J.K. Rowling, Neil Gaiman, And Others To Be Rumored As Working On New Dr. Who Project

Hypable posted speculation this morning that J.K. Rowling may be involved in an upcoming Dr. Who short story anthology, which will begin as a publication of individual “eshorts” starting on January 23, according to the BBC press release. Although Stephen Moffat is not commenting on the project, publisher Juliet Matthews reports:

We are delighted to have 11 sensational children’s authors involved in the series, all bringing an individual style, imagination and interpretation to their eshort tribute to The Doctor. This is a who’s who of children’s fiction coming together to celebrate the much-loved Doctor Who.

I’m too out of touch with children’s fiction these days to have any idea what constitutes a “who’s who”; I can’t imagine they are digging up the corpse of Lewis Carroll for this project. However, Bleeding Cool thinks they may have found evidence of the possibility of Neil Gaiman’s involvement based on this tweet from this morning:

Rewatching lots of old YouTube clips for A Project. I’d forgotten how much I loved Curse of the Fatal Death j.mp/133F6RZ#drwho

— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) January 4, 2013

So, who knows? Either way, Dr. Who and children’s literature fans will have a field day making guesses and placing bets. The first of the authors for this series will be revealed on January 7. I don’t suppose there’s a chance that they’d get the Go The Fuck To Sleep guy involved, would they? Now that would be an interesting take on Dr. Who, especially if they got Samuel L. Jackson to read it.

How Low Can You Go? – Amanda’s Picks For The Comic Book Low Points Of 2012

2012 is firmly at our backs. Congratulations, everyone. We made it.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but we had some real time encounters with abject, stinking failure in 2012 that make me all the more grateful to move on and away from it. From the weird decision to fire and then almost immediately rehire Gail Simone, to the baffling continued employment of Greg Land, to the need for some high profile comics creators to make odd and unnecessary comments about Batman’s sexuality because they can’t seem to stop giving Playboy interviews while in the thrall of a mescaline bender, there was plenty to color the comics enjoyment experience last year. And, after all the dust settled from the complaints of former employees about creator rights and other assorted Twitter bitching, sometimes, just sometimes, there were the comics themselves that were the problem.

Here are my picks for the top five comic book disappointments of 2012, after the jump.

Because This Champagne Won’t Open Itself: Amanda’s Top Comic Book Picks For 2012

Happy New Year! Well, almost.

This year in comics has been pretty uneven for the Big Two. Marvel finally dragged its ass across the finish line to end the pain and suffering that was Avengers Vs. X-Men, leading to a reboot relaunch of most of its major titles under the imprint of something called Marvel Now! Whatever its actual intentions (sales!), Marvel Now!’s primary functions have to have an excuse to bring Jean Grey back as a teenager (hot!) and kill off Peter Parker (cold!). The jury is out with me on the whole concept right now. Meanwhile, DC has killed off many of its New 52 titles before they even made it to middle school (oh, O.M.A.C., we barely knew ye!). On the other hand, Scott Snyder has emerged as an architect of some vision with his “Death Of The Family” concept, which is currently impacting the Bat Family of books. I’m digging this story almost enough to forgive him for taking a break from Vertigo’s American Vampire…and Vertigo’s got enough problems right now.

So, where were the bright spots? Check out my picks, after the jump.

All About Mara – Review Of Mara #1

Ok, pop quiz hot shot: you’re a 17 year-old, wildly successful and famous celebrity athlete, you have recently taken on new sponsorship, and, at the opening volley of an exhibition game against a group of much younger girls, you manifest super powers. What do you do? What do you do?

The answer? Probably not what Mara Prince, the protagonist of writer Brian Wood’s new comics effort, Mara does. Well, not unless you, like Mara, are 17 years old and, therefore, are probably prone to making age related poor decisions. But, more on that later.

Wood’s story is set in a distant, or maybe not so distant, future. One in which athletes and their accomplishments are raised onto pedestals and worshiped with cult-like fervor. This athlete-centric culture has so permeated society that the world’s armies are now made up of soldiers who are the beneficiaries of endorsements and competitive contracts, drastically changing the nature of the near constant state of war in which the countries of this world find themselves, as soldiers fight for personal glory rather than country. In fact, this system has created “a multi-trillion dollar industry, producing perfect athletes and soldiers.” So, what happens when one of these products becomes a little too perfect?

Flags on the play, and spoilers, after the jump.

Short, But Sweet…

Unless you’ve been off planet, you’ve probably noticed that news of the shake-up in the Marvel Universe, due to the events in Dan Slott’s Amazing Spider-Man, has even made it into the mainstream news. So, it’s probably just as well that it was a light week for most of the other books, what with the holidays and all interrupting normal publishing schedules. Between ASM stealing most of the comic news thunder and the after effects of holiday hangovers, it’s just a little hard to concentrate right now here at the Crisis On Infinite Midlives home office.

Which means that this…

…is the end of our broadcast day.

Not a bad little take: Amazing Spider-Man #700 (a double sized monstrosity or extravaganza, depending on where you fall with that series final resolution), Avenging Spider-Man #15.1 (which has a first glimpse of “The Superior Spider-Man”), Justice League #15, and, because there are still books in the world not published by Marvel or DC, Mara, by Brian Wood, Ming Doyle and Jordie Bellaire.

And, as ever, before we can review them, we need to read ’em. Which means we need to stop our hands from shaking long enough to turn some pages. Which means we need to get to the liquor store before it closes. So, until then…

…see you tomorrow, suckers!

Happy Boxing Day – Review Of Joe Palooka #1

Editor’s Note: And one last review of the comics of 12/19/2012 before the comic store open…

From the 1920s and well into the middle of the 20th century, American comics press had a tradition of popularizing idealized characters as heroes – hard bitten detectives like Dick Tracy, plucky orphans who make good like Little Orphan Annie, and tenacious fighters with tender hearts like Joe Palooka.

Created by cartoonist Ham Fisher, Joe Palooka had a very successful run as a syndicated comic strip from 1930 until 1984. At its peak, it ran in 900 newspapers and spawned radio spots, a television show and a movie. The American public continues to demonstrate a soft spot for its fighters, to which the popularity and critical acclaim of such movies as Million Dollar Baby and The Fighter can attest. Even as straight up boxing has moved from weekend afternoon sports coverage on networks to cable and pay-per-view programming, viewers still can get their pugilism fix through any of a number of mixed martial arts programs, like Ultimate Fighting Championship or StrikeForce. So, it’s no surprise that characters inspired by MMA fighters are finding their way back into the comics medium, as with Blair Butler’s 2011 series Heart.

Joe Antonacci, a veteran ringside announcer of boxing and MMA matches, now owns the trademark to Joe Palooka and has rebooted the character as an ongoing comic book series. Joe Palooka, also known in this new book as Nick Davis, is an up and coming MMA fighter with a background in bare knuckle boxing from his time growing up as a child of migrant farm workers. The story has been mapped out by the creative team of Antonacci, with creative partners Matt Triano and Mike Bullock. Bullock also scripted the issue. Art is handled by Fernando Peniche with Bob Pedroza on colors.

So, how does Joe Palooka hold up to his modernization?

Our hero’s spoiler filled origins, after the jump!

Passing Judgement – Review Of Judge Dredd #2

I am behind the times where Judge Dredd is concerned. When the comic was coming out in strip form back in the late seventies and eighties in the British publication 2000 A.D., I was an ocean away. Also, I was 7 (at least at the start of it). I managed to miss both movie versions of it, which, from what I hear, is probably a good thing. Why Sylvester Stallone would’ve been cast to play an iconic British comic hero seems bizarre, but it was the 90s and a lot of crimes against comic books were happening -so why should their treatment in a movie be that much more surprising? As far as Karl Urban is concerned – well, I know he was Bones McCoy in the Star Trek reboot. I liked him in that, but not enough to go to Judge Dredd 3D. I’m ok with that.

IDW currently has the rights to Judge Dredd and is two issues into a new run, written by Duane Swierczynski. I picked up issue #2 with no context, having missed the first one. If you’re like me and have no background on the series, Judge Dredd is a futuristic tale, set in the dystopian society of Mega-City One. Joseph Dredd is a Judge; Judges are cops who also impose sentence on their perps. This issue seems to be as much about what the system asks of its participants as it is about the characters. The comic is split into two stories by Swierczynski, “Cover Me”, with art by Nelson Daniel, and “The Good Parts”, with art by Brendan McCarthy.

So, for a reader with no grounding in the series, who is also starting late to the party, what’s the verdict?

My findings, riddled with spoilers, after the jump.

The Emancipation Of Harley – Review Of Suicide Squad #15

Fifteen issues into various DC “New 52” titles and I have to tell you – if you’d have asked me who would still be standing as the long term writer of a title at the end of 2012, I’m not sure I would’ve named Adam Glass over Scott Snyder or Gail Simone. Snyder’s Swamp Thing was an unexpected initial hit, although its sales have been in decline lately; Simone’s Batgirl, despite being uneven in places, was garnering solid sales. According to Comics Beat, last October Batgirl #13 sold 50,074 issues versus Suicide Squad #13’s 27,644. So, what gives? Why does Glass continue to get the green light?

After the jump, we puzzle out the nature of sales, love, and rubber chickens – with spoilers!

Even Hitler Thinks Dan Slott Has Ruined The Amazing Spider-Man?

While we here at the Crisis On Infinite Midlives home office, did not feel that The Amazing Spider-Man #698 was by any means horrible, we also weren’t exactly lining up to sing its praises either. Solidly written characterizations aside, it’s a big deal to play the Freaky Friday card on your protagonist, right as you’re about to end the run of a publication that has been in existence since 1963.

To that end, there are a lot of folks out there who are pretty upset about it, even… Hitler? Yes, it would seem so. I Googled it myself after coming across this in Dan Slott’s Twitter feed yesterday:

Showed the Dan Slott/Hitler meme to my folks this morning. Dad was in tears. “I’ve never laughed so hard at Hitler!” #SuckItMelBrooks

— Dan Slott (@DanSlott) November 24, 2012

Lo and behold, someone had enough free time on their hands to update the Hitler Reacts meme.

I had no idea that Hitler was such a closet Spidey fan! Check it out, after the jump!

In Which Jeremy Renner Is A Good Sport On “Saturday Night Live”

Hey, remember, about two weeks ago on Saturday Night Live, when Louis C.K. delivered one of the most kickass monologues to introduce the program in recent memory and gave everyone about six minutes of hope that SNL wasn’t going to suck anymore? Yeah, that’s over. Meanwhile, this week Jeremy Renner is at least a good sport about Hawkeye’s place in the scheme of things in The Avengers. Have a shot of whiskey or two to offset the cringe that this clip will induce. Ready? Here we go:

Maybe SNL should have Joss Whedon just come in and write and direct their show? At least he knows how to make ensembles come off as smart and funny.