· comics news

Wonder Woman Redesign. Blech

June 29, 2010 in batman!, comics, comics news, CSBG, DC Comics, project: rooftop, wonder woman | 6 comments

I mean I’m torn…do I want Diana out of her super impractical strapless swimsuit bustier? Of course I do. Do I want her to be in some cheesy garish 90’s jacket/pants/bustier combo that has no lasting iconic imagery? No…no I do not. I’m all for having Diana a bit more covered up and practical…but this is a swing and a miss for me.

I wish DC would have pitched this to Project Runway. They already did some great Wonder Woman designs when it was just for fun, imagine the response they would have gotten if DC was genuinely looking for a re-design.

http://www.tencentticker.com/projectrooftop/2007/11/26/wonder-woman-wardrobe-war-winners/

Also…Corey Walker probably could have done this in his sleep. He’s done about 154 Supergirl designs over the last year or so and most of them are fantastic.

http://corenthal.blogspot.com/search/label/supergirl

I mean…from an iconic standpoint how does it compare to something like Batman…? Wonder Woman deserves more. I’m bummed out. In fairness, I think DC is trying…I just think this is a failure that should have been left on the drawing room floor. I don’t suppose this means the new #600 JMS reboot (which releases Wednesday) is doomed…but it certainly doesn’t bode well for me at least and I was pretty hesitant to begin with. Le sigh. Another day in comics.

Woman’s Eye View: Comics Week 6/23/10

June 24, 2010 in comic reviews, comics, comics news, DC Comics, marvel comics, vertigo, woman's eye view | Permalink

The following is a selection of comics released this week (6/23/10)* that focus heavily on women in comics – whether that be characters, creators, or even readers.

The books are rated as BUY, TRADEWAIT, or SKIP.

*It should be noted that this list will focus on North American/English releases as that’s mostly what I have access to. Additionally, as I am in general unfamiliar with Manga, I will not be including Manga titles in my lists. For some great reviews and discussion of Manga titles I urge you to check out Danielle Leigh on CSBG.

Maybe it’s just the heat, but I found the comics pretty depressing this week…

AMERICAN VAMPIRE #4 Scott Snyder and Stephen King (writers). Rafael Albuquerque (art). Dave McCraig (colors). Vertigo. 40-pages. $3.99

This is still a good little book, but it’s the weakest of the story thus far. Pearl is still a solid female lead and though she’s a bit overly sexy in this issue, it’s mostly with purpose. I’m still going to list this as a BUY, but I hope the writing on the Snyder story gets back to business as usual as it felt a bit off/forced/cliche this time around. Tentative BUY, if only because the first three issues have been so strong.

HERALDS #4 (of 5). Kathryn Immonen (writer). Tonci Zonjic, Emma Rios, and James Harren (art). Nathan Fairbairn and Ronda Pattison (colors). Jelena Djurdjevic (cover). Marvel. 32-pages. $2.99

I guess we’re finding out why comics come out monthly and not weekly. Issue number one had one artist, issues two and three had two artists, and now issue four has three artists…I get it, drawing an entire book (and inking it) is time consuming…but it seems like they (Marvel) could have thought ahead a bit here so that we didn’t have to have SO MANY artists. Fortunately, Rios is quite good, so her addition here is not unwelcome…but it doesn’t help the overall cohesiveness of the book to have so many changing art styles running around unchecked. The artists all do their best…and it’s good work, but it IS a bit disjointed. The story is still working well enough for me, but it’s definitely a frustrating read to a degree if you don’t know much about Nova/Frankie Ray (which I don’t). The premise assumes a certain amount of knowledge of the character that I’m not sure is fair for a mini-series…I thought we’d get more details for those out of the loop as we moved along, but we’re almost done and those details seem unlikely to come. That said, it’s still the most fun reading I had this week, and it’s full of badass ladies that I almost never get to read about, doing their thing (although they do seem to need to get saved by Reed Richards in this issue…hrm.). BUY anyway.

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Preview Art For J.H. Williams III’s Batwoman #1

June 21, 2010 in batwoman, comics, comics news, DC Comics | 3 comments

Click to enlarge

Some Batwoman #1 JH Williams III preview art courtesy of CBR & DC. I’m trying to manage my expectations for this book, but I just can’t help getting excited. Please be awesome, please be awesome, please be awesome.

Honestly? I Felt Like This MANY Days When I Worked As A Receptionist…

June 14, 2010 in comics, comics news, marvel comics, valkyrie | 1 comment

I don’t know how they got this picture of me from back in my receptionist days…but I should probably demand royalties of some kind.

More seriously, the Valkyrie preview pages at CBR look pretty cool. I’m sure I’ll be let down as one-shots of this kind are almost always a let down no matter how much talent you put on them, but I’m really interested in the Valkyrie character, so I think I’ll give it a shot anyway.

Woman’s Eye View: Comics Week 6/9/10

June 9, 2010 in comic reviews, comics, comics news, feminism, woman's eye view | 2 comments

The following is a selection of comics released this week (6/9/10)* that focus heavily on women in comics – whether that be characters, creators, or even readers.

The books are rated as BUY, TRADEWAIT, or SKIP.

*It should be noted that this list will focus on North American/English releases as that’s mostly what I have access to. Additionally, as I am in general unfamiliar with Manga, I will not be including Manga titles in my lists. For some great reviews and discussion of Manga titles I urge you to check out Danielle Leigh on CSBG.

AVENGERS ACADEMY #1. Christos Gage (writer). Mike McKone (art). Jeromy Cox (colors). Marvel. 40 pages. $3.99. 22-pages of story, a very weak 6-page character bio section, and a 2-page Marvel/Gage interview.

Unfortunately this was a bit of a let down to me and didn’t live up to the preview pages (which I was really excited about). The character work – and I know it’s a lot of new characters to introduce and so that’s challenging – but it’s not very strong except for with Veil/Maddy and in that same vein I just think Gage tried to do too much in to short a time with the story. McKone’s art is lovely, but the storytelling/pacing/expressions are pretty weak. Again, I thought the storytelling was really solid in the first 6-ish pages but it falls of considerably as the issue progresses. Also…I talk about “swimsuit” costumes for female superheroes a lot here and on She Has No Head!, but nobody has Tigra beat in the “swimsuit category”…is this really necessary? A string bikini is really her costume? Seems ridiculous and dated and…did I say ridiculous? It’s nice to see all three new female leads appropriately dressed, but it sucks that their teacher looks like she’s headed to a beach. Anyway, I was much less excited about this today than I was last week. Bummer. I’m still going to give it a few more issues to improve, but for now I can’t rank it any higher than a TRADEWAIT.

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James Jean & Fables

June 8, 2010 in art, artists, comics, comics news, james jean, vertigo | 6 comments

Wow. Thanks to following James Jean on twitter (@processrecess) I saw this pretty amazing Fables commercial that’s apparently been running on BBC America. James Jean’s visuals are somehow even more badass in this format, which is…unexpected.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ruCWzUWDFU&hl=en_US&fs=1&rel=0]

You can also watch it here on the Vertigo website.

And if you don’t know about James Jean…WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? Learn more now. Even though he’s largely moved away from more commercial work toward fine art, and sadly no longer does the Fables covers, he’s still one of the most amazing artists working today.

And if you don’t know about Fables…WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? Learn more now. And here’s a cool list I did for She Has No Head! about Ten Women Of Fables.

She Has No Head! On Jezebel

June 4, 2010 in comics, comics news, comics should be good, female positive, feminism, jezebel, she has no head! | Permalink

My She Has No Head! interview with comics creator Hope Larson was discussed and linked to today in an excellent post on Jezebel by Latoya Peterson about Girls, Comics, and Rashida Jones new book Frenemy Of The State.

Any day I get linked to on Jezebel is a good day…plus…the comments are mostly full of happiness, encouragement, and excitement…rather than the opposite of all that. Thanks to Latoya and Jezebel. Check it out.

Despite A Rough Couple Days…Optimism Prevails!

June 3, 2010 in art, comics, comics news, comics should be good, CSBG, hope larson, marvel comics, she has no head! | 5 comments

My She Has No Head! Hope Larson Interview from Monday stirred up quite the shit storm (I think we’re in the 170’s for comments). I honestly still have no idea why the reaction has been as aggressive and hateful as it was, as I find nothing incendiary in the interview or Larson’s survey, but the result is it’s been a long and frustrating few days full of trolls and hate and feeling like it’s never going to get better for women in mainstream comics (as readers, creators, or characters).

So I was relieved to come up for air from whole situation and find this really great looking preview from CBR for Marvel’s upcoming Avengers Academy. I loved these first six pages and will absolutely be picking up the first issue (due out June 9th) to see if it can continue to deliver as these first pages do.

As a sidenote, thanks to all of you who reached out to me personally in the wake of the Larson post, and to all of you what participated in a civilized and intelligent discussion – whether you agreed with what was being said by myself, Larson, or the survey or not.

Avengers Academy #1

Woman’s Eye View: Comics Week 05/19/10

May 21, 2010 in comic reviews, comics, comics news, DC Comics, image comics, marvel comics, vertigo, wildstorm, woman's eye view | 2 comments

The following is a selection of comics released this week (5/19/10)* that focus heavily on women in comics – whether that be characters, creators, or even readers.

The books are rated as BUY, TRADEWAIT, or SKIP.

Tradewaiting, for the uninitiated, is the act of not buying individual issues of a comic as it releases, but rather waiting for them to be collected in a trade paperback form (aka TPB).

*It should be noted that this list will focus on North American/English releases as that’s mostly what I have access to. Additionally, as I am in general unfamiliar with Manga, I will not be including Manga titles in my lists. For some great reviews and discussion of Manga titles I urge you to check out Danielle Leigh on CSBG. I will do my best to include independent and graphic novel selections as they are released as well – but if I’ve missed something excellent feel free to let me know in the comments.

Here we go…

Air #21. G. Willow Wilson (writer). M.K. Perker and Chris Chuckry (art). Vertigo. 32 pages. $2.99.

From a female positivity standpoint I really can’t fault this book, I never have to see crazy naked tits and ass and inane costumes and Amelia Earhart guest stars, which is pretty much awesome. However, I have never connected with the main character Blythe and she seems, despite G. Willow Wilson’s best efforts, flat and weak willed. Additionally, her obsession/relationship with Zayn never really worked for me emotionally. Also of note in this issue is that there’s a weird bathtub scene that, while not gratuitous just seems a little silly and unnecessary. Though I don’t particularly like this book, I have to give it credit for being a rare starring vehicle for a female character AND writer, and a book that tries to represent women well, so I’ll give it a TRADEWAIT.

American Vampire #3. Scott Snyder and Stephen King (writers). Rafael Albuquerque (art). Vertigo. 32 pages. $3.99.

The Stephen King and Scott Snyder series continues to be very interesting with its parallel stories about Pearl becoming an American Vampire, and how her maker Skinner Sweet first became one. Pearl is a great character that I look forward to reading every week, and the art by Rafael Albuquerque is excellent. This is one of my favorite new books, definitely get on board now. BUY

DV8 #2. (of 8). Brian Wood (writer). Rebekah Isaacs and Carrie Strachan (art). Fiona Staples (cover). Wildstorm. 32 pages. $2.99.

Brian Wood and Rebekah Isaacs’ excellent revamp of this old 90’s superhero team continues to be edgy, forward thinking, and interesting. The story is well-paced and beautifully illustrated and the covers by Fiona Staples are like a delicious cherry on top. If you want to read more about DV8, check out my detailed review on CSBG’s She Has No Head! BUY

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Amy Reeder Continues To Take Over The Comics World With Her Awesomeness

May 11, 2010 in art, artists, awesomeness, comics, comics news, DC Comics | 3 comments

From DC’s The Source Blog last week, the announcement that as of issue #55, Amy Reeder will be the new cover artist for Supergirl. Though that should be awesome enough news on its own, the post came with a preview of cover art for Supergirl #55 – and it’s beautiful. This is going to make Cover Solicits more fun than ever. Absolutely stunning.

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