Saturday, December 4, 2010

24 Hours to Go for the Kickstarter Fundraiser

Hi Everyone,

24 hours to go in our Kickstarter pledge drive. Find out all about my newest project, The Gathering and GrayHaven Comics as well as some exclusive previews of upcoming issues.

There is still a little time to donate and receive some cool rewards so spread the word and help us out.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1429812861/the-gathering-an-ongoing-comic-book-anthology

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Batman #703



Batman #703
Written by Fabian Nicieza and illustrated by Cliff Richards
Published by DC Comics


Liam: The story is about Batman, Robin and Red Robin going after a thief that keeps getting away from them. Red Robin hasn’t worked with the new Batman and Robin much so I liked that he was in this book helping out.

The thief keeps getting away and they have to chase him through the sewers. Damian, the new Robin, is mad that he has to get all dirty and Batman, Dick Grayson who used to be the first Robin, wants to yell at him about it but Batman remembers when he was younger and he was still Robin. When he was Robin he was yelling at Batman about why they weren’t going after a bad guy, too.

Ethan: Damian is always arguing. I like how he was mad about going into the sewer. It’s kind of funny that he thinks he’s so smart and tough even though he’s only a kid.

Liam: He thinks he’s so cool. Dick Grayson goes to a reporter that used to be Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend. He is upset that she was writing a story about the thief and she makes it seems that she knows he’s really Batman. He says that she is going to need proof or she should stop talking about it and then the comic shows that she has a camera on her bag that is taking pictures of him.

Ethan: My favorite part was when Damian is training in the Batbunker.

Liam: Yeah, I like how he was doing all of the obstacle courses. That was one of my favorite parts, too.

Ethan: I like how they showed him flipping through all the hoops and doing all the stunts.

Liam: I also liked the part where Batman remembered when he was Robin. It’s pretty cool that the story kind of continued. The old Robin had a cool uniform. I like the colors and mask and cape a lot better on the old costume. And it’s awesome that he grew up from being Bruce Wayne’s partner and is now Batman himself.

Ethan: The old Robin is cool but I like Damian’s suit better. I like the hood he wears sometimes. I want to go as Damian for Halloween or to a comic convention

Liam: Batman and Robin go to a fancy party where they think the thief is going to attack and he does end up attacking. They use the flying Batmobile to go after the thief and Batman tells Robin that he knows it’s a girl by the way she moves.

Ethan: The flying Batmobile is really cool. That was one of the parts I really liked in the comic.

Liam: It’s awesome. So the thief is trying to get away Red Robin has done something to the car so she can’t leave. Right when Red Robin is about to arrest the thief Batman remembers again when he was young and Bruce Wayne Batman let a thief go. This girl thief is the daughter of the person that Bruce Wayne stopped a long time ago. He was stealing medical stuff because he was very sick and Batman felt bad so he let him go but used all his money to secretly pay for the stuff that was stolen.

Ethan: She wasn’t a big villain like the Joker or Killer Croc or someone like that so I guess they didn’t think she was that dangerous.

Liam: And Batman felt bad for her. I liked how all the members of Batman’s team worked together. They were like brothers taking care of crime when Bruce Wayne is gone and Alfred is like the granddad.

Ethan: Damian wants to be the favorite. He’s really funny. Batman and Robin is my favorite comic right now because Damian is in it a lot. But this comic was really good too because of all the people that were in it.

Liam: Damian is great. He should really get his own book, too. The only think I didn’t like is that I really don’t know why everyone has black hair. I don’t get it. They could make some of the characters different. They all look the same and especially with their masks off it’s kind of hard to tell who’s who until they say their names.

Ethan: It is hard to tell them apart sometimes. That’s why it’s cooler when they’re all in costumes. But I still liked this comic a lot.

Liam: Me too. I want to see more of all the Batman good guys hanging out and working together. I think it’s really interesting.

Our Rating: 10 out of 10

The Kids' Reviews Are Back

Starting today, the boys will be back reviewing comics on what they hope to be a weekly basis. Each week they're going to pick a book or two that they liked the most and talk about it here.

Also, their first ever comic book story, illustrated by Michael Lapinski came out recently in The Gathering Volume 1. Copies can be ordered here at
http://thegatheringcomic.blogspot.com/

They're hard at work on their stories for Volumes 2 and 3 right now.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Promoting Their Own Comic: The Gathering



Hi everyone. Dad here. The boys haven't been posting as much with a busy school and little league season though that should end soon. They also took part in an anthology project that I created involving over 20 talented creators pretty much new to comics so Gathering Volume 1 will mark their official comic publishing debut.

As expected they're pretty psyched about it and they were joined by Michael Lapinski, a very gifted artist who brought their story to life.

Subtitled "The Thing with Feathers", Volume 1 is a 32 page black and white anthology with the central theme being 'Hope'. And while my intention wasn't to do so, the final product appropriately enough ended up being something that is suitable for all ages. While this isn't a book aimed at kids, there is no language or violence inside that would be seen as objectionable.

The reason I'm posting this time instead of the boys is because we had so much fun working on Volume 1 that we want to do it more often. A lot more often. A new cast of creators is already fast at work on Volume 2 and the plan is to be able to eventually start putting out anywhere from 3 to 6 issues a year, everything from short anthologies to longer stories. Where the dream of doing that ends, the reality of the cost of such an idea begins. Thankfully someone brought my attention to a great website called Kickstarter which is set up for creative types to pitch their ideas to the masses and ask for pledges to fund their ideas.

Our goal is to raise 2500 dollars by the end of July. It’s a lot of money, but not an impossible goal. And yeah it does seem strange to be asking complete strangers to donate money in a tough economy to something that isn’t going to change the world but I do believe in this project and the creators involved with it.

I want to be able to create something where new talent can come and tell a story if they want to without having to figure out how to self publish on their own or trying to pitch to a major company. I think we’ve done that with this first anthology and I’m certainly excited about the potential for the future, which is why the Kickstarter campaign is so important.

So if you have a few extra dollars to spare and want to help support an up and coming comic line intent on giving new creators a place to shine, please head on over to the link and make a pledge. We also have some fun rewards available like signed books, sketches and appearances in a future comic if you so decide.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1429812861/gathering-an-indie-comic-book-anthology

Thanks for your time and the boys should be back with a few new reviews next week.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Blackest Night #8



Blackest Night #8
Written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Ivan Reis, Oclair Albert and Joe Prado
Published by DC Comics


Liam: The last issue of Blackest Night came out and it was awesome.

Ethan: This was one of my favorite comic stories ever. I’m sad that it’s over.

Liam: Now there is going to be the Brightest Day series but I don’t think there are going to be any zombie Lanterns in it. It should still be cool though.

Ethan: Brightest Day looks really cool.

Liam: I think it was a great idea that since you have all of these different colored Lanterns with different powers that there would be an evil kind that made people into zombies. Seeing different good guys and bad guys as Black Lanterns was one of my favorite parts of the story.

Ethan: My favorite part was when the different Lantern bosses gave out some of their rings to other people. I liked that other super heroes and bad guys had a chance to get rings and become Lanterns.

Liam: That was a big surprise. I liked that a lot. I thought Flash as a Blue Lantern was cool. I liked the way his costume looked.

Ethan: I liked Flash and I liked Scarecrow as a Yellow Lantern and Lex Luthor as an Orange Lantern. I wish they would have kept their rings.

Liam: I don’t think they’re allowed. In the final issue all of the heroes and some of the bad guys have teamed up to try and stop the Black Lanterns and Nekron. Sinestro has the power of a White Lantern now and he’s the only one strong enough to beat the Black Lanterns.

Ethan: I thought that Hal was going to be the White Lantern but he ended up getting to have a chance to in this comic.

Liam: Yeah Sinestro really didn’t do a good job of beating the Black Lanterns with all his power.

Ethan: It was so awesome when Hal took over the White Lanterns and all these heroes like Superman and Kid Flash became White Lanterns too. They looked really cool.

Liam: I think one of my favorite parts was when all of the different Lanterns teamed up and made a net out of their rings to try and catch the black rings. It was an interesting idea and the way it was drawn was really great.

Ethan: There were a lot of nice drawings in this comic. I liked the art a lot. The pages with the White Lanterns was soooo cool and when they attack and destroy Nekron it looked really good.

Liam: Yeah the art was really good. All of the different Lanterns and zombie Lanterns and bad guys and stuff looked amazing. There were so many characters in this book and they all looked really good. The White Lanterns look really cool the way they’re drawn. It’s almost like the pages are glowing.

Ethan: My favorite page was the fold out one after the Lanterns beat Nekron.

Liam: I saw them do pages like that in a comic before but this was so much better.

Ethan: The White Lanterns power brings back all these old super heroes and bad guys back to life. Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Aquaman, Martian Manhunter and Kid Black Adam were all on the giant fold out page with the word ‘Live’ on it.

Liam: I like how they did that with just the one word since they kept using ‘Rise’ whenever a person was killed and brought back as a Black Lantern. I’m really glad that they brought Hawkman back to life. He’s a really awesome looking character.

Ethan: I wish there was a way that Batman could have been in this book. He only came back for a few pages in one issue.

Liam: I guess it’s because he’s doing his own stuff in the Batman comic with Nightwing as Batman and the real Batman missing somewhere.

Ethan: Yeah. It was good this way too because a lot of other super heroes got to do stuff. I ended up really liking the Flash a lot more because of this story.

Liam: He was really good in this story. I like that this issue had a lot of extra pages. I didn’t want it to be over with.

Ethan: There was so much that happened in the comic. There was a lot of action and a lot more pages.

Liam: I’m really looking forward to see what happens in the Brightest Day story. Blackest Night was such a great idea. I really like how it connected to other comics and was able to do all these different stories. I think Brightest Day could turn out to be really good, especially if they start doing more stuff with the White Lanterns.

Ethan: This is my favorite comic this year. I even like trying to find the new Black Lantern action figures. I think Brightest Day will be really good but I hope there are more Black Lantern and White Lanterns showing up.

Our Rating: 10 out of 10

Baby Boomers



Baby Boomers
Written by Richard McAuliffe and illustrated by Chad Cicconi
Published by Orang Utan Comics


Baby Boomers is a comic about two little babies who hate each other. They keep getting put together by their parents and instead of playing they keep dreaming about fighting each other in different kinds of matches. The book is really silly. We found it when we went to a small comic convention and the people were selling the book. We looked through a lot of the pages and it was really funny so we bought it.

It’s a really crazy idea that there are two babies who are trying to fight to the death. They’re just babies. We have a little brother and it’s funny to imagine that he is having some secret war with another baby in his head. The best part of the comic is just how the babies have all these different battles and they keep getting put together because the parents don’t realize that they don’t like each other.

The book has so many different battles. There is a fight in the crib where the babies do karate against each other. There is a fight on a playground where the babies are imagining that a pail and shovel for the sandbox are really a shield, spear and helmet. All of the battles that they get into are really funny but one of the best ones is when the two babies are in their walkers and they pretend that they have all these kinds of weapons on the walkers and start attacking each other. Another really good one is when they have a massive attack in the room and are using the family pets to help. One of the babies grabs two hamsters and starts firing their poop at the other babies. It made no sense but it was really funny.

The art is like a cartoon instead of making them look like real babies but it looks good because the story is silly like a cartoon. I really like some of the expressions on the babies’ faces, especially when they are put next to each other when the moms are there and they just give each other these mean stares.

This is a really strange idea for a book but we're glad that we bought it because it was really funny and we hope they do some more of these stories.

Rating: 8 out of 10
 
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