Prototype Optimus In Embryo

How To Write Comics

Old news. But still. Warren Ellis on how Joss Whedon learned to write comics and how you can,too:

"I met Joss Whedon once. He told me he learned to write comics by studying some Alan Moore scripts his editor provided to him. They scared the hell out of him, as I recall. Alan writes massive scripts. I mean, he's got his own hole in a forest somewhere, and it's a mile across and denuded of anything that can be pulped into paper. Now go and read one of Joss' comics -- or use Bit Torrent to steal it off the internet, the way I did. (It's okay -- I was going to get Marvel to send me a copy, so I wasn't going to pay for it anyway.) (Yeah, yeah. Shut up.) It doesn't read like Alan's work, does it? He took what he needed from it -- how to pace comics, how to isolate moments, when to punch and when to go quiet -- and put his own voice on top of it. That's how to do it. Joss went on from that meeting to write an introduction to a Planetary collection wherein he made fun of my beard. And Alan's."

And something for artists to chew on as well. Same source.


"When Watchmen was released, comics companies were deluged with submissions done in nine-panel grid featuring vigilantes who say "Hurm" a lot. Seriously. This was still happening by the time I got into the business, and I saw some. No-one, however, wanted a crack at creating the kind of huge complex structures and relationships of Watchmen. No-one used the tools to went their way in and out of people's lives like Alan Moore, and no-one used the frame like Dave Gibbons. They just lifted the surface. This is how it always goes with the big influential works. Too few people look at the guts of a thing. You don't get to be Frank Miller by drawing a nice picture of Daredevil. You get to be Frank Miller by spending ten years studying Will Eisner and B Krigstein pages and working out for yourself just what makes them good."

The Final Frontier

We all know that JJ Abrams will be at the helm of the 11th Star Trek movie. We all know Zachary Quinto will play Spock:

Here's the rest of the cast:

Chris Pine as James Kirk
Karl Burban as Bones McCoy
Zoe Saldana as Uhura
Simon Pegg as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott
John Cho as Sulu
Anton Yelchin as Pavel Chekov

And here's the new teaser trailer:

I am so excited... Damn the stupid MMFF - this will be shown January next year not Christmas this year...

Black Rock Revisited

O di ba astig?

A Brand New Day

I just have to know what happens next. Yes, even with the crappy ending of One More Day. I want to know how the creative team will handle the stupid decision to erase MJ and Pete's marriage (It's suppose to change the ENTIRE MARVEL UNIVERSE not only the events in Spide-man - but no...) The Amazing Spider-man will be on sale 3x a month and here's the status quo according to issue #546:

Nobody knows Spidey's secret identity. As in no one - not Daredevil or the Avengers. He is unregistered. According to the writers, "some people seem to recall that Spidey unmasked himself during the Civil War but no one quite remembers whose face was under the mask."

Web-shooters are back. Web fluid is home made and webs dissolve in an hour.

Pete's unemployed. He is broke and is living with Aunt May.

Gwen stays dead. She was still murdered by Green Goblin and Pete still feels guilty over her death.

Harry's alive. He lived in Europe for years but now he's back. He doesn't remember being the Green Goblin - but according to the writers, Pete remembers that he was GG. Harry and Pete are still BFF. Harry does not talk about his father. He's dating Lily Hollister, NY City's District Attorney's daughter.

MJ moved to California to be an actress. She and Pete dated and were very serious but why they broke up is still undisclosed. I heard that she's a super-hero, the licensed super-hero of NY, Jackpot. There's a short story included in this issue on Jackpot, drawn by Greg Land - OK I'll give him a break since MJ is supposed to be a model but does he have to draw women in ALL FRAMES posing like models no matter what they are doing?

Issue 546 takes its time... Dan Slott told a story of "a day in the life of an unemployed Peter Parker." A bit slow. The highlight was the confrontation between Peter and Jameson which resulted to JJJ having a heart attack. Heh! Finally.