Coming soon: War of the Circus Hulks vs. Carnival Mutant Defenders of the Apocalypse

Now that Marvel has announced yet another big crossover event series to follow its current snooze-inducing crossover event series, it occurs to me that maybe we could all use a familiar face. A reminder of simpler times. A sad clown to bring joy into our four-color lives.

That’s right — we need Mechano-Hulk.

We have (Back) Issues

Hey, you read BACK ISSUE magazine, right? Well, if you don’t you should give it a try this month — not only does issue #57 (coming out tomorrow!) focus on former DC Comics honcho Jenette Kahn, but you might even notice a familiar byline.

That’s right — Editor in Chief Michael Eury!

And also, me!

For this issue I wrote a small piece on Dollar Comics, a line of titles launched in 1977 that sported a larger page count and a $1 price tag. It was fun to write, the folks at BACK ISSUE are swell and I’m grateful Kahn was generous enough to squeeze me into her tight schedule for an interview. Did you know the former DC president, publisher and editor in chief is now a partner in Double Nickel Entertainment, the company that produced Gran Torino? The lady keeps busy, that’s for sure.

More importantly, considering the ongoing discussion on women in comics — as characters, creators and executives — it would be a good idea for comics fans to read about the most influential woman in the industry at a time when DC Comics enjoyed a period of unprecedented creativity and experimentation.

Bonus round: Hey, kids! In this unstaged snapshot, how many nerdy things can you see in the background?

Superheroes and porn stars — not so different after all

I was watching the preview for the x-rated Birds of Prey XXX earlier (don’t you judge me!), and was struck by a couple of things:

• Production values have really gone up since the days of scrambled cable channels
• The acting, while nothing to make Meryl Streep nervous, isn’t so bad. In this brief clip, the Birds behave pretty much the way you’d expect them to, especially the hot-headed Huntress. Speaking of which …
• What really jumped out at me was, those costumes? Completely accurate. Not tarted up at all. Which should remind fans of superhero comics just how ridiculous the designs for many female characters really are.

Here’s the SFW (except for a slurpy kiss and someone dropping the fuck-word) preview:

Cover to Cover: Neuromancer

I’ve been a fan of science fiction for … well, for as long as I can remember. I don’t know if it was the battered copies of Analog and Asimov’s Science Fiction lying stacked in cardboard boxes at my aunt’s bookstore, or the Foundation set my mom got for me at an early age (there’s Asimov again), or the “aliens attack” movies my dad would sit me down in front of the TV to watch most Sunday afternoons. Whatever it was, it stuck.

I do know, however, that it was my friend Jon who gets credit for introducing me to cyberpunk at a time when it was factory-fresh, crackling with cold fusion-powered energy and William Gibson was already king. (Little did I know I was already years behind.) And with the delivery system he chose, he might as well have hit me with a highly addictive brick: Jon handed me Gibson’s Neuromancer and I never looked back.

In case you’re unfamiliar with the book (and the subsequent novels Count Zero and Mona Lisa Overdrive, rounding out the Sprawl trilogy), Neuromancer is the story of Case, a burned-out cyberspace hacker with dead nerves and seemingly no future in Chiba City. The future is a slippery thing, though, and soon Case is hooked up with Molly (a cybernetically enhanced “razorgirl” with ninja skills and mirrorshades implants) and working for ex-military officer Armitage, who promises Case a cure in exchange for his help. That, as they say, is just the beginning.

Some of this might sound a little silly when you’re just reading a description, but Gibson is such a deft and lyrical writer that the reader is drawn in deep with the first page — hell, I was hooked with the very first line. It’s also worth noting a lot of the ideas that might seem old hat now were originally Gibson’s (“cyberspace” is the most used example — the author coined it), and a frighteningly large number of the concepts he came up with are now common, real-life technology. His writing is spare, tough and though-provoking, always with a look to the future even when a book is set in the almost-now, and I can say without hesitation that he is my absolute favorite writer. And while it may seem dated today, the art and design of this particular cover really distills the feel of Neuromancer for me; fractured, high-tech, and still horribly, recognizably human.

If you haven’t read the Sprawl series — or the near-future Bridge trilogy and the sublimely subtle noir of the Bigend trilogy — do yourself a favor and get to it.

See you in the Sprawl.