The Dark Knight

Holy shit. Heath Ledger. wow. Oscar worthy.

New Artist Alert - Bon Iver

New Artist Alert - Shane Davis

The kids got the goods. Did you see his Superman/Batman run with Michael Green? He was throwing a lot of heat in that book. Somebody tell Jim Lee he better watch his back!

Covers we Love - Sean Murphy

Band to Watch - BAND OF HORSES

Making beautiful music. Ben Bidwell is writing from the heart. Give it a listen and I am sure you will want to grow an extremely long beard and get a neck tattoo.

Marvel vs DC movies

If you have not seen Iron Man, do yourself a favor, this is how it is how a comic book movie is done. There was one key ingredient that they never forgot, and that is fun. This movie was a blast to watch from the first scene on. Looking at the long history of the two companies, Marvel has done a hell of a job bringing their characters to life. Even when they don't necessarily hit a home run, (i.e. Daredevil, or Hulk) they still base the film on the true heritage of the books. Whereas DC/Warner Brothers has had a harder time at it, and when they run into problems you end up with Catwoman, holy shit, wow, that was spectacularly awful, this took the medium back 15 years.  

Other deviations would include the 2006 Superman Returns, where they gave Lois and Clark a kid, what is that about? Yet another slap in the face to the comic book industry and the character to which the movie is based on. 

Hey, John Peters, if something has worked for 70 years, why don't you go blow dry your hair? Who gave this guy the keys to the castle? While developing Superman with Tim Burton they wanted to change his costume to make it more "relevant" to todays audience, it happen to be right after the Matrix hit, and wanted to take the whole thing in a different direction.  The idea would be that his "S" symbol on his chest would be blades that he could throw, (yeah that's right blades). Now it would seem at this point you should not be in the Superman business, you should be in the Edward Scissor Chest business:

JJ Abrams, when he was in line to direct, was actually considering casting Justin Timberlake as Superman. Now this is what happens when things are left up to filmmakers, who aren't necessarily fans of the books. They want to have their name attached to a huge production, and be a part of a big hit movie, who wouldn't. But this is how you can end up so far away from what comic books fans would feel are the true mythology of the character.

Comic fans have come to understand that some things don't lend themselves to live action. Such as Wolverine's costume. It would be hard to have him be the bad ass he should be, while running around in a bright yellow spandex outfit. So you make some changes, put him in black leather, that is understandable. But why have Lois Lane marry Cyclops (James Marsden), what the fuck? Is it me? But I don't remember that in the books. It will always be a difficult prospect to bring a comic book narrative to life, but Marvel seems to be doing a pretty good job of it..

Micahel Turner R.I.P.

He was a beloved artist that worked with DC, Marvel, as well as his creator owned Aspen Comics. He passed away on June 27th at the age of 37. Such a talented, wonderful person, taken way before his time. He will be greatly missed.