Funnybook Babylon

<img class="aligncenter" src="http://funnybookbabylon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/hulkchartfinal-small.jpg" alt="hulkchartfina As I mentioned last week, I’ve been doing some research about Marvel’s recent headlong dive into doubleshipping many of their titles. As has been discussed elsewhere, the accelerated scheduling is most often noticed when it derails a book someone is enjoying with an inconsistent revolving door of creators. But if you’re […]

Marvel released their October 2012 solicitations earlier this week, with numerous mysterious gaps that will presumably be filled in this weekend at the San Diego Comic-Con. In the meanwhile, here are nine things about the information they did release that I apparently found interesting enough to blog about! These mostly boil down to complaints, but […]

The first trailer for Dredd. For the uninitiated, Dredd is an adaptation of the famous British comics property created by John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra (and serialized in 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine) about a police state in a post-apocalyptic world. In this world, the varied actors/stakeholders in the criminal justice system have […]

So apparently “Ends of the Earth” wrapped up in Amazing Spider-Man today, a big story about Doctor Octopus wanting to murder seven billion people so that everyone will remember him after his death as History’s Greatest Monster: “a mass murderer worse than Hitler, Pol Pot, and Genghis Khan combined!” He actually says this. Never mind […]

I loved everything about the first few issues of Azzarello and Chiang’s Wonder Woman. When Chiang was briefly rotated off the title, my love dimmed, even though Akins is a more than capable artist. Chiang returned to the series for the seventh issue, but I fear that it’s too late. My love has faded.

I. Everybody Talking About Changing the World, the World Ain’t Never Gonna Change In the summer of 2011, I came up with a plan. I would collaborate with Chris Eckert on a post previewing DC’s relaunch of its line of superhero comics, and write a series of brief posts in subsequent months that would discuss […]

Looks like Brothers mopped up the whole odious “moral high ground” statement from today’s Before Watchmen panel, so let me offer some free advice to DC Marketing and its attendant promotional arms at various big comic blogs. Look, I’m not a fancy marketing whiz. I’ve never worked at an ad agency or anything. But I […]

Last time I probably spent too much time rebutting Colin Smith’s review of The Ultimates and extrapolations about its creators and publisher made from a single comic book. I said people needed to look at things in context. I want to make something clear: no one can tell anyone else what to be offended by. […]

This is going to be a quick one. I’ve been thinking about canon, alternate takes on Marvel/DC properties, cultural ownership and the artificial rules of storytelling in fictional storytelling over the last couple of days. I’m still working through some ideas on the latter two, but I want to spend a little time on the […]

“Writers don’t do stories specifically to piss off fans. Writers write stories about which they feel passionate and invested. As a reader, you’re entitled to one thing and one thing only: a reading experience in exchange for your purchase. And if you like that reading experience, the expectation is that you’ll come back for more. […]

Iron Man 2.0 #6 came out this week, the second part of the book’s tie-in to Fear Itself. And by tying into Fear Itself, I mean that Nick Spencer really wanted to write an Iron Fist/Immortal Weapons series, and I guess all of the editors were so busy coordinating a summer crossover that he snuck […]

It’s Thursday morning and DC is still parceling out its Big Relaunch News, with 48 of 52 books officially announced. I’ve been keeping track of them in a Google Spreadsheet! The only books left unannounced as those in the Superman Family, which is obviously being saved for tomorrow. Given their weird press junket (USA Today, […]

DC has been issuing press releases left and right lately, hyping up their Big Overhaul in September. I’m sure their press department is working like mad, but some really goofy things have slipped out as a result. For instance! On the subject of the oft-delayed Batwoman #1: It’s very important in several different ways […] […]

Comic Book Hippies were really getting it from all sides, weren’t they?

I’ve been in hardcore research mode for some upcoming BHM posts, and wanted to share this panel I came across. It illustrates an overlooked cost of corporate monoculture: modern labor protesters have only giant inflatable rats to rent. What happened to the Peace Missiles?