§ Bromance is dead at Marvel…and Chris Butcher explains why.

§ Laura Hudson catches up with Geoff Johns

CA: Do you think of them as zombies?

GJ: No, they’re not zombies. They’re Black Lanterns. They have intelligence; they have personality. There’s much more to them, as you’ll find out in the series. It’s taking the undead, like “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” took vampires, and making something totally different with them. I didn’t want to do something like, oh it’s Ralph Dibny as a zombie going RAAAWR because it’s not scary. It’s not as scary as him coming in [as a Black Lantern] and talking to Barry Allen in issue #3, which is really creepy because of the way he relates to Barry Allen — they’re old, old friends. But that’s the horror of it. Same with Firestorm. The lighter the characters were, the scarier they are as Black Lanterns.

§ Celebrate the 40th anniversary of Woodstock with graphic novels, suggests Library Journal’s Martha Cornog.

Sex. Drugs. Rock ‘n’ roll. Equal rights for women, African Americans, and gay people. Sit-ins. The Vietnam War. The peace movement. Don’t trust anyone over 30. The Woodstock Music & Art Fair brought the 1960s to a crashing close in three days of mud, music, and mellowed-out mayhem. Woodstock lives on today in that so much of what went down as radical then is now far more culturally central: doubts about U.S. military involvements internationally and the freedom to enjoy diverse music as well as diverse forms of sexual expression.

The 16 graphic novels summarized below capture different facets of the era and the historic festival, which took place 40 years ago next week. Chances are, patrons of all ages are reminiscing, so put a display together pronto.

§ Convention Scene reports on the MAYHEM debut at Meltdown. Reports from other retailers around the country suggest that the issue wasn’t a sellout, however.

§ When was the last time we linked to Nad Shot? Whenever it was, it was too long ago.

1 COMMENT

  1. “Marvel Bromance” was likely retitled because retailers like myself knew that it wouldn’t sell a single copy under that title, and didn’t order it.

    (I wonder if it missed Diamond’s minimums? I know that Marvel isn’t beholden to those standards, but I wonder…)

    I’m not likely to order this mish-mash of a team-up book even with the new title, come to think about it.

    Who’s the market for it?

  2. I fail to appreciate the distinctions Johns makes between his Black Lanterns and zombies. His Black Lanterns are dead but reanimated; zombies are dead but reanimated. Black Lanterns rip out hearts; zombies eat all body parts, but love brains. What they do matters much more than the underlying rationales. I bought BLACKEST NIGHT #1 and dismissed it as faddish junk because, IMO, the Black Lanterns were just zombies.

    My local comics shop didn’t have a shelf copy of MAYHEM #1.

    BTW, that shop ordered a copy of ASTERIOS POLYP for me last week, so I assume that Diamond has been resupplied.

    SRS

  3. From reading some reports, the Black Lanterns aren’t zombies… both Dibnys are still doing their Topper impersonation in the DCU somewhere…

    Now… what if Darkseid (or a facsimile thereof) became a black lantern? And why do the Green Lanterns avoid Apokolips?

  4. Typically, zombies are generally depicted as slow, unthinking creatures who feed on the flesh of the living (i.e. Walking Dead). The zombies in Marvel Zombies seem to be the exception, not the rule. The Black Lanterns may be tearing the hearts out of their victims, but they aren’t depicted as mindless flesh eaters, so I think it is fair to make a distinction between zombies and Black Lanterns. It’s not really that big a deal.

    Apropos of nothing in this Kibbles and Bits entry, I just wanted to say that it is great that the Incredible Hercules will be shipping twice a month for the next 3 months. Woo Hoo.