Alex Maleev in Men's Health Magazine

In the latest issue of Men's Health (July/August issue) there are two interesting things of note.

1) My picture is on page 39. Twice.

2) In my continuing effort to get comics artists some editorial illustrations, I was able to convince the upper brass to assign an illustration to Alex Maleev. After showing them his previous work, it wasn't a hard sell. Featured on page 110, here's his sketches and final illo. Pick up an issue and check it out. Lose your gut in just 9 days while you're at it.

Please Excuse Our Absence

Sorry for the lack of updates this week. It' been crazy, as this is the last week of my current job (I'm moving to Complex Magazine) and also I just moved apartments yesterday. AND I'll be burning the midnight oil this week to finish the fourth issue of Comic Foundry Magazine before the end of the month. I just got a couple stories in yesterday, and they look pretty damn good. There's going to be some really solid content — as always, hopefully.

Comics in the NY Times...

BEHIND THE SCENES ON SUPERHERO SUBWAY GRAFFITI:
That insult to his work and his artistic background spurred Mr. Matos to create "A-U-T-O-matic," a work featuring the cogs of an art-making machine he knew he wasn't, as well as the Superman he could never be.
Read the full text here.

ALISON BECHDEL'S FUN HOME REVIEWED:
Alison Bechdel's "Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic" is an engrossing memoir that does the graphic novel format proud. The tale — about Ms. Bechdel's childhood, her father's death and their shared homosexuality — is painfully honest and richly detailed in words and images.
Read the full text here.

Typos are Eternal

When the solicitations for The Eternals first came out, I was quite happy. Neil Gaiman, John Romita, Todd Klein - they're calling in all the big guns. I hadn't read the original Kirby run so I came in fresh with an open mind. Everything was going great - good writing, good art...until all the typos starting popping up.

The first one I noticed was in a tv screen about 10 pages in. It was from the TV show "It's just so Sprite," or whatever it's called. It's surrouned by a bunch of people who are even saying, "It's just so Sprite." BUT on the actual TV screen the title says: ITS just so Sprite, instead of IT'S just so Sprite. Very obvious.

The second I spotted was less obvious, but wrong nonetheless. It also had to do with the Sprite show - on that same page it says the show is on the Tweeny network, but later in the book it's called the Tweenie network.

Now, I know these are just tiny little errors that hardly anyone noticed. And even if people did notice them it wouldn't change the story. But for such a high profile book, why isn't it being edited more closely? Who is (or isn't) looking at this book before it goes to press?

SUPERMAN RE-ENACTED BY BUNNIES IN 30 SECONDS

Click for video.

Voiced by Bryan Singer, Mike Dougherty (Superman Returns writer) and others.

MARVEL PR

AGENTS OF ATLAS INTERACTIVE SCAVENGER HUNT

Reintroducing the Atlas characters from the 1950’s in grand manner, Marvel is hosting an interactive scavenger hunt on the internet and in comic stores that allows fans to unlock parts of an exclusive online story leading up the six-issue limited-series Agents of Atlas.

And now, let the game begin…


Hello.

I speak for an organization known as The Atlas Foundation. We at Atlas feel that your "comic books" make an excellent recruiting venue for our global organization, and that Timely Comics (do not correct me- I do not acknowledge the recent name change) will serve a valuable role to that end.

I propose to honor our new arrangement by giving your readership a free story to read online– a serial adventure, if you will. Except ours is quite special as it details actual events from the year 1958. We shall meet on the inter-net to review this episodic narrative at a hidden location.

There is a common element relative to certain words in the list below. Once you know the three words that are connected, remove them. Unscramble the remaining anagram to guide you to your beginning inter-net destination.

HELPMATE MENACE FALSETTO VENUS ASTONISHING BOWLEG

I shall await your arrival…

It is believed this mysterious message has something to do with the fact that Marvel is publishing AGENTS OF ATLAS, a 6-issue limited series reuniting Marvel heroes from the late 1950s featuring Jimmy Woo, Venus, The Human Robot, Marvel Boy and Gorilla Man.

A game hint: Marvel.com is the fist stop on the hunt.

New York Post reveals Civil War #2 shocker!

I guess this is a spoiler, so, be warned.

















Wow, even though Marvel tipped their hand last week with releasing Thunderbolts too early, they flat out REVEAL the surprise shocker of Civil War #2. Why dance around it? I guess if they were afraid that if no one heard about it from reading the comic with a 20,000 circ, they might as well try again to blab the ending to a Top-10 circ newspaper in the country. I don't really understand the strategy behind that one.

COMIC HERO REVEALS ID
By DAREH GREGORIAN

June 14, 2006 -- Spider-Man's identity is about to become not-so-secret.
"My name is Peter Parker and I've been Spider-Man since I was 15 years old. Any questions?" the web wonder proclaims at a Times Square press conference in the comic "Civil War" No. 2, on sale today.

The announcement is the biggest change in the comic-book icon's status quo since he got hitched to Mary Jane Watson in 1987.
Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada called it "one of the biggest revelations in comic-book history." What Spider-Man does is "a comic-book taboo," he said.

The character comes out to support the Super-Hero Registration Act. The law, enacted after hundreds were killed in a superhero-supervillain fight, requires all superheroes to reveal their identities and register as "living weapons of mass destruction."

GAWKER JOINS IN THE FUN:
A breaking story from The Post's national news desk: Peter Parker is Spider-Man. Yes, that's right, Dareh Gregorian apparently attended the "Times Square press conference" where the web-slinger appeared "to support the Super-Hero Registration Act. The law, enacted after hundreds were killed in a superhero-supervillain fight, requires all superheroes to reveal their identities and register as 'living weapons of mass destruction.'" Lest some of you hard-core reality addicts out there object to straight reporting about a work of fiction, remember: It's The Post. Also, you must have missed last week's exclusive interview with Iron Man, where he admitted that he'd been sodomized by members of the Duke lacrosse team.

MoCCA Art Fest Photo Parade

(Photo courtesy of Heidi MacDonald, PW - Me and my smug smile on the right)

Comic Foundry was in full effect for the MoCCA Art Fest this weekend. We were selling limited print edition issues of Comic Foundry Magazine. Sales were good and great times were had by all. I also took a metric ton of photos that can be seen here.

Let's Get Nerdy

While I'm always one to delve into the realities of sci-fi and comics, this site takes the proverbial cake. They break down through reasoning, math and science How much power it would take to fuel the Death Star.

Feed your inner fanboy

To do today: Midtown Comics (45th and Lex) is having a 52 signing this afternoon from 4 to 6. The whole creative team will be there: Geoff Johns, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, JG Jones - everyone save Keith Giffen and Grant Morrison, who both backed out. Curiously enough, Morrison will at Forbidden Planet tomorrow.

Why? Because it's beautiful

Here is the process from James Jean's work for a card he did for Upper Deck a little while ago. I know they look great, but stop drooling all over your keyboard. Go check out his real site and see all the other amazing illos he's done (my fav is the dogman eating the sushi...) >> Go Here.

Shooting War Party a Success

I went by the Shooting War/Smith Magazine party last nite after work. I met Anthony Lappé and Dan Goldman — both nice guys. Good times were had by all, but then I had to run back to the CF office to do some work on the next issue.

The first chapter of Shooting War is already (first four, actually) and I highly encourage you to check them all out. Start HERE..

Make the Ultimate Thing costume out of real rocks

How to make the ULTIMATE THING costume out of real rocks. This trooper made a 110-pound costume out of real rocks for Comicon.

Check out the full HOW TO here.

Cutting Corners with Infinite Crisis

A recent e-mail from Spencer Beck, art dealer and owner of www.theartistschioce.com:

As you may have seen, DC recently solicited a Hardcover Collection of the 7 Infinite Crisis Issues. Due to turnarounds associated with getting the individual issues out close to their original schedules, certain artistic choices were made in the interest of expediency that they are now choosing to fix as part of the Hardcover collection. Until the decisions are made as to which pages will be modified and how those modifications are to be done, DC editorial has chosen to not release the pages back from Issues 2-7 until this process is complete.

As to the other pages, I wish I had better news to tell you or be able to give you an ETA as to when DC will complete this process. Since DC does not have a schedule for the completion of this process, I don't have one to give you.

I'm sorry for any frustration this may cause you. This is the first time this has ever happened at either DC or Marvel with a book after publication and hopefully the last.

Hmmm....certain artistic choices were made in the interest of expediency? Sure, it happens all the time, but what corners did DC cut with their biggest title of the year?