The Warner Archive—which as far as I can tell is a label created by Warner Home Video specifically to combat the “It’s not available on DVD” excuse for piracy—is offering a few animated shows this month; these are pretty stripped-down offers, with literally zero special features and not even interactive menus (they’ve got just a generic Warner Archive menu), this is a way to get some low-cost, perfectly legal copies of little-known and little-circulated older material.

Yogi’s First Christmas, a 90-minute feature from 1980 that featured Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy come to Yellowstone Park (yes, that’s what the sign says—not Jellystone) and wake up Yogi Bear and Boo Boo from their hibernation with a raucous Christmas party. There’s a cantankerous, creepy, bearded man in red and white who’s kind of an anti-Santa Claus, who provides most of the movie’s conflict when he tries to terrify the partygoers and thereby lead to the sale of their lodge (and thereby keep them from having future parties) in order to get rid of the loud, cheerful singers outside his mountaintop abode.

Yeah, it’s a little Grinchy. If you can ignore that, all the better. (more…)

During the week of November 30th, Graphic NYC teams with SMITH Magazine for Harvey Pekar Week, taking a look at the former file clerk’s career from American Splendor to The Pekar Project. There’s a series of events, and more information can be found at www.NYCGraphicNovelists.com.

“Also this week, Graphic NYC will be enabling commenting, so we look forward to hearing what our readers think.” Kushner says. “Pekar Week has been a ton of work to put together, and we’re excited to share all of the great content we’ll be posting throughout the week.”

If you only click on one of these links today, make it this one: Writing for the LA Times‘ Hero Complex blog, Liesl Bradner discusses the “superheroes” of kamishibai, a sort of Japanese street theater that used large painted illustrations to help the storytellers. Some of these heroes are remarkably similar in certain aspects to the American superheroes who followed them almost a decade later. While it’s easy to look at American short stories, pulp magazines and early films to find traces of Batman, Superman and other heroes and find possible sources of inspiration, it’s harder to imagine Joe Schuster or Bob Kane hearing about Golden Bat or Pale Rider and folding elements into their later, more famous creations.

“My name is Andrew Smith, and I am a comic-book junkie.Of course I’ve always suspected it. But with ‘Turok, Son of Stone Archives’ Vol. 4, I can no longer deny it”: Here’s a nice wire service story by Andrew Smith regarding Dark Horse’s most recent collection of Turok comics. Smith makes a clever observation about mediocre comics and the pleasures they can contain, and I was intrigued to see the review start off with comparisons to the Turok videogame. I guess I wasn’t aware that it was so popular that it is the starting point for conversations about Turok now (I’m not doubting Smith; I honestly had no idea. I don’t think I’ve played a video game since the Super NES became obsolete, on account of old mannishness).

“Gene Simmons’ son has a new comic”: Yeah he does, but the first issue came out back in, like, August. What’s with the three-month delay, Toronto Sun?

“Along with Bloom County, The Far Side and a few other clever strips, Calvin and Hobbes kept the funny pages going”: Jenny Williams pens—well, types—a long, thorough review of Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip for Wired. Any of you guys read it yet? What’s the verdict?

I don’t know who designed the “Kryptonian at Heart” T shirt, but I know enough to hate them passionately: I thought Mike Sterling’s most recent “End of Civilization” post, in which the blogger/retailer/Sluggo fan notes the many horrors lurking in the Diamond Previews catalog, was even funnier than usual. I’m not sure if that means Sterling was even funnier than usual this time, or if the merchandies was more horrifying than usual this time. I hope the former, for Sterling’s sake—can a man endure much more horror than what was already in there?

Special Forces
Written & Illustrated by Kyle Baker
Published by Image

I have no idea what to make of this comic book. I’m usually a big Kyle Baker fan, but this book has just perplexed me on every level. It’s some sort of ungainly hybrid of war comics, humor comics and Frank Miller comics, mashed together, slow roasted for a few days, and then genetically enhanced with Looney Tunes animation.

I’m not even sure I liked it; in fact, I probably didn’t, but it was such a strange reading experience that I can’t wait to go through it again to see if I can figure out what Baker’s intention was for this Frankenstein’s monster. Within pages of the book’s opening, Zone, an autistic soldier (whose military status was inspired by a real one!), and Felony, a three-time loser looking to avoid jail time, are the only survivors of a U.S. squad in Iraq. Their mission to capture the leader of an insurgency leader appears dead on arrival, but Zone – tailor-made for military life, with a single-minded focus on his objective – won’t let it go, and Felony is along for the ride.

On some pages, Baker is channeling a Frank Miller-esque noir-pastiche, with full-page splash pages and grizzled monologues turned up to the 12^th degree. Other pages, he goes into topical satire, with a rundown of the fringe benefits mercenaries in the warzone have that U.S. military lack. Torture jokes follow. It’s a book that’s so smart it wallows in stupidity, and the dichotomy doesn’t always work in its favor.

Baker’s artwork has evolved in interesting ways. He does nearly everything on computers now, and maybe I’m just old-fashioned, but it still looks its best when he’s giving the illusion of pen and ink drawings. He knows how to use shadow, and how to lay out a comic book page. His caricaturing is especially effective at depicting the outrageous cast of soldiers, mercs, terrorists, and murdering children (yes) Zone and Felony encounter. The coloring is mostly solid, although a few pages and panels have a noticeably tint that threatens to overpower the line art. Some of the backgrounds, the CG elements, don’t entirely mesh with the line art elements, as they have a hard quality that isn’t present elsewhere.  For example, when Zone and Felony chase their foe into a facility full of hidden weapons of mass destruction, the factory and missiles were clearly composed separately from the character figures.

Special Forces is an intriguing book, and there are moments throughout it that surprise and startle me.  Yet the humor doesn’t always come through, and it’s too overamped to be taken seriously as an action piece.  Sometimes a book succeeds by swerving when you least expect it, but Special Forces isn’t quite able to manage the feat.  It’s a curiosity, and fans of Kyle Baker will find a few positive moments within.  However, it’s not really a book for action fans, nor for comedy fans, so I’m not sure who Baker intended as Special Forces‘ audience.

Find out more about Global Freezing here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or at ComicsByEgg.com.

Beardo

Written & Drawn by Dan Dougherty

Published by Better On Paper Comics

Comic strips, are a “funny” thing. You know a good one when you read it. I’m just thinking of humor strips but this could apply elsewhere too. The “joke” itself, while important, may not be the most important part. Only one thing can not falter, no matter what, and that is the main character. If he or she or it is not somehow “funny” then the comic strip stinks. Beardo does not stink. No, far from it. This is a comic strip worthy of your attention with a solid track record. The latest batch of Beardo comic strips, in full color, have just been released as a trade and it inspired me to spread the word.

Now, think of Richard Pryor on stage, deep in the comedy zone. He could have said anything and you’d laugh. You know you would. Well, that’s sort of what it’s like with this character, Beardo. He is by no means Richard Pryor. I’m not saying that. I’m basically saying that this is character-driven comedy. Say, like all the oddball stuff that happened between Basil and Manuel in the classic British sitcom, Fawlty Towers. Or, better yet, think of Kevin Smith’s world of Clerks. This comic strip is very much about raging and aging youth stuck working in retail hell. Yeah, that’s more like it.

It’s all about characters and execution. This is a very stylish comic strip. Dougherty provides just the right amount of lines and curves and, bam, you’ve got sharp, distinct characters. Very spare and neat. They just need little circles for eyes ala Little Orphan Annie. And, then, just the right lines to refer to perspective and decor and, bam, you’ve got a lean and clean environment for all the madcap hijinks, or in this case, madap wry humor.

Beardo is a down on his luck barista. He has aspirations of being a successful cartoonist and musician. In his late twenties, he’s starting to wonder where his life is headed. In one scene he has a nightmare where he’s in a boxing ring with a giant cup of coffee. He thinks this will be the last round but the coffee cup thinks he isn’t going to ever leave. If that wasn’t sad enough, Beardo is not exactly having a nightmare but is daydreaming with a cup of coffee in his hand while his coworkers look at him in dismay. It’s a funny scene, not laugh-out-loud funny but character-driven funny which can often be even more satisfying.

For those familiar with Dan Dougherty’s remarkable drawing skills, picking up the just released second collection of Beardo will be a treat. He is the artist for the zombie Western comic book series, Rotten, published by Moonstone. In Rotten, Dougherty can spread his wings and include intricate detail, everything from precise facial expressions to architectural renderings. In Beardo, he needs to condense his art to the needs of a comic strip. And it works quite well. His lean line work shines in both arenas.

What makes one comic strip funny and another one a dud? Some of it is in the eye of the beholder. But most of it depends on the conscientious effort of the creator. Breaking into comics in any big way is highly competitive so that’s one burden. And then the very nature of comics, coming out day after day, means there will be hits and misses. Dan Dougherty is pretty good about maintaining the quality to his comic strip. Some are funnier than others but, through it all, the main character, Beardo, the barsita who dreams of making it as an artist, carries on consistently. No, it’s not an easy task to produce a worthwhile comic strip. Anyone can create something on a daily basis but that doesn’t mean it’s going to be worthwhile. Beardo delivers and that’s saying a lot.

Almost as a rule, I’m leery of comics projects like The Devil’s Handshake (Archaia).

It’s “based on characters and stories created by Ryan Schifrin,” who gets a very Hollywood “story by” credit and shares the writing credit with veteran comics writer Larry Hama.

Schifrin is himself a filmmaker, his major credit being writing and directing 2006 Bigfoot movie Abominable, and IMDb.com has a handful of other credits to his name.

If I don’t actually read a comic book with similar credits that’s a similar half-comics industry, half-film industry production every day, I certainly read about one every day, and they tend to not be very good comics. Whether it’s actually the case or not, they often read like rejected screenplays and pitches being reformulated as comic books, and, obviously, that’s hardly the best way to go about making great comics.

Why am I bothering to mention all this here? I’m not just kvetching for kvetching’s sake. (At least, not this time!). No, I just wanted to point out that I personally have all this baggage concerning film and TV industry people dabbling in comics, and I still found Devil’s Handshake a heck of a lot of fun. If you don’t share my particular biases and prejudices, than chances are you’ll love it.

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And the casting call/rumor mill continues to spin.

Now, this rumor from ObsessedWithFilm isn’t definite by any means, but too good to not talk about as everyone’s favorite avenging archer, Hawkeye, may have found his on screen equivalent in Jeremy Renner. It’s a shame I haven’t gotten to see The Hurt Locker yet, especially after all the rave reviews, but trust me it’s on my list now more than ever after this tidbit. I did manage to catch him in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, and it’s easy to see Clint Barton in his role.

Marvel is really stepping up their game (I think <i>Thor</i> is headed towards “instant classic” status already) and it’s just a good time to be an Avenger’s fan nowadays with all these announcements popping up.

Readers, what do you think of this? Do you think Renner is fit to fire the bow, or do you have somebody else in your sights?

Entertainment Weekly has posted pictures for the upcoming “Absolute Justice” episodes in Smallville showing Hawkman (Michael Shanks), Dr. Fate (Brent Stait), and Stargirl (Britt Irvin).

Now, I really dig the Dr. Fate costume. It’s a pretty great translation. I mean you KNOW that is supposed to be Fate. Stargirl’s is pretty cool, too, but words escape me so I could properly articulate how happy this just made me.

So, what do you readers think? On a scale of 1-10, what would you rate the costumes?

“I am not a tights guy, man. You get caught in tights, and you can not get out”: That’s Chicago Bears linebacker Lance Briggs talking about what sort of costume he would wear if he were a superhero in this Chicago Tribune article on his being a comics fan. I’m not so sure the “professional sports player reads comics book” angle necessarily deserves a feature story, but this is a pretty well written one nonetheless. The Tribune loses points for calling comics a “genre” in the sub-head though.

“In this case they are merely following Superman, when in 1961 he went back in time and managed to save Custer and Little Big Horn and Lincoln at Ford’s theater, but found his own history in his present day unchanged”: That’s University of Minnesota professor and The Physics of Super Heroes author James Kakalios, explaining to Popular Mechanics how modern string theory was anticipated by Silver Age Superman. You can read the whole Q-and-A with the author here.

“I’m not saying stop making these awesome movies that appeal specifically to me and others like me, I’m saying let’s share the wealth”: Writing for Fast Forward Weekly, John Tebbutt notes that teenage girls have “stolen our vampires,” and he’s okay with that (”I wasn’t using them anyway,” he writes). Along the way, he notes that Hollywood has similarly seen to it that superheroes aren’t primarily for kids any more, but for grown-ups who grew up on ‘em.

Whatever you do, don’t click on this link: And if you do click on it, for God’s sake, don’t actually go through with reading Ben Hutchings’ four-page Psionykk strip on Top Shelf 2.0. Seriously, don’t—you’ll have nightmares. (Speaking of Hutchings, check this out).

“But that’s not scary! Terry Long is not scary!”: Shaenon K. Garrity catches someone looking up a list of Black Lanterns on Wikipedia, and an amusing conversation about the event follows. I’m convinced that like Civil War before it, Blackest Night’s greatest value will be as a source of Internet jokes, regardless of how good or how bad the actual comics are.

This week’s Savage Dragon #155 was an action-packed issue with a lot of craziness going on; the first part of “Dragon War” saw the first major conflict beginning to bubble to the surface between Darkworld’s Dragon and ours, as well as a battle between Dragon and a decidedly more Dragon-looking Cutthroat and Glowbug, which demonstrated pretty clearly that the Vicious Circle has gotten a lot closer to creating a clone of Dragon that doesn’t blow up right away. Creator Erik Larsen sat down with Blog@Newsarama to discuss the issue.

Blog@Newsarama: So, ahh, Kirkman recently talked about the sales boost that putting “Beware the Hunters!” and then a story part number on the front of his book had for The Walking Dead. Are all those floating dollar bills on the cover what you hope to get out of “Dragon War”?

Erik Larsen: The reasoning behind that is simply to help the audience know where a good place to jump onboard is. One of the tough things about a long-running book like Savage Dragon is readers don’t know when it’s a good place to give the book a try. I actually do a pretty reasonable job of making it accessible with any given issue–but this IS the start of a longer story so it made sense to point that out.

Oh–also–this wasn’t brought up but I should point it out. The cover was based on an older cover–from the 99¢ “The Dragon” series which reprinted the miniseries, expanded into five issues. And pages 9-11 were based on the opening sequence from the very first issue of the very first miniseries back in 1992. I thought it would be a kick to revisit those especially since this will be the last appearance of both Cutthroat and Glowbug. Art style’s changed a bit over the years, it seems.

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Find out more about Global Freezing here on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays or at ComicsByEgg.com.

Curt Purcell blogs about horror at The Groovy Age of Horror, specifically as it applies to ’60s-‘70s era film, paperbacks and comics.

He’s been following DC’s “Blackest Night” storyline/event/crossover/thing for what probably seems like the obvious reasons—at its core, “Blackest Night” has been horror movie tropes grafted onto Green Lantern space opera and big superhero “Crisis” business.

It’s made for pretty good reading, since Purcell’s a fine writer and it’s always refreshing to see a reader not completely steeped in modern super-comics reacting the them—the stuff a lot of us quit noticing long ago and started taking for granted is often glaringly obvious to relative newcomers.

Purcell’s Tuesday post pulls back from the specifics of the storyline a bit to ask some existential questions about crossovers and tie-ins in general, prompted by reactions to his reactions:

Everyone seems to know tie-ins are just cash-grabs. Everyone knows how much they suck. Everyone can even explain to “newbies” like me why tie-ins have to suck. Nobody seems to expect any better of them. But then why are they still being published? Which is to say—knowing all that, with those expectations, who buys them anyway, and why?

Those are pretty good questions (One of the possible answers he comes up with reflects kinda poorly on the American comics industry as a whole—”What fans are saying is, ‘Never mind good comics—give us cheap plastic doodads!’ DC certainly seems to be doing just that in this current batch of tie-ins, including the part about never minding good comics.”)

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Comics are always a bit of a circus behind the scenes, with writers, pencilers, inkers, colorists, letterers, reviewing proofs, sending stuff to production, pre-press, handling interviews with news outlets…

But imagine what Amazing Spider-Man has to go through. Printing three times a month (and having a fourth book, Web of Spider-Man, coming out as well), editor Steve Wacker has a lot of plates to spin. So it’s interesting that Mark Waid has a podcast with the Spider-editor up on his blog.

Whether you dig the series or not, it’s a great look at the Web-Head writers from the editor’s perspective. What does Dan Slott bring to the table? Zeb Wells? Why was Joe Kelly always heading in this direction, but didn’t get Spidey gigs until now? Not only that, Wacker also talks about how overcoming the deadline obstacles, which have to be immense, including their secret weapon — letterer Joe Caramagna.

Considering we’re almost two years into the current status quo, it’s definitely a great look at the series, from the inside-out. Check out the second part here, or, if you’re a completist, check out the first part here.

Move over, Archie Andrews — Apple’s iPhone has moved in on your Riverdale love triangle!

Archie Comics’ blog has announced that the Betty and Veronica Christmas Spectacular will be released exclusively on Apple’s iTunes store. The company had already teamed up with iVerse Media, with Archie Freshman Year #1 sweeping online stores in terms of downloads.

According to their release, “the Betty & Veronica Spectacular title was saved from cancellation by a fan-organized movement on Facebook earlier in the year,” so perhaps digital is the new method of distribution for excess material — indeed, one of the biggest costs for publishing ANYTHING is printing it, so maybe this allows Betty and Veronica to have a wider margin in sales.

That said, I’m curious about a few things — first and foremost, that the book is $1.99. (Books such as Atomic Robo and Star Trek are doing gangbusters at 99 cents.) Additionally, as Brigid Alverson notes, what is the overlap in terms of Archie readers and iPhone users? What do you say about all this?

It’s another cultural highlight of the year, and you know what that means — more WHAT THE–?! from Marvel:

There is nothing in that scene with Punisher or Gambit that I don’t positively love. My only quibble with this — 99 Hulk Balloons, and no gamma-powered pastiche on Nena? For shame!

“So, Alan, what are you rebelling against?”

“What have you got?”

Alan Moore has launched a web site for his bimonthly underground magazine, Dodgem Logic. If you click here, you’ll see a brief feature with Moore discussing his motivations behind launching the magazine, which proudly proclaims its mission is “colliding ideas to see what happens.”

Considering nowadays most people see Moore in an anti-DC, anti-Hollywood light, the thing that surprised me was to see him seem so… happy. And you know what? Alan Moore certainly deserves it. Either which way, if you’re interested in seeing what the Old Master of Comics is up to, click the above link.

They come from the shadows, striking silently…leaving behind only b-movies, Halloween costumes and tongue-in-cheek internet memes in their wake. They are the Ninja and as Ninja Assassin lurks in the mutiplex shadows, you might say the ninja is back…but some of us know they were always there. You just didn’t see them….y’know because they’re ninjas. Here’s a list of a few a noteworthy ninjas that might have stalked under your pop-culture radar. (more…)

(Click the image above for a larger version of the strip.)

WORLD OF HURT - The Thrill-Seekers - Episode 8: “…And Make Mine Black!”

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Welcome to the eighth installment of WORLD OF HURT - The Internet’s #1 Blaxploitation Webcomic!

Sometimes things seem too good to be true.  In this case, I thought Pastor’s last line, and this strip’s punchline, was wholly original, but in the back of my mind it seemed somewhat familiar.  Later, my suspicions were confirmed when I watched Shaft’s Big Score again, and realized Richard Roundtree delivers a similar line.  Ah well, let’s just call it homage.

Hundreds of webcomics make their bones with humor,  but oddly enough, I was really nervous about inserting humor into the series.  As the series progressed, we would see more of Pastor’s brand of wise-ass humor, but at this stage, I was just getting comfortable with him.

I know it’s a big holiday, so get back to your family, friends and football.  Personally, I’m thankful that you dropped by, and I’ll see you next week.

If you’re curious about the latest episodes, remember, new strips of WORLD OF HURT - The Internet’s #1 Blaxploitation Webcomic are posted every Wednesday at www.worldofhurtonline.com.

- JEP

Now THIS would be interesting.

When talking about Kat Dennings’ casting in the new Thor film — as Jane Foster’s coworker Darcy (although that could mean just about anything) — Variety said something very interesting about the premise of the film:

“Thor,” scripted by Mark Protosevich, Zack Stentz and Ashley Miller, centers on a partly disabled med student who discovers his Norse god alter ego, the hammer-swinging Thor.

That said, there have been a lot of rumors regarding Donald Blake’s involvement in the film — I had been under the impression he was NOT going to be in the film, but Geek Tyrant has said that he might be in the end of the film. Ain’t It Cool News, meanwhile, says their sources are disputing the rumor. It could very well just be a goof on Variety’s part — similar to people erroneously saying that the Jonah Hex film was going to have zombies in it.

I for one was never a big fan of Donald Blake until J. Michael Straczynski took him over — there was a human voice to all the power and grandeur, not unlike Billy Batson and Captain Marvel. If they did cast Blake — going against Star Trek’s Chris Hemsworth, who we know is playing the God of Thunder himself — I’d lean towards House’s Jesse Spencer, if he can pull an American accent. What do you think? Do you want Blake in?