Happy Easter

I’ve been writing for Christian e-zine, Sight for about  a year now. They have a cool wordle all about Jesus, made up of the most popular words that people use in describing him. Seeing as it’s Easter, here’s a peek at what people are saying lately.

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Staying with the theme, here’s a great Easter comic from DC back in the day, by artist Alex Toth. Entitled, Dirty Job it’s only 4 pages long and is definitely worth a read. May your public holiday be about more than getting a sugar high and dreaming of rabbits.

April 10, 2009
Categories: Comic Art, New To Comics?, News . Tags: , . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Free Full Metal Alchemist Episodes

In what could be considered a nice Easter present, here’s some free anime for you. Press release below from Madman.

In an Australian first, Madman is presenting free online episodes of the hit new Japanese anime series, less than a week after its premiere broadcast in Japan, and months prior to any DVD release.
Full Metal Alchemist
FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: BROTHERHOOD, along with a selection of other regularly updated anime episodes are available to watch for free at http://www.madman.com.au via Madman’s enhanced new “Screening Room +” area of the site. New episodes will be made available on a weekly basis.

Madman.com.au is the premiere destination for Australian anime fans, offering a massive catalogue of anime and manga, along with social features such as discussion boards, galleries, events, downloads and more. Madman is thrilled to offer its fans the opportunity to view full episodes on the site in a bold new direction for the company. 

FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST: BROTHERHOOD is a brand-new production from Japan which closely follows the original FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST manga series storyline. The series chronicles brothers Edward and Alhponse Elric and their epic quest for the Philosopher’s Stone, the only thing that can help them undo a terrible alchemic error, which tore their bodies apart.

Also… Check out more great episodes available to watch on www.madman.com.au including SCHOOL RUMBLE, DEVIL MAY CRY, BLACK BLOOD BROTHERS and DARKER THAN BLACK.

April 10, 2009
Categories: Cartoons, Movies, News . Tags: , , . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: 1 Comment

Newsboys’ New Line-Up

Well, it appears the hugely successful band, Newsboys are changing their line-up again. It’s happened a lot these last few years. This is how it stands now – Aussie Paul Colman has left, former bassist Jody Davis is back, and surprisingly, baldie frontman Peter Furler has left and is being replaced by dcTalk’s Michael Tait. All these changes are amicable by the way. Below is the farewell message from Mr. Furler himself. You can find out more at their official site. I think this is good news.

Hello Friends,

Sorry for the delay in getting this brief statement out. As we say around the nb camp, “I’ve been flat out like a lizard drinking.” It’s been a busy time helping the lads with this transition, while at  the same time finishing up the recording and mixing of the new CD in order to make the May 5th release date.

New Newsboys

As you know, I have come to a decision that it is time to stop.  I want  to thank you for your prayers and encouragement!  We have had many people write and call asking about my well-being.  Thank you for your  concern!  I am happy to let you know that I am not dying of some sickness or disease, nor am I in some sort of moral or spiritual crisis (Glory To God!). There has been no band bust-up or punch-out! All is well! (Although now that I think of it, I did accidently render Duncan unconscious one time in a play fight minutes before a concert!)  For me, the decision is that after traveling many thousands of miles across land and sea for over 22 years, along with needing to constantly keep writing and reach production deadlines-let alone feed my dog, It was time for something to give, and my booking agent and his GPS drew the  
short straw!

What are my plans you ask?  Well, at the moment, they are to encourage the lads in this here “passing of the baton” to Michael, as well as to continue songwriting, and most importantly, for Summer and I to continue doing what we are all called to do-that is reach the people that come across our path with the Love and Spirit of Jesus.

I want to thank YOU! For you have always welcomed me, from the early days of criss-crossing the USA in a beat-up, old dodge van, to traveling in trains, planes, ferries, ships, (and of course the occasional motorbike) into some of the most amazing places on this planet!  Let me think: Morocco, Israel, Asia, UK, Europe, Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, Russia and Uganda just to name a few.  Seeing your faces and hearing you sing has blessed me. Again, many thanks!

Now, I need to ask you a favor.  Please do the same for my friend, Michael Tait.  Welcome him.  Michael is a statesman in our industry, and he is who I have picked to carry on what I started as a teenager.

newsboys is more than a band to me.  It is a group of people: men and women, husbands and wives, sons and daughters pooling together their gifts and talents, making many sacrifices, and believing that together we are all making a difference in telling the good news of the saving power of our Lord Jesus Christ to our generation.  I am happy to say that this has not changed.

I will continue on with the band as friend, songwriter, cheerleader, and prayer partner.

Please enjoy the new CD, In The Hands of God.  We poured our souls into it. I sang at the top of my lungs! It is for you!

Love and Peace,

Peter Furler
March 2009

April 9, 2009
Categories: Music, News . Tags: , . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

DC’s Got You Covered

Thanks to DC’s new blog, The Source, some great new artwork from upcoming titles can now be seen. Below are covers (and interiors) from writer James Robinson and artist Mauro Cascioli from the mini-series Justice League: Cry For Justice which debuts in July. You’ll also see below covers for The Flash: Rebirth #4, by Geoff Johns and artist Ethan Van Sciver, and finally, there’s the cover to July’s Gotham City Sirens #2 and Batman: Streets of Gotham. I must say, the entire DCU has been disappointing for about the last year, with Batman: R.I.P and Final Crisis just being overhyped and underwhelming. However, in 2 month’s time, I may just stand corrected. Both Batman and Justice League are moving in bold directions, and having Superman live on New Krypton seems to be off to a good start too. Thank you DC. Now don’t let me down.

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April 9, 2009
Categories: Comic Art, New To Comics?, News . Tags: . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Green Lantern: First Flight Trailer

The 5th film in the direct to DVD animated features from DC is Green Lantern: First Flight. It’s released on July 21 and the trailer is below. The costumes seem to replace the original white with black to great effect, and Sinestro, Kilowog and more are included as characters. Looks great. Official site here.

April 8, 2009
Categories: Cartoons, New To Comics?, News . Tags: . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Popgun Preview

The 3rd volume of the much loved comics anthology, Popgun is out now from Image. Yes, now! Anthologies are the in thing now in sequential art, as it’s a pleasant and surprising distraction from superhero epics for fanboys and girls, and a great entry into the world of comics for the uninitiated. Below are a few random preview pages, but you can see a lot more of the massive 472 page (for only $30) tome at the official site. We loved Tara McPherson’s cover so much, we dedicated the back page of the new Extra Sequential #2 to it. Inside you’ll find a lot more unique art from a slew of very talented storytellers.

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April 8, 2009
Categories: Comic Art, New To Comics?, News . Tags: , , . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Long Live Overlord

Savage Dragon fans are a loyal bunch. It’s no wonder, as creator Erik Larsen has poured his heart into the Finned Fighter’s adventures for almost 2 decades. Now, in the best recent tradition of Marvel, Image Comics offers up a teaser involving a classic foe. Something’s brewing. 

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April 8, 2009
Categories: Comics, News . Tags: , , . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Fleischer Cartoons

Fleischer Superman DVDThese Superman cartoons still stand up today, despite being produced in the 1940s. Sure, they might be light on story, but they look great. Now, Warner Bros. is releasing a collection of them all. Press release (and video clip) below.

Warner Bros. and DC comics opened the vault to release the very first animated DC Comics Superman cartoons. Commonly known as the Fleischer Superman Cartoons, the series of seventeen animated Technicolor short films will be released on DVD as a 2-disc  collection featuring 17 action-packed vintage theatrical cartoons.

The Max Fleischer Superman title also includes great bonus features including a revealing documentary which defines the tradition of the “Super Human” archetype of hero and why Superman resonates with fans on such a deep and personal level. Also included in the bonus features are interviews with surviving members, relatives and biographers of the animation and production team and contemporary animators such as Bruce Timm (Batman: The Animated Series), Paul Dini and Dan Riba (Superman: The Animated Series) who detail the influence these cartoons have had on their own works.

April 7, 2009
Categories: Cartoons, New To Comics?, News . Tags: , . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Top Cow Freebies

Official press release below about the 25 participating US and Canadian retailers for April’s excellent Witchblade giveaway programme. See if your LCS is on the list.

TOP COW CONTINUES ‘LET US WIN YOU OVER’ INITIATIVE WITH WITCHBLADE #126
wb126_covs_page_1Top Cow Productions, Inc. revealed today the names of the participating retailers in their “Let Us Win YOU Over” initiative for April and the program would continue the second part of their “War of the Witchblades” storyline – Witchblade #126.
The “Let Us Win YOU Over” initiative is a yearlong campaign by Top Cow Productions to give out free copies of its regular comics to potential fans in the U.S. and Canada through participating comic book stores. Each month, a different set of stores, each month a different free comic. The stores vary by geography and demographics. Top Cow has partnered with ComicsPRO to bring this promotion to fans and all of February’s retailers are members of ComicsPRO.
Witchblade #126 continues the six-part “War of the Witchblades” storyline, which promises to shake the status quo of Witchblade to its foundation. Since the events of First Born, Detective Sara Pezzini and dancer Danielle Baptiste have shared the mystical gauntlet, the Witchblade; but recently cracks have appeared in their relationship. The cracks widen in issue #126 pointing an inevitable battle. Regular writer Ron Marz writes the story with art by ongoing artist Stjepan Sejic. The issue will be in comic shops on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 and normally retails for $2.99.
“It’s not a coincidence that we decided to run Let Us Win YOU Over in conjunction with one of our best stories in Witchblade to date,” said Filip Sablik, Publisher of Top Cow. “The second chapter of “War of the Witchblades” digs deeper into the roots of Sara and Dani’s conflict and serves as another great jumping on point for new readers.”

“We are very excited to be a part of this Top Cow promotion,” commented Anna Warren, owner of Illusive Comics & Games of Santa Clara, CA, “Readers love free samples as a generous way to get a taste of a series they might not have otherwise picked up.  And the promotion Top Cow has been doing is a great help to comic book stores, getting new comic book fans into stores. ”

“Top Cow has really listened to retailers and is doing what it takes to fully market Indie titles to the average comic book reader,” added Warren.

A list of the participating retailers during the month of April (listed alphabetically by state) is included below. Additional information can be found at the official online home of the “Let Us Win YOU Over” initiative – www.topcow.com/freecomics. Customers who currently purchase Witchblade at the stores below will be able to purchase an extremely limited “All Beef” Edition (limited to just the stores listed below) at the regular cover price. Fans are encouraged to contact the retailer they wish to visit for specific details:

Continue reading →

April 7, 2009
Categories: New To Comics?, News . Tags: , , . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

G-Man Learns To Fly

G-ManPress release below from Image, which is good news for those who like all-ages fun and frivolity in their superhero reading.

Readers shocked by Chris Giarrusso’s departure from Mini-Marvels will be pleased to learn he’s expanding his unique take on superheroes in this May’s G-MAN, VOL. 1: LEARNING TO FLY !

“Working Mini-Marvels was cool, but G-MAN, VOL. 1: LEARNING TO FLY  is what I’ve been wanting to do for years,” Giarrusso said. “It’s the story I was wanting to write and draw the entire time doing Mini-Marvels so I’m happy those fans are psyched by the collection. G-MAN and company are going to be taking up all my attention for the foreseeable future and I aim to make the long-time Mini-Marvels readers happy!”

G-MAN, VOL. 1: LEARNING TO FLY  collects the entirety of Giarrusso’s Comic Bits strips, showcasing his entire line up of all-ages friendly superheroes including G-Man, his mean brother Great Man and friends like Billy Demon, Tan Man & Spark! These strips set the stage for this fall’s G-MAN miniseries, giving fans old and new the chance to catch up. Also included is a full-length origin story, a G-Man Christmas tale and the complete acclaimed Mean Brother/Idiot Brother series.

G-MAN, VOL. 1: LEARNING TO FLY (MAR092415), a 96-page full color digest-sized softcover for $9.99, will be in stores May 20 2009.

April 7, 2009
Categories: Comics, New To Comics?, News . Tags: , . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Dead Romeo #1 Review

Dead RomeoI grabbed this for 2 reasons – the cover and the name. They’re both awesome. Written by Jesse Blaze Snider (yes, he is a musician, the son of Dee Snider infact) and pencilled by Ryan Benjamin this new six issue mini-series is kind of like Twilight for the manly.

Snider is fairly new to comics, but it doesn’t really show. The old familiar story convention of having a narrator introduce us to a dying man and how he got into that predicament kicks things off, before we’re hit with, “But I’m getting ahead of myself. That’s not where the story begins. It’s not even where it ends. Our story begins six feet underground.” Sure, not entirely original to start a story with the protagonist’s death, but in this case it works-barely. The dead man is Jonathan Romero. He gets out of his grave, having been buried in 1986 and finds a homeless girl called Whisper hanging out at the cemetery with her snarling dog. They exchange unpleasantries and part ways, with Romero (nicknamed Romeo) seemingly smitten. The building of this romance between the cynical Whisper and the undead vampire Romeo is the basis of the series. Romeo has done some horrendous things to escape hell apparently, and was protected by the also-resurrected Hollywood Vampires, a collective of bad fangs. To escape hell forever they must kill a virgin.

For a debut issue, this is okay. There’s a lot to introduce here, but compared to say, Mark Waid’s Irredeemable, or even Hexed which were strengthened by their simplicity, Dead Romeo seems to be filling every page with characters. If all those characters serve a purpose, then that’s fine, but only future issues will tell. Snider’s not a bad writer though. Romeo seems quite clearly the romantic vampire, a la Angel, while every other vamp seems like they’re auditioning for the next Lost Boys sequel. They’re all bad to the bone. Got it. 

I’ll give this series a go, because despite my harshness, I can see what Snider’s attempting. There’s going to be a battle, with love caught in the middle, and tough choices involving sacrifice to be made. Dead Romeo just needs time to develop the characters, and Snider shows promise in his dialogue. It’s not off to  a great start, but with more streamlining this series could be interesting. Benjamin’s pencils are fine. There’s heaps of blood (if there was any swearing this would’ve been a Vertigo book) and each character, including Romeo in his glam rock outfit, Death the skeletal barman, and Dwight Phry (leader of the Hollywood vamps) possess a distinct visual identity.

Vampire tales have been through the wringer of pop culture so many times, there’s almost nothing new to say, but Snider may very well be creating an intriguing, atmospheric tale here. It’s just hard to see so far.

See a preview of this ish here.

April 6, 2009
Categories: New To Comics?, Reviews . Tags: , , . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Saturday Morning Watchmen

Ah, the Watchmen parodies just keep on coming, but this one is right up my alley. My Gen-X, 80s cartoon loving alley. Imagine if the studio who gave the world the cheesy Ninja Turtles toon back in the day got their hands on Alan Moore’s and Dave Gibbons’ seminal work of fiction. Funny, funny stuff, including an amusing theme song, a dancing Nite Owl and Dr. Manhattan changing into a car. You can see the rest of creator Harry Partridge’s videos here.

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April 6, 2009
Categories: Cartoons, Movies, New To Comics?, News . Tags: , . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

Irredeemable #1 Review

Irredeemable #1Wow. Just – wow. I’ve never doubted Mark Waid’s mad skills behind the keyboard. The guy knows how to write good superhero comics, and has done so for years. Anyone who’s read Kingdom Come will agree. Now that he’s the EIC of BOOM! Studios, he appears to be ramping things up, free from the tight editorial reigns that The Big Two can sometimes choke a writer’s potential with.

With the clever marketing campaign stating “Mark Waid Is Evil,” fans were curious. The guy’s not exactly a squeaky clean comics writer. Those days haven’t existed since Batman was dancing on TV. Nor is he Warren Ellis though. However, with this new series, he seems to be exploring the darkness of costumed adventuring to a greater degree than he ever has before. The whole premise of this book is the slow corruption of a good superhero (the first and the best actually) before he begins to hunt down his terrified team-mates. Peter Krause’s art is suitably realistic and vicious and the terror is palpable. Waid – you’ve done it again.

To say more than that would be to ruin the wonderful slam dunk that this debut issue is. Anyone who’s read superhero comics for any length of time needs to read this. It’s a quick read (with an afterword by Grant Morrison and a preview of The Unknown), and not many details are offered, save that The Plutonian has now turned and his fellow spandex wearers are helpless. Imagine if Superman had enough of the human race. If all our stupidity and constant bickering and evil just made the most powerful creature on earth snap. And there was nothing we could do about it. That is Irreedemable, and it’s great stuff.

April 5, 2009
Categories: New To Comics?, Reviews . Tags: , , . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: Leave a comment

DC Gets A Blog

And it’s about time. Marvel has always been the cooler company of The Big Two, while DC has done little to curb its closed off gentlemanly vibe. However, DC were the first to embrace the digital comics revolution, with Zuda, and Marvel soon followed with their slyly named Digital Comics Unlimited. However, Marvel’s E-I-C, Joe Quesada is always on TV chats shows, and on-line chatting Marvel up, especially with his informative weekly blog on MySpace Comic Books.

This is greta, but somewhat frustrating when compared with DC’s lack of chat. I’ve always had a love affair with DC. I’m a comic book nerd today because of them. Superman: The Movie, The Super Friends cartoon, The Killing Joke, The Death of Superman, Kingdom Come – all these and more were the watershed moments for me as a reader. They continued to reveal to me the awesomeness that comics can contain. However as a company, DC has always been tight-lipped about its plans compared to Marvel, and their relationship with the mainstream press can be awkward at the best of times. Things are finally looking up though.  Finally DC has realised that it’s time to play catch-up and be pro-active. Their PR guy, Alex Sequra is now running their brand new blog. That’s great news. Hopefully it’s the first step towards new movements the company will be making to be embraced by, and embrace, the press and fans. You can see their blog right here and to give you a hint of what’s been happening lately, you can see pics of Ravager (the new co-feature in Teen Titans) and Ed Benes’ triptych cover to the upcoming Blackest Night: Tales of the Corp 3 ish mini-series. Your daily dose of DC is now here.

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April 5, 2009
Categories: Comic Art, New To Comics?, News . Tags: , , , . Author: Kris Bather . Comments: 2 Comments

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