Comics

Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is in interesting entry in the world of long-form cinematic Batman stories for a few different reasons. First, it manages to do what the Tim Burton movies were unable to — make Bruce Wayne/Batman the protagonist of his own story. Second, it’s primarily a detective story as opposed to an action story. Third, at least half of the story is told in flashback, a parallel-action setup ambitious for an animated movie thought of as primarily for kids. Lastly, the story it tells is rather emotional and internal — Bruce/Batman broods a lot in this movie, even by his own standards. The action sequences feel perfunctory and tacked-on. The two that come to mind — a truck chase and the explosive finale — are poorly motivated and don’t advance the plot in any meaningful way.

Universal has released individual posters for the seven evil Exes that Scott PIlgrim must battle in the upcoming Scott Pilgrim Vs the Worls movie. In case you don't know them it's Satya Bhabha as Matthew Patel, Chris Evans as Lucas Lee, Brandon Routh as Todd Ingram, Mae Whitman as Roxy Richter, Shota and Keita Saito as Kyle Katayanagi and Jason Schwartzman as the Gideon Gordon Graves. Rating: Awesome.

Over at Blog Flume, Alvin Buenaventura announced that his much admired Buenaventura Press -- publisher of such seminal works as KRAMERS ERGOT #7, FIGHT OR RUN, and THE COMPLETE JACK SURVIVES -- was forced to close its doors in January, due to a single devastating financial blow. Buenaventura wrote:

The artist salutes the world's biggest event!

Gary Panter has revamped his website, and of course this means hours of poring over comics, drawings, paintings and historical artifacts. Panter also has a few events coming up for you West Coasters.

Via PR, Gary Friedrich, a seminal figure of Marvel in the 60s and 70s and co-creator of Ghost Rider, and the late Otto Binder, without whom there would be no Supergirl or Krypto or hundreds of other comics, are the two latest recipients of the Bill Finger Award. This honor is presented annually at the the San Diego Comic-Con to honor one living writer, and one deceased who have made significant contributions to the comics industry.

The biggest event in the world, The World Cup is kicking off today and we'll kick off our link blogging with Richard Bruton's tribute to Roy of the Rovers , which, based on the squeal FMB gave when a Roy collection arrived on our doorstep, is some kind of seminal kids footie comic. Bruton concentrates on the "Dark Knight" of Roy comics, a 1994 version by Rob Davis and Stuart Green:

Artist GB Tran has just relaunched his website, and he has a preview of VIETNAMERICA, a comics memoir to be published by Villard next...

Via PR, another swell-looking collection of vintage kids comics, this time collated by Craig Yoe as part of his line of books at IDW....

Via Frank Santoro , a long lost Charlton story by Ditko.

Via PR, electronic publisher WOWIO has purchased the webcomic site DrunkDuck from Platinum Studios. Just to make it all neat and tidy, Platinum once...

Yesterday's installment of Cup O' Joe was an especially timely one, with Marvel's new Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada explaining a few things. For...