Superman: Emperor Joker

The trade paperback of the entire Emperor Joker storyline by DC Comics, was released this week and featured some of my favorite covers and my first exposure to the artist Ed McGuiness. Ed is a talented artist who really caught my eye pencilling the Superman/Batman series and Majestic. I would call his style very chiselled and a hybrid between a very cartoon style combined with classic big hero look. His work can be seen in the Thundercats mini as well as many other series. He has signed an exclusive contract with Marvel in May 2006, shifting away from DC, where much of his most notable work has been. His first work was a variant cover for Civil War #3.

Emperor Joker has taken control of the world and "written" in his own way. Rewriting history and the way the world thinks. It has become a completely irrational, much like the psycho genius of the title. It is up to Superman to make things right...

The story was most notably collaborated on by Jeph Loeb, who has produced a prodigious amount of work in comics, tv, and movies as well as Joe Kelly, a favorite partner of Chris Bachalo and his production company, Man of Action.

You've seen Jeph's work everywhere... He has written and produced on Smallville, Lost, and most recently Heroes. (I Love all Three!!) For DC he had two banner years, succesfully writing the Batman: Hush in 2003 and the Superman/Batman series, where he spun-off Supergirl into her own hit series (Who doesn't love Supergirl?)

Joe Kelly has written some of my favorite comic books, although not necessarily critically acclaimed. M. Rex was cancelled after 2 issues. Steampunk, however, was one of my favorite stories, telling the tale of a displaced man with a blast furnace in his chest in a altered Victorian Age. But his most contemporary hit is with Man of Action, with the telvevision series, Ben 10.

Ben 10 is a show about Ben Tennyson and his cousin, Gwen, and grandpa, Max, and his alien watch and the adventures that ensue. The watch allows him to transform into ten alien forms with all their respective powers as he fights threats both terrestrial and beyond.
(SPOILER: He has gained the power to transform into more than ten alien forms, the watch is called the Omnitrix)

The show really progresses well and each of the characters has evolved throughout the show while keeping each half hour episode accessible to first time viewers. In fact, shortly after its debut it was renewed for two more season as it was one of the most popular shows on the Cartoon Network. If you are a fan of comic books and Joe Kelly, Duncan Rouleau, Steven T. Seagle, or Joe Casey, I highly recommend taking a peak, no matter what age you are.

So while I started this post with a graphic novel I picked up, as I typed, I really delved intothe creators and their other works. All of which have left me very satisfied... I can't to go back and read some of them now!

Note: Thank goodness Wikipedia exists, it's a great resource of information for all things, especially for this range of topics. also, just discovered that they redid the Man of Action site, looking forward to catching up!