Flashback Friday: Heroes Convention 2013 "The Art Edition"

 Yes I am just going to go back a week and savor the vacation this year.  I promise to have pretty artwork as I do.  This year the room was spacious and made the navigating much better.  I really did hate the end of the Convention.  I was at peace and really enjoying the art and people.  I was very good about money this year.  I did get some commissions done.  One was by Mike Maihack from Google + and my following.  He did the awesome comic strip prints of Batgirl and Supergirl.  I love his art and asked him to do a commission in my sketchbook of Huntress.  It was a great addition to my ever growing book of sketches.  I bought his sketchbook and some other prints as well.  He probably thought I was crazy.  I get excited sometimes.


I bought two sketch cover comics.  A Green Lantern and an Aquaman version.  I really went silly with the GL book.  It does not represent continuity at all.  I asked a young lady to have Mogo and the Tardis on the cover.  It was a Mash Up that I figure will be unique in the coming years.  She did a great job and I regret I did not get her picture with the cover like I did the other one.  That one has a headshot of Mera on it the artist is in a pic with the cover.  I picked her because I was watching her do a commission and her displayed work showed a great beauty and a great realism in the way she portrayed her work.  So I have a Throne of Atlantis issue with the gorgeous Mera on the cover.  I just wish I had been able to track down the cosplay Mera and had her pose with it.


I am adding some other prints I picked up.  I love just finding cool prints as I scour the aisles.  Sometimes you get really cool art from people that are just trying to make a living as an artist at Conventions and maybe be discovered.  They are not in the comicbooks, but should be.  Others work for independents or card companies.  There are rare gems out there in the fringes and I love when I find a piece of art that is shining bright.  One day I will be able to display all I have collected.  I have a plan that I want to work on, but that is a future blog post.

I have neglected to report on my goal concerning my T-Shirt on Friday.  I was disappointed with not having a unique shirt last year and was determined to be seen this year.  I accomplished it with my shirt that displays the Internet mash up called by two names, "The Time Job" or "The Tardis Job," based on Firefly and Dr.Who.  I received many compliments and many double takes as I walked around on opening day.  It was cool knowing I had the only version there at HeroesCon.

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POLL: Which Character Gets A Weekly Look Next?

So I am letting you decide.  The Poll is on the side bar over to the right of your screen.  I have almost complete runs of these characters, plus some extra issues of minis and other things I can use.  I will be doing this like the Mantra Mondays.  I have long wanted to do looks at the old Marvel series of the first three.  I have collected almost the complete runs of them over the years.  As for Huntress, I have the series done by Denny O'Neil where she comes to New York and is a great read.  Plus the more modern year one look DC just recently did.  So here is your chance to pick the next book I am going to focus on and try to write about an issue each week.


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Girl Power: Birds of Prey #12, Power Girl #24, Supergirl #64, and Zatanna #13

            I guess this could be a Girl Power collection of comments.  I just want to give some opinion on this books that I read.

Birds of Prey #12 – Oracle is dead, long live Oracle.  Barbara has let the world believe Oracle is gone and now Gail Simone is free to just return to her set of stories for a bit.  This is a neat covert ops story.  It has a very twisted ending as well.  It is neat seeing Lady Blackhawk do more than drive a car or fly a plane.  Since Gail returned she has really brought this character to the forefront of the group.  Most reviewers I read commented on the Question being in the story.  Everyone is speculating that She will join.  I am not sure she needs to be a regular.  The team is a bit crowded as it is right now.  Great book as always.

Power Girl#24 – Had DC not announced the reboot of some characters and the new number 1's I was on my way to dropping PG.  I love the character and supporting cast, but like normal Judd Winick just does nothing for me as a reader.  I have nothing against the guy.  I gave him a chance.  I just do not find his storytelling all that fascinating.  I have this sense/fear that many of the DC titles I read will disappear when this reboot that is not a reboot happens.  So I am basically on until August.  Either I am wrong and the fact that Winick remains writer has me drop the book, or I get to try a new creator out on the book.  If I am correct and it is canceled, then I have no decision to make.

Supergirl #64 – The current story concludes.  It is a nice little team up tale of how Supergirl is capable of defending Metropolis while Big Blue is wandering the country.  Has two of my favorite newer characters, Blue Beetle and Miss Martian and the little boy we are to love to hate, Robin.  Just a nice tale that respects the fact that Supergirl is a great heroine.  Plus I still love the new look.  All women do not keep long hair.  Her current hairstyle fits what many women I see and know have as there personal cut.

Zatanna #13 – I use to use the term “bridge story” when I was reviewing comics at PBR.  It was how I describe a story that was a connector to the things that had come before and the new action about to happen.  It is a way to catch your breath as a reader.  This issue is one of those.  It has some humor with the weird fortune telling cat.  The Spectre is a foreshadowing of future plot development.  What is of most importance is that Detective Colton finds out something very important about himself.  Brother Night escapes and finds out as well.  It will lead us into a neat place for the story of Zatanna I think.

            So there is a bit of my thoughts on some of the books I read.  No time for full reviews, but I wanted to comment.

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Birds of Prey #6

            I was so glad when this title returned.  I knew I would like the book because I like Gail Simone as a storyteller.  Still, I admit that the restart has been bogged down some.  I wonder if Simone asked for Hawk & Dove, or if they said that the duo had to be placed in BoP because they needed somewhere to tell there Brightest Day tales that are out of the main title?  So the story of the return of the Birds gets a heavy handed treatment because we have this dual layer.  Simone does a good job of weaving her tale in with these two characters. 

            The payoff comes in this issue.  So much  been done in the life of Dinah Lance when the BoP was dissolved to carry the larger DCU pail of water.  She had to give the adopted daughter, Sin up to protect her, She got married, her husband died by her hand, her husband was alive and she had to rescue him, her husband’s son gets shot and brain drained,  Arsenal loses an arm, Ollie kills Prometheus, and she leaves Ollie.  Oh, Dinah also lead the Justice League as well.  Simone had to bring these characters back to the strength she had given them.  Dinah and the rest were not treated as well as we might think they would have been.

            A story carried from the previous run of Gail Simone on the title is continued here.  The only girl of a group of martial artist that Dinah had defeated and humiliated is manipulating things.  This White Canary has back both the Black canary and Lady Shiva into a match to the death.  Sin’s life is hanging in the balance.  The events lead Helena and Zinda to follow Dinah to Bangkok and they immediately get a surprise as they are facing her with a group of fighters.

            This is where the story begins for this issue.  Helena realizes that she has to do something that only she can do.  You miss this if you do not read carefully.  It leads to a fight between Huntress and Lady Shiva.  There is a great scene where Helena screws up the plan White Canary was forcing by using what she knows of honor and stuff because of her mafia background.  Her actions also bring us a new name for Lady Shiva, Drippypants.

            Drippypants was just a small bit of humor in this deadly serious fight between Huntress and the DCU’s deadliest women.  Never would you give Huntress a chance to get in one good moment, but she does.  It is great reading the fight, but the emotional stuff Helena is going through during this part of the story really hits her roots excellently.

            I recently purchased the entire Dennis O’Neal run of Huntress back in the late 1980’s.  Simone captures that essence of the character.  This was a Huntress that was just beginning and finding her feet.  All that was wiped out as reality was adjusted and readjusted.  We forget that Huntress was and is a strong woman that is not a shadow of Batman.  That is the best thing Gail Simone has done, bring Huntress to a level she should be at as a character.

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Birds of Prey #5

                It is no secret that this is one of my favorite titles written by one of my favorite writers.  I must do something rare and brag on the cover this issue.  I really like it.  The way Huntress and Lady Blackhawk are presented on the cover just pops off the page.  It has some grit to it that fits these two characters.  This is the aftermath of the White Canary story.  The Penguin has really taken a harsh blow to the Birds.  He placed two in the hospital and one quits the team.  Still our women remain strong.  I like how Huntress gets angry and ready to just chuck it all and then calms down after venting a bit.  It fits her personality.  I have just finished reading the 19 issue run of The Huntress from 1989.  She is the skeleton for our Huntress today.

                Lady Blackhawk is another excellent character.  She is sometimes ditzy and very flirty acting.  This is an act in many ways.  This is great writing on Simone’s part.  The character is one that gets underestimated.  She might look twenty, but in reality she is much older.  Zinda Blake is a displaced in time WWII fighter pilot.  When she sets her mind to something she gets her way.  Now that is her and Huntress going to Bangkok and getting Black Canary back.  They really are very different from the old days of Oracle and Canary that Chuck Dixon started with his Birds of Prey series.  I bet many people would not believe the series to still have life now.

                The addition of Hawk and Dove is interesting.  It makes for yet another layer.  Barbara Gordon is becoming more adept than Bruce Wayne at gathering those needing special attention and rehabilitation.  The way Savant and Creole have been re-gathered into the fold is nice.  The way hawk fits I am not sure.  I know they needed somewhere to drop him and Dove during the Brightest Day period.  They fit in the way that these characters are interesting but do not fit in any other team or in an ongoing series format.  They at the very least fit the Birds of Prey title.

                I am just glad to have this book back and rolling along.  It is one of my look forward to reads every month.

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Birds of Prey #4

Birds of Prey #4

I did go to the comic shop last week because of a doctor's appointment in the area.  I have been debating the listing of what I got for a reason I will explain soon.  Still, I wanted to write a review on Birds of Prey (BoP) #4.  The cover image is worthy of a poster I believe and I went to the DC Comics site to snag a text free image.  This is a Brightest Day themed book because of Hawk and Dove.  The thing is that Gail Simone is back and it is like she never left.

I was sad to see her left BoP when she went to Wonder Woman.  I was sad to see her leave Wonder Woman, but it is so nice to have her and the BoP title back and in fine form. Things are bad for the Birds.  Their secrets are being exposed, Oracle has been captured, a White Canary has them dying, and Lady Blackhawk is bleeding.  It is bad.

In this issue we have the Black Canary figuring out who the White Canary is and taking her on.  The battle is awesome.  She has to use her wits and her smart mouth to get a good shot at the foe.  The last page gives a very BIG hook for next issue.  It is wonderful that BoP is once again showing excellent female heroes and just kicking butt.  I really am glad this old friend is back.

Read this book.

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