Bill Sienkiewicz Promethea and Alexandra Trese

 Got a couple of commissions from the great Bill Sienkiewicz!

Promethea:

Alexandra Trese:

Read their books here:

The Instant Success of Spider-Gwen

 Here's a theory (and one that will undoubtedly gain LESS traction as time goes along). Let me know what you think.

There are three components to the instant success of Spider-Gwen. One is that perfect costume, so classic-looking it looks like Steve Ditko designed it. (There is a hidden spider. There's only one other superhero costume named after an animal where the motif is hidden throughout the costume, and it's Ted Kord.) One is the times. Obviously in the last decade or so, it's been easier to sell the audience on superheroines AND legacy characters AND multiverses (she fits all three). And one is the SPECIFIC timing.

Gwen Stacy, Spider-Woman, came out in 2014, only a few short months after the release of Amazing Spider-Man 2. The Amazing Spider-Man movies, while critically, um, mixed, had two good points, and their names were Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone. And one point - Emma Stone - was much less debated than the former. I don't think it's a stretch to say she was the favorite component of those movies.

And she dies in ASM2, gruesomely, explicitly, and in a way that was uncalled for. It didn't matter that it happened in the comics - no one wanted to see it.

In 1971, Gwen's death was new. In 2014, it was a trope that involved a refrigerator. And I think SO MUCH of the success of Spider-Gwen was the fans, especially maybe younger fans who only knew Gwen through the ASM movies, were ready to see this character, who in the movies was a strong, empowered character, come into her full potential.

Spider-Gwen isn't as big as she is without her perfect costume, and she wouldn't have been as big as she is had she debuted 10 years prior. But I argue that she simply wouldn't have been as big as she is if she didn't show up at the perfect time - straight off the heels of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, ready to pick up that slack that the killing of Emma Stone's character had left behind.

The Comics Cube Returns on Monday

 After four months, The Comics Cube is relaunching on YouTube and Spotify on July 3, 2023.

We're doing something different for this new iteration of The Comics Cube, including new graphics by The Lemon Badger and a new theme song by Kai B.

Every first Monday of the month, we'll have a creator interview, kicking off this Monday with the one and only Dave Gibbons, co-creator of Watchmen, about his book Confabulation: An Anecdotal Autobiography.

Every second Monday of the month, I'm teaming up with Mini to read through an old story, mostly from the long-out-of-print A Smithsonian Book of Comic Book Comics, starting with the first appearance of Superman from Action Comics #1.

Every third Monday of the month, Paul and LaMar and I will do a roundtable on a comic. For this first one, we're joined by writer Mark Russell to talk about his and Mike and Laura Allred's Eisner-nominated Superman: Space Age.

Every fourth Monday of the month is up for grabs, and will be used for whatever I wanna use it for. This month we're talking to Filipino singer Basti Artadi of Wolfgang, who converted his 1994 song Darkness Fell to a graphic novel drawn by Ramona Gaston.

Hope to see you! Join us!

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a JH Williams III comic

 I had the good fortune of going to the Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse premiere yesterday, thanks to Columbia Pictures Philippines.

I had high expectations, even as great as the first movie was. I didn't think it would be as innovative as the first one, since the first one is already showing its influence across animated movies being developed today, but I had high expectations for the narrative.

All my expectations were blown away just five minutes in, when Spider-Gwen's origin was told in a style that was reminiscent of her original comics. It had a different tone from the original movie, and was, quite frankly, the Spider-Gwen story I'd been waiting to see in any medium since she debuted in 2015. It's almost like her movie was completely different from Miles' movie.

Later on in the movie, we meet other Spider-Men from across the Spider-Verse (see what I did there?), each drawn as if they had each come from their own movies, each one with their own style, all grounded and centered, of course, by the style established by Miles Morales, the Spider-Man of the 21st century.

It hit me that I was essentially watching a JH Williams III comic. JH has never worked on Spider-Man (and now I want him to), but the concept of mixing multiple styles in one comic was, while not invented by him, perfected by JH Williams III in comics such as Promethea, Batman: The Black Glove, and most recently, his creator-owned Echolands (please click through to see my series of interviews with him about it).

This really works for me because it really does give the feeling of a wider Spider-Verse. There were moments watching this movie that I wish we could've just focused on Gwen and the world she lived in - itself so captivating and worthy of being told. But honestly the same is true of virtually every Spidersona we see in the movie. Each one looks like they could have been the star of their own film. Each one felt, for one brief shining moment, like a possible main character.

The main character of course in this one is Miles Morales, a truly great character who as I've mentioned is the Spider-Man of the 21st century. In service to the story, there are certain elements that I think were sacrificed to make Miles look better (elements which could easily be explained away, but still elements that made me raise an eyebrow), but it's all so minor, as the multiple threads and subplots in the story kept me intrigued and at the edge of my seat throughout. When the movie was over, I clapped. I didn't notice more than two hours had passed, and I, like everyone else in the small theater I was in, clearly wanted more.

TL;DR: Go see it immediately! And also, my fingers still work!

Interview with Neil Gaiman / Sandman on Netflix

Thanks to Netflix Philippines, I was able to sit down with Sandman writer and executive producer Neil Gaiman! I asked him about how they managed to change so much of Sandman, one of my favorite comics of all time, and yet somehow retain the spiritual essence of the work. 

Talking to Neil Gaiman was such a pleasure and a privilege, and while I clearly was nervous, I like to think I held my own.

I've had a couple of fan discussions about Netflix's Sandman, including this one with my nephew Tristan after we were fortunate enough to get a screener from Netflix:

And this discussion with my friends Lizzy and Max Brown. Max is also an actor who brought some of his industry insights into the discussion:

Go get yourself some Sandman:

Echolands Issue-By-Issue Recaps with JH Williams III

Last year, JH Williams III (co-writer/artist), W. Haden Blackman (writer), Dave Stewart (colorist), and Todd Klein (letterer) launched Echolands, a series years in the making, by way of Image Comics. The first hardcover just came out, collecting the first six issues.

Echolands' basic premise is that this world is made up of places that each fit a different fictional genre. Protagonist Hope Redhood (drawn in JH Williams III's "usual" style) is from Mythwood, her friend Castrum (drawn more like Dick Tracy) is from Old Chicago, her frenemy Rosa (drawn in black and white) is from Horror Hill.... you get the point.

This is not a review because if you've been following The Comics Cube on YouTube and/or Spotify, you'd know exactly where I stand on the series. Instead, I'd like to share with you a short excerpt from the dedication of Volume 1.

Let's zoom in, shall we?

What a thrill to be mentioned in an actual graphic novel by one of my all-time absolute favorite creators! And yes, our conversations have been fun and amazing, as he mentioned. I interviewed JH Williams III for the first time at the end of 2020:

Since then, we have done issue-by-issue recaps of Echolands, including this preview prior to the launch of the series:

Issue 1:

Issue 2:

Issue 3:

Issue 4:

Issue 5:

Issue 6:

I also had a separate chat with co-writer W. Haden Blackman about it:

And I also talked to JH Williams III about the volume 1 hardcover:

I will also be talking to JH Williams III live for the Philippine International Comics Festival on September 14 10am Philippine time (that is September 13 10pm ET/7pm PT). You can register here for free: https://bit.ly/picof2022. I'll also be talking in other segments to Brian Bolland and Dave Gibbons, Danny Fingeroth, Jeff Smith, and a couple of other creators (as yet unnanounced).