Hey, team! Welcome back to the Weekly Up-Dave!

Last week we had a long post talking about DC’s Supergirl Next Door that featured a new Green Arrow & Black Canary story by myself and Dylan Dietrich. I am thrilled to share that next Saturday, Valentine’s Day, I will be doing a signing for the book alongside fellow contributors/writers Dorado Quick (who we did an interview with last week) and Rosie Knight.

Golden Apple Comics is one of the most legendary stores here in Los Angeles and getting to do a signing there is an honor. Huge shout out to Dorado for putting it together. I am so eager to go down, sign books, and meet LA comic book fans I don’t know. And maybe I will be lucky enough to see some old friends as well!

Can’t meet me in LA but are going to be in the Pacific Northwest the first weekend in March? Do I have some good news for you! I will be at Emerald City Comic Con from March 5th-March 8th, at Artist Alley Table J21. This will be the first show in a bit I’m not sharing a table with the great Chris Robinson. HOWEVER. He will be at Artist Alley Table J22, so our two-man creator act will continue, and we will have more real estate for it than ever before!

Please feel free to bring as many books as you would like me to sign and prepare to buy some books from me. I will let you know I have scoured the Earth for the last copies of the Man-Bat Trade Paperback Collection. This may be the final show I sell that book at until it gets reprinted (if it ever gets reprinted, which is mostly on my own success at this point, or the Man-Bat character being used in other media), I will also have two full sets of Man-Bat issues that I have also sought out. And there will be a lot of other fun stuff: Turtles stuff, DC anthologies, History of the DCU hardcovers, and more. I will talk about that more in the weeks ahead leading up to the show!

New Comics I Read: DC’s Absolute Books (Absolute Batman by Scott Snyder & Nick Dragotta, Absolute Wonder Woman by Kelly Thompson & Hayden Sherman, Absolute Flash by Jeff Lemire & Nick Robles and Absolute Martian Manhunter by Deniz Camp & Javier Rodriguez).

DC’s Absolute line of books has been a massive success, as a longtime DC fan, former employee, and guy who contributed to the New History of the DC Universe as a researcher? It very well may be one of the most successful things they have ever done, and all of the reasons for that was on display last week when DC released not one but four of their six current Absolute books and they were each an absolute delight to read. Quick hits for each.

Absolute Batman #16: every issue of this book has been great, the issues drawn by Nick Dragotta are masterpieces. One of our great living comic book artists and someone who has a complete control and feel for this world. And with this issue in particular Nick gets to draw both Absolute Batman and Absolute Wonder Woman in a fantastic team-up. And one of Scott Snyder’s greatest gifts is on display (and he has many) he can write a single issue and or a short story better than anybody. He’s done many epics, crossover events, and longer story arc masterfully as well but I will always be first in line for a Snyder single issue or short story, he always hits a grand slam with them. This issue was my favorite of the series and one of my favorite Scott-written issues ever.

Absolute Wonder Woman #16: This has been my favorite of the Absolute books. I think Kelly Thompson and Hayden Sherman’s recreation of the Wonder Woman mythology has been flawless. I have spoken before about how Hayden is one of the best and one of my favorite comic artists working today, having done his book and Batman: Dark Patterns by them last year was a phenomenal career moment for them. I am embarassed to tell you this book has been my first experience with Kelly Thompson who is an outstanding writer with a large back catalogue. This has been my first Kelly Thompson book and I need to go back and read the rest, and I intend to. Also this book has introduced the Absolute version of Zatanna, a character near and dear to my heart, and I LOVE the take so far.

Absolute Flash #11: Jeff Lemire’s current run at DC Comics has been incredible. His run on JSA one of my favorite ongoing series and this book is right alongside it. I love the journey Wally West is on and this issue where we explore the greater connection he has to Barry Allen’s experiments. Also…I can’t say enough about Nick Robles. A tremendous artist. The Flash is very near and dear to me, of all these characters I was least excited about seeing a redesign of the Flash’s world, but man…Nick Robles has done a brilliant job designing Absolute Flash, the Rogues, Grodd, and his storytelling is just as strong as his design work. Lovely stuff.

Absolute Martian Manhunter #8: There’s not much about this book that I can say more intelligently than everyone else has. It is a complete creative triumph and the fact that it has sold so well makes me believe in the future of creativity in comics and all of us being able to push storytelling forward and not only challenge ourselves and the audience. Deniz Camp and Javier Rodriguez are in the middle of a masterpiece here. Also they are about to do a brilliant Absolute version of a character I have always struggled to understand. I’m excited!!!

Old Comic I Read: Spider-Man Brand New Day Omnibus Vol. 2 by Marc Guggenheim, Dan Slott, Joe Kelly, Fred Van Lente, John Romita Jr, Barry Kitson, Paulo Siqueira, Phil Jimenez, Marcos Martin, and more.

Since leaving DC full-time I have been revisiting a lot of the formative Marvel books of my lifetime. In particular? I have been reading a lot of Spider-Man stuff and reconnecting with that part of my fandom. The Brand New Day era is one of the greatest periods in modern Spider-Man history. This is when Amazing Spider-Man was coming out three times a month, overseen by the great editor Steve Wacker, had a fantastic rotating cast of writers, and often was being drawn by some of the best artists in super hero comics. This is the closest thing the 21st century has had to the beloved triangle era of Superman books in the early 90s. These comics are a blast to read and revisit, and I’m very excited for the last omnibus of this era to come out later this year so I can finish rereading this era. Also as someone who worked on comics that came out bi-weekly and weekly…I am just in awe of the consistent level of quality the editors and creators pulled off with this run on this book.

New TV Show I Am Watching: A Man On the Inside Season 2 on Netflix. I am a lifelong Ted Danson fan, and history will remember him as one of the greatest television actors we ever had: Cheers, Becker, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Damages, Bored to Death, a brief and lucrative stop to NCIS, The Good Place, and now his current starring vehicle A Man On the Inside, developed by another all-time TV legend Mike Schur based on a Spanish documentary called The Mole Agent. The show focuses on an older man who works for a private eye and goes undercover helping with specialized cases, and comedy ensues. The first season followed Danson’s character Charles Nieuwendyk going undercover at a retirement home as he comes to terms with getting older and the passing of his wife. This season as a brilliant change of locale he’s at a small liberal arts college to investigate a stolen Laptop that’s worth over four hundred million dollars to the school, and finding new love in the process. Danson as always is excellent but the cast on this season is pretty remarkable and worth noting: Mary Steenburgen, David Strathairin, Gary Cole, Jill Talley, Max Greenfield, Constance Marie, Lisa Gilroy, Eugene Cordero, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Lilah Richcreek Estrada, and Stephen McKinley Henderson.

Old Movie I Watched: Stand By Me, Directed by Rob Reiner. This is my favorite Rob Reiner movie and one of my favorite movies period. Growing up it felt as much like a right of passage as it did a movie. Watching it as an adult I am even more impressed by how fantastic the four lead boys are, how lean the movie is, and how well-balanced everything is. The boys are very sweet to each other, give each other a hard time, but they are never mean or annoying. It’s a very sincere portrait of what it’s like to be a young boy with your crew of friends. And it’s also a heartbreaking look at how early things like social status, financial issues, and grief can impact how you grow up.

New Music I Am Listening To: I Used To Go To This Bar from Joyce Manor. I started listening to Joyce Manor in 2014 when I graduated from college. I have fond memories of walking through New York City after working a full day at the DC office when there was light snow fall listening to their first few records and adoring them instantly. These Pop Punk kings of Torrance, California have never released a bad album, the same way they haven’t released a song that is more than three minutes in length. They are always challenging their musicianship and songwriting but they are consistent in delivering powerful pop punk albums in the most efficient length of time they can. This album is the best they have done since their 2016 release Cody. My two favorite songs being “All You Put Me Through” and “Grey Guitar”.

That’s it this week for the Weekly Up-Dave. We will be back next week with something undeniably exciting, romantic, and bold for the week before Valentine’s Day.

And maybe I will see you at a comic book store signing or convention really soon.

Until then?

Stay safe!

—Dave Wielgosz