At last! Somoene else is reading JL Elite. I've been reading from the beginning because of Green Arrow's involvement (he's back to bein' a ho, but thet's how Kelly wrote him in JLA, so it's not surprising). The Batgirl revelation was surprising, but there hasn't been any follow up (and I doubt theer will be, to tell the truth). I've been finding it interesting, but it seems to exist outside the DCU.

Steph, I see where you're coming from, but I think Bats has lept ahead because of the repurcussions from Identity Crisis.

P-C, not only is Ultimate Nightmare followed by another book (Ultimate Secret), there is a third series after that (unnamed yet). The whole thing, all written by Warren Ellis, is refferred to as the "Ultimate Trilogy" in Marvelspeak.

He's not capturing motion for shit, although his poses are pretty.

A common criticism of Greg Land's work. He's also been thought to rely on photo-reference a little too much (i.e. accused of virtually tracing pictures). When he was on the CrossGen title Sojourn, I found the same problem. Still, some of the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen in a comic book were found in that title.

He's also been thought to rely on photo-reference a little too much (i.e. accused of virtually tracing pictures).

THANK YOU.

I mean, I've heard similar criticism of Alex Ross, but I think the difference is one of talent and dynamism. Or Alex uses better models. Whatever. Greg's women are luminous, but they're neither heroic nor moving.

I can't stand Alex Ross, myself. Land I can take or leave (okay, I think he does nice covers), but at least his unfortunately static people don't look quite so over-endowed in the jowl department.

There's a certain sameness to all the faces Ross does, male or female. And they're all lifeless.

I like the jowliness. This may be because I first noticed his art of older heroes, and it was nice to see someone who'd done more than silvered temples to show age.

Yeah, though I think he needs to figure out how to work backwards from his Superman and Batman models now that he's painting present day stuff instead of Kingdom Come. Ross does a good job of capturing motion, IMO.

I think the main difference between Ross and Land is that Ross has actual people in costume that he uses for his reference, so his depictions are limited to the physical attributes they carry. Land seems to pull his stuff from magazine pictures (I remember seeing a cover of his for Sojourn analyzed and shown as a reversal of a Sports Illustrated swimsuit picture (dfferent hair and clothes, but exact pose)

Oh, damn. What's he thinking?

That was the example I remembered. I couldn't google it up yesterday. I was thinking it might have been something I read in a forum.

Some interesting notes from MegaCon, which I attended over the weekend:

Joe Quesada said that he expects the Astounishing X-Men break to last 4-5 months (my translation: at least 6). He also noted that House of M follows in the style of Avengers: Dissassembled and Astonishing.

He could not comment at all on Miracleman questions.

He ignored questions about who will replace Bendis and Maleev on Daredevil when their run is finished.

Marv Wolfman said at a panel that in New Teen Titans, Terra was written specifically to die, they were never going to redeem her. He was amazed about how much of the storyline actually translated into the Teen Titans animated storyline.

Original comic art costs a lot more than I was expecting. I did try to get some pages from Black Canary, but I didn't have enough dough to spare. I also wanted to bid on the orginal for the Manhunter #2 cover, but the opening bid price was $250.00.

I was able to get some decent deals (1/2 off Mage trade, the first 5 Manhunter issues for $8), but missed out on the Green Arrow #101 (Oliver Queen's funeral) that I've been looking for for about 2 years.

No Buffy figures stood out this year, although I did notice that they have a Spike figure in the blue shirt.

He ignored questions about who will replace Bendis and Maleev on Daredevil when their run is finished.

Aaah! Finished? I haven't even thought of that. Crap. I can't imagine it.