Tag Archives: dmz

Entertainment Weekly Giveth and Taketh

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Entertainment Weekly seems to have a love/hate relationship with comic books.  Every few issues they tease those that receive their print magazine with some coverage and a listing of the top selling issues at a random comic store.  This may take up a page or two, clearly filler for a slow week.  But when it comes to comic books turned into movies, those are usually worthy some expanded coverage.

This week Entertainment Weekly receives a Cheer and Jeer from us concerning their comic coverage.

Cheer – Ken Tucker says DMZ is a comic you need to read, a sentiment we agree with.  He says in his blog post he says:

DMZ takes what could have been a trite notion — the idea of “bringing the war home” literally, by turning America into a war zone similar to those in Iraq or Afghanistan– and on the strength of a complex imagination, turns it into a comic book that needs no superheroics, because the heroism is performed by ordinary people you come to care about quickly.

It’s short but highlights a great comic that deserves a huge audience.  Interestingly enough it was Entertainment Weekly’s review of DMZ that got me to return to comics many years ago.

Jeer – In the latest issue (#1091) the magazine gives us a first look as to some of the movies we’ll be seeing this spring.  In a decent placement Kick-Ass is highlighted with a small write up of what we can expect.  However, Entertainment Weekly does the idiotic thing of giving away one of the fun twists of the movie concerning Christopher Mintz-Plasse’s character.  Way to ruin a spoiler for those who haven’t read this fun and violent series.  The movie is to be released this April 16.

Wood Donates Proceeds from DMZ 50 to Charity

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DMZ is one of the most political (and best) statements on any entertainment market today.  The comic book is brilliantly written by Brian Wood and reaches the 50 issue milestone on February 10th.  Wood announced on his blog that he’ll be donating some of his page rates from that issue to Stop Cluster Munitions, an issue he’s been involved with.

The pages that will be “donated” to this charity is a four-page silent story entitled Little Plastic Toys which is illustrated by Fabio Moon.

The coalition deals with the issue of cluster bombs and are advocating for the banning of the weapon:

Cluster bombs have killed and injured thousands of civilians during the last 40 years and continue to do so today. They cause widespread harm on impact and yet remain dangerous, killing and injuring civilians long after a conflict has ended. One third of all recorded cluster munitions casualties are children. 60% of cluster bomb casualties are injured while undertaking their normal activities.

As of this article 104 countries have signed the treaty to ban the weapon and 27 countries have ratified it.

In February 2007, 46 governments met in Oslo to endorse a call by Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre to conclude a new legally binding instrument in 2008 that prohibits the use, production, transfer and stockpiling of cluster munitions that cause unacceptable harm to civilians and provides adequate resources to assist survivors and clear contaminated areas.

Subsequent International Oslo Process meetings were held in Peru (May 2007), Austria (December 2007), and New Zealand (February 2008). 107 countries negotiated and adopted a treaty that bans cluster bombs and provides assistance to affected communities in May 2008 in Dublin, Ireland. The treaty was signed by 94 countries at the Signing Conference in Oslo in December 2008 and is now open for all countries to sign at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.See http://clusterprocess.org/ for more information.

Wood in his blog post also encourages everyone to see what their country is doing on the issue and take action as well as follow the organization on Twitter.

DMZ 50

DMZ 50

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The fiftieth issue of the DC/Vertigo series DMZ will be hitting the shelves soon.  Written by Brian Wood the series deals with the aftermath of a second American civil war and the stalemate that exists in Manhattan which now sits as a demilitarized zone that separates the two nations.  It’s one of the best political commentaries in the comic book form today.

Artists such as Riccardo Burchielli, Ryan Kelly, Rebekah Isaacs, Fábio Moon, JP Leon and others will be contributing to the issue.  In addition to the collection of DMZ self-contained short stories by Wood and the above artists, there will be one page illustrated text stories, by the likes of Jim Lee, Eduardo Risso, Dave Gibbons, Philip Bond, and Lee Bermejo.

This issue will well be worth the $3.99 price tag and if you haven’t been reading it, now’s a great time to catch up through trade paperbacks.

DMZ = Iraq?

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DMZ is a brilliant series written by Brian Wood and published by DC as part of it’s adult Vertigo comics series. The story takes place in the aftermath of a new civil war in the United States. The country is divided in two with the “Free States” made up of militias, etc. holding a large portion of the country and the traditional United States government holed up in New England. New York City is cut off as a DMZ patrolled by the United Nation’s forces and a Haliburton like force called Trustwell.

What started off as a study of journalism in a war zone shifted recently with a story arc involving the election of leadership in the DMZ. Both forces vied for office with a third option called the Delgado Nation entering the fray. Having just finished the sixth and final part of the arc I can’t help but wonder if this was a metaphor or the elections that have taken place in Iraq.

While sides tried to prop up a puppet government another option, not popular with those involved but popular with the people, decided to throw it’s hat in the ring. Could Delgado Nation be a metaphor for Muqtada Al-Sadr’s Iraqi political forces in comic book form? A parallel exists of people giving their lives to vote, violence preventing them, and corruption in the counting all around.

The series has take a definite shift from it’s early issues and is moving from surviving a war zone towards how you govern a nation. If nothing else DMZ is THE must read political comic book.

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