Doom Patrol is coming back!

I'm very pleased to hear that one of my favorite comics and My Greatest Influence is returning on July 3rd!

Gerard Way's incarnation of the DP is getting a new series in DOOM PATROL: WEIGHT OF THE WORLDS; Way is going to be joined by Jeremy Lambert as co-writer, and a slew of artists will be illustrating the series, starting with James Harvey - to be followed by Doc Shaner, Nick Pitarra, Becky Cloonan (who was involved in Way's original Doom Patrol pitch) and more. Here's the blurb:

Gerard Way and the World’s Strangest Super Heroes return in an all-new series that takes them beyond the borders of time and space! The Doom Patrol will go on an epic road trip around the solar system, facing off against the unusual and bizarre including the fanatical fitness fiends of planet Orbius and the Marathon Eternal. Big changes are coming for these unusual heroes, including Robotman coming to terms with his new life as a human.

I've mentioned loads of times how Grant Morrison's run on Doom Patrol is the biggest influence on my work, but that influence hasn't been all that apparent in Geek-Girl - until now. With the series now ongoing, things are going to get weirder, beginning with the introduction of the morally-dubious Johnny Carlyle in Geek-Girl #3. Johnny's got an offer for Ruby Kaye in Geek-Girl #4 (out now) and that's gonna lead to weirdness, starting in the Extra-Sized Geek-Girl #5, coming to Kickstarter on May 29th - and Previewing in a brand new FREE Geek-Girl Digital Comic out on May 4th, Free Comic Book Day!

Celebrating all of this. I'm going to be running a Geek-Girl/Doom Patrol Viral Giveaway (that will include Doom Patrol: Weight of the Worlds #1) in May - and if you're not already on the Geek-Girl Mailing List, you can join up to get News on both the Giveaway and the new Free Digital GG Comic - here! :)

Creator Talks podcast!

You can Listen to me bangin' on about Doom Patrol and saying 'cool' too much on the brand new Creator Talks Podcast here! :)

Doom Patrol #5 Review

*No Spoilers*

It's been a wild ride so far in Gerard Way, Nick Derington and Tamra Bonvillain's Doom Patrol, and this is the issue where the team finally come together (kind of)...

Torminax and The Vectra are torturing and destroying Danny, and using him to produce meat. Now that his comicbook-creation-made-flesh Casey Brinke has got her head around the revelations of who she truly is, she and Danny are out to assemble the Doom Patrol and stop the bad guys, via Casey's ability to drive Danny (now an ambulance) through time!

If all of that sounds 'WTF' to you, you're probably new to the world of my greatest influence, the Grant Morrison-written era of the Doom Patrol, now retooled under DC's Young Animal imprint. For those who read Morrison's era, Doom Patrol #5 has several familiar gems, as robot-with-a-human-brain Cliff Steele and former fighter pilot-housing-radioactive-negative-energy-spirit Larry Trainor make their proper comeback this issue and are reunited with sentient former-transvestite-street-now-ambulance, Danny.

There's joy for long-term fans in the lines spouted by no-nonsense, sweary Cliff (as well as the flamboyant words of Danny) as he and Larry go full force against The Vectra, Casey's Dad Torminax and an evil version of Casey - Cliff and Larry aided by associates including their sometime team-mate, Flex Mentallo, 'Man of Muscle Mystery' - and Danny dispatches Casey through time to prevent things from ever getting to the state they're currently in - 'Dannyland' all but destroyed.

Pros and cons of the issue: the art's great and things are firing on all cylinders with the heroes' characters. The villains aren't as out-there as they could be and the time travel element is impossible to follow; Casey: "But Past-Me is sitting in a prison right now. If she dies, I'll cease to exist, and everyone in Dannyland we're here to rescue won't make it." Danny: "Don't worry about that. Just head into Past-Danny..." But it's all weird fun, there are also some nice interludes featuring feline DP-member-to-be Lotion (the team don't fully assemble this issue) and the team's former leader Niles Caulder, and the ending throws us a curveball tying back into the first issue that promises to take the weird up another notch.

Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol was my favorite comicbook of its time, and Gerard Way's Doom Patrol is my favorite comicbook out now. You can check out a 4-Page Preview of Doom Patrol #5 here!

Doom Patrol #1 Review

*NO SPOILERS*

*

I have anticipated this comic release more than any other ever; Grant Morrison's take on Doom Patrol was one of my favorite runs on a comic, as well as being the greatest influence on my own work - its weirdness felt in almost all of my comics, including The Almighties, Geek-Girl, and Cabra Cini: Voodoo Junkie Hitwoman.

The new DP is the fourth attempt at relaunching the book successfully since the run that began written by Paul Kupperberg; which Morrison then came in and shook things up on, before handing (what was left of) the Doom Patrol to Rachel Pollack.

Though they had their moments (for me, most notably the Rita Farr-centric issue during Keith Giffen's run) - subsequent returns to the team just weren't out there enough, after what Morrison turned things into - and didn't sustain an audience.

Enter Gerard Way, whom also cites Morrison DP as a big influence (something evidenced in his Umbrella Academy mini-series)... and I had high hopes for this new incarnation.

I'm very pleased to say, it doesn't disappoint. In fact, it's better than I'd hoped for.

Following an ambiguous and pleasingly weird opening page (including a bomb marked 'Grandma'), we enter the world of ambulance driver Casey Brinke. She and her medi-partner Sam are running red lights, bringing an old feller to the hospital.

Job done, it's break time - and while Casey plays an arcade game, Sam waxes lyrical on hidden universes and posits the idea of one being contained in his gyro (the book's regular cover has a peel-and-reveal gyro on it).

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In another world, Doom Patrol's Main Man Cliff 'Robotman' Steele is on a mission, culminating in him pushing a button that blasts him out of said world and into Casey & Sam's.

I won't reveal too much more, so as to avoid spoilers...

That said, the feeling, reading this book, was akin to watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens - it feels like coming home. Way and Derrington's debut taps into previous incarnations, including the most recent one by Keith Giffen, Matthew Clark & Ron Randall, which reintroduced us to Danny - the sentient sometime street, sometime world; most recently island (discounting the New 52 incarnation) - who plays an integral part here.

Using a couple of different styles, Nick Derington does a nice job of illustrating the darker and more bizarre elements, alongside Casey Brinke's world (our entry point to the bizarreness of the Doom Patrol) and her wide-eyed disposition.

The Weird is back, but fresh at the same time - and I am so in for this ride...

* Cover featured may not accurately represent the gyro. ;)

Doom Patrol #1 Preview

The Grant Morrison era of Doom Patrol is one of my favorite comic runs ever, and the greatest influence on my own work. Gerard Way & Nick Derington's new incarnation - which also launches Way's DC Young Animal imprint - looks set to tap into that, as well bringing something fresh to the mix - and as a result I've never looked forward to a comic launch more.

Doom Patrol #1 is out on 14th Sept, and you can check out a Preview below (the text on page 2 is hard to make out, but this is how it was released)...

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Look for my Review here on Wednesday!

My Greatest Influence

There's been a big announcement: Gerard Way - writer of The Umbrella Academy and former frontman of My Chemical Romance - is getting his own line of comics at DC. The imprint, called Young Animal, will initially have four titles - all written and/or overseen by Way - Shade the Changing Girl, Mother Panic, Cave Carson has a Cybernetic Eye (you can find out more about them here); and the one I'm most excited for - a relaunched Doom Patrol.

I was introduced to the Doom Patrol with the launch of DC's Vertigo line when Rachel Pollack took over as writer; her first arc transitioning from Grant Morrison's run, with Richard Case continuing to illustrate, before the title became more Pollack's own style. There was plenty to like in Pollack's Doom Patrol, and it also turned me on to Morrison's - which became one of my favorite ever comic runs and, as it seems to be with Gerard Way, the biggest influence on my comics work.

Under writer Paul Kupperberg, the DP had become more like a Teen Titans/X-Men-type book than its original vision and gotten a lot less weird.

Grant Morrison came on board and re-imagined it - keeping the most recognizable of the Patrol, the world-weary robot-with-a-human-brain Cliff Steele; sidelining and de-superheroing Josh Clay, making him basically Niles Caulder(the Chief of the team)'s assistant; weirding up teen heroine Rhea Jones a.k.a. Lodestone - she came out of a coma faceless, running around naked (her modesty protected by her long, straggly red hair - overgrown due to the coma) - with a big eye below her head. He also took another DP stalwart, Larry Trainor a.k.a. Negative Man and merged him with doctor Eleanor Poole to form enigmatic hermaphrodite hero/ine Rebis, introduced Crazy Jane (a schizophrenic with multiple personalities - each with their own super power), and Dorothy Spinner, a simian-like young girl who could bring her imaginary friends to life.

This crew, and the bizarre threats they faced, captured my imagination like nothing else ever has, and its bizarreness has influenced some of my work - notably in The Almighties villain, masked eccentric pseudo-Nazi White Out - who will be returning in my Cabra Cini: Voodoo Junkie Hitwoman mini-series late this year.

Cabra wouldn't exist without Pollack, Case & Morrisons' Doom Patrols, either, and I even homage/recreate panels from Pollack & Case's first issue in her mini-series, in pages illustrated by R.D. Ricci.

Doom Patrol #64

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Cabra Cini: Voodoo Junkie Hitwoman #2

Another of my creations who wouldn't exist without the inspiration of the DP is villain Mr. Mash-Up, who can tap into people's minds and transform the vessel he houses into clones of whomever they most fear/hate - before transferring his consciousness into the clone and releasing it, shedding his skin, to reign torture on their lives.

Mr. Mash-Up has made a number of appearances - in IF-X, Pandemonium Spotlight, Geek-Girl #0, the free Cabra Cini digital comic Dark New Year - and will be returning in the Geek-Girl mini-series, also slated for release late this year.

But back to Gerard Way's Doom Patrol. This appears to be an incarnation evolved from a mooted DP pitch Way made with artist Becky Cloonan that he was at the time unable to follow through with due to how busy he was with My Chemical Romance. But with the band now retired, Way has teamed with artist Nick Derington to bring the book to life!

Gerard Way & Nick Derington

The blurb from DC reads, "This September, in the spirit of Grant Morrison's legendary run on the series, along with other classic incarnations of the characters, writer Gerard Way and artist Nick Derington will put their unique stamp on the world's strangest heroes taking on the universe's strangest villains." Judging by his Twitter feed, Way is very excited to bring us this book, and it's something I can't wait for!

For updates on it, a good place to go is http://mygreatestadventure80.blogspot.co.uk - and I don't imagine this will be the last I'll be posting about Way & Derington's Doom Patrol here... ;)