By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 5/26/2016
“I look down at it and know without question: I love this world. But there’s something missing.” In the five years since DC Comics rebooted their universe through the Flashpoint event and New 52 line, the oldest major comics publisher in America has seen its fortunes fall. After being barraged with complaints about homogeneous artwork, constant […]
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 8/25/2015
2016 Flame Con will be held for TWO days this time. And that's not all: they're moving to a bigger location too
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 3/20/2015
Last night’s The Nightly Show, the show hosted by Larry Whitmore, examined nerd culture and diversity. Guests included Marvel’s Director of Content & Character Development. Sana Amanat, artist Phil Jimenez (Spider-Man, Wonder Woman), comedian Mike Lawrence and rapper Jean Grae. The show included a “black Batman” sketch and some other discussion of nerdly topics—including a sick burn of Cyclops. (Rachel Edidin powers unite!)
Amanat and Jimenez acquitted themselves quit well, to no surprise, but Grae’s tale of resisting the rap name “Storm” (as a black woman from South Africa) was also of note.
By: Jennie,
on 9/19/2014
Check it out! Prince Charming is alive! And back!
And that’s the best thing I can say about this volume.
After dying in the battle against the adversary, Prince Charming comes back (which we all knew he would eventually, right? He’s much too powerful) but doesn’t want to go back to the mundy and instead becomes a ruler in an Indus fable world. There he meets a woman, Nalayani, who’s come to ask for help. Her village lost all its men to the adversary and is now constantly being attacked by roaming bands and they’re about to be wiped out. Charming is also facing issues as there are those who aren’t fond of having a white foreigner ruling them.*
I do like Nalayani because she’s awesome, but she’s also a new character and not having lived with her for years, I just didn’t care as much about her as I did about Charming or some of the other Fables characters.
Charming… has lost a lot of character growth. When we first met him, he was an arrogant ass, but over the series he had mellowed and matured, but he’s reverted back to all jack-ass charm and lost what made him a deeper, more likeable character.
But here’s my real problem-- the great romances of Fables have all been a slow burn building up through multiple story arcs. If Charming is *finally* going to meet someone for him, someone “better” than Snow or Cinderella or Sleeping Beauty, we need the slow burn. We need to get to know Nalayani, we need to see them get to know each other and fall in love. The whole execution seemed rush and I never bought that Charming liked her more than he likes most awesome women, and Nalayani’s affections seem to turn on a dime. Overall, its was just really disappointing.
*this is problematic, as Charming is set up as the good guy, and those who aren’t into colonization are the bad guys. It's kinda worked out in the end, but ergh. But this whole issue is ergh, so...
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By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 7/25/2014
Angela, the character created by Neil Gaiman in another lifetime as part of the Spawn universe, will be receiving her own ongoing series later this year from the creative team of Kieron Gillen, Marguerite Bennett, Phil Jimenez and Stephanie Hans.
I don’t know how we reached this point either, but that’s a packed lineup of creators up there. Jimenez is superstar enough, and his presence bodes well for the project. Gillen and Bennett will co-write the series, with Hans working on a back-up strip which’ll appear in each issue. That looks like her work on the cover as well.
The book will follow the character – revealed to be Thor and Loki’s sister in an Original Sin miniseries which either has or hasn’t started yet – as she decides to head off and make a name for herself in the Marvel Universe, primarily through the method of slashing people up and presumably growling at them a whole lot.
An ongoing series, the book will be edited by Wil Moss, and start in November.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 5/21/2014
Next week sees the release of the third trade of Fairest, the spinoff series of Fables which has seen a number of writers and artists tell standalone stories spotlighting the different female characters of Bill Willingham’s world. Return of the Maharaja, however, tries something a little different still – writer Sean E. Williams and artist Steve Sadowski introduce a new hero from myth to readers, in the form of Nalayani.
Coming straight from the epic mythology of Indian folkore, Nalayani is a dynamic, contrary, unpredictable sort of lead character; and her story dominates the third arc of the series. But Williams’ story not only brings in new characters like Nalayani – it also features some the return of some unexpected, familiar faces, to the shock of long-term Fables fans. I was lucky to have the chance to talk to Williams about his story, and he explained how it came together, the surprising twist appearance of a fan-favourite character… and giant monsters.
Steve: How did you get involved with writing this arc of Fairest?
Sean: I’d known Bill Willingham for years from working on another project together, and getting to be friends over the course of that time. Then Chris Roberson started doing the Cinderella arcs, and he was in the middle of the second one when I had an idea for a FABLES story that I just couldn’t get out of my head. So Saturday night of SDCC 2010 I was walking between hotels with Bill, and I got up the courage to ask him if he’d be interested in hearing a pitch for a story. He said he would be, so I immediately got away from downtown and wrote up a full proposal.
The next night, as we were setting up Bill’s dead-dog party, I pitched him the story. He said he liked it, and that they had something in the works that it might be a part of (which would become FAIREST; I think he was talking to Lauren Beukes about her arc already at that point).
Steve: Did you come with the pitch already in mind – what was your goal for the story?
Sean: Well, that’s where things get interesting. So yeah, I had a whole pitch fleshed out, and was bouncing it between Bill and our editor, Shelly Bond, getting feedback and notes and tweaking accordingly. Then I was in Minnesota that Christmas visiting the in-laws, and I drove down to visit with Bill. We went to lunch, and he got all serious, and said that he wanted me to write a Prince Charming story too. Which was great, but Charming’s dead, so it’d all be in flashback.
And who could say no to writing a FABLES Prince Charming story? Which (spoilers!) was when Bill dropped the bomb that Charming wasn’t dead. And my mind was blown. So I reaffirmed that I’d be interested, and ecstatically drove back to the in-laws. The next time I was able to get a hold of Bill was in March, I think, and I hadn’t heard anything, and I was starting to think the Charming thing was a practical joke, which Bill is known for.
I finally got a hold of him, and he told me it was a good news/bad news situation. Bad news was that I wasn’t writing my arc as planned. Good news was that Vertigo wanted the Charming story instead. I can say this now since it isn’t happening, but my original story focused on Bluebeard, and for some reason Prince Charming is more popular than Bluebeard. The only problem was that I hadn’t even thought about the Charming story, since I’d been working on Bluebeard for eight months. So in the span of weeks I had to come up with a whole story for Charming.
The only thing Bill gave me to start with was that Charming had been blown through the gateway, and I had to come up with why he hadn’t been back to Fabletown in the intervening years, and go from there.
Steve: The story is notably set outside of Fablestown, and the American-centric adventures around it. What research did you do to look into the role of Hinduism, and how important was it to you that you set the story in India?
Sean: In thinking about what type of Homeland Charming would be sent to, I threw out a bunch of non-Anglo options. Japan was the only one I had to stay away from, since Lauren was doing hers there, so the rest of the world was wide open. I’d been to India a couple of years before, and had enough of a cursory knowledge of Hinduism to know that there was an endless supply of stories to draw from, so I set my focus there. But unlike a lot of FABLES source material, Hinduism is a religion that’s very much alive today, and I wasn’t comfortable playing around with it willy-nilly.
I reached out to Dean Varun Soni at the University of Southern California (my alma mater) for his input, and (as a practicing Hindu), he walked me through what would be appropriate and what wouldn’t be, which really freed me up creatively. With that in mind, I dove into reading the epics, looking for characters who would be a good foil for Charming, and revisited Kipling’s stories, which play a huge part too, like Tabaqui, and the Village of the Dead.
Steve: Your lead character, Nalayani, comes from the stories of Hinduism. What about her made her click as a character for you – what drives the original version of her, and what drives your take on the character?
Sean: In her original story, which is told in the MAHABHARATA, she’s described as “one of the five ideal women,” so that checked the “fairest” box off the list. And what you have to remember is that there is no definitive version of these epics of Hinduism – who the good guy is in the RAMAYANA varies if you’re in the north or the south of India. So I read a couple of versions of her story, which all centered on how she was married to this leprous sage Maudgalya, and treated him well and tolerated him for years, and he revealed himself to be this paragon and they travelled the world for the rest of their lives enjoying “the five pleasures” (which also checked a box off the list, since it was Charming she’d be partnered up with).
But she was insatiable, and as punishment for her lust, a later incarnation of her has to marry five men. So the original story is basically “put up with your husband and you’ll be rewarded, but don’t be insatiable or you’ll be punished,” which isn’t exactly the story I wanted to tell, or thought that readers would enjoy. There’s some of that original story in the arc, – Maudgalya has a cameo, and the leprosy in particular plays a role – but I really dwelled on the idea of “where are the gods?” in the Indu, the Indian Homeland.
Well, of course the Indu was invaded by the Adversary, so that had some effect on the world, as we see, and I realized the gods were gone: this was an alternate universe from the Hinduism people know and practice, and that Nalayani and Maudgalya never married, which changed her whole story completely. She’s still a caregiver, though, so her whole focus in this arc is saving her village, which has been likewise devastated by the Adversary and all the fallout from the collapse of the Empire.
Steve: You got to work with the creative team of Steve Sadowski, Phil Jimenez and Andrew Dalhouse on the book – quite the team. What did they bring to the storyline, and how do you feel now looking back at the story as a whole?
Sean: As soon as I as saw the first pages Steve and Phil handed in, I knew we needed more animals and more wide shots. Steve’s animals KILL me, they’re so gorgeous. There’s a bit I wrote in the third issue that was supposed to be a throwaway beat, but Steve made the animal so alive that it became a crucial moment in the issue for me. Mugger Ghat (the giant crocodile, from THE JUNGLE BOOK) has a much bigger part because of these guys.
There are several monsters from Hinduism throughout the book that I basically transcribed their descriptions, having NO idea how something like that would look, but Steve blew them all out of the water, and made them believable to boot. He’s a genius. And all the textures and tone that Andrew brought to the clothing and the scenery…it’s a gorgeous book. We were really blessed to have these guys on board.
And, if I can add this, the fact that Todd Klein made a typeface based on Devanagari, the written form of Hindi, just for this arc still blows my mind to this day.
Shelly and Gregory Lockard were amazing editors to work with. Their instincts were spot on, of course, and they never talked down to me, even though this was my first published comic work (although Shelly did gently chide me at our first lunch when I made the rookie mistake of calling word balloons “word bubbles”). It’s just been humbling to work with the entire team, and I couldn’t be happier with the outcome. Hopefully the readers feel the same way!
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Many thanks to Sean for his time! The third arc of Fairest, The Return of the Maharaja’, will be published by Vertigo next week. You can also find Sean online at his website here, and on twitter.
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 6/24/2012
June is Gay Pride Month in America, with parades gathering in all the major cities to celebrate God’s chosen people as they wave from floats and hang out with Sarah Silverman.
New York had one of the largest parades this year, as you’d expect, with an apparent 2 million people joining the parade at one point or another over the course of the day. It’s also been a year since gay marriage was made legal in the state, and many took advantage and decided to tie the knot in classic Northstyle/whatshisname style. Roving reporter Phil Jimenez was on-hand at the parade today, and managed to catch the first-ever evidence that Wonder Woman… has a sex life. Here’s what he found:
That’s right! While we’ve spent years wondering whether Wondy was more in love with Batman or Superman (or Steve Trevor, I guess?) the answer has been flying under our noses all this time. Supergirl! Who woulda thought it, right?
By: Heidi MacDonald,
on 5/24/2012
Bill Willingham, creator of the long-running Vertigo series Fables and it’s spin-off Fairest, has started teasing at some kind of big announcement or two which’ll be made on Twitter over the next few days. Specifically, he’s set up a twitter account called FablesCon, which seems to suggest a Fables-centric convention happening in March next year.
Checking to see who the FablesCon Twitter account follows, you can find writer Sean E. Williams and artist Phil Jimenez in attendence, along with power couple Adam Hughes and Allison Sohn. So already, it looks like a few big names have already agreed to attend.
This would be the next step onwards from recent events like Image Con and MorrisonCon; the former of which was a great success for the independent publisher; and the latter of which still has a terrifyingly large grinning Grant Morrison on the front page of the website. Fables has quite a strong fanbase – a fanbase of Vertigo proportions, but much more vocal than most – so it could be quite a popular event, especially with the guest-list Willingham seems to be preparing. A number of writers and artists have contributed to Fables over the years, so he has a range of creators he could invite. Maybe even James Jean! Swoon!
It looks at the moment like FablesCon will take place in late March 2013, which gives you all plenty of time to sew together that Reynard the Fox costume you’ve always wanted.
“Yes, I read it as a pissing contest between two executives.”
“I’m not the only one who read it that way. Earlier today, I was talking to someone”
Wow, since two people have the same tin-foil-hat-wearing opinion, that must mean it’s true. And people wonder why comic readers are relentlessly mocked.
I read I and thought it was terrible. There’s way too much exposition and the assumption the reader cares about any of these characters..It’s just a big mess with a terrible shock-for-shock’s sake twist at the end.,
DC has just given up on attracting new readers. This book could never be recommended to a new reader wanting to check out the DC universe. Only the most die hard DC fans could begin to grasp what is going on in this issue. I guess DC is just content with trying to get back the old readers who are aging quickly. Other publishers will have to pick up the slack in order to keep our industry vibrant and growing……
I have to say, it may not be new reader friendly, but with the mess that the New 52 had become, I don’t think short of a complete reboot that there was anyway to fix this without acknowledging how messed up this had become. The one thing I like about Geoff Johns’s writing is that he is one of us, a comic reader. He writes the types of stories that he would want to read. I’ve very rarely been disappointed with a book from him.
I thought Rebirth was an excellent step in the right direction. I’m not sure that there is much open warfare amongst Didio and Johns as this article let on. Didio and Jim Lee for that matter, can’t argue with the fact that they messed up. Sales are at or below Pre-New 52 levels. Clearly they had done something horrifically wrong. Johns stepped up to right the ship.
Rebirth itself was very much an honest self critique of the state of DC Comics. We had a Superman that has no joy. An Oliver Queen with no Dinah. No Wally West, one of the best legacy heroes of all time. I feel like Johns is bringing back a lot of what fans were complaining about and what does he get? More complaining. It’s clear that Johns is going to be taking a more active role in cinema, but he said he spent a lot of time going over the concepts of all of the Rebirth books. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think Bob Harras is going to be at DC much longer at this rate. The way Johns described what he was doing is what an EiC does. I couldn’t think of anyone better to do that job than Geoff Johns. Hopefully DC sticks the landing this time.
Watching all the People Who Talk Loudly About Comics On The Internet pissing and moaning about DC publishing a comic saying exactly the same things that they’ve been saying for the last 25 fucking years has been *hilarious*.
Geoff Johns writes comics for people who are heavily invested in DC’s comics. It’s impenetrable for anyone else. I’m a comic nerd as much as the next person and was totally lost during most of the comic. All I knew were the bits he stole from Alan Moore, which kinda proves everything Moore ever said about DC correct.
I think there’s too much analysis in the “WHATS IT ALL MEAN?” rather than an actual examination of writing and art. I thought the writing was solid and the art was STELLAR. More comics in this vein would be a pro.
I also feel like its difficult to understand if you are trying to understand all of the past continuity. If you read the words its pretty clearly laid out that an evil force has been infecting the dc universe. Its when you try to apply a larger narrative of dc publishiñ that things get wonky. (also should who edited the comic be weighed in light of the review?)
The idea that Rebirth is an extended dig at Dan Didio never even occurred to me. Considering how bad a reading of Watchmen it puts forth, I saw it more as a dig at Alan Moore. I mean, if the New 52 was the “new life” Dr. Manhattan went off to create, but all he really did was grab the DC characters and twist their lives around… Isn’t that just a meta-fictional version of the fanboy argument that all Moore does is warp other people’s characters?
That Didio argument’s pretty entertaining, though. So thanks for that.
Amen to that, R.D. It certainly is a funny time to be alive.