There are a few power couples in comics, and they are all my favourites. But today my supafave is definitely Kelly Sue DeConnick and her husband Matt Fraction. Kelly Sue writes the new Captain Marvel series which I love. Rumour is that it might be on the chopping block, which would be a real shame. Don't let it happen, Marvel! She also writes Avengers Assemble and has a creator-owned book called Pretty Deadly coming out later this year which is being drawn by Emma Rios which looks pretty great, judging by this teaser image posted by Emma on her Flickr:



Matt Fraction writes a bunch of stuff, all of which I like, but his best current book is definitely Hawkeye. You know, from the Avengers. This series is about what Clint Barton does when he's not Avenging. So he's rarely, if ever, in uniform. He shoots some arrows now and then but he also has barbecues with his neighbours who think his name is Hawkguy. It's consistently hilarious and innovative. The art is pretty great too.

Hawkeye #7 came out yesterday, and it was the issue that Matt Fraction promised to donate some of the proceeds from to the Red Cross for Hurricane Sandy relief. One thing led to another and pretty soon this was happening. It turned into this whole thing and over a hundred people donated to the Red Cross in the name of Hawkguy. Homie Bear might have, as well, under his secret identity. He had to make up an American address to get the form to work which is why Nathanliesaboutlivingonboats. It's a whole thing.
Anyways. Love them. Love their work. You should support it! Here's some free digital codes for Marvel comics written by them to get you started, go to https://marvel.com/redeem/ to redeem. Neither Captain Marvel nor Hawkeye come with digital codes, unfortunately. Only works once so first come first served:

Avengers Assemble #9 by Kelly Sue: TMM54NTRX288
Avenging Spider-man #9 (featuring Captain Marvel): MTML18TYTYVA
The MIghty Thor #15 by Matt: ATMC1NB5A9PB
The Mighty Thor #19: MTML4XF9HYK2
The MIghty Thor #20: MTML141USR2V

I think the biggest problem with The Dark Knight Rises is it was a comic book movie. "Of course it was a comic book movie, it's Batman!" The thing is, neither Batman Begins nor the Dark Knight were comic book movies. Not really. As a comic book movie, DKR isn't so bad. "There's a guy who wears a mask because, you know, it hurts if he doesn't, and he beats up Batman and takes over Gotham City." There's at least 300 Batman comic books with that exact same premise, add or subtract a mask or two.  Batman then has to overcome great odds to take back Gotham, with or without the aid of Catwoman. Done and done!
But yeah, it was kind of a mess. A breathtaking mess in parts. But a mess.

A few Free Comic Book Days ago I was at Happy Harbor Comics and for the price of a donation to the food bank I got a very cool Star Wars drawing by Calgarian artist Fiona Staples:



Right now Fiona is arguably the biggest artist in comics, with her and Brian K. Vaughan's series Saga making pretty much every single best-of list in the comics world. With the Oscar nominations coming out right away I expect they'll get a nod for Best Pictures. Because the pictures (and the story) in Saga are the best! Seriously I love this comic. It's gorgeous, funny, warm and so so bizarre. The hard part is thinking of something new to say about it that hasn't already been said by everyone from NPR to the New York Times.

It's your basic tale narrated by the baby of a pair of star-crossed lovers, who are chased by tv-screen-headed robots and freelance bounty hunters such as The Stalk, a sexy arachnoid creature. I'm pretty sure I have never before written the words sexy and arachnoid and creature together in a sentence. Oh yeah and their babysitter is the ghost of a dead teenager. The upper half of her, anyway. The first trade paperback is available now, and as a bonus, Comixology is giving away the digital issue #1 for free today only! So go! Go now! Hurry! (For mature readers, yo.)










Special bonus Fiona Star Wars pic, I got this one from her at Calgary Comics and Entertainment Expo: