Kyle Steele

About Kyle Steele

Resident of Portland Or. home to a massive amount of Comic and nerd culture... now if I had more money to participate.

Super Powered Comics – GTO: 14 Days in Shonan, and the return of the manga revolution

By Kyle Steele | March 1, 2012 - 8:39 am | Comics

I would like to thank Vertical Inc. in the return of one of my favorite characters of all time.

What I’m talking about is the return of the manga character Eikchi Onizuka with the current book GTO: 14 Days in Shonan by Toru Fujisawa, a sequel to the 26- volume series that was part of the 2000’s manga revolution that was help ushered in by the company Tokyopop (if you can find it anywhere pick it up).

For those who don’t know about GTO, and the character of Onizuka he’s a 22-year-old ex-biker gang leader, high-school dropout, who attended a third-rate college (and barely passed), and changed his career goals to becoming a teacher (for less than pure reasons). The original story follows his attempts to gain control of class 3-4, who has a history of not trusting authority. The only thing is Onizuka is the perfect mix of stupid, unstoppable and heroic that he won’t give up.

This is a superhero title through and through, and GTO gives you everything that is right about manga, the only thing is it lives in Japanese culture so there will be moments that they may lose you for a joke, but Vertical does a great job of explaining those reference in the back of the book (or front if you aren’t use to reading it Japanese style).

If you’ve never read GTO don’t feel like you will be lost reading this sequel, as it does a good job of explaining past history and then setting it in a new story that stands on it own.

I love this title for its mix of action, drama, and humor. Often times American comic readers stay away from manga because it can be too much of a cultural difference, but if you want to try something new and can’t care where it was created give this title a try, for the amount of story you get for $10.95 you will feel it’s worth it.

For a year now I’ve had four volumes of GTO: 14 Days in Shonan in Japanese on my shelf waiting to be translated with my limited Japanese, as it didn’t look like Tokyopop was ever going to do it as first they weren’t in the business of translating manga anymore, and then came the bankruptcy. Newcomer Vertical Inc has now done the job for me and for that I owe you Vertical and you have a new customer in me.

Kyle Steele is an aspiring comic writer/artist and is currently working an a few different projects and is trying to finish a cover for a friends comic book that she has due for class. When he isn’t working you can follow him on twitter at twitter.com/kylesteele43 or drop a line here below on the comments section.

Super Powered Comics: Before Watchmen. Why?

By Kyle Steele | February 2, 2012 - 8:00 am | Comics

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Well it finally happened on Wednesday, the current worst kept secret in all of comics ever has finally been confirmed by DC, as the market will be receiving prequels to Watchmen (if it wants it or not).

Being okayed by one half of the original creative team (Dave Gibbons of course) this idea seems to higher-ups at DC like a reason to print money, though will it take? To DC’s credit they have lined-up a series of decent creative teams to work on these books with names like Darwyn Cooke, Adam Hughes, Amanda Conner, and Brian Azzarello among many others. Yet even with these heavy hitters behind the titles what is it that they are bringing to the plate?

The beauty of Watchmen is that it is a stand alone story from beginning, middle and end, everything that I would want is contained within those pages, nothing more. I never read it thinking “man it would be cool to see what Rorschach and Nite-Owl did on patrol”, because Alan Moore gave me the feeling that I knew what happened. I didn’t need to read it. To tell prequels to this masterpiece isn’t necessary, and makes one wonder how many times that point was argued at any meeting about the subject. I love the characters of this story so much, and some of it I think is the most beautiful storytelling done in any medium (Dr. Manhattan’s story alone maybe one of the most well-written, superbly drawn pieces of work ever in the comic form). While I love the characters in the story I don’t really care where they came from, I love hot dogs, I just don’t want to know how they were made.

Much like the Star Wars prequels are these stories even worth perusing, even if the story is all right what will that do to peoples perception of the original? I don’t believe that other stories hurts the original, as Watchmen will continue to stand as one of comics crowning achievements (so much so that colleges teach the book in English classes, and not just ones dealing with comics), yet it’s sad to see it as a way to make more money and sell out on it after all this time. It’s the film equivalent of a Casablanca 2, or Gone with the Wind: the Return of Rhett made in the 50s.

I much rather of seen this stable of creators work on other projects, Cooke and Conner alone would blow the house on something for DC, original or current line-up. In the end I just wonder exactly who DC feels they are making these books for? To the comic fan they will question the creative teams on these books and ask if they think DC feels that creators X and Y are up to the level of Moore and Gibbons (at questionable their best), or does DC feel that these books will bring in a new wave of readers that have just been clambering for a new Watchmen book? I’ve felt this is the least asked for book of all time, because no one felt a return trip was needed.

What I’m getting at is I feel that Watchmen has a place, and that was when it first came out. Without any movement on a story right then, doing another ones chance I feel died at that point. I don’t care for the world of Watchmen, when all I wanted was the one taste from the original. I know it’s an industry and making money is first priority, but sometimes there is the pedestal creation that shows sometimes works can transcend that money first priority, much like Casablanca transcended the studio film and became something more in our culture. Watchmen was that for comics, and not touching it helped to reinforce that idea. This announcement from DC just leaves me asking why more than anything else.

Kyle Steele is an aspiring comic writer/artist and working on a creator-owned book on the side when not playing Call of Duty. You can follow him through his twitter at twitter.com/kylesteele43 or through the comments section of this site. Stop by and say hello.

Super Powered Comics: Wizard – The Former Comic Book Magazine

By Kyle Steele | January 30, 2012 - 4:04 pm | Comics

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Once there was a time when comic book information wasn’t readily available on the net. You had to go for news through magazines, and mine was Wizard.

Growing up I lived on the Oregon coast, a very beautiful place to live though it was more than lacking in the comic shop department. The last one in my area also sold pogs so it had been awhile since we had seen one. So to find any information I had one option and that was Wizard magazine, which I came to in 1999.

The only place that sold any comics in the area was the Tillamook Fred Meyer department store, and their selection was limited to a couple of flagship titles from DC and Marvel and a very large grouping of Archie comics. The only way that I was even able to keep up with the happenings of the industry was through Wizard magazine that I could also buy at Fred Meyer. Through Wizard I could find books that I couldn’t get and see about ordering them online (if I had the money that was).

At that time Wizard opened up an entire new world that I didn’t know existed, books like Authority, Ultimate Spider-man, and Invincible was first shown to me in the pages of Wizard and left me wanting to experience them.

New creator names were opened up to me like Bendis, Millar, Johns and Ellis that I continue to follow to this day. Each month I greatly throw down my money to get these hundred plus pages of new information for a novice comic reader such as myself at that time. It even gave tastes of what was to come, I still remember how excited the one page teaser of The Dark Knight Strikes Again (though that was a bust in the end) was when it first came out, or the first announcement of JLA/Avengers I first witnessed in the pages of the magazine.

What I loved about Wizard was it was a mix of new, a bit of history given for upcoming events, and a humor a teen like myself found funny at the time. I loved interviews with creators, histories of the industry and the articles of breaking into the comic field. I continued to read the magazine and the family of titles that spun-off from it into the time I moved out to the Portland area and had a box, by that time comic websites had really started to come onto their own and were really rivaling what Wizard could do and they had no monthly time limit.

It was a shift in their focus that finally killed the title for me as they tried to rebrand themselves a “men’s magazine,” now I never read Wizard for movie news. I had a mix of sites that gave me all the information that I required for that, as well as any comic article they did became a list, which wasn’t why I bought it, I wanted something that the medium of magazine could do best and that to me was long in-depth articles about comics. I started to find these articles through other medium and so I finally dropped the magazine and wished for it’s best.

Today Wizard is all but gone; it lost its presence and has become a relic, as the webs comic news is not limited to monthly deadlines, yet I can’t stop to think about it each time I’m in a store looking at a magazine rack. Wizard was help when I was just returning to the world of comics and I don’t know without it I would be where I am today. So thank you Wizard I hope you work out your kinks and return to the comic world stronger than you were before.

Super Powered Comics: New DC Wave 2 – Will it be a Big Misstep?

By Kyle Steele | January 16, 2012 - 7:57 am | Comics

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So it’s finally here, wave 2 of the New DC relaunch (reboot, re-imagining, or whatever they want to call it), and to be truthful I’m a bit underwhelmed.

I know they have Batman Incorporated coming back, but we all knew that was going to happen sooner than later. Also we have the continuation of the Earth-2 universe first seen in its new continuity from Paul Levitz’s Huntress mini-series in the books Earth-2 (not to be confused with the tv show) and Worlds’ Finest. Though we already knew of Earth-2 by James Robinson and artist Nicola Scott (it will be a very pretty book) so this announcement doesn’t have the same impact that it should have.

The other 3 announced titles are Dial H, G.I. Combat, and The Ravagers. These books are going to replace the cancelled Blackhawks, Hawk & Dove, Men of War, Mister Terrific, O.M.A.C, and Static Shock.

Dial H, for me is the dark horse for best book in this wave, yet I can’t help thinking back to the 2003 series H.E.R.O that was a well handled reboot of the title. This new book is going to be written by author China Mieville, and we’ll see if he can handle the transition to the comic medium. Though if it works it will be nice to see a different title back into the new DC’s line-up.

G.I. Combat and The Ravagers I’m not very excited at all about. G.I. Combat seems to be just a title and creative change to Men of War (which I may be absolutely wrong about) and The Ravagers is a spin-off of the Superboy and Teen Titans books. Both of those I don’t read so the announcement that it’s also going to be written by comic vet Howard Mackie didn’t do much to make this a must read book.

The biggest problem I have with these new books is that most aren’t continuing much of the new change, as Earth-2 while popular is almost a step back into the DC of six months ago. The thing that many people (including myself) liked about the New 52 was that it was a step forward, and this wave of books should have continued to demonstrate that direction. Even the books that I didn’t like from the initial line-up were at least there to further that idea.

Another issue is the creative teams on these books are all established DC creators (Howard Mackie and China Mieville being the exceptions) that have years of experience with the company. Again it would be nice to see new creators come in to shake-up things. These books must have been planned at the time of the relaunch, so perhaps there wasn’t time to get in new creative players this soon. It would have been cool to see them announce another Jeff Lemire level indy talent onto a book again.

These are just my initial thoughts about this announcement and I truly hope that I’m wrong and that they are all great books that will do well for years to come. Though now that this is out of the way I do want to see more shake-up when wave 3 is announced and see something new.

Kyle Steele is an aspiring comic writer/artist who is currently working on a new book as we speak when he isn’t writing here (or sleeping). You can follow him at twitter.com/kylesteele43 or though the comments section of this site.

GONE TOO SOON – Thor: The Mighty Avenger (Though not in Sales)

By Kyle Steele | January 3, 2012 - 11:23 am | Comics

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Gone Too Soon is a new series of rotating features that will now be seen every Tuesday on Super Powered Fiction. For our first installment, Kyle Steele focuses on a series that I can do nothing but agree with him about.

Last Free Comic Book Day was a very bitter sweet day for many people, including myself. For us it was a final chance to step back into the world of Thor: the Mighty Avenger. With that FCBD issue the world only got to experience nine-issues of the most perfect condensed Thor ever.

Brought to us by the creative team of Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee this story told the tale of a young Thor exiled to Earth where he is found by Jane Foster, though unlike pasted versions of the character this book makes changes that allows for it to tell it’s own story while remaining familiar to long-time readers of Thor.

Langridge does an amazing job of telling an all ages story that is just that, older readers will enjoy the story and young kids will as well. I gave the first trade as a present to friends of mine that read it to their young children. Langridge tells a story that is aimed at his strengths and gives us action, humor and romance that made Thor: TMA so well loved.

In previous posting on the site I’ve mentioned that initially I purchased the first issue because of Samnee’s cover alone, I loved it so much that I did a bit of Internet stalking to tell him that myself on Devientart.com. I had to find more of his work and have followed him ever since. His style is deceptively simple yet each panel is packed with so much emotion and action that you’ll see why Samnee is someone to watch in the future as he continues to get bigger assignments at the house of ideas. His year saw him on Captain America and Bucky, and he’s returning to Ultimate Spider-man soon, though it’s on this book that led to that exposure as each page showed so much care and love for the art of story-telling.

Together they told a series that was filled with one and done issues, yet made it so that continuous readers were rewarded. Another very cool aspect of the book was the guest stars that were brought in, unlike other books that would bring in Spider-man and Wolverine, Thor: TMA gave us Ant-man and the Wasp, Namor, Captain Britain and Iron-man and many of these were in classic 60′s style throwback, something that Samnee nailed very time with his style.

The first eight-issues have been collected in two trades, sadly in digest size with unnecessary reprints of old Lee-Kirby Thor. Hopefully Marvel will release the entire run in one book with the FCBD issue included. Though if you haven’t read it I would find those trades as they are some of the most fun read that after you’re done you can hand to anyone young or old.

There is many reasons that the book was canceled well before it’s time, but none of that matters. We sadly lost one great book that should have been celebrated for it’s inclusiveness, something that didn’t require 40 years of knowledge, yet still acknowledged it. In a perfect world this book would have created an entirely new line of books (which they were going to try with a Captain America treatment as well) that opened the door for a much more mainstream mass market approach and brought in the new readers that comic companies have been searching for.

Instead though we got a wonderful nine-issue run that is worth finding, Roger Langridge and Chris Samnee getting more recognition that they rightly deserve and many Thor: TMA readers cherishing the moments they spent with this title.

Addendum by Nick: Thor the Mighty Avenger’s short run is still available in trade. I highly recommend everyone pick up Volume One and Volume Two from Amazon and support good comics!.

Kyle Steele is an aspiring comic writer/artist who while working on projects huddles for warmth as he lives in the backwoods of the Portland Or. area and electricity is dodgy at best out there. You can follow him on this site or through twitter at twitter.com/kylesteele43.