No 52: The New Era of DC Comics Looks Promising

Can it be? Am I actually excited about DC Comics? Again? I’ve made no bones about my aversion to the company-wide reboot of 2011, but it seems that starting this summer, DC is dropping the The New 52 branding and starting fresh with all-new books, and a diverse and wide-ranging roster of talent, including — full disclosure — several friends and alums from the SIUniverse! So maybe I’m a little biased.

Continue reading “No 52: The New Era of DC Comics Looks Promising”

With Batgirl, Is DC Comics Finally Getting It Right?

I have made no bones about my dislike of the direction DC Comics has taken in the last several years. From the sameness of the “DC House Style” aesthetics to the many narrative and PR missteps along the way, the New 52 has been divisive to say the least. While I’m not a fan of the overall strategy, I will admit that it hasn’t been all terrible. Most of Scott Snyder’s Bat books, Greg Pak on the Superman books, Cliff Chiang on Wonder Woman, and Bernard Chang on Green Lantern Corps were highlights, for sure1.

As a longtime DC fanboy, it’s always pained me to hop on the DC Comics bashwagon, but sometimes it was hard to root for the publisher that let this and this and this and this happen. Over the last several days, though, news of DC’s plans for the last quarter of 2014 and beyond are proving that maybe on my world,  the DC logo means hope, too.

Continue reading “With Batgirl, Is DC Comics Finally Getting It Right?”

Keiko Agena’s Super(fluous) Webseries is Anything But

Keiko Agena is best known for her roles as Lane Kim on the WB’s Gilmore Girls and as White House Press Secretary Britta Kagen on Scandal. When she’s not on television, you can find Keiko performing in LA with the improv group Renegade Justice Patrol.

Currently, she’s working on a project that needs your help to hit its Kickstarter goal: Super(fluous) is a comedic webseries that tells the story of what happens when superhero roommates stop being polite and start getting real. Or something like that.

With only a few days left in the campaign, I sat down with Keiko to talk about how she got involved with the project and how she’s actually not really a nerd.

Continue reading “Keiko Agena’s Super(fluous) Webseries is Anything But”

Building America by Ming Doyle

Last September, I mentioned how I was honored to coordinate and edit a digital comic in conjunction with the Smithsonian‘s touring “I Want the Wide American Earth” Asian American history exhibit.

(And once again, many thanks to Lawrence-Minh Bui Davis and Konrad Ng for allowing me to be part of such an honor).

This morning, in a ceremony at the U.S. Department of Labor, Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez officially inducted thousands of 19th century Chinese railroad workers into the Labor Hall of Honor. I wanted to share Ming Doyle‘s contribution to the Smithsonian project. Titled “Building America,” Ming‘s piece depicts the Asian Americans who risked their lives to connect the Transcontinental Railroad between 1865 and 1869.

Continue reading Building America by Ming Doyle”

Meanwhile, on The Internet

Apparently, while the Nerds were all consumed with Star Trek last week, other stuff was happening on the Internet. So here’s a brief rundown of things you might have missed because you were too busy exploring strange new worlds and seeking out new life and new civilizations. But first, let me get a little self-congratulations and self-promotion out of the way.

Welcome Pop Candy readers! And a big thanks to Whitney for giving us a little plug in her USA Today column. We hope you all enjoy the NOC community and join us as we look at “pop culture with a different perspective.”

Okay, that was the congrats, now here’s the shameless self-promo.

IWTWAEOver the weekend, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center opened its traveling Asian American history banner exhibit “I Want the Wide American Earth” at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles — after spending the last three months on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History. In honor of the exhibit’s West Coast opening, the Smithsonian APA Center unveiled an online digital comic I edited that features key moments in Asian American history illustrated by some of the top names in the comic industry, including Bernard Chang, Ming Doyle, GB Tran and my SIUniverse partners-in-crime Jerry Ma and Jef Castro.

You can see the comic online here. A downloadable version is still forthcoming.

So there’s that. And after the jump is other stuff on the web you should be reading:

Continue reading “Meanwhile, on The Internet”