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.

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.

Ben Towle is offering 25 percent off everything in his web store.

Fantagraphics has marked down everything in their web store by 30 percent.

Marvel is offering 30 percent off a Digital Comics Unlimited subscription today.

Top Shelf Productions, meanwhile, is offering 30 percent off everything in their online store. You’ll also need a code for this one: CYBERTSP.

The online store for Robert Kirkman’s Skybound imprint is holding a 25 percent off everything sale for Cyber Monday.

Viper Comics has a huge 70 percent off sale going at their online store. Head over there and pick up Robot 6 favorite Ryan Cody’s Villains collection, “Thick as Thieves.”

The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund are selling personalized graphic novels from several creators, including Neil Gaiman, Jason Aaron, Brian Wood, Brian Azzarello, Jeff Smith, Dan Clowes, Evan Dorkin and many more. Also, as part of the CBLDF’s Spirit of Giving holiday gift drive, donations you make on Cyber Monday will be acknowledged by The Will & Ann Eisner Family Foundation, who will make a contribution of $1 for every donation and gift order placed on the CBLDF’s website. In addition, they will contribute $5 for each new, renewing or gift membership made from now until Dec. 31 — so give the gift of free speech to someone on your list this year.

If you’re looking for cheap graphic novels, look no further than, um, CheapGraphicNovels.com. They’ve got a whole bunch of Absolute and Omnibus editions for 50 percent off.

This isn’t really a Cyber Monday thing, but I thought it was cool — Ben Templesmith is selling a copy of Bram Stoker’s Dracula that came with a blank cover. And he’s provided his own custom cover. You can bid on it on eBay.

Khepri Comics, which has had big discounts on select items over the last few days, is putting EVERYTHING on sale for Cyber Monday. And again, buy some comics, help the cheetahs. You’ll need this coupon code: CHEETAH40MON.

Midtown Comics has comics, graphic novels and statues on sale through Monday night.

Jeff Smith’s Boneville site is holding a signature sale through mid-December, where every book ordered will be signed by Smith.

Mimoco has all their designer flash drives for 25 percent off, which include drives based on Batman, Green Lantern, Star Wars and more.

Threadless is holding a $10 T-shirt sale through Monday, so you can get those cool robot shirts by Ethan Nicolle, Becky Cloonan, JR Goldberg and Jhonen Vasquez for cheap.

MattyCollector has a ton of action figures on sale, including some of their past San Diego Comic Con exclusives and several Justice League Unlimited packs.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Atomic Robo co-creator Scott Wegener sums up the show:

you should come down and say hey to Brian and me this weekend in disgustingly hot and steamy Charlotte NC, where the weather sucks balls, but the people are the best. Last year was my first time at Heroes and I loved it. It’s a fairly big show with a very down home small con feel to it. Unlike the massive spectacles that are NYCC (this October!) and SDCC, things are mellow enough at Heroes that we can actually hang out and shoot the breeze with folks.

Ben Templesmith will be there and will be taking part in the panel on Horror and the Macabre in Comics.

Rob Anderson's Animal Control comic

Rob Anderson will be debuting Animal Control: Special Creatures Unit at the con; look for him at Table SP-35 in the Artists Alley.

Brad Guigar will be debuting a new Power Girl print.

Nick Mizgala of Think Weasel arrived at his first convention ever and… his site went down. Happily, it’s up again,

The publishers who will be there include Archie Comics, which will have a truckload of creators there, BOOM! Studios, IDW, and Top Shelf.

In light of the recent, sad news about Thundercats creator Steve Perry, it’s worth mentioning that Hero Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to helping comics creators in need, will have a booth at Heroes Con, and Jimmy Cheung will be sketching there most of the weekend, so stop by and drop them some coin.

(If you’re on the fence, Heidi MacDonald has a more exhaustive list at The Beat, and the full guest list is here.)

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!

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.

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.

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]

Copyright | Katherine Dacey takes on a tech-blog review of a browser extension for a scanlation website that violates the copyrights of countless manga creators and publishers. A spirited discussion ensues in the review’s comments thread and continues on Dacey’s blog. Johanna Draper Carlson has additional commentary. [The Manga Critic]

Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse #0

Creators | Christopher Irving profiles Ben Templesmith, who talks about his new series Choker, Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse, Fell, the growth of IDW Publishing and being “The 30 Days of Night Guy”: “I don’t know what [writer Steve] Niles’ perspective is. He’s definitely lived a lot off of 30 Days, but I don’t necessarily know if he’s gone very much beyond that. I don’t follow his career much anymore. He’s still very much a horror guy, that much is obvious and he loves horror and that’s what he knows. I like horror, too, but in a slightly different way and have other interests too. I want to be pretty eclectic. In a very broad way, I’m trying to do that.” [Graphic NYC]

Creators | Richard Serrao and Jason Thibault conduct a three-part interview with artist Tim Bradstreet that touches upon his background, tools of the trade, process, influences and more. [Optimum Wound]

The Book of Grickle

Creators | Brian Heater continues his four-part interview with cartoonist Graham Annable. [The Daily Cross Hatch]

Creators | Here’s an audio interview with Dave Mack recorded at Emerald City ComiCon. [Stumptown Trade Review]

Comics | Ed Power provides some context for the recent record-setting auction prices for Action Comics #1 and Detective Comics #27, and considers why Ireland doesn’t have a “more dynamic” comic-book industry. [Irish Independent]

Comics | Alex Headley takes a mainstream-ish approach to a “beginner’s guide to comics” article, but thankfully avoids the “how to get your girlfriend to like comics” pitfall. [UAB Kaleidoscope, UAB Kaleidoscope]

Comics | Matt Meylikhov offers a primer on the history of Batman. [Multiversity Comics]

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.

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.”

Organizations | The Hero Initiative will have their new T-shirt available at the show.

Creators | David Petersen will have two new products available at the show: The Mouse Guard Winter 1152 Hardcover and his 2009 sketchbook.

Graphic novels | Last year a group of animators from Disney published an anthology called Who is Rocket Johnson? that was only sold in San Diego. This year they’re doing a follow-up, called What is Torch Tiger?, an all-ages book in which every artist answers the question: “What is Torch Tiger?” It will be sold exclusively at booth 2302 in San Diego and is limited to 1,300 copies. Check out a preview here.

Publishers | Marvel has posted their panel schedule.

Creators | Wanna know where to find Ben Templesmith at the show? Check out the cool “postery type image” he created for it —>

Creators | Dwayne McDuffie has posted his panel and signing schedule for the con, which includes a signing at the Comic Relief booth.

Creators | Sonny Liew has also posted where he can be found at the show.

Groom Lake

Artist Ben Templesmith provides a look at his upcoming IDW book Groom Lake, a four-issue mini-series written by Chris Ryall. “If you like aliens, mutating crotches & giant robots, this book is for YOU. Ahem,” Templesmith writes. The book is due in March.

For some bonus Templesmith art, Dwight MacPherson shares the variant cover Templesmith did for another IDW book, American McGee’s Grimm.