tuning in from nerdworld

You probably don't care, but here is some comic book news:

Wednesday (comic release day, like Tuesdays are always new releases for cds and dvds) is pretty big.

Fantastic Four and Amazing Spider-man have been run by the same creative teams for pretty long runs - I know Amazing Spider-man has been written and drawn by J. Michael Straczynski and John Romita JR (except for the last 8 issues drawn by Mike Deodato) since August 2001. Fantastic Four's been written by Mark Waid and drawn by.. I'm not sure. I wasn't following it. Anyway, the writers have swapped titles and their premiere issues are coming out on Wednesday.

Waid's been one of the industry's best writers for a while and wrote Kingdom Come (that Joyce and I discussed last week. See the Asylum post.)

Straczynski (JMS) was the creator/writer of Babylon 5 and other shows. Some people loved his run (I did except for the last two stories), others hated him. I'm excited about his Fantastic Four run since I'm interested in learning more about the team and jumping on when he starts seems like an ideal time. (Same for Waid's run. I think it's time for Spider-man to get a new direction, and I'm excited. Spider-man is my favorite character to read though recently I've gotten into a DC kick.)

If you're interested, I have a bunch of trade paperbacks (the story arcs collected into a graphic novel type thing) I've picked up lately. I they're better (esp. when you have little money) because they're cheaper than the total combined cover price of all the issues collected, PLUS, the whole damn story's included (excpet 12-issue arcs like the Hush story I gave Joyce).

I have the WHOLE JMS run on Amazing Spider-man except for the last 4 issues, but I will pick that up when it gets printed up as a trade paperback.

Walking Dead VOl. 1 and 2 (collecting issues #1 - #12). If you're a fan of George Romero's Dawn of the Dead zombie stories, you might be into Walking Dead.

Sin City, The Hard Goodbye. If you've seen the movie, you've already seen this graphic novel. Still a great way to see Frank Miller at his best. His use of lights and shadows is just ridiculous.

Batman, The Dark Knight Returns. This is a Frank Miller joint too. It's supposedly one of the two pivotal graphic stories ever made (the other being The Watchmen, by Alan Moore who also wrote League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and From Hell before they were made into somehwat subpar movies. The Watchmen is currently in production for a theatrical release. Jude Law might be in it. Another Alan Moore joint, V for Vendetta, is also in production, which will feature Natalie Portman.)

Teen Titans, A Kid's Game (Issues #1 - 6 of the current run) written by Geoff Johns. Johns is known as one of the best TEAM BOOK writers currently in the biz, and so far the storytelling's been fun and well paced. Teen Titans, formerly New Teen Titans, etc. is like the younger collection of the Justice League - actually it's a collection of all the sidekicks of our favorites: Batman (Robin), Wonder Woman (Wondergirl), etc. Nightwing used to be a Titan.

Outsiders, by Judd Winick (from Real World SF. He also wrote Pedro and Me to document and dedicate art to Pedro Zamora who was featured in that season). This is a team book and I have yet to read it and I don't know what the Outsiders are about. Nightwing is the leader. I'll inform you more of it later, if you're interested.

Avengers Disassembled, by Brian Michael Bendis. This basically ended the original run of The Avengers (over 500 issues going strong). Avengers = Marvel's version of the Justice League. The writing was good and artwork was good. It's a bit chaotic as most catastrophic super events are. I hear most diehard Avengers fans hated the story.

Runaways, Vol. 1 (collects issues 1-6) by Brian K Vaughn. This is a team book with teens, sort of like Teen Titans but different. The DC world's much more superhero while Marvel's more rooted in science fiction. I'm not sure if that's a correct generalization. But DC is all about the flashy suits, the alter egos, and the larger than life - yet super tacky villains. If you look at most of Marvel's characters, they are all about science fiction (X-men: genes, Spider-man: science nerd, Hulk: scientist, Fantastic Four: space travellers, etc.) Anyway, the Runaways are teenagers who find out their parents have superpowers and are part of an underground super villain group. Yeah, yeah - dorky premise, but it's a comic book. Anyway, it's a fun read.

On a side note, it's interested how these older men (later 20s - mid 30s) write to represent regular teenagers (having to deal with these super powers and super situations). The dialogue's cool - but then again, by working with youth myself, I don't necessarily think their characterizations are hyper-accurate.

Okay, I'm a dork. I know. I think that's why i'm single. HAHA. just kidding.