2010 January
Three on craft
While I haven’t actually attempted to put pencil to paper in aeons, I’m always fascinated by artists talking about their process and tools. Here are a couple of links centered on that topic.
Missile Mouse
First up, Missile Mouse author Jake Parker reveals the secret to fixing an inking mistake without having to use PhotoShop.
- January 21, 2010 @ 09:15 AM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | The Bridgewater, NJ, PBA Benefit Auction Gallery
Art by George Pérez, Evan Dorkin, Scott Kolins, Jim Cheung, and Mark Chiarello
Wow. Cartoonist Evan Dorkin, whose “Villains of Marvel” piece you can see above along with art by George Pérez, Scott Kolins, Jim Cheung, and Mark Chiarello, brings our attention to this killer selection of original art, soon to be auctioned off to benefit the Bridgewater, New Jersey, Policeman’s Benevolent Association #174.
In addition to the aforementioned artists, the auction gallery includes work by (deep breath) Mike Allred, Sergio Aragones, Brian Bolland, Mark Buckingham, Travis Charest, Howard Chaykin, Cliff Chiang, Frank Cho, Alan Davis, Terry Dodson, Juan Doe, David Finch, Matt Fraction, Bo Hampton, Scott Hampton, Tony Harris, Dean Haspiel, Stuart Immonen, Phil Jimenez, Michael Wm. Kaluta, Erik Larsen, Steve Lieber, Mike McKone, Steve McNiven, Terry Moore, Rags Morales, Dustin Nguyen, Michael Avon Oeming, Brandon Peterson, Ivan Reis, Paolo Rivera, Stan Sakai, Tim Sale, Walt Simonson, Joe Sinnott, Ryan Sook, Billy Tan, Philip Tan, Matt Wagner, and Bill Willingham — and I promise you that that barely even scratches the surface. Go and look at the full-sized versions, and bid next month!
(Via Tom Spurgeon)
- January 21, 2010 @ 08:42 AM by Sean T. Collins
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Vampire Knight, Vol. 8
Publishing | Gonzalo Ferreyra, Viz Media’s vice president of sales and marketing, discusses the state of the manga market in North America, the performance of top titles like Vampire Knight and Naruto, digital comics and, yes, the impact of Twilight: “[Fans] can only read Twilight so many times. That’s when they come over and they start poking around and they find the Vampire Knights and Rosario & Vampires and other titles. … Let’s not kid ourselves, the Twilight fans number in the many, many millions — they’re manga-like numbers in Japan, here. If we can get a fraction more of those readers actively reading manga, if Yen can do that and bring those kids over to read the Twilight manga, and then move on and become manga fans it’s very encouraging.” [ICv2.com]
Twilight: The Graphic Novel, Vol. 1
Publishing | Speaking of Twilight, Simon Jones points out that, with a 350,000-copy first printing, Yen Press’ $19.99 hardcover Twilight: The Graphic Novel has a retail value nearly $7 million, “which immediately vaults it into contention for one of the best-selling comics in the U.S. for 2010, by both volume and dollar sales”: “Whether you like the source material or not, or welcome the books’ legion of female fans young and old (it’s shocking how elitist fandumbs can be), there is absolutely no questioning the significance of this title. If it does as well as Yen clearly hopes it would, it will expose more fresh eyeballs to comics than any other single release, even series, in 2010.” More at the link. [Icarus Publishing]
- January 21, 2010 @ 08:05 AM by Kevin Melrose
Marvel promotes Alonso, Brevoort and Wacker
Word circulated online earlier today that Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort had been promoted. However, it turns out he’s not the only one at the House of Ideas with a new title.
Brevoort and fellow Executive Editor Axel Alonso each now has the title of vice president-executive editor, while Editor Stephen Wacker has been promoted to senior editor.
Brevoort, who last month marked his 20th year at Marvel, started as an intern, working his way up to assistant editor, editor and senior editor before being promoted to executive editor in 2007.
A veteran of DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint, Alonso was hired by Marvel in 2001 as a senior editor and promoted to executive editor in 2003.
Wacker joined Marvel in 2006 after six years at DC, where he edited, among other series, the weekly 52. At Marvel, he oversaw the move of The Amazing Spider-Man to its thrice-monthly schedule, and as senior editor will continue to edit that title and others.
“Basically I’m in more meetings now but my actual responsibilities as far as comics go is the same,” Wacker told Robot 6. “Along with my relatively talented assistant Tom Brennan, I’m still editing Daredevil and Spidey three-five times a month, so little has changed. (Also a big book for this summer called Shadow Land that I’m probably not supposed to mention.)
“Anyway, I’m really happy to be working with Marvel right now and am very proud of the books I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of,” Wacker continued. “Looking forward to more meetings!”
- January 20, 2010 @ 03:30 PM by Kevin Melrose
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs: Pinocchio, Vampire Slayer
Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer
Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer
Written by Van Jensen; Created and Illustrated by Dusty Higgins
SLG; $10.95
Before now, my experience with the story of Pinocchio is limited to three adaptations. One is the Roberto Benigni film, which I don’t remember much about other than the feeling that it was a lot darker and weirder than I was ready for. My surprise was probably because the only other version I’d seen up to then had been Walt Disney’s typically charming, but watered-down one. This past Christmas I bought a collection of Christmas specials on DVD that included Rankin Bass’ stop-motion Pinocchio’s Christmas, which, story-wise, was surprisingly more like Benigni than Disney. While all of these present fairly dark stories (especially in comparison to Disney’s traditional output), none of them prepared me for Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer.
And I’m not just talking about the vampire-hunting part; I’m talking about the three-page summary that catches you up on Carlo Collodi’s original tale. Jiminy Cricket – I know that’s not his real name, but I can’t stop calling him that – dies in his first encounter with the puppet-boy, but returns to haunt him as a ghost. Pinocchio isn’t just tricked by the fox and the cat, he’s hung from a tree by them (but not before he bites off the cat’s hand). He’s imprisoned, tied up outside a doghouse, gets his feet burned off, and of course there’s the stuff where he’s turned into an ass and gets swallowed by a giant fish. Basically, his life sucks. But not as much as it sucks (get it?) after Collodi’s story ends.
Higgins and Jensen apologetically pick up where Collodi left off, begging the dead author that “if he ever rolls over in his grave and rises, bloodthirsty, that we be spared.” While it’s true that their graphic novel may not be faithful to the tone of Collodi’s and they fill it with fun retcons (offering, for example, an explanation for all the talking animals), it’s also true that their story could have been what happened next. If, you know, a coven of vampires had moved into town, killed Geppetto and a whole bunch of other people, and Pinocchio grew a thirst for vengeance.
- January 20, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Michael May
Send Us Your Shelf Porn!
Is it a bird? A plane? No, it’s Shelf Porn, defender of truth justice and awesome-looking bookshelves everywhere.
Today’s entry, in fact, comes all the way from Sydney, Australia, courtesy of Superman fan Steve Younis, who, appropriately enough, runs the Superman Homepage Web site. It’s quite the extensive array of Kal-El-related material, so I’ll bypass the usual blah-de-blah and get right to Steve and his collection:
- January 20, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 110
Stay tuned for information about an upcoming STRANGEWAYS-related appearance. Or just read the page. Up to you.
Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell.
Looks like someone went and rung the dinner bell, it does.
Okay, this Saturday, the 23rd, I’ll be appearing at the Grand Re-Opening of Bizarro World comics in Davis, CA. I’ll be signing books, and will have preview books for THE THIRSTY (which contain all of Chapter 1, some art pages from the upcoming “Red Hands” and MURDER MOON art as well) and trying to bedazzle anyone who’ll give me ten seconds to do so. Oh, and world famous Five Minute Stories, too. Here’s the info:
Bizarro World
223 E St.
Davis CA 95616
530-759-9490
Looks like things kick off at about 6:30. Plenty of time to drive in from out of town and enjoy the lovely weather we have in the Sacramento/Davis area this time of year.
That’s a joke, kids. It’s been 40 degrees and raining since Saturday, with no sign of abating. Hopefully it’ll cheer up by then.
See y’all next week.
- January 20, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Comics cavalcade: Vampire hunters, swell heads and fat kids
Richmond, Virginia by Gabrielle Bell
- January 20, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Spider-Man 4 may draw inspiration from Ultimate Spider-Man
Ultimate Spider-Man #54
Tuesday’s news that (500) Days of Summer director Marc Webb will helm Spider-Man 4 has many wondering what tone the franchise might take, post-Sam Raimi.
It turns out it could be less Lee-Ditko and more Bendis-Bagley.
In The Hollywood Reporter‘s coverage of the story, Borys Kit writes that, “The touchstone for the new movie will not be the 1960s comics, which were the inspiration behind the movies by Raimi, who grew on up on them, but rather this past decade’s Ultimate Spider-Man comics by Brian Michael Bendis and Mark Bagley where the villain-fighting took a back seat to the high school angst.”
There’s no attribution for the assertion — one can presume it comes from those ubiquitous “studio sources” — but it seems like a logical move for Sony executives, who undoubtedly figure it will be a while before Webb discovers Ultimate Vulture in Issue 90 of the series. Plus, they can reboot the franchise without completely rehashing the source material.
Ultimate Spider-Man, which re-envisioned the wall-crawler’s early adventures, debuted in 2000 as the flagship title of Marvel’s Ultimate imprint, running for 133 issues before relaunching in 2009 as Ultimate Comics Spider-Man.
- January 20, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Slash Print | Following the digital evolution
Tablets | Jim Shelley talks to various digital comics folks, including Rantz Hoseley from LongBox Digital, Micah Baldwin from Graphic.ly and David Steinberger from comiXology, about the rumored Apple tablet. Check out part one, part two and part three.
Speaking of which, HarperCollins is talking to Apple about the tablet, according to the Wall Street Journal, and I thought this article on how Apple does controlled leaks was kind of interesting, in light of all the attention a device that doesn’t officially exist yet is getting.
Digital comics | If you’ve been wanting to check out Robot 13, Robot Comics released it on the iPhone last week. Check out a trailer here.
Digital comics | Disney has launched Italian and British websites for their Digicomics application.
Twitter | Congratulations to everyone behind the Twitter feed Fake AP Stylebook, who have landed a book deal with Three Rivers Press. Their line-up includes several former and current comics bloggers, including former Robot 6 contributor Lisa Fortuner, former Meanwhile… columnist Shane Bailey, retailer/blogger Mike Sterling, CBR reviewer/artist Benjamin Birdie and many more.
- January 20, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
The Goon in 2010: iPhone + Buzzard miniseries
Goon on the iPhone
Dark Horse announced via press release today a few The Goon-related projects. First, The Goon is going digital, as they’ve made Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker and The Goon #7 available on iTunes. And second, creator Eric Powell is working not only on a Goon spinoff miniseries starring The Buzzard, but also on a new Billy the Kid’s Old Timey Oddities miniseries.
From the press release:
Now, The Goon goes digital, as both Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker and The Goon #7, which features Hellboy, are made available on the iPhone platform. Chinatown marks Powell’s first self-contained graphic novel, which chronicles the earliest adventures of Goon and his wisecracking sidekick, Franky. After a new figure in the crime scene begins taking out the Goon’s business operations one by one, the Goon’s darkest moment comes back to haunt him, when his mind and body were left scarred . . . and his heart was left black. This new platform promises to expose an all-new readership to comics’ most beloved brute.
Not to worry, however: longtime fans will be rewarded with an all-new spinoff title based around Goon Year’s most notable character, Buzzard. Eric Powell gives one of his most beloved and mysterious characters his own highly anticipated, three-issue miniseries.
Following his brutal showdown with the loathsome Zombie Priest, Buzzard leaves his home, wandering aimlessly until he steps into the shadowy spirit realm of the forest. A dark path leads him to a small village living in fear of a bestial race of savages. More animal than man, these creatures hunt the villagers and drag them from their slumber in the depth of night.
“Buzzard has always been a personal favorite of mine from the Goon cast, and from the amount of requests I’ve gotten to give him his own series, I imagine he’s a favorite of the readers as well,” said Goon creator Eric Powell. “I’m really excited to finally be giving him his own story, along with the revival of Billy the Kid’s Old Timey Oddities!”
For those who missed Goon Year, Dark Horse will be giving this twelve-issue story line the deluxe treatment with the release of Fancy Pants Edition Volume 3: Goon Year on July seventh. Powell’s all-new Buzzard series will arrive on shelves later this fall.
Look for news forthcoming on the return of the Billy the Kid’s Old Timey Oddities short stories—a revival of the series from 2005 that paired Eric Powell with artist Kyle Hotz. The three-issue series will launch later this year.
Chinatown and the Mystery of Mr. Wicker is available for download today in the iTunes store. For a limited time, this heart-wrenching story is available for the sale price of 1.99. In addition, the celebrated one-shot The Goon #7 is available for free download for the next three days.
For more information, visit www.darkhorse.com/features/mobile.
- January 20, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
Mid-Ohio-Con holds charity auction to benefit Hero Initiative
The Mid-Ohio-Con is holding a charity auction to benefit the Hero Initiative:
Wolverine by Todd Nauck
I wanted to let you know that the Mid-Ohio-Con charity auction is now up and running on eBay. The auction features original art and other work, including books and DVDs from our creative guests at Mid-Ohio-Con 2009, many of whom made incredibly generous contributions of their talent and time. Of particular note, the auction includes all the giant sketches (19″ x 24″) done by artists on the Main Stage easel during last October’s show.
Among the artists whose work is featured in the auction are Dave Aikins, Arvell Jones, Dick Ayers, Art Baltazar, Darryl Banks, Andy Bennett, George Broderick, Pat Block, Jacob Chabot, Jay Fife, Sean Forney, Michael Golden, Chris Giarrusso, Fred Hembeck, Lora Innes, Scott Kolins, Gary Kwapisz, Ren McKinzie, Todd Nauck, Chris Sprouse, Steve Scott, Mark Texeira, Billy Tucci, Uko Smith, Chris Yambar, and Thom Zahler.
All proceeds from the auction will go to benefit the Hero Initiative, a nonprofit organization that creates a financial safety net for comic creators who need emergency medical aid, financial support for the essentials of life, and an avenue back into paying work, so I’d really appreciate it if you would spread the word so that we can get a lot of attention and proceeds for this year’s auction.
You can check out all the auction items here.
- January 20, 2010 @ 09:45 AM by JK Parkin
YALSA announces 2010 Great Graphic Novels for Teens [Updated]
Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer
The American Library Association’s Young Adult Library Services Association this morning released its annual list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens.
This year’s list singles out 73 titles recommended for readers ages 12 to 18 that “meet the criteria of both good quality literature and appealing reading for teens.” In addition, the selection committee chose its Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens:
• The Helm, by Jim Hardison and Bart Sears (Dark Horse)
• Children of the Sea, Vol. 1, by Daisuke Igarashi (Viz Media)
• Pinocchio: Vampire Slayer, by Van Jensen and Dusty Higgins (SLG Publishing)
• I Kill Giants, by Joe Kelly and J.M. Ken Nimura (Image Comics)
• Omega: The Unknown, by Jonathan Lethem and Farel Dalrymple (Marvel)
• Bayou, Vol. 1, by Jeremy Love (DC Comics/Zuda)
• A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, by Josh Neufeld (Pantheon Books)
• Gunnerkrigg Court, Vol. 1: Orientation, by Tom Siddell (Archaia)
• Pluto: Urasawa x Tezuka, by Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki (Viz Media)
• Ooku: The Inner Chambers, Vol. 1, by Fumi Yoshinaga (Viz Media)
The complete list of the 2010 Great Graphic Novels for Teens can be found at the YALSA website.
Update: David Welsh breaks down the list by publisher.
- January 20, 2010 @ 08:42 AM by Kevin Melrose
A first look at the vampire-mobster series Turf
From "Turf" #1
Sci-fi blog io9.com has a preview of the first issue of Turf, the upcoming vampire-mobster series by British television host Jonathan Ross and artist Tommy Lee Edwards. (We had a first look at Edwards’ cover for Issue 1 earlier this month.)
The series, which debuts in April from Image Comics, is set in a 1920s New York City, where blood-sucking vampires and gun-toting gangsters clash over booze, blood and territory.
- January 20, 2010 @ 08:22 AM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | Friedman’s ‘Criticism’ cover
Best American Comics Criticism
Over at his blog, Drew Friedman has unveiled the official cover to Fantagraphics’ upcoming book, The Best American Comics Criticism. And, lest you fear those portraits are supposed to be of you or someone you may know, let him put your mind at ease:
I created these lovely faces for this new book cover from Fantagraphics, designed by Alexa Koenings and due out next month. The idea was conceived by the author, journalist/historian Ben Schwartz, to be an homage/parody of THE BELIEVER covers, although I had no intention, or interest in parodying the regular Charles Burns portraits. The faces are not meant to be any one in particular, rather I wanted to capture certain “types’ who write Comics Criticism.
(via)
- January 20, 2010 @ 07:30 AM by Chris Mautner