2010 February
Unbound: Talking with Phil Foglio
Phil Foglio is best known as the co-creator, with his wife Kaja, of the insanely popular webcomic Girl Genius, and for a pioneering of a business model that a lot of people thought was simply insane: Posting a comic for free online and relying on people to buy the book anyway.
The model worked for the Foglios, who have won numerous awards for Girl Genius, including the first-ever Hugo award for graphic fiction, and Phil Foglio has been posting his earlier comics work online as well, including Buck Godot and What’s New with Phil and Dixie. When Buck Godot wrapped up, a few weeks ago, he replaced it with the his first comic series, Myth Adventures, based on the humorous fantasy novels of Robert Asprin.
I thought this would be an interesting opportunity to talk to Foglio about why he is resurrecting a 20-year-old series, how he has managed to turn a profit with the free-comics model—and what’s up with his one subscription comic, the adult series XXXenophile. Read on for all the answers.
- February 2, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Your video of the day: Bode on Bode
Here’s a lovely little documentary for you to enjoy, featuring cartoonist Mark Bode talking about his famous cartoonist dad, the late Vaughn Bode. (via)
- February 2, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Picture Book Report
Meg Hunt's Alice
It’s not really comics, but it’s still too cool not to share. Picture Book Report is a new blog where 15 illustrators create and post scenes from their favorite children’s books, like The Hobbit or Alice in Wonderland, as rendered above by Meg Hunt. Anyone with an interest in illustration and/or children’s books should definitely have this site in their RSS feed. (via)
- February 2, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by Chris Mautner
Is Warner Bros. working on a Young Justice cartoon?
Arrowette
Stephanie Lemelin, an actress who has appeared on shows like Rules of Engagement, Cavemen and CSI, said on her blog that she has been cast as the voice of Arrowette in an animated version of Young Justice:
WOW. Ok… I am beyond thrilled to announce that I was recently cast in the new animated series, YOUNG JUSTICE, based on the famous (and awesome!?) DC Comics. I seriously could not be more excited about being welcomed into this amazing family… what a fantastic way to start the new year! I will be voicing the character of Arrowette (see ridiculously hot avatar below!!! um, could I love her anymore?) as well as several supporting cast members… Due to the extreme popularity of this series, however, that’s about all I can say… for now. So excited, this is really a dream come true for me, I have ALWAYS WANTED TO BE A SATURDAY MORNING CARTOOON!!! Woohoo!
Young Justice was a long-running title written by Peter David that featured Robin, Superboy, Wonder Girl, Impulse, Arrowette and several other teenage characters. It was canceled in 2003, as several members of the team “graduated” to the Teen Titans book that launched in its wake. Although it’s too early to tell how close the cartoon will be to the book — or if it draws from it at all, beyond the name — the inclusion of Arrowette should be a good sign for fans of the comic.
Update: It looks like she’s pulled the post off her blog.
- February 2, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Sequential tats
You know, I knew that Bone was a hugely popular series, but I guess I didn’t realize it had reached that stratospheric level of popularity where people are inspired to get tattoos of the various characters embedded on their skin
I shouldn’t be surprised though. Apparently getting tattoos of comic book characters is all the rage these days.
- February 2, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Chris Mautner
Hope Larson shows you how it’s done
Over on her LiveJournal and on Flickr, cartoonist Hope Larson (Mercury) is detailing at length her artistic process on a new story she’s doing entitled Snow Ball.
When it’s complete I’ll compile the whole thing–script, thumbnails, roughs, inks–into a short comic for print and web. The idea isn’t to make a comics how-to, but to show how much work goes into something as basic as a 10-page short story.
It’s nerve-wracking to show work to the world when it’s vulnerable and new, but that’s the whole point. Once I make it through the roughs I’ll enlist someone to play editor, make his/her notes public, and address those notes in the final art.
I find this sort of behind the scenes stuff fascinating and plan on checking back on the above links frequently over the next few weeks.
- February 2, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Mautner
Straight for the art | Faith Erin Hick’s Lost sketch
by Faith Erin Hicks
Here’s another Lost sketch, incidentally, by another creator who has a book coming out from First Second later this year. Faith Erin Hicks shares an image of Jack and some of the newer cast members, i.e. ones that didn’t crash on the island in the first season.
“Oh man oh man oh man I am so excited I really really really really hope the show creators’ll be able to wrap this thing up in a good way (DON’T KILL OFF MY JULIET YOU BASTARDS I LOVE HER) I’m so excited. YAAAAAAAAY,” she writes.
- February 2, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Vera Brosgol’s Lost sketches
by Vera Brosgol
In celebration of tonight’s season premiere of the last season of Lost, artist Vera Brosgol has been sharing sketches on Twitter based on previous episodes from the show’s first five seasons. Brosgol’s Kristyna’s Ghost will be published by First Second next year.
- February 2, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Disney and Marvel
Business | Disney’s $4-billion purchase of Marvel could create legal problems for the Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando theme parks. Antitrust experts say that the 15-year-old licensing agreement between Marvel and Universal will give Disney access to proprietary information about the competing resort, making both companies vulnerable to charges of price-fixing and other anti-competitive behavior.
Disney and Universal have signed an agreement in which corporate Disney promises not to share any information with its theme-park division gained through the Marvel-Universal license. [The Daily Disney]
Business | Former Marvel Vice Chairman Peter Cuneo, who made as much as $4.8 million in the Disney merger, discusses the publisher’s rise out of bankruptcy and its legendary frugality: “People joke about Marvel counting paper clips every month, and really that’s only a small exaggeration. We wanted all of our employees thinking about spending every day. Marvel’s offices are spartan, because the leadership doesn’t want to waste money on accoutrements, on non-productive spending.” [Forbes.com]
- February 2, 2010 @ 07:57 AM by Kevin Melrose
Talking Comics with Tim: Chris Roberson
Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love
This Wednesday, February 3, will see the release of the fourth installment in the six-issue Vertigo miniseries, Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love by (writer) Chris Roberson and (artist) Shawn McManus. Recently, I was fortunate enough to email interview Roberson about Cinderella, as well as his upcoming ongoing Vertigo series with artist Mike Allred–I, Zombie.
Tim O’Shea: Looking at the historical flashbacks that open issues 2 and 3 of Cinderella: From Fabletown with Love, I’m curious are you a fan of history? Which of the historical flashbacks you have built into the story reflects your favorite historical era?
Chris Roberson: History is one of my passions (alongside cartoons, puppets, superheroes, quantum physics, etc). I minored in history in college, and taught middle school history for a couple of years before I’d paid off the karmic debt left over from being a smartass when I was in school. In the eighteen years or so it took me to break into comics, I built a career as a writer of science fiction and fantasy prose, and a good percentage of my short stories and novels have played around with history in one way or another—alternate histories, period pieces, you name it.
As for which of the flashbacks in Cinderella reflects my personal favorite era, I’d probably have to punk out and say “All of them.” I’m a fan of stories set in each of those time periods, and getting to work all of them into Cindy’s backstory was like being a kid in a candy store.
- February 1, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by Tim O'Shea
Straight for the art | Epic faux Venture Bros./Jonny Quest cover
by Matt Synowicz
Artist Matt Synowicz shares an X-Men #100-inspired faux cover, featuring a confrontation between the Venture Bros. and the cartoon family that helped spawn them, the Quests.
If the Quest family could somehow take out Brock, then this match would be over pretty quick … but I don’t think that would ever happen, no matter what Race and Dr. Quest came up with.
- February 1, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
Bendis on the Avengers/Romita Jr. announcement
"I Am an Avenger": Captain America by John Romita Jr.
As you’ve no doubt seen on CBR and all across the comics Internet, writer Brian Michael Bendis and artist John Romita Jr. will be relaunching the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes franchise with the adjectiveless Avengers #1 this May. I first heard the news through various and sundry social networks, where word was spread by ecstatic JRJR fans like wildfire.
One such fan? Bendis himself. In a pair of posts to his Twitter account, Bendis talked a bit about the announcement — and promised more to come:
for the record. me and jr jr are the team for AVENGERS not new avengers. more announcements and line up teases coming very very soon. as excited as u guys r for jrjr on avengers, i am fifty times more excited to actually be writing it. been waiting for this for a long time.
Indeed, Bendis recently tweeted enthusiastically about a killer page he’d seen by an artist he’d never worked with before, a description that fits Romita Jr. to a tee. UPDATE: Our eagle-eyed commenters Tom Daylight and Rich Doyle point out that the pair did in fact work together on Mighty Avengers #15, so that leaves another mystery project out there someplace.
Sounds like we should stay tuned for further word on which Avengers teams — creators and characters alike — will be assembling when Siege is over and The Heroic Age begins…
- February 1, 2010 @ 01:15 PM by Sean T. Collins
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 113
Looks like 113 was pretty unlucky for the Engineer.
Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell
And might not be so healthy for Joachim, either.
Big things afoot at Strangeways central, some of them even involving cowboys and vampires. Some involving a bunch of stuff that’ll get me shot if I talk about, so there’s just stuff and we’ll leave it at that.
See you back here Wednesday for more cryptic proclamations. And vampires.
- February 1, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Today is Hourly Comics Day
by Dean Trippe
Feb. 1 marks Hourly Comic Day, where a slew of creators are posting a comic every hour. John Campbell (who is not only heading it up, but also participating) explains the concept:
on february first a bunch of people make a journal comic every hour they are awake. and then they show these journal comics to other human beings, sometimes on the internet
we will see how different people actually spend their day. some people will make beautiful comics, some ugly. some boring, some exciting.
You can find comics by folks like Dean Trippe (who drew the above earlier today), Box Brown and more in the site’s forums.
- February 1, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by JK Parkin
Comics cavalcade: Rag dolls, dynamite and Tony Blair
The Ultimate Graphic Novel by David Lasky
- February 1, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner