Crisis on Infinite Blogs
September 2, 2011 8:15 AM Subscribe
One response to all the hubbub about DC Comics' unfolding "New 52" re-launch of the DC Universe comics: a pile of independent cartoonists creating cover art for the book launches/relaunches they'd like to see, at DC Fifty-Two. Some of it is straight-faced, some of it is...less so. BIFF! The Justice League as a western! POW! The Geek vs. Hell's Nixons! BLAM! Classical art references!
Words, out of mouth.
posted by Curious Artificer at 8:21 AM on September 2, 2011
posted by Curious Artificer at 8:21 AM on September 2, 2011
See also Drew's Infinite Reboot, by MeFi's own robocop is bleeding.
posted by middleclasstool at 8:29 AM on September 2, 2011 [4 favorites]
posted by middleclasstool at 8:29 AM on September 2, 2011 [4 favorites]
I really dig the BRPD Mignola inspired Barda comic cover. The New Gods stuff in the DC universe has always been pretty much incongruous to me (much like Eternals doesn't really fit in the Marvel 616 universe) but I could totally see a retro-themed Mignola inspired elseworlds using the New Gods.
posted by vuron at 8:39 AM on September 2, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by vuron at 8:39 AM on September 2, 2011 [2 favorites]
I would gladly propose that Mike Mignola draw or inspire everything with the exception of Hellboy itself, which will henceforth be done by Steve Purcell (scroll down).
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:45 AM on September 2, 2011
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:45 AM on September 2, 2011
I wish they would give Evan Shaner the keys to Shazam already. Seriously. Who would be a better choice? Nobody.
posted by The Hamms Bear at 8:54 AM on September 2, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by The Hamms Bear at 8:54 AM on September 2, 2011 [3 favorites]
Yeah, I came in to hype Drew's Infinite Reboot too. robocop is bleeding was killing it over there.
posted by penduluum at 9:05 AM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by penduluum at 9:05 AM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
The comments on this Wonder Woman cover all attest to it's anti-cheesecake nature, am I the only one who is a little skeeved out by how spreadeagled the pose is? I guess she is a Strong Female Character. (I do like the William Moulton Marston callback with the broken handcuffs, though.) Overall there is some great work in here.
posted by whir at 9:13 AM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by whir at 9:13 AM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
DC Fifty-too is the main reason I've been banging away with stylus and iPad. I have ideas, but my fudgey little sausage hands have problems turning them into visual realities. Jon at Fifty-Too was very kind to link to my blog a few days back and my heart done swelled.
Thanks for the plugs! Now in addition to swelled fingers and heart, I have a swelled head too.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:16 AM on September 2, 2011
Thanks for the plugs! Now in addition to swelled fingers and heart, I have a swelled head too.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:16 AM on September 2, 2011
The comments on this Wonder Woman cover all attest to it's anti-cheesecake nature, am I the only one who is a little skeeved out by how spreadeagled the pose is?
I dunno, on the one hand I see what you mean but on the other hand the aesthetic there is so straight-up punkrock Fuck You that I have a hard time seeing it as primarily about serving the viewer a fantasy of girlish vulnerability or whatever. More "whyncha take a picture, asshole" than "oh gosh did I end up in a compromising position", I guess.
Part of it is context: women in comics are so often scantily dressed and so typically turned out in porn-is-my-artistic-reference poses that seeing Diana looking like she doesn't give a motherfuck is, relatively speaking, a pretty progressive representation, even if "woman sitting around in a short skirt with her legs open" doesn't exactly feel like a great sales pitch for bucking the male gaze effect in a null context.
Which in a broader context is more a criticism of comics than anything, but given the inside-baseball, naval-gazing nature of this specific comics project it's probably safe to assume that most people commenting on the work have grappled with that specific complicated context enough to be able to comment on what they like about it without the disclaiming preamble.
posted by cortex at 9:28 AM on September 2, 2011 [2 favorites]
I dunno, on the one hand I see what you mean but on the other hand the aesthetic there is so straight-up punkrock Fuck You that I have a hard time seeing it as primarily about serving the viewer a fantasy of girlish vulnerability or whatever. More "whyncha take a picture, asshole" than "oh gosh did I end up in a compromising position", I guess.
Part of it is context: women in comics are so often scantily dressed and so typically turned out in porn-is-my-artistic-reference poses that seeing Diana looking like she doesn't give a motherfuck is, relatively speaking, a pretty progressive representation, even if "woman sitting around in a short skirt with her legs open" doesn't exactly feel like a great sales pitch for bucking the male gaze effect in a null context.
Which in a broader context is more a criticism of comics than anything, but given the inside-baseball, naval-gazing nature of this specific comics project it's probably safe to assume that most people commenting on the work have grappled with that specific complicated context enough to be able to comment on what they like about it without the disclaiming preamble.
posted by cortex at 9:28 AM on September 2, 2011 [2 favorites]
I just spent an hour going through Evan Shaner's site. DC needs to give him full control of the Captain Marval/Shazam properties and be done with it.
posted by jazon at 9:46 AM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by jazon at 9:46 AM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
The creative projects like this (and Drew's Infinite Reboot, yes!) have done a lot more for my interest in comics than anything actual DC is currently doing. The fanfic and fanart is definitely better than the original material seems likely to be.
posted by immlass at 9:50 AM on September 2, 2011
posted by immlass at 9:50 AM on September 2, 2011
Drew's Green Arrow refit writes itself, man. You can totally see it perfectly.
posted by The Whelk at 10:48 AM on September 2, 2011
posted by The Whelk at 10:48 AM on September 2, 2011
This one with Batman and Superman looks great. Superman with pants, and Batman looks like he stepped out of a Hardy Boys cover. He almost has no costume at all, mostly just clothes.
posted by BurnChao at 10:54 AM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by BurnChao at 10:54 AM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
This is pretty fun. More fun than the actual Justice League #1 that came out this week.
(That said, I'm pretty excited for a lot of the stuff coming out next week - Action Comics and Justice League International in particular.)
posted by HostBryan at 11:00 AM on September 2, 2011
(That said, I'm pretty excited for a lot of the stuff coming out next week - Action Comics and Justice League International in particular.)
posted by HostBryan at 11:00 AM on September 2, 2011
am I the only one who is a little skeeved out by how spreadeagled the pose is?
Not me. There's a lot of other symbolism there that points to some meta-commentary on the character--she's wearing broken handcuffs, sitting on a love seat, throwing away comics, has a scornful look on her face--that point toward her having broken free of someone who's tried to restrain her, probably as a prelude to rape; someone who, you know, likes comics. I've seen women sitting like that when they're either in a situation where they can do that without dudes standing around looking at their crotch, or if they just don't give a shit. (I'm going to leave aside for a moment the fact that she's surrounded by green arrows.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:13 AM on September 2, 2011
Not me. There's a lot of other symbolism there that points to some meta-commentary on the character--she's wearing broken handcuffs, sitting on a love seat, throwing away comics, has a scornful look on her face--that point toward her having broken free of someone who's tried to restrain her, probably as a prelude to rape; someone who, you know, likes comics. I've seen women sitting like that when they're either in a situation where they can do that without dudes standing around looking at their crotch, or if they just don't give a shit. (I'm going to leave aside for a moment the fact that she's surrounded by green arrows.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:13 AM on September 2, 2011
As I was looking through the images I was struck by the ratio of women to men, both the subjects and the creators. I may be wildly off-base here, but the ratio seems a lot more even than in actual published comics. Kinda a shame that this is only an exercise.
I also noticed that there's a lot more Mike Allred or Tony Robinson here and a lot less Frank Miller. A more, I don't know, holistic approach to super-heros. Yes, there will be capes and fights and bad guys, but that doesn't mean that there won't be the rest of the character's life as well. Maybe this is my "if it's too loud you're too old" moment, but I am tired of the Gritty aesthetic.
posted by lekvar at 12:21 PM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
I also noticed that there's a lot more Mike Allred or Tony Robinson here and a lot less Frank Miller. A more, I don't know, holistic approach to super-heros. Yes, there will be capes and fights and bad guys, but that doesn't mean that there won't be the rest of the character's life as well. Maybe this is my "if it's too loud you're too old" moment, but I am tired of the Gritty aesthetic.
posted by lekvar at 12:21 PM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]
I think it's worth pointing out that of the 52 artists, only 4 of them are women. I think this says much more about who comics are of by and for, than a given pose of a character.
I suppose I should salute progress though, such as it is; if this project had happened 10 years ago, it would have been 53 male artists and one token female artist.
posted by happyroach at 12:29 PM on September 2, 2011
I suppose I should salute progress though, such as it is; if this project had happened 10 years ago, it would have been 53 male artists and one token female artist.
posted by happyroach at 12:29 PM on September 2, 2011
THAT WORLD'S FINEST IS EXACTLY HOW BATMAN AND SUPERMAN SHOULD BE FOREVER AND EVER.
I thank you for your time.
posted by grubi at 1:01 PM on September 2, 2011
I thank you for your time.
posted by grubi at 1:01 PM on September 2, 2011
I was fine and delighted until "Dex-Starr, the red lantern kitty". Now I'm delighted and with a lot of coffee to wipe out of the laptop.
posted by Iosephus at 2:40 PM on September 2, 2011
posted by Iosephus at 2:40 PM on September 2, 2011
They should have cut the titles to maybe 26. The comic book audience isn't big enough to support 52 titles. The industry has been in a death spiral since at least the 1970s.
posted by Yakuman at 6:34 PM on September 2, 2011
posted by Yakuman at 6:34 PM on September 2, 2011
I follow Evan "Doc" Shaner and Dean Trippe on tumblr and have seen a ton of these as reposts from them. You know what, more than anything? These fake covers really bum me out. Because I would buy the hell out of a lot of these comics--they look fun and interesting and creative! Why can't DC's relaunch actually be like this???
Also, someone please agree with me here: Justice League Dark is the worst name for a comic book ever.
posted by sleeping bear at 9:51 PM on September 2, 2011
Also, someone please agree with me here: Justice League Dark is the worst name for a comic book ever.
posted by sleeping bear at 9:51 PM on September 2, 2011
The industry has been in a death spiral since at least the 1970s.
Wow, I've been in a death spiral since the 1970s also! So has everything in the entire universe. IT'S SO SPOOKY WHAT A COINCIDENCE!
(sorry for the snark, but this is the only way a 40 year death spiral makes any sort of sense. Especially since the comic book industry has come FAR since the 70s. The 70s comic book industry was at about the same level as today's coloring book industry. But even if they made no progress, a 40 year death spiral is not a death spiral)
posted by BurnChao at 2:20 AM on September 3, 2011
Wow, I've been in a death spiral since the 1970s also! So has everything in the entire universe. IT'S SO SPOOKY WHAT A COINCIDENCE!
(sorry for the snark, but this is the only way a 40 year death spiral makes any sort of sense. Especially since the comic book industry has come FAR since the 70s. The 70s comic book industry was at about the same level as today's coloring book industry. But even if they made no progress, a 40 year death spiral is not a death spiral)
posted by BurnChao at 2:20 AM on September 3, 2011
Plus their fortunes were on the rise until the mid-1990s. That's a funny kind of dying.
So it's only a 15-20-year death spiral.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 5:09 AM on September 3, 2011
So it's only a 15-20-year death spiral.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 5:09 AM on September 3, 2011
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posted by The Whelk at 8:16 AM on September 2, 2011 [1 favorite]