WELCOME BACK, CARTER!

I'm baaaackkkk!

With news that's already all over the web, but what the hell::

The Joker!

Rorschach on Set!

The Black Freighter lives! Check out the poster for the comic within the comic movie!

and finally, Old Boy Indy!

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN #1

There can be only one #1 for All Hallow's Eve!

John Carpenter's original classic, Halloween!

Happy Halloween all! Have fun Trick or Treating!

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN #2

Horror comics have a long and storied history - from EC classics like Vault of Horror to Tales from the Crypt right up to the modern age with books like Steve Niles's 30 Days of Night.

But for me the best, creepiest, and most consistently entertaining horror comic stars a cocky, rude, Englishman named John Constantine.

From his first appearance in Swamp Thing (vol.II) number 37, Constantine has been a constant enjoyment for me to read. The creation of Alan Moore, the mage has been written by a variety of writers throughout the years (including Americans Denise Mina and Brian Azzerello), but he has always remained so essentially, Constantine.

The latest run by Andy Diggle (The Losers, Green Arrow: Year One) has been nothing short of brilliant.

Boo!

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN #5, #4, #3!!!!

Three for the price of one! My favorite Halloween books:

#5 The October Country by Ray Bradbury

#4 Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale

#3 Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Bradbury is the king of Halloween spookiness and mystery as far as I am concerned - as much as Stephen King is the
master of horror, Bradbury turns the best tales of cool autumn winds, crackling leaves and carnivals in darkening fields.

Bringing it back to comics, The Long Halloween was the third time that Loeb and Sale tackled Batman in his "Year One" setting and made the whole affair an year long event that started and finished on All Hallow's. If you can't see the beauty of using the Bat's Rogues Gallery in a Halloween story, you've lost me and should probably surf on by!

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN #6

If a life-size bust of my favorite monster from
Sideshow Collectibles doesn't put you in the mood for All Hallow's, the price ($499.00!) might give you the proper holiday shock!

Anyway, it's sold out, but man, that is frighteningly cool . . .

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN #7

Go here and check out all the great designs for Kreepsville Industries upcoming coffintable book, Cereal Killers.

Some of my favorite artists are contributing to this, and I can't wait to get my paws on it. The artwork to the left is by Wayne Harris!

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN #8

Classic Bust of Leatherface! Take that Rodan!

HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN! #9

If you're going to wear a store-bought costume on All Hallow's to Trick-or-Treat in your neighborhood, there's only one way to go . . .



Ben Cooper. The King of the Costume. Classic Frankenstein.

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN! #10

Starting the countdown to my favorite holiday!

In order to properly prepare for the night of all nights, little ghouls and boys everywhere need a handy-dandy guide to make-up effects. Why not go with a classic!

LINKPORN

A follow-up to the Eightball controversy in CT: Teacher goes free, comics blamed.
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Logan gets titled.
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I'll take a case of Rudolph Pate, please.
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eBay gets on your desktop.\
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The vault is about to open - there's one coming from Marvel and DC too. Neato!
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More Star Wars news.
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He's back.

A SATURDAY NIGHT MEMO FOR YOU

From DC Comics' Green Arrow and Black Canary Issue #1, art by Cliff Chiang.


And for enterprising youth, a blank .jpeg version:

NUCAP = NEW COKE? YOU DECIDE!!

As a follow-up to my last post, Marvel Comics' big 10.11.07 announcement was the re-emergence, re-design and re-introduction of the recently deceased Captain America (see Captain America, Vol. IV, #25 for all the lurid details.)

Alex Ross designed the new look which incorporates the design of Cap's original triangular shield, as well as arming the NuCap with a gun and knife. Marvel's staying mum on who is taking up the mantle of the Sentinel of Liberty, but with Ed Brubaker writing, I am pretty confident it will be a fun ride.

As for the new costume, the verdict is still out for me. I like the general idea of a more urban combat-looking costume. It's more functional, less "costum-y." The metallic effect, while it works great with Ross's paints, is going to be hard for many artists to pull off without it looking cheesy.

Ross used a similar technique for the re-design of DC DC Comics' Citizen Steel (formerly Commander Steel) in that company's JSA title.

In that book, Dale Eaglesham and Ruy Jose, have done an admirable job of keeping Ross's metallic design while still staying true to their own style of art. I credit the colorist here too, but I don't have an issue handy to see who that is.

One colorist that comes to mind who's always done an admirable job with metal surfaces is Laura Depuy - certainly over John Cassiday's pencils on the character Danger in Astonishing X-Men.

I'm confident in Steve Epting's abilities as penciller and painter to stay true to Ross's redesign, it's just that with the way Marvel handles it big events, you just know that NuCap is going to be appearing in every title from Iron Fist and New Avengers to Moon Knight and Ghost Rider. With that wide range of artists handling the appearance of the difficult to nail effects of the costume, readers are going to get a lot of less than stellar interpretations of the new duds.

Whatever the eventual treatment of the costume is, there are going to be many purists who can't stand the idea of a NuCap in a new outfit. Personally, I have really been enjoying the storyline of Cap's death and the aftermath. Besides World War Hulk, its the best thing Marvel is doing right now. Also, I am not a diehard Cap fan, so the changes effect me that much less.

One of the first Cap stories I read and loved, however, was Mark Gruenwald's 12 or 14 part story that started with Steve Rogers quitting as Cap and a new more ruthless person taking over the roll. So, I'm already partial to NuCap stories.

And anyway, this is comics and the original Cap, Steve Rogers, will be back from the dead soon or later.

My money's on sooner.

images courtesy of Marvel Comics via Newsarama

MARVEL, MARVEL, MARVEL

Here's the teaser poster for Jon Favreau's Iron Man :





















And here's a teaser image for a big announcement Marvel Comics is making on October 11th, 2007, apparently :
Can you tease a date?

This is another perfect example of Marvel's insistence to make everything they do overblown. World War Hulk (and Planet Hulk leading up to it) has been a great storyline with little or no hype to it before it was released. The much bally-hooed Civil War on the other hand was screamed about everywhere possible, and for the most part was a major disappointment. Spidey's current One More Day storyline is super-duper hyped, but with only one issue of the 4-parter out so far, I will reserve judgment. Suffice it to say that first issue was no great shakes.

Anyway, that's my dig at Marvel this week - come back later in the week for a dig at DC!

We try to be equal opportunity in our hating here at TTHQ . . .

LINKMANIA

Here are a bevy of links to keep you glued to the internet for the night:

Director Zach Snyder (Dawn of the Dead, 300) intros his new in-production comics-to-film adaptation Watchmen here.

Cartoonist Daniel Clowes (David Boring, Like a Velvet Glove Cast in Iron) makes headlines in Connecticut in ways he probably wishes he never did. Read about the ridiculousness here and here; get Tom Spurgeon's take here.

Kevin points out a highlight reel panel from the latest issue of Frank Miller's and Jim Lee's All Star Batman and Robin the Boy Wonder (Issue #7) right here.

Have I mentioned how much I am enjoying these webcomics? Especially, Andy B's Raising Hell and Cam Stewart's Sin Titulo!

GOOD READS:Heart-Shaped Box

Just having finished Joe Hill's Heart-Shaped Box, TT HQ wanted to post about this book - its a helluva read. Fast-paced, intricate, unpredictable, and filled with well-thought out, believable characters, the book is a stunning first novel. Plus it is quite possibly one of the scariest books I have ever read.

And that's saying a lot - and not so much - all at the same time. A lot, because I read a lot of horror - anyone from Brian Lumley to Lovecraft to John Connolly and Richard Matheson. And of course, Stephen King, the master of the genre. But that's also why saying this book is horrifying shouldn't be that surprising. Because Joe Hill is really a pen name for Joseph Hill King - the elder son of the aforementioned master of horror.

Going into this book I knew that Hill was King's son, but the sale of the book to William Morrow preceded the common knowledge that Hill was really a King. Hill stuck to his pen name so that he could make it on his own; even his agent didn't know he was the heir to King when he brought the book to W/M. Having already written an award-winning collection of short stories (Twentieth Century Ghosts), Hill could have taken the easy route and revealed his literary heritage. But instead, he stuck by his guns, and like his father before him (under the pen name Richard Bachman), sold a mean little piece of fiction that is now scorching the best-sellers lists.

Box is the story of Judas Coyne, an aging heavy metal icon/rock star with a none-to-original penchant for dating girls half his age, and a rather unique hobby of collecting macabre pieces of memorabilia - like a noose used to lynch a man and a snuff film of a murder in Tijuana.

So, when Jude has the opportunity to buy a ghost through an internet eBay knock-off, he doesn't think twice about it. And when the suit that is supposedly haunted arrives, the fun (or the terror, depending on if you are a character in the book or a reader!) begins.

The scare-tactics start early in the book and flow through, non-stop, until the very last page. Jude, who starts as a fairly unlikeable character, grows on the reader throughout the book, despite revelations of some of the less than noble things he has done. It's this kind of empathy between character and reader that really allows Box to shine. The reality of Jude's character grounds the book, so that the more fantastic elements of the haunting and the reasons behind it become all that much more terrifying. The antagonists of the book truly shine - the evil inherent in the concept of the ghost story is turned on its ear with the revelations of modern horrors that created the ghosts for this story.

Chilling visual language throughout the book gives the reader a vivid picture of the action and keeps at bay the most frustrating crutch of horror-fiction: the idea that what's happening is so bizarre that not even the characters can describe it. That kind of descriptive cop-out (the "it was a blur of things so terrible, so vicious that my mind shut down" description) often takes the reader out of the moment. Hill, however, manages - in effortless fashion - to not only chronicle all of those fear-inducing moments in the book, but to make all of those descriptions absolutely compelling.

For any fan of the horror genre, this is a must read book. For those who just enjoy a good story, with well written prose and fully developed characterization, I can't recommend this book enough.

THE NEXT STEP FOR THUNDERHOUSE DESIGN

So, I have added a link on the sidebar to bountee.com where I am now selling some t-shirts. This is just one more place for me to feature some of my design work, and hopefully make a little cashmoney.

If you like, grab one. If you have a suggestion for a design, let me know. Either way, please click on over and at least vote for my tee designs - the more positive I get the closer to a listing on the front page I will get.

Thanks for the support!

THREE REASONS YOU SHOULD BE READING DC'S METAL MEN BY DUNCAN ROULEAU

#1: The Baloonatic - a sentient balloon terrorizing Metropolis

#2: The Death Metal Men - a villainous counter-team created by Dr. T.O. Morrow which hosts menacing metallic members like Uranium, Strontium and Thorium!

#3: Psuedo science lessons and amazing artwork laid out in pages like this:

THE 31st CENTURY RETURNS!

News out of DC Comics is that Jim Shooter (former editor of Marvel Comics, Valiant Comics and comic-writing genius) is back on board the title that launched his career (at the young age of 14!) . . . Legion of Super-heroes!

With the 50th Anniversary of the Legion on its way in 2008, it is nice to see that DC is making a commitment to the 1000s of Legion fans out there by really pulling out all the stops for the series and the venerable characters. On board with Shooter is artist Francis Manapual (check out his great ensemble piece below) who looks to be bringing back some of the classic look to the Legion that was most recently rebooted by Mark Waid and Barry Kitson.


Legion fans are a rabid bunch and while Waid/Kitson's run was critically acclaimed (and I personally enjoyed the little I have read of it), fan reaction was mixed at best. With the announcement of Shooter taking over the title from fill-in writer Tony Bedard with issue #37 of the current series, a lot of fans seem to be hoping for a return to the "classic" Legion of old. However, in an interview at Newsarama, Shooter says that he not only isn't comfortable with reboots keyed to new creators entering books, he states that he is also a fan of Waid's run and wants to stick with it while bringing in his own enthusiasm and adventure to the title.

This, I think, bodes well for Shooter's return. Readers can look forward to his great writing without the title turning into a retro-fied run down memory lane. Remember, Shooter first started writing the Legion series in the 1960s when he was only a teenager. He went back to Legion again in the 70s, before his historic and controversial editor-in-chief position at Marvel Comics. So nearly 30 years later, comics, the Legion, and the writer himself, have gone through myriad changes.

Shooter has proved that he is a writer that can evolve with the times, his massive contributions to the 90s being clear evidence of that with the Valiant line of comics. He's since struggled to launch a market-succesful new line of comics, but is always on the cutting edge of the industry - introducing new characters, concepts and universes without ever taking a break.

His return to a mainstream book like Legion, is not just a return to his origins in the industry and a "been there, done that" scenario. It is a different man and a differnet Legion that he returns to. This is the type of situation in the comics medium that garners that magical feeling of anything can happen now. Let's just hope that unlike many of those previous occasions that on this one, the lightning will strike twice.

SHILLING FOR A DOC

Notice the new banner ad above? That's for the documentary debuting on 9/7/07 titled, "You Must Be this Tall."

It's a doc on the now abandoned and destroyed Rocky Point Amusement Park - a RI institution until about 15 years ago when it went bankrupt.

I spent many a summer day at the park in my youth, often feeling sick on the Rock & Roll, the Corkscrew, or the Musik Express after chowder and clam cakes from the Shore Dinner Hall.

Click on the link and check out the site, and come September, if you are in the Little Biggest, please see the movie.

Also, 75orless Records will be issuing the soundtrack to the film, later in the month. In case you didn't know, I created the logo for the label, do a lot of the layout and design work for the albums they produce, and have had a personal hand in printing more than a few (thousand) of the hand-pressed cd covers myself. So head over and check out all of their selections as well.

GOOD COMICS I READ THIS MONTH

It seems that after a period of DC books just treading water, the company has made a major effort to step up their game. This happens a lot in comics, in my view - a sort of cyclical rotation of the books that just seem to be right, while others languish in mediocrity. For a while, since all of the hype behind One Year Later, 52, and Infinite Crisis (and its infinite tie-ins) died down and the company shifted to putting the marketing machine behind Countdown, the books seemed to lose quality while they gained quantity.

While the push behind Countdown and its countless tie-ins is still moving strong, the fan reaction to it has been weak. Things have reached their saturation point. Or rather the over-saturation point. There is just too much out there, and none of it, on its own, seems to hold any water. The books just feel thin. I am still sort of enjoying Countdown, for its universe-spanning feel and some of its more entertaining points (see my Countdown Rundown weekly column over at FOG! for my views on the weekly book), especially the story of the comic Flash Rogues, the Pied Piper and the Trickster.

But in the last month, the change in the quality of the DC line has come from the books that aren't related to Countdown and the books leading to the coming Final Crisis. Rather the best books coming out of DC have been the stand alones; books like Green Arrow: Year One, The Metal Men mini-series, The Un-Men (yes, I know it's Vertigo!), The Outsiders: Five of a Kind weekly event, The Green Lantern: Sinestro Corps War event, and Booster Gold.

While the Sinestro event and the new on-going Booster Gold are both related to the coming Crisis, they stand on their own, and would be perfectly enjoyable even without a vast knowledge of the current DCU. Solid, entertaining stories about super-heroes that aren't ashamed of their core "super-heroness." GA:Y1 has been much better than I could have hoped for - Andy Diggle and Jock having updated the arrow-slinger's origin and mixed in a very riveting and socially-conscious story, while staying true to the character's nearly 70-year-old roots.

With only one issue under their respective belts', both Vertigo's Un-Men (spinning out of old Swamp Thing stories) and the regular DCU 8-issue mini The Metal Men have both shown great promise. The art on Metal Men alone should be winning fans across the board. Plus, their appeal to both old and new fans (me being one of the later, at least for the Metal Men) should serve as a model for all new comics.

And, with the nostalgia-serving homage to the 80s classic, Batman and the Outsiders, the current August-shipping event Five of a Kind is following in the footsteps of Metal Men - serving up old-skool fun in the form of unlikely team-ups and fast-paced, action-packed one-shot stories (this week's Metamorpho/Aquaman serves as a perfect example.) At the same time, the event is pushing the concept forward for a new generation of fans.

Maybe there is hope for the "Nu-DC" and the regime of Dan Didio after all. I liked what the senior VP-Editorial did when he first came on - ambitious world/universe building and a revamp of the entire line - but lately, that ambition has turned into stubborn adherence to a failing vision. Maybe with the end of universe-spanning events in sight with Morrison and Jones' Final Crisis (for which I and countless fans have very high hopes), the DCU will finally get back to what it does best - solid, character driven stories of iconic super-heroes.

For Marvel fans, check back in over the weekend for a look at what's making me happy from their line - can you say, "Hulk SMASH!!!??"