2011 July
Robot 6 Q&A | Larry Young on the return of First Comics
Warp #1
Yesterday we learned by way of the San Diego Comic-Con Thursday panel schedule that First Comics, a hallmark of 1980s independent comic book publishing, is returning. According to the write-up for the panel:
First Comics: The First of the Great Independents Is Back with a Fury!— Legendary ’80s independent publishing powerhouse First Comics is returning when the world needs it most, not unlike the promised return of King Arthur. And the assembled Round Table of extraordinary comics creators are here to tell you how they will once again be rocking your world with comics entertainment from the cutting edge. Panelists include Ken F. Levin (Wanted, The Boys, First Comics co-founder and director), Joe Staton and Nick Cuti (E-Man), Bill Willingham (Fables), Max Allan Collins (Road to Perdition), Brian Mullens (founder of DaQRi; QR director), Alex Wald (art director then and again), Susannah Carson (A Truth Universally Acknowledged; First Comics YA editor), and Daniel Merlin Goodbrey (The Tarquin Engine, The Last Sane Cowboy). Moderated by Larry Young (The Black Diamond; First Comics director of production). Room 23ABC
As noted in the description, several on the panel were involved with First Comics back in the 1980s; others, like Willingham and Collins, were involved in making prominent independent comics at the time (Collins created Ms. Tree, published by Eclipse and other companies, while Willingham created Elementals, published by Comico). And there are new faces, like Goodbrey and Young. Goodbrey stated on his blog that his webcomic Necessary Monsters would be involved. And Young, publisher of AiT/Planet Lar, will serve as director of production for the returning company.
I caught up with Young, who answered a few questions about First’s return.
- July 8, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by JK Parkin
Brian Wood, Simon Coleby create Lord of the Rings game prologue
Screenshot from "The Lord of the Rings: War in the North"
As Tolkien fans watch for the next update from the set of Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Hobbit, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment is gearing up for the fall release of The Lord of the Rings: War in the North, the action RPG game set during the journey of the One Ring. Developed by Snowblind Studios, the game takes place in the great northern wastes of Middle-earth, where three heroes confront a growing army even as the Fellowship winds its way toward Mordor.
To encourage pre-orders through certain retailers, Warner Bros. Interactive is offering a digital comic produced by corporate sibling DC Comics, written by Northlanders creator Brian Wood and illustrated by Judge Dredd and The Authority artist Simon Coleby. Curiously, as IGN.com notes, gamers who pre-order through Toys ‘R’ Us will have access to both parts of the comic, while those who go through Amazon will only get Part 2.
- July 8, 2011 @ 07:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Grumpy Old Fan | Stewardship, Elvis, and developing a Universe
Captain Marvel Junior, takin' care of business in a flash
This is our fourth summer in Memphis, but we hadn’t taken the Graceland tour until this weekend. It helped that twenty-odd relatives came into town for a big reunion, and one of them had been jonesing especially hard for an Elvis fix.
As for me, not so much. I have always been curious about the King, mostly as an historical figure; and as my musical tastes have developed, I’ve learned to appreciate the profound effect his life had on the culture at large. Many years ago I read Peter Guralnick’s exhaustive two-volume biography, and I have a couple of greatest-hits CDs and the “Aloha From Hawaii” concert. (I was, however, somewhat disappointed not to hear Captain Marvel’s costume and/or Captain Marvel Jr. mentioned in the tour’s discussions of Elvis’ infamous caped jumpsuits.)
- July 7, 2011 @ 05:00 PM by Tom Bondurant
Joe Quesada to present at Disney’s D23 Expo in August
D23 Expo
Although a lot of folks are focused on Comic-Con International and the roll out of the panel schedule this week, Disney’s D23 Expo announced their “arena schedule” for their next event, scheduled for Aug. 19-21 in Anaheim.
I attended the first D23 event two years ago, and the arena presentation were by far the highlight of the weekend. They were announcement-filled, star-studded affairs with all sorts of Disney flair. For instance, the presentation by Walt Disney Studios included appearances by John Travolta, Nicholas Cage, Robert Zemeckis, Tim Burton, the Muppets and Johnny Depp dressed as Jack Sparrow, as they announced the latest Pirates of the Caribbean movie. And during the Disney Parks presentation, Darth Vader and a load of stormtroopers came out to announce the Star Tours upgrade.
The first D23 Expo was held right after Disney had announced they were buying Marvel, so the House of Ideas didn’t have a presence. But what a difference two years makes, as Marvel CCO Joe Quesada will host a session on Marvel on Sunday, and Kevin Feige, president of production for Marvel Studios, will join the movie presentation on Saturday. Does that mean we’ll get to see all the Avengers come out on stage in their costumes? One can only hope.
You can find the complete arena schedule after the jump.
- July 7, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by JK Parkin
Wonder Woman, Red Sonja, and Xena: Warrior Princess walk into a girls’ locker room…
And thus begins what I can guess without even googling are a thousand racy fanfics. But it’s also the premise, more or less, of cartoonist Dave Kiersh’s thoughtful, funny minicomic Amazons, which he’s now posted online in its entirety on his new site Teenage Archive. The strip imagines what life would be like if these pulchritudinous paragons of fierce femininity were to attend high school, navigating the uncharted waters of jocks, nerds, preps, angry teachers, uncaring administrators, and unyielding dress codes.
Kiersh’s About Me blurb on Teenage Archive reads “Afterschool specials and the American dream,” and that pretty much nails what his comics are like: Whimsical yet melancholy explorations of teenage lust, boredom, romance, and desire to escape — and adult desire to return. Amazons is more of a goof than his usual stuff, but underneath the silliness is something true about the way dudes idealize beautiful women and the sense of unattainable freedom and fulfillment these fantasy figures represent. Read it in tandem with Kate Beaton, Carly Monardo, and Meredith Gran’s “Strong Female Characters” for a very different but I think complementary take on the power such images have.
- July 7, 2011 @ 03:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Michael DeForge gets under Spider-Man’s skin in “Peter’s Muscle”
In the immortal words of that slowed-down Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson pizza-making video, when does a dream become a nightmare? This is the question addressed by justly celebrated young cartoonist Michael DeForge, in the context of your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man no less, in his cheerfully unauthorized, thoroughly unpleasant Spider-Man comic “Peter’s Muscle,” which you can now read online in its entirety at Jordan Crane’s webcomics portal What Things Do. Spinning out of the infamous (and in-continuity!) relationship between Aunt May and Doctor Octopus, the story finds the Wall-Crawler recounting a disturbing dream that starts with finding a face underneath a membranous sidewalk and somehow only gets more uncomfortably intimate from there. With any luck, a full-color edition of this strip will anchor a future Strange Tales installment, but for now, this will more than suffice.
- July 7, 2011 @ 02:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
Chris Samnee’s domestic bliss
Most of the world knows Harvey award nominee Chris Samnee as the artist for Thor: The Mighty Avenger, Serenity: The Shepherd’s Tale,, Capote in Kansas and soon Captain America and Bucky, as well as his contributions to the Comic Twart sketchblog, but here’s something you might not now—he leaves cute little cartoon notes for his wife all the time, and she posts them in a blog called lunch notes. It’s like a sketchblog with the Samnee’s domestic life as the topic. They have a baby on the way, so many of the cartoons focus on that, and their cat also makes some guest appearances. The cartoons are warm and funny but not mushy, and the easy linework shows what a good draftsman Chris is, even when he’s dashing off a casual sketch.
(via iFanboy)
- July 7, 2011 @ 01:00 PM by Brigid Alverson
First Comics returns?
Apparently so, according to the just-released Thursday panel schedule for Comic-Con International:
5:00-6:00 First Comics: The First of the Great Independents Is Back with a Fury!— Legendary ’80s independent publishing powerhouse First Comics is returning when the world needs it most, not unlike the promised return of King Arthur. And the assembled Round Table of extraordinary comics creators are here to tell you how they will once again be rocking your world with comics entertainment from the cutting edge. Panelists include Ken F. Levin (Wanted, The Boys, First Comics co-founder and director), Joe Staton and Nick Cuti (E-Man), Bill Willingham (Fables), Max Allan Collins (Road to Perdition), Brian Mullens (founder of DaQRi; QR director), Alex Wald (art director then and again), Susannah Carson (A Truth Universally Acknowledged; First Comics YA editor), and Daniel Merlin Goodbrey (The Tarquin Engine, The Last Sane Cowboy). Moderated by Larry Young (The Black Diamond; First Comics director of production). Room 23ABC
First Comics was an independent comics company that published titles like Dreadstar, E-Man, Jon Sable, Badger, Nexus, Grimjack , American Flagg! and other titles back in the 1980s. It’s an interesting mix of folks on the panel, including several names that were associated with First back in the 1980s.
- July 7, 2011 @ 12:30 PM by JK Parkin
Comic-Con International announces Thursday programming
Comic-Con International
Comic-Con International has released a jam-packed programming schedule for Thursday, July 21, that includes the first of DC’s aforementioned “New 52″ panels, presentations from IDW Publishing and BOOM! Studios on some of their licensed titles — Transformers, G.I. Joe, Dungeons & Dragons and Planet of the Apes — spotlights on Grant Morrison, Joyce Brabner, Paul Levitz, Jo Chen, Roy Thomas and Alex Nino, and a look at Dark Horse’s fall releases.
But that barely scratches the surface. There’s also a panel for Robert Kirkman’s new Skybound imprint, Comic Book Legal Defense Fund master classes, a Q&A with Stan Lee, Todd McFarlane and Yoshiki, an examination of the X-Men’s gay characters, themes and fans, and the screening of a documentary about the late Jeffrey Catherine Jones.
To help you with your Comic-Con planning, we’ve highlighted the comics-specific programming below. To see the full Thursday schedule, complete with television, film and video game content, visit the convention website.
- July 7, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
DC Comics announces Comic-Con panel schedule
DC Comics
DC Comics has released its programming schedule for Comic-Con International in San Diego that, unsurprisingly, focuses heavily on the publisher’s September line-wide relaunch with a “New 52″ panel planned each day of the July 21-24 convention. The relaunch will reach beyond those four presentations, of course, and into panels devoted to the Batman, Superman, Justice League and Green Lantern families of titles.
There’s also a July 24 panel called “Designing the New DCU,” featuring Co-Publisher Jim Lee, Vice President-Art & Design Mark Chiarello and artist Cully Hamner.
Check out the full DC schedule after the break.
- July 7, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Indigo Kelleigh Kickstarts Ellie Connelly
I have been a fan of Indigo Kelleigh’s Tintinesque webcomic Ellie Connelly and the Eye of the Vortex almost since it launched, but that’s a frustrating avocation, as Kelleigh has to earn a living (among other things, he is the director of the Stumptown Comics Fest), so the comic tends to proceed in fits and starts.
Now Kelleigh is joining the legions of creators who are hoping to fund some creative time via Kickstarter. Kelleigh’s pitch is ambitious: He is trying to raise $25,000, which he reckons will cover his living expenses for a year while he completes Ellie Connelly, as well as the cost of producing a 64-page print edition of the first volume. The goodies for contributors include a nifty 4 GB flash drive (with Ellie Connelly logo!) for storing the comics, which is a nice touch, as well as the usual assortment of comics, sketches, and the opportunity to be drawn into the comic as an extra or a named character. Kelleigh has a long way to go here—as of this morning, he had raised less than $1,000—but it’s a nice book and if he can finish it, it should find an enthusiastic audience.
- July 7, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Douglas Wolk gazes into the fist of Dredd
Quickly becoming the defacto reporter-of-record for comics on the mainstream industry scene, prolific writer Douglas Wolk is taking his critical eye to a bastion of UK comics publishing: Judge Dredd. In his new blog, Dredd Reckoning, Wolk is delving into the long-running Dredd stories from 2000AD and other outlets beginning with his first stories from 1977.
Although Dredd is a unifying figure for British comics fan, he’s largely been held at arm’s length by American audiences like a distant relative they just can’t warm up to. At one point, DC even attempted a U.S. Judge Dredd series drawn by a young Michael Avon Oeming that failed to grip audiences. This critical assessment of Dredd could be an eye-opening journey for American readers who want to know more but don’t know where to start or how to appreciate the work.
And this isn’t the first time that Wolk’s embedded himself in a narrow comics subject and went at it. His blog 52 Pick-up provided a week-by-week, blow-by-blow annotation of DC’s 52 series. Wolk has written about comics for Rolling Stone, Wired, and released a long-form, award-winning book on comics called Reading Comics.
There’s no word yet if Wolk will attempt to review the botched Sylvester Stallone flick from the 1990s, but here’s hoping.
- July 7, 2011 @ 09:00 AM by Chris Arrant
Sony ends its digital comics service for the PlayStation Portable
This week’s update will be the last for the PlayStation Digital Comics store, bringing to an Sony’s nearly two-year-old service for the PlayStation Portable.
Announced in August 2009 and launched four months later, PlayStation Digital Comics permitted users to download comics from such publishers as DC, Marvel, IDW Publishing, Archie, Tokyopop and BOOM! Studios to handheld game console. The service amassed a library of more than 4,000 titles, which Sony says will remain available to PSP users.
In a brief announcement made Wednesday on the PlayStation blog, Grace Chen, director of the PlayStation Store, wrote that, “The Digital Comics Team will continue to work on bringing the comic service to other Sony devices.” That suggests the service, or one similar to it, may be available for the PlayStation Vita, expected to be released in early 2012.
- July 7, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | ICv2 conference returns to San Diego; surviving CCI
Comic-Con International
Comic-Con | ICv2 will host a Comics, Media, and Digital Conference on July 20, the afternoon before Comic-Con International kicks off in San Diego. The event will include panels on digital comics, comics in Hollywood and “Comics, Paper and Digital at Comic-Con 2013.” [press release]
Comic-Con | Comic-Con International has released the floor map for this year’s show. Heidi MacDonald helps translate it. [Comic-Con International]
Comic-Con | With just 14 until the big event, Acquanetta Ferguson offers 18 tips to surviving your first Comic-Con, while Liz Ohanesian talks with Doug Kline, author of The Unauthorized San Diego Comic-Con Survival Guide. [Examiner, LA Weekly]
Creators | Sean Witzke talks with King City creator Brandon Graham about world-building, collaborating with other writers or artists, porn and his approach to storytelling: “I’m really into the idea of conveying a story clearly enough for the reader to get all the basics while at the same time having enough information going on where you don’t necessarily get it all or even miss something on the first read through. I think it’s something that came from me reading a lot of European and Japanese comics growing up and just not always getting everything, culturally or just because of weird translations. I like that nice mystery. And there’s the idea that when a story doesn’t give you everything it forces the reader to think a little more. Turns them from being a passive reader to an active one. I think that would be my ideal destination, some kind of clear and simple with a background of complexity.” [supervillain]
- July 7, 2011 @ 06:55 AM by Brigid Alverson and JK Parkin
Comic Couture | Marvel teams with the Dallas Cowboys for apparel line
I think if I mention the NFL and Marvel Comics in the same blog post, there has to be a reference to NFL SuperPro. Union rules, or something. So there you go.
With that out of the way … Marvel and the Dallas Cowboys announced this week a line of T-shirts, hoodies and other apparel featuring the football team and Marvel characters. “Through an agreement that enables the Dallas Cowboys to license Marvel’s Super Heroes, the team will develop co-branded merchandise featuring Captain America, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Thor, and many other Super Heroes decked out in Cowboys’ team colors, logos and jerseys.” What, no Rawhide Kid, Two-Gun Kid or Kid Colt?
If you’re thinking these might be popular with comic retailers in the Dallas area, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram had the same thought, as they reached out to Lone Star Comics owner Buddy Saunders, who owns six stores in the Metroplex. “Sports fans are predominantly male, and comic fans are predominantly male. It’s sort of like branding yourself with two things — the team you like and your favorite superheroes,” he told the paper.
This isn’t the first time that Marvel has crossed over into the world of sports merchandise. Marvel characters have appeared on several NBA shirts, including the Hulk on a Celtics shirt and of course the infamous one for the (cough, cough) world champion Miami Heat.
- July 7, 2011 @ 05:00 AM by JK Parkin