Because of Labor Day, this week Friday is links day

—Hey Aquaman fans wishing there was a regular Aquaman book on the shelves (and/or DC editors trying to figure out why the last fifteen Aquaman relaunches didn’t take), this edition of Comic Book Urban Legends details the point where it all started to go horribly, horribly wrong.

Writer Peter David’s sharp veer away from the traditional orange shirt, green pants Aquaman of Superfriends might not have sat well with everyone, but it was a pretty great superhero comic while it lasted, and, as this article reveals, he fully intended to leave Aquaman where he found him, in terms of how many hands he had and everything.

I felt as confused and angry reading this as I did back in the late ‘90s, when David was replaced by Erik Larsen, and the book/s slid into perpetual reboot status.

I like he part where Kevin Dooley is alleged to have said that after “Death of Superman,” no one would be interested in that kind of story again. These days, about one-fourth of all DC stories seem to involve a character either dying or coming back from the dead.

Confidential to the Person At DC Who Decides What Gets Collected Into Trades: I’d happily buy an Atlantis Chronicles trade; I’ve been looking for a few issues of that for years now in back-issue bins…


—This has been bothering me for a while: Is “skrull” a proper noun? I’ve been capitalizing it, but I’m not sure that’s right; like, “human being” isn’t a proper noun, but maybe “earthling” is…?

Maybe Marvel should publish, like, a Daily Bugle Style Guide. It wouldn’t be much weirder than those Marvel Atlases they recently released….


—As you’ve probably already heard, Top Shelf is having a kick-ass $3 sale that you would be a fool to pass up. I highly recommend Superf*ckers #1-#4 (pretty much my Platonic ideal of a LOSH comic), That Salty Air, Yam, Black Ghost Apple Factory, The Octopi & The Ocean* and Beach Safari (topless surfer girls!). There are plenty of other great books that are available for reduced prices, too. Me, I’m gonna finally catch up on Eddie Campbell’s Bacchus. Sale’s good through next week, September 12.

PictureBox Inc. is also having a crazy tempting sale on their offerings. It began on Monday and is only good through next Monday. I haven’t read many of their books, so I can’t make as many recommendations, but you can get the really sweet Goddess of War for just $9.50, and it’s a pretty damn good read. (If you do get it, let me know how you store it, as mine is still sitting on my coffee table, mocking me with it’s unorthodox size).

Finally, TwoMorrows is having a price-slashing sale through the end of the month as well. Check it out here.


—As long as I’m doing public service announcements, local comic shop The Laughing Ogre will be hosting two pro signings over the next two months. On September 12, Jason Aaron of Scalped and recent Marvel fame will be visiting, and on Saturday, October 11, Brian Wood of DMZ, Local and every PW Beat sales analysis comments thread ever will there. So mark your calendar if you want to see what these guys look like in real life, and get your chance to ask them who’s stronger, Charles Xavier or Niles Caulder.


—Hey, guess what’s been translated into English and is now available in North America? I eagerly await reading about the first ginned up COMIC SHOP-SELLS-PORN-TO-KIDS!!! “scandal” that will inevitably arise once some concerned professional umbrage-taker realizes those aren’t their tails hanging between their legs.

I’m sure the book will do well in Rome, Georgia.


—Man, I posted about Invasion!/Secret Invasion one day too early this week, I guess.

As David Page pointed out in the comments section of that post, and everyone else in the world has posted on their blogs, DC really did seem to publish a trade collection of Invasion! just to be jerks to Marvel, as the cover reads “Secret no more!”

Bravo, DC!

Now, I think the biggest difference between the two Invasions isn’t merely that the current one has the word “Secret” in it so much as the older one has an exclamation point following it. Clearly, it’s the more exciting of the two.

So, the next Marvel crossover should have, like, three exclamation points in it. Just imagine how much more exciting World War Hulk would have been, for example, if it were actually called World War Hulk!!! or, better still, World! War! Hulk!.

I hope this kicks off an ever-escalating war of words embedded in the trade dress of all future collections from the big two. Like a Doom Patrol collection can have a starburst-shaped box on the front that says “Just like the X-Men, but with 1000% less crying!” And Marvel can publish a trade entitled Captain Marvel: At Least We Can Put His Name on the Cover, Pansies! And…Sorry. I’ll stop now.


—This short post about the Kick-Ass movie contained something that really surprised me: A mention of the script.

I guess I just don’t pay that much attention to news on comic book movies (it’s not like they’re a rarity or anything anymore), but I sort of just assumed that all of this talk of Kick-Ass: The Movie revolved around the film option and/or the development phase, with various actors and creative types being attached to an upcoming project. I didn’t realize there was a finished script already. Not only is the comic series not over yet, but it’s only like half over.

Now I’m kind of curious about the process of the book’s creation. Did Millar write it as a movie script and adapt his script into a comic? Did he write a film script and a comics script simultaneously? Has this story been done and in a folder for a few years already, and it’s just not hitting comic shelves because John Romita Jr.’s schedule opened up just recently? (That would explain why the pop culture references in the first issue seemed to stale).

Er, wait. IMDb.com credits Millar with comic book series, with director Matthew Vaughn and his Stardust co-writer Jane Goldman getting screenplay credits. So maybe Millar submitted his script to JRJR to be drawn, and Hollywood to be adapted simultaneously…? Of course, at this early point, IMDb credits aren’t as solidified as they will be closer to the actual release date

One thing I’m not terribly curious about is what’s actually going on in the book; I tried the first two issues, and it really seemed like the worst Millar work I’d ever read. Even JRJR on art couldn’t get me to keep reading it, and he’s an artist I’ll buy just about anything from.

From what I’ve read, it’s only getting worse.


—You know, if I were in charge of Countdown, I think I would have made it a year-long quarterly instead of a year-long weekly.

And I think I would have dropped all the plotlines dealing with the time-lost Legionnaires, “The Challengers of the Beyond,” the Multiverse, The Monitors, The Rogues and Mary Marvel, replacing them with Etrigan the Demon and The Sandman between Wesley Dodds and Morpheus, so that it was basically a story featuring all of Kirby’s DC characters interacting, with no distractions.

And instead of Paul Dini, five writers and thousands of artists, I would have just had Paul Pope write and draw the whole thing. Because that would have been awesome.

I mean, look at this. And this! And this! And this! Not to mention…this! And remember this?

Yes, Jack Kirby’s New Gods vs. The Demon vs. The Guardian and The Boy Commandos vs. Kamandi vs. OMAC vs. The Least Popular Guy Named Sandman and Maybe Atlas Too by Paul Pope would have been fantastic! Hell, it could still be fantastic. They might want to work on that title though…



*Did you know that the plural of “octopus” is really “octopuses” and not “octopi?” I didn’t until just last year, but it’s true, I swear. This is still a really cool comic book though.