Monthly Archives: February 2009

The Joy of Superheroes: Have a Super Valentine’s!

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Happy Valentine’s Day!/200th Birthday of Lincoln/200th Birthday of Charles Darwin/Friday the 13th/my brother-in-law’s birthday. I’m pretty sure the sheer confluence of events have somehow caused the world to end, and I am typing this entry from a pocket dimension somewhere in the recesses of inner space. I mean, everything around me still looks the same … look, there’s my favorite mug! … but that’s how those higher-dimensional beings getcha. So it’s time to switch things up a bit. With the New York Comic Con going on, everyone’s talking superheroes.

  • First up is a blog where comic artists draw alternate versions of superhero covers. Why not browse these sites tomorrow instead of moping around all day about how you don’t have a date? Of these, Eric Skillman’s Superman is my favorite. Very retro 70′s, And is it fair to include Fred Hembeck in these things? Drawing alternate superhero covers is practically his day job. (h/t to The Beat)
  • Speaking of alternate versions of superheroes, now’s a good time as any to point you to Project: Rooftop, a site dedicated to drawing superheroes in new costumes. One of the editors of the site is Dean Trippe, creator of the aesthetically pleasing Butterfly webcomic (reviewed here). My favorite is probably the Wonder Woman collection. You’ve lassoed by my heart, Valentine!
  • Continuing on the superhero theme, the Switched site reports that Marvel Comics announced, at the New York Comic Con, that it comics will be available for download at the iTunes store. They’re going to be in a format called “In-Motion,” which means that the panels will be animated. Plus, there’s going to be voice-over work from “popular actors” (whatever that means). I share my pessimism with the article: can the “In-Motion” comics, which you have to pay for, compete with the free comics available on the web? Especially since it’s geared toward the iPhone and iPod Touch, two devices that can hook up to the internet. I’m leaning toward no — but mainly because I think comics with voice-overs are uber-cheesy.

    Still, it makes you wonder: where will readers of print comics go to when they start looking for content on the internet? The fans of current webcomics and fans of superheroes are not one and the same. (The Big Two faced a similar revelation not too long ago when they discovered that the fans of the red hot manga books weren’t necessarily fans of superheroes.)

  • While we’re on the subject of Comic Con, The Wall Street Journal looks at why comics are still popular despite the rough economy. And why are newspapers reporting over lesbian Batwoman now? I thought that was old news. I happen to think most of the confusion is that folks think Batwoman is either Batgirl or Catwoman. (She’s neither, though you just know DC is exploiting the confusion.) Also, when my wife e-mailed me the story, she claimed that Batwoman was the first gay superhero. I had to shamefacedly tell her, “No. Actually, it was Northstar. From Marvel.” She smiled and said, “I just knew you’d know if this story was real or not.” That’s my Valentine! Beauty and the geek, we are. (And no, I’m not going to repeat Jack Nicholson’s line from the 1989 Batman movie. It was awesome and all, but Mrs. Santo will kill me.)
  • And since yesterday was the 200th Birthday for both Charles Darwin and Abraham Lincoln, why not party with the two righteous dudes down at Thinkin’ Lincoln (reviewed here)?

Book reviews, in comic form!

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Heidi MacDonald (from The Beat, broheims) reports on an interesting development in digital comics: book reviews done in the form of sequential art at the Barnes & Noble site.

Why hadn’t anyone thought of this sooner?

Actually, Ward Sutton has done this before. His work has previously appeared in the Village Voice (h/t Jewish Book Council Blog). By the way, you may also know Mr. Sutton as “Kelly,” the man behind the subversive editorial toons at the Onion.

Honestly, I’d thought of doing comic style reviews (not of webcomics, necessarily) in the past, but I sorta got scared off by how time consuming that would be. Plus, they’d end up like giant text boxes anyway (which, let’s face it, Ward Sutton’s comic kinda is). Will Ward’s bold experiment stand the test of time, or will it just be some sort of literary crime?

Still, I see this as part of the natural progression in webcomics. For a medium that started off with comics featuring two guys sitting on a couch reviewing video games, we’ve now reached a point where webcomics are reviewing T. C. Boyle’s The Women. It’s like webcomics have gone upscale!

(Incidentally, someone should really come up with a webcomic of two dudes playing video games, but talking about Kurt Vonnegut novels. Money in the bank, people. Money in the bank.)

The Webcomic Overlook #69: Sam & Lilah

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I wasn’t going to do another review this week, but, what the heck, Valentine’s Day is this weekend. Go on and rail how we’re being pawns of the Greeting Card industry or how it’s totally unfair to single people. The Webcomic Overlook enjoys all the holidays, real or manufactured. Behind the menacing luchadore facade, El Santo is a big old softie who gets calorie busting treats for his lady on the Holy Holiday celebrating a brutally murdered saint.

So, to celebrate, let’s take a trip back to our friends at Act-I-Vate and take a looksee at a cute little comic called Sam & Lilah, written by Jim Dougan and illustrated by Hyeondo Park.

I mean, look at the picture below. Doesn’t that have Valentine’s written all over it? Seriously, these guys should look into doing limited edition Valentine’s Day cards.

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The Webcomic Overlook #68: Loviathan

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What’s there to love in the world of webcomics? I can probably recite a whole list of things. Today, though, I’d like to express my deep love for the Act-I-Vate collective. I love, love, love their “Comix” section. Every time I pull up the page, I feel like I’ve been immediately transported to a comic book shop and I’m looking at the indie comics rack. I mean, look at all these covers and all these oddball genres! As an added plus, every single one of the titles look like they were done by established comic professionals, the sort of folks who are blase about having Eric Larsen’s or Dan Didio’s name in their rolodex.

So for Webcomic Overlook #68, I thought it would be great to do a review on one of the comics featured in Act-I-Vate. Which one did I choose? Was it one of Dean Haspiel’s highly acclaimed Billy Dogma comics? Was it the quirky indie romance of Bee? The visually stunning former Zuda contender, Sam & Lilah? Or the intriguingly titled Party Bear?

Nope. I selected the comic whose cover features costumed characters, namely a fetching young lass in the arms of an albino elf. So know you know the terrible secret of The Webcomic Overlook: El Santo is as predictable as any typical comic book fanboy, especially when it comes to promo art that approaches geek nirvana. (Immutable geek theorem: everything’s better with pointy ears.)

Still, it’s only appropriate that, on the week before Valentine’s Day, I review a comic named Loviathan, which comes with the cheeky tagline: “Love is the End of the World.” It’s written and illustrated by Mike Cavallaro.

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The Webcomic Overlook #67: SPQR Blues

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It seems like every so often, someone gets the brilliant idea that the Ancient Rome is going to be the biggest thing in genre fiction. Sometimes, they’re right. Gladiator was a hit in theaters and ended up grabbing a bucket load of awards at Oscar time (even though I remember commercials that were aired during WWE television that heavily promoted Gladiator as a boffo action movie that fans of The Rock would enjoy). HBO’s Rome was highly acclaimed, winning 7 Emmys in all.

To me, though, these two are rather isolated cases. I don’t think the entertainment industry ever fully succeeded in turning America into Rome-osexuals. Compare Wikipedia entries for “Fiction set in Ancient Rome” (which spans at least a millennium if we don’t count the Byzantine Empire) vs. “King Arthur in various media,” and you come to the realization that potentially fictional English kings outclass the civilization that gave us the origins of modern language, a Senate, and the aqueduct.

Incidentally, the most surprising find of this quick look? There are at least 11 entries for Roman detective fiction. To me, that’s a fairly curious concept. I personally imagine Humphrey Bogart, in a flowing toga and beaten fedora covering the steel in his eyes, turning the corner of the Temple of Venus and lighting his cigarette in the moonlight while tailing a perp who just murdered one of the temple virgins (by stabbing her in the back with a dagger, naturally). It’s like oil and water, two concepts that shouldn’t go together. Yet 11 different authors thought that this was a good idea?

While our review today is more of a soap opera drama set in Roman times, it does contain elements of crime fiction. Its protagonist, after all, is a bodyguard with a mysterious past who’s hired to protect a pretty dame from some folks who want to do her wrong. The name of the comic is SPQR Blues. It’s written and drawn by Carol Burrell, a dame people call “Klio.” If knowledge about ancient history could kill, she’s got a Pompeii gladius aimed right at your heart.

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Metapost: We are now officially “Webcomicoverlook.com”

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Small news, really.

You can now get to this site through “Webcomicoverlook.com”. This site is now far less to type!

And easier to say, too, which should be a blessing to the podcasters who had to stumble over the full title. I’m looking at you, Webcomic Beacon. Right now, the domain just redirects you to the one with the “wordpress” domain shunted in the middle. In the future, I think I’ll have everything redirect to the simpler moniker. Need to pick me up one of those blogging for dummies books first, though.

(If you’ve got a link going to the webcomicoverlook.wordpress.com address, it should still be good. I don’t think you need to update it. Also, thank you.)

Dean Haspiel on Act-I-Vate and being the “dean of Web comics”

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Dean Haspiel recently was interviewed for an article in the New York Times. He talks about how he ended up founding the Act-I-Vate collective, building a loyal fanbase, and the misconception that just because you’re willing to give something for free online, no one will ever pay for your stuff later. I’m copying and pasting the article here. (I have no idea if this is falling under the curtain of the New York Times subscription service at a later date.)

It’s always heartwarming, by the way, to see a highly reputable newspaper like the New York Times cover webcomics. Can an economic analysis of digital comics from rival Wall Street Journal be far off in the future?

DEAN HASPIEL, a 41-year-old resident of Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, is not your stereotypical comic book eccentric. He is charming and funny, and he enjoys bringing people together, whether to talk about comic books or knock back a sociable Scotch.

Mr. Haspiel’s credits include illustrating “The Quitter,” the autobiographical tale of his fellow comic book maven Harvey Pekar, and Jonathan Ames’s graphic novel “The Alcoholic,” about life under the influence. His art is defined by bold lines and figure work reminiscent of the legendary comic book artist Jack Kirby.

A native New Yorker with dark hair and a scruffy beard, Mr. Haspiel has lately become something of a champion of Web comics. His work can be found online in “Billy Dogma,” a noirish tale of love and redemption; at Act-I-Vate.com, an online cartoonist collective that he founded three years ago; and at “Street Code,” his semiautobiographical anecdotes of city life, at zudacomics.com.
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