Here’s to the Ladies
Conversations on the Female Geek at Wizard World Chicago

Boobs
I had come to Wizard World Chicago through an email sent by my comic book journalist friend, we’ll call her J, to some of her girlfriends: “I know you guys probably would not be interested in the con itself although I might need some boobs… I mean… people to help staff a booth and that would be free but would involve ogling by geeks.”

I thought to myself: I have boobs. I thought to myself: Secret Life Dream #86—visit a convention where I know nothing and observe it anthropologically. So, I wrote back.

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Guests of San Diego Comic-Con this year have been treated to a sneak peek at the animation for a new Grant Morrison project. That’s right– animation. In collaboration with Virgin Comics and Perspective Studios, Morrison is bringing the classic Indian myth of The Mahabharata to life with his project titled MBX. Combining the tale of ancient families at war with technology and super humans, this collaboration is a first for both companies and versatile– feature film and video game adaptation announcements in coming months are expected.

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Now that’s just damn cool . . . See the full image and an interview with Geoff Johns and Ethan Van Sciver regarding the event at Newsarama.

Polybagged with a die-cut chromium silver foil gatefold pop-up scratch and sniff cover! Buy 100 copies and sell them in 20 years so you can pay for your children’s college tuition!

Please to enjoy, Vince and Lucas’s conversation with Warren Ellis from within his hotel room at Wizard World Chicago. He talks FreakAngels, other Avatar work, his Internet presence, and how he feels about being back with the X-Men. Every time this man opens his mouth, gold spills out. Hit play and catch some for yourself!

 

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I count 15 characters, and not one single foot. Wolverine seems to be missing his waist, as well, unless he’s finally started succumbing to the ravages of time and taken to hiking his pants up to his sternum like an old man. There’s no background either, just a gaggle of characters huddled together in a very uninspired team pose. I understand the appeal of Turner’s art, even though I don’t find it particularly appealing myself. I’d be really curious to see what a comic penciled by Turner with someone like Keith Giffen on layouts and someone like Kevin Nowlan on inks would look like. Probably nothing like a Turner comic, I’m guessing.

I do like the fact that he included Longshot in the group. That makes me feel nostalgic in ways that dressing the team in their costumes from 15 years ago can’t.

Oh, and there’s an interview at Newsarama in which Axel Alonso and Nick Lowe say nothing interesting about a major storyline that will apparently feature lots of Iceman. Joy.

Artwork from something called “Marvel Apes”, which was teased at today’s “Cup ‘O Joe” panel:

Hmmm… That looks strangely familiar. Where have I seen that before?

Oh, I remember now:

FUCK YEAH! Gail Simone and Nicola Scott are launching a Secret Six ongoing series!

It’s day two at the NYCC, and thus far, Marvel has been severely underwhelming in terms of big announcements. DC, on the other hand, has been kicking my ass with news. First, there was the announcement of a Power Girl ongoing with the thoroughly awesome Amanda Connor on art; now, it’s a Secret Six ongoing by Gail Simone and Nicola Scott. The previous Secret Six minis are my favorite works by Simone, and given the group’s relatively low profile since the last one, I didn’t think we’d be getting a new mini-series, let alone a monthly title. Now if only DC Direct will get off their keisters and make a Catman action figure… and a Deadshot that doesn’t look anorexic…

DC announces ongoing Power Girl series

FINALLY. Here’s a series I can definitely get excited about. I’m not much of a Power Girl fan, so the idea of a monthly series starring the character doesn’t really do a heck of a lot for me. But I have been waiting years for Amanda Connor to choose a regular, monthly assignment, so the subject really doesn’t matter to me. This is an automatic purchase.

It looks like Terry Dodson will quit not-drawing Wonder Woman for DC to start drawing Uncanny X-Men for Marvel. Why the move? “I get paid more,” he explained, jokingly. (God, I hope he was joking). Like a lot of “exclusives” though, this one just excludes him from working with DC, not other publishers who aren’t Marvel, which seems to be a major reason why he took it.

Apparently he’ll be doing every other arc, switching back and forth with another artists. I’ve long thought
that getting two or more artists with similar styles to take turns on arcs was a great way to deal with the potential delays. However, Marvel found an artists whose style looks absolutely nothing like Dodson’s for him to work with—Greg Land.

I think FunnyBook Babylon summed up my own reaction quite well:
http://www.funnybookbabylon.com/2008/03/15/an-impassioned-plea-to-marvel-comics/

Updated with added Caleb . . .

I’m glad that James Robinson is coming back to the DC fold in a big way. I loved Starman and Golden Age, and he did a great job helping to bring back the JSA. But his new Justice League title, covered at Newsarama . . . I’m not so sure.

The main hang-up I have with it is the constant failure of books that strive to do the whole “proactive” thing. It works for an arc or two, but it never carries onward in any constructive capacity. Perhaps Robinson is the guy to do it, but I’m not sure.

It’s like this: the super-hero, almost by nature, is a reactive beast. Kind of like your local fire department. Sure, the FD can educate people about fire prevention, but they do their BIG WORK when something is burning. Same with super-heroes. They can patrol the hell out of their respective cities, but they do their main thing when the aliens arrive, the volcano erupts, etc.

Therefore, proactive is hard to write. If the world’s greatest detective (Batman) still finds himself showing up after crimes, then, no offense, how are Hal and Ollie going to get there first?

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Secret Invasion roars into comic shops soon. And it comes without a whole lotta extra books to buy.

Here’s the panel report at Newsarama. As you can see, there are going to be a number of tie-ins and crossovers. In fact, it’s indicated in the conversation that Secret Invasion almost tacitly requires that you read New Avengers and Mighty Avengers to keep up.

Other titles are . . .

A Secret Invasion Front Line, where hopefully we’ll spared comparisons of the Skrulls to Al-Qaeda (but I’m not holding my breath).

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Marvel’s WWLA X-Men Panel

Greg Land becomes the new co-artist on Uncanny X-Men. In a completely unrelated topic, stock prices for the Xerox Corporation jumped 15%.

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Welcome to the first edition of CON JOB, a new rotating feature in which we take the latest news from conventions with a bucket of salt. Let’s start with . . .

The first big news that struck me was that Jeph Loeb will be re-teaming with his long-time collaborator Tim Sale for a fourth “color” book for Marvel, entitled Captain America: White.

I’m not entirely sure, but I think it’s the never-before-revealed story of how Captain America and Bucky Barnes were secretly married the night before their final mission near the end of World War II.

Loeb’s always seemed to do his best work (that is, his least-awful work) when paired with Sale, so perhaps this will yield some good results. I’m not holding my breath though; some of their more recent work—including their Catwoman series and Spider-Man: Blue—has been pretty bad. But, in both cases, Loeb did afford Sale plenty of opportunities to draw plenty of characters. At the very least, the art should be nice and, if Loeb sticks true to recent form, he’ll take a “greatest hits” approach to the cast, and we’ll get to see Sale’s take on every Captain America character ever.

Here’s hoping Batroc the Leaper and The Falcon make it in somehow…