As we enter 2012, you know what the Roundup’s New Years resolution is? To write more comic book reviews! This week I give you the lowdown on the new direction in Witchblade, Batman – The Dark Knight and the debut of Alan Davis on Captain America.

Witchblade #151
By Tim Seeley and Diego Bernard

Last month saw the end of an era as Ron Marz ended his 70 plus issue run on Top
Cow’s flagship book Witchblade. Now the title enters a new era in a new, post Artifacts universe with a new creative team in Seeley and Bernard. That’s a whole lot of new for such a long running comic. What’s the end result? (more…)

As we all get ready for the big holiday, the Roundup also found time to put a few reviews in your stockings. This week I look at the first part of Avengers: X-Sanction, the first volume of Archaia’s new Storyteller series and the first issue of the New 52 debut of The Ray.

Avengers: X-Sanction #1 (of 4)
By Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness

When I first heard that Jeph Loeb would be bringing Cable, one of my favorite characters, back to the land of the living, I cringed inside. The man has been responsible for some awful comics over the last few years and I had no desire to read anything by him anytime soon. (more…)

I don’t think at the beginning of this year anyone knew how significant it was going to be to the world of comics. Sure, Marvel had announced Fear Itself and DC Comics had talked about Flashpoint, and we all knew that there was a large number of comic book related movies in the pipeline, some of which looked to be monster hits. But now that it’s almost 365 days later, so much has changed; it’s hard to put into words.

DC has renumbered all their titles with new first issues, including the venerable Action and Detective Comics. Not only that, but they rebooted the entire line with tweaked or completely changed origins. Marvel has seen its plans of an interconnected movie universe come to fruition only to loose its long held lead in sales to DC. Almost all companies have made their books available the same day and date digitally as they appear in print, leading many to bemoan the death of the comic book.

With that in mind, I give to you my Best of Comics for the year 2011. It’s been a hell of an exciting year in comics, and here are a few of the highlights.

Best Reason To Go Into Debt Buying a Comic: The Mighty Thor by Walter Simonson [Omnibus]

Clocking in at almost 1200 pages, this is Simonson’s entire run on the God of Thunder, plus almost 50 pages of additional material, including sketches and promotional material. Considered by many to be not only some of the best Thor stories of all time, but some of the best comics ever, this book is easily worth every penny of the $125 it costs.

Best Reason Late is Always Better Than Never: The New Teen Titans – Games [Graphic Novel]

First mentioned as far back as 1989, Games was for a long time one of the most high profile “lost” projects in comics. Approximately 80 pages of artwork had been finished and were sitting in a drawer and while there had been many attempts to revive the project over the years, nothing came of it.

Until this year, that is, when at long last, Games was finished, published and released to an eagerly awaiting fanbase. In many ways Games served as the perfect capstone to an era that started with The New Teen Titans #1 and ended with Flashpoint. Plus it was a great story to boot.

Best Comic Book Movie: The Avengers

I know what you’re thinking: “Um, dude? This movie doesn’t come out till next year.” Be that as it may, as good as Thor and X-Men: First Class might have been nothing got the comic book crowd as excited as when the Avengers trailer made its debut on the web.

The internet exploded, the trailer was downloaded millions of times and fanboys everywhere has a collective nerdgasm. You can count me among the many fans counting down the days till May of 2012. (more…)

This week marks the one year anniversary of the Comic Roundup, so how am I going to celebrate? By reviewing some comic books, of course! This week I look at the first issue of the new Defenders series, the Deadpool MAX Christmas Special and the first issue of the new Voltron title.

The Defenders #1
By Matt Fraction and Terry Dodson

When I first started reading comics, one of the first books I got into was The Defenders. The book had a unique blend of superheroes and just plain weirdness that appealed to me and still does. While there have been many attempts to revive the book over the years, none seemed (more…)

Although he still hasn’t quite recaptured his 1970s popularity, Bigfoot has experienced a bit of a comeback in recent years thanks to everything from beef jerky ads to low-budget Lance Henriksen films. Perhaps no other medium has welcomed him back with open, not nearly as hairy arms more than comics. The past decade has seen the nutritiously elusive beast grace works written by the likes of Steve Niles, Pascal Girard and Graham Roumieu. Sadly, this Sasquatch renaissance has yet to impact the City of Brotherly Love in any tangible way. But that’s all about to change thanks to Chris McDonnell.

A co-founder of the Meathaus comics collective, member of the Philadelphia Cartoonist Society and instructor at the University of the Arts, McDonnell has just released Sasquatch’s Big Hairy Drawing Book. Billing itself as “120 pages of dynamic drawing diversions,” the book offers up plenty of terrific doodling opportunities. McDonnell’s imagery is best decribed as a mutated combination of Al Jaffee and Basil Wolverton whimsy with plenty of Yo Gabba Gabba!-style joy thrown in. (Which isn’t surprising given that he has contributed animation to the trippy show). Through drawing monsters and completing half-formed comics and jokes, the book allows readers to free their inner cartoonist — resulting in a joyous experience for kids of all ages.

I recently had the opportunity to ask McDonnell about the release. (more…)

As I have written about before, one of the truly great things about webcomics is just the sheer amount of different types of comics you can find out there. Literally any type of webcomic can be found if you look hard enough. A perfect example is Ace Kilroy, a webcomic by local talent Rob Kelly and Dan O’Connor that I recently had the pleasure of being introduced to.

Ace Kilroy is the story “Special Agent” Ace Kilroy, a man living a life of mystery and intrigue in the world of the 1930s. The opening storyline features Ace going up against vampires in Transylvania as he searches for a fellow agent who ahs gone missing. Part Indiana Jones, part Phantom, part James Bond, the story is a mix of so many of types of genres that it’s hard not to find something to enjoy in his adventures.

Adding to the appeal is the stellar work of Kelly and O’Connor. The story moves at a steady, enjoyable pace and the art is some of the best I’ve ever seen in a new webcomic. You can also follow Ace on Twitter, read the blog and check him out on Facebook. Plus the guys have a Kickstarter campaign so that they can just focus on the comic and nothing else.

All in all, it’s an impressive debut for a webcomic. It updates everyday with a special color comic on Sundays. Getting in on the ground floor of any new comic is always fun, and Ace Kilroy promises to be a hell of a ride.

Ace Kilroy
www.acekilroy.com

Today’s Geek of the Week column features Brad Guigar, local graphic artist and web comic cartoonist.

Some of you might know this talented local guy from a number of his projects, including Greystone Inn and Evil Inc. Brad was kind enough to chat with me about his background in comic drawing, his inspirations, and how he creates such fabulous pieces of art.

Tell me a little bit about your history with comic drawing. How did you get started?

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a cartoonist. I remember getting How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way when I was about eight years old and carrying it with me everywhere. In college, I subscribed to the Detroit Free Press for one reason and one reason alone: Bloom County.

Without giving too many trade secrets away, what’s your usual process? What traditional or digital tools do you use?

I work in traditional pen-and-ink on a heavy Bristol board. I scan in the illustrations, doing touch-ups in Photoshop, add the lettering in InDesign, and send the master files to Ed Ryzowski, who has been coloring Evil Inc for several years now. He returns two versions, a high-res file for print and a low res file for Web. Typically, I have between two and six weeks of buffer – comics that are completely prepped and ready to be updated on the site.

The high-res files are then forwarded to the newspapers that I self-syndicate the strip to. (The Philadelphia Daily News for one) and reformatted into graphic novels, which I sell on my site.

How long have you been publishing your comics on the web?

I started in 2000 with Greystone Inn and switched to Evil Inc. in June 2005.

I’m a huge proponent of what self-publishing on the Web can do for creative professionals. In 2008, I co-wrote How to Make Webcomics which described the “webcomics business model” of making money by giving away your content for free. The book was extremely successful (it’s currently in its third printing) and it launched Webcomics.com, a site I run to offer advice and tutorials to other webcartoonists. (more…)

For all you comic book geeks and film fiends, head on over to National Mechanics on Sunday Dec 4th to catch an exclusive screening of the documentary Warren Ellis: Captured Ghosts.

Geekadelphia’s fave comic shop Brave New Worlds has teamed up with Sequart and Respect Films to present this documentary which captures the cult fame that Ellis has achieved as a comic book writer and “internet Jesus”.

Captured Ghosts will begin at National Mechanics in Old City starting at 7pm. Tickets for this one-time Philly viewing are $7 at the door, or better yet stop by Brave New Worlds ahead of time to pick up your ticket and pick up Transmetropolitan, my recommended reading for this event. This event is not to be missed!

Captured Ghosts @ National Mechanics
Sunday, December 4th, 7pm
www.nationalmechanics.com

It’s all about “New” in today’s Comic Roundup as I review the latest issues of Astonishing X-Men and Haunt, which both feature new creative teams, and the new issue of The Mighty Thor which features a whole new direction for everyone’s favorite Asgardian.

The Mighty Thor #8
By Matt Fraction and Pasqual Ferry

While Fear Itself may have limped to a rather lackluster ending, you just knew it was going to have big ramifications for the monthly Thor title. I mean, Odin’s gone and sealed up the way to Asgard-Space with him. Thor, the star of the book, is dead and there are now a ton of Asgardians trapped on Earth. (more…)

This week, before I get ready to chow down on some turkey, I check out Batman, Captain America and the first issue of Godzilla Legends. All this and more in the Comic Roundup!

Batman #3
By Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo

Thanks in no small part to Grant Morrison, Batman has been a book I haven’t been reading with any regularity. It’s not that I don’t like Morrison’s Batman magnum opus; it’s just that I wasn’t a fan of Dick Grayson as Batman. But thanks to the New 52, Bruce Wayne is back as the only Batman in Gotham and we have a kick-ass new series to go along with it. (more…)

In this week’s Comic Roundup, I review the first issue of the new Avenging Spider-Man series, Marvel’s Point One one-shot and the second issue of DC Comic’s new Huntress miniseries. Let’s Roll!

Avenging Spider-Man #1
By Zeb Wells and Joe Madureira

Don’t let the title of this comic fool you; Avenging Spider-Man is actually the return of the classic book Marvel Team-Up, just with a different name. They have tried to bring back the concept in the past to little success, but I think this time they might have gotten it right.

For the first arc Spider-Man teams up the Red Hulk (more…)

Mike Kennedy is a name that is probably familiar to make video gamers out there. He has done work for the likes of EA, Namco and Activision as both a writer and producer. But what you might not know is that Mike Kennedy is also quite the comic book writer, having written titles such as Ghost, Star Wars, Alien vs. Predator and Superman.

His most recent work is the graphic novel Bleedout from Archaia Entertainment, for which he is also the publisher. Mr. Kennedy was nice enough to do an email interview with me where he talks about working on Bleedout and his plans for his creative future.

When working on Bleedout, how did it feel to climb back into the comic book writer’s seat again?

It feels like I never really left that seat, but only because of all the writing I was doing on other, similar productions and video games… I completely lost track of how long it had been since I had a book on store shelves! A lot of those other productions incorporated comic-book narrative devices, motion comics, animated sequences, etc, so the comic book writer’s fix was constantly fed. But having a solid, physical, printed product on the shelves again is really satisfying!

Working with this particular lineup of artists just made it that much more exciting. Nathan Fox, Glenn Fabry, Vince Proce, Ben Templesmith, Tim Bradstreet, Trevor Hairsine… man, everyone brought their A-game, and it was a real rush. I’ve been friends with some of these guys for a while, fans of all of them, and working with them together on this book was a singular thrill. Howard Chaykin was a huge influence as a writer growing up, and to have him illustrate one of my scripts was surreal and awesome. That’s the kind of welcome back lineup everyone should experience at some point in their career…

Bleedout is distinctive in its origins as part webcomic/part graphic novel. Did this present any unique challenges in the writing?

Yeah, and it was even more complicated than that, actually. The story was initially conceived as cutscene material for 10 weekly “episodes” of downloadable content for the online MMO CRIMECRAFT. The script was structured to not only provide the player with background info for each week’s standalone portion of new gameplay, but to educate the player on the game’s mysterious backstory in cliffhanger-chunks that slowly grew, week-after-week, to reveal an engaging conspiracy that explodes into civil war inside the game realm. (more…)