Comic Book Resources

SCAD Atlanta Comics Arts Forum Report

Murphy and Bernier

Back on October 23-25, the Sequential Art Department at the Atlanta campus of Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD Atlanta) hosted a comics art forum with Sean Murphy (2003 SCAD Savannah graduate and artist on the upcoming Grant Morrison-written Joe the Barbarian for Vertigo) and Matthew Bernier (School of Visual Arts in Manhattan graduate and currently at work on a book for First Second). Since I'm a Georgia-based member of the Robot 6 crew, Chris Schweizer, a SCAD Atlanta professor and creator of Crogan's Vengeance, invited me to the forum.

According to Shawn Crystal, SCAD Professor (as well as one of the artists on last month's Deadpool 900 [Marvel]), SCAD's Comics Art Forum tradition started in Savannah years ago. Crystal selects the guests that are invited to the forum. "Every year, when I pick guests, I look to pick progressive/passionate artists. Artists who are doing new and exciting things, helping to move the medium forward," he said. "Our Atlanta Faculty throw names around until we settle on the best choice for that year."

Schweizer echoed Crystal's thinking. "When we arrange these events, we try hard to pick guests whose work (and approaches to their work) varies from ours, because it opens our eyes to new ideas, and it does the same for our students," he said.

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Talking Comics with Tim: Shannon Wheeler

How to Be Happy

I recently caught up with seasoned industry veteran Shannon Wheeler for an email interview. This interview took place before Wheeler's recent announcement that he was contemplating a project at ACT-I-VATE--I mention this only as an explanation as to why I ask no questions in that regard. As noted in this recent post, his work has frequently been picked up by The New Yorker as of late, while he continues his work on How to Be Happy. And, of course, we get in some discussion about his overall Too Much Coffee Man work. My thanks to Wheeler for his time.

Tim O'Shea: You are a creator with a long, proven track record, who covers a great many concepts in your work (judging by this tag cloud). This page offers me a wealth of topics to ask you about, but I'll focus on one. In a down economy like this current one, does it make it easier (or even too easy) to tackle consumerism in the strip?

Shannon Wheeler: It makes it easier to criticize capitalism/materialism/consumerism when the economy is South in that you have specific things (like unemployment and poverty) to point at. Some of the humor becomes more poignant because the reality is more harsh. But that's very external. To me it feels like the humor has stayed the same.

A lot of the cartoons are about my personal struggles. Consumerism is something I wrestle with. I love buying DVDs, collectibles, art. At the same time I think owning things, wanting things, is ridiculous.

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Talking Comics with Tim: Miguel Cima

November 14: Dig Comics Screening

This Saturday, November 14, at 3 PM, Jim Hanley's Universe (at 4 West 33rd St.in New York) will present "an EXCLUSIVE screening of the award-winning documentary (and comics evangelism project) Dig Comics with filmmaker Miguel Cima". In advance of this screening, I caught up with Cima to discuss the project, as well as to find out where things stand on the planned expanded version of the documentary. At the San Diego Comic-Con this past summer, Dig Comics received the Best Documentary Award at the Comic-Con International Independent Film Festival (CCI-IFF). According to Jim Hanley's Universe, after the exclusive screening, it will also "have an A-List panel discussion with Mr. Cima; Marvel Executive Editor Tom Brevoort; Writer/Editor of the PW Beat Blog, Heidi MacDonald; noted DC writer/editor and founder of Paradox Press, Andy Helfer; author and editor of the Graphic NYC Blog Chris Irving; and author of Superman on the Couch and Disguised as Clark Kent, Danny Fingeroth!" Cima's passion and strong opinions are apparent in this email interview--and I appreciate his time. Please be sure to visit YouTube for the Dig Comics trailer.

Tim O'Shea: How long have you been pursuing this project, and in terms of your documentary approach, I was curious if there were certain documentary makers that influenced how your approached the project?

Miguel Cima: I’ve been working on this for about three years now. I guess my main angle is sort of a Michael Moore model, as in let’s see what’s wrong here and what can be done. Plus I too am a husky loudmouth, so there you are.

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Talking Comics with Tim: Dwight L. MacPherson

Sidewise

Last month saw the launch of Sidewise, the Zuda Comics series by writer Dwight L. MacPherson and artist Igor Noronha. Now that the series has been running for a few weeks, I email interviewed MacPherson to learn why he set out "to create a smart, engaging, action-packed historical fiction story that will appeal to readers of all ages… and still be cool". The story is described at its Zuda site as: "Teen genius Adam Graham borrows his parents' time device to visit 1902 London, only to find himself in an alternate dystopian past. As a member of Nikola Tesla's band of young freedom fighters known as SteampunX, Adam must wage a war against a myriad of deadly steam-powered robots, mad scientists and a nefarious state police controlled by Queen Victoria's preserved brain to free the oppressed nation, crown a new monarch and return to his world in time for a final exam." Be sure to visit the Zuda site every Thursday for new installments of the webcomic.

Tim O'Shea: For folks that don't know steampunk, two-fold question, could you provide a brief description and what it is about the genre that appeals to you?

Dwight L. MacPherson: Certainly. Steampunk fiction is a sub-genre of science-fiction and fantasy. Stories generally take place during Victorian times (hence the "steam") and contain fictional technological advancements (such as steam-powered robots, laser rays, battle dirigibles, etc.) or technology that was created at a much later date (such as the computer). Because of the inclusion of futuristic technology, alternate history is also a large part of most steampunk fiction. The works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne are prime examples of steampunk fiction, as are the novels "The Anubis Gates" by Tim Powers and "The Difference Engine" by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, and the classic television show "The Wild, Wild West."

Everything about the steampunk sub-genre appeals to me: the romanticized time period, Victorian sensibilities, futuristic gadgetry, magic and alternate histories. I became a fan of Wells and Verne as a child, so I guess you could say that I also find it nostalgic.

O'Shea: The story has alternate versions of historically recognized figures such as Tesla and HG Wells. Is Ms. Hopping inspired partially by any historical figures in particular?

MacPherson: Every member of Tesla's team (there are members we haven't met yet) has a name with a historical or mythical connotation that is--or should be--important to the British people. With a bit of research, I'm certain readers can learn some very cool historical facts about England as well as learning a bit about British mythology.

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Talking Comics with Tim: Matt Kindt

3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man

I'm a great admirer of Matt Kindt's work. Honestly, I'm an even bigger admirer of Kindt's ingenious nature. Case in point, for his latest book, 3 Story: The Secret History of the Giant Man (published by Dark Horse and released in late September), he has developed a Giant Man Mini Comic - Spy Capsule and Giant-Man 3-D Postcards. Before we get into our email interview about 3 Story, I have to reiterate what I said in last week's What Are You Reading that (in addition to checking out Kindt's latest work, of course) you should pick up Strange Tales 2 (featuring Kindt's Black Widow tale).  Here's a bit of Dark Horse's background on the tale (before stepping into the interview): "Craig Pressgang's life is well documented in his official CIA biography, Giant Man: Pillar of America, but the heroic picture it paints is only half the story. The continuous growth caused by Craig's strange medical condition brings a variety of problems as he becomes more isolated and unknowable. Told in three eras by three women with unique relationships with Craig, 3 Story follows his sad life from his birth to the present." Be sure to visit the Dark Horse site for a seven-page sample of the book. 

Tim O'Shea: A three-fold question of sorts (pun intended): Which came first, the idea to build your latest book as three stories in one, or the fact that the lead character was three stories tall in height or that you wanted to tell the story from the perspective of three women?

Matt Kindt: I wanted to tell the story from three different generations' perspective -- that was first. Then the idea for the title. I'm usually terrible with titles. It takes me forever to come up with something and then I usually go back to the working title anyway. Super Spy started out as my jokey working title and then it grew on me so I just left it. A friend accused me of naming it 3 Story so it would be filed on the bookshelf next to my other book 2 Sisters -- completely unintentional. But I'm thinking my next book might be called "4 Shadows". (kidding)

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Talking Comics with Tim: Todd Dezago

Mike Ploog's Perhapanauts cover

With the Halloween-themed fun we're having this week at Robot 666 (aka Robot 6)--it seemed like the perfect time to talk to Todd Dezago about the recently released Perhapanauts Halloween Spooktacular One-Shot (featuring stories drawn by the likes of Craig Rousseau, Rich Woodall and Fred Hembeck). Normally in an interview with Dezago, I would characterize him as one of the nicest folks in comics. But in the spirit of the Halloween season, I instead choose to characterize him as the most paranormal-fascinated person in comics. In addition to the one shot (with three stories in it)--we discuss other spooky topics like volleyball and iTunes. You are warned!

Tim O'Shea: Is it apt to say that Halloween is about your favorite time of the year, given your affinity for the paranormal?

Todd Dezago: Oh, Halloween definitely holds a special place in my heart, both for memories of Halloweens past and for the spooky, scary, creepy haunted element!

And I love that we were able to put together this fun and, hopefully, frightening anthology featuring very different artists on very different stories!

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Talking Comics with Tim: Jamie S. Rich

You Have Killed Me

Back in late July/early August, Robot 6 was fortunate enough to feature independent comics industry veteran writer Jamie S. Rich guest-blogging with the group--partially in promotion of his and artist Joëlle Jones' You Have Killed Me, the 184-page hardboiled crime graphic novel released by Oni Press in mid-July. Rich, an established writer of prose and comics, recently ran circles (in a good way) around some questions I shot his way recently about his latest book. Enjoy, hopefully as much as I did.

Tim O'Shea: Back in 2006 in an interview with Tom Spurgeon you told him (about You Have Killed Me) "12 Reasons was going so well, I think we had only been working on it a couple of months, but I didn't want to lose her to anyone else, so I asked her if she would work with me again and what she would want to do, I'd write her anything. She said she wanted to do hardboiled crime, and since I had the same passion for it she did, I jumped at it, even though it scared me because it was so different from what I'm known for. She's challenging me in incredible ways I would never challenge myself." Can you discuss what ways this story challenged you?

Jamie S. Rich: Well, most immediately, it required some real plotting. Relationship stories like what I had previously been known for don't require as much careful planning, they have a natural flow, peaks and valleys that are tied to the rhythm of real life. It's often unpredictable, less structured, and there is no definite resolution beyond whether or not these people stay together. In a crime story, you have something that happened, and the discovery of how it happened has to be detailed and lead to the revelation of the truth or the punishment of the criminal. You can't just have a random stranger suddenly emerge and say, "Oh, yeah, this homeless drifter did it." I mean, you could, but a lot of people would call you out for cheating, that's not a good story. For You Have Killed Me, I had to concoct a trail for Antonio Mercer, the private detective, to folloq, and each step had to kick up new dirt and I had to keep all of that dirt ordered, even when false or a red herring. There are expectations of that kind of plot. Just as Chekhov said if there is a gun in the first act, it will go off in the third, if you need a gun to go off in the third, you might have to think about having it show up in the first. There is far less left to chance.

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Talking Comics with Tim: Nick Tapalansky & Alex Eckman-Lawn

Awakening

Awakening creators, writer Nick Tapalansky and artist Alex Eckman-Lawn, are two storytellers eager to get the word out about the return of their project (which recently returned to the market from an 18-month hiatus as its publisher [sorted out business challenges [as explained here]). As announced in late September, Tapalansky and Eckman-Lawn are in the midst of a four-stop tour to generate support and interest in their Archaia hardcover horror book, Awakening. The tour opened on October 10 and in the course of this email interview, the details of the remaining dates are revealed (including this Staturday's stop at Upstate Comics). The story "takes place in the once-peaceful city of Park Falls, where a series of gruesome murders and missing persons has put the town on edge, and Cynthia Ford, known as the town 'crazy,' finds retired police detective Derrick Peters and relates to him her belief about what’s going on. Her explanation: Zombies. Unable to ignore Cynthia’s information, though not sharing her beliefs, Derrick and others in the town explore the mystery as weeks turn to months and the death toll rises. Could Cynthia be right or has she finally gone insane?"

Tim O'Shea: During the 18-month publishing hiatus, was there ever any point you wanted to give up on the project or you always believed it would come back?

Nick Tapalansky: I don’t think we ever even considered giving up on it. Besides already having so much blood invested in it, the story is one which I’m really excited to tell since it’s been percolating in my mind for the last five years. It was just a matter of being patient and seeing how everything resolved itself at Archaia.

Alex Eckman-Lawn: No way! There were some scary days in there, but I don’t think we ever once discussed giving up on the book. It was always, “How can we make this happen?” and luckily for us, all we really had to do was wait it out.

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Talking Comics with Tim: Nevin Martell

Looking for Calvin and Hobbes

Over the past few months, I've been introducing my son to the wonder of Calvin and Hobbes, the nationally syndicated comic strip that ran from 1985 to 1995. So creator Bill Watterson was already on my mind, when I gained access to a preview of Nevin Martell's Looking for Calvin and Hobbes: The Unconventional Story of Bill Watterson and His Revolutionary Comic Strip. The book aims to trace "the life and career of the extraordinary, influential, and intensely private man behind Calvin and Hobbes". In this new email interview, Martell and I get a chance to discuss the ground he covers in the book and the folks he got to interview in his pursuit.

Tim O'Shea: You did some advanced marketing of the book a few months back by releasing the first chapter of the book for free upon request. Did you find that helped generate buzz for the project?

Nevin Martell: The free chapter giveaway turned into an insane bonanza of buzz, which, frankly, I was totally unprepared for. My publishers told me that super successful versions of this kind of promotion in the past had garnered a couple of hundred requests. But then the offer got written up by BoingBoing and NPR, not to mention a slew of comic-related blogs and the Twittersphere, so suddenly I had hundreds of requests pouring in. Since I was initially answering all these requests individually, it turned into three days of hitting reply, attaching a file, writing a quick note, and then repeating. Ultimately over 4,000 people requested the chapter, which just blew my mind. Actually, my mind is still blown.

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Talking Comics with Tim: Dustin Harbin--the Sequel Interview

Dustin Harbin

A few months back when I interviewed Dustin Harbin regarding this year's HeroesCon, I made a mental note to follow-up with Harbin in another interview, where we could just discuss his creative projects/process. This interview was conducted via email several weeks back. Late last week, Harbin let me know that while he's remaining as Creative Director at Heroes Aren't Hard To Find and Heroes Convention, he will be reducing his hours at the store and has "gone full-time with cartooning". My thanks to Harbin for another interview, I'm happy to say this one was even more fun than the last.

Tim O'Shea: How much are you paying Tom Spurgeon to pimp your work? Seriously, Spurgeon praises many talented storytellers, but he seems to be your number one fan. Did you buy him a lot of meals when he came to HeroesCon in 2008 or what?

Dustin Harbin: I remember having to argue with Tom just to be able to bring him a water: I tried hard to buy him a drink at the hotel bar, but he was leery of my seductive ways. I think Tom is like a lot of us--he's a passionate advocate for people he thinks deserve wider recognition. I'm not basing this just on the very VERY kind attention he's showed my comics so far, but he's the reason I discovered Richard Thompson's work, who you'll agree Tom is an even more vociferous a supporter of. I don't know what attracted Tom's good feelings, but I'm incredibly grateful for them.

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Talking Comics with Tim: Mark Waid

The Unknown: The Devil Made Flesh

Any regular readers of What Are You Reading? likely know how much I enjoy Mark Waid's writing. So when Waid made himself available for a brief email interview regarding BOOM!'s The Unknown: The Devil Made Flesh, the first issue of which goes on sale tomorrow, I jumped at the chance. As I found out in this interview, Waid and I share a love of research. My thanks to Waid for the interview, and please be sure to check out CBR's five-page preview of issue 1 here. As detailed at the preview: "Back by popular demand, Mark Waid brings another installment of the world’s greatest detective! With only six months to live, Catherine Allingham’s condition is terminal. But nothing will stop her from trying to solve even more mysteries. It’s international suspense and hair-raising macabre as time runs out for our detective."

Tim O'Shea: It was years ago and in a different corporate universe, but as a fan of your run on Ruse, I have to ask--is Catherine Allingham a creative descendant of Emma Bishop to some extent?

Mark Waid: Ha! Man, someday, I've really got to go into hypnotherapy and see if someone can help me remember which prototypical Sarcastic Genius became the template for my scientists and investigators. Actually, Emma's more tender than Catherine. Catherine has no time for tenderness.

O'Shea: What was the appeal to mixing a spiritual quest with scientific exploration?

Waid: The appeal was in making an attempt to use science to answer (or at least approach) the great metaphysical mysteries. Detective fiction is full of excellent gumshoes who can tell you whodunnit. I wanted to get more into the impossible questions; a detective's only as interesting as the challenges she faces.

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Talking Comics with Tim: Tim Hall

Excerpt from current Uplift the Postivicals

I almost renamed the feature Talking Text-Comics with Tim for this week's interview with Tim Hall, but I thought better of it. Hall's project, Uplift the Postivicals, is ambitious, oddly engaging and unlike anything else that ACT-I-VATE has featured over the years. Hall's ACT-I-VATE bio covers everything you need to know before jumping into the actual interview: "Multimedia writer and journalist Tim Hall has been a champion of indie and DIY comics since 1995, when he first began publishing such future stars as Dean Haspiel, Josh Neufeld, Nick Bertozzi, and Sam Henderson (and many others) as part of the New York Hangover newspaper. His stories have since been put into comics form by Rami Efal, Josh Simmons, Michel Fiffe, and as part of Nick Bertozzi's award-winning Rubber Necker series. He is excited to take his writing to a new level at ACT-I-VATE with 'Uplift The Positivicals,' a freeform column of stories rendered as text images. His most recent novel, FULL OF IT: The Birth, Death, and Life of an Underground Newspaper was called a 'Best of 2008' by literary journal decomP and features wicked cool cover art by ACT-I-VATE co-founder Dean Haspiel. Tim lives in a small town in northern Illinois with his wife and son." My thanks to Hall for the interview.

Tim O'Shea: Uplift the Positivicals is described as "Text-based comics, fontasies, soul sutras and shredded prose, rendered in bold, binary alphabetics." I'm not sure where to start with that engaging mouthful, so I'll be
selective in my curiosity--what do you mean when you use the term "fontasies"?

Tim Hall: To be honest, I wrote that description before I had written a single column, so I really screwed myself, didn't I? First I had to map out my narrative territory and get people used to my style and hopefully into the characters. I'm now in the process of incorporating concrete poetry, typographic elements, visual writing and the like into UTP. The challenge for me is to tell a story using words in different ways, without relying on design per se. That's a long-winded way of saying that if I ever figure out what a fontasy is I'll be sure to let you know!

O'Shea: For this story, how did you go about selecting this font in particular?

Hall: I was looking for something bold and condensed that wasn't too overbearing. My primary goal was to make UTP readable on iPhones, while still packing enough info on each panel for desktop readers. I'm leaning more toward the portable devices, and actually just made the template slightly more widescreen.

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Talking Comics with Tim: Vito Delsante

FCHS Vol. 1

This November, writer Vito Delsante's collaboration with artist Rachel Freire, FCHS: Volume 1, will be released by AdHouse (Diamond Order Code: SEP09 0568). As described at the AdHouse site: "Do you remember high school?  All the fun and trouble you used to get into?  All of the sex, sports and alcohol that was your Senior year?  It's time to go back! Join Hector, Kennedy, Jules and the whole gang at FCHS as they begin their last year of high school.  Will they be ready for 'the real world' when it's all over? Will they all make it? Archie meets 90210."  Delsante, who has written for a number of publishers (including DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dynamite Entertainment, and Simon & Schuster), was kind enough to do an email interview with me. In addition to discussing FCHS, we discuss his experience working at Jim Hanley's Universe, as well as some of his other upcoming projects.

Tim O'Shea: FCHS got its start at the Chemistry Set, how did the publishing arrangement with AdHouse come about?

Vito Delsante: A mini comic. Seriously! Rachel and I attended MoCCA two years ago and at that point, we had about 21 strips on the site that we turned into seven 3-tier pages. We were handing them out to just about anyone who was interested, with the thought that we'd bring some traffic back to Chem Set. Chris [Pitzer, AdHouse Books publisher] got one and a few weeks later, right before Comic Con Intl., he e-mailed us and asked if we were interested in doing a book. I think, in the back of my head, I was hoping to get a few publishers interested in FCHS, but when Chris offered, we jumped at it. Rachel and I are big fans of AdHouse, and to be a member of that family is a very good feeling.

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Talking Comics with Tim: Christopher Yost

Red Robin 4

By now most folks will have read Red Robin 4 (which was released on September 9), but if it's still in your reading pile from this past week please make sure to read it before reading this interview with series writer Christopher Yost. (Consider that your official spoiler warning.) In addition to discussing the events of the issue, we delve into the plans ahead for the book and the life of Tim Wayne (formerly Drake), as well as the premiere of the new series artist Marcus To as of issue 6.

Tim O'Shea:  Issue 4 is now out and had a fairly big reveal in the hunt for Bruce Wayne. This has been building up for four issues, did DC tell you exactly how they wanted the reveal to occur--or did they give you some creative levity to structure the reveal in your own way?

Christopher Yost: [Editor] Mike Marts and I had been talking about this from day one, and it was something that I wanted to do from the start. Tim's incredibly smart, incredibly driven... if there's evidence and clues out there, he's going to find it. And as you saw, he did. We still haven't revealed what put him on that road, of course... but I knew I wanted to tie Red Robin into the end of Grant's Final Crisis super-early on.

But to answer the question, DC has given me nothing but freedom and creative levity. It's pretty great.

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Talking Comics with Tim: Shawn Martinbrough

Luke Cage Noir

I first took notice of Shawn Martinbrough's work during his and Greg Rucka's run on DC's Detective Comics back in the early 2000s. While his storytelling skills were great then, they've only improved over the years and can currently be appreciated in Marvel's Luke Cage Noir miniseries, set in 1930s Harlem (Issue 2 was released on September 2; Issue 3 will be out on October 7). Actually, I've wanted to interview Martinbrough since 2007 when he wrote How to Draw Noir Comics: The Art and Technique of Visual Storytelling, so we discussed that book before moving on to his current Marvel work, as well as his upcoming Studio Museum exhibit on Luke Cage.

Tim O'Shea: How did your How to Draw Noir Comics book come into being?

Shawn Martinbrough: My friend and colleague Joseph Illidge mentioned that I should pitch an art instruction book based on my art style. I approached Jackie Ching, an editor at Watson Guptill who was also a friend and colleague about the concept. She was very interested and suggested I create a proposal. I turned around a proposal for “How to Draw Noir Comics: The Art and Technique of Visual Storytelling” within two weeks and shortly after it was approved by the higher ups.

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