Sgt. Angle Reporting For Duty!

I am currently in preparation mode to enter the state of Texas and venture through the SXSW Festival of Film this coming weekend, but in the meantime I’ll try to entertain you with some recent movie new as it relates to comic book stories and adaptations.

First on my list is Y: The Last Man. Last we heard a thing about the adaptation, Shia Labeouf was being considered for the role of Yorick, with DJ Caruso directing the adaptation. Now that Caruso is taking on the Preacher adaptation scripted by John August, will this open the door for another A-List director to take over Y: The Last Man? Who knows. In the meantime, you can head over to scriptshadow where Carson Reeves has reviewed Brian K. Vaughan’s screenplay version of his story with…mixed results. The story has been truncated for the big screen, chopping out characters and scenes that are already classics in their own rights. Judge for yourselves.…

My thing about Y: The Last Man is that the smaller factions of people Yorick meets along his journey are almost better than the overall concept itself. Much like The Walking Dead, the story takes place in an alternate future that we can’t even imagine. We should explore this “future” and the ramifications as a better reflection on our current selves. Can women survive without men? Why are men so important, or unimportant, in the overall scheme and plan for the human race? Is science taking us too far? Answer these questions for yourselves, and then ask why we should only have one movie that asks and answers complicated questions.

The Marvel Universe is expanding throughout the galaxy on the big screen, according to this article at Badassdigest.com. The Inhumans is the next big foray into the Marvelverse, and will be shot and released well after The Avengers in 2012. Will this relate directly to the world already created for us, or will it be an offshoot so distant as to not crossover into the Universe already before us?

My worry with this film is that Marvel may be aiming way too high too soon to expand its’ universe on the big screen. There’s a danger in shooting expensive movies over and over very quickly. They’ll become repetitious, or full of scenes that don’t make sense (Iron Man 2) and will fall victim to the almighty dollar. I can’t stand how many times a studio or company will tell us that they care so much about storytelling, then blow it all to try and make a bigger movie for a few extra bucks. Don’t insult the audience with the false claims that you care about the storytelling so much only to screw us in the end. Literally.

Our own Ben Glibert thinks says that “if they use the Skrulls in the Avengers movie, this could tie in nicely. But it’s pretty isolated property on its own. There was a Paul Jenkins / Jae Lee story from 2001 that was pretty solid. Hopefully they stick to that, or even some of the old Kirby work. It could be really good or terrible, depending on the writer and director.”

Below is a fan-made Thor poster, but fun nonetheless:

Andrew Garfield of The Amazing Spiderman knows how to raise his hands to the ceiling.

Channing Tatum has sold a pitch to Sony Pictures that is a “dark re-imagining” of the origin of Peter Pan. Word on the street is that it poses that Pan and Captain Hook are … brothers…I’m all for reimaginings of origins of famous characters, but you have to be careful how dark you take it. Peter Pan is not a dark story, and if we start to reinvent the wheel of this classic character, you may end up hurting and confusing the vision. Then again, Disney was able to take the tale of a thief in the Dark Ages and make it exhilarating for kids (Robin Hood with foxes!).

In other movie news that’s fallen by the wayside recently, the lovely Emma Watson has announced that she’ll be starring in the adaptation (finally) of Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower. This is a stirring portrayal of a naive teen “outsider” attempting to navigate friendship and love in high school. Chbosky wrote the book 12 years ago, well before he created the somewhat hit TV series Jericho. Summit Entertainment (Twilight) is producing.

That’s all the news that I feel is fit to print this week. Next time I’ll try to entertain you with stories of SXSW, as long as I am awake to tell the tales…

You are dismissed!

Sgt. Angle

Happy Friday folks!

For those who don’t know, today is the start of Hanukkah! That’s right, the festival of lights is upon us for the next eight days. In honor of the holiday, I thought I would compose a list today (with tongue planted firmly in cheek) of my favorite Jewish characters in the world of comics. Enjoy!

1) Sabra: Ruth Bat-Seraph is about as bad-ass as it gets. She’s Mossad-trained to kick ass and chew gum, and she’s all out of gum. She even made the Hulk cry!

2) The Thing: Everyone’s favorite blue eyed rock-man grew up lighting the menorah every Hanukkah.

3) Shadowcat: In 40 years of existence, there’s only been one X-man to take a break from crime fighting on the Shabbat, and that’s Ms. Kitty Pryde.

4) Dr. Fate: The second Dr. Fate, Eric Strauss, may have been a master of the occult, but he still celebrated the victory of the Maccabees every year.

5) Batwoman: Kate Kane upholds justice and looks good doing it. She also looks quite good lighting the Shamash.

6) Marvel Boy/ Justice/ Vance Astrovik: Vance has had a confusing super-career; three different teams, four different names, heck, there’s even a parallel universe version of him running around in the 31st century. One thing that isn’t confusing about Vance? His love of latkes!

7) Doctor Leonard Samson: That name! That hair! Could there be any doubt?

Aurthur: This professional side-kick does a great job of keeping The Tick out of trouble. He also sings a mean rendition of “Hanukkiah Li Yesh”.

9) Alter Tse’elon: One of the most complex recurring characters in Y THE LAST MAN was born right in the heart of Jerusalem. I wish I had something funny to say about her, but she’s scary, even for a fictional character.

10) Moon Knight: Marc Spector is a first rate nut-job and the fist of Konshu. He also loves dreidels!

Well folks, that’s the list. Thanks for tuning in, and whatever holiday you might (or might not) celebrate this time of year, we here at Semantink wish you a safe and happy holiday season.

Greetings all!

Today I am going to be starting a new column called “Spotlight”. In this column, I will, well, spotlight a different company, imprint, and maybe even a comic or two. You will get a little bit of history and a little bit of opinion, and hopefully, a lot of enjoyment.

As you might have been able to guess from the title, today’s Spotlight topic is going to be DC’s Vertigo imprint. So, let’s get started!

DC comics officially launched Vertigo in 1993, but the groundwork for the imprint was laid down well before that. The architect of Vertigo was an editor by the name of Karen Berger, who had started with DC in the late 1970’s as an assistant to editor Paul Levitz. Throughout the 1980’s Berger, now and editor, began amassing the (largely British) talent that would soon form the core of the Vertigo imprint. Berger was responsible for bringing names like Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Garth Ennis, Jamie Delano and Peter Milligan to DC. Berger placed the Brits on a variety of titles from DOOM PATROL, to SHADE THE CHANGING MAN, to HELLBLAZER. These titles, along with a few others (including Alan Moore’s SWAMP THING) would eventually form the core of the Vertigo imprint. What set these titles apart was that they were almost entirely for mature readers only.

ANIMAL MAN was one of the first Vertigo titles. He was also apparently afraid of mandrills.

In 1993, the big wigs at DC, including publisher Jenette Kahn and managing editor Dick Giordano, mandated that Berger take these titles and use them as the base of a new imprint that would “Help comics grow up.” And thus, Vertigo was born.

Gingers from space in coats made of insanity, these are the things Vertigo are made of.

Vertigo grew steadily over the next few years with a steady stream of titles in a variety of formats, from ongoing series like SANDMAN MYSTERY THEATER, to mini-series like KID ETERNITY, to one-shots. The imprint was given a distinct trade dress to distinguish Vertigo from other DC books.

The strip on the side means “No Kids Allowed”

Two other things helped Vertigo grow over the next decade. One was a commitment to creator owned work, such as Y: THE LAST MAN, and 100 BULLETS. The other was that Vertigo was able to cherry-pick properties from defunct DC imprints and print them. Some examples of this are TRANSMETROPOLITAN, which started out under the Helix imprint, and A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, which was printed under the Paradox Press imprint, but all reprints had the Vertigo tag attached to them.

Vertigo stole this man.

Vertigo has also experimented with several sub-imprints, such as Vertigo Pop! (focusing on pop culture) and Vertigo Verite (trying to capture the spirit of cinema verite), over the last 15 years, with varied results. The most recent sub-imprint is the newly formed Vertigo Crime imprint.

FILTHY RICH is the first title of the Vertigo Crime line. I’m guessing that woman is both filthy and rich.

Today Vertigo puts out about 20 titles a month, between graphic novels and regular books. Of the seven initial titles put out by the imprint, only HELLBLAZER is still ongoing, but new series such as DMZ and SCALPED are continuing the Vertigo tradition.

SCALPED. Despite appearances, this man does not have a head full of feathers.

Vertigo is an imprint with many strengths . With the impetus of the imprint being a rather vague “helping comics grow up”, the line can (and does) explore a wide variety of genres, from crime to horror to science fiction. And by carrying a mature reader label, creators have the freedom to tell their stories, not some watered-down kid-friendly version.

If this were a DC book, you’d never get to see breasts. What is SWAMP THING without breasts?

Another strength is that Vertigo does not have any distinct art style which means that each title can have an artist that best suits it, there is no need to have someone who fits the “house style”. From Chris Bachalo’s page-filling craziness to Edwardo Risso’s heavy blacks, each book gets the artist it needs, not the one the company wants.

This is Death. She’s Perky!

The importance that Vertigo places on creator owned work helps draw top level talent consistently. Vertigo also seems to maintain a good relationship with it’s creators, increasing the odds that they will continue to come back.

Anywhere else and this book would probably never get published.

For as great as Vertigo is, the imprint also has its flaws. With a mature readers tag, there is a somewhat limited base of readers that can be reached. If a book doesn’t sell, it doesn’t matter how great it is.

No matter how spectacular it is, a comic named LUCIFER is only gonna sell so many copies…

Also, while the lack of a particular art style keeps the books looking unique, many of the Vertigo books do not look very good. There have been a few series over the years that I have dropped (no, I will not name them) due to the lackluster art. The art styles are also rarely similar to what young readers get in their superhero books, so the change in styles could dissuade DC readers from becoming Vertigo readers.

What is going on here?

Vertigo is an imprint that has helped to change the landscape of comics. For all the shortcomings of the line (which aren’t really that many), the ability to expand the audience of comic book readers from mainly kids to anyone with eyes is huge. People may not like some of the comics that Vertigo has put out, but that is a part of the line’s beauty, there is something for everyone. Not to mention, some of the best comics that I have read in my life have come from vertigo. PREACHER, Y: THE LAST MAN, and 100 BULLETS are some of my all-time favorite series. I also think I can safely say that without Vertigo, there would be no Semantink today.

Thank you Vertigo, for the man with the dong-shaped head.

Thanks for stopping in all, and if you have a particular company/imprint/comic that you would like to see spotlighted (spotlit?), let me know.