadpool again, and it is great to see him back in the spotlight.

I am expecting a much improved story arch following the confusing and mediocre Agent X series. The artwork already looks vastly superior. Perhaps seeing how well audiences respond to the anti-hero, maybe Marvel is finally putting their best people on him.

Cover of the Week: The Hunter #3

I really dig the new cover of "The Hunter."

"The Hunter," a comic published buy the upstart Dare Comics, is about a CIA agent with incredible, and even incendiary powers. It deals heavily with terrorism and dealing with the aftermath of an attack. I think it did an excellent job capturing the psyche of America in the wake of a national tragedy.

Now for the bad stuff. It seemed to me that the artist, David Golding does not quite have a mastery of anatomy. Some things are badly out of proportion, and while some characters look realistic, others look like they were animated for Saturday morning TV.

But mostly I was bothered by the design of the title character. He looks like something out of a bad anime. While I really like the color palate being used, it looks like the main character was done in MS Paint. And the quality of the penciling looked like a high schooler had done it. Average.

However, you can really see improvement as the comic goes on. After the 64-page opus that was "The Hunter" #1, you can see that Golding is really growing into the role. #2 looked light years better...like a college student had done it. BUT... if the trend continues, #3 should be amazing.

Apparently, in the edition the Hunter is accused of treason and faces a terrifying end.

All I have to go on now is the cover, which looks amazing. No more high school manga. No cheap paint job. The anatomy looks much better. The neck looks more realistic, but the penciling on the skull, the texture and the overall quality are very well done.

If I could make one more suggestion to Handy and Golding, it is this: you have got our attention. We are reading the comic already. You don't have to go seemingly out of your way to act tough. Some of the righting just seems artificial because I imagine they want the hero to be extra-hard. Just saying, we already bought the comic, we're impressed. So tell us the story because clearly there is a story here to be told.

A Venue For Aspiring Artists

I invite every aspiring comic book artist to check out Zuda Comics.

The DC Comics subsidiary specialized in publishing web comics. What is exciting is that it offers its users the opportunity to participate. Zuda members can vote to decide which comics get picked up and become regular series. Even more exciting, Zuda members can submit their own comics and, if it wins the monthly contest, that artist wins a contract.

Winners get a $500 flat fee for participating in the contest, and get paind $250 per page if they win the monthly contest and earn a contract.

I just think that is incredibly exciting.

In the past, the only way to break into the comic book industry was to go to a comic book convention and show your portfolio to someone alrady in the industry. No more.

Now your talent can be judged by the end market, and you can still end up working for DC Comics. This is great, because as good as the people at the big comics publishing houses are, they may be afraid to take a chance on a different idea because the customer may not like it. Now the customers decide what they want to see more of. And unknown artists can get a legitimate shot at making it in comic books. It's a win-win.

So don't be afriad to take a chance, toss your hat into the ring.

I Am Not Alone

...In my hatred of Manga. And lucky for me, I have a powerful new ally.

Drawing Power, an article by Bob Thompson, the prose critic for the Washington Post, ran in the most recent Sunday Post. The four page article ("War and Peace" by newspaper standards) is a critical exploration of the history of graphic novels and the explosion in their popularity over the last few years.

In addition to reading the old standards like "Sin City," Thompson forces himself to digest some of the teen-oriented graphic novels that make up the large part of the recent craze.

Thompson is extremely dissatisfied with Scholastic's "Fashion High" series, which he feels paints young girls as materialistic and shallow. He also decides to test the waters of the Manga craze. He makes a point to read "Naruto," the most popular Manga in the world.

This part just about made me wet my pants.

"I'm doing my best to set aside Prose Guy's bias against endless combat sequences involving giant snakes and frogs, not to mention characters who pause mid-battle to say things like 'I cut off his heart's keirakukei . . . the chakra network he heals himself with from the power of nine-tails.'"

But despite his best efforts, he was not impressed by the Japanese ninja saga.

"There's no getting around it, however: The world's most popular Manga is making me nostalgic for 'Fashion High.'"

I could feel my hear buoy. I am not alone. The book critic for the Washington Post hates Manga.

But, Thompson was not negative across the board. In particular, Thompson sang the praises of some of the nonfiction-based masterpieces of the medium like "Exit Wounds," "Maus," and "Pyongyang." He also mentioned Joe Sacco's journalistic depiction of war-torn Sarajevo, "The Fixer."

"As best I can tell, what elevates these very different nonfiction accounts are the same things that work in good, first-person prose: sharp-eyed observation, strong storytelling and a narrator who functions as the reader's guide."

The difference, he says, is the ability of graphic novels to transport readers instantly into the settings. The reader does not have to imagine what the character looks like, what the surroundings look like, or the order of events.

This was something Thompson saw as a short-coming; he metioned how he preferred to let his inner graphic novelist paint the scene.

He did, however, praise the medium in its limitless capability. Truly any concept can be illustrated through the graphic novel medium. A story in any setting or an idea as incredibly complex as genetics.

It is up to you, the artist, to make it appealing, immersive, and original. And because it is such a new and drastically different medium, there is lots of room for originality.

And in case you're wondering, no, I do not consider Manga "original."

My Winter Job

During the warm months of summer and the early months of autumn, I work at the driving range in my neighborhood. But when it gets too cold we close down for the winter. So, to pay for college, I always need to find a part-time job for the winter.

Last winter, I worked at the mall at a department store. Even better, I was working in the women's moderate section. Even better still, I was working the women's moderate section during the Christmas rush.

I have never been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, but you would believe otherwise if you saw me working there.

And I still stop in every now and then to pick up clothes. And my old bosses come over and chat with me. They always ask if I will be back this winter. I smile and shrug and say, "Maybe, we'll see." In my head I'm screaming, "Are you out of your f***ing mind?!"

If everything goes according to plan, I will be working at the mall, but sections away from the department store.

I have resolved that the comic book store in my local shopping mall is the perfect winter job. Even if it isn't perfect, it's still better than working in a clothing store on Christmas.

Here is my rationale:

1. A comic book store will not be crazy busy on Christmas Eve. I mean, it will be relatively busy, a few parents will be buying stocking-stuffers, a few kids will have gift certificates, and one lonely guy will buy a bust of Hellboy for his swingin' pad in his moms basement.

It ain't like that over at the department store. I spent five hours checking people out. And I mean literally "five hours." From 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. I was checking out customers without a break in the line. A long line. A long line filled angry people who have five more stores to hit before the mall closes. The line didn't break at 4 p.m. either. I finally snapped, hailed my manager and took a much needed break.

2. You cannot return a comic book. I thought Christmas Eve was bad. That was nothing. In fact, it's the best day to work in retail. People buy clothes and take it OUT of the store.

The day after Christmas is the closest thing I have ever experienced to torture. The day after Christmas, everyone brings all the clothes BACK INTO the store. Five thousand people returning clothes.

And because everyone does all their returns at one register, you end up with kids clothes, kitchen supplies, men's clothes, outerwear, all in the wrong section. By the end of the day, there were three piles of clothes six feet high behind my register. Guess who has to put all that back in its proper section.

Plus, no one has their receipt. Why would they? That would be way to convenient. Try having this conversation for eight hours and see how much hair you haven't pulled out of your scalp at the end of the day.

"I want to return this."
"Do you have your receipt?"
"No."
"That's okay, did you buy it on your [department store] card?"
"No."
"That's okay, do you have the tags for the item?"
"No."
"So you pretty much just brought in an article of clothing without any proof of purchase and expect me to give you money for it?"
"I bought it here."
"Am I supposed to take your word for it? For all I know this came from your closet."
"This store does this all the time."
"Maybe they do but without the tags, I have nothing to scan to prove you paid for this."
"Are you calling me a liar? I bought it here."
"How am I supposed to know how much money to credit back to you?"

Etc. etc. etc. Of course this is exaggerated; in the real conversation, I would be kissing the customer's ass during the entire exchange.

But you buy a comic book, the transaction is finished, they take it out of the store, and it's never seen again. No one in the history of the Earth has ever bought a comic book, gone home to look at it in the mirror and decided it wasn't right for them.

3. I like the demographics in a comic book store. I'm not gay, but if I were verging on it, working at a department store would have pushed me over the edge.

No offense ladies, but I cannot handle working with you when you shop. You just shop in a bad mood all the time. And when the coupons don't work, which they never do because they are designed not to work, you take it out on me behind the register. I didn't come up with the promotion, I didn't distribute the coupon, I didn't tell you the 50% off coupon was going to work on the $500 Prada handbag. Why are you taking it out on me?

And man, they would bite my head off about anything. Coupons not working, promotions ending, an item purchased in 1998 not successfully being returned, or ignorance to the whereabouts of one specific product from a completely different section.

Meanwhile, they never re-rack items. I went into the dressing rooms at the end of the day, it looked like someone was trying to build a clothes fort.

And women do this one thing that, as a man, makes no sense to me. When women finally get up to the register with their items and get them scanned, if one item costs more than they expected, they all do the same thing; they hold the item up at a 45 degree angle and stare at it. They develop kind of a lost look on their face, and stare at the item in question for up to and including a minute. And when they did that, the ultimate decision was always "No." What they are thinking about in that trance-like state, I will never know, but it drove me crazy.

90% of comic book readers are men. There is more of a 50:50 split on graphic novels. So, what, like 75% overall will be men? I can handle that.

Men shop in a good mood. Mainly because they shop with an objective. They know what they want, go to the store, get it, make chit-chat while their purchases are rung up, and leave. And when they come in to browse, men pick up one comic book, leaf through it, and then put it back on the shelf. Everything is copacetic.

And as bad as kids are swiping Naruto cards, clothing stores have it worse. You turn your back for one second and some Winona Ryder had plucked the earrings off of a display rack, leaving just the empty cardboard sleeve on the display; the only time they go to the trouble to re-rack something.

4. At a comic book store you can be genuine. By that, I mean, you can have a personality. In a retail store, if someone is a dick to you, you just have to sit there and take it. You have to just sit there and smile, with your little name tag and your "How can I wipe your ass today?" personality. Sure the customer-first mantra still applies in a comic-book store, but Comic Book Guy is not that much of an exaggeration.

5. I get to read comic books all day. Can't do that at a department store.

Wizard World Chicago Photos

I was browsing through some of the photos of Wizard World Chicago on the Wizard Universe website. A few stuck out to me as worthy of note.

Like this one...


Now, at a glance, this picture may seem innocuous enough. You know, a cute picture with the kids. Yeah, its fun for the whole family and whatnot.

But check out the pose on the boy in the Superman costume. Something tells me he hasn't quite hammered down the whole gender-specific posing concept.

And I mean, it's not like it's his fault. How is he to know? But, dad, you got to step your game up and look out for stuff like this. This is on the front page of a huge website that gets millions of hits a week and your son is posing like a sultry cover girl for Maxim! And don't think for a second that this photo won't be dug up if this kid runs for congress some day.

I guess the dad was paying a little too much attention to the leather-clad heroine to notice.

But good for the kid for not adhering to strict, socially-mandated gender roles.

Speaking of which...

Is this Wizard World or Burning Man?

Is it just me or is the one on the left a dead ringer for Robert Smith from The Cure? It might just be the feathered hair.

But much to my surprise, it looks as though there was actually at least one hot girl in attendance. One who was not paid to be there. One who actually seems to be enjoying herself!

Will wonders never cease?

Needless to say, I think she was starved for conversation for the large part of the event. A storm trooper approached her, then stuttered nervously and asked where the bathroom was. He was celebrated as being the closest of anyone to getting her phone number.

But here's the one that really stood out to me. I wanted so badly to make fun of this guy. But as sad as it may be, I think it's jealousy.

He did a decent job on the makeup, wore a good costume, and even his dedication to sell the facial expression works. He even does a pretty good job of mimicking the pose from the trailers. Pay attention Superman kid!

The timing is right, too. He's not wearing a costume from a movie to be released in 2011, or some obscure Manga from 1980. Dark Knight is only three weeks away and this just serves to remind me of how much I want to see it. Nicely done, I can't hate on a genuinely good Comic-Con costume.

All joking aside, it looks like everyone at Wizard World Chicago is having a good time, and I really wish I could be there to meet some of my heroes. And I'm not really making fun of anyone in these photos. I couldn't, because deep down, I'm just one of them. Who am I kidding? I have a comic book blog.

Plus, they have the balls to really put themselves out there and express themselves. I respect that. And that's what a a comic con is all about. No one judges you. You can define yourself any way you like in an environment with hundreds of other zealous fans, all of whom you know you have a common interest with.

Holy Crap! It is Burning Man!

Web Comic Feature: Alpha Shade

Years ago I was exposed to the online comic Alpha Shade when the artists, brothers Joe and Chris Brudlos, went on an art forum I frequented to ask advice (or probably just to plug his project). In any case I have followed it on-and-off for several years.

The comic plays out long-form with the artists putting out roughly one page per week. They have been doing this since putting up the 3-page preamble on the comic's website, alpha-shade.com, in 2003. They are currently on page 230.


I have never seen comic book artists so dedicated to the craft. Keeping their project alive, fresh, and interesting for over five years.


It has also been interesting to see the artist improve as they go along. The art has gotten much better since the series began. That really gives the comic a life-like quality; that it has been evolving since its beginning.


The story revolves around Laura Stone, who lives in a somewhat futuristic world. It appears to be a mix of supernatural fantasy and a World War I era campaign between four warring nations. But to really understand it, you're going to have to read it yourself.


I have included four of the pages that got me hooked on the series. I have never seen such dynamic story telling on the pages of a comic book at any level; professional or amateur. The Brudlos brothers go way beyond the typical web comic quality, and because of the simplistic layout of the website, it will be very easy for you to start from the beginning and catch up quickly.


If you haven't heard of this comic yet, start reading it now. It's a great read.