Via Bleeding Cool.

He’s smart, funny, and has a lot more interesting things to say about these costumes than most of us might have thought of initially.

He also gets it. He understands the cultural relevance of these characters. He gets why Superman and Spiderman work. Not just how iconic they’ve become (which is a large part of their value), but why they worked in the first place.

Well worth the time.

Dick Burger has been hailed by fandom as the greatest comic book creator since Jack Kirby. Unlike Kirby, however, Burger retained ownership of his characters and became a media tycoon, complete with a private jet furnished with a hot tub and a mansion in Los Angeles. He is also an insufferable bastard.

Leonard Bates is a North American journalist who is conducting research for a biography of Burger. When he travels to Hicksville, New Zealand to visit Burger’s childhood home, he discovers that no one in the village wants to talk to him about Burger. For reasons unknown to Bates, they are downright angry at him for even mentioning his name. They are delighted, however, to give Bates access to the town library, which contains the greatest comic book collection on the face of the earth (including several copies of Action #1 which they casually pull from the shelves). It turns out that everyone in the village is connoisseur of comics and they’d all read Bates’ earlier biography of Kirby. What is going in here? wonders Bates, and what’s the big mystery about Burger?

It sounds fascinating to me. I do enjoy more “real” comics, in addition to the standard superhero fare. Joe Sacco is probably my favorite non-fiction writer (check out Palestine and The Fixer, and Ryan Claytor (now a fellow Michigan resident) has done some cool autobiographical stuff, as well as a wonderful, sad piece called The Machinist.

My expectation is that Hicksville is a bit of that kind of tone – obviously fiction, but much more real-world than the typical comic book – melded with a bit of meta-awareness.

I’m going to hunt this one down.

Via DC’s The Source

Via MajorSpoilers.

EDIT: NPH IS IN THIS TOO?!

I can’t believe that the only review I’ve ever given of it was this:

“Val also wrote a great book, Memoirs of an Occasional Superheroine, which you can buy as an ebook from her website. I need to get a proper review of it written up, but I will say that its a worthwhile read if you want an insider’s view of the comics industry, and some of the less-nice things that happen to good people sometimes.”

Wow. I must say that I regret not reviewing it sooner. It really is a great read, and if you check it out while its free, maybe go and click the “donate” link on Val’s site and send a little thank-you her way.

Val used to work for DC. She probably had some great times there, but without a doubt she experienced some really dark ones. I don’t feel like I can adequately describe or do justice to everything she experienced and described in her book, but let’s just say that she’s been handed a lot of shit in her life, and after everything, she’s managed to come through it all with a pretty healthy outlook.

Anyway, her blog and this book have secured her in my mind as a writer and person that I like and respect, and her book is worth your time.

She also has some books coming up with Marvel that I’m excited for:

THIS IS WHERE IT GETS GOOD.

Its all coming to a head, and its all going down, and hitting the fan as all great Punisher stories tend to.

I’ve been loving Jason Aaron and Steve Dillon on Punisher. Ennis and Dillon were great too, but this is telling me a badass story with characters we’re all familiar with, but in a new light. Its the kind of refreshing that Marvel’s Ultimates brought to those characters.

This story in particular is showing just how far outside of the mainstream Marvel U we are. Wilson Fisk is just becoming the Kingpin. And if we’re to believe that this is in the same timeline as the book titled simply Punisher on the MAX imprint was (which I think it is, if references to ‘Cuda and others are to be believed), then this is happening in a world that is today. Not the past, but today, in 2010. So not the Marvel U we know.

I like this. I like Ultimate Spiderman. I like DC’s Batman Confidential. I like them because they don’t care about continuity and baggage, just good stories.

This makes me even more excited for Val D’Orazio‘s take on this book.

Get on board now, ’cause Punisher MAX is getting better and better, and shows no sign of letting up.

Via Geeks Are Sexy.