Neilalien : A Doctor Strange Fansite : A Comic Book Weblog  

Strange Is As Strange Does [2 Guys Buying Comics]
Neat essay about the good Doctor, with a call for a new balls-out, dark, scary horror monthly in the Lovecraftian vein (the Marvel Premiere run in the 01970's was inspired by Lovecraft). Neilalien's called for an occult-investigator Doc on several occasions himself. Stephen King even suggested as a writer. "Let's tear some supernatural shit up!" Thanks too for the kind words about this website, 2 Guys!
Update: They're also ripping Defenders #2 a new one.

We're all fans in this together wanting some good comics [Focused Totality] [via The Beat]
The comics blogosphere will eat itself, what with all the bickering among manga flagwavers, Marvel/DC-superhero flagwavers, and those most-insufferable indy comics flagwavers.

Posted 30 August 02005 - Permalink

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Great love note to The Book of Weapons, Hardware, and Paraphernalia issue of The Official Handbook of The Marvel Universe and its technical drawings [Dave's Long Box]

Posted 27 August 02005 - Permalink

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Editorial Swimwear: Umar in Defenders #2 [Tom The Dog]
Why would someone soapy-shower in a bikini? Especially when the art angles and soap suds already hide all the naughty bits anyway?

Superhero exhibit at Compound in Portland, OR, through 31 August [Portland Mercury Visual Arts Listings] [Compound; Just Be Design; artist listing] [opening night photo gallery shows several pieces]

When the first Spider-Man movie premiered shortly after 9/11, writers began postulating about society's need for heroes at that point in history, acting as if the sight of Kirsten Dunst in a wet T-shirt wouldn't have been a box office draw in the summer of 2001. In the ensuing four years, however, superhero art has proliferated greatly in the realms of the visual arts, film, and literature. Compound presents an exhibition of artists working within that theme from Hong Kong, Japan, and the US.

Brian Hibbs class action lawsuit vs. Marvel re: breach of contract re: late books: settlement just a 30-day appeal period away [Pulse] [ICv2]

GØDLAND by Joe Casey, "Kirbyist" Tom Scioli, and excellent Bill Crabtree (Invincible) colors, is on the radar, retro, positively reviewed [Brill Building] [Double Articulation] [The Basement Tapes]

Brian Wood's DMZ, upcoming series about a young photographer abandoned in bad-future Manhattan warzone, is on the radar [Newsarama]

Michael Kupperman's Tales Designed to Thrizzle sounds funny, on the radar as well [The Beat] [Comics Reporter]

Dick Tracy currently cracking down on Cellphone and his DVD piracy gang [21 August 02005 strip at Comics Page] [via Waxy]
Gang roster: Broadband, Burner, CD, Digit, Download, Handheld and Miss Lapdance, er, Laptop.

Ever since reading yesterday's Comic Reel at CBR, Neilalien's been having way too much fun loudly exclaiming at random moments in his best Moe from The Simpsons voice: Hannibal Tabu is black?!?

Posted 26 August 02005 - Permalink

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Music Geek: When Comics And Rock Collide [MTV News] [via Comics Reporter]

1972's "Spider-Man: From Beyond the Grave" was a half story / half rock album telling the tale of Spidey and Dr. Strange teaming up to save Peter Parker's Aunt May from the clutches of the Kingpin! The music was all over the map, from wah-wah-driven acid rock to bubblegum doo-wop (the album featured the vocal stylings of Ron Dante, "lead singer" of cartoon legends the Archies) and Dixieland pop. But the dialogue was worthy of Mamet, featuring nuggets such as, "Can the small talk, fat man and let's get it on!"

A Southwest Punk Rock Flier Archive 01982-1984
Punk Rock Poster Archive
Many thanks to Destroy All Comics for linking to these so Neilalien may find them.

Online Comics Vs. Printed Comics: A Study in E-Commerce and the Comparative Economics of Content by Todd Allen [Indignant Online]

"Incorrectly drawn syringes are probably the second most common comic book/medical art error" [Polite Dissent]

Posted 25 August 02005 - Permalink

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The New Bastard Manifesto [Franklin's Findings]
Fun superhero (and other 'genre') comics praised, autobiographical art comics called out. Testify!

Excellent interview with All-Class Klaus Janson; effective inking and storytelling discussed [Comic Foundry] [Update: Part 2]
"Comics are not about reality, it's about reality plus."

The Blue Beetle story may have a chapter or two left [Captain Comics at Detroit News]

Posted 24 August 02005 - Permalink

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Experience Akword Strange, San Francisco-based rapper inspired by the Sorcerer Supreme
Be sure to check out the comic book and download a tune [via Isotope Comics].

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Upping The Ante: The Isotope [James Sime The Pimp at Millarworld The Magazine]

As an industry, comics are now standing at the intersection between hip, independent art and multi-billion dollar pop culture dominance, and there can truly be no better place to be. With so much attention from Hollywood and the mainstream press, awareness of the medium is at an all time high and all eyes are on comics... But, let's face it, it hasn't been the comic stores that are reaping the rewards... With everyone but the direct market retailers cashing in on funnybooks we run a very real risk of losing something that I think has the most potential to be really, truly awe-inspiring and great... and that's comic book stores. Because comic book stores are where our culture is created. They act as the nexus of an artform that walks the line between the underground and mainstream, and play host to a massive variety of creatively-minded people from all walks of life. Teeming with raw creative energy and an appreciation for innovative art and unique stories, the comic store environment has the potential to marry the cutting edge with the mass market. And as those comic retail outlets themselves are the single most visible public face of our industry to the world at large, it's time we give them some faces that the public is excited to see. It's time to up the ante and take comic retailing to the next level.

Posted 23 August 02005 - Permalink

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Marvel November solicits, Defenders #5 cover revealed [Comic Book Resources] [big #5 cover image]

Neilalien highly recommends Top 10: The Forty-Niners; OGN makes the world all better [high praise at Fourth Rail] [annotations]
Wait to check it out in paperback only if you must. It's so good and reminding of Top 10 warm fuzzies that Neilalien will probably pick up the Top 10: Beyond The Farthest Precinct miniseries too, when before he was hesitant because Moore isn't writing it.
Update: Johnny Bacardi positively reviews Farthest Precinct, Defenders [Last Call at CBG] [ditto Hannibal Tabu]

July 02005 Direct Market Sales Charts: Marvel/DC grab record levels of market share oxygen with their big summer events; everything else suffocating [Newsarama] [Top 300]
Defenders #1 in at #48, 39,500 estimated pre-ordered.

Mainstream media critic can't give webcomics the love; no infinite canvas, animation vs. paper, subscription follies [New York Times] [via The Beat]
Response; "Webcomics frees us from Gary Groth" [Websnark]
Response: We need this kind of outsider input [T Campbell comment on Comixpedia]

Motley Fool debates Marvel stock; Neilalien hears dueling Deliverance banjos
Dueling Fools: Marvel Bear: the big character-properties in the stable have been used; 18% of available stock to trade is sold short
Dueling Fools: Marvel Bull: getting better deals on movies or producing them itself; licensing and video games still cash cows
Dueling Fools: Marvel Bear Rebuttal: stock's not cheap; Marvel's 11 flicks = Pixar's mere 6
Dueling Fools: Marvel Bull Rebuttal: Marvel vs. Pixar re: stock valuation

Review sites changing:
Longtime Snap Judgments reviewer choking on Marvel/DC output: reviewing more indies, abandoning 1-10 horserace rating scale [The Fourth Rail] [via Comic Book Galaxy]
Neilalien fave/Ninth Art's Paul O'Brien changes the X-Axis to reflect the changed comics; not enough per issue to justify old review format [also starts new blog If Destroyed, Still True]

New good mini-comic blog found [Size Matters] [via Egon]

Love note re: the publication of The Complete Calvin and Hobbes [Comics Reporter]

Direct Market retailer trade organization ComicsPRO founded [Brian Hibbs Tilting At Windmills makes the case]

Neilalien enjoyed this Erik Larsen braindump about various comics n' stuff [One Fan's Opinion]

NYC art gallery Kathleen Cullen Fine Art gets cease and desist from DC Comics over gay Batman watercolor art by Mark Chamberlain [Artnet Magazine] [BBC News] [one of the watercolors on Flickr] [via The Beat]
DC's also after Artnet to take down the images from the internet [CBS 2 NYC]

Posted 22 August 02005 - Permalink

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Defenders #2 out this week [Diamond Comics Shipping List]

Every printed-to-order copy of Defenders #1 has been distributed ["sold out" at Newsarama] [Comic Book Resources]

Dr. Strange's appearances and role in House of M looking pretty sparse after all (3 panels in #5) (and we fans were worried that we'd have to buy so many books); one panel of alt-universe infected-zombie Doc in Ultimate Fantastic Four #22 [Doc appearances this week]

Corporate raider Carl Icahn, who once battled with Ron Perelman for Marvel, rumbling towards Time Warner, DC [ICv2]

It can be a tough time right now to feel interested in comics if you're into the Marvel/DC superhero/industry news chunk [Ninth Art]
Boring: Same old crossoverism, more conservatism, less experimentation, the current workhorse talent's good but we know all their tricks. Randomly trying manga if you're not into manga, or trying other comics just by artform-medium-love virtue that they are comics, aren't solutions. So true. But this is a dangerous ennui that we dare not tolerate or indulge. Neilalien feels like he's under an information overload crunch of recommended comic books and good comic book news: Why doesn't Paul O'Brien?
Update: Apathy only ruined me [Grim Tidings]
Neilalien didn't expect O'Brien's column to break the internet in half, and he's with Fanboy Rampage's Graeme on this one. O'Brien's not "just reading the wrong comics". People like what they like, and they want to like it.

DC's massive crossovers like Infinite Crisis are corporately-driven comics, Marvel's massive crossovers like House of M are creatively-driven [Joe Quesada at Newsarama]
Watch your step, the bullshit's piled high.

"Comics are certainly having an international moment, in terms of both sales figures and increased literary respect" [Newsweek]
Marjane Satrapi's graphic novel Persepolis is required reading at West Point to help cadets understand Iran.

Erik Larsen debuts new column at Comic Book Resources [One Fan's Opinion]

Robert Kirkman debuts new column at Comic Book Resources [Buy My Books]

Posted 15 August 02005 - Permalink

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Great story about how Stan Lee and Steve Ditko weren't on the same page at the end [Fred Hembeck on IGN]
Was it supposed to be Spider-Man or the Looter on that ledge in Amazing Spider-Man #38?

Why I've Had It With Wizard [Augie's Pipeline at CBR]

A Girl (young manga artist for Tokyopop, Rivkah Greulich) in Boyland (WizardWorld Chicago) [Little Rivkah's Journal] [via everybody]

Them [American comic industry creators for Marvel/DC properties]: "How can you feel so passionate about your art? I don't get it."
Me: "How can you NOT?"

Author Tim Buck values the early exposure to comics:

As the '60s whirled its antagonistic tango of tradition and rebellion, I sat in oblivious distraction, my attention focused between the covers of Marvel comic books: Thor, Iron Man, Daredevil, Sub-Mariner, Nick Fury, Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange. Stan Lee's alliterative and dramatic excesses (along with Jack Kirby's and Steve Ditko's visual renderings) furrowed my brain-field, preparing it for later seedings that would one day bloom into appreciations of Dostovesky, Proust, Kafka, and Mann...
I wonder what the cultural landscape would look like had more young imaginations been "corrupted" by funny books? Maybe our rulers - political and corporate - would not be so egoistic and malignant had they been exposed to and humbled by comics' engendering of zen-like wonder and galactic perspective.

YAY! Judge says NYC punk landmark CBGB's can't be evicted [USA Today]
But a lease renewal past 31 August is still undetermined. Many great upcoming benefit shows, including the Misfits-lite tomorrow night, Vandals, Dead Boys, Living Colour, Circle Jerks, Sham 69, etc., although to get tickets at this point you'll want to show up early the day of. See you there, Neilalienistas! [Ticketweb] [important ticketing info at Brooklynvegan]

Posted 11 August 02005 - Permalink

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Fred Hembeck's ready to write an introduction to a book about Steve Ditko if Blake Bell doesn't hog them all [The Fred Hembeck Show: Episode 21 at IGN]

Dr. Strange in Michael Netzer's A-Z Superhero Poster Michael Netzer's A-Z Superhero Poster has Dr. Strange for D [Flaming Sword]

Didn't see any Dr. Strange news in the WizardWorld Chicago coverage
But did see this [Pulse]:

During the panel it was also mentioned that plans were in place to reintroduce a more cosmic side of the Marvel Universe, "like there was in the '70s." There will be more information on that later.

Secrets In The Shadows: The Art & Life Of Gene Colan HC out Wednesday; PB out last month [TwoMorrows Publishing]

Long, good: Graphic Novels Go Hollywood [Animation World Magazine] [via Franklin's Findings]
"Film is a visual medium and graphic novels provide a ready-made glimpse into what the finished movie could look like."

Neilalien fave The Losers ending with issue #32 [Jock interview at Pulse]

Baseball-card sales have plunged 15 percent annually during the past five years; an industry reshuffles to recapture its youth [Christian Science Monitor] [via Kottke]
Blogged because it feels like a comic news piece, and of course, Perelman's ill-fated purchase of baseball card companies when he controlled Marvel.

Hilarious spoof of a comics mailing list that you might be on [Gutterninja]

If Wizard Magazine truly loved comics, it wouldn't try to crush HeroesCon, it would cover more than superhero collectibles, "indie" Wizard Edge wouldn't be a Kevin-Smith-covering joke [Mike Weiringo quoted at Fanboy Rampage]

Annual ICv2 interview with DC President and Publisher Paul Levitz [Part 1; state of the market] [Part 2; graphic novels vs. periodicals] [Part 3; comic movies a bubble?]
Response: It boggles the mind just how clueless the people creating Marvel/DC superhero periodicals are about the graphic novels and the manga; indies can't win cuz going mainstream means losing their cachet and success means getting the life sucked out of it like punk rock [The Beat]
Response: Levitz: We're Doing Just Great, Thanks [Comics Reporter]
Synthesis with Warren Ellis' latest musings on how bad things are getting, tiny sales numbers for so many books, tiny numbers of comics stores, the struggle getting good comics seen by interested eyes [Fanboy Rampage]

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Recent Doc Sightings

Dr. Strange on the cover of Marvel Team-Up #11 Marvel Team-Up #11
The Titannus storyline seems to be climaxing. Dr. Strange does his tired old 'Defenders/Team-Up, detect bad guys, recruit good guys, astral form and teleport' spiel, but Kirkman generally does a good job with Doc's characterization. Doc's on the cover, cool- but he's uncharacteristically emotionally yelling as he's throwing himself at the villain. Eh.

The New Avengers #7
A multipart story about The Sentry begins, with Doc part of the advisory braintrust against all the newly-freed villains. First off: Iron Man's armor detects "four humanoid life forms and an astral energy projection" in attendance. Bullshit! No mundane technology should be able to detect Doc's astral form. Grrr. With the story starting off like that, how does Bendis expect Doc fans to actually try to follow this Sentry 'let's bring comic writer Paul Jenkins along' meta story? [Double Articulation review re: metafiction] Fun New Avengers vs. The Wrecker fight though. He's of course no brainiac, but he held his own. It delights Neilalien when third-string supervillains (and superheroes, for that matter) are shown acting with some competence (more than usual; see: Rhino, Marvel Team-Up #11, above).

Special thanks to Howard Hallis for his online FYIs to the Doc fandom community.

Posted 8 August 02005 - Permalink

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Gene Simmons of KISS, comic book fan for life [GeneSimmons.com; scroll down to 17 July] [via and quoted at Blabbermouth]

Comic books were my childhood companions. Through the pages of the Fantastic Four and Spiderman and Dr. Strange, I entered worlds I never dreamed were possible. Ultimately, all comic books have a 'sense of wonder'... a sort of 'what if' quality that attracted me. Then. And now.

Posted 2 August 02005 - Permalink

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Recent con game reveals an industry that resents kissing up to Wizard and the lack of alternatives to it [Ninth Art]

18-year-old "In My Opinion" columns held hopes for graphic novels, bemoaned lack of girl comics, ranted against anti-fun continuity crush [Gutterninja]
Is nothing new? And you thought we were all just rehashing Warren Ellis' Come In Alone columns from five years ago.

Plenty of "fun" superhero comics out there right now if you don't want to see rapes [Gutterninja]

Comics don't generate a sense of audience community, interaction, involvement anymore [Permanent Damage]
Press releases on the internet may not affect comics sales much, but an online message board can.

In Depth: David Yurkovich's Less Than Heroes [Graphic Novel Review (from January)]
David Yurkovich Talks Less Than Heroes [Comic Book Resources (from April 02004)]
Neilalien found some unblogged bookmarks for one of his faves. (These links would only be 'old' in 'internet time', or if they weren't for a GN but instead for a book in the monthly churn.)

Fanboy Schisms defined and encoded [Filing Cabinet of the Damned]
Neilalien's probably a: YS, MP, CIHI (Dr. Strange only), GSC=Ditko.

New She-Hulk series starts in October [Marvel October solicits on Newsarama]
Just learned that Juan Bobillo is doing the art- great news! His art is perfection for these series. More Awesome Andy! Dan Slott's first She-Hulk series took Neilalien completely by surprise and was a total joy. Neilalien's eye on Slott has wandered since then- GLA does nothing for him, maybe it was the uninspiring choice of characters used (although Slott overcame that with the previously uninteresting She-Hulk). Spider-Man/Human Torch was a "pivotal, sentimental, optimistic and fun" ride, especially #4. Ty Templeton's art was perfect for that series too.
Ty Templeton interview; "These were comics which were intended to be FUN" [Silver Bullet]

An Open Letter to the Guys that Check the Spine of Every Comic Before they Pick Out the Most Perfect One to Purchase, Bag, and Board [Listen To Us, We're Right]

Congratulations to Rocketship! Friday night's opening was a great time.

Posted 1 August 02005 - Permalink

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