FCBD ’09 wrap up
Last Updated on Sunday, 24 May 2009 03:14 Written by Brian! Sunday, 3 May 2009 09:26
Just wanted to thank everyone who came out to see Scott and I at our respective signings this weekend. If you missed out on our FCBD story, Why Atomic Robo Hates Dr. Dinosaur, well, pity isn’t quite the right word. It’s a little bit like missing out on the moon landing of FCBD stories.
If you live on the East Coast (i.e. the best coast) or subscribe to Heavy Ink, then Atomic Robo and the Shadow From Beyond Time #1 comes out this Wednesday. The West Coast (i.e. the dumb coast) got it last week and the reviews are pretty damn good. Well, except from this guy, but since he opens with a complaint about a joke that doesn’t exist before complaining that historical people exist in historical comics, I’m going to go out on a limb and say he missed the point by several miles.
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3 hours in and all 5 copies of the Atomic Robo comic were already gone from my usual shop. Guess I'll just wait for it to show up in the trades.
There were no copies of Atomic Robo when I went to my local comic book shop on FCBD…I'm hoping either to get one from a friend of a friend or that you'll post the whole thing online. There was a free Green Lantern comic, which hinted that Batman would come back to life…then why kill him in the first place, dammit?!
Welcome to Marvel/DC!
My LCB shop had I'm guessing a few hundred copies of the free Atomic Robo book. They also had a few hundred people in their store who I had to fight past to get one. But get one I did and it was hilarious. This is my first time reading Atomic Robo and I really enjoyed it. Hopefully I'll also enjoy your up coming Lovecraft/Fortean story and thus will become a fan.
He was never really killed. Something about falling through time and hanging with Anthro. Ask Morrison.
I did a bad thing and had a buddy hold the FCBD issue in my box so that I could make sure I got it.
I didn't get to a store until after 1:00…because I got a chance to go see Star Trek!!! It's completely awesome, and I highly recommend. Even my brother, who's not a fan, liked it a lot.
The non-existant joke is the one about Lovecraft's racism, right? It's probably worthing mentioning that he was in fact a racist, but I don't get the impression that the reviewer has read many stories by Lovecraft. The five page preview you linked to earlier makes it clear you're spoofing his fiction's generally apocalyptic view of anything unfamiliar. Also, you guys are history-savvy enough to figure out what's in poor taste and what's acceptable.
My enjoyment of the issue was pushed way over the top due to my familiarity with Lovecraft. I can't think of a more fitting tribute to such a bizarre guy than portraying him as you did.
That said, I know jack about Fort. He coined the term "teleport" and is the root of the term "Fortean", but that's all I got. Is there any recommended reading?
If this is the best dialogue yet, I'm gonna have to get out to a comic shop soon. I was showing the first TPB to a friend, and it's a great feeling to stop him and say "No, THIS is my favorite line" every other page.
My favorite is still "Stephen Hawking is a bastard"
Actually, Hawking's been shown to be pretty "hip", all things aside…do you know if he's seen Atomic Robo, or what he thinks of it?
Good guess, but no. He seemed to think the joke was that it took Fort and Lovecraft a while to get to the point. I'm not sure how one could imagine that's a joke since there's nothing funny about it.
But as you say, it's clear he has no idea about Lovecraft stories, so it's unsurprising he completely missed that the issue is structured like your average Lovecraft story. I admit the issue works best for those who are familiar with his work or with him as a person (and ideally both). But, damn, half my test readers don't know shit about Lovecraft and they thought it was some of the best dialog I've done yet.
Heh. "Stephen Hawking is a bastard" made my friend laugh so hard he dropped the book. If I had to pick one, I'd probably choose Robo's exchange with Helsingard in Unearthed ("Are we not men of science?" "I'm a robot and you're a brain in a jar. Is this a trick question?").
As for the actual Stephen Hawking, I have no idea if he's aware of Atomic Robo or not, but I can't imagine he wouldn't get a chuckle out of it. Anyone who can trick the world's first sentient machine into riding to Mars in a tin can, even in fiction, must feel pretty good about himself.
That's why we went with Hawking instead of Sagan as the rival. Hawking clearly has a great sense of humor and since Sagan has passed away it seemed unfair to gang up on him. Plus, Carl was the coolest, so I'm biased.
Are we going to see this story online like the first FCBD?
I might have asked this before, (too lazy to check) but now that its out…
Already mentioned this but will you make a Dr. Dinosaur spinoff. It would be awesome.
Try this. But go for a hardcover version if you can find it. At over 1,100 pages it's a daunting collection. But the great thing about Fort is that you can really just open to any given chapter and read as much or as little as you like and do this off and on for as long you want and you'll enjoy it as much as if you read it like a traditional book.
No, but we might do a couple shorts with him. And of course he'll bother Robo as often as possible.
You can currently read it right here!.
And, yes, it'll be in a TPB as well. Specifically Vol 4 because one of its issues starts right at the end of the FCBD '09 story.
Howdy! Thanks to FCBD you may have garnered another fan. Atomic Robo is unlike anything I'd seen and read for a while and I took to it immediately. I'll have to check out this series and other comics you've made before. Cheers!
A prime example of FCBD working like it should!
So a comic will continue Dr. Dinosaur's battle with Atomic Robo.
We'll do an issue that's the rest of the fight that starts in FCBD '09. To be clear: FCBD '09 is not the first 8 pages of a comic we'll do later, but the full 22-page comic we do later will pick up right from the last panel of FCBD '09.
Beyond that we will see more Dr. Dinosaur eventually as he is a major "threat" in the modern era.
Can the Doctor Dinosaur FCB be purchased anywhere? I really like the story. Any help on this would be appreciated. Thanks.
It'll be collected in the Vol 4 trade paperback. One of the issues in Vol 4 begins immediately after the last page of this year's FCBD.
Hm, perhaps someone already commented on this, but…
Robo is supposed to be a genius. Yet he tells Dr. Dinosaur that if he ‘stays still’ for just 1 second (via time travel) he’d be lucky to still be within the orbit of the non-planet at the end.
Two problems: first, ‘staying still’ is relative, according to general relativity (heck, according to Gallileo!). In fact the earth travels on a geodesic for the most part, and I would bet the time travel would involve following one too, and the one which you were following when you started.
Second, worst case scenario, he can’t go faster than light, so he can at most end up one light-second away. Light takes eight minutes (give or take) to reach us from the sun, and it takes a little over a second for light to get to the moon from the earth’s surface. So worst case scenario, a 1-second jump would place Dr. Dinosaur still well within the orbit of the moon.
However, I loved the story, and also, I really appreciate the fact that Brian and Scott go to such lengths to get the science/history right. I just can’t resist pointing out the ‘genius scientist’ Robo’s little gaffe. (And for the record, yes, I realize that maybe time travel avoids the usual ‘c’ limit, and there’s a completely different limit that Robo was referring to. However, from the dialogue, it sounded like he was talking about normal motion, since he kept talking about the movement of the earth, the solar system, etc. and implying that Dr. Dinosaur would ‘stay still’ until returning to our time)
1. Staying still is relative in space-time. If you travel purely through time it’s not altogether clear how that maps out real space-time. I imagine it would depend upon the method of time travel.
2. It’s entirely possible that Robo was exaggerating for comedic effect.
Lastly, I don’t know that I’d call Robo a “genius”. We’re trying to avoid the “my computer brain is amazing” trope that’s always associated with robot characters. He’s very bright, but genius is probably pushing it.