Comic Book Features

A Comics Odyssey – Issue #17

By Wayne Hall Jun 30, 2011, 21:45 GMT

Michael Caine - Michael Caine\'s "The Elephant to Hollywood" Book Signing at Waterstones Bookshop in Piccadilly on September 30, 2010 - Waterstones Bookshop in Piccadilly - London, UK © Solarpix / PR Photos

A classic artist has died, and we should remember the inspiration he gave us. That’s one of this week’s headlines, all taken from the scifipulse.net website: 
 
Legendary Comics Artist Gene Colan Passes
 
His dynamic style of drawing made the comics characters he drew literally leap off the page.

At the age of 84, Gene Colan, who has drawn everyone from Batman and Daredevil to Iron Man and Howard the Duck, died late last week due to complications of liver disease and a broken hip, according to yahoo.com.

“Colan drew hundreds of stories for publishers such as DC and Marvel, and helped co-create the Falcon, one of the industry’s first African-American characters to appear in mainstream comic books,” the site said. “His art was a staple of the Silver Age era of comics, and his 70-issue run on The Tomb Of Dracula in the 1970s remains critically lauded for returning horror to the pages of comics.”

Colan was a member of an elite group of artists who made comics in the ’60s and ’70s enjoyable reads. He’ll be remembered with Jack Kirby, Don Heck, Carmine Infantino and Steve Ditko.

“My friend and long-time partner Gene Colan passed away tonight,” said writer Marv Wolfman on Facebook. “For the past several months he’d been in a hospice and was not expected to leave. Yet when I spoke to him only a few weeks ago he was alert and as chipper as always. A wonderful artist and a more wonderful man. I will miss him.”
 
Sir Michael Caine Scolded About ‘Dark Knight Rises’
 
Known for his “loose lips” when discussing the Batman film franchise, Sir Michael Caine has apparently been called on the carpet by The Dark Knight Rises director Christopher Nolan for spilling secrets on the upcoming film, according to contactmusic.com.

“The British actor, who plays butler Alfred Pennyworth in the franchise, landed in trouble after accidentally leaking top-secret details about The Dark Knight Rises, the third and final instalment in Nolan’s Batman films,” the site reported. “Now the veteran star has vowed to remain tight-lipped about the hit franchise to keep from further upsetting the filmmaker.”

“I’m lucky to be able to mention the title,” Caine recently said to Britain’s Daily Express. “I’ve already got in trouble for mentioning I’m working on it and that we’re filming. Chris phoned saying, ‘Why did you say that? You shouldn’t have said that!’”
‘The Dark Knight Rises’ will star Christian Bale as Batman, and will swing into theaters in 2012.

DC Comics ‘No Longer Writing For Trades’

Some fans have been truly outraged by the not-so-gradual change of focus from individual issues to trade paperbacks over the years. After all, comics are a habitual product, and waiting every six months to get one’s comics fix can be unfulfilling.
Apparently, DC Comics has heard that call.

“Reporting from the DC Comics’ Retailer Roadshow, Mike Gendreau of the Modern Myths comic shop in Northampton, Massachusetts, revealed that the publisher will be ending the unpopular practice of structuring all story arcs into six-issue blocks to better fit into trade paperbacks,” reported the digitalspy.com website.

“Writers have been told to write the story they want to write and not worry about the trade collecting,” he said on Facebook. ”If they can tell a well-paced story in four issues, they’ve been told not to pad it to make it six issues. Editorial can worry about how it’s going to be collected.

“Going forward, books will be trade-collected depending on how the story fits. If a book has a four-issue arc followed by a three issue arc, the trade will collect both,” he said. “If it’s two 4-issue arcs or three 2-issue stories, those will get collected.”
Review: Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? #24 of 24. This miniseries has been a noble experiment, and it has worked well.

Here’s this book’s description: “A lone toad, discovered in the desert by bounty hunter Rick Deckard, jump-starts the final issue of Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep? The 24-issue comic book adaptation of Philip K. Dick’s 1968 sci-fi novel delivered the complete text of the book in graphic form. Deckard comes to terms with his decisions and searches for the difference between man and machine.”
I’d never read the novel prior to the comics, so I’m glad that I got the chance to do so.
Thanks, Boom!

The notion of taking a novel and translating it word for word into a comic must have seemed a daunting one. It did take 24 issues to complete, after all!
The art by Tony Parker and the colors by Blond have truly fit the sullen, uncertain mood of the story. It’s been a suspenseful, unsettling two-year ride that I’m really glad I’ve been on.

There have been occasional hardcover collections of previous issues, so if you’ve missed these fascinating comics, visit your local comics shop or bookstore to pick them up. I highly recommend them!

I occasionally get asked what comics I would recommend for use in the classroom, and this series has just made that list!
 
WAYNE HALL 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.

Wayne Hall