Ben Templesmith
Watch Ben Templesmith draw a page from Fell
This is an hour-and-a-half long, but dang it’s cool. I’m not sure which is more awesome: that Ben Templesmith draws a comic book page before your very eyes, or that it’s a page from the next issue of Fell.
It took place at the Noise Pop music festival in San Francisco last year, put together by comics retailer extraordinaire James Sime and hosted at his Isotope Comics Lounge. According to Sime:
I took over [Noise Pop] last year with all sorts of cool live comic art content. The highlight was definitely bringing in Ben Templesmith, putting him on stage in front of a packed house with one of the SF Bay Area’s best DJs and having him start drawing the next issue of Fell!
DJ SamSupa loves Ben’s work so the set is definitely tailored for him, there’s even a Doctor Who theme moment that had the live audience cheering. Here’s the footage of what we projected up on the big screen for the audience, and the sound mix pulled directly from the soundboard.
Ben is fucking hilarious, twittering to the crowd and writing inking lessons on a spare piece of paper for the fans. And he even INKS WITH BEER.
- January 17, 2012 @ 09:00 AM by Michael May
Cyber Monday sales-o-rama
Just like we did with Black Friday, we’ve rounded up various deals on comics and comic-related stuff that you can get on Cyber Monday. And since at least one of the deals kicks off at midnight Pacific time, I thought I’d go ahead and post the list now instead of waiting for tomorrow morning. I’ll add any additional deals I discover throughout the day.
Also, if you did check out our Black Friday list, some of these are repeats from it, as several places have deals that have been running all weekend and go through Monday. I’ve put the new stuff up top, after the deal that starts at midnight …
Dark Horse Comics has another digital deal set up for Cyber Monday: the first 500 customers through Dark Horse Digital will get a 50 percent discount. There’s a $20 minimum, and the deal runs for 24 hours beginning at midnight Pacific Time on Nov. 28; you’ll also need a coupon code: dhcyber. You can find more details here.
And if you buy $100 worth of stuff from Things from Another World on Monday, they’ll give you $10 worth of digital Dark Horse Comics.
- November 27, 2011 @ 09:47 PM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’11 | Ben Templesmith’s art for The Darkest Hour
From Ben Templesmith's cover art for "The Darkest Hour"
Even as Summit Entertainment was touting the Timur Bekmambetov-produced The Darkest Hour this afternoon in Hall H, io9.com was unveiling Ben Templesmith’s cover for a comic/art book inspired by the alien-invasion film.
Set to be released later this year by Oni Press, the book features art from 13 creators — Brian Churilla, Tom Fowler, Nathan Fox, Jeremy Haun and Brian Hurtt among them — who were inspired by the action-thriller, which follows five young people stranded in Moscow, fighting to survive in the wake of a devastating alien attack.
A limited-edition poster of the cover is available at Templesmith’s booth (#4500) at Comic-Con International. See the full image after the break. The Darkest Hour, which stars Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Rachael Taylor, Joel Kinnaman and Max Minghella, opens on Dec. 23.
- July 21, 2011 @ 05:00 PM by Kevin Melrose
IDW’s 30 Days Of Night coming every 30 days in new ongoing series
After years of horror, mischief and mayhem, the long running series-of-miniseries 30 Days Of Night is pulling out the stops and becoming a full-fledged ongoing series. IDW has announced co-creator Steve Niles is returning to write the series and is joined by epic illustrator Sam Kieth, as they take the original story of Alaskan vampires into the bright lights and big city of Los Angeles.
According to the press releases, the ongoing begins when a cryptic letter carrying a postmark from Barrow, Alaska lands in the mailbox of a curious woman who begins delving into the vampire mystery.
“I’ve been wanting to get back into the 30 Days of Night universe and shake things up for awhile now,” said Niles in a press release. “I’ve just been waiting for the right moment and the right artist. I have the right artist in Sam Kieth, and the time is now.”
Best known for his work on The Maxx and various projects for Marvel and DC, Sam Kieth is no stranger to the 30 Days of Night universe; the artist illustrated the recent 30 Days of Night: Night, Again miniseries and has been doing a flurry of work both in the indies and at the Big Two.
Although he’s the writer and co-creator of the series, Niles has been in and out of the 30 Days of Night world, which is co-owned by him, IDW and artist Ben Templesmith. There’s no word on Templesmith’s involvement in the series as of yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he popped up with a variant cover down the road.
- July 6, 2011 @ 12:00 PM by Chris Arrant
Comics invade San Francisco’s Noise Pop this weekend
Noise Pop
Noise Pop, a music, culture and arts festival that’s kinda like Austin’s South by Southwest, kicked off in San Francisco this week, and this weekend many comic book folks will join in on the fun. And at the center of it all is Isotope Comics, as owner James Sime is serving as “Comics Curator” for the event.
So what have they got planned?
- The Eisner-Award nominated duo of Matt Silady (The Homeless Channel) and Justin Hall (Glamazonia), both of whom teach at the California College of the Arts, will host a workshop on Saturday on comics creation.
- Courtney Crumrin & The Night Things creator Ted Naifeh will host Courtney Crumin Live, “presented in traditional olde tyme radio play fashion,” on Sunday.
- 30 Days of Night, Choker and Fell co-creator Ben Templesmith and DJ Samsupa will present a “cutting edge live-art demo,” which will be available to watch via webcast.
- All this week they’ll have “sequential reporters” reporting form the show, including both Silady and Hall, as well as Jamaica Dyer, Greg Hinkle and many more.
- Vinyl Dreams: a gallery of comic art on record sleeves. Sleeves to draw on are available at Isotope through Feb. 25.
You can find more details on the comic events at the Isotope website, and more on Noise Pop at its official website. Let’s just hope it doesn’t snow.
- February 24, 2011 @ 09:30 AM by JK Parkin
HeroesCon starts today!
The X-Men, as seen by Chris Schweizer
HeroesCon is just getting under way at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, NC. Here’s a sample of what you have to look forward to if you are going—and what you will miss if you’re not.
Chris Schweizer, creator of Crogan’s Vengeance and Crogan’s March, will be there, and he’ll have some sweet art to sell.
Jeff Parker has created a handy map to make it easier for fans to find him.
Raina Telgemeier will be in Indie Island, and you can also spot her on the panels on Comics as Career and Autobio Comics.
- June 4, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by Brigid Alverson
Ben Templesmith, thespian: ‘… and pretty soon the crying stopped’
Ben Templesmith and Barry in "The Variants"
He’s already widely known as an illustrator, a writer and a sharp dresser, but now Ben Templesmith adds “actor” to the list with a guest-starring role in a two-part episode of The Variants, the online comedy series set at Zeus Comics in Dallas. Duck has he wields a katana! Nod as he recounts the world’s worst break-up! Marvel as he makes with the Mary Poppins impersonation!
- May 12, 2010 @ 08:41 AM by Kevin Melrose
C2E2 | Ben Templesmith working on ‘illustrated film’
Black Sky
At C2E2 this weekend Ben Templesmith and Halo-8 announced they were working on a new project together. Templesmith said it’s an “illustrated film” that will “meld the cinematic storytelling style of comics with good audio/voice acting & some animation/CGI in places.”
“A fusion of many things, and dedicated to the medium itself, rather than an adaptation, which most things ‘motion comics’ actually are currently,” he wrote on his blog. “It’s going to be an interesting ride and Matt Pizzolo, F.J. DeSanto and gang at Halo-8 are giving me a fantastic chance to explore the new dynamics opening up in storytelling media.”
As for the story, Templesmith said it’s “sort of Band Of Brothers…but with SQUID,” mixing a war story with “Cthulhu-ish ideas.” He said there’s no release date yet, but he also plans to adapt it into comic form at some point.
- April 20, 2010 @ 09:00 AM by JK Parkin
‘You need to check out Choker — dang, that art is nut smash!’
Dallas retailer Zeus Comics and Collectibles has released a funny, over-the-top video — it’s a nod to local TV commercials for used-car dealerships and monster-truck rallies — to promote Ben Templesmith‘s store appearance on April 3.
- March 23, 2010 @ 09:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Comics A.M. | The comics Internet in two minutes
Judge Dredd, by John Hicklenton
Passings | John Hicklenton, the comic artist best known for his work on 2000AD, Judge Dredd Megazine and Nemesis the Warlock, passed away last week after a long fight with Multiple Sclerosis. He was 42. Hicklenton was an advocate for better treatment of MS sufferers, becoming the subject of the award-winning 2008 documentary Here’s Johnny that detailed his struggle with the disabling neurological disease. [Forbidden Planet International Blog]
Organizations | The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund has announced the expansion of its management team: Cheyenne Allott has been hired as development manager, overseeing fund-raising and outreach initiatives; and Brady Bonne has joined as operations manager, coordinating the organization’s office and fund-raising logistics. [press release]
- March 23, 2010 @ 07:58 AM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | Ben Templesmith’s photos from Barrow, Alaska
Barrow, Alaska (photo by Ben Templesmith)
Ben Templesmith has begun to post photos from his recent visit to Barrow, Alaska, northernmost city in the United States and the Arctic setting of his 2002 miniseries (with Steve Niles) 30 Days of Night.
“It was a homecoming of sorts,” Templesmith writes on his blog. “To the place that changed my life in many ways because of a book that became a movie. Time now, to put all that well in the past and move on. This was a symbolic ‘goodbye’ to all that, on the day of my birthday. No phone, no net. Just me and my thoughts on the shore of the Arctic Ocean.”
- March 12, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Choker #1 released again this week due to printing error
Choker tour
If you picked up a copy of Choker #1 by Ben McCool and Ben Templesmith a couple of weeks ago, you may have noticed they appeared to be a bit wrinkled, like maybe they were water damaged or something. Templesmith explains that no, they weren’t left sitting in a puddle somewhere; it was actually a printing error. Image Comics planned to pulp them all and re-release the book this week, but some of them managed to sneak through.
“The book,at first coming out on the 10th, then being pushed back to the 24th, then ended up looking like it was actually going to happen on the 10th ( the book was done plenty in advance! ) but as luck would have it, a problem at the printer meant a bad water/ink mix, thus the copies looked a bit crappy and Image wisely decided to have them pulped and a reprint was in order,” Templesmith wrote on his blog. “That was going to push it back a further week…but since the 24th ( 2 weeks ) was already on the cards, it’s simply gone back to that date! Thing is, some copies already made it out there, though all parties have been advised to ditch the dud copies and wait for replacements, as I understand it. The *REAL* copies have been pushed back to the 24th, it’s official release date. With a little luck and a few offerings to The Great Space Squid, shiny nice new proper copies will be on the shelf and in hot little hands by then.”
If you bought a “bad” copy, it’s probably a good idea to check with your retailer about getting it replaced with a good one this week. Also, as you’ll see from the accompanying artwork, Templesmith and McCool are hitting the road to promote the book, promising “at least one Ben at every store.”
- February 23, 2010 @ 08:30 AM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | Templesmith’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Art by Ben Templesmith
Ben Templesmith unveils some pages he created for an unsuccessful bid to adapt Philip K. Dick’s 1968 novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (BOOM! Studios’ approach — a 24-issue series using the original text of the science-fiction classic — apparently was preferred by Dick’s heirs.)
“My take was always going to be a little different,” Templesmith writes, “definitely not wanting to use every single word of prose but getting all the dialogue and descriptions as right as I could. Translations between mediums, I’m sure you’d all agree, should be about playing to the strengths of the new one, not just trying to force a square peg in a round hole, etc.”
- February 4, 2010 @ 11:30 AM by Kevin Melrose
Straight for the art | Three from Ben Templesmith
Batman by Ben Templesmith
Fell and Dead Space artist Ben Templesmith recently shared three “in process” sketch posts on his blog, featuring the Batman sketch shown above, Wolverine (which includes commentary along the way) and the 1940s Black Orchid, for a “Remake/Remodel” challenge on the Whitechapel forum. Go check’em out; that Whitechapel thread also includes remakes by Pia Guerra and Ryan Kelly.
- September 22, 2009 @ 11:40 AM by JK Parkin
SDCC ’09 | Exclusive comic stuff to buy, plus some creator schedules
The San Diego Comic-Con kicks off with Preview Night a week from this Wednesday. If you are a publisher, creator, retailer or any other kind of exhibitor who would like to let folks know about any special plans you have for the show (panels, signing schedules, exclusives, debuts, etc.) drop me an email and I’ll run it here.
Also, a reminder: the programming schedule is out, so you can start putting together your to do list. This post at the Daily Cross Hatch, which includes a rundown of what various indie comic creators will be doing at the show, might also be helpful.
Creators | Remember those Colleen Coover Clue drawings Kevin linked to in May? Turns out she’s turned them into blank cards and will have them at the show. She’ll also have some new buttons.
Creators | Joëlle Jones will have a new sketchbook featuring the seven deadly sins at the show.
Comics | Wildstorm will distribute a free primer on their universe of characters — Authority, Gen13, etc. — at the con. Titled This Is WildStorm Universe #0, the book will lay out “where each WildStorm Universe team began, where they are now… and offering a few hints about their future.”
- July 13, 2009 @ 01:29 PM by JK Parkin