TODAY IN COMICS HISTORY: SUPERMAN and 18 JUNE

Don't be surprised if relatives in Kansas don't return your phone calls this weekend, or if half the folks you know are seen spotted running around town trailing a red cape.  In fact, we'd suggest you fit yourself with a cape of your own and join them. It's a holiday, after all. 

June 18th has long been observed as the day Kal-El's rocket ship, sent forth into the cosmos from the planet Krypton to save his life and in turn, for him to save ours, landed on Earth.  As for the year of the occurrence, there's much speculation. Some say it happened in June of 1938, when Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster chronicled Kal-El's arrival in the pages of Action Comics #1.  Others claim Krypton's Last Son crashed even before then; some say that it hasn't happened yet.  

As with politics and religion - and one could argue that Superman is, indeed, a bit of both - polite conversation should make every attempt to steer clear of controversial matters of personal import.  If conversationally unavoidable, we'd advise that in lieu of joining the debate, you excuse yourself with an appropriate "Up, up, and awaaaayyyy!" and seek your converts, if you must, in a less public forum.

Thankfully, comicsblogging is definitely not polite conversation, and its liberating platform allows us to present our views on the matter of Kal-El's crash-landing with (near) impunity. As the traditional of corn on the cob dinner is even now being prepared, the DVR already readied for tonight's 13-hour Smallville marathon and the final readings (a difficult choice between For The Man Who Has Everything and Issue #2 of Birthright) selected, let us say briefly that Kal-El's landing didn't happen in 1938 - although it did - and it won't happen in the future -- although it will. The space ship that carried baby Superman to our planet has, is, and will happen -- it will always happen, or be happening, no matter what the time or year or era.    

Such is the way of the very best of  stories, and the reason why 18 June is a truly important date not just in comics history, but in yours -- and ours. 

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You already know the story. So, how would you tell it? If you're Grant Morrison, the answer would be  '8 words.'  Morrison and artist Frank Quitely's All-Star Superman is undoubtedly the greatest contribution  to Superman's mythos of the last decade; for dabblers needing a refresher on this June 18th, there could be none better.

Figures In Action! GRANT MORRISON'S NEW X-MEN - MINI-MATE STYLIN'

Get Ready For EXPLORING GRANT MORRISON --- Coming Soon To ABBRACADABBLING!

abbracadabbLINGO: Grant Morrison's FICTION SUIT

FICTION SUIT

- Deoxy

- Barbelith

- Barbelith 2 

- Barbelith 3

- Grant Morrison Homepage

GRANT MORRISON Is Looking At You Through Time And Space

Grant Morrison, the most brilliant man writing comics today, posed for this photo for one reason:  hair nostalgia. Actually, no, we're kidding. Bald is a good color on Morrison, although here, the hair certainly fits the times.  (Say nice things; he's looking at you!) ...Taken outside the Forbidden Planet comics shop in Dublin, Ireland during the 199o tour for Revolver.  Must have been a short tour, too: Revolver, a spin-off of the still-published British comic 2000 AD, went just seven issues  - July '90 to January '91 - before it met an untimely fate.  [via]

Jean, Girl, You Need To Quit It

Either Jean's been up again for three days, or Professor X is up to his old tricks...

New X-Men #126  by Grant Morrison & Frank Quietly (Marvel Comics, 2002) via

Figures In Action! From 'Dark Knight' to 'BLACKEST NIGHT' for The Batman

 

 'Black Lantern' Batman - Blackest Night: Series 5 by DC Direct

Abbracadabbling's favorite comics scribe Grant Morrison did the unthinkable when he presumably killed Bruce Wayne aka The Batman last spring in DC Comics' Final Crisis series. One year later, Morrison's planning to revisit Batman's death and reveal what truly befell the Caped Crusader, both in the pages of his best-selling Batman and Robin and another upcoming DC event we'll have more on soon. Meanwhile, DC's other chief scribe and newly-appointed Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns, whose revitalization of Green Lantern has blossomed into Blackest Night -- one of the publisher's best-selling line-wide comics event ever, not to mention a cross-platform mega-marketing bonanza -- found use for a very dead Batman within that series as well.

Thanks to the efforts of both writers, fans of superheroes and horror can seize the opportunity to add a 'Zombie Batman' to their collection - and while we're not keen on our dear Dark Knight being (semi?) permanently 'dead', even Batman would have to admit he'd scare plenty of criminals in his undead duds. DC Direct capitalizes on Johns' Blackest Night mega-event with several action figures series - three of which are currently for sale or sold-out - but for Batman fans, Blackest Night Series Five is but months away.  

Series Five includes Blackest Night Batman as well as undead versions of two other heroic mainstays of DC Comics, Hawkman and well... Deadman -- which, given the name, might be kind of difficult to explain how he's both dead...and undead.  Nekron, the ultimate villain of Blackest Night, rounds out the Series for its August retail appearance.

 And boys and girls, should you like to take a gander on just how undead the recently and possibly departed Dark Knight Detective was amongst the many pages of Blackest Night, we've got DC's variant cover  art for Blackest Night Issue 5 just below.  Artist Rodolfo Migliari did the honors and created one of the best -- and eeriest - of the entire series. Props to the dude and his twisted sick mind -- because we're loving it long time!

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 Art by Rodolfo Migliari (DC Comics)

Check out all of DC Direct's Blackest Night action figures at their homepage HERE. And DC's mini-site for their entire Blackest Night can be located within the publisher's website, right HERE. Dig Rodolfo's drawing skills? Check his blog - HERE.

 

Inside Look: BATMAN and ROBIN #8 -- On Sale Now!

We thought we might as well make our continuing coverage of Grant Morrison's wonderful Batman and Robin as regular a feature on the blog as it can be - and as February's a short month that will see not one but two issues of the comic hitting stands, there couldn't be a better time to make it so.  

Heroic dabblers will recall that Cameron Stewart joined Morrison last month; now the artist extraordinaire concludes his three-issue arc with this month's “Blackest Knight” parts 2 and 3 -- guest-starring Batwoman! (Part 2 is available as we speak from your local comics shop, with the last chapter soon to come on February 24th.)  We've got a special six-page preview of Morrison and Stewart's story just below, as well as a look at the issue's pair of covers by Stewart and the series lead artist Frank Quitely. But first, here's what DC had to say about all the action you'll find in Batman and Robin #8:

Story Synopsis: Only months into his new role as Batman, Dick Grayson faces perhaps the biggest threat of his life. In hopes of attaining his heart’s desire, has Dick instead unleashed a terror the likes of which the world has never seen? Meanwhile, back in Gotham City, Alfred and a recuperating Robin are at the mercy of someone both fearsome and familiar...

  

Regular Cover Art by Frank Quitely

 

  Variant Cover Art by Cameron Stewart

 

 

  

 

 To find the nearest comics specialty retailer near you, dial 1-888-COMIC-BOOK or go HERE.

Clarity of The Invisible(s)

"There are things all around. Things you never see because you don't have the words, you don't have the names. You only learned the 26-letter alphabet.

"Here are some names for things...."

-- From The Invisibles 

Grant Morrison

via [link]

FutureView: Grant Morrison's JOE The BARBARIAN #2

We've been keeping our eyes peeled for Joe The Barbarian since we first brought it to your attention last month, and this morning, diligence paid off. Our friend at Vertigo sent us this peak at Sean Gordon Murphy's cover art for Joe #2. We thought you'd like to check it out, too.

Joe The Barbarian is the newest brainchild of our favorite scribe Grant Morrison with art by the aforementioned Mr. Murphy. Issue #2 of the eight-issue limited Vertigo Comics series arrives at your LCS on February 17th, 2010.

YGI: Cameron Stewart's Road to BATMAN and ROBIN

After Monday's advance Batman and Robin preview, the Springfield home office haven't been able to keep its collective mind off what Grant Morrison has planned for Issue #6. We'll find out when the comic arrives at the LCS (that's comicspeak for Local Comics Shop) today, but the wait's killing us. Raley's already gone through half a bottle of Tums.

If you're unfamiliar with Cameron Stewart's artwork, some of the other comics blogs might ask exactly which rock you've been living under. If not directly, they'd cleverly imply it, mark our words.

But not us, dabblers. Instead, we searched far and wide for a few key pictures that speak to Stewart's amazing skills to whet your appetite for his bold and beautiful Batman and Robin debut next January.

While he doesn't have stacks of superhero comics beneath his utility belt, Stewart's insanely gifted -- he must be, having already collaborated with Grant Morrison on three - that's right, three - of his past projects. That's more than most artists can claim, and in our book, puts him just below Frank Quietly as the right co-pilot for Morrison's Batmobile.

Stewart's first collaboration with my favorite writer was on one of Morrison's creator-owned projects, the three-issue Seaguy series published by Vertigo Comics in 2004. Morrison has called Seaguy his 'Watchmen,' a series where he can talk about superheroes in a manner that seems visually light but which grows increasingly less real and more tragic with each issue.

Considering Seaguy's best bud is Chubby da Chuna, a bloated tuna fish that floats and smokes cigars, and that the villainous landscape of the story is an amusement run by the omniscient and enslaving Mickey Eye - a direct slam on Disney's Mickey Mouse turned corporate icon -- you should see why I love this book.

Morrison and Stewart had planned a trilogy, yet while the entire creative team was behind the project, Seaguy's sales didn't convince Vertigo to see the project through at the time. Stewart's response to over-anxious fans who got ahead of themselves calling for a second Seaguy in a Barbelith.com thread offers a glimpse at what a cool, sincere dude he must be. Find it here.

Stewart was working with Morrison again the following year, co-creating The Manhattan Guardian -- one of seven bi-monthly series that comprised the two-year expanse of DC's epic Seven Soldiers. Matt Brady at Newsarama has a great article to fill you in on the project here.

Seven Soldiers is one of my favorite Morrison works, and his first major DC series following his three-year run on Marvel's New X-Men.

Needless to say, Grant Morrison's reputation and his stature at DC Comics / Vertigo has grown exponentially since the days of the first Sea Guy. And so Stewart returned for the next installment, the long-awaited, finally approved, and ever more brilliant Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye, earlier this year. If you've ever worked at Walt Disney World or Disneyland like The Dabbler has, you'll find a warm place in your heart for this one.

Slaves of Mickey Eye is also Stewart's last project before Batman and Robin, and it's very likely your LCS still has a few copies for sale if you'd like to take a look. Our Comics PageTurner folks concur Mickey Eye is one recommended read.

But should you be wondering what Mr. Stewart will bring to his renderings of the Dynamic Duo, we've found a few pictures that should make you a very happy camper. The image below comes from Stewart's cover to January's Batman and Robin #7 . Seems like the Squire's taking the Batcycle for a rainy day spin on London Bridge. Oh, the suspense!

Our second treat is really the best of the bunch, and we were lucky to find it posted on Cameron Stewart's own blog here. It's a character study Stewart created for his own use that he posted after having to remove a page of interior artwork from next January's issue. DC didn't care much for Cameron's little sneak peek, and I'm sure Stewart must have felt pretty bad for the unintentional slip. But his replacement [below] is something I'd love to have hanging on my bedroom wall. Stewart's palette is intense and vibrant, and I can't get enough of this pic, the first Batman I've seen from him. If only my mistakes looked this good.

Before we bring our blogging day to a close, we thought you'd like to have a good long stare at Cameron Stewart's Catwoman. Looking this good, we're convinced Grant Morrison'll have no choice but to bring Selina Kyle to the pages of Batman and Robin before long.

The chance for any of us to watch a skilled comics artist of Stewart 's caliber do their thing rarely comes along, but he's recently posted an instructional You Tube video that will allow all of us to do just that. While created with the artist in mind, the short tutorial offers a fantastic lesson in digital drawing from which each of us can learn. The Catwoman you see above is Stewart's end result of the process he explains. Whether you're an artist or have just heard of one, it's worth a few minutes of your time to check Stewart's video out here.

Any dabblers that do can send abbracadabbling an emailed scan of their completed Catwoman to become eligible to win a Near Mint Variant cover copy of Batman and Robin Issue #7, shipping from our offices to your front door on February 1st 2009. You can get our email address plus all the information on this giveaway by first dropping us a note by way of our Back Issues department at the bottom of the blog.

We hope your graphic imagination enjoyed our colorful look at Cameron Stewart, and we'll see you around the comicsblog.

PAGETURNER POST-RETRO PREVIEW: Batman and Robin Issue #6

The [Captured] Motion Gallery returns later this week so that your comicsblog's Comics PageTurner can be one of the first to present this advance preview of Batman and Robin Issue #6!

LOL! I wish abbracadabbling could scoop the Big Boys out there with an occasional advance preview!

All fanboy wishes and smiles aside, that's not really our purpose here. Not wanting to compete in the online comics environment is tough, but there are nobler ambitions.

Ours stem from our those things most dear to us: imagination, creativity, an inspiring image, well-crafted stories, smart ideas, the sense of community, a fascination with pop culture and pop-psychology, entrepreneurial spirit, and the never-to-be-understated cool factor of comics and superheroes both. Plus, we just really want to be awesome.

That's the magic behind abbracadabbling, and the same stuff we hope -- nope, scratch that, will pass along you to, if we haven't already.

One sure step towards abbracadabbling appreciation would be to gift your imagination with Batman and Robin #6, the next chapter in the adventures of Grant Morrison, Frank Quietly, and Philip Tan's post-retro Caped Crusaders.

There's a reason this title is DC Comic's best-selling ongoing monthly book, and the answer won't be found in the story re-cap you won't find in our blog tonight. In short, Batman and Robin is the pop-culture soul of the Batman you know reincarnated in a future-spinning pastel world split by one thrill of a wicked grin.

Or, you could say the comic's a viscerally drawn 'What Was is What Could Be Concept' in 32 pages -- that concludes its opening arc Wednesday in the tale The Revenge of the Red Hood. Here's how DC sums it up:

In the startling conclusion to "The Revenge of the Red Hood," Gotham's new "protector" reveals his identity to Batman – and surprisingly poses a heart-stopping question to Dick Grayson about the future of Bruce Wayne! Plus, Robin at the mercy of Scarlet!

Everything after the "--and..." propels the action when the series swings into 2010, and why there won't be a Batman and Robin in December. Grant Morrison removed Bruce Wayne from DC's game play last spring, but whether the original Dark Knight's as dead as his comic book counterparts believe or been sent in to the past as only Tim Drake, the former Robin, purports is still anyone's guess. But he builds it up as Issue #6 wraps, and that's where January's Number Seven kicks off.

Artistic swaps can hurt the flow of any series, and if any fault can be found with Batman and Robin, it's Frank Quietly's departure after Issue #3. Quietly's Morrison's best-suited collaborator, but he's an artist in high demand. Tan's pencils are a good fit here, though his style is a departure toward the darker -- as Issue #6's covers [below] clearly convey. Morrison's stories are multi-layered, and both artists have found inspiration at different points in the thematic spectrum.

Tan's stay is nearly as brief as Quietly's, and December's long time-out will leave a blank page for Cameron Stewart's debut when he comes aboard as co-pilot with Batman and Robin Issue #7 on January 27th, 2010.

The Dynamic Duo's final chapter of 2009 comes tomorrow. Looking at our advance preview below, Bat-fans, expect this fiction to pull no punches or candy-coat Gotham City grit. But if true to form, Revenge of the Red Hood may leave us with questions, but it won't abandon the fun seat of Batman's lasting appeal.

Even as the series sets the stage for January's Blackest Knight, this is one Batman and Robin where the bright spark and humor of its heroes will never be overshadowed by the outrageous.

Batman and Robin #6 - Frank Quietly Cover Art

Batman and Robin #6 - Variant Cover Art by Philip Tan

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A huge thanks to IGN.com for the graphic assist.

For widescreen Batman action, go here.