Army of Darkness
Comics A.M. | Anya’s Ghost, Zita the Spacegirl win Cybils Awards
Anya's Ghost
Awards | Two titles from First Second won the graphic novel categories in the 2011 Cybils Awards, literary honors given by bloggers who write about children’s and young-adult books: Ben Hatke’s Zita the Spacegirl received the graphic novel prize in the Elementary & Middle School category, while Vera Brosgol’s Anya’s Ghost won in the Young Adult division. [Cybils]
Digital | With the Vita on the way, Sony is shutting down its PSP comics service, and users will lose their comics come September. [Gameranx]
Graphic novels | Craig Thompson’s Blankets made Oprah’s list of the eight greatest love stories of all time, taking its place alongside Brokeback Mountain and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. [Oprah.com]
Creator to watch: Nick Bradshaw
As part of my day, I’m lucky enough to see a metric ton of comic art (I weighed it!), so it takes something special to wow me — but from time to time I come across something new and unexpected.
Take artist Nick Bradshaw.
The piece that grabbed me was this great piece of original art he donated for the Hero Initiative’s 100 New Avengers project (at right). This isn’t the first time I’ve seen his name — but it’s the first time I’ve seen it like this.
Bradshaw came onto the comic scene back in 2004 when he illustrated a miniseries based on the cult movie Army of Darkness. After that he was hand-chosen by J. Scott Campbell to illustrate new tales in Campbell’s signature series Danger GIrl – and with good reason! Much like Campbell burst onto the scene showing shades of Art Adams inspiration, Bradshaw’s line work shown a real appreciation for Campbell’s line.
After that he fell off my radar, but this new piece really threw me for a loop — in a good way. Looking it up, Bradshaw just did the lead story in last month’s Uncanny X-Men Annual #3 — a comic I just asked comic shop to put on hold for me.