Category Archives: Comics

Superman: Kryptonite by Darwyn Cooke and Tim Sale

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The Superman series Superman Confidential was designed to showcase stories from the early years in Superman’s Metropolis career. The first story in that series (which didn’t actually finish until issue 11) was Darwyn Cooke writing about Superman’s first experience with Kryptonite. This was interesting to me, since there are a lot of questions about Kryptonite. For instance, how does everyone know it’s from Krypton? How does everyone know it’s harmful to Superman? Cooke and Sale take on the challenge and create an interesting story about it. So, how does Superman find Kryptonite?

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Kirby vs Marvel the latest news

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Bleeding Cool has a good overview of the Kirby vs Marvel lawsuit. For those not familiar, in accordance with copyright laws, Kirby’s heirs have filed a notice of termination to Marvel for a list of characters they claimed were created or co-created by Jack Kirby. If successful, all or part ownership of those characters will revert to Kirby’s heirs.

  1. Noting that the matter hinges on Kirby’s work for hire status while creating the properties in question, the court is allowing the Kirby Family’s quest to terminate Marvel’s copyrights to proceed.

Basically what this means is that the judge is allowing the trial to continue in order to determine whether or not Kirby’s heirs have a valid claim. The ownership will hinge on any written or oral contracts between Kirby and Marvel in the 1950s and 1960s.

Stay tuned to see how this plays out.

Graphic Novels you must own: The Dark Knight Returns

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The other books this week are all literary. Maus is allegorical, Understanding Comics is educational, Sandman is literary and Watchmen is full of literary references. The Dark Knight Returns is the world’s greatest balls to the wall action comic. From the car race at the beginning to the superhero slugfest everyone wanted to see at the end, it’s an all-out adrenaline rush. Frank Miller’s comics translate better to film (300, Sin City) because the visuals Miller uses are more screen like then other comics. So, what happens when the Dark Knight returns?

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Graphic Novels you must own: Sandman

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Neil Gaiman came into Sandman in Alan Moore’s shadow and left as the top writer in the comic book industry. He then moved into novels and rattled off a string of criticallyacclaimedbest–sellers.  He’s won science fiction awards, YA awards and a closet full of comic awards. It all started with a dentist’s violin and when Vertigo came along to England to recruit some new writers, Gaiman (fresh off assisting Alan Moore and peeking at his scripts) offered to redo a classic character that Jack Kirby had taken a swing at 20 years earlier. 75 issues later (actually 76 if you count the Sandman Special) Sandman is the most honored mainstream comic series of the 1990s. But who is Sandman?

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Graphic Novels you must own: Maus

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Art Spiegelman is an American comic book artist with European sensibilities. His style and content are probably as far as you can get from Superheros. He (and his wife Françoise Mouly) started a comix magazine called Raw, which focused on alternative comic stories by non-mainstream artists. Spiegelman’s contribution to Raw was an autobiographical story which he titled Maus. The story was eventually collected into two volumes and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1992. So, what exactly is Maus?

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Graphic Novels you must own: Understanding Comics

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One of the problems with getting more people interested in comics, is explaining what exactly comics are. Scott McCloud is not only a comic artist with as wonderful series Zot (my review) on his resume, but he is also a comic inventor. Among his inventions are 24 Hour Comics, The Creator’s Bill of Rights and 5 Card Nancy. McCloud has given us an essential book that not only explains what comics are, but explains the how and the why. He has taken comics back to the basics and given the world the first book that truly helps people in Understanding Comics. So how does he do it?

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Graphic Novels you must own: Watchmen

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Watchmen is arguably the most important comic book series ever published. There are a (small) number of other books that are (arguably) better, but Watchmen is the one that made the non comic book world stand up and take notice. Other books would not have gotten the notice they did if Watchmen hadn’t made people look. And in a industry where books a month old are forgotten and pretty much worthless, Watchmen has been a best seller for 25 years. Buy why should you own it?

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Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale by the Whedons

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During the show Firefly, one of the more entertaining and mysterious characters was Shepherd Book. He was a man of faith who wasn’t a stranger to violence*. His past was hinted at being more complex and mysterious and not spoken of. You could almost sense the other crew members wanting to ask him, but refraining. With the early cancellation (as well as Book’s part in Serenity), one of the big questions never answered was about Book’s past. Now, with Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale, written by Joss Whedon and his brother Zack, we finally get our answers. So what is Book’s story?

*One of my favorite scenes in Firefly is when the crew is going in to rescue Mal and Zoe asks Book about his faith:Zoë: Preacher, don’t the Bible have some pretty specific things to say about killin’? Book: Quite specific. It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps.

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Black Hole by Charles Burns

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Charles Burns is one of my favorite horror comic artists. Mainly because a superficial look at his artwork makes it looks nice and clean and…normal, for lack of a better word. Burns’ masterpiece is Black Hole, a story about a sexually transmitted disease. I first heard of Burns in the movie Comic Book Confidential (my review) and he had been serializing Black Hole for over a decade before putting together in one collection in 2005. So, what is Black Hole?

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