My new web comics series ARC starts today!

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After nearly two years in production, Arc now hits the screen with its first page posted today. I worked my butt off to get this in production and artist Jay Rainford-Nash has worked even harder to bring it to life.

We start out a little slow with a four page prologue, but in return we are printing those four pages two a week! After that, starting on October 20, we will go to a one page a week format.

You can expect a healthy helping of strong characters, awesome action, and thought prevoking story as we work to bring you the best comic we can make! And thanks again for reading!

Tales of the Living Legends: The Green Lama

Tales of the Living Legends starts a new story today, this one featuring the Green Lama versus a gang of goons on the city docks.

I do not know exactly what it is that draws me to the Green Lama, but I do know I thoroughly enjoy the simply designed costume but utter coolness of the character. Back in the golden age, the Lama was a fairly popular figure. He first appeared in the pulps as a more powerful variation of the Shadow (albeit much happier) before transitioning both in to comics and radio. He lasted well in to the late forties before disappearing along with the rest of his ilk.

Jethro Dumont often plays second fiddle to a lot of golden age revivals, usually either to Black Terror or Daredevil. But while I have used both those characters in Out For Vengeance and Living Legends, I think the Lama may be the most versatile. His powers open up a lot of room for storytelling which is why I think his stories range so freely between Batman-style street violence to cosmic craziness.

Expect the Lama to pop up semi-regularly in the pages of Tales as well as in future chapters of Living Legends. He has a big future ahead of him in the Quadrant Universe.

The Complete Clone Saga 4: Web of Life

Seems I am not the only one with an interest to relive the Clone Saga. Dan Slott, co-writer of Amazing Spider-Man, is bringing Ben Reilly back and with it comes a new limited series by Tom DeFalco and Howard Mackie retelling the Clone Saga. Who wants to bet half the characters get written out completely?

“Web of Life” opens with the Scarlet Spider in battle with both Tombstone and a group of terrorist. The Grim Hunter also begins his hunt for the Spider. Otherwise, not much happens. Meh.

Chapter two gives us more Kaine... and man, this guy was emo before emo was emo. Lots of whining and smashing things. In fact, so much of it, that Scarlet Spider looks positively upbeat in comparison. This chapter also gives us Seward Trainer, a scientist with a strange need to where spandex for a man who isn’t a superhero. Apparently, he is an old friend of ol’ Scarlety. Sadly, he will become far too involved in the inner workings of the Spider-books for the next couple years. We also get the first appearance of Phil Raven, the man who wants to arrest the Scarlet Spider for murder! But that story has another year or so to wait.

Chapter three opens with Kaine rescuing a homeless woman, showing us that he isn’t totally evil. But it doesn’t stop him from battling Ben Reilly, even attempting to kill our intrepid hero. But it all comes to a head when Grim Hunter arrives on the scene... with plans to kill Peter Parker. Only Scarlet Spider can hope to save his other self.

In the final chapter of “Web of Life” we finally meet Seward Trainer, even as Ben reveals more of his past dealings, and hatred, for the man known as Kaine. But in the end it comes down to a battle between Kaine and the Grim Hunter, a battle where the son of Kraven dies by Kaine’s hand.

“Web of Life” is where the Clone Saga starts to weaken. Instead of an ongoing saga following Ben, we instead get a lot of padding poorly disguised as “build-up”. But the story was far from over... even as we move over to the other two Spider-books and “Web of Life”.

Super-Powered TV: Dollhouse 2.2: Instinct

Topher opens the show with a chat about the human brain to Ballard. Must say I am a big fan though of “The brain is kind of like Van Halen, if you just pull out one piece and keep replacing it, it just degenerates.”. As we see Echo, the ability that Topher talks about becomes clear, as she breast feeds a child she thinks is her own.

Echo begins to think her husband is up to no good, when in reality he is a greaving husband trying to cope with the loss of his wife & child by using her.

The senator continues to investigate Rossum, but his evidence isn’t solid. But his lady-friend (wife?) does return from an rang doorbell with a stack of files for him.

Adele pays a visit to the former November, and she seems a little standoffish. Adele insists that Melanie come in for a check-up and she realizes Adele will not take no for an answer.

Echo is acting overly paranoid at her current assignment. She calls her friend Kelly (actually Sierra) worried that her husband wants her dead. But when Kelly arrives so does the black van she saw outside. They take Kelly for her treatment and she just grows more paranoid.

She escapes the house and uses “Kelly”s car to make her escape. The father freaks out because Echo disappeared with his son. She finds a pair of police officers on the street and reports the situation as a potential crime. At the precinct, they take the baby away and Ballard (acting as an FBI agent) drags her away.

Back at the Dollhouse, Madeline gets a clean bill of health. After the check-up, Ballard returns with Echo who knocks Madeline to the side.

After Madeline and Ballard have a chat, Echo finally goes in for treatment. But the treatment doesn’t quite take. She decks Topher.

Senator Perrin learns the true status of the Dollhouse. And they apparently have a name to trace.

Echo tries to escape, but her mind does not retain any knowledge. The glandular situation mentioned at the beginning of the show has seriously affected Echo’s mental state. She wants the baby back, without any knowledge of who the baby is.

Echo breaks in to the house and retrieves the baby and a knife. Dad explains the situation to a confused Echo who has enough sense left to understand. She quietly leaves the house and returns to the park.

She and Ballard discuss the situation. We really begin to get in to the situation that gives Echo agony. Ballard offers her an out, but she reiterates that she “doesn’t want to go back to sleep” just as our episode ends.

We get a decidedly different episode of Dollhouse this week. While not as solidly built as last week’s show, we do get a few good character bits with Madeline and Echo. We learn more about Alexis Denisof’s crusading senator character, but we still see very little to differentiate his quest from Ballard’s last season. But the ability to not have to rely on easy answers and the season’s worth of narrative drive the show has to build upon, clearly seems to have set this season up to be much more capable of building an ongoing storyline.

Super-Powered Comics: Astro City: An Introduction

When I started reading comics, my first two books were G.I.Joe and Transformers. Until the late eighties, pretty much all my comic purchases focused on those and other toy/cartoon tie-ins, from C.O.P.S. to M.A.S.K. to Super Powers and beyond. As I got older, I started in on X-Men and the Avengers while the “Panic In the Sky” storyline brought me in to Superman. In those pre-teenage years I quickly became voracious in my comics reading. I bought every book I could off the newstand, whether they be Marvel and DC, or Image, or the Ultraverse, or even Dark Horse. I bought every issue of Wizard and Hero Illustrated, always wanting to learn more about my new hobby. I learned about the history of these characters over years and decades. I grew to love the superhero as a setting (or genre if you prefer).

So it should come as no surprise that one of my favorite titles ever is Kurt Busiek’s Astro City. Over the next few months, I plan on posting regular retrospectives about the characters, stories, and storytelling that Kurt Busiek, Brent Anderson, and Alex Ross bring to a book that everyone (and I do mean everyone should be reading). My plan is to cover a story arc (or so) every week and hopefully by the time I am finished, we will only be weeks away from the return of Astro City as a regular series.

Kurt Busiek and Alex Ross made a beauty of a book named Marvels only a couple years before. Marvels changed the way a lot of people looked at the superhero comics they read, and I strongly suspect its human interest angles mixed with classic continuity are an inspiration for many books on the market today. (Geoff Johns should stand up and wave right here.) It made household names out of two creators who up until this point were rather unknown. Ross’s only major published work at this point was The Terminator: The Burning Earth for Now Comics. Kurt had written Power Man & Iron Fist, Liberty Project, and numerous fill-ins at this point, but was still probably best known as the guy who came up with the way to bring Jean Grey back for X-Factor. Marvels changed the careers of both men, and in its aftermath came a creator-owned project: Astro City. Ross would provide the covers and long-time, under-rated penciler Brent Anderson (most famous for X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills) would draw the interiors.

I will start with a book that remains one of the most unique tales of the book: Astro City 1/2. The story focuses on every-man Mike Tenicek, just a guy haunted by dreams of a beautiful woman and their love affair. The dreams haunt him, consume him, until an appearance by the entity known as the Hanged Man (sort of a less kill-happy Spectre). And in the process, we get a view of the numerous big-time crossovers, massive crisis events, and the like. I will not say more than that (I may have spoiled too much even there), but I will say it is one of the most emotionally impactful super-powered stories I have ever read. Don’t believe me? Even the folks at Wizard have named it the 16th best comic in the history of their publication. I honestly would rate it even higher, at least in the top five.

So, yeah, Astro City knows how to tug on the heart strings too. More reviews as we continue, but for now, you can check out issue one-half in the back of the Astro City: Confession trade paperback. Highly Recommended.