Tuesday, February 07, 2006

I'm working on the first of 3 posts about Beowulf right now, hopefully the first will be up no later than Saturday. Got a few things I want to mention, some great and the some not-so.

First, a belated RIP to the hugely talented Seth Fisher, who died a few days ago (as most of you know). I can't, in any honesty at all, say I was a big fan and that I was devastated at the news...but I always thought his work was high quality, hugely imaginative, and very interesting. He just never illustrated a book that I was moved to pick up, although the recent Batman story he did with D.C. Johnson will probably be a trade purchase. It's so sad when the young and talented pass on all too soon, and leave so much undone.

But there IS good news, and that is the return of one of my favorite comics writers, the sadly underrated Robert Loren Fleming (Thriller, Ambush Bug) to comics scripting! Bob will provide What's Up, Tiger Lily-esque funny dialogue to an upcoming Marvel book, Romance Redux...but I think I'll let him explain it best, from an email he sent:

My big news here is that I agreed to do a job offered to me recently by Marvel Comics. It's a parody of old romance comics they're doing alled ROMANCE REDUX, one of those "What's Up, Tiger Lily?" kind of things. The nice part is that they sent me a Jack Kirby story from 1963, and it's a fairly well-known one since it involves a girl enamored of romance comics who eventually meets and falls in love with a comic book artist. I had great fun doing it, very reminiscent of the old Ambush Bug days,
which of course is why they thought of me. It was so cool that it was Kirby, though, because partway through the job I suddenly got gooseflesh as I realized I was doing what amounted to a NOT BRAND ECCH!-style collaboration with The King, whose parodies of his own stories in that title were inspirational to me as a kid.


He's also sending me some photocopied Thriller scripts, which I can't wait to read. Maybe that will give me the impetus to redo the ol' Thriller website, which I'm LONG overdue to do.

My DCBS shipment went out today! In it will be:

BUCKAROO BANZAI PREVIEW Couldn't call myself a Blue Blaze Irregular and not get this even though the art looks like it was done by red Lectroids...

FLYING FRIAR #1
Early reviews haven't been kind, but the premise sounded intriguing when I signed up for it months ago.

BLUESMAN VOL 2 GN (I'm supposed to be getting the first one, too, but they're funny about when they ship backlisted items)

LEGION OF SUPER HEROES #14
That's the funny thing about getting your books twice a week- it seems like I just read this a week ago! And I did!

SEVEN SOLDIERS BULLETEER #3
I think if anyone decides to publish a Seven Soldiers companion, then Jog of The Blog fame should be the man to do so. Just sayin'.

HELLBOY MAKOMA #1
I'm pleased to report that I've seen preview images of this and Corben, like any old pro worth his salt, streamlines his work a bit to fit in with that Mignolaesque feel. This looks like a keeper.

GOTHAM CENTRAL #40
So long, farewell, auf weiderschein. Where will I get my Josie Mac fix now?

NEIL GAIMANS NEVERWHERE #6
This has been great, and you should pick this up in trade format if you haven't been already. Thing is, y'see, I've read the novel already so I want an original sequel by the same creative team.

TALES DESIGNED TO THRIZZLE #2
Will I be thrizzled? We shall see. #1 flew under my radar, but word of mouth convinced me to check this out.

MIDDLEMAN VOL 1 TP
FINALLY I will get to read this. FINALLY. You'll recall that my comics shop's inability to get me the singles of this series was the final straw that led me to start up DCBS. That said, I won't believe it till I hold it in my hand!

POWERS #16
DMZ #4
FABLES #46
JONAH HEX #4
100 BULLETS #69

Five (mostly) consistently good ongoing titles, about which I have nothing whatsoever to say.

Found at the Mighty Spurge's: The blog of Lark Pien. When R.Stevens had one of his periodic fill-in weeks on Diesel Sweeties a few years ago, Miss Pien was one of the participants, and her contribution was fantastic. I've enjoyed her stuff ever since.

That's it for now! More if anything occurs to me.

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