Comic Books: Blogtown, PDX, Portland Mercury

Things I Will Never, Ever Get Sick of: Behind-the-Scenes Photos of the new Ninja Turtles Movie

Erik Henriksen — Wed, 22 May 2013 10:59:00 -0700

Because unlike previous attempts to bring the turtles to life, the new movie—produced by Michael Bay, directed by Battle Los Angeles and Wrath of the Titans mastermind Jonathan Liebesman—is using motion capture. And Megan Fox! Which leads to images like the picture above, which is so perfect exactly as it is that I don't even want them to slap some crappy CG ninja turtle on top of it. Just leave it like this. This is the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie I want to see. This.

More fantastic pictures of Megan Fox looking confused while talking to dudes in plaid unitards and backpacks and googly eyes at Superhero Hype. Via io9. I'm pretty sure that's Raphael? The grumpy turtle! Look at his gloves! Man. This is the best.

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Comics Night at the Opera: Falstaff

Ben Coleman — Wed, 15 May 2013 11:44:33 -0700

The Portland Opera had one of their cartoonist invitationals last week, which also meant that I got to livetweet through my second consecutive opera (you can see my findings on the first one here). The production was great as usual, although due to the nature of the event this can't really count as a critical review. But I will answer a few obvious questions:

Were great grandchildren of the von Trapp family in the audience? Like from The Sound of Music? And are you saying that The Sound of Music was a real thing that happened and not just a movie like Mary Poppins?

Yes. I mean, unless Mary Poppins is real too. At this point I'm not ruling anything out. But anyway, yes, the the von Traps were there. They were very friendly and had significantly better posture than any of the assembled journalists and comics professionals. They even agreed to come by the Mercury offices and do an interview, which should show up on Blogtown sometime after I finish transcribing it.

Did fellow Mercurian Iam Karmel let the fact that he wasn't actually there prevent him from delivering some really solid opera-related Tweeting?
No he did not.

More Q&A after the jump:

So what's Falstaff's deal?
In modern terms, Falstaff is what I imagine would have come out of Stanley Kubrick directing an episode of Benny Hill, which, OK, maybe isn't the most current reference I've ever made, but it holds up pretty well. On the one hand, Verdi was a master of technical complexity and dark themes. On the other hand, Falstaff is the story of a goofy drunk who tries to get with half the Merry Wives of Windsor so he won't get kicked out of his favorite bar. It's a fun, trashy story that gets kinda weird at the end. I liked it a lot.

How can I get in on this sweet opera action?

I'm glad you asked, friend. Portland Opera is running a half-off deal for the Thursday and Sunday shows. Just plug in "KNIGHT" and find seats that aren't the absolute cheapest. Basically it works out to not-terrible seats in the $20 range. I imagine that's a pretty good deal, opera-wise. Ticket information here.

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Joe Hill's AV Club Interview: On Locke & Key and His New Novel

Courtney Ferguson — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:14:56 -0700

The A.V. Club's Tasha Robinson has a fantastic interview with Joe Hill. He's the son of Stephen King, effortlessly carrying on the family tradition of writing horror and weird-ass short stories. He's also the writer of the best comic book that has ever comic booked—the intensely scary, suspenseful, and downright amazing Locke & Key, which has a mere three issues to go before it concludes (this gives me a huge sad). It was recently announced that those last two issues are now going to be released as super-sized issues, with the first one dropping in August. But it's Hill's new horror novel, NOS4A2 (sound it out!), that has him doing the touring circuit. He'll be at Powell's City of Books on Friday, May 17, doing a reading, and I'll have a review of it for that week's paper (spoiler: I liked it!). Anyway, check the AV Club piece—it's pretty great. And if you aren't reading Locke & Key, you're kinda wasting your life... just sayin'.

I’ve been describing NOS4A2 as my senior thesis on horror fiction. But, in some ways, that makes it my senior thesis on Stephen King. Because the two things are almost the same. One thing I absorbed from my dad, that I’ve heard him say many times, and that I’ve come to believe, is that anything that seems like a problem can almost always be used to your creative advantage. And I had an idea with NOS4A2—you know, I like to write dark fantasy. I like to write stories of the supernatural, and… here’s my dad. And I thought, “Maybe in this book, instead of ducking from it, I’ll confront that, and see if it’s fun to play with, and goof on people’s expectations.” So yeah, there’s a little Stephen King sampling in the book.

Plus, I hear the other King kid, Owen King, can write a pretty mean book himself.

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Tomorrow: Free Comic Book Day

Erik Henriksen — Fri, 03 May 2013 15:59:00 -0700

Tomorrow's Free Comic Book Day, that magical day once a year when you can just walk into a comic book store and get something for free. Books like these, which cover everything from The Walking Dead to Sesame Street. Here's a sleepy-seeming Hugh Jackman telling you about it, but mostly he wants to remind you that they're making another Wolverine movie to make up for how terrible the last one was. Take it away, sleepy Hugh!

Anyway, getting free comics is more fun than he makes it sound, promise. Being the comics haven that it is, not only are bunch of Portland's comics shops participating (Cosmic Monkey Comics at 5335 NE Sandy; Bridge City Comics at 3725 N Mississippi, Floating World Comics at 400 NW Couch, Excalibur Books and Comics at 2444 SE Hawthorne, Future Dreams at 1847 E Burnside, and all three local Things from Another Worlds locations at 2916 NE Broadway, 10977 SE Main in Milwaukie, and 4390 SW Lloyd in Beaverton), but a few will also have creators, signings, sales, storm troopers wandering around the store, whatever. Yeah. STORM TROOPERS! Hit the jump for details on what Cosmic Monkey, Floating World, and Things from Another World have planned.

Cosmic Monkey has the following creators swinging by throughout the day:

Joshua Williamson and Vinny Navarrete (Dear Dracula, Sketch Monsters)
Jeremy Barlow (R.I.P.D, Mass Effect, Star Wars)
Jake and Pixie Ingman
Celina Hernandez (Chibi Comics, So Super Duper)
Mike Murphy (Chibi Comics, Samurai & Dinosaurs)
Devon Devereaux (Tales Of Hot Rod Horror)
Adam Gallardo (Gear School, 100 Girls)
John Isaacson (Feedback)
Kyle Shold (The Pevailist)
Adam Watson (Darkslinger Comics)
Pharoah Bolding (The Dot)
Colin Butler (The Vast)
Shawn Aldridge (Vic Boone)

Meanwhile, over at Floating World, from 12 pm-3 pm:

JFish (Master P’s Theater, Junqueland, Burgermancer)
Tyler Crook (BPRD, Petrograd)
Ales Kot (Wild Children, Change, Suicide Squad)
Robbi Rodriguez (Frankie Get Your Gun, Uncanny X-Force)

Floating World's also got an all-day sale going—where "for every dollar spent at the register you get a FREE dollar comic from our back issue bins. If you buy a $30 book you get 30 FREE dollar comics"—and Master P's Theater, " a free book that we co-published with Sparkplug, Teenage Dinosaur and Snakebomb."

The Portland location of Things From Another World has stuff going on too:

11:30 am-1:30 pm:
Terry Dodson (Uncanny X-Men)
Erika Moen (Bucko, DAR)
Jeremy Barlow (Mass Effect, R.I.P.D.)
2 pm-4 pm:
Joshua Williamson and Vicente Navarrete (Captain Midnight, Sketch Monsters)
Michael Avon Oeming (Victories, Powers)

They've also got some pirates who'll be... being all pirate-y from 10-2, but you'll have to go to the Beaverton store if you want to see the storm troopers. STORM TROOPERS! More info about the Beaverton and Milwaukie stores here.

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This is How Marvel Starts Their Own Television Network

Bobby Roberts — Fri, 03 May 2013 11:29:00 -0700

Marvel wasn't always a media juggernaut. They've almost gone bankrupt before, and the '90s weren't kind to them, just like they weren't kind to DC, or market speculators, or anyone who ever had a foil-stamped variant issue of grimdark crosshatched bullshit with swords poured into their eyes. That was a lot of people, as such material constituted (let me consult my ass for these figures) ...87% of supehero comics' output in the '90s.

Marvel began selling characters' film and television rights to anyone willing to pay. Eventually, filmmakers like Bryan Singer and Sam Raimi figured out - in a way Roger Corman & David Hasselhoff couldn't - how to make really good movies with these characters, and the resultant avalanche of cash allowed Marvel to make moves in the film industry, leading to a reality where Robert Downey Jr. is a legitimate action star, Joss Whedon has directed a billion-dollar movie, and people kinda almost give a shit about Thor. That's pretty amazing.

Fans familiar with the comics are constantly looking ahead to the next sequel, sidequel, prequel, or crossover, because they're superhero fans, and that's what they're trained to do. And as other studios flail and fumble with achieving any level of superhero success, some of those previously-sold character rights are reverting back to Marvel. Daredevil already got folded back into the Marvel mix a while back, and now joining him are Ghost Rider, The Punisher, and Blade.

Of course, the cry to get these characters put in new movies was instant. But I think that'd be a bad call, Ripley. A bad call. A better one? Building a presence on television using these street-level heroes. After the jump for the full pitch.

Take Matt Murdock/Daredevil, and stick him at the center of a combination legal drama/police procedural. It's a speedball combining two of the more potent drugs television's ever known. Think: Law & Order & Blind Superhero Vigilantism.

Down the street from Matt's office hangs the shingle of Luke Cage and Iron Fist: Heroes for Hire. A pair of superpowered bounty-hunters who (for a fee) handle the sort of problems that smiling, wholesome teams like the Fantastic Four would never sully their aprons with. Think: Angel and the A-Team

Just a few blocks away are the private investigator offices of one Jessica Jones, former costumed superhero turned independent gumshoe whose personal life is just as interesting as the somewhat superpowered mysteries she takes on every week. Think: The Rockford Files and Saving Grace

The opportunities for special, once-or-twice-a-year crossovers between the shows are plentiful, and if you've read some of the comics featuring these characters (and much of Marvel's best superhero output in the last decade+ is centered on them) you know that these characters can - and should - co-exist together. Especially when you introduce the idea that a common villain that each show can have is Frank Castle, aka The Punisher.

I wouldn't have Frank featured in his own dedicated show. Instead, Frank, for a couple episodes on each of the other shows, blows through like a monsoon of vengeful justice, and our heroes have to attempt to stop him, assist him, or clean up his unholy mess after he's gone.

Where do Blade and Ghost Rider fit in? Well, there's your back-to-back supernatural programming block. Blade's already been a television show once, and once you got past the fact that Sticky Fingaz from Onyx was playing the guy (and doing a decent job of it, too) the show wasn't all that bad. Maybe they don't crossover so often with the street-level scenario I just described above, but once or twice couldn't hurt.

Entire networks have been seeded and grown with less to work with. Much less. Yes, it would require a massive amount of pre-planning and collaboration so as to ensure these shows don't become the knotted, gnarled mess of continuity currently choking superhero comics to death. But nobody thought a cohesive comic-book universe could work in the movies, either. Until Marvel up and did it.

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Stumptown Post-Mortem

Alison Hallett — Thu, 02 May 2013 10:44:00 -0700

Stumptown didn't offer press passes to the Mercury this year—or send out a press release, for that matter—but apparently they did see fit to put up one of comics journalism's hotshots. (Cough, bitter? Not us!)

Over at the Comics Reporter, Tom Spurgeon has a massive recap of his Stumptown Comics Fest experience—in addition to a detailed breakdown of his day-by-day encounters, he identifies what is really the show's fundamental identity crisis: Does it want to be an indie, creator-focused small press show, like it was in the early days, or does it want to move in a bigger, more pop-culture oriented direction a la Emerald City or the Rose City Comic-Con?

Of all the shows that I've been to in the last year or so, this seemed the one where a natural direction doesn't present itself, where some basic identity issues, some primary elements of execution and even a general energy boost might be more at issue as opposed to "how do we maximize and channel what's special here?" the way other shows seems to be straining at any and all restraints.

He goes on to offer some suggestions for the festival—things like focusing their mission statement, refining the guest list, and streamlining the Stumptown awards (amen—far too much energy is invested in those things).

I wrote my own piece offering advice for the fest, and subsequently had some very interesting, very constructive off-the-record conversations with folks involved in organizing it. It's very clear to me that they're paying attention to this sort of feedback, and taking a hard look at how Stumptown should function moving forward. I'm really interested to see what happens in the next couple of years.

(h/t to theonetruebix.)

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Re: Stumptown

Alison Hallett — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:44:00 -0700

So much for Stumptown getting out of the convention center. From an interview with Festival Director Kaebel Hashitani:

But I can say that next year's Fest will be moving to a larger hall at the Convention Center (double the space), and that the dates are April 12 & 13, 2014. And we've already got a few guests confirmed that I'll announce at the Fest.

I have to say, I'm a little surprised they decided to move to a bigger space before seeing what attendance looks like this weekend. Apparently they're pretty confident in the guests they've already confirmed—looking forward to seeing who they've got on deck.

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Win Tickets to the Stumptown Comics Fest

Alison Hallett — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:58:00 -0700

The Stumptown Comics festival is this weekend—I've got an article about it in the paper this week, but the gist is that the festival has done some great stuff over the years, and that there are some organizational and institutional issues that need to be addressed moving forward.

I came close to not writing about the festival at all this year because their schedule wasn't released until Friday, April 19—for those of you playing along at home, that's a mere week before the festival itself, timing that totally fucks over any media outlet planning to preview the festival in a coherent way. It's particularly weird given that this is the festival's 10th anniversary, and that this year saw the launch of upstart new shows like Rose City Comic Con and the Projects. Good year to do a little outreach, maybe boost the show's profile a little, yes? But no.

But setting all that aside for a sec, the show itself is usually a lot of fun, and this year features some awesome guests (Becky Cloonan, Bill Willingham, Dash Shaw, Brian Hurtt), some solid panels (a Meathaus reunion, a Judge Dredd panel with a screening and fan film screening), and plenty of workshops and panels with great local writers, artists, and editors. The full schedule is here.

I've got four pairs of weekend passes to give away—email me with "Stumptown passes" in the subject line by 9 am tomorrow for a chance to win 'em.

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First Trailer for Thor 2: Asgardian Boogaloo

Erik Henriksen — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:16:37 -0700

Riding the trend of "Well, people liked those Dark Knight movies, so they must like their movies tonally dark and literally dark and also with the word 'dark' somewhere in the title" (also see Star Trek Into Darkness), Thor: The Dark World put out its first trailer this morning, and the movie—directed by Sopranos/Mad Men/Game of Thrones vet Alan Taylor—looks... yep! You guessed it! Dark!

I'm still stoked for this: Avengers aside, Thor is probably my favorite comic book movie so far, at least of Marvel's inexhaustible stable of pulp heroes. But a big part of why I liked Thor was because of how goofy and fun it was; like the first Iron Man, in its best moments, it worked more as a comedy than an action movie. It was also the first comic book movie in recent memory to be like, "Man! Comic books are weird! Let's go with that!" instead of, "Man! Comic books are weird! Let's get rid of as much of that weirdness as possible!" I'm all for a sequel to Thor that raises the stakes and has a story that hits harder—but here's hoping in their attempts to go all srs bsns, they haven't left behind what made Thor interesting in the first place.

Now that I've written it, it occurs to me that this post basically reads like any number of things I've grumbled about Star Trek Into Darkness, and also Iron Man 3, which looks similarly dour and flat. So I guess my point is that yeah, I liked the Dark Knight movies as much as anybody, but jesus, not everything needs to be so goddamn mopey all the time—especially when the source material is the exact opposite of mopey. I can go watch To the Wonder if I want to feel terrible about life. Thor and his beautifully flowing golden locks are supposed to make me feel better.

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Go See Gilbert Hernandez on Sunday!

Courtney Ferguson — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 16:59:37 -0700

Don't sleep on this chance to see amazing comic book creator Gilbert Hernandez! He's reading from his new all-ages comic book Marble Season (here's my article about it). Here's a short Q&A that I didn't cover in my piece—mostly about the fantastic, epic Palomar stories from Love and Rockets. Reading at Powell's City of Books, 1005 W Burnside, Sun April 21, 7:30 pm, free.

His favorite Palomar character: “It would probably be Luba, of course. Simply because her personality is just so intense. That kind of character is a lot of fun to write. If she wants to be indignant, she can be indignant. She doesn’t have to mask her true feelings the way we do. She lets it all out there and just really gives it to you, whether she’s right or wrong that’s how she is. She was really fun to write for a long time. But as it is with all people, she started to age and mellow out, so she's no longer that voice. That's why I haven't emphasized her in the last few years."

More after the jump.

Has he made a conscious effort to move away from his Palomar stories? “Yeah, only because I didn’t want to burn it out. When I was working on the Palomar stories, I had the sense that this was going to start repeating or going in directions… Palomar always needs to be home for the reader and me. Not destroyed by some kind of major upheaval or art styles or anything. It was created to be a home place, a place you go back there to go home. I want to keep doing that for Palomar whenever I return to it. I’ll do a little Palomar now, but it’s mostly about the new characters and the new things I want to do."

On keeping track of his 100 Years of Solitude-like tangle of Palomar plots and characters: "I’m sure somebody could tell me more about my older stuff than I can, because it’s been 30 years and I have to reference my own stuff. Like with certain characters, I go, ‘Did they already do this? Did they do this yet?’ I don’t really keep notes that much. Once a project is done, I just put it away. I don’t even look at it anymore. They get lost.”

I tell Hernandez I'm not used to seeing his work in color, like on the cover of Marble Season: "Because I’m not great at shading, I can’t create the illusion of color when I’m doing black and white. Like the older brother looks like a blond in [Marble Season] but he’s got brown hair. And when I do a black character, if I were a good artist with shading I could shade the skin a little bit better and that would give them the look. As it is, it’s pretty much a black-and-white world. A clean-lined world.

And my favorite quote: “I really loved Archie comics.”

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Weird, a Superman Trailer That's Actually Something Resembling Super

Erik Henriksen — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:44:56 -0700

The buzz around Hollywood—hey, there's a phrase it's impossible not to feel like a douchebag typing—is that Man of Steel is good. Like, really good. Like, Warner Bros. reportedly thinks its going to be a massive, huge, maybe-even-a-bigger-hit-than-Dark Knight hit.

Which is weird, because none of the film's trailers so far have reflected that. At all. Except for this one. Which does. This thing manages to be more rousing and exciting and majestic in a mere three minutes than Bryan Singer's Superman Returns could manage to be in three whole hours. (Was Superman Returns three hours long? It felt like it was three hours long.) If this trailer is actually representative of Man of Steel—and damn, I hope it is—then Warner Bros. might not be too far off with their expectations.

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Apple Bans Comic Book That Features Gay Sex Scenes

Paul Constant — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 14:59:01 -0700

Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples's science fantasy comic Saga is the best ongoing comic book series in the business right now. The first trade paperback, which you really should be reading, is selling like crazy. Readers are jumping on board all the time. And Apple refuses to release tomorrow's Saga issue number 12 on any of their apps because it features gay sex. The Beat reports that Vaughan has released a press release about the ban:

As has hopefully been clear from the first page of our first issue, SAGA is a series for the proverbial “mature reader.” Unfortunately, because of two postage stamp-sized images of gay sex, Apple is banning tomorrow’s SAGA #12 from being sold through any iOS apps. This is a drag, especially because our book has featured what I would consider much more graphic imagery in the past, but there you go. Fiona and I could always edit the images in question, but everything we put into the book is there to advance our story, not (just) to shock or titillate, so we’re not changing shit.

Apologies to everyone who reads our series on iPads or iPhones...

Vaughan recommends that Saga fans go buy a physical copy of the book from their local comics retailer instead. Unless your comics store owner takes to the issues with a pair of scissors before you go to buy a copy, you're guaranteed to get the story intact, just as Vaughan and Staples intended. Fuck Apple's ridiculous censorship. I could go on the Comixology app on any iPhone or iPad right now and buy any number of comics with scenes of graphic violence. This is bullshit.

Check out the Mercury's review of Saga here.

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Val Kilmer Is Back! As Batman!

Erik Henriksen — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:44:41 -0700

Nothing would make me happier to report than Warner Bros. deciding to reboot Christopher Nolan's doom-and-gloom Batman series by recasting Val Kilmer in the part—preferably due to some sort of time-travel plot that would let Kilmer replace Batman's secret identity of "Bruce Wayne" with, say, "Mark Motherfucking Twain." But alas, that's not the case. (THANKS FOR NOTHING, WARNER BROS.) Instead, we have to settle for Kilmer showing up on Warwick Davis' Life's Too Short. The resultant clip is now my third-favorite thing on the internet, after (1) that Mark Twain business and (2) Kilmer's Twitter feed.

Thanks to my fellow Val Kilmer superfan Robert B. Fortney for the heads up.

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Two Things About 2014's Biggest Movie Star

Erik Henriksen — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 11:29:00 -0700

After making 4 billion million dollars with The Avengers, Marvel's next big thing—the thing Iron Man 3, Thor 2, and Captain America 2 are all going to lead into—will be 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy. While Chris Pratt is technically the star of Guardians, he isn't really, because c'mon—the film will also feature a talking raccoon with guns, and everyone knows that talking raccoons with guns steal every scene they're in, and a few others for good measure. SO. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THIS "ROCKET RACCOON"?

1. He'll look like this, according to a just-released piece of production art from director James Gunn:

2. Here's his back story, according to the always batshit-crazy Marvel comics universe:

Rocket is captain of the starship Rack 'n' Ruin, and he and his first mate Wal Russ (a talking walrus) come from the planet Halfworld, in the Keystone Quadrant, an abandoned colony for the mentally ill where the animal companions were genetically manipulated to grant them human level intelligence and bipedal body construction for many to become caretakers of the inmates. (Via.)

Part of me feels like Marvel might have bitten off more than they can chew with this one—other members of the Guardians team include a talking tree monster whose weakness is, naturally, termites—but considering how solid Marvel's (and Gunn's) movies have been so far, I'm mostly giving them the benefit of the doubt. Regardless, a talking raccoon with guns will 100 percent completely unavoidable next year, at which point both cinema and human culture will have reached their apex.

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Wha?! A Digital Comics Model That Isn't Terrible?!

Erik Henriksen — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 12:14:00 -0700

Everything about the following two paragraphs is fantastic. Because (A) Hey, cool, new work from Saga writer Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin, the same team behind the excellent miniseries Doctor Strange: The Oath! And (B) Hey, cool, someone found a non-terrible way to sell digital comics!

Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin may have officially set a record for quickest "teaser to release date" turnover. While many publishers tease books months before they appear, the creators have released theirs only hours after sending out their first batch of project hints.

As of today, readers can download the first issue of Vaughan and Martin's The Private Eye at PanelSyndicate.com. The comic is a serial story colored by Munsta Vicente and released at a Radiohead-esque "name your price" rate for a wide range of DRM-free digital formats including CBR, CBZ and PDF. (Via.)

Right now there are two main ways I read comics digitally: Via the Comixology app, which is slick and easy and boasts comics from most major publishers, but has drawbacks—namely, obnoxious DRM and prices that usually match what one is expected to pay for a hard copy of the comic. I also read some stuff using Dark Horse Comics' app, which functions much the same way as Comixology's, except—for me at least—it's a lot slower and crashes a lot more. Wheee! In either case, you're stuck reading the comics you buy inside the app, you can't lend them to friends, you can't save them to a hard drive, and you've gotta pay whatever publishers decide to charge you. (Which, more often than not, is now a fairly ridiculous $4 per 22- or 20-page issue.) It should be noted that, like most DRM-shackled digital purchases, these drawbacks only affect those who legally buy things—if you illegally download comics, you won't have to deal with this annoying shit.

So: Not only does The Private Eye sound great—it's a "a detective story set in 2076" from two excellent creators—but Panel Syndicate's pay-what-you-will and read-it-how-you-want freedoms both respect the customer and provide a far easier reading experience than found elsewhere. This is something worth supporting. The further away we can get from the onerous, overpriced models that currently define digital comics, the better; the fact we can do so with work from the likes of Vaughan and Martin seals the deal. I just gave 'em $2.99. And, just like I do when I buy things from Radiohead and Louis CK, I felt good about it.

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Official Stumptown Comics Fest Poster Released

Alison Hallett — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 10:59:00 -0700

The Stumptown Comics Festival has commissioned some great posters over the years, from artists like Craig Thompson, Brandon Graham, Farel Dalrymple, and more. This year's poster by Mike Russell and Bill Mudron—plus lettering from occasional Mercury freelancer Dylan Meconis—is no exception:

Hit Russell's Tumblr to check out a draw-your-own variant cover. Stumptown runs April 27-28 at the Oregon Convention Center, more info here.

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Stumptown Comics Fest Lineup Accounced

Alison Hallett — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 17:08:00 -0700

Good grief. THERE IS SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT TODAY!

The Stumptown Comics Fest (April 27-28 at the Oregon Convention Center) just posted their full lineup of guests. Notable out-of-towners include Bill Willingham (Fables), Dash Shaw (Bottomless Belly Button), Brian Hurtt (The Sixth Gun), and Becky Cloonan (Demo).

Stumptown's also got a very solid lineup of locals attached, including Greg Rucka (Stumptown), Matt Bors (War Is Boring), Erika Moen (DAR), and plenty more. Go see for yourself.

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Tonight: Matt Fraction Hawkeye Signing! Today: Rose City Tickets On Sale!

Erik Henriksen — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 12:59:00 -0700

Two things:

1) ROSE CITY COMIC CON. If, unlike me, you didn't throw your entire savings account at Veronica Mars, tickets for September's Rose City Comic Con are now on sale. This is a convention worth going to—not only was last year's inaugural show a big success, but, unlike another show that sets up shop in Portland, this is one that we want to, you know, keep happening.

2) HAWKEYE SIGNING. Tonight at Floating World, writer and all-around great guy Matt Fraction* will be signing copies of the first collected edition of his Hawkeye series, illustrated by David Aja. Not only is Hawkeye well worth reading—it's of the best books on the shelves right now—but the proceeds from tonight's event will go to the Red Cross to benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy. Artists Steve Lieber and Jesse Hamm will be around too, drawing sketches in exchange for Red Cross donations. So there you go! It all starts at 6 and goes until 8 at Floating World (400 NW Couch); this first collection of Hawkeye is 17 bucks and collects the series' first five issues.

*CONFLICT OF INTEREST ALERT, SORT OF! Fraction's participated a few times in the comics reading event Alison and I put on, Comics Underground. He really is a great guy, though.

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UPDATE: Superman, Bigotry, and Portland's Comics Shops

Erik Henriksen — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 12:29:00 -0800

A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece about how DC Comics was facing backlash for hiring militant bigot Orson Scott Card to write a story in a Superman comic. Following those reactions, the artist for the comic, Chris Sprouse, has backed out of the project, explaining, "The media surrounding this story reached the point where it took away from the actual work, and that’s something I wasn’t comfortable with." The issue's now moving forward, but without Card's story.

(Would a comment from Sprouse saying, "You know, I just didn't want to work with a homophobe," or a comment from DC saying, "So... ah... we shouldn't have hired a gay-hating weirdo to write a character who stands for tolerance and freedom. Our bad!" have been better? Yeah. But the end result's likely the same—sure, DC's claiming Card's story will still run at some point, but the more likely scenario is that DC will sweep this thing under the rug in a while by giving Card a kill fee.)

But where does this leave local comics shops? In the case of Floating World Comics—which had planned not only to host a signing with one of the book's other writers, Jeff Parker, but also to donate their share of the issue's proceeds to an LGBT charity—things haven't changed.

"Our event was a response, to try an turn an ugly situation into something positive," says Floating World's Jason Leivian. "Also to demonstrate that if Card wants to aggressively pursue his agenda, it won't go unnoticed. He can expect people to speak up against him. Good for Chris, and his response which effectively led to the story's cancellation.

"No reason to cancel our show," Leivian continues. "It turns our party into even more of a celebration. And people can buy the book knowing that the only compensation Card got was a kill fee."

Parker also weighed in. "As far as I know I'm still going to sign that Wednesday! I think Jason has hired dancers or something." Parker also points out that Vancouver's comics shop, I Like Comics—one of the first stores to announce they wouldn't be selling the issue due to Card's participation—is now ordering 200 copies of the comic.

Meanwhile, one person's been noticably silent through this whole thing. Daniel D'Addario at Salon tried calling Card, but was told Card wouldn't be commenting. "He thinks that it always makes these things worse," a woman at Card's home explained.

Wait. Card somehow making things worse when he opens his mouth? Nah. That's crazy talk.

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Win a Pair of Tickets to Tomorrow's Comics Underground

Alison Hallett — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 10:14:45 -0800

[This blog post brought to you by the Mercury's Department of Self Promotion.]

Every couple months, Mercury Senior Editor Erik Henriksen and I put on an event called Comics Underground, which combines live performance and comic books and booze and fun. For this month's show, we're partnering with Dark Horse Comics for a special Will Eisner-themed edition of Comics Underground, in conjunction with other Will Eisner Week celebrations organized by Dark Horse.

All of the guests at tomorrow's show will be reading stories from Will Eisner's Last Day in Vietnam. The lineup is... pretty good.

• MATT FRACTION, architect of the Marvel Universe, writer of The Invincible Iron Man, and creator of the beloved high-concept spy comic Casanova.

• BRIAN MICHAEL BENDIS, yet another architect of the Marvel Universe, writer of Ultimate Spider Man and creator of the beloved superhero noir comic Alias.

• MICHAEL AVON OEMING, a creator and artist on numerous projects including the Eisner-winning series Powers.

• DYLAN MECONIS, creator of the brainy historical graphic novel Family Man and the vampire-themed spoof Bite Me.

• KELLY SUE DECONNICK, writer of a number of Marvel Comics titles, including the well-received Osborn miniseries and Avengers Assemble.

• ERIK NEBEL, creator of War and Peace: The Comic, which is just what it says it is.

We're pretty excited. I'll put a random Blogtown reader on the list with a plus one—just email me by 4 pm today with "Eisner" in the subject line, and I'll email you back if you've won.

Or, if you'd like to see the show the old fashioned way—by exchanging dollar bills for entertainment—it's a mere $3-5 sliding scale at the door.

Comics Underground is tomorrow (Thurs March 7) at the the Jack London Bar (529 SW 5th) at 8 pm. $3-5, and doors open at 7:30. We suggest getting there then if you enjoy things like "sitting down" and "being able to see."

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A Page-by-Page Review of MacGyver: Fugitive Gauntlet

Erik Henriksen — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 09:44:02 -0800

A few months ago, Image Comics released the first issue of MacGyver: Fugitive Gauntlet, a five-issue series bringing back television's most heroic handyman, Angus MacGyver! The comic series is cowritten by Tony Lee and Lee David Zlotoff (the creator of MacGyver, the world's greatest television show, and also a guy who, apparently, doesn't really get the concept of satire), with art by Will Sliney. I spotted a battered first issue of Fugitive Gauntlet at a local comics shop yesterday, at which point I frantically threw $3.50 at the clerk and ran out of the store whooping and hollering and singing the MacGyver theme song.

Now, because YOU demanded them, here are my thoughts regarding Fugitive Gauntlet #1... IN REAL TIME.

BUT FIRST: I encourage you to listen to the MacGyver theme song on repeat while reading this post. Or reading anything, really.

Okay, all set? All set! Let us begin.

INSIDE COVER:

I'd meant to start on page one, but nope—shit gets started on the inside cover! How, exactly? Why, with that time-honored tradition of reading someone else's email! Except instead of your ex's email, it's MacGyver's!

The email in question is from "B.C.", MacGyver's former professor at Caltech—which is weird, since EVERYONE knows MacGyver graduated from Western Tech. Anyway, B.C. tells Mac that he's working on a project in Kenya that's "nothing less than a game changer on a global scale." (Sounds exciting, right? Prepare to be disappointed. It's about seeds.) B.C., who is whiny, says he needs Mac's help because he knows Mac "can be trusted completely and will receive my plea with all the seriousness that I intend" an—WAIT. WHAT?

MacGyver has email??? When we last saw MacGyver, it was in the ancient era of 1992—long before email was common! It's good to know that Mac's kept up with the technological times, especially considering MacGyver was born in 1951, and this tale is set in 2012, meaning he's now 61 years old! So old! Anyway, now we know that MacGyver's all old and shit, and we can make a pretty good guess that he therefore hates computers and teenagers! This should be fun!

Anyway, sounds like MacGyver's going to Kenya!

PAGE ONE: An ominously named sniper ("Travis") gets a phone call offering him a bunch of money to kill... MacGyver. It is unclear if Travis lives in Kenya, but judging by that "Eh?", he might be Canadian.

PAGE TWO: Kenya! Wow, MacGyver looks really good for being 61!

The fact that Image Comics wasn't able to get Richard Dean Anderson to let them use his likeness for this comic is... well, let's face it. It's depressing. If you don't have Richard Dean Anderson, you don't have MacGyver.

Maybe I'll pretend that this is a comic about MacGyver's son? Well... no. That won't work, because Mac's son was born in 1973. (Sidenote: MacGyver's kind of a deadbeat dad. Moving on.) Let's just consider the lost opportunity here: If Anderson didn't want them to use his late-'80s/early-'90s face for the comic, maybe he would've let them use his current face?

I still think an Old MacGyver comic would have been great (he could fix things in the retirement home!), but I guess we're stuck with a young MacGyver who doesn't look anything at all like MacGyver. Maybe MacGyver invented some sort of anti-aging serum? Even the mullet seems toned down. Does Richard Dean Anderson have mullet likeness rights?

Look, I'm having a hard time believing a few things about this comic (WESTERN TECH) and we're only on page two. Maybe page three will be better.

PAGE THREE: Ugh. Nobody told me there would be French people in this comic.

Maybe he hates taxes because the goddamn feds are all up his ass to pay taxes on his anti-aging serum! Goddamn feds.

PAGE FOUR: Boring B.C. offers to give Mac a VIP tour of his place of work, the Cornwell Institute! An old man giving somebody a tour of their workplace? How exciting!

PAGE FIVE: The nefarious Travis pulls up outside of the Cornwell Institute... and kills the black driver who brought him there! SPOILER: On the next page, Travis will also kill the black driver who drove MacGyver to the Cornwell Instittue. Is Travis a racist? Possibly. His name is Travis.

PAGE SIX: Travis' motives are revealed at last in my favorite 10 words that have ever been written in a comic book. I wish there were little music symbols next to Travis' word bubble so it sounded like he was singing it.

PAGE SEVEN: Boring ol' B.C. is in the middle of talking about some boring stuff about some boring high-tech seeds he's developed when CLANG! Travis (clumsily) attacks! And promptly apologizes for doing so! That's nice of him.

PAGE EIGHT: MacGyver doesn't fuck around. Also, PLOT TWIST: Travis has a bald spot? Embarrassing.

PAGE NINE: Somehow B.C. gets shot anyway (sorry, old man! be less boring next time!) and his Sexy Assistant sexily kneels over him as he bleeds out, making sure to show off her sexy assistant boobs in the process. Comics!

PAGE TEN: Plot twist again! Turns out Sexy Assistant is actually Kari Kurikov—B.C.'s (inept) bodyguard and an Interpol agent! But she thinks MacGyver is the one who killed B.C.! What! Meanwhile, that French dude from page three shows up again and steals boring B.C.'s boring data about his boring seeds.

PAGE ELEVEN: Nothing interesting happens on this page. Sexy Assistant/Sexy Interpol Agent throws both Travis and Mac into some teeny tiny jail cells that she happened to have nearby? I guess they have little jail cells at places where people research seeds.

PAGE TWELVE: That French bastard who stole B.C.'s boring data about his boring seeds? He runs outside. MacGyver better do something cool soon.

PAGE THIRTEEN: Hell yeah! Mac uses his Swiss Army knife to bust out of his handcuffs! Nice one, Mac! Also... wait. Sorry, I got confused. Turns out Travis' name is now... "Crazy Ace"? Okay, Travis. Call yourself whatever you want.

PAGE FOURTEEN: Meanwhile... this is happening outside! Kurikov is shooting at... sombody? Or they are shooting at her? The French guy is probably involved. I'm going to be honest: I have no idea what's going on here. But I do like any panel that has someone screaming, "Call for backup—ARRGHHH!!"

PAGE FIFTEEN: Back in the jail cells, MacGyver FINALLY gets MacGyverin'! IT'S ABOUT GODDAMN TIME*.

*Full disclosure: Back on page eight, MacGyver also made an impromptu flame thrower using "a bunsen burner with some screen cleaner." It was totally underwhelming, which is why I didn't mention it before.

PAGE SIXTEEN: Back outside, whats-her-name is still fighting some... guys? She's definitely fighting some people for some reason! She kicks one of them because... I am not sure, sorry. But you can tell she means it because she's all "Stay down. I said—STAY!" Also, she just now realizes that French bastard is behind all of this, which the rest of us realized as soon as he showed up on page three.

PAGE SEVENTEEN: Mac escapes! Here's something weird: When Richard Dean Anderson says stuff all sarcastically, it's charming. When MacGyver-That-Isn't-Richard-Dean-Anderson says stuff all sarcastically, he just sounds like a dick.

PAGE EIGHTEEN: Interpol lady is in trouble! MacGyver gets MacGyverin' again and saves her by making a bomb out of a mug, some jellybeans, and—goddammit. ANOTHER STUPD BUNSEN BURNER. Come on, Mac! You used one of those like 10 pages ago and it sucked even back then! Points for using jelly beans, though. Also, that same amount of points now gets taken away for using a dumb bunsen burner again.

PAGE NINETEEN: I present this panel without any context because I am super immature.

PAGE TWENTY: Thankfully, MacGyver/Lee/Zlotoff explain everything in one simple sentence. Not explained: Why this comic is inexplicably set in Kenya. Is Kenya the only place in the world that has boring old men and seeds in it? Ugh. Kenya blows.

PAGE TWENTY-ONE: Mac and his new girlfriend steal a helicopter!

PAGE TWENTY-TWO: They fly away. Kind of a boring page, honestly. BUT! LOOK AT THIS AD IN THE BACK! The search for data about seeds has never been more thrilling. VROOM! SCREECH! BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! Call for backup—ARRGHHH!!

Quick! Someone buy me issue two!

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The Most Antisocial Way to Attend Emerald City Comicon

Paul Constant — Fri, 01 Mar 2013 10:59:13 -0800

As Mary Traverse told you yesterday, Emerald City Comicon starts tonight. But if you're not interested in driving to Seattle—or if you haven't already bought tickets for Saturday, which is sold out—you should visit Flipon.TV's Emerald City Comicon page, which is livestreaming certain ECCC panels for free. If you'd like access to all the feeds and the ability to watch panels after they've finished, $14.95 will get you full access to all the convention programming, forever. It's the perfect gift for the agoraphobic comics fan in your life!

(Via Comics Alliance.)

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Scientifically Accurate Spider-Man

Wm.™ Steven Humphrey — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 09:59:22 -0800

Peter Parker had it preeeetty lucky if you ask me. A radioactive spider bites him, and he only gets spider powers that would be convenient to a human? If it REALLY happened things would be preeeeetty different, as demonstrated in this very catchy and informative video entitled, "Scientifically Accurate Spider-Man." (Audio a touch NSFW.)

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Superman, Bigotry, and Portland's Comics Shops

Erik Henriksen — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 11:29:12 -0800

DC Comics recently hired Orson Scott Card to write a story in the first issue of their new Superman comic, Adventures of Superman. Card's a hell of a writer—he wrote Ender's Game, one of my favorite novels, the long-awaited film adaptation of which will come out this fall. He's also a relentless, shameless bigot.

For at least 20 years, the Mormon author has been doing his sanctimonious best to deny respect and basic civil rights to everyone who isn't heterosexual. There's a huge chasm between the person who I imagine wrote Ender's Game—a fantastic, nuanced story about the brutal lies of war, the strength and frailty of human beings, and neat rooms where kids can float around because there isn't any gravity—and the person Card's revealed himself to be through actions like serving on the board of the National Organization for Marriage. When he isn't saying that gays and lesbians should be arrested—

What we do with small children is to establish clear boundaries and offer swift but mild punishment for crossing them. As their capacity to understand and obey increases, the boundaries broaden but the consequences of crossing them become more severe...

Laws against homosexual behavior should remain on the books, not to be indiscriminately enforced against anyone who happens to be caught violating them, but to be used when necessary to send a clear message that those who flagrantly violate society's regulation of sexual behavior cannot be permitted to remain as acceptable, equal citizens within that society. (Via.)

—he's (apparently seriously) vowing to overthrow any government that lets gays and lesbians get married.

Marriage has only one definition, and any government that attempts to change it is my mortal enemy. I will act to destroy that government and bring it down. (Via.)

Heh. Okay, buddy. ANYWAY, while Card's written comics before—he rehashed Ender's Game for Marvel, and also wrote Ultimate Iron Man—Superman is the first time the issue of a boycott against his comics work has come up. Joining several other retailers, Vancouver's I Like Comics has decided not to sell the first issue of Adventures of Superman.

Last Friday, I emailed several of Portland's comics shops to ask them if they'd be following I Like Comics' lead. I emailed Floating World Comics, Cosmic Monkey Comics, Bridge City Comics, Things from Another World, and Excalibur Comics.

I heard back from Cosmic Monkey, Floating World, and Bridge City—though only the first two were willing to go on the record. Despite multiple emails, neither Things from Another World nor Excalibur responded at all.

Reactions from Cosmic Monkey and Floating World are below—plus, some thoughts from Portland writer Jeff Parker, who, along with artist Chris Samnee, also has a story in the controversial issue.

Here's Cosmic Monkey Comics' stance, straight from Adam Healy, one of the store's owners:

Even though we find Orson Scott Card's opinions and beliefs to be offensive, as would most reasonable people, we will still stock the Superman he writes, if only in small numbers, mostly just pre-orders. There are a number of writers, artists and editors who hold and occasionally profess abhorrent and offensive ideas, yet we do still carry their material, albeit in very limited quantities. It is the curse of the comics retailer to have to carry a variety of material that includes offensive and/or embarrassing works.

I also spoke with Floating World Comics' Jason Leivian, who—like Chicago's Challengers Comics—has found a pretty fantastic solution: Yes, he'll be selling the issue, but 100 percent of Floating World's proceeds from the book will be going to "All Out or another LGBT charity organization."

"While I feel that a financial boycott may hit DC's bottom line a little harder," Leivian says, "I like that there has been a large public response to this story and I'd like to spin it in the opposite direction by using this controversy to directly support organizations Orson Scott Card would be opposed to."

Leivian will also be hosting a signing with writer Jeff Parker to coincide with the issue's release in late May.

"That was a real psych-out," Parker said when I asked him about how it felt to be part of an book that's so controversial. "We had this one day of news of the book coming out, mentioning me and Chris Samnee and everyone cheering 'We love this!' And the next day was everyone saying 'We hate this!'"

When I asked Parker how it felt to know that some people—even fans of his and Samnee's—wouldn't be buying the issue because of Card's involvement, he said he fully understood. Still, he's quick to keep himself and Samnee from being lumped in with Card. "We don't think and act like Card, so I don't really want to be shot into the Phantom Zone with him."

"There are a lot of gay readers in comics, and this comes at a time when marriage equality is fighting to finally be a national right," Parker says of why this particular book, at this particular time, has garnered so much attention. "As for Superman, here's my out-there theory for the earliest reaction: I think that variant cover that Samnee drew just nailed everything we like about Superman. It feels right. And you look at this hero and think, 'There's no place for haters with this guy.'"

DC Comics' reaction to all of this? Not much. Meanwhile, those behind the Ender's Game movie are paying attention. And getting nervous.

I'll update this post if and when I hear back from Excalibur and Things from Another World.

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Hooray for Che! (Or, A Celebration of The O.C., and Also Some News About Guardians of the Galaxy)

Erik Henriksen — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:14:18 -0800

Chris Pratt is great in Parks & Rec and Zero Dark Thirty, but let us not forget where so very many of us first met him—as Winchester "Che" Cook, the young, sweet-hearted trustafarian of The O.C. Che—who at first was kind of threat to the whole Seth/Summer thing, but then got really into Seth, before ultimately finding true happiness, as he deserved—is and always will be one of the best, and one of the most tragically overlooked, characters on one of the best, and one of the most tragically overlooked, television sagas of our time. My least favorite person in the world, YouTube user "hausstudioks," has stupidly decided not to allow embedding on this amazing Che-centric video, but I strongly urge you to watch it immediately.

Anyway, after beating out a whole lot of other contenders, Pratt just got cast as the lead in Marvel's big 2014 film, Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel's trying to make Guardians into the next Avengers—which means Pratt's face is soon going to be everywhere, from giant IMAX screens to crappy candy wrappers. Every time I see one, I will think of Che.

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