Weekend Reading: Dick Tracy, Grim Ghost, Wonder Woman & Bully

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Reviews, Television, DC Comics, IDW Publishing, Marvel Comics,

Is there enough money to get Ricky Gervais to host the Eisner Awards this year? Please tell me there is. In the meantime, enjoy this link-based goodness:

Tracy: Here’s a nice profile of Mike Curtis and Joe Staton, the duo taking over the Dick Tracy strip on March 14. Bonus: the article features a 2-panel sequence from the Tracy strip by the new guys. I’m in! [Link: Daily Cartoonist]

Bonfire: Heidi at Comics Beat has the first part of a solid, smart interview with Ed Catto. You might know him as the Captain Action guy, but he’s also one of the guys behind the new comic-related advertising agency, Bonfire.

Tony: Mr. Tony Isabella has found a new comics writing home for himself over at the relaunched Atlas imprint. He’ll be co-writing the Grim Ghost, a series he worked on back during its original incarnation. Tony’s a good writer with an excellent sense of story & structure and he writes some snappy dialogue. I’m going to get this.

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Dick Tracy, Grim Ghost, Wonder Woman & Bully

Weekend Reading: Stephen J. Cannell, Shel Silverstein And The Flintstones

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, Interviews, Movies, Reviews, Television,

Sad news in the world of television and novels. Stephen J. Cannell, one of Hollywood’s legendary writers has passed away. The list of shows he worked on and created is legendary. Comic fans might know him best from The Greatest American Hero. He mentored a number of famous writer-producers, much like Roy Huggins had mentored him. When he got tired of television, he reinvented himself as a novelist – the ones I’ve read are quite fun – and actor (he had a somewhat recurring role on Castle). Jaime Weinman has a nice appreciation of one of my favorite writers.

The Flintstones: Now that they’ve turned 50 years old – yikes! – the classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon show has attracted a lot of media attention this week. Jerry Beck at Cartoon Brew noticed the coverage…particularly how stupid the Christian Science Monitor was about it.

Appy: It’s not too late to check in with the Appy Entertainment blog and see what I and two friends have to say about the digital age of comics.

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Stephen J. Cannell, Shel Silverstein And The Flintstones

Weekend Reading: Vertical, Fantastic Four, Cowboys & Aliens and Lost

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Editorials, DC Comics, Independent, Marvel Comics, Viz Media,

Happy holiday weekend for those of us in the US who love a long weekend, some grilled meat and a cold Pabst Blue Ribbon. And since there’s no football game, you can spend that extra time surfing the internet. Here are some links to fill the game-less void:

Vertical: Given the significant changes at manga publishers Viz (massive layoffs) and CMX (DC shuttered the division), it’s interesting to read about someone with a little different take on events. Rod Lott at Bookgasm has a chat with Ed Chavez at Vertical (publishers of Osamu Tezuka’s Black Jack, among other things). “While I will always say there is plenty of grade-A material to license from Japan available, access to those properties has become quite limited over the last three to four years. I find it curious that this lack of competition has occurred during the recent decline of the U.S. manga market.”

Steve Perry: The death of the Thundercats and Timespirits writer is just about the saddest way for a comic book creator to go. Johnny Bacardi exchanged correspondence with him recently, but I don’t want to spoil his story, except to say that it’s one you’ll want to read.

Click to continue reading Weekend Reading: Vertical, Fantastic Four, Cowboys & Aliens and Lost

Doom Patrol #1: Keith Giffen and Matthew Clark

Posted by Tom Mason Categories: Reviews,

I’ve always had a soft spot for the goofy Doom Patrol series from DC Comics. Originally created by writer Arnold Drake and artist Bruno Premiani, it debuted in My Greatest Adventure #80 in 1963, the same year that Stan and Jack debuted X-Men #1. A lot of fans argue that there are similarities between the Fantastic Four (which debuted before Doom Patrol) and the DP (both teams have four members with the same type of characters: a bitter non-human character, two men - one a scientific genius and the other who can burst into flames/energy - and a woman; in DP the woman – Elasti-Girl - can increase and decrease her size, a power somewhat similar to Mr. Fantastic’s stretchable skin). Others argue that there are similarities between DP and the X-Men (DP debuted three months before X-Men #1). Both teams are led by older guys in wheelchairs who love to boss mutants around, although Professor X clearly has the cooler, higher-tech chair thanks to Mr. Jack Kirby’s design sensibilities. Seriously, if I was a chair-based comic book character, I’d shop at “Chairs by Kirby.”

The original Doom Patrol has that typical 1960s DC Universe appeal and that early run reads like a dinner theater version of X-Men/Fantastic Four with somebody like Sterling Hayden playing Niles Caulder as Monte Wooley. (Forgive the Golden Age of Movies reference point, but I recently saw The Man Who Came To Dinner on Turner Classic Movies, and the first thing I thought of, because I’m a geek, is “That’s Niles.”) While Stan and Jack and company were creating an interconnected universe of recurring villains and cosmic storylines for their DP-similar books with multi-faceted villains like Doctor Doom and Galactus, DC had the Doom Patrol fighting the equivalent of space worms and monsters made from cuts of meat. So it doesn’t really matter if the Doom Patrol looks similar to either the Fantastic Four or the X-Men because it’s not the idea, or the make-up of the team, it’s what you do with them.

Click to continue reading Doom Patrol #1: Keith Giffen and Matthew Clark