2010 March
Comics cavalcade: Ghosts, sorcerers and comic book thieves
Dream of My Comics Journal Interview by Rick Veitch
- March 15, 2010 @ 12:05 PM by Chris Mautner
Morse’s Strange Science Fantasy coming from IDW
Strange Science Fantasy
Last year Scott Morse shared a series of fun stories called “Strange Science Fantasy” on his blog. They were only up for a short time, and he went on to print them up to sell in San Diego. And now he reports on his blog that IDW Publishing will publish a six-issue Strange Science Fantasy series beginning in July.
“You heard it right, folks: STRANGE SCIENCE FANTASY will hit the stands properly with the help of the amazing IDW, this July through December! Six issues of retro-crazy pure comics storytelling, featuring the stories you’ve come to love here on the blog, CONTINUED! I promise, this will be unlike ANYTHING on the stands this year, and you have IDW to thank!” he wrote. “Oh, and PAUL POPE will be delivering one-page back-up features. PAUL POPE, people!”
The first issue will have an incentive alternate cover, pictured to the right.
- March 15, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Thin wallets, fat bookshelves: Drawn & Quarterly’s fall catalog
Note that this is not the final cover to Barry's new book
Farrar Straus & Giroux has once again sent out their latest catalog of upcoming books, this time for the fall, and since FSG distributes Drawn & Quarterly, it gives us an excellent opportunity to see what the Canadian publisher has planned for the second half of 2010. Their line-up includes new books from Lynda Barry, Chris Ware, Seth and John Stanley, just to name a few.
By the way, I think it’s worth mentioning that FSG imprint Hill and Wang, who have been publishing a few nonfiction graphic novels every quarter, have nothing lined up for the fall. Are they quietly canceling this line? Or is this just a pause between projects?
- March 15, 2010 @ 10:30 AM by Chris Mautner
Stephen King’s website premieres American Vampire trailer
From the "American Vampire" trailer
On the heels of this morning’s interview and preview, Stephen King’s official website has debuted a 40-second trailer, complete with an Omen-style musical score, for American Vampire, the author’s comic book-writing debut. The Vertigo series, by King, Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque, premieres this week.
- March 15, 2010 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Mask up, bitches: Kick-Ass tears through South by Southwest
Red Mist
This past weekend South by Southwest in Austin hosted the premiere of Kick-Ass, the movie adaptation of the comic by Mark Millar and John Romita, Jr. The film was accompanied by a panel featuring both creators and members of the cast … and a trio of really cool retro posters that attendees received. Above is one featuring the Red Mist, and you can also check out the ones featuring the title character and Hit Girl.
Reviews of the film have also started to pop up around the web, on sites like io9 and Reuters, among many others. Millar and Romita also spoke with the Wall Street Journal about the film.
- March 15, 2010 @ 09:20 AM by JK Parkin
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Comic-Con
Conventions | The annual, and often-grueling, rite that is the race for Comic-Con International hotel rooms kicks off at 9 a.m. PST Thursday as Travel Planners begins taking reservations. The convention website helpfully cautions: “As everyone knows from the past few years, the discounted rate offered by Comic-Con on the rooms in our block means that they tend to sell out in the first few hours.” Details can be found here.
In other Comic-Con news, as of this morning Thursday memberships are 97-percent sold. Friday, Saturday and four-day passes went the way of the dodo long ago. [Comic-Con International]
Retailing | As the “buy” buttons for titles from Diamond Book Distributors slowly begin to reappear on Amazon.com, Simon Jones offers additional commentary on last week’s “price glitch” that affected both that online retailer and Barnes & Noble: “… Questions still remain: how did this happen in the first place, why was it almost allowed to happen again at Barnes & Noble, and whether any direct financial burden might be heaved upon publishers? It’s no exaggeration to say that DBD’s immediate outlook may depend on how satisfactorily it is able to address these quandaries when it meets with publishers this week. Rightly or not, there are some justifiable jitters among its clients. Assurances must be made, anxieties must be soothed.” [Icarus Publishing]
- March 15, 2010 @ 09:15 AM by Kevin Melrose
Cartoon Art Museum, Hero Initiative host benefit for Ed Hannigan during WonderCon
by Tom Lyle
The Cartoon Art Museum and The Hero Initiative are teaming up for a party in honor of and to benefit veteran comics artist Ed Hannigan, who is suffering from multiple sclerosis, during the upcoming WonderCon in San Francisco. Hannigan’s work is also currently the subject of an exhibit at the museum.
Tickets for this event, scheduled for Friday, April 2, from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m., will be sold on a sliding scale. Ed Hannigan will receive a portion of the proceeds of all ticket sales above $20. Those who donate $35 or more will receive a special gift bag courtesy of the Cartoon Art Museum.
A silent auction will be held at the party, and all proceeds from the auction will go directly to Hannigan. Some of the pieces for the auction are recreations of past Hannigan covers, like the one to the right by Tom Lyle that recreates the classic cover to Avengers #223. You can check out the original here.
Many creators will be in attendance as special guests of the Cartoon Art Museum and the Hero Initiative. Confirmed guests include Arthur Adams, Amanda Conner, Sergio Aragones, Joyce Chin, Jimmy Palmiotti, Greg Rucka, Gail Simone, Jen Van Meter and more to be announced. You can find more information on the event here, and information on how to bid by proxy in the auction here.
- March 15, 2010 @ 08:13 AM by JK Parkin
Image goes indie with ‘Twisted Savage Dragon Funnies’
Twisted Savage Dragon Funnies
DC had Bizarro Comics, Marvel had Strange Tales, and now Erik Larsen’s Savage Dragon has secured an alternative comics-style tribute of his very own. Starting with May’s Issue 160, Savage Dragon will run a series of “Twisted Savage Dragon Funnies” back-up strips by an array of indie cartoonists. The project is spearheaded by Act-I-Vate‘s Michel Fiffe, and the full line-up for the first year or so — including Vito Delsante and Rachel Freire, Hyeondo Park, Andrew Dimitt and more — can be found on the blog of contributor Chris Sinderson.
Fiffe’s press release is below:
- March 15, 2010 @ 06:32 AM by Sean T. Collins
Guitar picks from the Kirby Krackle/Joe Quesada show (or, What is O.M.I.T.?)
Guitar picks from the Kirby Krackle concert at Emerald City ComiCon (photo by George Tramountanas)
Among the highlights of Emerald City ComiCon was the Sunday concert by Seattle-based “nerd rock band” Kirby Krackle (Kyle Stevens and Jim Demonakos) and special guest Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada. At the performance, which marked the release of the band’s sophomore album E for Everyone, attendees were given these nifty Marvel-branded guitar picks that bear the mysterious acronym “O.M.I.T.” (Anyone have a guess what it stands for?)
Look for more images from the concert and the convention later this afternoon in Comic Book Resource’s Emerald City ComiCon photo parade.
- March 15, 2010 @ 05:25 AM by Kevin Melrose
Stephen King talks comics, the dangerous undead and American Vampire
From "American Vampire" #5
At The Daily Beast, Shannon Donnelly speaks with Stephen King about American Vampire, his collaboration with Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque that debuts this week from Vertigo, and offers a three-page preview of the first issue.
In the interview, King admits to the challenges of his comics-writing debut, and confesses his disappointment after learning that thought balloons have fallen out of vogue: “I got this kind of embarrassed call from the editors saying, ‘Ah, Steve, we don’t do that anymore.’ ‘You don’t do that anymore?’ I said. ‘No, when the characters speak, they speak. If they’re thinking, you try to put that across in the narration, in the little narration boxes.’ … I think it’s a shame to lose that arrow out of your quiver. One of the nice things about the written word as opposed to the spoken word in a movie is that you can go into a character’s thoughts. You do it in books all the time, right?”
- March 15, 2010 @ 04:20 AM by Kevin Melrose
Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs | Foiled
Foiled
Foiled
Written by Jane Yolen; Illustrated by Mike Cavallaro
First Second; $15.99
Foiled is an appropriate name for Jane Yolen and Mike Cavallaro’s story about a teen-aged fencing student. The pun works on a couple of levels. Not only does it describe the heroine’s efforts at handling her first crush; it also described my ability to predict where the story was going.
That can be good and bad. We want unpredictability in storytelling, but it can be a bit off-putting to think you’re reading one type of story and find out later that you’ve actually been reading a completely different one. Shutter Island is a good example of that. I won’t give any details in case you haven’t seen it yet, but it’ll suffice to say that something happens towards the end of that movie that makes you realize you’ve been fooled. In the group I saw it with, there were a couple of reactions to that. Some of us were thrilled by it. We’d suspected, if not exactly predicted, the real story and – thanks to the skill of the filmmakers – completely bought into it when it was revealed. Others of us didn’t like the new story so much and preferred to re-write it in our heads so that the original story was still the real one. Foiled operates in a similar way, but it’s not just the plot that tricks you. It’s the entire genre.
At this point, I need to include a spoiler warning. I’m not going to give away the ending, but I do need to talk about the shift in genre. While I was one of those who loved the twist in Shutter Island, I was thrown and distracted by the one in Foiled. In this particular case, I think I would’ve been able to enjoy the story much more had I been able to see a little better where it was taking me. In hindsight, I enjoyed it a lot. As I was going through it though, it could be frustrating.
After the break: Why it’s nice to know what genre you’re reading.
- March 14, 2010 @ 09:00 PM by Michael May
What are you reading?
Luna Park
Our guest this week is the esteemed critic Ng Suat Tong, who has written some quite memorable pieces for The Comics Journal, but lately can be found as a regular contributor to The Hooded Utilitarian blog.
To find out what Suat and the rest of us are reading, click on the link below. And don’t forget to let us know what you’re currently reading in the comments section.
- March 14, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Detective Comics wins GLAAD Media Award
Detective Comics #854
Batwoman’s starring turn in DC’s Detective Comics was honored Saturday night as outstanding comic book at the 21st annual GLAAD Media Awards in New York City.
Presented by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, the awards recognize media for their representations of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people and issues.
The critically acclaimed run on Detective Comics, which began in June with Issue 854, featured Batwoman in a lead story by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III, and The Question in a co-feature by Rucka and Cully Hamner. Both characters are lesbians.
The new Batwoman, Kate Kane, was introduced in summer 2006 amid a hail of mainstream-media coverage. But a long-rumored Batwoman series faced one delay after another, which some chalked up to DC’s nervousness about the potential effect the character’s sexual orientation could have on the lucrative Bat-brand. Finally, in February 2009, it was officially announced that Batwoman would step into the void left by the “death” of Bruce Wayne and become the star — temporarily, at least — of DC’s longest-running title.
Rucka revealed in December that he and Williams will reunite later this year for a Batwoman solo series. Their Detective run ended with Issue 860, and was followed by a three-issue arc by Rucka and Jock.
Renee Montoya was created for Batman: The Animated Series, but debuted first in March 1992 in Batman #475. A Gotham City police detective, she played a prominent role in the acclaimed series Gotham Central, in which she was confirmed as a lesbian. She assumed the guise of The Question after the death of Vic Sage in 52.
The other nominees for the GLAAD Media Award were Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Madame Xanadu, Secret Six and X-Factor.
- March 14, 2010 @ 05:32 AM by Kevin Melrose
Emerald City | Batman Beyond #1 in June, more JSA on Smallville
Super Pro K.O.!
BOOM! Studios isn’t the only publisher at the Emerald City Comicon with news. Here’s a rundown on some of the other stuff coming out of the con …
- Laura Hudson at ComicsAlliance reports from the DC Nation panel that occurred earlier today. We already know that animated star Batman Beyond is set to appear in this year’s Superman/Batman annual, written by Paul Levitz. According to editor Ian Sattler, the annual will be out in June and will feature Superman Beyond as well. And a new Batman Beyond series kicks off that month.
- At that same panel, Geoff Johns also confirmed that the JSA would appear again on Smallville toward the end of the season. “The hope is for every DC character to appear outside the comic book. Correctly,” Johns said.
- And James Robinson is working on a new Shade series. Previously he told iFanboy he’d love to explore Opal City in the form of a Shade series.
- Laura also reports on the Mondo Marvel panel that occurred in Seattle. Although there were no announcements, they did talk about the recent Tea Bagger controversy in Captain America, how the Disney/Marvel merger was going and, as always, “One More Day.”
- iFanboy reports on some of Oni’s news from the show. Guerillas by Brahm Revel is moving from Image to Oni, with a first volume collection due in October. In July they’ll release a new graphic novel called Super Pro K.O.! by Jarrett Williams, described as “Shonen Jump meets high-impact, old-school wrastlin’.” And Phil Gelatt and Tyler Crook’s Petrograd comes out in November. I spoke with Gelatt about the book last summer, when it was announced at SDCC.
- As reported on CBR, Hack/Slash is moving from Devil’s Due to Image. “…it became pretty clear that the pretty well [publicized] financial problems DDP was having weren’t going to help me get my book out every month or help me get my creators paid on time,” creator Tim Seeley told CBR. “I’ve been working with Image on my other creator-owned stuff like “Loaded Bible” and “Colt Noble and the Megalords,” and I’ve always had great experiences working with [Image Comics Publisher] Eric Stephenson and [Sales and Licensing Coordinator] Joe Keatinge and the rest of the crew. And, most of the comics I read and enjoy every month come out of Image. So, with the help of DDP president Josh Blaylock, I set up a deal to bring Cassie and Vlad over to Image.”
- Heidi MacDonald reports that next year’s Emerald City Comicon will run three days. They’ll also run a one-day show called the Jet City Comic Show in September.
- March 13, 2010 @ 06:00 PM by JK Parkin
Emerald City | BOOM! announces Amory Wars, 7 Psychopaths, Darkwing Duck
The Amory Wars: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3
BOOM! Studios sent out a trio of press releases this afternoon in conjunction with their announcements from the Emerald City Comicon in Seattle this weekend.
As noted on CBR this afternoon, Darkwing Duck is joining the BOOM! Kids line, written by my buddy Ian Brill and drawn by James Silvani. Big props to Ian on writing his first four-issue mini-series.
The Amory Wars moves from Image to BOOM! in May, as Coheed & Cambria frontman Claudio Sanchez teams with comics writer Peter David for The Amory Wars: In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3. The 12-issue maxi-series ties into the release of Coheed & Cambria’s album Year of the Black Rainbow, due out in April. BOOM! will also release The Amory Wars Ultimate Edition, which collects the previous Amory Wars tales published by Image.
“Working with Claudio has been an absolute revelation in terms of Coheed and Cambria’s popularity,” said David. “I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve encountered people who don’t read X-Factor, never heard of Fallen Angel, but I mention that I’m working with Claudio and they instantly declare their undying love for all things C&C. They start rattling off titles, song lyrics, and they absolutely cannot wait to get their hands on the next installment of Claudio’s epic science fiction vision. For those fans who have been waiting years for this new comic series, the wait is over. For anyone who’s going to be entering Claudio’s world for the first time, welcome to Heaven’s Fence.”
Finally, this May BOOM! will release 7 Psychopaths, written by Fabien Vehlmann with art by Sean Phillips of Criminal fame. Originally published by Delcourt in France under the title Seven Psychos, the World War II story is about seven psychos charged with killing Hitler.
“7 Psychopaths is probably the most difficult story I’ve ever drawn,” said Phillips. “Nine or ten panel pages, having to find reference for everything I had to draw, drawing a type of story I’d never tackled before, it was hard work. Many times I wondered if it was worth the effort. Then I started to receive jpegs of Hubert’s coloured pages, and it was definitely worth it. He’s made it look like a book drawn by someone who knew what he was doing! It seemed as if I could do Fabien’s great story justice after all.”
- March 13, 2010 @ 05:31 PM by JK Parkin