Category: Comics

Scott Pilgrim vs. The Universe is the Empire Strikes Back of Scott Pilgrim.

At Vertigo’s NYCC panel, Karen Berger said something I’ve heard other people mention:

Out of all the British writers who’ve worked for us, Peter Milligan is the only one who’s never written Constantine.

Shouldn’t someone who works at Vertigo know about this:

Yes, that’s John Constantine, appearing in Shade The Changing Man #42, as well as the next two issues. Peter Milligan’s never written Hellblazer, but he has written John Constantine.

Slightly more exctiting news – I’ve never gotten into Hellblazer – is that Milligan also has a creator-owned series coming from Vertigo, Greek Street. Milligan describes it thusly:

“Our hero is a young guy called Eddie who;s a young guy brought up in a children’s home. He decides to track down his mother. Within 24 hours of finding her, he’s made love to her and killed her.

Yes. I want it now, please.

Further good news is that Mike Carey has another Vertigo series coming up, this time with Lucifer partner Peter Gross. I thought Crossing Midnight had great potential, but the art wasn’t quite suited to the story; teaming up with Gross again will hopefully bring more success.

Scott Pilgrim Volume 5 comes out this week!

I fully expect this to be the greatest thing to happen in the history of great things happening. As in, if Jesus were to return, the first thing he’d say would be “Dude, where’s my copy of Scott Pilgrim vs. the Universe?”

High expectations? Yes. Probably.

I admit, I was kind of lukewarm when I heard the news about Neil Gaiman writing a Batman story. Maybe because I’m not a fan of Andy Kubert’s art, and maybe because Batman doesn’t seem like an ideal fit for Gaiman.

But Neil Gaiman writing a Metamorpho story with Mike Allred? Yes. That is the comic I want to read. Now, please.

Granted, it’s only a 12-page story. But Gaiman and Allred produced one of my favourite issues of Sandman, so this is a pretty big deal to me. And not only that, but it’s also part of some big, weird, oversized project Allred is doing for DC, which sounds excellent. If it’s anything at all like his issue of Solo, this has just made a big splash on my Most Anticipated Comics of 2009 List.*

*There is no actual list.

As far as comic book trends go, “political comics” isn’t a particularly interesting one. I mean, if Aaron Sorkin wants to start writing comics, I’m there, but biographies of Barack Obama and Sarah Palin don’t exactly whip me up into a frenzy.

But Ben Templesmith illustrating all 44 US presidents? That’s pretty nifty.

Now I want an Obama/Wormwood crossover.

As a general rule, Jane Austen gives me hives. And Marvel’s Best Selling Authors line feels somewhat dubious – a mix of “Classics Illustrated” stuff and tie-ins to popular books whose actual Best-Selling Authors are nowhere to be found on the actual book.

And while I’m complaining: As if it weren’t bad enough that Crossing Midnight was cancelled while his utterly unreadable X-Men keeps going, now Mike Carey is writing Orson Scott Card adaptations? Aarrgh.

But Sonny Liew? Totally awesome:

I know it’s been done before, in one form or another. And is the cropping supposed to be so tight? But still: Awesome.

(And just to show I’m not totally curmudgeony – though it is Monday and I would be entirely justified – Wizard of Oz looks quite excellent.)

(Explanations, of a sort, over here.)