Becky Cloonan
Dark Horse to unveil Brian Wood-Becky Cloonan project at NYCC
Dark Horse will announce a project at New York Comic Con that reunites Eisner-nominated Demo collaborators Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan.
Pointing to the “Comic TBA — Brian Wood (DMZ, Demo, Northlanders) and Becky Cloonan (Demo, Pixu)” entry on the publisher’s Oct. 15 signing schedule, Wood simply wrote “Huh?” on his blog and posted the graphic at right.
The duo first partnered on Channel Zero: Jennie One, the 2003 sequel to Wood’s first series Channel Zero. But the 12-issue Demo, published from November 2003 to November 2004, by AiT/Planet Lar, was the breakout book for both collaborators, earning Eisner Award nominations for best limited series and best single issue. Wood and Cloonan revisted their milestone work in 2010 with the six-issue Demo: Volume 2 from Vertigo. They also reteamed last year for “The Girl in the Ice,” a two-issue story for Wood’s Viking saga Northlanders.
Wood, whose Vertigo series DMZ and Northlanders end next year, is already working with his Supermarket collaborator Kristian Donaldson on The Massive for Dark Horse. He also has a Marvel project in the works. Cloonan’s Victor Von Doom miniseries, with writer Nick Spencer, debuts from Marvel in November.
New York Comic Con will be held Oct. 13-16 at the Javits Center in New York City.
Previews: What Looks Good for November
The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths
It’s time once again for our monthly trip through Previews looking for cool, new comics. As usual, we’re focusing on graphic novels, collected volumes, and first issues so that I don’t have to come up with a new way to say, “ Dark Horse Presents is still awesome!” every month. And I’ll continue letting Tom and Carla do the heavy lifting in regards to DC and Marvel’s solicitations.
Also, please feel free to play along in the comments. Tell me what I missed that you’re looking forward to or – if you’re a comics creator – mention your own stuff.
Ape
Puss in Boots Movie Prequel – I don’t care for movie prequel comics as a rule, but swashbuckling cats are awesome in any incarnation. As long as these are fresh gags and not just ones warmed up from Shrek, I expect to enjoy this.
Archaia
Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Creation Myths, Book 1 - I just introduced my son to The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth a couple of weeks ago, so this is great timing. He had the same questions about The Dark Crystal‘s world that I always do, so I’m looking forward to seeing Archaia’s take on answering those. Totally feel like the world’s in good hands with this publisher and these creators.
The Sigh - If Archaia’s snagging Marjane Satrapi’s (Persepolis, Chicken With Plums) new book has been reported already, I missed it. I’m surprised that wasn’t bigger news.
Siegfried, Volume 1 – I’ve been meaning to read P Craig Russell’s Ring of the Nibelung adaptation for years, so I think this might be what pushes me to finally do it. It would be fun to read Russell’s and compare it to this version by Alex Alice.
Comics A.M. | Superheroes’ big-screen struggle for diversity; Z-Cult FM returns
Green Lantern
Movies | National Public Radio commentator John Ridley critiques Hollywood for being even less diverse than the Big Two when it comes to diversity in lead characters, and demolishes their blame-the-audience theory that white people won’t go to see a movie with a black lead by pointing to a study by Indiana University professor Andrew Weaver: “Weaver found that white audiences tended to be racially selective with regard to romantic movies, but not necessarily when it came to other genres. So, sorry, Hollywood. You can’t blame it on the ticket buyers.” [NPR]
Piracy | Comic-book torrent tracker Z-Cult FM, which was threatened with legal action by Marvel in 2007 and eventually shut down in 2009, has re-opened its virtual doors. [Facebook]
Creators | Becky Cloonan talks about the joys and the hardships of being a full-time comics creator: “Comics are hard work. Comics are relentless. Comics will break your heart. Comics are monetarily unsatisfying. Comics don’t offer much in terms of fortune and glory, but comics will give you complete freedom to tell the stories you want to tell, in ways unlike any other medium. Comics will pick you up after it knocks you down. Comics will dust you off and tell you it loves you. And you will look into its eyes and know it’s true, that you love comics back.” [Becky Cloonan: Comics or STFU]
SDCC ’11 | A roundup of Friday’s announcements
The Massive
Friday was a busy day in San Diego, with a full slate of announcements capped by the Eisner Awards in the evening.
• Image Comics will resurrect the classic television show MacGyver as a five-issue miniseries written by MacGyver creator Lee David Zlotoff and Doctor Who writer Tony Lee, and illustrated by Becky Cloonan.
• Brian Wood’s newest project was announced — The Massive, about environmentalists who survive the last environmental collapse. The comic will start its run in Dark Horse Presents #8 in January.
• Vertigo Executive Editor Karen Berger confirmed that Scalped will end with issue #60.
• Marvel teased the return of the Scarlet Spider.
• DC Comics released more interior art for several of their “New 52″ titles, including Aquaman, Mister Terrific and more.
Comics A.M. | Why Marvel spoils stories in the media, Green Lantern lateness
Ultimate Spider-Man #160
Publishing | Arune Singh, Marvel’s director of communications, addresses how Marvel works with media outlets to break major storyline news and in many cases spoil the story, like Ultimate Spider-Man dying. Their goal is to hopefully bring lapsed or non-fans into stores: “When we line up this kind of mainstream media coverage, it’s offering the promise of breaking this big news to the outlet. It’s with the knowledge that they’ll be the ones making the headlines, being referenced by other sites and getting the attention. But if we wait till the story breaks or the Wednesday books go on-sale, someone else is going to buy the issue early in the morning and break the news. Is it possible that mainstream outlets will still pick up on the news then? Yes, it’s possible. But the only way to guarantee that big, sweeping placement worldwide — as you’ve seen with the Death of Spider-Man — is to break it before anyone has a chance. And that kind of placement is, as I mentioned above, what will get us attention from outside the industry.” [ComicsAlliance]
Retailing | Toronto retailer Chris Butcher worries about how well the two late Green Lantern movie prequel comics — one shipping this week, one shipping in August — will sell so long after the film’s release. He also discusses the lateness of the final issue of the War of the Green Lanterns crossover, which won’t come out until after the epilogue story in this week’s Green Lantern Emerald Warriors #11. [Comics212]
HeroesCon Recap: Photo Essay
Rather than try to write a summary of my HeroesCon 2011 experience, I have opted this year to share as many photos as possible. My camera was out-of-commission yesterday so all photos were taken during the second day of the show (Saturday).
Jeff Parker and friends
Talking Comics with Tim | Rico Renzi
HeroesCon 2011
Not to mince words, HeroesCon is my San Diego. Scheduled for June 3-5 at the Charlotte Convention Center this year, I recently caught up with Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find Creative Director Rico Renzi, to discuss what to look forward to at HeroesCon 2011. Anyone that has read my past con reports knows how much I always enjoy this family friendly/comics focused con, and will not be surprised to learn I will be in attendance again this year. Thanks to Renzi for the interview and for giving us the scoop that Farel Dalrymple is returning to the con this year. I was also enthused to learn the con is trying a Friday night event this year, as well as introducing a new section of the convention floor devoted to comic strip creators.
Tim O’Shea: How are things shaping up with less than a month to go before the con, starting to panic? Planning-wise, how do you and Shelton Drum (con founder/organizer and owner of Heroes Aren’t Hard To Find) divvy up the heavy lifting of making this con happen?
Rico Renzi: HeroesCon is like breathing to Shelton so I’m pretty sure he’s not panicking. This is my first time doing anything like this so, yeah I think there’s some pressure on me. Maybe I get a pass since this is my first year though? Dustin Harbin has been a great help showing me the ropes on a few things, especially the floor plan. Deciding where everyone is going to sit seems like the hardest job to me right now. Aside from that we get great help from our warehouse manager, Seth Peagler. Whether I need someone to brainstorm with or edit my blog posts, Seth is my guy. Also, Andy Mansell has been instrumental in planning and coordinating our programming. These guys keep me sane!
Cloonan and Moses Drink the Blood of the Dragon
Drink the Blood of the Dragon / Speak the Language of Birds
Demo artist Becky Cloonan posts a new print she and painter/tattoo artist Mike Moses teamed up to create:
“Drink the Blood of the Dragon / Speak the Language of Birds” depicts Sigurd and Fafnir from the Völsunga Saga. After Sigurd had slain Fafnir with the sword Gram, Odin came to him disguised as an old man and instructed him to bathe in the blood of the dragon, and eat it’s heart to grant him invulnerability and the ability to communicate with birds.
The print costs $30, and purchasing info can be found at the first link above.
Tokyopop in the rear view mirror
The Rising Stars of Manga
There was a time, back in the mid-2000′s, when Tokyopop was a bubbling cauldron of talent. With its Rising Stars of Manga competition and global manga program, Tokyopop was a gateway into comics for many talented newcomers, and many of them continue to work in the industry, creating and editing manga and other types of comics. Tokyopop shut down its OEL (Original English Language) manga program and laid off much of its staff in June 2008. Some of the creators continued to work on Tokyopop’s licensed books, while others moved on to new endeavors, including BOOM! Studios’ Pixar comics and Archaia’s Fraggle Rock anthologies.
The news that Tokyopop will be shutting its doors on May 31 inspired many creators to post their thoughts about the Tokyopop experience, and we reached out to some others for their own memories.
Former editor Tim Beedle, who was on staff at the time, looked back with mixed feelings:
There were certainly times where working at Tokyopop could be a frustrating experience. Like most of the editorial team, I came to Tokyopop because I had a genuine interest in comics and manga and wanted to play a role in bringing some great titles to American graphic novel fans, whether they were licensed from Japan or produced in the United States. And I think we did just that while we were there. I’m proud of just about all of the titles I worked on, especially the OEL ones. However, as time went on, the company’s interests and priorities seemed to shift. All of a sudden, we weren’t simply manga editors—we were film developers, magazine contributors, social media website operators and reality TV producers. All of which are worthwhile career pursuits, but what’s wrong with being editors? I think Tokyopop was at its best when its focus remained on publishing, and for all the time I was there, that’s what I focused on.
Quote of the Day | Becky Cloonan on how Tokyopop got it backwards
from the never-published East Coast Rising Vol. 2 by Becky Cloonan
Maybe [Tokyopop] just went around things wrong. If Stu Levy wanted to make a media company, I feel like he should have started it that way instead of trying to get into movies and other media through comics. That notion has always seemed backwards to me- if you want to make a movie, fucking just make a movie! It might not be easy, but it makes a lot more sense than making comics to make movies. That’s like making cookies and hoping they will turn into a cake in the oven!
–Demo artist Becky Cloonan, whose unfinished OEL graphic-novel series East Coast Rising has disappeared down Tokyopop’s publishing-rights rabbit hole, with an analogy for the ages on the trend of using comics as back door to Hollywood. The post contains a lot more insight into Cloonan’s ill-fated relationship with the now-defunct manga publisher — well worth a read.
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.
Becky Cloonan brings the (God of) Thunder
To celebrate yesterday’s release of the Thor By Walter Simonson Omnibus, the good folks at Deep6 and Hypothetical Island Studios decided to draw themselves some thunder god. Look at what Becky Cloonan did, then click through to see George O’Connor, Simon Fraser and Tim Hamilton’s versions.
Becky Cloonan unleashes the Wolves this spring
Wolves
Artist Becky Cloonan of Demo and most recently Northlanders fame has what will likely be a must-buy item at several upcoming conventions — a mini-comic called Wolves.
“Anyone who has been following my blog for a while might remember that last year I published this short story in an anthology me and some friends published in Japan for a convention in Tokyo- it was originally in Japanese; this version will be in English, and will have a few added pages,” she said on her blog. “I’m right now looking for a printer, hopefully it will be out for the spring in time for MoCCA, TCAF and MCM!”
Click on the link above to check out a preview.
Process: Becky Cloonan’s Thought Bubble Festival illustration
by Becky Cloonan
Demo artist Becky Cloonan went really deep on this post that details the process of creating an illustration for this fall’s Thought Bubble Festival in Leeds, England. While you can see the final “Snow White and the Seven Comics” artwork above, click on over to her blog to see it go from pencils to color tests to inks and so on, until it was completed.
Read (well, look at) Becky Cloonan’s East Coast Rising Vol. 2 online
It was one of the Tokyopop implosion’s most loudly lamented casualties: East Coast Rising, the promising post-apocalyptic pirate series written and illustrated by Demo artist Becky Cloonan. Only the first volume of the OEL epic made it to shelves before the series was itself shelved by the publisher, likely never to return. This despite the second volume being 75 percent finished, with some 120 pages completed. And as Cloonan herself puts it, “the worst part [was] that Volume 1 ended on a cliffhanger!”
Well, Cloonan’s taking matters into her own hands to right this wrong. Throughout this week, she’ll be posting three unpublished pages of East Coast Rising Vol. 2 per day, until the sequence that continues from the cliffhanger is wrapped up — starting here. Cloonan notes that the pages are unfinished, with no tones or lettering, but even still, if you’ve ever wanted to know how that scalawag Cannonball Joe escaped the tentacles of the Suffocating Death, now’s your best shot.
Actually, it seems like it’s your only shot: Sadly, Cloonan flatly states in the comments for her post that Volume 2 in her series “[will] never be finished,” so it sounds as though there’s no hope of a Brandon Graham/King City-style resurrection at some other publisher. Alas and alack, this is one cool comic that’s making Davy Jones’ Locker its permanent home.