Super Hero Happy Meal

It's been a growing trend for years: comics have long become a home-away-from home for creators from very different mediums.  Some of those creators stay behind the scenes, as writers (like Stephen King, Brad Meltzer, Dave Goyer, and Joss Whedon) or illustrators (Paul Dini, The Bros Hildebrandt, and the late Frank Frazetta). Others, as they have for decades, transform to 2-D and become characters themselves (like Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, KISS, and if he's lucky, Conan O'Brien).

There's a new trend in the works, and one of its pioneers, is FELICIA DAY.  Day's the creator/star/writer/director of the THE GUILD, an episodic web-based series about the adventures of online role-playing gamers. Day's character is Codex, which is also the name of the avatar she uses while logging long-ass hours in an unnamed fictional game based totally on World of Warcraft.

The Guild, initially created by Day back in 2007 as an intended pilot for a possible TV series, stayed with the web instead. It got props -- lots of 'em. Some awards, too. Success was had by all. And success made last year possible.

Last year, Day transitioned herself - and the funny fantasy web-world of The Guild - to Dark Horse Comics. She became among the first in yet another creative trend, one that's clearly a sign o' the times: The Internet Creators To Comics Creators Movement.

--- Which, while fascinating and worthy of further elaboration and study, also brings us to the real point of this post.  To wit:

Nope, all we really wanted to do was get up the nerve to ask one very special person (and they know who they are) this question:

Of course, it's also a song by Felicia Day and The Guild, and we dig it. Enjoy.

J.G. Jones is best known as the truly talented artist whose work has graced myriad comics covers from 52 to Black Widow to Y: The Last Man. He's also responsible for the interior art of such series as Grant Morrison's Marvel Boy and (the first six issues of) Final Crisis, Mark Millar's Wanted, and the graphic novel Wonder Woman: The Hiketeia in collaboration with writer Greg Rucka.

But serious health concerns ( he was diagnosed with a rare blood disease called polycythemia vera) forced him to pass on Final Crisis' final issues back in 2009, and he's been sidelined from drawing since.  

But despite that dark cloud that Jones endured, a silver lining has emerged, as Jones has taken to writing comics instead. Other than providing the series' monthy cover art, his first full issue as writer of DC's Doc Savage begins with April's Issue #13.

[See JG Jone's Doc Savage Issue #12 cover art -- HERE.]

Last week, Newsarama interviewed Jones about his health, his new foray into the field of comics writing, and if he had any difficulty putting his pencils aside and picking up a pen instead.  and I liked what J.G. Jones had to say:

I'd have to agree.  | Batwoman sketch (with apologies) by J.G. Jones via

Nicholas Was... is a hundred-word short story that, according to its writer Neil Gaiman, began life as a Christmas Card, which he sent out to friends and family in 1989. The original card was calligraphed for Gaiman by artist Dave McKean.

Earlier this month, the Beijing-based graphics design firm 39 Degrees North created this fantastic video adaption of Nicholas Was... a haunting short that mixes Gaiman's dark words with equally dark yet truly beautiful animations. 

For more insight into Nicholas Was... check out Neil Gaimain's blog -- HERE.

Jack Kirby's Captain America, along with his teammates from Avengers #151. The piece was inked and colored from original Kirby pencils by Scott Reed. [via]

How to Draw The Thing by John Byrne. 

Around the same time Byrne was tearing up the X-Men with Chris Claremont, he was playing around in the Fantastic Four's sandbox, too. His 'mini comics lesson' (above) was originally published in Issue #5 of The Thing (1983), which he wrote, not drew.

[Art via]

In an effort to bring relevance back to The Simpsons, Fox solicited the help of Britain's political graffiti artist Banksy, who contributed the darkest and most uncomfortable opening sequence the show has ever seen.

The opening credits (above) aired with Sunday's new episode. And while the controversial Couch-gag has brought The Simpsons all the buzz they've been lacking for too long, the statement Banksy's credits may or may not be making has made the show's producers the most uncomfortable of all.  From interview to outlet, corporate execs have downplayed the subversive nature of Banksy's work by calling it funny and fantasy, and most definitely not a statement on The Simpsons itself.

Lots of reading on this subject is out on the internets: here and here and here -- and that's just for starters. Our head's spinning, and the subject is deep. Sherm and I would love to hear your reactions, Tumblr, so shout out.

Grant Morrison's Definitive Advice For Writing Comic Books:

The Bat-Woman by Paolo Rivera (2007)

The cover of next year's Witch Doctor Issue #1

Check out Seifert and Ketner's new Witch Doctor website -- here!

Joss Whedon's quote from down the blog is very recent, but he's not the only notable comics creator out there with those sentiments. Robert Kirkman, creator of the Walking Dead and Invincible and a partner at Image Comics, is one of the most vocal advocates of reinvigorating the comic book industry, and he left Marvel Comics back in 2008 to do just that. Shortly afterward, Kirkman made this video to voice his opinions on the comics business, and to call major creators away from Marvel and DC and steer them towards creator-owned titles, the life-blood and future of the industry itself.

Kirkman's point isn't to attack Marvel or DC, or to cripple them. Instead, by encouraging more creator-owned books from newbies, amateurs, as well as by the top talents in the industry and especially those working under contract for the Big Two, Marvel and DC both would be revitalized as well as compelled to produce fresh and progressive content as time goes on.

Otherwise, Kirkman warns the outcome is inevitable. The Big Two will continue to rehash old storylines and endorse mass-marketable concepts, while simultaneously dismissing new projects.This will continue until the whole thing reaches its bitter end, the generation of immense wealth for the corporate comic hierarchy, and the destruction of the very essence of what made comics great to begin with.

Since his video was made, Kirkman's taken another big step forward on his creator-owned crusade. In early July, he established Skybound Entertainment, a new division of Image Comics, helmed by him and in which he will handpick up-and-coming creators while maintaining an active role in promoting and expanding the projects of the growing talent pool.  Kirkman's focus will be on cutting-edge, creator-owned stories that are outside of the normal spectrum of mass-market genres, and that's just the beginning. Beyond merely finding new talent, Skybound will assist its new creators as they work in full partnership with Image to develop their properties over time.

Skybound's first original series, Witch-Doctor, was previewed at the San Diego Comic-Con, and is due out early next year. More info on Skybound can be found here.

If you're one of the few folks who has yet to view the Awesome of Sony's six-minute DC Universe Online trailer, don't read another word until you check that bad boy out on our 31 July blog - here. Because, what The 'Meal's got for ya here isn't exactly that -- although it is just as fascinating.

Which is good, because fascinating is what any follow-up would have to be. Jim Lee (DC Comics' co-publisher) meets his mandate expertly by interviewing the trailer's creator, Blur Studio's Tim Miller, and the result is one very cool DC Universe Online Director's Cut.

While Lee and Miller don't address too much of the critical frenzy that's filled fanboy forums since the MMORPG's trailer first hit, the Director's Cut is filled with explanations of all the tantalizing Easter Eggs you didn't even know you missed. Enjoy!

Mealsters: Anyone else reading this? Anyone else buying Brightest Day? Apparently, over 100,000 people are. They're doing it twice a month, every month. Brightest Day was the best-selling comic book in August, but of course, sales figures don't mean diddly for quality as far as I'm concerned. (And as far as Sherman's concerned, too.)

You have to give Geoff Johns props; he's been the Man With A Plan ever since he greenlit Green Lantern five or six years ago. But I think Johns' road-map dead-ended with Blackest Night, because Brightest Day has been a vacant lot ever since it began. It's certainly not organic, by any means; it's just a justification to resurrect superheroes. I don't have anything against the act itself - Aquaman, the Hawks, etc. are commercial properties as well as longtime friends, dont'cha know -- but I've seen pimps handle their hos better than Johns and Peter Tomasi are handling theirs.

Brightest Day #10 dropped two weeks ago, and it's the first issue - the first in five months - which I actually felt did something. Of course, half of what it did was waaaayyy over the top: Firestorm being the captured essence of the pre-Universal Spark that created the Big Bang, done by mistake by poor old Professor Stein in an accident that, essentially, makes him 'Einstein x 10'.

The other half finally offered up the Secret Origin of new Aqualad, despite the fact that the dude's real 'origin' stems from his creation for Cartoon Network's Young Justice series. Plenty of peeps have been peeved with new Aqualad, especially those pissed about Garth / Tempest's easily-dismissed Blackest Night death, and the nickname Blaqualad has surfaced as a result. The term tastes racist at first, but as Brightest Day has revealed, the new 'Lad is none-other than Black Manta's son. Suddenly, Blaqualad becomes both fitting and appropriate; hell, it borderlines cute -- and it'd be funny as fuck if DC decided to run with it. Here's hoping they do.

If the Day's as bright as it is (seems) long, then Brightest Day should be shining like a supernova for DC Comics. Instead, it's a dim bulb, and I'm kinda looking forward to the Day it finally burns out. So, anybody else reading Brightest Day?

Bearcoke!

Ah-ha! Got your attention! Good! 'Cuz Remember, Mealsters: