TGIF: Coraline and More

Here are five things that I was excited about this week!
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1. Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern - The fanboys were going to get upset no matter who was chosen for the role of Hal Jordan, but let's face it: Hal Jordan's the typical boy next door type, so really anyone could have filled his shoes. Except maybe Justin Timberlake. Not sure why he was a top contender... I was kind of crossing my fingers for Bradley Cooper, but Ryan Reynolds, despite being tied to Deadpool, is a fine choice. A good leading man to make the film a success. He's certainly got the body to fill out the suit...
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2. New Craig Yoe imprint at IDW - IDW Publishing announced that Craig Yoe (Modern Arf) will have his own imprint of books beginning this Fall. The first book due out is The Art of Ditko, featuring full-color original art by Steve Ditko with essays galore. Next from Yoe we will see The Complete Milt Gross Life Story and Comics, featuring a complete biography of Gross, as well as every comic put out by the artist.
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3. Watchmen on DVD - I really enjoyed this movie, so it's DVD release is certainly cause for excitement, even if it didn't meet box office expectations. The only problem with this release is that the Director's Cut won't be out until December, and as I'm not going to have two Watchmen DVDs in my house, I'll have to wait to own a movie I enjoy...but I am certainly looking forward to another viewing
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4. Entire Criterion Collection 50% at Barnes & Noble - Criterion puts out beautifully-packaged DVDs for films that really deserve the treatment, many of which would probably never make it to DVD normally. You can get Akira Kirosawa, Cinema Paradiso, and familiar films like The Ice Storm and The Royal Tenenbaums through Criterion. They are usually pretty expensive since they're such deluxe presentations of mostly obscure (but important) films, but this sale makes them more affordable than most DVDs. Buy them half price in stores and on-line for the next week and a half (and members save an extra 10% on top of the sale).
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5. Coraline on DVD - I haven't even seen the movie, but I'm really looking forward to renting Coraline, as it's from the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas (Henry Selick) and more importantly, it's adapted from the magical story by Neil Gaiman (of Sandman fame), who wrote the excellent, recent Newberry Award-winning novel The Graveyard Book.

In Stores 7/15

Here are the highlights of books hitting comic shops tomorrow!

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Pick of the Week

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Blackest Night #1 (of 8) - DC's big new crossover event launches this week, featuring the "Black Lanterns" from the various rainbow-colored lantern that have been popping up in Geoff Johns' Green Lantern books over the past few years. The premise sounds like a lot of fun.

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Other Noteworthy Releases

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Angel: After the Fall (Volume 4) HC

Annihilation Classic TP

Artesia Besieged #3 (of 6) - Returning from a hiatus.

Astro City: The Dark Age (Book One) TP

Batman: Whatever Happened To the Caped Crusader HC

Blackest Night: Tales of the Corps #1 (of 3)

Captain Britain by Moore and Davis Omnibus HC

Creepy Comics #1

Dan Dare Omnibus (Volume 1) TP

The Dreamer (Volume 1): Consequence of Nathan Hale

Essential Marvel Two-In-One (Volume 3) TP

Fallen Angel: Reborn #1

Guardians of the Galaxy: The Power of Starhawk HC

IDW: The First Decade HC

Incredible Hercules: Smash Titans HC

Madame Xanadu (Volume 1): Disenchanted TP

Mutts Treasury: Stop & Smell the Roses SC

Preacher (Book 1) HC

PVP Awesomeology Deluxe HC

RASL #5

Robotica: For a Few Rubles More Double-Sized #1 & #2

Spider-Man: Torment HC

Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes TP

Super Friends: Calling All Super Friends TP

Swallowing the Earth GN - New Tezuka reprint!

Thunderbolts: Burning Down the House HC

War Machine (Volume 1): Iron Heart HC

North 40 #1 (of 6)

Aaron Williams & Fiona Staples
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North 40 is a new DC/Wildstorm mini-series that launched this week, featuring a small Southern town off of the highway that is under siege by demonic forces. And can I just ask...what is with cthulhu in comics? Cthulhu comics seem to outnumber vampire comics two to one - it just seems odd. I mean, Lovecraft is great, but I don't get the fascination. There's Cthulhu Tales, The Fall of Cthulhu, Mnemovore (maybe not technically cthulhu, but might as well be), Arkham Woods... Anyways, I guess I can't fault this comic based on that, especially since using cthulhu in this story (and in the others, which is probably why he's used so much) allows the creative team to just do a lot of crazy things with the characters in Conover County: possession, weird psychic nonsense, transformations, vampirism...all that weird demon stuff goes down from a few whispered syllables out of a book with cthulhu on the cover. And if any of those other cthulhu comics taught me anything (besides the fact that artists love drawing tentacles) it's that cthulhu wants to manifest on Earth really, really badly, and he'll cause quite the bedlam to make that happen. One thing I don't like about a lot of these magic-based stories is that no limitations are really set in the universe, so anything could happen at this point. A character could magically find a weapon hidden in some obscure place they stumble upon (like a, er, scythe), or someone will start leaking an antidote randomly or something to save the day. It's just too easy to fix things when there are no boundaries established - it kind of cheats the story and doesn't build any tension or suspense leading up to the climax. That's how I felt reading the first issue of this series, like random things were just happening that the creators can assign any meaning to later on and it'll make things right. And unfortunately, the characters introduced are all pretty stereotypical Southern figures, so hopefully something interesting and different will be done with them to make this story a smidge original, since cthulhu...not helping the cause there. This book does have one really good thing going for it...the art. It's pretty beautiful. Whether it's just scenes from the town diner painted in soft pastels, or tentacles writhing over dark figures bathed in shadows, Fiona Staples does a pretty stunning job. Dainty shapes, hulking boxy characters, elaborate curves and hooks...it makes no difference, as they all look great under her hand. Even if I don't continue reading this book, I'll definitely be keeping an eye on the projects she has coming up in the near future.

TGIF: Archie and More

Here's what I was most excited about over this past week!
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1. Archie collections from IDW - IDW Publishing, who has done some pretty impressive comic strip archival projects through their Library of American Comics line (Dick Tracy, Terry and the Pirates, Little Orphan Annie), is going to be putting out collections of classic Archie strips! This is a reprint project that's definitely been missing from the shelves. We will see the original Archie strips by creator John Goldwater, and artist Bob Montana, as well as "Best Of" volumes featuring runs by great artists such as Dan DeCarlo and Stan Goldberg!
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2. The Collector theatrical trailer - The trailer for this upcoming thriller looks pretty fantastic. A man breaks into a rich family's home to steal money from their vault only to discover that the family is being harassed and tortured by a maniac.
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3. The Things We Did Last Summer by A Fine Frenzy - A Fine Frenzy blew me away with their debut CD a few years ago One Cell In the Sea, particularly with their song You Picked Me. Their new single was just released through I-Tunes, a cover of the Frank Sinatra song, with a new album due out on August 11th.
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4. Giallo theatrical trailer - Dario Argento has a new movie coming out soon (sometime this year)! The trailer looks like nothing new for Argento fans (it may even look a little tame compared to some of the weird goings-on of The Three Mothers trilogy), but you can always expect an interesting time, at the very least, when it comes to the Italian director. This murder mystery stars Adrien Brody.
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5. Jeff Smith named guest of honor at C2E2 - The Bone and RASL creator is going to be the very first guest of honor at the 1st annual Chicago Comics & Entertainment Expo, a new comic book convention that will debut in April of 2010 in downtown Chicago (rivaling the standard Wizard World: Chicago convention). This bodes well for the convention, and I can hardly wait (as I'm only an hour's drive north of Chicago)!

Wednesday Comics #1

Various
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DC's new weekly comic book is an anthology in the form of a newspaper that folds out into 14" x 20" broadsheets. There are fifteen one-page stories within the anthology, each by a different top-notch creative team that are focusing their stories on a different character (or characters) from the DC Universe. My initial impression when going through this was that I was reading previews of stories, they were mostly set-up and I wasn't very familiar with some of the characters like Metal Men. And having watched a few movie trailers prior to this undertaking, I guess that was how I kind of felt about the stories - like they were more or less advertising, selling, the stories that were to come, especially since I'd had no prior knowledge as to what these individual stories were going to be about. It's interesting to see how certain creators approached this endeavor, many with continuing arcs that hardly slowed down for the page's end like Adam and Joe Kuberts' Sgt. Rock, while others left the page on a cliffhanger of sorts (which seemed to be the favored format overall), and yet others made the story (while "to be continued") more episodic, with a good full story within that page, which I really appreciated in Kurt Busiek and Joe Quinones' Green Lantern. But no matter how the creators chose to tell their story, one thing was clear right away and that was that each team really utilized the page to the best of their abilities to show off their talents. In an anthology like this, I liked some of the comics more than others, of course. Here were my impressions of each of the stories...
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Batman by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso - This was the comic that led off the anthology with a pretty standard scene of Batman meeting Gordan on the roof of the police station, but with some pretty haunting final images introducing a mystery villain, motives unknown.
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Kamandi by Dave Gibbons and Ryan Sook - This was my favorite of the bunch. I love Ryan Sook's art and this Prince Valiant-type showcase is perfect for his abilities. I love comics where I can just stop and admire the art like this, and while there are a lot of stories in this anthology that caused me to do just that, this was the shining example, as readers are introduced to Kamandi's destroyed future Earth.
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Superman by John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo - The Alex Rosses and Greg Lands of superhero comics are turn-offs for me, but Lee Bermejo's art, while very realistic, shows real depth and emotion in the characters' faces here. So while at a glance, I wasn't expecting to like this page, when I actually read it, I was taken in by the art. It's really beautiful.
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Deadman by Dave Bullock and Vinton Heuck - Deadman's powers lend themselves to this type of noir supernatural mystery perfectly, and the cartoony art by Bullock suited the comic well. I felt like I got a good chunk of story for one page, with a brief overview of Deadman's history mingled with the current story thread.
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Green Lantern by Kurt Busiek and Joe Quinones - Like I said before, I feel like this was a pretty self-contained, full story which was nice to see among the offerings here. The creators took a neat approach too, putting the limelight on Hal Jordan's civilian friends for nearly the entire page.
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Metamorpho by Neil Gaiman and Mike Allred - This was one of my favorites of the bunch, a little goofiness mixed in with some action. Metamorpho's a really likable character and Allred's art is just superb on a title like this.
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Teen Titans by Eddie Berganza and Sean Galloway - I have to say that of all the offerings here, I liked this the least. The art itself was pretty, but it seemed really messy to me with the panels all depicting another group of Titans (various incarnations of the team) in mid-jump or super-posed. I was completely disinterested.
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Strange Adventures by Paul Pope - This Adam Strange story is a beautiful showcase for Pope's art, complete with an alien planet and Mandril-like attackers. Adam Strange is a little weird (character-wise), but offers a wealth of opportunities for artists, as is realized by Pope here.
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Supergirl by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner - This is a really cute story that rivaled Kamandi for my favorite. It's funny and well, has Streaky and Krypto, for crying out loud! Amanda Conner's art may not be as striking as other artists in this anthology, but it had its moments here.
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Metal Men by Dan Didio, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and Kevin Nowlan - This is a story that seems like it would sit well next to some old Jimmy Olsen comics. It's a little retro, silly and over-the-top, but I just loved it. This page is a shining example of the potential Wednesday Comics can live up to with great story and thoughtfully-laid-out panels coupled with gorgeous art that shows in a single page why these characters and this premise is so wonderful.
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Wonder Woman by Ben Caldwell - This is another offering that I just wasn't feeling. Once again, stunning art, but story-wise...I'm not a fan of the whole dream-thing that was going on. It was disorienting and bored me.
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Sgt. Rock by Adam Kubert and Joe Kubert - This was a bit brutal, the entire page full of panels of Rock being beat up incessantly by his captors. This really felt like the first page of a full comic more than anything else.
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The Flash by Karl Kerschl and Brenden Fletcher - This was structured differently than the others, but it worked nicely. First we get half a page of The Flash amid some action with monkeys, then we get half a page of Flash's wife Iris West (with a title that suggests she has her own book). I wonder if this is how the remainder of the story will be structured, split in half - it could make for an interesting overall offering.
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The Demon and Catwoman by Walter Simonson and Brian Stelfreeze - I really liked this one too. Very lovely art and a fun story with a lot of promise, pitting two characters against each other like this. I can't wait to see The Demon manifest itself.
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Hawkman by Kyle Baker - Once again, this felt like the first page of a longer story, which I would have expected more of in this anthology. Great art, and I liked seeing this page through the eyes of the birds at Hawkman's side.
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Wednesday Comics launched to great success artistically. I think this is a great idea and a wonderful way to showcase some obviously very talented people working in mainstream comics. I hope to see more of this kind of ingenuity and play with the format in the future. This deserves to be every bit the success that DC set it up to be.

In Stores 7/8

Here are the highlights of books coming to comic shops tomorrow!

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Pick of the Week

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Asterios Polyp GN - I just picked this up yesterday from my bookstore and I'm excited to start digging in. A new graphic novel from David Mazzucchelli that's been getting a lot of buzz and acclaim. This will probably be a big contender for book of the year.

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Other Noteworthy Releases

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100 Bullets (Volume 13): Wilt TP

BPRD 1947 #1 (of 5)

Captive Hearts (Volume 5)

Dark X-Men: The Beginning #1 (of 3)

Fairy Tail (Volume 7)

Fruits Basket (Volume 23) - Final volume!

High School Debut (Volume 10)

Honey Hunt (Volume 2)

Kitchen Princess (Volume 10)

Leave It To PET! (Volume 2)

Marvel 70th Anniversary TP

Nana (Volume 17)

Naruto (Volume 45)

Negima (Volume 23)

New Warriors Classic (Volume 1) TP

Nobody HC

North 40 #1 (of 6)

Pixu (Volume 1): Mark of Evil TP

Prince Valiant (Volume 1): 1937 - 1938 HC

Runaways: Teenage Wasteland HC

Showcase Presents: Batlash TP

Superman: Whatever Happened To the Man of Tomorrow HC

Uncanny X-Men: First Class #1 (of 8)

War of Kings: Warriors #1 (of 2)

We Were There (Volume 5)

Wednesday Comics #1 (of 12)

Manga Monday: Rosario + Vampire

Rosario + Vampire (Volume 1)
Akihisa Ikeda
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Rosario + Vampire starts out with the same sort of premise as Animal Academy: student with low grades gets into a single school, not realizing that it is a school for supernatural students, where they are the only human. But Rosario + Vampire was serialized in Japan prior to Animal Academy, so obviously Rosario + Vampire is the more original of the two. The protagonist of this supernatural comedy/drama is Tsukune Aono, who only stays at this scary school full of werewolves and shapeshifters and killer mermaids for the sake of the beautiful Moka Akashiya, who's the envy of the entire school. Lucky for Tsukune, she has her eyes set on him...well, on his neck perhaps, but on him. One taste of Tsukune's blood and Akashiya is hooked, but it turns out she really does like the guy, even when she realizes that he is only a puny human. This also makes Tsukune quite the target, given the jealousy that courses through the veins of the male monsters of the school, and their desire to attain Akashiya. Rosario + Vampire is a fun manga with lively characters and a perfect mixture of comedy with action and classroom drama. I like Ikeda's art, which is, appropriately enough, a nice mix of cartoony and realistic, with some pretty creepy monster images. The thing I like most about this book is the dynamic between Akashiya and Tsukune. It's just a lot of fun to "hang out with" these two characters.