In the age of the Greg Land, Mike Deodato, Bryan Hitch and others, we’re getting very used to looking for actors,public figures and Victoria’s Secret models (ahem … Land) in the faces of our favorite super heroes. It’s not suprising when Samuel L. Jackson appears as Nick Fury or Tommy Lee Jones stars as Norman Osborn.

But, I was suprised to see a familiar (albiet perhaps not a really famous one) face when perusing a freshly-digitized issue of West Coast Avengers on Marvel.com … Brian Thompson, Alien Bounty Hunter and psycho killer from everything from “Chuck” to Stallone’s “Cobra” to hunting down agents Scully and mulder. Call me crazy, I think the muscled-up, kinda’ ugly Mr. Thompson was John Byrne’s inspiration for a muscled-up, kinda’ ugly, super-patriotic John Walker.

P.S. Don’t think you know this guy? Check out his IMDB profile. This dude has worked continuously since getting his butt kicked with Bill Paxton in “Terminator.”

I do love southern horror/western/thriller Joe R. Lansdale (creator of Bubba Ho-tep where nursing-home Elvis and black JFK fight a redneck mummy), but less so in comics format.

Wobble Gobble The ‘Wild Turkey’ is the world’s greatest stunt-bird/daredevil. See his show and you will believe that a turkey can fly (and just like his idol, he carries a cane filled with his favorite beverage:Wild Turkey).

Hope everyone had a GREAT Thanksgiving Day today…

Well, I found a place here in town that actually sells the type of memory stick the PSP requires. However it’s around 50$ and I only have around 37$ for another couple days.

My visual novel project is advancing very slowly. Far too slowly I doubt I’ll finish for the 30th like was planned in the “competition.” But then I was only halfway aiming for that. If I miss the deadline oh well it gives me all the time I need to relax and toy with the script.

I should really get back to reading Human All too Human.  More recently I’ve been hung up reading comics I’ve recently “acquired” starting with the entirety of Wolverine. A series I tried to follow a while back but I was a kid who rarely ever had money. Not to mention the area I lived in didn’t always get it, and sometimes when they did they only got two issues that sold out before I got there. -.-;

Pretty well the same thing that’s happening here and now. I was buying Yen+ regularly then the store stopped carrying it. They started stocking Shounen Jump and Shoujo Beat. So I was buying Shoujo Beat regularly and now they only stock Shounen Jump… well that and some anime magazine that I won’t bother buying because it likely only has info on “brand new” series I started watching last year. And whilst they do stock a few Marvel titles, not Wolverine or Deadpool.

Though I could probably just order Yen+ by mail. Which would solve my problem.  I probably wouldn’t get Shoujo Beat if only because their alternating light red and light blue ink irritates me.

Click to see the turkey mayhem full size!

A re-design of Sophia Macello’s suit. Looks like a Versace!

by Tony Lee

Well…I’m back in the UK and I’m still playing catchup, but it hasn’t been so busy that I can’t post up the video diaries that I took while I was in India, especially as the Internet issues of Bangalore meant that there were no updates while I was there. They’re not the best quality, having been recorded in a higher resolution that YouTube takes, and therefore lose resolution for the upload, and the camera I used (not primarily a camcorder) has an annoying click it makes as it tries to auto focus on me every now and then, but you’ll get the general gist and taste of everything…

So, without further adieu, here are the YouTube links.

DAY ONE: KOLKATA
1. Arriving at Kolkata (Calcutta) Airport with Jake Arnott. (0.36 minutes)
2.The ‘Hello Alastair’ I prepared at Starmark, Kolkata. (0.15 minutes)
3. The End of Day One recap. (3.52 minutes)

DAY TWO: KOLKATA
4. Walking through the Tanks-filled Jadavpur University. (0.24 minutes)

DAY THREE: PUNE
5. The End of Day Three recap, the flight, the drink with friends. (4.28 minutes)

DAY FOUR: PUNE
6. The End of Day Four recap: British Library Talk. (2.26)

DAY FIVE: BANGALORE
7. In the car leaving the airport. (0.47 minutes)

DAY SIX: BANGALORE
8. The start of the day discussion and end of previous day recap. (5.40 minutes)
9. Final day recap and conclusion on visit to India. (5.03 minutes)

Born in West London, Tony has been a writer and journalist for television, print and radio for over twenty years. In the last five years he has concentrated on comics, including licenses such as X-Men, Spider Man and Starship Troopers. He is a featured writer in the October 2009 webcomics for DC Comics / Zuda – www.tonylee.co.uk

Lit Sutra is a programme of cultural relations through reading and writing, that builds on the success of the British Council’s festival of Indian writing at The London Book Fair 2009.

Activites include a Writer Exchange Programmes, where contemporary British writers including Jake Arnott, Tony Lee and Woodrow Phoenix, completed a successful one week tour of Indian cities in the middle of November 2009. For more information, visit the Lit Sutra blog.

Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.

In 1965, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced an unusual take on an espionage agency led by former WWII soldier Nick Fury. Named S.H.I.E.L.D. (Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage, Law-Enforcement Division), the organization debuted as co-star of Strange Tales with Doctor Strange the Sorcerer Supreme. S.H.I.E.L.D. was made up of gun-toting daredevils willing to lay down their lives in defense of world peace. From jetpacks to flying roadsters and massive doomsday devices, S.H.I.E.L.D. fought the forces of Hydra on a monthly basis… until their dissolution last year. S.H.I.E.L.D. was often presented as having extensive intelligence resources in addition to cutting edge weapons design. As such, they were the presiding global police force as spectacular and stunning as the superhuman community… until their dissolution by Norman Osborn.

Rising bullpen writer Jonathan Hickman (of Secret Warriors fame) and Dustin Weaver, artist of X-Men: Legacy have recently announced a new monthly title focused on S.H.I.E.L.D. and its importance to the structure and development of the Marvel Universe. Hickman had already developed a name for himself in the independent comic book scene with the critically acclaimed Nightly News. A brilliant writer, Hickman is unique in the modern comic book scene as he has not only a seemingly limitless supply of ideas but also a magnificent grasp of character. His take on Marvel’s Fantastic Four has been gathering support as bringing the series to the level of greatness that it deserves. A third monthly from Hickman may be stretching the author a bit thin, but I have to confess after hearing his pitch that it sounds like a great comic.

For readers of Hickman’s Secret Warriors, the influence of S.H.I.E.L.D. has been hinted to stretch back to ancient history. The struggle for supremacy over the free world has been waged by Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. for generations on end, and now it will be revealed.

“We jump back through time and see the first alien invasion that happens on the planet. I’m not talking about the Celestials or any of that stuff. This is more along the lines of a straight up, ‘humans repel alien invaders’ event that happens. We see what gets born out of that, how it transforms society, and how that evolves through the history of man,” Hickman revealed. “We start our flashbacks in the third dynasty of ancient Egypt with a man called Imhotep. He’s considered the world’s first polymath, which is another word for what’s commonly referred to as a ‘Renaissance man’. We never state this in ‘Shield,’ but that kind of becomes the requirement for somebody to be part of the organization. That’s the type of men and women that the Shield is looking for. It’s only natural that Renaissance men big guns, like da Vinci and Galileo, feature and feature prominently”

“I would say our main cast is around eight to ten characters. Very early on, we’re introduced to Nathaniel Richards, the father of Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards, and Howard Stark, the father of Iron Man, Tony Stark. The young man I talked about above is named Leonid. He’s the Eternal Dynamo… the great engine of the human machine. He represents progress, the advance of society and all that other cool stuff,” Hickman said. “There’s also a guy called The Night Machine who is the opposite of Golden Age Renaissance heroes like da Vinci, Michaelangelo, and Galileo. We’ll see the dark dreams of Nostradamus and we’ll unflinchingly answer the long-standing question of whether Isaac Newton was the first man of the age of reason or the last of the magicians. And, hey, why be boring… let’s stick a Celestial, Galactus, and the Brood in the first issue and see what happens.”

“This series is operating on what is roughly a 7,000 year time line, and that’s exactly how I like things. In fact, this book is probably the perfect synthesis of all my indy and Marvel work to date. I think it’s easily the best thing I’ve ever done. It just feels right,” Hickman said. “Everyone at Marvel, and all my friends that have gotten early looks, really seem to dig the book. And honestly, even if you think I’m an idiot and can’t write worth a damn, you should check out this book just for Dustin Weaver. He makes murdering trees for print a holy and righteous thing.”

Shield premieres April 2010.

Recommended:
MARVEL MASTERWORKS NICK FURY Vol 1
Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Classic Marvel Figurine Collection Magazine #51 Nick Fury (51)

A Thursday afternoon and NO new Heroes episodes has me thinking. I love Heroes. I love Hiro. If you don’t, that’s cool.

BUT. I don’t care if you have, and I quote from something I read recently about Buffy being an intellectual superior: “a comic collection worth more than most peoples cars”. I don’t care if you think Heroes is very derivative from lesser known comics. If it is full of plot-holes. I love it, sometimes it’s slow but it’s light entertainment which takes me away from a reality that is all too complex sometimes.

So, Heroes would never have a place in academia or intellectual conversation? Personally I like that. I also may have half my ‘facts’ incorrect with what I post below, I am going by memory and as I have said before, that’s pretty much a vast abyss. Also as per usual a random spiel that happens before I think, especially today being sleep deprived, so sorry if I break your head a little.

I love Heroes.

Plus I love Sylar. Hiro is my favorite, he wants to save everyone yet I want Sylar to KILL everyone at the same time. Or atleast try. He just keeps coming back, you can’t stop him – he’s batshit-crazy. The latest episodes have me screaming at the television when I realise there are NO more episodes YARRED for me to watch.

Anyway, Hiro.

Naw!

Hiro possesses something like, the power to control the space-time continuum. The ability to teleport both himself and others that he comes into physical contact with, both through time and space. To stop time. Though these days his powers are becoming weaker.

He seems to be one of the only characters who wants to use his SUPER POWERS to help other people rather than gain for himself. He is pretty gullible at times. I am pretty sure from memory of the first series that he is a huge comic book fan and sets himself standards to live up to the responsibilities, systems, justice and other things he sees in his comic book friends. “You cannot bribe a hero. My heart is true. My spirit, unbreakable.”

haha. I think this is the only time I have seen him hit a chick, though she’s not really a chick, she has super KICK YOUR ASS homicidal powers.

He believes he is born to be a Hero. Maybe he is. He speaks of Star Trek, Waffles(!!), saving this person, saving that person, saving the world, is notoriously cute, optimistic and hilarious. I love him and I am sure I piss a lot of people off by now from yelling “YATTA!!” waayy too often. I stopped for awhile but Heroes is BACK baby.

I do him little justice. If he were real, hopefully he’d come back in time to redeem himself.. or me. He has a heart of gold and has me laughing and stupid things (I DO NOT usually laugh at stupid comedy) when I am feeling crap. I was told this post needed some more work, they usually do.. I can’t write anymore.. I can only hear “YATTA!” in my head over and over.

Hiro <3

/brainfluff

My attempt at a girl gunslinger…

Drew this one quick. It shows. Colored it  pretty quick too. Made some of my own brushes and stamp patterns yesterday abd tried them out on this… Hope she looks western enough….

Okay I just craked the first two pages of Detective Comics #859. Review won’t be up til Friday or Saturday, but can I just say how FUCKING PSYCHED I AM THAT THEY HAVE SCENES OF KATE GOING TO WEST POINT!!!! They even show the ring ceremony! And she says “hooah!” (Even if Rucka DID misspell it, heh heh.)

Kate Kane is officially my favorite comic book character ever, in the history of comic books past, present and future. Speaking as a current (albiet non-West Point) US Army Cadet, these scenes endeared her (and Rucka, for that matter) to me like like no others.

Hooah, Kate! Hooah!

Edit upon reading a few pages further: well that was a kick in the balls. Damn Article 125. Seriously. Never liked it. Never really. REALLY pissed off at it now. Although I (obviously) don’t know any fellow servicemembers who are gay, this was a brilliant illustration of why this shit is so unfair. God dammit. And way to go, Rucka.

1. Beasts of Burden #3
2. Criminal: The Sinners #2
3. Dark Avengers: Ares #2 (of 3)
4. Detective Comics #859
5. Dr. Horrible #1 (one-shot)
6. Domino Lady #3 *
7. The Incredible Hercules #138
8. Northlanders #22
9. Queen Sonja #2
10. Thor: Giant-Size Finale #1 (one-shot)
11. Ultimate Avengers #4
12. Wonder Woman #38

* — Denotes those wavering at the edge of the Culling List.
§ — Denotes my last issue of this misbegotten series.

Still unsure about continuing Domino Lady, and I’m not real happy about Herc going up to $3.99.  Queen Sonja was so-so, and I’m giving it another issue or two before I decide to cut it or not.  Otherwise, pretty standard stuff for me.

Gertrude Yorkes was quite possibly unique.

See, I’ve been reading up on superheroes recently and there’s so much happening there that confuses me and has forced me to look deeper at a genre I love.

I don’t know what to make of  Power Girl. I find Wonder Woman a rather scary unachievable ideal.  Stephanie Brown’s dead. Gertrude Wilder, one of the few gorgeously realistic teens, is long gone. Birds of Prey has been cancelled. And Ms Marvel’s a walking screw-up of confusion.

What’s happened to these characters? What’s happened to the women of comics?

It may be that you think I’ve not been reading the comics that present women in a graphic light. But I have.  Tamara Drewe. Luba. Teen Titans. Supergirl (although that’s just one messed up series -she’s an angel, she’s a teen, she’s a what-now-right-now?) 

So what’s got me so riled up?

The fact that I don’t even know how to refer to these women freaks me out. Are they superheroines? Superheroes? Female Supheroes?

The fact that Ms Marvel started out so gloriously and then got screwed over in  a series of plot lines that just make me wince and feel sick.  This woman is the Wonder Woman of DC. She’s strong. She’s powerful. She’s gloriously inspiring. She can have it all. And yet, when it comes to it, we knock her back and rape her or depower her or make her into a boozehound. Can you see that happening to Batman? Or Superman? Can you see these characters being moulded into such fascinating icons and then being ripped to shreds? Ms Marvel could have been something brilliant.  I don’t want her to be a Mary-Sue. I want her to address what happened to her, address her issues with Rogue, address it all and come out stronger. Without getting knocked up. Or turned into some proto-fascist poorly constructed icon of masculinity wrapped up in heels and a sash.

And I want more Gerts. I want smart, funny and sexy women who don’t look like twiglets with breasts. I want stomachs and calves and damn it I want fat. I want characters that stand up and say they don’t know what to do. I want people that crumble in the face of the darkness and then pull themselves together and act like the heroes they are. I want real people who are gifted with the opportunity to make something beautiful from their lives and I want them to be nervous, scared, thrilled, passionate, funny, honest, angry and true to life every simple step of the way.

Sometimes the most simple situation in the world is enough. Sometimes life is about the girl who sits and has her lunch in the toilet cubicle because she knows she’ll get bullied if she goes outside.  Or the woman with a superpower and cancer and the knowledge that this is the only bad guy she can’t fight.

This is my charter. This is my plea. I don’t want my heroes to wear dungarees. Spandex can look wicked sexy. But I’m just sick of costume being the limit of character development in so many cases.

And, I suppose I’m also saying, give me Ms Marvel. Give me her and I will give you something great.

Doing a lot of academic work this past week, so expect regular transmissions here, Fistfight At The Arthouse, and Mayhem & Cuddles to resume after the Thanksgiving weekend when things will hopefully calm down a little bit.

If you’ve contacted me about reviews and haven’t heard anything from me in a while I’m sorry, I’ve been tired and busy and sleep deprived, so some stuff takes a backseat compared to academics, real work, stuff like that.  I’ve also been trying to teach myself how to be all web-savvy and use Tumblr, which I don’t feel like sharing, though you could probably find if you looked hard enough.  I can say though that I recently saw a page from The Underground from Mike and it’s exciting to seem your ideas fully drawn out like that.

Anyway, I’ll be ignoring the Internet this holiday weekend. Have fun, don’t kill yourselves driving to visit relatives you can’t stand tomorrow.

Hiro Kala, Son of Hulk

A character first introduced by Planet Hulk scribe Greg Pak, Hiro Kala has reigned over the Son of Hulk series after the previous lead Skaar departed for the renumbered Incredible Hulk series. Debuting in a series of back-up stories, Hiro Kala is as tormented and tortured as Banner or Skaar.

A slave liberated by Axeman Bone as a kind of protege, Hiro Kala had become obsessed with finding the Old Power as a way to escape the weaknesses that made him a whipping boy since his youth. After the destruction of Sakaar at the hands of Galactus (thanks, Skaar), Hiro Kala lays claim to the legacy of the Hulk. Leading the shattered remains of his people, he swears to Galactus’ face that he will avenge the destruction of his homeworld… to the face of the ‘eater of worlds.’

The Planet Hulk story line introduced not just new ideas but a new lease on life for the ailing Hulk comic book. While hardly anyone in comics could be bothered to talk about the character before Planet Hulk, after its run there have been one-shots and spin-offs in addition to three monthly Hulk comics… all of which are top sellers. While some may cry foul that Marvel is egging the pudding by introducing so much Hulk so quickly, you have to admit that old green jeans has not had this level of press since the Bill Bixby/Lou Ferrigno TV program.

Creator of the Wolverine: Origin story and the Sentry, writer Paul Jenkins has written the Son of Hulk series with Hiro Kala as the lead character since issue 13. As of today, the series will close. Since the solicitation for a ‘Seige’ one-shot shows Hiro Kala as still kicking around, I am betting that the cancellation of the Son of Hulk series is merely a formality to make room for the ‘Fall of Hulks’ and ‘War of the Hulks’ crossovers starting very shortly and that next year we will see more of this character. Jenkins met with CBR.com to discuss his approach to the series and his thoughts on its closure on issue 17.

“I wasn’t sure if it was my kind of material at first, to be quite honest,” the writer explained of his initial reaction to the idea of writing a Skaar-less “Son of Hulk.” “I like to call my own shots about the stories I write. And then [editor Mark Panniccia] tells me this idea that it could be the other son [who the series follows], and I was a bit more intrigued. Then we had this discussion about whether there could be this thing we did with Hiro-Kala that really turned the character around and turned people’s perception of Galactus around and that whole mythology. And then I was really sold. Within this ten-minute conversation with Mark, I was really enthusiastic about it. At that point, I said, ‘Now I can write a story I really want to write.’”

“Galactus is addicted to the Old Power. So he’s basically a crackhead. He’s eaten a planet with Old Power cocaine in it, and it flips him out. He goes out into the universe as this real destructive force of nature, devouring everything ahead of him because he wants as many Old Power planets as he can have. He does it to Hiro-Kala’s planet first, and Hiro-Kala looks him in the eye and says, ‘I’m going to take you out.’

“We always get into this overly big story – who’s the biggest? Who’s the strongest? Who can beat up Galactus this time? Like, we get Spider-Man beating up Galactus. But this story turns [Hulk's son] into a force of nature and sees if a tiny dude like Hiro-Kala could literally make him pay.”

“The very thing we set up is supposed to tie right back into the event. When I started writing it, it wasn’t intended to, but once we wrote the scripts up and everybody could see it, they said, ‘We’ve got to bring this right back in.’ I never really planned for this thing. I just wanted to set Hiro-Kala up so people could see who he becomes. But he’s also useful to the event and the future of the Hulk universe.”

So it looks like what we have seen so far is just a prelude to a much larger story to come in 2010. In case you missed them, a collection of the Hiro Kala stories is hitting the shelves in January. Issue 17 arrives at comic book shops today.

Celebrating once again the cinema of Turkey, the land that copyright infringement laws forgot.

Spend the holiday with friends.

Do you have big plans for the holiday tomorrow? Ours involve a lot of not blogging. We’re going to not blog as hard as we can. But, since traffic here on SBR has grown so much lately we want to re-present the Thanksgiving special we published last year, thereby killing two birds (maybe even turkeys) with one stone.

Yeesh. You can’t really call them “caped crusaders” because they don’t have capes. For that matter, “crusader” may not have the same connotation in Asia Minor. Whatever, the clip is typical of Turkey’s devil-may-care attitude about copyright. YouTube is chock-full of  Turkish riffs on most Western geek culture mainstays, riffs that almost always employ (in a clumsier manner than their American cousins) dizzying amounts of violence, sex, and overwrought soundtracks. Did we mention they’re also really cheap-looking? It bears reiteration. Check out the Turkish Star Trek: 

As the clip shows the Turkish Captain Kirk is much better at walking than most American actors, though the language barrier makes impossible understanding why a peasant hangs out on the bridge and pesters the legitimate crew members.  The bridge set also seems to be in some kind of basement garage, if those metal support posts are any indication.

Still, where there’s Star Trek there has to be its dumber, more exciting cousin Star Wars, right? 1982’s Dunyayi Kurturan Adam (“The Man Who Saves The World”) used bootlegged footage from Star Wars Episode IV as well as stock footage of American and Soviet test rocket flights to tell its weird, garbled saga. The musical score to this clip’s interminable opening credits sounds like public access television music from the 1970s, and it only gets worse from there.

Not content to hit George Lucas up once, Dunyayi Kurturan Adam also pilfers the themes to both Raiders of the Lost Ark and Battlestar Galactica. Eventually achieving cult status by sheer power of  its awfulness, the film spawned a 2006 sequel. In a case of bad art imitating more bad art, just like Lucas’ recent efforts some fans complained the follow-up was a letdown.

Finally, given Marvel Comics’ love for merchandising we’re not entirely sure this next clip is even a bootleg. 3 Dev Adam (“Three Mighty Men”) was a startlingly low-budget, brazenly lurid 1973 abomination depicting an ersatz Captain America’s struggle to stop an evil, pudgy Spider-Man ripoff from running amok through Istanbul. Cap was joined in his efforts, for some reason, by a copy of the legendary Mexican luchadore El Santo. Meanwhile ”Spiderman” and his two girlfriends mostly torture and kill people in depraved ways or have sex in front of puppets. If you’ve never seen a man guinea pigged to death, here’s your chance:

Probably the single most trivial thing you will learn this week: 3 Dev Adam featured Turkish star Aytekin Akkaya, who also appeared in Dunyayi Kurturan Adam.

That’s about all we can stand this week. We’ll be back Monday with our latest edition of Miscellaneous Debris. Have a happy, safe holiday weekend.

- Michael Kabel

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Over here and here you can see some Adam Hughes illustrations for the the She-Hulk statue from Sideshow Collectibles.

By Mark Waid (writer), Paul Azaceta (art), Dave Stewart (colored art)

The Story: Spider-Man is swarmed by a mob.  Electro finds the money he needs for his treatment.  Thinker gets his money.  Spider-Man races against time to find Electro.

What’s Good: Firstly, this was a fun ride, from the lynch-mob at the start, to Peter as the sleepless genius, to confrontation with Electro and the Thinker.  This book was wall-to-wall action, with lots of moments for character to show through.  Spider-Man had about five zingers I wanted to show, but picking one would do a disservice to all, so let’s just say that Peter’s in the zone on trash talk.  The Thinker and Annie have a few moments that reveal what kind of people they are and what they worry about with just a few brief lines of authentic dialogue.  Electro, especially half-looney, sparking over a bathtub full of water, is great.  Manic.  Alive.  Dangerous.  Unstable.  You can’t take your eyes off him.

Secondly, the art, while not a stirring example of realistic draftsmanship, fits the kind of story Waid wants to tell.  The grit and the roughness, and the art’s stylized sparseness and even retro computer and household tech, all give this series a particular look that really works.  Azaceta tells a whole story in one panel of Peter squeezing through a crowd because this artist really gets body language.  I wonder if that’s why his action scenes work so well?  I’ll keep you posted as I get to see more of his art.

What’s Not So Good: I was going to trash the backup feature again, but there is none, so no complaints.

Conclusion: I stayed away from Spider-Man for a long time because after forty-five years (and even after thirty), his world had become so convoluted that I felt I needed a playbook to keep up.  This current Spider-Man doesn’t feel like that at all.  In fact, with classic villains and a soap opera background, this feels far more like the Lee/Ditko Spider-Man I love, just brought up to date.  That’s a huge compliment to Mr. Waid and Mr. Azaceta.   Pick it up.  You’ll like it.

Grade: A-

-DS Arsenault