Review: Riddle Me This! Is 'Batman '66' #1 One of the Best Digital-First Books?

Hey, a dollar is a pretty good price for a comic these days, even a digital one. It brings the price back around to disposable, impulse-buy entertainment, which appeals to me, considering my formative years as a fan were spent spinning the racks at Stop-N-Go for interesting art. It was right around this time as well that I got into the charm of live-action Batman reruns as part of an afternoon block that included The Monkees and Green Acres on a Houston UHF station.

Through some odd back-room licensing red tape, the Batman TV series hasn't really been exploited in the way that other beloved superhero television shows have (there's still no DVD release of the show). Some change was made last year when Warner Consumer Products reached an agreement with Fox (the show's rights-holder) to license the show for toys, books, and more - including a digital-first comic available through Comixology. Sometimes, when a property is trading so heavily on nostalgia, there's a lazy delivery of only what's to be expected. It's rote. The name is often enough to sell, so there's little interest in actually doing something interesting with the property.

Batman '66 #1 is nostalgia done right. It's a candy-colored book that had way, way more kinetic action than I expected, and way less cornball nods to what a modern writer might imagine as "campy." God bless Jeff Parker. This is a two-fisted, action-packed Batman book sprung from the spirit of the 1960's show, but revitalized with a real buzzing sense of caffeinated energy to every one of Jonathan Case's pop-art inspired panels. This is a dollar well-spent.

The '66 adventures are shorter by page count than a regular comic, but it still feels meaty due to the interaction with DC's new DC2 digital technology. DC2 enhances the reading experience (similar to Thrillbent's line) with panel swipes that affect the overall pacing of the story. Instead of viewing a page and all of its elements all at once, a gesture can bring dialogue to a dialogue-free panel. Another gesture across the same panel, and a new character might show up or objects in the panel might explode. Instead of Batman '66 feeling like a quick read, the tech makes it feel like a slick read.

It's light on plot (Riddler interrupts an award ceremony to loot its wealthy patrons), but so perfectly executed, from price-point to function to the use of its license, that it's a shame we haven't been reading Batman comics just like this since 1966. It's also a perfect all-ages Batman book without an ounce of kiddie condescension. It's the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder at their most idealized, most colorful, and most lovingly super-heroic, reflecting the elasticity of the character and a time when the "Batman voice" sounded less like a growl and more like Adam West.

News! Image Explodes, Dark Horse Sinks, Lion Forge Roars

Today was a massive day in publishing news, with the Image Expo in full-swing and some additional publishers jumping up and down yelling "ME TOO!" over all the applause for Walking Dead's Robert Kirkman.

First the Image stuff... 

Image announced that they'll be making their digital content available as DRM-free downloads in a variety of formats. This removes one of my biggest complaints about services like Comixology, in that you are essentially renting the books not actually owning them. Image was also forthright with what kind of numbers they're doing on the digital front, and it's nothing to sniff at. (Wired)

To kick off their new DRM-free digital policy, they've got Warren Ellis and Jason Howard's Scatterlands Vol. 1 available through the Image website for only $0.99. 

Panel detail from Scatterlands, by Warren Ellis and Jason Howard.

They also announced an all-star slate of upcoming books, with many of Marvel's biggest stars attached to upcoming projects. Here's some of the books they've announced so far: 

• Alone from J. Michael Straczynski and Bill Sienkiewicz, a six-issue mini that will "deconstruct comic book storytelling."
• Sidekick from J. Michael Straczynski and Tom Mandrake. The series explores what happens when the death of a superhero leaves a kid sidekick all alone. 
• Southern Bastards from Jason Aaron and Jason Latour. Described by Image on their Twitter as "Dukes of Hazzard x Coen Brothers or The Untouchables vs Boss Hogg."
  
• Rat Queens from Kurtis Weibe and John Upchurch. In a Tolkien-esque fantasy setting, a group of female mercs slay monsters and party as hard as they work.
• Velvet, from Ed Brubaker and Steve Epting. It's a Cold War book with a female spy lead.
• Sex Criminals from Matt Fraction and Chip Zdarsky. Two people with the ability to stop time at the point of orgasm find each other, go on a crime spree.
• Satellite Sam from Matt Fraction and Howard Chaykin. This long-gestating project explores sexual indiscretions behind the scenes on a kiddie sic-fi TV show in the 1950s. 
• Ody-C from Matt Fraction and Christian Ward, a sci-fi spin on the Greek Odyssey. 
• Infinite Horizon from Gerry Duggan and Phil Noto. It's also supposed to be a sci-fi spin on Greek myth, and time will tell how this and Ody-C are different from each other. 
• Black Science from Rick Remender and Matteo Scalera. Announced as a sequel to Fear Agent, but focusing on break-throughs in taboo "black science."
• Deadly Class from Rick Remender and Wes Craig. Remender's using his own high school experience as the basis for this story of teenage assassins. 
• Noah, from Darren Aronofsky and Niko Henrichon. This is the English-translation of the existing four-part Noah comic that ties in to Aronofsky's upcoming feature film of the same name.

You can read more about these projects in detail at Comics Alliance and The Beat. 

Meanwhile, Dark Horse has resurrected the Kitchen Sink brand for reprints and original graphic novels. The first book under the partnership will be The Best of Comix Book: When Marvel Went Underground,  reprinting Stan Lee and Denis Kitchen's stab at the burgeoning underground comics movement of the early 1970s. Bleeding Cool has some groovy exclusive images from the collection.

Last, but not least, is the news from indie publisher Lion Forge, who just signed a deal with NBC Universal to license some of their beloved TV properties for comics. The first batch of titles will include Saved by the Bell, Airwolf, Knight Rider, Punky Brewster, and Miami Vice. I have no idea if Lion Forge is going retro on all of these or if they'll get a modern spin. Who's the audience for an Airwolf comic book in the year 2013? I guess Lion Forge will find out soon.

Advance Review: 'Catalyst Comix' #1 Revives Comics' Greatest World

In the early 1990's every publisher had to have their own superhero line, because that's where all the money was. Dark Horse, till that point the acclaimed home of creator-owned fare and strong licensed books like Alien, launched "Comics' Greatest World" (CGW from here on), a series of $1 books paired into four groups of four, each spotlighting a quartet of superhero concepts in four different fictional cities. The most high profile of these titles was Barb Wire (due to the Pamela Anderson film), but a few more went on to some measure of cult success (mostly X and Ghost, both of which have been resurrected by Dark Horse within the past year).

I followed this stuff back when it came out, and even I have a hard time remembering who is who or what the hook was for certain books. Catalyst Comix #1 is like running into someone who totally recognizes you, but you can't place their face at all and it bugs you that you can't remember more. I know I read Catalyst: Agents of Change back in 1994, but I've retained almost no knowledge of these comics that I know I liked at the time. I think it was supposed to be the CGW version of the Justice League, with heavy-hitter Titan in Superman's leadership role.

This is a fresh start on the material, so there's no worry about catching up with the old stuff - I just wish I could compare and contrast a little better. Catalyst Comix is structured like an anthology, featuring three different stories about the same cataclysmic event - the arrival of an apocalyptic entity called Nibiru ("Nibiru is release! Nibiru is decay! Nibiru is extinction! Nibiru is!" reads Joe Casey's charming, intentionally overblown prose). Titan's lead-off touches upon the consequences of superhero mass destruction in a way that feels timely in the wake of Man of Steel's controversial finale. The second story is a slightly more metaphysical and hard sci-fi introduction to the space-faring character Amazing Grace. The third tale brings the Nibiru event to a street level as two more brutish, wildcard anti-heroes are called into action by a government agent. 

Cover art for Catalyst Comix #1. Dark Horse Comics.

If I was going to make comparisons (and I am!), maybe those 1994 comics are the wrong place to look anyway. Catalyst Comix #1 really reminded me more of the recent stuff coming from Rob Liefeld's reboots at Image Comics, namely Prophet and Glory.  These aren't quite underground alt-comix, but they are alt-superhero comics and they offer a viable, curious alternative to the squarely down-the-middle superhero stuff from the Big Two.

Part of this is due to the artists chosen for the stories. Dan McDaid, Paul Maybury, and Ulises Farinas work from Joe Casey's sturm-und-drang scripts with the assured craft of veteran cartoonists. All three have distinct styles that compliment each other when viewed page-to-page in the anthology format. The tie that binds is that they're all left-of-center artists - certainly not experimental or off-putting, but not working in the blandly mainstream American comics idiom. It feels to me like publishers are starting to expand their idea of what superhero books can look like (Marvel's recent Alpha: Big Time is a great recent example of this, and I can't help but think web comics may have advanced the palate of the American comic book fan. This is a subject worth further exploration away from the confines of this specific review.) Catalyst Comix #1 looks different from other books, and it deserves your attention for that.

Neither of Joe Casey's most recent projects (Image's Sex and Bounce) have tickled my fancy, which is more of a matter of personal taste than harsh criticism, but Catalyst Comix looks to be a little more in the vein of his Kirbyesque opera Godland. The bombast in Catalyst is more charming than tedious and really does flavor this book with something a little different than anything else on the rack. It's not a book as easy to get into as either of Dark Horse's other CGW reboots, the recent hyper-violent X relaunch nor the supernatural mystery Ghost. The drawback of this three-story format is that none of the individual shorts quite get the time they need to really hook you. It's missing a bit of editorial clarity in that way - tell me why this book should exist and why I should care, outside of it being just another brand revitalization. They could be doing something much more memorable with these characters this time around than they did in 1994, and my hope for Casey and company is that the potential in Catalyst Comix #1 to forge a new off-kilter superhero universe is fully realized as the series progresses.

Review: 'Godzilla: Rulers of the Earth' #1 Kicks-Off New Ongoing Series

I've been quietly curious about IDW's Godzilla monthlies for a while now. I would say I'm a casual G-fan - I can name about 90% of the Toho monsters on sight, but I can't identify Godzilla by the periods identifiable in his many costume changes. I know more about Godzilla than some, but considerably less than the hardcore fans.  It's just something to consider as I give my two-cents on IDW's latest, Godzilla: Rulers of the Earth. I'm no expert here, but I like fun comics and I like Godzilla. This first issue seems to land right in the middle of that Venn diagram.

Variant cover for Godzilla: Rulers of the Earth #1, art by Art Adams. IDW Publishing.

Artist Matt Frank's cartoony figure work shares a similarity with Todd Nauck, but you don't buy a Godzilla book for Hogarth-level renderings of the human form - you buy it for the big monsters, and that's where Frank really shines. His kaiju are big and mean and have a life to them that draws the reader's attention. We need the humans to propel the story, but every page without a monster is practically begging to be turned as quickly as possible.

Most of the action here centers around a conference in Hawaii, with scientists trying to make sense of the recent influx of "megazoological" findings. Some of the big guns are off the map (Mothra, Rodan), while others, notably Gigan and giant spider Kumonga, are still tearing things up without interference from modern military forces. Of course Godzilla is in here as well, and he squares off against a monster I really didn't expect to see in one of these comics.

More faithful than Marvel's late 1970s attempt at Godzilla comics and more sci-fi fun than Dark Horse's Godzilla from the 90s, writer Chris Mowry and Frank are making the best of the license. Rulers of the Earth is supposed to be ongoing, and there's a level of untapped potential in long-form serialized Godzilla stories. The creative team has enough time on their hands to make the human characters worthwhile, yet it's the biggest challenge ahead of them because few are buying these books for interpersonal character drama. They already have the monster-smashing down - is it asking too much for more? Maybe so. This is Godzilla: Rulers of the Earth after all, not Random Scientists: Watchers of the Rulers of the Earth. Who needs people, anyway?

Podcasts: "Unraveling Craziness" on 5by5's Giant Size

We're several months into the Marvel NOW initiative and host Moises Chiullan, along with myself and Need founder Matt Alexander, have a prolonged discussion on the success stories from Marvel's big push - which titles have kept us hooked and which titles might be overlooked. We talked so much in fact, Moises had to cut the episode in half, so look for part two very soon as well.

In the second part of the show, Moises sits down with prolific artist Phil Noto (X-Men, Danger Girl) to talk about his work, past and present.

You can listen to the podcast here or subscribe via iTunes. 

NSFW Art Routinely Gets Frank Cho Banned from Facebook, God Bless 'Im

Savage Wolverine and Liberty Meadows artist Frank Cho has had his account temporarily (?) suspended from Facebook yet again for what the social network perceives as an affront to human decency. Or something. (Psst, Frank - it's the boobs.)

The drawing is intended for a "Jungle Queen" themed sketchbook titled Jungle Beauty which Cho promises to have for sale at his table at the San Diego International Comic-Con. Cho blames "religious zealots and ass-hats" for his latest kerfluffle with Facebook. His previous ban was on or around May 16, 2013, which was either for this drawing of a topless Jungle Queen being bounced by a triceratops or this cheeky Coppertone-esque cartoon.

(Brought to our attention by Bleeding Cool.)