2010 March
Send us your Shelf Porn!
Welcome once again to Shelf Porn, our weekly look into the offices, dens, bedrooms and yes, sometimes even the bathrooms of comic fans. I’m trying to remember if we’ve had a look at anyone’s toilet before, but once you read the descriptions, you’ll see that it makes sense.
If you’d like to contribute your own pictures, send them to me at jkparkin@yahoo.com.
Today’s Shelf Porn comes from Chris Langro in Cumming, Georgia, as he shows us his shelves of books, framed art and statues. Take it away, Chris …
- March 31, 2010 @ 03:00 PM by JK Parkin
WonderCon | Escape From Dullsville art show this weekend
Escape from Dullsville
Guests at this year’s WonderCon in San Francisco will have a lot of options for after-hours events. In addition to events at Isotope Comics, the Cartoon Art Museum and Comix Experience, the fairly new comic shop/art gallery Mission: Comics & Art is hosting an art show spotlighting the work of Escape from Dullsville creator Andy Ristiano on Friday.
His solo show at Mission: Comics & Art will showcase original comic pages, a wide variety of illustrations, and some album covers for the San Francisco band Assemble Head in Sunburst Sound.
Then on Saturday, they’re hosting a CD release party for Andy and his brother’s band, Agents of Venus. More details on both events can be found after the jump.
- March 31, 2010 @ 02:40 PM by JK Parkin
Didn’t get tickets to San Diego? Try Stark Expo 2010 instead
Stark Expo
Still feeling the sting of not getting tickets to the San Diego Comic Con? Well, maybe you’ll have better luck getting into the Stark Expo 2010.
Marvel has kicked off a website to promote this summer’s Iron Man 2, which hits theaters May 7. The site lets you check out various promotional videos and other stuff for a big technology exhibition being put on by Tony Stark. Well, it’s not quite San Diego, but maybe it’ll get folks excited about the new movie.
- March 31, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by JK Parkin
WonderCon | Comix Experience 21st anniversary party/CBLDF benefit
Usagi Yojimbo
San Francisco’s Comix Experience, the comic shop owned by CBR columnist Brian Hibbs, celebrates its 21st birthday this weekend (hey, they’re legal!) with a birthday bash and benefit art auction for the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund.
The birthday bash begins at 8 p.m. Saturday, April 3rd, and will feature the El Toyanese Taco Truck, sponsored by Image Comics, and beer courtesy of 21st Amendment Brewery. The auction will include the above piece by artist Stan Sakai. If you’re in town and looking for something to do after WonderCon on Saturday, this sounds like a fun event.
- March 31, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by JK Parkin
Strangeways: The Thirsty – Page 128
Art by Gervasio and Jok. Written by Matt Maxwell.
Still gonna be at Wonder-Con. Still gonna be in the small press area. And I’ll bet you a dollar that nobody will ask for a five minute story, even though I don’t usually charge for them. Betcha.
- March 31, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Matt Maxwell
Review: Peter Kuper’s The Jungle
The Jungle
Written by Upton Sinclair, illustrated by Peter Kuper
Classics Illustrated, $9.99
This is a difficult book to review. There is so much about it that is good, and so much that is bad, that it’s hard to render judgment on it. Some of the flaws may stem from the original (which, I admit, I have never read), but some are clearly the fault of the artist and the publisher. And yet, despite all this, it is a powerful book.
What makes it so powerful is Kuper’s muscular art, which is perfectly suited to the subject matter. His blocky yet expressive style is evocative of social realist art, and he reinforces that by using drawing techniques that suggest woodblock prints or lithographs rather than standard comics art: thick, simple lines, large blocks of light and shade, dropped-out areas, spatters, and fades.
Kuper’s adaptation of Sinclair’s novel also has a poster-like simplicity to it. The hero, Jurgis Rudkus, comes to Chicago from Lithuania with his family in search of a better life, but instead, the whole family winds up working in factories under terrible conditions (The Jungle is known primarily as an expose of the meat-packing industry, although Sinclair intended it to be about the larger issue of the exploitation of the working poor). Jurgis is injured, loses his job, and falls into a depression. His wife falls victim to a lecherous boss, and when Jurgis responds with his fists, he finds himself blacklisted and unable to find work. The family ultimately loses their home, Ona dies in childbirth, Jurgis turns to drink and winds up in jail, their son drowns in a flooded street—the disasters just keep coming. Jurgis goes through many transformations, but nothing—not the union, not the settlement worker, not even the con man he meets in jail—can save him, because the deck is stacked so solidly against him. Even the ending is unsatisfactory: Jurgis goes to a rally, and the speaker fills him with hope, but there is nothing to suggest that this time would be different from all the others. The suffering and the fall are very real, but the redemption feels as if it was slapped on.
- March 31, 2010 @ 12:30 PM by Brigid Alverson
Zuda’s first crossover brings together SuperTron, Black Cherry Bombshells
Joining in the “long tradition of comic book crossover events,” according to the press release, Zuda’s The Black Cherry Bombshells and SuperTron strips are crossing over.
“We’ve been dropping hints in both strips for a while. Last year The Bombshells appeared in SuperTron’s dream and recently connections between the King and MOM Bot were discovered,” said Johnny Zito, co-creator of The Black Cherry Bombshells.
SuperTron creator Sheldon Vella will illustrate five episodes of Black Cherry Bombshells beginning April 5. Sheldon’s stint as guest artist will connect the Armageddon events between both series and will catapult both comics into their final chapters.
“We’re really excited to finally team up with Shelly. For the longest time we’ve thought of the Bombshells as the prequel to SuperTron,” said Tony Trov, co-creator of The Black Cherry Bombshells.
This isn’t the firts time Vella has drawn the Bombshells; you can see a promo piece he did for them last year in this post. And check out another piece of art after the jump …
- March 31, 2010 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin
Robin Williams endorses DMZ and Tekkonkinkreet
USA Today’s Whitney Matheson posts an excerpt from an interview with actor, comedian and comics fan Robin Williams in which he discusses his fondness for Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli’s DMZ, and Taiyō Matsumoto’s Tekkonkinkreet.
“My favorite is DMZ,” he says, adding that he thinks his daughter Zelda is trying to option the series. “So please let her get that script.”
- March 31, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
San Francisco Chronicle picks up Jon Adams’ Friendship Town
Welcome to Friendship Town
Truth Serum creator Jon Adams sent word about two piece sof news he has … first, he has a new weekly comic called Friendship Town that’s been picked up by the San Francisco Chronicle’s “96 Hours” weekend supplement. It will also appear on the newspaper’s website.
And second, tomorrow Adams is planning a special April Fool’s Day wedding strip for Truth Serum. Read the entire announcement and see Jon’s promo piece for the big wedding after the jump …
- March 31, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
iVerse Media’s iPad app expected to be available at launch
iVerse on the iPad
Digital comics provider iVerse Media announced today the latest version of their iVerse Comics application, which runs on the iPhone, iPod Touch and “Apple’s new ‘magical’ iPad device.”
“We’d all been waiting for Apple to announce the iPad, and once the specifics were finally known, our team began putting together our plans for the device the same day,” said iVerse Media founder and CEO Michael Murphey in a press release. “It’s been a long 60 or so days, but I’m incredibly proud of our team, and I think people are really going to love the application.”
Murphey said that they expect the iVerse Comics application to be available on the iPad when it is released this Saturday. Through the application, users can download comics from Marvel, Image, IDW, BOOM! and many other publishers.
‘If people are going to be able to access this on the iPad from day one no matter what, we really needed to make sure we put our best face forward,” Murphey said. “So we had to build a completely new application from scratch, then marry that to our existing app. The end result gives the user the best possible experience on whatever device they’re using.”
Per the press release, long time users of iVerse Comics will have the ability to download new, high resolution, iPad files of their previously purchased comics for no additional cost. They’ve also added a “zoom” feature for both the iPhone and iPad versions of the app, while the iPad version will alos include preview images. They plan to add preview images to the iPhone in the coming weeks.
Check out a video preview of the iPad app after the jump …
- March 31, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin
Kickstart my art | Help Athena Voltaire return to print
Athena Voltaire
Steve Bryant, the creator of Athena Voltaire, put the creator-owned project on the backburner so he could focus on higher-paying work — but now he’d like some help so he can start working on it again.
“That’s the great thing about Kickstarter,” he writes on the fund raising website. “With your help, I can set aside the time to work on Athena Voltaire—and ONLY Athena Voltaire. And that’s the best way to get the book done; to schedule it just like any other project and work on AV without other deadlines pulling me away from the book.”
Launched in 2002 as a webcomic, Athena Voltaire received an Eisner Award Nomination for Best Digital Comic in 2005, while Bryant was nominated for the 2007 Russ Manning Most Promising Newcomer Award. It has since gone on to be published by Ape Entertainment in two collections –- The Collected Webcomics and Flight of the Falcon.
After collaborator Paul Daly left the series, Bryant produced half of the 2009 Black Coat/Athena Voltaire One-Shot. Bryant intends to follow it up with a two-issue mini-series, Athena Voltaire and the Volcano Goddess.
He’s offering several “prizes” for those who pledge to support the book, from access to .pdf copes of the new comic to original cover art from previous editions, as outlined on his Kickstarter page. You can find out more about the book at its official website, and read it online at Webcomics Nation.
- March 31, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
WonderCon | Convention-exclusive posters for Iron Man 2, Kick-Ass
WonderCon-exclusive "Iron Man 2" poster
WonderCon kicks off Friday in San Francisco, and movie studios and television networks will be there, promoting spring and early-summer projects like Doctor Who, Happy Town, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time — and, oh, yeah, Iron Man 2 and Kick-Ass. Those latter two bring with them convention-exclusive posters.
The first (available at Booth #242) is a mini-poster spotlighting Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow. It’s nothing spectacular — just a straightforward shot of the actress in costume — but it’s an improvement over the pretty-awful domestic poster for Iron Man 2.
The second, which you can see after the break, concludes the series of Kick-Ass character posters inspired by World War II propaganda imagery. The previous three are so-so, with only the one for Red Mist actually clicking. But the con-exclusive poster for Big Daddy, with its slogan of “He’s Watching You,” is pretty creepy, and calls out for a “Ceiling Cat”-style meme.
Yeah, that’s right, Nicolas Cage is watching you, um, doing whatever you’re doing. And he’ll be available to sign the poster on Saturday.
- March 31, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
New things to look at: Bento Comics
A bento box is a Japanese lunch filled with lots of delightful little treats. Bento Comics is a webcomics site that is filled with delightful little treats—bite-sized stories that readers can mix and match into their own personalized anthologies—and even compile into print anthologies, through Lulu.com. What makes this interesting is not just the business model but also the folks behind it, including Svetlana Chmakova (Dramacon, Nightschool), Queenie Chan (The Dreaming, Odd Thomas), Liesl Adams (On the Edge) and Dan Hess (Realms of Ishikaze, Angel Moxie, Weesh). (Obligatory disclaimer: I have personal and business relationships with several of the creators behind this site.)
Bento Comics
- March 31, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Asterix
Politics | Ah, comics, the language of diplomacy. During his visit this week to the White House, French President Nicolas Sarkozy gave President Obama an 18th-century document accrediting Benjamin Franklin as ambassador to France and, for his daughters, a collection of Asterix graphic novels. [AFP]
Publishing | Rebellion Publishing, publisher of U.K. comics anthology 2000AD, will begin releasing U.S. editions of new and classic titles in graphic-novel format beginning in June with The Judge Dredd Complete Case Files and The Complete D.R. and Quinch. [PW Comics Week]
Publishing | Two more profiles of Last Gasp Books as the independent publisher celebrates its 40th anniversary. [PW Comics Week, San Francisco Bay Guardian]
- March 31, 2010 @ 07:41 AM by Kevin Melrose
Noir, Amazing Spideys team up for Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions game
So admittedly I’m a little wary about any new Spider-Man game after getting burnt by Web of Shadows, but the first trailer (above) and first article by Gamespot on Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions have me hoping it ends up being as cool as it looks and sounds. One thing in its favor is that it’s written By Dan Slott, who knows his way around a good Spider-Man story.
Via Gamespot, here are some details on the plot of the game, which involves different Spider-Men in different dimensions:
Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions takes a new approach to chronicling the webbed hero’s exploits that comes closer to his comic roots than the other media he has appeared in recently. The game’s story, penned by The Amazing Spider-Man comic writer Dan Slott, revolves around a mystical artifact called the Tablet of Order and Chaos. As you can imagine, with a name like that, the tablet is more than just a dusty museum relic. In true comic fashion, it turns out that the thing happens to be an object of immense power that is essential to keeping reality in balance. Naturally, it gets shattered into four pieces while Spider-Man is in the process of thwarting a robbery. Given the relic’s role in balancing reality, this is a pretty time-sensitive problem that requires immediate attention, so Spidey is tapped by one of the many guest stars in the game to set things right. On a side note to comic fans, Spidey’s mystic taskmaster is an inspired choice and isn’t anyone who has been a Sorcerer Supreme.
So how do you go about collecting pieces of a mystic tablet that are spread across different dimensions? It helps if there happen to be versions of you in each of the different dimensions that are all heroic and ready to help. Activision and developer Beenox have taken the opportunity to mix things up and pull four very disparate versions of Spider-Man together for the game. In our demo we were able to see two: the Amazing Spider-Man, which is pretty much the iconic one that should be familiar to everyone, and Spider-Man Noir, a very different incarnation of the wallcrawler that isn’t as widely known.
Head over to Gamespot at the link above for much more on the game. There should also be more details revealed at this weekend’s WonderCon.
- March 30, 2010 @ 04:41 PM by JK Parkin