Dear Invincible

We’ve had some fun times, you and I.  I remember many years ago, I was eager to expand my reading beyond just DC stuff, and I had heard of how amazing you were.  I picked up the first volume, and it was incredibly good.  I was hooked.  I bought the next 5 volumes.  I couldn’t wait for volume 7 to come out, so I found issues 30-41 online.  From there, I was loyally buying every issue each month.  Or every couple of months.  Things got a little sketchy for a while.  But I didn’t care.  I just wanted new issues.  You were living up to your tagline of being the “best superhero book in the universe.”  But then things went wrong.

Let’s remember the good times, first.  You were at your best when showing how a teenager/young adult was trying to learn how to use his powers to become a superhero.  That was your strength.  Hell, I’ll still recommend the first part of the series to people.  It was fun to watch Mark Grayson try to get a handle on his new powers, while at the same time dealing with the difficulties those powers created in everyday life.  This is when the book was at its best.  When things were on a small, personal scale.

But you couldn’t keep things small, could you?  You just had to expand, and create your own little universe, didn’t you?  It started slowly.  There was the revelation that Mark’s father was actually an alien that was sent to Earth to scout it for invasion.  At the time, I was saddened by this, as was the intent of the story.  Mark had fought his father to protect his home planet.  It was a very emotional moment.  And it was well done.  But in hindsight, this was the beginning of the end for me, because it  introduced the Viltrumite empire.

Interesting Legal Issue

According to a report on Comic Book Resources, Tony Moore is suing Robert Kirkman over rights to The Walking Dead.  Moore claims that he was duped by Kirkman when he signed away his rights to any proceeds from a motion picture.  Read the report for more details, because I’m not really interested in the exact details of this, just like I wasn’t really interested when Neil Gaiman sued Todd McFarlane over some characters created in an issue Gaiman wrote.  What does amuse me however, is how a company like Image, which proclaims to be all about creator rights, handles something like this.  I also think that it isn’t a coincidence that this is happening right as the show is set to return from its mid-season break.  Unfortunately, only Kirkman’s lawyer has spoken regarding this matter.  Personally, I hope Kirkman says something about this issue.  Or better yet, speaks out about a similar issue involving someone else, in which he essentially takes Moore’s side in it.  I’ll keep my eye for any new developments.

Top 5: September 2010

Top 5 Quality Titles that Got Cancelled Because You Weren’t Reading Them

5. The Circle
When high-profile creators make independent titles all their own, it usually draws in readers.  Such was the case with Ed Brubaker’s Criminal, for example.  But when Brian Reed came out with The Circle, the readership just didn’t follow him.  Of course, perhaps being the writer of Ms. Marvel and Illuminati may not have garnered enough of a fanbase to pick up the Image Comics title.

Touted as a ’21st Century A-Team’, The Circle‘s lone story followed the gathering of a group of operatives that are, for various reasons, put on missions that are not exactly ‘legit’.  It was a basic formula that actually came across as exciting and enjoyable thanks to Reed’s obvious interest in his project.  Unfortunately, the book never had a chance, with sales never picking up to a point where a noticeable drop-off would doom the book.  In his end-of-issue comments, Reed asked readers to try to spread word of the book, but by the end of the first story, five issues in, it was clear that the sales would not allow the title to continue.

The Circle had potential but never had a chance to take off – and all because you didn’t read it.  I hope you’re proud of yourself.

AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead’ releases an official trailer

Actually, the trailer was shown last month at Comic Con but was only available in a bootleg version until now. All I can say about it is this: Sweet zombie Jesus! This show looks absolutely amazing. Check it out for yourself. It debuts Sunday, October 31 at 10PM EST.

Image United late – go figure

Image United was supposed to be a celebration of Image’s history.  Written by new partner Robert Kirkman and illustrated by founders Marc Silvestri, Rob Liefeld, Erik Larsen, Whilce Portacio, Todd McFarlane and Jim Valentino and featuring all of the creators’ characters, the six-issue mini series was anticipated by longtime Image fans.  But now, six months since Image United #2 hit stands with no #3 in sight, it has instead become an accurate representations as to the problems that has plagued Image for some time.

Created in 1992 by a group of Marvel artists looking for creative ownership of their characters and titles, the seven founders (the seventh being Jim Lee, now a part of DC) launched their own wave of titles to great anticipation.  Some, like McFarlane’s Spawn and Larsen’s Savage Dragon gained followings and kept going strong.  Others, like Liefeld’s Youngblood and Portacio’s Wetworks, fizzled out for one reason or another.  However, nearly all the titles became synonumous with production delays, with books just not showing up when announced or even solicited.  A shift in leadership didn’t fix the problem, but at least kept solicitations from being released before a title’s completion.  In fighting led to the resignation of Rob Liefeld and the temporary estrangement of Marc Silvestri.  Titles like Jim Lee’s WildCATS faded away after time and others, like the aforementioned Youngblood, desperately tried to gain an audience with relaunch after relaunch.

So when this title was announced – reuniting the founders (except for Lee) with their signature characters (popular or not), it was met with some skeptism from fans amidst the excitement.  After all, a 10th anniversary special uniting Larsen, McFarlane, Silvestri and Valentino, didn’t come out until 2005 – three whole years after it was solicited.  But Image United was to be different – it would be one story, written by a single writer with each artist only drawing panels featuring their characters.  That meant they would only have 1/6th of the normal art chores, of which they themselves would not have to plot.  Of course, it also meant that if one artist didn’t pull his weight, the whole book would suffer.

And thank you for that, Todd McFarlane.  Despite having a key part of the book’s plot (namely its villain), McFarlane has struggled producing his art for the title, resulting in the (thus far) half year delay, much to the chagrin of the other creators.  He’s not denying the matter, but rather saying that he warned the others of his “crazy life”.  But seriously – not even halfway through a series that you’re not even doing full art on.  What the hell, man?  I’m upset by this and I’m not even reading the book (I took one flip through it and thought the shifting art was awful).

But McFarlane has allowed Image United to continue the tradition set by its founders so long ago: sub-par comics produced by high-profile creators at a heavily-delayed pace.  That is Image Comics defined.

Meet Rick Grimes

AMC has released their first image of actor Andrew Lincoln playing protagonist Rick Grimes in the upcoming live action Walking Dead series, based on the beloved Image zombie comic.  Of course, I doubt we’ll be seeing any images of the actual zombies until much closer to the October debut.  (See edit below).  As of now, the show has been greenlit for six episodes.

Personally, I’m as cautious with this one as I am with pretty much all comic-based TV series (Lois & Clark notwithstanding).  Walking Dead is one hell of a comic to try to bring onto the small screen, and if it gets picked up for more episodes, I question how closely a cable network can stay to the overly violent comic.  Remember that this is a comic where people get offed quite frequently in overly violent means.  It also has the gruesome deaths of a number of small children.  Of course, I recall seeing episodes of Harper’s Island and questioning how bloody they could go – and that was on network television – so I suppose this will be just fine.

I expect the six episodes to cover the book’s first arc in which Rick meets up with people outside of Atlanta.  No spoilers here, my friend.  Go read the book, if you haven’t already.

EDIT: Well look at this.  Someone went and leaked a picture from the set!