Neilalien : A Doctor Strange Fansite : A Comic Book Weblog  

Blue Hat Man Wonder Woman Gets a New Voice, and It's Gail Simone [New York Times]

The 40 Worst Rob Liefeld Drawings [Progressive Boink]

"What of the vocabulary of comics criticism?" round-up [Blog@Newsarama]

Neilalien fave Fred Van Lente discusses working on all-ages Marvel Adventures books [Newsarama]
"Is it an indication of my age (mental as well as biological) that I find many of Marvel's "kiddie" comics more appealing than their mainline titles?" [Sporadic Sequential]

Sensational Spider-Man #41: Spider-Man marriage undone, Aunt May saved, via Deus Ex Mephisto? [Savage Critic]
Update: Tough questions for "One More Day" [Occasional Superheroine]
One does not kick to Devin Hester, and superheroes do not make deals with the Devil. Are there any heroes left in the Marvel Universe? Not to mention the issues necessary to trade in one's hot wife for one's near-death-anyway mother-figure.

The Return of the Print Zine? [Gothamist]

William Shatner 80's Commodore VIC-20 commercial! [YouTube] [via Consumerist]
Update: Commodore 64 still loved after all these years [CNN]

Posted 30 November 02007 - Permalink

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Blue Hat Man Dr. Strange and Associates illo by Fred Hembeck [for sale on EBay] [Hembeck.com]

Ian Sokoliwski colored that great massive Doctor Strange commission John Byrne drew to make up for another certain artist's brainfart [Ian Sokoliwski] [ComicArtFans]

Doctor Strange commission by Don Perlin [ComicArtFans]

Bendis press conference re: Avengerses and Secret Invasion; no specific Doc news; preview art w/Doc vs. a demonified Hood [Newsarama] [Pulse] [Comics Continuum]

Webcomic nuts n' bolts: A viewing app made with Flash/Ajax reduces page-view ad revenue; lettering needs to be bigger [Todd Allen's Publishing Follies column at CBR]

"LitGraphic: The World of the Graphic Novel" exhibit at The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA (until May 02008) shows that "comic books can do anything"; Ditko work included [Norman Rockwell Museum exhibit page] [Hartford Advocate article] [via WFC News]

That time R. Sikoryak adapted Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment with old-school Batman as the protagonist [Again With The Comics] [via Drawn!]

You're in good company if you liked World War Hulk more than it got dissed online [2 Guys Buying Comics] [The Hurting]
It brought the explodo, it ended well, it was better than Civil War, it was old-school All-vs.-Hulk, Sentry didn't annoy (and maybe he died), and the Illuminati weren't the reason Hulk's babe died. And Neilalien's still glowing that Doctor Strange and Zom- fer fuck's sake, Zom!- were 20% of it. Not too shabby.

Out today for Doc fans: Cable & Deadpool #47.

Posted 29 November 02007 - Permalink

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Blue Hat Man Wizard #195 names Doctor Strange: The Oath the year's best miniseries [scan] [thanks Howard!]

Hilter's Handgun used in The Oath by Brigand makes a Top 50 Fictional Weapons list

Defenders Minimates have arrived [Defenders Message Board]

Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes by Christopher Knowles excerpt re: magical superheroes [Comic Book Resources]

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Marvel and DC Comics Join Forces to Target BitTorrent, Usenet scanners-uploaders [TorrentFreak]

Popular tracker of online pirated comics Z-Cult FM responding to legal threats from Marvel/DC [Comic Book Resources #1; #2]

Marvel/DC ramp up their own online initiatives, go after the pirates [ICv2]

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Wonder Woman Wardrobe War contest results: cool character redesigns [Project Rooftop]

Iron Man a dick now? He was a dick back then too [Dave's Long Box]

Bruce Willis to star in the movie version of Neilalien fave The Surrogates [Variety]

Posted 28 November 02007 - Permalink

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Marvel Launches Subscription Website; $60/year [Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited]
[Newsarama] [ICv2] [interview with Dan Buckley at ICv2] [interview with Joe Quesada and John Dokes at MySpace Comic Books] [Brian Hibbs Tilting At Windmills]

Update: Complete list of stuff at Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited [Comic Book Resources]

Update: Interview with Marvel Publisher Dan Buckley; attempting to introduce new people to comics via the web and then get them to jump to print (hrmm); creators to only get royalties if the site is profitable (hrmm) [Comic Book Resources]

Update: Online comics are vivid, but will they lure fans? [LA Times] [via WFC News]

Update: MDCU is down, replaced by odd "drstrange" URL string; Dr. Strange Hacks Marvel Archives? [Bostodelphia] [via Digg] [Newsarama]

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Doctor Strange by Jose Ladronn Jean-Marc Lofficier and Jose Ladronn's lost Silver Surfer story; Doctor Strange was to guest-star [Lofficier's Website] [via Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed at CSBG]

Looks like this week's Incredible Hulk #111 will have the Zom resolution [Comic Book Resources]

Steve Ditko would like you to know that Bunny Boo is hateful and cruel [Fish-Flavored Baseball Bat]

Steve Ditko Cover of the Week: House of Mystery #277 [Seduction of the Indifferent]

Doctor Strange costume wins first place in Toronto shop's Halloween contest [Silver Snail Comics] [thanks Christian!]

Out this past week for Doc fans: New Avengers #36, World War Hulk #5 (finale), and Wolverine #59. Neilalien also picked up All-Star Superman #9 and, finally!, his own copy of I Shall Destroy All The Civilized Planets!

Marvel releases Q3 02007 numbers; publishing up $4 million/13% to $34.9 million [Newsarama]

Top Shelf Tenth Anniversary Sale until end of November [Top Shelf Comix]

On Cowboys & Aliens, the movie property that was allegedly a comic book: "actual ink, paper and staple comics might just be the least important part of the comic-book industry" [New York Times Magazine] [via ICv2]

Tonight is supposed to be the Simpsons episode with the competing comic book shop and Alan Moore, Daniel Clowes and Art Spiegelman cameos

That time Flash Gordon brought a knife to a gunfight [Comics Reporter]

This month is kicking the ass of Neilalien's blogging time, and blink, now it's Thanksgiving travel time. Have a great Turkey Day!

Posted 18 November 02007 - Permalink

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Doctor Strange by Len Wein in 01964 Gordon Lee Case Declared A Mistrial [Comic Book Legal Defense Fund]

Lots of love for old comics fanzines; Len Wein Popular Heroes Illustrated #2 cover with Doctor Strange and Spider-Man (September 01964!) [Collectors Society MB] [thanks Howard!]
Also a nice Yancy #8 Doc cover, blogged here previously.

Neilalien fave Dash Shaw (did Doc for the alleged Marvel indie book) starting a new webcomic [BodyWorld]

Sales charts suck, and analyses of them add layers of suckitude to the suck [Brian Wood] [via Comics Reporter]

Out today: Illuminati #5 finale, Mystic Arcana: Sister Grimm, MODOK's 11 #5 finale, among many others.

Posted 7 November 02007 - Permalink

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Blue Hat Man Great essay: The Cloak of Levitation is neato; can it "cushion" Doctor Strange from physical damage? [A Trout In The Milk]
Neilalien agrees that if the Cloak is a generator of mystical anti-gravitons, then it certainly could protect from kinds of physical harm, pushing, crushing, etc.
Update: The Cloak as Confidence

"Sadly, when Steve Englehart quit Marvel in a huff it was Doc that was hardest hit." [Comics Should Be Good]

Wizard #194 "Skrullwatch" continues meme that the can't-do-this-or-that Doctor Strange in New Avengers means he's a Skrull [a scan lives here]

Friday Night Fights: Dr. Strange vs. Morbius; Thomas/Thomas/Guice run last good one before The Oath? [Armagideon Time]

Alter Ego #73 is out! Doc cover, Brunner [TwoMorrows Publishing]

The Superest: Artists battle to create characters with powers that cancel out the previous character [via Waxy]

Shintaro Kago's crazy layouts and storytelling devices collected [Same Hat! Same Hat!] [via Waxy]

Manga books' thick spines with colorful logos and representative art pop better on bookstore shelves than the thin-spined nondescript standardized trade dress of North American TPBs [Occasional Superheroine]

Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret History of Comic Book Heroes by Chris Knowles is out! [Amazon]

Douglas Wolk interview [at but not by Kottke]

Posted 3 November 02007 - Permalink

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Happy 80th Birthday to Steve Ditko!

Steve Ditko

From "How Stan Lee And Steve Ditko Create Spider-Man!" in Spider-Man Annual #1 (01964).

Michel Fiffe birthday card [ACT-I-VATE]

New info re: Blake Bell's Ditko book, now dated June 02008, now titled Strange and Stranger [Fantagraphics PR at Comics Reporter]

Thank you Mr. Ditko for a lifetime of work that never fails to entertain and provoke thought [Fortress of Fortitude]

An Open Letter to Steve Ditko on His 80th Birthday [Tim Lucas Video WatchBlog]

Update: When Steve Ditko met the Muppets [Arflovers]

Posted 2 November 02007 - Permalink

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Spandex House

Spandex House

Spandex House, 38th Street between 7th & 8th Avenues, Manhattan. Where all the superheroes shop.

Posted 1 November 02007 - Permalink

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