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 October's contestants

Zuda

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.

This time around I asked them to share which page was the most challenging to create of the eight pages they submitted to Zuda, which is the artwork you'll see with their answers. Also, I only received answers back from eight of the 10 contestants this time around.

So here we go ...

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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?

Next week: Ivan Brunetti chats with T-Pain

Well here's a celebrity meet-up I never in my most drug-induced haze ever thought of before: Chris Ware and Fall Out Boy bassist/lyricist Pete Wentz talking about comics, music and art against an LA backdrop. Apparently they have more in common than you think. For one thing, both agree that they're embarrassed by most of their output. The first video is below, but you'll want to go here to see several more, including some outtakes. (found via CR)

Zudist Colony | Talking to September's Zuda entrants

Zuda

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.

This time around I asked them to share their favorite of the eight pages they submitted to Zuda, which is the artwork you'll see with their answers. Also, I only heard back from nine of the 10 contestants this time around.

So let's get to it ...

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Thin wallets, fat bookshelves: A publishing news round-up

Hate Annual

• Fantagraphics reveals that Peter Bagge has a new Hate Annual lined up to come out next year and shares the cover image. I thought Bagge had completely given up on these, so this is very good news indeed. More Buddy Bradley! Whoo!

• While we're talking about Fanta, it's worth noting that Joseph Lambert of Turtle, Keep It Steady fame will be joining the Mome family. In related news, Derek van Gleason posts some teaser images of his ongoing story in that anthology.

• Alan David Doane has published an e-book of his interviews with various cartoonists and comics industry folk, including Charles Burns, Chester Brown, Seth, Dave Sim, Howard Chaykin, Mark Millar and more. You can download a copy of the book here.

• Cinebook, which translates and publishes a number of French comics for the U.S., such as Lucky Luke, has acquired the rights to the XIII series and will start releasing volumes in May of next year, with a book coming out every two months.

• Jeffrey Brown is working on a sequel to his Cat Getting Out of a Bag book. This one will be tentatively called Cat Walks.The first book was also apparently popular enough to warrant a series of tie-in postcards and journals.

• Secret Asian Man cartoonist Tak Toyoshima is moving his strip from a daily to a weekly strip, which was its original incarnation.

• Via Spurgeon: Paul E. Fitzgerald has a book out exploring Will Eisner's time on PS Magazine.

Unbound: Tokyopop goes online

Last year, when Tokyopop underwent a major restructuring, it suspended most of its original manga series, leaving a number of incomplete stories in limbo. That state of suspended animation ended last week, when Tokyopop Director of Marketing Marco Pavia announced that Tokyopop will complete most of the series, including Earthlight, Afterlife, and Gyakushu, online. Each volume will be posted for free, one chapter per week.

For Tony Salvaggio, the creator of Psy*Comm, the news came as a relief. Psy*Comm is the first series in the new program; Salvaggio and co-writer Jason Henderson had finished the book, and it was being lettered when publication was called off last year. “We missed the window by about a month,” he said.

Now that the book is coming out, Salvaggio has put together a Facebook page to promote it. The series is being published in other countries, including the UK, Turkey, and Croatia, and the first volume was named to the 2007 Great Graphic Novels for Teens list. Salvaggio hopes that being online will get his story in front of more readers. “We don’t sell gangbusters, but people who have read the book have really enjoyed it,” he said. “At A-Kon, everybody who came by and bought book one came back the next day and bought book two.”

We talked to Pavia about Tokyopop’s plans for the online manga program and where they hope it will go from here.

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SDCC Aftermath | Talking with BOOM!'s Neil Loughrie

BOOM!'s booth, before the con started

I spoke with Neil Loughrie a few weeks back right before the San Diego Comic-Con. At the time, Loughrie was getting ready for his first San Diego show, where he would be responsible for all of BOOM! Studios' booth logistics.

I spoke with him again after the show to see how everything went.

JK: Overall, how did things go at the BOOM! booth during SDCC?

Neil: Things went great! Even better than we expected. We met a lot of great fans and a lot of great creators. Roger Langridge from The Muppet Show Comic Book was at the booth for the entire week, and we had such a great time with him there, and I think the fans really responded well. All in all, it was BOOM!’s best San Diego yet.

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SDCC Aftermath | Neil Kleid talks about San Diego

The Big Kahn

A couple of weeks ago I did a series of interviews with a few people who were heading off to Comic-Con International in San Diego. The first was with writer Neil Kleid, who was heading there to support his new book from NBM, The Big Kahn, as well as to meet with various comics and movie folks about possible future projects.

Neil survived his trip to Southern California, so I emailed him a few questions about his experiences there.

JK: Looking back at what you had planned for the con, you mentioned the main reason you were at the big con was to promote The Big Kahn. So how did the book do?

Neil: Really, really well. It's weird — this was the first convention where I had folks (unknown folks, not pals and past readers) track me down to tell me they'd heard about the book, been told to find it and could they please buy a copy now please?

I'm not sure, numbers wise, how we did but I do know that I was signing pretty regularly, talking about the book and moving copies out the door. The greatest bit was when I was browsing around the Fantagraphics booth looking for new books and comics critic Tom Spurgeon approached me to congratulate me; he'd heard from Publishers Weekly editor Calvin Reid that Big Khan was the one book he needed to read he hadn't heard of, that buzz was growing.

Okay, so first of all — Tom Spurgeon NEVER approaches me, so I was already thrown. Secondly, the buzz book nobody'd heard of? Man, I must be doing something wrong marketing wise. But secretly, I'm thrilled. I had fans, creators, critics AND celebrities track me down to buy copies of my books this weekend, and I guess after almost 10 years making comics, I'm doing something right with a book people want to read.

I hope it doesn't suck, you know?

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Road to San Diego: BOOM!'s Neil Loughrie prepares for his first SDCC

Neil Loughrie

BOOM! Studios Neil Loughrie is responsible for BOOM!'s booth at this year's San Diego Comic-Con, from set-up to managing the workers to tracking inventory. What makes it even more fun, however, is the fact that Neil has never been to the San Diego Comic-Con. Oh man.

I spoke with Neil briefly as he prepares for the event of a lifetime -- you never forget your first, do you?

JK: Tell me a little bit about your job at BOOM! -- what's your job description when you aren't getting ready for a big convention?

Neil: My official title is publishing coordinator, but I know that means different things at different publishers. Basically at BOOM! I handle all of our printing and shipping. As soon as a book is completed by our editorial team, it comes to me, I make sure it gets to the printer and then on to the distributors so the books comes out on the correct date. Want to know when a BOOM! title will be on the shelves? I can answer that. If a comic needs to be somewhere, I am the guy to get it there.

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(Literal) Road to San Diego: Johnny Zito and Tony Trov

Black Cherry Bombshells writers Johnny Zito and Tony Trov are taking the long way to San Diego this year -- the pair is driving all the way from Pennsylvania to California for the con, stopping along the way to take in America.

Between making mix tapes and mapping out their route, the duo answered a few questions about their trip and what they have planned for the con. This is the second of hopefully four interviews I'm doing to see what folks have planned for the con; check out my interview with Neil Kleid from earlier this week.

JK: So, a cross-country road trip from Philadelphia to San Diego. How long is it going to take you to get there?

Johnny: We’re taking five days; a leisurely drive across this great nation to investigate the American Dream. We’ll video blog each day of the journey at BlackCherryBombshells.blogspot.com July 18-29. It’s going to be like Lewis and Clarke meets Fear and Loathing.

Tony: The video segments will feature giant balls of yarn, engine-grilled hot dogs and NSFW truck stop shenanigans. Everyone can follow our bold adventure via Twitter (Zito & Trov), MySpace and Facebook.

JK: Where do you plan to stop along the way? Do you have any roadside attractions mapped out, or will you be playing it by ear?

Tony: We have planned stops in Chicago, Vegas, L.A. and Graceland. This is Zito’s first trip across the lower 48, but I’ve done it a few times. There are a few blank spots in my state spoon collection that I aims to fill in along the way.

Johnny: If there’s time we’re talking about hitting the moon crater and the Creationist Museum.

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Slash Print | Following the digital evolution

Longbox

Digital Comics | Rantz Hoseley posted some additional information and answered questions on the Longbox digital comics in the comments section of the iFanboy article Kevin linked to yesterday.

Those updates include:

• Although only BOOM! and Top Cow have been announced so far, Hoseley said seven publishers have signed on for the launch, and the other five will be announced in the next few weeks leading up to the San Diego Comic Con.
• The software will include a "Manga Mode" that flips the left-to-right reading order. That's pretty damn clever.
• The software will also allow for "age-restricted sub-accounts," so your kids can read the Muppets but can't get to your Black Kiss comics.
• Hoseley says that "while we certainly welcome DC and Marvel's participation, the entire system was designed to have a business model that would be successful and profitable for all involved if they chose not to participate."

There's more at the link, so click over and read. This gets more interesting by the day ...

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Grab a 40: Andy Belanger pours a Bottle of Awesome for Zuda

Last week DC Comics' webcomics initiative, Zuda, began dropping hints on Twitter and their blog about their next webcomic, making references to "bottles" and "awesome." So I guess it comes as no surprise that the strip that debuted yesterday was Bottle of Awesome by Andy Belanger.

Belanger is no stranger to the world of webcomics, as his Raising Hell strip currently runs at the webcomics collective Transmission X. I spoke with him about his new strip and everything else he has going on comics related, both online and off.

JK: So what exactly is Bottle of Awesome?

Andy: Bottle of Awesome is my escape from everything I would normally do. I'm a horror aficionado, The bulk of my work thus far has been horror. Bottle of Awesome is a step in the complete other direction from that. It's a comedy, however, dark at times. It's me getting in touch with my high school days. I wanted to tell a story that was a throwback to all those '80s "You can do it" films. Films like The Karate Kid, Weird Science, Real Genius and so on. I have been noticing a trend in comics where it feels like every comic is Batman. Every character is a dark brooding anti-hero with a chip on his shoulder and a set of dead parents as his motive. Comics just seem to all have the same mood and as much as my work is knee deep in it, I wanted a change. That change is Bottle of Awesome!

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I think, therefore I have a thought balloon

Philosophy Now magazine

The May/June issue of Philosophy Now has big section on comics featuring an essay by the esteemed John Lent on philosophy and comics, an editorial by Charles Natoli and interviews with Batman movie producer Michael Uslan, author and scholar Danny Fingeroth and longtime cartoonist and Marvel/DC inker Frank McLaughlin.

The articles are all online, but you have to have subscription to the magazine in order to read them. You could just go buy a copy of the periodical on the newsstand. An old-fashioned idea I know, but then I churn my own butter.

(hat tip: Craig Fischer)

Talking with Ryan Dunlavey about M.O.D.O.K.

Dark Reign: M.O.D.O.K.

Earlier this week Marvel released a Dark Reign tie-in on their Digital Comics Unlimited service that features the comedic adventures of M.O.D.O.K. The four-part online series will be collected into a one-shot in September.

To chronicle the triumphant return of everybody's favorite big-headed super villain to his brand new hometown (wha?), Marvel enlisted creator Ryan Dunlavey, co-creator of the Action Philosophers and Comic Book Comics series.

My thanks to Ryan for agreeing to this interview on all things M.O.D.O.K.

JK: How did you get the gig at Marvel?

Ryan: Ask any publisher who their dream creators are and the answer is always the same handful: Moore, Ditko, Steranko… and DUNLAVEY. It's been well documented that Marvel has been after me for years -- everyone knows that Bendis chump was Marvel's second choice for Ultimate Spider-Man after I turned them down. I finally got annoyed with them constantly pestering me so I took some time out of my busy schedule drawing low-selling non-fiction humor comics and restocking cans of beans at the local bodega to write and draw M.O.D.O.K. for them.

But really, I just begged Fred Van Lente to get me a job there. Every day. FOR YEARS. He was originally going to script the M.O.D.O.K. story, but when it got green-lit he got too busy writing Spider-Man and Halo and all that, so I made the leap from mere co-plotter to full-on writer, in addition to being the penciller, inker, colorist and letterer because I'm greedy. And poor.

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