2010 January
Take a look inside Top Shelf’s Moving Pictures collection, due in May 2010
Moving Pictures by Kathryn & Stewart Immonen
You might have read somewhere that Moving Pictures, a webcomic created by Stuart and Kathryn Immonen, is slated to for collection by Top Shelf. The book is due next May, and Top Shelf was kind enough to pass on a preview for our big anniversary. You can check out the solicitation text and several pages from the collection after the jump.
- January 2, 2010 @ 04:52 PM by JK Parkin
EXCLUSIVE preview: Artichoke Tales by Megan Kelso
Artichoke Tales
Megan Kelso, creator of Squirrel Mother, returns with a new graphic novel in 2010 called Artichoke Tales, which is about a young girl “whose family is caught between the two warring sides of a civil war, a graphic novel that takes place in a world that echoes our own, but whose people have artichoke leaves instead of hair.” Courtesy of Fantagraphics, we’re pleased to provide this exclusive preview of the book.
You’ll find two more pages and additional information on the book provided by the publisher after the jump …
- January 2, 2010 @ 04:25 PM by JK Parkin
EXCLUSIVE teaser: OMG they killed Galactus …?
Here’s our last Marvel exclusive for the day … as you can tell, Marvel was very generous in sharing some art with us today, and while all four of the titles I got to preview from them today are among my favorites, I really dig what Jonathan Hickman and Dale Eaglesham are doing on Fantastic Four. I think I’ve said it a couple of times over the last few weeks that it’s probably my current favorite title Marvel is publishing. In any event, here’s a teaser image from issue #575, which comes out Jan. 27. It’s only one image, but man, what an image …
from Fantastic Four #575
I believe that’s page 10 of the comic. Here’s some info on that issue from Marvel.com (where incidentally you can check out a really nice variant cover by Jelena Kevic-Djurdjevic):
WRITER: Jonathan Hickman
PENCILS: Dale Eaglesham
INKS: Array
THE STORY:
Kicking off the world-spanning new adventures of the Fantastic Four, this is part one of the Prime Elements arc: The Hidden City of the High Evolutionary! Featuring the return of the Mole Man, the architecture of the underworld, and the smartest Moloid you’ll ever meet. Don’t miss it! Rated A …$2.99PRICE: 2.99
IN STORES: January 27, 2010
(Again with the props: Arune Singh)
- January 2, 2010 @ 03:55 PM by JK Parkin
EXCLUSIVE preview: Nova #33 and #34
Nova #33
Who wants a double shot of Nova? Heck, who doesn’t! Courtesy of Marvel Comics, we have some pages from the next two issues, Nova #33 and #34. They feature a whole bunch of friends and foes from Nova’s past, some of whom are dead, right? Right? Well, with the Sphinx involved, time has no meaning …
Check out the pages and the solicitation text after the jump.
- January 2, 2010 @ 03:26 PM by JK Parkin
Robot 6 anniversary card #2: Robot 6 by Guy Davis and Dave Stewart
Robot 6 and Friends by Guy Davis and Dave Stewart
Earlier I shared some anniversary greetings from AppleGeek artist Hawk and Dark Horse, and now here’s a second piece of artwork that Dark Horse sent over. This one has left several Robot 6 posters drooling. It’s by Guy Davis (The Marquis, B.P.R.D., Sandman Mystery Theatre, Baker Street) and Dave Stewart (Hellboy, Umbrella Academy, B.P.R.D., Conan, DC: The New Frontier) and it looks absolutely fantastic.
Does this mean we’re part of the Hellboy universe now? Because that would be pretty cool. Special thanks to Guy, Dave and Dark Horse’s Jim Gibbons for making our first anniversary just a little more special.
BONUS: Check out Guy’s preliminary pencils and inks of the piece after the jump …
- January 2, 2010 @ 02:52 PM by JK Parkin
EXCLUSIVE preview: Weathercraft by Jim Woodring
Weathercraft
Here’s another one I was excited to receive this week, a preview of Jim Woodring’s first full-length graphic novel, Weathercraft, due in April from Fantagraphics. You can a few more details on the book provided by the publisher and see more pages after the jump.
- January 2, 2010 @ 02:19 PM by JK Parkin
Strangeways teaser: “Red Hands”
Strangeways
Matt Maxwell, writer of the comic Strangeways that we’ve been serializing here all year, provides a bit of glimpse into the past and future of the series with this teaser image from a story called “Red Hands.”
Matt explains the image:
From the final chapter of The Thirsty, which tells the tale of Raphael Guzman de Medina,also known as the terror of Drytown and Cedar Creek. “Red Hands” tells the story of how he went from being a simple merchant’s son to a monster, driven by his own thirsts and his inability to keep them in check.
Oh, and in Strangeways, vampires don’t run from the church. Instead, they burn churches down.
Look for “Red Hands” to begin after the fifth chapter of “The Thirsty” wraps up this spring.
The art is by Luis Guragna, better known as the main artist from Strangeways: Murder Moon, from Matt Maxwell’s script. Get caught up on Strangeways right here.
- January 2, 2010 @ 01:56 PM by JK Parkin
Talking Comics with Tim: Cully Hamner
Cully Hamner's The Question
Cully Hamner is an artist who never disappoints me. So I was immensely pleased that he and I were able to finalize this email interview in the chaos of the holiday season just in time for our one-year anniversary at Robot 6. We start the interview discussing his current collaboration with Greg Rucka on The Question co-feature in Detective Comics. From there, due to the film that is currently in production and the trade paperback collection that was released in mid-2009, we discussed his 2003/2004 Homage/Wildstorm collaboration with writer Warren Ellis, RED. There’s so many projects I could have discussed with Hamner, but I’m grateful he was willing to discuss RED to the degree he did. Hamner is clearly an artist who looks forward, not back–which makes me appreciate his indulging my RED interest in this discussion.
Tim O’Shea: How hard is it to convey emotion with the Question, the face is taken out of the dynamics, but you do still give a hint of her facial dynamics in certain scenes?
Cully Hamner: It’s a matter of considering that, even though you see no specific facial features, the planes of the face are still there and will react to light and shadow. It’s not a total blank, you know, Renee’s real face is under there, along with a range of expressions. So, when I look at it like that, it becomes a much simpler thing than you might think. So, what I do is just go ahead and draw an outline of the modeling on the face, and Dave McCaig (and before him Laura Martin) colors over that, and then drops my linework into a color. It’s not a full range of emotion like a detailed face would have, but I’ve been able to get across a few things well enough. Seems to work.
- January 2, 2010 @ 12:55 PM by Tim O'Shea
EXCLUSIVE: Matt Kindt story from Super Spy: The Lost Dossiers
Super Spy: The Lost Dossiers
Sean T. Collins worked with the folks at Top Shelf to get this one for us, and I was really stoked to see it when it came in. Matt Kindt‘s ingenious Super Spy came out back in 2007, and in March of this year Top Shelf will release a supplement to that ground-breaking work, titled Super Spy: The Lost Dossiers. It’ll include deleted scenes, standalone stories, 3-D comics (ohhhh!) and much more.
Here’s Top Shelf’s top-secret dossier on the book (actually, it’s the solicitation info, so it’s not TOO classified):
SUPER SPY: THE LOST DOSSIERS by Matt Kindt
– $12.95, 96-Page Full-Color Graphic Novel, Young Adult, ISBN 978-1-60309-043-8
– SHIPPING MARCH 2010!
Couldn’t get enough of the critically-acclaimed and Eisner-nominated SUPER SPY? Curious what all the fuss is about? Have we got a book for you! Creator Matt Kindt has pulled out all the stops to make this an unforgettable supplement to (or first taste of) his 2007 opus. What’s inside? Deleted scenes! Standalone spy stories! Sketchbook pages! 3-D comics! Full annotations! Diagrams of spy gadgets and keys to unlock hidden secret codes! Toys and stories for you to cut out and assemble! It’s like a secret spy activity book for grown-ups! PLUS: illustrations, photos, and commentary from Matt explaining the real-world spy origins of his stories and techniques! Don’t just read this book…. USE it!
Check out a complete, standalone story from the book after the jump!
- January 2, 2010 @ 12:21 PM by JK Parkin
EXCLUSIVE preview: Guardians of the Galaxy #22
We’ve got another preview for you courtesy of Marvel Comics, the first of two comics from their cosmic line. When I went looking for some previews to show you guys today, Marvel asked me what some of my favorite titles were from the House of Ideas. I replied with a list of, I don’t know, maybe ten titles, and they sent me art for four of them near the top of my list. The first three on the list, IIRC, were Fantastic Four, Nova and Guardians of the Galaxy. I think I had Invincible Iron Man at no. 4, followed by Incredible Hercules (which you saw earlier today).
There’s been a lot of cool stuff going on in Guardians lately; here’s the solicitation information for issue 22, and you can check out some more pages from it after the jump. You can also check out the cover to issue #24, where we find out “What emerges from the cocoon?”
COVER BY: ALEX GARNER
WRITER: Dan Abnett
Andy Lanning
PENCILS: Brad Walker
INKS: Array
COLORED BY: Jay David Ramos
LETTERED BY: VC – Joe CaramagnaTHE STORY:
A REALM OF KINGS ISSUE! Holy Octo-mom! What’s growing in Moondragon’s belly, why is the Universal Church of Truth obsessed with keeping her, and can the Guardians rescue her before the planet they’re on goes supernova? Find out in the series that IGN calls “Impressive…Brad Walker’s pages are a dazzling sight…Guardians of the Galaxy is still standing tall and strong.” Rated T …$2.99PRICE: 2.99
IN STORES: January 27, 2010
- January 2, 2010 @ 11:27 AM by JK Parkin
The 30 Most Important Comics of the Decade, part 1
The past ten years have been significant — indeed some might say phenomenally good — for the comics industry and the medium as a whole. While our economy collapsed, the Earth got hotter, and general chaos and disaster reigned, comics finally started to crawl out of its red-headed stepchild status. People started acknowledging comics as a legitimate form of art. Librarians and teachers started showing an interest in comics, arguing that it could help generate an interest in reading among children. And lots and lots of really great books came out in a variety of genres and styles. Comics, it could be argued, finally came of age.
When thinking about how to look at the past ten years of comics — and also celebrate our one-year anniversary — we wanted to do something different. Rather than try to list just our favorites or grade them on some aesthetic, subjective scale, we thought we’d look at the comics that mattered, the ones that, for better or for worse, changed the industry, changed how people thought about comics, and changed the way comics were read and bought. Here then, is our list of what we feel to be the 30 most important (or if you prefer, influential) comics of the decade. These aren’t necessarily the best comics of the past ten years — in fact you may find a few clunkers — but rather the comics that, for one reason or another, changed things.
Here’s how we put this thing together: I came up with a basic list that I then threw to the rest of the Robot 6 crowd, who proceeded to suggest other titles and question some of mine. Once we had hashed it out and came up with a final list, we divvied up who would talk about what book. The ranking was pretty much done solely by me, so if you’re upset that comic A got ranked lower than comic B, I’m the guy to yell at.
Because our list got so long, we decided to break this into two parts. The first 15 are after the jump. The second part will appear tomorrow around the same time. Be sure to let at us know about whatever books we omitted in the comments section. And enjoy! Here’s to another decade of great comics.
- January 2, 2010 @ 10:55 AM by Chris Mautner
SLG to publish Captain Long Ears this May
Captain Long Ears
SLG Publishing will release Captain Long Ears, the debut graphic novel by Diana Thung, this coming May. The all-ages graphic novel is about a boy and his imaginary friend, Jam the gorilla, as they attempt to save an elephant from a local theme park.
Courtesy of SLG Publishing, we have an EXCLUSIVE ten-page preview of the book after the jump.
- January 2, 2010 @ 09:49 AM by JK Parkin
Thom Zahler talks romance, weddings and the future of Love and Capes
Love and Capes #13
Thom Zahler kicked off his self-published series Love and Capes almost four years ago, and since then has published 12 issues, participated in two Free Comic Book Days, had a trade paperback released by IDW Publishing and married off his two lead characters. With the recent publication of the wedding issue and the announcement that he’ll again be a part of FCBD, I spoke with Thom about the series and his future plans for it.
Also check out the first five pages from issue #13, which you’ll be able to pick up for free on May 1.
JK: So real quick, in case folks are reading who aren’t familiar with your work … what is Love and Capes?
Thom: Love and Capes is a romantic comedy sitcom-ish comic book about the world’s most powerful hero, the Crusader, and his normal girlfriend Abby. It’s the conflict between the heroic life and the mundane life that drives the series and the humor.
So there are things like “What do you get your girlfriend for Christmas when she knows you can crush coal into diamonds?” and “Is there ever a good time to tell your girlfriend you have X-Ray Vision?”
If I’m doing it right, it’s funny and sweet and you’ll like it a lot.
- January 2, 2010 @ 09:27 AM by JK Parkin
Robot 6 anniversary card #1: AppleGeeks artist Mohammad F. Haque
Robot 6 by Mohammad F. Haque
AppleGeeks artist Mohammad F. Haque (a.k.a. “Hawk”) and Dark Horse Comics sent us over this anniversary greeting. Hawk created this really awesome piece featuring the robot in our logo. Hey, he has a body now! We really can take over the world … and if he’s built with Mac parts, we shouldn’t have to worry about him crashing all the time.
If you haven’t checked out AppleGeeks, which is about a bunch of folks that are pretty wild about their Macs, you can read it for free on the web or check out the two collected editions that Dark Horse has released. It isn’t just computer humor … there are robots, robot dinosaurs and five-year-old girls who want to take over the world!
(Much gratitude: Jim Gibbons and Hawk!)
- January 2, 2010 @ 09:04 AM by JK Parkin
EXCLUSIVE first look: Turf #1 cover by Tommy Lee Edwards
Turf #1 cover by Tommy Lee Edwards
Last summer we learned that Jonathan Ross, the host of the BBC’s Friday Night, will team with artist Tommy Lee Edwards on a new series for Image Comics called Turf. Today we’re really excited to give you your first look at the cover to the first issue, courtesy of the fine folks at Image Comics. And here’s the description of the comic, courtesy of Jonathan Ross himself:
Turf
A 4 issue hard boiled noir crime thriller with girls, guns, fangs and aliens.New York, 1929. The height of prohibition. The cops turn a blind eye while the mobs run the city, dealing in guns, girls and illegal liquor. But the arrival of the mysterious Dragonmir Family from Eastern Europe with more of a taste for blood then booze coincides with a series of brutal attacks on the gangsters themselves. As the gangs fall before the fangs, only a handful of mobsters survive. But an unlikely alliance formed between tough guy Eddie Falco and a character from a LONG way from New York City – a long way from Earth, in fact – offers the humans a glimmer of hope. As the strong-willed young reporter Susie Dale from the Gotham Herald tries to survive in the middle of the maelstrom, and an ancient prophecy unfolds, no one can guess who’s going to win the battle for this particular slice of Turf.
- January 2, 2010 @ 08:30 AM by JK Parkin