CBF Graphic Chat Debut – I Kill Giants
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I debut a new monthly segment I’ve been looking forward to doing for a while. Given how much I’ve devoted to new books each week for Quick Picks, I decided to give graphic novels its own series of podcasts. This month, I bring up a spectacular Joe Kelly piece in I Kill Giants – a book I’d recommend to anybody, including those that either are bored with the superhero genre or are completely new to the medium as a whole. The tale Kelly weaves and how he mixes fantasy and reality is astounding. And when you add JM Ken Nimura’s breathtaking manga-inspired art, it brings a whole new level of creative imagination in a medium that has a lot of it. Give I Kill Giants a shot and let me know what you think. Enjoy! |
CBF Quick Picks #19 : Iron Man 2, Cap Casting News, FCBD, and Sweet Marvel Goodness
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What the heck has happened this last week and a half that has made comics so unbelievably good? Between a big movie just out, another big movie not out yet but has big casting news, big books from Free Comic Book Day, and big stellar stuff from Marvel, I couldn’t help but concatenate it all into one big podcast. My disappointments with parts of Siege aside, Marvel has certainly been on a role with their latest book and movie offerings. It only makes me wonder if they can keep things riding high into next year with their Thor and Cap movies, especially with Heroic Age coming down the stretch. But I won’t be a prophet of doom here – I’m loving Second Coming and I love this new take on the Wolvie/Spidey dynamic that Jason Aaron brings to the table. You definitely will not guess how Aaron starts that off… |
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CBF Podcast 13: The Decade in Review Part Deux
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Tim and I wrap up (no not rapping, we just talk) our decade in review starting at 2005. We hope you had a great year (and decade) and we’re looking forward to better and more podcasts, comics, movie reviews, videos and giving you our unique (some say odd, very very odd) take on comics.
Happy New Year everyone!
CBF Podcast 12: The Decade in Review Part One
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Using Tim’s quick pick from a few weeks ago, we round out the year and the decade with a look at Wizard’s Decade in Review. So what did you think about the last 10 years of comics?
Enjoy part one!
CBF Podcast 8: The Unwritten, Spider-Man, X-Force, DVDS
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No Green Lantern talk!
Okay, a little Green Lantern talk. Tim reviews the DVD Green Lantern First Flight, which I should be watching this Friday. There’s been some buzz about the new Marvel and DC DVDs and anime being made, such as Wolverine (which is really, uh…Japanese), Ironman and Hulk (both of which look amazing). We should do a movie podcast down the line.
I review issues 2 and 3 of Mike Carey’s The Unwritten. This is getting good, literary references, secret identities, magical powers, and mystery everywhere. I recommend it with my other new Vertigo favorites, Fables and House of Mystery.
We take a quick look at Grant Morrison’s Batman and Robin. Meh.
Tim reviews the end of the Spider-Man arch American Son, with spoilers so you are hereby warned. He also gets into the new X-Force, which is headed up by Wolverine. How he finds the time to do this we don’t know, must be a mutant or Canadian thing. I make a mental blunder confusing my X-titles (like that’s never happened to you).
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Comic Book Fury 6: Blackest Night Prelude, The Unwritten, Spider-Man
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There was an entire wall at the comic shop dedicated to Blackest Night Prelude, so I picked up Green Lantern 41, and Tim got a few Green Lantern Corps. We talk a little more about Blackest Night and how DC is preparing you for it. Something that should be interesting when Blackest night begins next month is the Batman crossover. Night Wing has won the cowl, but when will Bruce Wayne make a return? Steve Rogers is coming back much sooner than we expected, so is the Blackest night story line the right time to bring Bruce back?
I found another great title in the Vertigo line called The Unwritten, which is written by Mike Carey of Lucifer, Hellblazer, X-Men: Legacy, and others. He’s also the author of The Devil You Know, and several other dark fantasy books. For The Unwritten, think if Harry Potter was based on a real boy who been struggling to be free of the association, but when he does he discovers that it may have been more real than he knew. Very interesting work, didn’t grab me like House of Mystery or Fables, but I enjoy Carey’s work and will follow the series.
Tim finishes up with what’s been going down in Spider-Man. He brings us up to speed with the whole re-editing Peter Parker’s history (One More Day) to the current story line, American Son, which has been called one of the best Spider-Man arcs ever. And then there are the usual tangents into things like Book’s of Magic, and the new Batman and Robin series written by Grant Morrison.
We’re also thinking about creating a social community site for Comic Book Fury to get more of you involved. More about that in later posts.
Happy Reading!
Anatomy of the Comic Book
I routinely get asked what’s so fascinating about reading stories of spandex-clad super-heroes in the comics. I’ll get remarks that it’s just “nerd” material, just for kids, or that I need to get outside more. Granted, I do question at times why Superman wears red underwear outside his costume, but hey, he’s still fully clothed and that’s all that matters…
There’s a lot to be said about the comic book itself and what it brought to the table throughout history. When people were first introduced to Captain America in the 40′s, it was a response to our fears about how the U.S. will fare in WWII. When the X-Men were introduced in the 60′s, it spoke volumes about the racial prejudice prominent to that period. Then there were the stories that brought things down to a more personal scale. Spider-Man brought us a character that not only fought crime, but dealt with real-life issues most high school and college students could relate to. The Fantastic Four showed us that even super-hero families have relational issues and can still work them out. Combine these with the sci-fi aspects that comes with being super heroes and you can see why comics have outlasted economic turmoil and critic bashing over the years.
Of course, being that comics have been a visual medium for the longest time, there comes a time when the emphasis on art is stronger than emphasis on writing. Enter the early 90′s. Artists became superstars. Publishers produced hundreds of covers for almost every single issue. It was the “in” thing to collect and sell at later times. Storytelling took a back seat while artwork helped rack in the dough.
Then the market became saturated with thousands of useless issues that weren’t being collected. Consumers realized the deteriorating value behind these issues. Retailers and publishers lost millions. Marvel declared bankruptcy in 1996. The bare-bones storytelling became more noticeable and many fan-favorite characters suffered via cancellations. The industry started to re-think the direction behind its heroes as well as other areas they can explore.
The mid 90′s started to show the potential of the medium through Neil Gaiman’s Sandman, which Mike touched upon in our first podcast.
It was a different approach, delving into and re-inventing the mythologies Gaiman wanted to play with. It went away from the conventional super hero books and showed that comics could be as just a respected reading medium as any novel on the bookshelves. DC took notice and created its “Vertigo” line to accommodate creator-owned lines and new universes.
Fables, Y: The Last Man, Ex Machina, and more would help in grabbing old readers disenchanted by the old superhero stories and new readers looking for innovative storytelling. The superhero books would follow after DC and Marvel discovered a new crop of writers that could re-invent their images. And while today’s sales numbers may not reach the numbers the 80′s and early 90′s brought, comics are getting a new kind of respect that has resulted in writers being offered TV gigs and comic properties becoming high-grossing movies.
My next few posts will highlight the books I feel are helping to realize the medium’s potential. Feel free to suggest any you feel deserve to be up on that list. Enjoy!