Perhapablog

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

wonderful wednesday!

okay...

i had one of those "moments" again the other day--realizing that the blog has recently become a little more about me lately and a lot less about the things i set out to talk about some 600 posts ago. namely the spooky, scary, curious sides of the paranormal, comic books and tv and movies, and, of course, the perhapanauts.
so i'm getting focused.
not much to say on the perhapanauts front except to reiterate that the PERHAPANAUTS HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR is at the printer and on schedule for it's october release. it's got some great stories by some great artists and we can't wait for you to see it!

as i've said in the past, i live in a rather rural area and my localist local comics shop is about an hour away. i dig the store and i love to drive, but suffice it to say, with work and deadlines and the current state of comics these days, i only get to the store once every three weeks or so. that's okay--mike and john hold my books for me and i can always give them a call or drop them an email asking them to pull something for me and put it in my box. (that's october country in new paltz, ny, for those of you looking for a good store nearby...) needless to say, this lag in getting my books keeps me out of the loop in some conversations, most notably when scott posts "this week's comics" as a topic over on the perhapanauts forum each week.

...

so i've started this particular paragraph three times now, deleting and starting over when i realize that i'm a little bitter. see, i have always been a big dc fan, big justice league fan, big batman fan. sadly, over the past four or five years it seems like dc has done everything in their power to make me walk away from their books. (this is the part in the paragraphs previous where i began spouting my vitriol, listing the many reasons i just can't follow their books anymore and why i've abandoned all of my old favorites in frustration and sadness, but you don't want to hear that...)
so i left.

leave it to mark chiarello to haul me back.

mark chiarello, aside from being a fantastic artist himself, is an editor and the art director at dc comics and the guy responsible for the creation and development of many of dc's boldest and brightest project such as batman: black and white, solo, and, now, wednesday comics!

if you haven't heard, wednesday comics is a weekly newspaper sized--that a whopping 14"x20", folks!--series that features all of dc's superhero superstars in their own on-going full page adventures, making it both super-retro and super-cool all at the same time! the concept itself is awesome, but mark--always with a eye on quality--has blessed these heroes with some of the industry's top-notch creative teams to make this series the one to look for if, like me, you've been wondering where your heroes have gone.
batman by brian azzarello and eduardo risso!
superman by john arcudi and lee bermejo!
green lantern by kurt busiek and joe quinones!
wonder woman by talent caldwell!
sgt. rock by adam and joe kubert!
the list goes on...

check 'em out!






mark chiarello and wednesday comics have made me excited about comics again!
and eager to get to october country a little more often than every three weeks!
thanks, mark!


that's it for me!
smell ya later!
todd

5 comments:

Denis said...

I'm a Marvel boy when it comes to the Big Two, though the vast majority of my comics expenditure goes to a variety of independent, or well... not from Marvel or DC. Mostly GI Joe actually... Anyway, I'm running away from my point. The only DC comic I'm currently buying is Wednesday Comics, and it's a great read. Love the newspaper effect, the layout, the single page-per-story-per-issue format.

And that's before I even think about the creative talent involved!

Brian said...

The universe wide cross-over events in Marvel and DC's regular universes and the "downer" tone of Marvel's Ultimate universe has kept me away from their regular books, but I am enjoying Wednesday Comics, especially Supergirl and Kamandi.

Matt Wieringo said...

I've been buying all the Wednesday Comics as they come out but haven't read them yet. I got behind and never had time to catch up. They look scrumptious, though. Can't wait to dig in. The DEADMAN and GL stuff especially.

Having been to your comic shop that one time, Todd, I agree. You need to go more often. That's a really cool shop.

~ Wendy ~ said...

I've enjoyed both Marvel (x-men, Daredevil) and DC (Justice League, Batman, Aquaman). Sounds like another one I'll have to ask my comic guy to put into my box as well.

Looks like there is a lot of talent on them there pages! :-D

Can't wait for the perhaps to come out in October!

Warren said...

I'm on the fence with the DCU. There are some titles that I like very much, and some that are very disappointing.

There are a couple of interesting DC books out there still. Detective with Batwoman is one beautiful book. But it's the only Batbook that I find interesting these days. I thought the whole World of Krypton thing would suck, but so far, I'm liking it. Secret Six is a guilty pleasure. It's helped me get over the cancellation of Birds of Prey, Blue Beetle, and Checkmate.

The Legion of Superheroes is making yet another comeback, and I'm hoping it's done well.

The Marvel U. totally lost me way back with Civil War. I do like the Adventure books though. :)

I was pleasantly surprised that Ultimate Spider-Man wasn't ruined with the aftermath of Ultimatum (worst big event that I can remember). I think it's the best serialized superhero book that either of the big two puts out. It's just plain fun.

Why can't they just put out comics that tell fun, dramatic, compelling stories, and get over their big events?