Comic Nation

PRIEST & M.D. BRIGHT Reunite for New QUANTUM AND WOODY Mini-Series – Coming in 2014 from VALIANT

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PRIEST & M.D. BRIGHT Reunite for New QUANTUM AND WOODY Mini-Series  – Coming in 2014 from VALIANT

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Valiant is proud to announce that Christopher Priest and M.D. Bright, the acclaimed creators of Quantum and Woody, will reunite for Q2: The Return of Quantum and Woody – an all-new, five-issue mini-series bringing the original world’s worst superhero team into the 21st century!
Set wholly in the original continuity of Priest and Bright’s groundbreaking Acclaim Comics series, the new mini – which represents the return of both creators to monthly comics – will pick up in the modern day, launching an older Quantum and Woody into an all-new adventure set 20 years after the events of their original series.
“Soon as Doc and I started hashing out the plotline, we got into a huge argument. It was just like old times. Happy to be back on the goat,” said Priest.
“It’s enormously exciting to have Priest and Doc return to the iconic characters they made famous,” said Valiant Executive Editor Warren Simons. “Over the years, the legend of the original series has only grown, and they’re about to unleash a fearless new chapter in the lives of Quantum and Woody.”
Whatever happened to the world’s worst superhero team? Twenty years past their prime, the unlikely crime-fighting duo known as Quantum and Woody have long since parted ways and retired…until a middle-aged Quantum suddenly reappears with a brand-new teenage partner—and his wisecracking ex-best friend gets mad. Now Woody is out to break up the all-new, all-different Quantum and Woody and put an end to Quantum’s recklessness and child endangerment…just as Quantum sets out to bring down a shadowy, globe-spanning agency of freelance spies and assassins. As Quantum’s plan crumbles right through Woody’s fingers, will the former friends set aside their differences…and their age…and their numerous health difficulties…to join forces one last time without driving each other crazy?
A veteran writer and editor with more than 35 years experience in the comic book industry, Christopher J. Priest has written nearly every major character in comics, with notable runs on series including Action Comics, Amazing Spider-Man, Black Panther, Captain America, Conan the Barbarian, Deadpool, and many more.
M.D. Bright began his career in comics in 1978 and has worked consistently on some of the industry’s most popular and enduring titles ever since. One of the all-time definitive artists of Green Lantern, Iron Man, and G.I. Joe, Bright has also contributed to Batman, Captain America, Thor, Wonder Woman and countless others.
Q2: THE RETURN OF QUANTUM AND WOODY #1 (of 5)
Written by PRIEST
Art & Covers by M.D. BRIGHT
COMING IN 2014!

NYCC: protection and safety

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By Robert “Rob Base” Greenwood

I never thought in a million years I’d have to write a post about education of safety for Comic Con attendees. Yet, unfortunately, here I am sitting on a crowded Brooklyn bound G train doing just that.

As of late, a lot of sexual harassment claims are being reported from Comic Cons around the US. One claim was of a man who strapped a Hero 2 (GoPro) camera to his chest and filmed himself hugging female Cosplayers.

Lets, first off, talk about something everyone needs to be clear and up front about. Please, please, I beg of you, DO NOT HUG STRANGERS! I don’t care if the sign they are carrying says free hugs or not.  Keep your body to yourself and/or people you know and feel safe around. The “free hug” signs are there to have strangers try to touch others, this is not safe.

Unwanted attention can be hard to avoid at the larger Cons like SDCC and NYCC, which are hugely packed and crowded. Also, as of late, not all attendees are actual fans of comics and pop culture. Some people (sad but true) treat it like a freak show.

People use the Con to film and ridicule our collective fan base and plaster it all over the internet for the non-enlightened to laugh and mock at. Do not engage in any conversations with people who may seem off, not dressed for the con, or are very rude and aggressive.

Unfortunately, profiling the “non-geeks” seems wrong and being a sub-culture who was mocked for being different, we really don’t want to profile the fan from the gawkers. Yet, in the end, safety comes first! Always remember that, more than likely, they will treat our sub-culture as a joke and mock or exploit you.

It’s very hard to expect help from volunteers and/or convention staff. They are only there to corral the huddled masses or if you are lost and need direction or see if you have badges. Instead of depending on staff, seek out uniformed police.

Booth people and Cosplayers, please try your best not to be left alone, and, if at all possible, try to travel with friends.  If you are at your booth or on the show floor, have a friend or fellow Cosplayer with you. It sounds scary (and perhaps a bit idiotic) but, in the end, humans in small or large groups aren’t always on their best behavior.

These seem like complex and unnecessary measures and maybe I am being the “scared parent,” but I have heard too many horror stories at the big cons and have seen too many jerks make wrong and unprofessional comments.

Be it GenCon’s Nazi paraphernalia or underwear that have printed phrases like “nothing wrong with a little sexual harassment” or idiots trying to take up skirt shots on escalators.

Regardless of occasional incidents, Comic Cons are really awesome, fun and downright enjoyable. Just take some precautions from this cynical old school New Yorker .

Agree or disagree? let me know, follow me on Twitter @AltMindz .

Trigun Omnibus: the Return of the Sixty Billion Double-Dollar Man!

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 by Avery Mathews 

(Posted on Whatcha Reading website on 9/17/13)

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I love when a book gets so completely and utterly ridiculous that you can’t help but enjoy it because it’s just fun. That’s one of the arguments I have about why I like the Transformer movies; I don’t think the plot is good in the slightest, but it’s fun, and I enjoy that deeply. For the most part, a lot of older manga follows that; even if the plot is bad, the journey that the characters go on and even the characters themselves are often fun and amusing to watch on their exploits.

I found myself reading the Trigun Omnibus by Yasuhiro Nightow the other day, and I found that it followed that basic idea in the beginning. It put plot to the side for a few chapters, and focused on the characters and making sure that it was fun. However, it grew more and more involved that, by the end of the omnibus, which collects all the original Trigun manga, it was almost an entirely different book.

The series focuses around a man named Vash the Stampede, who, as the series starts out, is wanted for sixty billion double dollars (or 60,000,000,000$$) for the destruction of an entire city. He doesn’t remember what caused the city to be destroyed, nor does he remember how he ended up in the rubble. What’s even worse, no one knows where the bodies of the people are; the entire town appeared to have gone missing.

The first chapter is the one that won me over; throughout the chapter, Vash is being chased around by all these people who are trying to get him dead or alive in order to get the bounty that’s on his head. However, Vash is an avowed pacifist; he refuses to take another human life, but he will fight back if they try to kill him. However, that is resolved in the first chapter when the government reclassifies Vash as no longer a human, but a “localized disaster”, much like a typhoon or a hurricane, and takes away the bounty on his head.

While Vash is a pacifist, and doesn’t like to use his gun, he is quite amazing with it; many times throughout the series, he doesn’t fail to miss his mark, despite the fact that he was preaching about peace, love, and understanding two pages before. And, throughout the omnibus, you can’t help but wonder who Vash the Stampede really is. With various mysteries that keeps popping up, it was a bit of a letdown when most of the questions weren’t answered; after I continued looking up things about the series, I discovered that there was actually a second series called Trigun Maximum which continues the story and finishes off a lot of the loose plot threads. While this was a fantastic jump into the Trigun series, it was a bit of a let down to find out that, if I wanted to continue to read Vash’s tale, I would have to go and buy even more books that span from 1998 to 2008. As it turned out, the magazine that Trigun was originally published in got cancelled, and, a year later, got picked up by a second magazine, and the publishers changed the name slightly. Nightow has said that he considers it not a sequel, but a continuation of the story, but there’s still something about receiving an omnibus that contains “both Trigun volumes” before finding out that there is another ten years worth manga to be read after that.

But it’s an adventure that I’m completely and utterly willing to undertake. The characters are so much fun to read, and the stories that Nightow spins are amazing to read, somehow managing to be completely serious, yet have such ridiculous characters and situations that you can’t help but crack a smile.

trigunv1p1 trigunv1p2 trigunv1p3

trigunv1p4 trigunv1p5 trigunv1p6

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I’d rate this a 4 out of 5 silver revolvers.

Trigun Omnibus
Writer: Yasuhiro Nightow
Artist: Yasuhiro Nightow
Genre: Manga
Publication Date: September 16, 2013
Format: b&w, 696 pages; TP, 5″ x 7″
Price: $19.99
Age range: 12
ISBN-10: 1-61655-246-8
ISBN-13: 978-1-61655-246-6

go to http://whatchareading.com/ for all the goodness

Review: Yuki Vs Panda vol 1

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By Robert “Rob Base” Greenwood

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Comixology has supplied us with so many interesting independent comic books that sometimes I just don’t know where to begin. So, since I am a huge sucker for anime and manga, I look at what other people consider manga.

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That brings me to this very different looking comic book that should be more of a spoof on anime and Asian culture than just a Gaijin knocking on the outside doors of manga. Yuki vs Panda’s cover is a little misleading in terms of what we get on the inside. The cover seems to fall flat and depend on a lot of Photoshop. Regardless, this did not deter me from reading this comic which, for a better lack of description, is a great mix of Project Ako/DragonBall/Teen Titans and Family Guy. All this makes for a fun story and something more than a knock off.

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You are thrust right into a young Yuki basically tormenting a baby Panda with her ice cream. This semi-violent exchange turns into a future rivalry that will make the Chicken vs Peter Griffin feud look like a kid’s schoolyard fight.

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I usually hate this cartoon-style of comic book artwork but with Yuki vs Panda, I felt like I was watching an Adult Swim future hit. And with all of this, I just can’t overlook all the non-Japanese elements in this story. They claim that Yuki is a Japanese schoolgirl but her last name is Lee (not Japanese). Her teacher/Grandfather, Master Lee, hits on a woman and says “Ni Hao you doing?” which is most certainly not Japanese at all. But other than that, I highly recommend you read this book. I give Yuki vs Panda a solid 3/5 and hope Vol. 2 is just as much fun and as well produced as Vol. 1.

Written by Graham Misiurak

Written by Nick Dunec

Art by A Jones

Comixology description:

Welcome to the twisted journey of Japanese schoolgirl Yuki and her Panda nemesis. Yuki Lee is your average everyday martial arts prodigy with mystical powers. Despite her awesome skills and fantastic strength, all she really wants to be is…well, normal. This is something her grandfather and instructor Master Lee neither understands nor condones (after all he’s trained Yuki to be a fighter all her life, not some perfumed “girly-girl.”) But as teenagers tend to do, Yuki starts a subtle rebellion against her rigid and structured life and begins to dabble into the world of shiny lip gloss and boy bands. All is not as it seems however, for an evil omen is in the air and unbeknownst to Yuki, a mysterious figure from her past is about to make his presence known… like BIG time. If you haven’t guessed by now it’s a giant panda bear named Panda. He has returned to exact sweet sweet ice-cold revenge. Volume 1 will introduce us to our many main characters and set the stage for Volume 2: THE CONFRONTATION!

Follow me on Twitter @AltMindz