Morph Ball Blues

I’m extremely proud of this comic. The “It’s dirt!” discussion was what made us decide to do a comic, but this was the first script that I ever wrote. We’ve been putting off actually doing it until Kris felt satisfied with his art enough to attempt it. I’d suggest it a couple of times, and he’ll stare at me for a long pause until I start to squirm uncomfortably and suggest something else. I knew it would eventually come, but I must say I’ve been desirous of it.

Kris has been using Manga Studio
for 6 weeks now and raves about it pretty much every time we do a comic. Wednesday’s art “experiment” went really well and we got lots of great feedback from it. We were talking about the comic while reading our Wednesday pulls when Kris suggested doing this one. I was giddy, but kept my excitement inside. The more he worked on it, the cooler it got and the result above turned out just freaking awesome. We have a sequel for this already planned, but we’re going to wait a while before we do it. I’m expecting the difference between the two to blow us away.

If you’ve never heard of Metroid Metal, you should go check them out. They’re a really awesome rock group that do metal covers of the Metroid game soundtracks. They release all of their tracks for free on their website, and have released one album, Varia Suite
, of their greatest hits, completely remastered. They are a part of my daily playlist, and totally should be part of yours.

Kris, Gnome, and I were all really busy this Wednesday so didn’t get to read all of the comics this week, but we all made time to read Brightest Day #7. Geoff Johns has said multiple times that this was the issue where we would all learn why the Brightest Twelve were brought back. It definitely did that, although the reasons they were brought back created many more and more intriguing questions then the original “Why are they back?” Seven issues down, nineteen more to go. I expect many more answers, and even more questions, before the story is done.

Travis, what’s on your pull list?

* Le Chevalier d’Eon - One of the two manga I pull. French swashbuckling, crazy Japanese magiks, and lots of cleavage.
* Red Robin #15 - Tim Drake shows how “far he’s willing to go”.
* Secret Six #24 - A one-shot western tale that was cool until the final page, then it got poignant.

Kris, what’s on your pull list?

* Brightest Day #7 - All will be revealed indeed. Geoff Johns explains why these 12 people were brought back, and let’s us know what happens if they complete their mission. I felt like this book was dragging slightly under the weight of so many stories, but this might be the kick it needed.
* Doom Patrol #13 - Spotlight on Rita! The relationship between Rita and Mento is one of the more disturbing and interesting aspects of the the current Doom Patrol run. I hope we delve into it deeper, as well as Rita’s history.
* JSA All Stars #9 - This story arc seems a little unimportant, considering what is coming with Magog and what happened with this team in Blackest Night. It’s good, just very off the wall. Nice to see Brainwave return though.
* Magnus Robot Fighter #1 - Decent read, I don’t think I’ll continue to pick it up after this issue though. It’s good, but it just didn’t draw me in.
* Magog #12 - This is the last issue of Magog, but it looks like the character will continue on, both in the Justice Society Special next month, and in other books. I’m kind of interested in how this ties to Kingdom Come, but I think this would have been better 14 years ago, when Kingdom Come first came out.
* Red Hood Lost Days #3 - I love Judd Winick’s writing, I don’t know if you’ve picked up on that. Winick writes Jason Todd as dark, twisted version of Batman, or I guess more specifically, Robin. He’s angry, lost, but still a product of Batman’s training. Add what can only be described as Talia’s Love and this is a very interesting story.
* Red Robin #15 - This is by far the best of the Bat-Family books, mostly because Fabian Nicieza doesn’t hesitate to bring in other characters from the DCU. I’m interested to see where this arc is going, and I look forward to the confrontation between Tim Drake and Barbara Gordon about his new “condition.”
* Secret Six #24 - Good book, I really hope it ties into the overall story arc. Otherwise, it will quickly forgotten in the wake of Gail Simone’s great storytelling.
* Superman: The Last Family of New Krypton #1 - I’m happy DC is bringing back the Elseworlds imprint. This is an interesting story, and it has a lot of potential. The real problem with some Elseworld stories is when the writer feels the need to include characters that seem out of place. Like the Kents in a universe where Superman’s parents came to Earth with him.