BC Refugees Blog

In early 2010, both DC and Marvel took their companies in new directions, choosing to commemorate those occasions with powerful new storylines.  For DC, it was Brightest Day , fundamentally tied to the stories Geoff Johns had been telling in  Green Lantern and  Blackest Night; for Marvel, it was  The Heroic Age , celebrating the end of the dark era begun with Avengers: Disassembled , concluded in Siege .  Both directions have their merits, and both launched new titles. I haven't had much time or inclination to post on this blog lately, but I felt a need to take the time today.  Two of these titles are just phenomenal, and absolutely worth a look.  I think that DC and Marvel are really publishing some fascinating material, with original stories and engaging characters. Hawkeye and Mockingbird , by Jim McCann, David Lopez and Alvaro Lopez, is, by far, my new favorite title from either company.  McCann and Lopez had the opportunity to play with these characters last year in the  Dar...

I'm still working on my big "Siege" roundup, but in the meantime please enjoy Michael Cho's wonderful painted cover to the upcoming  Adventures of Superboy  hardcover (featuring stories from the 1940's). You can also see Cho's preliminary sketches on  his blog .

There are lots of remembrances of Harvey Pekar on the usual comic sites, but you may have missed  this one from chef, author and travel show host Anthony Bourdain . Pekar was on the Cleveland episode of Bourdain's show a few years back -- unfortunately it doesn't seem to be available for free online, but it is on Amazon on Demand  for $1.99 if you're interested  -- and Bourdain is a great writer and a decent guy, despite his reputation (watch his hour from Beirut  during the 2006 war if you doubt me), whose piece is worth reading. Edited to add: Tom Spurgeon's comprehensive list of c ommentary and reaction around the Internet  to Pekar's passing is  here .

  I was not prepared for _ _ _ _ _ _  this interview.  (More on that later) . . . . . . . . . .                ARCHIE is an American institution, right up there with mom, apple pie, baseball, and small towns.   Awareness through the decades?  Absolutely !  Everybody on the street is familiar in one way or another with Archie, Betty & Veronica, Jughead, Riverdale High , etc.           Despite the availability of everything Archie throughout my formative years, I never sought out the books,  cartoon shows, or pop music unless it was handed to me or just happened to provide background noise from the television or radio.   I didn’t dislike Archie & Co.  I just wasn’t interested.  Super-hero fare was much more appealing to me.  I also considered the Archie comics to be formulaic, following a car...

Tickets On Sale, Hotel Discounts Available for the 2010 Baltimore Comic-Con! Check out the extensive guest list - -  if you see you favorite writers and/or artists there, keep reading and make your plans to attend! Baltimore, Maryland - July 8, 2010 - Tickets for the Baltimore Comic-Con, to be held on August 28 and August 29, 2010 at the Baltimore Convention Center, are now on sale!            To do so on-line, please follow http://www.ticketmaster.com/Baltimore-Convention-Center-tickets-Baltimore/venue/172201 to purchase your Two-Day, Saturday, or Sunday passes.  Tickets can also be purchased in person at Cards, Comics & Collectibles of Reisterstown, MD (100A Chartley Drive, Reisterstown, MD  21136), or at any show or convention at which Cards, Comics & Collectibles is exhibiting.          "We've been getting a lot of questions about when tickets would be ...

                    This Sunday, Fourth of July (2010 version),  will find me in Newark, Delaware at the Flea Market/Collectibles Show in the parking lot of Captain Blue Hen Comics at 204 E. Main Street. Technorati Tags: Captain Blue Hen events always draw a good crowd. Pictured = FCBD 2010.           I’ll have lots of comics priced from 25 cents to one dollar,including some current issues. I’ve also put together some sets and story arcs to sell complete at bargain prices.  There should also be some miscellaneous games, DVDs, books, etc. at garage sale prices.           There won’t be quite as many comics and collectible  vendors as last year since the neighbor Whole Foods Market is also holding their monthly Farmers Market on the same day.  It just means a bigger crowd, and t...

Of course I couldn't resist sharing this new (to me, anyway) Hellcat art that David Lafuente posted  on his blog  to mark the occasion of the collected "Patsy Walker: Hellcat" trade was chosen for the  Toronto Public Library Word Out! 2010 reading list . Congratulations to Mr. Lafuente and Kathryn Immonen! (Her current Marvel weekly mini-series "Heralds" is terrific, by the way.)

Gail Simone  sings the praises of "Birds of Prey" artist Ed Benes .

from a recent press release RADICAL PUBLISHING AND FULL CLIP PRODUCTIONS ANNOUNCE IMPRINT DEAL           July 01, 2010, Los Angeles , CA – Radical Publishing and Full Clip Productions are proud to announce that they have entered into an imprint deal. Under this agreement, Full Clip Productions, the company headed by actor Sam Worthington and his partners Michael Schwarz and John Schwarz , will develop intellectual property to be produced under the Radical banner. Worthington and John Schwarz will star in the film adaptations of select projects.           The first project in development under the imprint is Damaged , created by John Schwarz and Michael Schwarz, and written by Eisner Award winner David Lapham ( Stray Bullets ), the story centers on two brothers committed to justice in different ways – one inside the law, one violently beyond it. Now, with the end of their careers appr...

Artist Chris Samnee's sketch about today's  Wonder Woman changes  is a hoot: So Aquaman found this on the bottom of the ocean There's a second panel at that link that makes the joke, and Samnee's blog is well worth following for lots of great sketches like  these . Edited to add: Samnee and others (including Francesco Francavilla and  Mitch Breitweiser ) also post sketches weekly at  Comic Twart .

I don't know when you'll get to read this, since at this writing I don't have power at home or Internet at work, but below are my thoughts on some recent DC Universe books. (I already covered the Superman books recently, and I'll get to "Batman" after Marvel's "Siege" books.) All these books take place after "Blackest Night" but my commentary is as spoiler-free as I can make it, except that I will be discussing the endings of "Rise of Arsenal" and "Titans: Villains for Hire". Adventure Comics 12 : Apparently the plan is to do "Superboy & the Legion" stories set in the past in this book, while the Legion picks up from "New Krypton" in their own book. So far, so good, as Paul Levitz starts with a tale that works on two levels: both as a thematic complement to Geoff Johns' issues (Clark makes a list) and as a little easter egg for longtime Legion fans (explaining why the Legion started eras...

Fair warning: I’m going to discuss the end of the story here, even though DC probably won’t release all the trades for a while. It seems pointless to me to write about these last issues circumspectly, and probably more people are going to at least sample the Straczynski run – exposing them to the new status quo – than read most of the “New Krypton” issues in the first place. So stop here if you don’t want to be spoiled. Otherwise, my ramblings continue after the jump.

Amazing Spider-Man 626: A nice little done-in-one by Fred Van Lente where he puts a slight spin on the "Gauntlet" stories by using the new female Scorpion from a couple of years back, who's not evil. (She's a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent.) There are also some good scenes between Peter and his roommate and art by the always excellent Michael Gaydos. Amazing Spider-Man 627-629 "Something Can Stop the Juggernaut": Veteran Spidey writer Roger Stern returns with a sequel to his famous '80s Juggernaut story, and it's indistinguishable in style from the rest of the recent issues of this title. I mean that as a huge compliment: Stern adapts completely to the modern Marvel writing style, and you wouldn't know that this came from the book's regular writer of 30 years ago. I'm not generally fond of cosmic elements in Spidey stories (not counting "New Avengers"), but Stern makes it work here. Amazing Spider-Man 630-633 "Shed": ...

I actually am pretty much caught up on my reading – now I just have to find the time to write about all those books! In the meantime, please enjoy Stan Lee’s conversation with Craig Ferguson from last night’s “Late Late Show”. (Which is a really smart and funny show, by the way.)

EARP: SAINTS FOR SINNERS #0 (Radical Comics) Written by M. Zachary Sherman and Matt Cirulnick Art by Mack Chater and Martin Montiel If I want to read super-hero fare I can get ample amounts of that from the big two publishers and others. Finding a good and steady reliable source for alternate genres (including horror, dark fantasy, science-fiction, crime, mystery, western, etc.) in comics hasn't been as easy, but it's getting better. It seems there are more and more choices every day. Include Radical Comics in that list of alternatives. From their beginnings in science-fiction and mythological fantasy mini-series they have added more categories and their 2010 menu has a lot of variety. Last week's comic shop offerings included an inexpensive $1.00 preview of the upcoming (Fall 2010) EARP: SAINTS FOR SINNERS mini-series and it looks vey promising. It's a re-boot of the Wyatt Earp legend that aims to accomodate several genres: science-fi...

Starting today (though it may take a little longer than that to propagate out to everyone's ISPs), you can reach this site using any of the addresses below: bcrefugees.com bcrefugees.net bcrefugees.org bcrefugees.info And of course bcrefugees.blogspot.com will still work.

ARCHIE SUMMER SPLASH FCBD EDITION #1  (Archie)                                                     scripts and pencils by Dan Parent         For decades the Archie books  ( ARCHIE, BETTY & VERONICA, JUGHEAD , etc.) have been a great source of light reading and fun entertainment. These whimsical stories featuring universal characters in teen/high school adventures could also usually  be counted on to be non-threatening and free of controversial material.  At least that’s the way this reviewer evaluates them.  Although I’m not a regular reader - - anytime I’ve checked into these titles they haven’t seemed to change (sometimes with a minimal alteration to reflect curren...

From Bill Harris at  Dubious Quality , what he calls the "the greatest lead in the history of journalism": The Brevard County doctor who was arrested for groping a woman while dressed as Captain America with a burrito in his pants will not go to jail.  The full story is  here .

Just a reminder: You may want to go back to Part One for an explanation of my grading system for Free Comic Book Day titles. KIZOIC PRESENTS: PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR FCBD 2010 / KIZOIC PRESENTS: SHREK FCBD 2010 (flipbook format, Ape Entertainment)www.apecomics.com Aside from Disney's stable of copyrighted characters, some of the more recognizable cartoon characters among today's kids audience are those created through Dreamworks Studios and Nickelodeon Cartoon TV Network. So to put both the Penguins of Madagascar and Shrek together in a flip book is a sure draw for young audiences. I saw many copies of this FCBD title in the hands of younger children while attending the FCBD activities at Captain Blue Hen comics in Newark, DE on May 1st. COVER APPEARL = 3 POINTS. The Peguins are featured in two separate stories, and Shrek gets the same two-story treatment on the flip side of this book. I have to confess that I have never watched a Penguins of Madagascar television c...

DEL REY SHOWCASE, FREE COMIC BOOK DAY, MAY 2010 Featuring previews of: Pride And Prejudice And Zombies: The Graphic Novel; The Talisman: The Road Of Trials; Odd Is On Our Side; The Last Airbender Prequel: Zuko's Story The concept of blending in a zombie or monster theme into a re-telling of classic literature seemed like a novel concept to me - - and since my son also shared my interest I picked up trade paperbacks of both PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES and SENSE AND SENSIBILITY AND SEA MONSTERS many months ago. Neither one of us has found the time to read these books yet, so a graphic novel adaptation of P & P & Z is more than welcome - - - especially since the 10-page preview here is so much fun! Writer Tony Lee takes the original collaberation between legend Jane Austen and current author Seth Grahame-Smith and adapts it for graphic novels. The black and white illustrations by Cliff Richards enhance the story perfectly, and bring to mind memories of some of t...