Comic Books

IDW has decided to become more focused as a company on publishing horror comics in terms of what they dub their co-creator originals, titles to follow up on their history of success with the likes of 30 Days of Night, Locke & Key, Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees and more.

Earlier this week, CEO and Publisher of IDW, Davidi Jonas took an investment call while in the car as as part of his duties of being a publically traded independent comic book publisher. He announced the switch in publishing focus for the publisher, and that IDW would be launching a new horror imprint soon and "partnering with one of the largest licensors to be able to exploit their largest horror titles" as comics, collections and graphic novels, and are "some very noteworthy and popular horror titles and having those as part of our imprint, we expect will attract interest." And then look to exploit their co-creator-owned properties as a result of increased interest. And he says that this is one of the things he has focused on, to go as far and wise as they can.

You know, there is Vertigo-sized gap in the market since DC Comics let that go, which Boom, Vault, Scout and others have attempted to fill, including IDW as well. Might this be a worthwhile endeavour on IDW's part?

New list is up! Let's see what we got this week..

Graveyard Club #1 - R. L. Stein, let's go!

Batman Day 2024 - Batman Elmer Fudd Special Noir #1 - What in the fuck is this? I'll have to get it, it's too insane not to.

Batman Day 2024 Batman The Long Halloween #0 - Heard this Long Halloween series rules, I need to read it, hopefully it gets a reprint about nowish..

Batman Day 2024 Batman The Long Halloween #1 - Well we're part way to a reprint, but I need all of em!

Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees TP - Alright I'm probably not picking this up because I have both the A and B covers of all the singles (not my usual MO), but I'm adding it as an honorable mention because if you don't have it yet you should 100% check this out at least. It's basically cute Richard Scarry style art with anthropomorphic animals, but the lead character is a serial killer. Huge problems arise in her world, can she stop it or not? I won't say, you'll have to read it to find out. I hope this gets picked up for more issues more than anything else out right now.

Falling In Love On The Path To Hell #4 - This series rules so far! Glad it's an ongoing now.

Ice Cream Man #41 - The series responsible for getting me into comics in the first place. It's like a sad song you can't stop listening to, or a bruise that you can't stop poking, it's depressing but so good. I like how they play with the format, like the issue that was a crossword puzzle, and the one that was all palindromes and could be read both front to back and back to front. This one looks to be a James Bond parody.

Moon Is Following Us #1 - I know nothing about this but it looks interesting.

Tin Can Society #1 - Might pick this up, the cover is intriguing.

Epitaphs From The Abyss #3 - Well issue 2 was better, but it's still no Creepshow. I'll continue it for one more at least. Looks like there's two new EC titles coming out soon too, a new SuspenStories and a new Weird Fantasy, both called something else but similar, of course.

Looks like that's it for me, what're you pulling this week?

Chaz Gower has written a new book called Stan Lee Lied. Full title, Stan Lee Lied: Your Handy Guide to Every Lie in The Origins of Marvel Comics. And it does exactly what it says on the tin. Dedicated to Bleeding Cool favourite Bob Beerbohm (Bleeding Cool gets itself a couple of mentions), it takes the Stan Lee-authored Origins Of Marvel Comics for its fiftieth anniversary, and systematically attempts to disprove as many of the statements in that book as possible, using recorded facts and archives, testimonies and memories of others. This is a case for the prosecution; there is no attempt to be even-handed, and anything that doesn't challenge the tenet that Stan Lee didn't co-create or write the comic books he claimed to have and was credited for is either not included or dismissed with a hand wave.

That 1974 volume Origins Of Marvel Comics is itself getting a deluxe hardcover printed from Gallery Editions next month for its fiftieth anniversary, so this is clearly well-timed. Maybe you could read them together? Here is just one small example to let you know where this is going…

"Stan Lee: "At the moment, the trend is monster stories… Jack and I were having a ball turning out monster stories with such imperishable titles as "Xom, the Creature Who Swallowed Earth", Grottu, the Giant Ant-Eater"… "Fin Fang Foom"…."

"Stan Lee signed almost everything he ever did from… at least 1950 on. Most likely from Day One, but for SURE from 1950 on. He signed pin-up pages if he wrote even the smallest of dialogue on it, and paper doll pages in Patsy Walker comics… he rarely if ever missed an opportunity to sign his name to something, to get the credit and of course, the PAY. BUT… He never signed a single Jack Kirby monster story from those presuperhero years at Marvel Comics. Which means he didn't write ANY of them. Not ONE SINGLE STORY. He signed NONE OF THEM. Which means he didn't write ANY of them."

What Chaz is doing here is not just aiming to show that Stan Lee lied about so much, but making that case that Stan Lee with a purpose, to increase his role, to gain plaudits, and even the small lies are used to build up a narrative that would justify his claim to create the Marvel Comics universe and profit from that reputation. And that without them, his claims would seem outlandishly false. That, basically, Stan Lee, was the Donald Trump of comic books.

You stay true to the source material. He's still in the Marvel universe and all that.

But most Marvel movies are rated PG-13, or maybe even PG. I know deadpool is rated R, but it's not really because of gore and graphic scenes.

I'm thinking a movie more along the lines of the Saw movies in terms of gore. The movie wouldn't center around Spiderman, and it wouldn't center around Carnage. Carnage would be the main villain. You might even have Venom in there at some point.

But the movie really would center around some small town. The kind of place where everybody knows everybody. I'm thinking maybe somewhere in Alaska. Just because I think the brutal cold could in itself be part of the horror. The fact that they can't just go outside for long periods of time. Maybe their cars are all destroyed.

But the ever looming threat is Carnage. I'd treat it like a more graphic version of the first Jurassic Park. The dinosaurs were only actually on screen for 18 minutes or so. The rest of the movie was about building up the suspense of what they're capable of.

Or like how Jaws, you never saw the shark until the last scene.

Carnage would just always be out there. Leaving a trail of gore, and blood, and dead bodies. That's why it woud HAVE TO BE rated R.

And Carnage just appears when he wants, and they're trying to stop him. I don't really have a story in mind, just the idea of that slow suspenseful tone, followed immediately by Carnage killing and dismembering, and leaving a trail of corpses.

Thoughts?

So, over on (a pirate site) I see they have Venom Wars #2.

Hey, great! I like Venom. But I'm not a regular comic book reader. I'm very much a newbie. So I figure "Well, thats part 2, I should get part 1 first."

And that's where all the trouble began. There's like 10 different comic branches all called "Venom Wars 1" and they all have different covers. And they all have assumingly different stories!

I just want to read a Venom comic book, where he does the Venom things! And now I see the description "The symbiot has bonded with Eddie, and his son Derek"

WHO THE FUCK IS DEREK??? I thought Eddie was supposed to be a high schooler in Peter Parkers class! How does a 16 year old have a son???

So now I'm REALLY confused! I feel like I need a comic before the comic to get me caught up to the comic, but only if THATS the comic I'm supposed to read, because there's also 10 comics all named the same thing.....and I'm not experienced enough to know what the fuck I'm doing.

I assume I'M the probem, with my lack of knowledge on the subject, but also.........what the hell even is this? I thought "Venom Wars #1" would be enough in the search bar to get me the comic to read about Venom.

I'm not even sure what "Venom Wars" is, but I assume it's Venom, having some kind of war from Venom's perspective with Spiderman, or maybe Carnage. Or whomever. But I assume it's a story told through Venom/Eddies perspective. But where do I start? I assumed #1 would be the start of the story.

And now I'm overwhelmed, and don't know what is going on.

Notable for his work on Planetary and the Authority, Cassaday was also largely responsible for the fantastic post-9/11 Captain America run.

Into The Unbeing Part One #4 - End of the road for this one. It's been interesting so far, some spelunkers going into a "cave" that may actually be a "head of some giant creature." I'm actually one behind but I'm going to read it here in a minute, just picked it up.

Groo Minstrel Melodies #1 - Idk much about Groo but I did read Mad back in the day, so I'm grabbing this.

Time Waits #1 - Idk much but DSTLRY stuff is usually worth a look.

Batman Gotham By Gaslight The Kryptonian Age #4 - This one has been alright so far.

Space Ghost #5 - Zorak is here! I love Zorak lmao, I can't stop thinking about The Brak Show and Space Ghost Coast to Coast while reading this and tbh it's a big reason if why I'm reading it haha.

Ain't No Grave #5 - End of the road. This series has been great, I like these weird westerns.

Geiger #6 - Hooray for Barney!

Precious Metal #4 - This series is weird as shit and I like the art.

That's it for me this week, what about you?

The Road is perhaps Cormac McCarthy’s most successful work. Released in 2006, the book, which deviates from his usual Western inclinations, won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Two years later, it became a Hollywood movie starring Viggo Mortensen and a young Kodi Smit-McPhee. Now, The Road is taking on a new form: the graphic novel.

French cartoonist Manu Larcenet brings McCarthy’s dark epic to life with detailed linework and stark black-and-white imagery. Larcenet’s drawings go beyond anything Hollywood could ever bring to the screen, showing the true sadness and depravity of The Road. The entire project was also approved by McCarthy himself, though the author died in June 2023 before he could see the final product.

“He died and only saw half of the album before we could communicate,” Larcenet tells Inverse. “I was only told that he was both happy and impressed by it, which is both too little and a lot.”

Ahead of his graphic novel’s U.S. release, Inverse interviewed Larcenet via email to find out how he discovered The Road, his thoughts on the story’s ambiguous ending, and the story behind some of his favorite images from the adaptation.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/24745649

Indie comics tell some of the best stories by the best creative teams in comics, and recent years have truly been a golden age for the genre. Unlike the big two publishers, Marvel and DC, which mainly publish stories about superheroes, indie comics from publishers like Image Comics or BOOM! Studios cross every genre imaginable, from high fantasy to the darkest horror.

Most indie comics are owned by their creators, meaning that the comic book industry’s best creators have a chance to tell the stories they truly want to share, as opposed to being constrained by the limits of a more controlling publisher. The result is unrivaled creativity and some of the most innovative and compelling stories available in comic books today. With this high level of quality, there has never been a better time to check out some new indie comics.

They are:

1. The Many Deaths of Laila Starr
2. The Good Asian
3. The Department of Truth
4. Love Everlasting
5. The Cull
6. W0rldtr33
7. Black Cloak
8. Damn Them All
9. Somna
10. Eight Billion Genies

New list is up! Sorry I'm a day later than usual, I was "really sick" yesterday (totally not hungover if my boss is reading this!)

Let's see, decent list for me this week:

Animal Pound #5 - Last in this series, it's been great! A modern retelling of Animal Farm by George Orwell

Minor Arcana #1 - Jeff Lemire back at it after the conclusion of Fishflies. Flishflies rules, this sounds like it'll follow the trend. A woman who's mom is a psychic (but she never believed that much) has to move back home and take over the family business (or something like that). Turns out there may be something to it after all...

Dawnrunner #5 - End of the road for this too but I hope it gets picked up, eldritch kaiju vs mechs with consciousness and pilots.

Helen Of Wyndhorn #4 - This series has been great too. Helen's father, a writer, dies and she has to move back into her grandfather's palatial estate. Turns out the fae world her dad wrote "fiction" about is anything but, and she has been traveling through it with her grandfather doing stuff.

Plastic Man No More #1 - Idk much about Plastic Man but I've heard it's funny, I'll give it a shot.

Blood Brothers Mother #2 - Good western! I'm definitely going to finish this one out.

Cruel Universe #2 - The first one was great, hope that continues!

Well looks like that about wraps it up for me. Pretty excited about all of these! What're you pulling?

Welcome to the 941st installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed, a column where we examine three comic book myths, rumors and legends and confirm or debunk them. In the second legend of this installment, we look into why Marvel seemed to treat Conan the Barbarian like he was a Marvel property during the 1970s.

...

one of Marvel's most famous licensed characters was Conan the Barbarian, who became a hit comic book in the 1970s. However, reader Patrick Duke noted that it sure seemed like Marvel featured Conan on a lot of Marvel merchandise in the 1970s, right? He was on Marvel's calendars, he was on the Marvel Slurpee cups at 7-11, and he was in the Marvel Topps stickers collection...

And if you look on the Conan sticker, it even says that the trademark is MARVEL'S!

...

I asked Roy Thomas about it, and he noted that Conan Properties didn't even EXIST at the time the original deal was signed, so it wasn't like there was this strong presence to negotiate the rights with Marvel, and as a result, while Thomas doesn't know the PRECISE detail of the more than 50-year-old licensing deal, he knows that it included merchandise rights for Marvel. When Conan Properties WAS formed, the deal was renegotiated, and that's why you stopped seeing Conan appearing on all that Marvel merchandise around the late 1970s.

For decades, it was Dark Horse Comics who had the rights to both Alien and Predator in the realm of comic books, putting out several series and one-shots that were well worth our time. With Disney's takeover of Fox's empire and all its properties, the opportunity to move both franchises to Marvel (also owned by the House of Mouse) came, and things changed for the first time in forever. So far, Marvel Comics' take on both franchises has been interesting to say the least, and you definitely shouldn't overlook the comics they have put out so far.

They are:

1. Aliens: Nightmare Asylum
2. Aliens: Labyrinth
3. Aliens: Genocide
4. Aliens vs. Predator
5. Aliens: Salvation
6. Alien: Bloodlines, Revival & Icarus
7. Aliens: Music of the Spears
8. Aliens: Outbreak
9. Aliens: Dead Orbit
10. Aliens: Sacrifice

Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content to people around the world, The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS) has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:MVL) in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced today.

[...]

"We believe that adding Marvel to Disney's unique portfolio of brands provides significant opportunities for long-term growth and value creation," Iger said.

"Disney is the perfect home for Marvel's fantastic library of characters given its proven ability to expand content creation and licensing businesses," said Ike Perlmutter, Marvel's Chief Executive Officer. "This is an unparalleled opportunity for Marvel to build upon its vibrant brand and character properties by accessing Disney's tremendous global organization and infrastructure around the world."

Under the deal, Disney will acquire ownership of Marvel including its more than 5,000 Marvel characters. Mr. Perlmutter will oversee the Marvel properties, and will work directly with Disney's global lines of business to build and further integrate Marvel’s properties.

Read more at https://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-to-acquire-marvel-entertainment/

Higher-res version of the attatched drawing.

2006’s Superman / Batman Annual #1 by Joe Kelly and Ed McGuinness presents a “reimagining” of the moment Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne discovered their secret identities on a cruise. In the opening scene, Deathstroke attempts to assassinate Bruce Wayne, but unbeknownst to Slade Wilson, he was getting mixed up in some multiversal shenanigans involving the Crime Syndicate of the Antimatter Universe.

Whereas Deathstroke was hired to take out Wayne, his Antimatter Universe counterpart arrives on the cruise to save the billionaire playboy. He never gets to say his name, but his snarky attitude and overall look strongly resemble a certain other mercenary-for-hire over at the other Big Two company: Deadpool.

...

While Deadpool co-creator Rob Liefeld has often stated that the character was more inspired by G.I. Joe’s Snake Eyes than Deathstroke, later comics have made the connection more apparent. Fellow Deadpool co-creator Fabian Nicieza gave the character the alter ego of “Wade Wilson,” a direct nod to Deathstroke’s real name, Slade Wilson. Of course, Deadpool went on to be further developed by several creators in the years since, creators such as Kelly and McGuinness, who worked on Superman / Batman Annual #1.

Kelly is the writer who truly gave fans the Deadpool they know and love today, and his run with McGuinness on Deadpool’s first ongoing series resulted in some of the very best Deadpool comics of all time. Both creators taking the opportunity to recreate some of that magic in the DC Universe was a nice nod to their previous work, and fans got to see what would happen if Deadpool were to interact with Superman and Batman. It’s even more hilarious to see the no-nonsense Deathstroke get increasingly annoyed with his Antimatter counterpart, at one point claiming he’d rather die than hear the assassin talk anymore.

New list is up! Good one for me this week!

Batman Off-World #5 - This is still running? Bout damn forgot about this one!

Convert #1 - "Science Officer Orrin Kutela finds himself stranded on a distant planet, starving and haunted by the ghosts of his dead crew. On the verge of death, he makes an astonishing discovery. Veteran writer John Arcudi (Rumble, B.P.R.D.) and illustrator Savanna Finley bring you a sci-fi/fantasy comic like no other." Sounds interesting enough!

Drawing Blood #5 - Drawing Blood! Raining Blood plays. Kevin Eastman rules.

Sacrificers #11 - Sacrificers! Pigeon has been fucking shit up, Soluna is having a rough time, can't wait to see what this issue brings!

Universal Monsters Frankenstein #1 - The Creature reboot was good, I'll try this one too.

What're you pulling?

DC has released an ad for its new Compact Comics line, a range of some of the company’s most popular titles, scaled to a portable 5.5″ x 8.5″ and going for just $9.99 each.

...

Just one inch taller than the average manga volume, the new line eschews the unwieldiness of traditional graphic novels, which are typically printed around the size of a paper magazine you cannot fold. Better still, these small books contain the entirety of their story arcs, instead of the multi-volume format of trade paperbacks or even the average manga series. Also unlike most manga, each volume will remain in full color, but printed on a paper stock slightly less glossy than the average $20+ graphic novel.

...

These are the four titles currently available, followed by the line’s upcoming slate:

• Watchmen by Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons
• Batman: The Court of Owls by Scott Snyder, Greg Capullo
• All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely
• Far Sector by N.K. Jemisin, Jamal Campbell

Coming soon:

• Wonder Woman: Earth One by Grant Morrison, Yanick Paquette – August 6
• Batman: Hush by Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee – August 6
• Joker by Brian Azzarello, Lee Bermejo – September 3
• Harley Quinn & the Gotham City Sirens by Paul Dini, Peter Calloway, Tony Bedard, Guillem March, Andres Guinaldo – September 3
• American Vampire Book One by Scott Snyder, Stephen King, Rafael Albuquerque – October 1
• Catwoman: Trail of the Catwoman by Darwyn Cooke, Ed Brubaker – October 1
• Kingdom Come – by Mark Waid, Alex Ross – May 6, 2025
• Static: Season One – May 27, 2025
• DCeased – June 3, 2025
• Batwoman: Elegy – June 17, 2025
• Superman: Birthright – June 24, 2025
• Superman/Batman: Book One – July 15, 2025

Megalopolis, the new movie from Francis Ford Coppola, is getting dragged pretty heavily. There's lots of drama surrounding it and the trailer that dropped yesterday has been pulled because it uses some made up negative critic quotes about The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and Dracula.

Archive of the trailer here:

https://youtu.be/KKP6y7FNOTw

What I find stunning is you could tell me it's an adaptation of the comic book "Mister X" and I would totally believe you!

Mister X is pretty obscure now, but it was a popular indie book back in the 80s, originally illustrated by Jaime Hernandez of Love and Rockets fame.

The basic premise is an architect was hired to design a city using the premise of "psychetecture". Architecture designed to promote mental health and well being. Sort of the polar opposite of Lovecraftian architecture.

Naturally, business interests interfered, altered his designs, and now the city is driving people mad. Mister X takes it on himself to correct the problems his city is causing.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_X_(Vortex)

"Mister X's influence can be seen and was acknowledged in films like Terry Gilliam's Brazil,[6] Tim Burton's Batman,[7] and Alex Proyas' Dark City.[8]"

The author, Dean Motter, followed Mister X with related books "Electropolis" from Image comics and "Terminal City" from Vertigo, all worth reading.

So if you catch the trailer for Megalopolis and go "Well that looks interesting..." or are a fan of Brazil, Batman or Dark City, here's some reading material for you:

Mister X - The Archives:
https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/3000-129/Mister-X-The-Archives-TPB

Electropolis:
https://www.darkhorse.com/Books/16-341/Electropolis-TPB

Terminal City:
https://www.dc.com/graphic-novels/terminal-city-1996/terminal-city

Terminal City: Aerial Graffiti
https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Terminal_City:_Aerial_Graffiti_Vol_1_1

There is a "Complete Terminal City" graphic novel, but it's hard to find.