Five for five.

Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance #1 (of 6)

Comic Book Database entry on Chriscross

Chriscross pencils this Final Crisis spin-off mini.

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Supergirl #41. Pencils by Igle.

Black Panther: Who is the Black Panther TP. Written by Hudlin.

Thor V2 Premiere HC. Pencils by Coipel.

Timestorm 2009-2099 #2 (of 4). Pencils by Battle.

Gold Digger: Maidens of Twilight #4 (of 4), GD Sketchcard Album. By Perry.

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Also notable:

Batman: Battle for the Cowl #3 (of 3)

Captain America #50

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen #1. The adaptation of the forthcoming movie.

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ECBACC 2009 was good. This was our first year in the new location, the Crowne Plaza Hotel in downtown Philadelphia, and after a slow start the crowd picked up pretty well. A few highlights: You already know about Carol Burrell doing the Kindred adaptation… Reggie Byers screened the animated version of his long-running Christian comic Kidz of the King (Legion of Super-Heroes if TD Jakes wrote it). It’s quite well done – the characters look very much like they do in the comic, the voices are distinctive, and it doesn’t talk down to its target audience. I am most assuredly not part of this target audience, but I appreciate the care that went into making this cartoon… I moderated a panel discussion on comics writing which featured Tony Isabella, Jamar Nicholas, and horror novelist LA Banks (I never got the chance to speak to her last year, so I was glad to finally meet her; very nice lady). Seeing as how I didn’t find out I was moderating until the day of the show, I think I pulled it off well. The audience had a rapport with the panelists, which I liked a lot – I hate it when I moderate a panel and the audience just sits there like sheep.

Gregory “Brother G” Walker previewed Zulu Mech 1 at the show. It’s basically an African Voltron: set in the far future, when the world is about to unite in peace, but that peace is threatened by the rise of an ancient evil. To combat it, a family of scientists create a giant mecha-Zulu warrior. There’s more to it – Walker spoke of artist Mshindo Kuumba I’s design for the character and the “cinema-graphic novel,” as they’re pitching it, and of the African-inspired motifs inherent throughout it. Wesley Snipes is providing the funding and appears in a live-action prologue in the preview, narrating the future history of ZM1. Walker said that the motion comic will be made available for the iPod and on iTunes and, as reported here, will also be screened at the upcoming Book Expo America.

Walker said that there’s a wealth of backstory that will be explored as part of ZM1, to show how this future came about. He said he wants the character and the series to have worldwide appeal, for black kids who can identify with it culturally, and with non-black kids who will (presumably) find it cool. Mshindo, who has been quietly producing a stunning body of work for various self-published titles over the past few years (just bring up his name over at the Black Superhero message boards and see what kind of reaction you get), has gone above and beyond to create the images in this series. Brotherman creator Dawud Anyabwile is also involved in the art; I forget in what capacity, but I remember seeing his name in the credits.

The preview itself began with, as I said, a live-action prologue by Snipes (with a cameo by his kids) recounting the future history of the ZM1 world, followed by the motion comic itself. Visually it is comparable to what we’ve seen with the Watchmen motion comic, with a bit more in the way of computer-generated special effects. In the story, a giant monster claiming to be the Christian devil ravages the land, and ZM1 is brought in to stop him. Piloted by the children of the scientist parents, they challenge his identity as Satan before laying the smack down, so it looks like there’ll be a bit of theology and mythology in the mix. There are word balloons that pop up on screen for the dialogue, and also an original soundtrack.

I’m gonna get flamed for this, but I’m gonna say it anyway: having read the first book in Walker’s historical adventure series Shades of Memnon, I’ve not been a huge fan of his writing style, which borders on purple prose at times. While his attention to African mythological and historical detail is commendable, he’s not exactly subtle when it comes to storytelling, and unfortunately, I see that same tendency here in ZM1. While the visual aspect is certainly exciting, the preview I saw doesn’t have the versatility and range as another recent animated feature, Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues (which I highly recommend). The latter, like ZM1, is all-ages, but it takes more storytelling chances, has livelier dialogue, and a wider variety of visuals – all of which serve the story, which is also built upon a cultural mythology and theology. Walker, for all his skill at world-building, isn’t as strong a writer to me as say, Christopher Priest, who also draws on black culture in his best work but who has a more engaging and entertaining style.

That said, however, Walker and Mshindo are thinking big and thinking outside the box with ZM1 and are creating something truly unique, and I wish them well in bringing their vision to the world.

As for the Glyphs, well, I won’t lie – I really wish Jeremy Love had been in person to collect his five awards. Indeed, the only one who accepted an award Friday night was Tony Isabella, who took the Best Male Character prize on behalf of Grant Morrison (and stated that he’d deliver it to Morrison himself so that DC never gets their hands on it!). Still, the crowd, which slowly became a SRO as the evening progressed, enjoyed the show. Bill Foster did a nice tribute to the late Eartha Kitt and football star-turned-fine artist Ernie Barnes (he painted the Good Times mural, among other things). Alex Simmons presented a pair of Kids Comic Con awards to ECBACC head honchos Maurice Waters and Yumy Odom for their involvement in helping shape the KCC. And for the first time we had slides for the entire program, which projected the nominees and winners and other events that evening (thanks, Stephanie!). And of course Jamar Nicholas was a great emcee as usual. The Free Library of Philadelphia made for a good new venue.

My thanks to everyone on the ECBACC committee, as well as the GCA judges for this year – Valerie D’Orazio, Mathan Erhardt, Ed Mathews, Tim O’Shea and Elayne Riggs – for another great show.

In other news: Jamal Igle talks Supergirl with writer Sterling Gates.

The official press release for Tyrese Gibson’s Mayhem.

The First Fan gives Star Trek a thumbs up.