Cullen Bunn
Make your own Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt paper figures
Crogans Adventures creator Chris Schweizer has been having some fun lately making paper figures that you can cut out and stand up; last week he did a very ambitious 55-piece set of the entire Harry Potter cast.
This week, it’s something completely different: He has made cutouts of The Sixth Gun creators Brian Hurtt and Cullen Bunn. Does that seem strange? Schweizer addresses that question head-on:
Now you may just be asking yourself “who are these guys? Why didn’t Chris put up characters from The Sea Hawk or Scrubs or something?”
To which I say, “how in the world have you read MY comics and not THEIRS? That’s like saying ‘Oh, I really dig Alexander Kent” but you’ve never read Patrick O’Brian or C.S. Forrester.’” Not that there’s any real equation there, just that it’d be surprising if you knew the former but not the others, which is how surprised I’d be if you’d read Crogan and not Sixth Gun. Read it. Seriously. I can’t tell you how not disappointed you’ll be.
What these paper figures lack, of course, is Hurtt and Bunn’s banter, which has always make the Oni Press panels at comics conventions so entertaining. But with convention season over, we’ll take what we can get. Maybe Chris can come up with some more creator figures for us to collect and trade during the long winter months.
What Are You Reading? with Ethan Young
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? Today we’re joined by special guest Ethan Young, creator of the webcomic-turned-print collection Tails.
To see what Ethan and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below …
Robot Roulette | Cullen Bunn
Welcome back for another round of Robot Roulette, where creators spin the virtual roulette wheel and let Lady Luck determine what questions they’ll answer. We’ve got 36 possible questions, and each week I will select at random which of those questions our guest is subjected to.
This week our guest is Cullen Bunn, who is having a really great weekend at the New York Comic Con. You know him from comics like The Damned (coming soon to Showtime), The Sixth Gun (coming soon to NBC, with a spin-off miniseries coming next year), Deadpool Killustrated (coming from Marvel) and Helheim (coming from Oni Press).
My thanks to Cullen for answering my questions … now let’s get to it. He asks for music recommendations at the end, so be sure to leave yours in the comments section.
NYCC | A round-up of news from Friday
Trillium
After a late afternoon opening to the general public on Thursday, the New York Comic Con kicked into high gear today with panels, announcements and the usual con craziness we’ve come to expect from big shows. Here’s a round-up of comic-related news and announcements coming out of Friday. If you missed anything from Thursday, I’ve also got your back. I’d also point you to Brigid Alverson’s rundown of the ICv2 sessions before NYCC that go deep on comic sales in 2011 and 2012 thus far, if you’re into that.
• Keith Giffen returns to the stars next year with Threshold, a new DC Comics series that features Blue Beetle, Space Ranger, Star Hawkins, the original Starfire and other space heroes, with a Larfleeze back-up. Giffen also seemingly confirmed that the current Blue Beetle series is coming to an end.
• Vertigo announced several new projects today, including The Wake by Scott Snyder and Sean Murphy, Trillium by Jeff Lemire and an Unwrtten/Fables event that will see the Unwritten characters wander into the Fables comic. Snyder said that American Vampire will go on hiatus after issue #34 so he and artist Rafael Albuquerque can catch up on it. When it returns, it’ll jump ahead to the 1960s.
NYCC | Oni Press announces Wars in Toyland, webcomics initiative and more
Oni Press brought guns, war and webcomics to New York Comic Con today, announcing a new graphic novel from Joe Harris and Adam Pollina, a Sixth Gun spinoff miniseries and the transformation of their website from “a marketing resource for its print titles into a full-fledged content hub with comic updates five days a week.”
Here’s a rundown of the announcements ….
Wars in Toyland by Joe Harris and Adam Pollina
From the Slingers (hey, remember Slingers?) team comes an oversized graphic novel “darkly inspired” by Babes in Toyland. Per the press release, “this new book looks at the once wondrous and beautiful Toyland after the rise of the teddy dictator, Roxbury. After Matthew’s brother and playmate, Alex, disappears, young Matthew finds himself carried into Toyland by his own loyal toy soldiers. Only Matthew soon learns that Alex has been here, too – and is now being held captive by Roxbury. Leading an attack on the teddy bear’s fortress, Matthew never considers that his brother might be beyond saving.”
NYCC | A round-up of news from Thursday
Superman by Jim Lee
The New York Comic Con officially kicked off this afternoon, with fans eager to get inside and publishers eager to begin releasing news into the wild. So let’s see if we can’t herd some of those announcements together. Here’s a round-up from today:
• DC Comics Co-Publisher and artist extraordinaire Jim Lee will team with Batman scribe Scott Snyder on a new Superman title next year, just in time for the Man of Steel’s return to the silver screen. “This will play along with the other Superman books in the sense that it’s in continuity, but we really wanted to carve out our own territory,” Snyder told CBR. “This really is sort of the biggest, most epic Superman story we could do together while having our feet planted firmly in continuity and making sure that everyone had enough room.”
DC also unveiled a Kia Optima that features a Batman design by Jim Lee.
• Marvel announced three more Season One graphic novels: Iron Man, written by Howard Chaykin with art by Gerard Parel; Thor by writer Matthew Sturges and artist Pepe Larraz; and Wolverine, written by the team of Ben Blacker and Ben Acker, with art by Salva Espin. Also, Cullen Bunn returns to Deadpool with Deadpool Killustrated, a miniseries that pits the Merc with a Mouth against Moby Dick, Sherlock Holmes, Beowulf, Don Quixote and more. Spoiler alert: he’s gonna kill them.
What Are You Reading? with Curt Pires and Ramon Villalobos
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? Today our special guests are the creative team behind the upcoming self-distributed indie comic LP, Curt Pires and Ramon Villalobos. You can read more about the comic in the interview Tim O’Shea did with Curt earlier this week.
And to see what they’ve been reading lately, click below.
Comics A.M. | Steve Ditko won’t be appearing at London convention
Steve Ditko self-portrait
Creators | Contrary to some reports this morning, reclusive comics legend Steve Ditko won’t be a special guest at the second annual London Super Comic Convention, to be held Feb. 25-26 at the Excel Centre in London. A press release that circulated has been confirmed as a hoax. [ComicConventions, Bleeding Cool]
Publishing | Trajectory, publisher of the Classics Illustrated comics, announced at the Beijing Book Fair that it has begun publishing Chinese translations that will be available as ebooks. The first two titles: Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and H.G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds. [press release]
What Are You Reading?
Godzilla #1
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading?, where each week we talk about what comics and other stuff have been on our reading piles. To see what the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
Post-AvX, is Marvel quietly renovating its Architects line-up?
Marvel made a lot of hay over the introduction of its five key writers, the Architects, in 2010. “The very fabric of the Marvel Universe is changing and the Architects are the ones leading the charge.” the publisher said in its initial press release. But now, with its event series Avengers Vs. X-Men winding down and Marvel NOW! taking shape for the fall, those original Architects look to be in the middle of a renovation.
Marvel’s chief writer for the past few years, Brian Michael Bendis, is going from three key titles (Avengers, New Avengers, Avengers Assemble) to one (All-New X-Men); Matt Fraction is ending his long-term commitments on Iron Man and Thor to work on the Baxter Building with Fantastic Four and FF (along with Hawkeye); Jonathan Hickman is passing off all of his titles to take on Bendis’ Avengers and New Avengers load; and Jason Aaron has shuffled off Wolverine and The Incredible Hulk for just two titles in the Marvel NOW! era (at least, only ones announced), Wolverine & The X-Men and Thor: God of Thunder. Marvel stalwart Ed Brubaker, who revitalized Captain America, has whittled Marvel Universe workload to one book (Winter Soldier) that doesn’t seem to be a centerpiece of the company’s publishing plans.
What Are You Reading? with Jimmy Palmiotti
Dark Horse Presents #13
Hello and welcome to another edition of What Are You Reading? Our guest today is writer and artist Jimmy Palmiotti, who you know from All-Star Western, Monolith, Phantom Lady, Unknown Soldier, Creator-Owned Heroes, Queen Crab and countless more.
To see what Jimmy and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below.
What Are You Reading? with Mark Sable
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? Today our guest is Mark Sable, the writer and co-creator of Image’s Graveyard of Empires with Paul Azaceta and the upcoming Duplicate from Kickstart Comics with Andy MacDonald. You can find his work and thoughts at marksable.com and contact him @marksable on the Twitter.
To see what Mark and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below …
What Are You Reading? with D.J. Kirkbride and Adam Knave
Saga #4
Hello and welcome to What Are You Reading? Today our special guests are D.J. Kirkbride and Adam Knave, writers of Amelia Cole and the Unknown World, which was released last week by Monkeybrain Comics.
To see what Adam, D.J. and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below …
Cullen Bunn on the end and aftermath of The Fearless
Marvel’s big Fear Itself crossover event last year introduced readers to Odin’s brother, the Serpent, who along with the Red Skull’s daughter, Sin, used seven divine hammers to turn several Marvel heroes and villains into his agents on Earth. Spoiler’s alert: Marvel’s heroes win, but in the wake of the event came the question of what happened to all those hammers.
Cullen Bunn, Matt Fraction, Chris Yost, Mark Bagley and Paul Pelletier answered that question in the pages of The Fearless, a miniseries that saw Sin and her boyfriend, Crossbones, in an Amazing Race-style adventure to find all the hammers. They were pitted against Valkyrie, a character ripe not only for an Asgardian-laced race against the forces of evil and some character development of her own. Over the course of the series, we learned a lot about the Valkyrie’s history, saw guest stars galore and even got a tease for a potential new series. Now that the miniseries has wrapped up, I chatted with Bunn about the comic, the characters he used and what he did with them. My thanks to him for taking the time to answer my questions.
JK: If I’m not mistaken, this was your first major project for Marvel since going “exclusive” with them. You’d done other stories for them and even other Fear Itself tie-ins, but is it safe to say this probably put you on the main stage of the Marvel Universe in a way you hadn’t experienced yet? Did you feel any pressure going into it because of the scope and the fact that it came out of a big Marvel event?
Cullen: Yeah, this was a big, intimidating undertaking. The Fearless featured most of the major Marvel superheroes in one way or another, and it spanned numerous locales. Luckily, I was working with a very supportive team who made me feel pretty comfortable going into this. They put a lot of trust in me with the series, and I didn’t want to let anyone down. Every time I sent some crazy note or suggestion for plot points, I expected them to yank me off the title, but they were pretty receptive to the idea of exploding sharks, a new team of Valkyrie, and Wolverine gutting Crossbones (among other things).
Free Comic Book Day: What to look out for
Today is Free Comic Book Day, and here’s a rundown of some of the comics that caught my interest. If you want to check ‘em out before you go, CBR has previews of many of the FCBD titles. (My FCBD comics came from my favorite Boston comics shop, Comicopia.)
Hands down, the one comic everybody wants is Archaia’s hardback anthology, which includes brand-new stories from six of their titles: Mouse Guard, Labyrinth, Return of the Dapper Men, Rust, Cursed Pirate Girl, and Cow Boy. The stories stand on their own but also tie in to the books in clever ways; the Mouse Guard story is a puppet show, and the Rust story features a boy writing a letter to his father (as his older brother does in the book). This book is a keeper; it even has a nameplate inside the front cover. Here’s a list of where Archaia creators will be doing book signings this FCBD.
BOOM! Studios has a nice flipbook with several Adventure Time comics on one side and Peanuts on the other. The Peanuts comics are mildly funny, but the Adventure Time side is edgier and features extra stories by Lucy Knisley and Michael DeForge. The stories are colorful and lively, and DeForge’s contribution, about a bacon ecosystem that supports tiny breakfast organisms, is downright surreal.