Batman in King Arthur's Court

DC will be reprinting the classic story "Sir Batman At King Arthur's Court!" from Batman No. 36 (August-September 1946) in January 2013 as part of the Batman: The Dark Knight Archives Vol. 8. This is an interesting Connecticut-Yankee-type story pitting Batman against Mordred and Morgan le Fay to save Merlin and Camelot.

Further details as follows:

BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT ARCHIVES VOL. 8

• In these 1940s tales, Batman and Robin battle The Joker, The Penguin, Catwoman and others, and meet the Three Musketeers and King Arthur. • Collecting BATMAN #32-37 from 1945-1946.

Written by: Bill Finger
Cover by: Jerry Robinson
Color/B&W: Color
Page Count: 248
U.S. Price: 59.99
On Sale Date: Jan 23 2013
Binding: Hardcover

Captain Britain Toys

Still catching up:

Marvel and Hasbro released a series of Captain Britain action figures recently. One is featured in his "modern" outfit worn from the 1980s through (at least) the 1990s. The remainder were offered as a tie-in to the Captain America: The First Avenger film. There are two variants--one in his New Excalibur costume and one in his Captain Britain and MI:13 costume (apparently a K-Mart exclusive)--and both come bearing Excalibur. The three figures are pictured below in an image from ItsAllTrue.net.

Additional reviews, details and images at the following sites:

Hasbro: Captain America: The First Avenger: The International Patriots (n.d.)

International Patriots: Captain America: The First Avenger (6 June 2011)

Captain America: The International Patriots (13 July 2011)

Vault Review: Captain America Captain Britain (New Excalibur) (20 July 2011)

Vault Review: Captain America International Patriots 3pk (26 July 2011)

The End of Knights of the Living Dead

Quick catch up:

SLG Publishing is now offering Nos. 5 and 6 of Knights of the Living Dead, the final two issues of the series. Details and ordering information at http://www.slgcomic.com/knights.

More Knights of the Living Dead

Issues 3 and 4 of Knights of the Living Dead are now available for purchase as digital comics. Details at http://www.slgcomic.com/knights. The series is also, according the publisher, "available at the iTunes Store and coming soon to Comixology, iVerse, Graphicly and BN.COM (for Nook and Nook Color)."

Knights of the Living Dead Update

In my further quest for information on the recent series Knights of the Living Dead, I came across the following solicitation proving that the digital comics are merely a sampler of part of a larger story (perhaps to be told in multiple volumes):

KNIGHTS OF THE LIVING DEAD GN VOLUME 1

The mournful king, Arthur, has sentenced Queen Guinievere to burn for her infidelity, but he none-too-secretly expects her lover, Sir Lancelot, to save her. And here comes rescuer - Lancelot! - the greatest knight, on the greatest stallion. With a horde of the shambling dead behind him. As the greatest knight of all fights through the courtyard to reach the queen, Guinivere, before she burns at the stake, she sees he is not the hero she expected. Lancelot is among the stricken of the 'walking starvation.' Knights of Living Dead transcends the brain-munching of most zombie fiction and examines the nature of the soul and the essence of being.

Paperback: 168 pages
Publisher: SLG Publishing (May 8, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1593622317
ISBN-13: 978-1593622312

Zombies in Camelot

It had to happen eventually. Ron Wolfe and Dustin Higgins have produced Knights of the Living Dead, a mash-up of Arthurian legend and zombies, for SLG Publishing. The first issue is free to download, and the second costs $.99. Details and purchase information at http://www.slgcomic.com/knights.

Knights of the Living Dead offers an engaging twist on the fall of Camelot featuring a zombie-fied Lancelot who unknowingly sets a zombie plague against Arthur's realm, destroys its king, and poisons Merlin. Guinevere has a strong presence in the series (as does Mordred, though he meets an untimely end), and it seems to close with the promise of future adventures.

Zombie fans might also be interested in Marvel Zombies 5 No. 3, which also features a zombie invasion of Camelot. A detailed synopsis is available at the Marvel Database.

Updates

I recently updated the list of links to interviews on Paul Cornell's Captain Britain and MI13 and Demon Knights in the blog margin.

I confess, I have not been following Demon Knights (which is now soliciting issue 11) as of yet (as I'm waiting for the collected edition), but I thank Jason Tondro for his insight this weekend at PCA into the series.

There is a preview of the latest issue of Demon Knights online at http://kotaku.com/5900415/cranky-merlin-hates-all-the-magical-flirting-in-this-demon-knights-8-preview. This issue is the first part of the series' second arc.

Kalamazoo Sessions

I just posted the details of our Kalamazoo sessions at the main blog. Our comics related session is as follows:


Saturday, 12 May: 10:00 AM
Session 394 (Bernhard 204)

The Comics Get Medieval at Kalamazoo: New Perspectives for Incorporating Comics into Medieval Studies Teaching and Research (A Roundtable)
Sponsor: Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages
Organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages

Presider: Mikee Delony, Abilene Christian Univ.

Grotesque in Comics
Fabio Mourilhe, Univ. Federal do Rio de Janeiro

Caliber (2008), or Arthur’s Mystical Six-Shooter and the Gunslingers of the O.K. Corral
Karen Casebier, St. Mary’s College of Maryland

Arthurian Themes in DC Comic’s Demon Knights (2011–)
Jason Tondro, Univ. of California–Riverside

Comics Get Medieval 2013 First CFP

The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages is pleased to announce the following call for papers:

First call for papers

The Comics Get Medieval 2013:

A continuing Celebration of Medieval-themed Comics

PCA Washington, DC 3/27-30/13

Special Sessions of the Comic Art & Comics Area

Organized By Michael A. Torregrossa and Jason Tondro

Proposals Due to Organizers by 1 September 2012

Celebrating our seventh year in 2013, proposals are now being considered for inclusion at “The Comics Get Medieval 2013,” a series of panels and roundtables sponsored by The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages and to be hosted by the Comic Art & Comics Area of the Popular Culture Association (PCA) for the 2013 Joint Conference of the National Popular Culture and American Culture Associations to be held from 27 to 30 March 2013 in Washington, DC. 

The goal of these sessions is to foster communication between medievalists, comics scholars, and specialists in popular culture studies in general. The organizers define “medieval comics” as any aspect of the comics medium (panel cartoons, comic strips, comics books, comics albums, band dessinée, graphic novels, manga, webcomics, comics to film/film to comics, etc.) that feature medieval themes either in stories set during the Middle Ages or in stories presenting some element of the medieval in anachronistic settings (pre-medieval or post-medieval eras or medieval-inspired secondary worlds). We are also interested in papers looking at medieval-themed comics from a pedagogical perspective.

Completed papers should be delivered in 15-20 minutes (depending on the number of presenters). All proposals will also be considered for inclusion in an essay collection to be edited by the panel organizers during the early part of 2013. (Individuals only interested in submitting for the collection should also send proposals by 1 September 2012 and indicate their preference in the email.)

In addition, a select list of potential topics and a bibliographic guide to medieval comics will appear as part of The Medieval Comics Project web site available at <http://MedievalComicsProject.org> and The Arthur of the Comics Project web site available at <http://Arthur-of-the-Comics.org/>, both organized by The Virtual Society for the Study of Popular Culture and the Middle Ages. 

No later than 1 September 2012, interested individuals (who must be members of PCA or ACA or join for 2013) should submit full contact information (name, address, phone/cell, and email), titles, abstracts of 300-500 words, and a brief resume to the session’s organizers, who will then forward them to the area chair. Address all inquiries and proposals to the organizers at the following address: <Medieval.Comics.Project@gmail.com> and include “Comics Get Medieval 2013” in the subject line. 

PCA Update

Our all-Arthurian session of the Comics Get Medieval runs next week at PCA. Details at The Medieval Comics Project.

Lucid the Movie?

Archaia Entertainment recently reported that the Lucid series has been optioned by Warner Bros. as a potential film for audiences seeking post-Harry Potter entertainment. Details at both the publisher's website and from Marc Graser of Variety.

Prince Valiant on Film/TV Update

I had thought I posted this before, but it looks like I forgot. Kevin Harty's recent collection The Vikings on Film: Essays on Depictions of the Nordic Middle Ages includes a number of discussions on adaptations of Prince Valiant to film and television, as follows (see post on The Medieval Comics Project for details on non-Arthurian comics to film/TV addressed here):


The Vikings on Film: Essays on Depictions of the Nordic Middle Ages
Edited by Kevin J. Harty

Print ISBN: 978-0-7864-6044-1 = $38.00
Ebook ISBN: 978-0-7864-8638-0
22 illustrations, notes, filmography, bibliographies, index
236pp. softcover (7 x 10) 2011

Table of Contents

Preface 1
Introduction: "Save Us, O Lord, from the Fury of the Northmen"; or, "Do You Know What’s in Your Wallet?" 3
KEVIN J. HARTY

The Trope of the Scopic in The Vikings (1958) 9
KATHLEEN COYNE KELLY
Guess Who’s Coming to Plunder? Or, Disorientation and Desire in The Long Ships (1964) 24
DONALD L. HOFFMAN
"To be, or not to be"--King: Clive Donner’s Alfred the Great (1969) 39
CHRISTOPHER A. SNYDER
Valiant and Villainous Vikings 46 [on 1954 Prince Valiant]
ALAN LUPACK
Silly Vikings: Eichinger, Hickox, and Lorenz’s Anglo-German-Irish Production of Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant (1997) 56
JOSEPH M. SULLIVAN
When Civilization Was Less Civilized: Erik the Viking (1989) 72
SUSAN ARONSTEIN
"The Love of All Mankind but Also the Love of One Woman Alone": Hrafn Gunnlaugsson’s Shadow of the Raven (1988) 83
JOAN TASKER GRIMBERT and CLAUDIA BORNHOLDT
Different Pathfinders, Different Destinations 96
ROBERTA DAVIDSON
Who’s Savage Now?!--The Vikings in North America 106
KEVIN J. HARTY
Call of the Wild: Culture Shock and Viking Masculinities in The 13th Warrior (1999) 121
ELIZABETH S. SKLAR
Harrying an Infinite Horizon: The Ethics of Expansionism in Outlander (2008) 135
DAVID W. MARSHALL
Between Exploitation and Liberation: Viking Women and the Sexual Revolution 150
LAURIE A. FINKE and MARTIN B. SHICHTMAN
Time Out of Joint: Why a Gaul Fought the Normans in Asterix and the Vikings (2005) 165
ANDREW B. R. ELLIOTT
Northern Lite: A Brief History of Animated Vikings 178
MICHAEL N. SALDA
The Vikings on Film: A Filmography 193
KEVIN J. HARTY

About the Contributors 215
Index 219

DC's Galahad Update

DC has recently released the second volume of J. T. Krul's initial run on Green Arrow. As posted previously, the story features a character named Galahad and also Arthurian mainstays Jason Blood and Etrigan. Galahad does not (in the end) turn out to be the Arthurian figure, but his arc recalls that of both Parry in The Fisher King and David McIntyre in Babylon 5's "A Late Delivery from Avalon", in that he has retreated into an Arthurian identity following a traumatic experience and very much lives up to that ideal in his ongoing quest to protect the essense of the White Lantern in this tie-in to The Brightest Day crossover event.

Here are the details on the two collected editions:

GREEN ARROW: INTO THE WOODS
DC Universe 192pg. Color Hardcover $22.99 US
Written by J.T. KRUL; Art by DIOGENES NEVES and VICENTE CIFUENTES; Cover by MAURO CASCIOLI

A new era begins in this title spinning out of BRIGHTEST DAY, from the first six issues of the hot new series. After Star City was devastated by an attack by the villain Prometheus in the pages of JUSTICE LEAGUE: CRY FOR JUSTICE, the White Lantern Ring gave birth to a massive, mysterious forest located at the center of the destruction. Now, Green Arrow lives in the woods and strikes against crime and corruption as a modern day Robin Hood.

GREEN ARROW: SALVATION
DC Universe 192pg. Color Hardcover $22.99 US
Written by J.T. KRUL and JASON PATRICK; Art by DIOGENES NEVES and AGUSTIN PADILLA; Cover by RODOLFO MIGLIARI

After the events of BRIGHTEST DAY, Oliver Queen has stood as the guardian of a mysterious forest that has sprouted in the middle of Star City! In this new volume collecting issues #8-15, Green Arrow defends the forest as a modern day Robin Hood from all that would do it harm. But how will Oliver's actions pave the way for Earth's new protector?