Weekend Con Round up!

It has been made official in today’s Cup O’ Joe panel, Jeff Parker and Gabriel Hardman of the amazing Atlas will be taking over Hulk. Which means I may just be buying my first Hulk title in over a decade.

The Crossgen Sigil and the year 2011 also made an appearance at the panel, which for long time Crossgen fans like myself is nothing but good news.

Alt-adult site SuicideGirls.com is getting its own comic from IDW with both Steve Niles and Cameron Stewart on board. John Byrne will be the next creator on the Jurassic Park comic. A Bleeding Cool rumor proved true as they announced a new Rocketeer title with an all star lineup of creators. Though apparently slated for the far-away date of December 2011, another personal favorite of mine will be returning at IDW: John Byrne’s Next Man, an all new run by Byrne himself. They finish up with the strangest announcement: a crossover called “Infestation” that ties their licensed books like G.I.Joe, Transformers, Star Trek, CVO, and Ghostbusters together and which may very well be zombie related. Odd.

In the most awesome of awesome video game news (and super-power related at least) is the announcement of new crossover game Street Fighter X Tekken. The awesomenest oozes from the very idea.

The new seventies-style exploitation trailer is extremely red band and makes it clear that Machete is nigh superhuman in his abilities as well. Do to its graphic nature I won’t post a direct link here, but you can check it out at Topless Robot.

The Spider-Man panel also confirmed another major Bleeding Cool rumor, with Amazing Spider-Man going biweekly with Dan Slott as the solo writer under the new banner name “Big Time”. Carnage and Norman Osborn will both get minis as well.

Vertigo announced that most of its former DC characters will be returning to the DCU. What this means for the futures of House of Mystery and Hellblazer is anyone’s guess.

Oh, and Marvel was daring enough to put the Infinity Gauntlet on display for everyone. Thankfully no one stole it and used it to reshape the universe in their image.

Pulp-Powered Comics: The Late, Lamented Hilly Rose

Hilly Rose was part of the last independent comics boom in the mid-1990’s. In turn, it would also be the victim of the market contraction caused by Heroes World and Capital Comics Distribution collapsing. Before that time, nine issues would be produced, and all were filled with space-pulpy goodness.

The comic was both written and drawn by early Eclipse contributor B.C. Boyer (The Masked Man). But unlike the rough, vaguely Will Eisner-inspired art of that series, Hilly Rose takes Frazetta, mixes in some Dave Stevens, and sprinkles in a little bit of contemporary Jeff Smith. And much like the love interest to Stevens’ Rocketeer, Hilly’s looks owe quite a bit to one Bettie Page.

Hilly Rose is a reporter for a small newspaper out on a distant end of the galaxy. Her father edits the same paper. She has the aid of a little Bone-like alien named Blossom, as well as a recruiter for a larger Earth-based news network named Bach. During the first chapter, the group comes under attack by a simple-minded war machine (with more than a passing resemblance to a Rob Liefeld-creation) named Sidney the Evil Incarnate Guy. But Sidney is only the tip of the iceberg for a conspiracy of villainy hiding in the shadows of the world.

I have only ever acquired the first two issues of Hilly Rose, but the art style, the action, and even the parodic bits, all tend towards keeping a space operatic pulp feel. This book believes in telling a compelling story, yes, but never at expense of sheer, unrepentant fun!

Sadly aside from a pinup in Dark Horse’s Hellboy: The Chained Coffin and Others in ’98, B.C. Boyer left the comics community after his series came to an end in 1997. Where he is now is anyone’s guess. Anyone that has any idea should get in touch with me in the comments section, and I will update it here.

For now, I highly recommend everyone go trace down a copy of Hilly Rose or the Hilly Rose: Space Reporter trade. It comes Recommended.