trinity | DC Comics

A few links of note for Monday

Here's hoping everyone had a relaxing weekend. In case you weren't chained in front of your computer, here are a few of the things you may have missed while enjoying two days or rest.

• AIN'T IT COOL NEWS unveiled an exclusive first look at BATMAN AND ROBIN #1, by Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely. Keep your eyes peeled for a few more sneak peeks at the first issue in the coming days.

• Pete Tomasi talks to NEWSARAMA about the road to BLACKEST NIGHT. The site also talks to writer Keith Giffen about the newly-announced MAGOG series, and to the supremely talented J.H. Williams about Batwoman's upcoming stint in DETECTIVE COMICS.

• COMIC BOOK RESOURCES' Jeff Renaud chats up artist Mark Bagley to discuss the conclusion of TRINITY, while the folks io9 explain why TRINITY is a 'metaphysical epic done right.

• Remember that time back in March, where BATMAN Group Editor Michael Marts talked to IGN about his very neat photo board, featuring key characters heading into BATTLE FOR THE COWL? Well, now that the major event is over, the board has changed, which means Marts once again drops hints as to where your favorite characters are going, in a chat with IGN's Dan Phillips.

• And last, but certainly not least, THE NEW YORK TIMES unveiled their Graphic Novel Bestseller list for the week of May 23. Of note: SUPERMAN: NEW KRYPTON, BATMAN: THE KILLING JOKE, BATMAN R.I.P., JOKER and BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS all made the list.

A few links of note for Tuesday

Well, here's hoping everyone had a reasonably relaxing Memorial Day weekend. Here at The Source, we've gathered a few links you might have missed while you were out grilling or enjoying the balmy weather (or not, depending where you're located):

• BATMAN & ROBIN writer Grant Morrison gave a lengthy interview over at IGN, discussing the post-BATTLE FOR THE COWL status quo and his plans for Gotham's villainous population:

IGN Comics: So the wait is over and now fans know the identities of the new Batman and Robin – Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne. Before we get into specifics though, I'd like to talk about the big picture. You've made no secret of the fact that this is all part of a greater, long ranging story that you're telling. How does Batman and Robin fit alongside your recent Batman work?

Morrison: It's pretty simple. It comes in straight chronological order after the recent stuff. This is the sequel to Batman RIP, which is why the first arc is called 'Batman Reborn.' It builds directly off of it, and there are threads we pick up from before. As I've said before, the main villain in the first arc has already been seen in Batman #666, which had the potential future for Gotham City in it. So it's a straight continuation and the next part in the long running story from 'Batman and Son' onwards. We'll be picking up threads from that first book as well.

• Speaking of IGN, the site also previewed GREEN LANTERN #41, which continues the build-up to July's BLACKEST NIGHT mega-event. They've also got artist J.G. Jones' stellar variant cover for BATMAN & ROBIN #1.

• Has it really been a year? NEWSARAMA has a preview of TRINITY #52, the final issue of the series, while COMIC BOOK RESOURCES ROBOT 6 blog annotates the 51st issue of the weekly series.

Tags:

batman and robin, Battle for the Cowl, doug mahnke, frank quitely, Geoff Johns, grant morrison, green lantern, ivan reis, kurt busiek, mark bagley, philip tan, Tony Daniel, trinity

Take a look at the final TRINITY cover

On 5/27 (that's next Wednesday, folks), TRINITY comes to a close. The weekly series, featuring the work of writer Kurt Busiek and artist Mark Bagley with a stellar supporting cast, will commemorate its historic final issue with a special cover by Bagley and inker John Dell, featuring -- you guessed it -- the trinity of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. The trio will be spotlighted on a gatefold cover that opens to three panels.

But enough build up. Check out the cover for yourselves.

Tags:

Batman, kurt busiek, mark bagley, Superman, trinity, weekly series, wonder woman

Mark Bagley on BATMAN? Sign me up

This July, fresh off his groundbreaking run on TRINITY, superstar artist Mark Bagley makes a pit stop in Gotham City to spend some time with the new Batman. Who? We're not telling. But, we will show you a few pages of Mr. Bagley's amazing artwork, which pairs him with writer Judd Winick. Make with the click below.

BATMAN #688 hits 7/8.

[gallery link="file"]

Tags:

Batman, judd winick, mark bagley, trinity

A few links of note for Tuesday

Yes, it's only Tuesday. But look at it this way -- that means a few more days of cool debuts here at The Source. Surely that's motivation enough?

• In case you missed it, the team at MYSPACE COMIC BOOKS previewed SUPERMAN #687 and SUPERMAN/BATMAN #59.

• Over at Comic Book Resources' Robot 6 blog, Tim O'Shea talks to R.E.B.E.L.S writer Tony Bedard about the series, and artist Claude St. Aubin's upcoming stint as artist.

• In Batman news, Neil Gaiman and Andy Kubert's conclusion to "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?" got positive review attention from Comic Book Resources, Newsarama's "Best Shots" team and IGN. IGN also previewed the first issue of BATMAN: BATTLE FOR THE COWL -- THE UNDERGROUND.

• Newsarama shows off some shiny TRINITY pages and Robot 6's Tom Bondurant continues to annotate every issue. Impressive, eh?

• The build up to BLACKEST NIGHT continues, with IGN previewing GREEN LANTERN #40, and reminded people about that page Eddie Berganza posted last week. Newsarama's Vaneta Rogers spoke to artist Ethan Van Sciver at length about the looks for the different Lantern Corps and their symbols.

• And in case you were still hungry for Red Circle info after our debuts last week, superstar artist J.G. Jones spoke to Newsarama's Matt Brady about his role in redesigning the characters for the DCU.

A few links of note for Monday

Yes, I know. The weekend is over. But not to worry -- some stuff happened over the weekend that will help make this, the first day of the work week a bit more bearable. Here are few links to pass the time with:

• Josh Elder, over at THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, gives the two ALL STAR SUPERMAN collections high marks, calling the series "a superbly crafted and meticulously structured work."

• IGN has a sneak peek at any and all GREEN LANTERN-related info for July, and in case you forgot, that's when a little thing called BLACKEST NIGHT launches. So, yeah. You may want to click on that.

• Newsarama has their weekly TRINITY preview up and Comic Book Resources' Robot 6 blog chimes in with their weekly annotations for the latest issue.

Tags:

all star superman, blackest night, chicago sun-times, comic book resources, green lantern, IGN, Newsarama, robot 6, trinity

Taking a moment to give the TRINITY team some kudos

This past Wednesday saw the publication of TRINITY #45… and as of today all the plots are written… the co-features are drawn and inked through issue 51… And Mark Bagley and Art Thibert are well into the art for issue #50.

So that’s seven more issues for you… and one and a half for us!

Without patting ourselves on the back here for doing what we set out to do (we SHOULD always do that)… I WOULD like to pat the guys who’ve done the Herculean part of the assignment for the last year! Weekly comics are hard… but we’ve done a few of them lately… and I was personally involved in the SUPERMAN titles when they were virtually weekly back in the day. But weekly comics are HARDER when you have a bunch of people represented on virtually half of the pages of every single issue for that year!

No one writer or artist did that on SUPERMAN… JG Jones DID do every single cover on 52—and that was amazing. The writing team of Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid and Geoff Johns did a quarter of each issue for a year. And only Paul Dini was in on the whole of COUNTDOWN… supervising another team of writers.

But Kurt Busiek, Mark Bagley, Fabian Nicieza and Art Thibert have touched the equivalent of about half an issue every single week for the last year! This is a simply phenomenal achievement!

For the artists this is a commitment of over 600 pages in one year and Kurt’s had his hand in every single page that’s 1160 pages in one year, sports fans!

Sure we’ve had help from co-featured players like Scott McDaniel, Tom Derenick and Mike Norton with Andy Owens and Wayne Faucher, too… and most of them had other gigs producing comics on time for DC this year!

(And you won’t catch leaving out recognizing the weekly work of colorists Pete Pantazis on the Bagley-Thibert section and Allen Passalaqua on the co-features—they haven’t missed an issue either. And while letterer Pat Brosseau HAS missed about 30 or 40 pages… it wasn’t his fault, AND that’s still 1100 pages on this one series!)

In an age where everyone can debate the ultimate merits of any single comic series (or novel, or movie, or TV show), nobody can argue with a great work ethic… I would like to offer a round of applause to the TRINITY team!

Tags:

52, art thibert, countdown, fabian nicieza, kurt busiek, mark bagley, mike carlin, trinity