Scuttlebutt #6 for June 2016

By pghhead -

Kirkman’s OUTCAST debuts on Cinemax

The first episode of the television series OUTCAST debuted on premium cable channel CINEMAX last week.  This marks one of the few times I regret not having a subscription.  If the series is anything like the comic, it will definitely be worth watching.  With THE WALKING DEAD, FEAR THE WALKING DEAD and now OUTCAST this could make Kirkman king of comics television. What might be next?  

K9f69beec96860d10a7653ce35c1c33ca originalROS: HALLOWED GROUND only months away

The long awaited graphic novel by legends John Ostrander (writer) and    (art) is scheduled to debut in July.  This grim tale of vampires during the Civil War (the historic one, not the Marvel version) was successfully funded through a Kickstarter campaign.  Those who missed a chance to order the graphic novel and extras during the first campaign can now jump on board at a new Indiegogo crowd-sourcing site.  An example of the fine work is at the right of this page.  Check out more here . . . . . .

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kros-hallowed-ground--2#/

COMICS HELP EXPLAIN MEDICAL ISSUES, STORIES

There is some fascinating reading in the Philadelphia Inquirer newspaper for Sunday June 5 regarding the use of graphic narratives to educate, explain, instruct and illustrate complicated subjects.  Locally, the University of Pennsylvania is active and a key player in expanding the use of graphic medicine as a publishing genre.  Read more here . . . .

http://www.philly.com/philly/health/20160605_Medicine_is_getting_serious_about_comics.html

DC’S REBIRTH:  STORY-TELLING NUCLEUS, OR JUST A NUKE IN THE WORKS?

We’ve been looking forward to DC: REBIRTH, hoping it helps us forget CONVERGENCE — not that NEW 52 was all that great either.  It had its moments but a lot of promising titles were canceled before 12 issues. Kind of appropriate and ironic that the survivors ended their run with Issue #52.)

We picked up the BATMAN, SUPERMAN and GREEN LANTERN: REBIRTH issues and hope we don’t regret it.  We weren’t overwhelmed by the 80 page DC: REBIRTH special one-shot, more like underwhelmed.  It was not quite as good as we had hoped for, and not one of Geoff Johns’ best efforts.  (However, Johns’ is one of the best things about the DC creative team. We’re glad he’s still part of DC Comics for a little longer,  and sad to see him leave the comics side to work on the movies- - but they sure need his help!)  On the upside, DC and Johns deserve credit for trying to establish a rationale for Rebirth, and wrap it around an event to explain what is happening and why.  But, we are a little concerned with the Watchmen smiley face appearing near the end of the story.  Please don’t touch the Watchmen universe and cross it over into the main DC world — it needs to stand alone and be left alone.  

There is a lot of buzz and noise on the Internet about the changes, and we’re seeing more negative reactions than positive.  That can’t be good for DC.  All we want is to read a good story.  Seems the Big Two can’t tell quality simple stories anymore. Everything has to be connected to an event, or a re-boot/re-imagining of the title via a plethora of Issue #1’s — because we know what makes the PREVIEWS top seller list, don’t we?

Of all the reviews we’ve looked at, the guys at COMICS PODCAST OF THE DAMNED were the most vocal and made some good points in their commentary (although very, very negative).  Check it out here . . . . . . .

http://comicspodcastofthedamned.com

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