Blogtown, PDX

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Books Comic Book Stuff: Stephen Colbert, Douglas Wolk, and The Worst Cover Image of All Time.

Posted by Erik Henriksen on Wed, Jul 18 at 11:02 AM

scaled.onibk_260.jpg COMIC BOOK NEWS! A few days ago, Portland’s Oni Press sent us a review copy of Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen, a comic boasting Colbert’s “input at every stage” and featuring Colbert’s character Jansen, a very Colbert-y intergalactic superhero.

This is some rough stuff. Colbert’s done some great things, but I can’t help but feel like his shtick is starting to wear a little thin, and Tek Jansen is a pretty fantastic display of shark-jumping. Featuring Jensen as he cavorts around the universe wooing hot aliens, deposing fiendish dictators, and talking in a way that channels Colbert’s trademark bravado, there are some clever ideas, but most of it’s pretty tired—the same sort of spoofy sci-fi/comic book stuff that, say, The Venture Bros. (which Colbert’s been known to appear on) does a whole lot better.

MORE COMIC BOOK NEWS! Portland comics expert Douglas Wolk will be reading at Powell’s on Wednesday, August 1, 7:30 pm. Wolk just put out Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels Work and What They Mean; I haven’t had a chance to really delve into the book yet, but it looks really promising, with its front jacket boasting that it’s “The first serious, readable, provocative, canon-smashing book of comics theory and criticism by the leading critic in the world.” Should be a good reading.

ALSO! EVEN MORE COMIC BOOK NEWS! SORT OF! Marvel just sent me a press release about some Avengers/Transformers comic they’re doing. Its cover might be the worst image of all time, ever. That is all.

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Comments

when did wolverine join the avengers? is he in the fantastic four now too? and every comic ever? this is ridiculous...

Posted by ben | July 18, 2007 11:15 AM

Alright, two things:

1. I appreciate Mr. Wolk's claim, but to not acknowledge Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics as a work of comic theory is criminal.'

2. Wolverine's been on the Avengers for roughly two years now. Where have you been? And technically he's been a FF member since the early 90s, when he was part of the "New Fantastic Four" with Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, and the Hulk. (It's a fun storyline--the group itself only appeared twice in normal continuity and occasionally makes appearances in "What If" style stories.)

Geek lesson over.

Posted by The Unpaid Intern | July 18, 2007 11:22 AM

I'm really surprised you didn't mention that TEK JANSEN is published by Portland's own Oni Press (www.onipress.com)

Local angle, local angle!

Posted by Beaton | July 18, 2007 12:02 PM

Oh. I guess you did mention it.

I really shouldn't huff paint before checking my RSS feeds.

Posted by Beaton | July 18, 2007 12:04 PM

"A few days ago, Portland’s Oni Press sent us a review copy of Stephen Colbert’s Tek Jansen,"

???

Posted by The Unpaid Intern | July 18, 2007 12:05 PM

Apparently Marvel Comics has to put Wolverine in all of their comics in a shameless ploy to get the legion of Wolverine fans out there to buy all of their other books.

Posted by threebs | July 18, 2007 2:15 PM

Wolverine has been in the New Avengers, as the Unpaid Intern mentioned, for a couple of years. Of course, there are about 5 different Avengers series on the stands now... But New Avengers/Transformers is a fun little miniseries.

Posted by BridgeCityComics | July 18, 2007 2:57 PM

Well, I notice (over the UPC symbol) that the book only got a grade of T+, so it can't be all that good.

Posted by Samuel John Klein | July 18, 2007 7:06 PM

ONI ROCKS

Posted by AD | July 19, 2007 2:08 AM

Marvel's been crowbarring Wolverine into non- X-Men titles for the last 20 years. It's nothing new.

(Massively nerdy comment in 5...4...3...2...)

In re - Wolverine hanging out with Autobots:

After all those years of dealing with Sentinels, don't you think a mutant might be a little apprehensive about joining forces with a bunch of giant, heavily-armed robots?

Posted by Beaton | July 19, 2007 10:28 AM

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