2009 July
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs: Anne Freaks, Volume 1
Anne Freaks, Volume 1
Anne Freaks, Volume 1
Written and Illustrated by Yua Kotegawa
ADV Manga; $9.99
I don’t talk about a lot of manga in this column. That’s not because I don’t like it; it’s just rare that a particular series hits all the right buttons for me. Anne Freaks (or the first volume at least) is one of the ones that does.
Here’s the back cover copy, which is what nabbed me:
Three people united by a terrifying secret.
Yuri, a young man who killed his own mother.
Mitsuba, who will gladly murder to avenge the sister that was taken from him.
Anna, the mysterious assassin with a chilling beauty.
Together, they’ll stop at nothing to bring down a terrorist organization…
And along the way, they’ll come closer to the truth that brings them together.
I’m such a sucker for mysterious pasts and hidden connections that have to be discovered. I’m also for people trying to bring down terrorist organizations. Not al Qaeda (well okay, them too), but I’m thinking more along the lines of SPECTRE and HYDRA. And when the people doing the bringing down are a trio of kids, apparently operating all by themselves, well now I have to know what happens. And what’s up with all the killing, murder, and assassination in their backgrounds?
- July 15, 2009 @ 03:00 PM by Michael May
(Literal) Road to San Diego: Johnny Zito and Tony Trov
Black Cherry Bombshells writers Johnny Zito and Tony Trov are taking the long way to San Diego this year — the pair is driving all the way from Pennsylvania to California for the con, stopping along the way to take in America.
Between making mix tapes and mapping out their route, the duo answered a few questions about their trip and what they have planned for the con. This is the second of hopefully four interviews I’m doing to see what folks have planned for the con; check out my interview with Neil Kleid from earlier this week.
JK: So, a cross-country road trip from Philadelphia to San Diego. How long is it going to take you to get there?
Johnny: We’re taking five days; a leisurely drive across this great nation to investigate the American Dream. We’ll video blog each day of the journey at BlackCherryBombshells.blogspot.com July 18-29. It’s going to be like Lewis and Clarke meets Fear and Loathing.
Tony: The video segments will feature giant balls of yarn, engine-grilled hot dogs and NSFW truck stop shenanigans. Everyone can follow our bold adventure via Twitter (Zito & Trov), MySpace and Facebook.
JK: Where do you plan to stop along the way? Do you have any roadside attractions mapped out, or will you be playing it by ear?
Tony: We have planned stops in Chicago, Vegas, L.A. and Graceland. This is Zito’s first trip across the lower 48, but I’ve done it a few times. There are a few blank spots in my state spoon collection that I aims to fill in along the way.
Johnny: If there’s time we’re talking about hitting the moon crater and the Creationist Museum.
- July 15, 2009 @ 01:55 PM by JK Parkin
Strangeways: Murder Moon – page 11
Written by Matt Maxwell. Art by Luis Guragna.
Commentary follows immediately after the place where you jump to the rest of the article.
- July 15, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
If zombies are the new vampires, then what are sea monsters?
The Zomibe Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks
Writing for Publishers Weekly, Stefan Dziemianowicz examines the lurching and lumbering rise of zombie fiction, from World War Z and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies to The Walking Dead and Marvel Zombies.
Time magazine has even gone so far as to declare that “Zombies Are the New Vampires,” which probably leaves fans of True Blood/The Southern Vampire Mysteries and Twilight scratching their heads (or sharpening their fangs).
So what’s to blame for this most recent resurgence of the walking dead (lower-case)? As with so many cultural trends of the past several years, the bony finger points to 9/11 which, Dziemianowicz writes, transformed the zombie into “a monster for our time.”
Of course, it’s not all zombies, zombies, zombies (although some days it does seem that way). Quirk Books, the publisher behind the hit Pride and Prejudice and Zombies — the Jane Austen mashup — already have moved on to a new menace: sea monsters.
Yesterday the company announced it will release Sense, Sensibility and Sea Monsters in September. Co-authored by Ben H. Winters, the next book in the series will include “a giant rampaging mutant lobster,” “octopi with glittering tentacles” and, of course, pirates. (You can view a trailer for the book here.)
- July 15, 2009 @ 11:35 AM by Kevin Melrose
Five things an anime/manga fan should do at SDCC
Ponyo
Editor’s note: Today we kick off a series of lists aimed at fans attending the San Diego Comic-Con next week. Watch for more of them each day up until the con begins.
Anime and manga make up a vital but ultimately small cross-section of the San Diego Comic-Con. That being said, there are still plenty of ways for the average Naruto (or Bleach, or Sailor Moon, or what have you) fan to get their otaku on without too much trouble. Here are but five suggestions:
1) See the great Hayao Miyazaki in person. The finest animator ever (take that Windsor McCay!) and quite possibly one of the greatest filmmakers alive today will be at Friday’s DisDisney: Animation Panel to preview portions of his latest film, Ponyo On a Cliff. Pixar’s John Lasseter and Patton Oswalt will also be there, but who cares about them? This is the chance to see the master in person. I think you have to turn in your Pocky and start reading Ultimates 3 if don’t go to this one.
- July 15, 2009 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Jenny Christopher joins BOOM! as sales director
Jenny Christopher
BOOM! Studios formally announced today that Jenny Christopher, a former purchasing brand manager with Diamond Comic Distributors, has joined the company as sales director. Chip Mosher, who was filling the role of sales and marketing director, will focus on marketing (and writing press releases like the one after the jump).
This follows the announcement from earlier this week where BOOM! announced they’d be working with Simon & Schuster and HarperCollinsCanada for mass market distribution. Christopher will oversee those relationships, as well as their newsstand distribution deal with Kable.
- July 15, 2009 @ 10:28 AM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’09 | Autographs, sketchbooks and a free T-shirt
San Diego Comic Con starts next Wednesday. NEXT WEDNESDAY. So catch on your sleep before then. But before you tuck yourself in, drop me an email and let me know what you have going on at the con, so I can post it right here.
I’ve got a lot of stuff in my in-box, so expect these updates to become a little more frequent between now and next week.
Free T-shirts | Greg Rucka and Matthew Southworth will be giving away 50 T-shirts for Stumptown, their long-awaited series from Oni that was announced, I think, two years ago at the con. They’ll be giving them away at the Oni panel on Thursday.
Autographs | The SDCC has released their official auotgraph area schedule, which includes signings by James Jean, Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Adam West, Hope Larson, Thomas Jane, the Honky Tonk Man and many more.
Anime | The con folks have also posted the schedule for anime screenings, which they’ll be showing late into the night.
- July 15, 2009 @ 09:58 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art: T.O.T.T.
Ott cartoon
The deliciously macabre German cartoonist Thomas Ott has a new Web site up with lotsa art and other cool stuff. (via Flog)
- July 15, 2009 @ 09:17 AM by Chris Mautner
‘Good ol’ Spider-Man … How I hate him!’
"Peanuts" meets Spider-Man in "Let's Be Friends Again"
In yesterday’s installment of Let’s Be Friends Again, Curtis Franklin and Chris Haley hilariously rework the very first Peanuts comic strip, recasting Charlie Brown, Shermy and Patty as Spider-Man, Norman Osborn and Sentry.
Whatever happened to Shermy and Patty, anyway? Were they casualties of Civil War? Victims of the Scarlet Witch’s “No more Li’l Folks” declaration?
(via Kevin Church)
- July 15, 2009 @ 08:17 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Catwoman, from Johnny's Resin
Legal | DC Comics has sued a Florida man, accusing him of violating the company’s trademarks and copyrights by creating and selling unauthorized resin figurine kits based on characters from the 1960s Batman TV series.
John Stacks, owner of Johnny’s Resin, claims he has agreements with the actors represented by his figurines. DC Comics, which filed the lawsuit on July 9, says that it repeatedly warned Stacks about the violations. The company seeks, among other things, the destruction of all unauthorized products, packaging and molds, three times Stacks’ profits from selling the figurines, and statutory damages ranging from $750 to $30,000 for each infringement.
Stacks has shut down his website, leaving only the message, “THIS SITE IS CLOSED AND NO LONGER PRODUCES ANY RESIN KITS OR ANY OTHER ITEMS!” [Tampa Bay Online, lawsuit]
Retailing | Bookstore sales fell 3 percent in May to $1.1 billion. [Publishers Weekly]
- July 15, 2009 @ 07:13 AM by Kevin Melrose
Wolfman and Sharpe to bring God of War video game to comics
God of War
With all the video game-to-comics adaptations we’ve seen over the past few years, I’m surprised we’re just now seeing this one. Marv Wolfman and Kevin Sharpe will bring Sony’s God of War to comics for a six issue mini-series from Wildstorm.
I’m a big fan of this game, and apparently, so is Wolfman.
“There have been very few times in my career when I’ve asked to do a comic. This is one of them,” he told IGN in an interview. “When I heard a rumor that DC/Wildstorm might be doing God of War, I put in my name right away and kept pushing for it. God of War has been my favorite video game to play, both #1 and #2. Also, I’ve always loved greek mythology – I brought the Greek Titans into my old Teen Titans comic. Coincidentally, I was in Athens just a few months back for a convention and toured all the old Greek temples.”
In God of War, you play as the brutal Kratos, a former minion of Ares who wages war against his former master to help save the city of Athens. Both the first game and its sequel draw heavily from Greek mythology, so Kratos spends a good part of the game using his Blades of Chaos on minotaurs, ogres and other nasty beasts, as well as a few Greek heroes and the gods themselves. You also have to solve very large-scale puzzles, such as the mystery of the Temple of Pandora, which is attached to the back of the Titan Cronos — one of the coolest settings ever in a video game.
The first issue is due in October.
- July 15, 2009 @ 06:05 AM by JK Parkin
This week, androids dream of resurrected superheroes
We may be skidding headlong toward Comic-Con, but publishers aren’t holding back on their releases.
This week sees the debut of DC’s much anticipated summer event Blackest Night, hefty collections of Preacher, Dan Dare, Captain Britain and IDW’s first decade, plus the debuts of the Doctor Who monthly, The Last Resort and the adaptation of Phillip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
On top of that, we get a few relaunches in the form of Peter David’s Fallen Angel, Alex Sheikman’s Robotika and the horror anthology Creepy.
Whew. How’s anyone supposed to have money left for San Diego?
To see what titles Chris Mautner, JK Parkin and I think deserve a second look, just keep reading. And, as always, be sure to leave your picks on the comments below.
- July 14, 2009 @ 02:09 PM by Kevin Melrose
One-puppet army: Van Jensen talks about Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer
Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer
You might recognize Van Jensen‘s name from his work for various comics news outlets — Publishers Weekly, Comic Foundry, ComicMix and even right here at Comic Book Resources. He’s also been working with Top Shelf recently on their Kindle initiative, which was recently unveiled at HeroesCon.
In addition to all this, he’s also about to make his break into comics with Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer by SLG Publishing. Created by artist Dustin Higgins, it’s the story of what happens after vampires kill Gepetto and the little wooden boy swears revenge. Armed with a pack of lies and his ever-growing nose, he ends up being humanity’s last hope against enslavement by the monsters.
I spoke with Jensen about the book, where the “Why didn’t I think of that” idea came from and what kinds of vampires we can expect to find in the book.
JK: I have to get this out of the way first — do the vampires sparkle in your book? Because we may just have to end this right here and now, depending on your answer …
Van: I actually had to Google “vampire sparkle.” I haven’t read any Twilight books, but they sound really, really weird. Honestly, I don’t care for vampires that much as they’re normally represented in fiction. Our vampires are a lot closer to the original ones in Middle Age European folk tales and rumors — gross corpses with a full mouth of jagged teeth.
- July 14, 2009 @ 01:04 PM by JK Parkin
Unbound: Gina Biggs on romance and independence
The interesting thing about Gina Biggs is not that she is the creator of a shoujo manga webcomic. Lots of people do that.
What’s interesting is that she has kept her comic, Red String, going continuously for six years, growing the audience as she goes; that Dark Horse, a publisher better known for manly manga than for quiet romances, published the first three volumes; and that she is a key member of Strawberry Comics, a collective of like-minded female creators who promote romance comics online.
While almost all the early global manga creators signed contracts with Tokyopop, Biggs chose to put her comic online and build an audience that way. After three volumes she is now self-publishing Red String and she says she makes about the same amount of money and works about as hard as when she was with Dark Horse. And best of all, she looks like she is having fun.
- July 14, 2009 @ 12:03 PM by Brigid Alverson