Thursday, September 16, 2010

WHERE THE BOOMING HEAVENS ROAR

With the kind permission of the artist, here's a spectacular two-page spread by Brian Ching, illustrator of the Chaos War:  Thor mini-series I'm writing for Marvel.  Click on the image below to get the full impact:

Chaos War:  Thor will hit comics shops in November.  End of hype.  (For now, anyway!)

34 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing, looks great!

    The 'Chaos War' stuff has piqued my interest, and is looking to be a Marvel event I might actually follow.

    With your comments around the Thor issue, and the recent Prince of Power series, I'm looking forward to some grand cosmic drama and depth that I can work to internalize.

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  2. From what I've seen of Greg Pak and Fred Van Lente's story, Tim, CHAOS WAR is going to be a lot of fun. And if you like cosmic...you'll get it, in spades.

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  3. Looks awesome, JMD. My regards to the artist, Mr. Ching.

    That letter is a fascinating window into JMD, the Marvel fan. One of my great regrets is never working up the courage to send a letter to ASM, PPTSM, or WOS when I was younger.

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  4. Brian's doing an amazing job on the book, David. I wasn't familiar with his work before this, but he's certainly on my radar now.

    "That letter"? WHAT letter?

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  5. Newsarama has a link to one of your letters that was published in THOR.

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  6. Back in the day I had letters published in lots of comics -- all of them Marvel, I think -- and, honestly, I can't remember all of them. Spider-Man, for sure. Thor. F.F. Master of Kung Fu. Marvel Two-in-One. And others.

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  7. "Dear Stan and Steve,

    Sorry, guys, but ASM 15 was a miss. Kraven is irredeemably lame, and no writer is ever going to change that.

    Marc DeMatteis"

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  8. Ha, ha, ha! I love that letter. Don't know if you recall, JM, but Thor has long been one of my favourite super heroes (of them all). To hear that you get to play in my sandbox--er, I mean, Marvel's sandbox with him ... that's great. I will definitely get it!!!!

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  9. It's quite a celestial sandbox, A. Jaye -- and the fun of this particular story is balancing the Big Stuff with a small, intimate human story. I've also started work on another Thor story -- a 38 page one shot -- that involves Thor, the Silver Surfer, Galactus, the alien race called the Other, Scrier and Oblivion. Talk about cosmic!

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  10. This is Scrier as he appeared in my SILVER SURFER run, David -- not the Scrier from THE CLONE SAGA. They're connected...but also different characters.
    How's that for confusion?

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  11. It's a little confusing, but so is everything associated with the last act of the Clone Saga.

    If memory serves, the Clone Saga Scriers were a cult who associated themselves with the cosmic Scrier. I wasn't super impressed with the way the cult turned out to be little more than another extension of Norman Osborn's will, so I'm happy to see the cosmic side explored in more detail. Maybe eventually we'll see the Cosmic Power/Human Cult duality fleshed out.

    I liked the Scrier issue from SS, if it's the Daredevil/Spider-Man team-up I'm thinking of.

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  12. Scrier actually appeared in a SURFER annual, David, and in a number of issues of the monthly, where he and the Surfer took on an alien threat called the Other.

    I created Cosmic Scrier as a way to deal with the changes that were made to the Clone Saga Scrier. (The name, by the way, came from writer Terry Kavanaugh, at a Spider-Man writer's meeting, when we were cooking a cast of characters for Judas Traveler to pal around with. And that's probably more information than you needed.) Hadn't thought about him in years, but Marvel editor Ralph Macchio suggested bringing him back...and here we are. It's been great fun exploring Scrier -- and another old creation of mine, Oblivion -- in this new context.

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  13. That's truly awesome, JM.I'm really happy for you--and slightly jealous. Hey, I'm human. : ) When it was allowed, I pitched a Thor, a Silver Surfer and a Galactus story to Marvel. And you are absolutely right, the 'human' part of the story is vital. If anyone can do it, you can! Can't wait!

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  14. I hope the story lives up to your expectations, A. Jaye!

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  15. Thanks for the refresher, JMD. I'll have to re-read those issues before the one shot.

    And you can never get too much behind-the-scenes info. I eat these things up.

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  16. BTW, guys, my latest blog is up. And even though it doesn't have anything to do with Thor, it strikes me as the kind of thing followers of this blog might enjoy:

    http://asm149.blogspot.com/2010/09/back-to-back-to-future.html

    My next blog will either be about why Judas Traveller works as a Spider-Man antagonist, or last night's HAWAII FIVE-O. How's that for suspense?

    My shamelessness knows no bounds!

    As an aside, I'm curious as to what your thoughts on Shatner's new vehicle will be on Friday.

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  17. Thanks for sharing that, David: nothing shameless about it. And I invite all Creation Pointers with their own blogs to share links here.

    Re: Shatner. From what I've read, the show doesn't get off to the best start, but they're refining it week to week. Many, if not most, sitcoms seem to start off that way...and then find themselves in the first few months. Ever watch early episodes of SEINFELD? They're painful.

    All that said, it's a weekly dose of Shatner, so I'll be there every Thursday.

    And if you haven't seen Shatner's appearance on Craig Ferguson's show last week, track it down on YouTube: it's comedy gold. Hilarious stuff.

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  18. I'll have to look that up.

    Agreed that sitcoms tend to take a while to get their footing. Lucky for Shatner, the BIG BANG THEORY lead-in should give the show time to grow.

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  19. Here are the links, David:

    Intro = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJqspyjMovo&feature=player_embedded

    Shatner interview part 1 =
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKj8aDk4-sE&feature=player_embedded

    Shatner interview part 2 =
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCgU3zItZ1U&feature=player_embedded

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  20. Thanks, JMD. Pretty good stuff.

    And there's even a "beatles" reference for you!

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  21. JM, just pulled this off Twitter, thought u might b interested...RT @ThirteenNY Just Announced! Screening of AM Masters: LennonNYC in Central Park on Oct. 9. Free & open to the public: http://ow.ly/2Jnx3. See u in NYC in a couple weeks!

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  22. Thanks so much, Ken. I'm really looking forward to the PBS Lennon documentary. The producers have created an iTunes podcast, releasing a new full-length interview with some of the participants every week. So far they've done DOUBLE FANTASY producer Jack Douglas, photographer (and Lennon buddy) Bob Gruen and legendary drummer Jim Keltner (who played on IMAGINE, WALLS AND BRIDGES and MIND GAMES). Great stuff.

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  23. My thoughts on $#*! My Dad Says:

    http://asm149.blogspot.com/2010/09/cbs-taught-me-last-night.html

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  24. Just saw a post on a 1981 Star Wars comic, 'The Dreams of Cody Sunn-Childe' by 'Wally Lombego' over here. Interesting read: http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2010/09/24/comic-book-legends-revealed-279/
    My compliments to the idealist.

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  25. We had similar, if not exact, reactions, David. First, after all the negative reviews, I expected $#*! to be pretty awful. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it wasn't: in fact I, like you, laughed out loud a number of times.

    You can see Shatner trying to find his character -- in interviews he's said that he's just starting to understand how he wants to play Ed -- but I think he did a great job. Problem is, he pretty much WAS the show. The supporting characters were too thin and the writing was on the generic side.

    The one time I thought Shatner was really on equal footing with another actor was during the DMV sequence: the actor playing the DMV guy brought some substance to what could have been a throwaway role and the two of them really sparked each other.

    If they can get that kind of chemistry with the other characters and sharpen up the scripts a little -- they'll have a real show. (As I think I said before, most sitcoms take time to find their way: early episodes of Seinfeld, one of my all-time favorites, are pretty terrible.) But the truth is, being a Shatnerd, I'll be watching every week, no matter what.

    As for 30 ROCK: truth is I rarely watch it on "real" television, I almost always catch up with it in big blocks on Hulu. And, for me, it's more fun that way.

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  26. Having been sparked by the CBR piece, Tim, I'm sitting here right now working up a blog post about the "Wally Lombego Incident," telling the whole story in greater detail. With luck, I'll have it up in the next few days.

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  27. Good points about the supporting cast. I recognized Ed's daughter in law as the dogwalker from KING OF QUEENS, where she did good work. So maybe she'll get some better material.

    The DMV scene, when Ed realizes how he's alienated himself, was the emotional highlight of the pilot. It should have been eclipsed by the even bigger moment of Ed's dance, but that scene didn't quite gel. If the timing and chemistry had been right on that, it would have been a near perfect closing.

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  28. What they needed for that end scene, David, was James Spader. As one reviewer pointed out, BOSTON LEGAL ended with Shatner and Spader dancing on the balcony...and I can't help but think that last night was an echo of that scene. But you're right: the chemistry was off. Shatner and Spader, on the other hand, had chemistry virtually from their first scene together. But, then, they were also speaking words written by David Kelly and that's got to help.

    The actress you mention is Nicole Sullivan: I've seen her in quite a few things -- most memorably on SCRUBS -- and she's terrific. Problem is she wasn't given much to do here. And Will Sasso, who plays the other son, has a great reputation from MAD TV. So the potential is there for a great ensemble.

    Tim will tell!

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