When we interviewed Greg Pak at last year’s San Diego Comic-Con, we talked a lot about Planet Hulk and a little about Phoenix: Warsong; but amidst the excitement of those high-profile projects, what actually intrigued me most during our talk was one little thing Greg mentioned, which was his desire to create an Asian hero. Months later Pak got his chance when he introduced a new Mastermind Excello in Amazing Fantasy #15 — co-created with artist Takeshi Miyazawa, Amadeus Cho quickly became a fan favorite.
So when I finally got a chance to sit down with Pak again, I knew that we had to talk about The Kid.
The cover story in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly (June 29) features 100 Stars EW Loves Right Now. Hayden Panettiereleads the pack at #1, while fellow Heroes co-stars Masi Oka & George Takei come in at #44.
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Comics were also represented at spots #90 & 91 by Gabriel Ba & Fabio Moon, whom it turns out are fraternal twins. Regarding superheroes, Fabio states: “They die and come back, die and come back. To draw superheroes you have to be prepared not to care about the story.”
Speaking of Entertainment Weekly, we just go up our video interview with Senior Editor Marc Bernardin about his DC/Vertigo book, The Highwaymen. Click here to check it out.
When I last saw Jubilation Lee (in Wolverine: Origins, #7 I believe), she was near-death, with a huge girder or whatever all up in her guts. The fact that artist Steve Dillon makes her would-be rescuer Wolverine look like he was leaning on the stupid thing and embedding it that much deeper wasn’t cool, even if Wolvie did proceed to beg Dum Dum Dugan to please save her. The fact that the Powers That Be had already de-powered her made her somewhat expendable already, but to top it off Marvel had solicited this book with a promise that “A beloved, long-time Marvel character” would die. Naturally I was more than a little worried for Jubes.
So when the next issue of Origin came out I hurriedly flipped through it to find out dear Jubilee’s fate — only to find her not mentioned at all. Which was a bit of a WTF moment for me. (Actually it was more than a moment because I kept flipping through the subsequent issues to see if writer Daniel Way would ever decide to show me whether or not she was dead — but of course he did not). Around this same time Jubilee did appear in Civil War: Front Line talking to reporter Sally Floyd about being a de-powered disenfranchised mutant, so that might’ve meant she lived. But I really wasn’t sure if Front Line was before or after the Girder In The Gut.
(Note: I am currently similary confused by Tony Stark. He is either the head of SHIELD or has been turned into an Ultron fembot, I don’t know which). Lacking any confirmation one way or the other in Origins, I didn’t even know if Jubes was dead or alive.
At any rate, jumping innumerable months to the present, I was quite happy to see Jubilee pop up (seemingly out of nowhere, to me at least) in a certain Marvel book out this week.
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Without spoiling things too much, it appears Jubilee has gotten some enhancements since we last saw her :O
The July issue of Penthouse, with MySpaceleb Tila Tequila not-so-hot on the cover, features a number of throwaway comic-related bits in its Full Frontal section — including two wasted pages on various superhero outfits (actual quote: “Hulk smash fashion laws!”) and a inconsequential review of the Transformers videogame, but it also has a Harvey Pekar interview and spotlights on Adhouse’s PulpHope: The Art of Paul Pope alongside Peter Kuper’s Stop Forgetting to Remember: The Autobiography of Walter Kurtz.
The latest issue of Wizard magazine (#189, on sale today) has a look back at all the killer covers for the various Marvel Zombies books, plus this bonus zombie-fied DCU image. Suydam, who provides running commentary for each cover, says: “The apple in Supergirl’s mouth just seemed right. It was like, ‘Come and get it, dinner’s served!’ and all the characters are just standing there waiting.”
Yknow, I dig what Rich does with Glyphs — obviously, which is why I offered to host him here on PCS — but it being “The Language of the Black Comics Community” and all, it kinda leaves us Asians out. I always think I should try and fill in somehow, but I have to admit the monthly adventures of DC’s all-new, all-Asian Atom have failed to motivate me thus far. (Plus it was being drawn by John Byrne for a while there…)
Thankfully, this week there were a couple books that got me off lazy Filipino butt. First & foremost, we have the rockin Johnny Hiro — tagged as half-asian, all-hero by publisher Adhouse and superslapstickmonsterificaction (among other things) by Brendan of Brend & Adan’s Pick’s Pans & Scans.
Actually what Brendan said was: “So if you like Scott Pilgrim, and I know you do, check out Johnny Hiro (half asian, all hero). It is pretty great. With just the right mix of superslapstickmonsterificaction, Fred Chao’s dream-like tale reads like a Nickelodeon fairy tale, only in Brooklyn with giant lizards.” But you can read the whole review here.
Naturally our hero saves the day — though not without the help of A-OK Robot (“The A stands for Action!”) and um, Mayor Bloomberg — along with his girl.
How often do you see the asian guy never get the girl? Like Romeo Must Die — Jet Li kicks all kinds of ass, gets none; I think maybe Aliyaah gave him a peck on the cheek. Which is why I didn’t scan the first 5 pages for this month’s Heroes For Hire preview, because then you would’ve missed Shang-Chi’s scene with Tarantula.
I have to say, I don’t know anything about Tarantula, but I thought that was a great scene. And new artist Clay Mann really delivered there.
Anyway, that’s it for the debut installment of FU-KUNG. Assuming you enjoyed it I promise not to wait til the next time an Asian hero gets the girl to post something.
Lying In The Gutters reports that Rob Kirkman & Rob Liefeld will be collaborating on Marvel’s Killraven in 2008. In an article humorously entitled Why People Who Hate On Rob Liefeld Can Kiss My Irredeemable Butt! (see scan below), Kirkman was infamously quoted as saying, “Rob Liefeld is the modern day equivalent of Jack Kirby.” LITG also mentions that Liefeld promises to have 3 or 4 issues done ahead of time.
Courtesy of Egotastic, here’s Claire Bennett trying, for some unknown reason, to tongue another girl’s breast through her shirt. You really can’t make this stuff up.
Even though she’s still underage, I guess it’s only a matter of time before we get pictures of her stepping out of cars with no panties on.
I’m going to be upset if this image ruins my appreciation of the show =/
