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PIPELINE COMMENTARY AND REVIEW #26
30 November 1997
by Augie De Blieck Jr.
http://www.nic.com/~augie/pipeline
"My Trip To New York City (and some reviews, too)
The deeper into fandom I get, the more fun I have. Really.
Joe Torcivia, ace duck fan, invited me to join him and a couple of other
friends on an excursion to the Warner Brothers store in Manhattan this
afternoon for a Paul Dini signing. After much cajoling, I made it, and you
have Joe to thank for this column. Thanks, Joe! =)
First things first, Joe introduced me properly to LOBO, a character
whose books I've never bothered reading. No particular reason for it, I just
never got into it. On the train ride over, I read quickly through a couple
of older issues and thought them pretty entertaining, with a couple of good
belly laughs.
Then, we got to the city and ventured over to Jim Hanley's Universe -
across the street from the Empire State Building - to do some major browsing.
If you've never been to that store, I urge you to do so. It's the largest,
brightest, cleanest, most complete comic book store I may have ever seen,
although there seemed to be less back issues that one could hope for.
(However, there's a ton of "back issues" still on the rack for cover price,
which I think is a great idea for retailers who have the room. Bagging and
boarding last month's comics and hiding them away in the hopes of making an
extra 35 cents on them will lose you more money, methinks, than leaving them
out there for another month where a new reader may chance across something.)
A 25 block or so walk brought us up to the Warner Brothers store. This
place is unbelievable. For a dyed-in-the-wool WB fan like myself, it's like
stepping into a dream. On the outside, there are relief depictions above the
main windows of various scenes from classic WB animated shorts. Once you get
inside, the elevator being pushed up by Superman is the least of the
amazements. Everything the WB could see is in here. Some of the most
gorgeous statues and cels and stuff can be found on the 7th floor. Hand-made
original Pinky and the Brain chess sets or Pepe LePew figures can be had, if
you just won the lottery. Nevermind the cels or the framed prints or any of
that. =)
[Also, if you go there make sure to see the 3-D Marvin Martian cartoon.
It's got some of the best 3-D animation I've ever seen and I can't tell you
how often people jumped at it, thinking stuff was going to land in their
laps.]
Anyway, that's where we got to meet Paul Dini, I asking him to sign my
copy of Mad Love and the issue of Comics Scene Magazine which had a cover
story on the creation of Tiny Toons, from before the series aired. And along
the way, we picked up some nifty tid-bits from Paul Dini himself:
* New Tiny Toon cartoons are not out of the mix. There are people who
want to do them, but it's a question of getting everything straightened
out and the timing to be right. Steven Spielberg now wants to do things
through DreamWorks, but TTA still carries his name. Paul Dini would
like to do stuff, but he's still working on Superman. Etc. etc. But
it's not out of the question just yet.
* A Lobo cartoon series? Maybe. It's an idea Dini says he pitched a
few years ago, as something like a Saturday late-night animated series,
but it didn't go very far. And he still thinks it's a long shot,
but he hasn't given up on the idea.
* The aforementioned "Mad Love" story is coming to the Batman animated
series. Some of the stuff had to be toned down. (The WB censor, it
seems, has more problems with "sensuality" than violence, which is why
we can see punches to the face now! =)
* Mr. Mxyptlk (hope I spelled that right - had to do it from memory)
will be back for a couple more episodes. Gilbert Gottfried called in
his lines, literally. He works out of NYC now and so did his session in
NYC and then had it transmitted to L.A.
* There will be a behind-the-scenes type book on the Batman animated
series coming out next year, including Paul Dini's original costume
sketch for Harley Quinn, which he described as being blackmail material.
So I read LOBO #47 on the train ride home. And you know what? It's
funny. It makes no excuses for itself. It doesn't take itself seriously.
It's brutal, honest, and over-the-top. There's a certain contempt for
authority, a lot of renegade stuff, and just a bunch of violent humor, which
I found to be a lot of fun. That sort of thing doesn't offend me. The art
is solid, the writing is crisp, the colors are earthy, nothing too bright.
(Except, of course, for the explosions.) OK, the art seemed sometimes Alan
Davis-inspired, and some of Oakley's lettering looks a little too much like
Todd Klein's, but other than that...
So, yes, I would recommend it, without reservation. I may have to
scare up some back issues along the way, too. Who knows?
New this week at the comics shops: THE BATMAN ADVENTURES: THE LOST YEARS
#1, written by Hillary Bader and drawn by Bo Hampton and Terry Beatty,
attempts to fill in the chunk of time left between the original excellent
Batman animated series and today's WB Batman animated series. And I realized
while reading it that much of the stuff in the comics and in the animated
series today are clearly taking off on the movie franchise. Robin whines
that Batman doesn't trust him. Batgirl comes into the fold. In any case,
this is a must-read for fans of the cartoon series and is done rather well,
at that.
There were those of us who were disappointed when PREVIEWS Magalog gave
away who dies in this week's issue of TROUBLEMAKERS (#12), Fabian Nicieza and
Kenny Martinez' Acclaim series. Well, guess what? That's not the item of
suspense in this story. The first page tells you who dies. The rest is
backtracking. It's a curious story, but not a particularly moving one, and
will probably cause more on-line unrest about minority team characters
getting killed off, in the wake of last month's TEEN TITANS.
SUPREME #54 contains a text book example of the difference between good
artisty and today's T&A hound artists. I think I'll save that, though, for
my upcoming (eventually) DIVINE RIGHT rant. Hang in there, folks.
-Augie
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