2011 April
Robot Review | Pepper Penwell and the Land Creature of Monster Lake
Pepper Penwell and the Land Creature of Monster Lake
Written and Illustrated by Steph Cherrywell
SLG; $14.95
I hope it came through in my review of The Incredible Change-Bots that what I liked most about it was its ability to lovingly kid the things that Transformers fans like most about that cartoon while at exactly the same time successfully reproduce those qualities. That’s so difficult to do, which is why most of the time we see skewering, Mad Magazine-style parodies of things instead. As rare as it is though, lightning struck my reading pile again when I got to Pepper Penwell.
I wasn’t much into the kid-sleuth genre as a youngster, other than Hanna-Barbera’s Legion of Meddling Kids. I had one Hardy Boys book and a Tom Swift, but my childhood heroes were mostly grown-ups: James Bond, Sherlock Holmes; Hercule Poirot. It hasn’t been until my adult years that I’ve experienced much interest in stories about child detectives. Maybe it’s an attempt to re-experience childhood; maybe it’s just a search for great literature for my son; maybe my wife – a big Nancy Drew fan – is starting to influence me. Whatever the reasons, I’m finding myself drawn to stories about tween or teenaged detectives and titles like The Clue in the Crumbling Wall or The Case of the Mysterious Handprints.
These stories are the inspiration for Steph Cherrywell’s Pepper Penwell and the Land Creature of Monster Lake, a book about a genius girl detective who’s kicked out of her posh boarding school for uncovering so much crime at the institution that parents are beginning to pull their kids out. Having nowhere else to go, she visits her police inspector father in Monster Lake, a quiet village in the English countryside where he’s investigating the disappearance of a young girl. Pepper’s looking over the case files before she even arrives.
- April 13, 2011 @ 06:56 PM by Michael May
Your Wednesday Sequence 6 | Marc Smeets
Kramers Ergot 6 (2006), page 35 panels 1-4. Marc Smeets.
Sequence is vast. As I’ve said here a few times before, it’s what’s makes comics comics. If it’s got images placed in sequence on the page or on the screen and it wants to call itself comics, then I for one fail to see grounds for rejecting it as such. That’s not to say that all comics are equal — though sequence is what creates visual art as comics, the skill of its use is a major part of what creates good or bad ones. But the idea that certain kinds of sequencing are more appropriate to comics, or even work better in comics than others is simply a fallacy. The old chestnut “it’s the singer, not the song” applies here. A method of sequencing’s effectiveness is directly proportionate to the skill and consideration of the artist using it.
The biggest misconception about sequence in comics is that it’s strictly a storytelling tool. It’s not. Sequence is simply the overriding device that comics use to deliver whatever it is they’re delivering. One might just as well claim that the screen a film is projected onto or the pages of a printed book have some inherent connection to creating narrative. No, sequencing extends beyond all storytelling possibilities to encompass more. It is the comics medium’s vehicle. If narrative is what an artist intends they’ll almost certainly use sequence to propel it, to take the reader from one to ten via two, three, four, et cetera. But if an artist is focused on doing something else with the comics form — creating abstraction, presenting snapshots too brief to be called “story”, showing off various images in harmonious arrangement, or any one of a million other options — sequence will more than likely be the driving force as well. The only thing sequencing always creates is comics. And comics can be anything.
- April 13, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Matt Seneca
The Walking Dead advertised next to UK funeral home
In a case of coincidence or sick humor, British newspaper The Daily Mail picked up on an enormous case of bad taste when a billboard for The Walking Dead TV series was placed next to a funeral home.
“There must be somewhere else they could put it that would have shown a degree of insight and sensitivity,”said Susan Jones, a staffer at nearby Willow Burn Hospice, to The Daily Mail.
ClearChannel, the company who owned the adspace and leased it out for the billboard has since pulled the Walking Dead advertisement.
- April 13, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Chris Arrant
Warner Bros. dealt a setback in Superman legal battle
Action Comics #1
A federal judge on Monday denied an effort by Warner Bros. to gain access to sensitive documents that are alleged to show an agreement between the heirs of Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster not to strike further copyright deals with the studio, Hollywood, Esq. reports.
The documents, which were at the center of Warner Bros.’ May 2010 lawsuit against Siegel family attorney Marc Toberoff, also purportedly contain a formula for how the two estates, and Toberoff, would divide the Superman assets once they successfully terminate the studio’s rights to the property.
Although Toberoff had convinced the judge in the first trial that those documents were protected by attorney-client privilege, Warner Bros.’ new outside counsel Daniel Petrocelli argued in the 2010 lawsuit that the consent agreement violates the U.S. Copyright Act and, therefore, can’t be insulated from discovery. However, U.S. Magistrate Judge Ralph Zaresky ruled this week that the studio’s assertion that the documents are illegal doesn’t necessarily make them illegal.
Zaresky’s decision is a setback for Warner Bros., which has been waging an increasingly bitter legal battle to hold onto Superman following a 2008 ruling that Siegel’s widow Joanne Siegel and daughter Laura Siegel Larson had successfully recaptured half of the original copyright to the Man of Steel. The door will open in 2013 for Shuster’s estate to do the same. (Last month Toberoff asked the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to determine exactly what elements from Superman’s mythology his clients can reclaim as a result of the 2008 decision.)
The tone and tactics of the dispute were the subject of a letter written in December by Joanne Siegel to Time Warner Chairman Jeffrey L. Bewkes, just two months before her death.
- April 13, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Icarus on Robot6 page 7
Icarus is a comic by Ryan Cody and is serialized here on Robot 6, with new pages every Monday, Wednesday & Friday.
This page is the first introduction we have to a real player in the game. Decisions this man makes are what triggers future actions by Riley and other characters.
Ryan Cody is the creator, artist, writer, & colorist of ICARUS, a bi-monthly super-powered adventure/espionage book published through Super 75 Comics. Ryan’s past projects include illustrating the graphic novel VILLAINS for Viper
Comics as well as contributing to the Eisner-Award winning anthology, Popgun Vol.3, from Image comics. ICARUS #1 is currently available as both a .99 digital download and in print. For more information or to order a print copy of ICARUS, please visit www.super75comics.com
- April 13, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Ryan Cody
Busiek scripts ‘lost’ Defenders story by Nicieza and Bagley
So what do you do when you’re asked to script comic pages plotted by another writer years ago, with no copy of the original plot available to work from? Improvise, of course.
Marvel’s solicitations for July revealed a new/old project yesterday — Defenders: From the Marvel Vault #1 by Fabian Nicieza, Kurt Busiek and Mark Bagley. Fans might remember that Busiek once worked with Erik Larsen on a Defenders title circa 2001. Busiek explains on his blog that the book’s editor, Tom Brevoort, had commissioned Nicieza and Bagley to do a fill-in issue just in case the regular team fell behind, and after Bagley drew it based on Nicieza’s plot, it went into a drawer, unscripted, and wasn’t used.
And when Marvel decided recently they wanted to publish it, Nicieza was unavailable to do it because he’s exclusive to DC. So they recruited Busiek, who wrote the script based on the art without a copy of Nicieza’s original plot (which Nicieza lost in a hard drive crash years ago):
- April 13, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Infestation: Outbreak | Meet Britt
Britt
And here we are with the third teaser image from IDW for Infestation: Outbreak, the follow-up to the recent Infestation crossover series. Britt joins Cross and Nikodemus on the team.
The book, due in June, is co-written by Chris Ryall and Tom Waltz, with art by David Messina. The series will feature covers by Messina and Davide Furno, with a special retailer incentive cover for issue #1 by Ben Templesmith.
- April 13, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin
Terry Moore offers a first look at Rachel Rising cover art
Rachel Rising
With Echo wrapping up soon, Terry Moore announced his next title, Rachel Rising, last month, and now he’s revealed the first issue’s cover on Twitter.
“Rachel is a woman who wakes up one morning in the woods and realizes that she’s sitting on a freshly dug shallow grave,” he told Comic Book Resources’ Kiel Phegley. “She freaks out, digs up some of the dirt and realizes the person in the grave is her. The story goes from there, showing how she goes back into down to figure out what’s going on. This is a woman who has died, but she’s back. And she remembers who killed her. That’s the starting point for the first issue.”
And it explains the cover. The first issue is due in July.
- April 13, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Batman Live unveils characters for $20-million arena tour
Somewhat overshadowed by the calamitous Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the other big-budget superhero stage production, Batman Live, made a splash Tuesday in London with the unveiling of the key characters.
Officially announced in November, the $20-million touring arena show pits Batman and Robin against their rogues gallery in an ambitious production that features a giant video screen, a Joker hot-air balloon, recreations of several Gotham City locations — it takes 20 trucks to haul it all — and a Batmobile created by legendary Formula One designer Gordon Murray.
Oh, and Es Devlin, who’s created stage and costume designs for Lady Gaga, is also working on the show.
“What it is really is rock and roll,” choreographer Anthony Van Laast told The Guardian at Tuesday’s launch. “Almost all of us come from a rock and roll background, we know we can fill an arena, we can do the whiz bangs and the special effects – all we needed was a really good yarn as the backbone of the show, and we’ve got that. It’s not a musical.”
Batman Live premieres July 19 in Manchester, and tours the U.K. through Oct. 8 before heading to Europe and then, in August 2012, North America.
After the break you can see video clips from Tuesday’s preview, including models of the elaborate sets and the introduction of the villains by The Joker. Superhero Hype has a gallery of the costumed performers.
- April 13, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Kickin’ the Gun #2: Bunn, Zubkavich on Marvel and DC, creator-owned comics and more
As I noted yesterday, I’m a fan of both Image’s Skullkickers and Oni’s The Sixth Gun. So when I saw that the two creator-owned books were having a mini-crossover of sorts — or, to be more specific, an ad swap — I thought it might be fun to see if Skullkickers writer Jim “Zub” Zubkavich and The Sixth Gun‘ writer Cullen Bunn might be up for interviewing each other.
And they were. If you missed part one, no worries; you can find it here. In part two, they discuss Marvel and DC, the recent focus on creator-owned comics, Dungeons & Dragons, their ad swap and more.
Zub: So, speaking of collaborators, how did your DC and Marvel work come about?
Cullen: I did a little thing for Marvel a year and a half ago, which was one of the Immortal Weapons books. That one came after I sent the editor a copy of The Damned. He finally got around to reading it and said, “Hey, you want to do this one-shot?” The new stuff all came about primarily through The Sixth Gun. A number of writers, artists and editors have picked it up, read it and either pushed me to their editors or thought I would work for other projects they had. It was definitely weird because I’m not used to anyone contacting me. I’m used to begging for work. For years I’ve gone to San Diego, and it’s the most humbling experience.
- April 12, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by JK Parkin
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Hellboy
Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy on Wednesday based on certain spending limits — $15 and $30 — as well as what we’d get if we had extra money or a gift card to spend on what we call our “Splurge” item.
Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList if you’d like to play along in our comments section.
Michael May
If I had $15:
I’d get Hellboy: Buster Oakley Gets His Wish ($3.50) to see Hellboy fight some giant robots in space, Salt Water Taffy, Volume 4: Caldera’s Revenge ($5.99) to see Jack and Benny sign aboard a spooky ship in search of a Moby Dick-like whale, and Sweets #5 (2.99) to see Kody Chamberlain wrap up his delicious New Orleans murder mystery.
- April 12, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by JK Parkin
The Middle Ground #48.5 | The Post I Didn’t Write
I was going to try and write some kind of “Seventeen reasons why Stumptown Comics Fest is the greatest comic con around” post this week, but all of those seventeen reasons all boiled down to one basic one: It’s not a convention. Continue Reading »
- April 12, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Graeme McMillan
Quote of the day | Tom Brevoort on diversity
Tom Brevoort
[Reader question:] Tom, why are people so concerned with a lack of diversity in a comic? “The Flash Family has become too white with the absence of Wally’s family”, and so on and so forth.I don’t understand this kind of logic. How do you place value of story on race?
[Tom Brevoort:] I don’t know who you are, obviously, but just based on your question I would posit that you’re a white male. I think you cannot overestimate the power that readers, especially younger readers, seeing a heroic character that resembles themselves, can have. For white guys like me, that’s easy–there are hundreds of them. Not so for almost any other demographic you might choose to name. That’s why, I think, people are supportive and even delicate with any character of a particular race or orientation or background. It’s a diverse world out there, and any time we can reflect that diversity in a meaningful way, it’s worth doing.
–Marvel Senior Vice President – Publishing Tom Brevoort, responding to a reader’s scratched-head incredulity on the issue of diversity in comics, and doing so a lot more calmly than I probably would have.
- April 12, 2011 @ 12:52 PM by Sean T. Collins
Ken Akamatsu invites downloaders to do penance for their sins
Image from Akamatsu's announcement, presumably of a guilty party
It’s Lent, the time of penance and atonement, and manga creator Ken Akamatsu (Love Hina, Negima) is inviting file-sharers to purify their purloined manga. Anime News Network has helpfully translated his message of hope, which was originally posted in Japanese.
Akamatsu has been experimenting with online manga, and last year he launched a Japanese comics site called J-Comi that features out-of-print manga, including his own Love Hina. Akamatsu has gotten some of the big publishers to play along, but in Japan, the creators often hold the digital rights and they get to call the shots.
Now he has come up with an interesting twist that combines his business plan with private expiation of guilt: He asks readers who have downloaded manga illegally through file-sharing services such as Winny to forward the files to him. (Reassuringly, he says, “everyone has done this at least once.”) Interestingly, he also asks people who merely know of such files to go ahead and download them and send them to him. Akamatsu and his crew will contact the creators, and if they get the go-ahead, insert ads and post the files on J-Comi. All the ad revenue will go directly to the creator, J-Comi gets the benefit of the added content, and the downloader stop feeling guilty and start sleeping better.
If the creators don’t choose to play along, of course, nothing will change:
“However, if the creators do not give their OK, the files will be abandoned and the files will continue to drift through hell (Winny). Perhaps forever….”
- April 12, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Infestation: Outbreak | Meet Nikodemus
Nikodemus
IDW has released the second teaser image for Infestation: Outbreak, the follow-up to the recent Infestation crossover series; yesterday’s teaser featured Cross. The book is co-written by Chris Ryall and Tom Waltz, with art by David Messina. The series will feature covers by Messina and Davide Furno, with a special retailer incentive cover for issue #1 by Ben Templesmith. Look for it in June.
- April 12, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by JK Parkin