This here comic wasn’t written by one of us on the blog, but it was written and illustrated by a dear friend of ours who attended 24-Hour Comic Day with us in Omaha last weekend. Let’s call him Doom ‘n’ Gloom. He can’t offer us any insight into what went through his mind while he drew this sucker, because he’s on a plane to Germany, where he’ll be living for the next few months or years, though, so I figured I’d offer a little introduction.

He sat next to me during the time that he spent with us at the event, and all I can confirm is that he laughed to himself a lot. The basic premise for his comic is that the main character can’t die, so he drinks himself to death every day, only to wake up with no harm done. Plus, he’s friends with a balloon. And it talks.

This isn’t finished, though, because Doom ‘n’ Gloom left early so that he could go get drunk. I don’t blame him. Aw, hell, I done introduced it enough. Here it is: (more…)

The weekend of zombie walks is just a few days away, so here is all the information you’ll need to participate in Omaha. Click on either poster for a much larger version with all the info.

• Saturday, October 25: Benson

4-5 p.m.: Meet at The Waiting Room (6212 Maple St) We will have someone applying make-up for a small fee to cover the expenses) for those who need it.

5:30 p.m.: Zombie Walk begins along a designated route through the streets of Benson (see map).

6-ish: Immediately at the end of the walk, Zombies will gather to get an official head count, hand out free Zombie Walk buttons to all the zombies, and take photos.

7 p.m. - 1 a.m.: ZOMBIE BALL begins! Meet at The Waiting Room for bands and fun! Bands include a SOCIAL DISTORTION tribute band called SOMEWHERE BETWEEN HEAVEN & HELL, OFFICIALLY TERMINATED, SIN, THE CLINCHER, DI-FI, and tba! The Zombie Ball is an All Ages event, but if you are under 18, you must be accompanied by a legal guardian, or you must have the signed/notarized parental permission form (see blog). Anyone over 18 must have proper ID. Admission is $7. All proceeds go to the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

For more information on Saturday’s walk, check out myspace.com/zombiewalkomaha.

• Sunday, October 26: Legend Comics

On Sunday, October 26th, people from all over the metro area are encouraged to shamble their way to LEGEND COMICS, 51stand Leavenworth, from NOON until 6PM with their non-perishable food donations and join the festivities that will become the first annual Omaha Metro Area Zombie Walk!

Food and drink will be provided, as well as prizes for the best-looking Zombie, the best Zombie shamble and the best Zombie groan!

Currently we have prizes and give-aways from Marvel Comics, Metropolis Records, Valiant Entertainment, Roadrunner Records, Capitol/Virgin EMI, Diamond Distribution, Permuted Press, Speakeasy Publicity and more to be announced soon.

For more information on Sunday’s walk, check out myspace.com/adamswalkingdead.

Both zombie walks have shared their own sets of rules. There’s plenty of overlap, but if you plan on attending either, it’s probably a good idea to read both.
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In the lead: After a little back-story on Morgaine Le Fey and Enigma, “Despero” is revealed to be Kanjar Ro in disguise. Due to his deceit, Morgaine Le Fey’s spell wasn’t completed as it should be. Le Fey and Enigma has become demigods, and their bad from the abyss on the newly Trinity-free Earth. But the super-police of this Earth are already hot on their tails…

In the back-up: John Stewart’s binary problem is revealed to be “the Void Hound, the Erdammeru,” a Qwardian super-computer thingie. The Erdammeru finally lashes out, but Firestorm arrives just in time to save the day. Stewart regains control just long enough to realize he has to flee Earth for the planet’s safety, and Firestorm is attacked by the JSI.

My take: This story seems to be all over the place since the Trinity got erased from existence. We’ve jumped from Tarot to Firestorm to the bad Trinity to Krona to random civilians. There hasn’t really been a coherent storyline since issue #17. It’s like this is all a 24-Hour Comic by me and Doom DeLuise. Hopefully things start to settle down and come together pretty soon.

We got a little bit of back-story on Morgaine Le Fey and Enigma this issue. Le Fey was a good girl until Arthur showed up to claim the throne of Britain which Le Fey thought was rightfully hers. She wants to become a god so she can rule the world. Enigma was a good family man until he became a superhero and Ultraman burned his face and murdered his family. He wants to become a god to bring his family back and save his home world from the Crime Syndicate. One of those seems a little more sympathetic than the other.

Things to keep an eye on: Without the real Despero, Le Fey’s spell wasn’t complete. Granted, the villains are still pretty godlike, but now there’s a chink in their armor, and a chance to restore the Trinity.

With John Stewart off-planet, Firestorm doesn’t have any allies left on Earth. He and Tarot are now the only two super-people around with any knowledge that the Trinity existed. How long will it be until they cross paths?

As I mentioned during our live blogging, I was struggling to come up with an idea for my comic. Fin Fang Doom brought some random words and genres to draw from to help inspire people; I drew “real-life,” “horror,” and then stuff like “rhubarb.” I’d had a dream earlier that morning about a dispute over lawn ornaments involving Barack Obama and John McCain, so as I was rapidly burning daylight, I committed to a horror story involving lawn ornaments.

The story took quite a few turns as I grew bored with it every few pages. It’s interesting how, for me anyway, these 24 Hour Comics are less like a 24-page comic book and more like a collection of 24 interconnected one-page pieces. I would think of the story in one-page increments, and often got bored if a theme carried to more than one sequential page. The story was assembled fairly non-linearly; at one point in the night, I got so bored with my story that I just decided to draw a page I thought would be interesting, and I’d figure out later how to work it into the story. Overall, though, I’m pretty pleased with how it turned out. I hope you like it.
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The Secret Invasion tie-ins continue to devolve into pointlessness. Where they once shed new light on the background of the events leading up to where we are in the main series, Mighty Avengers #19 continues the recent pattern of telling stories that are sort of nice on their own but completely disappointing as successors to what were once the highlight of this crossover.

We see Noh-Varr, a.k.a. “Marvel Boy,” inside the rioting prison, attempting to contact the Kree for some kind of signal. That signal is the fake return of Kree hero Mar-Vell, a.k.a. “Captain Marvel,” a.k.a. an invading Skrull whose programming turned out to be more than he could handle, as Mar-Vell’s inherent heroism overrode the Skrull’s desire for planetary conquest. We get a dozen or so pages of Fake Mar-Vell’s internal struggle, which I feel like we’ve seen several times already, paired with an external struggle of punching and explosions.

If this was all about inspiring Noh-Varr to be a hero like Mar-Vell, I think that what was accomplished in this entire issue could’ve been just as effectively done in about 2 panels somewhere else. And considering how little has actually happened in the main book, the uselessness of these recent Avengers issues really calls some of these pacing and plotting decisions into question. I would say these Avengers series have been treading water, which is bad enough, but that would deny the fact that they’re creatively sinking.
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The Lincoln Journal Star had an article on Lincoln’s 24HCD event in yesterday’s paper.

The works that came out of the day range from the spectacular to the mundane, from the elaborate to the stick.

Here are a few of the creators discussing their comic books.

Justin McDowell, the organizer of the local event: “Mine’s about a guy who goes off fishing and ends up accidentally throwing his favorite nostalgic childhood toy overboard. It’s a story about how he ends up reuniting with it at the end.”

Marcus Tegtmeier: “Cute robot anime girls fight a monster.”

The story said they’d be posting comics at their Facebook page.

I’m not going to lie to you. I couldn’t think of anything good. This 24-Hour Comic just went from bad to worse, and the only reason I kind of enjoy the final product is because, over the course of the event, I made the decision several times to kill off all the characters and scrap the idea, but, after doing the killing, reversed the decision and tried to figure out a way to dig my way back out of the hole I’d just dug my way into. Little bit of advice, though: If you ever find yourself in a hole, don’t dig your way out. Climb out. It’s probably much, much easier.

I hope you enjoy this. Sorry for the heavy-handed symbolism at the end, by the way. It seemed more subtle in my mind, but instead it’s just kind of in-your-face obvious with how it explains the rest of the story. And, just a quick heads-up, even though it doesn’t read this way, the last picture is supposed to be an overhead shot of a dinosaur paw-print in some mud. Spoiler alert? Feast your eyes on this!
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Are you still undecided over whether or not you want to follow the upcoming Mega Superman crossover? The bottle city of Kandor has been released on Earth, and who knows what will happen next? All I know is that it’s going to be nine parts, and it’s going to cross through every Superman book. Come back Saturday, when we review this first chapter, and share your thoughts with us. Heck, if you fire us an e-mail with your reaction, we may even include your review with the rest of ours.

Here’s what DC’s official solicitation says:

Written by Geoff Johns, James Robinson and Sterling Gates; Art by Gary Frank and Jon Sibal, Renato Guedes and Wilson Magalháes, and Pete Woods ; Cover by Gary Frank; Variant cover by Renato Guedes and Wilson Magalháes

A “Sightings” issue! “New Krypton” Part 1 of 9! The entire Superman franchise writing team joins forces, with art by Pete Woods and others, to formally launch the Superman event years in the making! While the current threat of Brainiac may have been forestalled in ACTION COMICS #870, the repercussions will be felt for a long, long time. Superman’s greatest victory has lead to his happiest day – and his saddest. Gains are balanced by losses while Superman has to figure out what to do with 100,000 Kryptonians! Hold on to your capes as this story leads directly into SUPERMAN #681.

Here’s the comic that yours truly produced this weekend for 24-Hour Comics Day: Portals of Doom! You may notice that the art quality regresses quite a bit over the course of these 24 pages. The coherence of the storytelling has a similar degradation, albeit on a much larger scale. That’s what a lack of sleep and forethought will do to you, I guess.

Below is the first page. Clicking on it will take you to my flickr account, where you can read the whole thing. Enjoy!

This post is a couple days late, obviously, but hopefully you can forgive its tardiness on account of 24 Hour Comic Day and the effects that event had on my sleep schedule.

While I’m not exactly sure how this can possibly tie in with Final Crisis, I’m still entertained by what’s going on in this miniseries, written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by George Perez. My main reaction to this issue, though, is rather simple: What a busy frickin’ issue.

There is just so much packed into this thing that I’d be hard-pressed to properly review it after just reading through it for the first time. This issue deserves to be pored over. The inclusion of Sodam Yat at the conclusion seems like a natural progression of that character, and I’m looking forward to his confrontation with Superboy-Prime. Those two haven’t locked horns since the Sinestro Corps War, and the prospects for that fight intrigue me greatly. I wonder if the Daxamite still has the powers of Ion at his disposal. If only he didn’t have a mohawk. That’s really dumb.

Otherwise, the main thing I’m looking forward to in this series is the reveal of what’s in that lightning rod Brainy’s been carrying around since the end of the Lightning Saga. That just has to be something super duper cool.

For a counterpoint, allow me to turn things over to Jim Doom for his reaction:
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