Batgirl – Page 3

Dynamite Furthers Red Sonja’s Legend

Uncategorized
July 15, 2013

Art: Frank Thorne

In addition to the new Red Sonja comic book launch with superstar writer Gail Simone, Dynamite Entertainment has announced a new series, Legends of Red Sonja with an all-star cast of female writers.

OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE:

Following on the immense success of the newly launched Red Sonja ongoing series by Gail Simone, Dynamite proudly announces the upcoming Legends of Red Sonja prestige miniseries, an extravaganza celebrating the iconic fantasy heroine’s long and storied career. Legends of Red Sonja is a collaborative effort uniting Simone with a star-studded and prestigious creative team including Marjorie M. Liu, Mercedes Lackey, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Rhianna Pratchett, Leah Moore, Tamora Pierce, Blair Butler, Nancy Collins, Meljean Brook, Nicola Scott, Devin Grayson and more to be announced. Frank Thorne, one of the key artists responsible for defining the character’s distinct look, will be among the artists to contribute cover artwork, as will Jay Anacleto.

Art: Frank Thorne

“When it was first decided that I would be taking part in the relaunch of Red Sonja, we had what I thought was a very fun idea, which was to have all the covers and variant covers be drawn by top female artists,” says Gail Simone, an industry legend with celebrated runs on Birds of Prey, Secret Six, and Batgirl. “The idea just took off, as some of my artistic heroes, people like Colleen Doran, Amanda Conner, and Nicola Scott all contributed these gorgeous, eye-popping pieces of art for the book. It made everyone tremendously happy and gave us a wonderful extra kick for our relaunch of this classic character. So when Dynamite told me that the 40th anniversary of Red Sonja was coming up, I thought, ‘I wonder if we could do the same thing, but with all my favorite female writers?’ I can’t tell you how exciting this is for me, it’s something I’ve wanted to do for years.”

Art: Jay Anacleto

The structure of the Legends of Red Sonja prestige series will be, in Simone’s words, “a braided story, with individual, unique stories written by titans of comics, prose, and the gaming world. These are all powerful voices whose work I adore. Dynamite asked me to make a list of the women I’d love to see included, and again, I was astounded at the eager responses! We have giants of the fantasy and horror prose world; Tamora Pierce, Nancy Collins, and Meljean Brook. We have some of the hottest comics talents; Marjorie M. Liu, Mercedes Lackey, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Leah Moore, Devin Grayson and (in her first published story as a writer) Nicola Scott. And we have brilliant writers from games and television; Rhianna Pratchett and Blair Butler. Getting to hand-pick this crew of fierce women was an absolute joy, and the fun of it is, we’re all fans of Red Sonja, and of each other. Throwing ideas back and forth and shaping the stories has been some of the most fun I’ve ever had in comics. I can’t wait for people to read these takes on Red Sonja…some are funny, some are scary, some are very different versions of Sonja than we are familiar with!”

Art: Frank Thorne

Many of Gail Simone’s hand-picked contributors have shared their excitement about the project:

Rhianna Pratchett (Heavenly Sword, Mirror’s Edge): “I treasured my Red Sonja poster when I was kid. So to get the opportunity to write a story for the character, and to do it in the company of such extraordinary, talented women, is a dream come true. My younger self is definitely high-fiving my older self.”

Leah Moore (Doctor Who: The Whispering Gallery, Sherlock Holmes: The Liverpool Demon): “It’s not everyday that Gail Simone asks me to write Red Sonja. To be honest, I’m glad, because when it happened, I had to be peeled off the ceiling. Writing Red Sonja has been a personal ambition of mine for a long time. She is about the most fun a writer can have. She’s a loner, a grouch, a badass, and is apparently impervious to cold. I am almost too excited about this project to actually write the thing, which is counter-productive, really.”

Art: Frank Thorne

Tamora Pierce (The Song of the Lioness, Mastiff): “This is the coolest project ever: new stories crafted by some of the best writers and artists out there, about a woman warrior created by one of my literary idols, Robert E. Howard, spearheaded by my comics goddess, Gail Simone. I’m honored to be a part of this, and can’t wait to see the whole thing. It will be a ground-breaking, multilayered view of a character who has been brawling through comics for decades!”

Blair Butler (Heart, host of MSN’s Nerdcore): “I’m honored and exceedingly intimidated to be included in this group of talented creators. Gail Simone is amazing — and her take on Red Sonja is something I’ve been looking forward to since it was announced way back at Emerald City Comic-Con. So when she asked me to contribute, I agreed immediately, even though I’m totally nervous about it.”

Art: Jay Anacleto

Nancy Collins (Swamp Thing, VAMPS): “I am thrilled to have been chosen by Gail Simone to participate in Legends of Red Sonja. I remember how excited I was when I plucked Conan the Barbarian #23 off the spinner rack as a kid, all those years ago, and finally saw a female hero capable of dishing it out with the best of them. I am honored to have been given this chance to add to Red Sonja’s mythos.”

Meljean Brook (Iron Seas, Demon Angel): “I’m absolutely thrilled to be writing a story for the she-devil, Red Sonja. I first encountered Red Sonja in the movie with Nielsen and Schwarzenegger when I was about eight years old — and I know that movie isn’t without its problems, but it’s almost impossible to describe how incredible it was to watch a film in which the heroine was just as strong and as tough as the muscle-bound hero. I loved that she was arrogant, skilled, and never wimped out or waited for rescue, and I immediately went out in search of similar stories about her. Red Sonja was a revelation to eight-year-old me, and I can trace many of the heroines I write today back to those roots.”

“Wow. Gail and the editorial team at Dynamite have put together an incredible team of creators – a prestigious and impressive list – on a series that celebrates one of the strongest female characters in comics. I can say, that they have done an incredible job together, and I thank them.” States Dynamite CEO and Publisher Nick Barrucci.

Learn more about Dynamite Entertainment here.

REVIEW – The Movement #1

News
May 4, 2013

npqzcq-2557989 Gail Simone is at once challenging, provocative and blisteringly funny in her writing. One moment she’s introducing new transgendered characters to the mainstream DCU, and the next she’s announcing on the electric-type Twitter that her next project will feature an all-quokka cast.

As well as her triumphant (and briefly interrupted) run on Batgirl, Gail has introduced a new Superhero…perhaps “team” isn’t the right term. The title describes it best; The Movement. Too easily waved off as a play on the Occupy folks, The Movement is also equal parts urban watchdog group, police oversight committee and street gang, with a bit of Anonymous and Teen Titans thrown in.

It’s set in new fictional DC town Coral City, a town high in crime and police corruption. As a pair of dirty cops offer to let a pair of young people go if the female offers them a free show, they are quickly surrounded by members of The Movement, clad in masks (which had BETTER be getting handed out at cons this summer, thank you very much) and cell phones, recording and disseminating the cops’ indecent proposal.

The part of town known as “The Tweens” is under the protection of The Movement, which seems to have both powered and non-powered members. Incursions by the police, even the precinct’s honest captain, are not welcome, and are met with force. The Movement has the might to

There’s the hint of a theme first touched on by Mark Waid in his last (and sadly underappreciated) take on Legion of Superheroes, in which the Legion was more of a youth movement than simply a superhero team. As here, they represent the idea that since they are not being watched over by anyone, they will watch over themselves. The Movement has organization and the power to make sure their part of town is not threatened from without, and protected from those within.

Freddie Williams’ art has a very loose line, , far better suited for a more character-oriented book like this. The panel layout is very interesting, often a large splash image hiding under numerous smaller panels – the storytelling is dense, and fast-paced. It’s a unique look, very well used in this very unique book.

This is far from standard DC fare, and Gail fills it with very interesting characters, about whom you immediately want to know more. I expect the tale of how these people got their powers, and how they found each other, will all entertain and interest readers for some time. Being a unusual title, I’m hoping it finds an audience, maybe even one outside of the normal clientele of comic shops.

Martha Thomases: The Wonderful Party

Columns
December 14, 2012

The responsible thing to do this week would be to write about The State of Women in Comics. With Gail Simone booted off Batgirl, coupled with Karen Berger’s departure from Vertigo, one can conjure all sorts of misogynist conspiracy theories, and one would have more than a 50% chance of being right.

But I don’t want to write about that. For one thing, I don’t have any inside knowledge, so I would only be speculating.

Here’s the thing. Comics is such a small world that I know both of these women. I worked with Karen for the better part of a decade, threw the launch party for Vertigo in my apartment when I couldn’t get DC to pay for it, and enjoyed her work a great deal. I don’t know Gail as well, but I’ve met her a few times, I love her writing, admire her work for the Hero Initiative, and think she’s a really classy person.

These are big names in the business. I am not. But comics is still low-profile enough that we are, more or less, peers. Or at least colleagues.

I was reminded of this last week, when I hosted our annual Hanukah party, the first one since my husband died. It was a bittersweet occasion, an event he loved very much. I thought it was an outrage that he wasn’t here for it, but I also thought it was important to continue the tradition. Life goes on, despite my best efforts.

My friends came out to support my son and myself, and that’s what friends do. The guest list isn’t just my friends from comics. It’s my friends from different aspects of my life, including my son and his friends. My apartment isn’t so large that the comics people can avoid the knitters, or the anti-war people can be in a room separate from my high school pals.

One of our guests is an aspiring comics creator whom I introduced to a few pros at New York Comic-Con last year. He happily told me about the other people in the business he’d met since then, and how great each of them had been to him.

That’s comics.

This is not to go all rose-colored-glasses on you. There are people in the business I don’t like. There are people in the business who don’t like me. There are people I don’t know, and more of them all the time. There isn’t any one of them I’d be intimidated to talk to.

And there isn’t anybody I wouldn’t defend against the attacks of the broader culture, the sneers of elitists who look down on the medium (fewer every day).

We’re in this together, and we have each other’s back. It reminds me of this lyric:

Faithful friends who are dear to us

Will be near to us once more

– “<a href=”

Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”

And that brings me to my wish for you this season.

Someday soon, we all will be together

If the Fates allow

Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow

So have yourself a merry little Christmas now.

Or, of course, the solstice holiday of your choice.

SATURDAY: Marc Alan Fishman

DC Comics July 2012 Solicitations

News
April 12, 2012

It’s that time again… okay, it’s a little past that normal time, thanks to the Mix March Madness wrapup, but here are the preview materials for DC Comics releases for July 2012.

What’s on tap this month? More of the Before Watchmen books, with the debut of Ozymandias from Len Wein and Jae Lee, the conclusion of the Court of Owls storyline and crossover in all the Bat-books, and the debut of the done-in-one book, National Comics, featuring the New 52 Debut (coming right at you) of Eternity.

And in the white elephant of desire category, there’s the $300 statue showing the climactic scene from The Dark Knight Returns.

Once more, into the breach? Banzai!

As always, spoilers may lurk beyond this point. (more…)

DC Comics May 2012 Solicitations

News
February 13, 2012

It’s that time again… here are the preview materials for DC Comics releases for May 2012.

As you can see, DC is clearly getting excited about the imminent arrival of The Dark Knight Rises with new movie statues showing Anne Hathaway, Christian Bale, and Tom Hardy, the return of Grant Morrison and Chris Burnham’s Batman Incorporated and the long awaited arrival of Batman: Earth One by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, and the Talon appearing in every single Batman book this month… and even All-Star Western?

Plus, with the return of Earth One, we also get the return of Earth Two– and the return of the World’s Finest.

Shall we get into it? Let’s!

As always, spoilers may lurk beyond this point. (more…)

DC Comics February 2012 Solicitations

News
November 14, 2011

We hold in our hands the covers for DC Comics this February. As a child of four can plainly see, these comics have been hermetically sealed in a CGC 9.9 slab, and they’ve been kept in a #2 mayonnaise jar under a giant stack of returned copies of Holy Terror since noon today.

What do we have worth noting? The new look of Darkseid, and we’re far enough into the new 52 books that it’s time for Batman to start crossing over in all of them. Plus Mara Jade, the red-haired assassin who fell in love with her blond-haired man she was sent to kill– oh, I’m sorry, that’s from Star Wars. This is Mera in a jade outfit. Our mistake.

Shall we? Surely!

As usual, spoilers may lurk beyond this point.

(more…)

DC Comics November Solicitations

News
October 17, 2011

Because you demanded it, true beli– no wait, that’s the other guys.

But we’re here with the solicitations for DC Comics for Novemeber, coming soon to a Previews catalog near you. The New 52 keep rolling along, and we have the Sergio Aragones version of Batman immortalized in a statue.

So let’s take a look!

Details? Yes, we have details…

(more…)

DC Comics December Solicitations

News
September 19, 2011

We hold in our hands the covers for DC Comics this December. As a child of four can plainly see, these envelopes have been hermetically sealed. They’ve been kept in a #2 mayonnaise jar under Wikipedia’s porch since noon today.

Shall we? Surely!

As usual, spoilers may lurk beyond this point.

(more…)

Dear DC, Please Keep Captain Marvel Black!

News
September 6, 2011

Dear DC,

You’re rebooting your universe, and I approve. Comic books should be rebooted every decade to keep them vital. Having a younger Superman who was never married makes sense. I only have one plea: please, keep Captain Marvel black.

I’m old enough to remember the early ‘70s when DC had the best female superheroes, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Batgirl, and Marvel had the best black superheroes, the Black Panther, the Falcon, and Luke Cage.

But everything changed in 1973 when DC expanded its universe with characters that had been published by other companies. Justice League #107 introduced the Quality Comics superheroes. Here’s that groundbreaking cover:

With one stroke, DC accomplished two things. One was obvious: it leapt ahead of Marvel on diversity, creating four African-American heroes, a Mexican-American Black Condor and a Japanese-American Human Bomb (which seems simplistic now, but was a daring commentary on nuclear weapons then).

(more…)

DC Comics November Solicitations

News
August 15, 2011

Once again, a look into the future, with some very interesting looks at the past, including the reprinting of a comic that was never released in America in the first place, the infamous Elseworlds 80 Page Giant that was pulped because of concerns about Superman’s babysitter.