Tuesday, May 04, 2004

The fine folks at Newsarama have posted the gist of WonderCon's Vertigo Panel recently, providing the opportunity for yours truly to opine about upcoming product from the line which, after all is said and done, commands a significant amount of my comic dollars.

First was this comment by, I assume, Matt Brady:

Sparsely attended, with Bill Willingham the only pro on hand, Sunday's vertigo panel at WonderCon allowed DC to show art and lay out the imprint's schedule for the coming months.

Uh...why was it necessary to make a note of this? Are we supposed to feel sympathy for poor struggling DC, or are we supposed to be nodding our heads and saying "Yup, that just shows to go ya...nobody cares about Vertigo books because they don't have big muscle dudes and chicks shooting force beams out of their fingertips, and/or because they're published by a big conglomerate instead of by Sainted Indie Publishers"?

OK, now that that's out of the way, here's what the sparse crowd was presented with.

Of course, Seaguy was mentioned, and I'm already getting that one. Hey, It's Grant Morrison, and I'll always give him a shot.

We3 is described as a take on The Incredible Journey by Morrison and Frank Quitely. Say no more, I'm there.

The Originals is by Watchmen's Dave Gibbons, who is an artist I respect and believe brings incredible chops to everything he undertakes...but for some reason I usually find his style dull and dry, Watchmen being the most notable exception. The sample cover we're given, however, looks really sharp, so while I must always be wary of judging a book by its cover the concept is intriguiing as well. So we'll say "maybe" there, pending seeing some interiors.

Couldn't care less about Blood + Water, which underwhelmed me first time around. Pass.

There will be a preview of The Witching in Fables 26, which might go a long way towards helping me decide if I want that limited series or not, despite the magnificent Tara McPherson covers.

Sandman: Endless Nights will be out in TPB in August , it says. Good. Now maybe I can afford it when my comics shop has another storewide 25% off sale.

Bought about 9 issues of Y: The Last Man, grew progressively bored with each issue, and cut the cord. So the announcement about its upcoming Summer storyline doesn't interest me.

Hellblazer 200 looks like it will be a gas for longtime readers like me- this issue will sport art by Steve Dillon, arguably Conjob's best illustrator and the guy most people associate with this book, when they're inclined to think that sort of thing; Most recent regular artist Marcelo Frusin, in my personal top 3 when it comes to JC stints; and upcoming regular Leo Manco, whom I'm sure you're all sick of me going on about how much I loved his stint on Ellis' Hellstorm. What? No Sean Phillips? Anyway, it looks like it might be that rarest of rare birds- an anniversary issue that lives up to the name.

Fables sports yet another excellent James jean cover, plus promises to show us an encounter between Bigby Wolf and Frankenstein. Whether this is the monster or his creator is unclear, but it sounds like a good idea to me. I'm not familiar with the penciller for this arc, Tony Akins. Anybody?

Human Target will have Chris Chance getting mixed up in sex-trade hijinks at the Mexican Border. Sounds OK, but I wonder who the artist will be?

Someone named Ale Garza, another with whose work I'm totally unfamiliar, will be the "fill-in regular artist", an oxymoron if I've ever heard one, on an upcoming Losers arc focusing on Afghani loose cannon Aisha. Well...that's cool, I guess- after all, it was during Shawn Martinbrough's fill-in stint that I first got the Losers jones. But I worry about Jock leaving the book. I can't help it, it's my Mother in me.

And that's pretty much it.

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