The upcoming Thor movie will include the Infinity Gauntlet [CBR's Spinoff]
Which explains the recent new IG hardcover of the original miniseries? [via Progressive Ruin]

Posted 28 July 02010 - Permalink

Lady Gaga Kidnaps Commissioner Gordon [The Onion]

Posted 27 July 02010 - Permalink

A website after Neilalien's own heart: ComicPunx, a pictoral history of the punk (and "punk") subculture as it has been depicted in the medium of comic books

Fascinating interview with writer of Simpsons Bongo comics Ian Boothby [Comics Reporter]
Working on a beloved mainstream property; gags, pacing, and wordiness in comics; losing the great voices but people read the comics with the voices in their heads; selling poorly in the DM but well at the newsstand; and Spider-Man's satanic divorce.

Neat historical study of the Hulk logo [Todd Klein Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4]

The long history of the X-Men's image inducer, from dating enabler to too-powerful item to subverting the X-Men's meta-message by hiding their differences from humankind [Bully Says: Comics Oughta Be Fun]

The Art Of Cause and Effect In A Solitary Comic Panel [Wizzywig Comics]

Some people have a problem with a black actor (Idris Elba from The Wire) playing Norse God Heimdall (and the "white god" at that) in the Thor movie [Guardian UK]

Bulletproof Coffin on the radar [#1 free online] [Graphic NYC positive review] [Comics Comics: Love Letter]

Your latest sign that Direct Market retailing is broken and trapped in amber: they don't have shelves to accomodate the traditional oversized European album format, so publishers have to resize books [Pipeline good rant]

Your latest "Death in comics sucks out all enjoyment/too many deaths/death is meaningless/temporary" link [4thletter]

Your latest "Direct Market comic shops are unfriendly places for girls" link [Publishers Weekly]

Your latest proclamation of the "stop buying crap" variety [4thletter]

The Amazing Spider-Man & The Incredible Hulk Toilet Paper from the 70's, by Jim Salicrup and Marie Severin [Oddball Comics] [via Comics Alliance]
For use with The Jim Lee X-Men #1 Toilet.

Behold the helicopter of Thanos [Comics Should Be Good, re: Spidey Super-Stories #39]

Posted 26 July 02010 - Permalink

What is Doctor Strange's birthdate?

Neilalien web-pal LinkMachineGo sent an FYI recently about a @slovobooks tweet:

I'm intrigued to find that Marvel's Dr Strange shares a birthday with Alan Moore on 18th November. Is it a Magus thing?

The cover of Doctor Strange #176:

From Doctor Strange #176's cover, we get November. The tombstone is oh-so-conveniently cracked where the year should be.

Neilalien is not omniscient, even about Doctor Strange and every appearance and shred of information about the character, and he's happy to be corrected- but from his own admittedly sick level of knowledge, and after consulting his secret cabal of Doctor Strange scholars, this is the *only* item in the current raw comic book record about Dr. Strange's exact birthdate.

From 02005's Marvel Knights Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe book, we get a birth year of 01930, no month. And a 01963 car accident year, btw- earlier OHOTMU's didn't wade into the minefield of exact dates.

There has been fandom speculation and theses about the birth year, based on Ussher-like calculations (the Sunday, October 23, 4004 BC guy), counting backwards, time needed for medical school, etc.
Redux: Doc uber-fan Sanctum Sanctorum Comix arguing for Strange being born in 01900 on the CBR Forums in 02006
Redux: The Wastebasket places Strange's birth in 01912

Inconsistency: Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #84 goes back to the Nebraska farmhouse where Doc grew up, it says 01953 and shows Stephen Strange as a toddler.

Inconsistency: From 02005's OHOTMU Marvel Knights book: "Later, home [Nebraska] on vacation for his nineteenth birthday, Strange went swimming with Donna [his sister], who suffered a cramp and drowned." If you've ever been to Nebraska in November, you're probably guessing this was at an indoor pool. But Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #45 depicts the events as a summer day at a lake.

Any Marvel writer can add at any time, but from official sources so far as of this writing as far as Neilalien knows, with the standard expected inconsistencies present in any 40-year chunk of comic book continuity created by multiple creators and measuring the time of characters that don't age (on a meta level- it also happens to be that Doc doesn't age)- never mind reboot attempts- we have November 01930, and that's it.

But as usual, the internet will always have more information for you. One of Neilalien's pet peeves/crusades is about the accuracy of Doctor Strange information online, what is actually in the comic book record, and questioning what is really fan-made (or fan-delusion) but claimed to be official or spoken of as such.

In many places online [Superhero Universe Wiki; Comic Vine; Atomic Think Tank (a message board for the Mutants & Masterminds RPG; this Doctor Strange Facebook Fan Page], 18 November 01930 is given as Doc's birthdate. You'll notice the source for the 18th is never given.

Neilalien has no personal preference or argument for what day in November 01930 it will or should be- choosing Alan Moore's birthday is cute. If any readers have any source for the 18th date, please send it along. But as of right now, Neilalien says that if you meet Doctor Strange's exact birthdate on the road, kill it. It's probably fan-made bullshit.

Posted 25 July 02010 - Permalink

"Illuminati will show up in Avengers #7," Bendis said, "they will be outed to the world for doing something even worse than they did last time." [SDCC Marvel Mondo Panel coverage at CBR]
So much for hoping the Heroic Age meant that your favorite heroic characters would be less douchebaggy. Also: Strange Tales II announced.

Guillermo Del Toro to announce something after SDCC, "the biggest movie I've done, and it's a very cherished property" [ComicBookMovie.com]
Neilalien's doubtful, but there is some speculation it's Doctor Strange.
Update: WTF it's Haunted Mansion?!

DC offered Alan Moore the rights to Watchmen back, if he would agree to prequels and sequels; but Moore don't want no Watchmen back [Robot 6]

Superman walks across the country to reconnect with the small potatoes and doing the little things; proceeds to endanger people's lives with bad medical advice, not rushing a heart-attack sufferer to the hospital [BeaucoupKevin] [Polite Dissent]

Posted 22 July 02010 - Permalink

Six Ditkovian motifs (other than the obvious ones) learned from The Art of Ditko [Warren Peace]

Ditko documentarian Jonathan Ross meets Jim Steranko, his comic-book hero [Guardian UK] [too-quick gallery]

Posted 21 July 02010 - Permalink

San Diego Comic-Con, the biggest comics event of every year, is this weekend [Official Site] [Programming Schedule] [Comics Reporter's 135+ Tips For Attending]
Enjoy!

Posted 20 July 02010 - Permalink

Cool Brooklyn comics shop Rocketship currently closed by real-estate issue, five-year-lease decision time [The Beat]

Doctor Strange tries to enjoy a Theakston's Old Peculier beer in Girl Comics #3 [Strange Occasions]

Congrats to Dino Haspiel for his Emmy nomination for Bored to Death Outstanding Main Title Design [Man-Size] [Bored to Death opening title sequence]

01949 open letter from Marvel Editors in response to that pesky Dr. Wertham [Vintage Sleaze] [via Comics Reporter]
Of course juvenile delinquents read comics- all kids do. 70 million kids read comics without going delinquent.

Posted 19 July 02010 - Permalink

New Avengers #2 preview; book out this week [Newsarama]

This weekend's movie scratch money went to Inception (excellent, btw: the mind of Memento enters the Dark City Matrix), so Neilalien still has had no chance to determine, on a scale of zero to five poisoned sandwiches, how much The Sorcerer's Apprentice eats Doctor Strange's Disney-magic-movie lunch. But is it not lose-lose?: Either it's so good the lunch is devoured, Incredibles to Fantastic Four style, or it's flat or so bad that magickal heroes and combats are soured at Disney for years.

Posted 18 July 02010 - Permalink

Doctor Strange Sighting: Thanos Imperative #2

This is the alternate Cancerverse Revenger evil version of Doctor Strange, getting his butt kicked by Mantis in this week's Thanos Imperative #2. It's comforting and consistent to know that even extradimensional versions of Doc get knocked unconscious more than any other comic book character in existence. Actually, this instance doesn't bother Neilalien so much. If you've ever played Dungeons & Dragons, you learn fast and know well to take out enemy spellcasters as quickly as possible, out of respect and fear for the real problems they can cause. Sometimes all it takes is one little line of dialogue, as in this panel, showing that a little thought, respect and strategy went into taking out Doctor Strange, that turns yet another lame appearance of the character into an at-least acceptable and sensical one. Still, would have liked to see Doc do something before going down instead of just starting to say gobbledygook- maybe an evil barbed-wire version of the Rings of Raggadorr? Note: Doc has dodged a Mantis strike before, only one of four to have ever done so by that time, in Defenders #9.

Posted 17 July 02010 - Permalink

Superheroes in court: Humongous piece re: the legal right-fights over Superman, Captain America, Kirby original art [Planet Slade] [via Comics Reporter]

Posted 16 July 02010 - Permalink

Fun long readable overview of some recent titles, via speculation about which unknown superhero comic, presumably out last week, moved writer Mark Waid (Strange) to stop reading superhero comics [Tucker Stone's The Factual Opinion]
Warren Ellis hopes it was one of his comics. [Bleeding Cool w/a bit more]

Posted 15 July 02010 - Permalink

Recent webcomic trilogy of Doctor-Stranged high geekness [Let's Be Friends Again]

Posted 14 July 02010 - Permalink

Harvey Pekar, underground/autobio comics giant, American Splendor creator, has died [Comics Reporter long obit]
"Comix are words and pictures... words and pictures... you can do anything with words and pictures..."

Posted 13 July 02010 - Permalink

Cogent examination of the relationship between comics and film, the term "cinematic", editing, time, panels, and the things comics uniquely excel at showing, like violence [Supervillain]

Posted 12 July 02010 - Permalink

Doctor Strange and Captain America mashup "Doctor America: Occult Operative of Liberty" by Fraction, McCarthy, Hallis and Klein in recent Captain America: Who Won't Wield the Shield one-shot [Sanctum Sanctorum Comix]

Posted 8 July 02010 - Permalink

New Wonder Woman costume designed by Jim Lee accompanies new J. Michael Straczynski writing run [Comic Book Resources]

Makeover for Wonder Woman at 69 [New York Times] [costume evolution slideshow]

Wonder Woman: When icons change clothes; massive roundup of mostly-negative reaction [Comics Beat]

Trina Robbins reaction:

Okay, I have lots of reaction to this costume. First of all, I'm saddened to see my favorite Amazon back with ginormous balloon boobs after she's been drawn so beautifully and with respect during Gail Simone's run. Then of course, there's that the costume is just plain lame, not even a throwback to the 1990s, more like the 1980s. But most important: would DC let anyone change Superman's costume like that? Batman's? You don't mess with an icon.

Posted 7 July 02010 - Permalink

Retail entertainment chain Hastings, 150 stores in 21 mostly-Southwest US states, to start selling periodical comics directly from Diamond, and back issues [Bleeding Cool] [ICv2]
Big news; a major expansion of the Direct Market; the first US national comic store chain? The seller of DVDs, video games, pop culture merchandise and music has experience with non-returnable graphic novels. Declining CD music sales made room for a new product.
Update/More: Toys R Us too?

Posted 1 July 02010 - Permalink