Western Wednesday: The Angel, the Brute, and the Wise

Quentin Tarantino's connection to the Django spaghetti-westerns doesn't end with his upcoming film Django Unchained. He's also got a cameo role in another Western starring (and apparently produced by) the original Django, Franco Nero.

Titled The Angel, the Brute, and the Wise, Nero's film is an homage to John Huston (who discovered Nero) and Sergio Leone. It sounds like it's still trying to find financing, but hopefully that'll happen and we'll get to see it. Click the link for more details, including other cameos Nero has planned.

Western Wednesday: Hawken

Tim Truman's one of the people most responsible for making Jonah Hex cool again, so it's exciting that he's got another Weird Western coming in November. According to the press release, "Hawken tells the story of aging gunman Kitchell Hawken and his bloody, one-man vendetta against the Tucson Ring, a brotherhood of arms merchants and corrupt politicians who once employed him."

Where the Weird comes in is with his traveling companions: the ghosts of every person he's ever killed, cursed to assist the old man against their wills. "In many ways," Truman says, "it’s not the ghosts who haunt Hawken; it’s Hawken who haunts them. They try to trip him up at every turn."

Hawken is a six-issue limited series and is written by Truman's son, Ben Truman, who developed the story with his dad on an Arizona road trip.

Western Friday: Jon Favreau interviews Harrison Ford

This is late in more ways than one. Not only should I have posted it on Wednesday, it's meant to be a promotion for Cowboys and Aliens. In reality, it's timeless. It's just Jon Favreau interviewing Harrison Ford about a variety of topics from Indiana Jones to Star Wars to yes, Cowboys and Aliens. I've clumsily embedded the first part below, but /Film has the rest and you should go look at them. They're awesome.



For the record, I liked Cowboys and Aliens okay, but just okay. It's a SyFy movie with a giant budget and great actors who aren't able to save it. They sure gave it a good try, but yeah...it's a silly concept and though they play it straight, it never rises above its silliness.

The Marvel 52, Part One: Marvel Pulp

I've kept pretty quiet about DC's whole New 52 deal up to now. For better or worse, I don't form opinions quickly, so I gave DC some time to get all their announcements out and respond to the first couple of waves of concerns. I will say that my initial reaction was positive though. I haven't followed DC comics for a couple of years now, so it doesn't affect me personally that they're cancelling everything and starting over. If anything, some of their new series sound really interesting. Brian Azzarello and Cliff Chiang on Wonder Woman, for instance. Barbara Gordon as Batgirl again, as another example.

My main criticism is that DC seems to be hoping to eat its cake and have it too in regards to balancing current fans with potential, new readers. The New 52's been promoted as an "all-in" approach to reinvigorating the line, while at the same time refusing to call itself a reboot and insisting that fan-favorite stories (an extremely loosely defined category) still count. That's not very "all-in" at all and I suspect that their wishy-washiness will cost them some of those potential, new readers they're wanting.

I don't expect that they'll lose many readers though. As much complaining as fans have been doing, they're still fans. They've stuck with DC through Countdown to Final Crisis; I expect that they'll stick around through this. And it's not like Marvel's got anything especially exciting going on to compete. Yeah, yeah, Marvel still routinely beats DC in sales; all I'm saying is that I don't expect current DC readers to suddenly start switching to Marvel as a result of the "non"-reboot. Whatever you think of DCnU, it's certainly interesting. Marvel, on the other hand, continues to publish the same kind of crossover stuff they've been doing for the last five years. I'm not saying that none of it's good, 'cause some of it really is, but seriously...their section of Previews the last couple of months hasn't been nearly as exciting and expectant as DC's.

I wish I'd thought of this myself, but it was Comics Should Be Good (Robot 6's sister blog at CBR) that came up with the idea of developing your own Marvel 52. I like DC's idea of creating smaller imprints within the DCU (JLA, Batman, Superman, Dark, Edge, etc.). so I used that for my Marvel list too. Not that DC came up with it. Marvel's done the same thing before with Marvel Knights, Tsunami, Marvel MAX, and whatnot. I even used some of those in my list.

Because this could get long, I'm going to divide this up into a series of five posts going into September when DC launches their stuff. That'll give me some room to talk about why I picked the concepts I did as well as the creators I'd love to see work on them. We'll start with a category I call...

Marvel Pulp



The idea behind this "imprint" is to focus on some of the great, not-quite-superhero concepts that Marvel's had over the years: Westerns, jungle adventures, period heroes, spies, and space opera. We'll do this in countdown format, so:

52. Gamora by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Sam Hiti

Gamora's got a lot of history in Marvel's cosmic comics, but the focus on this would be her traveling the universe as an intergalactic bounty hunter. Gamora's extremely hard to kill and has a wicked sense of humor. Kelly Sue DeConnick (Osborn, Supergirl) can deliver the goods on funny (and excitement) while Sam Hiti (Tiempos Finales, Death-Day) knows everything about drawing beautiful women and exotic, alien landscapes.

51. Guardians of the Galaxy by Roger Langridge and Shaun Tan

As fun as a Gamora solo-title would be, we also need a book that can capture the rest of Marvel's cosmic characters like Silver Surfer, Thanos, and Rocket Raccoon. Roger Langridge (Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Snarked!) has the imagination to make that incredible, while Shaun Tan (The Arrival, Tales from Outer Suburbia) has the ability to mix the real and the odd in a unique, believable way. He's not known for action sequences, so I'd be interested to see how he tackled that, but I can already imagine his depiction of the arrival of Galactus and it's mind-blowing.

50. Sabra by Carla Jablonsky and Laurenn McCubbin

Sabra isn't a well-known character, but I've been fascinated by her since I first saw her in The Incredible Hulk #256. Maybe because she took her Israeli heritage so seriously, yet didn't seem to have been created specifically to fill a slot as Israel's Superhero for Contest of Champions or something. She eventually became just another of the many, international mutants running around the X-Men's corner of the Marvel Universe, but I've always thought she was better than that. I'd love to see her in a series that focused on the issues of the Middle East in a thoughtful, objective way. Not that Sabra herself should be objective about them, but that the series could explore the region and its history in a way that educates as well as entertains. Carla Jablonsky's done something similar with Nazi-occupied France in her Resistance series, so I picked her to write.  Laurenn McCubbin has a great, realistic style that would complement that kind of story beautifully.

49. Black Widow by Kelly Sue DeConnick and Amanda Conner



I don't know if this was the right thing to do, but though I picked 52 visual artists for my list, I only picked 26 writers and gave them each two books. That was partly because most writers can handle multiple books in a month, but it was also partly to make list-making easier on myself. I'm sure I'll regret it later when I realize I've forgotten one of my favorite writers.

At any rate, this is the second book I'd give Kelly Sue. I promise that I didn't purposely match up women creators with women characters, but it worked out that way in Kelly Sue's case. I'd love to see her write Black Widow. As for Amanda Conner: I love seeing anything she draws, but one look at her variant cover from Secret Avengers #6 above and you'll get why I want her on a Black Widow comic so badly.

48. Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD by James Turner and Luc Jacamon

If you've read James Turner's Rex Libris or Warlord of IO, you know how insanely, awesomely inventive he is. Just the guy to put the "super" back into super spy. And Luc Jacamon (The Killer) knows all about drawing deadly people in diverse settings, both urban and exotic.

47. Mystery Men by Susan Kim and Guy Davis

I really hate not to have David Liss and Patrick Zircher continue the concept they started, but one of the criteria I wanted for my list was to have as many women as possible on it. So I'm giving this '30s-set heroic pulp series to Susan Kim, who did such a great job with her adventurous City of Spies set in a similar time period. And I'm aching to see Guy Davis do some more stuff like he did on Sandman Mystery Theatre.

46. Tigra by Greg Pak, Fred Van Lente, and Kerry Callen



The inspiration for this book is two-fold. First, I wanted a jungle comic and Tigra would work great in that setting. She wouldn't have to stay only in that setting, but it would be a great homebase for her.The second inspiration was this description by Kerry Callen of what he wanted in a Tigra series: "a fun-loving character whose cat-like curiosity gets her into interesting predicaments." Pak and Van Lente would be perfect for that and one look at Callen's blog and you know he's the only guy for the visual part of the job.

45. The Savage Land by Joshua Fialkov and Jeremy Bastian

It's another jungle comic, but this one's different from Tigra. Her comic would be much more versatile with lots of guest-stars from other Marvel characters. The Savage Land of course would be set exclusively in the prehistoric world beneath Antarctica. At first I thought I'd call it Ka-Zar and Shanna (the first of several two-character comics you'll see in my Marvel 52), but then I remembered the temptation to take those two out of the Savage Land to interact with the rest of the Marvel Universe. Renaming it The Savage Land (which is a much cooler title anyway) removes that temptation.There's a whole world to explore there and as long as I'm fantasizing about my dream comics (as opposed to worrying about sales), I want to keep these characters out of the rest of the Marvel Universe. I don't care if other Marvel characters stop by for a visit, but I want the setting to stay consistent.

Josh Fialkov (Elk's Run, Tumor) does really well with setting and small casts of characters, so I pick him to write. Jeremy Bastian (Cursed Pirate Girl) draws lavishly and I'd love to see the creatures and landscapes he could fill the Savage Land with.

44. The Rangers by Alan Moore and J Bone

Based on another group of characters I once read about in The Incredible Hulk (#265 this time). The Rangers were a goofy team created by Bill Mantlo, but I liked their modern-Western concept and the sheer zaniness of it would be a great playground for Alan Moore. The team included Firebird (probably the most famous character to come out of the team) as well as modern versions of Red Wolf and the original Ghost Rider (renamed Phantom Rider to avoid confusion) and a couple of very Mantlo characters: Shooting Star (her gun shoots stars!) and Texas Twister (tornado powers). In keeping with making the series fun and versatile, J Bone can draw absolutely anything and make it look wonderful.

43. Gunslingers by John Ostrander and Leonardo Manco



Counterpoint to The Rangers, this would be a real Western set in the late 1800s. Really it's just a continuation of Ostrander and Manco's two mini-series, Blaze of Glory and Apache Skies in which they updated Marvel's classic, Western heroes for modern fans of Westerns.

Coming Monday: Midnight Sons!

Western Wednesday: Gotham City

I'm sure I'll have more to say later about next month's relaunch of Jonah Hex as All-Star Western, but for now, I'm pretty happy with nineteenth century Gotham as imagined by Moritat. Should be fun to watch Hex run around there hunting a serial killer. iFanboy has more art from the first issue.

Western Wednesday: Victor Santos' Justified

[Victor Santos]

Western Wednesday: Art Show!

Western Wednesday is a weekly tribute to six-guns, steampunk, and sasquatch.



By Stanley Borack. [Illustrateurs]



By Remington Schuyler. [Illustrateurs]



By Stanley Borack. [Illustrateurs]



By Richard Lillis. [Illustrateurs]



[Golden Age Comic Book Stories]



[Golden Age Comic Book Stories]



By Alex Schomburg. [The Comic Book Catacombs]



By Alex Schomburg. [The Comic Book Catacombs]

Western Wednesday: Comics in August

Western Wednesday is a weekly tribute to six-guns, steampunk, and sasquatch. Here are some comics coming out next month that celebrate one or more of those themes.



Jonah Hex #70 (DC)
Written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti; Art by Ryan Sook and Mick Gray
August 3; $2.99

For a man like Jonah Hex, death is a constant presence – always looming, always ready to strike. But how and when will it come for Hex?



Moriarty #4 (Image)
Written by Daniel Corey; Art by Anthony Diecidue
August 3; $2.99

"The Dark Chamber" story comes to a climax in this installment, which sees Professor Moriarty finally confronting Tartarus in an epic battle that will change his destiny and decide the fate of London and the world.



Reed Gunther #3 (Image)
Written by Shane Houghton; Art by Chris Houghton
August 10; $2.99

Reed and his best bear buddy Sterling are separated when the legendary steel-driving man, John Henry, returns from the dead while the sneaky Mr. Picks escapes to the East Coast with the mysterious monster-creating Idol.



Deadlands: Death Was Silent (Image)
Written by Ron Marz; Art by Bart Sears
August 17; $2.99

Visionary Comics and Pinnacle Entertainment present the third one-shot of the weird Western world of Deadlands. A silent bounty hunter rides into a remote town, but the town holds dark secrets that may turn the hunter into the hunted.



Alpha Flight #3 (Marvel)
Written by Fred Van Lente and Greg Pak; Art by Dale Eaglesham
$2.99

Heroes on the lam! Having escaped imprisonment at the hands of the corrupt Unity Party, Alpha Flight find themselves hunted by the government they’d sworn to protect. Outmanned and outgunned, the Flight decide to go guerilla, but what will they do once the government raises the stakes by revealing their leverage against the team, including Northstar’s boyfriend and the child of Guardian and Vindicator held hostage?

[What? It's got Sasquatch in it. - mm]

Western Wednesday: Django Unchained

Quentin Tarantino's next movie is going to be a Western. Or, to be more accurate, a Southern. It's a spin on the Django spaghetti westerns about a bounty hunter who drags around a coffin with a giant Gatling gun in it. In Tarantino's take though, Django will be played by Jamie Foxx as a former slave who teams up with a bounty hunter (Christopher Waltz) to free Django's wife from the evil plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio is the name at the top of the rumor mill right now) who still owns her. /Film has been following the movie's development for a while and has tons of details.

Playlist found a quote from Tarantino talking about his vision for the film:

I’d like to do a Western. But rather than set it in Texas, have it in slavery times with that subject that everybody is afraid to deal with. Let’s shine that light on ourselves. You could do a ponderous history lesson of slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad. Or, you could make a movie that would be exciting. Do it as an adventure. A spaghetti Western that takes place during that time. And I would call it ‘A Southern.’

I want to do movies that deal with America’s horrible past with slavery and stuff but do them like spaghetti westerns, not like big issue movies. I want to do them like they’re genre films, but they deal with everything that America has never dealt with because it’s ashamed of it, and other countries don’t really deal with because they don’t feel they have the right to.

Western Wednesday: Jonah Hex and Jeff Lemire

Jeff Lemire's the artist on next week's Jonah Hex #69. It's written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti and features Hex facing off against his own dad.

Western Wednesday: Deadlands

The first of several Deadlands one-shot comics hits shops today. Thanks to its creative mixture of Westerns and Horror (resulting in awesome monsters like man-eating tumbleweeds and ghostly hangmen) as well as Steampunk, Deadlands was one one of my Top Five role-playing games back when I used to play. One of my criteria for an excellent RPG was an extremely developed world to play in and Deadlands had that in spades with its wide swaths of Indian-controlled territory, outlaw settlements (based on real, Western towns), and a maze of pirate-filled waterways where California used to be. There's a ton of story potential there for some truly awesome comics.

Ron Marz is editing the series of one-shots and has hired creators like Steve Ellis, Jimmy Palmiotti, Justin Gray, Bart Sears, Steve Niles, and Francesco Francavilla to contribute. I lamented on Robot 6 that I wished it was an actual series with characters I could get to know instead of a series of one-shots, but C Edward Sellner, Creative Director for the studio that's producing the book assured me that they're "just warming up with these first one-shots, to introduce the world and the property to the comics fans. We have plans a’plenty for more Deadlands goodness, including more traditional mini-series and if sales warrant, even a monthly dose with an ongoing character you’ll meet in these first one shots." Sounds good to me.

According to the press release: "The first book out of the gate is Deadlands: The Devil's Six Gun by the Harvey award-winning team of David Gallaher and Steve Ellis. In classic Faustian tradition, a weapons maker comes to America to pursue the American dream in the former colonies. Instead, he becomes immersed in plots and manipulations to gain unearthly power through the supernatural Ghost Rock. His goal? To make a gun that can kill anything, including the powerful Hellstromme! Its a journey that will cost him everything he loves, including his soul!

"Deadlands (APR110410), the first 32 page full color one shot in this series of weird westerns, will be available in stores June 15, 2011 for $2.99."

Western Wednesday: Art Show!

By Robert McGinnis. [Illustrateurs]



By Robert McGinnis. [Illustrateurs]



By Robert McGinnis. [Illustrateurs]



By Modest Stein. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]



By Charles Copeland. [Illustraeurs]



By Leo Morey. [Illustraeurs]



By Jessada Sutthi. [CGHub]

Western Wednesday: Comics Covers

By Chris Houghton.



By Anthony Diecidue.

[Comic Book Resources]

Western Wednesday: Zorro Rides Again

I'm a little late on this news, but Matt Wagner is getting ready to finish the epic Zorro story he's been writing for Dynamite Entertainment. In it, Alejeandro de la Vega finds out that his son, Don Diego, is pulling double-duty as Zorro and threatens the masked swashbuckler's continuing crusade against Luis Quintero, the alcalde of Los Angeles.

Zorro Rides Again #1 hits stores next month with art by Esteve Pols (the Lone Ranger/Zorro cross-over).

Western Wednesday: Strangeways

Writer Matt Maxwell is putting Murder Moon, the first volume of his Western Horror series Strangeways online for free. He's releasing it a page at a time and when he gets it all posted he'll start on the sequel, The Thirsty. As you can tell from the cover, Murder Moon is a werewolf story. The Thirsty's title should give you an excellent hint to what that's about as well.

If you're curious to know more before deciding to jump in, I've got the printed version of Murder Moon and reviewed it back in my Newsarama days. Either way, it's well worth reading and you should check it out.

Western Wednesday: Trails of Tarnation

The Jeffigy: Trails of Tarnation - Chapter 2 from New Picture Agencies on Vimeo.

After you're done laughing at this, go back and check out Chapter 1. It's also funny; just grosser.

Western Wednesday: Comics Covers

Western Wednesday

In honor of this summer's Mondo Sasquatch anthology and my Western Bigfoot Steampunk story therein, the middle day of the week will henceforth be known as Western Wednesday on this blog and will celebrate all things Western, Bigfoot, and Steampunk.



By Alex Schomburg. [Golden Age Comic Book Stories]



By Craig Wilson.



[Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool]



[From the Files of the Canadian Cave of Cool]



[Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool]