Freakish Coincidence...

Speaking on web comics. Taking a short break from working on my own last night, I used my few free minutes to catch up on a couple more pages of Warren Ellis and Paul Duffield's stellar web comic from a bunch of years ago FreakAngels.

Then it occurred to me, I've never recommended a web comic before here on the old YouAreComic blog (not counting my own). I should remedy that.

So here I am....um....remedying that by well...um recommending a web comic...on the blog *sigh*

Check out FreakAngels everbody. It's fookin' awesome!!

It's also free, in its entirety from the FreakAngels.com or if you want to give Warren and Paul some  cash you can buy the handsome collected edition.

Nuff Said

EDIT: Holy Socks! Atomic Robo also just became a web comic. Get this awesome series...also for free! The world's gone mad!

SERPENTEEN #1 Is Go!!!

For any of you YouAreComic folk out there who are not following me on Twitter or Facebook you may have missed the big announcement that the latest and greatest YouAreComic webcomic launched on Tuesday.

It's got scripts from yours truly and art from ultra talented, YouAreComic alumni Jordan Kroeger (Better Angels, Wolf & Man).

Here's the quick elevator pitch I posted to Facebook:

Murdering indestructible dragon overlords and toppling the evil galactic empires can be a real bitch! Armed with a ragtag crew of allies and a dark secret from his past, alien farm boy turned rebel Magus might have what it takes to get the job done. Of course if his allies find out his secret first the only job getting done will be on Magus himself

 

 

I also posted a couple of sneak peeks here and here.
 

But hey, if you're ready for the real thing you can dive right in at:

http://serpenteen.thecomicseries.com/
We've got page 1 and a bonus cover up there as of right now - with a new page coming every Tuesday.

Check it out, enjoy and leave us a comment.

Nuff Said

I Love It When A Plan...No Wait..

Just finished a few days worth of catching up with Marvel's big event of a bunch of years ago 'House Of M'. Aside from Doctor Doom's evil FF and the Spider-Family web-shooter fueled B&E extravaganza I found the whole thing kinda blah...

 

...until they threw a giant robot at Magneto:



Seriously the grand plan concocted by the assembled brain trust of the Avengers and the X-Men to bring down the tyranny of the House of M was..

..throw a giant robot at the Master Of Magnetism!

Gold star guys. Better stock up on ice cubes in case Blizzard shows up!

(Today's poor planning was brought to you by House of M #6 by BM Bendis and Olivier Coipel. Elsewhere in this issue Magneto is vaporized by a single one of Cyclops optic blasts. Geez Scott, you couldn't done earlier and spared us the whole Xorn thing? Jerk!)

Serpenteen - Lest You Forget...

Just a quick reminder to all those YouAreComic readers out there.

Next Tuesday (13/01/15) marks the launch of the next official YouAreComic webcomic - SERPENTEEN.

It's a sci-fi tour-de-force from myself and the utterly terrific Jordan Kroeger.

In case you don't believe me about how sweet this is going to look, here's another sneak peek:

Be there for the launch of Serpenteen. You won't regret it!

The Family That Storms Evil Foreign Dictator's Strongholds Togther - Stays Together

Okay I'm deep in the throes of the somewhat dodgy Spider-man: The Other - Evolve Or Die storyline and I'm loving it.

It's got C-List super-villains hanging out in the Avengers kitchen with Aunt May, it's got Morlun - the Jerry Dandridge of Spider-man villains, it's got eye-plucking, it's got skin shedding and it's got corpse eating spiders - what more could I possibly want from a story starring your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-man?

Part 5 though, just struck me as wrong.

Peter Parker is a guy who'd go to any length to protect the people he loves from getting hurt because of him. In fact in this same story he beats poor old Tracer within an inch of his life for letting Aunt May make him toast under false pretenses.

So when such a guy finds out he's got a terminal illness, you'd think he'd hunker down at the old homestead and pass his last days surrounded by the friends and family he loves.

Instead good old Peter takes his neglected and put upon wife, his septuagenarian, constantly in ill-health aunt  and packs them in shitty-ass suits of vintage Iron Man armor and has them break into Doctor Doom's castle with him:



Really Peter, douchebag much? If you really want to take them down with you why not just toss them off a bridge like you did with that blonde chippie you used to date?

(Today's passive aggressive nit-picking was brought to you by Marvel Knights: Spider-man #20 by Reginald Hudlin and Pat Lee. Elsewhere in this issue Peter passes up the use of Tony Stark's private Vegas sex grotto in favor of spending some quality time with his wife...on the moon. Well that's my Valentine's day surprise for this year scuppered - cheers Pete!)

SERPENTEEN IS COMING...

Attention YouAreComic faithful. Yet another official YouAreComic webcomic is coming your way as of next week.

It's got scripts by me and art from the excellent Jordan Kroeger (who you may remember from his stellar work on Better Angels and Wolf & Man).

This time we've gone all sci-fi!

Here's a tempting little tidbit:

Stay tuned.

Today Class We'll Be Learning About Gaint Spiky Wrecking Balls...

Throughout the history of the Marvel Universe, Professor Charles has always been depicted with great reverence and respect as the wise and caring teacher.

I call shenanigans on that!

Dude enrolls his first class of eager young mutants, hungry for the knowledge and legitimacy that attending a swanky ass school for 'gifted' youngsters can score them - and what does he do?

He devises a syllabus centered around the hitting them with the giant, metal death machine he invented:

So then a bunch of years (and a shedload of dead students) later. That same murder machine gains sentience - forms itself a well-endowed, dreadlock sporting body and goes on a rampage.

Bringing all of his years of wisdom and experience to bear, how does the wise professor solve this problem? He finds himself a giant metal  death machine and hits dudes with it:

God help us all if that guy gets tenure.

(Todays teaching assistance was brought to you courtesy of Astonishing X-Men#11 by Joss Whedon and John Cassaday. Elsewhere in this issue when not doing his best impression of 'Rubber Duck' from Convoy the Prof can be found busily playing keep-away with his enemies severed heads and playing practical jokes that involve tethering corpses to wheelchairs.)

Justice League 101...

Comic-books are nothing if not a medium of ideas. No other medium in existence comes close to doing the things that can be done in comics. Any idea you can imagine visually can be brought to life in comics. In fact in my experience comic creators are mavericks one and all who live by the edict 'the bigger and crazier the idea the better'. Recently movies have claimed that technology has made it possible to bring anything you can imagine to life on the big screen - but it's not true. If the movie version of Watchmen tells us anything, it's that Hollywood will never have the balls to drop a big, giant, squishy, green, one-eyed, many tentacled, telepathic alien on top of New York.

But comic books did it.

In fact we did it - thirty-five minutes ago.

Tee Hee, I've always wanted to say that.

What's set me off on this 'big ideas' diatribe you ask? Well I've been re-reading JLA #7 from Grant Morrison and Howard Porter's incomparable run on that book.

This thing is like a college syllabus for a class lays out step by step how to take a Justice League story and make it mind-blowingly awesome.

Are you guys ready? Class in session.

You gotta start out right. So you take the Justice League concept right back to basics. It's the greatest heroes of the DC Universe all gathered on one team. So you take the seven big guns and stick them all together and base them some crazy comic-book location. A compound on the surface of the moon? That'll do!

Then you take these guys and give them a threat to tackle. It has to be a threat that can only be handled by a team that boasts two dudes that can bench-press aircraft carriers and one that can surf on the backs of humpback whales.

Having heaven invade earth? Hmm interesting.

Okay but these invading angels can't be of the nice, pious, fluffy-winged, harp-playing variety. These guys should be huge and mean. We're talking big, honking monster angels with rings through their noses, heaven forged weapons made of magic fire, armour made out of eyes and a maybe giant heavenly space-ship that burns anything in touches.

Now you might think that sounds awesome enough as is- that no matter what you do from here you're onto a winner. Not so - this the Justice League - you've got to throw something in the mix awesome enough to have resulted from a situation as wild and crazy as the Justice League versus the Heavenly Host.

Maybe......urm.....have Superman wrestle 'em?

Looks Like A Job For Superman! Get It, Like Job...From The Bible...Dude Who Wrestled Angels? No? Fine. Whatever.

Hold on, don't drift off and think about what you're going to have for lunch just yet. Class isn't over. Sure you've come up with a comic-book concept that is the most awesome thing most regular folks have ever heard of - but this is the Justice League we can't stop there!

We need a sub-plot people. They're the glue that holds comic-books together.

Of course, now that you've dropped angels on top of New York and had the Justice League hit them with giant green boxing gloves and stuff - a regular sub-plot is not gonna cut it. I mean no-ones going to care if Aunt May needs her medicine at this point, you're not going to get any points for having Lois staring out the window in her skivvies thinking about the state of her marriage.

No, we need something that'll compliment our main story. Like Neron and some ugly little demon guys trying to pull of some kind of evil scheme while the feathers are flying.

Let think. Maybe they could be....um....trying pull the moon out of the sky and crash it into the Earth? Yeah that's the ticket.

Of course big crazy comic-book problems like this require big crazy comic-book solutions! I'm sure your first thought was, just like Grant Morrison, to have Superman build a giant electro magnet on the surface of the moon out of pieces of the Justice League Watchtower and power it with his own body in order to use the magnetic force generated to repel the moon.

Hold on a second did I just say repel the moon?

I sure did:

Look Kids: Science

Damn that's some zesty lemonade made out of some serious electric blue comic-book lemons right there.

There's just not enough good things to say about Morrison and Porter's run on the JLA book. It's JLA done as they should be - the biggest and best of the heroes taking on the threats that are so earth shattering in their proportions only these guys can take care of it.

What makes it even more impressive is that he did it all without the benefit of one of DCs patented hair-trigger reboots. I mean three of his big guns are far from at their best. He's not just saddled with Electric Blue Supes, he's also got Kyle 'You Put What In My Refridgerator?' Rayner as Green Lantern and a hook-handed, 80s haired Aquaman! Respect where it's due, even those duds got some great character moments.

That folks, is how great the JLA could and should be done.

New 52? Is that you sleeping in the back? You of all people should be taking notes here!

Sigh - comic book universes today.

Class dismissed.

Stars And S.T.R.I.P.E. And Teenage Spunk...

Believe it or not folks there was time when the name Geoff Johns was not synonymous with dudes getting their arms ripped off or with multi-coloured alien police men and their cosmic mood rings. He was in fact known for spunky blonde teenage cheerleaders in tight spandex short shorts.

Hold on, let me read that back.

Okay that came out a little creepier than I intended.

What I meant to say was 'hey guys did you ever read that great Geoff Johns series that came out from DC a whole buncha years ago called Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. Man that thing was frickin' awesome'. In my defence it does have a spunky blonde teenage cheerleader in tight spandex short shorts. That's not the big draw though - it's just an obvious ploy to try and bump up my Google search hits.

Bwah hah hah!

Sorry Geoff. Let's talk Stars & S.T.R.I.P.E. #13.

I loved this series and I really could've picked from any one of a dozen issues to tout as fantastic and something you should totally go dig up. However #13 is something special. I remember reading this and thinking that Geoff Johns had cracked open my head, scooped out everything I wanted to see from this comic-book and smeared it all across this issue.

Considering there's a panel on the first page where the two little redneck Clampitt kids are sneaking into Maw and Paw's bedroom armed with a pick-axe and a wheat thresher - this thing had me at hello like a drunk Tom Cruise at a bitter woman's support group:

Ferget The Hogs Paw, This Time Me And Sammy Jo Are Gonna Slop You!

So the reason for the Children of the Corn above is that all of the kids in the Mid-Western United States have fallen under the influence of the snaky and goofily named megalomaniac Dragon King thanks to his orbiting mind control satellite.

Even Courtney Whitmore herself is not spared. So by page three she's already using the power of her sparkly short shorts to kick seven shades of shit out of her bumbling stepdad.

I should point out that the concept behind this book is that average and angst cheer-leader Courtney Whitmore stumbles upon the fact that her mom's new beau was once Stripesy - the questionably dressed sidekick of the Golden Age Star Spangled Kid. This drives her to steal his tech, pull on some spangly biker shorts and fight crime. This in turn forces her past-it new step-dad to don a giant suit of armour he had lying around the basement and place super-chaperone.

That's an awesome concept. I mean it's maybe not as good as whatever verbal voodoo landed 'Melissa & Joey' on our airwaves - but still pretty damn good.

So anyway Courtney's kicking daddy dearest's ass. Her stepdad's Stripesy days are far behind him, so despite the giant, heavily armed mecha-suit he's not much in a fight.

When I started this issue I figured that good ol' Stripesy, in true comic-book fashion, would whip up some sort of convenient doohickey that would break the King's spell on Courtney. However Geoff Johns decided to throw a totally in character curve ball that I didn't see coming.

With Stripesy on the ropes and Courtney in position to drop the death-blow - she breaks out of DK's thrall by the sheer force of will. Even the awesome, globe-spanning, space-based, bleeding edge mind-control tech of scaly and immortal bad guys can stand up the unconquerable juggernaut that is teenage spunkiness:

That's a great moment. Courtney Whitmore is a great character because of moments like this. For all the times she can be infuriatingly immature and obnoxious, there are also moments like this that show her limitless pool of inner strength and compassion.

I'm not sure what colour lantern inner strength and compassion is. I can't keep track of these things. Magenta? Coral? Teal maybe?

Anyway, if defeating super-villains with the power of teenage spunk doesn't do it for you, this issue has another killer moment just waiting in the wings.

Okay, I heard it too. Let's just pretend I didn't say that and move on.

Sooo, Shining Knight (an old golden age buddy of Stripesy and the original Star Spangled Kid) is also in the issue. For me that alone turns the awesome factor up to eleven. I love all those old clunky Seven Soldiers of Victory guys.

However for those of you with no soul, for whom Sir Justin doesn't float your boat let me just say this: Shining Knight versus the Dragon King....in the sky......wait for it......on a winged horse and a frickin' dragon!

Check it out:

That my friends is just good comic-books. I mean sure no-one puts on any anger jewellery that makes them spew blood at their enemies but hell it's still pretty sweet, am I right?

Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. is terrific series from beginning to end. Sure it plays around with that DC legacy stuff that I'm a sucker for - but even if you don't love the adorable crusties of JSA and their history - there's still a lot to enjoy in this series. It's got delicious teenage melodrama, huge steaming dollops of super-hero hijinks, surprising twists, great character moments and it's packed full to bursting with heart.

That's it from me, other than to say apologies to all those confused Google searchers who got here thanks to my misleading opening paragraph. Don't feel bad, it could be worse. You could've ended up here after searching for 'dean cain spandex'. You know who you are!

Doctor Doom: Always Using His Head...

You want to know why Doctor Doom is the baddest badass in all of the Marvel Universe? It's because he's always one step ahead of his opponents:

When a dude has a contingency plan for how to kick your ass after you've decapitated him - he's not someone you should mess with.

(Today's putrescent punning was brought to you by Amazing Spider-man v2 #15 by Howard Mackie and John Byrne. Elsewhere in the issue we discover the sound that the Latverian Royal Guard make when they mobilise to murder angry peasants is Woop! Woop! Woop!)