A Comics Odyssey – Issue #16

By Wayne Hall Jun 30, 2011, 21:33 GMT

Death played a big role in real life – and in the comics this week. First, here are the headlines, all taken from the scifipulse.net website: 
 
Batman Artist Lew Schwartz Passes
 
The man who served as a “ghost artist” for Batman creator Bob Kane has passed. He was 84.

Lew Sayre Schwartz, who drew more than 120 comics featuring the Caped Crusader, died earlier this month as a result of injuries sustained in a fall, according to digitalspy.com.

Schwartz worked on DC’s Batman and Detective Comics between the years 1948 and 1953. After that time, he went on to a successful career in advertising, co-founding the commercial production company Ferro, Mogubgub and Schwartz.

“I had the pleasure of interviewing Mr Schwartz along with the other two surviving Kane ghosts [Sheldon Moldoff and Jerry Robinson] at the 2009 Comic-Con,” Mark Evanier, a prolific comics writer, said on his website News From Me.

“He was a delightful gentleman and there was an odd sensation of ‘bonding’ among our panellists as they shared tales of their days with Mr. Kane. It was also fun to watch so many people tell Lew that he’d drawn their all-time favorite Batman stories. He certainly drew a lot of mine.”

Of course, it’s tough to know just which Batman stories Schwartz drew since he worked anonymously for DC Comics. In fact, all of his Batman illustrations bear the signature Bob Kane.

David Goyer To Produce ‘100 Bullets’ For Television

David S. Goyer, who played a role in bringing us ‘ The Dark Knight,’ is setting up to adapt the hugely popular Vertigo Comics series ‘100 Bullets,’ which was created by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso.

This news was recently let slip by DC Comics Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, who revealed that it would be a series for Showtime.

The comic followed the mysterious Agent Graves as he approaches victims of wrongdoing and offers them the opportunity to covertly murder their enemies.
The book ran from 1999 to 2009 and was fairly successful.
To date, Goyer has a pretty good track record when adapting comic books into feature projects, having worked on the ‘Blade’ trilogy, Christopher Nolan’s ‘Batman’ trilogy, and most recently the new ‘Ghost Rider’ film, which is based on a story he tried to pitch some years back. So it’ll be interesting to see what he does for ‘100 Bullets’ on a television budget.

Paul Cornell Reveals Plans For ‘Stormwatch’

Earlier in the month, it was announced that DC Comics was to renumber and essentially start from the beginning with 52 of their titles. One such title affected by this would be ‘Action Comics,’ which at present is written by the fantastic Paul Cornell, who has impressed readers with his unique take on certain characters and his ability to elevate lower tier characters.

As part of this big change at DC Comics, Cornell will be leaving his current post on Action to work on two new titles, which are ‘Demon Knights’ and ‘Stormwatch.’
In a recent interview for Comic Book Resources, the writer, who has made us all look at Lex Luthor under a completely new light, revealed his plans for the latter of those books, ‘Stormwatch.’

Cornell admits that it was the original version of the book that inspired his love of Warren Ellis’s work.

“There’s a certain attitude that those books have and that’s what we’re keeping–along with many other things,” he explained. “There’s arrogance. Stormwatch tend to look down on the universe. And that’s quite appealing, in a way.”

“So that’s kind of what ‘The Edge’ means for us. The ability to experiment, to be completely mad. This is the maddest book in a really good way. It’s kind of extreme, and it’s extreme in all sorts of ways. It’s got that flavour that the Authority family of books had. I hope.”

Review: ‘Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #160.’
 
Somebody working on this comic fondly remembers ‘Superman’ #75. Boy, do they!
 
Here’s the book’s description: “The future of the Ultimate Comics Universe begins with the death of Peter Parker this Wednesday, June 22, in Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #160.”
 
This comic must be an homage to the “Death Of Superman.” The similarities are just too numerous to be anything else.
 
I mean, the polybagging with a black cover and a red hero symbol on it, the story pacing, the death fighting an overwhelming foe until both collapse on the ground, Mary Jane holding Peter Parker just like Lois Lane held the body of Superman after he died … I guess if one is going to mimic something, mimic a classic!
 
My big problem is that, like the all-too-recent “death” of Johnny Storm, this smacks of a temporary situation so we can see what the other characters will do now that they’ve endured a death. That’s fine, but I’ve seen this before … many times!
 
Now, I know that the average comics fan tends to last less than a decade, so an “experienced” reader much as myself is something considered rare, but couldn’t the creative folks have come up with something different?

As always, death in the Marvel Universe is getting attention from the big New York City papers and those in other cities. I remember when Steve Rogers “died” and everyone was in mourning … until he was found to be alive. The same thing happened when the Human Torch disappeared, and I’m waiting for his return soon.
Don’t get me wrong … Mark Bagley’s art is, as per usual, good. And the irony of having the “ultimate” Torch involved in the battle was too good.

But killing characters has become just too easy a way to increase sales. Death in the real world is much tougher to take, and people don’t come back. It would be great if Peter Parker never returned, but when ‘The Amazing Spider-Man ‘film is about to hit the theaters, you can count on all this being undone. Next time, please … something new?

WAYNE IS GOING TO COMIC-CON 2011!

Wayne Hall contributes to the Smallscreen, Film and Graphic Novels/Comic Book sections of the Monsters And Critics.com website. He writes recaps for Fox’s ‘Bones,’ Syfy’s ‘Warehouse 13’ and the BBC’s ‘Doctor Who.’ He is co-editor and a news writer for SciFiPulse.Net. He also serves as a host for the SFP-Now weekly podcast and produces and stars in the Wayne’s Comics weekly podcast. You can check both of them out at http://www.sfp-now.com.