This week's CoW comes from none other than Todd McFarlane himself. To continue Image's 20th anniversary and Spawn's continuing celebration, McFarlane has been doing lots of cover omages to famous covers throughout comics. Yet, This week's Spawn #224 really struck a cord as McFarlane takes a bit from The Dark Knight Returns with this cover. This cover was suggested by brand new BI member, BAC of Laid Back Comics.
Spawn looks amazing and McFarlane has Frank Miller's style down to a tee here. It is beautiful, grim and dark; much like the cover it is inspired by. Kudos Mr. McFarlane for getting this week's Golden Udder.
So, back in the late 80s, we have Todd Mcfarlane. That name sounds familiar to you either because you're thinking "Hey that's the guy that did that Soul Calibur stuff," or you're confusing him with the guy who does Family Guy.
I'm fairly certain this is him.
So, him and his buddies were drawing Marvel comics and were like, "Dude! More Pouches!" Or something like that. And Marvel was all like "These pouch guys sell so well!" and Todd said "Hey, I want some of that pouch money" and his friend Rob just kind of sat there with this big dumb grin on his face, and Marvel just stared at them for a second and then started laughing. Like, obscenely in how much they laughed. So, Todd was all like "Not cool dude. I'll just go make pouches on my own, and it'll have Black Jack and Hookers." And so he gathered up the mightiest team of early 90s Marvel Artists and somehow got Chris Mother Fucking Claremont. And so, they formed Image, the new comic shop on the block. And they had two Provisions to their company to keep them separate from those mewling savages over at Marvel. 1) Image would not own any creator's work, the Creator would, and 2) No outside food.
We know you have outside food on you. We have all day to search your pouches.
Now Image was a weird little thing, since Image at the start wasn't all "Invincible" and "Saga" and "The Walking Dead". It was all like "Hey, Image, is just a logo, and everyone gets to do their own thing, with their own studio, and so long as they buy their food from the concessions in the front, everything will be just groovy" Only, that was a stupid idea, and you should never give Rob Leifeld his own studio. He'll just name it Extreme Studios, and forget to feed it. But one of these studios was Wildstorm, which some accredit to the saving and only worthwhile asset to Image comics. The others really like Witchblade.
I know what you're thinking, and you're right. This would make a good anime.
Wildstorm was Jim Lee's brainchild, and unlike Larsen who would occasionally remember to feed Highbrow Entertainment, Lee made certain that Wildstorm would only get the best of whoever thought Marvel were kind of pricks, with titles like WildC.A.T.S. and Stormwatch. And those books were criminally... okay. For the 90s. Then Jim had a great idea "I'll get that guy who just did Marvels and let him do stuff for me, under his own imprint under my imprint, under Image comics, an Imprint of Malibu comics." And so they made Homage comics, and Kurt Busiek was all like "I'mma go make-a-da-good-comics now" And Jim just kind shrugged and said "It's cool dawg" and then fist bumped him. And Terry Moore made stuff with lesbians, and James Robinson was there, but this was 90s Robinson who was hot offa doin' Star Man, not aughts Robinson, who did Gay For Justice and that recent thing with the gay Alan Scott. Basically, the only gay allowed in Wildstorm at the time was lesbians. But like, Leifeld and MacFarlane were making money, and Jim was like "How am I not makin' money? I've got trading Cards, and Pogs, and Cartoons, and I'm doing fuckin' Imprint-ception over here with Astro City and Lesbians. Fuckin' Lesbians! How dat shit not workin' dawg?" And so Todd and Rob told Jim that the secret to making great comics is throwing money at embittered comics legends who say they hate the idea of selling out but love the idea of taking money to the face like it's bukkake porn.
"I'm a legitimate artist"
And that ended up about as well as you think it did, and to ensure that Jim would never listen to their horrible advice ever again, he jumped over to DC who at this time was so rollin' in that Sandman dough that they were spending it like a NBA player 3 weeks into retirement. And then Todd was like "Oh Shit, what is Image gunna do now?" and Robert Kirkman was like "Hai Gais!" and everything was hunky dorey from then on. Then 1999 happened, and Super heroes were dark and violent and psychopathic, and just fabulous.
Pictured: The best gay characters in comics pre Young Avengers.
And that's like, Batman and Superman, but less leather. And they're gay for each other. And I swear that Robinson had nothin' to do with it. And then Wildstorm just kind of sat there, and Jim was off drawing some Batman stuff, and some Superman stuff, but mostly Batman stuff. And there was some licensed stuff from Wildstorm, And Issue #2 of that Grant Morrison WildCats series'll come out any day now, and then in 2010 DC was all "That'll do pig" and shut down Wildstorm, and Jim Lee was like "I've got millions now bitches!" Cause he was named Co-Publisher of DC comics. And Stormwatch was made into one of those New 52 comics, and now I think Vertigo holds all the Homage comics stuff, and Alan Moore is done with Bukkake money since he's now indignant about doing stuff like that, and thinks less of creators that do, which totally doesn't make him a hypocrite, and Image comics has been successful and everyone lived happily ever after.
Welcome to this special Thanksgiving edition of CBC News Edition. We got a lot of new news. Let's get to it.
MARVEL KILLS BLACK PANTHER, GHOST RIDER, X-23 & MORE TITLES.
By Frankie Rodriguez
Marvel is continuing a very, very frightening trend with their books. Two weeks ago, we reported at least 5 titles getting cancelled or scrubbed completely from Marvel. And it seems that there is a lot more to come. And brace yourselves cause these will not be pretty:
Black Panther: The Most Dangerous Man Alive will see it's final issue in February with #529. It will feature a final show down between T'Challa and the Kingpin by acclaimed writer David Liss.
Ghost Rider, the second title written by Rob Williams, who was also writing Iron Man 2.0 which is also getting cancelled; is being cancelled in February as well with issue #8. Yet, rumors are already abuzz about a relaunch of the title after the new Ghost Rider movie.
Punisher:MAX by Jason Aaron & Garth Ennis will come to it's blood stained conclusion in February issue #22, although Aaron states in his twitter that Aaron always intended on ending the title on this issue.
X-23 by writer Marjorie Liu, and the ONLY CURRENT FEMALE LEAD TITLE IN MARVEL, is getting cancelled with January's issue #20. Yet, don't fear as X-23 will joining the main cast of Avengers Academy.
And Surprisingly, announced this morning by Marvel EIC, Axel Alonso, Daken: Dark Wolverine, the third title that is being cancelled from writer Rob Williams, will eventually be ending.
David Liss said on his Twitter:
Sadly the news is true. Our Black Panther run ends in February with #529. But keep reading until the end. It's going to be a wild ride!
With all this and the titles reported to be ending 2 weeks ago, that makes 2 miniseries cancelled before they were released, 1 title going from miniseries to ongoing then back to miniseries, 1 series ending as planned and 6 titles that are going to be cancelled due to low sales. Yet, with all these, Marvel is not printing less issues in February. On the contrary, they will be printing MORE issues with at least 17 titles getting 2 issues in February (All the X-titles but Astonishing, The Avengers family & others), Amazing Spiderman getting 3 issues in February and Venom getting 4, yes 4 issues for February, as reported from The Bleeding Cool. Will this biweekly trend of higher selling issues continue to make up for lost profits to DC and their relaunch? No one knows for sure but this definitely seems to be a very frightening trend. And what happens when other titles do the same numbers but their bottom line changes? We'll been keeping an eye on Marvel in 2012 for more of their changes and tactics to come.
IMAGE CELEBRATES COMIC INDEPENDENCE WITH IMAGE EXPO
The Following is the official press release from Image Comics:
IMAGE EXPO is coming! Experience the creativity of the men and women making the best creator owned comics in America at this one-of-a-kind celebration commemorating the 20th Anniversary of Image Comics!
IMAGE EXPO is a three-day celebration of creator-owned comics happening at the Oakland Convention Center. Image partners Robert Kirkman, Erik Larsen, Todd McFarlane, Marc Silvestri, and Jim Valentino, will be the guests of honor, appearing throughout the weekend for signings, panels, and special events. Other special guests include Image founders Rob Liefeld, and Whilce Portacio, plus the creators of today's best creator-owned comics, including: Joe Casey, Jay Faerber, Jonathan Hickman, Ryan Ottley, Richard Starkings, Fiona Staples, and Brian K. Vaughan.
IMAGE EXPO is Northern California's premiere comic con experience in 2012. The three-day event takes place at the Oakland Convention Center in the heart of the bustling nightlife and restaurant center of downtown Oakland, CA on February 24-25-26.
IMAGE EXPO isn't just about Image Comics, it's a celebration of independent creativity in comics. The exhibit floor is open to anyone who makes creator-owned comics. We're also going to be hosting unique programming for fans, aspiring creators, and library professionals. We'll be continuing our tradition of supporting the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund's important work to protect creators and retailers by hosting special events including a massive benefit auction.
Get in on the ground floor and sign up for your exhibitor or artist alley space today! Contact info@ImageComicExpo.com for more information about the show and how to sign up to exhibit.
This can be seen as perfect timing for the leading independent comic book company. Image is allowing as many indy artist come. So this is truly a celebration of independent comics and its creators, who have seemed to gotten a good grip of readers now. More of this landmark event and celebration as information becomes available.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
A Preview of Issue # 4 of Static Shock, the final issue written by John Rozum. Trailer by Static Shock artist & co-writer Scott McDaniel.
DC & AMAZON'S BIG DIGITAL DEAL
by Frankie Rodriguez
Last month, it was announced by DC that they would release over 100 graphic novels and trades exclusively for Amazon's Kindle Fire. The exclusive agreement was met with a warm reception . . . more like a hot round of hatred with Barnes & Noble cutting most of DC's books from their racks and counting it with an exclusive deal with Marvel Comics and their new Nook releasing hundreds of digital content for it. Well, now full details of the deal between DC and Amazon have been released and it can very well be a very large push for the company in the digital comic book market. This past Tuesday, DC and Amazon opened a dedicated storefront of DC on Amazon.com, making it the first comic book company to digitally sell their stuff on the internet in such a manner. Books, trades and graphic novels are all available digitally for the new storefront. This only adds to the power and appear of the new Kindle Fire which will be directly connected to the DC storefront when sold. DC's Senior VP of Digital Hank Kanalz stated the pricing of the graphic novels and trades were based on the content, the print price and how old the content was. The new storefront will have the DC products in your choice of digital or print. Yes. You can get single issues, trades, graphic novels and more in the new DC Store front on Amazon.com. Kanalz also stated that those 100 graphic novels will be expanded more and more as time passes. The DC Storefront in Amazon.com is on the site now.
Well, to everyone out there, Thank you for your support. Happy Birthday!!
So I’m doing some random comic shopping at my local shop when I come across a set of 23 Spider-Man comics for $10, JACKPOT. First five books are the miniseries Torment by one of my favorite writers/artists Todd “Spawn” McFarlane, sweet. Unfortunately this is where the good news ends because I read the story the other night and I have one word for you. FAIL!!! Okay so it starts off with Spidey just loving life while elsewhere in New York the Lizard is on a killing rampage. Upon realizing Connors is behind these massacres Peter sets out to figure out why he’s all of a sudden so violent. This leads to a vicious battle between the two where Pete realizes that he is not acting on his own and is in fact under a spell of some sort. After being poisoned by a clawing from the Lizard our hero finds himself under a similar spell that plays havoc with his spider-sense and causes him to hear a rhythm which I’m not really sure of the purpose. Turns out Connors was being controlled by a voodoo enchantress infatuated with Kraven the hunter and hell bent on killing Spider-Man. After losing control of Connors causing an explosion the witch disappears. I bet you’re wondering why I said it fails well for one the whole rhythm thing who is he facing Gloria Estefan!?!?! Repetition was another annoying quality constantly repeating “rise above it all.” Finally while her beloved husband is knocking at deaths door Mary Jane is out partying wtf!?!? I’m a big McFarlane fan but this story has me disappointed. Well that’s all for now as usual this has been Hector Ramirez and until next time friends keep clashing.
COVER OF THE WEEK
