Tagged: comic book

Comic Cover of the Week: Corben’s HULK is Incredible!!

A monumental time for me as a huge fan of The Incredible Hulk (R.I.P.) was back in 2001 when the ‘Banner’ limited series was released and the artwork was handled by the legend Richard Corben! I most remember him in my youth as being an artist on badass comic magazines like Eerie & Heavy Metal but really he’s been around forever producing some of the most unique artwork around. Well the ‘Banner’ limited series was a knockout made especially for die hard Hulk fans. This is a perfect example of the the kind of classic Hulk stories I’d like to read in 2016. It’s a full on battle between Banner and his alter ego as we finally explore the damage an enraged Hulk puts on the population of innocent civilians. It also featured Doc Samson, one of my favorite characters in the Hulk’s world getting serious about taking out the Jade Giant one and for all. It’s a gritty no B.S. story by Brian Azzarello and Corben’s artwork is absolutely perfect. Put down your ‘Totally Awesome Hulk’ for a moment and see what a real Hulk story looks like! 

 

Comic Review: The Forevers #1 Will Make You Fear Fame & Fortune…

Here’s an interesting new comic book from Black Mask called ‘The Forevers’ due out in shops September 14th. It’s got quite an intriguing story set up in the debut. It follows a group of people hungry for fame, fortune & adoration who all perform a strange ritual together. They make a pact for life together. They Flash forward ten years and it seems their wishes have for the most part seem to have come true. They’re all living a life of success, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bed of roses. It’s actually quite the contrary as most of them living the dream are immersed in an ugly culture of wealth, drugs and meaningless relationships. It’s clear fame has changed them, but just how much?

We’ve got a cast of pretty unlikable characters in the first issue and as one of them suddenly dies it sets their world into a bizarre mystery as a masked killer appears into their lives for reasons yet unknown. It’s an interesting premise and this debut shows this book has some potential to shape up into a unique read. However it felt a bit like a glimpse into the oddly pathetic and highly superficial lives of people like the Kardashians & the like of ego maniacal rockstars. So there’s not a real connect here for me thus far as most of these characters so far are totally un-relatable to me and I imagine will be for most others. This in a way could be the book’s strong point in the end and hopefully we’ll get some fleshing out of these characters that will indeed rope us in to actually giving a shit about what happens to their greedy asses. Perhaps with more flashbacks we’ll see exactly how they came to this point and that perhaps they weren’t always a gang of total d-bags.

Now as far as the art goes I’m going to admit I’m not exactly a huge fan of this style. It feels a bit like it’s trying be a bit Bill Sienkiewicz or Jon Muth but ends up feeling like someone pulled up some shots of famous stars and copied them altering them via rotoscope. I could be wrong though, i’m not sure how people make modern comic books like this, but I assume there’s a computer involved for most of the process. It however might work here for the type of story trying to be told. Even though not being a big fan of the art I’d at the least check out issue #2 to see where this all goes. So far it’s a decent debut with some potential to bring us something unique to the table. So if you’re a bit bored with all those superhero titles this might spice things up a bit in your weekly journey to the comic book shop… 

Crystal Caves: Superman’s Real Life Fortress of Solitude?!!

So we all remember Superman’s legendary Fortress of Solitude right? It was an amazing place that could only exist in the movies right? Well news to me there really is a place that’s more breathtaking than Superman’s secret mancave.

Yep down in Donald Trump’s favorite place on earth, Chihuahua, Mexico you’ll find the largest crystal cave in the world with the largest crystals known to human kind. Sounds like a wonderful place huh? You might think this place would be a nice cool place to chill but it turns pout the caves temperatures reach around 140 degrees F, allowing for people to only be able to spend 10 minutes at a time in all of its sweltering beauty! check this shit out~!!

 

Black Hammer #1: The Quiet Life After Superhero Retirement?

I read a cool little debut issue for Dark Horse’s new series Black Hammer by Jeff Lemire & Dean Ormstom. This comes at a good time for me personally as I’ve been seriously missing a good solid superhero comic book to read. I’ve more or less given up on the Marvel & DC universes at least for the time being as it feels a little too fan calculated these days. So here on the shelves was a new series featuring a weird story about a team of retired superheroes who for ten years have been forced to live in rural small town somewhere presumably in the USA (though they may be somewhere else entirely). The team disappeared and have been thought dead since their victory in a giant battle to save the planet. 

So here they sit all reacting differently to their predicament as they share a house as a “family” on a farm. Some enjoy the quiet life while others are obviously feeling trapped. The interesting thing about the first issue is the mystery of where exactly they are, how they got there and why they for some reason are unable to leave. I highly doubt this quiet life will continue on this way for too long.

For the time being though this first issue delivers the intrigue as we realize one the children of the superheroes, working as a reporter, seems to be getting ready to try to figure out just what happened to them all. The comic is a solid first issue that brings along with it enough gusto to inspire me to drop another 4 bones on the second.

Artist Dean Ormstom also brings some serious character with his unique art that would fit in perfectly in books like Hellboy & BPRD. So if you’re looking for something different than what the “big two” are churning out these days this is a great first issue worth your hard earned cash.

The Walking Dead #156: Kirkman Pulls an M. Negan Shyamalan!

I just read issue #156 of the Walking Dead last night and it seems Kirkman did a mighty fine job of pulling off an “M. Night Shyamalan”, at least on me. Beware of SPOILERS ahead. I’ve been having a pretty good time recently with The Walking Dead, which is somewhat of a surprise as I’d gotten a bit bored with the title over time. Heck though issue #156 was definitely an interesting read. We got a full issue of the escaped Negan who was up to his old crazy antics once again. The way this issue read having him as the main focal point however almost felt like it had been written by The Farrelly Brothers. It felt a bit like a raunchy slapstick comedy as this guy tried in his own messed up way to “fit in” with his new crew. We got Negan hanging out with Alpha and The Whisperers, the latest gang of human scum that is threatening Rick and his gang. It felt awkward at times watching Negan interact with them all, like the dude was a foul mouthed Jim Carey. I would be lying if I didn’t say how much I thought the Whisperers in reality would have offed him within five minutes of meeting him- he’s so god damn irritating!

Ok I guess the guy is somewhat amusing but still as a main character it’s hard to take the story seriously at times. Anyway we’ve got yet another shocking act of violence that stains the issue by it’s end. Just as I thought I kinda had Negan figured out he goes and does something completely insane. I guess I should have seen it coming by now huh? Well this time as he’s trying to prove his worth to The Whisperers and impress their female leader Alpha he goes for the shocking twist ending. Negan appears concerned here about doing “the right thing” as he witnesses a woman being sexually assaulted. He tries to convince Alpha that it’s wrong not to interfere and later has a long discussion with her about how though he’s done some fucked up shit in his time, it’s always been to protect people.

I was starting to suspect he was up to something funny, in fact I highly suspected that he was pulling a full on fast one on Alpha. He even got her to open up to him and cry. What happened next though was pretty out of the blue as he went into psycho mode slitting her throat and then continuing to decapitate her. As we see him hold her head up it appears he’s under the impression that good ol’ Ricky boy is gonna be tickled pink at his latest kill. So I wonder just what Rick IS going to think?

Issue #156 is pretty interesting and it’s likely to generate a lot of controversy as Negan kills a seemingly powerful female villain named Alpha. Not the most PC thing to do at this point in 2016 but of course a ballsy move by Robert. We’ll see what happens as The Walking Dead has peaked my interest once again…what did you think?  

 

Identity Crisis: Is Marvel Ashamed of Their Classic Characters?

I have been pretty open about the fact that I really don’t read any Marvel Comics anymore these days and part of the problem for me is that they just don’t intrigue me the way they used to even a decade ago. I guess I was inspired to write my thoughts here as a bit of a response to the recent news that now Tony Stark will be retired as Iron Man soon. That’s fine by me but It seems that Marvel just can’t stop changing their classic characters races and genders. Now don’t get me wrong, I do think it’s always been an interesting concept to take a character like Iron Man even back in the 1980’s & have James Rhodes take over the suit or Bucky & The Falcon taking over the mantle of Captain America. However more recently it appears that Marvel is on a mission to change up nearly every classic character’s identity in some way shape or form. I mean the Fucking Hulk has even changed into The Totally Awesome Hulk with Amadeus Cho as the alter ego.  

I totally understand that Marvel is trying go a long with current social issues by trying to incorporate more diversity into their comic books. I really do commend them for the effort but after numerous changes to the gender, race and identities of Captain America, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Wolverine and now Iron Man (there are likely more) it’s beginning to seem like Marvel has just run out of good stories for their classics. Or perhaps people indeed are really fucking bored with the traditional Marvel universe? Marvel these days seems more worried about what race and gender their classic character’s are than giving people truly intriguing stories.

 I don’t mind a little change up here and there, in fact I totally dig it (heck I loved when Heather Hudson took on the role of Vindicator and lead Alpha Flight-it was a smooth, intelligent totally righteous transition) but it seems that Marvel has largely forgotten that they could simply bring more existing characters into the limelight rather than giving all of their classics a brand new identity? I think it’d be equally exciting to get some some brand new superheroes on the shelf rather than constantly changing the classics. I know times have changed and more people than ever read comics, it’s not just the stereotypical geeky men of yesteryear buying them up, so naturally they may want to rethink their strategy. I get it. 

 

It’s actually become somewhat of a  predictable move for Marvel in 2016, deciding to ditch Tony Stark and reboot a new series with a female Iron Man but (a bit odd to still call the book “The Invincible Iron Man” with a female lead, it must be because they don’t want to risk losing any money ditching the name?). I don’t think it’s really that odd of an idea for a woman to design her own Iron Man armor and start kicking ass. Though it seems like Marvel might trying a tad too hard to be relevant in 2016. We all know controversy does sell quite well…

 

For me there has always been a lot of pleasure in picking up a comic book and reading stories that take me away from our daily routines, media trends, political ideals, online debates and reality in general. I want as much diversity in comics as possible but it’s not feeling real genuine to me these days from the big Marvel cash machine doing anything it can to make a quick buck. I’ve heard as well the debates now heating up about the race and gender of the writers and that they’ve got to match the characters of the comic book they are writing…At some point I think all of this becomes a bit of a drag.

We’re talking about characters that were intended for kids that now have become somewhat of hot button for everyone and their mother & father to get all up in arms about. The landscape of comic books has changed quite a bit over the years and at least Marvel’s approach feels like they’re desperately trying to fit in. Perhaps it’s true people are tired of the old gang of Tony Starks and Bruce Banners. Perhaps their story has already been told and feels tired but I’m hoping Marvel will at some point settle on “who’s who” and let us all just get on with some incredible superhero stories. What do you think? Are you bored with the classic characters? Is Marvel setting bold new trends? Let me know what you think!

Those Crazy Vintage Spider-man Fan Flicks!!

Who doesn’t love a good fan made film? Well these days it seems comic book fans waste no time pumping Youtube full of fan flicks and with modern technology everyone seems to think they’re a damn genius director. Well back in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s making a fan film wasn’t exactly something that everyone was doing. Nope there was an actual serious shortage of regular fanboys and girls attempting to bring the pages of the comics to film.

However today I saw a pair of pretty entertaining Spider-man fan films one from 1969 and another from 1989. It’s awesome to see way back then people were inspired enough to give the near impossible feat of bringing a superhero to life on screen- check these out for a serious blast from the past, hey you gotta give these peeps credit and an A for effort, they gave it a good shot with what they had!!

Oh and you gotta love the Kingpin in this one!

 

 

Comic Book Cover of the Week: Muhammad Ali vs. Superman!!

There’d just be no better time to post this legendary comic book cover, yesterday we lost boxing legend Muhammad Ali at the age of 74. I really don’t need to go into much detail about the legend as he’s one of the most well known athletes of all time. However some people may not have known that he had a part in the DC universe when he took on Superman in a boxing match!

Yeah the two squared off in a fight to save planet earth from an alien invasion! This was an epic comic at 72 pages in length Superman was in the fight of his life!! Ali is also rumored to have written all of his own dialogue and make a specific request, that in the book he would discover Superman’s true identity.

RIP Muhammad, you were a real life Superhero…..

Here’s the full scoop on the legendary comic book-check it out!!!

 

New Music & Comic Book Adventures from…..The Monkees?!

I’ve always been a huge fan of The Monkees and now they’ve released a brand new song that will be on their upcoming album “Good Times”. Of course I’m still sad about the passing of Davy Jones, my personal favorite Monkee, but the good news is this new album WILL feature and old unreleased track that Neil Diamond wrote for the band in the 1960’s with Davy Jones on lead Vocals. It’ll feature some new instrumentation and harmonies by Micky Dolenz & Tork. Also the album cover too is a good sign that we’ll be getting some classic vintage style songs from the boys.

The album will also feature a brand new song by Michael Nesmith! So all four of the original Monkees will be present in some way shape or form. In the mean time here’s a cool new track, written by Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo, I’m pleased to hear that this new album will recreating their classic 60’s sound. This little video is cool as well as it follows an old classic comic book adventure of the band!   

 

If that’s not good enough they’ve released another song from the album written by Andy Partridge from XTC!!

 

 

Comic Book Cover of the Week: Adventure the Dungeons with Peter Hsu!

Back in 1986 a cool little series came out from Aricel / Adventure Comics for those D&D nerds called The Adventurers! It was a great comic book jam packed with swords, sorcery, monsters galore and yeah…ninjas. My brother collected this series and though I was a Marvel & DC kid at the time I’d often sneak his much more daring and graphic indie comics any chance he’d leave the house. It was interesting as a kid learning that there indeed was more out there than the “big two”. This rad cover is from the first issue of The Adventurers by Peter Hsu and make no mistake each issue had incredible painted covers. I’m going to have to dig these out again cuz I’m feeling the need for some serious adventures lately!