The Comic Book Blog

Welcome to the latest installment of your breath of snark free air!

Enjoy!

SNARK FREE DEBATE

Green Arrow - Superhero or Mike Grell version?

The Mike Grell version of Green Arrow was notable in that it took Oliver Queen basically out of the standard superhero format, and made him more of an urban vigilante.

The kind of guy who would shoot an arrow through the arm of a gun-toting crook, but wouldn’t hop aboard a teleporter to shoot handcuff arrows at Kanjar Ro.

Which version do you like better?

Pros of Grell:

A guy whose only power is shooting arrows does not always fit in with the Justice League.
The Urban Vigilante route allowed for more realistic stories.

Pros of Superhero Green Arrow:

Grell’s stories aren’t even all that out of place with modern “superhero” comics, so there doesn’t even need to be a change to tell some of Grell’s stories.
Yes, shooting arrows is not much, but it is part of the suspension of disbelief that goes with superhero comics - you just have to presume that it makes sense for a guy shooting arrows to be around.

What do you folks think?

COVER THEME GAME

As always, here is the game. I show three covers. They all have something in common, whether it be a character, a trait all three characters share, locale, creator, SOMEthing. And it isn’t something obvious like “They all have prices!” “They all have logos!” “They all feature a man!” etc.

In addition, please note that you must have some familiarity with comic book history to correctly guess these comics. You cannot guess the connective theme just by looking at the covers solely, you must have some knowledge beyond just the covers.

A cool point to the first person to figure it out!

Good luck!

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SNARK FREE CHALLENGE

Who is more acrobatic - Catwoman or Tim Drake?

THE COVER GAME

This week’s game is as follows…

Find me a Justice League comic cover (either Justice League of America, Justice League America or Justice League) that only features J’onn J’onnz on the cover.

Here is an example (which you can’t use!)….

Remember, only one cover per commenter!

I’d say good luck, but this is the easiest cover game I’ve had in months, so I dunno…;)…

WHO IS IT?

Remember, tell me who it is and what number clue gave it away!

1. This character was created by Gerry Conway.
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2. This character is a DC character.
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3. This character has been a member of the Justice League.
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4. This character started his or her own business.
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5. The character has a cat

Who is it?

Well, that’s it for this installment of Snark Free Corner.

Hope you had fun!

3 Comments

• At April 1, 2008, Paul C wrote:

  Cover theme game-

  They all feature DC characters interacting with characters/properties who came to DC through other companies?

• At April 1, 2008, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Correct-a-mundo!

• At April 1, 2008, Mister Midnight wrote:

  I really liked Grell's version of Green Arrow....very gritty and seemed to fit the character more. More realistic ...for a ...

Possibly the most talented comic book family ever.

Enjoy!

Los Bros Hernandez

I feel kind of silly explaining why Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez are cool. I was thinking of just skipping them, in favor of a more obscure H, but then I thought, “Should I really skip two of the coolest comic creators out there just because they’re not obscure?”

And I thought that wouldn’t be cool, so here we are - possibly the coolest comic book family in all of comics (what do you folks think? John and Sal? Joe, Adam and Andy? Stan and Larry?)!!

Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez are best known for their seminal work, Love and Rockets, which they stopped doing for awhile, until they realized, “If we split up, people will not know where to find us - better to just give them a name they’re familiar with,” so they came back to Love and Rockets, which they continue to publish to this day (about three issues a year).

Most of Gilbert’s early L&R stories have been collected in the hardcover Palomar (after the small city where Gilbert set his stories):

Jaime, meanwhile, had his L&R stories following the relationship of two women, Maggie and Hopey (from the early days of a bizarre blend of Archie and science fiction, to the later stages, where it was more steeped in realism), collected in the hardcover Locas.

The Hernandez brothers both have an undeniable grasp of humanity and what makes people tick, and it shines through in both of their works. Their artwork is at both times cartoonish and expressive, giving their books an easy-to-follow feel. A lot like how I explained how Kevin Huizenga will sneak up on you by making the comic easy to follow, before you realize you’re reading some heady stuff - the Hernandez brothers do much of the same.

I should make sure I mention Mario Hernandez, the third Hernandez brother to do comic book work.

I always consider us lucky that we still have folks like Los Bros Hernandez still producing a regular comic book series.

Here is their website, which actually is not ready to be seen just yet - but soon!!! In the meantime, check out Fantagraphics’ page on them here.

3 Comments

• At March 31, 2008, Andrew Collins wrote:

  Excellent choice!! It should be noted that Fantagraphics recently did a 7-volume reprint of every story from the original L&R ...

• At March 31, 2008, Jeff Ryan wrote:

  A solid choice, despite neither of them ever working on Quasar. Nobody's perfect.

  Except Quasar. Cosmic origins, a costuem change ...

• At April 1, 2008, BDaly wrote:

  Jeff: Quantum & Woody

  Brian: When mentioning comic book families, let's not forget the Romitas.

  I've haven't read anything from the Hernandez ...