Meanwhile...

The comic blogosphere seems to grow larger every day and just like comics, sometimes it's pretty easy to get a little lost. "Meanwhile..." will act as your map pointing out what interesting discussions are happening out there while you’re reading the Great Curve.



Lets see what do we have in store for you all in this week's Meanwhile. We've got urban legends, Kurt Busiek, a wish for Martian Manhunter's death, symbolism, 20 odd questions, psp comics, The Defenders, and more. Take a look and see if there's anything you like.

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Urban Legends

Comics Should Be Good brings us even more Comic Book Urban Legends. This week Brian answers "Why the Hulk is Green?", "Is Chuck Austen J.D. Finn?", and "Did William Gaines destroy 3-D comic books?".

Searching for Gold

Dylan Abbott posts about searching for hidden treasures in places like Half Price Books and in doing so ends up showing why I enjoy being a comic collector.

Stirring the Pot

Scipio had a lot going on this week over at the Absorbascon. First he finishes up Black History Month with The Black Newsboy Legion and a little reflection on the past entries. Then he stirs everyone up by wishing Brad Meltzer had killed Martian Manhunter. Now that everyone is up in arms none other than Kurt Busiek stops by and chats a little about Aquaman. One thing about Scipio, he sure knows how to get people talking.

20 Creators, 20 Questions

While we're on a creator kick, lets take a look at Your Mom's Basement. No, the blog. That wasn't any kind of insult. I don't play like that. Anyway the Basement Crew decided to ask certain creators they met at the NYCC what one question they want the fans to answer. Colleen Doran, Andy Lanning, Jim Starlin, Steve McNiven, David Mack, Steven Sadowski, Dale Eaglesham, Kevin Maguire, Ian Churchill, Mike Oeming, Carlos D'Anda, Ale Garza, Rags Morales, Jim Calafiore, Mark Texeira, Fabian Nicieza, Phil Jimenez, Tony Bedard, and Frank Cho all rose to the challenge.

If you enjoyed that then you would probably enjoy the normal 20 Questions columns like 20 Questions about Planet Hulk.

Treasury Treasures

The always wonderful Mark Evanier takes a look at Marvel Treasury Editions. I own a G.I. Joe Treasury Edition and Kirby's 2001. They really are worth picking up if you ever find one.

Comic Book Symbolism

Ragnell delves into the world of gender symbolism and symbolism in general.

"I love the symbolism of the normal, though. Most writers have some level of understanding about symbolism, and they make up for it with instinct. That's when we get the stuff that just randomly fits together. The average work-for-hire writer who probably didn't mean to do that, but it fits and reinforces the point. The multiple writers who somehow string a secondary character's entire life under one central theme, while not even using her to further the same story objectives. And they keep falling into the same symbolic lessons. This way, the plot becomes part of the characterization. It just fits, beautifully."

One Year Later and Another Anniversary

Chris of his own Invincible Super Blog checks in with some entertaining reviews of DC's One Year Later books as well as some of the other releases last week.

Chris isn’t only concerned with all the new and shiny comics. He's got old school cred too. Check it out as he breaks out the Incredible Hulk #300 review as well. He's alright by me.

Infinite Colonial Crisis

I haven't seen as many people talking about Infinite Crisis as I did when Identity Crisis was released. I wonder if it's just burnout or there isn't as much to get mad about as there might have been in Identity Crisis. Anyway, H examines Infinite Crisis #5 and does a great job of listing both the high points and low points of the issue. Check out his review of Colonia in the same post. From the looks of it, Colonia might have to be added to my purchase list this week.

Jog Has Style

Jog is a craftsman of the blog post. He constructs them like they are works of art. Ok, maybe I'm building him up a little too much, but he's really damn good at what he does. This time he's writing about 99 Ways to Tell a Story: Exercises in Style.

"The point is, a deep study of the mechanics of the page won’t necessarily bear as much fruit from some books as it will from others. Eddie Campbell mentioned in that one interview in The Comics Journal (the one I simply won’t let go of) that the notion of splitting tasks between various pencilers and inkers is a product of ‘comic book culture,’ the inference being that the alternate ‘graphic novel culture’ is perhaps better attuned toward providing aesthetic dividends via elemental integration than the former (and let me also bring up right now Campbell’s disclaimer that one culture is not inherently superior to the other, and that graphic novel culture is not a medal to be handed out to good little funnybook soldiers in return for exemplary behavior).

PSP Comics

Do you have a Play Station Portable and enjoy reading comics? Lee Stone of The Republic of Replicants can point you to a few for the psp.

Relationships, CB, and Steve Gerber

Lets end with the fun stuff before we get to this week's Illustration Blog.

Kevin Church shows us what the Superman/Luthor relationship is really all about.

Mike brings us back to the good old days by describing a story in which Popeye deals with C.B. Radio and a Happiness Bomb.

And finally, Plok, from the blog A Trout in the Milk, examines the world's premier "fringe" team The Defenders.

Illustration Blog of the Week

100 Years of Illustration by Paul Giambarba

This week he's discussing "Michael Fay's Faces of War".

"In the tradition of Kerr Eby and other great American combat artists, Michael Fay of the U.S. Marine Corps has brought to life -- as only artwork can -- the lives of our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq in his web log Fire and Ice. Here are some examples of his excellent work taken directly from his blog.

Until next time...