2009 September
Venditti and Huddleston to issue The Homeland Directive
by Mike Huddleston
The Surrogates writer Robert Venditti is teaming with artist Mike Huddleston on a new book called The Homeland Directive, which is due from Top Shelf next year. While staying quiet on the details, Huddleston has shared a lot of character designs over on his blog.
- September 14, 2009 @ 08:54 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Marvel
Legal | New York City-based law firm Levi & Korsinsky on Friday filed a class-action lawsuit challenging Disney’s $4-billion purchase of Marvel Entertainment. Like the earlier lawsuit filed by Marvel shareholder Christine Vlatos, this one claims the proposed transaction undervalues Marvel’s stock. [press release]
Business | DC Entertainment President Diane Nelson continues her interview tour, assuring retailer-oriented website ICv2.com “we’re going to be looking for a real publisher” to succeed Paul Levitz as head of DC Comics: “This is not about replacing someone with a cyborg unit that will answer to me. We want a publishing expert.”
At MTV’s movie-focused Splash Page, Nelson highlights DC’s Vertigo imprint as “an area of great interest” that “could potentially offer amazing stories for our future television video game, digital and consumer products businesses.” [ICV2.com, Splash Page]
- September 14, 2009 @ 07:53 AM by Kevin Melrose
What Are You Reading?
The Photographer
We have a very special edition of What Are You Reading this week, as our guests are none other than the legendary Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly. Spiegelman, you know, no doubt, as the author of such acclaimed books as Maus, Breakdowns and In the Shadow of No Towers, while his wife Mouly was co-creator and editor of Raw Magazine, art editor at the New Yorker and is spearheading the new Toon Books line of children’s comics.
To see what’s currently in their reading stack, just click on the link below …
- September 13, 2009 @ 02:14 PM by Chris Mautner
D23 | Saturday pictures and report
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, my wife and I are in Anaheim for Disney’s inaugural D23 Expo. Our Saturday started a little later than our Friday, as we thought we should take advantage of the opportunity to sleep in on at least one of our days out of town, and the first presentation we wanted to see wasn’t until 11. So we made it to the Anaheim Convention Center a little later than we did on Friday.
From what I could tell, Saturday was a whole lot busier than Friday, as the weekend attendees (and more kids, as Geoff Boucher noted) came out. The leisurely pace of Friday was replaced with longer lines and thicker crowds. I should add that it’s still a long way from the chaos of Comic-Con, but there was a noticeable difference between the two days.
- September 13, 2009 @ 08:36 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Annie Wu’s Scott Pilgrim/Venture Bros. mash-up
by Annie Wu
Artist Annie Wu’s mash-up of the Venture Bros. and Scott Pilgrim is just one of many pieces of fun artwork you can find on her blog.
- September 12, 2009 @ 11:01 AM by JK Parkin
Talking Comics with Tim: Shawn Martinbrough
Luke Cage Noir
I first took notice of Shawn Martinbrough‘s work during his and Greg Rucka’s run on DC’s Detective Comics back in the early 2000s. While his storytelling skills were great then, they’ve only improved over the years and can currently be appreciated in Marvel’s Luke Cage Noir miniseries, set in 1930s Harlem (Issue 2 was released on September 2; Issue 3 will be out on October 7). Actually, I’ve wanted to interview Martinbrough since 2007 when he wrote How to Draw Noir Comics: The Art and Technique of Visual Storytelling, so we discussed that book before moving on to his current Marvel work, as well as his upcoming Studio Museum exhibit on Luke Cage.
Tim O’Shea: How did your How to Draw Noir Comics book come into being?
Shawn Martinbrough: My friend and colleague Joseph Illidge mentioned that I should pitch an art instruction book based on my art style. I approached Jackie Ching, an editor at Watson Guptill who was also a friend and colleague about the concept. She was very interested and suggested I create a proposal. I turned around a proposal for “How to Draw Noir Comics: The Art and Technique of Visual Storytelling” within two weeks and shortly after it was approved by the higher ups.
- September 12, 2009 @ 09:00 AM by Tim O'Shea
D23 | Day one pictures + more
Mark Waid
So the movie panel I talked about in an earlier post was a big highlight of the day, but another one was getting to meet Mark Waid, who I haven’t ever met in person, at the BOOM! booth at D23 today.
Or, actually, one of the BOOM! booths at the show, since they have two. I’ll explain after the break …
- September 11, 2009 @ 11:28 PM by JK Parkin
D23 | Day one’s big movie panel
My wife and I flew down to Anaheim, Calif. last night to attend Disney’s first-ever D23 Expo, a fan convention focused on anything related to the House of Mouse. The event kicked off on Thursday with a presentation by Bob Iger, Disney CEO, which we unfortunately missed, but you can read about what he said about the Marvel deal over on CBR.
We picked up our badges — or, actually, wristbands — last night, and headed over to the Anaheim Convention Center this morning for our first full day.
- September 11, 2009 @ 06:18 PM by JK Parkin
The Fifth Color | Joe Quesada gave good face
Wednesday we were treated to the first and last one-on-one with Joe Q wherein we get the skinny on the Marvel/Disney buyout for the time being. It’s pretty skinny, folks, as we’re told up front (and at the back) that until the deal goes through, the shareholders make their vote and the checks get written, all the juicy details of what could and could not happen are in the hands of the legal department, not the comic editor.
There is no possible better man for the job, however, than our own Joe Quesada then to handle the multitudes of questions and concerns we fans have because there is no finer EEK out there who can just put his fingers in his ears and go la-la-la!
Kiel Phegley: There are also lots of properties that aren’t in comics these days within the Disney catalogue from some of the classic animated movies through modern hits like “Pirates of the Caribbean” and teen-centric stuff like “High School Musical.” Are there any Disney stories you’d like to bring into comics given the chance?
Joe Quesada: La-la-la-la-la, I can’t hear you. You’re sneaky Phegley, but I know what you’re trying to do! This is your version of “Duck Season-Wabbit Season!” isn’t it? Oh wait, wrong company (laughs).
Brilliant! Even though it was even phrased as a softball “In your, not the company’s, opinion” question, Joey Q just can’t be stopped. Or started.
- September 11, 2009 @ 03:05 PM by Carla Hoffman
Strangeways: The Thirsty – 9/11
No page today, as we’re on a two page a week schedule for the foreseeable future.
There is a winner for this week’s MURDER MOON contest. That would be Sparrow Morgan from the megacontinent of Gmail.com.
Entries this week were light. Another week like this and I’ll be rethinking this whole thing. Though I find it weird that free comics aren’t appealing to people who are already reading free comics. But the world’s a weird place.
More after this here jump.
- September 11, 2009 @ 01:16 PM by Matt Maxwell
Good things to bookmark: Ye Gods!
Dick Tracy Monthly
My love for all things Dick Tracy is such that I can’t not draw your attention to the Ye Gods! He Collects Dick Tracy blog. Did you know Chester Gould made a little cemetery to memorialize all his deceased villains? (found via Mike Lynch).
- September 11, 2009 @ 12:30 PM by Chris Mautner
Read more of Dorkin and Thompson’s Beasts of Burden online (for free!)
From "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie," by Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson
Just in time for the release next week of Beasts of Burden #1, Dark Horse has posted online the third, and perhaps my favorite, of Evan Dorkin and Jill Thompson’s four short stories from The Dark Horse Book of anthology series.
Published in 2005 in the Book of the Dead volume, “Let Sleeping Dogs Lie” finds the neighborhood canines, and cat, facing the grisly fallout from their battle with the witches in the “The Unfamiliar” (also conveniently available for free online, along with the first story “Stray”).
- September 11, 2009 @ 11:45 AM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art: Newspaper cartoonists’ autographs
Barney Google
John Adock has an interesting collection of artwork and autographs from such notable folks as De Beck, Ernie Bushmiller, Milt Caniff over at his blog.
- September 11, 2009 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Mautner
New Yorker cartoonist comments on Marvel/Disney deal
The Beat, er, beat me to this Lee Lorenz cartoon in this week’s issue of the New Yorker (I always seem to get my subscription issue several days late), but it’s amusing enough I think to warrant reposting here.
- September 11, 2009 @ 10:30 AM by Chris Mautner
Hulk smash puny human with submission hold
Muttpop is calling this figure the “Incredible Tequila Edition” but we know who that green-skinned wrestler really is, right?
(via Comics Alliance)
- September 11, 2009 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner