2011 April
What Are You Reading?
Our Hero: Superman on Earth
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? Our special guest today is Nate Cosby, co-writer of the upcoming Image series Pigs and editor of the upcoming Jim Henson’s The Storyteller anthology, which will feature stories by an impressive group of talented creators.
To see what Nate and the Robot 6 crew have been reading lately, click below.
- April 17, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
Stumptown Comic Arts Awards 2011 winners
His Face All Red
Organizers of the Stumptown Comics Fest presented the 2011 Stumptown Comic Art Awards last night in Portland, Ore.
Nominees were selected by a panel of judges — Michael Allred, Brandon Graham, Laura Hudson, Michael Ring and Jason Leivian — from among the entries submitted earlier this year. Winners were determined by an online vote.
The winners are:
Best Artist: Emily Carroll, His Face All Red
Best Writer: Aaron Renier, The Unsinkable Walker Bean
Best Cartoonist: Bryan Lee O’Malley, Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour
Best Letterer: Johnny Ryan, Prison Pit #2
Best Colorist: Emily Carroll, His Face All Red
Best Publication Design: Michael DeForge, Spotting Deer
Best Anthology: Studygroup 12 #4, edited by Zack Soto
Best Small Press: I Want You #2 by Lisa Hanawalt
Best New Talent: Michael DeForge
Reader’s Choice: Pang, the Wandering Shaolin Monk by Ben Costa
Director’s Choice: The Sixth Gun, by Brian Hurtt and Cullen Bunn, published by Oni Press
- April 17, 2011 @ 11:03 AM by JK Parkin
Preview: Life With Archie #9
Did you ever wonder what Archie would be like as a grownup? If you guessed “hapless,” well, you get a cookie. But give the Archie Comics creative team some credit for mixing it up a bit—their Life With Archie magazine features dual storylines in which Archie marries Veronica and Betty, and his life is very different in each one. It’s really a very classic choice that follows from the storylines in the comic—with Veronica, Archie gets a high-powered job but never quite feels that he is in control; with Betty, his life is simpler but has its own set of stresses.
Curious? Here’s a preview of the latest issue, Life With Archie #9, with a sample of both storylines, and if you like it, remember that Archie is now releasing their comics simultaneously in print and through their iPad app.
- April 17, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Six by 6 | The six best stories in Mome
One of the more notable news stories of the week was the announcement by Mome editor (and Fantagraphics co-publisher) Eric Reynolds that the quarterly anthology would come to an end with the release of the 22nd volume later this year.
The series has had a rather remarkable and distinguished run since its inception in 2005. In addition to featuring work by such notable cartoonists like Jim Woodring and Gilbert Hernandez, it’s served as a publishing venue to highlight the work of up and coming artists like Laura Park, Tom Kaczynski and Sara Edward-Corbett, as well as introduce American readers to work by notable European creators like Emile Bravo and Sergio Ponchione.
As a memorial of sorts for the anthology’s oncoming demise, I thought I’d attempt to put together a quick list of my own favorite stories from Mome. This was a tough list to put together actually, and there are a number of names I feel a bit guilty for leaving off, but I’m sure you all can duly chastise me for my omissions in the comments section.
- April 16, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Mautner
Bongo Comics to publish monthly series by Sergio Aragonés
It looks like Bongo Comics is doubling the funny with a new series by Sergio Aragonés titled, aptly enough, Sergio Aragonés Funnies. According to the advance solicits, this monthly series will feature “an assortment of autobiographical anecdotes, perplexing puzzles, slap-happy short stories, as well as Sergio’s unique and hilarious pantomimes and gags”.
Back in January, Bongo head honcho Bill Morrison talked to CBR about it briefly, saying:
Sergio Aragonés’ “Funnies” is a new ongoing series that not many people may know about, but it’s coming from Bongo Comics this year and will most likely premiere at Comic-Con International San Diego. As the book’s editor, I hope I’m not coming off as self-serving by mentioning it here, but I’d be talking about it anyway, just as a Sergio fan! This book will be completely written and drawn by Sergio and will be unrelated to “The Simpsons.” He’ll continue to write and draw Simpsons stories as well, but this will just be Sergio doing what he does best; drawing the funniest cartoons in the universe!
But this isn’t Aragonés’ first stint in The Simpsons creator Matt Groening’s comic line — Sergio started contributing to the publisher’s line back in 2009 beginning with Bart Simpson #50. Aragonés continued as a regular contributor to Bart Simpson, even starting an ongoing feature called “Maggie’s Crib.”
Although Bongo might be defined in readers’ minds as The Simpsons comics, it’s wholly owned and operated by Matt Groening outside of the framework of Fox and the The Simpsons animated series. In addition to hosting Aragonés’ work in various series, Bongo has also run stories by another comics funnyman, Evan Dorkin, for years.
- April 16, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Will Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns return in a new DC animated feature?
If you’re a bigwig at an animation company and have your pick to adapt a story from anywhere in the DC mythos, where do you go? After animation has covered just about every major character in DC’s pantheon, they have begun focusing in on specific story arcs to translated into animated movies, and rumors now have them aiming for the top of the mountain: Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.
BleedingCool.com is reporting an unsourced rumor saying that the DC Entertainment animation wing is in the “early stages of development” on a animated adaption of this, which could prove to be the darkest animated work they’ve done. There’s been no confirmation or denial by official sources, leaving fans to speculate on the veracity of this and also who could voice the characters — notably an aged Batman.
Thanks to its connection to parent company Warner Bros., DC Comics’ animated properties have long outpaced Marvel’s and the recent string of straight-to-DVD animated features only further cements that dominance. In recent years Marvel has made big strides to close that gap, but DC’s animated track record of Batman: The Animated Series, Teen Titans GO! and the Justice League series put them ahead.
Would you like to see this epic series animated? And going further, what other DC stories could be great as a cartoon?
- April 16, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Dear Creature swims (and snaps) ashore in October
Jonathan Case is understandably excited that his graphic novel, Dear Creature will be hitting shelves in October from Tor Books. I’m excited too and I’ve only just found out about it.
Case describes the book as about “an atomic sea mutant in the ’60s whose poet soul is at odds with his tendency to eat people.” You know, that old chestnut.
If you’re like me and October seems awfully long off, you can tide yourself over with some sample pages at his website.
- April 16, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Michael May
To do: From Mars With Love pre-release party tonight in San Francisco
Writer Jason McNamara will be at Mission Comics (3520 20th Street between Mission and Valencia) in San Francisco tonight for a pre-release party for The Martian Confederacy: From Mars With Love, which comes out next week.
“Specialty cocktails will be spilled, books will be signed and an author will read” he said in an email. “Come and be dazzled by my tales of child slave labor and horny robots.”
- April 16, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by JK Parkin
The Fifth Color | Forward into the Past with Marvel in July 2011
July is daunting. I almost fear the month itself, because it could possibly be the month of overload. I may have to take a vacation, and not to the San Diego Comic-Con! Just think of what the world is going to look like just a few months from now: two Marvel blockbusters (maybe three) will have hit the big screen. The ever-present and ever-daunting Comic Con, where even more movie, TV and comic print news will be announced. We’ll be in the middle of a major event, ending an Ultimate event and the starting two new ones. Normally, we get this kind of action (sans the movies) around December or January, when the full road to Marvel Universe Destruction has made the final leg of its journey and the Aftermath/Dark Reign/Initiative months kick in. This is a lot of action, and it’s all happening in July. Readers will certainly need a road map, if not a Sherpa and a well-stocked base camp.
So let’s prepare for the journey ahead and read on!
- April 15, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Carla Hoffman
Jillian Tamaki covers Best American Comics 2011
Best American Comics 2011
Skim creator Jillian Tamaki, whose upcoming Awago Beach Babies is due in 2013, is providing the cover for this year’s Best American Comics volume. She shares the final artwork, plus some initial sketches for other cover ideas, on her blog. The 2011 volume is guest-edited by Alison Bechdel, who joins series editors Jessica Abel and Matt Madden.
- April 15, 2011 @ 02:30 PM by JK Parkin
Start (and finish) reading now: Puke Force
Boom: a page from Puke Force by Brian Chippendale
I hope my illustrious colleague Brigid Alverson doesn’t mind me elbowing my way into her regular webcomics spotlight, but with the announcement the other day that Brian Chippendale is placing his eye-popping, rib-tickling webcomic Puke Force on hiatus for a few months, I simply had to point everyone in the strip’s direction.
Chippendale, the cartoonist behind last year’s acclaimed doorstop of an action-buddy-scifi comedy If ‘n Oof, is a co-founder of the influential Providence art/comics/printmaking/music/etc. collective Fort Thunder and the drummer for the band Lightning Bolt (which if you’re not familiar with it is sort of like if noise violation citations from your local law enforcement authority had an elemental, like how plants have Swamp Thing). His comics are famous/infamous for their “snake-style” layout: You read each page one row at a time, first from left to right, and then from right to left, and so on, zigzagging back and forth like a snake and allowing him to draw you through his complex physical environments with ease and choreograph action and slapstick alike with precision timing. Chippendale’s art is rough-edged and hyperdense, his characters look like little mutant and monster refugees from your favorite forgotten action-figure line, and his wild-and-wooly sci-fi stories may seem simply crazy or goofy at first glance, but in truth deal with the political, emotional, and philosophical ramifications of urban life today with sophistication and laugh-out-loud wit. Puke Force is no exception: In its installments you’ll find sardonically hilarious takes on everything from Twitter to terrorism. Best of all, you can catch up on all six months’ worth of material on the PictureBox site and be ready for Chippendale’s triumphant return in late summer/early fall. I know the visuals and layouts can be challenging, if not headache-inducing, at first, but stick with it and you’ll experience a truly singular comics sensation.
- April 15, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Tokyopop gives up on manga, but will it give back the rights?
The revolution is over
Today’s news that Tokyopop is shutting down its publishing division, is shocking but not surprising: shocking because Tokyopop was once the second largest manga publisher in the U.S., but not entirely unexpected after they laid off all but a handful of employees last month. The closure raises the question of whether Tokyopop will return the rights to its global manga properties to the creators or keep them in their current limbo. Adding to the confusion is the fact that Tokyopop Media LLC, the non-book side of the company, is not shutting down.
Tokyopop CEO Stu Levy, who is currently in Japan, posted a farewell message on the Tokyopop website today, and Anime News Network confirmed the news with senior vice president Mike Kiley.
Tokyopop pioneered the format that caused manga to catch on among teen readers: Unflipped, 200-page, black-and-white trade paperbacks selling for ten dollars each. They published Sailor Moon, the first commercially successful shoujo manga in the U.S., and kept the momentum going with popular series such as Fruits Basket (which ran neck and neck with Naruto in the sales rankings for a while) and their manga adaptations of Erin Hunter’s Warriors prose novels. Unfortunately, when Fruits Basket ended, Tokyopop was left without a flagship series, and they lost rights to many of their other popular series when Kodansha pulled their licenses in preparation for starting its own U.S. publishing arm.
Tokyopop also pioneered the notion of “global” (non-Japanese) manga, not only in the U.S. but also in Germany. (Tokyopop Germany is not closing down.) The global manga program gave many young U.S. creators an intial boost, but the books did not sell well and Tokyopop ended up shutting the program down—but kept the rights to the manga, including some completed projects that never saw print. This has caused some bitterness among creators, who would like to continue or republish their stories but can’t because they don’t own the rights (which, to be fair, they knowingly signed away).
- April 15, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
Icarus on Robot 6 page 8
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 15, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Ryan Cody
Ross Campbell reveals unused plans for a TMNT series at Dark Horse
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is one of the most enduring franchises in comics outside the Big Two. Since its debut as a self-published black & white comic in 1984, it’s gone on to be one of the most successful comic book creations out there. Although its forays into movies, television and toys have long over-shadowed it’s original comic stories, many people and many publishers have looked for ways to change that. At WonderCon this month, IDW announced that it had acquired the license to do new TMNT comics in the near future, but a fan-favorite indie artist just revealed what could have been.
Over on his Tumblr blog, Ross Campbell (Wet Moon, Shadoweyes) talks about plans for him to draw a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series at Dark Horse. Apparently, DH was among several comic companies that bid on the TMNT license. Although IDW eventually beat out DH, the idea of Ross Campbell doing a TMNT series is amazing — in addition to this failed project, Campbell was in talks at one point to do an issue of Mirage’s Tales of the TMNT, although he ended up only doing some covers.
As much as I love seeing Campbell doing his own creator-owned projects, I’d love to see him spend some time on company-owned character he’s inspired by, whether it be TMNT or even a young X-Men series, which he’s talked about for years and did some art for over at Project: Rooftop.
- April 15, 2011 @ 11:30 AM by Chris Arrant
When gorillas meet dinosaurs, the inevitable happens
It's Never as Simple as it Seems
In what could possibly be considered a Robot 6/ACT-I-VATE crossover, our own Michael May and artist Simon Roy contribute a story to the Panels for Primates project. And as all the stories feature primates of some sort, it was only natural that May and Roy’s comic, “It’s Never as Simple as it Seems,” would feature Gorillas Riding Dinosaurs.
Our work here is done …
- April 15, 2011 @ 10:30 AM by JK Parkin