The Bum’s Rush #82

WARNING! None of the news or rumors you see here in The Bum’s Rush should be considered FACT until it actually happens. It might never happen. How do you know I’m not just making all this crap up? I could, you know. You’ve been warned!


Digital Pimp, Hard At Work

Lately the name Stumblebum Studios has been popping up all over the place. No, not in lawsuits or restraining orders, as one might expect (well, there’s that one lawsuit, but our lawyers have advised us not to talk about it) but in some very positive places.

Last week I did an interview about Round Two with The Pulse’s Jennifer Contino. It was both awesome and nerve wracking at the same time. I can’t thank Jen enough for putting together such a great interview.

This week, Stumblebum Studios got a very positive write-up from Dan Koller in the Comics section of Quick DFW. If you’ll notice, our story comes right before the one about Alan Moore. Alan Moore! That one guy who said Alan Moore’s beard was more important to comics than Stumblebum can go eat it.

Plus, over on his blog, Randy Andrews gave Round Two a very positive review for which I can’t thank him enough. And no, I did not pay him large sums of money to say nice things about us. But A.C. probably did. Oh hey, it’s the lawyers again!

And while I’m pimping Stumblebum Studios in general I should probably mention that you can now buy both Round Two and God Of Rock (my 24-Hour Comic) in the Stumblebum Book Store. Remember, every penny of every book we sell goes directly into the Stumblebum Legal Defense Fund… but I’ve said too much already.

Meanwhile… At Wizard World!

As you know my con-reports tend to go on for pages and pages and usually make for a nifty way to make two columns out of one. And you’d think, what with Wizard World Texas ’06 being the most successful convention Stumblebum Studios has ever had, that I could drag this sucker out for at least three. But I’m not going to do that this time. For one thing, I simply don’t have the time. This edition of The Bum’s Rush is already perilously past deadline. And b) the show was so hectic, so exhausting and so chock-full of great experiences that to write about it in the usually mind-numbing detail that I tend to do would be just as draining as the show itself was. So instead I’m just going to hit some of the highlights from the show and hope that one day you’ll forgive me.

1. In a rare triumph for Stumblebum our new book, Round Two was actually boxed up and ready to go, thanks in no small part to the fine folks at A&R Printing, a whole week before the convention hit. But damn it all if we weren’t up folding and stapling comics, the God Of Rock mini-comic to be precise, the night before the show anyway. But it’s become a tradition now. I guess it just wouldn’t be a Stumblebum appearance otherwise.
2. Round Two’s debut was a huge success. Which is not surprising considering the staggering amount of effort and talent that went into making this the absolute best thing that we’ve ever produced.
3. I spent most of Friday working on a pin-up for the guys at The Hero Foundry to include in one of their many auctions that weekend. I also gave them a set of Stumblebum comics and color and black and white versions of the Firefly pinup I was selling at the show. Here’s the pinup I was working on, which I finished up Friday night: (click on image to view full size in a new window)
    

4. Friday night after the show, Aaron, Dana and I headed over to David Hopkins place for a barbeque he was having. We had a great time and I got to talk to a lot of really cool people. But it was also nice to head home afterwards, as the first day of the show had been exhausting.
5. On Saturday morning Aaron and I decided to wander around the convention floor and check out all the neat swag that people were selling. One booth was filled with an insane amount of samurai swords and other edged weapons, like recreations of the sword from Thundercats and the gunblades from the Final Fantasy games. One of the guys at that booth was trying to bring everyone’s attention to a, and I’m not exaggerating here, 16-FOOT TALL SAMURAI SWORD! I thought for sure that if someone were going to bite it at this convention it would probably be in not-so-coincidental proximity to this booth. We moved on and I stopped at the big “t-shirt cage” that always makes an appearance at Wizard World Texas. Basically it’s just a big enclosed booth with dozens and dozens of t-shirts on the outside and inside of the cage-like walls. I was seriously considering buying one or two shirts when we were approached by one of the booths workers who said to us, “You look like a couple of stocky guys, we’ve got a ton of 3-X shirts outside the booth,” and promptly led us outside to the 3-X shirts. She may as well have said, “Hey, FAT GUYS, we got a bunch of FAT GUY t-shirts out here. Why don’t you FAT GUYS take a look at those so some of the normal sized people in here can actually, you know, move around and stuff?” She totally lost that sale.
6. The rest of Saturday was crazy as hell. Almost the entire Stumblebum Crew was out in force. Besides Aaron, Dana and myself, we were joined by Dave DeGrand (who was also there Friday), Neal Langham and Kevin Steele. Dave Sherrill was supposed to be with us too but last week he got bacterial meningitis(!) and was understandably out of commission. My good buddy Josh even joined us for the whole day Saturday.
7. Aaron, Josh and I attended the Ed Brubaker panel on writing, which was almost the best part of the whole weekend. The room was extremely packed and I had to sit on the floor, but listening to Brubaker, one of my favorite writers, talk about writing comics and answering some really hard questions really made my day. Of course there was one jackass that kept asking the stupidest questions, asking Brubaker why comics sucked and basically expecting Brubaker to go right off and fix the things this guy had a problem with. Eventually though the crowd turned on him and killed him… which I wasn’t supposed to talk about… crap. Hey, it was mob rule, okay? I’m not singularly responsible for anything that happened. Though I think I may have been the one that shouted, “Get him!”
8. After the panel I headed back to our table and ran into Brubaker on the show floor. I got to shake his hand and tell him how much I enjoyed the panel. He didn’t seem quite as thrilled with the encounter as I did, which is understandable really as I’m basically this anonymous guy telling him how great he is or whatever. Plus, he had just seen about 50 people rise up and kill in his name so…
9. Almost died laughing from listening to our next door booth-neighbor Tom Brazelton, of
   Theater Hopper fame, do his impersonation of the Super Friends announcer. “Meanwhile, in Arlington, Texas!” You really had to be there, it was killin’ me. Kinda like we killed that… no, I gotta shut up about that.
10. DeGrand and I did a taped interview with the guys from Space Gun, which was pretty sweet. Although I probably talked waaay too much. I have a tendency to go on and on. Shocker!
11. Made plans with some guys for dinner after the show but got dissed at the restaurant. Meh, not that big a deal. It was cool just sitting down and having a good meal with Dana and Aaron. Plus I got a whole table full of people to agree with me on a discussion that Aaron and I were having. See, Aaron! Lambs ARE baby sheep!
12. Hung out with Dana, Aaron, Josh and Kevin at the apartment and laughed so hard I almost puked watching videos on YouTube.
13. I spent most of Sunday doing sketches for people, which I was really excited about. I love getting to draw cool stuff for people at these shows and seeing their reactions. Plus, I always get to draw stuff that I’ve never drawn before. I drew Molly from Runaways, Multiple Man reading comics, Magneto and Kaylee from Firefly. I really wish I could have done more.
14. Traded some prints and comics with the always-awesome Kristian Donaldson. That guy is one of the best artists I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. So freakin’ talented and a really nice guy to boot (“to boot,” for real?).
15. After the show had officially and completely wrapped up on Sunday night, Aaron, Dana and I joined Chris Medellin and the fine folks from The Hero Foundry for dinner at Hooters. Cause… like… the wings… and stuff… you know… good food. It was actually one of the best parts of the whole weekend. It was amazingly relaxing after such a busy and tiring show to have dinner with some great friends, old and new, and just talk about whatever the hell we wanted. Okay, yes! And look at the hot Hooters girls! Happy!?
16. Of course the best part of the whole show was probably seeing Brad, who I have totally been calling Randy by mistake, from Home Improvement eating at Hooters too. What the hell?
17. I am 100% sure that I am forgetting a ton of cool stuff that happened at the show.
18. Way to keep it short, Paul. You jackass.

Switcheroo

Who’s off what books? Who’s on? Who cares? YOU DO!

Last week it was announced that Todd Nauck is officially the new artist for Friendly Neighborhood
Spider-Man, which is pretty cool as it reunites the Nauck with writer Peter David, with whom he previously worked with on over fifty issues of DC’s Young Justice.

So where’s former Friendly Neighborhood artist Mike Wieringo off to? I sent Mr. Wieringo an email to find out and here’s what he told me:

I've got a couple of issues of MS. MARVEL coming out-- the first of which came out today, I believe.

Further down the road, I'm supposed to be working on a SPIDER-MAN/FF mini series (which was also discussed in a JOE FRIDAYS a couple of weeks ago).

Mike

Thanks for the info, Mike!

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Starting in February, Flash: The Fastest Man Alive will be running with a new creative team. Writer Mark Guggenheim will come aboard the series with issue #9, teaming up with artist Ron Adrian who joins the book with December’s issue #7. Guggenheim is one of several successful television writers (he’s written for The Practice, Law & Order and CSI) who have crossed over to the comic industry lately. A relative newcomer to comics, Guggenheim just wrapped up a brief run on Wolverine and is currently writing the monthly adventures of Marvel’s popular vampire-hunter, Blade.

So what happened to the current Flash writing team of Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo? Word is that the duo’s relaunch of the series was very poorly received by fans in general and now DC is looking to do a soft reboot before sales on the series completely tank. Guggenheim seemed to confirm this in a recent interview with Newsarama saying, “I'm writing Flash #9 as if it were Flash #1, so no need to be at all familiar with the Bart Allen version -- I'll catch you right up.”

The Flash is one of my favorite characters but I could barely get past the first issue of the new series, so I’m actually pretty excited about this news. I still believe it was a mistake on DC’s part to “retire” Wally West and make Bart Allen (formerly Kid Flash, formerly Impulse). They’ve tried to recreate one of the classic moments in comic book history, the death of Barry Allen and the passing of the Flash name on to one-time Kid Flash Wally West, all of which happened during Crisis On Infinite Earths, and it feels like what it is – forced. Hopefully Guggenheim, while not cleaning up the mess, can at least make it look a little nicer.

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Both Keith Giffen and Cully Hamner will be leaving DC’s The Blue Beetle with issue #10. Current co-writer John Rogers will become the series’ solo writer starting with January’s issue #11 and will be joined by new series artist Rafael Albuquerque. As for Giffen, on top of the numerous projects with Boom! Studios, Marvel and DC, word has it that he will be involved with DC’s next big crossover, which will come on the heels of 52. Cully Hamner’s next project will be Black Lightning: Year One with writer Jen Van Meter.

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This is hardly news but with Brian K. Vaughn and Adrian Alphona set to hand over Runaways to Joss Whedon and Michael Ryan with issue #25 how about a look at some of Ryan’s character sketches?

Click on images to view full size in a new window

Everyone knows that Jamal Igle is leaving Firestorm to become the new regular artist on Nightwing pairing up with writer Marv Wolfman. But did you know that writer Stuart Moore was also leaving Firestorm and that series is taking a one-month break before getting a brand new creative team starting with issue #33? Dwayne McDuffie will be the new writer for the series while Dan Jurgens (who just left Nightwing as a matter of fact) and Ken Lashley will handle art chores.

Cause I Don’t Have A Long Enough Article This Week

Some people (like me) didn’t even get a chance to see the Venom-tastic Spider-Man 3 movie trailer that was leaked onto the internet Monday before it was yanked down at the behest of Sony. The trailer was apparently an unfinished version of a rejected trailer that contained additional scenes and effects not seen in the brand new trailer, which was released just last week. Trailer. More importantly the leaked trailer contained a full shot of one of the main villains from the film, Venom! While the video has all but disappeared from the net, you can still find screen shots of Venom all over the place. Like, uh, right here:

In Case You Didn’t Know…

You should give all your money to The Hero Foundry. Okay, first buy all of our books. Then go do that other thing I said.


The “A.C. Hall Is A Liar!” Contest (Is Almost OVER!)

Okay, this is probably the last week I’ll be running the ACHIAL Contest. So you’d better hurry up and get those entries in!

Most of you probably noticed that a few of the stories that A.C. wrote about during his guest stint were, in fact, complete (and completely hilarious) fabrications. See, A.C. is one heck of a talented writer and sometimes writers are given to wild and fancy flights of artistic tomfoolery (commonly referred to as lying by normal folks). Hey, that’s why there’s a disclaimer. The thing is he wrote these stories so well that some of them are completely indistinguishable from the stories that were based on actual news and events.

So my question is, can you guess which ones are fake? Cause if you can then you’re probably going to want to enter the “A.C. Hall Is A Liar!”* Contest. The first person to correctly name all of the fake stories will win a complete set of Stumblebum Studios comics, including the brand-new Round Two! anthology, plus a few other goodies from the Stumblebum Store.

Okay, a few hints:

There are a total of six fake stories.
Two of the guest columns contain no fake stories at all.
The fake stories are complete fabrications so don’t look for stories that are mostly true but have an element of silliness or contain jokes about said story.

So to enter the contest, first go to the Bum’s Rush Archives and check out column’s 72 through 79. Then just send an email with the title “A.C. Hall Is A Liar!” to thesuperleezard@yahoo.com with your six choices and your physical address so I can send you your prize should you win. Good luck to you!

*For the record I don’t really think A.C. is liar. He’s just very good at telling stories that are not at all true.


That Time Of The Month

DC Comics Solicitations for February 2007

Marvel Comics Solicitations for February 2007

Dark Horse Comics Solicitations for February 2007


The Only Comics That Matter

Last Week –
Batman #658 by Grant Morrison, Andy Kubert & Jesse Delperdang
Stormwatch: PHD #1 by Christos N. Gage & Doug Mahnke
Doctor Strange: The Oath #2 by Brian K. Vaughn, Marcos Martin & Alvaro Lopez
Y: The Last Man #51 by Brian K. Vaughn, Pia Guerra & Jose Marzan Jr.

This Week –
Astonishing X-Men #18 by Joss Whedon & John Cassaday
Invincible #36 by Robert Kirkman & Ryan Ottley
Union Jack #3 by Christos N. Gage, Mike Perkins & Andrew Hennessey

Next Week –
Connor Hawke: Dragon’s Blood #1 by Chuck Dixon & Derec Donovan
Casanova #6 by Matt Fraction & Gabriel Ba
Godland #14 by Joe Casey & Tom Scioli
Daredevil #91 by Ed Brubaker, Michael Lark & Stefano Gaudiano
X-Factor #13 by Peter David & Pablo Raimondi




If you have any interesting news, rumors, lies, etc. about comics and think I should know about it too just email me at thesuperleezard@yahoo.com.

Read more dumb crap written by me at www.livejournal.com/users/superleezard.
 

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