>Wednesday Comics are a hit around the shop, and with good reason. DC’s kicking it old school, really old school by printing stories in the Sunday Morning funnies format that was the preferred reading format before comic books became big in the 1940’s. These full page, serialized stories would keep the reader on edge until the next week, in only one page. I wouldn’t say that what DC is doing with Wednesday Comics is innovative, but it is very cool.

Each page is a different story with different creators and teams like Brian Azzerello and Eduardo Risso of 100 Bullets fame who craft their patently noir spin on Batman. Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook take on Kamandi the Last Boy On Earth in a very Prince Valiant narrative style where word balloons are noticeably absent. John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo tell a Superman story that finds Superman questioning where Clark Kent stops and Kal-El begins. Probably my favorite pairing of writer and artist in this project is Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred as they tackle Metamorpho with a distinctly retro vibe as Allred is known for. The other retro comic vibe comes to us in the Green Lantern story by Kurt Busiek and Joe Quinones that hearkens back to a New Frontier style. One of the stories that is quickly becoming one of my fav’s is the Deadman story by Bullock and Heuck, The layout of the pages are just amazing and reminds me of the work of Darwyn Cooke. Paul Pope delivers an Adam Strange story that looks like it belongs in old school Sunday funny pages and is another of many fine examples of pure draftsmanship layout skill in this jam session of creators.

Sunday Comics is quite simply a work of art. The art is beautiful, the stories are wonderful, and seeing stories like these in a large newspaper sized format is a sight to behold. This was a smart idea from DC, and as cool as the single issues are, I’m sure that the oversize hardcover that will be released after the series ends will be nothing short of breath-taking.

-Jim

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I thought ex-assistant manager Nick Kuntz was the only person at Star Clipper who paid close attention to the all-ages section. Lately though I’ve found myself more and more into all-ages comics. First, I was won over by Lockjaw and the Pet Avengers. Now I’ve been reading the Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius one-shots. I know the Franklin Richards series has been around since 2005, but I just recently caught on to its mischievous genius. Drawn and mostly written by Chris Eliopoulos, the Franklin Richards series is the closest comic to Calvin and Hobbes in design since, well, Calvin and Hobbes. I know that’s a pretty lofty statement, but Franklin Richards is seriously funny and has been nominated for both the Eisner and Harvey awards. The comic falls outside of normal Marvel continuity but does comment on major Marvel events like World War Hulk and Secret Invasion. However, all you have to know is that it follows Franklin Richards (calvin) and his robot nanny H.E.R.B.I.E. (Hobbes) as they cause accidental havoc with father Reed Richards/ Mr. Fantastic’s inventions.

Series mastermind Chris Eliopoulos also has his own webcomic Misery Loves Sherman. The webcomic also has a similar vibe to Calvin and Hobbes and focuses on Sherman, a shy kid he gets picked on by his friends but escapes into a second world with his alien friends Zort and Benny and have adventures. For fans of Calvin and Hobbes or the Fantasitic Four both of Elipoulos’ comics are well worth checking out.

-Jon

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What a year for Marvel. Four of their major books reached a landmark issue 600 in 2009. First was the somewhat overlooked Thor. Then the much hyped Captain America, announcing the return of Steve Rogers. Now, both The Amazing Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk reached issue 600 in the same week. Congratulation.

However, with a little investigation, I think Marvel might be cheating the number of issues that actually make up 600. For instance, Thor first appeared in Journey into Mystery 83. Yet, Marvel is counting Journey into Mystery 1 through 82 as part of what makes up the 600 issues of Thor, even though the Norse Thunder God never even appeared in those first 82 issues. This problem is the same with Captain America. Cap first appeared in his own series in 1941, and didn’t reappear in his own book until the later 60’s. In the interim, Cap was a split feature with Iron Man in the series Tales of Suspense starting at issue 59. Marvel counts the other 58 issues of Tales of Suspense as part of Captain America’s 600 issue legacy. Again this is the same with the Hulk. The Incredible Hulk had a quick 6 issues series before cancellation. Marvel brought back the jade giant a year in a half later as a feature in Tales To Astonish 60. So Marvel counts 59 issue of Tales To Astonish that don’t really have Hulk in them.

Okay, Marvel is bending the rules here, but at least they admit to it. In all the 600 issues except Spider-Man, Marvel crams in complete cover galleries that include the issues that don’t actually have the character in the comic as a bonus feature. Thanks, I guess?

In fairness, all these landmark issues have been more than worth the additional buck in cover price because they are double sized issues and normally have major turning points for the characters. I’m just surprised no one else has called Marvel out on not actually being up to the 600th issue and using this trick to up-sale more comics. At least there weren’t hologram cover 600 variants.

-Jon

>A few days ago, I was having a conversation with some friends about absurd characters in Superhero comics, more specifically, from Marvel. You see, I have an odd fascination with oddball characters being mixed-in with supposed serious characters. Anyway, the conversation turned to characters who are completely outclassed by the villains that they deal with. For example, during World War Hulk, Iron Man tried to take on The Hulk, one-on-one in this brand new Hulkbuster armor. For those not in the know, the Hulkbuster armor is designed specifically to deal with the Hulk. Anyway, so the Hulk shows up, and wipes the floor with Iron Man within a few pages of that issue, and to add insult to injury, Hulk destroys Stark Tower with Iron Man’s body. That was hilarious to me, mostly because I’ve never cared much for Iron Man, but also because Tony Stark was just so outclassed it was ridiculous. But this was the sort of thing we were talking about, which eventually led to me bringing up Squirrel Girl.

Squirrel Girl’s abilities as a mutant are as follows: Sharp claw/nails that help her climb things, buck teeth than can chew through wood, she has the mutant standard enhanced agility and strength, retractable spikes that come out of her knuckles, a prehensile fluffy tail, and most importantly; the ability to speak to squirrels. So, she’s clearly an Omega level Mutant, right? Well Maybe not with those powers, but… She also has this other ability… This ability makes her so powerful that she should be on more team lists than Wolverine. This ability is that she… Well, she just can’t lose. There’s a scan of a comic panel that I’ll post at the end of this blog to solidify this claim, but for now, I’m going to talk about some of her other victories…

During her first appearance, Squirrel Girl attempted to become Iron Man’s sidekick at the young age of 14. Stark was unimpressed. Then, out of nowhere, Dr. Doom shows up in a massive aircraft and attacks them. He then captures Iron Man and Squirrel Girl (she snuck on board) and takes them on a ride to their doom. lol. But seriously, he was planning on killing Iron Man then dropping him in the ocean to dispose of the body. During the trip, Doom flies over a forest and miraculously though an open air vent, Squirrel Girl communicates to hundreds of squirrels who jump into the aircraft and chew on the machinery and attack Doom head on, making Doom say something truly hilarious. Anyway, the aircraft crashes, Dr. Doom is defeated, Iron Man is freed, and then everyone goes their separate ways. Hooray!

After this, Squirrel Girl isn’t used again for a number of years until she randomly pops up auditioning for the Great Lake Avengers. During this time her primary squirrel sidekick, Monkey Joe, is killed… So she gets another one, this one named, Tippy-Toe. She then goes on to defeat MODOK, Terrax, and a few other notable villains. But the thing is, she is rarely used in any kind of real capacity. But I suppose when you have a character who is pretty much a comical deus ex machina, it kinda ruins any credible writing that you’ve been doing. But then, why keep her around if you aren’t going to use her? Remember M-Day? The day when Scarlet Witch uttered the words, “No more mutants.” The day when Marvel cleaned house and limited the number of mutants from millions to a registered 198, with about 100 more roaming around unknown. So if she survived the cut, why isn’t Marvel doing anything with her? But if I were Tony Stark, I would’ve tried my best to recruit her to the top of the SHIELD initiative and make her my Number 2. I mean, considering their history, you’d think he’d have thought of that… Maybe some things would’ve gone differently… But in the end, we are just talking about comics, so its not that big of a deal… So yeah, here’s to Squirrel Girl, easily the greatest hero Marvel has to offer… But before I go, I failed to mention the victory that makes her Number 1 in my book… There is some controversy over this win, but that wasn’t until way after the fact… But even with the idea that this she defeated a perfect clone, really doesn’t change anything at all, seeing as a perfect clone is essentially just the same as the original. But that’s enough stalling. Marvel fans know that when it comes to villains, there aren’t too many out there that rank higher than Thanos… But it seems that no one told Squirrel Girl. Until next time.

-Flee

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In the first night of SDCC 09 some of the most exciting news was announced. There will be two new Bone stories coming out in 2010 and 2011 released from Scholastic! Bone creator Jeff Smith elaborates on his website boneville that the two releases will be Bone: Tall Tales and Bone: Quest For The Spark.

Bone: Tale Tales will be a repackaged edition of the out-of-print book Stupid, Stupid Rat Tails by Jeff Smith and Tom Snigoski. Scheduled for release in summer 2010, Tale Tales will also feature a rare Bone story from Disney Adventures magazine. The book will be re-colored by Steve Hamaker. Tale Tales picks up after the Bones have made it back to Boneville in the conclusion of the original story, and Smiley Bone and Bartleby tell campfire tales to a group of Bone Scouts.

Bone: Quest For The Spark will be a series of three novels of all new Bone stories written by Tom Snigoski. The new series will have some reoccurring characters like the stupid rat creatures and Roderick the raccoon, but will focus on a cast of new characters and their trip into the valley. Quest For The Spark isn’t scheduled for release until 2011.

-Jon

>Coming soon; Masterpiece comics by R. Sikoryak from Drawn & Quarterly, something I’ve been looking forward to since I first saw it grace the pages of Previews. The basic concept is to take works of classic literature and philosophy and skew it through the medium of comic books and funny page strips. The cover of the book alone has William Shakespeare leading a charge of other classic writers in a style similar to the cover of Giant Sized X-Men #1, and lets face it, if Billy Shakes is leading a charge of that magnitude, then it’s gotta be good.

Thrill to the adventures in the pages of Dostoevsky Comics starring an axe wielding Batmen-esque character in a story titled Crime & Punishment! Gaze in wonderment at the exploits of a cigarette smoking existentialist Superman figure in Action Camus! Journey into the darkest corners of the soul with Jon Faustus (Arbuckle) in the timelessly hilarious Mestiphofield! Witness the grotesque metamorphosis of everyones favorite beagle owning blockhead in, Good Ol’ Gregor Brown. And do you dare venture into the Crypt of Bronte?

This collection satisfies not only the comic nerd in me, but the literary geek as well. Satire at its best that I simply can’t wait to see.

-Jim

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I’ve been a fan of Ex Machina for a long time now, but I had just about given up on the series. Not that I thought Brian K. Vaughan’s political anti-superhero comic was bad, it was just getting stale. Over the last two graphic novels, Power Down and Ex Cathedra, the individual story arcs were strong but didn’t seem to have an overarching direction. Since Vaughan has commented from the beginning of the series that he planned on ending it at issue 50, it felt like the direction was to wayward to already be forty issue over. However, the current story arc Ring Out The Old is starting to bring Ex Machina full circle.

With this arc, Vaughan begins to tie up three loose ends. First, Mayor Mitchell Hundred has declined to run for a second term despite his soaring approval ratings. Instead, Hundred makes the controversial decision to raise taxes 20 percent, with the ultimatum that if it doesn’t improve the standard of living in New York City within his final year he will give up his residency in the city. Second, as the Great Machine, Hundred is being forced to confront his old archenemies Pherson or someone like him. Long thought dead, animal manipulator Pherson has returned to New York and has unleashed a plague of vermin on Time Square right before the New Year’s Eve festivities. Against Hundred’s best judgement he reluctantly goes to investigate the resurrected villain in an abandoned subway tunnel. Finally, and most importantly, it looks like Vaughan plans to reveal how and why Hundred gained his power to talk with machines.

Now that Ex Machina seems to have more direction I think it will leave a greater impact on the comic world. Ring Out The Old is still concluding and if you’ve given up on the series this will hook you right back in.

-Jon

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The Dark Avengers/ Uncanny X-Men crossover Utopia has really surprised me. I wasn’t expecting to like the series at all. I predicted Marvel would be in trouble without having a major summer event and would really fall behind the anticipation and sales of DC’s Blackest Night. However, Utopia has started out with a really strong and straight-forward story that is wisely less expansive as Marvel’s previous event Secret Invasion.

The plot in Utopia is pretty simply to follow. The anti-mutant group Humanity Now marches through San Fransico and members of the X-Men butt heads in protest, consequently starting a riot. As the situation gets more and more out of X-Men leader Cyclops’ control, Norman Osborn’s Dark Avengers are called in to clam the storm. Yet, Osborn is also using this situation as a strategic move to keep the X-Men in check of his power, by introducing his shocking alliance with Emma Frost’s registered Dark X-Men.

One major plot thread that is interesting is the deterioration of Scott Summers and Emma Frost relationship. Both X-leaders have been taking actions behind each others backs for quite some time now, and the consequence of this is finally starting to pay off in Utopia. However, it is the Dark Avengers half of the story that is truly compelling. Though Osborn and his ex-criminal cohorts might play a dirty game, they are actually doing a better job serving the public good then Tony Stark’s S.H.I.E.L.D. Though there are hints that the Dark Avenger’s fatal falls will eventually lead to their downfall in this series, it’s still hard not to fall for Osborn’s charm. The Dark Avengers are like any good Mobster story, you somehow find sympathy for the characters no matter the fact that what you know how they achieve their victories are wrong.

Like I said before, I wasn’t expecting to like Utopia but have been pleasantly surprised. It might even give Blackest Night a run for it’s money not being so convoluted and controversial.

-Jon

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So lately, I’ve been getting back into the motions of watching horror films again. I’ve always been fan of the horror genre, especially 80’s horror. I was pretty much raised on it. A few years back, I could recite the stats of just about any major horror movie figure… Especially the Slashers. Micheal Meyers, Jason Voorhees, Freddy Kruger, Leatherface, The Tall Man, Chucky… The list goes on. So imagine my delight, when I came across, “Hack/Slash” by Tim Seeley, a few years ago. A bunch of one-shots that eventually earned its way into a monthly series, about a girl and her hulking masked partner who go out and kill unstoppable themed serial killers.

The story goes something like this; Cassandra Hack, daughter of the notorious Delilah Hack aka The Lunch Lady, grew up an outcast and attended the same school her mother worked at as a Cafeteria Server. As life went on, Cassie’s mother would poison the food of the those who would tease her daughter, eventually being confronted by the police, where Delilah Hack would commit suicide in front of her daughter. Cassie would then be sent to live with super-religious foster parents, as her birth father had run out on the family shortly after she was born. During her time in the foster home, she trained in various martial arts and fighting disciplines, hardening both her body and mind. About two years later, teenagers started to die in the same fashion as those who were killed by her mother. Turns out, the killer was her mother, back from the dead, continuing to “avenge” her daughter, in the same sense that Jason Voorhees kills for his mother. Cassie felt responsible this set of events and as a result, she went out to save anyone else from the terror that comes from Supernatural Slashers.

While on the hunt, she ends up hunting, who would later become her partner and care taker, the masked giant known only as Vlad. Together they’ve traveled the country, killing Slashers and befriending the would-be victims, who become vital assets and contacts for the duo. However, the thing that stands out between these comic “heroes” and their movie “hero” counterparts is that the stakes are always high for them, and when things go south, there’s no magic plot device to save them from danger… At least, not often. And sometimes, they just can’t save the day, as was the case when they came across Chucky and Herbert West. You may remember Chucky as Charles Lee Ray, the man trapped in a self-imposed voodoo curse inside of a Good Guy Doll… Otherwise, the killer doll from the “Child’s Play” films. And Herbert West, the Lovecraft character who developed a serum to raise the dead. He’s also the “protagonist” of the “Re-Animator” films. But this isn’t to say that only licensed characters escape Cassie’s judgement. There are reoccurring entities that seem like they just refuse to stay down… You could call them the Slashers that get sequels.

And I think that’s part of the reason why I like this series so much. Cassie and Vlad are just special guests in the “movies” of these killers. They’re pretty much just jerks who show up in the movie and end it prematurely. So the characters who would end up becoming the hero of their “movie” never do. It would be like, if Tommy Jarvis never killed Jason in Friday the 13th part 4 or if Laurie Strode never stopped Micheal Meyers in Halloween 2 or if Nancy Thompson never stopped Freddy Krueger in A Nightmare on Elm Street. Those various series would’ve ended the second Cassie and Vlad showed up. Which to some would be a good thing, but for me, my childhood would be destroyed. So in that regard, Hack/Slash is sort of a guilty pleasure. But… The kicker about all of that stuff about ending the movies is that Hack/Slash is getting a movie… Eventually. It’s been about 3 or 4 years since that was announced as a plan. I think the idea was that a major motion picture would’ve been released back in 2008. Obviously, that didn’t happen. But the last I read, Megan Fox of Transformers fame, and the upcoming “Jennifer’s Body”, really wanted the role of Cassie Hack. I don’t really know how I feel about that. She doesn’t really come across as a Suicide Girl to me, and seeing as a major influence to the character is a Suicide Girl… I don’t know. But I do know that Hack/Slash has a fairly large fan base, and the amount of cosplay and fanart dedicated towards the series amazes me. So yeah, if you get a chance, check out Hack/Slash. And in case you didn’t gather from this read, the book is violent. Very violent. There’s a lot of adult content too… Not for kids…It’s a lot like an 80’s horror film, actually. Except with better wardrobe and dialogue.

-Fleet

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Chances are if you’ve shopped at Star Clipper, Sean Frye was browsing the aisles next to you. The guy really knows his comics and has been loyally shopping here since before I came on board. Turns out, he can paint– and draw– a lot better than your average bear. He has been an art instructor for several years, is a prolific creator and shows his work at high-profile venues like Schlafly’s Art Outside. Seemed like a gallery show of his Strange Adventures series at Star Clipper was the natural thing to do, especially considering the cartoon-inspired nature of his work.

Sean explains that his current body of work is a hybrid of both fine art and graphic illustration, and the content is pulled from different social, political and personal sources. “My ‘Strange Adventures’ series focuses on on current events with a twist. For example, my piece ‘Still Smokin’ Nuns’ is a metaphor for clergy placing themselves on a pedestal of piety above ‘lowly’ sinners, when their private behavior can be so unsaintly.”

Sean Frye was born in East St. Louis, IL and now lives in St. Louis, Missouri. After serving in the U.S. Navy, Sean received his Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) Degree from Webster University, Master of Arts (Drawing), Master of Fine Arts (MFA) Degree in Painting & Sculpture from Fontbonne University. He has served on the faculty at St Louis Community College at Forest Park & Wildwood.

The opening reception will be held at Star Clipper from 7 to 9 PM on Friday, July 24. Come out and join us!

-A.J.