Captain America: The Winter Soldier

In writing this column I was forced to abandon my original idea of a spoiler-free review. The movie came about 6 days ago and you can find all sorts of spoiler-free reviews online, and all of the really interesting stuff I want to discuss requires this to be a pretty spoilerific article. So here is the warning: don't read any further if you have not seen Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

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Canadian Crude

I recently came across a copy of a newsprint comic put out in April of 1941 called Canadian Rocket. I’m sure that some of you have already seen it. This has no glossy or cardboard type cover and is simply a newsprint publication that is a little larger than a regular comic book. Perhaps this was also the format of Robin Hood Comics No. 1 by Anglo American Publications which appeared on the stands a month earlier along with Better Comics No. 1 from Maple Leaf Publications. The indicia attribute it to Victory Publishing Co. in Toronto.

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A Quest and A Question

As a lot of you may know, I am working on putting together a coffee table-sized book that would feature the main artists of these WECA comics, that is, the Canadian Whites. I've got about 10 sections finished and I have submitted a package with the first three sections to Dundurn Publishing in Toronto. I really don’t hold much hope for seeing my cache of fairly arcane information being picked up by a publisher over the next few months, but I will try a couple more (such as Drawn and Quarterly and Fantagraphics). Most likely, my project will only be able to see fruition as a self-published e-book or a book for which a good deal of publishing funding could be raised through an online funding scheme such as Kickstarter.

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DC Now!

I remember when DC’s the New 52 were first announced there was a lot of skepticism on this site. That soon changed once people realized how significant the event was, as well, DC appeared to be very committed to this new direction. Our Undervalued Spotlight host, Walter himself was speculating if these new books would become the new “keys” of this current generation. Well, it's been over two years so I thought I'd check to see how the initial wave of these books are doing in the back issue market.

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Marvel Method or Full Script?

That was the "Marvel Method". Where DC worked from full scripts and with a very rigid house style, Marvel was having their artists basically run wild with nothing more than a vague plot. The artist's job was to pace the story and often Stan Lee, and later on Roy Thomas, would be introduced to strange and wonderful ideas they never thought of but were responsible for dialoguing. Most of the time it worked marvellously( no pun intended!).

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Movie Villains With Poor Comic Book Values

Joss Whedon had just announced that Ultron would appear as the main villain in the Avengers movie sequel. Like some frantic stock trader with insider information, I swung into action. I desperately phoned a few comic dealers in an effort to snag some copies of Avengers # 55 (the first full appearance of Ultron) for cheap. It took about a day to hear a back from them about the comics, and when they did call me back, the ink had already dried on the new price tags that they had slapped on the polybags. I think one dealer wanted $300 for a very fine copy of #55 so I passed on it.

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