2011 July
Comics A.M. | Charlaine Harris’ new graphic novel; the origins of Epic
Charlaine Harris
Publishing | Charlaine Harris, author of the “Sookie Stackhouse” novels on which HBO’s True Blood is based, says that after she finishes the last two “Sookie” books, she plans to work on a graphic novel with Christopher Golden. “I’m very excited about that. It’s called Cemetery Girl with Christopher Golden, and it’s a very exciting opportunity.” Harris had mentioned wanting to do a novel called Cemetery Girl back in 2009, about “a girl raised by ghosts in a cemetery,” but put it on hold when she found out the plot was similar to Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book.
Based on the description in the news report, it sounds like the story has been tweaked, as it says the graphic novel “centers on a woman who finds herself living in a cemetery with no memory of her past but a clear sense of a mysterious threat hanging over her.” This isn’t the first time Harris’ characters have found their way into comics, as IDW publishes comics based on HBO’s True Blood, and an adaptation of her Grave Sight novels has been published by Dynamite. [NBC San Diego]
Publishing | Former Marvel Comics editor and Transformers writer John Barber has joined IDW Publishing as a senior editor. IDW also announced the promotion of Tom Waltz to the company’s first senior staff writer position, in addition to his duties as editor, and the expansion of the company’s book department with longtime IDW employee Alonzo Simon becoming an assistant editor. [press release]
- July 13, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Andy Kuhn RAWKs Tr!ckster with exclusive print
Firebreather artist Andy Kuhn sent over a peek at “RAWK!,” his new $25 limited edition print that’ll be available exclusively at the Tr!ckster store. If you’re attending Comic-Con in San Diego next week, be sure to drop by Tr!ckster, the free event that will take place at the San Diego Wine and Culinary Center, to check out everything they have for sale, have a drink (with a cool glass!) and hang out with artists.
- July 13, 2011 @ 06:00 AM by JK Parkin
Food or Comics? | Steak or Schism? Red Wing or Red Wine?
X-Men: Schism
Welcome to Food or Comics?, where every week we talk about what comics we’d buy at our local comic shop 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 a “Splurge” item. We’re coming a little late today due to a power outage in my neck of the woods — due to a blackout, not because I spent the money for the electric bill on Flashpoint or Fear Itself tie-ins.
Check out Diamond’s release list or ComicList, and tell us what you’re getting in our comments field.
Chris Arrant
If I had $15, I’d make a mad grab for American Vampire: Survival of the Fittest #2 (DC/Vertigo, $2.99); I love what Snyder and Murphy are doing here, and anyone who knows me knows how big a fan I am of Murphy’s work. Next up would be the debut of Jonathan Hickman’s Redwing #1 (Image, $3.50); after seeing Hickman blossom at Marvel, it’s great to see him re-invest in creator-owned comics. Third would be Jason Aaron and Carlos Pacheco’s X-Men Schism #1 (Marvel, $4.99); I have a sense Aaron’s the kind of writer to bring his “A” game when it comes to special stories (he did it recently in Scalped #50), so I’m interested to see what he does here. Last up would be Northlanders #42 (DC, $2.99).
- July 12, 2011 @ 06:00 PM by JK Parkin
Alex Ross covers Anthrax (again)
Cover art for Anthrax's "Worship Music," by Alex Ross
Long-running heavy metal band Anthrax has unveiled the cover art for its forthcoming CD Worship Music, featuring an original painting for Alex Ross. It’s the third cover Ross has created for Anthrax, following 2003′s We’ve Come for You All — the band’s previous studio album — and the 2004 live album Music of Mass Destruction.
Worship Music will be released Sept. 13 in the United States by Megaforce Records.
(via Rock Edition)
- July 12, 2011 @ 05:30 PM by Kevin Melrose
Your video of the day | Kagan McLeod’s Kung-Fu is Infinite
Kagan McLeod‘s Infinite Kung Fu collection arrives from Top Shelf at the San Diego Comic Con next week, and to promote it Top Shelf has tipped us off to this fun little trailer that Kagan and his brother Sean put together. Take a gander, and if you like it, you can read the first 250 pages of the book over on Top Shelf’s website.
- July 12, 2011 @ 05:00 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’11 | BOOM! hosts annual “drink up” event Thursday night
BOOM! Drink Up
BOOM! sent out an invitation today to their annual San Diego “drink up” event on Thursday, July 21, which they bill as “the only party at Comic-Con where everybody is invited.” The event starts at 9 p.m. at the Hilton Bayfront Odysea Bar on Park Blvd.
“Come help celebrate another year of BOOM!’s explosive growth with Ross Richie, Matt Gagnon, Chip Mosher, Wes Harris, Lance Kreiter, along with the rest of the BOOM! Crew and various BOOM! creators in attendance. Help us celebrate with a night of relaxed fun. Mix and mingle with fans and pros! This is an open invitation event. No RSVP needed. No tickets required. No lines to get in!”
- July 12, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by JK Parkin
Quote of the day #2 | ‘You’ve illuminated a piece of the darkness that has never been seen before’
Cartoonist Hans Rickheit is a busy man. He’s maintaining not one but two ongoing webcomics, Ectopiary and Cochlea & Eustachia, both of which are much beloved here at Robot 6. And in a few short weeks’ time he’ll be launching an art show alongside Colin Panetta and Mark Velard at the Greenfield Art Salon in Greenfield, Massachusetts, starting on Aug. 5. How does he keep going? Well, I’d imagine effusive praise from one of the greatest living cartoonists might help — and that’s precisely what Rickheit got in the above letter from Frank creator and Congress of the Animals author Jim Woodring. Woodring, an intrepid chronicler of the underbrain in his own right, clearly recognized a kindred spirit in Rickheit when the younger cartoonist sent him a copy of his elaborate and powerful Fantagraphics graphic novel The Squirrel Machine. If I got a letter half as kind and complimentary from one of my idols, I’d dine out on it for months, man.
- July 12, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
The Middle Ground #60 | First Things First
The news last week about the return of First Comics makes me happier than it has any right to. Although I haven’t read an incredible amount of the publishers’ 1980s/1990s output–which included a couple of gems, which I have read: American Flagg! Nexus! Those two alone feel like they should earn First a place in most comic lovers’ hearts–the publisher holds a weird place in my heart for being, I’m pretty convinced, the first American indie publisher I ever bought a comic from, way back when.
- July 12, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Graeme McMillan
Justice League among Warner Bros.’ official Comic-Con bag designs
Justice League
Warner Bros. has unveiled the 10 designs for the official Comic-Con International bags, which this year include promotional art for DC Comics’ relaunched Justice League, Cartoon Network’s Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment’s Batman: Arkham City.
More than 130,000 of the oversized bags, described by Entertainment Weekly as the San Diego convention’s “ubiquitous accessory,” will be available to those attending the July 20-24 event. This year, for the first time, the 24-inch by 28-inch bags convert into backpacks. Other designs include The Big Bang Theory, Fringe, Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, The Looney Tunes Show, ThunderCats and LEGO Harry Potter: Years 5-7.
Check out the designs for Green Lantern: The Animated Series and Batman: Arkham City after the break, and visit TheWB.com to see the rest.
- July 12, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
Neill Cameron shows you how to make a giant robot
Who says you can’t learn anything during the summer? UK artist Neill Cameron, creator of the kids’ graphic novel Mo-Bot High, has put together a quick four-step guide to designing giant robots, and it’s available to view or download at his site. You don’t have to be a kid (but it helps to be a kid at heart) to enjoy learning how to convert humans and animals into giant killing machines.
- July 12, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
What’s under the Red Hood? Well, see for yourself
Red Hood and the Outlaws #2
While there’s already been plenty of discussion online about Starfire’s shrinking, and improbable, costume on Kenneth Rocafort’s cover for Red Hood and the Outlaws #2, a commenter on the Comic Book Resources message board noticed that the fan service doesn’t stop there.
Peel your eyes away from Starfire’s gravity-defying brassiere and allow them to travel up the image — click to enlarge — at, oh, a 70-degree angle. Keeping going. To your left, but leaning to the Red Hood’s right. Once you see it, you won’t be able to un-see it … there you go! In case you ever wondered why Jason Todd didn’t don those tiny green shorts again following his resurrection, there’s your answer.
“Clearly the explosion had an adverse effect on his anatomy,” wrote Free-Man, who made the initial catch. “Or just really tight leather pants. I dunno.” Replied thewhtGuardian: “Either way it explains his anger, I’d want to take a sword to somebody too if my junk was all contorted.”
Red Hood and the Outlaws #2 is due in stores on Oct. 19. You’ll probably want to pre-order this issue, though, because as commenter Jake V noted, “DC knows what Jason fans really want.”
- July 12, 2011 @ 10:45 AM by Kevin Melrose
Six by 6 | Six great science fiction comics
Our Love Is Real
As we noted a week ago, Sam Humphries and Steven Sanders self-published a science fiction comic called Our Love Is Real, which subsequently sold out in print in nine hours. A second print is on the way (that’s the cover you see to the right) and it’s still available digitally through their website or comiXology.
Humphries, a former Robot 6 guest contributor and my fellow panel member in San Diego next week, agreed to share a list of what he considers to be some of the great science fiction comics. Note that he chose not to use the words “best” or “favorite” to describe the list. “‘Favorite’ or ‘best’ implies more commitment than I’m ready to give,” he said.
So without further ado …
Six great science fiction comics, by Sam Humphries
1. AKIRA by Katsuhiro Otomo
A giant of science fiction, often imitated, never surpassed. At its heart is a tale of a bromance gone wrong, two best friends who carve their years of brotherhood and resentment across Tokyo, Japan, and the Moon. The anime adaptation is superlative, but the manga, sprawled across six thick volumes of meticulously drawn, hi-octane pages, is a true monumental achievement. I’ll be gunning for this No. 1 spot ’til I die. G.O.A.T.
- July 12, 2011 @ 10:04 AM by JK Parkin
Steve Ellis helps Breaking Bad’s Jesse Pinkman play it tough or cool — your choice
A new season of AMC’s Breaking Bad starts this Sunday, and to help promote it AMC has posted a new “choose your own adventure”-style game/webcomic thing to their site, starring the character Jesse Pinkman and drawn by High Moon and Winter Guard artist Steve Ellis. So even if you aren’t into the show, it’s really nice to look at.
- July 12, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
Quote of the day | Axel Alonso on Marvel, movies and comic readers
Axel Alonso
“With every new movie that comes out, whether it’s good or bad, it whittles away this notion that comics are some ghetto for nerds. But our first and foremost responsibility is to tell good stories and to sell enough books and we keep our jobs. With all due respect to the movie studio, I’ve got to pay my own rent!”
– Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso, discussing his role overseeing comics
that may provide the source material for the company’s growing movie division
- July 12, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | Ghostface Killah sued over Iron Man cartoon theme
Ghostface Killah
Legal | Composer Jack Urbont is suing rapper Ghostface Killah of the Wu-Tang Clan and Sony Music Entertainment for illegally sampling the theme to the Iron Man animated series from the 1960s. The theme was used on two tracks from the 2000 album Supreme Clientele. Killah, who sometimes goes by the alias Tony Starks, had a song in the 2008 film and appeared in a deleted scene on the DVD. [Rolling Stone]
Digital | In Maps & Legends co-creator Michael Jasper shares a breakdown by percentage of where their sales are coming from, noting almost half of their sales are through Barnes & Noble’s Nookbook Store. [Michael Jasper, via The Beat]
Digital | The Globe and Mail looks at how electronic publishing is changing the way authors tell stories: “The Next Day is a graphic novel about people who have attempted suicide. Once it is posted online in September, you’ll be able to click your way through it according to your own preferences about how it should unfold.” [The Globe and Mail]
- July 12, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin