2009 October
Six by 6 by 6 | Six vampires we’d like to share a drink with
The Count
Editor’s Note: As mentioned earlier today, we’re celebrating Halloween all this week here at Robot 666. Here’s the first of six Six by 6 columns with that theme, by guest contributors Tony Trov and Johnny Zito. They are the creators of Black Cherry Bombshells, the girl-on-zombie web comic from Zuda Comics. This October saw the debut of their newest title, LaMorte Sisters, about a vampire orphanage run by strict nuns.
By Tony Trov & Johnny Zito
(In no particular order)
1. The Count
Tony Trov: The Count is a mysterious force on Sesame Street. He has these neurotic ticks that makes him really intense. The Count counts things, even when there’s just one. His math OCD makes him great at figuring out the tip.
- October 26, 2009 @ 01:03 PM by JK Parkin
It’s all fun and games until a zombie gets punched in the face
The Walking Dead #17
One man in Iowa isn’t waiting passively for the zombie horde to strike first.
Officers in Iowa City responded at 1:17 a.m. Sunday to a report of an assault at a restaurant, where the victim said he was ordering food when a man approached him, accused him of being a zombie and then punched him in the eye. (First clue the guy probably wasn’t a zombie: The Panchero’s menu doesn’t feature brainssss.)
When the victim tried to use his cell phone to call police, the assailant hit him again, breaking his nose, and then fled through the back door of the restaurant. (Second clue the guy probably wasn’t a zombie: The shambling dead have difficulty operating mobile devices.)
The victim was transported to a local hospital and treated for his injuries. (Third clue the guy probably wasn’t a zombie: Health-insurance providers consider death a pre-existing condition.)
Police are looking for the assailant, while Iowa City Area CrimeStoppers offer a reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to his arrest.
- October 26, 2009 @ 11:51 AM by Kevin Melrose
Children of the night! What music they make: Robot 666 week
With Halloween coming up, we thought we’d have a little fun and get into the spirit of the season. So all this week, in addition to our regular blogging, we’ll look at the scarier side of comics, from six special editions of Six by 6 (Six by 6 by 6 — or 666, which inspired our logo change this week) to Halloween-themed columns to appearances by special “spooky” guests.
In fact, we should have something you can sink your fangs into later today …
- October 26, 2009 @ 11:15 AM by JK Parkin
Heroes Con & Supercon make Con Love, not Con War
Heroes Con
Not every comic-convention conflict has to end in tears. So Heroes Con organizer and Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find retailer Shelton Drum discovered when he ran into a seemingly unavoidable scheduling overlap with Florida Supercon, the Miami-based show organized by Mike Broder. The two shows have announced that Supercon has voluntarily switched its 2010 dates to June 18-20 in order to accommodate Heroes Con, which will be held on June 4-6.
According to Drum, the increasingly busy convention season and a booked-solid schedule at the Charlotte, NC convention center during the June-July timeframe during which Heroes Con is traditionally held combined to limit his scheduling options.
“I had actually just about given up on doing anything at the Charlotte Convention Center in 2010,” Drum tells Robot 6. “Using a smaller venue was an option as well as just taking a year off.” But when Drum put out feelers in these directions at the Baltimore Comic-Con, he was met with such an overwhelming response that he feared hosting the show at a smaller site would lead to overcrowding.
- October 26, 2009 @ 10:45 AM by Sean T. Collins
TopTenReviews buys Newsarama and sibling sites
Newsarama
TopTenReviews, a Utah-based company whose website aggregates product reviews, has purchased the consumer media division of Imaginova Inc., parent company of Newsarama.
The acquisition, announced this morning, includes Newsarama and sibling sites Space.com and LiveScience.com. The three join TopTenReviews.com under the TechMediaNetwork banner.
New York City-based Imaginova bought Newsarama just two years ago, in October 2007.
Founded in 2003, TopTenReviews functions much in the same way as competitor Metacritic, collating and scoring reviews of software, music, movies, video games and the like.
- October 26, 2009 @ 10:04 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
American Booksellers Association
Retailing | The American Booksellers Association has asked the Department of Justice to investigate the online price war being waged by Wal-Mart, Amazon and Target. The trade group says that by selling advance-order hardcovers at deep discounts the three retail giants are engaging in “illegal predatory pricing” and making it impossible for smaller stores to compete.
Ron Catapano of Ron’s Comic World in Mount Holly, New Jersey, asserts that direct-market retailers face a similar scenario: “I hope the comic publishers are paying attention. When the Watchmen movie came out and Amazon was selling the Watchmen trade paperback for less than I could get the book from Diamond Comic Distributors (including shipping cost), I complained and nobody cared. For most discounters, these books are not a significant part of their business, they are just something to make a few extra dollars on.” [ICv2.com]
ChuChu
Publishing | Japanese publishing giant Shogakukan plans to close three of its magazines, including the shojo manga monthly ChuChu. The magazine debuted in December 2005 with a print run of 180,000, but more recently sales have hovered around 50,000 copies. [Anime News Network]
Libraries | The New Jersey State Library has awarded $3,000 grants to 14 libraries to help them establish and expand graphic-novel collections. The State Library also conducted workshops about developing collections, and furnished librarians with “a core graphic novel bibliography” to help them with their purchases. [NJ.com]
- October 26, 2009 @ 09:22 AM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | R. Crumb’s “Varieties of Women”
R. Crumb takes on Abu Ghraib
Does this make Robert Crumb officially fashionable? The undeground comix legend and author of The Book of Genesis Illustrated is gracing the internet presence of fashion bible W magazine with a gallery titled “Varieties of Women.” It’s actually something of a history lesson, with featured females ranging from cavewomen to Egyptian gods to medieval German peasants to 19th-century asylum inmates to Crumb’s own high school classmates to “friends” of Russ Meyer and Hugh Hefner. Yes, Abu Ghraib torturer/fall gal Lynndie England’s in there too. And yes, portions of it are as NSFW as you might expect.
(Via Pop Candy.)
- October 26, 2009 @ 08:53 AM by Sean T. Collins
Stephen King helps to unleash American Vampire at Vertigo
Designs for Skinner and Pearl from "American Vampire," by Rafael Albuquerque
Late last night Vertigo announced the March premiere of American Vampire, an ongoing series by short-story writer Scott Snyder and Blue Beetle artist Rafael Albuquerque.
But there’s an even bigger name involved — much bigger: Stephen King, who will write one of the two stories in the initial five-issue story arc.
According to the DC Comics imprint, American Vampire will introduce “a new breed of vampire — a more muscular and vicious species of vampire with distinctly American characteristics.”
Snyder’s storyline, set in the Jazz Age, will focus on Pearl, an ambitious woman who dreams of becoming a star. King will provide the origin of the first American vampire — Skinner Sweet, a murderer and bank robber of the 1880s.
“I love vampire stories, and the idea of following the dark exploits of a uniquely American vampire really lit up my imagination,” King is quoted as saying. “The chance to do the origin story — to be ‘present at the creation’ — was a thrill. I owe big thanks to Scott Snyder for letting me share his vision, and sip from his bucket of blood.”
The Daily Beast has more details, including background from Snyder, who has written a Human Torch one-shot and an upcoming X-Men arc for Marvel.
For more, see Comic Book Resource’s coverage.
- October 26, 2009 @ 06:05 AM by Kevin Melrose
What Are You Reading?
Preventative Maintenance
Welcome to What Are You Reading. Our guest this week is none other than the highly esteemed Eddie Campbell, author of the autobiographical Alec series, as well as the mythological Bacchus and co-conspirator with Alan Moore on the acclaimed From Hell.
I had originally interviewed Mr. Campbell about a month ago in anticipation of the release of his whopping big Alec omnibus collection, The Years Have Pants, so this is more of a What Were You Reading than a What Are You Reading, but I nevertheless think you’ll be intrigued by his selection. Look for the rest of my interview with Campbell to show up here at Robot 6 either later this week or next.
Click on the link below to continue reading.
- October 25, 2009 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Your Mileage May Vary: Dark Avengers #10
This week we’ll be looking at reviews for Brian Michael Bendis’s Dark Avengers #10.
Kirk Warren at the Weekly Crisis Comic Review recommends the issue:
The most significant reason was that this was probably the first instance of all the characters having unique voices. Bendis typically excels in dialogue, but usually only on the street level or with a small cast of characters he has a firm grasp of. However, outside of his work on Powers, this is easily the best team/ensemble cast work I’ve read from Bendis.
Norman continued to be the character Bendis knows best on the Dark Avengers roster, but Venom, Bullseye, Moonstone and Ms Hand were all handled well in this issue. Don’t go in expecting character defining moments from every one I’ve mentioned though. I’m mostly speaking in general terms of character voices and how they are breaking out of the typical ‘Bendis-speak’ that plagues much of Bendis’s team books. In fact, while I actually think he’s taken Moonstone’s character a bit too far beyond Warren Ellis’s Thunderbolts iteration, which itself was a bit exaggerated of the Busiek/Fabian Moonstone, I’m just happy to see her and the others being written in a unique voice for once.
- October 24, 2009 @ 02:08 PM by Melissa Krause
Sony unveils art for DC Universe Online’s Bizarro
Bizarro
Sony Online has been slowly but surely rolling out artwork and screenshots of the various characters you’ll be able to interact with in their upcoming DC Universe Online game for Playstation 3 and the PC. After the jump, check out a few more shots of Bizarro, who, incidentally, was one of the villains I remember fighting against in the demo I played in San Diego back in 2008.
- October 24, 2009 @ 09:39 AM by JK Parkin
Cable part of Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2‘s downloadable content
Joining Psylocke and Carnage as a part of the downloadable content for the video game Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 is the mutant known as Cable. Check out artwork and commentary from the game designers over at Marvel.com.
- October 24, 2009 @ 08:54 AM by JK Parkin
The Fifth Color – Forward Into the Past Jan 2010 Marvel Solicitations
It’s like looking back and seeing the tide recede. You turn and think, ‘Wow, that’s a lot of water back there, all going backwards… I wonder what’s going to come next?’
We have three major plotlines coming to fruition or at least the first blossom of a long road ahead: the Siege, Fall of Hulks (wait, wasn’t this War of Hulks?), and the start of the new era of Captain America. No one is surprised that Steve Rogers is back in the old costume, but what he does next will have to rock the foundations of the Marvel Universe as did his passing. 2010 will one of those years we’ll look back on as a point of interest on the Marvel superhighway, but for now, we can plan our trip along it’s crazy, windy route and hope for a next rest stop along the way.
- October 23, 2009 @ 04:00 PM by Carla Hoffman
Zudist Colony: Talking to October’s contestants
Zuda
Every month since late 2007, Zuda Comics hosts a competition between webcomics, with the winner becoming a regular strip on the site. In Zudist Colony, I interview the contestants via email, asking each of them the same five questions, which hopefully gives you a little more insight into the strips and the creators themselves.
This time around I asked them to share which page was the most challenging to create of the eight pages they submitted to Zuda, which is the artwork you’ll see with their answers. Also, I only received answers back from eight of the 10 contestants this time around.
So here we go …
- October 23, 2009 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
Straight for the Art | Davis’ fairy tales
One of Davis' fairy tale pictures
I like Eleanor Davis’ work. A lot. So when I come across this collection of fairy tale illustrations she’s doing for The Guardian, well, how can I not share? (via)
- October 23, 2009 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner