A Comics Odyssey - Issue #6

By Wayne Hall Apr 15, 2011, 5:45 GMT

The duo created The New Teen Titans, which breathed new life into DC Comics in the early 1980s. It featured well-known teen heroes combined with new characters, and it joined Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont and John Byrne as one of the top-selling team comics of the day.

Some popular characters and comics are back, so let’s get into this week’s “comics in the headlines” news stories, all taken from the scifipulse.net website:
 
Wolfman/Perez’s New Teen Titans: Games Graphic Novel Scheduled

One of the best-loved writer/artist teams of all times in comics has to be Marv Wolfman and George Perez. The duo created The New Teen Titans, which breathed new life into DC Comics in the early 1980s. It featured well-known teen heroes combined with new characters, and it joined Uncanny X-Men by Chris Claremont and John Byrne as one of the top-selling team comics of the day.

A lot of time has passed, and each creator has moved on to other projects. But there was always one New Teen Titans story that had never seen print. Now, the time has come for it to be completed and published.

Here's how it was described in the latest DC Comics solicitations:

>>THE NEW TEEN TITANS: GAMES HC
Written by MARV WOLFMAN
Art and cover by GEORGE PEREZ
This original graphic novel features a mysterious villain playing a deadly game with New York City as the gameboard – and the Teen Titans as the pieces! Twenty years in the making, THE NEW TEEN TITANS: GAMES is a can’t-miss for fans new and old.
On sale SEPTEMBER 7
144 pg, 8.125” x 10.812”, FC, $24.99 US<<

Dark Horse Comics Lays Off Staff

Dark Horse Comics, one of the companies that has generated a lot of books and films over the years, recently laid off several staff members, according tocomicbookresources.com.
The company that brought fans Mike Mignola‘s Hellboy and Joss Whedon‘s Buffy The Vampire Slayer comics apparently released editors Shawna Gore and Dave Land as well as sales assistant Max Sato.
“A longstanding Editorial presence, Gore had been with the company since 1997 when she was brought on as Dark Horse’s publicist,” CBR reported. “Though she served on many projects both new and archival for the publisher since joining editorial in 2002, Gore was perhaps best known for shepherding works in their horror division including the recent relaunch of the classic series Creepy and licensed work such as Emily The Strange.

“Similarly, Land worked with Dark Horse since the late ’90s working on a number of licensed and original properties including the Star Wars line, Fear Agent and Samurai: Heaven & Earth. He also wrote the three-issue mini-series Werewolves On The Moon and recently help craft stories for the ‘MySpace Dark Horse Presents’ anthology,” the site noted.

Television’s New Wonder Woman Has Three Costumes

Since the first image was published of Adrianne Palicki in her new Wonder Woman outfit. The internet hasn’t been quite the same.
In fact if I was to say that the new costume has caused ripples in the fan base of the popular DC comics character. It would be an understatement.

However, fans may not have to worry too much given that it has been revealed in a recent article at TV Line that Palicki’s Wonder Woman has not one but three costumes. And it turns out that the costume we first saw Palicki don in those EW photos was just one of the three. The second is the one which we have pictured on the right, and the third costume is as yet to be leaked.

According to NBC president Robert Greenblatt the third as yet to be leaked image will see Wonder Woman dressed in a way that is truer to her comic book origins.

“There was an initial outcry about the long pants – you know, skintight pants as opposed to those little shorts [worn by Lynda Carter in the original TV series],” Greenblatt concedes. “But the shorts were always planned. They are actually used in the final confrontation when she beats Veronica Cale (played by Elizabeth Hurley).”
“We haven’t made any changes from what was planned,” the NBC boss reiterates. “But it’s always good to hear the feedback. I’d rather have people really passionately engaged in conversation, even if they hate something, than be kind of bored.”

This week’s comic isn’t really so much of a story or even a “Who’s Who” as it is a “Who’s Alive” and “Who’s Not” in the popular Robert Kirkman comic. I guess it shows just how popular the comic and the cable show have become.

Here’s the synopsis: “Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about the cast of The Walking Dead! The Survivors’ Guide is a handy checklist of all the characters who have appeared in the series thus far, alive or dead. This series is a can’t-miss supplement to the hit comic book series that is now a hit TV show on AMC!”

The first thing that impressed me was how current this issue was. What happened to Carl just a few weeks ago is described in this book. That’s what I call up to date!

I’m sure Mr. Kirkman had input on this comic, but it’s actually written by Tim Daniel and edited by Sina Grace. They do a great job of summarizing a lot of events and even include the numbers of the issues each person appeared in.

The design of the book is very cool in that it is as close to black and white as one can get (which is the comic’s format). The only other color added is red, and often those graphics are shaped like droplets of blood.

Twenty men, women and children are described in the issue that goes from Aaron to Carol.  Again and again, I saw the name that TWD fans love to have, and that is the Governor. The show has to deal with that significant storyline, and the sooner, the better.

If you enjoy The Walking Dead, this book is a good one to have as a companion—it’ll help you keep up with the faces that either return or are referred to by people we see in the comic. I’m sure it will eventually be collected into a trade, but it’s something to remember those who have gone on before.

Wayne Hall is co-editor and a news writer for SciFiPulse.Net. He also serves as a host for the SFP-Now podcast and also the Wayne’s Comics podcast. You can check both of them out at http://www.sfp-now.com.