Batman Theme-Hayride
I am Not Batman-Mogwai
What about Batman?-McGowan Family Band
Batman Jam-Ratdog

LOTDK was a DC comic that ran for fifteen years and over a hundred issues, featuring canon Batman stories by top line creators like Grant Morrison and Klaus Janson (who teamed up on “Gothic”), Mike Barr, Howard Chaykin, Gil Kane, Abnett and Lanning, JM DeMatteis, James Robinson, Mark Millar, Denny O’Neil,  and many others.  In fact, it was in the pages of LOTDK that Doug Moench wrote the story “Venom,” which later was used by Chuck Dixon as the way Bane gets his superhuman strength.  It’s widely celebrated by comic fans, and I would recommend you get copies of the entire run (they’re usually reprinted just under the story arc name, not as “LOTDK Vol. 1,” so they can be difficult to identify).

DC Digital has brought the series back as an online exclusive, with some pretty hot names attached.  The full list follows, after the break, along with my top 10 favorite LOTDK stories from the print volumes….

Read more…

Time for my semi-regular report on the comings and goings of comic book creations.

First, the item you NEED to see before I hit the break is the all-new Marvel webtoon, “All Winners Squad,” which features esoteric Marvel characters—particularly those created by the mad-genius and comic book intellectual Steve Gerber, who was sort of a Grant Morrison for the 1970s and ‘80s.

The team consists of Gerber’s Howard the Duck, along with Squirrel Girl, Hypno Hustler, Ruby Tuesday, Frog Man, the Walrus, the Unicorn, the Trapster and Mr. Fish.  Don’t know who some/all of them are?  Well, I didn’t either.

Now hit the break for more news about two (more) comic book legends leaving Marvel/DC (when will the big two do something to stop the bleeding?!?), lots of other departures/arrivals, and more!
Read more…

Robin is such a show off.

I missed posting news two weeks ago, (I was sick!) and then SDCC came along…So, like I do each year, I’m trolling the ‘net and looking for the most interesting (to me) news to come out of Comicon (or elsewhere), and providing it in three installments, chockablock with stuff you may have missed or stuff you may have read before, but bears repeating.

Today: DC.  Hit the break!
Read more…

Is there any news other than Marvel Now!?

Yes!  Hit the break for news about Batman, the Marvel Zombies, and more!

Read more…

DC’s reboot of its entire publishing line, “The new 52,” was an event of unparalleled scope and success that encompassed television advertisements, major coverage in mainstream media, and led to dramatic boosts in sales.  And everyone rose on that tide, with overall comic book buying increasing for the first time in years.  It’s been just eight months, though, and already DC’s sales are starting to settle to pre-new 52 levels.

Guess that means it’s time for an event.

DC’s perennial best sellers are always Batbooks.  Batman.  Detective.  Batman: The Dark Knight.  Even the countless spin-offs (Nightwing, various mini series with “Gotham” in the title, all the different shapes and colors of Robins, etc.) do better than your average DC title.  So why make your first event a Bat-Event, which crosses over existing titles without generating anything new?

Simple: It’s got a built-in fanbase.

Except that it doesn’t.

I buy one Batbook: Batman.  And that’s because of Scott Snyder.  Any Batman written by Snyder (or Grant Morrison) will get my money.  Any other Batman book probably won’t.

A few words about Batman: I dig it.  Yes, it’s not all that dissimilar from what Grant Morrison did (and did better) by tearing Batman down so that he can be reborn.  Yes, it’s dark and a little too drawn out.  But the artwork is tremendous and the idea that there has been, for centuries, a master organization that controlled Gotham and was basically prepping to fight Batman is a solid one.  Everyone, especially Bruce Wayne, loves a good conspiracy.  But I find the extended Bat-universe to be largely uninteresting, watered down versions of Batman.  (And frankly, of the hundreds of Batman titles, arcs and stories I’ve read, I can probably count the really great ones on ten fingers.)  In other words: I want my Batman pure, unadulterated by all the other titles that rely on his name to sell books.

Say what you want about Marvel crossing its events over into so many different titles, but you can’t also say that their big stories aren’t self contained.  AvX, Shadowland, Siege…All of them, you can read and (easily) understand by buying only one comic: The one titled as the event.  The crossovers and spinoffs added to the enjoyment (I admit it’s strange to use the word “enjoyment” in reference to Shadowland), but were nonessential.

My hope is that I won’t have to read any of the other titles to keep up with Batman.  It’s easily my favorite new 52 book, and it’s one of the few that I think held its quality during the transition—despite how it completely muddied the continuity of the character and all the side characters.  I still think Snyder’s pre-52 work was better, but I look forward most to reading Batman of all the DC books on my pull list.

And spinning out of the Night of the Owls event will come DC’s “Issue #0” event, which essentially attempts to reboot the new 52: Every (surviving) new 52 title gets a #0, and every #0 will explain what happened before the events in #1.

Frankly, it all feels a little desperate.

Superman, by http://frankespinosanuevomundi.blogspot.ca/

Chicago’s Comicon brought with it tons of news that you’ve probably heard elsewhere first, but I wanted to add commentary on the stories I found most interesting.  I’ll be doing posts on DC, Marvel, and “everyone else.”

This one’s for DC.  Hit the break to learn about DC’s digital first line, news on Before Watchmen, and a half dozen new titles you might be interested in….

Read more…

Neat.  From these dudes.