Funnybook Babylon

Vertigo has recently announced the end of three titles: Air, Unknown Soldier, and most recently Greek Street. While comic fans have become inured to superhero cancellations — Agents of Atlas just got canned for what I believe is the nineteenth time in five years — many people feel special pain for the premature end of more personal creator-owned books like those at Vertigo. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise: the majority of Vertigo titles end within about two years, well before their creators’ projected endpoints:

I don’t wish to suggest people cannot lament their favorite underdogs: at least some of us at FBB are outspoken fans of Air and Young Liars, and while none of us cared much for Greek Street, I don’t wish to make light of its fans. But people — and I am focusing on the most prominent mourner, Rich Johnston — need to be realistic about their love of spectacularly unsuccessful projects.
Read the rest of this entry »

Funnybook Babylon has notice a trend: first issues from Vertigo are often given lukewarm or negative reviews, but once the series develops, we change our tune. It happened with Air, it happened with Young Liars (at least for some of us), and as we’ve previously panned the first issues of Greek Street (Episode 107) and Unwritten (Episode 99), we decided to give each series a second chance to impress. So reviewed today:

Unwritten v1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity by Mike Carey and Peter Gross

Greek Street v1: Blood Calls for Blood v1 by Peter Milligan and Davide Gianfelice

Did either book turn things around? Will second volumes of either book be added to the Funnybook Babylon Library? Listen to find out!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (26.7MB)

In our first podcast of 2010, FBB looks back in love, not in anger at 2009. For regular listeners, our favorite books are pretty easy to guess, but we try to throw some praise at some unsung funnybooks too.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:53 — 30.9MB)

FBB is back on a new server, hopefully everything’s migrated properly. Let us know if you experience any malfunctions.

The meat of this podcast revisits the work of G. Willow Wilson, particularly her Vertigo series Air. The “Try it For a Dollar” seventh issue drops tomorrow, with the bargain-priced first collection headed to stores next week.

We also rummage around in the Marvel/DC newsbin, and Chris formally endorses Maintaining Bohemia over at Zuda. That’s right, someone actually slogged through the Zuda interface!

Plus a Jeph Loeb Happy Hour drive-by on the subject of cannibalism!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:16 — 31.9MB)

It’s a big week for known quantities at Marvel and DC, as their respective Summer Blockbusters stretch into sweaterweather.

After last week’s Rogues’ Revenge and Legion of Three Worlds tie-ins, the fourth issue of the core Final Crisis title by Grant Morrison and JG Jones (and Carlo Pacheco, and Doug Mahnke… what up’s, Jonesy?) drops, its “gap month” extended to ten weeks. We’re also getting Submit, a one-shot by Grant Morrison and Matthew Clark. David will be stepping up with annotations later today.

Read the rest of this entry »

I figured we might try doing these again. Here are some potentially interesting books hitting the shelves tomorrow!

Read the rest of this entry »

With Pedro and Jamaal doing adult things, we brought in a ringer. Jon Bernhardt came up from Baltimore to chat about the first issue of Air, G. Willow Wilson & M.K. Perker’s new Vertigo ongoing.

Then, a surprise visitor arrived just in time for our discussion of Captain America #41 by Ed Brubaker & Steve Epting. I bet if you whisper “Captain America” three times in your bathroom mirror, Pedro will show up at your house too, looking for beer.
Read the rest of this entry »

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:02:10 — 42.8MB)