Superman 2000

Any discussion of DC and Warners’ varied attempts to revitalize Superman for a modern market wouldn’t really be complete without at least some mention of Superman 2000, a now famous (or, depending on how you look at it, infamous) 1998 pitch by writers Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, Mark Waid and Tom Peyer designed to overhaul the Superman comics franchise. Their proposal, which you can read here, is forward-thinking yet faithful, immensely engaging, well thought-out, filled with promise and in general a pleasure to read and contemplate. And of course, keeping with their recent history of playing it either too safe or stupid (or both) with the Man of Steel, DC editorial of course turned it down at the eleventh hour.

DC and Warner Bros' Superman Problem

DC and Warner Bros’ have a major Superman problem, and no, I’m not talking about the possibility, however small, that they may still losethe rights to the character back to the families of his original creators,Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. No, the Superman problem I’m referring to is the ongoing and very obvious struggle of DC Comics and their parent company Warners to fix, update or tweak Superman so as to make him more appealing to modern audiences, this despite the fact that Superman is arguably their most iconic character (yes, ahead of even Batman) and undoubtedly one of the most recognizable fictional creations on planet Earth.

For the past two decades, some very talented people who obviously care a lot about the character have been in charge of crafting his adventures in comics and on both the big and small screens, yet it should be obvious to anyone who has followed The Man of Steel’s history over the past twenty years – a period marked by several reboots, re-imaginings of his origin story, failed attempts to relaunch a film franchise and/or make him “grittier” and more in line with the moral ambiguity of modern times – that the corporate entities charged with stewarding the character have very little idea of what to do with him.

It’s clear to anyone paying attention that DC and Warner Bros have been locked in a constant, near desperate effort to “fix” Superman and make modern readers/audiences care about him, a struggle that most recently has led in part to DC relaunching its entire line of comics with the New 52 and the latest misguided attempt to steal headlines by making Superman and Wonder Woman make out in the most recent issue of Geoff Johns and Jim Lee’s Justice League, the publisher’s flagship title. The problem, of course, is that Superman isn’t broken, probably never was, and almost certainly doesn’t need “fixing” in any real sense. What needs fixing is DC and Warner Bros’ failure to understand the character and what makes him so important to so many people on this planet and this country in particular. 

Back to The Rez: Thoughts upon Re-reading Scalped

 

Scalped, one of my absolute favorite comic series of the last decade, wrapped up its sixty-issue run this past Wednesday, and as planned I spent this weekend rereading the first 45 or so issues before taking in for the first time the climactic 15 installments. Naturally I have a lot to say about this brilliant, gut-churning series, but I’m going to do my best to keep the discussion as spoiler free as possible while still attempting to pinpoint why I think Jason Aaron and company created one of the best, most badass crime stories you’ll find in any medium. Keep in mind that at this early juncture, the modest but loyal readership of this blog seems to be made up of equal parts casual comics readers and diehard, longtime enthusiasts, so I want to do my best to service both parties’ interests moving forward. Without further ado, after the jump is my thoughts on Scalped, a series I really can’t recommend highly enough:

Neil Armstrong: (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012)

Here's to the first real Starchild -- Neil Armstrong. 

Hard-Boiled Comics, and Why I Love 'Em

This past Wednesday saw the publication of the final issue of Jason Aaron and R.M. Guerra’s noir masterpiece Scalped, reminding me 1) I really need to get off my ass and catch up on the issues published over the past year; and 2) I’ve yet to really rant about my love of crime fiction on this nifty new blog of mine.

The first concern I plan to remedy this weekend, one of the only quiet ones I’ve had in a long time. As for the second, we can take care of that right here and now, and maybe even throw in a few recommendations for you fellow noir enthusiasts looking to sample the best hard-boiled crime fiction the comics medium has to offer.

 

From the Vault: Why Planetary Rules the World

While I catch up and get this blog ready to operate on a regular schedule, here's an IGN article I wrote a couple years ago about one of my favorite series of all time, Warren Ellis and John Cassaday's Planetary. Enjoy.

One of greatest comic book series of the 20th Century debuted in 1999, but had the majority of its issues see print between the years 2001 and 2007, with the last hitting stands in October 2009. For those who have experienced the wonder of Warren Ellis and John Cassaday's Planetary for themselves, that statement might not need much explanation. For those who haven't, allow me to explain.

Although there's certainly no shortage of respected comic book voices loudly proclaiming the greatness of Planetary, the fact that Ellis, Cassaday and company took a whole ten years to complete their 27-issue opus seems to have kept it off that universally accepted short list of mainstream comic book masterworks composed of the likes of Watchmen, Dark Knight Returns, and Alan Moore's Swamp Thing. Now that the series is finally complete and collected in two beautiful Absolute Editions (available on stands now), that omission is no longer acceptable. Because make no mistake about it: Planetary is the greatest mainstream comic of the last twenty years, and, for a number of complex reasons, might just be the best of the last century. At the very least, it's my favorite. Here's why:

While I'm Not Working, Here's Wally Wood's 22 Panels That Always Do

I'm back from an epic weekend of music at the fifth annual Equifunk Festival, where the Frank Stalloners had the honor of sharing a bill with such tremendous acts as Galactic, Dumpstaphunk, Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds, The Pimps of Joytime and many, many more. Suffice it to say I'm absolutely beat. Throw on top of that the fact that I have my weekly Tuesday Night Jam gig tonight and that I owe my artistic partner in crime, Tom Travers, some script pages for the new strip we're working on, and it means I don't have the time to knock out a decent blog post tonight. So while I'm not working, I figured I'd share with you legendary artist Wally Wood's 22 Panels that Always Work, an invaluable tool for any comics creator interested in making even the most mundane dialogue panel visually interesting. Check it out if you haven't already, then take a look at modern master Michael Oeming's take on the same rules. 

Sorry again for the delay. We'll be back on schedule tomorrow.

Joe Kubert - 1926-2012

One of the true greats. Made a gigantic impact on comics as both an artist and a teacher. He'll be missed.

Getting Others Started on Webcomics

With mainstream comics publishers finally catching up with the digital revolution after years spent either denying its existence or hoping to God it would go away so they could hold onto their old, outdated publishing models, I notice that some professionals and fans alike are now grouping webcomics alongside digital distribution as some sort of wild frontier that’s only now being explored in a meaningful way. On the contrary; while the process of distributing comics on the web for purchase through sites like Comixology and iTunes might still be in its infancy, webcomics have been going strong for years thanks to the hard work and dedication of some very talented and daring creators.

If you’re anything like me, though, and still find part of yourself clinging to some notion that a “real” comic is the type stapled together in 22-page bunches and sold at specialty stores on Wednesdays, it can be easy to generalize and dismiss all webcomics as being gag-based, single-page strips similar to the type you’d find in a daily newspaper. Having spent a good chunk of the past month exploring the world of webcomics for myself, I can tell you that this is not the case. If you look in the right places, you’ll find that webcomics can and do offer everything a print comic has to offer and, in many ways, more.

The purpose of this post is to recommend three webcomics that will help traditional, brick-and-mortar print fans take the plunge into the vast world of entertaining webcomics out there – to soften the transition, so to speak. All three of these serialized webcomics are written by A-list print comics creators (and thus offer the safety-net of a creator you trust), designed similarly to print comics and are, most importantly, absolutely free. And while they might not showcase all the groundbreaking innovations being made in webcomics these days, they do demonstrate just how effective this new medium can be when it comes to serialized storytelling. Try one or all of these recommendations out, and you’ll probably find yourself a little more open-minded about web-based comics.

Following Creators Instead of Characters

Having spent the past month or so diving back into my love of comics and again thinking long and hard about what I love about this medium, I’m ready to without any doubt state the following truth about my reading habits moving forward: my days of buying a comic based on character(s) alone are long, long behind me. I’m not judging those who choose to buy every Batman or X-Men comic just because their favorite character(s) are on the cover; I just cannot justify that purchasing rationale for myself any longer.

I also no longer give a shit about either the Marvel or DC’s Universes respective status quos, how one of their upcoming events or reboots is going to change everything in radical new ways, how certain characters or aspects of continuity have been retconned out of canon, or any other sort of questions I used to have to worry about as part of my job covering DC and Marvel comics for IGN. In short, I am now exclusively interested in reading and purchasing comics I find entertaining, well-crafted and interesting. And in terms of mainstream superhero comics, that means I am now pretty much only concerned with reading comics by creators whose work I enjoy, preferably those who have the freedom to spend a lengthy amount of time on one title or franchise.

If you think back to every memorable, acclaimed superhero run over the past four decades, almost without fail those runs came about from a very specific set of circumstances: Marvel or DC placed a character or franchise into the hands of one creative team and then allowed said team the freedom to tell an extended, serialized story or set of stories starring that character with little interference from editorial or the rest of the shared universe. 

Curiosity, NASA and Orbiter by Warren Ellis and Colleen Doran

I’m not sure when exactly I fell in love with science fiction and the idea of space exploration. It could have been when, around the age of ten or so, I’d stay up past my bedtime and curl up next to the ten-inch television in my bedroom to watch midnight reruns of Star Trek: The Original Series on WPIX. It could have been when I saw Star Wars for the first time. Most likely, though, I was no different than every other kid on Earth who immediately fell in love with space the minute they realized there are people whose jobs it is to explore the galaxy.

The fact is I’ve been a science fiction fan and galactic dreamer as long as I can remember, and there have been no shortage of factors leading to who I am today – a twenty-eight year-old sci-fi nut with a bookshelf filled with Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein; a DVD collection dominated by shows like Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica; and a downright obsessive love for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (quick note: while an undergrad I wrote a forty-page thesis on the movie for a voluntary post-grad film class that didn’t count towards my degree).

Although I don’t have the most complete recollection of my time in college (go figure), one memory I will never forget is sitting with friends watching live as the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon reentry over Texas. Neither I nor my friends had been to bed yet that early morning when the news started to break that something had gone horribly wrong with our latest shuttle mission, and I’ll never forget the sick feeling in my stomach as we all watched the disaster play out. Even then, watching the events unfold, it was clear the tragedy of lost human lives would quite possibly be as great as the potential tragedy of shelving the risky shuttle program after one too many disasters, or worse, shit-canning manned space travel as a whole. For a sci-fi nut and NASA enthusiast, those thoughts we nearly as upsetting as the loss of life.

Deadlands: A Comic By Dan Phillips and Tom Travers

As promised, here is the very first original comic I ever created alongside my pal and frequent artistic collaborator, Tom Travers. It’s called Deadlands, it’s a ten-page post-apocalyptic short, and as the first bit of sequential storytelling we ever tackled, I think it’s not too shabby. Hopefully you enjoy it.

A little background on the creation of Deadlands for those interested: the story was originally conceived as an open-ended vehicle for Tom and I to cut our teeth on, kind of like a loose chord structure for musicians to jam over and practice their chops. I came up with a general outline for the story’s world, conceived the set-up and then Tom and I just dove right in with reckless abandon. The idea was to keep going with ten page installments until Tom and I grew bored with the story and/or decided to move on.

As it turned out, neither Tom nor I ever grew bored with Deadlands (we even got about 98 percent through a second installment), but life, day jobs and scheduling did catch up to us, and by the time we were able to get back together to collaborate again, we decided to leave Deadlands as it stands: a delightfully weird, violent little short we came up with when we were too young, naive and ballsy enough to know how hard it was to churn out a serialized comic book. Even though it ends on a cliffhanger, I still think it stands on its own pretty well – kind of like one of those 2000AD or Heavy Metal serials that were canned before they even got past a couple installments.

Obviously, this being a product of two younger, less experienced versions of ourselves, there are a few things about the mechanics of this story that make me wince when I look back at them today. But that’s the nature of creativity. If you ever look at something you did a few years ago and don’t see the mistakes, it’s time to pack it in. Anyway, without further ado, here’s Deadlands. Again, I hope you dig, and as always, pass it on to your friends.

WARNING: Being new at this blog thing, I couldn’t quite figure out how to post the pages at a reasonable size while making sure they were still readable. After screwing around with blogger for a while, I figured the best solution was to just post each file at their actual sizes and resolution. The result isn’t ideal, but it will allow you to read the pages on a desktop or laptop. You might be shit out of luck if you’re on a mobile device. Sorry. I’ll figure this fucking technology thing out eventually. Anyway, expect things to get BIG after the page jump.

Miller's Daredevil: Part 2 - Essential Reading

When last we met, I was gushing about how Frank Miller transformed Daredevil from a derivative Spider-Man stand-in to the complex, tortured and very hard-boiled hero we know today. That whole first post was a long version of stating a simple truth: in the same way you can break all Batman stories into two distinct periods, pre-Miller and post-Miller, you can do the same with Daredevil. But I stopped just short of actually talking about and recommending specific Miller Daredevil stories, which I plan to do now. So let’s jump right into it.