Todd Klein's Blog, page 337

SDCCI 2011 Sunday

Woke up this morning with that tired dragged-out feeling that means the con is almost over, and just as well. After breakfast with the guys I went over to the Convention Center to the DC booth and joined some of the FABLES crew for an hour of signing. That was great, it's always fun to meet our fans and sign things for them.

Then I walked through the Marvel booth, where this giant Avengers logo caught my eye, promoting the next big Marvel film. I don't know who designed this logo, which is the best-known one from the comics, but may find out whenever I get around to doing a logo study on the group.

For the first time in several years I actually saw someone at the Marvel booth who I work with, writer Jonathan Hickman, and was able to meet him briefly. He writes the S.H.I.E.L.D. series I'm lettering for Marvel that is quite good, I think.

Passing the Archaia booth I said hi to Janet Lee and Jim McCann, busy signing their Eisner-winning book, RETURN OF THE DAPPER MEN. And look, they're signing on the bookplate page which I designed with open space for just that purpose. Nice when those things work out.

BBC America had promotions for the new Dr. Who series in a few places around the Exhibit Hall, this large Tardis being one of them. I wondered why it was so large until one of the booth workers came out of it with boxes of product for the rest of the booth. Must be quite handy to have a storage space that's larger on the inside. Hmm, hope the Daleks don't find out…

It was time for lunch, and I was thinking of going outside for some, but I stopped to talk to Scott Hampton, and he suggested we go to the mysterious DC Comics Green Room, where those in the know can acquire free food. He invited me along, and I thought it sounded like a good idea. We each chose a tasty lunch box, mine with a healthy veggie wrap, as well as chips and a brownie, and there were plenty of beverage choices as well. We each had a few good conversations while eating our lunch, and I snapped this picture through the window overlooking the con floor.

Scott headed back to his table, and I decided it was time for some fresh air, and went outside for a walk.

Walking around the side of the Con Center to the back, I found this interesting. All around the center there are these patterns in the concrete block walls, and the groundskeepers have ivy growing on them. This is a new batch just starting…

…and here's a nearly complete section. They trim out some of the recessed diamonds, making a very attractive natural decoration. Wonder how many con-goers ever notice it?

Here's the back of the Con Center, or at least some of it, with pleasant lawns and sidewalks.

Then you can walk farther into the Embarcadero park extending out past the marina into the harbor.

The park is lovely, with grassy lawns, benches, and exotic trees, this one in improbable bloom.

Along the water's edge are rocky breakwaters with a few birds like this Heerman's Gull. There's a fishing pier, and picnic tables where some locals were enjoying their Sunday afternoon.

Part of the park holds the outdoor concert stage for the San Diego Symphony's Summer Pops concerts. Some years back I heard film composer Elmer Bernstein conduct music from a few of his films here, great fun.

Out on the water people were enjoying a harbor tour.

And perhaps even more fun, sailing in the refreshing ocean breeze.

I sat out there for a while enjoying the atmosphere, and there were a few other adventurous folks with Con badges around. A good way to keep things in perspective. Then I went back inside for about an hour. I found DC editor Shelly Bond manning the Vertigo table alone, so I sat and talked to her for a while, as well as a few other folks. Said goodbye to friends that came by.

Finally around 3 PM I decided it was time to leave the con for the last time. I was tired of it, and getting back to my hotel for a nap sounded like a good idea. Just as well, the Daleks were showing up. You know the con is over when that happens.

This evening I'll have a relaxing dinner with some friends, a good way to wind down, and I have a party invite if I feel up to it, or I may just come back and pack. I'll be leaving early tomorrow for the flight home. Hope you've enjoyed these reports, I'll be back to blogging in a few days.

SDCCI 2011 Saturday

Lots of pictures today, so I'm going to try for briefer descriptions. Here's Scott Hampton at his table with a great Batman commission piece.

I've been having breakfast with him as well as these guys, artists John VanFleet, Chris Moeller, Durwin Talon, and Dave Dorman, a group I think of as "the breakfast club" at my hotel. Had a great discussion with John this morning about 3D modeling, something he does a lot of now.

Here's Chris Moeller working on a pencil sketch.

And Durwin Talon with a very nice print from a new graphic novel project he's doing for Archaia. You can find more about all these artists on their websites.

Something new in Artists' Alley this year was this group of about six digital workstations sponsored by DeviantArt.com. They were being used by artists to create digital art, and fans as well.

Here's Gary Gianni with an upcoming project, a lavishly illustrated version of H.P. Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu." Behind him is a poster promoting another project with Ray Bradbury that looks great.

Had a good chat with artist Peter Kuper, doing "Spy Vs. Spy" for Mad Magazine in his unique style, but of course based on the work of the feature's creator Prohas.

I also enjoyed talking to artist Sergio Cariello, who I think I've worked with but never met in person. I was interested to learn that his comics career began on staff at Marvel doing lettering, among other things.

As a break from comics stuff, I love to browse at the Century Guild booth, where original prints and paintings by artists I love can be seen, though all are well out of my price range.

This year they had pages from one of Alphonse Mucha's printed works, which were a delight to see.

Here's another page, and there were a dozen more unframed. Less well-known than his advertising posters, this is prime Mucha work. I talked a bit with Century Guild Head Curator Stuart Tomc about how he finds the great art they sell, and as I suspected, it's not easy. Have a look at their website, www.centuryguild.net to see more.

One of my favorite panels is Quick Draw, hosted by Mark Evanier, where Sergio Aragones, Scott Shaw and other guest artists do quick, funny drawings on demand, projected onto screens for the large audience to enjoy. It didn't disappoint, and provided lots of laughs. One surprising guest in the "mystery words" game was Saturday Night Live alumni Laraine Newman, who did well guessing the words from the artists' drawings.

Heading back down to the Exhibit Hall from the program area, the inevitable "Time Tunnel" shot you'll probably see in many con photos.

In the hall I once again ran into friend and fan Henrik Andreasen, and had a good talk with him…

…along with writer/artist Don Rosa, who I hadn't seen in a few years. Sadly, vision problems have pretty much ended Don's art career, though he can see well enough to enjoy the con, and seemed happy to be here. We talked about some new collections of his Uncle Scrooge stories coming from European publisher Egmont, among other things.

I had a good talk with Vertigo head Karen Berger in the DC booth about Vertigo's position now that DC has become more of a movie studio-run company. I came away feeling encouraged that Vertigo's direction and product will continue much as before, though Karen did admit she has to be a lot more budget conscious now. But Karen assured me she still has the strong support of the company management, and I was glad to hear that.

You'll probably see these radio-controlled flying shark toys in other con photos, but they are quite cool.

I don't take many costume pics, but I liked this Lobo costume (don't know who the lady is meant to be).

In the afternoon I attended the spotlight panel for Anina Bennett and Paul Guinan, where they were surprised to receive Inkpot Awards, and I enjoyed hearing about how they got into comics, their careers in the business, and lots about their latest project, BOILERPLATE, which I have at home but haven't read yet. It's been optioned for a film by J.J. Abrams, creator of "Lost," so I hope that works out.

Artist Bruce Timm working on some Joker sketches in his wonderful, lively animation style.

I enjoyed talking to Terry Moore, shown here with his latest project. I worked with Terry recently on an issue of FABLES, where he was the guest artist.

Here's a bit of personal trivia. Of all the hundreds of cover and character logos I've designed in my career, the one with the longest continuous use was not done for DC or Marvel, but for this small press magazine that reprints classic comic strips. I did it for publisher Rick Norwood in 1985, and he's used it ever since. COMICS REVUE has recently passed the 300 issues mark, quite an achievement for a small press book.

"A Game of Thrones" series author George R.R. Martin signing at the Tor Books booth. I can't wait to read the latest volume, and am tempted to buy it here, but I don't want to carry it home, it's quite a heavy book!

Michael Zulli's new graphic novel, "Fracture of the Universal Boy,"  is finally out, and I'm looking forward to reading it. Michael is so photogenic, isn't he?

And in the same gallery booth I finally got to meet FABLES cover artist Joao Ruas for the first time. Love his FABLES covers, as well as the short "Three Blind Mice" story he did for FABLES 100 that I got to letter.

Caught up with writer Steve Seagle, here holding a Vertigo graphic novel we worked on together a few years ago. I should be working on a new one of his soon.

My day at the con ended on the annual FABLES panel, along with a growing lineup of artists and writiers, which included cover artist Adam Hughes this year. As has become my tradition, I took some audience photos from the podium.

Bill Willingham was his usual entertaining self hosting the panel, and giving out FABLES projects info along with introducing everyone. There were also bonus giveaways and prizes again this year, including a new one-page story produced just for this panel.

The fans loved it, and we could have easily done two hours instead of one, not to mention filling an even bigger room, so maybe that will happen next year. Info on new FABLES series FAIREST, which Adam Hughes is doing covers for, was well received, along with news about the ongoing monthly and other things. I'm sure you can get all the details on the comics news sites.

The biggest giveaway was Boy Blue's bugle, an actual bugle with Boy Blue's name engraved on the case, which was signed by everyone on the podium. The lucky winner was this happy fan, first name Aprotim(sorry I didn't get your last name). FABLES fans are the best, and Bill and crew work hard to make these panels fun and rewarding!

Later I attended the annual "Fables and Friends" dinner, where good food and great conversation was the order of the day. I sat next to and enjoyed talking to actor Phil LaMarr, a FABLES fan, as well as Allison Hughes, and enjoyed talking to Adam, Bill, Chris Roberson, Matt Sturges and others, though the group was so large I couldn't talk to everyone. I'll be signing at the DC booth today with the FABLES team, too.

One more con report coming for Sunday, either later today or after I'm home, depending on how the day goes.

SDCCI 2011 Friday Part 2

This will be a short entry for two reasons. First, I don't have any photos…I did bring my camera, but good photo ops never happened, or I forgot to take any. Second, I was out late last night and slept in a bit, so I have to get over  to the con.

The Eisner awards were long, as always, but a little less long this year. They had a TV producer running it, and some of the speeches and applause moments were cut out or down this year, so it went just a bit over three hours.

I won my 16th Best Lettering Eisner, something I truly wasn't expecting. I mean, everyone knows I've already won a lot of them, and while I was happy to be nominated again, I thought for sure someone else would win. Therefore, I had nothing prepared to say, and my thank-you's were brief. Come on, people, do I really need more awards? Seriously, I do appreciate it, and feel very lucky for the support from fans and pros alike. Unfortunately most of the people nominated for things I worked on did not win, I'm sorry about that, but I did think the winners I've read were all deserving. I won't try to list winners here, you can find that elsewhere, but I was very happy to see Patrick McDonnell win the Bob Clampett Humanitarian Award for all his charity work for animals and animal rights groups. Of the hosts and presenters, they saved the best for last: Dave Gibbons and Jonathan Ross. Ross was hilarious, and Dave held his own quite well! I got to meet several folks I hadn't met yet, including Joe Hill (very briefly), and talk to other folks I hadn't found yet this year, and it was a good evening.

After I walked over to Trickster with friends Dave Gibbons and Henrik Andreasen (Denmark's überfan who knows everyone) to hear Mike Allred's band "The Gear," playing in the bar. They were pretty good, in a punkish vein, so not really my style, and a bit too loud for me. Trickster is interesting, a combination bar and comics shop run by comics creator Scott Morse. Behind the bar is a shop holding mostly comics in book form, small press comics, art books and artwork. A nice collection, and worth a visit if you're here. I guess it's a year-round shop, not sure. I left after about 40 minutes and headed back to my hotel, where I hit the pillow around 1 AM.

Okay, back to the con I go, I'll report on Saturday next time.

SDCCI 2011 Friday Part 1

Friday morning I had breakfast with Scott Hampton and friends, always good to talk to them. They're at my hotel, so I'll probably see them other mornings. When I was ready to go to the con, I just missed the shuttle bus, so decided to walk down, and took the route along the north side of the railroad tracks. Here's the oldest part of the Convention Center from there.

Promotions continue to spill out of the con into the surrounding area, and part of the Tin Fish bar was taken over by this movie promo. There were other similar ones, leaving fewer places to eat around the end of the gaslamp district.

Here's another for "Total Recall" with a life-size flying police car and heavily made-up models.

Instead of crossing the tracks there I went further down to the new pedestrian bridge connecting the ballpark and the Bayview Hilton, as I hadn't walked across it yet.

It was impossible to resist taking a picture of this giant balloon Smurf next to the bridge, even though I'm not a Smurf fan.

You can really see how massive the Con Center is from the bridge, looking west. Way down at the end, barely visible, is the part in my first photo above. And in the small grassy park tents were up to shade people waiting in line for the big movie cast events in Ballroom H.

I guess if you have to wait hours in line, this isn't a bad option, enjoying the nice weather, but I still don't understand the line thing. I was walking behind one girl who complained she'd waited over four hours to get into one of these programs, and just missed the cutoff, so it was all for nothing.

Inside at Artist's Alley I talked to favorite author Peter Beagle and got his autograph on his latest book.

I also ran into Alex Wald, who I've talked to on the phone about his past DC logo designs, but never met in person, and we had a good chat about logos and working the design and production side of comics. Alex is doing that for the newly relaunched First Comics.

In a similar vein I talked to Jim Steranko, and was finally able to ask him about his famous X-Men logo and how it came about. Jim said he hated the then current logo, and when designing covers for his brief run on the book, couldn't work with it, so complained to Marvel production head Sol Brosdky. Brodsky told him, "Do whatever you want. If you can do a better one, go ahead." Steranko did that, and created the most famous and most used X-Men logo to date. You can read more about that in my X-Men logo study (see the Logo Links page in the top tabs here). And Steranko was quick to add that he'd never been paid a cent for the logo.

Speaking of old comics, this copy of ACTION #1  was on display at the Heritage Auctions booth, giving me a chance to study the cover…

…and I noticed some details on Superman I'd never seen before. Look at that chest emblem: it's mostly a large yellow shield with a small and thin red S, very different from what it later became. And those two circles on either side of the S can only be nipples! Who knew the famous Batman and Robin costumes with nipples so ridiculed by many fans had their precedent here!

I attended parts of two panels around noon: the Locke and Key panel first, where I was hoping to hear about the comics, but all the talk was of the TV pilot. I did enjoy hearing writer/creators Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez talk, though. Then I caught the second half of Patrick McDonnell's spotlight panel, where he had lots of funny things to say and show about his great comic strip "Mutts," and also revealed for the first time he just signed a deal for an animated "Mutts" film with Fox Animation! Very good news, and he says he'll be closely involved, so let's hope it works out well.

Back in the Exhibit Hall I said hi to artist Bill Sienkiewicz (whose name I learned to spell correctly long ago) and watched him sketch a bit. Interesting technique, using almost the side of a marker point.

I also talked with Gabriel Ba, on the right here with his booth-mate Rafael Albuquerque, and wished them well at the Eisners tonight.

At the Vertigo/DC booth, Rebecca Guay was signing, and I finally got to meet her. I've recently lettered a great painted graphic novel she did the art for, "A Flight of Angels," coming from Vertigo.

There were chats with other friends like Gary Gianni and Dave Gibbons, and I caught one more panel, the best of the day, Mark Evanier's "That 70s Panel," with great stories from Walter and Louise Simonson, Roy Thomas, Mike Royer, Len Wein and Joe Staton, each talking about their first work in comics, among other things.

Back in my hotel room now for a rest before the Eisners. I'll report on that tomorrow.

SDCCI 2011 Thursday

What is usually the longest day of my year began when my alarm went off at 4 AM. I showered, shaved, dressed, had a bowl of cereal and orange juice, brushed my teeth, got my bags into the car, kissed Ellen goodbye, and drove to the airport in Philadelphia for my trip to San Diego Comic-Con International, getting to the gate around 7:40 for an 8:20 flight. I flew Southwest for the first time this year, and it was fine. Their egalitarian approach to seating was different, but worked well: no seat assignments, just a boarding order, then you choose your own seat. No first class, everyone's equal. I connected through Phoenix where I had time for a pretty good sushi lunch, and arrived in San Diego around 1:30 PM. Took a taxi to my hotel, where they didn't have a room ready for me yet (but I expected that), so checked my larger bag after putting the heavier stuff from my smaller bag into it, and headed to the shuttle bus to the convention center.

As usual that took a while, but worth it to save my feet, which I'll be torturing over the next few days. As always, the weather in San Diego is gorgeous, especially in the afternoon when any morning fog has dissipated. Weather-wise, San Diego is as close to Paradise as I've ever been. But, of course, I'd be spending much of my time inside at the con, which I'm always a little regretful about.

After a bit of unnecessary extra walking (being too stubborn to check the map on my phone), I found the area to get my Pro badge and hit the convention floor around 2:30. As in most years, I'll be wandering around taking in the entire con experience, meeting old friends and workmates to chat, attending a few panels and events, having dinner with friends, and generally enjoying myself, so that's the con experience I'll be reporting on here. Above, writer Len Wein signs a new SPEED RACER comic, which he told me he's editing and doing some writing for. Len is also writing a few things for DC Comics again, which I was happy to hear. Most of them are sort of "retro," and I asked him how he felt about that. Len said it's kind of odd for him. He likes getting the work, but wonders why no one ever thinks of him for more contemporary properties.

One of the con guests I was hoping to meet is Patrick McDonnell, the writer/artist of the comic strip "Mutts," a favorite at our house, and happily, I found him sketching his dog character at a table, and was able to tell him how much Ellen and I enjoy his strip. McDonnell lives in New Jersey, as we do, so many of his themes, like the summer beach trips, are very familiar to us, and Ellen even has an "Animal Friendly" license plate with his characters on it. He was great to talk to.

At the Heritage Auctions booth were some items on display that interested me. This is a first edition Lovecraft book from Arkham house with a beautiful dust jacket by artist Virgil Finlay that I've never seen before. It's hard to imagine an artist less suited to illustrating Lovecraft, but that that aside, this is fine work. (Just the naked woman alone would have horrified the author, I'm sure.)

Next to it was this early issue of the Silver Age FLASH that I remember seeing when it was new in a drugstore when I was a kid, and I begged my mom to buy it for me, but she said no. Of course, if I had gotten it, it would not be in the nearly perfect condition of this one even if I still had it. I did get to read the story a few years later when it was reprinted in, I think, FLASH ANNUAL #1.

And to illustrate the diversity of the con, right across the aisle was a vendor selling piles of pretty nice reading copies of many great old comics for $5 or $10 each. Saw a few here I used to have as well. When I see things like this I'm tempted to buy a few to read, but usually resist the urge, as when I've tried rereading old comics from my childhood I'm usually disappointed.

I ran into Scott McCloud at the First Second booth, looking happy and healthy in great contrast to the last time I saw him in New Orleans, when he got quite ill. Scott reports his health is fine, with the help of some medication, and he's doing well.

Last year at San Diego Mark Wheatley had a few of these digital paintings on display as prints, and I really liked them. He talked about how hard it was for him to get a foot in the door in this area. This year he's got a very nice collection of them out in book form, which he was gracious enough to give me, and says he's having much better luck getting this kind of work in comics and elsewhere. Good for him, it's really fine stuff.

Here's Steve Leialoha at his table in the Small Press area. Steve does publish small books of his own work, but is better known as the inker of FABLES, and sells his art for that as well. On many of the pages for sale, Steve has inked over blue-line prints of Mark Buckingham's pencils. The art looks great, and that way both he and Mark have their original art to sell. We talked the pros and cons of this method. Some buyers want the original pencils inked, and I can certainly understand that, but these pages are nice, too.

The handsome lettering on this movie poster for early Walt Disney work caught my eye at one of the art booths.

Over in Artists' Alley, Tom Yeates showed me some of his fine work on a western graphic novel he's working on. It will be printed in black and white, and captures the feel of western films quite well.

I was very happy to see old friends Nick Cuti and Joe Staton signing copies of their newly reprinted E-MAN collection, marking the return of First Comics. This reprints the original E-Man run from Charlton Comics in 1973-74, a favorite of mine at the time, and I had to buy one and get it signed by them. I hope it's as much fun to reread as it looks, I think it will be. And the reproduction and new coloring are excellent. Joe told me he still has nearly all the original art, so it was newly scanned for this edition.

I caught part of the First Comics panel, headed by company director Ken Levin. Also involved and present are designer Alex Wald, writer Max Allan Collins, and writer Bill Willingham, as well as Nick and Joe. I didn't have time to hear more of their publishing plans, but I'll be looking for their books.

After that I walked over to the Vertigo panel with Willingham and Collins, and listened to Karen Berger and many Vertigo creators talk about what's going on at the imprint. I knew a lot of it, have worked on some of it, but still enjoyed the presentation and slide show.

There were plenty of other meetings and things seen on Thursday, but that's enough for this report. After getting back to my hotel and finally checking in around 7 PM, I went to a dinner party hosted by editor Shelly Bond for the iZOMBIE team and had a great time chatting with writer Chris Roberson, artist Mike Allred, and others. The meal and conversation was great, but I was getting really really tired now, and a glass of wine didn't help. I headed back to my room and hit the pillow around 10 PM, having been up and on the move for 19 hours, including the three extra hours from the time change. Now you know why it's my longest day! I'll report on Friday next.

And Then I Read: LOCKE & KEY: CROWN OF SHADOWS, KEYS TO THE KINGDOM

Images © Joe Hill and IDW.

I hardly know where to start describing this series because it has so many aspects, all of them terrific. First, it's a fantasy with deep roots. The town of Lovecraft seems a fairly typical New England coastal town except for the Keyhouse and its grounds on the outskirts, a large house belonging to the Locke family, where the present residents have recently arrived from California after the death of their father. Keyhouse is a place full of wonders, and many of those wonders are unlocked with very unusual keys, like the one on the cover. In this third collection, the history and number of those keys continues to expand little by little, both in the main story and in the supplement, "The Known Keys," where the maker of the keys (and builder of the house) in a past century is becoming more apparent. The fantasy element to this series mainly revolves around the magical things the keys can do, such as giving one wings, turning one into a ghost, making any door a direct link to almost any other door, and many more fascinating things.

But in the main story, the focus is more on the horrible things that keep happening to the Locke family and their friends, and this is also a horror story with an evil villain masquerading as a friend, violent death, cruel treatment both physical and psychological, and dark places guaranteed to creep you out. Despite their ignorance of the true villainy around them, the Locke children and their mother manage somehow to get on with their lives as best they can in trying circumstances, each of them badly scarred by the death of their father/husband, each carrying secrets and hidden wounds of the soul. The characters are wonderfully well developed, from young Bode to sister Kinsey to older brother Tyler, each with a rich social life and friends that figure into the story.

In my review of the first two collections I complained a little about one aspect of the art by Gabriel Rodriguez: the fact that the facial features of his characters tend to be too similar. But the art on this series has become so appealing to me, full of rich detail, wonder, magic, and at times playfulness, not to mention horrific and suspenseful and unflinchingly cruel where required, that I hardly noticed that small flaw. In fact, I think it's fading away. I love the art on this series as much as the writing.

So what does volume 4, Keys to the Kingdom, add to this great series? New keys, of course, each more fascinating than the last. The musical key on the cover, for instance, unlocks a music box, and what happens when the music plays will surprise you! Then there's the first chapter, which is an homage to the comic strip "Calvin and Hobbes," both in storytelling style and art, that nonetheless advances the story and is full of suspense, terror and gruesome death, while at the same time being quite funny. Tour-de-force writing and art! And the rest of the collection is just a wonderful.

Here's a page revealing another creative key, this one with the ability to change a person's race. How's that for inventive? And Rodriguez' art continues to evolve, getting better all the time.

This is a book full of great ideas, and terrific storytelling, inventive and playful, chilling, suspenseful and heart-wrenching. In short, it's brilliant. I hesitate to delve further into the plot because I think every reader deserves a chance to plunge into this world and discover it for themselves. It gets my HIGHEST recommendation.

And Then I Read: ABIN SUR 1

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

I guess the idea of this miniseries, part of the Flashpoint event, was to give Abin Sur, featured in the Green Lantern film, a chance in the spotlight, in a world where he's still the Green Lantern of our space sector, and battling evil on behalf of Oa. The Flashpoint universe is quite different, though, and I can only say I find it confusing here, dropping into ongoing battles across space with The Manhunters (also featured in a new DC video game) and the Black Lanterns (from previous Geoff Johns events), while on Earth there are lots more battles going on. As usual, the Guardians of the Universe are in the way, forbidding Abin Sur to help on Earth, part of his sector, but he defies them and heads there anyway. Meanwhile, Sinestro and Atrocitus are plotting more evil.

The art by Felipe Massafera is fine, combining pencil and digital paint techniques in a generally appealing way. Some of the figures seem over-rendered: too many lines of too many colors, but it's not a big issue.

I can't really get into the whole Flashpoint world view, though, and probably won't be reading more of this title. That might be just me, so if it sounds interesting to you, have a look.

And Then I Read: FLASHPOINT 1

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

This new DC crossover event reads a lot like an Elseworlds story, where familiar characters are in a world or setting with major differences from the one we know, differences that have changed the course of their lives and careers. Barry Allen, the Flash in our world, is dropped into this reality created, I believe, by the Reverse Flash through his going into the past and making crucial changes in the world these super-characters know. Geoff Johns headlines this event once again, where for instance Batman is a major casino owner, and the Green Lantern is Abin Sur rather than Hal Jordan. Naturally there are many dark deeds going on in this dystopian reality, but Barry Allen finds he is NOT The Flash in this world, and while he has some happy surprises, like his mother still being alive and well, he's also in for quite a few unhappy shocks.

The art by Andy Kubert and Sandra Hope is great, no complaints there. I don't know that I can get very involved in this storyline, though, knowing that it will be short-lived and probably will have no effect once DC relaunches their entire line in September. I certainly don't plan to read many of the myriad spinoff books, but will probably look at a few of them. This all feels more like a stunt than an important event to me, though.

Mildly recommended.

Birds at the beach

Most New Jersey beaches are crowded with people this time of year, but in a few places there are beaches where no swimming is allowed, and where the birds have a chance to enjoy the seaside as well. Here's Ellen collecting some large clam shells on our walk at Stone Harbor Point late yesterday afternoon, one such place.

After gulls, the most common beach birds are Sanderlings, those little shorebirds you see running back and forth with the waves, even on beaches with quite a few people. These are enjoying some rest time, and perfectly reflected in the wet sand.

Willets are much larger shorebirds that we rarely see on the beach itself, they're usually in the back bays feeding on the mud flats. Despite their large size (almost as big as the average gull) they have no distinctive marks when standing.

When they fly, though, large white and black patches on their wings make the identification easy, as does their frequent self-naming call, "Will-Willet! Will-Willet!"

We were glad to see about six Piping Plovers on this beach. It's an endangered species, and some were clearly young birds born this year, so that's a good thing.

Didn't take many gull pictures, but this one of a Ring-Billed Gull with a crab he caught seemed worthy.

This feather from an immature gull was a nice find. I took it home for the cats to play with, and tied to a string on a stick, entertained them for about half an hour last evening. They love it.

There are far more shells on this beach than the one where we swim, including a few Razor Clam shells. Haven't seen any of those in a few years. It's named for the shape of an old-fashioned straight razor handle.

Probably the most colorful shorebirds we saw were a few Oystercatchers like this one. Another large shorebird with a black head and bright orange beak that some birders describe as a "carrot." I've never actually seen one cracking open an oyster, which are rare on our beaches, but I'm sure they could.

Great day for a beach walk, we'll go swimming ourselves later today.

And Then I Read: TOMAR-RE 1

Images © DC Comics, Inc.

Another tie-in to the film in which the idea is to write a story about one of the characters that will serve as a prequel to the events of the movie. Writer Marc Guggenheim does pretty well, establishing this Tomar-Re (as opposed to the one in the Silver Age comics) as an ace Green Lantern, sent after a deadly foe, one who tries to escape by entering the "Lost Sector," an idea from the comics written by Geoff Johns I believe. That's a place where Green Lanterns are forbidden to go by the Guardians, and in the film we see why, but here Tomar-Re follows anyway, and is placed in a moral dilemma by his foe, The Anarchist. I liked this part of the plot, though it remains largely unresolved unless you've seen the film.

The art by Cliff Richards isn't bad, but his depiction of Tomar-Re is disappointing after seeing the cool film version on the cover. Richards has failed to get the look of the nose or trunk (or beak?), and it instead looks like a very large mustache in most panels. Otherwise he does a nice job, though.

Can't say I liked this one as much as the KILOWOG book, but it's not bad and recommended.