James Stokoe
Talking Comics with Tim | Joe Keatinge
Hell Yeah
I’ve been friendly with Joe Keatinge dating back to his days managing PR & marketing for Image Comics. When it was revealed back in October that Extreme Studios was relaunching the line–with Keatinge writing Glory (with Ross Campbell on art), I started generating questions for an interview. In addition to discussing Glory (which relaunches with Glory #23 on February 15, 2012), Keatinge opens up about Hell Yeah (Image), his creator-owned collaboration with artist/co-creator Andre Szymanowicz that premieres on March 7, 2012, as well as another upcoming 2012 project, Brutal, in collaboration with artist Frank Cho. My thanks to Keatinge for this email interview. After reading this piece, be sure to check out CBR’s Joe Keatinge coverage for more insight into the busy writer’s upcoming work.
Tim O’Shea: Did Rob Liefeld approach you to work on the Glory relaunch? Was Ross Campbell already committed to the project when you joined?
Joe Keatinge: While Rob was certainly involved with the process, I was actually approached by Image Comics Publisher and Extreme Editor, Eric Stephenson, almost a year ago now. At the time they had nailed down the idea of the line and I believe a couple of the other books may have had writers, but it was still in the very early stages. After that was the process of giving a quick pitch, which was virtually instantaneous to Eric asking if I wanted to do it, to developing a longer pitch, to Eric and I bringing Brandon Graham on board for Prophet, to discussing Glory with Brandon, to Brandon suggesting Ross Campbell, to seeing Ross’ amazing work and me asking him if he wanted to come on board. He did a few samples which blew away both Eric and Rob. We’ve been working on it ever since.
- December 19, 2011 @ 04:00 PM by Tim O'Shea
Brandon Graham previews Prophet, teases Multiple Warheads
From "Prophet"
King City creator Brandon Graham updates his blog with a seven-page preview of Prophet, his collaboration with Simon Roy and Richard Ballermann — part of the resurrection of the Extreme Studios line announced Friday at New York Comic Con. Graham, who’s handling the writing for the series, describes their take on the ’90s Image property as “Fucking future space Conan ish.”
“This is the first really collaborative comic I’ve done,” he writes. “This is the first time I’ve had to work out how to collaborate and try to make it carry the weight of my solo comics. So yeah, this is the first time I’ve cared about collaborating.”
Graham also teases a two-page spread from Multiple Warheads, and shows off some gorgeous images from Orc Stain creator James Stokoe.
- October 19, 2011 @ 08:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
I’d buy this: James Stokoe sends Spider-Man to Vietnam
Spider-Nam
Orc Stain creator James Stokoe shared a whole bunch of artwork on his blog earlier this week, including a preview of Orc Stain #7, an upcoming Godzilla cover and a A “super melodramatic Spider-Man in ‘Nam fan comic.”
Spider-Nam, as he calls it, is a wonderful short story that sees Peter Parker dropping out of college and enlisting in the military. It’s told through a letter Spider-Man sends home to Aunt May and seems like the perfect piece if Marvel decides to do another round of its Strange Tales anthology. Click on overt o check it out, along with a lot of other cool stuff.
- June 7, 2011 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
James Stokoe scares up a Troll Hunter poster
Magnolia Pictures has unveiled a poster created by cartoonist James Stokoe (Orc Stain, Wonton Soup) for Troll Hunter, the darkly funny Norwegian film about a group of students that discovers the government has been hiding the existence of trolls for years. For more information about the documentary-style movie, check out Spinoff Online’s recent interview with writer-director André Øvredal.
Available On Demand now, Troll Hunter opens in theaters on June 10.
- May 9, 2011 @ 10:00 AM by Kevin Melrose
Tom Brevoort asks: Where’s the next superstar artist?
Où sont les superstars d'antan?
“My not-terribly insightful comic book epiphany of the day: right now, we’ve got a bunch of top-flight writers in the field, and the next generation on the horizon. But what we could really use is a new, young generation of break-out artists. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve got a lot of excellent artists. But who was the last hot young guy who just exploded into the field? I feel like the pump is primed for one or more fresh young artists to just explode in a major, commercial way. When was the last time that happened? We could use an infusion of visual excitement in the books–across all companies.”
–Thus spoke Tom Brevoort, Marvel Senior VP – Executive Editor, on Twitter last night. Personally, I think he’s probably right to wonder about this. Like he says, the point isn’t that there are no good or even great relatively young/relatively new artists right now — there are plenty. Personally I’ve been knocked out by Gabriel Hardman‘s work on Atlas and Hulk over the past year or so, just for example. But what Brevoort is looking for is an artist who just skyrockets to superstardom more or less out of the blue. That requires quite a delicate alchemy. The artist in question must be young enough or new enough or have been working far way enough from the Big Two’s audiences for their work to have “the shock of the new” when fans first see it. They must bring something different to the table than what established artists are doing, so that their work stands out, but they must also be working in a style that’s recognizable and acceptable to large numbers of superhero fans. Their work doesn’t necessarily have to be to your taste, but you should at least be able to understand what others see in it, even if you don’t see it yourself.
- December 9, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
More Stokoe comics: Nomad of the Domes
Nomad of the Domes
Since recently launching his blog, Orc Stain creator James Stokoe has been on a wild spree of posting unpublished comics on it. Following some Orc Stain pages and the 100+ pages of Murderbullets comes Nomad of the Domes, which is “a prototype to a lot of ideas in Orc Stain.”
It’s probably also worth noting that if you haven’t checked out his Image title, Orc Stain, just yet, you can find the first three issues on comiXology.
- December 6, 2010 @ 01:59 PM by JK Parkin
Read over 100 pages of James Stokoe’s unpublished Murderbullets
Poster for Murderbullets by James Stokoe
Move over, WikiLeaks: Here’s a document dump that everyone can get behind. While the rest of the world recovered from its tryptophan hangover this past weekend, Orc Stain cartoonist and Strange Tales II contributor James Stokoe uploaded 102 pages (plus front and back covers and a gigantic poster) of his unpublished comic Murderbullets to his blog.
Stokoe says he developed the project for an abandoned anthology between working on Wonton Soup 2 and Orc Stain; it took on a life of its own and expanded to the 100-page prologue you’ll find at the link, with an additional five chapters to come, before Stokoe decided to work on Orc Stain instead. “I don’t think I would be a decent human being if I released this prologue in print without finishing the rest of the book, but the magic of free internet lets me share it with you now,” he says. I think we can all agree he’s a decent human being indeed. Not a bad artist, either.
- November 29, 2010 @ 02:30 PM by Sean T. Collins
Stokoe shares cut Orc Stain story
Long Scar's Heat by James Stokoe
Over on his shiny new blog for his awesome Image Comics series Orc Stain, James Stokoe shares a story that ended up on the cutting room floor. “Here’s some bits that got cut out of the upcoming Orc Stain trade,” he wrote. “About 10 pages in and the end still nowhere near in sight, there was no way I could fit it in/finish it in time.” Go check it out.
- November 26, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Exclusive: Previews from Strange Tales II #3 by Stokoe, DeForge
The third and final issue of Marvel’s Strange Tales II arrives in shops Dec. 8, and will feature stories by James Stokoe, Michael DeForge, Toby Cypress, Harvey Pekar and Ty Templeton, Nick Gurewitch with Kate Beaton, Eduardo Medeiros and Benjamin Marra, among others.
And thanks to our friends over at Marvel, we’re pleased to present two preview pages from the anthology today, featuring Stokoe’s Silver Surfer tale (who we alreayd know draws a jaw-dropping awesome Galactus), and DeForge’s Spider-Man, Jubilee and Iceman.
Check’em out after the jump.
- November 19, 2010 @ 11:00 AM by JK Parkin
Food or Comics? | This week’s comics on a budget
Parker: The Outfit
Welcome to another installment of “Food or Comics?” Every week we set certain hypothetical spending limits on ourselves and go through the agony of trying to determine what comes home and what stays on the shelves. So join Brigid Alverson, Michael May and Chris Mautner as they run down what comics they’d buy if they only had $15 and $30 to spend, as well as what they’d get if they had some “mad” money to splurge with.
Check out Diamond’s full release list if you’d like to play along in our comments section.
Chris Mautner
If I had $15:
The latest issue of The Boys is on my pull-list for this week ($3.99) and I’m anxious to see how Hughie reacts after discovering Annie’s big, horrible secret last ish. (sounds like I’m talking about a daytime soap, doesn’t it? If daytime soaps had more vomiting, cuss words and dismemberment.)
I’ll also likely pick up the fifth issue of James Stokoe’s Orc Stain ($2.99). I’m coming into the series a little bit late, but based on raves it’s been garnering across the Interwebs, I tried a random issue and dang if I wasn’t tickled with it’s wit and dense world-building sensibilities. Now I’m trying to track down the other issues I’ve missed.
If I had $30:
There’s a lot of good stuff this week, but (assuming I put aside my two previous purchases for a later date) what would easily top my list (and that of my fellow Robot Sixers I’m sure) is Richard Stark’s Parker: The Outfit, the second book in Darwyn Cooke’s ongoing adaptation of Donald Westlake’s (writing under the Stark nom de plume) series of hard boiled crime novels. I hadn’t been a Cooke fan previously, but the first book, The Hunter, made me a believer and the recent mini/prologue that IDW released earlier this year, The Man With the Getaway Face, sealed the deal. I’m very much looking forward to reading this.
- October 5, 2010 @ 07:28 PM by JK Parkin
Good Lord, it’s James Stokoe’s Galactus
Galactus by James Stokoe
“If you do warmup inks every day, you will eventually draw 4 square feet of GALACTUS!” tweeted Orc Stain writer/artist James Stokoe today, linking to the above picture of the Devourer of Worlds as proof. (Click to see it at full, mind-boggling size.) Jiminy Christmas — if that’s what he does while warming up, what does he do when he really gets going?
- August 5, 2010 @ 02:00 PM by Sean T. Collins
What Are You Reading?
Enter the Heroic Age
Welcome once again to What Are You Reading? where we ask, “If you were stuck on an island with the smoke monster, what would you bring to read?” Yes, that was my lame attempt to make today’s edition topical. Sorry. Let’s just write that off as me being really excited to see the end of Lost.
This week our special guest is comics retailer Randy Lander, who you can find selling comics at Rogues Gallery Comics & Games in Round Rock, Texas or blogging over at Inside Joke Theatre. To see what Randy and the rest of our merry castaways have been reading, click the link below …
- May 23, 2010 @ 01:00 PM by JK Parkin
Straight for the art | James Stokoe’s Silver Surfer
Silver Surfer
Orc Stain creator James Stokoe draws a killer Silver Surfer. See the whole thing over at Brandon Graham’s blog.
- January 13, 2010 @ 01:30 PM by JK Parkin
McSweeney’s San Francisco Panorama takes comics stars to the streets
James Stokoe's poster for the San Francisco Panorama
Wow, newspaper nostalgia is quite the hot ticket for comics these days, huh?
First there was Kramers Ergot 7, Sammy Harkham and Alvin Buenaventura’s avant-garde anthology, printed at a massive size meant to emulate Winsor McKay’s full-page Little Nemo in Slumberland newspaper strips. Then there was Wednesday Comics, DC’s 12-issue anthology title, published on fold-out newsprint. And now there’s the San Francisco Panorama, a one-time-only “21st-century newspaper prototype” that doubles as the 33rd issue of author/publisher Dave Eggers’ McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern.
Boasting 320 pages of original content, the broadsheet-format Panorama contains full-color comics from Art Spiegelman, Chris Ware, Dan Clowes, Seth, Jessica Abel, Adrian Tomine, Kim Deitch, Ivan Brunetti, Gene Yang, Alison Bechdel, Erik Larsen (still can’t get over that) and more. It also features prose contributions of varying stripes from such comics-relevant authors as Michael Chabon, Chip Kidd, Stephen King, Junot Díaz and Michelle Tea, and a poster of the 49ers’ Patrick Willis drawn by Wonton Soup‘s James Stokoe. And there’s all the other stuff you’d expect from a newspaper — journalism, sports, features, a magazine, a book section and more. Only, y’know, all fancy-pants.
The New York Times reports that the paper has already sold through the limited run made available for sale on the San Francisco streets yesterday at the low price of $5, but it’s still available (or will be soon, that is) at the full $16 pricetag at bookstores and at the McSweeney’s site. Click here for an extensive preview.
(Times link via Pop Candy.)
- December 9, 2009 @ 08:30 AM by Sean T. Collins
Preview: Sullivan’s Sluggers by Smith and Stokoe
Sullivan's Sluggers
Back in July we first heard word that Amazing Joy Buzzards writer Mark Andrew Smith was working with Wonton Soup creator James Stokoe on a project called Sullivan’s Sluggers. Smith was kind enough to send us over some additional preview art, along with a description of the series:
Here’s a first look at “Sullivan’s Sluggers” that I’m working on with James Stokoe.
Sullivan’s Sluggers follows a team of ex-professional baseball players who play farm league teams for cash so that the farm leaguers can say that they’ve played against the pros. Our team of players are called the Dragons, and they are under the leadership of coach Casey Sullivan, who is a disgraced ex-player who spends most of his time in a drunken state trying to forget his past.
Sullivan’s Sluggers get an invitation to play a game in a Texas town called Malice against the Malice Gladiators. Upon arriving in the town, the team notices that the town seems to be stuck in the ‘50s, and something about it seems very off to them.
Unknown to the Dragons, the town of Malice has a curse on it from its shameful history. After the sun goes down during the 7th inning stretch, the other team and the townsfolk turn into monsters with an appetite for human flesh, and they start ripping into and feeding off the Dragons.
The Dragons find themselves battling their way out using all the baseball skills at their disposal, such as fastball pitches, fighting their way out with baseball bats, and communicating with secret signals, as the team rallies to survive until morning.
Sullivan’s will be completed by the end of 2009. The book will be in color at 150 pages.
Thanks for checking out Sullivan’s Sluggers and I hope you enjoyed the small preview.
Check out the rest of the preview after the jump …
- October 21, 2009 @ 12:00 PM by JK Parkin