WEEKEND READING: Green Lama, MAD Magazine, Dollhouse, and Blazing Combat!
Lots of great stuff this week on the internets. Here’s a few things to occupy you ‘til Monday.
THE GREEN LAMA: The Green Lama was created as a Shadow imitator in a story for a 1940 pulp magazine called Double Detective. It was written by Kendell Foster Crossen. The character made the leap to comics later that year in Prize Comics #7, then jumped to his own title in 1944, still written by Crossen. One of my favorite blogs, Killer Covers Of The Week, has a terrific overview of Crossen’s work and his pseudonyms, and his career as a detective novelist who also wrote for the TV series’ 77 Sunset Strip and Perry Mason. Now that GL is in the public domain, he’s currently appearing in Project Superpowers, from Dynamite Entertainment, courtesy of Jim Krueger and Alex Ross.
MAD MAGAZINE: Senior Editor of MAD, Joe Raiola, recently made a stop at the Everett Public Library (Washington) to talk about “The Joy Of Censorship.” HeraldNet – the online news service for Snohomish County has the details.
Click to continue reading WEEKEND READING: Green Lama, MAD Magazine, Dollhouse, and Blazing Combat!
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Happy 70th Birthday Batman!
Posted by David Torres Categories: Editorials, DC Comics,
According to the publication “Chase’s Calendar of Events”, “Detective Comics” # 27 hit newsstands on May 1, 1939. Wikipedia has it as May 2nd, but since I’m a librarian, I’m going to go with Chase as a more reliable resource. Instead of going through a history of Batman and talk about such things as the 60s TV show and the recent Chris Nolan Bat-films, I’ve decided to take a more personal approach. I mean lets face it, as a comic fan you know the history of Batman already. For you older fans you’ve experienced it first hand. Some of you are old enough to remember watching the 60s TV show when they first aired on ABC. So I will discuss my experiences with the character.
I will be 35 years old this July. So I have been alive for half of the 70 years that Batman has been in existence. My first experience with the character did not come with a comic book. It came with a TV show. I was introduced to Batman with the old Hanna-Barbera Super Friends cartoons. In these cartoons, Batman was far from the cool character that we would eventually see in later years. In fact, the Super Friends Batman was pretty lame. The character was portrayed as being just about helpless if he didn’t have his utility belt. Still, I liked him and Robin and I liked super hero cartoons in general. Looking back at these old cartoons with my oldest son who is four, I do not enjoy them because they are quality stories and adventures. I enjoy them more for nostalgia purposes and laugh to myself at how lame some of the things are on those old shows. But had it not been for the Super Friends, I never would have been introduced to the character.
At the same time these cartoons were on Channel 11 here in NYC, they also would air re-runs of the 1960s Batman TV show. Again, Batman was not the cool character that he is today. Adam West’s interpretation of the character was of course very campy. A young man who works in my library as a page looks at old clips of the show on YouTube and wonders how this show was successful and I said that this is all we had; this was all we knew about Batman.
I was not aware of what was going on with the comics at the time I was watching these shows. I did not begin reading comics until about 1984 and then I was only reading Marvel Comics. I picked up an issue of Batman sometime after I started collecting and the book didn’t really interest me. I don’t really remember why, but it wasn’t until 1989 and the first Tim Burton Batman film that coaxed me into giving Batman comics a second look. I vividly remember leaving the Valentine theater in the South Bronx on Fordham Road. My friend Elliot’s grandmother worked there as an usher and we were able to get in and see free movies. I enjoyed the movie and wanted to continue the Bat-experience so I decided to go to my comic book store that was located just down the block.
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DC Comics Review: Battle for the Cowl: Arkham Asylum
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
Rating: ***1/2*
I’ve been picking up the “Battle for the Cowl” (BFTC) one-shots and mini-series that have been coming out. Normally I don’t pick up all of the spin-offs of event books, but because it’s Batman, I’ve been getting them. Some of it’s been good and some of it’s been bad. I wasn’t expecting much from the Arkham Asylum one shot so I was happy to have really enjoyed this story after I read it. I enjoyed it so much I decided to write about it.
This issue reminds me a lot of one of favorite comic stories, “Arkham Asylum: Living Hell” by Dan Slott. In this story, Slott introduces a slew of unknown residents of Arkam Asylum including Humpty Dumpty and Jane Doe. The writer of this issue of this BFTC one-shot David Hine sort of picks up where Slott left off and introduces a few characters of his own.
In the story, Arkham Asylum has been destroyed. It was destroyed and most of the inmates are now on the loose thanks to the Black Mask (see the BFTC mini-series). The director of Arkham Asylum, Dr. Jeremiah Arkham has returned to the ruined asylum to try and find some of the inmates who were not in the general inmate population. These inmates include: No Face, Mirror Man, and the Hamburger Lady. What’s interesting about these new characters are as of right now, they don’t seem to be threats to anyone. They just seem to be mentally ill people. Now that may change - especially from what we see in the ending of this story. Maybe these characters were introduced as new villains for the new Batman and Robin debuting next month. I don’t know.
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DC Comics Review: Detective Comics #853
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
Rating: ***1/2*
Part two of “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader” is finally here. After a long delay, we see the conclusion of the so-called last Batman story. Is it really the last story? Of course not. The story of Batman does not end here. It is simply a new beginning. A new beginning for Bruce and a new beginning for the world of Batman.
In the coming weeks, we will see a new man take over the role of Batman with the end of “Battle for the Cowl”. Then we will see this new Batman, along with a new Robin, fight crime as the new dynamic duo. But before all of this happens, we have the conclusion to this story. I enjoyed the first chapter of this story. It continued the surreal type of storytelling that we saw Grant Morrison present with his RIP storyline. I think the difference in this tale and that one is that although it was surreal, I still understood what was going on in “Whatever Happened” and I enjoyed the overall story. I didn’t have to reread it the way I did with RIP.
In “Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader” Batman is dead - or at least he appears to be. A funeral is being held in Crime Alley with all of his friends and enemies coming to pay their respects. Batman is viewing all of this with a mysterious stranger. Part one ended with Batman trying to figure out what’s going on. So what is going on here? Lets see…......
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Detective Comics #853
DC Comics Review: Batman: Confidential #28
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
Rating: ***
The final part to the King Tut storyline is here. This was a very good story. It’s funny after reading this story, I almost wish DC went with the funny 1960s version of King Tut, but as I said before DC has Maxie Zeus to fit that role so it would be redundant here.
The Riddler and Batman continue to match wits as they work together to take down King Tut. When we last saw them, it looked like the were caught in Tut’s trap and died in an explosion - obviously they escaped. Similar to the old movie serials we are shown exactly how they escaped just prior to the explosion. I like the relationship here between Batman and the Riddler. I think writers Christina Weir and Nunzio DiFilipis do a better job of this pseudo good Riddler than what Paul Dini was doing in over in “Detective Comics”.
Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez is still a master with his artwork. Some great action sequences that help tell the story. Batman and Riddler save the day and send King Tut off to jail. However, by the looks of the things, this will not be the last time we see Tut as he now has a queen to help him rid Gotham of Batman.
“Batman: Confidential” continues next month with the return of the creative team of the previous story arc Andrew Kreisberg and Scott McDaniel. They team up once again to to tell the story of the police officer who has gone insane thanks to the actions of the Joker. See you next month for the beginning of the two-part storyline entitled: “Bad Cop.”
DC Comics Review: Batman: Battle for the Cowl #2
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
Rating: *** 1/2*
This was another great issue of the “Battle for the Cowl” (BFTC) mini-series. As readers know, Tony Daniel provides the artwork as well as the story for this mini-series and he continues to do a great job. The story so far has not only lived up to the hype, but in my opinion it has surpassed what I thought we’d get here. As I mentioned in my previous blog about the first issue, I thought giving Daniel the task of writing this story was going to be a mistake. Most of the time big events tend to let me down, and I really get excited when they don’t let me down.
This series is a must read for Batman fans. Although Bruce Wayne does not appear in this story, he is here spirit. The foundation of what Bruce believed in and what he stood for is the center of the story. Who will continue his mission?
The story hasn’t had any real surprises so far. Its been pretty straight forward in the direction it’s heading with Nightwing becoming Batman and Damian becoming Robin. It’s almost too much like getting hit over the head and saying that this is exactly what will happen. However, you never know, there could be a turn coming and maybe Tim Drake becomes Batman. Who knows.
The story picks up where we left off in the last issue with the gun totting Batman aka Jason Todd, attacking Nightwing and Damian.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Batman: Battle for the Cowl #2
My Future with the Batman titles
Posted by David Torres Categories: Editorials, DC Comics,
According to IGN.com there are some big changes in store for the Batman titles post-Battle for the Cowl. In June we will see some new series premiere and the traditional Bat-titles get new creative teams. Here is the list: “Detective Comics,” “Batman,” “Batman and Robin,” “Red Robin,” “Gotham City Sirens,” “Batman: Streets of Gotham,” and the “Outsiders.” I also saw on a message board over at CBR that Batgirl will be getting her own series again. The CBR message board also posts who are the creative teams behind each book.
The good news for me is that Grant Morrison is off “Batman”. The bad news is that he’s being replaced by Judd Winick. I’ve enjoyed stuff that Judd has written in the past. His work on “Exiles” and “The Outsiders” was good - particularly the “Exiles” that book rocked and hasn’t been good since he left. However, I was not all impressed with his previous work on Batman. Why DC didn’t just give the “Batman” title completely to Tony Daniel as he’s staying as artist I don’t know. Maybe it would be too much to handle? I love what Daniel is doing on “Battle for the Cowl”. “Detective Comics” will be written by Greg Rucka and will feature Batwoman - I’ll check out the first issue, but I’m not a big fan of Greg Rucka so I may end up dropping it. I also could care less about Batwoman.
Although Grant Morrison will be leaving the “Batman” title, he will be staying in the Bat-universe and will be launching a new monthly series entitled “Batman and Robin” along with his usual artist collaborator Frank Quitley. According to IGN, this title will be the “flagship” of the Batman titles. I’m not happy with that statement as I feel the original title of any group of comic books should be the flagship title. The flagship title for Batman should be and always be “Detective Comics”.
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DC Comics Review: Batman: Confidential #27
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
Rating: ***
This months issue of “Batman: Confidential” is a continuation of the first appearance in comic book form of the 60s television show Bat-Villain King Tut. As I mentioned in my post on part one of this storyline, this King Tut is different in appearance than the one on television show. Which is fine, since today’s Batman doesn’t really need to fight a big fat guy. He’s got the Penguin for that.
To recap, employees of the Gotham City museum are being targeted by Tut. He’s speaking in riddles as he commits the crimes, which results in the Riddler wanting to take him down just as much as Batman. So much so that the Riddler escapes from Arkham to take Tut out .
The artwork provided for this storyline is done by veteran artist Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez. I wasn’t reading DC back when Garcia-Lopez was at his peak, but it’s nice to see him get some work at his age (He’s 60). It’s too bad veterans like Jose aren’t getting more work. His work reminds me of when I first started reading Batman when Jim Aparo was the main Bat-artist.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Batman: Confidential #27
DC Comics Review: Batman: Battle for the Cowl #1
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
Rating: *** 1/2*
When I first heard that artist Tony Daniel would be doing the writing chores for the DC mega miniseries “Batman: Battle for the Cowl,” I groaned. I groaned because I felt that a inexperienced writer like Daniel should not be given the task of writing this major miniseries. I already had it in my head that this series was going to be a let down - boy was I wrong. The first issue of “Batman: Battle for the Cowl” is an absolute winner. I know its cliche, but from the first page to the last, this issue delivered in a big way for me.
As any reader of my previous blogs on Batman, you know that I have not been happy with what Grant Morrison has been doing on “Batman” - particularly the recent “RIP” storyline. I felt the story was a big let down and by no means lived up to the hype DC was giving it. After reading this issue, I wish DC would give the job of writing “Batman” to Daniel, but unfortunately Morrison will be returning to the title after this series is over.
Since Batman’s “death” in “Final Crisis,” we have seen Gotham City slip deeper and deeper into chaos. This issue reveals that Nightwing has now become the leader of The Network which brings together all of the heroes who are allies of Batman or who have operated in Gotham in the past. Daniel also brings in Knight and Squire from Morrison’s Batmen of all Nations storyline. The reintroduction of the Batmen of all Nations is one of the few things that I’ve liked about Morrison’s run. I particularly like Knight and Squire and I would love to see a miniseries focusing on them set in the UK.
Daniel continues what Denny O’Neil started in his recent storyline of Nightwing refusing to take on the mantle of the Batman and being insecure about even thinking about doing so as he feels he’s not worthy to even step in his shoes. I’m assuming that’s something the editors of Batman want as a theme in the Bat-books right now. I’m not crazy with that direction as I feel Dick should be a hell of a lot more confident and sure of himself and want to take on the roll to honor his surrogate father.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Batman: Battle for the Cowl #1
WEEKEND READING: Bendis, Spider-Man, Cyanide And Happiness and Batman
Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials,
The weekend is upon us again and the internets have delivered a bounty of excellent reading. From Peter Parker’s love life to Cyanide And Happiness. Check ‘em out.
BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS: Paul Morton over at Bookslut has a great interview with Brian. Mostly it’s about his work on Ultimate Spider-Man but there are a couple of detours, including Alias and Jessica’s relationship with Luke Cage. Here’s a nice Bendis quote about Peter Parker’s love life: “Doing my initial Spider-Man research, in going back and reading everything, [I found] for a sad sack this guy was getting laid left and right. This guy had more girlfriends than I ever had in high school. Betty Brant was hitting on him. MJ, Gwen. There were girls everywhere. There is an element of Peter that sees himself a certain way. But the reality is that he’s doing much better than he thinks.”
CYANIDE AND HAPPINESS: As hard as it might be to believe, The New Yorker has a touch of the hip in them. They sent one of their staffers to the recent New York Comic Con and scored an oh-so-brief interview with the guys from Cyanide and Happiness. You won’t learn much, but it’s good for a couple of laughs. After you read the interview, be sure to click on over to the Explosm website for greater goodness.
STARLOG: The old fan favorite is still being published (though it’s $7.99 a copy on the newsstand – if you can still find a copy and a newsstand). Better still, they’re finally back up on the internets. It’s a subset of the Fangoria website, but they’re just getting started and they have a nice Comics Scene section that looks like it’ll expand over time. Starlog has an impressive backlog of material – great articles, profiles, interviews and more, and it would be great to see some of that fun stuff online.
MARVEL COMICS: I would totally buy a Marvel comic that looked like this.
BATMAN: This guy loves him. (Warning: this is graphics heavy so if you’re backwards enough to still have dial-up, ye have been warned)
That’s all for now, have a great weekend and don’t forget to say thanks to the internets whenever you see them.
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