Here are some people involved in the comic book world who are fun to follow on Twitter
Ben Templesmith: Artist for “30 Days of Night” and creator of “Wormwood: Gentlemen Corpse.” Further proof that if you are going to follow someone involved in comics you have to be prepared for some really nerdy stuff.
Robert Kirkman: I love this guys stories. He’s got multiple titles out including “Invincible” and “The Walking Dead.” If you don’t know them, go to a comic book store and ask one of the nice fellows with many piercings and tattoos to show you where they are.
I met him once. He made fun of my hair.
Archaia Comics: Publisher of critically acclaimed “Mouse Guard” and “Killer” some of their publications are not reported on so its nice to go to the source.
Jon Favreau: Director of “Iron Man” and “Iron Man 2” gives regular updates on the filming.
Ryan Penagos: “Agent_M”, a spy in Marvel Comic’s camp.
Warren Ellis: Creator of “Global Frequency” and “Transmetropolitan,” film, television, and video game writer; an all around Renaissance Man. Very good blogger as well; he gives frequent updates on his projects (http://www.warrenellis.com)
Joe Quesada: The Main Man of Marvel. Reading his tweets gives you a glimpse inside of the head of the beast.
Click on a highlighted name to find out more about it.
Marvel recently started Dark Reign, a story arch running through most of the company’s titles. It’s the latest in a long line of such comics events that have been altering the status quo of the Marvel Universe
The heroes have gone through many trials this past decade. Secret Wars, Civil Wars and a Secret Invasion have put the lives of some of the world’s most valiant heroes through their darkest days. But now they face a world truly aligned against them.
The former supervillain better known to the world as the Green Goblin, a frequent enemy of Spider-Man, is charged with the protection of the world as the head of H.A.M.M.E.R (It has not been revealed what this stands for), a peacekeeping organization.
His rise to this esteemed position comes after the Secret Invasion, which saw shape-shifting aliens known as the Skrull attempt to take over the planet by secretly replacing people in positions of power. Osborn was the one to deliver the killing blow to the Skrull Queen.
The fight was televised, so the whole world saw him do it. Osborn took advantage of this by claiming victory was all his doing and the invasion got as far as it did because of one man: Tony Stark, also known as Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Osborn, an accomplished businessman and manipulator, further cemented his role as the nation’s savior twofold: first, he formed a group of villains to act as his black-ops team, the Thunderbolts. He used them to orchestrate an attack on the newly elected President Obama, which he “thwarted” to make himself look like a hero. (As seen in Thunderbolts #128)
Second, not content to have the government backing him, Osborn stuck it to the superhero community by assuming the identity of the Iron Patriot. As an amalgam of super heroes Iron Man and the deceased Captain America leads a team of Avengers (the name commonly given to collections of powerful heroes in the Marvel Universe). This team of “Dark Avengers” is composed of some of Osborn’s fellow villains, who have been given new identities based on classic heroes in order to fit in.
Out of context, this could be a political cartoon. Norman Osborn in the background with his Iron Patriot armor in the foreground. From the varient cover for Dark Avengers #1 by artist Marko Djurdjevic. From Atomic Comic Store.com
It isn’t threats from outside that will take Osborn’s throne. While he portrays himself as the debonair businessman the country wants in charge, he secretly struggles to keep the sadistic and chaotic Green Goblin personality at bay. It isn’t reassuring to know that the guy with his finger on the button (and a nuclear powered battle suit) could snap at any moment and kill every person on the planet for giggles.
There is hope, of course. A number of other Avengers teams have formed in the wake of Osborn’s reign, threatening his status as a hero in the world’s eyes. There are many characters, even in Osborn’s inner circle, which believe that Osborn’s empire is destined to fall. It’s only a matter of time.
How do the rest of you guys feel about this? Is the Marvel Universe going to come crashing down before the heroes can earn back the public’s trust? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.
The Jacob K. Jarvits Center in New York City. Image by The Jacob K. Jarvits Center via Nycgo.com
What’s the Story?
According to this story at Comic Book Resources (CBR) The New York City Comic Con and New York Anime Festival, two autonomous conventions centered on comic books and anime (Japanese animation) respectively, will occur at the same time and place next year.
“Reed Exhibitions (RX), the organizers of the New York Comic Con (NYCC) and New York Anime Festival (NYAF) today announced that both shows will co-locate next year, with the 2010 installments of these events taking place at the same time and place, October 8-10, 2010 at the Jacob K. Javits Center in Midtown Manhattan.”–CBR
The Pop Culture Group at Reed Exhibitions organizes both events. Their homepage can be found here.
Click Here to find out about the New York Comic Con.
Click Here to find out about the New York Anime Festival.
What does it mean?
Combining these two events is likely an attempt by Reed Exhibitions to cross promote to two somewhat similar audiences. RX promotes that both events will be accessible for the purchase of just one ticket. They expect folks from one convention will mosey on over to the other one. But these are two very different events, and usually those interested in one make it a point to avoid the other.
Comic Conventions are mostly about companies showing off what’s going to be happening in the industry in the coming year. The high points are usually the premiere of a preview for a new summer movie. Some examples include the test footage for Tron: Legacy (Which can be seen here) and Iron Man 2 (You can see a bootleg version here).
Anime Festivals, on the other hand, are more about people with a common interest gathering together than the media being presented at the event. Most of the media they are interested in is bootlegged from Japan and show up on the internet rather quickly. Media that premieres there is usually just the official release for people who care to pay for it.
The festivals are generally less grand in scope save for those who show up for cosplay (a shortening of “costume roleplay.”). The elaborate quality and sheer number of people who take part in the cosplay element have been enough to draw mainstream media attention in the past. Examples can be seen here at examiner.com.
An example of cosplay: Jenni Kallberg cosplay of Samus Aaron, the protagonist of the Metroid video games. Photo by Ripten.com. Click on the photo for the article and more photos.
The people who attend these two events go to them for different things: to see what’s going on in the media and see people with similar interests respectively. In that respect, the cross promotion that RX is hoping for won’t succeed.
What do you think?
What do you think about this? Will this make comic fans out of anime fans, and anime fans out of comic fans? Let me know what you guys think.
Gateway Geek 