Comic Book Journal

Well, its 12:12 up here and I’ve been up while my town - and in fact the entire surronding region - has been in the path of a superstorm!

The damage has subsided and I don’t see any shattered windows or downed trees out my window, but I don’t dare look - there were 80 mph winds out there just a minute ago!

On that note, today’s update will be slightly abbreviated, since the only one of our normally watched webcomic - Dominic Deegan - has yet to update until the morning. So I’ll provide comments on the remaining two webcomics before soundly retiring to sleep, before updating the Dominic Deegan watch sometime tomorrow afternoon.

Least I Could Do - Rayne’s New York escapades continue, and frankly, I want him back in the old routine again. Rayne watches Avenue Q on Broadway, spends a night with one of the leading lady, and gives an awesome comeback to the play’s creators. Which leads me to something I’ve always wondered - does Ryan Sohmer have to get permission for every real person who shows up in his hilarious webcomic, or do some sort of parody-protecting laws apply?

Arthur King of Time and Space: Boy, do we learn about the origins and layout of Arthurian legends in this webcomic! Sometimes the commentaries - regarding the various works which mark up the King Arthur source material - is just as interesting if not more so than the webcomic itself! More plotting around the budding relationship between Guinevere and Lancelot - hopefully next week will be more heavier on the plot directly than this week.

Dominic Deegan: Over in Dominic Deegan, Gregory has to deal with his lack of White Magic through his body changing in some weird ways. More to the point, he’s a skinny dark-haired guy who looked pretty much the spitting image of his brother. Gregory uses this new body to his advantage when one of the Chosen comes looking for Dominic for revenge. The female Chosen is immensely baffled by the faux Dominic’s willingness to change -as well as his forthright kindness. The Gregory-Dominic lookalike scernario is a bit too coincidental for my taste, but I really like the female Chosen - I’m not sure her name has been mentioned yet - could Mookie finally be on the way to creating a villain for whom we care?

Expect something different for the list this weekend. I’m going to go to my local grocery store and compare their findings with my local comic book store. Just what’s on the newstands these days? The answers might surprise you.

Stan Lee’s POW! Entertainment has struck a deal with none other than Walt Disney studios “to develop new entertainment properties in all forms”, according to IGN.

If you watch Cartoon Network as much as I do, you might have noticed a couple animated features from Lee already airing, such as the shapeshifter superhero Mosaic, voiced by Anna Paquin, or the Condor, played by Wilmer Valderrama.

POW! reports there are 20 such characters in development, 20 still in the concept stages and another 40 yet-to-be introduced. Two things are apparent from this news. 1) Stan Lee has been busy and 2) he’s well on his way to creating an entirely new comic universe.

I’m not quite sure what specific role Disney is playing in the deal, but their presence could certainly aid POW!, whose work, to my knowledge, has only appeared sporadically on TV and then directly to DVD.

Could we be seeing the next decade’s equivalent of Gargoyles in the making, replacing mythology with superheroes (arguably its own mythology). I’ll let you find out as soon as I know!

The Marvel Zombies started out as a fanciful creation with the Ultimate Fantastic Four - making the Fright Four truly frightful flesh-eating zombies from an alternate universe instead of a group of poorly-dressed supervillains.

The Marvel Zombies have had a best selling mini-series by Robert Kirkland, as well as several crossovers - including one with Bruce Campbell’s Ash and the Army of Darkness!

But now the Marvel Zombies are launching into their darkest crossover yet - with the mainstream Marvel Universe. In this month’s issue of Black Panther, the newest Fantastic Four will be fighting their brain-eating counterparts - and you can bet they’ll have a bone to pick (pun intended) with Black Panther - who was definitive thorn in their side (and food supply) even in the alternate universe.

IGN has posted a five page preview of the main event, which is released June 27th. Expect a review when this comic slobbers to life soon enough

The Wizard website has posted some details for the Hellboy Animated comics. With the last entry, Blood and Iron, just arriving on DVD, you can bet your brimstone fans are already salvating for this cartoon-based comic.

Written by Jim Pascoe with art by Rick Lacy, the story arc “The Judgement Bell” is woven through Polish folklore, centering on the disapperance of an entire town full of children. Set in 1992, Pascoe, himself a detective noir writer, are set to focus on Hellboy’s paranormal investigator side - seeing him surronded by (and himself being) the supernatural.

I’m not entirely sure about this one. The interview with Pascoe is well and good. I like the comic. I like the movie. And I like the cartoon based on the comic with stars of the movies voicing. But I don’t know if I like the a comic based on a cartoon based on a comic. Seems a bit redundant, doesn’t it?

Still, the premise seems interesting enough, with plenty of Broom in action (although from the interview, there might not be all good things coming for the already ill-fated character), this looks like one to pick up at the comic book shop. I’ll have a full review for ya when Hellboy Animated: The Judgement Bell is released.

The third round of Small Press Idol has begun, and all the projects are posted, with less than a week left of official voting.

Sequential art is a lot harder to produce than just character designs and a cover, and the intensity shows in the line-up. No team managed to turn in a project on the first day of submissions, and many teams found themselves navigating a difficult deadline.

With the June 3rd deadline passed, the current line-up is conspicously absent of several heavy-hitters of rounds past. Virgina Mills-Barfield’s Windy City and Joe Reynolds’ Philadelphia: The Game are not among the posted works. At this point, there’s no way of knowing if they miss or made it and haven’t been posted yet. Although I will say this - if the latter is true, the crazy competition is going to get that much crazier.

The current Top 6 looks like Ninja Garden, Sky Pirates, Thieves, The Mid Ground, The Retreiver and Gutter.

Another prize has been added to the works - the next seven works will provide the cover and lead story for their respective Mysterious Visions Anthology. At this time, they are Translucent, Ruthless, Kensuke, Zombies of Liberty, Ho vs. Joe, Pierced, Pinnacle and Arena.

But with less than a week to go, all of this is sure to change! So do you’re civic duty and vote!

Vote Pierced!

(I can’t help it . . . I really want that cover now!)

Okay, we have plenty to cover even in the dailies, so here we go!

Dominic Deegan brings plenty of interesting developments. Dominic’s brother Gregory turns himself into a comically bulky hulk by overdosing on his own white magic. Dominic “fixes” it - only to turn Gregory into a short, skinny, scruffy guy nearly unrecognizable - which works to his advantage when the sole remaining Chosen comes looking for him.

Least I Could Do began by finding Rayne kicked out of several Broadway shows for riding the actors. It was cute in the Lion King, but downright disturbing everywhere else. Rayne is currently intrigued by the actress behind a puppet play, but I’m wondering if Rayne might have bigger problems when comes back down to Earth, as I think his boss, or perhaps, his boss’ boss, might be eyeing Rayne for downsizing.

Arthur King of Time and Space is finally dealing with the fallout of Lancelot’s night the with deceptive Elaine. The reactions run through all time periods - past, present and future - in many perspective and hilarious implications in the relationship between Lancelot and Guenevere. In one entry, Lancelot tells his forbidden love in medieval times it would have been better if they had met before she was married. The very next panel is in the future - same set-up - where Lancelot it would have been better for their relationship it they had met after she had been married.

This is Gravity finds Amanda - Dexter’s literally visionary friend - trying to discover the truth behind a series of arson plaguing a routy part of town known as the Wild West. Also, a superhero - or a guy running around in a ski mask - named the Watchman is involved. I’m so hooked.

In the epilogue of Between Two Worlds, Juhani responds to lame earth-bound fireworks by shooting up a freeze way from the other side into the sky. Let’s hope he knows what he’s doing, because he doesn’t, the whole cast might get frozen - what a weird twist ending that would make!

And finally Flatwood finds its hero Zack oh so closer to finally meeting the mysterious Mr. Milk whose been haunting his dreams like some Kubrick reject from the Shining. Though this comic has sporadically updated as of late, its always worth checking out for its sheer creativity and atmosphere!