The Splash Page

Deadpool Is Back

2008-08-29T15:25:00.004-04:00

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

2008-08-28T13:59:00.005-04:00

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

2008-08-27T11:04:00.003-04:00

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

2008-08-26T15:04:00.002-04:00

...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

2008-08-25T09:24:00.008-04:00

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

2008-07-01T14:22:00.018-04:00

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

2008-06-27T12:47:00.005-04:00

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.

Cover Of The Week: "Man With No Name" #1

2008-06-24T13:51:00.010-04:00

This is the cover done by Richard Isanove for Man With No Name #1. MWNN #2 hits store shelves on Wednesday, but the cover was far less impressive so I thought I'd go ahead and show you #1, released in May. The series is a comic book adaptation of the Man With No Name trilogy starring Clint Eastwood.

I love the use of light and shadow. There are really only three colors in play here; black, white and red, but it looks much more dynamic than that.

In particular I like the heavily highlighted areas; how you can't see all of Blondie's sleeve. Also, notice how as the object gets closer to the light source gets closer to the light source, it becomes more obscured, like you're looking into the Sun.

You can't really see anything. There are no details in the clothes, you barely see the face, the figure is a silhouette. Yet it looks real and is very visually appealing. It completely succeeds in its simplicity. Let that be a lesson to all of you out there who go nuts trying to draw a cover.

This is a very dynamic and visually appealing cover. It's the kind of thing that stops a casual reader in his tracks and gets him to leaf through. That's effective cover art for you.

Learn From The Masters: J. Scott Campbell

2008-06-19T16:28:00.006-04:00

I'm a golfer. As a golfer you learn that lessons are only going to get you so far. Lessons can teach you the mechanics, but they won't make you an elite talent. That's because most of the time you aren't learning from an elite talent. Ultimately two things are going to make you a better golfer: practice, and watching the pros.

Practice will help your own style, because no two golfers have exactly the same swing. You have to find a swing you are comfortable with and enhance your own style to a level of proficiency. And once you get good enough to pick out little techniques, watching the pros and trying to imitate what they do will help you refine and hone your skills.

The same principle applies for drawing. Buy all the drawing books and take all the art classes you like, they won't make you an elite talent. If you want to get good practice. If you want to get better watch the pros. Unfortunately in the comic book art game, you usually just get to see the finished product. You rarely get to see them in action.

A little while back I stumbled across this video online. In it J. Scott Campbell, the creator of Danger Girl and Wildsiderz, draws Harley Quinn for a fan.

Now I have tried for years to draw an attractive female face the way Campbell does. I was never quite able to nail down how to do it. Then I saw this video. I observed a technique that no drawing guide can ever teach you that is the key to drawing that pretty face.

My problem was with the oval shape of the head. Every art class you have ever taken has you draw the head the same way. You always start with that oval. I always started with that oval and the female faces always came out looking too masculine.

Campbell starts with the oval too, but if you look carefully he does something a little differently. It happens in the first 10 seconds of the video. Don't blink or you'll miss it.

He begins to make the angled line that will be the outside of the face. Then he makes a second line that starts about half-way down the face and bulges out a little bit to form an exaggerated cheek. Then the line curves back in, and crosses the first line to form a soft chin.

I tried it myself the day after, and Wow; miles of difference. That one little line is the key to making a beautiful comic-book-female face. After you have that profile line draw, the rest of the face just falls into place. No "learn to draw comics" book and no amount of time looking at finished products could have taught me how to do that. And now it's something that I can incorporate in every sketch. It's also a technique that I can take and twist depending on the genre I'm working in.

And also, listen to everything Campbell says. He actually gives some really great advice and tips while he's working.

So in drawing, and in golf, keep practicing, and look to the masters for inspiration.

Lockarm By J.Scott Campbell

2008-06-17T12:26:00.000-04:00

Now this may be a title of J. Scott Campbell's that you are not immediately familiar with.

This was Campbell's winning submission to a "design your own video game" contest in the old Nintendo Power magazine.

Why do I bring this up? Campbell was 15 when he submitted these. Now, clearly he has developed a lot as an artist since then, but he already had his signature style way back then. Look at the mouth, the shape of the lips and the teeth, almost exactly the same as he draws them now. Check out the wings on the raven. Highly stylized, but still very realistic. Also, check out the glean pattern he drew on the metallic tail.

The ability to do things like that come from first mastering what something (a smile, a bird, a metal sheen) looks like so that people know what effect you are trying to accomplish. Then you take the next step and stylize it to give it your personal mark and make it look edgier. Campbell had already mastered drawing the real and was stylizing by age 15.

That was my sophomore year in high school. When I think about how I was drawing back then, and then compare it to this? It's sad. I'm probably just getting to this level now.

Some people are just born to do this for a living. The rest of us... we get to see the products of real talent. I feel lucky.

Spawn Reborn

2008-06-16T14:49:00.000-04:00

Comic book fans everywhere can join in a paroxysm of joyous, and maybe a little too girlish, laughter.

Todd McFarlane is returning to Spawn!

The news was announced late last week by Wizard that Todd McFarlane and writer Brian Holguin (Spawn issues #71-150) will be returning to helm the franchise for issue #185. Signing on to do pencils is Image Comics co-founder Whilce Portacio.

"While I'm very happy with where Spawn has gone, it's long past time to inject some new blood into the series while also returning to its roots," said McFarlane in an official press release.

McFarlane had previously been spending the better part of his time on Todd McFarlane Productions, which oversees the many Spawn spin-offs, and his other entrepreneurial ventures like McFarlane toys.

Said artist Portacio of the new direction the new creative team will take the franchise in, "There's this beautiful huge world that Todd has created, albeit mostly in his head, that we just got glimpses of. And now, we're going to fully explore this world." He added, "Todd has even given me freedom to create new factions of spawns and new factions of angels."

Writer Holguin is also happy to be back after a three year break from Spawn, "You're in the process of rediscovering things again. I have an enthusiasm for it now that I didn't have when I left the book."

Issues under the new creative team will hit store shelves in October.

Marvel Announces "Marvel Zombies 3"

2008-06-12T14:11:00.000-04:00

If In early June, Marvel announced that the third installment of Marvel Zombies is under way.

This is actually the fourth episode of the series; between Marvel Zombies 1 and 2 there was a crossover, Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of the Dead. All of the installments thus far have been 5 issues long.

The premise of the series is pretty simple; Marvel's superheroes have been turned into flesh-eating zombies and try to devour the devour the occupants of Earth-2149. In particular the Hulk seems to have an insatiable hunger. Then the zombies set out to eat all the beings of the universe, including the realities where they are uninfected. By-and-large they succeed.

If you ever needed proof that comic book artists use drugs liberally, there you go.

Of maybe they're just horror fans like the rest of us are. And believe me, there is no shortage of blood and gore in the first to and I think we can expect more of the same in the 4-issue third installment.

Fred Van Lente, writer for Marvel Zombies 3, gives us an early hint what's going to happen. "I can tell you where the Marvel Zombies will continue -- right into the Marvel Universe itself!" Van Lente told IGN.

So this is no longer a novelty series; a what-if. Quite the opposite in fact! "this is an 'in-continuity' series, with major ramifications for at least one MU hero -- one of my all-time Kirby favorites." Van Lente said that the Initiative and others will venture into the Zombieverse to find a cure. He compares it to the action-horror classic Aliens.

Van Lente also mentioned that we might expect some of the zombies who didn't play a big role in 1 or 2 to be major characters in this one. In particular he said something that all but guaranteed that I will be picking up this series.

"In issue #1, for example, we give the phrase "Merc with a Mouth" a whole new (and highly disturbing) meaning."

Now, readers, there is something you should know about me. I am a HUGE Deadpool fan, ever since I was a kid. It's good to see he's really becoming a major character in the Marvel stable. He's been popping up everywhere. But the man is pretty much undead in the first place. He had his head cut off by Wolverine and survived. And have you seen his skin? Not a lot more you can do to zombify there. Still, I'm very excited about that.

But that excitement pales in comparison to what I felt when I heard who was enlisted to illustrate MZ3. Kev Walker will be doing pencils for the 4-issue saga.

Kev Walker is the reason I wanted to be an artist. When I was growing up, this picture ran on the back cover of White Dwarf magazine. I had never seen anything like it. It stands today as the coolest illustration I have ever seen. I tried for years to emulate his style but just couldn't do it. Still, every now and then, I take out that old magazine, stare at this picture and push myself to be a better artist.

Great story, huh? Anyway, I am happy to hear my idol's name is attached to this project.

But Kev Walker drawing my all-time favorite comic book character? It's like Marvel is going out of its way to make this comic book just for me. And although there is a slim chance that they didn't, I'm pretty stoked.

Look for the first issue of Marvel Zombies 3 to hit shelves in time for Halloween.

This Manga Can Help You...

2008-06-11T09:06:00.000-04:00

In general, I despise Manga. It has nothing to with ethnocentrism (word of the day: a feeling of superiority of your culture over another, in this case Japan's). I just think Manga is a cop out. It's an over-commercialized, no-talent-required venue for every pseudo-artist and Eastern-wannabe poser.

The style is lazy. When someone is in profile you can't see both corners of their mouth, dammit! Draw lips and a moving jaw you bums! And no matter how much they try, the publishers of Manga will never get me to read a book backwards. We read left to right in this country; if you don't like it you can Ge-e-e-et Out!

There's my rant on Manga, hopefully I won't have to revisit is.

But I have recently become aware of a very interesting new book. The book "The Adventures of Johnny Bunko," is a Manga career guide.

The book is written by Daniel H. Pink, a seasoned business writer and contributor for Wired magazine. He has written two other business books, including the extremely successful "A Whole New Mind." He wrote the illustrated "Adventures of Johnny Bunko" after his fellowship studying Manga in Japan. Rob Ten Pas provided the illustrations for the story.

In addition to featuring 6 essential career tips, the book still takes advantage of it's Manga style. It prominently features a mystical career counselor who is summoned by magical chopsticks.

One of the things this blog is dedicated to is finding interesting new uses for the medium of comic books and graphic novels. Using Manga style in an honest-to-goodness career guide is definitely something that, in addition to being a radical new idea, is surprisingly practical.

The book targets green 20-somethings who need help getting their careers off the ground. What better vehicle to reach his target audience with than Manga, a huge sensation among Generation-Y (for whatever reason). The illustrated format also helps to make this a quick and digestible read. Heck, it's probably more comprehensible than your average career guide; telling you to "Innovate outside the box," and "Harness your Power Center."

The style of the illustration itself even seems to be a cool hybrid of styles. It's more of an homage to Manga than actual Manga. It looks part Naruto and part Art School Confidential. It has gargantuan Japanese lettering to represent loud crashes like the direct-from-Japan imports, but the style has clear influences of American stylized-realism. That's appropriate, because the book itself is a hybrid of comic book absurdity and the tedium of office work.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but this is one Manga I can't wait to pick up.

Graphic Novels And New Journalism

2008-06-10T10:02:00.000-04:00

I am a Journalism Major in college. When you elect to pursue Journalism as your major area of study, the college asks you to pick a concentration. You can choose Broadcast or Print, or you can take you career in you hands and sign on for the fledgling Online Journalism program. If you choose print, you can study in magazines, investigative journalism, feature writing and the like. In Broadcast you can concentrate on writing for TV, getting on camera, working production, etc.

One area that really doesn't get much attention at the program is so-called "New Journalism." It was a form of journalism popularized in the 60s and 70s. New Journalism was characterized by literary scenes that told personal stories rather than reporting hard news. A prime example was my all-time favorite book on sports, Paper Lion by George Plimpton. Plimpton embedded himself with the Detroit Lions during summer camp to get the inside story of what it's really like to be a pro-athlete.

It's a form of journalism that has largely fallen out of favor in recent years. I attribute the fall to Janet Cooke's Pulitzer Prize winning investigative feature "Jimmy's World," which ran in the Washington Post in 1980. The story followed an 8-year-old heroin addict. When people demanded that Cooke reveal Jimmy's identity so that he could be saved, it was revealed that Jimmy was completely fabricated.

So ended the era of New Journalism; and era in which no credibility was needed to tell a gripping, and socially-relevant story. A time when journalists had opinions and expressed them openly. In recent years we have become much more cynical of the media. A journalist can't get by on their word alone anymore, and so the more literary forms of journalism are less respectable.

But I believe that now we are beginning to see the resurgence of New Journalism in a very unexpected medium; in comic books. It may be the only place where New Journalism is seen in earnest, and it still seems completely legitimate.

In high school, a friend lent me a copy of Safe Area Goražde, Joe Sacco's graphic novel that depicted the Bosnian War of the mid-1990s. At the time I was pretty positive that I was going to make a living illustrating comic books and my friend was showing the book to me because of Sacco's distinct artistic style. It's only now that I am a Journalism major that I can really appreciate what Sacco was doing.

Admit it, you don't know what the war in Bosnia was about. The only lasting images of the war your mind can conjure are the grainy infrared videos of bombs going off from planes thousands of feet in the air. Why not, those are the only images that ran on CNN, an arm of the traditional media.

That wasn't good enough for Joe Sacco. He travelled to Bosnia and spent four months in besieged Goražde to interview people an hear the stories of the war from those who had experienced it firsthand. In Safe Area Goražde, a graphic novel, Sacco tells the stories of a half-dozen people in a series of illustrated vignettes. He graphically depicts the mass executions, over-crowded hospitals filled with gravely wounded children, and bloody battles witnessed by the residents of Goražde.

Sacco also returned a year after the war ended to find the nation living in relative harmony once again.

Sacco made the war poignantly tangible to the readers. Safe Area Goražde brought the war which for America was fought, briefly, at 10,000 feet, thousands of miles away, to the US to fully digest. It shed light on a subject on which many people in America are still in the dark. It was a remarkable feat of journalism that I appreciate much more now that I practice it.

Two of Sacco's contemporaries in what has now been dubbed "Graphic Journalism" are Ernie Colón and Sid Jacobson. What Sacco did for The Bosnian War and the Gaza Strip in Palestine, Colón and Jacobson are doing for the War on Terror.

Colón and Jacobson's first project was The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Interpretation. Their goal was to synthesize the complex 9/11 Commission Report into a digestible format so that it could be understood by the public en masse.

Their new project is even more exciting. After 9/11: America's War on Terror (2001- ) is their more critical look at the post-9/11 world including major events and the key players in the world of politics and terror. It is a much more critical exploration in which the artists' opinions are clearly expressed and analysis is given that breaks down exactly how the war has unfolded.

It is an exciting, if not slightly unnerving time to be a journalist. The industry is changing rapidly. Print is slowly dying, and everything seems to be shifting towards the Internet. No one really knows what the media is going to look like in 10 years. Blogging is catching on and all of a sudden people are getting news with analysis and opinion again. Maybe we are beginning to see a return to New Journalism.

Graphic Journalism is beginning to bring legitimacy to the comic book/graphic novel medium. And when time constraints and a twist of political bias are no longer an issue, as they are in a traditional medium, a more in-depth and touching story can be told. A light can be shed on subjects that get a lot of coverage but enjoy remarkably little comprehension. That is a niche that can be amply filled by a graphic medium.

In conclusion, it is up to you, comic book readers and aspiring artists alike, to dictate what comes of this new trend in journalism. Make the most of it.

Activision To Release New Spider Man Game

2008-06-09T15:40:00.000-04:00

Activision is set to release Spider-Man: Web of Shadows this fall, Wizard reported today.

While the title is not based on the story arc of any specific comic book or movie, it will involve S.H.I.E.L.D., Luke Cage and Kingpin.

The designers have introduced a more in-depth combat system and a level-up approach to Spider-Man's abilities. They also boast a much-more 3-D city that takes advantage of New York's unique cityscape.

"You'll be able to start a fight on the ground, continue fighting up the sides of buildings, and onto the rooftops…really taking advantage of the vertical city. It's just a whole new system that'll feel more acrobatic and Spider-Man-like," said Graham Fuchs, the game's executive producer.

Fuchs said in the game, New York city has been invaded, but wouldn't say by what. A trailer is already online which shows a mysterious black web enveloping the city. Also, barely visible are what appear to be several dark figures crawling along the side of one of the invaded buildings.

The mystery material looks very much like the alien symbiote that requires a host to become venom. And the figures clawing their way around the manhattan skyscrapers look like venom. This leads me to speculate that mystery lifeform that invades New York is the alien symbiote popularized in the Spider-Man comics and movies.

If Spidey is going to be tangling with a whole city full of Venoms, this game could be pretty spectacular.