I’m back in the saddle with some links from ’round the comics web-o-verse. The lack of updates yesterday was unfortunately unavoidable, as my office exploded… No, really. The radiator blew up, soaking the room and leaving me sans phone, computer, etc. But things are up and running once again, so let’s get on with the links:
- No one is very happy about Joe Quesada’s nullification of the Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson wedding, and now comes word that even the Irish are pissed!
- Marjane Satrapi won’t return to Iran, as officials from her native country have complained about the movie adaptation of her graphic novel Persepolis.
- Among the latest urban legends revealed at CBR is this gem (scroll down): Back when he was working on Hawk & Dove, Rob Liefeld got behind on deadlines and sent art in with no hands or feet on the characters. DC had to bring in another artist to clean up the mess.
- I just saw this story about the Fantastic Four: Isla de la Muerte issue that was published in English and Spanish. It’s surprising that the publishers haven’t tried anything like this lately (though, honestly, it’ll take a better effort to tap the Spanish-speaking market). I was doing some research on a graphic novel I wrote and came across some stories about the huge market for comic books in Mexico in the early decades of the 20th Century.
- At my old blog, Doomkopf, my pal Doom Deluise comes up with a compelling theory on who is killing the New Gods. My question: who cares?
- Just got a press release that you can get a free yearlong subscription to the webcomics at Rogue Wolf. Offer ends on Tuesday.
- Speaking of free comics online, Boom! Studios and MySpace have released a free issue of new series North Wind at the MySpace comic site. I got to read a preview of the book a bit back. It’s fun, but shades too close to “Water World except with snow covering everything instead of water.”
- An interesting note in a story on the death of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto in The Australian: “I remember one summer we spent the entire afternoon at a comic book shop near Russell Square as Bilawal [Benazir's son and heir apparent], with his sisters, completed their collection of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel comic books.”
- Stories about libraries taking on comic books always catch my eye, in part because it’s often a good way to see how the uninitiated view graphic novels. Here’s a good example: Rantoul (Ill.) High School takes the plunge. No surprise — more kids are now using the library.
- It’s not too often you see features on colorists. Here’s one on Joel Seguin, in which he mentions the dangers of the job: “My last pad, I shocked it to death. I was wearing all fleece one winter day, and I sat down on my chair. I touched it; it went zap, and I felt this huge shock.”
UPDATE:
- I’m sure everyone’s seen the news that Bryan Singer is probably leaving the Superman franchise-that-isn’t. You’ve got to admire a guy who can single-handedly destroy two comic book movie series. An adequate punishment would be spending a straight week watching the eye-torture of X-Men 3.
