What’s SHOOT THE MESSENGER?
Well, AICN COMICS: SHOOT THE MESSENGER is your weekly one stop shop for comic book -EWS. What’s comic book –EWS? Well, it’s our hodge podge of everything not reviews here at AICN Comics. Sure you can find out the @$$Holes’ critical opinions of your favorite books every Wednesday at AICN Comics. But here, you’ll find special reports such as previews, interviews, special features, and occasionally news gathered here from our online brethren at Newsarama, CBR, Wizard, etc. Sure those guys are the best at reporting news as it breaks. Click on the links for the original stories. This column cuts the crap to run down all the vital information for those of you who don’t follow it as it comes in, and serves it all up with that special ingredient of @$$y goodness.
First up is a pair of @$$HOLES ABROAD reports from this year’s Wizard World Philly. Yep, occasionally the @$Holes pry themselves from their computers, put on some pants and venture out into the real world. This being the start of Con season, expect many a report from @$$holes scattered about the globe!
First is Part One of Optimous Douche’s visit to Wizard World Philly. Check it out below!
Wizard World Philly 2009
City of Brotherly Love Gives Indies Some Love
Part I
Despite needing an ark to traverse the perpetual floodwaters that have been plaguing the Eastern half of Pennsylvania since April, thousands traveled through the downpours to convene on the Pennsylvania Convention Center for this year’s Wizard World. Despite the horrid conditions I once again left the rural landscape of Douche Manor to traverse the twenty mile trek to center city, drawn by the allure of ½ off trades, some creator face time, and to see the Philadelphia Jedi Council once again hone their light saber skills and powers of concentration as hecklers scream “nerds!” Hypocritical to be sure, but amusing nonetheless.
I’m going to have to break the whole event into two parts because my word count will offend Schleppy’s delicate sensibilities. So if you want to hear about the real underground guys that occupy the strewn together lunch tables in the back of the Convention Center come back next week; I’ll also be talking about the fate of the multiverse at DC and how I was told from Dan Didio himself that we are getting more content for the $2.99 to $3.99 price shift, I just don’t know how to count pages. He might be right--I use my fingers for simple arithmetic.
What I want to talk about for part one is the Big Indies because there was a clear shift in BIG BOOTH LAND this year. The fact that the first three booths I was greeted by were Dynamite, a figurine manufacturer (forgive me – I know Wizard likes figurines, but I don’t) and Aspen is a real turning of tables. For the first time there was neither sight nor sound of Marvel or DC on the convention center floor. Whether it’s the fact they had to slash budget on free schwag or they just don’t want to talk to us, it sends a bit of a message.
Being a slack jawed zombie, I walked to the first comic booth in my sights, which was Dynamite. I had a few minutes to sit down and talk with BOOSTER GOLD and FREDDY vs. JASON vs. ASH scribe Jeff Katz about his new comic inspired IP machine American-Original. Sadly, any talk about titles I had to keep off the record. Google Jeff Katz American Original for more about the business end – I don’t need to rewrite it. What little I can say is that some cool stuff is coming and it will be damn hard to find a cape in the lineup. I was pushed away from my conversation with Katz by the flood of Chaykin and Ennis fans looking to get their books defaced.
The flood landed in me at Arcana, which was pretty much a Michael Turner mausoleum. Yeah…sorry, got nothing to add.
Next to Dynamite and in front of Arcana was the porn deifying Terminal Press. They took all of the pronstars that were on my Dad’s VHS tapes in the 80s and made them ass-kicking, zombie fighting respectable members of super person society. If all goes right, and they didn’t toss away my cheap ghetto Staples-made business cards with my e-mail address, I should be receiving a .pdf of TELL THEM JOHNNY WADD IS HERE to review shortly. Why did I ask for WADD over DEBBIE or DEEP THROAT? 70s porno rule #1: the male driven pieces gave you more women to look at. You’re welcome, kids.
While on the T&A theme, Zenoscope had the friendliest booth at the show. Yes, the costumed hostesses are as they say niiiiice on the eyes, but even the folks in khakis and polos doing the hard work of actually hocking the wares are just nice, engaged people that are genuinely happy you stopped at the booth. I give a huge amount of credit to Raven Gregory, WONDERLAND scribe and ringleader of the whole event; his positive energy fuels the space. I’m not trying to sell Zenoscope here, I have actually never read one of their titles, and I’ll be honest, it wasn’t just the warm fuzzy experience that wants me to now give WONDERLAND a shot. What truly has me intrigued is the amount of women that seemed to be gravitating to this booth and the Zenoscope titles. My impression had always been that only guys would pick up books with the heroines so blatantly naughty in their appearance (yes, I know I’m a comic puritan, bear with me, I’m trying to grow). I’m intrigued to peek under the hood to see how Zenoscope was able to crack the age old comic cryptogram the Vagina Code.
Right beside Zenoscope was Avatar. Ellis ‘s steam punk sepia titles adorned most of the booth making it an interesting juxtaposition of calm against the color extravaganza that is everyone else. Good job in differentiation, guys.
This was it really from the big indies area. Find out the fate of the multiverse at DC and discover why Drive-Ins are cool again in Part II.
When Optimous Douche isn’t reading comics and misspelling the names of 80’s icons, he “transforms” into a corporate communications guru. "What if the whole world had superpowers? Find out in the pages of Optimous’ original book AVERAGE JOE. Read the first full issue on Optimous’ New Blog and see original sketches by fellow @$$hole Bottleimp. If you are a publisher or can help these guys get AVERAGE JOE up, up, and on the shelves in any way, drop Optimous a line."
And now, for our second report. This time we get one kid’s perspective of the con from, who else, Liam the Kid! Take it away, Liam!
WIZARD WORLD PHILLY 2009
One Kid’s Perspective
Note: ‘The Kid’ is 8 years old and has been doing reviews on his own site since August of 2008. And you can now follow the kid’s daily ‘adventures’ on Twitter.
We weren’t planning on going to the Philadelphia Comic Con but dad found out that he had to head down there for some work stuff so he asked us all to go. Me, Ethan, my mom and baby brother went down with dad on Saturday. Everyone except for dad was wearing different colored Lantern shirts, too. It’s a lot smaller than the New York Comic Convention but we still had a really good time.
We walked about the convention looking for toys and comic creators and stuff like that. Ethan liked getting his picture taken with people in costumes. He liked the Batman characters the best, like Joker, Harley and Two Face. There was a cool face painting area and Ethan and I got our faces painted. He got one like movie Joker and it looked really good. I had my face painted like Deadpool. The lady did a really good job of making my face look like Deadpool’s mask but it started to itch after awhile so I washed it off before we left.
I would have liked to have a table and get to do drawings with Ethan and talk to a lot more people like we did at the New York Convention but there we didn’t know that we’d be going so we weren’t able to. We did meet a lot of people who knew us. I got to see Dan Slott again, who writes AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. He is so nice and funny. He showed me and Ethan some secret pages of one of his comics but we’re not allowed to talk about it because the comic doesn’t come out for awhile. It looks so awesome, though. Dan liked our Deadpool and Joker faces a lot and we got some pictures with him that we’ll put up on the site later.
We got a lot of cool art and sketches. Bryan Brown does a comic about how he tried to do Mixed Martial Arts and he was good to talk to. Ethan asked him to do a Ghostbusters sketch and he drew Ethan as a Ghostbuster shooting Slimer that was really funny. One person we always run into at comic conventions is Antonio Clark. This is the third comic con that we saw him at and he remembered me and Ethan. He’s a cool guy and he always draws whatever we want. This year I asked for Deadpool and Ethan wanted Blade. I also got a very cool Deadpool print that is done in a cartoony style. It looks like how Deadpool would look if he was in Tiny Titans.
One of the best parts was meeting Franco who does the TINY TITANS comic. We told him that we love Tiny Titans and do reviews of it and he was like, ‘I know who you guys are. Thanks for saying nice things about my comic’. Then he did a really cool Robin sketch for Ethan and signed some TINY TITANS and WOLF BOY comics. He was really friendly and I like meeting people who work on comics and like our reviews.
Everyone had a really good time at the convention. Even our baby brother was happy when a guy dressed up as a Stormtrooper came up to him and started playing peek-a-boo. He loved that and was laughing a lot. It would have been nicer to sit at a table and do stuff like last time but we still got to get a lot of cool sketches, comics and toys. The Philly con is a lot smaller than the New York one and a lot of the bigger companies didn’t have booths or anything like that so you had to go to the panels to see creators but I was still able to talk to a lot of the people I wanted to see.
Stack of Dimes talks with the creators of ROTTEN!
The guys over at Stack of Dimes had a chance to sit down and chat with the creators of ROTTEN, a damn fine zombie Western comic that recently released its number one issue. Check out the video interview here and thanks, Stack of Dimes, for providing us with the link.
”You’re telling me you made a time machine…out of a spinner rack!?!?!?”
That’s right, Marty. Using space age technology, we’re able to gaze TWO DAYS into the future at some of the cooler comics being released this week. I’m Ambush Bug. These are Spinner Rack previews. Check them out.
First up is a super secret special preview of the upcoming series from Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber called UNDERGROUND from Image Comics. It won’t be out till September (comes out the same week as the WHITEOUT movie coincidentally), but Mr. Lieber was kind enough to pass along an advance peek. Check out the preview to UNDERGROUND below.
UNDERGROUND #1
By Jeff Parker & Steve Lieber
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: September!
This looks really cool. Anything from Parker immediately gets my attention and Lieber’s work is beyond amazing. It’s available in July’s Previews. Can’t wait read this one when UNDERGROUND #1 is released in September. Thanks, Mr. Lieber, for the advance peek!
DARK REIGN: DARK WOLVERINE #1
Writer: Daniel Way & Marjorie Liu
Art: Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils), Onofrio Catacchio (inks)
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Release Date: This Wednesday!
Darkly check out DARK WOLVERINE #1 this Wednesday, but only if it’s dark!
LILLIM #4
Writer: Shaun Lapacek & Ian Keiser
Art: Matrix
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: This Wednesday!
Check out LILLIM #4 this Wednesday!
BERSERKER #1
Witer: Rick Loverd
Art: Jeremy Haun
Publisher: Top Cow
Release Date: This Wednesday!
My love for you is like a truck!
BERSERKER!
Would you like some making—ok! Get BERSERKER #1 on Wednesday!
DEAN KOONTZ’S NEVERMORE #2
Witer: Keith Champagne & Dean Koontz
Art: Andy Smith
Publisher: The Dabel Brothers
Release Date: This Wednesday!
Get more NEVERMORE #2 this Wednesday!
ASTONISHING X-MEN #30
Writer: Warren Ellis
Art: Simona Bianchi & Andrea Silvestri
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Release Date: This Wednesday!
Check out ASTONISHING X-MEN this Wednesday!
FUSION #2
Writer: Dan ABnett & Andy Lanning
Art: Tyler Kirkham
Publisher: Top Cow
Release Date: This Wednesday!
FUSION #2 explodes on Wednesday from Top Cow.
PROOF #21
Writer: Alex Grecian
Art: Riley Rossmo
Publisher: Image Comics
Release Date: This Wendesday!
Find PROOF #21 on the shelves this Wednesday!
DAREDEVIL #119
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Art: Michael Lark & Stefano Gaudiano
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Release Date: This Wednesday!
I feel like I haven’t read a DAREDEVIL comic in a while. Can’ wait till Wednesday to check out issue #119!
Andrew Goletz talks THE CLONE SAGA &
THE LIFE OF REILLY
I’m sure a lot of you must have heard the big news out of Marvel this week concerning this huge storyline coming out this fall that’s getting all kinds of attention.
I’m referring, of course, to SPIDER-MAN: THE CLONE SAGA, a six issue mini series written by two of the original CLONE SAGA scribes, Howard Mackie and Tom DeFalco and illustrated by Todd Nauck.
The solicit reads as follows:
You’ve been asking for it…and now it’s here: THE CLONE SAGA!!! Marvel’s most controversial event of all time returns with a vengeance, presenting THE CLONE SAGA as it was originally intended to be told! From the minds behind the crossover that changed comics forever and the artist that introduced Spider-Man to President Obama, it’s six issues of twists and turns that will shock fans old and new alike! Be here as Peter Parker’s worst nightmare begins again…now with an ending you have to see to believe!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
Now this post isn’t just the ramblings of some typical fanboy lunatic. I’m the rabid fanboy lunatic that’s been hoping for this day since the end of the original CLONE SAGA. Originally conceived of as a sort of gag, I teamed up with former Marvel editor Glenn Greenberg for a 35 part online column called THE LIFE OF REILLY, which took a look at that controversy from both an outsider fan’s perspective and from within. Readers know what happened in the comics but here they were now learning why things happened and why certain decisions were made. To our shock it became a hit and people still refer to the column whenever they talk about Ben Reilly or the CLONE SAGA. The French website which leaked the advance solicit even included some links to the column.
A couple years back I started working on a book version of THE LIFE OF REILLY, which would examine the whole thing even further. We unfortunately missed out the first time around in getting commentary from many other CLONE SAGA writers and artists, but over these past two years I’ve been able to speak to virtually everyone who had something to do with the book; over twenty different comic professionals in all. The final result, I hope, will be a once in a lifetime look behind the curtain of a major comic book storyline in complete detail with all the major players having had a chance to say their peace on the matter once and for all.
Howard Mackie was one of the last people I interviewed for the book, back in March of this year. His perspective was sorely missed that first time out and it was a pleasure to talk to him finally. One of the interesting pieces of information he shared was that he still had the notes to the original version of the CLONE ‘Story’ as it was originally intended, the entire 3 month (that’s right, month) event. It appears now that Howard and Tom will be able to tell their story finally free of interference and I can’t wait.
Whether this new CLONE SAGA retelling is an updated reboot, a new take on the story retrofitted to match the new post-ONE MORE DAY continuity or just a six issue long ‘What If’ remains to be seen. Recently, Spider-Man writer Marc Guggenheim revealed that a villain from Ben Reilly’s past will return to haunt Peter Parker in this year’s AMAZING SPIDER-MAN annual and a new storyline set to begin in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN will be called ‘Who is Ben Reilly?’. With the new CLONE SAGA also set to begin this fall, it will indeed be a good time for Ben Reilly and CLONE SAGA fans.
Editing, compiling, imaging, coding, logos & cat-wrangling by Ambush Bug
Proofs, co-edits & common sense provided by Sleazy G
Ad by Prof. Challenger
We weren’t planning on going to the Philadelphia Comic Con but dad found out that he had to head down there for some work stuff so he asked us all to go. Me, Ethan, my mom and baby brother went down with dad on Saturday. Everyone except for dad was wearing different colored Lantern shirts, too. It’s a lot smaller than the New York Comic Convention but we still had a really good time.
We walked about the convention looking for toys and comic creators and stuff like that. Ethan liked getting his picture taken with people in costumes. He liked the Batman characters the best, like Joker, Harley and Two Face. There was a cool face painting area and Ethan and I got our faces painted. He got one like movie Joker and it looked really good. I had my face painted like Deadpool. The lady did a really good job of making my face look like Deadpool’s mask but it started to itch after awhile so I washed it off before we left.
I would have liked to have a table and get to do drawings with Ethan and talk to a lot more people like we did at the New York Convention but there we didn’t know that we’d be going so we weren’t able to. We did meet a lot of people who knew us. I got to see Dan Slott again, who writes AMAZING SPIDER-MAN. He is so nice and funny. He showed me and Ethan some secret pages of one of his comics but we’re not allowed to talk about it because the comic doesn’t come out for awhile. It looks so awesome, though. Dan liked our Deadpool and Joker faces a lot and we got some pictures with him that we’ll put up on the site later.We got a lot of cool art and sketches. Bryan Brown does a comic about how he tried to do Mixed Martial Arts and he was good to talk to. Ethan asked him to do a Ghostbusters sketch and he drew Ethan as a Ghostbuster shooting Slimer that was really funny. One person we always run into at comic conventions is Antonio Clark. This is the third comic con that we saw him at and he remembered me and Ethan. He’s a cool guy and he always draws whatever we want. This year I asked for Deadpool and Ethan wanted Blade. I also got a very cool Deadpool print that is done in a cartoony style. It looks like how Deadpool would look if he was in Tiny Titans.
One of the best parts was meeting Franco who does the TINY TITANS comic. We told him that we love Tiny Titans and do reviews of it and he was like, ‘I know who you guys are. Thanks for saying nice things about my comic’. Then he did a really cool Robin sketch for Ethan and signed some TINY TITANS and WOLF BOY comics. He was really friendly and I like meeting people who work on comics and like our reviews.
Everyone had a really good time at the convention. Even our baby brother was happy when a guy dressed up as a Stormtrooper came up to him and started playing peek-a-boo. He loved that and was laughing a lot. It would have been nicer to sit at a table and do stuff like last time but we still got to get a lot of cool sketches, comics and toys. The Philly con is a lot smaller than the New York one and a lot of the bigger companies didn’t have booths or anything like that so you had to go to the panels to see creators but I was still able to talk to a lot of the people I wanted to see.
Stack of Dimes talks with the creators of ROTTEN!
The guys over at Stack of Dimes had a chance to sit down and chat with the creators of ROTTEN, a damn fine zombie Western comic that recently released its number one issue. Check out the video interview here and thanks, Stack of Dimes, for providing us with the link.
”You’re telling me you made a time machine…out of a spinner rack!?!?!?”
That’s right, Marty. Using space age technology, we’re able to gaze TWO DAYS into the future at some of the cooler comics being released this week. I’m Ambush Bug. These are Spinner Rack previews. Check them out.
First up is a super secret special preview of the upcoming series from Jeff Parker and Steve Lieber called UNDERGROUND from Image Comics. It won’t be out till September (comes out the same week as the WHITEOUT movie coincidentally), but Mr. Lieber was kind enough to pass along an advance peek. Check out the preview to UNDERGROUND below.
UNDERGROUND #1 By Jeff Parker & Steve Lieber Publisher: Image Comics Release Date: September!
This looks really cool. Anything from Parker immediately gets my attention and Lieber’s work is beyond amazing. It’s available in July’s Previews. Can’t wait read this one when UNDERGROUND #1 is released in September. Thanks, Mr. Lieber, for the advance peek!
DARK REIGN: DARK WOLVERINE #1 Writer: Daniel Way & Marjorie Liu Art: Giuseppe Camuncoli (pencils), Onofrio Catacchio (inks) Publisher: Marvel Comics Release Date: This Wednesday!
Darkly check out DARK WOLVERINE #1 this Wednesday, but only if it’s dark!
LILLIM #4 Writer: Shaun Lapacek & Ian Keiser Art: Matrix Publisher: Image Comics Release Date: This Wednesday!
Check out LILLIM #4 this Wednesday!
BERSERKER #1 Witer: Rick Loverd Art: Jeremy Haun Publisher: Top Cow Release Date: This Wednesday!
My love for you is like a truck! BERSERKER! Would you like some making—ok! Get BERSERKER #1 on Wednesday!
DEAN KOONTZ’S NEVERMORE #2 Witer: Keith Champagne & Dean Koontz Art: Andy Smith Publisher: The Dabel Brothers Release Date: This Wednesday!
Get more NEVERMORE #2 this Wednesday!
ASTONISHING X-MEN #30 Writer: Warren Ellis Art: Simona Bianchi & Andrea Silvestri Publisher: Marvel Comics Release Date: This Wednesday!
Check out ASTONISHING X-MEN this Wednesday!
FUSION #2 Writer: Dan ABnett & Andy Lanning Art: Tyler Kirkham Publisher: Top Cow Release Date: This Wednesday!
FUSION #2 explodes on Wednesday from Top Cow.
PROOF #21 Writer: Alex Grecian Art: Riley Rossmo Publisher: Image Comics Release Date: This Wendesday!
Find PROOF #21 on the shelves this Wednesday!
DAREDEVIL #119 Writer: Ed Brubaker Art: Michael Lark & Stefano Gaudiano Publisher: Marvel Comics Release Date: This Wednesday!
I feel like I haven’t read a DAREDEVIL comic in a while. Can’ wait till Wednesday to check out issue #119!
Andrew Goletz talks THE CLONE SAGA &
THE LIFE OF REILLY
I’m sure a lot of you must have heard the big news out of Marvel this week concerning this huge storyline coming out this fall that’s getting all kinds of attention.I’m referring, of course, to SPIDER-MAN: THE CLONE SAGA, a six issue mini series written by two of the original CLONE SAGA scribes, Howard Mackie and Tom DeFalco and illustrated by Todd Nauck.
The solicit reads as follows:
You’ve been asking for it…and now it’s here: THE CLONE SAGA!!! Marvel’s most controversial event of all time returns with a vengeance, presenting THE CLONE SAGA as it was originally intended to be told! From the minds behind the crossover that changed comics forever and the artist that introduced Spider-Man to President Obama, it’s six issues of twists and turns that will shock fans old and new alike! Be here as Peter Parker’s worst nightmare begins again…now with an ending you have to see to believe!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99Now this post isn’t just the ramblings of some typical fanboy lunatic. I’m the rabid fanboy lunatic that’s been hoping for this day since the end of the original CLONE SAGA. Originally conceived of as a sort of gag, I teamed up with former Marvel editor Glenn Greenberg for a 35 part online column called THE LIFE OF REILLY, which took a look at that controversy from both an outsider fan’s perspective and from within. Readers know what happened in the comics but here they were now learning why things happened and why certain decisions were made. To our shock it became a hit and people still refer to the column whenever they talk about Ben Reilly or the CLONE SAGA. The French website which leaked the advance solicit even included some links to the column.
A couple years back I started working on a book version of THE LIFE OF REILLY, which would examine the whole thing even further. We unfortunately missed out the first time around in getting commentary from many other CLONE SAGA writers and artists, but over these past two years I’ve been able to speak to virtually everyone who had something to do with the book; over twenty different comic professionals in all. The final result, I hope, will be a once in a lifetime look behind the curtain of a major comic book storyline in complete detail with all the major players having had a chance to say their peace on the matter once and for all.Howard Mackie was one of the last people I interviewed for the book, back in March of this year. His perspective was sorely missed that first time out and it was a pleasure to talk to him finally. One of the interesting pieces of information he shared was that he still had the notes to the original version of the CLONE ‘Story’ as it was originally intended, the entire 3 month (that’s right, month) event. It appears now that Howard and Tom will be able to tell their story finally free of interference and I can’t wait.Whether this new CLONE SAGA retelling is an updated reboot, a new take on the story retrofitted to match the new post-ONE MORE DAY continuity or just a six issue long ‘What If’ remains to be seen. Recently, Spider-Man writer Marc Guggenheim revealed that a villain from Ben Reilly’s past will return to haunt Peter Parker in this year’s AMAZING SPIDER-MAN annual and a new storyline set to begin in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN will be called ‘Who is Ben Reilly?’. With the new CLONE SAGA also set to begin this fall, it will indeed be a good time for Ben Reilly and CLONE SAGA fans.
