Marvel announces this year’s comics in their Trick-Or-Read program. Brian Azzarello explains why he left DC Comics. It’s Dan Slott’s birthday. All on Comic Book Club News for July 3, 2024.
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Episode Transcript:
Marvel’s Trick-Or-Read comics announced.
Brian Azzarello explains leaving DC.
It’s Dan Slott’s birthday!
This is Comic Book Club News for July 3, 2024.
Marvel Announces This Year’s Trick-Or-Read Comics:
Marvel is celebrating Halloween in July, announcing their selections for this year’s Trick-Or-Read. The annual event is sort of like Free Comic Book Day, in that stores can purchase copies of reprinted books from the publisher, and then give them away for free to kids in stores if they so choose. Alternately, they can trick them, I guess?
This year’s titles include: FANTASTIC FOUR: THE DINOSAUR FANTASTIC FOUR #1, reprinting FANTASTIC FOUR (2022) #13; SPIDER-BOY: THE WEB-LESS WONDER #1, reprinting SPIDER-BOY #1; VENOM: BEDLAM #1, reprinting VENOM (2021) #21; STAR WARS: KYLO REN – AGE OF RESISTANCE #1, reprinting the one-shot by Tom Taylor and Leonard Kirk; and SPIDEY AND HIS AMAZING FRIENDS #1.
All five books will come with a special Trick-Or-Read branding on the front. And if you want an idea of a good trick, stick the comics in a bowl of spaghetti and tell kids that’s the witch’s brains, and if they want the comics they’ll have to pull it out of her brains. Happy Halloween!
Brian Azzarello Explains Why He Left DC Comics:
Brian Azzarello is opening up about why he left working for DC. And in a fun twist, it’s because of politics.
Not Washington, D.C. politics, but the politics of working for a big company like DC Comics, as the writer explains in a new interview with PopVerse. In it, he briefly addresses the controversy over Batman: Damned, a book best known now for briefly featuring a shadowy depiction of Batman’s genitals. Later editions censored that art by Lee Bermejo, something that seems to have soured working for DC for both Azzarello and Bermejo.
Said Azzarello: “Am I mad? Yeah, I think DC handled it… they couldn’t have handled it any poorer.”
However, while Azzarello noted that in his estimation this was the breaking point for Bermejo, it was more of a gradual decline for him. Said Azzarello: “It used to be – for years, thank God – ‘Well, we want your take on this.’ They don’t want anybody’s take on anything. Things are pretty homogenous. The characters are more important than the creators that’re working on them. There’s nothing wrong with that. Just the way it is.”
Azzarello is now working on his own books, including DSTLRY’s excellent The Blood Brothers Mother, with his 100 Bullets collaborator Eduardo Risso. So don’t expect him to be back at DC any time soon.
Dan Slott Turns 57 Today:
And because things are slowing down news-wise pre-July 4th: happy birthday, Dan Slott! The writer turns 57 today, the same age as the number of sauces Heinz releases.
Slott is probably best known as one of the longest-running writers on Amazing Spider-Man, as well as lauded runs on She-Hulk, Silver Surfer, and many more. If you’re looking for something more deep cut, check out his excellent Batman book Arkham Asylum: Living Hell, or the great miniseries Spider-Man/Human Torch.
Slott just wrapped up his run on Superior Spider-Man, and is working on Spider-Boy for Marvel, which has turned out to be a breakaway hit.
Happy birthday, Dan! And a hot tip, if you hit him on the 57 the comics come out easier.
For Comic Book Club News, I’m Alex Zalben. Don’t hit Dan Slott, I was just joking. Thanks.
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