2011 January
Exclusive Preview | Buffy the Vampire Slayer #40
Buffy the Vampire Slayer #40
Although the Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series went out with a bang in 2003, Ms. Summers and the Scooby gang had a very busy 2010. Not only did we get the big reveal of who the villain Twilight really was — a character whose comic series will return to Dark Horse next year — but we’ve also made it to the end of “season eight” with a huge story with huge consequences. And we found out that the crew will be back sometime next year for season nine.
But before that one begins, you gotta have an ending. On Jan. 19, Buffy the Vampire Slayer #40 drives a stake through the ambitious season eight, where “betrayal comes in the shape of the closest, most unexpected individual of all.” Jan. 19 is the birthday of Buffy Summers, and Dark Horse has six events planned around the country to celebrate it.
And right here for our birthday, we’re very pleased to present an exclusive preview of Buffy the Vampire Slayer #40, courtesy of the kind folks at Dark Horse Comics. Check out the preview, solicitation info and details on the Buffy birthdays after the jump.
- January 2, 2011 @ 11:59 AM by JK Parkin
First Look: BOOM! Studios covers for April 2011
Once again, courtesy of our friends at BOOM! Studios, we have more covers coming in April. This time we’ve got a double dose of Disney all-ages action in the form of Darkwing Duck and Chip ‘N’ Dale, with a bonus non-all-ages Insurrection v3.6, a new comic that debuts in March. In fact, I’ll go ahead and throw in that first issue cover, just so you’re up to speed.
Check’em out after the jump!
- January 2, 2011 @ 11:28 AM by JK Parkin
Talking Comics with Tim | Dan Abnett
Heroes for Hire
The writing team of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning have come back down to Earth and the streets of Marvel with the new Heroes for Hire (H4H) series, which premiered in December. After reading the first issue, which ended with a spectacular plot curve ball, I wanted to find out more about the series. This Wednesday, January 5, marks the release of issue 2–featuring Ghost Rider and Silver Sable. Despite his busy comics and prose writing schedule, Abnett was kind enough to do a brief email interview about the series–and offer readers a chance make hero hire suggestions for future issues.
Tim O’Shea: After working in space with myriad Marvel universe alien species, what’s the most enjoyable aspect to getting to also dabble in the “nitty, gritty, human vigilante street action of Heroes for Hire” as you recently described it.
Dan Abnett: The change of pace, really. Bill Rosemann, our editor, asked us if we’d like to do something that was a contrast to the cosmic stuff we’ve been doing, and the first thing Andy and I ever did for Marvel US was a year or so’s run on the Punisher in the early 1990s. So we decided to go ‘back on the streets’.
- January 2, 2011 @ 10:55 AM by Tim O'Shea
Zito, Trov and Maybury blast off for D.O.G.S. of Mars
from D.O.G.S. of Mars
Johnny Zito and Tony Trov, writers of Black Cherry Bombshells and Moon Girl, along with Christian Weiser and artist Paul Maybury (Aqua Leung, Party Bear), are teaming up with High Treason Pictures to tell the story of Zoe, “the swashbuckling captain of Earth’s first Martian colony. Isolated on the farthest frontier of civilization, order breaks down when unfamiliar hostiles invade. Zoe faces mutiny, death and dishonor; she must sacrifice her humanity if she hopes to survive.”
I spoke with Paul, Johnny and Tony about the new project, D.O.G.S. of Mars, due later this month. Like Zito and Trov’s Moon Girl, the comic will be released digitally via comiXology, with plans for a film down the line. Thanks to Paul for an exclusive look at some pages from the project; for more, check out this video he created.
JK: What is D.O.G.S. of Mars about?
Johnny: It’s about astronauts marooned on Mars and hunted by monsters. It’s like Lord of The Flies and Star Trek.
Paul: So far it’s about surviving as far as I know. This might sound stupid but I haven’t read the script past what I’ve drawn. This is less an action packed Monster book than a study of the character’s humanity in my opinion. I know roughly that characters die, but it’s more interesting to draw them scene to scene not knowing their fates. I feel like this creates an honesty and an interest in each character as I draw them that I might not have if I know they happen to be a throw away character that gets killed three pages later. Like I said, that probably sounds pretty stupid.
Tony: We like to describe the project as being in the genre of space-ploitation.
- January 2, 2011 @ 10:20 AM by JK Parkin
Thor goes out swinging in final issue of Thor: The Mighty Avenger
Thor the Mighty Avenger #8
I gotta admit that showing you this preview is kind of bittersweet. Courtesy of our friends at Marvel Comics, we’re pleased to present a preview of Thor: The Mighty Avenger #8, the final issue of the series by writer Roger Langridge and artist Chris Samnee (although it won’t be the last time we see the duo work on Thor, as they’ll be back for the Thor/Captain America team-up on Free Comic Book Day).
Also, as long as we’re talking about Thor: The Mighty Avenger, let me take a moment to point you to Marvel’s upcoming comics for March 2011. Marvel has a lot going on in March — the new Venom series starts up, there’s a prologue for the big Fear Itself event, the 5 Ronin miniseries with its awesome covers, CrossGen — but I wanted to call attention to the second Thor: The Mighty Avenger trade paperback, which collects issues #5-8. If you haven’t tried this book, I’d recommend buying the first trade, as it should be available from finer comic shops and online retailers now, which should give you plenty of time to enjoy it before the second trade hits in March.
This is a book that made it into CBR’s top ten comics of 2010; in fact, here’s what our own Tim O’Shea had to say about it:
“We pundits have a damn good time opining on what’s wrong with mainstream publishers, direct market infrastructure and everything in between. But with this series, I am left asking, ‘What the hell is wrong with us consumers?’ How could a series so good (with great guest stars almost every issue) sell so poorly? I don’t know what lessons we can all take away from only getting to enjoy the sweetest, most engaging Marvel comic in years for only eight issues, but I sure hope that if these two creators work together again, we appreciate it properly and make it a long-term bestseller,” he wrote.
Needless to say, we’re big fans of this book. Thor: The Mighty Avenger #8 comes out Jan. 12. Check out the preview after the jump.
- January 2, 2011 @ 09:50 AM by JK Parkin
First Look: Irredeemable, Incorruptible covers for April 2011
Courtesy of our friends at BOOM! Studios, we’re pleased to bring you an exclusive first look at the covers to several of their April-shipping titles. This is the first of three rounds, as they sent over a bunch, so let’s start off by taking a look at the “Waid-o-verse” titles, Irredeemable and Incorruptible.
Take a look at the covers and the solicitation info for both titles after the jump!
- January 2, 2011 @ 09:15 AM by JK Parkin
2010: The year in digital comics
What a difference a year makes! A year ago today, the iPad not only didn’t exist, it hadn’t been officially announced yet. People read comics on their iPhones and iPod Touches, but the screens were too small for a good experience (and therefore, no one wanted to spend much money on them). The iPad changed all that, with a big, full-color screen that is just a tad smaller than a standard comics page (and a tad larger than a standard manga page), and publishers started taking digital comics seriously. The distribution was already in place, thanks to the iPhone—comiXology, iVerse, Panelfly—and now the publishers not only jumped on board with those platforms but also started developing their own apps.
The digital comics scene is still developing, but the iPad was the game changer. For many people, it was the first time that they could comfortably read comics on a handheld screen. Now, it’s just a question of marketing—this year, publishers will grapple with bringing comics to a wider audience, outside the existing readership, and balancing the digital marketplace with the established brick-and-mortar retail structure.
Here, then, is a look back at our digital year.
- January 2, 2011 @ 08:55 AM by Brigid Alverson
Exclusive Preview | IDW’s Infestation #1
IDW manages to find something new to do with two of comics’ favorite subjects this year, with Infestation breaking new ground for both zombies and crossovers. The story that starts in Ashley Wood and Chris Ryall’s Zombies Vs. Robots reality before crossing into the universes of Ghostbusters, GI Joe, Star Trek and Transformers begins this month with a first issue written by fan favorites Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, with art by David Messina. Click through for a preview.
- January 2, 2011 @ 08:25 AM by Graeme McMillan
Exclusive: Fantagraphics to publish the complete Carl Barks
In what is sure to be one of the most acclaimed comics events of 2011, Fantagraphics has announced that they will be publishing a definitive collection of Carl Barks’ seminal run of Donald Duck comic stories. In an exclusive interview with Robot 6, Fantagraphics co-publisher Gary Groth revealed that the company – which announced their plans to publish Floyd Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse comics last summer – had acquired the rights to reprint Barks’ work from Disney and that the first volume will be released in fall of this year. The comics will be published in hardcover volumes, with two volumes coming out every year, at a price of about $25 per volume.
Although the stories will be printed in chronological order, the first volume, “Lost in the Andes,” will cover the beginning of Barks’ “peak” period, circa about 1948. The second volume, “Only a Poor Old Man,” will cover roughly the years 1952-54 and feature the first Uncle Scrooge story. Later volumes will fill in the missing gaps, including his earlier work, in a process somewhat similar to Fantagraphics’ publication of George Herriman’s “Krazy Kat.”
For those who aren’t familiar with the name, the Barks library has been one of the great missing links in a time that many have dubbed the “golden age of reprints.” Acclaimed around the globe for his rich storytelling and characterization, as well as excellent craftsmanship, Barks has long been regarded as one of the great cartoonists of the 20th century, equal to luminaries like Charles Schulz, Robert Crumb and Harvey Kurtzman. He’s been one of the few major American cartoonists whose work has, up till now, not been collected in a comprehensive, manner respectful of his talent (at least not in North America), however, so this announcement comes as extremely good news for any who read and love good comics, let alone are familiar with Barks’ work.
Fantagraphics will release an official announcement about the project tomorrow. In the meantime, click on the link to read our exclusive interview with Gary Groth:
- January 2, 2011 @ 07:59 AM by Chris Mautner
“A fight between operatic spectacle and tiny intimate moments”: Brecht Evens on The Wrong Place
The Wrong Place
Brecht Evens took a lot of people by surprise this past autumn. Seemingly emerging from nowhere, the Flemish cartoonist’s English-language graphic-novel debut, The Wrong Place, was released by Drawn & Quarterly and quickly made a major splash among critics and cartoonists in a year already crowded by high-quality releases. For that you can thank Evens’ eye-popping painted colors, which do far more than just tell you what color hair or clothes his characters have.
His story of a small group of twenty-somethings — revolving around an odd couple of mismatched friends and their divergent night lives during a party, a one-night stand, and a night out at a club — uses color almost as a code. It differentiates the characters, conveys their personalities, and helps us understand their environments and relationships. You’ll see parts of yourself you like and dislike in all three of its main characters: gray-colored wallflower Gary, his legend-in-his-own-time bright-blue best friend Robbie, and Olivia, who decides to live it up one night in fiery red.
So color us excited (sorry, couldn’t resist!) to be able to interview Evens as part of Robot 6’s second anniversary spectacular…
Sean T. Collins: The thing that most surprised me about The Wrong Place was that it didn’t “teach me a lesson.” I expected to be hit with a moral about how Robbie’s vida loca was actually empty and meaningless, or how wrong it is for Gary not to loosen up and live a little, but neither thing happened. Olivia shows a tinge of regret about her wild night with Robbie, but it’s just a tinge, not an indication that she Did The Wrong Thing or something like that. All of this despite the fact that the title itself implies that one or all of these characters is not where they really belong. I was hoping you could talk a bit about why you took this approach to your main characters and their decisions, which I found refreshingly non-judgmental.
Brecht Evens: I was 20 when I came up with the first draft, the setup for the book, and it was very noir, very contrived and judgmental, and full of nifty “ideas.” Most of this got thrown out along the way, where the ideas come to seem stale and instead the need becomes greater to be able to believe in and identify with the characters, and to testify about things observed in real life. Or, because I automatically began to identify with the characters, and love them, I was more compelled to nuance.
- January 2, 2011 @ 07:26 AM by Sean T. Collins
From spies to spirits: Matt Kindt conjures up Super Natural
From "Super Natural"
If you were to go back in time three years ago to take a look at all the year-end lists that highlighted 2007′s best comics, no doubt you’d find Matt Kindt‘s Super Spy on many of those lists. The book consisted of 52 short stories — or was it all one big story? — that detailed the lives of spies during World War II.
Now Kindt is working on a follow-up of sorts to Super Spy that jumps into a different genre, the paranormal, and stars the ghosts of Houdini, Amelia Earhart and even a character from Super Spy, among others.
“I really focus on each one of them as they interact with each other and examine their past to sort of uncover the mystery of their life — rather than their deaths,” Kindt said. “Is that vague enough? I really don’t want to give too much away.”
Kindt did give a few things away, however, about the project.
JK: From what I understand, Super Natural is a “sequel” of sorts to Super Spy — or at least they share a common character, correct? What else can you tell us about the new book?
Matt: It’s basically my take on ghost stories. I’m not a big fan of super natural stuff at all — I really do want a sort of rational explanation for everything — or at least for there to be a rational explanation behind it, even if I don’t get it. So that’s pretty much what this book is — a way for me to figure out a way to tell a super natural story that satisfies me. It’s set in the 1950s and includes a dead character from Super Spy (I won’t say which one), Houdini, Amelia Earhart, Morgan Earp and a teenage girl … all ghosts. But 90 percent of the story is sort of flashbacks to their life, with the ghost parts being more of a way to show how they examine their existence and try to figure out why they’re ghosts at all.
- January 2, 2011 @ 06:57 AM by JK Parkin
Exclusive Preview | Possessions Vol. 2 by Ray Fawkes
Possessions, Book Two
Let’s get started with the first of many exclusive previews we’ll have for you today. Courtesy of our friends at Oni Press, we’re pleased to bring you a 15-page preview of the second volume of Possessions by Ray Fawkes. You might know Fawkes from such works as Spookshow, The Apocalipstix, Mnemovore and, of course, the first volume of Possessions.
The second Possessions features the return of Gurgazon the Unclean, a pit demon who looks like a five-year-old girl and is trapped in the Llewellyn-Vane House for Captured Spirits and Ghostly Curiosities. In this second volume, subtitled “The Ghost Table,” Ms. Llewellyn-Vane hosts a rival spirit collector and her collection of ghosts for dinner, and Gurgazon’s the main attraction.
You can find the preview and more information on the book after the jump; please note that the preview is an uncorrected proof. It’s scheduled to come out in March.
- January 2, 2011 @ 06:26 AM by JK Parkin
Welcome to Robot 6′s second big birthday bash!
As I write this, it’s Jan. 1, and another year just went into the history books. One filled with pricing changes, publishing announcements, sales charts, con wars, people moves, digital dreams and, most importantly, some really kick ass comics. Like I said last year, and probably every year since I’ve been doing this — It’s been a pretty good year to be a blogger. There’s been plenty to talk about.
And as you’re reading this, it’s Jan. 2, which means it’s Robot 6′s second anniversary. And we’re once again throwing a birthday bash of sorts, with all sorts of fun party favors. Like last year, Comic Book Resources bossman Jonah Weiland has allowed us to take over the home page for the day. Thanks to our friends at various comic companies, we have several previews of upcoming comics to share with you today, and thanks to many, many comic creators, we have a bunch of interviews, thoughts and opinions on 2010 and 2011. So definitely check back with us throughout the day.
I’m always reluctant to start listing people who deserve a thank you, because I’m afraid I might miss someone, but we’ve had a lot of help this year from a lot of folks — people who linked to us, guest blogged with us, submitted a news tip or just stopped by to read the blog. The folks at CBR, from the Powers That Be to our fellow bloggers at Spinoff and Comics Should Be Good! to all the reporters who help us out on occasion, have been a joy to work with. And I couldn’t have asked for a better group of folks to work with day in and day out than my Robot 6 colleagues.
So Happy New Year, everyone! As always, stay tuned for much, much more …
- January 2, 2011 @ 05:30 AM by JK Parkin