Neilalien : A Doctor Strange Fansite : A Comic Book Weblog  

The opening scene of the Dr. Strange animated movie DVD, out later this year [YouTube]
From the Iron Man animated movie DVD that just came out.

The Dr. Strange mini-comic that came exclusively with Wal-Mart's version of the Iron Man animated movie DVD is reviewed [by Doc uber-fan Sanctum on the Defenders Message Board, with scans]

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Do Dr. Strange and Spider-Man use the mano cornuta anti-evil-eye hand gesture? [Foxy Librarian]
It would be cool if true, even if Ditko was just inspired by the hand gesture- but Neilalien disagrees with the Foxy Librarian, and commented thusly (about a month ago, he lost the link in his notes :( ):

Spider-Man and Dr. Strange do not use the mano cornuta. The mano cornuta does not have the thumb extended (see the Wikipedia entry: "The corna is not to be confused as the sign for "I love you" in American Sign Language, which is made by also extending the thumb"). You may find a couple examples in the comics record of the thumb not extended, but in most (IIRC 90%, especially if Ditko drew it) instances of Spider-Man using his webshooters (including the image you're using in this post) or Doc casting his spells, the thumb is extended.

See also: Lady, That's My Skull re: Doc "throwing mystic love-blast affirmations of affection"

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The Defenders are coming to that VS. card game [Metagame] [thanks Christian!]
Update: New Dr. Strange, Founding Father Defenders VS. card [Metagame]

New Archie Graphic Novel Explores Rich Inner Life Of Jughead [The Onion] [via Robot Wisdom]

That time Superman had to make a pr0n movie with Big Barda [Living Between Wednesdays]
Action Comics #592 & 593 by John Byrne.

Posted 29 January 02007 - Permalink

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Screenshots of the Doctor Strange preview with the Iron Man animated movie DVD [Comics Continuum] [thanks Sanctum!]

Some great Marvel house ads from the 70's online; Avengers-Defenders War, Brother Voodoo [Photon Torpedoes]

The Punk Comics Manifesto [Fraggmented]

The Boys "should never have been published at DC"; cancelled but to continue elsewhere [Newsarama] [The Beat] [via Johnny Bacardi]
A neat premise, but the book fell off Neilalien's radar for a bad "too much Ennis" to "too little happening" ratio. But apparently the book has a following, decent sales, a reader in Johnny B., good rights-release treatment by DC, and what's coming up will supposedly make the first six issues "look like a quiet evening on Sesame Street". Good for the book!- but Neilalien's delicate eyes dare not look.

All manga doesn't look like the stereotypical moé style [Sporadic Sequential]

Walmart quickly apologizes for selling yaoi [ICv2] [Consumerist] [ICv2: Walmart imported huge middleman book database]
An apology for selling that crappy exclusive Dr. Strange comic book with the Iron Man animated movie DVD is unlikely.

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The WebMegaGoogaBloggaTube has informed Neilalien that he is being forced to upgrade to the new Blogger- a move that he's resisted- when he next logs in. It's okay, Neilalien, don't fight it... you'll like it... there's no need for hate now... or love... don't be trapped by old concepts, you're evolving into a new lifeform... AAAAAAHH!

Posted 27 January 02007 - Permalink

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Outer Orbit #1-2

Outer Orbit Outer Orbit is a four-issue miniseries of sci-fi action-comedy by Zach Howard, Sean Murphy and Reed Buccholz, published by Dark Horse [see previews there]- the first two issues are out now. Neilalien picked up #1 in the shop because (1) overall, it reminded him of the sorely-missed fave Runners, (2) the big cop guy Krunk's armor uniform reminded him of Alien Legion, (3) the lush coloring by Charlie Kirchoff, (4) the artdecoish font (lettering by Thompson Knox) [Pipeline discusses the font], and (5) the cute Neoki's ass is prominently on the cover of #1 and she spends most of that issue in her Punisher panties (er, was that one out loud?). While the first two issues are essentially defenseless against the points made in this negative Comic Pants blurb (the blue guy Quinn feels a bit too annoying and wordy (a bad combination) (maybe Krunk should cut him off one word balloon less the way they used to do to Data on ST:TNG?); Ye Olde "Femme Fatale With Stolen Powerful Artifact" Yarn), Neilalien is enjoying this fun book so far. Take that comic-shop attention chunk, ranging from "three second glance" to "three dollars", that you were going to waste on some Civil War tie-in, and check this out instead.

Posted 26 January 02007 - Permalink

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Upcoming Alter Ego #68 to include never-before-seen Ditko notes to Stan Lee re: a 01965 Dr. Strange story [TwoMorrows Publishing] [via Ditko Comics]

"Secret Identities" Back Issue #20 explores The Question [TwoMorrows Publishing] [via Javzilla]

Update: Long Back Issue #20 Question excerpt lives at VicSage.com

Congrats to Question fansite VicSage.com on its official launch! Grand opening celebration on Sunday, 3 to 6 pm EST, with goodies. 02007 marks 40 years of The Question.

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Storytelling Engines: The Defenders [Fraggmented] [via Comics Should Be Good]

The new general "outside world" graphic-novel audience is not yet cartooning-literate: sees comics more as literature than visual art, so books with less ambitious visual goals like Fun Home topped its year's best lists [The Hurting]

The Year The Floppies Died [CHUD.com]
If singles abandon providing the monthly fix- because of so much time between late books, books so late one might as well wait for the trade, decompressed storytelling and the end of the monthly cliffhanger, etc.- then they might as well die.

Men Without Tights: Comics that reinvent the superhero genre [Slate]
Javascript slideshow thing (annoying but usable) offers ten, including Astro City, Rising Stars, Ex Machina, and Living in Infamy.

Wile E. Coyote, Plaintiff v. Acme Company, Defendant [via Bloggity]

War of the Independents: Massive crossover of indie superheroes slated for July 02008, includes Zot and Mr. Monster [Forbidden Planet International Blog Log] [Red Anvil Comics ComicSpace page with info, massive character/creator list] [Blog@Newsarama]

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It sounds like (1) lots of folks grabbed the Cowboys & Aliens low-priced or free giveaway book at Midtown Comics or on its website; (2) then Midtown Comics' automatically-generated-by-database-list sloppily names the book as its top seller (the book most people put into their carts, without distinguishing its price or promo status); (3) then Entertainment Weekly runs a sloppy "as if what one store sold in one week tells us anything" Midtown Comics' Best Sellers feature with C&A sloppily at the top; (4) leading to comicsweb breakage-into-halves and sloppy overblown payola-like charges towards C&A publisher Platinum Studios; (5) leading to a fun investigation of exactly what Platinum ~is~ doing to make a splash in the Direct Market (selling intro books at a loss, retailers who order lots of copies get marketing money to promote the book, etc., OK but YMMV re: smell test passage or not) [A. David Lewis Loose Pages] [Lying In The Gutters] [Permanent Damage] [The Beat]

Posted 25 January 02007 - Permalink

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Doctor Strange: The Oath #4 out today! [Diamond Comics Shipping List]

Posted 24 January 02007 - Permalink

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Meet The [New] New Avengers: Epilogue [Newsarama]
Lots of great spoilers, including how the Sanctum Sanctorum will not be what it appears, and lots of sweet preview art, including Doc getting stabbed with a katana.

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Earlier this month's What If? Age of Apocalypse had Brother Voodoo as Dr. Strange's successor and the Sorcerer Supreme [preview page at PopCultureShock shows it]

Lots of old Brother Voodoo comics posted online [X-Y-Z-Cosmonaut's CosmoBlog]

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Reports coming in that the Sprawl-Mart exclusive version of the new Iron Man animated movie DVD, out tomorrow, includes a Dr. Strange comic [this CBR Forums post only linkable found; thread link] [thanks readers!]

Posted 22 January 02007 - Permalink

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Joe Gill, classic writer, Ditko collaborator, has died [Mark Evanier] [via Ditko Comics]
Five by Gill & Ditko [Ditko Comics]
Neilalien seconds the recommendation of the recent Charlton Spotlight #5 for lots of info about Gill (and Ditko).

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Preview of Doctor Strange: The Oath #4 [Comics Continuum]

"It's pretty safe to say that every page of Steve Ditko art on the market was stolen" [Erik Larsen One Fan's Opinion]

Speedball Fans, Unite! [Comics Should Be Good]
Let us all join S.C.R.O.T.U.M. (Speedball Comic Readers Opposing Transformation Under Marvel) before another Ditko creation (Speedball > masochist; The Question > spiritualist, cancer; Blue Beetle > bullet in head; Captain Atom > fissioned?) is destroyed.

Marvel April 02007 solicits include Ditko-stuffed Amazing Spider-Man Omnibus Volume One hardcover [Comic Book Resources]

Dr. Strange on the cover of Comics Buyer's Guide #1626 The issue of Comics Buyer's Guide just passed (#1626, March 02007) has an Illuminati/prominent Dr. Strange cover [cover image] [thanks Howard!]
The Illuminati articles are suprisingly good, and wonder what the secret group was up to during a lot of Marvel continuity.

New New Avengers lineup fully revealed; art page preview [Newsarama]
Dr. Strange, Wolverine, Spider-Woman... it's Secret Defenders!

02006 was a very good year for the Big Two in the Direct Market; periodicals up 15% [ICv2]

Top 300 Comics, December 02006: New Avengers: Illuminati miniseries #1 in at #5 (105K) (New Avengers at #3, 122K), Oath drifts down to #80 (27K) [ICv2]
Doc will be getting a lot of exposure in the strong Avengers properties. Let's hope for a positive portrayal.

Marv Wolfman is blogging, and answering questions [Today's Views]

Check out Dave Cockrum's box art for Aurora model kits in the 70's [Comic Book Resources]

DC's weekly 52 exceeded Brian Hibbs' expectations [Tilting At Windmills]

Posted 19 January 02007 - Permalink

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Dr. Strange is in the new New Avengers lineup!

Meet The [New] New Avengers [Newsarama]

Initial reaction braindump:

Positive: It's more Dr. Strange. Yay! Looks like Neilalien can't retire from blogging this year! ;)

Positive: Leinil Yu's art looks pretty sweet. (But that better not be Dr. Strange in his astral form in that preview art. The pencils for Doc look lighter than the other characters in the preview. The Cloak of Levitation is not part of his astral form!)

Neutral: It will never feel right to us old-schoolers that Doc is an Avenger. He's a Defender. Although, every Marvel group these days kinda feels like the Defenders of old- a grim-gritty group of loners and non-team-players without boy-scout sanction to whom weird things happen- so it might feel just right.

Pessimistic: Dr. Strange has almost always sucked in groups. All he does is teleport the group to the threat and then just energy blast. Bendis, please make Doc more than the Avengers Quinjet.

Pessimistic: Ah, Brian Michael Bendis. Neilalien and many Dr. Strange fans definitely have reason to be a bit wary of this writer. In the Bendis-written House of M #8, Dr. Strange is all "I'm a complete failure" for not being able to foresee or stop those events. In the Bendis-written Avengers Disassembled finale, Dr. Strange is misused as a deus ex machina. Dr. Strange in the Bendis-written Illuminati one-shot was mopey, and a murderer in the miniseries #1 (Maleev draws Doc like Walter Matthau, an actor who played many schlumps, which only feeds into this meme.) All Bendis has done is bring Doc down, to "strip him down to the core", but this Doc-core has been unrecognizable. With Doc now in a Bendis monthly series, we hope that Bendis has enough opportunity to portray Doc for several issues to come out the other side of these recent events and mopings, and get Doc built back up. One can certainly hand Doc setbacks- and he's fair game as a tortured, lonely character, burdened with heavy Sorcerer-Supreme responsibilities- but we can hope that his portrayal will also be heroic, competent, active, with nobility and oomph, etc. Neilalien will give Bendis that chance. But the hope is simply not generated when we read that now Bendis will write a Dr. Strange who is "shaken" and "blaming himself" that pulling a Gandhi in the Arctic while his friends kill each other in Civil War may not have been the correct path. "Hype" like that is a big red flag to Neilalien that we're going to see more of Bendis' sadsack Doctor Strange.

New Avengers #27 is on sale 7 February.

Posted 13 January 02007 - Permalink

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The awesome power of Silver Dagger's armpit [Blockade Boy]
A funny panel from Marvel Team-Up #77.

The weekend reading: Massive Tom Brevoort interview by Bendis, lots of Marvel behind-the-scenes [Wizard Entertainment]

A New Sith, or Revenge of the Hope
If a No-Prize is awarded for not simply pointing out an inconsistency, but explaining the inconsistency, then this essay gets the ultimate No-Prize for the problems created in Star Wars by the prequels.

Posted 13 January 02007 - Permalink

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Stan Lee named 26th Most Influential Living American by The Atlantic Monthly [POW! Entertainment press release] [via The Beat]
Stan's tied with Bill "Pudding Pop" Cosby. Bill Gates is #1.

If only creators could band together to (a) end late books, and/thus (b) keep their work looking and paying its best, via contract clauses prohibiting soliciting a book until it's complete [The Hurting]
(Neilalien's internet scanners for "neilalien", "ditko" and "doctor strange" went bonkers when it hit this item. ;) )

Serial superhero comics and TV soap operas paralleled; we could emulate how soap operas stay approachable more [Augie De Blieck Jr.'s 500th Pipeline column at Comic Book Resources] [congrats!]

Michael Golden interview, doing more comics work, covers [Newsarama]

MODOK links collected [Progressive Ruin]
PR's list includes the time MODOK appeared on the New York Daily News sports page!
Love for the damn awesome Elvis MODOKs in Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. #11 [BeaucoupKevin]
More love for the splash-page battle-royale of Nextwave #11; also: "To see such a happy-go-lucky character [Speedball] take such a severe turn [into Penance] is pretty disturbing, to be sure" [Again With The Comics]

Get Your Civil War On comic strips in the Get Your War On style [Of Course, Yeah!] [via Postmodernbarney]

Posted 12 January 02007 - Permalink

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Braindump: Doctor Strange in X-Men: First Class #4

Dr. Strange in X-Men: First Class #4 Synopsis: Through his mystically-tainted ruby visor, only Cyclops can see a demon from Cyttorak's ruby realm in our world. The X-Men had recently visited there (X-Men #33!), and unknowingly brought something back with them. With Dr. Strange's help, the demon is sent packing.

A standard superhero affair- not much to review. One would probably be better off checking out comicsblogosphere darling Agents of Atlas for a book that writer Jeff Parker can stretch his legs in more.

(Plus, Neilalien sniffs at X-Men: First Class #4: Why not simply write completely new separate stories for the original teenager X-Men character situation, told in the modern time- like what that Star Trek: The Manga book seems to be doing with Kirk and Spock- and make the book primarily accessible to the large Venn-Diagram circle of new potential readers everywhere, with the bonus-hope of also charming the large circle of the nostalgic and open-minded? The book's style seems to want to be new and accessible, but then it includes an over-nod to the hardcore fan that tries to safety-net-ly bring in the old too, but instead of netting both, it undermines bringing in the new, and nets neither new or old. What is this task of essentially glomming accessibility lipstick on the continuity pig of an X-Men #33.5 following #33 from the 01960's fifty years ago, with only the chance of landing the Direct Market Venn-Diagram tiny population overlaps who actually care about the "untold tale" in the "hidden year" "back to the early adventuring career" of what "really happened" to Peter Parker's microscope and other old-comic undesired-by-the-older addenda and unknown-to-the-newer ephemera?)

The Dr. Strange appearance isn't horrible, but open to the standard complaints. First, what Neilalien likes:

  1. The old-school-pulpy painted cover (even if Marvel Girl is about to fall over, the angle of the characters works too).
  2. Professor X acts all dramatic about how to solve the mystery of contacting Dr. Strange. Turn the page, and he's looking in the yellow pages. Funny.
  3. Doc's in a purple lounge shirt and all schmoozy with Marvel Girl. You bet Doc would like to meet her in the flesh, baby. See: Doctor Strange, Playa Supreme. Wonderfully complete with icicle word-balloon from Cyclops.
  4. Halberd Wong. More Wong with a halberd, please.
  5. The representation of Marvel Girl's expanded mind as a big head in the ground with arms coming out the top was pretty neat and creative.
  6. "Demons are not humans, young man. They do not express themselves in ways we would find normal."

What Neilalien doesn't like:

  1. Of course he's going to argue that you send Iceman instead of Doc after the two teammates who have been transformed into small animals, so we can see more Doc. Iceman could have had a nice side adventure. But it's the X-Men's book, and Doc is only the guest star, so naturally the X-Men are going to be defeating the threat. Plus it probably does make more sense for Doc to go out alone into the dangerous infinite realm to search, although a good argument could be made that helping the dwindling number of teenagers battle the huge demon should be Doc's priority. Let Xavier track the furry animals mentally- he is linked to them, that's why the door is left open and Wong needs a halberd, after all. It's a problem when Doc's too powerful to be a part of simple team-ups, but it's salt in the wound to be able to see writers' gears churning for ways to make him miss the action.
  2. Doc's powers here are only (a) a costume changer and (b) a taxicab.
  3. One of Neilalien's pet peeves is when, in Doc's absence, non-mystical characters are suddenly shown to have great mystical knowledge and power and do what only Doc should be able to do. While it's not blatant here- Reed Richards isn't casting a spell- we tread close. It just so happens that the otherworldly realm where the battle takes place grants the X-Men power boosts, so that they are able to do what only Doc should normally be able to do (like open the demon's portal).

Speaking of Neilalien pet peeves, once again someone in the letters page points out an error in a previous issue (penguins were shown in the Arctic) and primpingly asks where his No-Prize is. Sigh. But maybe the letter writer and the younger readers just don't know. There's no Stan Lee or Bullpen Bulletins anymore to tell people that to earn a No-Prize, one must explain the error in a way so it makes sense in continuity. If anyone deserves the No-Prize, it's Parker, for suggesting the penguins were Skrulls.

And finally: Barbarians might want to make a fun snarky comment like, "Doc doesn't pour tea, man. Give Wong a halberd, and he gets all too-good-to-do-dishes on you..."- but with some quick Googling of etiquette websites, one will learn that the host does indeed pour the afternoon tea that the servant brings into the room. You barbarians! ;)

Posted 11 January 02007 - Permalink

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Nude Alice In Wonderland artwork by Frank Brunner [NSFW]

My Plea For Hand-Lettering (Part 1) [Jon Morris on Comixpedia]

Retailer group urges better Diamond policies when Acts of God short retailer orders [ICv2]
In response to last week's West Coast weather causing retailers there to only get partial amounts of the Civil War #6 they ordered. ComicsPRO wants all of a comic held if some are short, so that it can be distributed equally within the Direct Market later/the next week.

AMC remaking The Prisoner! New hour-long TV episodes in January 02008 [ICv2]

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Yahoo Acquires MyBlogLog [SearchEngineWatch]
Drat, this sucks. Another great tool that Neilalien uses, this time to track outgoing links (info gold for a linkblog type), bought by Yahoo. The deal was long-rumored, but the writing was on the wall for MyBlogLog when they glommed the social network onto their widget. So will this be a Flickr or Del.icio.us type acquisition (to its credit, Yahoo hasn't ruined those sites yet, but Yahoo has also left them alone and not changed or "integrated" them much either), or will this be an acquistion like the way it dried out Blo.gs (and killed Comic Weblog Updates)? Perhaps it's time to check out Feedburner's new comprehensive-looking site stats package, which apparently includes outbound links. Feedburner's done well with Neilalien's RSS feed so far. Anyway, congrats to the MyBlogLog folks- sounds like a wonderful true story of five guys in their virtual garage with a good idea making a truckload of money.

Posted 9 January 02007 - Permalink

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Farewell to Speedball [Skepticultist]
Biography and recap of what they've done to another Ditko character: from bouncy teen Speedball into Penance, a gloombot who can convert his own physical pain into energy blasts so he wears a pain suit, related in Civil War: Front Line #10.

Comparative Sex-Specific Body Mass Index in the Marvel Universe and the "Real" World [Girl-Wonder.org]

Tough reality pill re: how to find a publisher for your comic [Comics212.net] [via Comics Reporter]
Inspired by: Ryan McLelland: Printing Mr. Scootles [Newsarama] [via BeaucoupKevin; Dear Mike Gagnon of Open Book Press]

Posted 8 January 02007 - Permalink

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02006 Neilalien Awards

Best Dr. Strange Appearance: Doctor Strange: The Oath miniseries by Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin

Best Dr. Strange Appearance, Very Close Runner-Up: X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl miniseries by Peter Milligan, Nick Dragotta and Mike Allred (this would have been a Best Appearance most years; it was a good year!)

Worst Dr. Strange Appearance: Ghost Rider #3 [Neilalien's rant]

Other Notable Dr. Strange Appearances: New Avengers: Illuminati one-shot and miniseries begins; Stan Lee Meets Doctor Strange

Best Appearance of a Dr.-Strange-Affiliated Character, Accoutrement, Parody, etc.: Howard Hallis' Doctor Strange Custom Covers Project

Best Appearance of a Dr.-Strange-Affiliated Character, Accoutrement, Parody, etc., Runner-Up: Dr. Orpheus in Venture Bros.

Best Appearance of a Dr.-Strange-Affiliated Character, Accoutrement, Parody, etc., Runner-Up: Dr. Id by Adam McGovern and Paolo Leandri (a great book in its own non-Doctor-Strange right but Neilalien sees the old Strange Tales stories here)

Worst Appearance of a Dr.-Strange-Affiliated Character, Accoutrement, Parody, etc.: Ancient One portrayed as evil in Dead Girl

Most Twisted/Wrong Appearance of a Dr.-Strange-Affiliated Character, Accoutrement, Parody, etc. (note this is a complimentary award): Rorkannu and the Mindless Ones in Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E. #7-8 by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen

Biggest Insult to Dr. Strange Fans: Doc not/can't be a part of another big Marvel event, this time Civil War

Greatest Hope for Dr. Strange Fans: Perhaps that Doc *not* be in Civil War, given how the story's going; Blake Bell's Mysterious Traveler Ditko book; a good Doctor Strange direct-to-DVD animated movie (last two items the same as last year, since neither has come out yet); a good Oath miniseries ending and leading to more good Doc

Best Comic Book of 02006: Pride of Baghdad by Brian K. Vaughan by Niko Henrichon

Some More Comic Books That Brought Neilalien Much Joy in 02006:

All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely
Monster Cops by Chip Zdarsky
The Surrogates by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele (TPB)
Casanova by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba
Criminal by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips
DMZ by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli
The Lone And Level Sands by A. David Lewis, Marvin Perry Mann, Jennifer Rodgers

Posted 7 January 02007 - Permalink

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Ed Norton wanted to look like Dr. Strange for The Illusionist [interview at The A.V. Club] [thanks Howard!]

The Illusionist is sort of a fantasy. There were aspects of the real history of the Austrian-Hungarian empire that are interesting, but they don't particularly apply in that film. To be totally honest, the first thing I did was go, "Okay, in the script, this guy is an extremely magnetic, sort of darkly enigmatic character." And something in me just said, "You've got to figure out how this guy looks." And my whole entry point to that, literally, was the Marvel comic Dr. Strange. I was like, "I want to look like Dr. Strange!" [Laughs.] I literally showed the comic book to the makeup artist I work with a lot and said, "This is what we're going for." And that was a fantastic entry point for me, because I don't wake up in the morning and feel like Eisenheim, you know what I mean? I felt like in order to pull that role off, I had to create an aura.

Posted 6 January 02007 - Permalink

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Dr. Strange in Civil War #6

This panel in this week's Civil War #6 came outta nowhere...

"I love how Dr. Strange wants nothing to do with this shit." [Civil War #6 discussed at Scans_daily]
Plus some speculation that Doc wouldn't be shown at all unless he was going to do something.

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Best five superpowers chestnut and vote [MSNBC] [thanks Richard!]
Voting for the "Ability to cast spells" superpower would give one many of the other superpowers.

Posted 5 January 02007 - Permalink

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Isaac Newton was a superhero: he hung out in bars and pubs in disguise, hoping to catch criminals [3quarksdaily]

Stan Lee on classic TV game show To Tell The Truth [YouTube]

Stan Lee on NPR: Realism in the World of Comic Heroes [National Public Radio audio from 27 December 02006] [via Blog@Newsarama]

Money site and usual cheerleader Fool.com takes wary look at Marvel's 02007, self-financing flicks with B-list superheroes [Motley Fool] [via Yahoo]
And paying interest on that $525 million credit line, too.

Marvel November 02006 month-to-month sales [Paul O'Brien at The Beat] [DC, others]
The Oath took a steep 25% drop. How could people not want to pick up the second issue after the triumphant first? No variant cover for #2, though.

Doctor Strange: The Oath back-to-basics miniseries by Brian K. Vaughan and Marcos Martin making many 02006 Best-Of lists [like this one at Tales To Mildly Astonish]

The Oath's Night Nurse makes Best Comic Book Medicine of 02006 list [Polite Dissent]

The Courting Of The Tweens [Confessions of a Comic Book Guy column at ICv2]
Very sensical quote by Archie chairman Michael I. Silberkleit in a recent pay-to-see-it-online Wall Street Journal piece: "Why are there seven different Chevrolets? There's one that people like this way and one that people like that way." If a character like Spider-Man or Archie becomes successful enough to span generations and be profitable with different groups, then there should be different versions side-by-side in the marketplace. The aging loyalists get what they want without being allowed to veto any updates or attempts to attract new blood.

Dylan Horrocks interview re: Atlas, cartoonist's block, the big companies squandering their icons with redundancy and brand-maintenance [Pulse]

Sean Wang interview re: Meltdown [Pulse]

Alan Davis interview re: Fantastic Four: The End [Pulse]
Davis isn't optimstic about an industry that's been "satisfied to chase an aging elitist audience and made comics inaccessible to non-comic readers". Neilalien's got to check back in with FF: The End and it's Daughter-of-Doctor-Strange.

Robert Kirkman interview re: all his stuff going on [Newsarama]

Jim Rugg (of comicsblogosphere darling Street Angel fame) interview re: Minx line's Plain Janes, his working day [Comic Book Resources]

Massive Brian Wood, DMZ press hit [New York Times]

Criminal #1 available online [Marvel.com Digital Comics] [via LinkMachineGo]

Women's Work: new creator collective [via The Beat]
"Art before housework. In a hundred years, no one's going to care how clean your floors were."

Retailer Brian Hibbs pushes for retailers working together, building ComicsPRO muscle re: shipping and Diamond [ICv2]

Cute Mexican commercial featuring DC superheroines [YouTube] [via Popoholic]

Legendary comic book creator Len Wein is blogging [WeinWords]

Rest of blogosphere finally catches up with comicsblogosphere fossil What Superhero Are You? Quiz [Micro Persuasion]

Filing Cabinet Of The Damned ends its blogrun
Neilalien found several linkables there.

Happy New Year!

Posted 2 January 02007 - Permalink

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