- Fridays...with Greg Hatcher: An Anniversary Speculation

A terrific article about one man's experience collecting comics, and what might have been if superheroes didn't catch his eye. Well worth a look, even if only to browse over the covers of the time. I wish I could pinpoint the time I started as accurately as he has. If you're newer to reading, maybe you'll want to take note!

- Hip Hop Family Tree Demand Sends Book to a Third Printing

Just loving the whole presentation.

- 'Hellboy Day' Gets Anniversary Comic Sampler (Exclusive Preview)



Hellboy Day (or rather, the 20th anniversary special) is looking awesome!

Thanks mick for keeping this alive!

Peeps gotta post their interests, yo.

- Preview: Silver Surfer #1

Living in back issue land; I've been on a little bit of a Ron Marz Silver Surfer kick of late. It's always good to know there's a Surfer book in publication. Mike Allred always demands a look. All indications are this is one of the books to seek out on crowded shelves. Nothing much like the Marz space superhero - a psychedelic space dude. Should be its own kind of fun!

Reboots, yearly crossovers, and the new guys on the Green Lantern books having totally demolished half of Geoff Johns' worldbuilding for no good reason have me feeling seriously burned out on superhero books. I think the only cape comic I ever feel real excitement for with each new issue anymore is Invincible...and maybe Wonder Woman, but that will surely end when Azzarello's run is over.

But the first issue of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 10 coming out last Wednesday sort of reminded me of how much I love the books that are adaptations of other properties coming out of third party publishers right now.

I can't recommend IDW's Ghostbusters ongoing enough. It's perfect in every possible goddamn way a Ghostbusters book could be.

Their Star Trek book set in the Abramsverse is really strong too if you're into that sort of thing. I liked how when it started out, it was taking the plots of old TOS episodes and twisting them a little here and there to show how they'd be different in the new timeline. It's diverged more and more into original stories as it's gone on, which is nice too...but yeah, if you like those characters, it's worth following.
My favorite thing about these books is the art is super-clean, there's no 90's grittiness or scratchy, overdone pencils, and the actor likenesses are usually spot-on.

I keep trying to dip a toe into the New 52 to give it a fair go, but it really has stripped the nutrients out of things. Even the interesting stuff feels so stilted and dry. Marvel resisted formally rubbishing their baggage, but had their own brand of limitations for a while there. Feels like they're doing a better job of keeping things interesting with the pseudo-reboots, though. Using it to dig back into second tier characters, rather than just sandblasting the stars.

Injustice is the only series I've read with any dedication in the last few years, and for the most part it's exactly the kind of comic I'm not interested in. I'd be right there out of love with spandex if there wasn't one tiny benefit to the bleaching of big 2 history: Back issues are cheaper than ever! My meagre spending is pretty much exclusively going into crap on paper. Fun times!

Marvel have definitely got a pulse going, though. Some pretty interesting stuff building up around the edges. I think things are too corporate, and the times too post-modern to allow for decisive eras like we used to have, but there's a bit of the year 2000 about some of this stuff. Broad swaths of mediocrity with the sense that there might be hope.

I was coming to drop a link to: Axel-In-Charge: Debuting A New "Daredevil," Getting Low with "Ghost Rider"

More than sick of Daredevil starting over, but it's been a clear stand-out for quite some time now. I'm also very interested in the new Ghost Rider. I'm really not keen on the whole Ghost RIder Corps schtick, but this new stuff looks clean, concise, logical and an exciting step forward for the concept. Really digging the visual risks, which seem inseparable from the concept. If we're going to relive the visual drive of the early 90s, it's nice to at least see somebody doing something interesting with it.





Daredevil smiling is still a nice sight, even if DD back in superhero land has been the status quo for a solid couple of years now. Again, I'm enjoying the colour and energy of the art direction.

- LIVE: Dan Slott Unveils "Spider-Verse," Featuring "Every Spider-Man Ever"





This manages to be simultaneously completely awesome and utterly uninteresting all at the same time. Which kind of sums up my feelings on Spider-man for several years now, I guess.

- Comixology: Silver Surfer Infinite #1

Key word: FREE.

- Preview: Occupy Comics, vol. #1
One of the largest coalitions of socially-conscious creators in the history of comics, Occupy Comics will finally bring its complete, collected book to specialty retailers on April 1, with an advance release to comic shops on March 26.

The 160-page book features the work of over 60 creators including Alan Moore (Watchmen, V For Vendetta), David Lloyd (V For Vendetta), Molly Crabapple (Shell Game), Art Spiegelman (Maus), Charlie Adlard (The Walking Dead), J.M. DeMatteis (JLA, Spider-Man), Matt Bors (War Is Boring), Bill Ayers & Ryan Alexander-Tanner (To Teach: The Journey in Comics), Joshua Dysart (Harbinger), Mike Allred (Madman), Ben Templesmith (30 Days of Night), and dozens more.

Intriguing!

- Greg Land Teases the "Original Sin" of "All-New Invaders"



Damned if I can muster any interest in any of this Original Sin nonsense, but it warms my cockles just to see Invaders in the mix. Low hanging fruit in the 'sinister secret past' stakes, you'd have to think.

- Preview: She-Hulk #3



Looks like She-Hulk is back and on the winner's list again!

- John Arcudi Celebrates 20 Years of Hellboy & BPRD



Can't go wrong with a good bit of BPRD!

- DC Comics Batman 75th Anniversary: #Batman75

It's Batman's 75th anniversary. There's a whole lot of Batmania going down in the Injustice DC Universe forum, including the [above] anniversary thread.

- The Line it is Drawn #183 – Western Re-Designs of Manga/Anime Characters

Oh, man. The Kirby-esques (Akira, Lupin the Third) are the clear winners!

- Cullen Bunn Challenges Houdini to Escape the World of "The Shadow"



Yesssssss!

- Preview: All-New Ghost Rider #2



Flames, chains, blades. That'll win the MK kids over, right?

- Alex Ross captures Captain America in two eras for variant cover



When Ross is on - it's worth it!

- Alex Ross, Mike Allred and More Cover the "Death of Archie"




Some great covers. Lots more in the article. Covers above: Ramon Perez, Alex Ross, Francesco Francavilla & Walt Simonson.

- Powell, Churilla, Find BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA for BOOM!



Where's JackBurton? It's finally here!

[See for more: Big Trouble in Little China Thread.]

God, I love Ross's style. Marvels and Kingdom Come, in my opinion, are two of the most beautiful books I've ever read.

- Preview: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Color Classics #6



A Mirage black-and-white classic presented in all-new full color! “Return to New York, Book Two” has Triceraton warriors, high-octane ninja battles in the sewers and streets of NYC, high-tech hi-jinks, and deadly Elite Foot Ninja just waiting to slice and dice the Turtles into green ribbons. Really... need we say more? Find it all here in this classic TMNT tale!



With the new movie on the way, never a better time to dive into the classics. This is one of the rare occasions where I think adding colour to the original product is a good idea. Gives it new life.


In my humble opinion, sequentials do Ross no favours. Even the broadsheet scale books were just asking a lot of paint to fit into tiny boxes. Great seeing him do big bold covers and spreads, though.

- Deadpool #27 Breaks A Guinness World Record With Its Cover



Officially sets a new Guinness World Record for number of characters pictured on a cover: 220. Pretty cool! Always fun when they cram the characters into these kinds of things. Used to love those splash pages with all the floating heads, when I was a kid. I'll let somebody else have the fun of trying to name them all. (Let me know if you spot George Perez in there).

Namor seems to disapprove, or maybe he owed someone a favor and they brought him as their plus 1 so he can be a post-wedding wingman, and he's unhappy about it.

- Preview: Ultimate FF #1





On the one hand, the current course screams spazzy random fan-fic line-ups. Reminds me of the nonsense I would come up with as a kid [ie; X-Men as FF]. On the other hand, having never been very fond of the gradually eroding Ultimate premise, I really like the shake-up. Putting aside the quality of any of the stories, I like the sense of danger redundancy has given the Ultimate books.

Great looking book, interesting premise. For those coming in late: Invisible Woman, Iron Man, Machine Man & Falcon are the pictured foursome of The Future Foundation. Apparently there's another member forcibly joining within the pages. Well worth checking out the preview.

- What other covers feature a ton of characters?

Deadpool #27 breaks Gunness World Record -- or does it?!

Questions are being asked and there's some competition mounting!

Why would Deadpool invite Impossible Man? Why would anyone invite Impossible Man anywhere?