Ex Machina
SDCC ’11 | Is Brian K. Vaughan announcing a new project?
Brian K. Vaughan
Writer Brian K. Vaughan has been added to an Image Comics panel at Comic-Con International in San Diego, igniting speculation that the acclaimed co-creator of Y: The Last Man and Ex Machina will announce a new title.
The news came Monday from Image Publisher Eric Stephenson, who revealed on his personal blog that Vaughan will be among the special guests on the “Creator-Owned Comics With Robert Kirkman” panel, scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday. “You’ll want to go to this panel,” Stephenson wrote. “Why? Well, we’ve roped Brian K. Vaughan into attending, along with some other great guests, so … yeah. Be there.”
It’s been nearly a year since the conclusion of Ex Machina at WildStorm, and more than three years since Y: The Last Man wrapped up its 60-issue run at Vertigo. Since then, there have been few clues as to what the Eisner Award-winning writer had planned next — a return to creator-owned comics or a continued focus on film and television projects. But this news certainly suggests we’ll be seeing a new book from Vaughan in the near future. As Ryan K. Lindsay writes, “Why else would BKV be there except to announce something new?”
Read the panel description after the break, and follow Robot 6 and Comic Book Resources for any developments on Saturday.
What Are You Reading?
Smile
Happy holidays and welcome to What Are You Reading? Today’s special guest is Caanan Grall, creator of the webcomic Max Overacts and the Zuda strip Celadore.
To see what Caanan and the Robot 6 crew have been reading, click below …
Six by 6 | Six awesome WildStorm titles
Sleeper #1
After 18 years, former Image studio and current DC Comics imprint WildStorm is shutting down this December. And as many have noted already, the house that Jim built has produced many awesome, memorable and even game-changing (to steal a phrase from Rob Liefeld) works in the last two decades.
Here are six of them that we found to be particularly awesome; let us know what we missed in the comments section.
1. Sleeper: There have been many comics that mash up superheroes with down-and-dirty genres like crime and espionage over the past decade; this may just be the best. The high concept is a gripping one: Super-spy Holden Carver is so deep undercover in an international super-criminal organization that when his one contact is placed in a coma, literally no one knows he’s secretly on the side of the angels. Carver’s predicament, the way he plays and gets played by both sides, his growing unwillingness or inability to draw the ethical lines needed to save his soul, if not his life–such is the stuff of a great crime drama. Superstar in the making Ed Brubaker brings all his talents and obsessions to the table here: his knack for crafting morally compromised characters while neither romanticizing their misdeeds nor softening them up, his recurring theme of how the secrets and sins of our pasts never truly leave us, his belief that damaged people seek out other damaged people to repair that damage, his eye for and ability to work with strong visual stylists. In this case that meant Sean Phillips, never better in his ability to believably root spectacular action and super-powers in a naturalist-noir milieu. All of this in a WildC.A.T.s spinoff, proving just how wild WildStorm was once willing to go.
Even its relatively short run redounds to its benefit: The complete story of Holden Carver is yours to own inexpensively, read easily, and ponder at your leisure. (Sean T. Collins)
Isotope Comics deconstructs the Ex Machina creative process
Back in 2004, James Sime of the San Francisco-based comic shop Isotope Comics teamed up with Ex Machina’s Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris for a voter registration drive where they gave away free copies of the comic and, of course, encouraged people to register to vote for that year’s election. They followed that up with an Election Day party in November, where they gave away an Ex Machina “virtual Criterion Collection styled DVD extras disc, autographed by the creators and jam-packed full of goodness,” Sime said.
Teaming up with Darren and Michelle Murata, co-founders of San Francisco’s celebrated Technology Think Tank & Digital Design Bureau ComradeAgency.com we made something truly beautiful. Packed with pages upon pages of Brian’s never before seen scripts and Tony’s production artwork from start to finish, thisDeconstructing the Machine disc took viewers on a personal tour behind the wizard’s curtain in a way nothing else ever had before. And we gave them away for free to each and every person who attended our event. And also to 100 lucky fans across the nation.
With Ex Machina‘s last issue hitting stores today, Sime has taken the contents of the DVD and put them on his website. It includes interviews with the creators, behind-the-scenes tours of Jolly Rogers Studios, production artwork and lots more. Check out the site here.