Southside Comic Reviews

The 411 on the 711

2005-03-03T13:27:00.000+02:00

BIG NEWS!!! -Marvel is reintroducing comics to the mainstream via 6,000 plus 7-11 convenience stores accross the USA. This has to be some of the biggest news retailer wise in the past ten plus years. Hopefully this will produce positive results for everyone over the next couple of years. Check the main story here.

Joe Quesada Speaks

2005-03-01T13:37:00.000+02:00

Joey Q has dropped some info on goings on at Marvel and the future for comics once again at his 'Cup 'O Joe' panel at Megacon this past weekend. Read what he has to say here.

What Are You Buying?

2005-02-28T19:27:00.000+02:00

What Are You Buying? - Thats the question posed by Richard Friend on the Gelatometti site and he's got some great picks. Go check out what your favourite creators favourites are by clicking here.

Whedon's Astonishing to Continue For Another Year

2005-02-28T19:21:00.000+02:00

In case you haven't heard [you'd have to be blind,deaf and dumb, but still...] Joss Whedon and John Cassaday's run on Astonishing X-Men will continue for another year after there first 12 issue run is complete. There is mention of a short hiatus between the two runs so lets hope it is 'short' as these breaks tend to be on the long side.

For the full story go here.

Stan Lee Returns with Alexa

2005-02-28T19:16:00.000+02:00

Stan Lee is returning to his legendary comicbook writing form by doing a comic for iBooks called Alexa.

“The series deals with a comic book company trying to get the story rights to the lives of two twenty-foot-tall superhero giants who suddenly appear from a rift between dimensions. Alexa works for the comic book
company and begins to wonder: are they really superheroes, or something far deadlier? Also, what is the mystic bond between her and the mysterious giants from another realm? It goes from there.”- Stan Lee on Alexa

The book is due out late February in the USA and features artwork by a number of great artists such as Dave Gibbons.

Hawkeye Back From The Dead

2005-02-10T13:40:00.000+02:00

Heh heh, this one made me laugh, Brian Bendis and Joe Quesada speak to Hawkeye from beyond the grave... check it.

Writers From Out Of Nowhere

2005-02-10T13:31:00.000+02:00

Steven Bates writes a quick article about outside writers getting into mainstream comics writing, an interesting article.

"Despite an overall drop in comic book sales in recent years, Marvel and DC have been steadily improving the quality of their storytelling over the past decade. This may, in part, be a case of learning from the past; writers and artists working today have the advantage of seeing everything that has gone before, both good and bad. Unlike the pioneers of our industry, who created from whole cloth an art form that combined the visual elements of cartooning and illustration with a diverse literary goulash-part short story, part screenplay, part serialized fiction-contemporary creators are building on the foundation of those forebears."

Check the full story here.

Sorry...I really am!

2005-02-10T13:09:00.000+02:00

Well in case you haven't noticed the blog [and site] are suffering for lack of updates. Life and work have been very crazy of note and after my 16 hour days updating has not been happening as it should. I will blog every few days and yes there are reviews for the past few months coming soon. Thanks for understanding.

Iain.

Nigerians Enter The Comics Sphere

2005-02-03T14:13:00.000+02:00

It actually pisses me off a bit that the Yanks laugh at Africa so much, because if they had 11 languages to get right I rate they might be a bit off with one or two words here and there to, but anyway heres the latest Nigerian scheme for you all to chuckle over. Check it here.

Camuncoli Gets Intimate

2005-02-03T13:51:00.000+02:00

The artist on Wildstorms 'The Intimates', Giuseppe Camuncoli, takes a moment to give his rundown on the hot new title from the 'Storm. Read the story here.

Stan VS. Jack

2005-02-01T13:59:00.000+02:00

The New York Times has picked up on the fact that Stan Lee is making oodles of boodle while the deceased Jack Kirby, who was a co-creator at the very least, is getting 'Jack All' out of the deal!

"It's amazing that he walks away with all the credit and all the money for some of the creation of these characters," said Robert Katz, a nephew of Jack Kirby, the illustrator who worked with Mr. Lee on the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, the X-Men and others. "The artists who did the lion's share of the creation have walked away with absolutely nothing." Mr. Kirby died in 1994.

"I only wish that Jack Kirby had Stan Lee's lawyer," Mr. Katz added.

Shonen Jump Takes Over The World

2005-02-01T13:47:00.000+02:00

"Shueisha's manga magazine Shonen Jump maintains annual sales of about 3.2 million copies within Japan. A Swedish version with sales of about 30,000 copies was launched in October 2004. A Norwegian version will launch in March of 2005. The German version of Shonen Jump known as "BANZAI" began in 2001 and maintains an annual circulation of 140,000. Viz began publishing the American version of Shonen Jump in 2002 and has an annual circulation of 350,000 copies."
Source: manganewsservice.com

Phil Hester Rocks

2005-02-01T13:25:00.000+02:00

I am a fan of artist Phil Hesters work on Green Arrow over the last couple of years. In case you haven't heard yet he has moved off Green Arrow and onto Nightwing and will start with Aprils #107 along with his inking buddy Ande Parks. Heres a sweet interview with him on his upcoming gig.

Jim Lee & Crew In Paris

2005-01-31T14:00:00.000+02:00

As we speak the legendary Jim Lee and friends are exploding onto the Paris comics scene, ok maybe not exploding but anyway. The merry crew have been posting some sweet 'Batman in Paris' pics and other fun adventures from France. Check out the coverage here.

Joe Mad On The Loose

2005-01-28T13:32:00.000+02:00

Joe Madueira the legend penciller of the 90's has been getting up to quite a lot of comics related work once again. This time it's covers mostly but it's still great stuff nonetheless, check out his latest work on Darkstalkers here.

Top Ten Manga In Japan This Week

2005-01-28T13:16:00.000+02:00

1. 'Fruit basket 16
2. Great Detective Conan 48
3. RAVE 31
4. Golden Gouache 19
5. BECK 21
6. SAMURAI DEEPER KYO 30
7. GetBackers-Recapture Ya- 28
8. KATSU! 15
9. Empty Of Duck 5
10. D-LIVE 9

Source: manganewsservice.com

Catwoman Heads To The Wrong Award Ceremony

2005-01-28T10:28:00.000+02:00

Sci-Fi Wire reports that Catwoman is heading up the charge for the 'Worst' film of the year awards.

Catwoman, the critically assailed superhero film starring Halle Berry, received a leading seven nominations for the Golden Raspberry awards, which identify the worst films of the year, the Golden Raspberry Foundation announced. Nominations for the costly box-office flop include worst picture, worst actress for Berry and worst supporting actor and actress for co-stars Lambert Wilson and Sharon Stone.

Other science fiction, fantasy and supernatural nominees include the family film Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2, which was nominated for worst picture, Vin Diesel, who received a worst actor nod for The Chronicles of Riddick, and Arnold Schwarzenegger for worst supporting actor for his cameo role in Around the World in 80 Days. Genre films also dominated the worst remake or sequel category, which included Alien vs. Predator, Anacondas: Hunt for the Blood Orchid, Around the World in 80 Days, Exorcist 4: The Beginning and Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.

The winners of the 25th annual Golden Raspberry awards will be announced Feb. 26, one day before the Academy Awards ceremony

DC Events For 2005

2005-01-28T09:38:00.000+02:00

2004 was most definately the year for big 'Event' driven comics such as Identity Crises and Avengers Dissasembled. Recently Dan Didio of DC Comics has begun to start weaving the web of teasers for the next big 3 events for 2005 from DC.

"March sees DC Countdown #1, which promises to follow up on the events from Identity Crisis, and maybe even, if the cover is any indication, add another to the body count. Then, in April, things get rolling in a big way, with the launch of two miniseries spinning out from Countdown, The OMAC Project and Day of Vengeance, with two more miniseries promised for May"

I don't really see the need for these things and just wish more good books like Human Target would stop getting cancelled and that the big publishers would start spreading the focus even more away from the Superhero genre. If they want to focus on Superheros at least make them good comics and not just shock factor soap operas with dead people on the covers.

Click here to read about DC's Event plans for 2005.

Fantastic Four Trailer Is Up

2005-01-26T14:02:00.000+02:00

Yeah I know it's old news but still it is news. Check out the Fantastic Four movie trailer here.

Batman Is A Punk Rocker

2005-01-26T13:28:00.000+02:00

Wow who woulda thunk that my favourite punk rock band woulda got to join up with Batman. Well it seems that Green Days hit song 'Boulevard Of Broken Dreams' will be included in the new Batman Begins movie as the theme song.

"Today on television I saw Billie Joe Armstrong (Lead Singer and Lead Guitarist of Green Day) being interviewed and when asked what the band had coming up he said their song Boulevard Of Broken Dreams is going to be the theme song to Batman Begins, and they are going to record two new songs for the soundtrack."

- Curtosy of Superherohype.com

Supreme Powers That Be

2005-01-26T13:22:00.000+02:00

FINALLY!!!!!! - I swear that the Supreme Power HC has been resolicited like 10 times already, my wait is finally over. For all you art junkies and mature readers nuts go grab this one in April when it finally hits shelves...wahooo!!!!

SUPREME POWER VOL. 1 HC
Written by J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI
Pencils & Cover by GARY FRANK

This deluxe hardcover collects SUPREME POWER VOL. 1: CONTACT and SUPREME POWER VOL. 2: POWERS & PRINCIPALITIES, plus a hefty helping of DVD-style extras. In CONTACT, Babylon 5 creator and AMAZING SPIDER-MAN writer J. Michael Straczynski presents a new vision of a world about to give birth to its first generation of super heroes! Follow the origins of these new heroes and anti-heroes - from their birth through adulthood - and examine how their lives and abilities change and shape the world around them. In POWERS & PRINCIPALITIES, the god-like Hyperion discovers his whole life has actually been an elaborate government-made lie, and his reaction could mean the end of the Earth! Do the world's other super-powered beings have any chance at stopping Hyperion if the truth sends him over the edge?

Collects SUPREME POWER #1-13 - plus character designs, alternate cover treatments, the historic first appearance of the original Squadron Supreme in AVENGERS #85-86, and more!
352 PGS./Parental Advisory …$29.99
ISBN: 0-7851-1369-X

Marvel TPB Rant

2005-01-26T13:01:00.000+02:00

I always thought I was alone in a world on non-existant back issues of Marvel Trade Paperbacks... but it turns out I was wrong. Some other irate folk have been posting hate mail about the fact that Marvel never seems to have it's most essential back-volumes of it's TPB's around for anyone to read. I mean they direct all their comics towards TPB collection, but once they are done they are not available for reorder after the first printing until months and months if not years later, cmon Marvel get yer socks on.

Ilan Strasser of Fat Moose Comics in Whippany, New Jersey is feeling the pain from Marvel's out-of-stocks on trade paperbacks:

2004 ended up being a down year for Fat Moose Comics and Games. Unfortunately, we experienced just under a 10% drop in gross revenues. It is safe to say that there are several factors which contributed to this decline. But at our store, one factor stands out among the rest -- the continuous unavailability of Marvel TPB's over the course of the last year. Even the best selling TPB's have been unavailable from time to time -- just this past week I could not reorder Volume 1 of the Ultimate X-Men.

It is extremely difficult to sell TPB's from a sequentially numbered series to new readers when the earlier volumes are not available. It is unconscionable on Marvel's part to allow this situation to go on for months on end, especially when one considers that their whole editorial framework revolves around the production of monthly story arcs which are constructed specifically to be reprinted in the TPB format. I have tried unsuccessfully for months to get Vol. 1-3 of the Mark Waid Fantastic Four's and Vol. 1 & 2 of the Captain America series. These are just two of many examples I could cite.

If Marvel doesn't want to make reorders of monthly books available, fine. But Marvel has a responsibility to keep their entire tpb line in print all the time. Why? Because many, many retailers have invested significant amounts of dollars and shelf space to promote these manufactured storylines. If Marvel responds by saying that at any given time, a varying 80% of the line is available, that is not good enough, especially when some titles are unavailable for long periods of time. 100% availability 100% of the time -- nothing less is acceptable. It's a matter of corporate responsibility.

Full article available here.

Desolation Jones

2005-01-18T14:07:00.000+02:00

Warren Ellis and JH Williams are joining forces to bring us Ellis' first long-form series in ages. An intricate and interisting storyline featuring an ex MI6 agent now living in LA sounds like more Ellis goodness. Go here for more info on the upcoming series due on shelves in April 2005.

Human Target Shot Down

2005-01-18T13:47:00.000+02:00

It seems that great 'underground' comics are just getting shut down as the mainstream fails to pick up on the 'borderline' comics that don't fit into the superhero norm. This time Human Target feels the brunt of the blow as it heads for it's grave. It's a pity as it's a great great book and I highly recommend it to everyone. Do yourself a favour and go pick up the two trade paperbacks that are available,you won't be sorry. Peter Milligan the writer of HT talks all about the demise of the book here.

Best Selling Comics For December 2004

2005-01-18T13:42:00.000+02:00

The results are in for Decembers numbers on comicbook sales and heres the top 10:

240,724 - New Avengers #1
146,271 - Ultimates 2 #1
139,572 - Identity Crisis #7
134,103 - Astonishing X-Men #7
119,926 - Superman / Batman #15
115,657 - Superman / Batman #16
106,523 - Green Lantern: Rebirth #3
100,244 - Superman #212
89,952 - Uncanny X-Men #453
88,960 - Ultimate Spider-Man #70

For more info surf here.