News Wed, 02 May 2007 02:16:32 CST Vu

'BRAVE' NEW WORLD
written Jeremy James
published in WIZARD #188 (Jun 2007)
www.wizarduniverse.com

WIZARD #188 (Jun 2007)

Blue Beetle, Lobo, Batman, Adam Strange, Supergirl and Green Lantern may seem like an odd set of playmates, but this summer, they're all on their way to Mark Waid's sandbox, The Brave and the Bold, the new ongoing DC series that launched in February and continues to roll through the summer. In his own team-up with legendary artist George Perez (JLA/Avengers), Waid plans to change the classic series for a new generation of fans with a transformed format.

"Unlike the old series, we're a lot less structurally regimented," Waid revealed. "You get to see unbilled guest-stars galore do their thing as they pop up unexpectedly. Wait for a surprise appearance at arc's end this summer by a long-unseen fan-favorite DC group."

While Waid, a noted continutiy guru of all things DC, won't tell Wizard who teh mystery guests are, we did get him to share some of his all-time favorite The Brave and the Bold stories from years past.

5. BATMAN AND SUPERBOY (Brave and the Bold #192)
"This issue is just jaw-droppingly poignant," noted Waid. "It was absolutely the first time any writer underscored the profound difference between inexperienced Superboy and experienced Superman."

4. BATMAN AND SGT ROCK (Brave and the Bold #124)
"It's one of the strangest DC Comics of all time. The villains decide the best way to defeat Batman and Sgt. Rock is to force artist Jim Aparo to alter the story to progress to their advantage. Re-reading it was a great primer for working with Grant Morrison, to whom that sort of thing happens five times a week and is no big deal."

3. BATMAN AND BLACK CANARY (Brave and the Bold #91)
"It is one of the very best-drawn comics of all time. It was drawn by Nick Cardy, who was at the absolute peak of his form here. At conventions I'll buy up copies and hand them to my artist friends just to watch their jaws drop.

2. ATOM AND FLASH (Brave and the Bold #52)
"It doesn't have a particularly memorable plot, but is one of the very best-drawn comics of all time, period. This issue is by Alex Toth, one of the finest comics artist who ever lived but drew only one Brave and the Bold."

1. BATMAN AND HAWK & DOVE (Brave and the Bold #181)
"Top of their list would have to be any of the Alan Brennert-scripted issues of the early 1980s. But my favorite is issue ##181. It's a story about two former teenage heroes who've grown up and have to deal with a world that's not the 1960s anymore."

News Sun, 21 Jan 2007 23:11:35 CST GPz

PITTSBURGH COMICON 2007 (27-29 Apr 2007) JORNADAS DE CÓMIC DE AVILÉS 2007 - Aviles, Spain (Sep 2007)

The Pittsburgh Comic-Con will be the last national convention and public appearance that I plan to be doing until 2009. (I say "national" because I will be attending a comics festival in Aviles, Spain in September, making up for a cancellation by me in 2004 due to my psoriasis.) I've had several requests for guest appearances in the last few days and will likely receive more so I figure I should give this official notice which should, hopefully, save some organizers some money on phone calls.

Of course, I should now explain why I've made this somewhat unusual decision.

A huge part of it is my commitment to drawing a monthly title again.

I've just started the third issue of THE BRAVE & THE BOLD and want to continue keeping the book on time. As everyone knows, I put a lot of work into a page and I don't want to compromise the quality of the work by breaking my momentum too often. And, let's face it, I'm just not as fast as I was in my youth.

I also want to devout the bulk of my free time to my wife, Carol, and her personal and professional pursuits, which sometimes require a bit of traveling. I don't want Carol to feel that she always has to be squeezed into a crowded schedule of convention appearances. After so many years working her life around my sometime crazy schedule and having to endure many weekends apart she's pretty much due some time wherein I happily play her groupie and camp follower. Hey, we've been married over a quarter of a century and it still aches when we're apart.

Anyway, I hope everyone understands my decision and I just want to add that I'm so incredibly flattered by the attention so many convention organizers and comic shop managers have given me throughout my career. It's just for a short while and I will miss seeing the fans during that time, but I hope to make up for that when 2009 comes along.

I should also mention that this decision isn't absolute. If I'm offered an opportunity to attend a show in an area that my wife would like to visit, then negotiations are possible. But, unless my Carol is traveling beside me, I will be pretty much hunched over my drawing board doing what I love to do and have been allowed to do for over three decades-- create comics.

Thanks for listening.

Take care,
George Pérez