Comic Book Resources

The end of history: An interview with Larry Gonick

The Cartoon History of the Modern World Vol. 2

For the past 30 or so years, Larry Gonick has been engaged in what has to easily be one of the most ambitious comics projects ever: The Cartoon History of the Universe. In four volumes (including Vol. 1 of The Cartoon History of the Modern World), Gonick has relentlessly relayed the history of planet Earth as we know it, from the big bang up to the the 1700s. That he's done so in such a consistently entertaining and downright funny fashion, is nothing short of remarkable, especially considering the plethora of dull, insipid nonfiction comics that have come out in the past few years.

Now, with the publication of the second volume of Cartoon History of the Modern World he's finally finished his magmum opus. I used the occasion as an opportunity to talk with Gonick over email about his new book -- which runs from the French Revolution to 9/11 -- and how it feels to finally be finished something that took up such a large chunk of his working life. Here's what he had to say:

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Zudist Colony: Talking to November's Zuda contestants

Every month since late 2007, Zuda Comics hosts a competition between webcomics, with the winner becoming a regular strip on the site. In Zudist Colony, I interview the contestants via email, asking each of them the same five questions, which hopefully gives you a little more insight into the strips and the creators themselves.

So here we go ...

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Robot 6 Q&A | Andi Ewington on Forty-Five

Forty-Five

If you found out your kid was possibly going to be born with super powers, you'd probably want to do a little research into what exactly that meant. For fictional journalist James Stanley, that means conducting 45 different interviews about super powers and how they've changed the lives of the people who have them.

This December Com.X is publishing an illustrated book that collects those 45 interviews called, naturally Forty-Five. Written by Andi Ewington, each interview includes an accompanying page of art illustrated by a different artist, with no "predetermined brief" given -- just the written page as guidance. Artists for the project include Jock, Fiona Staples, Liam Sharp, Dan Brereton and many more.

My thanks to Andi, who was kind enough to share some additional details on the book.

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Memento mori: An interview with Eddie Campbell

Sometime soon (hopefully next week) Diamond will be releasing Eddie Campbell's Alec: The Years Have Pants to a comic book store near you. In a year chock full of great, original work and important re-releases and rediscoveries, this has to be one of the most important books of 2009. I know that statement might come off to some as shallow hyperbole, but it's a risk worth taking.

For the the unfamiliar, Pants collects all of Campbell's autobiographical Alec stories (except for The Fate of the Artist, which was published by First Second) in one big (hardcover or softcover) volume. Since the early 1980s, the artist and writer has been chronicling his life's adventures through his barely disguised alter ego, starting as a feckless young man in the King Canute Crowd to the successful cartoonist and family man in After the Snooter. It's saying something to call these stories his most significant and stellar work, considering he also collaborated with Alan Moore on From Hell and created the elegant Bacchus series. One hopes this new collection (and the new material found therein) provides the opportunity for a re-examination and analysis of this impressive body of work.

I had the opportunity to talk with Campbell late last August over email about the book. This was my second time talking to him and he proved to be as gracious and thoughtful over the computer as the phone, if not more so.

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Robot 666 | Talking to Zito and Trov about La Morte Sisters

LaMorte Sisters

This month Johnny Zito and Tony Trov, creators of the Black Cherry Bombshells, added a second Zuda strip to their writing duties -- LaMorte Sisters, drawn by Christine Larsen. The story follows Maddie, a new student at the LaMorte Home for Lost Girls. The orphanage is run by a strict order of Catholic nuns who offer sanctuary and salvation to young women afflicted with vampirism.

Zito and Trov stopped by earlier this week and shared a list of vampires they'd like to have drinks with, and with today being the second anniversary of when Zuda officially launched, plus it being the day before Halloween, it kind of made sense to see what they had to say about their new vampire tale.

JK: One of the things that really struck me about the first pages of your new strip is how different it looks than Black Cherry Bombshells. How did you guys meet Christine Larsen?

Johnny: Christine is a fellow Philadelphian. She lives on the other end of the city in Fishtown.

Tony: We have many, many mutual friends in the art and film community. Johnny and I were both fans of her work on Teddy Scares.

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Your video link of the day: Seth gets interviewed

The nattily dressed cartoonist talks about Doug Wright and his own book, George Sprott in this interview for Q TV. Is it just me or should Steve Buscemi play Seth in the great alt-comix biopic?

Your video of the day: Backroom talks Bagge

Or rather, the comics podcast The Backroom talks to Peter Bagge in the first of this two-part interview. (found via Flog)

Crime and Communism: An interview with Rick Geary

Famous Players

Rick Geary has been regarded as an “underrated” cartoonist for so long now that it’s almost a cliché at this point to label him as such. But in the many years he’s been making comics, he’s produced an impressive body of work that seems to escape a lot of folks notice. His stellar Victorian Murder series, now bumped up a few decades to encompass the 20th century, alone show such a high and consistent degree of quality that most cartoonists would give their eye teeth to have on their resume.

Having made his name with true crime, he’s recently attempted to tackle the biography genre, producing two books for Hill and Wang’s graphic line, one on J. Edgar Hoover, and most recently, one on Leon Trotsky.

I talked to him recently from his home in Kansas City, Missouri, about his new Trotsky bio as well as the latest book for NBM in his Murder series, Famous Players, about the mysterious and currently unsolved slaying of silent movie director William Desmond Taylor. Here’s what he had to say:

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Slash Print | Following the digital evolution

Tablets | Gizmodo reports on the long-rumored Apple Tablet device, saying that Apple "is in talks with several media companies rooted in print, negotiating content for a 'new device.'" In addition, Apple has also applied for a patent on a "multi-touch surface that could accommodate two full hands and distinguish between palms and individual fingers for typing, gestures and more," according to the Apple Insider.

Scott McCloud comments on the potential for such a device to change comics: "Most of today’s comics publishers are likely to jump into the pool with their clothes on—print-style pages intact. But if Apple’s gadget is anything like what’s being described, we could see a shift over time from point-and-click fragmented delivery, like what we have on the Web today, to more continuous spatial metaphors of the sort a lot of us turn-of-the-century mad scientists were playing with. Should be interesting."

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Alan Moore gives blessing to Miracleman reprints

In an interview with Kurt Amacker for Mania, Alan Moore discussed in detail his feelings towards Marvel's purchase of the Marvelman character and the chance of ever seeing his own version of the character in print again. In a nutshell: He's fine with it all as long as his name is kept off the credits and the character's original creator, Mick Anglo, gets to keep all the money:

Alan Moore

After being initially informed by Neil’s lawyer, I had to think about it for a couple of days. I decided that while I’m very happy for this book to get published—because that means money will finally go to Marvelman’s creator, Mick Anglo, and to his wife. Mick is very, very old, and his wife, I believe, is suffering from Alzheimer’s. The actual Marvelman story is such a grim and ugly one that I would probably rather that the work was published without my name on it, and that all of the money went to Mick. The decision about my name was largely based upon my history with Marvel—my desire to really have nothing to do with them, and my increasing desire to have nothing to do with the American comics industry. I mean, they’re probably are enough books out there with my name on them to keep the comics industry afloat for a little bit longer. I left a message to that effect with Neil. I’ve since heard back from the lawyer upon another issue, and he said that he was certain that would be the case—that Marvel would accede to my request. That looks like the way it will be emerging. And, Neil will be able to finish his Marvelman story because he has a completely different relationship with Marvel than I have with them—or rather, don’t have. The main thing is that I will feel happy to know that Mick Anglo is finally getting the recompense he so richly deserves. And, I will have distanced myself from a lot of the deceit and ugliness that surrounded the relaunching of Marvelman as a character.

Moore also has a few nasty words for former Warrior editor Dez Skinn and Eclipse Comics, and goes into great detail about how he came up with his own unique take on the character. Go read the whole thing.

Zudist Colony: Talking to the August Zuda contestants

Zuda

Welcome to the second edition of Zudist Colony, which we kicked off last month.

Every month since late 2007, Zuda Comics hosts a competition between webcomics, with the winner becoming a regular strip on the site. In Zudist Colony, I interview the contestants via email, which hopefully gives you a little more insight into the strips and the creators themselves. For instance, this time around I asked them all to name their favorite strip besides their own, and the variety in their answers was pretty interesting.

So without further ado, let's see what they said ...

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San Diego Aftermath: Johnny Zito and Tony Trov

Tony and Johnny

Last month I spoke with Johnny Zito and Tony Trov, writers of the Zuda strip Black Cherry Bombshells, before they embarked on a road trip from Philadelphia to the San Diego Comic-Con. They made it to the con, and back home, safely, so I spoke with them again to see what they saw and what they learned on America's highways. I've also included some of their video travel journals they made along the way.

JK: Let's start with the first leg of the road trip. What were some of the highlights, in terms of places you stop and stuff you saw along the way?

Tony Trov: We took a leisurely 15 day trip and tried to take in as many cities we could.

Johnny Zito: Somewhere around Ohio our GPS went dead, and we were navigating into Chicago via stars and magnets.

Tony Trov: Things went pretty smoothly after that. We bed down in Colorado the next night. Boulder’s great because the altitude makes every beer count twice.

Johnny Zito: Ended up in Vegas after that. Killed a buffet, doubled our money and checked out some Black Cherry Bombshells’ landmarks.

Tony Trov: It was a mad dash to LA where we couch surfed and bbq-ed.

Johnny Zito: We overestimated the distance to San Diego, bolted from LA super early and got to Comic Con on Thursday with time to spare.

Tony Trov: It was a pretty smooth journey. Kept waiting for that disaster to strike but it never did. Instead we were treated to an endless string of highway diners and open roads.

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Jamie S. Rich | Comics, Prose and Crime: A chat with Chris A. Bolton

Chris A. Bolton is relatively new on the comics scene, but the Portland-based writer is in the process of finishing the first run of his successful super-powered humor series, the online comic Smash (http://smashcomic.com/), drawn by his brother Kyle Bolton. Chris is also a filmmaker and a prose writer, and the fact that both he and I contributed a story to the pulpy literary anthology Portland Noir (Akashic Books, 2009) seemed like a good enough excuse for us to sit and chat. Especially since we're two guys who cross back and forth between media--in fact, his story in Portland Noir, "The Red Room," is prose, as is to be expected in the Akashic Noir series, while the story Joëlle Jones and I contributed, "Gone Doggy Gone," is comics, a rarity for the venue. Of course, these are topics we cover in the conversation, so without further ado....

JAMIE S. RICH: So, Chris, I suppose the best way to start is how you and I met. We both have stories in Portland Noir, the Kevin Sampsell-edited anthology that features crime stories set in the town where we both live. You and I started talking at an event for the anthology that was at Powell's Books, where you were reading and I was just hanging out. How did you end up in Portland Noir?

CHRIS A. BOLTON: First off, Jamie, thanks for inviting me to chat. In my day job, I work for Powells.com, sometimes doing data entry for book pages. A few years back, in 2005 or so, I was beefing up the pages for Akashic's Noir series when it occurred to me that there should be a Portland Noir. I emailed Akashic to inquire about it and they said they were planning to do one at some point in the future.

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SDCC Aftermath | Justin Aclin talks Hero House, toys and more

Hero House

As he said last month, Justin Aclin went to the San Diego Comic-Con both to promote his new graphic novel from Arcana, Hero House, and to cover the con for his day job with ToyFare Magazine. I caught back up with Justin after the show to see how everything went on both fronts.

JK: Unfortunately I was already on my way home when you were doing your signing on Sunday for Hero House. How did the signing go?

Justin: The signing was great! Obviously no one had the chance to read Hero House yet, but I was able to meet a bunch of really nice ToyFare fans who were willing to pick up the book and give it a shot. At one point I had one Twisted ToyFare fan standing at the table while I signed his book, and another walked up and started talking about his favorite Twisted ToyFare moments, and it just became a conversation between the two of them, quoting their favorite jokes. As a comedy writer who never gets to see an audience react to what he writes, it was a very gratifying moment. We also had our artist, Mike Dimayuga, sketching at the signing, which brought in even more curious onlookers.

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SDCC '09 | Phil Gelatt talks Petrograd

Petrograd

At their panel at the San Diego Comic-Con today, Oni Press announced a new project today called Petrograd, by Labor Days writer Philip Gelatt and newcomer Tyler Crook. The book will explore the death of Grigori Rasputin, or the Mad Monk, from Russian history. I spoke with Phil about what his plans are for the graphic novel.

JK: So you're doing a book about the Mad Monk, Rasputin. Where did the idea come from, and what was the appeal of tackling his story?

Phil: The root of the idea came from some reading I was doing, a few years ago at this point, about the Russian revolution. And I encountered this strange rumor that has been floating around since Rasputin's death that there were British spies involved in the assassination and that the British government had a stake in this man's death for various reasons. It's a rumor that's been around since 1917 but more recently some forensic evidence has made it seem that this might actually be what happened. So the potential in that idea really grabbed me and stuck with me. What the hell were the British doing assassinating a Russian holy man? Who was this British agent charged with this monumental task? How the hell would any of that actually work?

So my initial idea was to take this notion, this rumor with some fact to it and do it like a proto-James Bond story or a WWI era Le Carre novel: lone British assassin takes on the secret ruler of Tsarist Russia, with the Russian Revolution as backdrop.

As for the appeal in tackling this story, as long as I can remember, Rasputin has been a historical figure that I found fascinating. Not just because of the salacious stories or the bizarre mysticism but because the details of his murder are so outlandish, so over the top, so much like something out of a gothic horror story. Poisoned, beaten, stabbed, shot and finally drown, it's really incredible. So when I stumbled on this new angle to that murder, and it suddenly clicked into the espionage genre, I knew it was a story that I would love to take a crack at.

It's really an historical spy epic with a particularly brutal assassination as its center piece.

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