Neilalien : A Doctor Strange Fansite : A Comic Book Weblog  

X-Statix Presents Dead Girl #5/Finale Braindump

Dr. Strange in Dead Girl #5 1. The Dr. Strange/Dead Girl romance. Thumbs up. It was a really nice story arc to the miniseries- Doc begins with feeling dead from the Amulet down and bored, and ends with romance and life rekindled. And the precedent exists: Doc is a ladies man, and he likes 'em young and weird.

Marvel should just continue this book with this creative team as Dr. Strange/Dead Girl Mysteries #6- we find out that Doc didn't destroy the Eau du Profundis but just teleported it away for safe keeping, and Dead Girl comes back for 24-hour stretches of fun, mystery, action and romance! But that won't happen. Since it won't, it's better that this romance ends with this book.

2. The Ancient One going bad. Thumbs down.

If there was any way for the Ancient One to go bad, a worm of jealousy is the right way to go. We've seen this concept before: in one of the later Earth X thingies, Wong was quite the resentful figure. When one is as powerful as Doc, one attracts green monsters.

Still, the Ancient One was such an uber-supportive father figure to Strange, and he died so nobly and peaceful-guru-ly, so that Shuma-Gorath would not be able to enter the world, that to have him in Hell and evil now broke the character.

The shame is that if the creators of this series needed a dead evil mystical character from Doctor Strange canon to use, it could have been so much easier to use someone else. Jumping to Neilalien's mind: Why not a just-returned-to-the-living Baron Mordo? He could have sympathized with the Pitiful One's attempts to return to living status, having just apparently done it himself in JMS' Spider-Man, and offered to aid him against Strange's intervention. Just so much more sensical than using the Ancient One. Instead we're left to try squinting and pretending that it's really only the Aged Genghis.

One small consolation is that whiny insane patronized Ant-Man comes off a lot worse than the Ancient One in this miniseries. Neilalien feels for the Ant-Man fans, like he felt for the Silver Surfer fans re: the recent Defenders miniseries. It's a bummer when your favorite character is picked by the creators to be the pathetic loser or comedy relief of the story. -- Did the X-Statix fans enjoy the story? Neilalien can be so Doc-centric.

Dr. Strange in Dead Girl #5 3. The hemorrhoids. Thumbs down. Ah, so much about the rhoids. Too much in this issue. However, Neilalien can make some small peace with it. His main complaint was that Dr. Strange does not get normal hemorrhoids, and as it turns out, Doc didn't- the Ancient One gave them to him. This factoid defuses the complaint and provides a decent payoff. Still, let's hope that they stay contained only within this miniseries and Neilalien never has to type that horrible word again. Doctor Strange should only be involved with bathroom humor if it's Johnny Ryan writing and drawing it.

4. A love note. There's a great panel on page 5 of #5. The Ancient One and Dr. Strange are in mystic combat. AO has conjured a slew of flying knives at Doc. In the next panel, Doc is shown yelling with a hundred arms frantically tending to each knife. Cracks Neilalien up. That's interesting magical combat, that's cartoony fun, that's comics, baby.

5. Overall, Neilalien enjoyed this miniseries. Despite the many aspects that did not work for hard-to-please-loves-to-vent-re:-Doc Neilalien- the bottom line is that providing a Dr. Strange that's actually interesting and competent and human- like in this miniseries, Thor: Vikings, Flight of Bones- can overcome a lot. Doc as Passionless Watcher/Deus Ex Machina Energy Blaster- we've had enough of that, no? Neilalien still wants better, though. He'd just hand X-Statix Presents Dead Girl the 02006 Neilalien Award for Best Dr. Strange Appearance right now- as BeaucoupKevin wrote, "it's just so funny and human and pretty and stuff"- but we're blessed with a Brian K. Vaughan/Marcos Martin Doc story coming up later this year to check out first before awards are given out. Til then, Doc fans!

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Jog's a bit rougher on the book in his review

Additional and ulterior motive for linking to Jog's review: Found via a comment at that post: Brendan McCarthy writes that Solo #12 "features the debut of new art sensation DITRANKO". Neilalien's thinking a Ditko/Steranko homage thing?

Posted 31 May 02006 - Permalink

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Alex Toth has died [Comics Reporter with tons of Toth links, rememberances and resources] [Mark Evanier] [Comic Book Resources] [Toth Fans Forums] [Toth Official Site]
A legendary comics master. More casual readers of this weblog are likely unknowingly well aware of Toth's elegant design work from classic Hanna Barbera cartoons, Superfriends, Jonny Quest, The Herculoids, Space Ghost, etc. More hardcore readers of this weblog may know that Toth is credited in the creation of Dr. Strange and Juggernaut "deity" Cyttorak- Toth was part of the creative team on X-Men #12 that debuted what Cyttorak looks like (a temple in his image).

Posted 30 May 02006 - Permalink

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Few people know that Dr. Strange appears in the Book of Kells [Worth1000.com Photoshop contest entry]

Dr. Strange in the Book of Kells

"Strange Illumination" by DoctorTweek. Excelsior! Thanks Sanctum for the FYI!

Posted 29 May 02006 - Permalink

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When They Let Those Awful Punk Rockers In The Nursing Home

When They Let Those Awful Punk Rockers In The Nursing Home When They Let Those Awful Punk Rockers In The Nursing Home

Source: Amazing Spider-Man #220, September 01981, Aunt May backup story.

Posted 28 May 02006 - Permalink

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Socialcomicsweb 2.0

Neilalien's late-night web-surf wanderings and brainstormings somehow led him to Cork'd, a social networking website for wine. Cork'd plays into some wonderings he's had about what the next step might be for his own website, the comicsblogosphere, the online comics community, and web as a whole- and his MySpace research. Musings that in this Web 2.0 social networking and bookmarking world cannot be considered original, ahead of its time, or even good ideas- but thought nonetheless.

There can be topical social networking sites built around any interest. There should be a real social networking website for comic books.

You have a profile page for others to see, you have a My-Yahoo-like page for yourself when you log in- these two pages can be completely different, or if you're an open book, exactly the same. You list the comics you like, what you own in your collections and bookcases, you review them, you tag them, you mark them as swappable/for sale. You friend your friends, beloved creators, blogs, publishers and retailers, and trusted reviewers, and they friend their friends. You click on any comic book title, any character name, any creator name, any tag, the name of any person in the network, etc., anywhere on the site, and a community-written wiki pops up so you can find out all about it, along with who reads it, who has recommended or reviewed that book or creator (an entire community review system like Rotten Tomatoes), or trusts that reviewer, or is a fan of that genre or character, etc. You can maintain a list of all the comics you want to check out or have been recommended to you in a dynamic to-do list type format. When you place a comic on your to-read list, a link becomes available with Sequential Swap functionality, with a list of folks who have that book available for swapping or selling- and libraries that have it in their collections too- ranked by physical distance (mapped out with Frappr), best price (like Buy.com) and a trust-feedback rating (a la Ebay). Of course, if two people each have a book for swapping that is on the other's to-read list, they get an email notification (like you get on some matchmaking websites when two people hotlist each other). Creators can put up previews or samples of their comics (and any grey area re: if you give up your rights and transfer ownership of anything you upload to MySpace doesn't exist on this proposed comics social networking site). Creators, publishers and retailers can send out news announcements of releases and release parties, etc. You can even publish your webcomic there, because all the Webcomics Nation functionality is part of this new website, and once someone subscribes to your webcomic they can see when you've updated. You can set up groups for any interest or commonality with private group message boards and IM/chat rooms like Yahoo Groups. Aspiring creators would surely want to be a part of this, to get feedback and support from their communities, with the functionality to invite particular people to their private portfolio area, no knowledge of how to set up a password-protected website required. Full blogging functionality is included, so you can blog on the site itself, see who else has updated their blogs, etc.- and you can read any outside blog or message board with an RSS feed on the site because a feed reader like Bloglines is included. Then you have a Digg-type section, where people can post and link to all the comics news they want in one place, and that all gets tagged and ranked and archived and categorized for consumption, comment and linkage, and you can subscribe or create your own personal filter or mini linkblog to all the news, or just news and comments about Grant Morrison or Planetes or Chris Ware. You can subscribe to any syndicated comic strip or political cartoonist via the site, for true one-stop, and people can tag that too, so if you want to see only/all recent editorial cartoons tagged with "global warming" or "Hillary Clinton", there it is.

All the bells and whistles, all in one place, more than any one comics-oriented blogosphere or message board or news site or personal publishing site or other social networking site has. All of the comics information overload, all the hundred different separate little websites we now use, filtered down to our exact specifications, all in one place.

How could anyone with a passion for the combination of words and pictures resist having such a website as their browser's home page, crank it up in the morning, set that baby up with auto-refresh every hour, and have it on all day long, like a chimp on crack. There'd be no time for fresh air or actually reading the comics. Throw Google ads on every page of the site, with everyone in the network getting a cut depending on how many people read one's particular blog, webcomic, etc., and there's your million dollars.

Is this the next step? What the web is inevitably consolidating into and becoming? Does this website already exist? Is it a dream or a nightmare? Would such a website with such a vast architecture for such a small community be profitable for the entrepreneur who started it? Could it possibly grow beyond the hardcore foundation and appeal to the casual masses where the growth and money are? Is such a website already DOA for web-meta reasons? It asks for a lot of work from users and we all know how users are lazy and become users because something offers less work not more; Wikipedia gets less "democratic" by the day and either goes to pot or gets policed out of its ideals like most public commons sadly seem to do; social bookmarking and large-scale folksonomy tagging seems to just add another layer of chaos as 100 people tag the same item 100 different ways or the same tag means different things to different people; etc. Or DOA for comics-specific reasons? We all know how comic message boards usually degenerate; Wolverine fans have more in common with video gamers than Daniel Clowes fans, so All And Only Comics might not be an optimal community division/consolidation; etc. Cork'd could thrive but an equivalent comics website could not, because wine is (a) much more vast than comics, and (b) much less balkanized? Are people content to simply surf to their favored dozen separate sites as they do now? Are the tech-savvier folks munging this information together for themselves already, as Neilalien is, through some combination of sites like Netvibes, Del.icio.us, MySpace, LiveJournal and RSS?

Or will comicdom come to primarily reside or somewhat "take over" a nontopical social networking website that already exists or someday will? It's been observed that "social networking systems... have all developed their own emergent specialisations... (Tribe has the Burning Man crowd, Friendster the daters, Orkut the brazilians etc)".

Or would such a website merely become the newest fanciest way yet for teenagers to post photos of their cat on the internet with obnoxious blinking and blinding neon-pink backgrounds and have Thor vs. Superman flamewars?

(This post remains in brainstorm-, sponging-ideas-from-others-after-the-fact-, and editorial-flux. You 'exact quote' it or 'tie it down' at your own risk.)

Posted 27 May 02006 - Permalink

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Dormammu's Trophy Wall: Neat commission by Brunner 02006! [Comicartfans]

Dormammu's Trophy Wall by Brunner

[Thanks Howard!]

Posted 26 May 02006 - Permalink

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The Myth of Superman [Neil Gaiman and Adam Rogers at Wired]
Superman's true enemy is the capricious universe of city-crushing meteors, not criminals. Clark Kent is the disguise, not Superman. Etc.

That Superman is actually an interesting character- that's the myth! As Neilalien sees it: An unbeatable god never in any danger, with a nonsensical mishmash of super-everything-powers, whose main problem is that he's supposedly an alone alien immigrant outsider on a planet where he looks like the people there and fits in perfectly. Quel dommage!

The Superman Returns trailer looks great, though.

Posted 25 May 02006 - Permalink

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Interview with Brooklyn comic shop Rocketship's Alex Cox [Graphic Language]

New Supergirl action figure is more giraffe than human [Dangerous Beauty]
"Imagine the puzzlement of the foreign factory worker making them."

First season DVD of The Tick cartoon to include only 12 of 13 episodes [ICv2]
The nature of the Disney/Buena Vista legal dispute has not yet been revealed. A completist bummer.

April 02006 Top 300 comics, more [ICv2]
Infinite Crisis and Marvel debuts drive periodical gains; graphic novels down because not comparing well to last year's strong Sin City sales.

March 02006 month-to-month sales [Marvel (rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks Usenet/Google Groups)] [DC, others (rec.arts.comics.dc.universe Usenet/Google Groups)]
(So are these great lists by Paul O'Brien and Marc-Oliver Frisch no longer on Pulse? Neilalien loves this stuff.)

X-Statix Presents Dead Girl #5 finale out today [Diamond Comics Shipping List]
Sales have been low (info from the above):

Jan 06 Dead Girl #1 (of 5) - 20,685
Feb 06 Dead Girl #2 (of 5) - 17,369 (-16.0%)
Mar 06 Dead Girl #3 (of 5) - 16,048 ( -7.6%)

Apr 06 #4 15,606

Also She-Hulk #8 with some Paul Smith Dr. Strange.

Posted 24 May 02006 - Permalink

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The Secret Origins of Mr. A [Dial B For Blog: Part 1] [Part 2] [Update: Part 3 of 3]

Posted 23 May 02006 - Permalink

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MPAA, RIAA raid Motor City Comic Con: bootleggers busted [Newsarama] [Mark Evanier weighs in] [Update: retailer eyewitness report on ICv2]

Sean Wang (Runners) interview: Last Days of the Flare coming through Image [Pulse]

How the Pimp racks comics in his shop: Alpha order? By genre? By publisher? [The Comic Pimp]
Also: A 30-page PDF preview of 80's Macintosh-dot-matrix-art classic Shatter.

Sound effects in comics: Corny? Cartoony? Too quiet without them? [One Fan's Opinion]

Female Japanese manga artist bemoans poseurs and pedophiles of booming otaku culture [Mainichi Daily News]

Great homemade Stone Golem costume [video on YouTube] [via Robot Wisdom]
Spray paint it orange and you'd have quite the Thing.

Posted 22 May 02006 - Permalink

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Neilalien had a fantastic time last night at the opening reception of the She Draws Comics: 100 Years of America's Women Cartoonists exhibit at MoCCA. Exhibit curator Trina Robbins was joyous, and her knowledge and collection of early female cartoonist work are precious gems to anyone who loves comics. This weblogger asked her many questions and learned many things (it'd probably be more clever if he wrote about those things here on the blog, huh?). Although he resisted inquiring about the Dr. Strange books her beau Steve Leialoha drew during the Stern era ;).

But our mojo was still there, Doc fans!: In a pleasant surprise, one item in the exhibit highlighting Marie Severin is her great splash page in Strange Tales #158, along with the album cover for Pink Floyd's A Saucerful of Secrets by art group Hipgnosis, which, as Neilalien has previously blogged, uses elements from said Severin page.

Pink Floyd's A Saucerful of Secrets album cover featuring Dr. Strange elements    Marie Severin page from Strange Tales #158

(Living Tribunal is in the upper left, swirl of planets, Dr. Strange is in the middle right.)

Tomorrow night's MoCCA Monday is a presentation by Ms. Robbins about the exhibit, and to use her own words, "she gives good slideshow", so check it out. (If Neilalien can make it, he will- and the VCRs better damn well get the 24 and Alias finales.)

The exhibit is up until November, so be sure to see it. Congrats to all MoCCA volunteers for putting it together. MoCCA Art Fest in three weeks! Yay! [Comics Reporter has the festival programming list]

Update: The Beat went on Monday and has a lot more details about the show. The Beat also mentions doing dinner with Naomi Basner, "who wrote a Clea back-up story long long ago when she was a protege of Archie Goodwin and tried to break into comics", which would be "Clea, the Mystic Maiden!", The Defenders #53, November 01977.

Posted 21 May 02006 - Permalink

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Dr. Strange screenshot from Marvel: Ultimate Alliance video game

Dr. Strange screenshots from upcoming Marvel: Ultimate Alliance video game

Posted 20 May 02006 - Permalink

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The Revenge of Dr. Strange [YouTube]
This is a video of Isotope Comics proprietor James Sime smacking comics pundit Ian Brill with an Essential Doctor Strange TPB. Please read this post at Progressive Ruin for context.

Neilalien would like to join the chorus of world leaders, scienticians and literary figures expressing their great disappointment in learning that someone who alleges to have read Marvel Visionaries: Steve Ditko (where the symbol appears at least twice, but only partially in the background, so we'll let that one pass), Essential Defenders (where it appears clearly as Dr. Strange's window several times) and the Neilalien weblog, such as Mr. Brill, is now revealed to be unfamiliar with the shape in Dr. Strange's window and general symbol for the comic book character- and for saying that it looks like a "basketball". Neilalien is plunged into doubt- first, about himself: has his six-plus years of Dr. Strange educational programming been a failure? And there is doubt about Mr. Brill now- does he truly absorb the comics he's now getting paid the big bucks to review? ;) Hopefully Mr. Brill will consider this smack in the spirit of "a wonderful testament to the sharing of arts information through the internet". :)

Thanks to all for alerting Neilalien to this shocking and troubling situation- with a special hat tip to comics publisher Larry Young for being the first, even beating the email from Sime himself by a minute.

Posted 19 May 02006 - Permalink

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Spotted: Dr. Strange Vs. Dracula: The Montesi Formula TPB [Amazon (UK link)]
Release date 18 October 02006. Collects Tomb of Dracula #44 and Doctor Strange #14, 58-62. Those later Stern issues, which live on Neilalien's Doc Recommended Reading List, haven't been reprinted before. [Thanks to reader Matt for the FYI!]

Update: The Amazon US link has less information at this time, so Neilalien ran with the UK link, but here's the US link for US folks who want to pre-order. But also please consider supporting your local comics shop and getting this TPB through there.

Yesterday's Diamond Comics Shipping List included a new printing of Essential Doctor Strange Volume 1.

Posted 18 May 02006 - Permalink

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Secret Defenders shelf-talker board

Store shelf-talker boards from the vaults include Secret Defenders, Infinity Guantlet [Progressive Ruin] [larger Secret Defenders image]

Posted 17 May 02006 - Permalink

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A call for Marvel Zombies to get re-animated [Andrew Wheeler at Ninth Art]
The company's current conservativism and Phi Gamma Bendis fraternity got a little too embarassing to continue voting for with the wallet.

Most of the stuff coming out of Marvel these days isn't what made us True Believers.

Marvel: The 50 Best Characters [more Andrew Wheeler] [via ADD Blog]
Dr. Strange ranks high at #12, with this interpretation:

The trippy hippy Sorceror Supreme, he of the long fingers and the convoluted phrase book, is, like Silver Surfer, a 70s headshop favourite. Fredric Wertham once wrote that Batman and Robin fulfil a 'wish dream' lifestyle for young homosexuals. For homosexuals of a certain age, the lifestyle of Doctor Strange - a wealthy bachelor who dresses like the lead in Turandot and lives in a gorgeous Greenwich Village townhouse full of antique artefacts with his manservant Wong - would seem closer to the mark. He does occasionally suffer a nasty case of the dread Dormammus, but then, don't we all?

Dan Slott toots his own horn, and rightly so [Newsarama] [via The Great Curve]

Marvel/DC are not in the business of storytelling anymore, but are IP farms by necessity now [Wisdom's Non-Denominational Virtual Pub]

Longtime Marvel stockholders might want to re-evaluate: You now own a movie studio [Motley Fool]

Up, Up and Oy Vey: How Jewish History, Culture and Values Shaped the Comicbook Superhero [new book in June by Rabbi Simcha Weinstein] [via Unqualified Offerings]

Posted 16 May 02006 - Permalink

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Marvel Comics Float from the 01987 Macy's Thanksgiving Parade [hilarious video on YouTube]

Marvel Comics Float from the 01987 Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

[Thanks Egon!]

Posted 15 May 02006 - Permalink

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Peanuts Meets Marvel [by jdh.goodgrief] [discussion thread]

Snoopy as Dr. Strange

[Thanks Sanctum!]

Posted 14 May 02006 - Permalink

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Marvel Comics made me who I am [London Free Press op-ed by Dan Brown]

How can Wolverine swim? [Dave's Long Box]

Posted 13 May 02006 - Permalink

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Proposing a unit of continuity called a Geoff [Polite Dissent]
The amount of backstory knowledge required to enjoy Silver Age Batman: 1 Geoff. Issue #1 of a completely new character? 0 G. Claremont's X-Men? 5 G. And Infinite Crisis? Infinite G.

Comic books as hyperglyphs [Mutato Nomine] [via Technoccult]
Neilalien's light reading for the weekend.

A glyph is a symbol that conveys information non-verbally. Pictographs, geometric shapes, and even shades of color can all convey meaning without resorting to specific languages. A hyperglyphic work incorporates many such glyphic emblems into a cohesive whole, and allows for information to be spread no matter what native language a reader may read and speak. It allows ideas to transcend language by their very construction. Currently, only comics seem to have embraced the possibilities of this kind of static media, but the use of such symbolizing of information is one of the incredibly powerful tools in the magus' toolbox.

Hooray for spandex! [Salon.com; watch quick ad first, not a problem] [via Do You Feel Loved?]
When supercomics are good, ooh, they're good.

Very sweet page from 52: The Bat-Signal becomes the Question-Signal [BeaucoupKevin]

Posted 12 May 02006 - Permalink

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I'm with Dr. Strange

Posted 12 May 02006 - Permalink

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A Rocketship Lands in Brooklyn [Publisher's Weekly] [via The Beat]
Nice piece about Neilalien's local comics shop.

Posted 11 May 02006 - Permalink

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What the covers might look like if men were as sex-object-ified in superhero comic books as women [Like Scratches In The Sand] [via Boing Boing]

Posted 10 May 02006 - Permalink

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Are Eye-of-Agamotto-induced confessions admissible in court? [Suspension of Disbelief] [found on the Defenders Message Board]
Re: Doc's cameo in She-Hulk #2 a while back.

Posted 9 May 02006 - Permalink

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Marvel re: Civil War is still deluded that direct market superhero comics have wider appeal [Ninth Art]
Meanwhile DC re: Infinite Crisis milks the superhero ghetto while offering the mainstream something else; maybe that's a policy based more in reality.

Posted 8 May 02006 - Permalink

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Short message board thread about Doc worth a read [Masterworks, Archives, Essentials and Collected Editions Fan Site MB]
Interesting range of opinions re: Quesada and his recent comments about Doc (lack of structure, never worked as an ongoing title), JMS' Strange, what Doc needs to succeed, and who should work on Doc (Morrison, Byrne get votes).

Posted 7 May 02006 - Permalink

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The Original Hellblazer?

Doctor-Strange-as-Hellblazer cover by Sean Phillips

Doctor Strange fans: When you check out artist Sean Phillips' new redesigned website, be sure you see a certain Hellblazer cover he drew at a comic convention in 01995. [thanks BeaucoupKevin!]

Free Comic Book Day is today! Go get your loot!

Posted 6 May 02006 - Permalink

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The cover of The Comics Journal #69: Dr. Strange and Clea

Doc uber-fan Howard Hallis provides us with a fresh new scan of the cover of The Comics Journal #69, December 01981, Doc and Clea by Coston.

Posted 5 May 02006 - Permalink

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Classic Steve Ditko Dr. Strange pin-up in private auction [The Artist's Choice] [thanks Pmpknface!]
Anyone want to give Neilalien $12,000+?

Update: The piece's seller speaks [Collectors Society MB] [thanks Howard!]

I think $40k is about what it's worth... If it goes below that someone gets a good deal. The fact that it's a cash deal thing, no credit cards and time payments tack on 10%, it could conceivable go lower just from the buyers these factors might eliminate... We can only go by panel page values and extrapolate out, since there has not been a recent splash page/pin up that has sold publically. The consensus among those that follow high end Silver art would put really prime Strange Tales full page splashes at 50-60k from 110, 115 and 117 and maybe a couple others. So this pinup would come to rest 20-30% below that.

Steve Ditko Reader CD-ROM Volume 1 was on yesterday's Diamond Shipping List
Collects Pure Imagination's Steve Ditko Reader Volumes 1 and 2. Neilalien hasn't seen this CD yet, and owns the Readers on paper already so he won't be buying- but he'll track any info/reviews as they're found.

Dr. Strange's two items in Civil War #1 weren't too bad:

  1. According to Mr. Fantastic, Doc is one of the few post-humans with whom the government was hoping to seek a compromise. Neat! Now that's finally some respect, and it shows that Doc is both powerful and trusted. Neilalien would love to see this agreement fleshed out. But what could it really mean? "You're too powerful for us to stop or do anything about, so we're going to offer you a toothless exemption, and in return you pretty-please-with-cherry-on-top agree not to do anything against us"?
  2. At least it was Doc who explained who the Watcher was. The trend in recent years has felt like having someone nonsensical like Daredevil say such things.

Civil War #1 sets a better table than Neilalien expected; it's been bumped up from Ignore level. We've likely seen all we're going to about Doc, though.

Posted 4 May 02006 - Permalink

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Is Marvel Ready for its Close-Up? [CNN Money]
Marvel Movie Slate Takes Shape [ICv2]
"The comic-book king is tired of taking a safe but small cut from licensing its characters for blockbuster films - so now it's going to make the movies itself." Marvel got $25,000 for the $113-million-grossing Blade film. With greater reward comes greater risk- if this mostly below-A-list-character slate bombs, some character rights are potentially endangered as collateral. Up first: Jon Favreau directs Iron Man, and a lighter, love-story-er Hulk 2 with Abomination as the villain.

Glut watch: Retailer: "To the best of my memory the last time [the Marvel section of Previews] was this big a lot of people went out of business." [ICv2]

Update (keeping this little Marvel news batch together): Marvel releases Q1 02006 numbers [Newsarama]
Lower numbers overall; the licensing/movie cycle was in down mode. More stock buyback.

Marvel's Publishing Segment net sales increased 6.7% from the year-ago period to $23.9 million, due primarily to higher sales in the direct market. Growth in the direct market resulted from increasing comic sales leading into this summer's Civil War marketing event and strong reprints of trades. Publishing segment operating income in Q1 2006 was $8.9 million, an operating margin of 37%, compared to $8.9 million in operating income and an operating margin of 40% in the prior-year period. Operating margins declined versus last year due to a slight escalation in talent and paper costs.

Marvel Characters Split in 'Civil War' Series [National Public Radio; Talk of the Nation show w/Joey Q yesterday, big press hit, can listen]

Joey Q: Peter Parker being married to Mary Jane is an albatross for Spider-Man [Newsarama]

Posted 3 May 02006 - Permalink

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Sex Scandal Involving CBLDF's Charles Brownstein Leads to Women's Empowerment Fund [The Comics Journal] [via Comics Reporter]
The name is named, the reportage of the alleged incident with artist Taki Soma at last fall's Mid Ohio Con seems thorough and balanced, and the potential legal minefield the Friends of Lulu are wading into with the Fund is well-described.

Brownstein statement, apology, his side of story [Newsarama] [Lying In The Gutters]

Updates: Newsarama; The Beat; Comics Reporter
Pushback vs. PopCultureShock: The Beat #2; Fourth Rail; Mark Waid

It's not much of a jump between the habitual fetishism of women in comics and the comic industry's fratboy culture and scandalous incidents [Steven Grant's Permanent Damage column at CBR]

Posted 2 May 02006 - Permalink

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Saturday is Free Comic Book Day!

This Saturday is Free Comic Book Day!

Posted 1 May 02006 - Permalink

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