Jack Herbert

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Happy Birthday! borg.com reaches five year anniversary

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June 10, 2016

Hey, looks like we made it!

Five years ago today, Elizabeth C. Bunce, Art Schmidt, Jason McClain, and I had already spent a few months talking through the technical details for the launch of borg.com. What should it look like? What should we write about? How do we get to there from here? Then it all came together on June 10, 2011, and I sat down and just started writing. Should this be a weekly thing? Once I started I just couldn’t stop and we cemented borg.com as a daily webzine. And readers started showing up every day. Soon we had hundreds of followers, and hundreds of thousands of visits per year.

The best part? Working with friends and meeting new ones each year.

We’ve had plenty of high points. Cosplay took off in a big way in the past five years. Elizabeth and I hit the ground running at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2011 with our Alien Nation/Chuck mash-up and you can find us all over the Web in photos taken by others at the show. Our years were dotted with the random brush with coolness. A retweet by actress Alana de la Garza, coverage of Joss Whedon visiting the Hall H line at 3 a.m. outside SDCC in 2012, Zachary Levi calling out Elizabeth for her cosplay at Nerd HQ, interviewing the stars of History Channel’s Vikings series, our praise for the Miss Fury series appearing on the back of every Dynamite Comics issue one month, tweets from Hollywood make-up artist family the Westmores commenting on our discussion of Syfy’s Face Off series, our Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (negative!) review featured on the movie’s website, that crazy promotion for the Coma remake mini-series, planning the first Planet Comicon at Bartle Hall and the Star Trek cast reunion, attending the first Kansas City Comic Con and the first Wizard World Des Moines Con, hanging with comic book legend Howard Chaykin, Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Famer Darryl McDaniels, cast members from Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, and Star Trek, bionic duo Lee Majors and Lindsay Wagner. And borg.com gained some well-known followers (you know who you are) along the way.

We’re grateful for some great Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and other feedback over the years from Felipe Melo, Mickey Lam, Michael Prestage, The Mithril Guardian, Francesco Francavilla, Adam Hughes, Judy Bunce, Mike Norton, Jack Herbert, Mike Mayhew, Rain Beredo, David Petersen, Rob Williams, and Matt Miner, and for creators we interviewed including Mikel Janin, Penny Juday, Tim Lebbon, Kim Newman, James P. Blaylock, Freddie Williams II, Jai Nitz, and Sharon Shinn.

What did readers like the most?

We amassed an extensive archive of hundreds of book reviews, movie reviews, reviews of TV shows, and convention coverage, thanks in part to the good folks at Titan Books, Abrams Books, Lucasfilm Press, Weta New Zealand, Entertainment Earth, Dynamite Comics, IDW Publishing, Dark Horse Comics, Image Comics, BOOM! Studios, and several TV and movie studios and distributors.

My own favorites? Sitting down to come up with my own five all-time favorite characters with the borg.com writing staff.

Thanks to my family, my friends, especially my partner in crime Elizabeth C. Bunce, Art Schmidt and Jason McClain, my support team, and William Binderup and the Elite Flight Crew.

Onward and upward!

C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com

Tags: Abrams Books, Adam Hughes, Alana De La Garza, Alex Ross, Art Schmidt, Boom Studios, Borg Hall of Fame, Dark Horse Comics, Darryl McDaniels, David Petersen, Dynamite Comics, Elite Comics Flight Crew, Elizabeth C. Bunce, Entertainment Earth, Felipe Melo, Firefly 10th anniversary, Francesco Francavilla, Freddie Williams II, Howard Chaykin, IDW Publishing, Image Comics, Jack Herbert, Jai Nitz, James P. Blaylock, Jason McClain, Joss Whedon, Judy Bunce, Kansas City Comic Con, Kim Newman, Lee Majors, Lindsay Wagner, Lucasfilm Press, many faces of the Man of Steel, Matt Miner, Michael Prestage, Mickey Lam, Mike Mayhew, Mike Norton, Mikel Janin, Miss Fury, Penny Juday, Planet Comicon, Rain Beredo, Rob Williams, San Diego Comic-Con, Sharon Shinn, The Mithril Guardian, Tim Lebbon, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Titan Books, Vikings, Westmores, Weta New Zealand, William Binderup, Wizard World Des Moines

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Those dreaded words: “Last Issue”

Filed under: Comics & Books, Retro Fix, Superheroes — Leave a comment

May 13, 2014

When I was a kid my favorite comic book monthly was the original Star Wars series that continued the adventures of Luke, Han, Leia, and the rest of the gang beyond “A New Hope,” meandering in and out of continuity through beautiful adaptations of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. They even had an early issue before TESB called “The Empire Strikes.” They created one of the best Expanded Universe characters to come along until Mara Jade and Grand Admiral Thrawn with one of our favorite borgs, The Hunter. After years of reading I finally bought a subscription. My first issue? Issue #107.

If you are familiar with that Marvel Comics Star Wars line, you know that 107 was the final issue of the series. Along with my first issue in the mail of Star Wars came a postcard with those dreaded words for fans of comic books and a message on the cover: “Last Issue.” So much for my subscription.

Hey, why is everyone smiling?

So it was with a certain raised eyebrow that I learned this month that my favorite series, Dynamite Comics’ Miss Fury, that time travelling superheroine story with mobsters and Nazis and parallel Earths, is cancelled. Tomorrow, comic book stores around the country will be selling Miss Fury, Issue #11, wrapping up Marla Drake’s story, at least for now.

I admit that when such things happen my mind’s eye recalls a headline (over a much more serious event) from decades ago on a street corner newspaper stand from the New York Post with the simple but effective boldface headline: “Bastards!” In this case I mean this in the nicest possible way, of course. Some titles get readership, some don’t do as well. Economics determine what goes and what stays. But keep in mind Miss Fury is a character who just celebrated her 73rd birthday. As Arnie might say, “She’ll be back.”

So here is a preview from the beginning of the end, Miss Fury, Issue #11, courtesy of Dynamite Comics:

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Tags: Dynamite Comics, Jack Herbert, Miss Fury, Miss Fury 11, Miss Fury cancelled, Rob Williams, Star Wars 107

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Preview–Time travel, parallel Earth and Miss Fury

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May 6, 2014

The borg.com selection for best comic book series of 2013, Dynamite’s Miss Fury, continues to be an action-filled series in 2014, full of time travel, parallel histories, and an update to a classic and nostalgic superheroine. Add to that mobsters, Nazis, the Philadelphia Experiment, atomic age scientists, and an interstellar timeship, and the result is just plain fun.

Writer Rob Williams, artist Jack Herbert, and colorist Ivan Nunes have merged the future with the past, and thrown in some new, cool, supervillains on par with Deathstroke and the pantheon of bad guys from the Arrow TV series. Stuck out of time, Marla Drake has met and killed herself, and now she is forced into continuing to be an assassin to try to save a man from her past. But violent recurring, mind-numbing headaches are catching her off-guard, the result of popping across time. Can she take control of her actions and stop the madness before her own time is up?

After the break is a preview of Miss Fury, Issue #10, courtesy of Dynamite Comics:

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Tags: Ardian Syaf, Billy Tan, Colton Worley, Dennis Calero, Dynamite Comics, Ivan Nunes, Jack Herbert, Marla Drake, Mis Fury Issue 10 preview, Miss Fury, Phildelphia Experiment, Rob Williams

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Catching up with… Rob Williams and Jack Herbert’s Miss Fury

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December 29, 2013

Sassy, smart, and seductive. It applies to Marla Drake, the Miss Fury of the 1940s and of today in Dynamite Comics’ time-hopping series Miss Fury. And it applies to Drake’s masked persona and the series itself. Writer Rob Williams and artist Jack Herbert have provided their response to the much-lauded Batwoman team of J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman. And just as the Williams III and Blackman team-up created one of the best comic book series in its first year out of the gates, so has team Williams and Herbert with their first year of Miss Fury.

Catsuits and pointy ears aside, Miss Fury is a unique take on the world’s first superheroine. Writer Rob Williams concocted the surprise hit of the year–a book that might not have been on pull lists yet it was swiped off the store shelves every week as readers couldn’t get enough of the series. Among many classic titles emerging from the publisher known for licensed works from the past like The Shadow, the Green Hornet, and the Bionic Man, Miss Fury is a non-stop, action-filled, fun read–it’s a comic book series that will remind you why you love comic books in the first place.

As a comic book artist that excels at the feminine form, Brazilian artist Jackson “Jack” Herbert is well on his way to becoming the next Adam Hughes. His Marla Drake is a sophisticate back in the 1940s. In 2013 she is a provocateur, an agent of an untrustworthy manipulator, murdering as he directs, because she believes she can save America from a dreadful alternative reality.

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Tags: Batwoman, Dynamite Comics, J.H. Williams III, Jack Herbert, Jackson Herbert, Miss Fury, Rob Williams, superheroines, W. Haden Blackman

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Review–Dynamite’s stuck-out-of-time Miss Fury offers faithful, stylish update to the original superheroine

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April 1, 2013

Miss Fury was the one of the first female superheroes, created 42 years ago this month by June Tarpé Mills (1915-1988)–one of the few early female comic book creators. Written and drawn by Mills, Miss Fury is also the first female superhero created by a woman. Original Miss Fury works were signed merely Tarpé Mills–to mask the fact that the work was created by a woman. Mills’ stylish socialite Marla Drake was provided glamorous images by Mills in the pages of Miss Fury, with classy costumes for the character. Appearing just months after The Cat–which would become the Catwoman over time, Miss Fury also wore a catsuit to fight crime.

June Tarpé Mills–with cat.

Mills’ characters gave similar inspiration to the war effort in World War II as Captain America and Superman. Mills herself would be an excellent subject of study for comic book historians.

Miss Fury most recently has appeared in the recent Masks series from Dynamite Comics and this Wednesday Dynamite releases a standalone series starring Miss Fury with Miss Fury #1. Just as the original pages of Miss Fury inspired Allied troops during World War II with planes named after the characters from the series, Dynamite’s new series also brings the Nazi menace back in a story with time-out-of-joint elements that will factor into Miss Fury’s reality. Miss Fury is being pulled from time period to time period–from 2013 to 1943 and back again–and someone or some thing has changed the course of history. The artwork provided by Jack Herbert is lavish and stylish in ways original artist Mills may have approved of. Just check out this image of the sophisticated Marla Drake–the wealthiest woman in Manhattan in 1943 (and high-end thief): Continue reading →

Tags: Alex Ross, Dynamite Comics, J. Scott Campbell, Jack Herbert, June Mills, June Tarpe Mills, Marla Drake, Masks Dynamite, Miss Fury, Paul Renaud, Rob Williams, Will Conrad, women comic book creators, women comic book innovators

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Austin to face off against Sommers in new Bionic mash-up coming this week

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January 13, 2013

A borg serial killer is on the loose, making his way from Kansas City to somewhere nearby Lawrence, Kansas, 40 miles away. OSI has video footage of his last rampage, taking out several agents. The results aren’t pretty. OSI has identified a well-established, horrifying M.O.

Unlike the OSI-created menace from Phil Hester’s Bionic Man series, Oscar Goldman has no idea who is behind this new villain. But he’s going to loan Steve Austin to the FBI to attempt to sleuth out the answer to that question.

Meanwhile in Manhattan (presumably Manhattan, NY and not Manhattan, KS) Goldman has set Jamie Sommers (sometimes spelled in the book as Jaime) on a mission to a stripper club to bring in an international arms dealer.