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August 29th, 2007 5:04 AM

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Comixtreme August Newsletter

Bulletin:

EVERYTHING BUT IMAGINARY #228: THE ASTONISHING RUN OF MIKE WIERINGO by Blake Petit

I’m sitting here, staring at a blank word document, not knowing really how to begin this week’s column. I never know how to begin columns like this one. I never know how to say good-bye to someone. You’ve all heard the news by now, of course, that this weekend comic book artist Mike Wieringo passed away. We all were stunned. He was only 44, he was reportedly in great health… he was still working. I hope this doesn’t sound callous, but most of the time, when a comic book professional dies, it’s someone whose working life is more or less done, someone who has gone into retirement. But today I walked into my Friendly Neighborhood Comic Shop, and there was Wieringo’s Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four #4 still on the shelf of recent releases, staring up at me, and I felt the hole in my gut grow even worse.

I’m going to be honest with you – I’m surprised at how upset I was when I heard the news. It comes down to the reasons we read comics. Some people follow artists from project to project. I’m not like that – I follow a good writer from one book to another, and I just sort of hope for good art. Not to say I don’t think art is important, but most of the time, I’ll suffer a bad artist for a good enough story. The reverse is not true – no matter how good an artist is, if I hate the story, I won’t get the comic. There are very, very few artists good enough to transcend that rule for me.

Mike Wieringo was one of them.

’Ringo rose up from the ranks in the early 1990s, truly making his mark along with Mark Waid on The Flash. That’s where most people first noticed his work, myself included. In a time period where everyone was trying to be the next Todd McFarlane or the next Rob Liefeld, he was trying to be something different. He was the first Mike Wieringo, and no doubt, he’ll be the only one. While other artists were trying to look sophisticated by adding ridiculous amounts of superfluous detail lines and simultaneously drawing women who, in the real world, would require major reconstructive surgery just to stand up straight, ’Ringo brought forth an art style that took many people aback. It wasn’t hyper-detailed. It wasn’t hyper-realistic.

It was just hyper.

His comics weren’t photorealistic. His work definitely had what one could legitimately call more of a “cartoony” quality than a lot of the so-called “hot” artists of the time. But unlike most of those hot artists – hell, unlike a lot of the hot artists of today – every one of his pages was alive. He understood storytelling and composition. His faces were expressive and emotive. His panels were supercharged with action. You could close your eyes and imagine a Mike Wieringo panel bursting to life right in front of you. In retrospect, it only seems natural that his big break came on Flash – Wally West was the only character in comics fast enough to keep up with him. You looked at those pages and you saw something magical. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about superheroes, science fiction, fantasy or a freakin’ funny animal book, one glance and I thought, “THIS is what an action comic is SUPPOSED to look like!”

It wasn’t enough to do a great job with the Flash, though. ’Ringo did not one, but two great runs on different Spider-Man titles. (The best – perhaps the ONLY good thing – to come from The Other was ’Ringo’s series of alternate covers featuring the many costumes of Spider-Man). He teamed up with Chuck Dixon for a fantastic, high-flying Robin stint. He did an all-too-brief, but beautiful run on Adventures of Superman. And with his good friend Todd DeZago, he co-created the fantasy epic Tellos, a book that sits on a shelf next to Leave it to Chance as the all-time evidence of the thesis: “The only possible reason this title isn’t a smash hit is because people are idiots.”

Then there was that other thing he did. Most creators will be lucky if, in their entire career, they get to do even one run on an established character that can be termed “definitive.” ’Ringo did two, both with Mark Waid. They did their first hit together with Flash. They did their greatest hit when they came together for Fantastic Four. It was a run that restored the team to greatness – so great, in fact, that Marvel seems to have completely forgotten what to do with the title since their departure. And as wonderful as Waid’s stories were, they wouldn’t have been nearly as good if most of them hadn’t been drawn by ’Ringo.

I won’t presume to mourn the man himself. I was never lucky enough to meet him, even for a few minutes at a convention to tell him he drew the best incarnation of the Thing ever (and if you disagree with that, you are wrong). He was, from all accounts, a man as kind and friendly as he was talented, and dozens of his true friends – those with holes in their hearts that dwarf my own – have already given their testimonials all over the internet.

Instead, I’ll mourn him as a fan, one who respects and admires his talent, and knows that the world is a sadder place for its absence. It hurts to know I’ll never see a new ’Ringo drawing of Ben Grimm or the Flash. That if Tellos ever returns DeZago will have the unenviable task of replacing the perfect partner. That he’ll never get to draw the Harry Potter comic a quick glance at his DeviantArt page proves he was born to illustrate. And that we’ll never get to meet the hundreds… maybe thousands of yet-to-be created characters who were simply waiting to be given life the way only his pencil could give it.

This is a world that needed Mike Wieringo. It’s a world that just doesn’t seem quite as alive anymore.

REVIEWS

BATMAN AND LOBO: DEADLY SERIOUS #1 REVIEW by Liam Creswick - Batman and Lobo team-up to stop a plague that turns women into gun wielding maniacs. http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?p=519230#post519230

THE SPIRIT #9 REVIEW by Blake M. Petit - The man who killed the Spirit rises from the grave! http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36335

X-MEN #202 REVIEW by Gabriel Diaz - The New X-Men with Colossus and Kitty, get their hands dirty against the Marauders. http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36336

CAPTAIN AMERICA #29 REVIEW by Terry Verticchio - Bucky’s desire for revenge hits a snag and its name is Red Skull. http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36254

WOLVERINE #56 REVIEW by Ryan Broussard - Logan takes a few shots to the head…and the chest…oh and the arms…and…you get the idea… http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36308

MOVIES

SUPERBAD REVIEW by Andrea Speed - Two guys search for booze in hopes of hooking up with women. http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36341

DOCTOR STRANGE DVD REVIEW by Liam Creswick - Dr. Strange trains in a mountain city in Tibet to become the Sorcerer Supreme and stop the dread Dormammu from entering our dimension. http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36206

STARDUST REVIEW by Blake M. Petit - When a star falls to Earth, can a young man recover it in the name of love? http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36131

THE TICK VS SEASON TWO DVD REVIEW by Andrea Speed - It's another helping of two fisted blue justice in this collection. Remember to honk if you love justice! http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36193

COLUMNS

FOUR COLOR COMMENTARIES #1 : Digesting The Comic To Feast On The World - http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36149

VIEWS FROM THE LONGBOX #1 -- ORIGINS - http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36210

SDCC 2007: THE TWO CONS ~ JOE ILLIDGE - http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35997

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE #41: THE FINAL NIGHT - http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36142

EVERYTHING BUT IMAGINARY #229: CAREER CHANGE - http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36285

VIEWS FROM THE LONGBOX #2- OH THANK HEAVEN - http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36300

FOUR COLOR COMMENTARIES #2 :Finding A Road Map To Understanding The Super Hero - http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36282

FEATURES

WALT DOES WIZARD WORLD: A 2007 CONVENTION ADVENTURE - http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36258

SNAP DECISIONS #1 - http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35803

2 IN 1 SHOWCASE PODCASTS:

TWENTY-EIGHT: TEEN TITANS - http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36019

TWENTY-NINE: NEIL GAIMAN AND STARDUST - http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36110

THIRTY: THE AVENGERS - http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36225

THIRTY-ONE: ADVENTURE HEROES AND BOOSTER GOLD - http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=3

NEWS

MARVEL CREATORS WIN BIG AT 2007 EISNER AWARDS - http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35969

MYSPACE AND DARK HORSE COMICS LAUNCH NEW WEB-COMIC - http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35963

CONAN TO RELAUNCH - http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35965

SILVER SURFER'S LAST RIDE? - http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36041

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