Category: batman

Collected Comics Library Podcast #168

67,086Kb; 71m 17s

http://www.collectedcomicslibrary.com/

The CCL continues its interviews with a conversation with Eric Bieze, Administrator of the Marvel Essentials and DC Showcases Yahoo! Group. Eric and I talk everything Black and White; what we like and don’t like, what’s coming out and what we would like to see.

Also on the show I go over collected edition news from the New York Comic-Con, and a cool upcoming DC Comics Superhero DVD from Filmation. Lastly, I go over the New Releases of the Week list.

Please visit my site sponsors: In-Stock Trades, Forbidden Planet International (UK), and Library Binding Company.

Chris

Links of Note:
The 10th Annual DC Archives Survey
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 CCL Podcast #168 - Eric Bieze, Admin, Essentials and Showcases Yahoo! Group [71:17m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I try to stay away from politics on this blog, but no one can ignore what is going on in our country. Super Tuesday came and went and I am placing all my bets that John McCain will be our next President. I’ve come to this conclusion for a few different and obvious reasons; Obama is too inexperienced; When it comes down to it, many people do not want the Clintons back in the White House; McCain does have more experience then Clinton, He his a household name and he crosses party lines. Damn! And I voted for Romney in the Michigan Primary. I guess we’ll see it all sorted out in November. On with today’s links:

• Though they weren’t originally released as a trilogy, the novels Labyrinth of Evil, Revenge of the Sith, and Dark Lord form a natural story arc that follows Anakin Skywalker’s last days as hero of the galaxy and transformation into Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith. Now the movie adaptation by Matt Stover and the two flanking tie-in novels by James Luceno are being combined into a trade paperback format that collects all the action, intrigue and drama of the three books into one. The Dark Lord Trilogy is due out in August from Del Rey Books.
• George Khoury, Staff Writer, CBR, takes a look at The Killing Joke: Twenty Years Later. Did anyone take a look at this book when it was rereleased as part of the DC Universe: The Stories Of Alan Moore TPB two years ago? I guess DC will keep on re-releasing this book every year that Christian Bale puts on a bat-suit.
• ICv2.com reports that Ad-House Books has announced that it will release a hardcover collection of Skyscrapers of the Midwest, the award-winning comic by Joshua W. Cotter, this summer. The comics were Eisner- and Ignatz-nominated, and in an earlier format, Skyscrapers was the winner of the 2004 Isotope Award for Excellence in Mini-Comics.
• Due to the writers strike, NBC will start to broadcast USA Networks Monk and Psych on regular TV in March. Can Bruce Campbell’s Burn Notice be too far behind?
• Oni Press has provided CBR News with an enormous 44-page preview of Jumper: Jumpscars, the graphic novel prequel to the forthcoming Doug Liman film “Jumper, starring Hayden Christiansen and Samuel L. Jackson.
• Alan Gardner, Daily Cartoonist, is reporting that Universal Press has announced that Close to Home creator John McPherson is coming out with a new collection entitled Great Sex After 50! And Other Outlandish Lies About Getting Older and contains over 100 Close to Home panels dealing with age. The book will be hit book stores next week.
• Alan Gardner, Daily Cartoonist, is also reporting that a collected edition of editorial cartoons will be coming out soon by Pelican Publishing. The book will be titled Prize Winning Editorial Cartoons, it will be edited by Dean Turnbloom, it has 128 page pages and includes 153 cartoons
• And lastly, Eddie Campbell reports (via other sources) that Bob Callahan has passed away. He was the editor for the book The New Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Stories: From Crumb to Clowes (2004). To my knowledge there are two editions of this book. The one just mentioned, and the first edition, A Smithsonian Book of Comic-Book Comics from 1982. There is also the excellent The Smithsonian Collection of Newspaper Comics from 1977. I don’t have the book Callahan did, but I do have the other two, which are an invaluable resource.

Just a quick follow up on yesterday’s blog posting about Jackie Ormes. I received an e-mail from the author of the book, Nancy Goldstein. She informed that the book will be out around the middle of this month and there will be a book launch event on March 5 at the downtown Ann Arbor District Library. There will also be a slide presentation on the work of Jackie Ormes.

On another note, it did indeed snow and schools were closed today. However, the distinguished weathermen in this town got the forecast completely wrong. Last night predictions were in the 8-12 inch range for my area. We actually got around 4-5, but I swear that my driveway was only covered with about 2. Sigh. On with today’s links:

• Eric Reynolds, FLOG! Blog, reports on a new website that he has discovered: Crumbling Paper. It is an online archive of scanned Sunday tearsheets from the Golden Age of American comic strips
• Bob Greenberger, reports on how work has been going in this difficult time. He also gives an update to the upcoming The Essential Batman Encyclopedia
• I know it’s not exactly comics, but Pop Syndicate has a nice reviews of The Chronological Donald Volume 3, Disneyland: Secrets, Stories and Magic and Walt Disney Treasures Wave 7 DVD collections,. The last of which features Oswald the Lucky Rabbit
• More digital goodness. There is (what turns out to be) a three page preview of issue #21 from Swamp Thing Vol. 1: Saga of the Swamp Thing TPB. Thanks to Mike Sterling for setting the record straight
• Last year the magnificent, Library of America, published Philip K. Dick: Four Novels of the 1960s. This Spring they follow it up with a second volume: Five Novels of the 1960s and 70s, which includes Martian Time-Slip (1964), Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb (1965), Now Wait for Last Year (1966), Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said (1974), and A Scanner Darkly (1977), the basis for the 2006 film.
• Finally, Marvel has released a list of corrections to many of there upcoming books. Listed are the collected editions, but you can get the full list (that includes the monthly titles) over at ComicList.com
  • Ultimate Iron Man II Prem. HC Reg./DM Eds. April to 7/16/2008
  • The Spider-Man Premiere HC: One More Day (JAN08 2206, $19.99) will be $24.99, not $19.99, as originally solicited.
  • X-Men vs. Apocalypse TPB Vol. 1: The Twelve (JAN08 2232, $29.99), solicited as containing the X-Men 1999 Yearbook and running 280 pages, will now contain X-Man #59 instead and run 304 pages.
  • The Incredible Hulk Omnibus HC Movie Variant Vol. 1 (DEC07 2240, $99.99) has been cancelled. The two other cover editions of the book (DEC07 2238D & DEC07 2239D), bearing the same price and contents, are still scheduled.
  • The Ms. Marvel Premiere HC Vol. 04: Monster Smash (DEC07 2258, $19.99) will be 168 pages, not 160 pages, as originally solicited.
  • The All-New Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A–to-Z Vol. 01 Premiere HC (DEC07 2261, $24.99) has been retitled. The new title is The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Premiere HC Vol. 01.
  • The Mighty Avengers Premiere HC Vol. 01: The Ultron Initiative (OCT07 2175, $19.99) will be 168 pages, not 144 pages, as originally solicited

Collected Comics Library Podcast #156

29,886Kb; 31m 36s

I recorded this week’s show last night (Tuesday at 9:00pm) after the news hit the wire about the death of Heath Ledger. I, undoubtedly, have a few thoughts on this myself. To put it plainly it’s very sad. At first glance it looks like no foul play was involved and that no suicide attempt was made. Ledger, of course, was on track to make his Oscar nominated name even bigger this summer as The Joker. Now he’ll be put into a list of young Hollywood actors, whose life ended to quickly: James Dean, Brandon Lee, River Phoenix, and even Brad Renfro, who died just last week.

As for the feature, I tell you about all the Countdown 80-Page Giant Specials that have been coming out. I go over the contents and tell you why those particular stories were chosen to be reprinted.

I also talk about three separate comic books shows, two of which you can listen too. All this and the New Releases of the Week.

Chris

Forbidden Planet Blog - Alan Grant, Denise Mina and Ian Rankin get graphic at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
Ink Studs - Comics As Art
Wordballoon with Jeph Loeb part 3
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 CCL #156 The Countdown 80-Page Giant Specials [31:36m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Collected Comics Library Podcast #144
25,046Kb; 26m 26s

Whether you call him Rahz or Raish, Ra’s al Ghul is one of the most evil and coolest villains in all of comicdom. And now he’s back, in full force, in the Batman rouges gallery. This week the CCL takes a look at not only one of the best Batman collected editions, but one of the best that feature a villain as the protagonist “Tales of the Demon” – both the 1991 and 2005 versions.
I also go over the news that involves Marvel, Image, Daredevil and the upcoming DVD-ROM collections - Civil War, House of M and EC anyone?
I have new Question of the Month - Thanksgiving style don’t forget that you can find me every Monday on Around Comics and every month with John Mayo.
Chris

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  CCL Podcast #144 - Ra's al Ghul [26:27m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Welcome back to the new Collected Comics Library. Many of you may notice nothing, but if you look carefully to the URL in your web browser you’ll notice that it has changed. This week I decided to migrate everything from my Blogspot page back to the original URL of http://www.collectecomicslibary.com . Please change your bookmark accordingly. I’m now using WordPress for the software and this will allow me a ton more functionality. This will be a great benefit to you, the reader and listener.

One neat addition is the use of an app called PodPress. Now you’ll be able to click on the player and listen to that certain podcast that you choose, please note I’m still on the process of doing this, so give me a few days to update everything. I’ll be posting other updates for the next week or so, but for now just know that everything is accessible the way it was before and feel free to write me with any questions you may have.

With all the coding that I’ve been doing the past three days, I’ve missed out on the news, so I’ll have top catch up this weekend. Here are a few links I did come across:

• Good friend of the CCL, Bob Greenberger, has announced on his blog that his is writing and editing, The Essential Batman Encyclopedia, an A-Z updating of Michael Fleisher’s original Batman Encyclopedia. That right it will cover everything Batman from 1939-2007. Wow! The book is set for a June 10, 2008 release.
• DC Comics, Random House Ink Distribution Pact
• Eric Henrickson, The Detroit News, writes about All-Ages Comic Books
• Entertainment Weekly is featuring a 4 page preview of the new The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Graphic Novel, The Black Dossier by Alan Moore

Collected Comics Library Podcast #141
26,575Kb; 28m 04s

Thanks in large part to the 85 degree temperature Sunday and the 50 degree temperature today, I have one hell of a head cold. Thanks God I recorded yesterday.

Today’s show was a lot of fun for me. For many months I have wanted to cover The Green Hornet. I found a lot of interesting things about the character and his world. Most of that he was born in Detroit and has a strong connection to The Lone Ranger in more ways than one. Any long time fans of the CCL or new ones should enjoy this journey from the Golden Age up until today.

There is a lot of news to go over to including Robin, The Boy Wonder Showcase Presents, Captain Victory, Shmoo, Mighty Avengers, Frank Miller’s Ronin and news from Devil’s Due.

As promised I did record with John Mayo last week. Besides the normal trade statistics (from August 2007) John and I went over his monthly article that he has posted at Comic Book Resources. It was one of our better conversations on record. Look for that to be put up in a few days by John on his feed at Comic Book Page. I will be sure to notify you when he does so.

Lastly, as always, I go over the New Releases of the Week, and there were a few surprises; DC Comics Absolute Sandman Volume 2 ships three weeks early and, EC Archives Vault of Horror Volume 1 ships six weeks early! Powers Volume 10: Cosmic TPB is also out this week — only 11 months late. Sigh.

Chris

Links of Note:
Mayo Report: August, 2007 Sales Analysis By John Mayo

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Collected Comics Library Podcast #140
26,557Kb; 28m 03s

If you’re a regular listener to the Collected Comics Library, than you know it’s no secret that I am a big fan of Batman. Always have been. Always will be. Of all the comics and collected editions I own, Batman is what I own the most of. Reflecting back as to why, I’m really not that sure. As a character, he is much more liberal than I am, I think he’s a jerk to his “Bat Family” and he is much more introverted than anyone I know, fictional or otherwise. That being said, I’m proud to add one of Batman’s latest collected editions to my bookshelf, Batman: Secrets of the Batcave. This book showcases the cave in all of its various comic book forms from the 1940’s up through today. There is also more to this book than meets the eye. Come listen and find out the 33-year-old true inspiration for this trade and find out just where and how Batman obtained all his trophies and memorabilia.
I also go in a bit about my venture into the Around Comics podcast, John Mayo and my time in Chicago this past weekend.
Chris

PS One correction. The Mummy story takes place in Detective Comics #158, not Batman #12.
I had my notes mixed up. Sorry about that. I’ll make a quick retraction next week.
Batman #12 is about the bullet proof vest.

Links of Note:
Batman #256
Batcave on Wikipedia

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Collected Comics Library Podcast #121
26,788Kb; 28m 18s