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§ Spurge and his readers round up 25 emblematic comics of the ’70s. A reliably comprehensive list, but — sob, sob — no MASTER OF KUNG FU?

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§ Richard Bruton looks at Oliver East’s BERLIN AND THAT.

§ Inspiration week at Eclectic Micks

§ Women are going to ruin the internet.

§ Why email interviews are so bad. Although any Evan Dorkin interview cannot be bad.

§ OTOH, this David Brothers state-of-the-manga-roundup with Vertical’s Ed Chavez, Tokyopop’s Marco Pavia and Dark Horse’s Michael Gombos is a very good piece via email. FUN FACT: LONE WOLF AND CUB is Dark Horse’s best selling title of all time.

§ Matt Seneca has quickly become the new it-boy of comics criticism.

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§ Austin English interviews Brandon Graham.

§ Nick Gazin has some rather amusing reviews at Viceland.

§ Will the Avengers movie pass the Bechdel Test? Joss Whedon may sneak in another female character, just to be different.

§ The last word on SCOTT PILGRIM’s box office performance.

§ Oscar-nominated comic book movie ROAD TO PERDITION comes to Blu-ray.

§ A line you do not ever want to read in a movie review:

There are several creative and dramatic shots throughout the film, so that even if one gets bored, you could just stare in awe at the scenery.


Seriously, not David Yates fans here, and the stills already released for HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS look pretty dull.

10 COMMENTS

  1. Well, I sent in Master Of Kung Fu as my choice, to Tom
    (part of my e-mail:)

    The series that immediately came to mind, the long running storyline that to me, symbolizes what comics were like during that decade, was Shang Chi: Master Of Kung Fu #42-43, #45-50.

    A story driven by prose and artwork that moved it apart from most all other normal over the counter comic. It’s story had a beginning, middle and end and the title could have easily ended after the climax without anyone needing to read or see more. It followed the age old father vs. son dynamic and included a cast of supporting characters that faced their demons and often paid the ultimate sacrifice.

    But I guess my choice didn’t make his criteria.

  2. Email interviews DO suck, and it’s why I hate to do them. Coming up with a list of ten items that end in question marks is boring as sin, but being able to actually have a conversation with someone really brings things out. I interviewed Raina Telgemeier in person at C2E2 and in the 10 minutes of her time that it took, we had a wonderful conversation. Filling out a questionnaire in an email just can never have the same effect.

    I cringed a little when I clicked on that Scott Pilgrim movie link, but yes, that should be the last word, as it is a fantastic article. SP is up to $20.7 million in its first 10 days. Its percentage drop was about the same as Kick-Ass, which if that holds, will hopefully mean it can come in around $40 million domestic when all is said and done.

  3. I read that Scott Pilgrim piece over the weekend. I feel like I’m staring into the sun every time people talk optimistically about the Pilgrim movie. It definitively failed. There’s no two ways around it. It’s looking at earning around $30 mil for its US run and its overseas hopes aren’t high. It was a great attempt at a homerun, but it didn’t connect. It happens. As a result, Edgar Wright will have a harder time getting a major studio to invest in him again and we’ll probably see less movies based on outside the box comics. That’s absolutely a shame, but it’s reality.

  4. I liked the end of Spurgeon’s list, where he detailed all the Steve Englehart comics he chose not to include.

    And I thought Google was going to ruin the Internet.

  5. Chris@ “As a result, Edgar Wright will have a harder time getting a major studio to invest in him again”

    Yeah, but if that was the case, then M. Night Shyamalan shouldn’t have had any movies coming out in the last few years, and he actually has TWO this year!

  6. @Jason,

    Well, the difference there is, Scott Pilgrim was an enjoyable movie while Jonah Hex was a lousy one. And it didn’t matter if Jonah Hex was based on a comic book, a novel, an old TV show or a jaunty tune, it was still a horribly written and poorly acted movie! (and yes, I did see both films)

  7. “As a result, Edgar Wright will have a harder time getting a major studio to invest in him again…”

    Funny, but I saw a brief interview with Wright in the last week where he mentioned that the proposed Ant-Man movie was still a go. And the usual hand-wringing article on Scott Pilgrim fails to note Universal’s poor U.S. box office performance for nearly all of its slate of movies this year. Their latest casualty this past weekend was the highly-rated Nanny McPhee sequel, which performed even worse than Pilgrim. Again, it wasn’t the film’s fault that the studio didn’t know how to promote it.

  8. Re: The Avengers.
    Truly, Whedon could save a franchise and add an extra female character by adding the Thing to the roster while adding Sue Storm in a cameo role.

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