2011 April
Zip to publish Pekar’s Cleveland
Heidi has a nice bit of news at The Beat: Zip Comics is going to be publishing Harvey Pekar’s Cleveland, and Top Shelf will distribute it. I don’t think that first bit is exactly news, because Zip posted it on their blog when Pekar died, last July:
ZIP is proud to be publishing Harvey Pekar’s CLEVELAND which he finished writing and which is currently being illustrated by Joseph Remnant. We will keep you updated, and right now we’re looking at a summer/fall 2011 release for that.
According to the press release (quoted in full at The Beat), the book will mix Pekar’s own story with the history of Cleveland:
Harvey Pekar’s CLEVELAND covers familiar American Splendor-ous territory while weaving in chunks of Cleveland history, including the Indians winning the 1948 World Series, the notorious 1969 fire on the Cuyahoga River as well as profiles of Cleveland “characters” like Charles Ruthenberg, leader of the city’s Communist party whose ashes were buried in the Kremlin wall. And of course cameos by Pekarverse regulars like Toby the Genuine Nerd, Mr. Boats and Harvey’s wife Joyce.
Sounds like my kind of book.
- April 8, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Robot reviews: Paying for It
Paying for It
Paying for It
by Chester Brown
Drawn & Quarterly, 272 pages, $24.95.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that Paying for It, Chester Brown’s latest graphic novel, is an autobiographical work in the same vein as his seminal books The Playboy and I Never Liked You. You’d be forgiven but you’d be wrong. Despite what surface appearances might suggest, the book’s autobiographical and personal elements are in service to its larger goals, which is to serve a polemic. A polemic whose ultimate message is: “Prostitution is really, really awesome.”
- April 8, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Chris Mautner
WonderCon | SHIELD wants you!
TOP SECRET
You would think that a captive audience inside the Moscone Center this WonderCon would be the prime location for a recruiting booth. Instead, SHIELD set up on a corner across the street, inviting passersby to enlist in the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division.
Attended to by a few ‘plain’ agents in suits, there were a couple tactical officers helping people through the paperwork needed to apply for SHIELD; the officers were friendly and incredibly well informed on the showpiece of the enlistment booth: a 2012 Acura TL. This car is part of Honda’s luxury line and hearkens back to the early heavy-duty look of the mid-size sedan. The 2012 Acura TL is based priced at around $35,000 but SHIELD applicants got an exclusive look at the SHIELD Tactical Package, highlighted by SHIELD decals, flashing lights and a roof-mounted sonic cannon, a.k.a. the Hulkbuster. The EX-5000 is one of many features Stark Technologies, Inc. outfitted for SHIELD vehicles, along with enviro-clone projected holograms, 9 Speed HYPER-Shift Transmission and a self-detonating recon clone. As this Tactical Package was for SHIELD agents ranking 1.5 in clearance, the vehicle was outfitted with bulletproof, hyper-traction tires rather than any sort of repulsor tech probably given to higher ranking agents.
- April 8, 2011 @ 02:30 PM by Carla Hoffman
MoCCA debut: Liar’s Kiss preview
Liar's Kiss
Courtesy of our friends at Top Shelf, we’re pleased to present the opening pages of Liar’s Kiss by Eric Skillman and Jhomar Soriano, which debuts tomorrow at New York’s MoCCA Festival. Skillman will be there to sign it.
Check out the preview after the jump; it contains nudity, so consider it NSFW and for mature readers only.
- April 8, 2011 @ 01:30 PM by JK Parkin
Vasilis Lolos releases unfinished graphic novel Freak-enstein online
Vasilis Lolos is nothing if not creative. But the same creative mind that drew Pirates of Coney Island and collaborated on Pixu and 5 can sometimes go down a road that ends up a dead end. But Lolos isn’t the kind of artist to throw it all away. This week, Vasilis Lolos put online — for free — an unfinished 80-page graphic novel that he’d been working on as far back as 2002.
“Somewhere in 2002-3 I had an idea for a comic, a Frankenstein tale set in a Metropolis world,” explained the artist on his blog. “It was about a boy that had his heart stolen by an evil witch. He had to claim his self back from the owner of his heart. A quest troubled by the fact that he was in love with her (coz she was the owner of his heart, literally, har har)I did many takes on that idea, a couple of shorts and a load of illus. Then I put it on the back burner.”
Lolos’ comic currently goes under the moniker of Freak-enstein, and although he hasn’t worked on it since 2004, Lolos has hopes to revisit it — and re-do it — someday.
- April 8, 2011 @ 01:30 PM by Chris Arrant
WonderCon | My wrap-up report from last weekend’s con
Cyclops and Jean Grey
It’s been almost a week since WonderCon, so I figured if I was going to talk about it, I should talk about it soon before it’s old news. So, some brief thoughts on the big show …
–As many have said, the floor was busier this year compared to past years, especially on Saturday. Friday was better, but I can still remember a time when Friday meant easily moving through the exhibit hall and browsing booths without too many people surrounding you. Not so much this year. It seemed like there were more exhibitors, or at least more space was given to exhibitors, and the comic booths at the front of the hall seemed to be packed every time I went by. The line to buy the special Uncanny X-Men/San Francisco Giants variant cover at the Marvel booth was an intimidating thing on Friday, looping around the booth. I never even made it inside the DC booth because of the crowds. And any booth that had a signing going on — Image, IDW, Oni, BOOM! — brought lines. Hopefully all that traffic turned into decent sales for everyone on the floor. I know at least one comic company I spoke to was really happy with their sales on Saturday.
–I didn’t buy a lot at this show — my two purchases were the above-mentioned Giants/X-Men comic, and a copy of Pascal Girard’s Reunion from the Drawn and Quarterly table. Of course, I didn’t really spend a lot of time on the floor anyway … I was only there Friday and Saturday, and spent my time either covering panels, being on panels or writing about panels.
- April 8, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
Icarus pg 05
Icarus is a comic by Ryan Cody and is serialized here on Robot 6, with new pages every Monday, Wednesday & Friday.
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 8, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Ryan Cody
To do: Rabid Rabbit/C’est Bon Kultur art show tonight in Brooklyn
If you’re in the New York City area and looking for something to do to get you into a MoCCA mood, Bergen Street Comics in Brooklyn is holding a book launch/art show for “the awesome double-issue-flip-book anthology Rabid Rabbit #13 & C’est Bon Kultur #14.” The opening reception starts at 8 p.m. Eastern tonight. You can find all the details on the BSC site.
- April 8, 2011 @ 11:30 AM by JK Parkin
Make mine MoCCA: Creators and small press
Of course, the really great thing about this weekend’s MoCCA Festival is the huge flock of individual creators who go there to show off their work. Here’s the full list, and here are a few of the highlights that jumped out at me. Feel free to point out the good stuff I missed in the comments section.
Cathy Leamy will be at the Boston Comics Roundtable table with her brand-new diary comic What’s the Word?, a collection of her diary comics from Metrokitty.
Neil Kleid will happily sign copies of his comics, mini-comics, and graphic novels (The Big Kahn, Brownsville), and anything else he has work in (including the Fraggle Rock anthology), but if you really want to make his day, bring him an obscure soda.
Stephanie Yue, who illustrates the Guinea Pig: Pet Shop Private Eye graphic novels (not just adorable, but funny for both adults and kids) will be there, as will her editor Carol Burrell, who draws SPQR Blues under the nickname Klio.
Rica Takashima will have a special doujinshi just for MoCCA. Rica is a yuri (lesbian) manga creator and the author of the much-acclaimed Rica ‘tte Kanji?, which Shaenon Garrity described, approvingly, as “as cute as a blender full of kittens.”
If your tastes tend more toward the retro-bizzare, check out Coin Op Studio, which will be debuting the charmingly titled Coin Op No. 3: Municipal Parking and Waterfall at the show.
- April 8, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
One more reason to go to Stumptown Comics Fest: Illustrated badges by Brandon Graham
You might say “Badges? I don’t need no stinkin’ badges!” but wait ’til you get a look at these.
Brandon Graham has created these new illustrations to be used as badges for next weekend’s Stumptown Comics Fest in Portland, Ore. They will also be selling a convention shirt with another new piece of Graham art — which I believe is the first professionally made Brandon Graham shirt.
In addition to Graham attending, also attending as guests will be Rick Remender, Eric Powell, Jeffrey Brown, Paul Tobin and the cartoonist of the second-most popular comic of the week — Nate Simpson (Nonplayer).
If anyone goes to Stumptown, mail me one of these badges! I’m serious!
- April 8, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Scott Pilgrim goes to Japan
Although the final volume of Scott Pilgrim has come and gone, Bryan O’Malley’s epic comic lives on overseas — with new cover art by O’Malley himself!
The image at right is for a Japanese edition of Scott Pilgrim that collects vols. 5 and 6. The image, colored by Mariel Kinuko Cartwright, is a not-so-subtle homage to a classic illustration for Street Fighter Zero 2 (also known as Street Fighter Alpha 2).
Although his follow-up project to Scott Pilgrim hasn’t been announced yet, O’Malley has done several new Scott Pilgrim illustrations for foreign editions of his series that you can view on his website, Radiomaru.com.
- April 8, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Preview: Planet of the Apes #1
Planet of the Apes #1
I covered BOOM!’s panel at last weekend’s WonderCon, and during their presentation they showed off some pages from their upcoming Planet of the Apes comic book. The book is written by Daryl Gregory, who writes Dracula: The Company of Monsters with Kurt Busiek, and is drawn by Carlos Magno, who has done work on IDW’s Transformers comics.
Editor in Chief Matt Gagnon called it “an authentic continuation of the Planet of the apes saga. There are characters in first issue you will recognize, a lot of new characters in the first issue you won’t recognize that are brand new characters we’re creating for the mythology. It really is an epic in the true sense of the word; it’s a big sprawling story that’s about politics and love and war.”
Check out additional covers (including one that’s exclusive to Larry’s Comics) as well as preview pages after the jump …
- April 8, 2011 @ 06:00 AM by JK Parkin
To do: Strange Tales party tomorrow night in New York
Strange Tales Party
The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund and The Beat are hosting a party in New York Saturday night featuring a wide array of guests who worked on Marvel’s Strange Tales anthologies, with proceeds benefiting the CBLDF. You can find complete details after the jump or in the above flyer by Paul Maybury.
- April 8, 2011 @ 05:00 AM by JK Parkin
2011 Will Eisner Award nominees announced
Eisner Awards
DC Comics, Mike Mignola and Return of the Dapper Men top the list of nominees for the 23rd annual Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, which were announced today by Comic-Con International and are presented every July in San Diego.
Dapper Men, by Jim McCann and Janet Lee, received five nominations, including best writer, best painter/multimedia artist and best graphic album. Other comics that received multiple nominations include Morning Glories, Locke & Key, Naoki Urasawa’s 20th Century Boys, Chew, Wilson and Hellboy. Hellboy creator Mike Mignola received five nominations, while Nick Spencer (Morning Glories) and Joe Hill (Locke & Key) each received four.
DC Comics and its various imprints received 14 nominations, plus three that were shared with other publishers, with Vertigo books receiving the majority of those. Both IDW and Image received 12 each. Fantagraphics and Drawn & Quarterly both received 11, Dark Horse received nine plus two shared, Archaia received nine, VIZ received four, Marvel received three, plus two shared ones.
The 2011 Eisner Awards judging panel consists of comics store rep John Berry (Metropolis Comics, Bellflower, California), Comic-Con board of director Ned Cato (geekroundtable.com), librarian Karen Green (Columbia University), comics writer/editor Andy Helfer (The Shadow; Paradox Press), publishing consultant Rich Johnson (previously with DC Comics and Yen Press), and retail manager Chris Powell (Lone Star Comics, Dallas, Texas). Ballots with this year’s nominees will be going out in mid-April to comics creators, editors, publishers, and retailers.
You can find the complete list of nominees after the jump.
- April 7, 2011 @ 04:39 PM by JK Parkin
R is for Rorschach: Fabian Gonzalez’s wonderful ‘ABC Superheroes’
From "ABC Superheroes," by Fabian Gonzalez
The greatest thing you’re likely to see today, or, heck, this week, is “ABC Superheroes” by graphic designer Fabian Gonzalez. It’s exactly what the title, and the above image, suggests — and it’s pretty wonderful. Most of the letters and corresponding superheroes are easy to figure out — A is Aquaman, L is Lion-O, S is Superman — but a few, like M and U, take a little thought (Mandrake and Ultra Boy, if you’re wondering). G and X are by far my favorites.
If you like “ABC Superheroes” half as much as I do, you’re in luck: Prints are available at Society6, where you can see the full image.
(via Laughing Squid)
- April 7, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Kevin Melrose